A first aspect of the invention relates to a polypeptide compound of formula (I):A-C-B  (I)

Insulin and its derivatives are the most important drugs for the treatment of diabetes, with annual sales of over 20 billion and with a steadily increasing market.
Insulin is a peptide hormone secreted by the β-cells of the pancreas. It consists of two peptide chains, A and B, which are linked by two intermolecular disulphide bonds. The A-chain also contains an additional intramolecular disulfide bond. Human insulin has the structure 2.

Insulins are typically manufactured on a large scale (hundreds of kg) starting from proinsulins which are recombinantly produced. Subsequently proinsulin is folded and the connecting C-peptide is removed enzymatically using trypsin and carboxypeptidase B to yield the mature insulin peptide.
More specifically, insulin is produced as a single-chain precursor, preproinsulin, which consists of a propeptide of 24 amino acid followed by proinsulin containing 86 amino acids. The sequence of the prepropeptide is Prepeptide-[B-chain]-Arg-Arg-[connecting peptide]- Lys-Arg-[A-chain], wherein the connecting peptide consists of 31 amino acids. After the enzymatic removal of the prepeptide, the three disulfide bonds are formed and proinsulin is produced.

The mature insulin is then liberated by enzymatic cleavage of the connecting peptide at the Arg-Arg and Lys-Arg sites.
Proinsulin has a 100-fold lower affinity for the insulin receptor than native insulin because the essential residues for binding to the receptor, namely the N-terminal amino function of the A-chain and the C-terminal carboxyl function of the B-chain, are blocked. The stability and solubility properties of insulin are important in the context of insulin therapeutics. A number of insulin analogues are known in the art. By way of example, single-chain insulin analogues with insulin activity are disclosed in EP1193272. These single-chain insulins have a modified C-peptide of 5-18 amino acids and are reported to have up to 42% insulin activity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,796 discloses insulin analogues in which two or more amino acid residues are substituted by Glu and/or Asp. Similarly, US 20090069216 and WO 2007/096332 disclose fast acting single chain insulins containing a modified B-chain and a connecting peptide. The resulting analogues are particularly well suited for transdermal administration. Fibrillation-resistant insulin and insulin analogues are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,192,957. Pegylated single chain insulins are disclosed in US 2010/0216690, whereas acylated single chain insulins are disclosed in WO 2007/104738.
WO 2005/054291 discloses single chain insulin analogues wherein the A-chain and B-chains are connected by a connecting peptide of 5-11 amino acids. Likewise, WO 95/16708 also discloses single chain insulin analogues wherein the A-chain and B-chains are connected by a connecting peptide of 1-15 amino acids, in which the C-terminal amino acid residue is other than Lys or Arg. EP0427296 discloses human insulin precursors of the general formula B(1-29)-Xn-Y-A(1-21), wherein Xn is a peptide chain with n naturally occurring amino acid residues, where n is 0 to 33 and Y is Arg or Lys. Similarly, EP0741188 discloses single chain insulin derivatives of the formula b-BP-a having significant insulin activity, where BP is a bridging peptide of 10 to 14 amino acids; these single chain insulins are reported to have insulin activity but also a high affinity to the IGF-1 receptor. Despite numerous efforts, a chemical and economically feasible route to insulin has not yet been developed. The methods which have been applied to date include the random mixing of the linear A and B chains and their air oxidation, the mixing of the sulfonated A and B-chains, the site-directed building of the three disulfide bonds and the biomimetic folding of single-chain precursors (Sohma, Y. and Kent, S. B. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 16313-16318; Tofteng, A. P.; Jensen, K. J.; Schaffer, L.; Hoeg-Jensen, T. Chem-BioChem 2008, 9, 2989-2996).
A-C-B 'inverted'-proinsulins with a connecting C-peptide are also known to yield insulin derivatives. By way of example, EP0518587 discloses A-C-B proinsulin derivatives wherein the linker peptide C is a fragment of the formula X1-X2-P-X3-X4, wherein X1 to X4 are basic amino acids and P is peptide from 4 to 35 amino acids which does not contain a cysteine residue (see also W. F. Heath et al, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Vol. 276, No. 1, p 419-425). It is generally understood that the C-peptide of a natural or inverse proinsulin must be of a minimum length in order to have the required flexibility to fold correctly to the natural mature proinsulin or reverse proinsulin.
The present invention seeks to provide alternative proinsulin derivatives that are useful in the preparation of insulin, and also as therapeutic moieties in their own right. In particular, the invention seeks to provide proinsulin derivatives that give rise to one or more advantages in terms of solubility, activity, yield, purity and/or ease of synthesis.

Abstract: wherein:                A is the A chain of insulin or a functional derivative or variant thereof;        B is the B chain of insulin or a functional derivative or variant thereof;        C is a peptide of the formula:(X1)p-(X2)n-(X3)q

Abstract: wherein:                each X1 and X3 is independently a basic amino acid;        each X2 is independently a natural or unnatural amino acid;        p is 1 or 2;        q is 0, 1 or 2;        n is 0, 1, 2 or 3.

Abstract: Further aspects of the invention relate to pharmaceutical compositions comprising said polypeptide compound, and therapeutic uses thereof. Another aspect relates to the use of said polypeptide compounds in the preparation of insulin and derivatives thereof.

CHEMICAL & BIOPHARMACEUTICAL LABORATORIES OF PATRA


Disclosed is a remote program development mediation system and method for enabling remote program development by mediating a program development contract between a development consignor and a developer, constructing the development environment of a developer terminal for developing a program in a Client/Server (C/S) environment in a virtualization server, and allowing a virtualization server to provide the developer terminal with a development tool image of a virtualized development framework. When a consignor requests a plurality of development pools to develop programs, a chronic difficulty to secure developers can be solved, and developers can develop programs remotely.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote program development mediation system and method for enabling remote program development by mediating a program development contract between a development consignor and a developer, constructing the development environment of a developer terminal for developing a program in a Client/Server (C/S) environment in a virtualization server, and allowing a virtualization server to provide the developer terminal with a development tool image of a virtualized development framework.
2. Background of the Related Art
FIGS. 1 and 2 are conceptual diagrams of a conventional program development system.
Referring to FIG. 1, in modern society, most of business enterprises including public institutions construct and utilize information systems in operating their enterprises, but the business operations have reached the state in which the enterprises may be no longer operated without operating the information systems. Corporate customers who want to construct information systems and SI business enterprises which want to perform projects for constructing the systems secure developers for most parts of target development programs calculated through business analysis and design through specialized collaboration companies which provide development manpower. The secured developers reside in the corporate customers and the SI business enterprises and develop the programs.
In this development environment, corporate customer and SI business enterprises have the following problems A) to F).
A) As lots of projects are performed almost at the same time depending on the type of business, it is difficult to secure optimal developers based on necessary time owing to limited development manpower.
B) It is very difficult to determine whether secure manpower is suitable for development or not.
C) A problem arises in the entire project schedule because outside order developers quit their jobs even during development if they receive higher payments from other projects.
D) It is difficult to call poor specialized collaboration companies to task for their responsibility when a freelancer causes a problem because the companies hire lost of freelancers.
E) It is very difficult to prevent the leakage of know-how because outside developers move development know-how to other projects after development.
F) It is also inefficient to calculate development costs because the development costs are calculated based on the grade of a developer not based on the degree of difficulty of a program.
Furthermore, specialized business enterprises which provide development manpower and freelancers have the following problems i) to iii).
i) It is difficult to know what customer and what SI project require manpower because corporate customers and SI business enterprises do their businesses through individual visits through limited human network in order to provide their manpower.
ii) Although their manpower is inverted in projects, various problems arise because the manpower quit the projects if they receive a slightly high payment from other project.
iii) If their manpower waits for two months only without investing them in projects, monthly salaries must be paid. Accordingly, a fatal business problem occurs in specialized collaboration companies.
Referring to FIG. 2, a reason why a corporate customer and an SI business enterprise have developers reside in their projects for development is that outside development manpower may be directly managed and the security of development information may be maintained. There is a difficulty in that not only the development business of development manpower, but also overall business occurring to resident manpower must be managed. Furthermore, attention must be paid to the security management of development information because a project development business is performed in a developer PC.

Remote program development mediation system and method for mediating a program development contract and development of program using virtual development environment of client


A method is provided for creating a multimedia scene including at least one object animation, designed to be reproduced on at least one radio communication terminal. At least one of the animations is associated with a non-temporal animation variable, representing a state of at least one object of the scene, of at least one element of the terminal, and/or a state of at least one associated communication network. The variable provides a time-based function for the animation. A method is also provided for reproducing a multimedia scene comprising at least one object animation, on a radio communication terminal.

Such scenes can be programmed by a developer, so as to enable interactivity with the user of a terminal on which it is played.
However, according to the known prior art techniques, the rendering of multimedia (or simply graphic) scenes is exclusively deterministic in that it is dependent solely on the time that has passed and any interactions between the user and said scenes, usually by means of the interface of the terminal, for example a mobile terminal, on which said scenes are rendered.
The prior art discloses technical solutions intended to modify the temporal reference framework of an element or an object of a scene, such as, for example, the "MediaSensor" object defined in standard MPEG-4, of which the animation behaviour may be made dependent on the flow of media being read.
The prior art also discloses, and more specifically in the SVG standard, the "TimeContainer" object, which makes it possible to define a new time base for animations of a multimedia scene.
However, a disadvantage common to the MediaSensor object of MPEG-4 and the TimeContainer object of SVG is that they enable the running of an object animation to be linked only with the flow of the media rendered on the screen of the terminal, without any other possibility.
In other words, according to the known prior art, the adaptation of the running of multimedia scene animations is based solely on deterministic elements.

