A method of creating a custom relief image printing element from at least one raw photocurable material and at least one lamination layer supplied by a manufacturer is described. The manufacturer provides a menu of raw photocurable materials and a menu of lamination layers and wherein the customer selects at least one raw photocurable material from the menu of raw photocurable materials and selects at least one lamination layer from the menu of lamination layers. The method includes the steps of: a) laminating the selected at least one raw photocurable material to the selected at least one lamination layer at a customer's location to create a photocurable printing blank; and thereafter b) imagewise exposing the at least one photocurable printing blank to actinic radiation at the customer's location to crosslink and cure portions of the at least one photocurable material and create a relief image therein. A lamination system is also described.

Flexography is a method of printing that is commonly used for high-volume runs. Flexography is employed for printing on a variety of substrates such as paper, paperboard stock, corrugated board, films, foils and laminates. Newspapers and grocery bags are prominent examples. Coarse surfaces and stretch films can be economically printed only by means of flexography. Flexographic printing plates are relief plates with image elements raised above open areas. Generally, the plate is somewhat soft, and flexible enough to wrap around a printing cylinder, and durable enough to print over a million copies. Such plates offer a number of advantages to the printer, based chiefly on their durability and the ease with which they can be made.
In flexographic printing, ink is transferred from a pool of ink to a substrate by way of a printing plate. The surface of the plate is shaped so that the image to be printed appears in relief, in the same way that rubber stamps are cut so as to have the printed image appear in relief on the surface of the rubber. Typically, the plate is mounted on a cylinder, and the cylinder rotates at a high speed such that the raised surface of the printing plate contacts a pool of ink, is slightly wetted by the ink, then exits the ink pool and contacts a substrate material, thereby transferring ink from the raised surface of the plate to the substrate material to form a printed substrate. Those involved in the flexographic printing industry are constantly striving to improve the flexographic printing process in order to more effectively compete.
Flexographic printing plates are relief plates with image elements raised above open areas. Such plates offer a number of advantages to the printer, based chiefly on their durability and the ease with which they can be made. A typical flexographic printing plate as delivered by its manufacturer is a multilayered article made of, in order, a backing or support layer; one or more unexposed photocurable layers; optionally a protective layer or slip film; and often, a protective cover sheet.
The backing layer lends support to the plate and can be formed from a transparent or opaque material such as paper, cellulose film, plastic, or metal. Preferred materials include sheets made from synthetic polymeric materials such as polyesters, polystyrene, polyolefins, polyamides, and the like. One widely used support layer is a flexible film of polyethylene terephthalate.
The photopolymer layer(s) can include any of the known binders (oligomers), monomers, initiators, reactive or non-reactive diluents, fillers, and dyes. The term "photocurable" or "photopolymer" refers to a composition which undergoes polymerization, cross-linking, or any other curing or hardening reaction in response to actinic radiation with the result that the unexposed portions of the material can be selectively separated and removed from the exposed (cured) portions to form a three-dimensional or relief pattern of cured material. Preferred photopolymer materials include an elastomeric compound (binder), an ethylenically unsaturated compound having at least one terminal ethylene group, and a photoinitiator. More than one photocurable layer may also be used. Examples of some suitable photocurable materials are described in European Patent Application Nos. 0 456 336 A2 and 0 640 878 A1 to Goss, et al., British Patent No. 1,366,769, U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,375 to Berrier, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,867,153 to MacLahan, U.S. Pat. No. 4,264,705 to Allen, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,323,636, 4,323,637, 4,369,246, and 4,423,135 all to Chen, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,265,765 to Holden, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,188 to Heinz, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,759 to Gruetzmacher, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,088 to Min, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,827 to Bohm, et al., the subject matter of each of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The photopolymer materials generally cross-link (cure) and harden through radical polymerization in at least some actinic wavelength region. As used herein, actinic radiation is radiation capable of effecting a chemical change in an exposed moiety. Actinic radiation includes, for example, amplified (e.g., laser) and non-amplified light, particularly in the UV and violet wavelength regions.
The slip film is a thin layer, which generally rests upon and protects the photopolymer from dust and increases its ease of handling. In a conventional ("analog") plate making process, the slip film is transparent to UV light. The printer peels the cover sheet off the printing plate blank, and places a negative on top of the slip film layer. The plate and negative are then subjected to flood-exposure by UV light through the negative. The areas exposed to the light cure, or harden, and the unexposed areas are removed (developed) to create the relief image on the printing plate. Instead of a slip film, a matte layer may also be used to improve the ease of plate handling. The matte layer typically comprises fine particles (silica or similar) suspended in an aqueous binder solution. The matte layer is coated onto the photopolymer layer and then allowed to air dry. A negative is then placed on the matte layer for subsequent UV-flood exposure of the photocurable layer. In another alternative, the negative may be placed directly on the at least one photocurable layer.
In a "digital" or "direct to plate" plate making process, a laser is guided by an image stored in an electronic data file and is used to create an in situ negative in a digital (i.e., laser ablatable) masking layer. The digital masking layer is typically a slip film which has been modified to include a radiation opaque material. Portions of the laser ablatable layer are ablated by exposing the masking layer to laser radiation at a selected wavelength and power of the laser. Examples of laser ablatable layers are disclosed for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,925,500 to Yang, et al., and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,262,275 and 6,238,837 to Fan, the subject matter of each of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Other methods of creating an in situ negative are also known.
After imaging, the photosensitive printing element is developed to remove the unpolymerized portions of the layer of photopolymer material and reveal the crosslinked relief image in the cured photosensitive printing element. Typical methods of development include washing with various solvents or water, often with a brush. Other possibilities for development include the use of an air knife or heat plus a blotter (i.e. thermal development). The resulting surface has a relief pattern that reproduces the image to be printed. The relief pattern typically comprises a plurality of dots, and the shape of the dots and the depth of the relief, among other factors, affect the quality of the printed image. After the relief image is developed, the relief image printing element may be mounted on a printing press and printing commenced.
Photocurable resin compositions typically cure through radical polymerization, upon exposure to actinic radiation. However, the curing reaction can be inhibited by molecular oxygen, which is typically dissolved in the resin compositions, because the oxygen functions as a radical scavenger. Based thereon, the dissolved oxygen can be removed from the resin composition before image-wise exposure so that the photocurable resin composition can be more rapidly and uniformly cured.
One process that has been developed for removing dissolved oxygen from the photosensitive resin involves the use of a laminated oxygen barrier layer, as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2014.0004466 to Vest et al., the subject matter of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. The barrier membrane is laminated on top of the flexo plate to cover the in situ mask and any uncovered portions of photocurable layer. The membrane can be applied after the laser ablation used to create the in situ mask, but before exposure to actinic radiation.
Effective barrier layers generally exhibit optical transparency, low thickness and oxygen transport inhibition. Examples of materials which are suitable for use as the barrier membrane layer include those materials that are conventionally used as a release layer in flexographic printing elements, such as polyamides, polyvinyl alcohol, hydroxyalkyl cellulose, copolymers of ethylene and vinyl acetate, amphoteric interpolymers, cellulose acetate butyrate, alkyl cellulose, butryal, cyclic rubbers, and combinations of one or more of the foregoing. In addition, films such as polypropylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyester and similar clear films can also serve well as barrier films.
A typical process for producing a relief image printing element from an analog printing element generally involves the customer performing the following steps:                a) obtaining an unexposed printing element from the manufacturer, the unexposed printing element comprising one or more photocurable layers disposed on a substrate layer, a slip film layer disposed on the one or more photocurable layers and a protective coversheet;        b) removing the protective coversheet from the unexposed printing element and applying a photographic negative on top of the slip film layer;        c) optionally, laminating an oxygen barrier layer to the top of the photographic negative;        d) exposing the one or more photocurable layers to actinic radiation through the photographic negative to selectively crosslink and cure portions of the one or more photocurable layers, wherein the at least one photocurable layer is crosslinked and cured in the areas that are not covered by the negative, thereby creating the desired relief image;        e) removing the negative (and the oxygen barrier membrane, if used) from the top of the at least one photocurable layer; and        f) developing the printing blank to remove uncured portions of the photocurable layer and reveal the desired relief image;
A typical process for producing a relief image printing element from a digital printing element generally involves the customer performing the following steps:                a) obtaining an unexposed digital printing element from the manufacturer, the unexposed printing element comprising one or more photocurable layers disposed on a substrate layer, a laser ablatable layer disposed on the one or more photocurable layers and a protective coversheet;        b) imaging the at least one photocurable layer by selectively ablating the laser ablatable mask layer to create an image on the surface of the at least one photocurable layer;        c) optionally, laminating an oxygen barrier membrane to a top of the laser ablated mask layer;        d) exposing the printing blank to actinic radiation through the oxygen barrier membrane and laser ablated mask layer (and the oxygen barrier membrane, if used) to one or more sources of actinic radiation to selectively crosslink and cure portions of the at least one photocurable layer, wherein the at least one photocurable layer is crosslinked and cured in the portions not covered by the mask layer, thereby creating the relief pattern;        e) removing the oxygen barrier membrane (if used) from the top of the laser ablated mask layer; and        f) developing the printing blank remove the laser ablated mask layer and uncured portions of the photocurable layer and reveal the relief pattern.
In both instances, the customer must choose a pre-configured printing element blank from a menu of printing element blanks offered by the manufacturer. The customer does not have any control over the particular configuration of the printing element. Thus, the selected printing element may not be the most suitable for the customer's printing requirements. Furthermore, the manufacturer must also maintain an extensive menu of printing element configurations to offer to customers. These configurations include, for example, digital and analog plate configurations, which may have different photocurable layers with different formulations, with and without cap layers, and with and without other specialized layers. This can lead to the need for additional storage space on the part of both the manufacturer and the customer for the many different products. In addition, there is also the additional expense and associated waste in connection therewith if a customer must go through trial and error to select a particular printing plate configuration that might or might not be suitable for their particular needs.
Thus, it would be desirable in the art to provide a method of creating a custom relief image printing blank that would allow a customer to configure a printing plate according to their particular needs and that would allow a manufacturer to offer various raw materials for such configuration.

