This invention relates to any language input system using a keypad or a keyboard comprising a first group of seven keys for inputting a consonant by pressing a single key or simultaneously pressing a combination of keys thereof, and a second group of seven keys for inputting a vowel by pressing a single key or simultaneously pressing a combination of keys thereof, wherein the first group of seven keys are “”, “{dot over (◯)}”,  “•” and “—”, and the second group of seven keys are  “”,  “┐”, “⊥”, “—”, and “•”. The advantages of the present invention are improving typing speed and efficiency by using only 14 key faces and relieving finger fatigue during manual data input operation.

The present invention relates to any language input system to input Hangul or other language characters using a keypad or a keyboard for improving typing speed and efficiency and relieving finger fatigue during manual data input operation. More particularly, this invention relates to any language input system using a keypad or a keyboard comprising a first group of seven keys for inputting a consonant by pressing a single key or simultaneously pressing a combination of keys thereof, and a second group of seven keys for inputting a vowel by pressing a single key or simultaneously pressing a combination of keys thereof.
Hangul is a phonemic alphabet for the Korean language organized into syllabic blocks. Each block, making up a syllable, consists of an initial consonant letter (Choseong) and a medial vowel letter (Jungseong) with or without a trailing consonant letter (Jongseong).
There are 24 simple consonant and vowel letters, equivalent to letters of the Latin alphabet, of which 14 are simple consonant letters and the rest 10 are simple vowel letters as in FIG. 2. 27 additional letters were made by clustering two or sometimes three of the simple consonant or vowel letters, of which 16 are consonant clusters and the rest 11 are diphthongs. Among the 16 consonant clusters, five double consonant letters were made by glottalizing five simple consonant letters. Thus, total of 51 letters, called Jamo, are the units, making up the Hanglul alphabet, for the initial consonant letters, medial vowel letters and trailing consonant letters. Among the 30 consonant letters, only 19 and 27 are used respectively as an initial consonant letter and a trailing consonant letter. In addition, all 21 vowel letters are used as a medial vowel. Therefore, the total number of possible Hangul syllables is 11,172 (=19×27×21).
FIGS. 4(a)˜(f) describe how to form a syllable by combining an initial consonant letter and a medial vowel letter with or without a trailing consonant letter.
In typing or inputting a Hangul syllable or Hangul letters, Hangul automaton algorithms have been developed to process a series of keyboard or keypad strokes into letters comprising syllables, words and a sentence.
Traditionally, all Hangul input systems have been developed based on the assumption that an initial consonant letter, a medial vowel letter and a trailing consonant letter, if any, must be sequentially typed to input one syllable, just like the Alphabet keyboard's sequential input system. However, some keystrokes can be typed together and this simultaneous typing will improve input speed. For instance, an initial consonant letter and a medial vowel letter do not have to be typed sequentially because even if they are typed together, they can be recognized as one initial consonant letter and another medial vowel letter because an input system can be programmed to recognize the simultaneous typing as one consonant letter and another medial vowel letter to form a syllable. Despite this insight to improve typing speed, all conventional Hangul input systems were developed to sequentially type a consonant letter for an initial consonant letter, a vowel letter for a medial vowel with or without second consonant letter for a trailing consonant letter and then, to move onto next syllable, repeating the same sequential typing.
Conventionally, there are two types of Hangul keyboard input system—a two set system and a three set system. In a two set system, consonant and vowel letters are arranged respectively on the left and right side of a keyboard and a user sequentially types a consonant letter and a vowel letter for inputting a syllable. In a three set system, letters for initial consonant letters, medial vowel letters and trailing consonant letters are respectively arranged on the left, middle and right side of a keyboard and a user sequentially types an initial consonant letter, a medial vowel letter and a trailing consonant letter, if any. In both kinds of input systems, some compound consonant or vowel letters are input by sequentially typing two consonant or vowel letters on the keyboard.
Another major type of Hangul input system has been developed as a reduced keyboard or keypad for electronic devices such as cellular phones or PDAs. Due to their small size, there has been demand for a Hangul system having small number of keys. A cellular phone generally has 12 keys—10 digits, # and *, and accordingly, a number of Hangul input systems have been developed to accommodate the limited number of keys on a cell phone. The keys on a cellular phone have minimal number of essential Jamo letters and all other Jamo are entered by pressing a combination of the essential Jamo letters. However, all Hangul input systems have adopted the method of "sequential" typing of a couple of keys and thus, entry of a single symbol requires many keystrokes and makes text input slow and tedious and the use of reduced keyboard very inconvenient.
For instance, Chun-Ji-In system was developed to input all vowel letters by using only three keys of "•", "—" and "┐". Under the system,  is input by sequentially pressing "•", "—", "l" and "•". However, this system is very slow and tedious because for example, it requires as many as five sequential keystrokes to input a vowel of  or
Accordingly, a need for any language input system to input Hangul or any other language characters from a keypad or a keyboard for improving typing speed and efficiency and relieving finger fatigue during manual data input operation has been present for a long time considering the expansive demands in the everyday life. This invention is directed to solve these problems and satisfy the long-felt need.


Methods, apparatuses and program logic in storage media to process media data for quality enhancement. Information is accepted from a resource constrained device, e.g., a wireless portable device related to the quality enhancement and/or environmental quantities such as background noise and/or ambient lighting for the device. Media data is data processed to achieve quality enhancement using at least some of the accepted information to generate processed output. The data processing of the media data includes processing when or where one or more resources sufficient for the processing are available.

Portable devices continue to grow in popularity and functionality. Such increasingly popular devices include media players such as Apple's iPod, cellular telephones, wireless IP-based telephones such as devices made Helio, Linksys, etc., wireless network compatible multimedia devices such as Microsoft Zune, Apple iPhone, etc., portable gaming consoles such as Sony PSP, Nokia N Gage, etc., and many other devices that can be used to send, receive, and/or render communications and/or multimedia data. Such devices typically include a processing system, such as a digital signal processor (DSP) or microcontroller, and memory that stores program logic (software). While portable devices continue to improve in processing power and functionality, and/or extended battery life, these devices still have limited signal processing capabilities and/or other resources compared to non-portable processing systems such as computers, network adaptors and routers, and/or fixed core network devices. Typically, portable devices are preferably small, preferably inexpensive, have limited processing capabilities, limited memory resources and/or have limited battery power.
In stark contrast, fixed processing systems that portable devices communicate with, such as server computer systems, network adaptors and routers, wireless base stations and access points, and fixed core network devices, have significantly greater signal processing capabilities. Such fixed systems can be large and do not operate off batteries. Thus, fixed systems typically feature high speed processing capabilities, much larger memory capabilities than portable devices, and virtually unlimited access to electrical power.
In general, a device such as a portable device that has limited resource(s) compared to a fixed processing system, is called a limited resource device herein.
There are known media data quality enhancement methods that require expensive signal processing that, if implemented on a limited resource device, might require too much electric power, thus draining any battery used, and/or that might overtax the limited signal processing power available.
EP1191783A2 describes a system for transmitting image data from a server via a network to a cellular phone. WO2008/058327 describes a small battery-operated headset device which, via a wireless data connection, operates in conjunction with a nearby device such as a mobile or cellular telephone. WO20051125099 describes a method for enhancing the quality of service concerning multimedia data such as video.

Upstream quality enhancement signal processing for resource constrained client devices

Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation


Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, to manage an address space for large caches are described. In some implementations, a method includes receiving data to be cached in a cache address space associated with a cache memory. The cache address space includes two or more designated portions of the cache address space, such that each of the two or more designated portions has an associated minimum amount of data allowed to be cached therein. Additionally, the respective minimum amounts of the two or more designated portions are different from each other. The method also includes selecting a cache address for caching the received data from one of the two or more designated portions of the cache address space that has an associated minimum amount of data allowed to be cached therein being less than the received data. Further, the method includes caching the received data at the selected cache address, and accessing at least a subset of the data cached at the selected cache address.

The present disclosure describes systems and techniques relating to management of an address space for large caches.
A storage server system, such as a SAN (Storage Area Network) or NAS (Network-Attached Storage), has the primary purpose of providing shared storage that can be accessed by computers attached to the server through a network. A typical storage server is designed to serve as storage to many (10s or 100s or even 1000s) computers. What a computer attached to the storage server sees as a physically contiguous space is really composed of many physically disparate chunks of storage. The multiple physically disparate chunks of storage may be disks or disk partitions aggregated together as redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) devices.
A solid state disk (SSD) can be used as a large cache in front of a disk array. Most disk arrays or RAID controllers have some cache on them already to help with performance, but in comparison to an SSD these are relatively small. With SSD the memory available to cache can expand to 64-256 GB or more. This makes the likelihood of a cache miss significantly lower. In addition, using SSD as a large cache can help to fix a performance problem more cost effectively than adding more mechanical drives or replacing those drives with faster drives.

