A method and system for supplying agricultural pesticide information and advice combines information regarding a particular pest, and the plant or crop which a user desires to protect from that pest, and generates information regarding which pesticides are suitable for that purpose. The method and system also allow verification of licensing requirements for sales of regulated agricultural products, such as certain pesticide products.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of agriculture and more particularly to a method and system for providing agricultural pesticide information and advice, and for facilitating the purchase of pesticide products.
2) Description of the Related Art
As used herein, the term "agricultural products" is understood to refer generally to pesticide products and fertilizers, including specifically but without limitation, regulated pesticide and fertilizer products.
Though often misunderstood to refer only to insecticides, the term "pesticide" also applies to herbicides, fungicides, and various other substances used to control pests. As broadly used herein, pests include insects, mice and other animals, unwanted plants (weeds), fungi, or microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. Pesticides are useful to society because of their ability to kill potential disease-causing organisms, control insects, weeds, and other pests. At the same time, by their very nature, most pesticides create some risk of harm to humans, animals, or the environment because they are designed to kill or adversely affect living organisms.
Accordingly, in many countries, the sale and/or use of pesticides is regulated by various government agencies.
Within the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides a federal or national level of regulation of pesticide products. The EPA defines a pesticide as any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest. Under United States law, a pesticide is also any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant. Drugs used to control diseases of humans or animals (such as livestock and pets) are not legally considered pesticides. Fertilizers, nutrients, and other substances used to promote plant survival and health are not considered plant growth regulators and thus are not pesticides.
The EPA regulates pesticides by developing and implementing policies which require testing to assess pesticide safety, as well as requiring registration and proper labeling of pesticides. The EPA further maintains a database of federally registered pesticide products and assigns an EPA identification code (EPA ID) to each federally registered pesticide product. For each federally registered pesticide product, the EPA database includes the EPA ID, pesticide type (e.g., herbicide, fungicide, insecticide, disinfectant, etc.), and a list of active ingredients in the pesticide product.
Also, for certain restricted use pesticide (RUP) products, the federal government requires each state to license all dealers and applicators. RUP products may not be legally sold to or used by individuals who are not licensed. Similarly, RUP products may only be sold within a state by a dealer which has been licensed in the state. Generally, these RUP products include pesticides intended for widespread agricultural or industrial use and which may, if used improperly, present a serious threat to public health and/or the environment.
The states, on a state-by-state basis, provide a second level of regulation of pesticides by requiring approval for the sales and use of pesticides. Different states have their own procedures for approval and registration of pesticide products. Also, various states require all dealers and applicators of certain state restricted use pesticide (S-RUP) products and state limited use products (SLUP) to be licensed. Generally, these S-RUP and SLUP products include pesticides intended to address a specific crop or problem in a specific area and which may, if used improperly, present a serious threat to public health and/or the environment. SLUP are products which may be sold like general use products if the individual container size is less than 32 oz's, however if the container is larger than that, then it is to be treated like a state restricted use product (S-RUP).
Such products may not be legally sold to or used by unlicenced individuals within these states. Moreover, some state's laws specify that such products may not be "offered for sale" to or by unlicenced persons, which means a license validation process has to take place before the buyer is shown a list of products.
There are several problems in the current processes used by farmers and other pesticide users for selecting pesticide products for use on their property and crops, and then for purchasing the selected pesticide products. Some of these problems also extend to the process of selecting and purchasing fertilizer products.
For one thing, it is difficult if not impossible for a farmer to optimize the selection and application of pesticide products to his/her crops in a way to maximize revenues. A variety of factors come into play, including the pest to be controlled, the price of the pesticide, the amount of pesticide to be applied per acre, the expected crop yields with and without pesticide application, the market price for the crops, etc. Moreover, many of these factors are dynamic in nature, changing from time to time.
Also, it is desirable for farmers and other agricultural pesticide applicators to be able to purchase pesticide products via the Internet. As noted above, the various states each separately regulate pesticide products sold and used within their borders. In the case of RUP, S-RUP, and SLUP products, the states also restrict the sale and use of these products so that they may only be sold to or used by licensed individuals. However, there is currently no efficient method for an Internet pesticide retailer to check whether a pesticide product is licensed for use within a jurisdiction (e.g., a state), or whether a prospective purchaser is licensed to purchase and use a RUP product in the state or other geographical region or jurisdiction where the product is being purchased. Also, in the case of an Internet auction site, there is no efficient method to validate a seller as licensed to deal in the state where a product is being sold. Thus, RUP products are being sold over the Internet to unlicenced individuals, creating a serious risk of harm to the public and/or the environment and in violation of state law.

System and method of providing agricultural pesticide information


A method is provided for acoustic source direction of arrival estimation and acoustic source separation, via spatial weighting of the dictionary based display of the steered response function calculated for a certain number of directions from spherical harmonic decomposition coefficients obtained from microphone array recordings of the sound field. The usage of spatial band limited functions of plane waves to represent more complex directional maps of the sound field constitutes the algorithm. These functions are calculated for pre-defined directions on an analysis surface (such as a sphere). The directions of arrival of sound sources are calculated with the same method in order to group source estimates to localize sound sources. Thereby, directions of arrival can be obtained from the recordings of the sound sources captured by means of a microphone array and following this, sound sources can be separated by using this direction information or predetermined source arrival directions.

Microphone arrays comprising a plurality of microphones are used to record acoustic sources to extract spatial features of sound fields. The basic advantages of using a plurality of microphones instead of using a single microphone are the ability to estimate directions of arrival of sound sources and to filter and carry out the spatial analysis of sound fields. Estimation of the direction of arrival and separation of source signals that overlap in the time-frequency domain, comprises significant technical difficulties that negatively affect operation in real time. Moreover the available methods do not perform well in enclosed environments with a high level of reverberation. In some of the existing methods that use machine learning, problems such as speed and adaptation to different microphone arrays arise.
Due to the disadvantages mentioned above and the inadequacy of the existing solutions to solve the problem, it has been deemed necessary for a development to be carried out in the related technical field.

Joint source localization and separation method for acoustic sources

ASELSAN ELEKTRONIK SANAYI VE TICARET ANONIM SIRKETI


Apparatuses, methods, and systems associated with and/or having components capable of, isolating defects in microelectronic packages are disclosed herein. In various embodiments, a defect-isolation apparatus may include an optoelectronic module to convert an optical test signal to an electrical test signal and provide the electrical test signal to a device under test; an electro-optic probe including an electro-optic crystal to polarize an optical sampling signal upon application of an electrical test signal reflected from the device under test to the electro-optic crystal; and an output module configured to receive the polarized optical sampling signal, and produce an electrical output signal as a function of time based at least in part on the polarized optical sampling signal, the electrical output signal adapted to facilitate isolation of the location(s) of the defect(s) in the device under test.

In the field of microelectronic device manufacturing, devices may be subjected to a variety of testing to determine the existence of electrical defects. Although testing whether a device is "good" or "bad" is generally straightforward, difficulty lies in determining the location of any defects. Isolating the exact layer in which a defect is located may be important to determining the root cause of failures; e.g., failures may arise from problems in the manufacturing process, perhaps at a particular process stage, and/or equipment.
Currently, there are several methods for isolating defects. For example, time domain reflectometry has been used to isolate defects in a device. Time domain reflectometry is a method of transmitting an electrical pulse to a conductor. Defects (such as opens and shorts in a die or package) reflect the electrical pulse, and the reflected pulse is measured as a function of time. The reflected measurement is compared to a reference to determine the exact location of the defect. The problem with this method is that the electrical pulses have a relatively long rise time and thus the reflected waveform does not enable fine resolution of the location of a defect. This problem makes this method ineffective in identifying defects in complex packages and/or isolation if faults within layers or between a die and a package. Furthermore, this method usually involves destructive analysis by physically grinding away each layer of a device and testing after each layer is grinded away which may be time-consuming and clearly do not permit use of the device once destroyed.
Electro-optic sampling is a sampling method that has been enlisted to determine electric fields in various semiconductor devices. Electro-optic sampling can be considered a high-frequency sampling oscilloscope and thus has a benefit of being able to sample a device on a very short time interval. However, this method may not be able to determine an exact location of a defect in a device or in a device layer.


The present invention has an object to perform specimen charge measurement or focusing at a high speed and with high precision also for a specimen in which fixed charge and induced charge may be mixedly present.