Method for computing animation parameters of objects of a multimedia scene


A method for obtaining an aromatic polyamide crumb from an aromatic diamine and an aromatic diacid chloride, which aromatic polyamide comprises 5(6)-amino-2-(p-aminophenyl)benzimidazole terephthalamide units and has a relative viscosity ηrel of at least 3, by: (1) adding at least monomers (i)-(iii) in N-methyl pyrrolidone as solvent wherein (i) is 0-30 mole % para-phenylenediamine (PPD), (ii) is 20-50 mole % 5(6)-amino-2-(p-aminophenyl)benzimidazole (DABPI), (iii) is 49.05-50.05 mole % terephthaloyl dichloride (TDC), and optionally calcium chloride to obtain a CaCl2/aromatic diamine molar ratio less than 0.5, and an aromatic diamine/aromatic diacid chloride ratio between 0.99 and 1.01; (2) mixing the monomers and the optional calcium chloride to a homogenous mixture having a monomer concentration of 5 to 12 wt %; followed by (3) adding calcium chloride to the homogeneous mixture to obtain a CaC12/aromatic diamine molar ratio 0.6-1.0; and (4) polymerizing the mixture.

The invention relates to a method for obtaining a composition in the form of a crumb comprising an aromatic polyamide from an aromatic diamine and an aromatic diacid chloride, which aromatic polyamide comprises 5(6)-amino-2-(p-aminophenyl) benzimidazole terephthalamide units and has a relative viscosity ηrel of at least 3 by copolymerizing 5(6) -amino-2-(p-aminophenyl)benzimidazole (DAPBI) and optionally para-phenylenediamine (PPD), and terephthaloyl dichloride (TDC) in a mixture of N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) and calcium chloride.
A method of adding calcium chloride to a solvent in a polymerization mixture or after the start of the polymerization process is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,938. This reference discloses in example 34 the polymerization of a PPD/DABPI/TDC mixture. However, according to this reference all of the calcium chloride was added in the NMP solvent prior to adding the monomers. Further a low DABPI content (10 mole %) polymer was made. This process did not lead to the forming of a crumb, but only a paste-like product was obtained. This reference does further not give any hint that all calcium chloride can be added after having added the monomers to the solution, and when part of the calcium chloride is added after the start of the polymerization process, the CaCl2/aromatic diamine molar ratio must become 0.6-1.0 to obtain crumb.
A method for performing such polymerization reaction but obtaining a composition in the form of a crumb or a crumb-like material was disclosed in WO 2005/054337. According to this method the monomer of interest, DAPBI (5(6)-amino-2-(p-aminophenyl)-benzimidazole), is added to the aromatic diamine mixture with the objective to obtain a suitable polymer solution right after polymerization with e.g. PPD and TDC, which can be directly shaped into fibers or films, whereby DAPBI is seen as a suitable co-monomer to keep the aramid polymer in solution. It was found that by selecting a specific molar ratio of PPD, DAPBI, and CaCl2 the formation of powders, paste, dough, and the like could be prevented. Said method therefore pertains to a method for obtaining an aromatic polyamide comprising 5(6)-amino-2-(p-aminophenyl)benzimidazole terephthalamide units as a crumb with a relative viscosity ηrel of at least 4.
This method, wherein the monomers are added to the final solvent system (CaCl2/NMP) is very suitable for obtaining crumbs and crumb-like materials when performed at the scale as indicated in this patent application, i.e. in a small reaction flask of 2 L.
Unfortunately, it appeared that this method failed when the process was scaled-up. Thus under commercial production conditions in a reactor having a capacity of larger than 50 L, such as in a Drais reactor of 160 L, no crumbs were formed and the material was obtained as a big lump sticking around the stirrer, which was not suitable for further processing. It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method that is suitable for large scale production for obtaining aramid polymer having DAPBI units with a high relative viscosity and a suitable material consistency. The method of course can also be used for small-scale production of aramid polymer having DAPBI units. When used for such small-scale polymerization reactions the method of the invention can be considered an alternative for the method of WO 2005/054337, wherein the solvent is added prior to polymerization.

Large scale process for polymerization of DAPBI-containing polyaramid


What is disclosed is an improved rear suspension for a two wheeled vehicle. The improved rear suspension includes a rear triangle connected to a wheel. The rear triangle is connected to the front triangle by an upper linkage. A biasing member, such as a shock absorber, typically a spring and damper, is connected to the front triangle and functionally connected to the rear triangle, either directly or indirectly. The rear triangle is further connected to the front triangle by a pivoting connection. The pivoting connection can be a eccentric pivot. Alternatively the pivoting connection can be a pivot connection located on the front triangle and a pivot connection located on the rear triangle and connected by a lower linkage.

Mountain biking is a very popular sport throughout the United States and the world. In order to provide a more comfortable ride, mountain bike riders often will ride dual suspension bicycles. Dual suspension bicycles have a biasing member (often called a shock absorber) at the front of the frame to dampen biasing member generated by the front wheel and a biasing member absorber connected to the main frame and/or rear frame (generally the rear triangle) of the bicycle to dampen biasing member from the rear wheel of the bicycle. The latter is generally called a rear suspension bicycle. A rear suspension bicycle utilizes a linkage system to link the rear triangle of the bicycle to the main frame of a bicycle in combination with a biasing member absorber. The arrangement of this linkage system directly affects the performance of the rear suspension of the bicycle. Thus, the rear suspension can be designed in a variety of layouts for a variety of purposes.
A prime concern when designing a rear suspension system is to assess the performance of the rear suspension for an intended use of a bicycle bearing that suspension. For example, in a bicycle designed for traveling both uphill and downhill, an ideal design will allow the rear suspension to provide sufficient dampening of shock while traveling downhill, yet minimize the negative effects caused by the rear suspension when a mountain bike rider is traveling uphill. These negative effects include, for example, the tendency of a rear suspension bicycle to compress under acceleration, which creates inefficiency in pedaling as force is lost due to the compression of the rear suspension, and in some designs the tendency of the shock absorber to extend and exert force upward on the mountain bike rider. These phenomena are well known and attempts to overcome them are generally called anti-squat. Anti-squat thus seeks to maximize the efficiency of the rear suspension by seeking to maximize the amount of pedaling or acceleration energy translated into forward motion. Thus a bike with a high anti-squat has a lower tendency of the shock absorber to compress while a bicycle with too high of anti-squat has a tendency of the shock absorber to exert force in the opposite direction of compression, also known as extending.
However, maximizing anti-squat can come at a disadvantage in that if a bicycle has too much anti-squat, it can lead to an extension of the rear shock in response to a user pedaling and/or pedal kickback when the suspension compresses when a user is accelerating over bumps in the trail.
To measure the anti-squat principles of a bicycle or other wheeled vehicle, the instant center (or "IC") of the rear suspension is measured. The instant center of a bicycle has a common meaning in the bicycle industry, but in general is defined as an imaginary point about which the rear axle is rotating around at any given instant. The IC moves or migrates as the rear suspension compresses. The assembly of the rear suspension is designed in order to provide an IC migration, and thus anti-squat behavior, in response to a given condition. Thus an ideal bicycle rear suspension for a bicycle utilized for both uphill and downhill riding, such as cross country riding, that is supple and shock absorbent when traveling downhill yet efficient and feels as close to "locked", or in performance terms as similar to a bicycle lacking a rear suspension, as possible when under either pedal power or motor power. In general a line denoting the IC across the range of compression of a bicycle suspension indicates a stiffer suspension across compression if the line moves up and/or back whereas an IC line moving down and typically forward indicates a less stiff suspension.