Low overhead space management for large caches


An electrophotographic photosensitive material includes a photosensitive layer which is formed on a conductive support body and which contains an azo pigment expressed by Formula (1) described below, wherein at least one Cp in the Formula (1) is a coupler residue expressed by Formula (2) described below. EQU Ar--N.dbd.N--CP).sub.n (1). wherein Ar is an aromatic hydrocarbon or aromatic heterocyclic group, Cp is a coupler reside having a phenolic hydroxyl group, and n is an integer of 1, 2, 3 or 4. ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 each is a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an alkoxy group, a halogen atom, a halomethyl group, a cyano group or a nitro group.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photosensitive material, and particularly to an electrophotographic photosensitive material containing an azo pigment having a coupler component with a particular structure.
2. Related Art of the Invention
Hitherto, electrophotographic photosensitive materials which include selenium, cadmium sulfide or zinc oxide have been widely known as materials containing inorganic photoconductive substances.
On the other hand, known electrophotographic photosensitive materials in which organic photoconductive substances are used include materials containing low-molecular organic photoconductive substances, such as photoconductive polymers represented by poly-N-vinylcarbazole, 2,5-bis(p-diethylaminophenyl)-1,3,4-oxazole and the like, and materials comprising combinations of these organic photoconductive substances and various types of dyes and pigments.
Electrophotographic photosensitive materials in which organic photoconductive substances are used have certain advantages in that they exhibit good properties with respect to film formation and a very high degree of productivity. Further, they can be produced by employing a coating process and are capable of providing inexpensive photosensitive materials. Since such electrophotographic photosensitive materials also offer the advantage that their color sensitivity can be freely controlled by appropriately selecting sensitizers used, such as dyes and pigments, their use has been investigated in a wide range of fields. In particular, function separated photosensitive materials have been recently developed in which an organic photoconductive pigment is used in a charge generation layer and a charge transport layer comprising the above described photoconductive polymer or low-molecular organic conductive substance is laminated thereon. Thus, significant improvements have been achieved with respect to sensitivity and durability, which are properties unsatisfactory with conventional organic electrophotographic photosensitive materials.
Many types of pigments for use in this type of photosensitive material have been proposed. Azo pigments have been widely investigated because such pigments have various beneficial properties and can be easily synthesized by combining amine components and coupler components. However, azo pigments involve certain problems with respect to their sensitivity and potential stability when put to repeated use, and thus only few of such pigments have been brought into practical use.
Examples of known coupler components which are used in such azo pigments include naphthol AS couplers, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 37543/1972 and the like, benzcarbazole couplers, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 122967/1983 and the like, naphthalimide couplers, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 79632/1979, perinone couplers and others.

Electrophotographic photosensitive layer containing azo pigment with coupler residue having phenolic hydroxyl group


This invention relates to the creation of a software application to: facilitate the creation, representation and publication of digital objects; in particular, methods and apparatus that improve digital resource retrieval on the part of end users and to provide a new system for the web based marketing of digital assets and online distribution of metadata enriched advertising.

The accurate description of a digital object is vital to its preservation, discovery, management and distribution. Even though a schema, such as, instance the Dublin Core may be used to provide a generally accepted standard for an "accurate description" of an object, the description is (intentionally) limited by the schema itself, to adhere to this standard and does not provide the possibility of either a very broad or very granular detailed description (metadata) of the object.
Cataloging schema also has inherited limitations. Information collected within a schema is limited by the subjective perspective of the cataloger or to the domain which the cataloger is a recognized expert. Although a domain expert may be a recognized with regard to a particular object or object type, he may not have an extensive knowledge of, for example, a historic perspective of the class to which the object type belongs. Additionally, the cataloging process itself may be strictly limited in scope perhaps due to limited resources; thus the policy adopted to catalog the objects may also be limiting by design.
Digital object representation is becoming increasing significant in the distribution of product information. That is to say, that the effective dissemination of information related to products (for instance through search engines) has become one of the primary means of its "distribution", with the World Wide Web representing one of the primary channels of distribution of this information and a market of exchange for their information and commerce. This represents what can be called the "semantic market place". So, as objects are now in part distributed through the effectiveness of their digital representations, the construction of these representations is becoming increasingly significant. With the advent of semantic technologies, which permit the extraction of this information and "reasoning" related to the information extracted, the construction of detailed semantic representations of digital objects (semantic digital objects or SDO) represents a significant challenge for ensuring an efficient distribution of digital object, for instance utilizing an improved organic search engine indexing and the objects retrieval by the next generation of semantic and meta-semantic search engines.
The inventive system, FIG. 1, described herein, addresses these issues with an application for a complete value chain for the creation of information enriched digital objects referred to here as "semantic digital objects" or SDO. The application implements a multi schematic and multi layered approach to metadata management ontologies, thesauri and controlled vocabularies to create poly-hierarchical semantic representations. This multi layered approach refers to a multi level object submission process, creating three "semantic" versions for each object. Also, described herein are two marketing methods referred to as semantic marketing methods, Semantic or Metasemantic Advertising and Quantistic Marketing, which utilizes the polyhierarchical semantic digital objects produced by the platform to provide and locate associated detailed product descriptions, such as information relating to a product's brand, company, cultural context, historical context, historic context, among others, or a combination thereof, and enhancing their representation to improve the likelihood of a potential consumer finding the product he wants to purchase or research. This list is not exclusive.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus and method for web marketing tools for digital archives—web portal advertising arts


A method and system for non-sequential access to fields in a window, document, form or template. When the window, document, form or template is opened for user input, the user activates the non-sequential mode of operation, such as by hitting a particular keystroke or sequence of keystrokes. Once the non-sequential mode of operation is activated, indicia appear in each of the possible input fields. The indicia indicate to the user what they must do in order to immediately move the cursor to that field, to effectuate moving the window focus to the desired field.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to computer and data processing systems, and more particularly relates to user interaction with a computer, data processing system or electronic device, and specifically relates to improved user input of data or other information into a computer, data processing system, or electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
User interaction with a computer, data processing system, or other type of electronic device can be tedious and time consuming. Keyboards having the same layout as previously used on typewriters are still used with today's computers. Mice or other pointing devices are also used to interact with a computer, but such pointing devices are typically limited to just that—to point to something or select something on the computer screen or an electronic device's display.
Inputting of information into a form with predefined input fields is one way to reduce the amount of information, and associated time, required to capture user supplied information. In today's environment, a user moves between different fields in the form in a sequential fashion, by hitting a TAB key to advance to the next field, or by hitting the SHIFT and TAB keys concurrently to go back to the immediately preceding field in the form. Specifically, when a user presses the TAB key, the cursor moves between fields, from left-to-right and top-to-bottom in the window or form. When the cursor is on the bottom-rightmost field in the window or form, and a user presses the Tab key, the cursor is moved to the top-leftmost field in the window or form. When a user presses the BACKTAB key (Shift+Tab), the cursor moves between fields, from right-to-left, and bottom-to-top in the window or form. When the cursor is on the top-leftmost field in the window or form, and a user presses the BACKTAB key, the cursor is moved to the bottom-rightmost field in the window or form.
Alternatively, to avoid sequential access to the fields, a mouse can be used to move the cursor to the desired field. In this instance, the user must position the cursor over the desired field using the mouse, and then click on the left mouse button to specify that field as being active for receiving data input. However, use of a mouse for moving between input fields is inherently slow, since the user must move a hand off the keyboard, operate the mouse to move the cursor, and then return their hand back to the keyboard.
What is needed is a way to quickly move to different fields in a form in a non-sequential manner.