A charged particle beam device represented by a scanning electron microscope is a device which radiates a charged particle beam such as an electron beam onto a specimen to detect secondary electrons or the like emitted from the radiated position. By detecting the secondary electrons emitted from the specimen, measurement and/or inspection are/is carried out for a semiconductor device or the like. Since the charged particle beam device is a device to radiate particles having charge onto a specimen, if the specimen is charged, the charged particle beam emitted is also affected.
Recently, wafers having fixed charge remaining even if they are grounded have been found in various cases. It is said that causes of such fixed charge are, for example, that due to friction at coating of resist by a spin coater, a substance having polarity in the resist is polarized to fix the potential and that the charge is due to the etching process using plasma (since the fixed charge is charge fixed on the overall surface of the wafer, it will be also referred to as global charge or fixed charge depending on cases in the description below). Further, when the Silicon on Insulator (SIO) technique is employed, since an insulation film is formed on a wafer to form a semiconductor pattern on the insulation film, charge of several hundred volts may take place in some cases.
Patent literature 1 describes a scheme in which the global charge is measured before introducing a wafer into a specimen chamber and a negative voltage to be applied to the specimen is changed based on the measured global charge, to thereby adjust the focus of the electron beam. The scheme to adjust the point of focus of the electron beam by adjusting the voltage applied to the specimen is called retarding focus. This scheme has been described in patent literatures 2 and 3. In addition, a more developed scheme in which the retarding focus is conducted on the basis of quantity of secondary electrons detected by a detector has been described in patent literature 4.

Specimen potential measuring method, and charged particle beam device

Abstract: As one mode to achieve the object, there are proposed a specimen potential measuring method and a device to implement the method characterized in that when specimen potential information obtained by a first specimen potential measuring device disposed outside a specimen chamber or specimen potential information beforehand obtained is equal to or more than a predetermined threshold value or is more than the threshold value, measurement of specimen potential is selectively conducted by use of a second specimen potential measuring device in the specimen chamber.


The invention relates to a thermal control device intended to dissipate the heat generated by a payload on a spacecraft, comprising a number of surfaces and including means for circulating a refrigerant. An evaporation zone (Z1) comprises means for circulating the refrigerant, a compression zone (Z2), a condensation zone (Z3) comprising at least one radiating panel, linked to a part of the means for circulating the refrigerant, including several branches and comprising means to allow or inhibit the circulation of the refrigerant within these branches so as to vary the area of the heat exchange surface in the condensation zone, a pressure reduction zone (Z4) comprising means for circulating the refrigerant. Such a device is particularly well adapted to thermal problems encountered in telecommunications satellites.

Generally speaking, satellites comprise a series of pieces of equipment which, when functioning, generate heat that it is necessary to discharge effectively into cold space so that the temperature of this equipment remains within a nominal temperature range. The use of heat pipes to transport the heat generated by spacecraft equipment is commonly suggested. Heat pipes transfer thermal energy towards radiators. If the heat pipes form a fluid loop, the radiators can also be deployed thus to increase area of the radiating surfaces after the launch phase to ensure thermal control. More precisely, in a conventional thermal control system, equipment positioned inside satellites works at temperature ranges such that the discharge temperature of the energy dissipated into space via the radiator structures is limited by these ranges. For a given thermal energy to be removed the required radiating area (and therefore the thermal control mass) is therefore intimately linked to a limiting temperature level. Thus for very energetic missions the thermal subsystem becomes very large, since it is this which fixes the dimensions of the satellite (surfaces of the satellite walls), unless the use of bulky and heavy dedicated deployable structures is envisaged to increase the area of these radiating surfaces.
In fact, when the thermal discharge capacity of a satellite's walls is exceeded, the known solutions for removing the surplus dissipation are essentially the use of capillary fluid loops or mechanically pumped fluid loops linking the interior of the satellite to deployable radiators dedicated to thermal control. The latter are bulky and heavy. To this day (most of) these solutions and the associated European thermal products still require a qualifying phase in flight. The working temperature of the radiator or radiators (conventional or deployable) is necessarily lower than the maximum temperature acceptable for the equipment to be controlled, which impacts greatly on the dimensions required for these radiators and therefore limits the possibilities for their arrangement on the satellite.

Thermal control device on board a spacecraft


A mobile loading and/or unloading device with at least one transport unit for moving the loading and/or unloading device, with at least one storage unit fixed to the transport unit, on which at least one gripping object can be arranged or is arranged and with at least one on-the-transport-unit fixed manipulator unit. The manipulator unit includes at least one manipulator, which includes at least one gripping means for gripping the at least one gripping object through which the at least one gripping object can be arranged and/or removed in a processing station, such as a machine tool, and/or can be arranged in or on and/or removed from the storage unit. The storage unit includes at least one holding device by which the at least one gripping object can be fixed.

In processing systems in which a plurality of processing stations are provided, the workpieces intended for processing are supplied to the individual processing stations, for example by means of a gantry device.
A generic loading or unloading device is known from DE 10 2005 009 283 A1, (also published as WO 2006/089625) which is incorporated by reference herein, in which workpieces can be stored directly on the loading and/or unloading device on a storage unit and moved together with the manipulator.
When machining workpieces, the individual workpieces either pass through a plurality of processing steps at a processing station or are transported from one processing station to the next processing station for carrying out various processing steps by the loading and/or unloading device. A total duration of the machining of a workpiece is composed of the processing times in the processing station or in the processing stations and the travel times of the loading and/or unloading device.

Loading and/or unloading device and method for operating a loading and/or unloading device


A processor includes a plurality of processor tiles, each tile including a processor core, and an interconnection network interconnects the processor cores and enables transfer of data among the processor cores. The interconnection network has a plurality of dimensions in which an ordering of dimensions for routing data is configurable.

This document relates to configuring routing in mesh networks.
In a multi-core processor, an n-dimensional mesh topology can be used for communicating among processor cores. Packets can be routed over a mesh network between a source processor core and a destination processor core. A number of routing mechanisms can be used, e.g., deterministic routing or adaptive routing. Dimension-ordered routing is one type of deadlock-free deterministic minimal routing technique in which successive channels for traversal are assigned based on a numbering scheme determined by the dimension of the channel. The dimension-ordered routing scheme for a two-dimensional mesh is called XY-routing and that for a hypercube is called E-cube routing.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The present invention provides an aqueous ink composition which has excellent physical properties in all aspects. More specifically, the present invention relates to an aqueous ink composition, comprising. (a) an aqueous medium, and PA1 (b) and azo dye which has a hydroxyl group and/or an amino group, and also has 1 to 4 phosphorus-containing groups represented by the formula; ##STR1## wherein x represents an oxygen atom or an alkylene group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, M represents a hydrogen atom, an alkali metal atom or --NH(R).sub.3 (wherein R, which is the same or different, represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms or a hydroxyalkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms), m represents 0 or 1, and n represents 0 or 1.

An aqueous ink suitable for a ball-point pen and an ink-jet recording should have adequate stability with time, discharging properties, lubricating ability, water-resistance and light resistance, in addition to good writing and recording properties and good fixing properties of the written or recorded images. Conventional aqueous ink, however, has poor stability with time and lubricating properties, which often cause plugging of the pen tip and nozzle. In the case of a ball-point pen, the rotation of the ball is obstructed and a ball holder is worn resulting in a bad feeling during writing. In the case of ink-jet recording, the plugging inhibits discharging of the ink necessary to make the recorded letters and images distinct.
In order to obviate the above mentioned problems, many improvements have been done, for example, an aqueous ink containing a polyalkylene glycol derivative (Japanese Kokai Publication (unexamined) 65608/1979), an aqueous ink containing an unsaturated fatty acid (Japanese Patent Publication (examined) 3718/1982), an aqueous ink containing a phosphoric acid derivative (Japanese Kokai Publication (unexamined) 5773/1982 and 28472/1985) and an aqueous ink containing a polyoxyethylene fatty acid ester or a polyoxyethylene higher alcohol ether (Japanese Kokai Publication (unexamined) 143602/1975.
These inks try to improve the defects by formulating therein a modifying agent, such as a lubricating agent, a wetting agent or a water-resisting agent. The modifying agent is an improvement to a certain extent, but the obtained inks still necessitate some improvements.


A new cultivar is characterized by its lasting quality, free and early flowering, basal branching and vigorous upright habit. The bloom color is different from those currently available being a more delicate salmon color. The compact bush habit provides an abundance of cuttings. The bloom contrasts nicely with the medium green foliage.