Customizable printing plates and method of making the same


A battery storage structure in an electric appliance which comprises a housing for the electric appliance having at least one side face, said housing also having at least first and second storage compartments defined therein, each of said first and second storage compartments having an aperture open at said side face of the housing. Each of the battery storage compartments accommodate a respective first or second battery mount for the support of at least one battery, at least one drive battery on the first battery mount and at least one back-up battery on the second battery mount. Each first or second battery mount is movable between a completely inserted position and a drawn position relative to the associated battery storage compartment. A manipulatable means is provided, which is operable to permit one of the first and second battery mounts to be movable from the completely inserted position towards the drawn position and to inhibit the other of the first and second battery mounts from being moved from the completely inserted position towards the drawn position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery storage mechanism in a battery-powered electric and/or electronic appliances such as an electronic calculator, an electronic memo, an electronic directory or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A vast number of battery-powered electric and/or electronic appliances such as listed above is equipped with at least one erasable storage unit such as a random access memory for the storage of data inputted into the electric appliance. The problem hitherto encountered with this volatile storage unit is that all of the data inputted are erased the moment the battery in the electric appliance is run down or removed.
Therefore, it is a currently employed practice to employ a power storage capacitor parallel to a circuit line connecting between the electric power source and the storage unit so that, when the battery is removed, an electric charge built up in the power storage capacitor can be utilized for the power supply to the storage unit. This is effective to avoid any possible sudden erasure of the data stored in the storage unit. However, the removal of one battery is required to be followed by an immediate replacement with a fresh battery, or the electric charge in the power storage capacitor will run down with the stored data erased consequently.
In view of the foregoing, attempts have been made to use, in addition to a drive battery for driving major circuit component parts of the electric appliance, a back-up battery that is brought into operation to supply an electric power only to the storage unit and its associated component parts when the drive battery runs down or is to be removed. The use of the two batteries appears sophisticated, however, the conventional structure for accommodating such two batteries in the electric appliance is of a design that those batteries can be removed simultaneously, or of a design that, even though a means is provided for an alternate removal of the batteries, such means may occasionally work ineffective in the sense that the user of the electric appliance, if desiring, can remove them simultaneously or in succession.
For example, the Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Publication No. 59-88868, published June 15, 1984, discloses a battery storage structure having at least two juxtaposed pocket defined in a base plate for accommodating respective batteries. With the batteries seated within the respective pockets, each battery is retained in position within the associated pocket by means of a retainer strip extending over the respective battery with one end fitted into the base and the opposite end secured to the base by means of a set screw. To avoid a simultaneous removal of both batteries when and after both screws have been removed, this publication makes use of a tongue resiliently pivotable from a neutral position to any one of lateral positions defined on respective sides of the neutral position. This resiliently pivotable tongue has a width effective to avoid any possible simultaneous removal or detachment of the retainer strips even though the screws used to secure the respective ends of the retainer strips to the base have been removed, so long as the tongue is held in the neutral position. When the tongue is pivoted from the neutral position to one of the lateral positions by the application of an external force, one of the retainer strips remote from such one of the lateral positions for the tongue can be removed, allowing the battery, which has been retained in position within the associated pocket by means of such one of the retainer strips, to be removed.
According to the Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Publication No. 62-160459, published Oct. 12, 1987, and assigned to the same assignee of the present invention, discloses the at least two batteries retained within the respective pockets by means of a rotary retainer member having at least first and second portions spaced from each other with respect to the axis of rotation of the rotary retainer member. While the first portion of the rotary retainer member overlays one of the battery, the second portion is defined by two engagement pieces protruding radially outwardly of the circular path of movement of the retainer member for the engagement with a peripheral region of the other of the batteries. The rotary retainer members are shown and described as either a generally rectangular plate or a rotary disc having a radially inwardly recessed edge from which the engagement pieces extend radially outwardly.
The Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Publication No. 64-56142, published Apr. 7, 1989, discloses a battery storage structure substantially similar to the structure disclosed in the JP Laid-open UM Publication No. 62-160459 referred to above, but employs the rotary retainer member in the form of a sector-shaped plate movable from a neutral position to any one of lateral positions. This publication No. 64-56142 also discloses the use of resiliently retractable stoppers to keep the sector-shaped retainer plate in the neutral position, thereby to avoid any possible arbitrary movement of the retainer plate.
The Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Publication No. 62-160461, published Oct. 12, 1987, and assigned to the same assignee of the present invention, discloses a battery storage structure substantially similar to the structure disclosed in JP Laid-open UM Publication No. 62-1604459, but employs additionally a means for avoiding any possible arbitrary movement of the rectangular retainer member from one position to the opposite position once it has been moved from such opposite position to such one position with the associated battery removed. This means comprises a generally elongated members having a substantially intermediate portion integrated with the rectangular retainer member for movement together therewith and also having opposite ends engageable selectively into respective detent recesses that are communicated with the battery pockets. The movement of the retainer member is enabled only when a fresh battery is inserted into any one of the pockets which has been left vacant as a result of the removal of the used battery.
Again, the Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Publication No. 64-19256, published Jan. 31, 1989, and assigned to the same assignee of the present invention, discloses a generally rectangular slidable retainer plate supported for movement in a direction perpendicular to a line extending between the respective centers of the battery pockets. This slidable retainer plate has one end portion integrally formed with a lateral flange protruding outwardly from one side of the plate and the opposite end portion integrally formed with a similar lateral flange protruding outwardly from the opposite side of the plate. The flanges are offset relative to each other and protrude in the respective directions opposite to each other. When in the neutral position, the flanges of the retainer plate retains the respective batteries within the associated pocket, but when moved to one of the opposite positions on respective sides of the neutral position, one of the flanges clears from the associated battery while the other of the flanges remains in position to retain the other battery in the associated battery pocket. According to another embodiment disclosed therein, a means for avoiding any possible arbitrary movement of the retainer plate from the neutral position to any one of the lateral positions is also provided, which comprises a block piece, for each of the battery pocket, supported for movement in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the retainer plate between block and release positions. When one of the block pieces is in the block position inhibiting the movement of the retainer plate from the neutral position towards one of the lateral positions, the other of the block piece is in the release position permitting the movement of the retainer plate from the neutral position towards the other of the lateral positions.
Although less pertinent to the present invention, the Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Publication No. 63-69360, published May 10, 1988, discloses a generally flat removable battery casing adapted to support thereon a flat battery and to be inserted into a battery chamber defined in the electric appliance. The battery casing looks like a desk drawer and has a spring strip integral with a wall of the casing and having first and second resilient portions opposite to each other. When and so long as the battery casing is accommodated within the battery chamber, the first and second resilient portions of the spring strip are engaged into detent recesses to avoid any possible detachment of the battery casing out from the battery chamber. Simultaneous disengagement of the first and second resilient portions from the associated detent recesses takes place when a pin or any thin member is inserted exteriorly to buckle the spring strip inwardly allowing the first and second resilient portions to be set back from the associated detent recesses.
Except for the disclosure made in the last mentioned publication, the system disclosed in any one of the foregoing publications is effective to avoid any possible erroneous removal of the plural batteries at one time which would eventually result in the erasure of the data stored in the volatile storage unit in the electric appliance. However, such system has been found having some inconveniences which will now be discussed.
In the first place, in order to make an access to any one of the batteries, a lid closing the battery chamber has to be removed with the use of a screw driver or the like. Also, it may often occur that the lid and/or a screw used to set the lid in position are likely to be lost when removed from the electric appliance in an attempt to carry out the battery replacement.
The removal of the lid used to close the battery chamber allow internal printed circuit boards and/or circuit component parts to be exposed bare to the outside and, therefore, depending on the type of electric appliance, some electronic component parts such as, for example, LSI elements, may be destroyed either physically or logically by the effect of an electrostatic charge built up on the user of the electric appliance.
Apart from the foregoing, it is generally recognized that the removal of the drive battery for the replacement with a fresh one may cause a drive unit (CPU or central processing unit) to run out of control to such an extent as to result in a logical destroy of the data stored in the storage unit such as a random access memory. In order to minimize this possibility, an attempt has been made to provide the electric appliance with a switching system operable to selectively establish a normal operating mode, in which an electric circuit between the drive unit and the storage unit is established, and a battery replacement mode in which the electric circuit therebetween is opened during the replacement of the battery. However, if the user of the electric appliance fails to manipulate the switching system to open the circuit between the drive and storage units prior to the actual replacement of the battery, this sophisticated switching system will not work and the drive unit will eventually run out of control.