Method and apparatus for non-sequential access of form fields

International Business Machines Corporation


A method of producing a tofu-like food such as a soybean curd steak comprises the steps of:. (A) adding a coagulating agent to a soybean milk and dehydrating the coagulated product; PA1 (B) mashing the resulting dehydrated product into a paste; PA1 (C) adding an alkali to said coagulated product before, after or during the mashing thereby adjusting the pH value of said paste to 6.5 or above; and PA1 (D) subjecting said paste to heat-forming under a condition of pH 6.5 to 7.0. According to this method, there can be prepared a tofu-like food having good texture and elasticity without crumbling.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing a tofu (soybean curd) like food such as a soybean curd steak.
2. Prior Art
A soybean curd steak is usually produced by seasoning a rather hard soybean curd prepared by filtration through a cotton cloth. The soybean curd steak is cooked by, for example, being fried in an oil before served on the table.
Hitherto, various methods have been proposed for producing soybean curd steak. For instance, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (hereinafter, referred to as J. P. Kokai) No. 62-146579 discloses a method which has the steps of boiling soybeans with saturated steam to obtain a soybean milk, adding a coagulating agent to the soybean milk to cause a coagulation so as to obtain soybean curd, pulverizing the coagulated soybean curd into particles and effecting primary dehydration, again pulverizing the primarily dehydrated soybean curd, mixing the soybean curd particles with the additives added as required, conducting secondary dehydration, cutting the soybean curd into a desired size, charging the cut soybean curd together with a filler water in a container and heating the soybean curd, and cooling the soybean curd in the container. Thus, the soybean curd steak is obtained merely by dehydrating, pulverizing the soybean curd into particles and then forming the particles into a steak. The soybean curd steak produced through this method, however, is crumbly and lacks elasticity when eaten after cooking. In addition, this steak tends to be collapsed during cooking.
On the other hand, J. P, Kokai No. 59-45847 discloses a food prepared by coagulating a soybean milk. More specifically, this method has the steps of press-filtering a coagulated product of a soybean milk so as to reduce the water content to 50 to 80%, forming the press-filtered product into a definite form, immersing the formed product in a diluted aqueous solution of alkali carbonate, draining the formed product, and coating the surface of the formed product with starch, whereby the texture and pleasantness to palate are improved. According to this method, the coagulated soybean milk is merely press-filtered but not mashed. In addition, the coagulated product is contacted with the diluted aqueous solution of alkali carbonate only at its surface. In consequence, the food produced by this method is still unsatisfactory in that the core portion of this food is crumbly and not elastic.


A storage apparatus includes a plurality of resources including a plurality of types of surplus resources, determines a surplus resource introduction plan used for coping with abnormalities, and controls allocation of the surplus resources according to the determined introduction plan. The storage apparatus includes a processor. The processor detects an abnormality associated with the resource of the storage apparatus, calculates one or more surplus resource introduction plans capable of coping with the abnormality on the basis of management information of the resource of the storage apparatus when the abnormality is detected, and determines, when there are a plurality of introduction plans, an introduction plan used for coping with the abnormality on the basis of a state in which other abnormalities that are likely to occur concurrently with the abnormality can be coped with, by surplus resources remaining when the introduction plans are executed.

The present invention relates to a resource management apparatus and the like for determining an introduction plan for surplus resources and allocating surplus resources according to the determined introduction plan.
As an IT resource management technique, a technique of dynamically changing allocation of IT resources to reduce a management cost of the IT resources has been considered. For example, a technique of virtualizing an entire storage system and allocating storage resources without changing the configuration of a business application when performance deteriorates or failures occur is known (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-216151).

Resource management apparatus, resource management method, and nonvolatile recording medium


A remote parking system includes: a terminal configured to transmit a ranging signal; plural reception units provided with a reception surface to receive the ranging signal and configured to detect an arrival direction of the ranging signal with respect to the reception surface; and a control device configured to acquire a distance from the terminal to a vehicle based on the arrival direction of the ranging signal and a reference posture of each of the reception units and to move the vehicle toward a parking position based on an operation input to the terminal in a case where the control device determines that the acquired distance from the terminal to the vehicle is equal to or less than a prescribed threshold. The control device is configured to cause the terminal to display an intensity of the ranging signal received by at least one of the reception units.

A parking assist system known in the art executes parking assistance by moving a vehicle based on an instruction from a portable terminal (for example, JP2015-89733A). In this parking assist system, the vehicle moves in a case where a distance between the portable terminal and the vehicle is within a prescribed range (for example, within a few meters) where the user can check the safety of the vehicle and its vicinity. The distance between the portable terminal and the vehicle is measured by exchanging ultrasonic waves between two onboard communication units provided at front and rear ends of the vehicle and a terminal communication unit of the portable terminal. The vehicle can move when the distance between the portable terminal and the vehicle (either of the two onboard communication units) is equal to or less than the upper limit.
In the parking assist system disclosed in JP2015-89733A, the distance between the portable terminal and the vehicle is measured by making communication between a terminal (portable terminal) and antennas (onboard communication units). If a ranging signal from the terminal to the antennas is disturbed by the surrounding environment, the communication between the terminal and the antennas may become unstable. In such a case, it is preferable that the user can move the terminal to a place where the communication between the terminal and the antennas is stable and the distance between the portable terminal and the vehicle can be easily measured.


A high-density type cultivation equipment has an improved mechanism to transfer cultivation beds from one main rail track to the adjacent main rail track, in which transfer rail tracks 1 that connect ends of main rail tracks 3 consist of two pairs of parallel feed rollers 1' that are rotated in a common direction at an identical velocity, are arranged with a track gauge related to the distance between wheels which cross said main rail tracks with an angle declined from a right angle by a feed angle .alpha. at substantially the same height with said main rail tracks. The wheels 15 of cultivation beds B have the axles 15a thereof fixed in direction to be perpendicular to the central axes of the main rails. As means to drive said cultivation beds B along the main rail tracks 3 in a cyclic path, hook means 4 that detachably engage with structural members 10 of said cultivation beds B are provided to be driven in the direction parallel to the main rail tracks 3. The cultivation beds that have reached the end of one of the main rail tracks are transferred to the adjacent main rail track automatically, thereby enhancing effectiveness of mechanized concentrated agriculture.

This invention relates to a high-density type cultivation equipment which is used in mechanized concentrated agriculture such as hydroponics, greenhouse floriculture, and so on and which utilizes almost the whole site area to cultivation, or more particularly to a high-density type cultivation equipment that has an improved mechanism for transfer a cultivation bed from one main rail track to another.
High-density type cultivation equipment that utilize almost the whole site area to cultivation is disclosed in JPH 2-56048 and JPH 2-28688, for example, and is well-known.
The high-density type cultivation equipment described in said JPH 2-56048 has a plurality of cultivation beds arranged in dense rows on main rail tracks and can maintain a single passage between any selected two adjacent beds which is of a width suitable for carrying out agricultural work and in which can be provided a carrier wagon for agricultural use to span the passage on rail elements that serve also as structural members of the cultivation beds on the both sides of the passage. In this high-density type cultivation equipment, the beds make reciprocal movement only to make clearance for a passage and do not move in a cycle. The workers, therefore, must be in the greenhouse and move in a cycle along the rows of beds in order to do agricultural work such as the treatment of plants and harvesting. Under such severe labor conditions, work efficiency is naturally poor and the merits of mechanization and labor-saving are very limited.
In the high-density type cultivation equipment described in JPH 2-28688, the cultivation beds are provided in rows on a plurality of main rail tracks laid in parallel position with the minimum clearance therebetween necessary to avoid mutual interference between cultivation beds on two adjacent tracks. At both ends of the main rail tracks are provided transfer wagons which transfer the cultivation beds arriving at the ends of one of the main rail tracks onto the adjacent main rail track. This high-density type cultivation equipment has a big merit of labor saving and mechanization, since the cultivation beds move in cyclic paths and workers do not have to move around in the greenhouse but can stay in a particular position to do agricultural work such as plant treatment and harvesting. But, since the transfer wagons, which transfer cultivation beds which arrive at the end of one of the main rail tracks to the adjacent rail pairs, are indispensable and said transfer wagons must transfer the cultivation beds in a shuttle motion, the space necessary for return travel must be subtracted from the cultivation area and the time loss thereby caused reduces the efficiency. And further, providing of the transfer wagons and the control system pushes up the cost.
The primary object of the invention is to provide high-density type cultivation equipment wherein the cultivation beds that reach the end of one of main rail tracks can be transferred to the adjacent main rail track automatically, and which, since the tranferring mechanism is able to be provided without occupying any substantial area, enhances effectiveness of mechanized concentrated agriculture.
Another object of the invention is to provide high-density type cultivation equipment which dispenses with all of the agricultural work passages and hence can utilize almost the whole site area for cultivation, thereby increasing harvest and profits.
A further object of the invention is to provide a high-density type cultivation equipment wherein movement of the cultivation beds is effected easily to equalize growing of plants and which, through the simple structure of the equipment and ease of automatization, relieves the workers from severe labor conditions of high temperature and high humidity and thereby contributes to efficient and stable agricultural work and to reduction of labor.