The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of the Pelargonium.times.hortorum known by the varietal name Salmon Satisfaction (Oglevee No. 1151, PAS No. GR-159A/85). The new variety was discovered in a selective breeding program by Mr. Scott Trees in April of 1985 in West Chicago, Ill. The new variety is a selection from the crossing of a single Salmon from F.sub.2 Morgengrus by Erplog.
The new variety was first asexually reproduced by cuttings at Pan American Seed company in West Chicago, Ill. following its discovery. The new variety has been repeatedly asexually reproduced by cuttings at Oglevee Ltd. in Connellsville, Pa. over a several year period. It has also been trial and field tested at Connellsville during the summers of 1987, 1988 and 1989 and has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive propagations.
The new variety has a bloom color which is different than those currently available in this color class being a more delicate salmon color against a contrasting medium green foliage.
The new cultivar when grown in a glass greenhouse in Connellsville, Pa. using natural light and 60.degree. F. (night), 68.degree. F. (day), and 71.degree. F. (vent) has a response time of 6 weeks from a rooted cutting to flowering in a 10 centimeter pot. This response time has determined on plants grown in a soilless media employing constant fertilizer of 200 to 250 parts per million of nitrogen and potassium and in full light. The rooted cuttings were potted Aug. 1, 1989 and flowered Sep. 15, 1989.

Variety of Geranium named Salmon Satisfaction


A dispenser including a housing with a backplate, an intermediary member pivotally connected to the backplate, and a cover pivotally connected to the intermediary member. The intermediary member is pivotally connected to the backplate adjacent to a first end of the housing, and the cover is pivotally connected to the intermediary member adjacent to a second end of the housing. The dispenser also includes a refill unit including a pump and a product reservoir. The product reservoir is flexible and resilient so that it can be compressed repeatedly.

For many years, it has been known to dispense liquids, such as soaps, sanitizers, cleansers, disinfectants, lotions, and the like from a dispenser housing maintaining a refill unit that holds the liquid in a product reservoir and provides the pump mechanisms for dispensing the liquid from the reservoir. These dispenser housings generally include a backplate that is wall-mounted and a cover that includes an actuating mechanism to actuate the pump mechanism. The cover is typically hinged to the backplate adjacent to the top of the dispenser to allow it to pivot between an open position, wherein a refill unit can be removed or installed, and closed position, wherein the dispenser can be actuated to dispense product.
A pushbar is often hinged to the cover and pivoted to cause the dispensing of product from a refill unit retained in the housing. However, some dispensers employ a single piece integral cover and pushbar in which the cover pivots as a whole to actuate the pump mechanics of the refill unit within the housing. These types of dispensers are often desired due to their appearance and simplicity of construction since the pushbar is not a separate hinged element. The pump mechanism employed with such dispensers has typically been a liquid pump or a foam generating pump, simply emitting a predetermined quantity of the liquid or foam upon movement of the cover/pushbar. In most cases, the pivoting cover engages the pump mechanism as it is pressed, thereby actuating the pump and causing the dispensation of liquid or foam. In some cases, an inwardly extending projection is provided on the interior of the pivoting cover, and the projection engages the pump mechanism.
It is also known in the art to provide an inwardly extending projection sized and spaced to engage a flexible product reservoir of the refill unit. The compression of the product reservoir by the projection causes actuating of the pump mechanism, and the dispenser housing must therefore provide some room for the flexing and expansion of the product reservoir. It has been found, however, that the prior art dispensers of this type provide an insufficient amount of space and therefore do not within the housing around the product reservoir to allow the pump to work effectively. Open space is necessary around the flexible product reservoir to allow for the flexing and expansion thereof in several directions during compression so as to permit the pump to function at a high efficiency, using all of the force and displacement provided by the engagement of the inwardly extending projection. With insufficient open space surrounding the product reservoirs, these known pump housings may require several actuations of the pump mechanism in order to dispense the desired volume of liquid or foam.
Another common disadvantage of prior art pump housings results from the connection between the pivoting cover and the backplate of the housing. The cover is typically pivotally connected to the backplate adjacent to the top surface of the housing. Thus, when the cover is opened to allow for replacement of the refill unit, the cover has a tendency to fall back to a closed position. A maintenance worker must either hold the cover in the open position while replacing the refill unit, or risk having the housing cover fall while working. This tendency for the cover to return to the closed position can be frustrating for maintenance workers trying to replace refill units, and can also increase the time necessary to perform the task.
As a result of the deficiencies of the prior art discussed above, it is apparent that a need exists for an improved dispenser housing that is simple, efficient, and is easy to refill.


A method for designating communication paths in a computer network is provided, in which communication paths are designated for the transmission of data throughout a network. The network may have both recipient computers, which are the intended recipients of the data, and intermediary computers, which are not the intended recipients, but merely relay the data. Each intermediary computer is grouped with the “closest” recipient computer (i.e. the recipient computer with whom it is “least expensive” to communicate). Communication paths between the resulting groups are then identified. A representation of the network is then created. The representation replaces the intermediary computers with the inter-group communication paths, so that the inter-group communication paths appear to pass directly through the locations occupied by the intermediary computers. The created representation is then further processed so that the “least expensive” communication paths may be designated.

In the field of computer networking, many efforts have been made to determine the best way for servers within a computer network to communicate with one another. In particular, the problem of which network links to use has been a challenge. While there may be a dozen paths that communication between two computers may use, only one or two of those paths may actually be the best. In making this determination, a network engineer may have a set of parameters to follow. These parameters may include: minimizing the distance that communications need to travel, maximizing the bandwidth available for each communication, or minimizing the amount of money spent creating the links between the computers. Such parameters will hereinafter be grouped under the general category of "cost." In other words, a network engineer tries to minimize the cost of sending messages between computers in a network. The "cost" of a network link as used herein may include, but is not limited to, one or more of the following: the time it takes for data to travel over the link, the physical length of the link, or the monetary cost of the link. Thus, if travel time is being used as a parameter, then a "cheap" link is one that is relatively fast, whereas an "expensive" link is relatively slow.
Several techniques have been developed to create minimum-cost network topologies. However, many of these techniques become unworkable when the problem of intermediate servers is introduced into a network. Intermediate servers are those servers that co-exist in a network with the servers for which communication is being optimized, but are not the intended recipients of the message. Those servers that are the intended recipients will be referred to herein as "recipient servers."
For example, servers on computer networks may share what is known as a "multi-master" or "distributed" database, in which multiple servers share responsibility for keeping the contents of the database current. An example of such a database is the MICROSOFT ACTIVE DIRECTORY SERVICE. Copies of parts or all of a shared database may be stored on several servers. When one server makes a change to a portion of the database, that change needs to be transmitted to all of the other servers that possess copies of that portion. Transmitting database changes from one server to another is also known as "replicating" the changes. Replication among the various servers of a network takes place according to an established pattern or "replication topology." Those servers that share the responsibility for maintaining the shared database will be referred to herein as "replicating servers." A replicating server is one implementation of a "recipient server."
There are many situations in which a network may have both replicating servers and intermediate servers. One such situation is when a shared database is divided into several partitions, in which a server may only exchange database updates with another server in the same partition. For example, a corporate directory may be divided into sales, development and marketing partitions, such that sales servers only replicate with other sales servers, development servers only replicate with other development servers, and marketing servers only replicate with other marketing servers. In such a network, dissimilar servers would be seen as intermediate servers with respect to one another. For example, marketing servers and development servers would be seen as intermediate servers by the sales servers, since sales data would not be replicated by the other two types of servers, but would simply be passed through. Data replicated between recipient servers may have to pass through these intermediate servers, and therefore they may need to be considered when determining a minimum-cost replication scheme.
Thus it can be seen that there is a need for a new method for designating communication paths in a computer network.

Method for designating communication paths in a network


A robot cleaner including: a main body; and an RF antenna installed at the main body with such a length appropriate for communication with a remote controller. Because the RF antenna is installed within the main body, the degradation of traveling performance and cleaning efficiency caused as the antenna contacts with an external obstacle can be prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a robot cleaner having an RF antenna and, more particularly, to a robot cleaner having an RF antenna capable of improving performance of wireless communication of a robot cleaner and obtaining traveling (movement) capability.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a robot cleaner is a device for automatically cleaning an area desired to be cleaned by sucking debris such as dust in the cleaning area while traveling there under the control of a controller according to signals of a remote controller.
A main body of the robot cleaner includes a wireless communication module so as to be connected for inter-communication with the remote controller, and as the wireless communication module, a wireless communication module that is not expensive and uses an IrDA method is commonly used.
However, a robot cleaner having the wireless communication module adopting the IrDA method has a problem that a distance and an angle between a transmission sensor and a reception sensor are limited, and when there is an obstacle between the main body of the robot cleaner and remote controller, communication is not smoothly made therebetween.