Rear wheel suspension system for a two-wheeled vehicle


A trailer wheel pivoting system having provision for pivoting of a wheel assembly with respect to an attached trailer frame, accomplished by providing a wheel frame, an axle attached to the wheel frame, road tires attached to the axle, and an apertured cross-bar attached centrally to an upper part of the wheel frame. Various forms of trailer devices are then combined with the aforesaid trailer wheel assembly. In a first embodiment of the present invention, an automobile tow trailer is provided by placing a trailer frame for supporting an automobile onto the wheel assembly, the trailer support frame being provided with a pair of automobile wheel cradles. A pivot pin bolt is inserted through a central aperture in the trailer frame and the aperture in the cross-bar in order to pivotably secure the trailer support frame to the wheel assembly. In a second embodiment, the wheel assembly may serve as an aid for towing trailers. In a third embodiment, the wheel assembly serves as the front wheels of a front and rear wheeled trailer. In a fourth embodiment, the wheel assembly is pivotably connected at the cross-bar to a dump trailer assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to trailers, particularly to a device for permitting pivoting between the support frame of the trailer and the front wheel assembly of the trailer with which the tow bar is attached. The invention still more particularly relates to tow trailers for towing disabled automobiles, in which the trailer frame for supporting the disabled automobile may pivot relative to the trailer wheel assembly of the trailer, no matter how close to the ground the tires of the supported disabled automobile may be, and further, in which the wheels of the trailer are located inside the support frame for the disabled automobile.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Transportation of disabled automobiles is frequently very costly because expensive tow trucks are required. Consequently, it would be very desirable if the owner of the disabled automobile could, himself, transport his automobile without having to resort to a tow truck. What is needed, therefore, is a trailer device which is relatively inexpensive and can safely and effectively permit an individual car owner to transport his car by being towed by another car.
In the prior art, several concepts for solving this disabled motor vehicle transport problem have been forwarded. Hawkins U.S. Pat. No. 2,541,582 dated Feb. 13, 1951 discloses an automobile tow trailer having a tow bar, a frame pivotably connected to the tow bar, and a pair of automobile wheel supports pivotably linked to the frame. Hawkins U.S. Pat. No. 2,701,069 dated Feb. 1, 1955 discloses an automobile tow trailer similar to his other patent, now featuring a winch and lift arm. Lipscomb, Jr. et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,979,137 dated Sept. 7, 1976 discloses a tow trailer for motorcycles in which a single cradle for a motorcycle wheel is pivotable with respect to the trailer frame. Cully U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,373 dated Apr. 3, 1979 discloses a rough terrain transportation trailer particularly suited for use with tractors in which a pair of tractor wheel cradles are provided on the trailer frame and the trailer wheels and tow bar can pivot in relation to the trailer frame.
In the closest known prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,549 dated Nov. 20, 1984, inventor Nikawa discloses an automobile transportation trailer having a frame, a tow bar rigidly connected to the frame and a pair of automobile wheel cradles connected by a platform that is pivotable in relation to the frame.
In the prior art there remains the problem that each of these solutions is complicated and expensive. Nikawa is particularly complicated and expensive, and suffers from the need to have the lowermost portion of the cradles located at a position above the uppermost elevation of the trailer wheels in order to permit pivoting. Further, there is the significant problem remaining in all of the above recounted prior art devices in that there is no provision, in combination, for: (1) placing the wheel cradles close to ground level to accommodate a low center of gravity and ease of loading of the car, (2) having the trailer wheels inside the location of the wheel cradles to ensure a minimum of trailer width to ease transportation on the highway, and (3) allowing the cradle platform to pivot relative to the trailer frame even though the cradles are located lower to the ground than the diameter of the trailer wheels.
The present invention is particularly directed to providing an automobile transport trailer that has each of these provisions and achieves this result inexpensively, with an uncomplicated structure.


A tensioning device for hubs, comprising a winding shaft having rotatably and drivably mounted on it individual winding elements as hub holder for hubs with inner cylindrical bores, the tensioning device including measures for locking the hubs in the axial direction on each individual winding element, wherein the hub (1) includes along its inner circumference (3), alongside the inner bore (5) and uniformly distributed over the circumference, a multiplicity of resilient elements (2), which have the form of a bent-off arm which extends in the radial direction from the inner circumference (3) of the hub (1) and is bent off in the circumferential direction, the end (4) of each resilient arm being at a distance from the bending point of the next-following arm.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a tensioning means for hubs, comprising a winding shaft having rotatably and drivably mounted on it individual winding elements for hubs with inner cylindrical bores, the tensioning means including measures for locking in of the hubs in the axial direction on each individual winding element.
2. Description of the Related Art
In winding machines, in particular in combined longitudinal cutting and winding apparatuses, for example for magnetic tapes, the winding shafts in each case receive a large number of hubs. Fitting the winding shaft with hubs is problematical, since the numerous wound hubs are to be drawn off the winding shaft as quickly as possible and replaced in the correct position by empty hubs. The tensioning means should not hinder easy and troublefree displacing of the hubs on the shaft during fitting. Therefore, numerous tensioning means on the winding shaft are already known, such as tensioning rollers, tensioning pins or the like, which are mechanically complicated constructions which escalate the costs of the winding shaft. The difficulties become all the greater if individual winding elements with separate frictions are used.
In the Applicant's German application P 41 21 244, a number of tensioning means known from the prior art are described in detail. Similarly, in the said application a hub tensioning means of the generic type mentioned above is described, in which the tensioning means includes a plurality of segments which are distributed over the circumference of each cylindrical individual winding element, are seated in an annular groove and are loaded by spring elements. Furthermore, in this application FIGS. 6 and 7 show a snap-fitting or centering means for hubs, comprising a bead and a ball thrust piece on the outside of the tensioning means, which make it possible for the hubs to be pushed on axially and centered.
The said tensioning means have a number of disadvantages. Firstly, usually there is no accurate lateral fixing of the hubs. Secondly, the radially acting tensioning elements in the hub holder require a certain installation space, which often can be realized in the design only with difficulty since the hub holder also has to accommodate a stable mounting, which is as exact as possible, and devices suitable for torque generation, for example eddy-current couplings, for driving the individual winding elements.
Furthermore, a centering means for hubs is known, in which each hub has in its hub bore a central notch, in which a projection complementing it on the tensioning means engages. In this case it has been found that hubs with a notch are difficult to produce by injection molding, since they cannot be demolded easily, and producing a notch by machining, for example by turning, is very complicated and expensive.


When RF signals of a plurality of RFID tags installed in a plurality of casino chips are received through a plurality of reader antennas, a system for managing casino chips using RFID (radio frequency identification) estimates an angle of arrival of the received RF signals, calculates the number and positions of the plurality of casino chips by using the received RF signals and each estimated angle of arrival, and manages the plurality of casino chips by using the number and the positions of the plurality of casino chips.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for managing casino chips using RFID.
(b) Description of the Related Art
RFID (radio frequency identification) as a non-contactless automatic recognition technique refers to a technique for recognizing an electronic tag attached to articles (or goods) by using a radio frequency. Such an RFID technique is also applied to recognition of a mass of tags, as well as to an electronic shelf.
Recently, in casinos, casino chips with an RFID tag installed therein and an RFID reader are utilized for operating games and security (or prevention of theft). Namely, an RFID tag is installed in casino chips, and a lower side of a casino table is divided into several regions and a plurality of RFID reader antennas are installed in the regions, respectively. Then, the RFID reader reads the casino chips by the regions to recognize betting of garners.
In this case, when the casino chips are accumulated to be piled high, output power of the RFID tag should be increased for the RFID reader antenna to recognize the casino chips. However, in a case in which a plurality of RFID reader antennas are installed in each of the divided regions at the lower side of the casino table, when output power of the RFID tag is increased, an RFID reader antenna of a corresponding region may read the casino chips of an adjacent region. Thus, the casino chips of each region cannot be accurately discriminated.

System and method for managing casino chip using RFID

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A combined use of a pervasively textured anilox supply roll and a customized, locally patterned flexographic roll is provided for forming a lenticular product. The customized, locally patterned flexographic roll includes an intermittent raised and recessed surface pattern analogous to a type used in a “spot” ink application. In the present case, however, the applied material is transparent and preferably matched in its refractive index to the lenticular sheet. Relevant aspects of the invention also register the selectively coated areas with graphic features on the planar reverse side of the lenticular sheet.