Disclosed herein is a recording medium comprising a base material, the surface of which is coated with a composition comprising, as an essential component, a polymer having a weight average molecular weight of not less than 20,000 which is obtained by reacting a polyvalent carboxylic acid, or anhydride or lower alkyl ester thereof with a polyhydroxyl compound having a weight average molecular weight of not less than 1,000 obtained by adding ethylene oxide and/or propylene oxide to a compound having 2 to 4 active hydrogen atoms.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium suitable for use in ink-jet recording and an ink-jet recording method making use of this medium.
2. Related Background Art
As recording media for ink-jet recording, there have hitherto been used recording paper as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-26665, which comprises a base paper web and a coating layer provided on the base paper web and containing finely powdered silica and a water-soluble binder such as polyvinyl alcohol, glossy paper as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-25352, which comprises a cast-coated paper web and a film formed on the cast-coated paper web and containing polyvinyl alcohol having a saponification degree of from 50 to 90 mole % and a crosslinking agent, and a recording sheet for OHP as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-13993, which comprises a polyester film and a hydrophilic film provided on the polyester film and composed of a mixture of water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol, water-insoluble polyvinyl alcohol and a water-dispersed polyester.
With the improvement in performance of ink-jet recording apparatus, such as speeding up of recording and multi-coloring of images, recording media for ink-jet recording are also required to have improved properties. More specifically, they are required to satisfy simultaneously, for example, the following properties:
(1) having high ink absorptivity (absorbing capacity being great, and absorbing time being short);
(2) providing dots high in optical density and clear in periphery;
(3) providing dots having a substantially round shape and a smooth periphery;
(4) undergoing minimal changes in the properties even at varied temperatures and humidities and with no curling;
(5) undergoing no blocking; and
(6) being able to stably store images thereon for a long period of time without deteriorating them.
These properties are often in a relation of trade-off. It has hence been impossible to satisfy them at the same time by the conventionally known techniques. For example, the exemplified recording media of the prior art have comparable performance in dot shape and blocking resistance, but are poor in ink absorptivity. Therefore, they cause image smearing and unevenness of color strength due to running-out of ink at areas high in image density, i.e., areas on which many ink droplets have been jetted. In addition, they cause color muddiness due to mixing of colors at boundaries between different colors, particularly, in the case of color printing.
With the progress of speeding up of recording, and increasing of image density and coloring of images, reduction in image quality due to defective ink fixing has become a serious problem.
A recording sheet described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-29596 and having an ink-receiving layer composed principally of polyvinyl pyrrolidone is relatively good in ink absorptivity at normal temperature and humidity, but is extremely slow in drying of ink at high temperature and humidity and hence tends to cause blocking. The sheet also has a drawback that its recording surface is low in mechanical strength and hence liable to flaw.


A switch device comprises a rotary shaft rotatably provided in a cylindrical holder in such a manner that the rotary shaft is rotated by a manual operation, a switch holder detachably attached to the cylindrical holder a switch provided in the switch holder, a cover detachably attached to the switch holder, and a switch arm rotatably supported to the cover so as to connect the switch arm to the opposite end of the rotary shaft, the switch being operated by rotating the switch arm in conjuction with the rotation of the rotary shaft. Due to the construction, the device as a whole can be reduced in size. Therefore, the device can be installed in a limited small space.

The present invention relates to a switch device and more particularly to a switch device provided with a switch operated in response to the rotation of a rotary shaft of a key rotor, or the like, which is provided in a holder.
The present assignee filed a Japanese Utility Model Application No. Sho. 59-133748 as a conventional switch device related to the device of the present invention. In this conventional device, a switch portion is provided at a back portion of a holder so as to uniformly surround an entire outer circumference surface of a back end portion of a rotor which is rotated by a key.
Another conventional device is proposed in the Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. Sho. 62-47674 in which a burglar-cancel member is rotatably provided at a back end of a key rotor so as to pivot along an outer circumference of a holder and a micro-switch is provided so as to confront with the burglar-cancel member.
In the former conventional device, since the switch portion is provided at the back end portion of a key rotor so as to surround the entire outer circumference of the back end of the key rotor, the diameter of the switch portion becomes large in length. Also, in the latter conventional device, since the burglar-cancel member is provided at the outer circumference of the holder, it is necessary to have a large space around the outer circumference portion of the holder. For this reason, any of the conventional devices noted above becomes large in size. As a result, the above conventional devices suffer from the problem that they cannot cope with the case where there is a restricted spatial problem when trying to fix the device in place.

Kabushiki Kaisha Tokai Rika Denki Seisakusho


Disclosed herein are α-Hydroxy sulfonate aldehydes and synthesis methods therefor. Germicidal compositions including the α-hydroxy sulfonate aldehydes, are also disclosed. In one aspect, a germicidal composition may include a diluent, and a germicidally effective amount of a water-soluble germicidal compound including an aldehyde group and an α-hydroxy sulfonate group. The water-soluble compound may have a solubility of at least 5 (w/v) % in water. In a further aspect, the compound may include 1-hydroxy-3-oxo-2-phenyl-propane-1-sulfonic acid salt, (2-formyl-phenyl)-hydroxy-methane sulfonic acid salt, 1-hydroxy-2-(4-methanesulfonyl-2-nitro-phenyl)-3-oxo-propane-1-sulfonic acid salt, 2-bromo-1-hydroxy-3-oxo-propane-1-sulfonic acid salt, 2-chloro-1-hydroxy-3-oxo-propane-1-sulfonic acid salt, 2-(1-formyl-2-hydroxy-2-sulfo-ethyl)-isonicotinic acid salt, 2-benzooxazol-2-yl-1-hydroxy-3-oxo-propane-1-sulfonic acid salt, or 1-hydroxy-2-(4-methoxy-phenyl)-3-oxo-propane-1-sulfonic acid salt. Germicidal compositions including a mixture of an α-hydroxy sulfonate aldehyde and one or more phthalaldehydes, such as phthalaldehyde, isophthalaldehyde, terephthalaldehyde, or a combination thereof, are also disclosed. Methods of using the compounds or compositions for killing bacteria, disinfection, or sterilization, are also disclosed.

1. Field
An embodiment of the invention relates to a compound having an aldehyde group and an α-hydroxy sulfonate group, a method of making the compound, a germicidal composition including the compound, and a method of using the composition for disinfection or sterilization.
2. Background Information
Various germicidal compounds, compositions containing the germicidal compounds, methods of using the compounds or compositions for disinfection or sterilization have been discussed in the literature.
Among the germicidal compounds are aldehyde or dialdehyde compounds, such as formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, or o-phthalaldehyde (also known simply as phthalaldehyde or OPA). Formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde have undesired properties. Formaldehyde is potentially carcinogenic and has an objectionable odor. Glutaraldehyde likewise has an objectionable odor, and may be chemically unstable during storage. Phthalaldehyde has certain advantages over formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde. Phthalaldehyde is generally not regarded to be carcinogenic, and is substantially odorless. However, phthalaldehyde may stain certain surfaces black. Surfaces that may be stained include skin, hair, some clothing, some gloves, and some environmental surfaces. Phthalaldehyde may also stain protein on improperly cleaned medical instruments. In some cases, the staining is indelible and difficult to remove. Although this staining may potentially help to indicate improper cleaning, some practitioners find this staining property objectionable. Phthalaldehyde also has limited solubility in water and costly miscible solvents have been employed to increase the water solubility. Another potential problem with these, and other known germicidal compounds, is that microorganisms may adapt to the compounds and become resistant to their germicidal properties. Accordingly, the germicidal efficacy of these compounds may decrease over time.
Accordingly, there is a general need in the art for new germicidal compounds for disinfection or sterilization. In one aspect, there is a need for germicidal compounds with reduced staining properties. In another aspect, there is a need for germicidal compounds with increased solubility in water.

Alpha-hydroxy sulfonate aldehydes, germicidal compositions containing the alpha-hydroxy sulfonate aldehydes, or mixtures of alpha-hydroxy sulfonate aldehydes and phthalaldehydes, and methods of using the compounds or compositions for disinfection or sterilization


An interconnect board includes: a first substrate; a second substrate having an outer shape smaller than an outer shape of the first substrate and mounted on the first substrate; and an adhesive layer bonding the first substrate and the second substrate together and having a fillet contacting a side surface of the second substrate. The fillet has a raised portion raised from a level of a top surface of the second substrate to a level higher than the top surface of the second substrate.

Conventional interconnect boards usually have an upper substrate, serving as an interposer, mounted on a lower substrate such as a build-up substrate. This type of interconnect board usually has the lower substrate and the upper substrate bonded together. More specifically, the upper substrate and the lower substrate are bonded to each other with an adhesive layer, for example, made of a thermosetting resin. Conventional technologies are described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-79658, for example.
In the process of connecting the lower substrate with the upper substrate using the adhesive layer, the upper substrate with the adhesive layer is placed on the lower substrate with the adhesive layer held therebetween. The upper substrate is then pressed against the lower substrate with a bonding tool. An outer edge portion of the adhesive layer held between the upper and the lower substrates is extended in a direction perpendicular (that is, horizontally) to the direction of thickness of the adhesive layer. The extended outer edge portion sticks out beyond the side surface of the upper substrate and contacts the side surface of the upper substrate. The formed area is called a fillet.
Since the fillet formed at the adhesive layer is horizontally extended along the top surface of the lower substrate, usable space on the top surface of the lower substrate is narrowed due to the fillet. As a result, it becomes difficult to secure areas for mounting devices around the fillet.