Battery storage structure in electric appliance


A liquid crystal lens including a first substrate, a first electrode layer, a liquid crystal layer and a second electrode layer is provided. The second electrode layer includes a plurality of first electrode patterns and a plurality of second electrode patterns. The second electrode patterns are opposite to the first electrode patterns, respectively, and the second electrode patterns and the first electrode patterns are alternately arranged. A square measure of first or second electrode patterns decreases from an edge of the liquid crystal lens to a center of the liquid crystal lens, so that a resistance of the first or second electrode patterns increases from the edge to the center of the liquid crystal lens.

1. Field of Invention
The invention generally relates to a liquid crystal lens, and more particularly to a liquid crystal lens with a preferable optical imaging characteristic.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a conventional liquid crystal lens. Referring to FIG. 1, a liquid crystal lens 100 includes a first substrate 102, a first electrode layer 110, a liquid crystal layer 120, a second electrode layer 130, and a second substrate 104 stacked in sequence. An alignment layer 140 and an alignment layer 150 are disposed between the liquid crystal layer 120 and the first and second substrates 102 and 104, respectively, so that a liquid crystal molecule 122 in the liquid crystal layer 120 has a predetermined alignment direction. Typically speaking, the second electrode layer 130 has an opening H located at a center of the liquid crystal lens 100.
When using the liquid crystal lens 100, the liquid crystal molecule 122 in the liquid crystal layer 120 tilts according to an electric field direction, for example through a signal source S applying a voltage signal to the first and second electrode layers 110 and 130. Since the opening H is located at the center of the liquid crystal lens 100, a center region of the liquid crystal lens 100 has a weaker electric field intensity, and an edge region of the liquid crystal lens 100 has a stronger electric field intensity. Accordingly, a non-uniform electric field variation is formed between the first and second electrode layers 110 and 130. Moreover, the liquid crystal molecule 122 in the liquid crystal layer 120 produces a different degree of tilt according to the electric field variation, so that the liquid crystal layer 120 produces a step-wise variation of a refractive index. For example, when a light beam L passes through the liquid crystal lens 100, the light beam L generates a light condensing effect due to the refractive index variation of the liquid crystal layer 120, and the light beam L is concentrated on a focus F depicted in FIG. 1.
However, the step-wise variation of the refractive index in the liquid crystal lens 100 still significantly differs from a typical optical lens. In other words, the conventional liquid crystal lens 100 cannot achieve an optical imaging characteristic of a typical lens.


A laryngoscope with automatic image adjustment is revealed. The laryngoscope includes a laryngoscope body, a rotation assembly, a display and a sensor. The laryngoscope body is disposed with a fixing slot and is used for capturing an image. One end of the rotation assembly is fixed in the fixing slot while the other end thereof is arranged with the display. The display is rotated around the rotation assembly. The rotation assembly is set with a limiting slot. The sensor is electrically connected to a rear side of the display and is located inside the limiting slot. While the display being rotated, the sensor is slid on the surface of the rotation assembly. When the sensor is slid in the limiting slot, the display shows the image. Once the sensor is slid outside the limiting slot, the display shows a reflection of the image. Thus the image is adjusted automatically.

Fields of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laryngoscope, especially to a laryngoscope with automatic image adjustment for different conditions.
Descriptions of Related Art
For critically injured or anesthetized patients, medical staff needs to place a flexible plastic tube into the trachea of the patient for providing oxygen and facilitating ventilation while the patient is in emergency situations or is unconscious due to general anesthesia.
The laryngoscope can be inserted into most of the patient's mouth by doctors with certain experience for placement of the tracheal tube. Yet about 20% patients have a short lower jaw, a hard neck or a short neck that may lead to difficulties in seeing the tracheal opening. Thus a camera lens is arranged at the front end of the laryngoscope and is connected to a large screen by wires for monitoring images captured by the laryngoscope. However, the large screen is having poor portability. For beginners, the use of laryngoscope to intubate the trachea and monitor the large screen simultaneously is difficult. Thus a new design of an integrated laryngoscope has been developed. A camera lens is disposed on the front end of a blade of the integrated laryngoscope and a light source is beside the camera lens. A smaller screen is arranged at an upper side of the handle. Thus the integrated laryngoscope is easy to use. The viewing angle of the screen is restricted by field of view of the camera lens. If the viewing angle is too low or too high, images on the screen are unable to be viewed clearly. This causes inconvenience in the use of the laryngoscope.
Moreover, patients in a comatose state caused by drowning, blows or other factors need to be maintained an open airway and ensure adequate ventilation. If the patient is vomiting, or the airway may be obstructed by foreign bodies, the rescuer must open the patient's mouse first and observe the patient's larynx carefully to confirm whether the airway is obstructed. If the airway is blocked, certain measures are applied as soon as possible to remove foreign bodies for preventing airway obstruction and poor ventilation.
Generally the patient's tongue base may fall back or collapse to obstruct the larynx when the rescuer opens the mouth of unconscious patient to observe patient's larynx. This causes difficulties in observation of the airway. Once the rescuer has poor vision, the deeper site of the larynx is difficult to be observed. Moreover, there are certain blind spots while observing the larynx. The rescuer with insufficient expertise and experience is unable to see these places.
Thus a device for laryngeal observation is provided. The device consists of a handle and a blade. The handle is grasped by a user and is mounted with a power supply unit therein. One end of the blade is pressed on a tongue base so as to prevent the tongue base from occluding the larynx. Moreover, the blade is arranged with a light and a camera, both connected to the power supply unit by wires. The light is used for lighting the patient's larynx and the camera is used to capture images of the patient's larynx. By a transmission line, the images captured are transmitted to a display. Thus the users can observe the patient's larynx and this is more convenient for the rescuing work.
Although the above device allows the user to observe the patient's larynx more conveniently, the wires for power supply and the transmission line for sending images not only increase total weight and complexity of the device but also affect portability of the display. The display is unable to be moved conveniently according to the rescuer's requirements. The image shown on the display is also unable to be adjusted automatically during rotation of the display according to the patient's position. This also leads to inconvenience in use.

Laryngoscope with automatic image adjustment


A heat exchanger with a monocoque structure transfers heat between a first fluid and a second fluid. The heat exchanger in has a plurality of tubes through which the first fluid may flow in a direction, each of the plurality of tubes has a first mouth end, an N opposing second mouth end and a waist region between the first mouth end and the second mouth end. The heat exchanger also has one or more interconnected fluid channels through which the second fluid may flow, the one or more fluid channels lay generally in a plane, the plurality of tubes and the one or more fluid channels interleave such that heat may be transferred between the plurality of tubes and the one or more fluid channels, and the direction of flow of the first fluid is generally perpendicular to the plane of the one or more fluid channels.