As described in the present assignee's previous work, lenticular lenses, or lenticules, are typically cylindrical bodies having longitudinal axes and arranged in a parallel-axis array on a lenticulated face of a lenticular sheet. The face opposite the lenticulated face typically is substantially planar. Seen in cross-section, each lenticule has a vertex distal from the planar face, and adjacent lenticules intersect to define valleys proximal to the planar face. A lenticular height is defined between a first plane tangent to the lenticule vertices and a second plane tangent to the lenticule valleys. A lenticular pitch is defined between axes of adjacent lenticules along a raster axis perpendicular to the axes of the parallel lenticules.
The lenticular sheet typically is formed with a thickness of the sheet being substantially equal to a focal length of the cylindrical lenses or lenticules. The graphic resolution along the raster axis is then limited to the lenticular pitch. In the finished lenticular product, the planar face commonly carries a specially prepared and registered printed image. The image is most usually printed directly to the planar face of the sheet, but may also be formed on a separate substrate, and then aligned and adhered to the planar face.
A tradeoff between quality of focus and viewing angle is well known in the lenticular art. The influence of refractive index is also well understood. Lenticular sheets are often described according to the lenticular pitch in lenses per inch. A 150 lens-per-inch (LPI) array is colloquially understood to be a fine pitch. 75 LPI lens is considered an industry standard. A 40 LPI lens has a relatively coarse pitch, generally used for applications in which the lenticular item is to be viewed at greater than arm's length. The majority of commercial applications are currently served by lenticular sheets having proportions between 1.2 times as thick as the lenticular pitch, to twice as thick as the lenticular pitch. A single lenticule of a 75 LPI lenticular sheet is about 339 microns (13 mils) wide from valley to valley. In its most common present commercial form, a 75 LPI lenticular sheet will have a refractive index of around 1.57 and a thickness of around 469 microns (18 mils), therefore being about 1.4 times as thick as the nominal lens width.
It may be understood that some applications have called for more extreme proportions, as when a thin, conformable lenticular label is required, in which case the proportion may be 1:1 or less. Conversely, superior optical resolving power is often sought after in autostereoscopic "3-D" display, and in this case the ratio of thickness to lens width may be 3:1 or greater. The preceding values descriptions are intended to characterize underlying principles, and identify the most readily available commercial materials in the current trade, and should not in any way be taken to limit the scope of the invention.
Lenticular sheets may be formed by any suitable method. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,330,799 and 5,554,532 to Sandor et al. describe a lenticular system in which lenses are formed upon a flat carrier sheet in a forming process which is commonly known as "cast film" lenticular. Sandor et al. describe lenses formed in local areas by forming and curing fluid material over the desired image areas.
Within the field of lenticular printing, there are a number of different processes and techniques for performing a printing operation depending upon a number of different factors including the nature of the final product and the intended application. Some of the more common printing processes include offset printing, lithographic printing, etc.
It will be appreciated that there are other types of printing techniques, that are used in different applications beyond the field of lenticular products. For example, one type of printing technique is a printing process which uses an anilox roll. An anilox roll is essentially a specialized gravure roll which has been uniformly engraved with a regular recessed pattern of cavities known as cells. The pattern increases the amount of ink that can be borne by a nonabsorbent roll face. The uniform engraved cells inherently meter the amount of ink taken up by the roll. Retention of the ink within the cells prevents sagging and dripping during or between printing cycles.
Anilox cells are incuse and arrayed in regular patterns of predetermined frequency. They typically have uniform depth and shape as well. The cylinder face may be engraved by mechanical tooling or by laser ablation.
The amount of ink delivered by the anilox roll is determined by the total volume of its cells. Anilox rolls can apply a relatively heavy and relatively uniform ink layer in a single operation. Because the anilox pattern covers the entire roll, they are commonly limited to blanket-coating operations.
Another type of printing process is flexographic printing (flexography). Flexography is a rotary printing method that uses plates of resilient material to print an image that can be received on diverse types of materials. In this process, ink is first transferred through a metered supply roll to the raised relief areas of the printing plate, and thereafter from the raised relief areas to the printed surface.
Because the resilient plate can conform to the receiving material, flexographic printing has long been used in the printing of corrugated cardboard and other irregular surfaces. The relief design in the flexographic plate is commonly generated in a photopolymeric plate material. Radiation exposure through a mask results in selective photopolymerization that ultimately results in a resilient, raised pattern.
The developed flexographic plates are typically then mounted on a printing cylinder. An ink reservoir supplies ink directly to an intermediate ink supply roll. A doctor blade can be electively employed to limit ink film thickness upon the supply roll. Ink is transferred first from the reservoir to the ink supply roll, and then from the ink supply roll to raised areas of the flexographic roll.
The mounted flexographic printing plate is then brought against the receiving medium with sufficient pressure to allow contact between the raised design on the plate and the receiving print medium. The print medium is typically fed between the flexographic roll and an unpatterned backing roll. Printing occurs as the pressure transfers ink from the flexographic plate to the print medium.
Photopolymeric flexographic printing plates can be made of a variety of radiation-sensitive polymer materials. Photosensitive polymer resin plates are available in the trade under the trademarked name CYREL. Various types of CYREL plates are offered by of E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co., Inc. Development of these photopolymers typically occurs under ultraviolet radiation, but plates may be cured by any suitable source of actinic radiation.

Local removal of a lenticular optical effect by a high volume offset coating


Provided is a liquid crystal display device (1) comprising a substrate (2), a base coating film (3) disposed on the substrate (2), a base insulating film (4) disposed on the base coating film (3), and a semiconductor film (20) disposed on the base insulating film (4) and made of a polysilicon film. Below the semiconductor film (20), a light-shielding film (28) is formed, which is embedded in the base coating film (3).

For a semiconductor device such as a liquid crystal display device, a polysilicon film that is obtained by poly-crystallizing a non-crystalline silicon film such as an amorphous silicon film is widely used as a semiconductor film.
Further, in recent years, for a liquid crystal display device equipped with semiconductor elements such as thin film transistors (TFTs) and optical sensors such as photodiodes, the above-mentioned polysilicon film has been used as the semiconductor films for the TFTs and the optical sensors.
As a method for poly-crystallizing an amorphous silicon film, a method of poly-crystallizing an amorphous silicon film to change to a polysilicon film by irradiating the amorphous silicon film with laser light has been suggested. A pulse laser such as an excimer laser is commonly used as the laser, and by irradiating an amorphous silicon film with linear-shaped laser light for multiple times, a polysilicon film of an approximate crystal grain size of 0.5 μm can be formed. In recent years, technologies such as poly-crystallization by CW laser or quasi-CW laser, and the SLS method using pulse laser are also available, and it is possible to grow long and thin shaped crystal with the length of several tens of μm, which expands in the scanning direction of laser light (in other words, lateral growth).
Moreover, in a liquid crystal display device equipped with semiconductor elements such as TFTs and optical sensors, in order to prevent malfunction of the semiconductor device by preventing the increase in off-currents caused by the irradiated light from a backlight entering to a channel region of a polysilicon film that constitutes the semiconductor element, a light-shielding film for controlling the light entering to the channel region of the polysilicon film is commonly formed.
More specifically, as shown in FIG. 41(b), a liquid crystal display device that includes a transparent insulating substrate 61 such as a glass substrate, a light-shielding film 62 made of a metal such as Mo formed over the insulating substrate 61, an insulating film 63 made of silicon oxide film or the like formed over the light-shielding film 62, and a polysilicon film 64 formed by irradiating an amorphous silicon film 69 formed over the insulating film 63 with laser light L to poly-crystallize the amorphous silicon film 69 is disclosed (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).

Semiconductor device, and method for manufacturing same


Disclosed are a water treatment apparatus and a process for treating process water with ozone and ultraviolet radiation. The apparatus comprises a reactor (4) having a first (5) and a second (6) reaction chamber. The first reaction chamber (5) has a UV lamp (1), an air inlet (30) and a gas outlet (23). An air/ozone conduit (34) is connected to the gas outlet (23), via which an air/ozone mixture (b) can be fed into a water inlet conduit (31). The second reaction chamber (6) is connected to the water inlet conduit (31) and a water outlet conduit (32). The inlet conduit (31) may contain a water filter (18) as well as a controllable circulation pump (16) designed to pump water in the reactor direction. The water filter (18) may be arranged between the circulation pump (16) and the reactor (4). A recirculation conduit (33) comprises a pump (10) pumping water towards the inlet conduit (31). It has a feed point (21) at which the air/ozone mixture (b) is feedable into the process water (d) or is in fluid communication with a fresh water conduit (35) via a fresh water feed point (9), which has a feed point (21) at which the air/ozone mixture (b) is feedable into fresh water (f) in the fresh water conduit (35).

Using water, for example in the context of a commercial process or when standing in a basin, involves generating process water which, in comparison to the fresh water or drinking water originally provided, contains much more pollution, being in macroscopic form, in the form of microorganisms and/or in the form of low-molecular weight chemical compounds, in particular organic compounds, but partially also inorganic salts. These compounds are often difficult to degrade biologically or are non-biodegradable. For more than ten years, low molecular weight chemical compounds in water that are difficult or impossible to degrade have been the subject of technical and environmental policy debates both on the national and the international level under the keyword "micropollutants" (see e.g. the Federal/State Working Group Water at http://www.lawa.de/documents/Um124-2016_20160126_LAWA_Bericht_Mikroschadstoffe_in_Gewaessern_final_207.pdf). The terms "microcontaminants" or "microelements" are also used as synonyms for the term "micropollutants". Some of the organic compounds can have adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems and adversely affect the recovery of drinking water from raw water already at very low concentrations. These compounds include, for example, residuals of biocides and pesticides, human and veterinary drugs, personal care products and household and industrial chemicals. As an illustrative example, when treating a public swimming pool with a depot disinfectant, so-called disinfection by-products (DBPs) are formed, such as mono-, di- and trichloramines, which adversely affect the water quality and even endanger the health of the bather.
Process water, for example water in a pond or swimming pool such as a public swimming pool, is usually purified by means of a filter device and by adding an oxidation agent such as chlorine or hydrogen peroxide.
German patent application DE 101 29 663 discloses a process for the treatment of pre-purified water by means of an ozone-enriched air stream, an activated carbon filter and UV radiation.
An apparatus and a respective process for water treatment, in which UV light and ozone are used, are known from the website www.uvox.com/das-uvox-verfahren.html (Berson, B., Koikurier 52 (2007), 2, 118-121).
The apparatus includes a reactor with two reaction chambers, one for producing an air/ozone mixture which is introduced into the water to be treated, and one for irradiating the water thus treated with UV light. The air/ozone mixture is fed into the process water via an inlet point, for example a Venturi nozzle in a bypass branching of the feed line of the water to be treated. Here it would, however, be desirable to be more independent of pressure fluctuations in the main water circuit with respect to the intake of the air/ozone mixture via the inlet point or the bypass branching that includes an injection nozzle, in order to achieve an intake performance of the air/ozone mixture that is stable and optimal for the application.
In addition, it would be desirable to avoid or minimize deposition and contaminations on the outside of the quartz tube, in order to ensure optimum UV radiation in the second reaction chamber of the reactor at all times.
It would also be desirable to optimize the system hydraulically and energetically in order to minimize the consumption of energy, water and chemicals, and to allow early amortization of the plant.
Furthermore, it would be desirable to be able to at least partially control the operation and maintenance of the apparatus.