Adhesive layer bonding a plurality of substrates having a fillet raised portion


The present invention relates to an epoxy-based coating resin composition which facilitates the transcription of the printed letters or photographs developed by sublimation dyes on printing paper to the surface of potteries, glasses, marbles, metals or woods only by thermal treatment and more particularly, to the epoxy-based coating resin composition with 1) long-tern storage stability due to the use of a mixture of diethanolamine and triethanolamine as a hardening accelerator, 2) uniform thickness after coated, 3) less air bubbles after dried, 4) good depth in printing, and 5) a releasing property which promotes easier separation of printing paper from its coated surface after transfer-printed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an epoxy-based coating resin composition which facilitates the transcription of the printed letters or photographs developed by sublimation dyes on printing paper to the surface of potteries, glasses, marbles, metals or woods only by thermal treatment and more particularly, to the epoxy-based coating resin composition with 1) long-term storage stability due to the use of a mixture, of diethanolamine and triethanolamine as a hardening accelerator, 2) good depth in the transfer printing, and 3) a releasing property which promotes easier separation of printing paper from its coated surface after transfer-printed.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been generally known that an epoxy-based resin composition containing a hardening agent is effective to transcribe the printed letters or photographs developed by sublimation dyes on printing paper to a coating layer by thermal treatment[Ger. Pat. No. 2,424,949(1974)]. A mixture of acryl and melamine resin as a coating layer was used to transcribe the printed letters or photographs developed by sublimation dyes on printing paper to aluminum pipes. An epoxy resin was finally coated [Jap. Pat No. 119,006(1979)].
A coating layer was required to transcribe the printed letters or photographs developed by sublimation dyes on printing paper to the surfaces of potteries, glasses, marbles, metals or woods, etc. It provided a rapid decoration with printed letters, patterns or photographs to the surface of potteries, glasses, marbles, metals or woods only by thermal treatment. In order to get a good transfer printing, the printed letters or photographs developed by sublimation dyes on printing paper was used. Then, it is necessary to get uniform thickness of a coating layer to be transfer-printed.
The essential properties of coating resin compositions used in transcribing the printed letters or photographs developed by sublimation dyes on printing paper to the coated surface are required as follows:
1. It must provide a coating layer with good transparency, chemical and water resistance, and good adhesion between original surfaces and its coated ones, etc. PA1 2. It must provide both good flexibility to prevent the coating layer from cracking caused by thermal contraction when dried and the ability to restrain the transcribed letters or photographs from discoloring by ultraviolet lights or air. PA1 3. It must produce a coating layer with initial and durable adhesive strength in the condition that the printed letters or photographs developed by sublimation dyes on printing paper are deeply transfer-printed only by thermal treatment. PA1 4. It must promote easier separation of printing paper from the coated layer printing after the thermal treatment. PA1 5. It must provide long-term storage stability at room temperature on the condition that hardening agents are in a same vessel.
Most of epoxy resins existed in the coating resin composition for transfer printing are bisphenol- or phenol-formaldehyde resin with oxirane rings, wherein their epoxide equivalent weight(EEW) is in the range of 180-3300. If EEW in the epoxy resins is below 220, the viscosity of the resins in a liquid state shows in the range of 2-230 poise, while if EEW exceeds 220, most of the resins are in a solid state.
A coating resin composition used in the transfer printing contains some kinds of hardening agents for its curing, and the resin composition containing the agents is unstable even at room temperature. Nevertheless, it is always necessary to enhance the strength, flexibility and heat resistance of the coating layer. The agents used here are amines, acid anhydrides, imidazoles and ureaformaldehyde resins, etc.
Also, in order to control the thickness of the coating layer, various organic solvents as a diluent are used. The weight ratio of aliphatic component to aromatic one as well as the molecular weight distribution in the resin composition is adjusted to get the flexibility of coating layer.
Tertiary amines[J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 10, 1813 (1770)], esters of boric. acid[Polym. Eng. Sci., 16, 353 (1976)], lewis acids[US. Pat. No. 5,521,011(1996)], organometallic compounds[J. Polym. Sci. C., 23, 765 (1968)], organic acid metallic,: salts[J. Polym. Sci. A-1., 8, 593 (1970)] and imiidazoles[J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 11, 1009 (1967)] are used to promote a hardening reaction.

Coating resin composition for transfer printing

Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology


A hand sanitizing apparatus for sanitizing a person's hand while operating a handle of a door opener. The apparatus includes a housing body received about the door opener and limiting access to the handle. A canister of hand sanitizer is received into the housing body, and the canister has a nozzle. The apparatus includes an actuator mounted within the housing body upon an axle for movement from a first position to a second position. The actuator has a hand-contacting portion including a palm-contacting paddle, and the actuator is operably coupled to the nozzle and to the handle. As the actuator is moved from the first to the second position, the handle opens the door as the nozzle dispenses hand sanitizer from the canister.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to door openers and sanitation in a hospital or clinical setting, and in particular, to sanitizing apparatus for sanitizing the hands of a person entering a hospital or clinical room.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus ("MRSA") are a well-known health problem in hospitals and clinics, and can be passed from patient to patient as health-care providers and visitors touch a succession of surfaces or patients in a hospital or clinic. To solve this problem, hospitals and clinics provide wall-mounted dispensers of hand-sanitizing foam, liquid, or gel, such as PURELL® foaming aerosol dispenser canisters, for each room so that persons entering the room can sanitize their hands. Despite established policies and signs admonishing persons to sanitize their hands frequently, ensuring compliance with such policies is difficult to enforce, and bacteria are thus spread from patient to patient.
It is therefore desirable to have means or apparatus that ensures that hand sanitation occurs each time a person enters a room occupied by a patient, preventing entry to the patient's room unless such hand sanitation has occurred. It is further desirable that such a hand sanitation apparatus be adapted for retrofitting use with existing door openers, allowing existing door openers to become hand sanitizing door openers without modification or drilling, etc., of the existing door openers.
The following patent references are also known regarding disinfecting door opening apparatus: Brookes, U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,634 (issued Dec. 1, 1987); Cunningham, U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,553 (issued Sep. 15, 1998); Butterfield, U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,521 (issued Oct. 9, 2001); Callueng, U.S. Pat. No. 6,874,697 (issued Apr. 5, 2005); Sassoon, U.S. Pat. No. 7,320,418 (issued Jan. 22, 2008); Sassoon, U.S. Pat. No. 7,360,674 (issued Apr. 22, 2008); and Stropkay et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,458,742 (issued Dec. 2, 2008).
Brookes, U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,634, discloses a sanitizing housing above a door handle, in which the housing holds an ultra-violet germicidal light.
Cunningham, U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,553, describes a circuit and apparatus that keeps a person locked in a restroom until sanitizing steps, including spraying disinfectant soap onto the person's hands, have been completed at the lavatory sink.
Butterfield, U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,521, discloses a circular housing that fits around a door knob shaft, in which sublimed disinfectant vapors escape from the housing onto the door knob.
Callueng, U.S. Pat. No. 6,874,697, discloses a disinfectant dispenser with an electrical pump that sprays disinfectant onto door handles and door knobs when a motion sensor detects movement of a human hand.
Sassoon, U.S. Pat. No. 7,320,418, and Sassoon, U.S. Pat. No. 7,360,674, disclose an aerosol disinfectant can, mounted above a door knob, that sprays disinfectant onto the door knob at timed intervals, not in response to any manual activation.
Stropkay et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,458,742, discloses a disinfectant dispenser with reservoir mounted adjacent a door handle. Pushing or pulling on a contacting surface of the dispenser causes the dispensing of disinfectant.
Also, GOJO Industries, Inc., located in Akron, Ohio, U.S.A., is known to sell a PURELL® Foaming Hand Sanitizer in a 15 ounce aerosol canister (SKU 9698-12) that is intended for use in a wall-mounted dispenser, which is sold by GOJO Industries under its trademark APX Aerosol Dispensing System (SKU 9699-12). This foaming hand sanitizer aerosol canister, without the wall-mounted dispenser, is suitable for use with the present invention, which is adapted for holding such an aerosol canister.
None of these prior art references, either singly or in combination, discloses or suggests the present invention.


Given a program P, a specification S, and an abstraction function α, verification determines whether P satisfies the specification S under the abstraction α. If not, a trace T that violate the specification is selected, and either the abstraction α is refined or a constraint that avoids the trace T is computed and added to a set of constraints. The set of constraints are used to modify the program P.