There are disclosed a fuel cell system capable of inhibiting freezing at a joining part of a supply gas and a circulation gas during a system operation, and a method for calculating circulation ratio in the system. In the fuel cell system of the present invention, the circulation gas discharged from a fuel cell meets the supply gas from a gas supply source to be supplied to the fuel cell, and a flow rate of the circulation gas with respect to that of the supply gas is set in consideration of condensation latent heat of water vapor in the circulation gas. The flow rate of the circulation gas with respect to that of the supply gas can be set by heat balance calculation at the joining part in consideration of the condensation latent heat.

Heretofore, a fuel cell system has broadly been known where a hydrogen off-gas discharged from a fuel cell meets a hydrogen gas discharged from a high pressure hydrogen tank to be supplied to the fuel cell again. In this fuel cell system, halfway along a supply path extending from the high pressure hydrogen tank to the fuel cell, a circulation path for returning the hydrogen off-gas to the supply path is connected.
In general, since water is produced by an electrochemical reaction in the fuel cell, the hydrogen off-gas contains much water vapor. Therefore, below a freezing point after stopping the system, the water vapor in the hydrogen off-gas is condensed in the circulation path and the like, and condensed water might freeze. To solve the problem, in a fuel cell system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-93110, a pressure in the circulation path or the like is raised after stopping the system, whereby a solidifying point of water is lowered to inhibit the freezing in the circulation path.

Fuel cell system and method for calculating circulation ratio in the same


A tank for a water-heating appliance including a body, a first head, and a second head. The body includes a first end, a second end, and a longitudinal axis. The body extends along the longitudinal axis from the first end to the second end. The first head includes multiple landings. The first head is coupled to the first end so that the first head is convex and extends away from the body. The longitudinally outermost points of the landings define a first plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. The second head includes multiple landings. The second head is identical to the first head except for at least one opening through a landing. The second head is coupled to the second end so that the second head is convex and extends away from the body. The longitudinally outermost points of the landings define a second plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis.

The present invention relates to tanks for water-heating appliances, and more particularly to tanks for water heaters.
The tank for a typical water heater includes a hollow tank body, a lower head, and an upper head. The lower head is concave and extends into the tank body thereby decreasing the potential storage capacity of the tank. The lower head is manufactured from relatively thick steel. The upper head is convex and extends away from the tank body. The convex upper head is manufactured from thinner steel than the concave lower head.


The present invention provides an excellent heating tool in which the generation of unpleasant odors is suppressed. The present invention also provides an excellent heating tool in which changes in aroma are suppressed. The present invention further provides an excellent heating tool in which the generation of unpleasant odors and changes in aroma are suppressed even after storage. The present invention provides a method for suppressing the generation of unpleasant odors and changes in aroma in a heating tool. The present invention provides a heating tool comprising an exothermic composition containing a metal ion sequestrant, an oxidizable metal powder, a water-soluble salt, and water, wherein at least the exothermic composition is housed in an air-permeable container bag.

Hitherto, disposable body warmers have been frequently used because they have excellent properties as a warming tool for the body, such as portability, safety, and convenience, and also because they are inexpensive. Typical disposable body warmers use an exothermic composition that generates heat in the presence of air, and a heat-keeping effect is produced through this heat-generating mechanism. However, the disposable body warmers generate characteristic odors attributable to the exothermic composition; this has been a cause of unpleasant odors specific to disposable body warmers.
Hitherto, perfuming of disposable body warmers and other heating tools has been reported. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses adding a fragrance to the surface of a hitherto-known disposable body warmer, and promoting the volatilization and diffusion of the fragrance by utilizing the heat-generating mechanism of disposable body warmers. However, when a fragrance is added as above to a heating tool that uses a disposable body warmer, aroma originating from the fragrance changes, posing a problem in which the desired aroma cannot be fully enjoyed.
A heating tool to which aroma is imparted generates unpleasant odors attributable to the exothermic composition as the aroma changes. It is thus necessary to suppress the generation of unpleasant odors while maintaining a favorable aroma.
Additionally, heating tools are not only used immediately after their production, but also often used after a certain period of storage time. It is thus also important to suppress the generation of unpleasant odors and changes in aroma that occur during storage.


An expansion system for portable electronic devices is provided. A portable electronic device includes a main logic board and a battery component. The device includes a package for enclosing components of the device that is sealed to prevent ingress of foreign material from the surrounding environment. A mounting interface is provided that extends into the internal space of the package. The mounting interface mounts an expansion component that expands functionality of the device so that it is physically and mechanically spaced from the main logic board. The device may include an expansion interface mounted on the main logic board for logical communication between the main logic board and the expansion component.

Portable electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), have become more popular due to their compact sizes and mobility. However, the portable devices suffers from their limited functionality.
A typical conventional PDA includes an externally accessible connector to connect the PDA to another component, such as a computer, in order to expand the functionality of the PDA. However, to employ the externally accessible connector, it generally requires the enclosure of the PDA to be compromised, either a door opens or removal of a portion of the enclosure. This would cause the ingress of undesirable materials, such as water and dust.

Expansion system for portable electronic devices


A game apparatus includes an operating switch and a microphone. A player operates a player object through intuition by the operating switch or inputting a sound. The number of zero crossings contained in waveform of a sound input through the microphone is detected, and also individual interval times between the zero crossings are detected. Then, it is determined whether or not the distribution of the interval times, i.e. the frequency distribution matches the distribution of interval times (frequency distribution) related to a breath sound stored in advance. If there is a match between the two, the input sound is recognized as a breath sound, and a game process based on the breath (wind) is carried out. For example, a game screen depicting the breath or wind is displayed on an LCD.

1. Field of the Technology
The present technology relates to a storage medium storing a breath blowing determining program, breath blowing determining apparatus, breath blowing determining method, storage medium storing a game program, game apparatus, and game control method. More specifically, the present technology relates to a storage medium storing a breath blowing determination program, breath blowing determining apparatus, breath blowing determining method, storage medium storing a game program, game apparatus, and game control method, which make it possible to determine whether or not a sound input from outside is detected by a breath.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One example of conventional breath blowing determining apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-open No. 11-143484 [G10L 3/00] laid-open on May 28, 1999. According to this prior art, sound elements forming breath sounds are stored in advance in a memory or the like. By a comparison between sound elements of a sound input from a microphone and sound elements stored in the memory, it is determined whether or not the input sound is a sound of breathing in/out.
However, this prior art poses a problem with an increase in memory capacity because sound elements forming breath sounds need to be stored beforehand in the memory or the like. In general, the waveform pattern of a breath sound changes according to the body size of the user who is breathing out, the breathing strength, etc. That is, in order to raise the success rate of recognition of breath sounds by such a method as the prior art, various patterns of sound elements need to be stored in the memory. On the other hand, if the number of sound elements stored in the memory are decreased for a reduction of the memory capacity, it becomes impossible to recognize various breath sounds of different waveform patterns with high accuracy, which will lead to a drop in success rate of recognition.
In addition, conceivable as an alternative way for breath recognition is a method using fast Fourier transform (FFT). This method allows the frequency band distribution (spectrum) to be determined with a fair degree of precision. Thus, by storing some spectrums of breaths beforehand in a memory, etc., it is possible to compare a spectrum of an input sound with them and determine whether or not the input sound results from breath blowing. However, this method would require complicated calculations and thus increase the load of performing calculating processes.

Storage medium storing breath blowing determining program, breath blowing determining apparatus, breath blowing determining method, storage medium storing game program, game apparatus, and game control method


Embodiments of the present invention provide an antenna and a communications device. The antenna of the present invention includes a plurality of antenna units. Each antenna unit includes a plurality of antenna branches and one feed branch. Different antenna branches in a same antenna unit correspond to different frequency bands. At least one antenna unit pair exists in the plurality of antenna units. A distance between two antenna units in each antenna unit pair is less than a first preset distance. Radiation directions of antenna branches in each antenna unit pair that correspond to a same frequency band are different. By means of the present invention, isolation between the antenna units in the antenna can be increased.