Known methods of construction of heat exchangers include plating a thin one-piece layer of metal on top of a sacrificial mandrel containing multiple holes using electroplating (also known as electroforming or electro-deposition) or by using electroless plating (also known as electrode-less deposition). Some relevant US patents are U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,892,802; 5,317,805; 5,199,487; and 4,807,342—but the basic idea goes back to the year 1911 as evident in U.S. Pat. No. 997,610.
FIG. 1 of the prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 6,892,802, shows a three-dimensional view of a cross-flow heat exchanger fabricated using an electrode-less deposition technique. The fabrication does not require the initial formation of two separate halves, bonding those halves together, or alignment of separate parts. After the mandrel is removed, a thin shell, tube-sheet, and tube bundle monocoque structure remains. The tube-sheet is a flat portion of the monocoque structure that is intersected by the ends of the tubes at the top and bottom of the figure. The "shell" of the equivalent conventional shell and tube heat exchanger is the flat side walls at the left and right of FIG. 1 and any header (not shown) that would be placed at the front and back of the figure to inject and collect the secondary heat transfer fluid. In a thermoacoustic or Stirling machine application, the working fluid would be oscillating inside the tube portions, marked "Gas" in FIG. 1, and the secondary heat transfer fluid would flow past the outside of the tube portions, within the shell and tube-sheet portions, marked "Liquid" in FIG. 1.
Following are the six main loss mechanisms of heat exchangers that may lead to lower efficiency of thermoacoustic or Stirling machines: (1) Insufficient net heat transfer between a face of the regenerator and its nearest heat exchanger; (2) Oscillatory heat exchange between the working fluid and the heat exchanger to the extent that it is not isothermal; (3) Flow losses due to the oscillatory motion of the working fluid through the heat exchanger; (4) Joining loss due to an abrupt change from near adiabatic conditions in the working fluid away from the thermal core to non-adiabatic thermal conditions at the heat exchanger; (5) Pressure drop loss of the secondary heat transfer fluid flowing through the heat exchanger; and (6) Poor heat transfer between the secondary heat transfer fluid and the heat exchanger. It is desirable to minimize these losses in the heat exchangers.
Some thermoacoustic and Stirling type machines may suffer from an additional loss mechanism known as Gedeon streaming, i.e. a steady flow of working fluid around the toroidal topology of such machines [see G. W. Swift, Thermoacoustics: A unifying perspective for some engines and refrigerators, pp. 177-183, Acoustical Society of America, Melville, N.Y., 2002; D. Gedeon, "DC gas flows in Stirling and pulse tube cryocoolers," in R. G. Ross, ed., Cryocoolers 9, pp. 385-392, Plenum, N.Y., 1997; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,464]. It is desirable to minimize the loss due to Gedeon streaming. The working fluid in thermoacoustic or Stirling machines is often pressurized. It is desirable that the heat exchangers be able to resist high external pressure. The power density of thermoacoustic and Stirling machines is often limited by the amount of heat that can be efficiently transferred through its heat exchangers. It is desirable to increase the effectiveness of heat transfer in thermoacoustic and Stirling heat exchangers and also to fabricate the heat exchangers inexpensively. Thus, there is a need to overcome the limitations of the existing heat exchangers and provide a better solution.


Improved apparatus for playing a game of thumb wrestling includes a stabilizing handle which employs forces generated by firmly interlocking fingers of players' hands to stabilize and anchor a game ring surface. Game ring surface includes holes through which the thumbs of opponents are inserted upwardly, and a solid wrestling region upon which one thumb can forcibly pin another thumb, thereby giving the realistic impression of a pin in wrestling.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a novelty amusement toy, specifically, an improved apparatus for playing a game of thumb wrestling incorporating a stabilizing handle.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
In its simplest form, the game of thumb wrestling has been enjoyed by children and adults for generations. The basic game is played by interlocking the hands of two opponents in such a way that the index, middle, ring and pinky fingers of one player are firmly curled around the corresponding fingers of the opposing player's hand. This leaves each player's thumb unencumbered and creates a naturally stable playing surface comprised of the top edges of the opponents' interlocked index fingers upon which each player attempts to use his or her thumb to trap and hold down the opposing player's thumb for a previously agreed-upon count.
Heretofore, attempts have been made to enhance the enjoyment of the game of thumb wrestling with apparatuses resembling miniature wrestling rings. These apparatuses generally consist of two- or three-dimensional representations of wrestling rings whose game surfaces contain a hole or holes through which opponents insert their thumbs upwardly and beneath which players interlock hands in the manner described above.
These attempts at creating an apparatus for enhancing the enjoyment of thumb wrestling have suffered from a number of disadvantages, a common disadvantage being the inefficient or nonexistent means for stabilizing and anchoring a game ring surface to the players' interlocked hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,790,165 to Schmidt and Menke (1974) discloses a complicated apparatus for playing a game of thumb wrestling that surrounds the players' hands as in a cage and requires the time-consuming adjustment of ring surface height to ensure the ring surface remains in close proximity to and does not separate from the players' interlocked hands. This approach requires several interchangeable or adjustable elements, is costly to produce, and causes delays each time players with varying hand sizes take to the ring.
Additionally, the patent cited in the previous paragraph discloses only a single opening in the game ring surface through which both players' thumbs are upwardly inserted. As a result, players do not actually compete to depress each other's thumbs against the wrestling mat, or game surface, itself, but rather must use an imaginary gauging means for determining when a match ends; this diminishes the realistic impression of wrestling since in real wrestling the loser is forcibly pinned against the wrestling ring surface itself.
The problem of realistically representing a pin, or end of match, in wrestling was partially overcome by the 1983 publication of "The Official Book of Thumb Wrestling" (Workman Publishing Company), which incorporated two holes in its game ring surface instead of one. This format created a solid wrestling region between the two thumb holes, allowing one player's thumb to firmly pin an opponent's thumb against the ring surface itself as in real wrestling. However, "The Official Book of Thumb Wrestling" included no means for stabilizing and anchoring the game ring surface to the players' interlocked hands. Rigorous games of thumb wrestling between spirited opponents thus resulted in the book wobbling and in some cases falling off the players' interlocked hands, thereby diminishing enjoyment of the game and or terminating it prematurely.
Neither of the prior art inventions cited above anticipated a structure whereby the force created by the interlocked fingers of the opponents' hands would be exploited as a means for stabilizing and anchoring the game ring surface upon the players' hands.
Therefore it can be seen that there remains a need for a thumb wrestling apparatus incorporating a simplified, efficient means for ensuring the game ring surface remains in close proximity to the opponents' hands; that requires no time-consuming adjustments to accommodate hands of varying sizes; that includes a solid wrestling region located between opposing thumbs so as to more closely represent the action of a pin in real wrestling; and that employs the force created by the interlocked fingers of the opponents' hands to stabilize and anchor the game ring surface upon the players hands.

Thumb wrestling game apparatus with stabilizing handle


A circuit panel subassembly suitable for use in an electromechanical apparatus includes a plurality of wires formed within an electrically conductive grid imbedded within a reaction injection molded panel which forms a part of the housing of the electromechanical apparatus. Wires are deployed in a pattern by using a wire organizing frame and the electrically conductive grid and the frame are subsequently imbedded in a reaction injection molded panel. Terminals attached to the ends of the wires remain exposed at spaced apart locations where components are to be mounted. Separate connector housings can be attached to the panel over the exposed terminals and other components or matable connectors can be attached thereto. The entire apparatus can be constructed robotically.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a large scale electrical interconnection system in which a plurality of electromechanical components can be electrically interconnected by an electrically conductive grid encapsulated within a insulative molding on which the electrical components can be mounted. More specifically, this invention relates to a harness subassembly in which a circuit panel subassembly comprising an electrically conductive grid, preferably in the form of a wire frame, in encapsulated within a reaction injection molded panel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electrical harnesses are typically made of electrical conductor wires which are mostly individually, stranded, and insulated wires with an occasional uninsulated stranded or solid wire utilized for grounding or the like. These wires are typically terminated by electrical terminals and/or connectors and formed into some general shape suitable for inventory and handling by the use of tape or harness ties. Fasteners may or may not be employed to affix the harness to the apparatus in which the harness is used. The harness wires serve the function of supplying power to the various components of such apparatus or signals for either control or machine intelligence purposes and, as mentioned, ground and/or shielding circuit functions. The harness may be a simple one, having only several short wires but a few inches in length utilized to interconnect the components of a simple circuit in an apparatus such as a camera or smoke alarm, or it may have literally hundred of wires terminated in very expensive connectors and utilized to interconnect all of the different devices and components of a complex circuit as in an aircraft. The harness constitutes a subassembly to be loaded into the apparatus on a production line as, for example, with respect to appliances such as washers, dryers, copy machines, stoves, refrigerators and the like; or, added piece-meal as the apparatus moves along a production line. Generally speaking, a harness is a flexible assembly having a non-rigid shape, such as a plurality of discrete wires which are bundle tied together and terminated at ends thereof for interconnection to a panel or other end components. These harnesses are difficult to handle by machine, making it difficult to automate either harness making or harness handling or to employ robotic assembly techniques. Installation errors are common. This fact has frustrated industry for decades and, notwithstanding substantial efforts to automate or robotize harness making or harness manipulation, most harnesses are currently manufactured and installed in a highly labor intensive manner which impacts not only on cost but also on quality. One technique which has been employed is the use of a robot to deploy wires on a harness board. One example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,452.
U.S. patent application 134,328 filed Dec. 17, 1987, discloses a method and apparatus for simplifying the wiring of an appliance such as a washer, dryer, copy machine, stove, refrigerator or the like. That application teaches a method of forming electrical wiring harnesses by implanting electrical wires into grooves in a panel laid out in a geometry or pattern suitable to effect wire distribution in the appliance. The panel can be formed from various materials including reaction injection molded plastics. The wires are terminated as desired by using an insulation displacement contact mounted in an insulated body which engages the wires as the wires are rolled in grooves past the insulation displacement contact. However, a single appliance may require a large number of different connectors. U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,765 discloses a bus assembly or harness formed by wires deployed on an insulative plate having a plurality of terminal stations.
Reaction injection molded panels have been used not only as a wire template as described above but have been widely used as structural components. Reaction injection molding differs from conventional molding in several aspects. In reaction inJection molding two separate materials are injected into a mold. These component materials react with each other to form a cured part. These two component materials have viscosities which are much lower than a conventional thermo plastic or the reaction product of the two components. For this reason, a reaction injection molding can be conducted at much lower pressure than a conventional molding process, for example, at 100 psi as opposed to 4000 psi. Reaction injection molding also comprises a low temperature process which employs low viscosity materials. Reaction injection molding has been used to fabricate relatively large panels. Large panels fabricated using reaction injection molding processes can constitute three dimensional enclosures and metallic support brackets or screw fasteners can be molded in the reaction injection molded panels. U.S. patent application 324,162 filed Mar. 15, 1989, a continuation of U.S. patent application 272,167 filed Nov. 15, 1988, discloses an appliance cluster block formed using a reaction injection molded material.