Program verifications such as inferring efficient synchronization in concurrent programs are tasks known to be difficult and error-prone when done manually. Existing approaches include uses of temporal specifications to generate synchronization skeletons. Other works consider the problem of program repair as a game.
The problem of restricting the program to valid executions can be addressed by monitoring the program at runtime and forcing it to avoid executions that violate the specification. However, restricting the executions of a program at runtime requires a recovery mechanism in case the program already performed a step that violates the specification, and/or a predictive mechanism to check whether future steps lead to a violation. Existing approaches using recovery mechanisms typically require user annotations to define a corrective action to be taken when the specification is violated.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A septum for use in an implantable pulse generator. The septum includes a soft sealing material and a hard inner portion or core having a set of lips. The lips are exposed outside the soft sealing material and act to displace the sealing material when a force is applied, for example from a tool used to tighten or loosen a set screw, enlarging a slit, seam or slot into a passageway through the septum.

Implantable medical devices, such as pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD), etc., are implanted in patients in order to supply electrical pulses to a patient's heart to maintain a consistent heartbeat. Some devices may additionally function as a defibrillator, detecting cardiac arrhythmia and providing an extra surge of electricity to prevent heart damage. These devices are inserted in a patient's chest and electrical leads extending from the device, are thread through a vein to the patient's heart. The device housing and the leads are hermetically sealed in order to prevent the electrical connections from shorting due to bodily fluids. The electrical leads have electrodes, defibrillator coils, and/or sensors placed at various positions on and within the heart. The electrodes and defibrillator coils provide electrical current to stimulate the heart and the sensors determine whether a pulse is needed and how much current should be applied.
The electrical leads are thread through the housing of the device to reach the circuitry held within. The leads are then secured into position within the housing by a set screw received within the housing. The set screw is sealed from bodily fluids using a septum, which is made of silicone rubber and has a resealable split. The split allows a screwdriver, wrench or other tool to extend through the septum to tighten the set screw, the septum resealing after the tool is withdrawn from the case. Because the septum is made of silicone, the tool is able to push the silicone rubber aside to reach and tighten the set screw. However, the soft silicone rubber may prevent the tool from making full contact with the screw, as the soft material may be pulled downwards with the tool, covering the contact between the tool and the set screw. Additionally, as the tool enters the septum, small pieces of the silicone rubber are pulled off as the tool is pushed down. This tearing results in pieces of silicone rubber pushed into the socket of the set screw, which may cause the set screw to be stripped. Additionally, the cored silicone rubber causes the septum to contain holes and no longer be completely sealed, allowing bodily fluids to enter the septum. This leakage can potentially cause the electrical connections to short and cause the device to malfunction. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a septum that seals the electrical connections and allows a tool to enter in order to tighten a set screw without damaging the septum.

Torque wrench actuated open passage septum


Display systems for a vehicle are contemplated that comprise a seat display unit coupled with a display screen, where the display screen is affixed to a seat back and the seat display unit is disposed within the seat back. The display screen is fixed to the seat back such that its relative position with the seat back remains constant when the seat back is reclined. The seat display unit is coupled to the seat back, such that the seat display unit automatically tilts or pivots when the seat back is reclined, and while the display screen does not move relative to the seat back.

The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Traditionally, seat display units (SDUs) disposed in passenger aircraft and other vehicles require they be manually tilted by passengers when the seat in which they are disposed is reclined by another passenger. Examples of such display units are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,407,227, 8,777,310, and 9,016,627 and Canada patent no. 2652584.
Airlines and seat vendors prefer to eliminate tilting SDUs because the SDUs can pinch passenger fingers, can be ugly, and can be hard to make secure enough to pass force-impact testing that is generally required for the SDUs to be used in an aircraft setting. In addition, seats and SDUs are usually designed separately, which leads to a lesser experience for the passengers and sometimes, an unpleasant visual. Further, the most damaged part of an SDU is its touch screen, and in current devices, airlines typically have to return or replace the entire SDU to have the touch screen replaced.
To eliminate the need to manually tilt the display unit, automatically tilting display units have also been attempted—see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 8,308,237. However, such display units utilize electrically driven components to tilt the display, increasing the complexity and number of components and resulting in additional weight and higher likelihood of maintenance requirements.
Another option to avoid the requirement of a manually-tiltable display unit is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,822,812, which discusses the use of a fixed display unit where the image itself is manipulated to account for seat recline. However, such modification for each seat can require significant computational power leading to the potential for delays or lag time in the video being viewed which could result in a less than desirable experience for passengers.
Thus, there is still a need for providing a display unit that allows for replacement of the touch screen when non-operational, while eliminating the need for manually tilting the touch screen when the seat is reclined.

Pivoting internal display unit with fixed screen


A method of fabricating a casting, the method including applying a substrate to a sacrificial mold, the sacrificial mold including a shaped non-planar receiving surface to receive the substrate and provide a casting of the substrate having a shaped structure corresponding to the receiving surface; and subjecting the sacrificial mold and casting to freeze drying conditions and sublimating the sacrificial mold from the casting to form a cast article including the shaped non-planar structure.

There are a large number of methods for forming castings in a wide variety of technical fields. However, depending on the methodology adopted, these methods may have a number of shortcomings including: being expensive, labour intensive, and time-consuming; being limited to a narrow range of materials; being limited to certain applications; and limitations on the material and geometric properties of the resultant casting, for example providing a casting with intricate shapes and/or fine detail.
Generally, it would be desirable to provide a relatively simple and cost effective method of forming a mold, blank, or die that could be used as a template to form a casting from a wide range of different materials in intricate shapes and with fine detail. Such a method would find use in a variety of applications and technical fields.
Notwithstanding the above, the discussion below is in respect of tissue engineering applications where tissues, such as organs, may be prepared or otherwise grown on a scaffold, which scaffolds are generally formed from a mold. The use of scaffolds and molds to form synthetic tissue provides a difficult challenge. This is because tissues themselves are a complicated combination of biological materials with sophisticated structures.
Despite enormous progress and innovation, the field has yet to meet the demand for whole tissues and organs densely populated with cells. Prevalent strategies, such as using absorbable and porous scaffolds to support and regulate cell growth and function, are constrained in size and thickness due to the diffusion limitations of oxygen, nutrients, and waste products to properly support cell viability. The body's natural pervasive vascular network addresses these limitations by providing adequate diffusion proximity for growing large tissues. However, an effective synthetic vascular system that is analogous in form and function has not yet been successfully mimicked in vitro. The natural vascular system consists of a complex network ranging from larger vessels (0.4 to 8 mm in diameter) to capillaries and micro vessels (10 to 50 μm in diameter). That the natural vascular system is hierarchical reflects the diverse functional localities along the system, which range from pressurised blood transportation, to facilitating diffusion at low flow rates. Such structures are difficult to replicate within a synthetic vascular system, such as formed using a mold or scaffold, as current materials and methodologies lack the ability to simultaneously confer mechanical strength, bioactivity, and the flexibility to be manufactured into hierarchical network structures.
Advances have been made in constructing larger vessels (larger than 6 mm diameter), primarily for transplantation and grafting purposes. Concurrently, multiple strategies have been developed to form capillaries and micro vessel networks for in vitro tissue engineering, including induced self-assembly of capillary networks and micro-patterning. However, a functional synthetic vascular system must possess both large vessels and small capillaries across a structure than ranges from linear vessels to networks and loops. This hierarchical system must demonstrate cell recruitment, oxygen and nutrient transportation, mechanical pressures and compliance, and surgical anastomosis between tissue graft and host vasculature. To date, no synthetic vascular system comprehensively satisfies these requirements.
Reference to any prior art in the specification is not an acknowledgment or suggestion that this prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in any jurisdiction or that this prior art could reasonably be expected to be understood, regarded as relevant, and/or combined with other pieces of prior art by a skilled person in the art.


A call is made from a user equipment (UE) device to a first other UE device that is paired to a short range communications device. The first other UE device monitors the respective connections between short range communications device and the first other UE device and a second other UE device and automatically hands over the telephone call from the first other UE device to the second other UE device when the connection between the short range communications device and the second other UE device is stronger than the connection between the short-range communications device and the other first UE device. The cordless headset 172 is concurrently handed off from the first other UE device to the second other UE device.

Many business and consumer users are turning to cordless headsets for use with their mobile devices for voice communications. A cordless headset is typically a wireless, hands-free device that works in conjunction with a mobile device to provide the equivalent functionality of a telephone (i.e. two-way voice communication). People often use a cordless headset while driving, walking, riding a train, etc. As an added incentive, any states and local municipalities have enacted laws banning the use of mobile devices while driving unless the driver is using a cordless headset.
Many people who use their cordless headsets for telephone conversations during their commutes continue their conversations after they have arrived at home or work following their commute and may want to switch from using their mobile device to their home or office telephone. This, however, can be both time consuming and troublesome, thereby encouraging a person to continue using their mobile device instead. Of course, using a mobile device in a building can be problematic itself, as the walls of office buildings, apartment buildings and houses may interfere with a wireless phone's reception, possibly degrading the quality of service. Additionally, should a person switch from using their mobile device to their home or office telephone, they may not be able to continue using their cordless headset, or may need to switch to different headset.