Apparatus and process for water treatment


A wire distribution system comprises a support structure having a first wall terminating in a first flange and a second wall terminating in a second flange. The second flange may be spaced apart from the first flange and provide a web section formed therebetween. The web section has an outer surface and an inner surface, wherein the outer surface defines an abutment to a mating structure, such as a wall, door, or window. The inner surface further defines a part of an inner cavity, and further includes a conduit channel formed therein. The conduit channel has an at least one wall section extending into the inner cavity and further includes an open leg facing the mating structure. An aperture is formed in the support structure first side and is oriented substantially adjacent to the conduit channel. A receptacle extends into the aperture and defines an interior space. The receptacle includes at least one conductor aperture that is aligned with the conduit channel open leg such that the conduit channel open leg communicates with receptacle interior space.

This invention relates in general to a wiring distribution and termination system for accommodating electrical wiring. In particular, this invention relates to an electrical distribution system for a sunroom or patio enclosure including an integrally-formed channel section and a cooperating electrical outlet structure. The channel section is formed as part of a pultruded, fiberglass-reinforced, structural support member. A cooperating electrical outlet structure is inset into the structural support and communicates with the channel in order to route concealed electrical wires.
Creating enclosed living spaces with prefabricated structural elements, especially sunrooms or patio enclosures with vast expanses of glass or windows, has been popular for some time. As these structures have evolved, conveniences have been added to help integrate these spaces into the rest of the house to which they are attached. Many of these conveniences require electrical power to operate, therefore creating a need for wiring distribution systems. Over time, the structures have grown in size and stature which has further necessitated similar refinements in the wiring distribution system.
Conduit structures for conveying electrical wires within a prefabricated wall or other structural element are known in the art. These conduits provide an encapsulated environment for concealing and protecting electrical wiring from damage and unintended electrical contact while creating a more aesthetically pleasing appearance. Many conventional conduits are closed elements, disposed within the interior of or on the surface of a supporting structure, such as a prefabricated wall section, post, or stanchion. Other electrical routing structures take the form of a closed, longitudinal cavity within the prefabricated wall, post, or stanchion. These longitudinal interior wall cavities may further include a covering member that partitions a smaller portion of the interior cavity for wire location. The partitions further isolate the wire from other filler materials that may be disposed within the interior wall cavity, such as foam insulation or concrete.
Whether the closed conduit structure is a separate element or integral within the supporting structure, these electrical distribution systems require wiring to be routed from an open end of the conduit to an outlet receptacle structure, commonly referred to as a junction box or "J" box. This routing of wiring may be accomplished by inserting the wire into the conduit sections prior to assembly. The wiring and conduit sections may be then assembled and mounted onto or within the wall structure. Typically, the conduit structure is a closed internal wall cavity or an assembled conduit structure. In these situations, the wire must usually be moved or "fished" into position from the wall cavity or conduit open end through to the receptacle outlet.
If the cavity or conduit is not straight or smooth enough to freely pass the wire or cable, a long, thin and flexible device, called a fish tape, must be inserted through the cavity from the receptacle end through to and out the conduit open end. The wire, cable, or a pull-string is then attached to the fish tape and pulled back through the conduit or interior wall cavity and out of the receptacle box. Since the cavity is enclosed, the fish tape must be inserted blindly and articulated in order to pass though the cavity and out the open end. The use of a fish tape is both difficult and time consuming and would be desirable to eliminate. Furthermore, fishing a wire through a hollow wall section generally requires a straight opening that occupies significant space, which may be unavailable in many structural designs.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an electrical passageway in a preformed structural section that eliminates the difficulties associated with passing a wire through a structural member to a terminating receptacle. It would further be desirable to provide a wiring system having a flush-mounted and concealed appearance that can be integrated into a sunroom or patio enclosure structure.

Prefabricated structural member having a wire routing system


The present invention relates to a preparation method for a therapeutic agent of a bead-type chondrocyte and, more specifically, to: a preparation method for a therapeutic agent of a bead-type chondrocyte without a support, comprising the steps of: a) dispensing chondrocytes and/or cells having chondrogenic differentiation capability in a 96-well deep well plate having a V-shaped bottom; b) centrifuging the plate; c) three-dimensionally culturing the plate in an incubator; and d) recovering pellets from each well, thereby being capable of easily and stably preparing cartilage tissues of a uniform quality, in large quantities; and a therapeutic agent of a bead-type chondrocyte without a support, prepared by the method, having effectiveness to repair damage by simply being implanted into cartilage damage by injection.