Molded electrical interconnection system


A collapsible ink container assembly (30) for mounting to a piercing barb assembly (62) of an jet ink printer apparatus (74). The ink container assembly (30) comprises a flexible bladder (32) having a perimetric edge portion (34) which defines a distensible opening (36) to an interior portion (42). A substantially rigid wafer member (44) is provided which includes a needle receiving port (46) and an outwardly facing perimeter wall (48). The wafer (44) is positioned in the opening (36) such that the perimeter wall (48) distends the flexible bladder (32) to an open position (30). The edge portion (34) is coupled to the wafer (44) in a manner providing a first hermetic seal (49). A frangible membrane (50) cooperates with the receiving port (46) in a manner providing a second hermetic seal. The first seal (49) and the second seal cooperating to form an impervious seal to retain ink deposited in the interior portion ( 42) of the flexible bladder (32) from an exterior thereof. A method for constructing ink container cartridge for a printer apparatus is also provided.

Typically, ink jet printers draw ink from substantially rigid disposable cartridge-type ink containers having collapsible inner sealed bags which provide a reservoir of ink. As shown in FIG. 1, a disposable ink container 10 is inverted and positioned over a piercing barb assembly 11, having an upstanding needle 12, of an ink-jet style printer 27. When ink container 10 is manually urged toward barb assembly 11, needle 12 pierces a frangible grommet 13 to access the reservoir of ink. During use, a slidable primer rod 14 including a plunger 28 gravitationally assists ink bag collapse which facilitates movement of ink toward needle 12 and reduces ink starvation (FIG. 2).
FIG. 1 illustrates that disposable ink container 10 includes a rigid cylindrical cup member 15 having a circumferential lip portion 16 which defines a cup opening 18. An ink retaining bag 17, having an open edge portion 19 defining bag opening 20, is received in a cup recess 21 in an orientation such that bag opening 20 coincides with cup opening 18. Open edge portion 19 of bag 17 is distended to an open position by folding the flexible walls of bag 17 over the circumferentially extending lip portion 16.
Subsequently, once cup member 15 is oriented in a manner such that cup opening 18 and bag opening 20 are facing upwardly, jet ink is deposited into bag interior portion 22 to retain ink therein and form ink reservoir 23. A thin substantially rigid washer 24 is then seated over lip portion 16, having the folded over bag walls therebetween, to cover bag opening 20. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the bag walls are pinched between lip portion 16 and the snap-fit container cap 25 proximate open edge portion 19 to enhance sealing. Rigid washer 24 includes a centrally positioned aperture 26 which provides a passageway to access stored ink reservoir 23. A comparatively thick grommet washer 13 is sandwiched between a snap-fit container cap 25 and rigid washer 24 which cooperate to seal bag interior portion 22 from the environment. A needle receiving slot 29 is provided in container cap 25 which is aligned with needle receiving aperture 26 of washer 24. Container cap 25 is formed and dimensioned to lockably snap on to and mate with lip portion 16 of cup member 15 to not only hermetically seal bag opening 20, but washer aperture 26 as well. Hence, cap 25 must induce sufficient sealing pressure against both rigid washer 24 and grommet 13 to prevent leakage. Further, container cap 25 must sufficiently grip lip portion 16 so as not to inadvertently separate and so that the flexible bag wall provides an adequate gasket therebetween.
While these assemblies have been adequate to supply and store jet-ink, several problems are inherent with these configurations. For example, fabrication has proven rather tedious, time consuming and costly. In addition, leakage of ink from retaining bag 17 is frequent as container cap 25 often does not properly mate with lip portion 16. As a result, the seal integrity is compromised and is no longer impervious. Further, because of the snap-fit nature of container cap 25, the gasket-type seal provided by the flexible bag 17 is often breached so that leakage occurs around the joints thereof. Moreover, once the ink reservoir is depleted, the whole container 10 is disposed of which constitutes an enormous material waste. Finally, to access ink reservoir 23, needle 12 must pierce through frangible grommet 13 at a location directly adjacent washer aperture 26, which cannot be seen. Accordingly, needle 12 can be damaged when alignment is improper and needle 12 is forced against rigid washer 24.

Collapsible jet-ink container assembly and method


Methods, systems, and computer program products for non-blocking unidirectional multi-queue virtual machine migration are provided. A computer-implemented method may include maintaining information to track an association between a memory area in a virtual machine and a stream for a first stage of virtual machine migration, detecting one or more updates to the memory area during the first stage of migration, examining the information to identify the stream associated with the memory area for the first stage of migration, sending the updates to the memory area on the identified stream during the first stage of migration, modifying the information to associate the memory area with a new stream for a second stage of the migration, and sending updates to the memory area on the new stream during the second stage of migration.

A virtual machine is a software-based implementation of a physical computing environment that includes its own virtual resources (e.g., CPU, RAM, disk storage, network connectivity). It may be useful to migrate a virtual machine to a different physical host or to another location on the same host. For example, virtual machine migration may facilitate load balancing, computer system maintenance, energy conservation, geographic relocation, and business continuity.
Virtual machine migration performed over a standard TCP connection is usually limited by flow control, which throttles the data transfer rate to guarantee reliable delivery. In addition, TCP processing errors can disrupt the speed of data transfer. These inefficiencies increase the duration of virtual machine migration and also the risk that virtual machine state may not converge during live migration.

Non-blocking unidirectional multi-queue virtual machine migration


A brine waste management method comprising the utilization of brine waste as a growth medium for cultures of genetically modified halophiles acting as bio-refineries creating chemicals of value. Brine waste enters the method (101) to undergo compositional analysis (102), Pretreatment (104), and Inoculation (106). The compositional analysis (102) and the selection (103) of the chemicals of value influences the selection (103) of the halophile species to undergo modification (105), as well as the pretreatment (104) needed to encourage growth-production (107). Growth-production (107) is monitored and assisted until the extraction (108) of the chemicals of value and additional post-extraction (109) handling of excess brine waste exiting the method.

Water scarcity is a global issue. Increasingly, the lack of clean, drinkable water is becoming a major source of geopolitical tension and human suffering. Additionally, lack of fresh water sources has detrimental effects on agricultural and industrial production. With fresh water sources dwindling, one of the only viable solutions to meet the world's water demand is desalination. The major issues preventing the proliferation of desalination are the cost, energy usage, and environmental impact. A considerable percentage of both the cost and environmental impact is due to brine waste.
Conventionally, methods for brine management involve disposing brine waste into the environment. Due to high salinity and low dissolved oxygen levels, in conjunction with other factors, direct disposal has devastating environmental impact. This problem has been partially addressed by diluting brine waste prior to disposal. Despite dilution, however, negative environmental effects are still a concern. Another attempt of preventing the ecological impact of disposing brine waste has been through boiling it down, conventionally using fossil fuels as an energy source emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide and other potentially harmful compounds contained within the brine waste. Both methods are costly and environmentally damaging.
With conventional methods for brine waste management there is no way of making brine waste management both sustainable and profitable. Therefore, brine waste is a bottleneck preventing desalination from meeting the world's water demand at scale.
Accordingly, need exists for alternative approaches that effectively and efficiently manage brine waste sustainably and profitably.