Call continuity using short-range communications handoff


An image processing system or image processing method for performing image sensing by an image sensing unit having plural image sensing devices then outputting plural image data, wireless-transmitting the plural image data, and generating a combined image based on the wireless-transmitted plural image data.

In recent years, with widespread use of digital cameras and video cameras, there are many opportunities of image sensing by camera to record memorial events such as an athletic meet, a wedding ceremony and a travel, and to pick up scenes in ordinary daily life. Particularly, such opportunities of image sensing are increased by the progress in downsizing of digital cameras.
In daily life, it is often difficult to remember people to meet. Further, it may be desired to record a route of visit to an unknown town.
However, in many cases, it is impossible to record daily life since it is offensive for people to be photographed with a camera, and it is troublesome to carry the camera, and further, there is often no time to perform image sensing.
In this manner, there is a need to save images of things seen in daily life, without performing image sensing with a camera. However, none of cameras which have been developed up to now can respond to such need.

Image processing system, method and program for image sensing using plural image sensing devices, wirelessly transmitting plural image data and processing the image data


The present invention generally relates to a method for operating a plurality of field emission light sources, specifically for performing a testing procedure in relation to a plurality of field emission light sources manufactured in a chip based fashion. The invention also relates to a corresponding testing system.

The technology used in modern energy saving lighting devices uses mercury as one of the active components. As mercury harms the environment, extensive research is done to overcome the complicated technical difficulties associated with energy saving, mercury-free lighting.
An approach used for solving this problem is to use field emission light source technology. Field emission is a phenomenon which occurs when a very high electric field is applied to the surface of a conducting material. This field will give electrons enough energy such that the electrons are emitted (into vacuum) from the material.
In prior art devices, a cathode is arranged in an evacuated chamber, typically being a bulb with glass walls, wherein the chamber on its inside is coated with an electrically conductive anode layer. Furthermore, a light emitting layer is deposited on the anode. When a high enough potential difference is applied between the cathode and the anode thereby creating high enough electrical field strength, electrons are emitted from the cathode and accelerated towards the anode. As the electrons strike the light emitting layer, typically comprising a light powder such as a phosphor material, the light powder will emit photons. This process is referred to as cathodoluminescence.
Recent advances in research and development within the area of field emission light sources have made it possible to miniaturize the field emission light source such that it may be manufactured as an in comparison small lighting chip rather than the prior-art bulb shaped field emission light source. An example of a chip based field emission light source is disclosed in WO2016096717, by the same applicant and incorporated in its entirety by reference.
In WO2016096717, the field emission light source is disclosed to be possible to be manufactured in large volumes at low cost using the concept of wafer level manufacturing, i.e. using a similar approach as used by IC's and MEMS. In accordance to WO2016096717, a plurality of field emission light sources each comprises a field emission cathode comprising a plurality of nanostructures formed, a spacer element and a cathodoluminescent anode, all arranged on the same wafer substrate.
Specifically, in accordance to WO2016096717 a large number of field emission light sources are manufactured at the same time on a large glass substrate also referred to herein as a wafer. A plurality of spacer element is subsequently placed so that each spacer element encompasses each field emission cathode with a certain minimum distance between the spacer element wall and the cathode. Lastly a plurality of small glass pieces (usually circular), containing the anodes, are sealed on to the spacers so that for each individual device a cavity is formed. This sealing is done under vacuum. In addition, a getter may be placed inside each cavity in order to maintain the vacuum level for prolonged periods of time. It should be noted that the position of the anode and the cathode in this short description is entirely interchangeable.
In all types of manufacturing it is necessary to perform various tests on each part to verify whether the operation of the part is correct, i.e. meeting a certain specification, or not. Therefore, quality control and test for multiple products is a significant issue, and thus forming a significant part of the cost for manufacturing. When manufacturing components/chips in large volume, it is of course of the highest relevance to optimize also the testing process. The testing process is mainly done in order to identify non-working devices and devices that are not operating to specification at an as early stage as possible to avoid spending further cost and effort on those. It also provides valuable feedback to the manufacturing processes done both prior and after this testing. A typical way of achieving this according to current art is to use a computerized test system which includes the appropriate parts to energize and the parts to be tested and measuring the performance. Typically, probes (needles), connected to a test system, are moved over the surface of the substrate to each device, lowered to make electrical contact with the device and the electrical (and optical if needed) test procedure is performed and the result is typically stored electronically. This method may also be adapted to test several devices in parallel by using multiple probes and may either multiplex the energizing and measuring procedure or use multiple parts in the test system to energize and measure the performance of several devices in parallel. This requires a mechanical movement of the probes in x, y and z directions with relively high speed and high precision. Such equipment is commonly available, but of course at a significant cost in both purchase and maintenance. Further common issues with this method are misalignment of probes, wear of probes, eventually causing contact problems.
Furthermore, in an end user application, there may be a need to use multiple light sources arranged adjacent to each other. Typically, this is simply done by taking individual devices and placing them as required in the application at hand. This will obviously require an electrical connection to each individual device and the individual devices must be separated by some distance for practical reasons, thus occupying further space. Furthermore, in order to simplify the electrical energizing, it is desirable that these multiple devices have quite similar electrical performance, i.e. operate with the same current and voltage. Therefore, devices may be selected for such similar performance.
Accordingly, there would be desirable to identify a process to be used in testing of a field emission light source, specifically manufactured in large volumes using wafer technology.

Chip testing method and an apparatus for testing of a plurality of field emission light sources


The present invention provides method for removal of body hair using electroporation using an apparatus having a pulse generator capable of generating electrical pulses of the desired amplitude and duration to kill hair follicles and an applicator having a first electrode placed in contact with a hair follicle and a second electrode interacting with the first electrode to provide an electroporating field in the tissue volume surrounding a hair to be removed. The method utilize a TENS system to provide patient relief from discomfort experienced by application of the electroporation pulses.