Because cartilage tissue is avascular tissue and the ratio of cells in the tissue is very low, spontaneous regeneration is very limited. After Brittberg et al.'s report (1994) about autologous articular chondrocyte implantation (ACI) in which autologous articular chondrocytes of patients are isolated and proliferated, and then implanted into cartilage damaged area, ACI has been used for the treatment of articular cartilage damage and successful results have been reported in long-term observation. However, in cases of elderly patients and large-size damage, structural features or constitutions of normal articular cartilage cannot be reproduced. In the limits of conventional ACI (first-generation ACI), the following have been indicated as causes: considerably invasive implantation method in which cells in suspension are fixed at damage site with periosteum as a cover, the decreased viability of cells and non-maintenance of phenotype of chondrocytes, and weak physical strength. To overcome such limits, tissue-engineered cartilages—which are second-generation ACI technique using gel, membrane or three-dimensional scaffold as a cell carrier system—have been developed (Hutmacher et al., 2000; Adkisson et al., 2001; Ochi et al., 2001; and Cancedda et al., 2003).
In the preparation of tissue-engineered cartilages, a scaffold provides chondrocytes with three-dimensional system to maintain phenotype of chondrocytes and promote the production of hyaline cartilaginous extracellular matrix (ECM). In addition, the scaffold carries cells to cartilage-damage site and protects cells from loaded force by providing physical support at the implantation site. At present, scaffolds for tissue engineering have been developed by the use of many synthetic or natural materials. However, in view of clinical application, xenogeneic and allogeneic natural materials may cause immune reaction, and in the case of synthetic materials safety problems may be caused due to the harmful degradation product. Furthermore, when chondrocytes are inoculated to a scaffold, most of them distribute to the outer part of the scaffold, and extracellular matrixes which are synthesized and secreted by chondrocytes form shell at the outer part of the scaffold to hinder diffusion and exchange of nutrients, wastes and gases, resulting in death of interior cells. In some studies, successful tissue-engineered cartilages have been made by the use of scaffold. However, there are still many unresolved problems such as interaction between cells and biomaterials, irregular degradability of biomaterials, biocompatibility, uneven cellular distribution, lack of linkage (bonding) between tissue-engineered cartilage and peripheral cartilage and the like (Sittinger et al., 1996; Grande et al., 1997; Nehrer et al., 1998; Sims et al., 1998; Hutmacher et al., 2000; Ochi et al., 2001; Naumann et al., 2004; Park et al., 2006; and Wolf et al., 2008).
Studies about methods for the preparation of three-dimensional cartilage tissue without the use of scaffold have been continually carried out, but it has been reported that such methods are very limited in direct clinical applications since tissues are formed depending on only cells and ECM synthesis capacity of cells so that it is difficult to prepare tissues suitable for the size of damage where implantation is needed (Adkisson et al., 2001; Grogan et al., 2003; and Marlovits et al., 2003). Because cartilage is avascular tissue, it endures hypoxia and undernutrition well. However, Jain et al. (2005) and Rouwkema et al. (2008) state that because all cells in the body are not distant from blood vessels beyond 100 to 200 μm, when tissues for implantation are prepared at laboratories their size should be determined in view of limited nutrients, and diffusion of wastes and gases. In addition, the shape and depth of damaged cartilage are not uniform (FIG. 1A). Therefore, if three-dimensional cartilages prepared at laboratories are larger than the damaged area, implants should be trimmed in accordance with shapes of damages. On the contrary, if cartilage implants are smaller than the damaged area, implantation should be carried out in the manner of putting the pieces as a mosaic in accordance with shapes of damages. Tissue-engineered cartilages developed up to now are implanted in such a manner, but they cannot be adjusted to the thickness of damage. In such a case, at articular cartilages if implants highly protrude or are dented in comparison with adjacent cartilages, additional damages may be caused to implants or adjacent normal cartilage due to abnormal weight load (FIG. 1B).
Therefore, if small bead-type cartilage tissue is prepared, the death of interior cells—which is caused by the problem of perfusion in the course of culture—does not occur, and damaged areas can be restored regardless of the shape and thickness of cartilage-damaged area by inserting several small bead-type tissues into the damaged area. In addition, implantation can be performed by injecting into the damaged area via small incision or an arthroscope without large incision (FIG. 1C). However, for development as a therapeutic agent, a technique for preparing uniform cartilaginous tissues with repetitive reproducibility is necessary, and a large-scale culture system for preparing considerably large number of cartilaginous tissues is required for using in wide damaged area.
Methods for the preparation of three-dimensional hyaline cartilaginous tissue without the use of scaffold are based on the high-density three-dimensional culture of chondrocytes or cells having chondrogenic potential, and the maintenance of three-dimensional state in high density is the most important factor to express the phenotype of chondrocytes. At the development stage, after aggregation of chondroprogenitor cells chondrogenic differentiation is facilitated by the increase of initial cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion molecules (Tavella et al., 1997; Stewart et al., 2000; Anderer et al., 2002; and Zhang et al., 2004).
Among methods in which small cartilaginous structures without a scaffold are prepared, first of all a pellet culture is a method in which from the initial step of three-dimensional culture an ultra-high-density culture system of cells is artificially made by the use of cell condensation which is prepared by centrifuging a considerably small number of cells. A pellet-formation procedure is simple and easily reproducible, and cells having chondrogenic potential make cartilaginous tissues by synthesizing and secreting cartilaginous matrix under this system (Zhang et al., 2004). A pellet culture method is the most frequently used method to evaluate chondrogenic potential of stem cells (Pittenger et al., 1999), and is also used for evaluating effects of external factors on chondrocytes (Croucher et al., 2000; Graff et al., 2000; Stewart et al., 2000; and Larson et al., 2002). However, evaluation of applicability of cartilaginous structure prepared by pellet culture as a cell-therapy product has not been carried out since a pellet system is a useful method for preparing high quality cartilaginous tissues but it has been regarded being difficult to apply to regeneration of damaged cartilage for the problem of difficulty in preparing sufficient pellet size. In addition, a general pellet culture uses a method in which cell suspension is added to a tube with a lid (a conical tube, a storage tube, a microcentrifuge tube and the like) and centrifuged, and three-dimensional culture is then carried out so that it can prepare only one pellet per one tube. As a result, it is difficult to apply this method to large-scale culture (FIG. 2A).
As methods for preparing small cartilage structure without a scaffold, there is a method to induce aggregation of cells spontaneously. Moscona et al. (1961) prepared a cell aggregate named as "aggregation pattern" by the use of rotation technique. They reported that when dynamic culture of cells suspended in a culture medium is carried out, a cell aggregate is spontaneously formed via interaction between cells (FIG. 2B). Landry et al. (1985; 1984) operated with cells on a non-adherent plastic substratum to prepare a three-dimensional cell aggregate and named it as "spheroid." Reginato et al. (1994), Stewart et al. (2000), Anderer et al. (2000) and Wolf et al. (2008) induced the formation of spontaneous cell aggregate by culturing chondrocytes in a non-adherent culture dish coated with agarose or hydrogel (FIG. 2C). In such spontaneous spheroid system, cells form a three-dimensional cell aggregate and produce their own extracellular matrix (ECM) which is similar to natural matrix of hyaline cartilage. However, this culture method cannot adjust the number of cells which produce one cell aggregate, and there is a disadvantage of not being standardized as a tissue-engineered/cell therapy product since the size of each cartilaginous tissue and chondrification vary due to the possibility of fusion between formed cartilaginous tissues.
As another method to induce aggregation of cells spontaneously, there is a method uses an adherent culture dish. Imabayashi et al. (2003) placed drops of high-concentration suspension of cells having chondrogenic potential on an adherent culture dish and kept it in a 37° C. incubator. After several hours or days, cells were aggregated, and this aggregate was suspended in culture medium and three-dimensional culture was then carried out in a non-adherent culture dish or dynamic culture condition (FIG. 2D). This method, known as micromass/chondrosphere culture, has an advantage in that the number of cells forming cartilaginous tissue can be adjusted. However, it cannot be guaranteed to stably obtain uniform cartilaginous tissues since the capacity of forming cell aggregate spontaneously is different depending on cell condition. In addition, if cell aggregates are cultured all together before hardening of ECM, fusion between cartilaginous tissues may occur.
To equalize the number of cells forming cell aggregate spontaneously, studies using microwells have been conducted. In the three-dimensional culture of hepatocytes, if the hepatosphere is large, necrosis of internal core may occur. As a result, there is a need to develop three-dimensional culture system capable of preparing large amounts of uniform hepatospheres with a desired size. Fukuta et al. (2006) developed a method like to micromolding techniques as one of such methods. Wong et al. (2011) and Choi et al. (2010) prepared concave micromolds with 300-500 μm diameters based on thin poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane. They reported that when hepatocytes are cultured on plane PDMS surface, or in cylindrical or concave microwells to form spheroids, the size and shape of spheres formed in concave microwells were uniform; their size was perfectly regulated by the diameter of the concave microwells; cells cultured in concave microwells formed spheres more rapidly than those cultured in cylindrical microwells or on planar surfaces; and the spheres formed in concave microwells were easily harvested, which was a great advantage for generating stable spheres (FIG. 2E). After commercialization of molds, micro-tissue preparation methods using micromolds have been evaluated in various cells. However, because they are also methods to induce spontaneous cellular aggregation, it cannot be guaranteed that they stably obtain uniform cartilaginous tissues. In addition, because the size of prepared cell aggregates is too small, physical strength is weak and handling is difficult, so there is a limit in it being used as a therapeutic agent of three-dimensional chondrocyte.
As such, methods known up to now as those for preparing three-dimensional cartilage tissue without the use of scaffold have problems such that sufficient pellet size is not formed, it is not suitable for large-scale preparation, uniform cartilage tissue with repetitive reproducibility is not formed, the size of formed cell aggregate is too small, and strength is low. Therefore, such methods are inappropriate for the preparation of a therapeutic agent of bead-type chondrocyte without a scaffold

Preparation method for therapeutic agent of bead-type chondrocyte


A mousepad having support for the user""s wrist. A pad platform is surrounded with a peripheral wrist support comprising a tubular element filled with a mobile fill media, such as a plurality of pellets. The tubular elements extends above the pad platform sufficiently so that the user""s wrist is supported, thereby substantially lessening fatigue over long periods of use.

This invention relates to mousepads and tracking aids for computers and the like, and in particular to a mousepad having a comfortable support for the mouse user.
A computer mouse is a typical device used to aid the processing of information in a computer. Computer users typically use a mouse in combination with the computer keyboard, and even more commonly, sometimes a mouse is used without even requiring use of the keyboard.
The computer mouse normally is operated on a flat surface, with that surface often being known as a mousepad. That surface typically has sufficient friction so that the tracking ball of the computer mouse rotates appropriately as the computer mouse is navigated across the operating surface, moving the cursor on the user""s computer screen.
Mousepads may be provided in practically any size or shape, and typically are quite thin, in order to reside on a flat surface proximate the computer keyboard. Many devices have been developed, however, for locating the mousepad elsewhere. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,187,398 discloses a computer mousepad mounted on a flexible membrane which is filled with a fluid-like media so that the device can be used on an uneven surface and conform to the contour of that surface. That surface could be anything from the leg of a user to a cluttered desktop.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,368,693; 5,593,128 and 5,355,811 disclose computer mousepads adapted to being situated on a user""s thigh. The mousepad of the ""693 patent is flexible to conform to the contour of the leg, while the ""128 and ""811 patents have rigid surfaces having retaining walls or lips forming a boundary beyond which a computer mouse cannot travel.
None of the prior art devices address wrist and arm fatigue that can occur when a user is employing a mousepad for long periods of time.
The inventions directed to a computer mousepad and tracking aid which includes a pad platform having an operating surface and extending to a first surrounding outer margin. A peripheral wrist support is provided, having at least a portion extending above and beyond the first surrounding outer margin of the pad platform. The, wrist support includes a tubular element extending laterally to a second surrounding outer margin and the tubular element includes an upper boundary spaced above the operating surface. Means is provided for securing the pad platform proximate the wrist support.
In accordance with the preferred form of the invention, the tubular element comprises a flexible membrane having a hollow inner cavity. A mobile fill media is contained within the membrane. In one form, the mobile fill media comprises a plurality of pellets. In another form, the mobile fill media comprises a flowable material.
The pad platform is preferably substantially rigid. The securing means comprises an appropriate means of fixing the pad platform in place, such as hook-and-loop fasteners, adhesive strips, or other appropriate means.
In one form of the invention, a cavity is located beneath the pad platform, having mobile fill media therewithin. The cavity can form part of, or be separate from, the tubular element comprising the peripheral support.
In one form of the invention, the operating surface comprises an upper surface of the pad platform. In another form of the invention, the operating surface comprises a covering applied, and appropriately affixed to, the pad platform.


An undershirt in one embodiment includes a tubular torso portion comprising a resiliently deformable material, wherein an upper region of the torso portion has two openings for insertion therethrough of an intended wearer's arms, wherein the upper region is closed at a top of the undershirt except for a hole for insertion therethrough of an intended wearer's neck, wherein a lower region of the torso portion is at least partially tapered and is long enough to about cover an intended wearer's buttocks.

