An impression cap for taking dental impressions in a patient""s mouth comprises a distal end that includes a top surface and a proximal end that defines an opening. The impression cap also includes an inner surface that defines an internal cavity. The proximal end of the impression cap is configured to engage a corresponding shoulder of a prosthetic abutment in a snap fit. The impression cap further comprises an injection port configured to receive a tip of an injection syringe for injecting impression material under into the inner cavity and a plurality vent holes configured to allow air and excess impression material to escape from the inner cavity. Methods of using the impression cap and a dental kit including the impression cap are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to dental implants and, more particularly, methods and devices for taking an impression of a final abutment, which is attached to a dental implant.
2. Description of the Related Art
Restoration of an edentulous area of the mouth serves multiple functions, including improved aesthetics, improved mastication, maintenance of crestal bone, and providing for an occlusal stop for a reproducible bite. Restoration can be accomplished using a standard bridge, a removable appliance (a partial or full denture), or a dental implant.
Dental implantation is a procedure for replacing a missing tooth using a dental implant. The placement of the implant is usually accomplished in four stages. In a first stage, a dentist reviews radiographs and dental models to determine the proper placement and axial alignment of the implant. In a second stage, a dental surgeon accesses the bone through the mucosal tissue. With the use of a prefabricated stint, the surgeon drills or bores out the maxillary or mandibular bone. The implant is then either pressed or screwed into the bone. A healing cap is typically then placed over the implant and the surrounding mucosal tissues are sutured over the healing cap. This provides for a biologically closed system to allow osteointegration of bone with the implant. Complete osteointegration typically takes anywhere from four to ten months.
Stage three, involves a second surgical procedure during which the dental surgeon makes an incision in the mucosal tissue to expose the osteointegrated implant. The healing cap is removed and a temporary abutment, having a height at least equal to the thickness of the gingival tissue or a final prosthetic abutment, is coupled to the implant. Once the abutment is secured an immediate mold or impression may be taken. In a modified procedure, the impression may be taken within one to two weeks after the stage three. The impression is used to record the axial position and orientation of the implant, which is then reproduced in a stone or plaster analogue of the patient""s mouth. The main objective of the impression is to properly transfer the size and shape of adjacent teeth in relation to the permanently placed implant and the precise configuration and orientation of the abutment to the dental technician. The plaster analogue provides the laboratory technician with a precise model of the patient""s mouth, including the orientation of the implant fixture relative to the surrounding teeth. Based on this model, the technician constructs a final restoration. Stage four, in the restorative process, involves replacing the temporary healing abutment with the final restoration.
As noted above, during stage three, a mold or impression is taken of the patient""s mouth to accurately record the position and orientation of the implant site and to provide the information needed to fabricate the restorative replacement and/or intermediate prosthetic components. There are several conventional methods for taking the this impression.
One method involves a conventional transfer coping. Transfer copings have an impression portion adapted to form a unique or indexed impression in the impression material and a base portion having mating indexing means adapted to mate with the exposed indexing means of the implant or prosthetic abutment. In use, the transfer coping is temporarily secured to the exposed proximal end of the implant fixture such that the mating indexing means of the impression coping and implant are interlockingly mated to one another. Typically, a threaded screw or bolt is used to temporarily secure the transfer coping to the implant fixture.
Once the impression coping is secured to the implant fixture, an impression of the transfer coping relative to the surrounding teeth is taken. Typically, this involves a xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped tray filled with an impression material that is placed in the patient""s mouth over the implant site. The patient bites down on the tray, squeezing the impression material into the implant site and around the transfer coping. Within a few minutes, the impression material cures or hardens to a flexible, resilient consistency. The impression tray is then removed from the patient""s mouth to reveal an impression of the implant site and the transfer coping. The restorative dentist then removes the transfer coping from the patient""s mouth and transfers the transfer coping back into the impression material, being careful to preserve the proper orientation of the indexing means.
Another method typically involves a conventional pick-up coping. Pick-up copings are similar to the transfer copings described above; except that a pick-up coping typically includes an embedment portion adapted to be non-removably embedded within the impression material. Typically, the embedded portion comprises a protuberant xe2x80x9clipxe2x80x9d or similar embedment projection at a coronal portion of the coping. This allows for xe2x80x9cgrabbingxe2x80x9d or traction of the impression material as the tray is being removed from the patient""s mouth. The pick-up copings are xe2x80x9cpicked upxe2x80x9d and remain in the impression material when the tray is removed from the patient""s mouth.
Yet another method for taking an impression involves an impression or transfer cap. Impression or transfer caps are placed over or on the built-up part of the abutment or the implant and remain in the impression material when the tray is removed. There are several different types of transfer caps. One type of transfer cap has a tapered inner surface, which is adapted in form and size to the built-up part or abutment of the implant. This cap has an inner surface, which has indentations or slots, which correspond to indentation or slots present on the abutment. The cap is attached to the abutment with resilient flaps or tongues. An example of such a cap is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,123. A disadvantage to this type of cap is apparent when the abutment is modified in vitro to create axial draw parallel to adjacent teeth and/or implants. If the abutment is modified, the transfer cap may not represent an accurate impression of the abutment because the indentations or slots may have been mechanically removed during the modification. Therefore, this method does not necessarily accurately reproduce the size and shape of a modified abutment.
Additionally, there are transfer caps which are capable of recording modifications in abutments. These caps typically have a large aperture or hole (diameter greater than ⅓ of the area of the axial wall of the cap) in the distal end (occlusally) for placement or injection of impression materials. Moreover, such impression caps have large apertures or holes on the axial walls to allow excess gas and impression material to escape. They may also utilize a sleeve that inserts inside the impression caps to facilitate recording the slots and recesses of an unmodified abutment. A disadvantage of these types of impression caps is that an excessive amount of impression material gets displaced through the large holes or apertures leaving air bubbles and voids, which reduce the accuracy of the impression.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is an impression cap for taking dental impressions in a patient""s mouth. The impression cap comprises a distal end that includes a top surface, a proximal end that defines an opening, and an inner surface that defines an internal cavity. The proximal end of the impression cap is configured to engage a corresponding shoulder of a prosthetic abutment. The impression cap further comprises an injection port configured to receive a tip of an injection syringe for injecting impression material into the inner cavity and a plurality vent holes configured to allow air and excess impression material to escape from the inner cavity.
Another aspect of the present invention is a dental kit for replacing a missing tooth with a dental prosthesis. The dental kit includes an abutment configured to mate with a dental implant, a coupling screw configured to extend through an inner bore of the abutment so as to couple the abutment to the dental implant, a healing cap with an internal cavity configured to fit over the abutment, a healing cap screw configured to couple the healing cap to the abutment, an impression cap configured fit over the abutment cap, the impression cap including an injection port and a plurality of bleed holes, and a syringe tip configured to mate with the injection port of the impression cap.
Yet another aspect of the present invention is a method for taking a dental impression in a patient""s mouth comprising providing an impression cap with an injection port and a plurality of vent holes, positioning an impression cap onto a prosthetic abutment; and injecting a first impression material into the impression cap through the injection port until the first impression material is extruded through at least one of the vent holes.
Still yet another aspect of the present invention is a method for taking a dental impression in a patient""s mouth. The method comprises the step of providing a first set and a second set of components, the first set including an abutment configured to mate with a dental implant in a patient""s mouth, a coupling screw configured to extend through an inner bore of the abutment so as to couple the abutment to the dental implant, a healing cap with an internal cavity configured to fit over the abutment, and a healing cap screw configured to couple the healing cap to the abutment, the second set including an impression cap configured fit over the abutment cap and having an injection port and a plurality of bleed holes and a syringe tip configured to mate with the injection port of the impression cap. The method also comprises coupling the abutment to the dental implant with the coupling screw, coupling the healing cap to the abutment with the healing cap screw; and providing the patient with the second set of components.
Further aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments.