Brine waste management method utilizing genetically modified halophiles as bio-refineries


A chart recorder is described for recording parameters such as temperature and humidity on rotating planar charts. Pens, which are used to form traces on a chart as this is rotated, are moved by pen actuators along travel paths that are parallel to a straight radius relative to the axis of chart rotation. The pen actuators are electrically moved under the control of a microprocessor to positions as determined by representative of parameter values. Various mechanical and electrical control features are described whereby pen motions are caused intermittently so as to preserve battery power and achieve long term portable operation.

Recorders of parameters such as temperature or humidity or both are well known. Typically, a recorder is provided with one or more pens that are directly coupled by suitable links to sensors. A replaceable planar circular chart is used which is mounted for rotation about an axis on a surface of the recorder under one or several pens. The recorder can be entirely mechanically driven, such as with a spring-wound motor to rotate the chart and with the stylus or pen mounted on, for example, a coiled, bimetallic temperature sensor that causes the pen to move along part of a circular path to record a temperature trace on the chart.
Because the pen motion is along a curved path, the chart bears time lines that are correspondingly curved. In this manner, parameter values can be read from a recorded trace, though with some level of difficulty due to the non-linear appearance of the reference time lines. When several different parameters are to be recorded on the same chart, the different traces, though usually of different colors to enhance their visual separation, are off-set in time with respect to each other. This is due to the different pivot arm lengths associated with the pens. As a result, the combination of curved time lines and time off-set between different traces makes these multiple trace charts more cumbersome to analyze.
In practical applications, it is important that recorders can operate reliably in the absence of electrical power. It is important, for example, for insurance purposes to know what the temperature and humidity conditions are in a computer room after a power failure has occurred. Also, when food is transported in a frozen state, it is desirable to have a record of temperature conditions within the transport.
Portability of a flat chart recorder, therefore, is an important characteristic. Fully mechanical recorders are portable but normally do not have sufficiently long operating cycles for many applications. Battery operated flat chart recorders often have practical time limits that are below desirable operating periods. Mechanically moved pens also tend to be inaccurate as well as difficult to provide compensation for.

Rotational planar chart recorder and chart therefor


A shaving apparatus includes at least one cutting unit having an outer shaving surface or contacting the skin, interrupted by hair entry apertures, and an internal cutter which is drivable for movement along the hair entry apertures for cutting off hairs projecting through the hair entry apertures. A suspension member, via which the external cutter is suspended relative to the holder, is tiltable relative to the holder about a tilting axis located more closely to a first peripheral portion of the shaving surface than to a second peripheral portion of the shaving surface opposite to the first peripheral portion of the shaving surface.

The invention relates to a shaving apparatus according to the introductory portion of claim 1.
Such a shaving apparatus is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,950. In this known apparatus the suspension member also forms a skin support rim, which serves for slightly tautening the skin before the external cutter is moved over the skin. Thus, it is achieved that the hairs to be severed are better erected so that they can be severed better and closer to the skin. An even more important function of the skin support rim is to support the skin around the external cutter. This ensures that the pressure on the external cutter does not become too high. An excessive pressure leads to skin injury and irritation because the skin then penetrates further into the hair-entry apertures and can come into contact with the internal cutter. The external cutter is mounted in the holder so as to allow movement in, preferably, any direction. As a result, the shaving surface, which is formed by the outer surface of the external cutter facing the skin, can adapt itself to the shape of the facial area to be shaved. The maximum permissible tilting angle of the external cutter, is determined by the length over which the external cutter projects above the skin support rim. A large projection length gives rise to large pressure peaks on the peripheral parts of the external cutter because the skin support rim cannot properly support the skin, whereas a small projection limits the angle over which the shaving surface is tiltable relative to the holder.
In this shaving apparatus, the angle over which the shaving surface can be tilted is increased by providing that the skin support rim—which forms a suspension member in the sense that it determines the position and the orientation of the external cutter that is resiliently biased against the support rim by spring force—is tiltable relative to the holder.
Although conformability to the shape of the skin to be shaved and to variation in angulation of the shaving apparatus relative to the skin to be shaved is thus improved, and pressure peaks on the external cutter are thus precluded, skin irritation still occurs if the user presses the shaving apparatus against the skin to be shaved with too much force.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An electronic apparatus includes a casing and a first reinforcement portion. The casing is rectangular and includes, on a first side wall of a first corner portion, a first hole portion into which an antitheft member is capable of being inserted. The first reinforcement portion is opposed to an inner side of the first side wall of the first corner portion and includes a second hole portion that is in communication with the first hole portion and constitutes a fixing hole capable of fixing the antitheft member together with the first hole portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus such as a laptop personal computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, electronic apparatuses that users are capable of carrying, such as a cellular phone and a laptop personal computer, are in wide use. Since those electronic apparatuses are carried by users, the apparatuses are required to have a sufficient structure and strength to endure an impact of a vibration, a drop, and the like.
Disclosed as a technique of preventing a display apparatus of an electronic apparatus from being damaged by a drop of the electronic apparatus is, for example, a technique of providing a beam that extends toward an upper casing disposed on an upper side of a display apparatus from an inner surface of a lower casing disposed on a lower side of the display apparatus. For example, since a tip end of the beam comes into contact with the upper casing when the electronic apparatus is dropped and an impact is thus applied thereto, a load applied to the display apparatus is reduced to prevent the display apparatus from being damaged (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-233337 (paragraphs (0013) and (0014), FIG. 4).

Electronic apparatus including a reinforcement portion


An endoscope apparatus is adapted to be inserted into an inside of a subject and observe the inside of the subject and includes: an observation optical system which has a first optical path and a second optical path with parallax; an imaging portion on which a light passing through the first optical path and a light passing through the second optical path are formed; a diaphragm portion which selectively blocks out the first optical path or the second optical path; a distance measurement portion which measures a distance to the subject on the basis of parallax between a first image formed on the imaging portion via the first optical path and a second image formed on the imaging portion via the second optical path; a displacement amount detection portion which detects a displacement amount between two first images acquired with a time interval therebetween; and a measurement environment determination portion which determines, on the basis of the displacement amount, whether or not the first image and the second image are suitably used for measurement by the distance measurement portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus, more specifically, to an endoscope apparatus which is capable of performing distance measurement using stereo measurement.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an endoscope which includes a narrow, elongated insertion portion and an observation device, such as an optical system and an imaging device, which is attached to the distal end of the insertion portion, is used to observe the inside of a subject. Among endoscopes having the above-described structure, there is known an endoscope which is capable of measuring the distance between an observation target inside the subject and the distal end of the insertion portion.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H10-248806 discloses an endoscope apparatus which has an optical adaptor with a pair of objective lenses. This endoscope apparatus performs a three-dimensional measurement (hereinafter referred to as "stereo measurement") with stereo image processing using two right and left image data of a subject to be measured, the image data being acquired via the optical adaptor.


Systems and methods for providing targeted event notifications to subscribers are disclosed. In an example embodiment, events may be received from a publisher. The events may be categorized into a plurality of topics. The events may be distributed among brokers to process a topic selected from the plurality of topics based on the events. Further, it may be determined whether the topic exists in a list of topics handled by the brokers. Authentication credentials of the publisher may be validated, based on the determination. Based on the validation, queues of the events may be formed based on an order of receipt of the events. The events present in the queues may be filtered based on subscriptions of the events. For the fileted events, targeted even notifications may be forwarded to the subscribers.