To improve a channel capacity and communication quality of a communications device, a conventional single-input single-output (Single-Input Single-Output, SISO for short) antenna in the communications device may be replaced with a multiple-input multiple-output (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output, MIMO for short) antenna. Compared with the conventional SISO antenna that has one antenna unit, the MIMO antenna may include a plurality of antenna units. The MIMO antenna receives and transmits information by using the plurality of antenna units, so that the channel capacity and the communication quality can be improved.
In the MIMO antenna, mutual coupling between the plurality of antenna units causes mutual interference between the plurality of antenna units. To avoid the interference between the antenna units, a distance between the antenna units may be made greater than a preset distance, thereby implementing decoupling between the plurality of antenna units. However, as sizes of antennas are becoming smaller, the distance between the antenna units is restricted, and consequently, the coupling between the antenna units cannot be eliminated. In a common MIMO antenna, for a fixed frequency band, a neutralization line corresponding to the fixed frequency band may be disposed between neighboring antenna units in the plurality of antenna units, so as to neutralize a coupling current between the neighboring antenna units by using the neutralization line, thereby implementing decoupling of the antenna units. With development of multiband multimode communications, a MIMO antenna supporting multiband multimode communications emerges. That is, the MIMO antenna can support a plurality of frequency bands.
However, a problem of coupling between antenna units of the MIMO antenna supporting a plurality of frequency bands still cannot be resolved.


A method for detecting defects on a transparent film in a scanner is disclosed. The scanner has a light source for exposing the transparent film. The method includes using the light source to expose the transparent film for a first predetermined time to generate a first image, using the light source to expose the transparent film for a second predetermined time to generate a second image, and comparing differences between the first image and the second image according to a time ratio of the first predetermined time and the second predetermined time so as to detect the defects on the transparent film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for detecting defects on a transparent film in a scanner, and more specifically to a method that lengthens or shortens the exposure time to detect defects on a transparent film in a scanner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As computer technology develops, peripheral devices also change with each passing day. The scanner is an excellent example of this. Scanners are used to scan a transparent film so as to obtain corresponding digital image signals. In general, the film is easily contaminated by dust and hair, or easily scratched. As a result, defects will be formed on the film and damage the scanned image. Therefore, high quality scanners always have the function of repairing the defects.
Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a prior art scanner 10. The scanner 10 is used to scan a transparent film 14. The scanner 10 comprises a white light source 12a, an infrared light source 12b, and a light sensor 16. The white light source 12a is used to generate white light, and the infrared light source 12b is used to generate infrared light. The white light is composed of red light, green light and bluelight. The light sensor 16 comprises a plurality of red light charge-coupled devices 16a arranged in order, a plurality of green light charge-coupled devices 16b arranged in order, and a plurality of blue light charge-coupled devices 16c arranged in order. The charge-coupled devices 16a, 16b and 16c each generate a corresponding electric charge when the white light passes through the transparent film 14. In addition, the light sensor 16 further comprises a plurality of infrared charge-coupled devices 16d arranged in order for generating a corresponding electric charge in the charge-coupled devices 16d when the infrared light passes through the transparent film 14. A computer system 18 electrically connects with the light sensor 16 for processing the output of the light sensor 16.
Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing how the prior art scanner 10 detects defects on the transparent film 14. The procedures of the prior art method for detecting defects on the transparent film 14 are: Step 22:Switch on the white light source 12a and scanning the transparent film 14 so as to obtain white light image signals;Step 24:Switch on the infrared light source 12b and scan the transparent film 14 so as to obtain infrared image signals;Step 26:Find out the defect positions according to the white light image signals and the infrared image signals; andStep 28:Use the computer system 18 to repair the defect positions.
In step 22 and step 24, the white light source 12a and infrared light source 12b generate white light and infrared light respectively, so as to scan the transparent film 14. After that, the white light image signals and infrared image signals will be obtained. The infrared light can pass through transparent film 14, but not transparent film 14 with the defects of dirt and scratches. The response speed of the infrared charge-coupled device 16d to the infrared light is the fastest compared with the response speed of the red light charge-coupled device 16a to the red light, green light charge-coupled device 16b to the green light, and the blue light charge-coupled device 16c to the blue light. That means the plurality of infrared light charge-coupled devices 16d arranged in order will quickly reach a saturation level after receiving the infrared light. Therefore, after step 24 is finished, the digital image signals, which are generated by the unsaturated infrared charge-coupled device 16d, represent the image signals generated by the defects of the dirt or the scratches. Therefore, the computer system 18 is able to detect the defect positions of the dirt or the scratches according to the output of the infrared charge-coupled device 16d. The computer system 18 then uses a software operation to repair and process the corresponding defect positions of the scanned image signals, so as to obtain image signals without defects of dirt or scratches and achieve the purpose of removing the dirt or scratches from the image.
However, to scan transparent film 14, the prior art scanner 10 needs to have the infrared light source 12b and the plurality of infrared charge-coupled devices 16d installed when it scans the transparent film 14. This will complicate the mechanical design of the scanner and make fabrication more difficult, increasing the cost.
It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide a method for detecting defects on a transparent film in a scanner, to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art.
The claimed invention, briefly summarized, discloses a method for detecting defects on a transparent film in a scanner. The scanner has a light source for the transparent film. The method includes using the light source to expose the transparent film for a first predetermined time to generate a first image, using the light source to expose the transparent film for a second predetermined time to generate a second image, and comparing differences between the first image and the second image according to a time ratio of the first predetermined time and the second predetermined time so as to detect the defects on the transparent film.
It is an advantage that the method of the claimed invention does not need to install the infrared light source and infrared charge-coupled device. This not only reduces the cost of the electric system, but also simplifies the mechanical design of the scanner.
These and other objectives and advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.

Method of detecting defects on a transparent film in a scanner


A nail stapler includes a gun and a magazine for receiving and supplying staple nails to the gun. The gun includes a shell, a solenoid received in the shell, a puncher received in the shell for movement from an original position to a punching position due to attraction by the solenoid, a pin secured to the puncher and inserted through the solenoid, a spring compressed between a portion of the solenoid and a portion of the puncher, and a security device received in the shell for buffering the puncher when the puncher is pushed from the punching position to the original position by the spring. The security device includes an elastic end for contact with the puncher. The nail elastic end of the security device includes a plurality of elastic elements. The puncher defines a cavity with a wall for contact with the elastic elements. The shell includes two halves each including a retainer formed on an internal face. The security device defines a groove for receiving the retainers of the halves of the shell.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a nail stapler.
2. Related Prior Art
Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, a conventional nail stapler includes a gun 10 and a magazine 16. The gun 10 includes a shell 11, a solenoid 12 received in the shell 11, a puncher 13 received in the shell 11, a spring 14 compressed between an end of the solenoid 12 and a head of the puncher 13 and a pin 15 secured to the puncher 13. When activated, the solenoid 12 attracts the puncher 13 and therefore the pin 15 in order to punch a staple nail 17 from the magazine 16 through an outlet 18. When the magnetic force is gone, the puncher 13 resumes its original position due to the spring 14 as shown in FIG. 5. However, the puncher 13 may hit and rebound from a portion of the shell 11 so as to punch a staple by mistake as shown in FIG. 6.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in the prior art.
It is the primary objective of the present invention to provide a nail stapler with a security device for preventing stapling by mistake.
According to the present invention, a nail stapler includes a gun and a magazine for receiving and supplying staple nails to the gun. The gun includes a shell, a solenoid received in the shell, a puncher received in the shell for movement from an original position to a punching position due to attraction by the solenoid, a pin secured to the puncher and inserted through the solenoid, a spring compressed between a portion of the solenoid and a portion of the puncher, and a security device received in the shell for buffering the puncher when the puncher is pushed from the punching position to the original position by the spring.
The security device includes an elastic end for contact with the puncher.
The nail elastic end of the security device includes a plurality of elastic elements. The puncher defines a cavity with a wall for contact with the elastic elements.
The shell includes two halves each with a retainer formed on an internal face. The security device defines a groove for receiving the retainers of the halves of the shell.
Other objectives, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the attached drawings.

No. 78, Ta Tun 17th Street, Hsi Tun District


An embodiment of a compound semiconductor device includes: a substrate; an electron channel layer and an electron supply layer formed over the substrate; a gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode formed on or above the electron supply layer; and a p-type semiconductor layer formed between the electron supply layer and the gate electrode. The p-type semiconductor layer contains, as a p-type impurity, an element same as that being contained in at least either of the electron channel layer and the electron supply layer.