When a blade drive spring has been overcharged when a second cam gear has caused a drive lever to move to a position beyond a position of attraction of an armature by a yoke, a blade lever does not contact the drive lever even if the blade lever has been driven in a direction of opening an aperture by a first blade and a second blade with an urging force of a blade return spring. When the second cam gear has moved to the attraction position form the overcharged position, the blade lever contacts the drive lever before the yoke starts attracting the armature by the attractive force.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shutter device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-180815 discusses an imaging apparatus that uses a focal plane shutter and an electronic shutter in combination with each other to execute an imaging operation. The conventional imaging apparatus starts an exposure operation by using an electronic shutter function of an image sensor. In addition, the conventional imaging apparatus controls a blade group constituted by a mechanical shutter to end an exposure operation.
In the above-described conventional imaging apparatus, after locking a drive lever by energizing an electromagnet, a set lever starts driving a mirror in a mirror-up direction. After the mirror-up operation, a blade lever is unlocked and an aperture formed by a blade group is opened. Subsequently, when the energization of the electromagnet is discontinued at a predetermined timing, the drive lever and the blade lever are driven simultaneously in a direction of closing the aperture.
In the focal plane shutter discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-180815, when the blade lever is unlocked to open the aperture by the blade group, the blade lever collides with the locked drive lever when the electromagnet is energized.
When the drive lever is locked by energizing the electromagnet, the drive lever is locked by attracting an armature with a yoke. If the blade lever collides with the drive lever in this state, attraction surfaces of the yoke and the armature may be damaged. If the attraction surfaces of the yoke and the armature are damaged, the attracting performance and the separation performance may degrade. As a result, the accuracy of the operation of the shutter device may degrade.
Alternatively, the drive lever and the blade lever may be driven by a mutually integrated operation after the drive lever has collided with the blade lever during the travel of shutter blades in the direction of closing an aperture. In this case, however, the pivot speed of the drive lever may vary due to the impact from the collision. As a result, the speed of travel of the shutter blades may vary. In this case also, the accuracy of the operation of the shutter device may degrade.