The present invention relates to clothing, and more particularly, this invention relates to undershirts.
There are several problems with undershirts currently on the market.                The undershirts typically do not fit a wearer's torso correctly. This is because undershirts currently on the market are made with standard dimensions (usually A-frame or box cut) or slim fitting dimensions (narrower box cut).        The undershirts generally "ride up" above the belt line when the wearer moves (i.e., the wearer stands up from a chair, the wearer gets in and out of cars, the wearer sits down, etc.). They ride up above the belt line because undershirts currently on the market fit too loosely below the belt and are not the proper length.        The undershirts often shrink to a smaller size after only a few wears and washings, unless they are purchased too large initially.        The undershirts are typically made of cheap material that does not breathe well.        The undershirts generally cause the wearer's overshirt, such as a button-down dress shirt, to pull up, ride up, and/or bunch up on the sides and back making the wearer's silhouette look bigger than it actually is, and may potentially cause the wearer to be self-conscious about the overshirt's current condition.        The undershirts generally do not fit according to how they are shown in advertisements, on packaging, and/or on models.        The undershirts have a tendency to become untucked from inside of pants due to the box cut design.
A strong need exists for men to have an alternative to traditional undershirt garments. Traditional undershirts create undesirable bunching, riding up, and often come untucked quickly; especially when worn with slim fitting dress shirts, button down dress shirts, sweaters, and T-shirts. Also, in addition to the unattractive bunching appearance, as the traditional undershirts become untucked, they can cause discomfort and insecurity to the wearer. This also creates bulges under the outer clothing and the undershirt, if it is worn by itself.
One alternative to traditional undershirt garments is known as a men's tank top or "wifebeater." This type of undergarment is comprised of a tight, form fitting, sleeveless, box cut design so it contours the torso. However, this undergarment offers no underarm sweat absorption due to the omitted sleeves. Additionally, it has an undesirable look and is generally frowned upon in business settings where dress shirts are worn because the wearer is likely to perspire and sweat in the armpit areas which can visibly be seen through a colored overshirt or dress shirt.
These traditional types of undergarments do not provide the wearer with an improved appearance under clothing and can be uncomfortable. Furthermore, they do not hold in bulges or help to keep the overshirt and undershirt tucked in. This is known as the "ride up effect" resulting in the shirt riding up above the beltline of the wearer while their overshirt is tucked in. Although traditional "undershirts" cover these areas, they normally are made of relatively thick material and designed short in length, which creates bulging and bunching above the beltline. Also, the thick fabric, box cut design, and standard length usually makes the wearer look heavier when wearing slim and regular fitting clothing, rather than thinner in appearance as is desired by most wearers.
Accordingly, a need exists for a men's undershirt undergarment that does not bunch up, bulge on the sides, ride up above the beltline, and become easily untucked. A need also exists for such an undershirt undergarment manufactured in a tailored design, longer length, while incorporating both natural and/or synthetic blends of stretch fabric.


An image combined high sensitivity image and low sensitivity image is provided with well-adjusted white balance and broad dynamic range. The image is obtained by multiplying the combined data by total gain that depends on scene. A white balance is adjusted with gain value calculated from of high output image data. Lv value representing luminance is calculated and compared with a threshold to decide whether or not the high sensitivity image and the low sensitivity image should be combined. First gamma correction unit performs gamma-correction for the image signal derived from the high sensitivity signal with first gamma character, second gamma correction unit performs gamma-correction for the image signal derived from the low sensitivity signal with second gamma character that is different from the first gamma character, and addition unit combines the image signal from the first gamma correction unit and the image signal from the second gamma correction unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus and an image processing method of obtaining an image with a broad dynamic range.
2. Description of the Related Art
[Prior Art]
Dynamic range of image sensor such as CCD used in an image pickup device such as widely prevailing digital cameras are generally narrower than those of film. Hence, in the case of imaging imaging a high luminance subject, the amount of received light exceeds the dynamic range. Then, the output of the image sensor saturates to cause the missing of the information of the subject imaged.
When, for example, an indoor scene is picked up by an imaging apparatus such as digital still cameras, it sometimes occurs that subjects present in the interior can be imaged well, but the blue sky observed through a window is imaged with saturation. The image picked up in the situation is unnatural as a whole. Such problem comes from the fact that the dynamic range of an image is narrow. To solve the problem, dynamic range is expanded by combining two images picked up separately.
For example, short time exposure image (low sensitivity image) is firstly picked up with high shutter speed, then long time exposure image (high sensitivity image) is successively picked up with low shutter speed. These two images are combined to superimpose the outdoor scene through the window in the low sensitivity image on the high sensitivity image in which the indoor scene is preferably picked up.
In a conventional technique described in JP-A-2000-307963, as the part of moving subjects do not perfectly coincide with low sensitivity image and high sensitivity image when the two images is combined, the high sensitivity image is partly replaced by the low sensitivity by using a mask.
In the above-described conventional technique of JP-A-2000-307963, although image signals of the two images are combined with use of the mask, the discrepancy of white balance is not considered. Therefore, as a result of that white balances of the high sensitivity image and the low sensitivity image in the combined image are respectively different, the combined image comes to be unnatural depending on an imaging scene.
Recently, an imaging apparatus such as digital cameras, which includes a new image pickup device having both of high sensitivity pixel and low sensitivity pixel, is proposed. The imaging apparatus combines a high sensitivity image (which will be also called "high output image" hereinafter) picked up by the high sensitivity pixel and a low sensitivity image (which will be also called "low output image" hereinafter) picked up by the low sensitivity pixel to output data of a single image. It is necessary to solve the problem associated with the above-described, when the image pickup apparatus combines images.
In the case of imaging a very bright subject under a high-contrast imaging condition, the image combination according to the conventional technique of JP-A-2000-307963 is effective in the reproduction of details in bright (highlight) portions, since the dynamic range is expanded. However, in the case of imaging under a low-contrast imaging condition such as a cloudiness or an interior, similar preferable effects are hardly achieved, or rather, the tone reproduction is wasted.
FIG. 18 shows the relation between a high sensitivity signal obtained by imaging a scene with a digital camera and the combined signal derived by combining the high sensitivity signal with a low sensitivity signal by a conventional technique. This figure depicts data associated with the signal of any one color among R (red), G (green) and B (blue). The ordinate indicates tone value, while the abscissa indicates subject luminance. The thin line in the figure is the high sensitivity signal prior to combination, and the thick line is the combined signal.
As shown in the figure, the region from a to b of the tone value of the high sensitivity signal (indicated by the hatched zone) is not utilized depending on the luminance of the scene by the combination operation. Therefore, there exist cases where it would be rather better that the image combination is not performed under a low-contrast imaging condition.
In another conventional technique described in JP-A-6-141229, the combination of two images is performed by converting each of the image signals obtained with low and high shutter through the same γ characteristics and then additively combining the both signals that are each converted with γ characteristics. However, since simple addition gives an image in which the middle tone region that is strongly influential on image quality appears unnatural, weighted addition depending on signal levels is usually carried out.
The conventional technique of JP-A-6-141229 intends to retain a preferable tone reproduction in the middle tone region through weighted addition of the image signals of the two images depending on signal levels and only the image signal with the high sensitivity is used for the middle tone region. However, even if a weighted addition depending on signal levels is performed, the white balance of the middle tone tends to differ from that of the highlights tone when each white balances of two images with high sensitivity and low sensitivity is not accurately adjusted. As a result, a combination image comes to be unnatural.

Image pickup apparatus and image processing method


An electrically conductive ball joint and lighting fixtures using the joint are disclosed. The joint has a ball with a first portion connected to a first electrical signal and a second portion connected to a second electrical signal. The first and second portions are electrically isolated from one another by a nonconductive bushing. A socket receives the ball and has a first set of electrical contacts adapted to make contact with the first portion of the ball and a second set of electrical contacts adapted to make contact with the second portion of the ball. The two portions of the ball are unequal, with one portion being larger than the other. The lighting fixtures generally comprise a base and two or more arms connected to the base. The arms are connected to one another electrically and structurally with the electrically conductive ball joints, and may be counterweighted.

1. Field of the Invention
In general, the invention relates to conductive ball joints, and to lamps and other structures using the conductive ball joints.
2. Description of Related Art
Ball joints are used to join two structures while allowing one to move with respect to another in multiple planes. A typical ball joint comprises a spherical or hemispherical "ball" mounted on the end of a first structure and a complementary socket on a second structure. The ball is received in and permitted to move within the socket, allowing the two structures to move relative to one another with up to three degrees of freedom.
Ball joints are common in many different types of machines, ranging from automobiles to lighting fixtures, and have been implemented in many different sizes, with different materials, and with different load-carrying capacities. In some cases, a ball joint simply provides mechanical connection and load transmission between and through the structures that it connects.
In many cases, it is necessary to transmit some form of electricity or electrical signal past or through the ball joint. Typically, this is done by creating a hole or bore through the ball of the ball joint and inserting wires through the hole or bore to carry the signal. Wires can also be routed around the joint in some cases. While common, these types of solutions can be problematic. For example, the presence of the wires can restrict the range of motion of the ball joint, and continued motion can strain or wear the insulation on the wires, raising the possibility of electrical short.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,061,169 to Fung purports to disclose a solution to this problem: an electrically conductive ball, split into two equally-sized, electrically isolated conductive halves by an insulator, to carry both voltage and ground. The socket in which the conductive ball rests is similarly electrically conductive. However, the Fung conductive ball joint is problematic, as it appears that the circuit will short out as the ball moves through its full range of motion.
Effective, reliable means for transmitting electricity and electrical signals past or through ball joints would be particularly useful for lighting fixtures and other products which are frequently repositioned, and in which a relatively large range of motion is desirable.