In recent years, there has been vigorous development of high-breakdown voltage, high-output compound semiconductor devices, making use of advantages of nitride-based compound semiconductor including high saturation electron mobility and wide band gap. The development is directed to field effect transistors such as high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), for example. Among them, a GaN-based HEMT having an AlGaN layer as an electron supply layer attracts a lot of attention. In the GaN-based HEMT, lattice distortion occurs in the AlGaN layer due to difference in lattice constants between AlGaN and GaN, the distortion induces piezo polarization therealong, and thereby generates a high-density, two-dimensional electron gas, in the upper portion of the GaN layer laid under the AlGaN layer. This configuration ensures high output.
However, it is difficult to obtain normally-off transistors due to high density of the two-dimensional electron gas. Investigations into various techniques have therefore been directed to solve the problem. Conventional proposals include a technique of disconnecting the two-dimensional electron gas by etching a portion of the electron supply layer just below the gate electrode, and a technique of vanishing the two-dimensional electron gas by forming a p-type GaN layer containing Mg as an acceptor impurity between the gate electrode and the electron supply layer.
Etching of the portion of the electron supply layer just below the gate electrode will, however, damage the electron channel layer, to thereby induce problems of increase in sheet resistance and increase in leakage current. On the other hand, formation of the p-type GaN layer containing Mg will elevate resistivity. In this way, conventional efforts to obtain the normally-off transistors have degraded other characteristics of the transistors.
[Patent Literature 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-076845
[Patent Literature 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-019309

Compound semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same


A frequency converter that performs dual frequency conversion is provided. The frequency converter restricts noise occurrence and enables signal transfer with good linearity. The frequency converter performs dual conversion of a first signal (RF(+) and RF(−)) by using two signals including a second signal (LO1 (+) and LO1 (−)) and a third signal (LO2 (+) and LO2 (−)). Using a balun and an amplifying circuit that performs input/output operations in a single-ended manner, the frequency converter restricts NF degradation. By feeding optimum values of current into the first and second switching circuits and into the amplifying circuit, NF and linearity are optimized. The balun, the amplifying circuit, and the first and second switching circuits are formed on the same semiconductor substrate.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to frequency converters that perform dual frequency conversion, and more particularly to frequency converters that down-convert an RF (radio frequency) signal to a baseband frequency. The invention also relates to radio communication devices using such frequency converters.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a known terminal unit such as a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) transceiver. Referring to FIG. 18, the wireless LAN transceiver performs frequency conversion of a signal received via an antenna to obtain an intermediate frequency, and amplifies it. The wireless LAN transceiver then performs AD (analog to digital) conversion of the intermediate frequency and demodulates it to extract a digital signal. The present invention relates to frequency converters that perform this frequency conversion.
Presently, known frequency converters of this kind include those receiving circuits that perform dual frequency conversion (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,772). FIG. 19 is a circuit diagram of a frequency converter described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,772 specification.
As shown in FIG. 19, a frequency converter 100 includes an amplifying circuit 50 that is made up of transistors Q1 and Q2 and that amplifies a first signal (RF(+), RF(−)), a switching circuit 51 that performs a first frequency conversion by using a second signal (LO1 (+), LO1 (−)), a switching circuit 52 that performs a second frequency conversion by using a third signal (LO2 (+), LO2 (−)), and a switching circuit 53 that performs a second frequency conversion by using a forth signal (LO3 (+), LO3 (−)). The first switching circuit 51 performs the first frequency conversion and supplies a current signal in a divided manner to the switching circuits 52 and 53, which perform the second frequency conversion. The switching circuits 52 and 53 perform the second frequency conversion and output I and Q baseband signals. The output signals are output after converted into voltage signals by output loads 54.
However, the structure of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,772 specification has the following problems. Specifically, the amplifying circuit 50 is operated in a differential manner and thus allows twice as many noises to occur as does an amplifying circuit operated in a single-ended manner. Thus, suppression of the entire noise figure (NF) by using an amplifying circuit that requires high gain causes to increase current fed into the frequency converter.
Additionally, since the frequency of the output signal is in the baseband spectrum, 1/f noise increases. Accordingly, when an optimum amount of current is fed into the switching circuit, the amount of current to be fed into the transistor serving as an amplifying circuit falls short and gain falls short as well, resulting in an increase in the entire NF.
Further, the currents to be fed into the switching circuits 51 to 53 and the amplifying circuit 50 have respective optimum values for obtaining gain, NF, and linearity performance. FIG. 20(A) is a graph showing the current (Isw) flowing through the switching circuits 51 to 53 vs. NF, and the current (Isw) vs. third order input intercept point (IIP3) that is indicative of linearity. FIG. 20(B) is a graph showing the current (Igm) flowing through the amplifying circuit 50 vs. NF, and the current (Igm) vs. third order input intercept point (IIP3) that is indicative of linearity. As shown in FIGS. 20(A) and 20(B), the optimum current value for the amplifying circuit 50 and that for the switching circuits 51 to 53 are different. Additionally, in the patent document 1, the current fed into the switching circuit 51 is the sum of the currents in the switching circuits 52 and 53, which means a current of an optimum value is not necessarily fed into the switching circuit 51.

Frequency converter and radio communication device using same


A resin-coated metal sheet includes resin layers formed on both surfaces thereof and composed of a polyester as a main component, wherein the resin layer covering the inner surface of a container after the formation thereof has an interfacial free energy with water of 30 mN/m or more. The container formed from the resin-coated metal sheet exhibits an excellent content release property for contents with a high protein content.

In general, metal sheets of tin-free steel (TFS) and aluminum used for food cans are painted. The painting method has the problem of complicating a baking step, requiring much treatment time, and discharging a large amount of solvent. In order to resolve the problem, resin-coated metal sheets including thermoplastic resin films fused to the metal sheets under heating have been developed and now industrially used mainly as raw materials for beverage cans.
However, when a general resin-coated metal sheet is used for food cans, there occurs the problem that the contents strongly adhere to the inner surface of a vessel and thus cannot be easily taken out. This problem is closely related to consumer eagerness to buy and is thus a very important problem in maintaining consumer eagerness to buy. However, for conventional resin-coated metal sheets for containers, there are very few investigations of improvement in the ease of release of contents.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-328204, the inventors have previously proposed, as a measure for improving the content release property, a metal plate laminated with a polyester resin containing specified wax.
This technique can secure a high property for high-fat contents with low adhesiveness, such as meat, eggs, hydrocarbon, or mixtures thereof, and can produce a certain result.
However, for contents with a high protein content, such as luncheon meat and tuna, the excellent content release property cannot be sufficiently secured because of high adhesiveness.
The present invention has been achieved for solving the above-mentioned problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a resin-coated metal sheet for containers which has the excellent release property for contents with a high protein content.


A framework structure of a body-on-frame vehicle, the framework structure comprises a first framework, a second framework, and a battery. The first framework includes: a pair of left and right side rails extending in a vehicle body front-and-rear direction, a first cross-member and a second cross-member, both extending in a vehicle body left-and-right direction and linking the side rails. The second framework is structured in a rectangular shape in plan view and includes: a front cross portion and a rear cross portion that are formed in chamber shapes and extend in the vehicle body left-and-right direction, and a left side cross portion and a right side cross portion that are formed in chamber shapes and extend in the vehicle body front-and-rear direction. The battery is disposed in a cavity surrounded by the first framework and the second framework.

Technical Field
Preferred embodiments relate to a framework structure of a body-on-frame vehicle.
Related Art
A vehicle body rear portion structure has been known since heretofore, for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2013-169814 in which the two end portions of a cross-member that extends in a vehicle width direction are joined to a left and right pair of rear side members, and a battery unit surrounded by frame members is disposed at a vehicle body rear side of the cross-member.