In order to stay updated with fast-changing trends in technology, it may be helpful to keep a track of events or changes occurring with regard to the operation of systems implemented across various industries. For example, a system may relate to Internet of Things (IoT) applications and users may subscribe to obtain updates pertaining to any changes in such applications. From the perspective of service providers, they prefer to maintain their customer base by keeping them aware of their developments. Conventionally, there are monitoring applications available to interact with the systems and provide appropriate information to the users who have subscribed for the information. However, all events of a system may not be relevant to a user and, therefore, the user may not prefer receiving updates of all the events of the system.
Furthermore, a large amount of data traffic has to be handled to ensure that appropriate updates of the systems can be provided to the subscribers. Handling such large data traffic can lead to operational issues, as it may be difficult to manage the data traffic for such a large amount of information in order for the system to operate effectively. In a typical message pub-sub system, a publisher publishes messages to a topic and there may be one or more subscribers that are interested in such messages. A subscriber may register interest for all the messages or a subset of the messages specifying some filtering criteria. Such systems are typically implemented by routing all the messages of a topic to a process such as, for example, a broker process, and the broker process may evaluate subscription filters for each message and forward the matched messages to the corresponding subscriptions.
Such a system may work well with a low volume of messages and a low number of subscriptions. However, there may be scenarios where it may be beneficial to have thousands of subscriptions for a topic. For example, in case of a weather application where each weather application instance registers interest for a few places, if each application instance is modeled as a subscriber to a weather topic, then the broker process may match each incoming weather update against those registered weather subscriptions. However, as the weather application becomes more popular, the number of subscribers would go up and the computation required for filtering for each message may increase proportionately. Such computing limitations may also restrict a number of messages to be handled by a topic, even in the case of a lower number of subscriptions. In order to mitigate the computing limitation, the system may have multiple topics and limit each topic to a maximum number of subscriptions. However, even this feature may place additional computational burdens on both the publisher and subscriber application.
An event grid may be a backplane to provide events routing service that receive information about an event and publish the received information to the intended recipients. In an example, the event grid may manage routings of all the events coming from different sources and route them to different destinations. With the event grid, one can subscribe to an event occurring in a resource or event source and get notification for the same. Generally, then event grid may be organized in a cluster of event grid nodes. The events may be provided to the subscribers through event grid nodes which function independent of each other. An event grid node may be understood as a virtual machine where an event grid host runs. A publisher may send the events to any of the event grid nodes. Each node may receive published events, filter the received events to match the events to their intended recipients, and publish the matched events.
Furthermore, each region may have a set of clusters. A given region may be paired to another region that may be geographically near to the given region for availability, reliability, and load balancing at the region level. However, the publishers may send the events at variable rates that may lead to resource exhaustion in the event grid. Such publishers may impact the performance of the event grid for other publishers as well. In such situations, the nodes may be overloaded, under-loaded, or unavailable. Under-loading or over-loading of a node may indicate that the load is unbalanced among nodes and, therefore, hamper the performance of the event grid.
Additionally, owing to the large data traffic, there exists a possibility of breakdown of the monitoring application. Moreover, in case of such breakdown, the monitoring application may lose out on the data traffic during the duration of the breakdown and therefore, the users may not receive the updates. Also, when the subscriber is permanently unavailable, intermittently unavailable, intermittently failing, or permanently failing, the event cannot be delivered to the subscriber. There is therefore a need for technical solutions that scale an event notification system for large amounts of data while at the same time maintaining the reliability of the event notification system.


A dual clutch for an inching arrangement in a load sharing drive which has two or more driving motors connected to a load through a dual clutch. The clutch has two (or more) clutch units mounted side by side on a driving shaft with an inflatable, flexible tube in each unit for pressing respective friction shoes outwardly, when inflated, against a surrounding cylindrical drum. The drum is mounted to a driven shaft. The driving shaft has a central bore connected through a solenoid operated valve to a supply of pressurized air when the valve is in an operating position and to an exhaust when the valve is in a dump position. Each of the tubes is connected to the central bore through a respective air line. A needle valve in one of the air lines provides a restriction to the flow of air into and out of the respective tube. The restriction is sufficient to substantially isolate the associated tube when the solenoid operated valve is operated to its dump position for a short time interval and then returned to its normal position. Thus, during a short pulse of reduced air pressure caused by the operation of the solenoid operated valve, the air flows largely out of only one tube thereby reducing the volume of air dumped to cause momentary slipping and improving the dynamic response of the clutch.

This invention relates to a drive system employing two or more torque transmitting devices, and particular it relates to an improved clutch or brake arrangement for providing load sharing between two or more motors driving a common load.
Canadian Pat. No. 934,679 issued Oct. 2, 1973 to Eastcott et al, describes a clutch or brake inching scheme. This scheme has been found to be practical and has enjoyed acceptance in the mining industry for synchronous motor driven grinding mill drives where load sharing or angle matching between partner driving motors is essential. If the load is not shared equally between the driving motors, one motor would be overloaded while the other motor would be underloaded.
The scheme described in the aforementioned Canadian Pat. No. 934,679 pulses the clutches for slightly different durations, that is, the clutch connected with the motor having the greater load is pulsed for a slightly longer time than is the clutch connected with the motor having the lesser load. The term "pulse" or "pulsing" refers to a brief reduction of the fluid pressure in a pressure actuated clutch so that the pressure in the clutch drops briefly below the load line permitting the clutch to slip. This unequal pulsing tends to cause the overloaded motor to shed some of its load while the underloaded motor takes on more load.
It should be remembered that the rotational adjustments are very small. For example, a 6000 HP, 180 RPM synchronous motor operated from a 60 Hz supply will have a 100% load change over a load angle, measured at the clutch, of 1.4 degrees. This is only 84 minutes of arc. If acceptable load sharing between motors was determined to be plus or minus 4%, then this is equivalent to only 3.36 minutes of arc (or 0.056 degrees). This is a very small angular amount.
One of the difficulties of achieving good load sharing is that the pulse of air (that is the reduced pressure pulse) does not immediately drop from a stable operating clutch air pressure to the desired reduced air pressure which permits clutch slipping, nor does it immediately return to normal operating pressure at the end of the pulse. The present invention seeks to improve the form of the pulse.


A new technique for making cube corner elements that involves end milling is used in the fabrication of cube corner elements having non-orthogonal dihedral angles and dihedral angle errors, and arrays of such cube corner elements. A given optical face of a cube corner element may be a compound face with two constituent faces. In some cases, the constituent faces may be parallel and coplanar such that a given dihedral angle error pertains to the entire optical face, while in other cases, the two constituent faces may not be parallel, and may be associated with different dihedral angle errors.

Articles in which microstructures are formed in a surface of the article are known and have many uses and applications, including mechanical applications such as abrasives, and optical applications such as light directing films and other light directing materials. One known category of microstructures is the class of cube corner elements, which are used to make retroreflective films.
Simply put, a cube corner element is a structure having a set of three flat reflective faces or facets, referred to as optical faces, the optical faces being grouped together and oriented to be orthogonal to each other. With this geometrical arrangement, incident light that strikes a first one of the faces is reflected to a second such face, and then to the third reflective face. The laws of reflection ensure that the light reflected by the third face propagates in a direction that is essentially opposite to the direction of the incident light.
Retroreflective films and materials are thus characterized by the ability to redirect light, even light that is obliquely incident on the film, back toward the originating light source. Retroreflective sheeting is used widely for a variety of traffic and personal safety uses. For example, retroreflective sheeting is commonly employed in road signs, barricades, license plates, pavement markers, and marking tape, as well as retroreflective tapes configured for application to vehicles or clothing.
Microstructured sheeting, such as cube corner retroreflective sheeting, is commonly produced by first manufacturing a master mold that has a structured surface. The structured surface of the master mold corresponds either to the desired microstructured surface geometry of the finished sheeting product, or to a negative (inverted) copy thereof, depending upon whether the finished sheeting is designed to incorporate microstructured protrusions, such as cube corner pyramids that jut out of a surface, or microstructured indentations or recesses, such as cube corner cavities that dip or sink into a surface, or both microstructured protrusions and recesses. The master mold is then replicated using any suitable technique such as conventional nickel electroforming to produce tooling for forming sheeting by processes such as embossing, extruding, or cast-and-curing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,863 (Pricone et al.) provides an illustrative overview of processes for forming tooling used in the manufacture of cube corner retroreflective sheeting. Known methods for manufacturing the original master mold include pin bundling techniques, direct machining techniques, and techniques that employ laminae.
In pin bundling techniques, a plurality of pins, each having a geometric shape such as a cube corner element on one end, are assembled together to form a master mold. U.S. Pat. No. 1,591,572 (Stimson) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,926,402 (Heenan) provide illustrative examples. Pin bundling offers the ability to manufacture a wide variety of cube corner geometries in a single mold, because each pin is individually machined. However, such techniques are generally considered to be impractical for making small cube corner elements—e.g. those having a cube height less than about 1 millimeter—because of the large number of pins and the diminishing size thereof required to be precisely machined and then arranged in a bundle to form the mold.
In direct machining techniques, series of grooves are formed in the surface of a planar substrate such as a metal plate to form a master mold comprising microstructures, typically, truncated cube corner elements. In direct machining, a large number of individual faces are typically formed along the same groove formed by continuous motion of a cutting tool. Thus, such individual faces maintain their alignment throughout the mold fabrication procedure. For this reason, direct machining techniques offer the ability to accurately machine very small cube corner elements. A drawback to direct machining techniques, however, has been reduced design flexibility in the types of cube corner geometries that can be produced, due to a reliance on grooves of constant depth to form the faces of the microstructures, which in turn places restrictions on the achievable optical characteristics of the finished cube corner sheeting, such as the "total light return" of the sheeting, discussed below.
In techniques that employ laminae, a plurality of thin sheets or plates, referred to as laminae, are machined to have grooves or other geometric shapes formed on one longitudinal edge thereof, and are then assembled to form a master mold. Techniques that employ laminae are generally less labor intensive than pin bundling techniques because fewer parts are separately machined. For example, one lamina can typically have about 400-1000 individual cube corner elements formed therein, in comparison to one pin having only a single cube corner element. Illustrative examples of techniques that employ laminae to make cube corner sheeting and related microstructured articles can be found in EP 0 844 056 A1 (Mimura et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,981,032 (Smith et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,214 (Heenan et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,860 (Luttrell et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 7,156,527 (Smith). However, techniques employing laminae have less design flexibility compared to that achievable by pin bundling. For example, the linear or stacked arrangement of the laminae tends to produce microstructured elements arranged in rows, which therefore imposes limitations on the design options available for forming microstructures.
Cube corner elements with non-orthogonal optical faces and dihedral angles are known. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,833,285 (Heenan) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,219 (Appeldorn et al.). In the Heenan '285 patent, each of a plurality of reflector elements at the rear of a reflector has three dihedral angles defined by the intersection of adjacent faces, and two of the dihedral angles of all of the reflector elements are substantially 90 degrees, and the third dihedral angle of at least some of the reflector elements is substantially greater than the angle of the other two dihedral angles, so that light reflected by the reflector is diverged into an elongated pattern. In the Appeldorn '219 patent, the three lateral faces of cube corner elements are formed by three intersecting sets of parallel V-shaped grooves, and at least one of the sets includes, in a repeating pattern, at least two groove side angles that differ from one another, such that the array of cube corner elements is divided into repeating sub-arrays that each comprise a plurality of cube corner elements in a plurality of distinctive shapes that retroreflect light in distinctively shaped light patterns.