Electrically conductive ball joints and lighting fixtures using the joints


A method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus for power management are provided. The apparatus may determine an activation distance based on operator behavior in relation to operating the apparatus. The apparatus may detect the presence of an approaching operator at the activation distance. The apparatus may wake up from a low-power state in response to the detecting of the presence of the approaching operator at the activation distance. The apparatus may determine a deactivation distance based on the operator behavior. The apparatus may detect the presence of a departing operator of the apparatus at the deactivation distance. The apparatus may enter into the low-power state in response to the detecting of the presence of the departing operator at the deactivation distance.

Computing technology has seen a many-fold increase in capability ever since it was created. Processors work at ever higher rates; memories are ever larger and always faster; mass storage is larger and cheaper every year. Computers now are essential elements in many aspects of life, and are often used to present three-dimensional worlds to users, in everything from games to scientific visualization.
Human-computer interaction (HCI) researches the design and use of computer technology, focused on the interfaces between humans (users) and computers. Humans interact with computers in many ways. The interface between humans and computers is crucial to facilitating this interaction. The interface between the user and the computer has not seen the same rate of change as the computing technology. For example, screen windows, keyboard, monitor, and mouse are the standard, and have seen little change since their introduction. Little thought is given to the human-computer interface, although most of the user's experience with the computer is dominated by the interface between the user and the computer.
Some battery-operated input devices (e.g., mouse, keyboard) may enter into a low power state (e.g., a sleep/standby state) to save battery power. An input device in the sleep/standby condition must wait for an interrupt before the device can wake up. Thus, there will be some latency on the input device before the input device can be used to provide input to a computing device (e.g., a desktop computer, a game console) coupled to the input device. For example, a corded or cordless mouse in the market is not able to achieve immediate sensor movement response when the mouse is in sleep or standby state.

Method of power management and apparatus for power management


The present disclosure relates to a method for traffic engineering in a communications network. In one example method, a controller determines at least one sampling node in a flexible node and a temporal frequency for traffic sampling. The controller instruct the at least one sampling node to perform traffic sampling at the temporal frequency. The controller receives sampled traffic data of all sampling nodes obtained during each sampling. The controller determines, according to the sampled traffic data obtained during each sampling and information about total traffic of a link whose link utilization is greater than a first preset value or less than a second preset value in the communications network, parameter information for traffic engineering. The controller performs traffic engineering control according to the parameter information.

Network traffic engineering (TE) is a method for controlling network traffic, so as to achieve some specific holistic objectives in a network, for example, optimizing network utilization, balancing network utilization, reducing network congestion, and reducing network load.
To achieve the holistic objectives in the network, a most common TE implementation method is to estimate (or collect statistics about) all source and destination connection requirements in the entire network, and then use various routing mechanisms (or network protocols) to perform optimization according to a TE objective. As a network scale is increasing, an original TE method has huge computational complexity, and feasibility of performing all TE steps is extremely low. For example, most typical routing protocols used in the Internet are all generated based on the following two mechanisms:
a distance vector routing protocol, such as the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) or the Border Gateway Protocol; and a link state (Link State) routing protocol, such as the Open Shortest Path First protocol.
However, an existing routing protocol may have excessively high computational complexity (especially for a large-scale network). For example, the distance vector routing protocol uses the Bellman-Ford (Bellman-Ford) algorithm and features complexity of O(|V|*|E|), where |V| is a quantity of nodes (number of nodes), and |E| is a quantity of edges (number of edges); the link state routing protocol usually uses some variants of the Dijkstra algorithm and features complexity of O(|E|+|V|log|V|). In these routing protocols, a method for calculating a best path is setting a short-term link cost to a cost related to a distance from a destination. However, in TE, these algorithms further need to run repeatedly to update the short-term link cost, so as to implement the specific objectives for entire-network control. This manifests excessively high complexity. In actual application, a network traffic engineer usually uses a manual trial-out method to update the short-term link cost. The procedure is extremely complicated and cannot be implemented in the large-scale network. Some existing types of TE are implemented by using a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) method, but require a cost for establishing a link label. Although the existing routing protocol does not repeatedly run in MPLS, the label needs to be repeatedly updated to implement a TE optimization objective. These are only some examples, and actual TE implementation depends on the network traffic engineer. For example, during selection, the network traffic engineer may use some variants of the foregoing protocols, for example, change the link cost or an objective, or allow for multiple paths, so as to implement a TE objective. However, repeated running of these algorithms cannot be avoided. As the network scale increases, if all TE steps, that is, from estimating an entire-network link traffic requirement to optimizing entire-network routing according to the TE objective, need to be completed, original TE is no longer applicable because of its huge complexity.
In addition, the entire-network link traffic requirement required in network traffic engineering is estimated based on network status data. If a TE algorithm runs slowly, effective network status information used in TE is actually limited (sparse) as a network status changes, even when the network status data is sampled at a high frequency. However, all existing TE technologies are based on an assumption that the network status data is sufficient and unchanged. When there is only sparse network status data, it is difficult to implement TE control according to an original entire-network-based algorithm.
Basically, all networks have TE problems. Because a software defined network (SDN) is an important constructable structure for a future network, the following uses the SDN network as an example to describe an existing TE problem. The SDN separates a control plane from a data plane. Because an SDN controller provides relatively strong network controllability (unlike a previous distributed network, the SDN uses a centralized controller architecture), TE efficiency in the SDN is higher than that in an existing network. However, to achieve (potentially) best TE efficiency in the SDN (at least higher than TE efficiency in the existing network), the prior art also needs to be based on the entire network's status.
For the SDN network, the SDN has a centralized architecture (so that TE efficiency in the SDN is higher than that in the existing network). Before TE control is performed, an entire-network traffic requirement needs to be estimated. If all related information required in TE in the entire network is sampled and fed back to the SDN controller, extremely high overheads may be required for measurement data feedback. In addition, a validity period of the information is usually shorter than a TE operation time (because as described above, the SDN controller requires a large quantity of operations because of high computational complexity, a network scenario change is normal before an operation result is obtained). In addition, an existing SDN technology requires complete network information (which usually requires intensive sampling), and further it is required to assume that the network information is an invariant (that is, a constant) during a TE control operation. It is difficult to implement TE control according to the original entire-network-based algorithm.
To reduce a large amount of unnecessary measurement and feedback and achieve the TE objective in real time, a most important problem is how to set some general TE optimization objectives that can use downsampled data having low feedback overheads and that can be achieved by using an algorithm having low complexity in an environment of low sampling and low feedback overheads, and to achieve an effect equivalent to an expected TE effect in the entire SDN in an entire observable environment.
Therefore, in the existing network, how to implement TE based on partial measurement becomes a problem that needs to be urgently resolved.

Method for traffic engineering in communications network and controller


An ERF filled engine mount includes a main working chamber and first and second auxiliary chambers. Orifice passages in which electrodes are disposed, fluidly connect the main working chamber with the first auxiliary chamber. A gutter is defined by a casing in which a movable member is disposed. This member is arranged to be moved (vibrated) by the pressure changes which occur in the main working chamber when the mount is subject to vibration which tend to cause cabin reverberation noise. An electrode is mounted on an electrically non-conductive portion of the casing structure and arranged to cooperate with a conductive portion thereof. This electrodes has a voltage impressed thereon during engine idle and shake modes and is de-energized when the reverberation noise inducing frequency is approached.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an engine mount and more specifically to an engine mount which is filled with a electrorheopectic fluid.
2. Description of the Prior Art
JP-A-57-84220 discloses an ERF-filled engine mount which includes a main working chamber defined in part by an elastomeric member, an orifice arrangement which provides fluid communication between the main working chamber and an auxiliary chamber, and a movable element which is disposed in a gutter defining casing.
In this arrangement, when vibrations in relatively low frequency ranges such as those in which engine idling and engine shake occur, the movement of the slug of fluid which is contained in the orifice passage is induced in a manner which attenuates the amount of vibrational energy which is transmitted to the chassis from the power unit.
When vibration which falls in a relatively high vibrational range such as that which tends to induce reverberation noise in the vehicle cabin, is applied to the mount, the movable element is excited to undergo displacement in a manner wherein the gutter arrangement functions to attenuate the vibration and thus reduce the amount of cabin noise.
In order to derive the appropriate vibration transmission attenuation in the lower vibration ranges it necessary to ensure that the movable element does not move. In other words, when high frequency low amplitude vibration is applied, the amount of movement of the movable element should be limited to small value while when relatively large amplitude low frequency vibration is applied, the movement should be prevented.
However, this prior proposed arrangement suffers from the drawback that when the vibration applied exhibits a relatively low frequency and a relatively low amplitude, such as tends to occur during engine idling, the pressure which is developed in the main working chamber tends to escape via the gutter and reduces the required amount of fluid movement in the orifice passage.
Further, when large amplitude engine shake type vibrations are produced the pressure changes in the main working chamber are reduced by the amount which the fraction of fluid which is contained in the gutter arrangement moves and the full effect of the orifice passage or passages cannot be realized.