Framework structure of body-on-frame vehicle


The invention provides compositions and methods useful for early detection of congenital CMV infection, predicting the likelihood and severity of congenital CMV disease, and monitoring the efficacy of therapeutic approaches. Compositions of the present invention include biomarkers that are differentially expressed in CMV-infected mothers and fetuses compared to uninfected individuals.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the leading viral cause of congenital birth defects in 1%-3% of live births in the United States. Half the mothers developing first-time infection during pregnancy will transmit virus to the fetus; 25% of newborns will have congenital disease and permanent birth defects.
Maternal low-avidity antibodies to CMV are a key indicator of possible fetal infection. ELISA assays to identify women at risk for primary maternal CMV infection are marketed by Radim (Italy) and BioMerieux (France) and other companies. These assays quantify maternal CMV IgG avidity for diagnosis of primary infection acquired during or shortly before gestation. Low-avidity antibodies indicate primary infection with 50% chance of fetal infection. However, women with moderate IgG avidity are not necessarily protected against congenital infection in the fetus, although damage is milder.
Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), a multifunctional cytokine, plays a central role in cell proliferation, migration, and synthesis of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the endothelium (Lebrin et al., Cardiovasc Res, 65:599-608 (2005)). In most cell types, TGF-β1 signals through the type I receptor activin receptor-like kinase 5 (ALK5). In addition to expressing ALK5, endothelial cells express a second TGF-β1 receptor, the type I receptor ALK1. When activated, ALK1 induces phosphorylation of the nuclear effectors Smad1 and Smad5, which promote endothelial cell proliferation and migration (Chen, Y. G. and Massague, J., J Biol Chem, 274:3672-3677 (1999)). In contrast, activated ALK5 induces Smad2 and Smad3 phosphorylation, leading to the inhibition of endothelial cell proliferation. TGF-β1 is secreted as an inactive, noncovalent complex with latency-associated peptide and requires activation before it can bind to its receptors. Reported mechanisms of TGF-β1 activation include cleavage by metalloproteinases or plasmin and binding to thrombospondin 1 or either of the integrins αvβ6 and αvβ8 (Lebrin et al., Cardiovasc Res, 65:599-608 (2005); Rifkin, D. B., J Biol Chem, 280:7409-7412 (2005); Munger et al., Cell, 96:319-328 (1999); Mu et al., J Cell Biol, 157:493-507 (2002); Crawford et al., Cell, 93:1159-1170 (1998); Annes et al., J Cell Sci, 116:217-224 (2003)). One of the in vivo activators of TGF-β1 is integrin αvβ6 (Rifkin, D. B., J Biol Chem, 280:7409-7412 (2005); Munger et al., Cell, 96:319-328 (1999)). This activation model is particularly interesting because integrin αvβ6 is expressed principally on epithelial cells, which are very sensitive to TGF-β1-mediated growth inhibition. Integrin αvβ6 is strongly up-regulated at sites of epithelial repair and inflammation in lung and kidney (Breuss et al., J Cell Sci, 108:2241-2251 (1995)), and also because of the overlap of the phenotypes of TGF-β1 and integrin β6 subunit-deficient mice. Mice lacking the β6 subunit show increased inflammation and decreased fibrosis, both of which processes are strongly regulated by TGF-β1 (Munger et al., Cell, 96:319-328 (1999); Huang et al., J Cell Biol, 133:921-928 (1996); Hahm et al., Am J Pathol, 170:110-125 (2007)).
Recent work has provided evidence for the induction of TGF-β1 in a variety of cells and tissues on CMV infection. TGF-β1 was released in increasing amounts from splenocytes infected with rat CMV in vitro (Haagmans et al., J Gen Virol, 78:205-213 (1997)). TGF-β1 protein was increased in alveoli and stromal cells in rat lungs, spleen, and liver after radiation-induced immune suppression of CMV-infected rats (Haagmans et al., J Gen Virol, 78:205-213 (1997)). Furthermore, CMV infected murine astrocytes increased TGF-β1 transcription and protein levels (Kossmann et al., J Infect Dis, 187:534-541 (2003)). In human kidney allografts, CMV proteins and DNA were associated with locally increased TGF-β1 in tubuli and arterial endothelium long after viral clearance from the blood (Helantera et al., Transplantation, 79:379 (2005)). Brain biopsy specimens from AIDS patients with CMV encephalitis were found to contain viral inclusions that co-localized with TGF-β1 protein in cells with astrocyte-specific glial filaments (Kossmann et al., J Infect Dis, 187:534-541 (2003)). In addition, TGF-β1 induction in human fibroblasts has been shown to involve the transactivation of its promoter by immediate-early 2 protein through an Egr-1 consensus site by binding the zinc finger domain of Egr-1 (Michelson et al., J Virol, 68:5730-5737 (1994); Yoo et al., J Virol, 70:7062-7070 (1996)). Although the evidence suggests that TGF-β1 may be directly involved in CMV pathogenesis, little is known about the cellular proteins involved in virus-mediated TGF-β1 activation, or what specific functional role it plays in vivo. In recent experiments, it was found that a subpopulation of freshly isolated human cytotrophoblasts from term placentas expressed integrin αvβ6, which activates TGF-β1 in vitro (Tabata et al., Placenta, 28:527-537 (2007)).
Currently, there are no commercial assays to detect fetal infection early in gestation or to predict symptomatic disease. In women with primary CMV infection in first trimester, ultrasound at midgestation may identify fetuses with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and other disease anomalies. But these may not be apparent unless severe (e.g. microcephaly and calcification in the brain). Detection of viral DNA by PCR following amniocentesis at 20-22 weeks gestation indicates fetal infection; very high levels may be associated with symptomatic fetal disease (Pereira et al., J. Virol. 77:13301-13314 (2003)). At birth, congenitally infected babies secrete infectious virus in urine, viral DNA can be quantified, and infectivity evaluated in plaque assays. Blood from infants with symptomatic disease contains many genome copies of CMV DNA (>10,000/ml).
Until recently, there was no therapy to prevent symptomatic congenital disease. Nigro et al. reported that CMV hyperimmune globulin (HIG) (Biotest, Germany) was an effective treatment that reduced congenital disease from 50% to 3% in infants of women with primary infection treated with intravenous HIG (N Engl J Med 353:1350-62 (2005)). Echodensities, anomalies associated with placental insufficiently and IUGR can resolve following HIG treatment. Moreover, when administered soon after maternal seroconversion, fetal infection is prevented. Clinical trials for congenital CMV infection are ongoing and proposed. Thus, diagnostic tests for early detection of fetal infection and to indicate treatment efficacy are desperately needed. Quantitative assays for biomarkers of viral replication in amniotic fluid could identify candidates for treatment and reduced levels could be objective indicators of efficacy.
Accordingly, the invention provides biomarkers of CMV replication that are detectable in amniotic fluid and that permit early detection of congenital infection before symptomatic disease.