Non-orthogonal cube corner elements and arrays thereof made by end milling


A laser device for projecting a position mark in the field of vision onto an object to be examined using a mammography unit is described, where the laser device can be adjusted in position together with a vertically adjustable compression plate of the mammography unit. The laser device may be arranged on the compression plate or on the compression plate support thereof. In the latter configuration, the laser device may remain attached to the mammography unit. The apparatus has application to biopsies.

A mammography unit is an X-ray system for examining a breast of a patient. Before beginning to take an X-ray, the object being examined is placed on an object table, belonging to a mammography unit and having an X-ray receiver, and is compressed by a compression plate. Typically, the compression plate is disposed on an adjustable-height compression plate mounting of the mammography unit by means of a releasable mounting mechanism, which makes it possible for the particular compression plate to be exchanged for a compression plate intended for the particular examination method or the particular object being examined. A mammography unit of this kind is disclosed for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,419 A.
For performing a biopsy of the particular object being examined, special compression plates are provided, with an opening that allows access to the particular region to be examined of the object being examined. For position marking a puncture point for the biopsy, a shadow cross device is known that can be disposed in front of an X-radiation diaphragm of the mammography unit and in a light projection of a light visor makes a particular position detectable by means of a cross-shaped shadow. The particular position marked is adjustable manually relative to a scale located beside the opening on the compression plate. This kind of shadow cross device can be procured as accessory equipment from Siemens AG (Munich, Germany), as an example.
For position marking, instead of the shadow cross device, the laser device known as "Laser Positioner II" made by Livingston Products Inc (Buffalo Grove, Ill.). can also be disposed on the X-radiation diaphragm; this laser device marks the particular position by projecting a position marking in the shape of a cross. Since the laser emitter of the laser device is offset from the X-radiation, a parallax error can occur, depending on the spacing between the laser device and the object being examined; this error is corrected by an automatic correction of the projection angle of the laser emitter.
For X-ray images that are intended to perform a biopsy, the laser device is positioned at a distance from the X-radiation diaphragm, since it limits the X-radiation field and hinders the view of the object being examined and makes access to the object being examined more difficult. The power supply is provided via a battery located in the laser device; in this way, the need for making a power connection with the mammography unit in addition to attaching the laser device is avoided.
FIG. 1 shows a mammography unit 2 in accordance with the related art; including a support member 15, a mounting arm 16 located on the support member 15; an X-ray emitter 10 for generating X-radiation 13, disposed on the upper end of the mounting arm 16; an X-radiation diaphragm 11 for delimiting the X-radiation 13 onto an intended X-radiation field, an adjustable-height compression plate 5; and, an X-ray receiver 14 located on the lower end of the mounting arm 16. In FIG. 1, the contour of the maximum radiation field of the X-radiation 13 is shown. The X-radiation 13 penetrates a particular object being examined 4 before striking the X-ray receiver 14 that generates an X-ray image of the object being examined 4. The object being examined 4 is compressed by the compression plate 5, which includes both a mounting frame 7 and a transparent compression member 6. The compression plate is releasably connected to a compression plate mounting 8 that is located on a guide 9 of the mammography unit 2, and is adjustable in height.
A shadow cross device 12, with which a position marking in the shape of a shadow cross can be projected onto the object being examined 4, is located on the X-radiation diaphragm 1. As a result, for instance in a biopsy, a particular intended puncture point on the object being examined 4 can be marked. The shadow cross devices 12 like all the other devices that can be disposed on the diaphragm 11 of the mammography unit 2 for projecting a position marking, restrict the X-radiation field to only a fraction of the maximum possible X-radiation field. To make a full-field image of the object being examined 4 with the mammography unit 2, the shadow cross device 12 has to be removed from the diaphragm 11.

Compression plate for a mammography unit and a mammography unit


A signal repeater assembly (1) for a spacecraft, includes a channel selectivity network (CSN) (2) having a plurality of first input ports (4-13) connected by selectively operable filter circuits (14-23) to a plurality of first output ports (24-31) to enable a signal at any selected first input port (4-13) to be passed to any selected first output port (24-31). The CSN (2) is connected to a shared power amplification module (SPAM) (3) having a plurality of second input ports (44-51) for receiving signals from the first output ports (24-31), a plurality of second output ports (52-59) and a network (60) of balanced amplifier devices (61) operable to couple the second input ports (44-51) to the second output ports (52-59) so that any amplification of a signal received at any one of the second input ports (44-51) is shared by all the amplifier devices (61) to allow the total available amplification power to be used by any one or a combination of second output ports (52-59).

A need has arisen for the payloads of spacecraft such as communications satellites to have greater signal traffic flexibility. This has been brought about by the increasing requirement for large numbers of coverage areas and hence antenna beams. This trend can be accounted for as follows:
1. Conventionally, satellites have generated large coverage areas on the Earth's surface using relatively small antennas on the satellite, due to limitations in the satellite technology. In order to increase the satellite's effective output power (EIRP--Effective Isotropic Radiated Power) and input sensitivity (G/T--Gain to noise temperature ratio) the satellite antenna gain can be increased resulting in a smaller beam. Many such beams are then used to provide the same total coverage of the Earth's surface as the original large beam. FIGS. 1(a) and (b) show examples of this conventional technique of multiple beam coverage.
2. The first generations of operational communications satellites were designed and used for international communications and essentially required almost global coverage. More recently, communications satellites have been employed by individual countries, or relatively small groups of countries, to provide domestic or intra-regional communications. Smaller coverage areas are needed for these applications.
However, the financial viability of domestic communications satellites is being called into question and there is now a tendency to `pool` the resources of a communications satellite between several countries, with the ability to `reconfigure` the resources within the satellite to serve one or other of the countries at different times during the satellite's lifetime. This gives rise to the need for many separate antenna beams, with an uncertain allocation of satellite resources (bandwidth and power) between those beams.
Another trend, linked to the above use of many smaller antenna beams, is for communications satellites to be larger and to carry a large number of transponders (up to fifty). This results in the need to be able flexibly to connect (switch, etc) up to fifty transponders between, say, twenty to forty antenna beams.
Satellite lifetimes have evolved over the last twenty years from two to three years to ten to fifteen years. The ability to accurately predict the exact traffic requirements this far in advance (plus the three year satellite construction period) is becoming a major problem.
Two further relevant factors are:
1. The trend towards using small Earth stations is the result of trading-off the relative costs of the satellite and the Earth stations in a total system. To make the Earth station smaller and less expensive and so to allow such Earth stations to proliferate, involves less efficient use of the satellite resource. In particular, this means using more satellite power per link than would be necessary for operation with a larger Earth station. This inevitably means that the satellite `transponder` is operating in a `power limited` mode and actually has more bandwidth available than it can usefully use.
2. Small and cheap Earth stations also encourage the use of SCPC (Single Channel Per Carrier) mode of operation which means that there are many carriers simultaneously present within the same satellite transponder bandwidth. Each carrier will support its group of Earth stations. To avoid intermodulation distortion dominating the performance of the links, the satellite HPA (High Power Amplifier) has to be operated in a linear mode, commonly called `backed-off`.
It has been proposed to meet these requirements and trends by providing conventional switching networks in a communications satellite between the high power amplifiers (HPA's) and the transmit antenna beam ports but this will severely limit the satellite operating capability and signal traffic flexibility by the large mass, great size, great complexity and high power loss of such conventional switching networks.

Signal repeater using shared amplification with selectable input/output connections

British Aerospace Public Limited Company Limited