The field of this invention relates to electrical apparatuses and methods for permanent removal of undesirable hair on human beings.
Procedures and apparatus for the removal of unwanted hair on human beings has long been known in the cosmetic art, the goal being to improve the patient's appearance. The prime objective of such procedures is the permanent removal of the hair as a result of a single application. Hair removal applications normally accomplish this objective by destroying the hair follicle from which the hair grows. To avoid unsightly scarring and to increase the patient's comfort during hair removal procedures, procedures to destroy a hair follicle have to be accomplished with a minimum amount of destruction of the tissue surrounding the follicle and a minimum level of patient discomfort and pain during and after the procedure.
For a great many years, direct current electrolysis has been used for permanent hair removal. The direct current produces a chemical reaction in and around the follicle, the main product of which is sodium hydroxide, or lye. This sodium hydroxide is an aggressive chemical that completely destroys the hair.
The main advantage of direct current electrolysis is a low rate of re-growth. Nevertheless, the method has certain disadvantages. First, direct current electrolysis requires the application of the current for a substantial period of time (one to three minutes) for each hair follicle. Also, direct current electrolysis is somewhat painful to the patient.
In recent years, a new electrolysis technique, called "thermolysis" became prevalent in this arena. Thermolysis uses a probe in the same manner as direct current electrolysis and also removes a single hair at a time. With thermolysis, however, radio frequency radiation—not direct current as in direct current electrolysis—is applied to the follicle. Over a period of several seconds the radio frequency energy thermally coagulates the follicle, thereby destroying it and preventing it from subsequently regrowing.
A disadvantage of thermolysis as a technique for hair removal is that the heating pattern is narrow. Consequently, it has been generally found that thermolysis has a low reliability factor when used on heavy hair due to the fact that heavy hair follicles are too wide for the heating pattern. The technique also has a low reliability factor when used with curly hair because the follicle itself will curl away from the probe and thereby leave hair follicle areas that have not been destroyed. Any portion of the hair follicle that has not been destroyed will be capable of re-growing hair.
Consequently, despite the prior art, a need still exists for a hair removal device that produces long-lasting results and is simple, fast and easily manipulated by the user. As disclosed herein, applicants' propose apparatus and method utilizing "electroporation" to satisfy that need.
The term electroporation (sometimes referred to hereafter as "EP") is used herein to refer to the use of a pulsed electric field to induce microscopic pores in the membranes of living cells. Living cells include a biological membrane, also commonly called a cell wall, which separates the inner volume of a cell, or cytosol, from the extracellular space, which is filled with lymph. This membrane performs several important functions, not the least of which is maintaining gradients of concentration of essential metabolic agents across the membrane. This task is performed by active protein transporters, built in the membrane and providing transport of the metabolites via controlled openings in the membrane. Inducing relatively large pores in the cell membrane by electroporation creates the opportunity for a fluid communication through the pores between the cytosol and the extracellular space that may lead to a drastic reduction of these vitally important gradients of concentrations of the metabolic agents. Uncontrolled exchange of metabolic agents, such as ions of sodium, potassium, and calcium between a living cell and the extracellular space imposes intensive biochemical stress on the cell.
When a cell is experiencing biochemical stress the major biochemical parameters of the cell are out of equilibrium and the cell cannot perform its routine functions. In an attempt to repair itself, the cell starts working in a damage control mode to restore the cell to its normal biochemical equilibrium by transporting metabolic agents or chemicals across the cell membrane into and out of the cell. The active protein transporters (or pumps), which routinely provide transport of various metabolic agents, especially proteins, across membranes, use the energy of hydrogen or sodium positive ions passing from the positive potential of the intracellular space to the negative potential of the cytosol for transport of metabolic agents into the cell, or the energy of a negative chlorine ion for transport of metabolic agents in the opposite direction out of the cell. This energy supply is provided by maintaining the potential difference across the membrane at a particular level, which, in turn, is linked to the difference in concentrations of sodium and potassium ions across the membrane. When the potential difference across the membrane is too low, thousands of the active transporters find themselves out of power and the cell finds repair difficult and in some cases unlikely if not impossible as the intracellular space is invaded by extracellular chemicals.
Invasion by high concentrations of calcium ions from the interstitial space between cells, where the calcium ion concentration is about 10,000 times higher than in the cytosol, triggers an emergency production of actin filaments across the large pores in the membrane in an attempt by the cell to bridge the edges of the pores, pull the edges together, and thereby seal the opening in the membrane. In muscle cells the calcium ion invasion may cause lethal structural damage by forcing the cell to over-contract and rupture itself.
As noted earlier, the application of a pulsed electric field can create membrane pores. Small pores in the membrane created by a relatively short electric pulse can reseal themselves spontaneously and almost instantaneously after the removal of electric field. No significant damage to the cell is done in this case. Contrary to that, larger pores may become meta-stable with very long life time and cause irreversible damage to the cell. It can be said that, depending on the number, effective diameter and lifetime of pores in the membrane, electroporation of the cell may result in significant metabolic or structural injury of the cell and/or its death. The cause of cell death after electroporation is believed to be an irreversible chemical imbalance and structural damage resulted from the fluid communication of the cytosol and the extracellular environment.
Below a certain limit of the electric field no pores are induced at all. This limit, usually referred to as the "lower EP limit" of electroporation, is different for different cells, depending, in part, on their sizes in an inverse relationship. That is, pores are induced in larger cells with smaller electric fields while smaller cells require larger electric fields. Above the lower EP limit the number of pores and their effective diameter increase with both the amplitude and duration of the electric field pulses.
Removing the electric field pulses enables the induced pores to reseal. This process of resealing of the pores and the ability of the cell to repair itself, discussed briefly above, currently is not well understood. The current understanding is that there is a significant range of electric field amplitudes and pulse durations in which cells survive electroporation and restore their viability thereafter. An electroporated cell may have open pores for as long as many minutes and still survive. The range of electric field amplitudes and pulse durations in which cells survive is successfully used in current biomedical practice for gene transfer and drug delivery inside living cells.
Nevertheless, the survivability of electroporated cells is limited. As the electric field amplitude and/or duration of pulses, increases, this limit, usually referred to as the "upper EP limit" of electroporation, is inevitably achieved. Above the upper EP limit, the number and sizes of pores in the cellular membrane become too large for a cell to survive. Multiple pulses cause approximately the same effect on the cells as one pulse with duration equal to the total duration of all applied pulses. After application of an electrical pulse above the upper electroporation limit the cell cannot repair itself by any spontaneous or biological process and dies. The upper EP limit is defined by the combinations of the amplitudes of electric field and pulse durations that cause cellular death.
The susceptibility of cells to electroporation depends on their size: the larger the cell, the lower the electric field and duration of a pulse capable of creating electropores. If cells of different sizes are exposed to the same electric field, the largest cells will have pores opened first and will die first if the electric field applied is above the upper limit of electroporation. The ability of electroporation to discriminate cells by their sizes is important feature of the phenomenon and may be used to selectively kill large cells in the human body.
The use of electroporation to kill cells of various types has been proposed in the prior art. For example, in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 20040019371 and 20030153960 filed by the same applicants as the present invention, the use of electroporation above the upper limit is proposed for killing fat tissue and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 20030060856, also filed by the same applicants as the present invention, the use of electroporation above the upper limit for prostate tissue is proposed to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia. Applicants are unaware of any proposal to use electroporation as a hair removal technique.
Usually, electroporation of biological cells implies the application of high voltage pulses longer than a microsecond. This duration is stipulated by the time of relaxation of the cell membrane equal approximately 1 microsecond. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,326,177 B1 issued to Schoenbach et al. a method of electroporation employing ultrashort electric field pulses. The duration of these pulses is not enough to disrupt the cell membrane as described above, but they are capable of disruption of the subcellular structures that leads to the cell death. This method of using ultrashort pulses is proposed for use in killing cancer cells, though the patent also claims applicability to fat cells, bone cells, vascular cells, muscle cells, and cartilage cells.
One potential side effect of the use of electroporation in the removal of unwanted body hair is that some patients may experience some level of discomfort. The electroporation in-vivo of hair involves high voltage pulses applied to the skin of a patient. Delivery of such pulses, however, may result in the patient experiencing an unpleasant sensation of small, but palpable electric jolt or shock during pulsing. It would be desirable to provide relief from such sensations during a hair removal procedure using electroporation. Applicants propose providing such relief with non-invasive, non-drug apparatus and method that provide, if desired or necessary, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) during the hair removal process.
TENS is one of the available non-drug mediated pain control techniques. It is based on a discovery that application of electrical current to the body can also interfere with transmission of pain signals along the nerve pathways and give patients a significant analgesic (pain relieving) effect. The Gate Control Theory of pain suggests that this effect is mediated by endogenous pain relieving chemicals, released by the body in response to the electric transcutaneous stimulation, consequently blocking the ability of the nerve to transmit pain signals. If a large nerve, responsible for transmission of perception of heat or touch, is carrying periodic signals from the endings on the skins, the Gate for the pain signals transmitted to the spinal cord via small nerves are closed and the pain is reduced.
Currently TENS is used primarily for symptomatic relief and management of chronic intractable pain or as an adjunctive treatment in the management of post-surgical or post-traumatic acute pain. TENS usually involves the application of a sequence of short electrical pulses with a relatively low repetition rate intended to affect the nervous system in such a way as to suppress the sensation of pain from acute or chronic injury. Typically, two electrodes are secured to the skin at appropriately selected locations. Mild electrical impulses are then passed into the skin through the electrodes to interact with the underlying nerves over the treatment site. As a symptomatic treatment, TENS has proven effective in the reduction of both chronic and acute pain of patients.
In summary, while the prior art teaches apparatus and methods for the removal of unwanted body hair, the prior art suffers from the disadvantages discussed above. It would be desirable to have apparatus and method that could provide hair removal without being subject to those disadvantages and that could, if desired or necessary, mitigate any discomfort created by the electroporation in-vivo procedure without resorting to pharmacological aids.

Method for hair removal by electroporation


A method for manufacturing an optical semiconductor device includes a step of forming a stacked semiconductor layer on a substrate, the stacked semiconductor layer including a plurality of semiconductor layers; a step of forming a mask on a top layer of the stacked semiconductor layer, the mask covering a portion of the top layer; an exposing step of exposing the top layer of the stacked semiconductor layer to an oxygen-containing atmosphere; after the exposing step, a heating step of heating the stacked semiconductor layer to a temperature of 250° C. or more; and after the heating step, a step of forming a semiconductor mesa in the stacked semiconductor layer, the semiconductor mesa being formed by etching the stacked semiconductor layer by a dry etching method using the mask. The top layer of the plurality of semiconductor layers of the stacked semiconductor layer contains arsenic.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an optical semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-306624 (Patent Literature 1) discloses a method for manufacturing a semiconductor laser having a semiconductor mesa. This manufacturing method includes the steps of preparing a stacked semiconductor layer formed on a semiconductor substrate, covering a portion of a surface of the stacked semiconductor layer with a mask and then etching the stacked semiconductor layer through the mask to form a semiconductor mesa, and forming a buried layer on both sides of the semiconductor mesa. The step of forming a buried layer includes supplying the raw material gases to a rotating susceptor on which the semiconductor substrate is placed. In accordance with such a method for manufacturing a semiconductor laser, a buried layer can be satisfactorily grown on a side surface of a semiconductor mesa.

Method for manufacturing optical semiconductor device