Biomarkers for prenatal diagnosis of congenital cytomegalovirus

The Regents of the University of California


The present invention is a system that uses a limited text input entry device to narrow the possibilities for the selection of a phonetically based name used in a voice dialer. The user enters a DTMF signature of a name using only one key for each letter of the name. The signature is used by a dictionary to generate likely possibilities for the word. The user is asked whether the name is the name entered via playing the name to the user. If the user confirms the choice, the phonetic representation is stored along with a corresponding telephone number. If the played word does not match, a word generator generates additional likely possibilities from the signature. A speech recognizer picks the best representation from the dictionary and generator words based on a spoken version of the name. A first name and last name procedure, in which the first and last name signatures produce separate candidate lists, is used to provide an entry to an address book for voice dialing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system that identifies and stores new phonetically based identifiers, such as names for a voice dialer and, more particularly, uses a dictionary and a word generator to produce candidates from a limited text input device, such as a telephone DTMF key pad or a spelling recognizer where there are potentially multiple candidates for the letters of a name, to produce name candidates one of which is selected by a speech recognizer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In speech-controlled systems, that is, systems where the human voice is the primary or only mode of user input, human speech is processed by a subsystem called a speech recognizer (or simply a recognizer), which may contain both software and hardware components. A typical speech-controlled system obtains a speech input (called an utterance) from a human user and uses the speech recognizer subsystem to determine which words were spoken (called the recognized text); it then uses those words to determine the actions to be carried out. Of course the recognized text will not always correctly match the utterance, since speech recognizers are still imperfect.
The current state of the art in speech recognition technology does not permit so-called xe2x80x9copen-setxe2x80x9d recognition, in which the human user may say anything at all and the speech recognizer determines the correct word sequence. Instead, every system that uses a speech recognizer must supply a description of the possible word sequences that the system expects to hear from the user; we call these possibilities the in-set utterances. The manner in which the in-set utterances are specified depends on the speech recognizer.
The present invention is concerned with conventional recognizers that require, as part of the specification of in-set utterances, a description of the pronunciation of each word in those utterances. The pronunciation of each word is typically provided as a phonetic spelling, a transcription of the pronunciation in a phonetic alphabet. For example, the word xe2x80x9cphonexe2x80x9d could be specified as being pronounced xe2x80x9cf ow nxe2x80x9d, where xe2x80x98fxe2x80x99, xe2x80x9cowxe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9cnxe2x80x9d are elements of the alphabet. There are several phonetic alphabets, but any particular recognizer of this class uses only one.
These systems typically provide to the recognizer a list of all the words that occur in the in-set utterances, along with one or more phonetic spellings of each word. In the so-called speaker-independent systems with which the present invention is concerned, multiple phonetic spellings of a word are often necessary because of differences in the way people pronounce words; an example is xe2x80x9ctomaytoxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ctomahtoxe2x80x9d.
The maximum number of distinct words usable at anyone time depends on the particular recognizer. For simple recognizers, the maximum may be only a few dozen, or even fewer. More complex recognizers can handle hundreds or thousands of words at a time. When each utterance consists of only a single word, some recognizers can handle a few tens of thousands of words. Recognizers that handle multi-word xe2x80x9ccontinuous speechxe2x80x9d utterances are currently restricted to a few thousand or tens of thousands words at most.
As already mentioned, a speech recognition application must identify in advance all the legitimate xe2x80x9cin-setxe2x80x9d utterances. However, in certain applications it would be beneficial to provide the user with the ability to add new in-set utterances in the course of using the application.
For example, consider an application that permits a user to place telephone calls simply by speaking the name of the person desired. The user might say xe2x80x9cCall John Jonesxe2x80x9d. The system responds xe2x80x9cDialing John Jones at 555-1234xe2x80x9d and completes the call. Such a system is called a voice dialer.
Suppose that there is a need to provide a xe2x80x9cpersonalizedxe2x80x9d voice dialing service, where a user may speak a name from a personal list, unique to that user. In other words, each user has a personal address book containing a list of names and associated phone numbers, and each user""s address book is distinct from that of other users. The application must first identify the user to tell which address book to use; only after the correct address book is identified can the application provide the correct list of in-set utterances to the speech recognizer.
What is needed is a system that will allow the addition of new names, with associated phone numbers, to the personal address books using only a telephone, without a computer terminal or keyboard or any other device at all, and without the need for human intervention in any way. What is more particularly needed is a system that acquires from the user, over the telephone, enough information to create a phonetic spelling of the name to be added (because that phonetic spelling must be provided to the recognizer for subsequent recognitions from this user""s address book).
The reason that this problem is difficult is that a system cannot simply ask the user to pronounce the name to be added and process that utterance with a speech recognizerxe2x80x94since, by definition, we don""t know the name to be added.
The present invention assumes that a conventional name dictionary is available and which is a list of a large number of the most common names (perhaps several hundred thousand, covering about 95% of the population) with one or more phonetic spellings for each. However, the entire dictionary cannot be provided to the speech recognizer because it contains too many possible utterances. Moreover, the name that the user wishes to add may not be in the name dictionary, since it is impossible to compile an exhaustive list of names.
Notice that in this example the system does not actually need the English spelling of the name to be added (although having that spelling would suffice). The voice dialer does not need a text representation of the names in an address book since it never interacts with the user except over the telephone; it only needs a phonetic representation of each name (which is what must be loaded into the speech recognizer) and, for each name, the associated number to dial.
For the purposes of simplicity the discussion herein will continue to use this example as a typical one for our problemxe2x80x94that is, the specific problem is to obtain, by telephone only, the phonetic spelling of a name. But the general problem is to determine, using a limited character set input device, such as telephone, a phonetic spelling of a word or phrase from a set much larger than can be managed by the speech recognizer, where the set (in general) is not completely known in advance.
Given a text representation of a namexe2x80x94that is, its spellingxe2x80x94it is conventional to determine an adequate phonetic spelling. For the fairly rare name that is not in the name dictionary a conventional text-to-phoneme heuristic (e.g., the so-called Navy rules) that find a reasonable phonetic transcription given a text word is used. With this approach, only an extremely rare name will yield a phonetic transcription so poor that recognition is impossible.
There are a number of different ways that a system, can obtain a text representation of a name over the telephone.
One method is to recognize letter spelling using a speech recognizer. This is essentially a speech recognition problem with only twenty-six xe2x80x9cwords.xe2x80x9d A phonetic spelling for each letter is created, any sequence of letters is permitted as a legitimate utterance, and the user is asked to spell the name. The problem with this method is that speech recognition of the alphabet is extremely poor, since (a) all letters but one consist of a single syllable, giving the recognizer little chance at differentiation, and (b) many letters sound very much alike except for subtle distinctions difficult to detect with current recognition technology. Using letter spelling in conjunction with a dictionary of names when the word being spelled is in the dictionary works better, but still not well enough for all applications, such as voiced based dialing, because it is highly possible that a surname will not be in the dictionary.
To overcome the low accuracy of recognizing letter spelling, the user can be instructed to spell using a xe2x80x9cphonetic alphabetxe2x80x9d of the form Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and so forth. This greatly improves spelling accuracy, but has the drawback that the user must learn the twenty-six equivalents for the letters of the alphabet.
Another possibility is to use Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) keys, sometimes called TOUCHTONE keys for spelling. There are several conventional approaches used for spelling with DTMF keys, using two key presses for each letter. For example, first press the key that contains the letter, then press 1 if the letter is first on the key, 2 if the letter is second on the key, and 3 if the letter is third on the key. So, for example, letter A is entered as 21, letter K is entered as 52, and letter S is entered as 73. The star key is typically used to denote the end of the name. The difficulty with this scheme is that it is slow, tedious, and error-prone, even with practice.
What is needed is a system that will overcome the above-described problems.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system that inputs phonetic spellings of a voice recognizable name using a limited character input device which provides an input corresponding to a number of different possible words.
It is another object of the present invention to use a telephone to input spellings of a word via a key pad or voice.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a voice dialer that dials using names.
It is also an object of the present invention to use speech recognition with letter by letter spelling a voice recognizable name.
It is another object of the present invention to allow applications, such as call routers, to be provisioned in a way that does not require a system administrator to use a screen interface to set up the names.
The above objects can be attained by a system that uses a limited text input device to narrow the possibilities for the selection of a phonetically based name used in a voice dialer. The system allows a user to enter a DTMF or voice spelled signature of a name; a signature is a sequence of alpha or numeric digits which has a number of possible interpretations and which can be called a multiple word possibility input sequence. Since the signature could actually represent any of a multiplicity of names, a dictionary is used to generate likely possibilities or candidates for the phonetic spelling of the word. A word generator generates additional likely possibilities from the signature. A speech recognizer picks the best representation from the list of names associated with the signature based on a spoken version of the name. The selection possibilities can be narrowed by asking the user if a high probability phonetic spelling candidate is the name. A first name and last name procedure, where the signatures produce separate candidate lists is used to provide an entry to an address book, is used for voice dialing.
These together with other objects and advantages which will be subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.

System for storing voice recognizable identifiers using a limited input device such as a telephone key pad


Optical networks can comprise a branch structure with the de-multiplexing/multiplexing structure that operates to disperse a plurality of optical bands. Thus, the optical network comprises an optical network connection with a common optical channel, a plurality of de-multiplexed branch optical service connections and the de-multiplexing/multiplexing structure. In some embodiments, one optical band can be used to deliver input from a common channel to the branch node and the other optical band can carry output along the common channel from the branch node. The de-multiplexing/multiplexing element can be an arrayed waveguide grating. The AWG can have desirable architecture to efficiently provide the corresponding functions with respect to the two optical bands. Appropriate photodetectors and light sources can be associated with the AWG.

Optical networks generally comprise transmission components that are designed to transmit bands of wavelengths over reasonable distances. The bands of wavelengths generally comprise signals intended for a plurality of customers/users. Thus, a single optical fiber can be used to simultaneously transmit a plurality of signals that are subsequently divided for delivery. Similarly, individual signals are combined for transmission over common lines prior to eventual division for routing and/or delivery. Individual bands thus are divided into smaller wavelength ranges corresponding to signals relating to individual users, and multiplexing and de-multiplexing functions can be used to convert between combined signals for common lines and individual signals for routing and/or interfacing with individual users.
Arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG) are planar optical circuit components that are designed to perform multiplexing and de-multiplexing functions for optical signals. An AWG generally comprises two broadly transmitting optical elements, such as slab waveguides, that are connected by an array of waveguides with a range of lengths. The length differences of the dispersive waveguide array are selected to result in appropriate constructive and destructive interference between light transmitted by the array of waveguides such that a multi-chromatic signal is spatially spread out by the interference pattern such that smaller wavelength ranges can be separately transmitted following de-multiplexing. Similarly, transmission of light in the opposite direction results in the transmission of a combined multi-chromatic signal relative to a group of input signals with different wavelengths within a range of wavelengths.

Optical network configurations with multiple band multiplexing and de-multiplexing and AWG structures with multiple band processing