A method and system for selecting fluids for compatibility with specified metals exposed to oil field environments. Metal specimens are tested for corrosion and/or cracking behavior by exposing them to fluids under stressful test conditions. The testing is conducted under variable temperature, pressure, pH, fluid density, metallurgical stress, additives, cover gases and combinations thereof. The results from the stress testing are stored in a database. The test results are evaluated using encoded logic embedded in software media. Fluid compatibility evaluation software, developed from the stress test results, is executed to determine the cracking susceptibility of metals exposed to fluids under stressful conditions. A cracking susceptibility index can be developed to provide a quantitative indicator of cracking susceptibility. Fluid recommendation reports utilize the cracking susceptibility index values to rank compatible fluids. The reports also list optional additives to be used with the fluids.

Environmentally assisted cracking (EAC), which encompasses stress corrosion cracking and sulphide stress cracking, is a commonly observed phenomenon that results in the premature failure of metals. EAC is typically caused by the exposure of a sensitive metal to a corrosive environment and stress. If the corrosive environment or stress is absent, the metal will not crack. Stress, can be either residual, for example, from manufacturing, or applied, due to operations or improper handling.
Environmentally assisted cracking has caused severe structural failures over a broad range of industrial applications. This problem is particularly severe in the oil and gas industry, which has experienced a significant increase in EAC failures of production tubing or pipelines. These failures have predominantly occurred with martensitic and duplex stainless steel tubing with the cracks generally emanating from the annular side of the production tubing. This phenomenon is known as annular environmentally assisted cracking (AEAC). Failures of metal pipes have resulted in multi-million dollar expenses due to lost production time, replacement of production tubing and increased manpower and rig time utilization, among other factors. The prevention, prediction and control of EAC have assumed greater significance in recent years because of the increasing incidence of downhole tubing failures attributed to EAC. While various factors influence cracking, in most of these cases, cracking begins from the tubing's outer surface, rather than the inside.
The location of these cracks has led corrosion scientists to posit that the cracks are a result of corrosive packer fluids that interact with the metal tubing. However, there are no guidelines for the selection of fluids that are compatible with the various metals. As a consequence, the selection is made with limited information available from published literature or individual laboratory tests or is made based on pure conjecture due to lack of information.
Laboratory testing is typically conducted in accordance with NACE guidelines, wherein metals are subject to stress levels limited to the elastic region. These tests frequently involve non-representative fluids and test conditions that are not representative of those encountered in oil field applications. The duration of these tests may also be too long to be practical for the accumulation of a meaningful volume of test data, with test durations ranging from 14 days to 30 days for a standard test. The most common tendency, where the test data is lacking or is non-conclusive, is to select a relatively more expensive oil field fluid in order to minimize the risks of EAC and AEAC.
Previous selection of metals used in the oil and gas industry was done without substantive information on AEAC and the compatibility of various fluids with the common corrosion resistant metals used in production tubing. Particularly unfortunate has been the reliance on NACE methodologies, which involve non-representative fluids and well conditions, thereby leading to erroneous conclusions.
Consequently, in order to minimize the risk of metal tubing failures and to improve the economics of selecting compatible oil field fluids, there exists a need for a system that allows for a quick determination of these fluids that are compatible with the metals under corrosive oil field conditions.

System and method for predicting compatibility of fluids with metals


A diagnostic imaging agent is provided for use in conjunction with a magnetic resonance imaging system for the imaging of spacial oxygen distribution in tissue. The imaging agent is comprised of a complex of oxygen-17, a biologically acceptable liquid carrier, such as a perfluorinated compound, and an emulsifying agent, and wherein the agent has an average particle size of less than about 0.6 microns, and an ionic composition essentially equal to that of blood. Useful information can be obtained, and in certain instances, therapy administered, by a non-envasive imaging technique relative to tissue perfusion by .sup.19 F-NMR (imaging of .sup.19 F) and oxygen utilization by .sup.1 H-NMR (imaging of H.sub.2.sup.17 O as a metabolite).

Magnetic resonance imaging systems rely on the tendency of atomic nuclei possessing magnetic moments to align their spins with an external magnetic field Only nuclei with odd numbers of nucleons have a magnetic moment, so only these nuclei can be detected and imaged. Hydrogen has one nucleon, a proton, in its nucleus and is the primary nucleus imaged at this time in medical practice.
The most common isotope of oxygen, oxygen-16, has an even number of nucleons and hence, cannot be imaged in a magnetic imaging system. Oxygen-15 is unstable (radioactive) and is used in other imaging techniques which subject the host to a radiation dose. Oxygen-17 is stable and meets the odd nucleon number critera necessary for magnetic resonance imaging, but it is extremely rare and hence has not been utilized since relatively large quantities would be needed.
Prior to the present invention, the oxygen-17 isotope had only been utilized for diagnostic purposes by administering the isotope into a warm blooded animal in the form of water. By following the distribution of water in the body using magnetic resonance imaging it was possible to trace the location of the oxygen-17 isotope.
Some of the earlier investigations on NMR study of the protein transfer in water as reported by S. Meiboom, J. Chem. Phys., 39, 375, 1961, showed that at neutral pH, protein transverse relaxation time (T.sub.2) is significantly shorter than longitudinal relaxation time (T.sub.1). The author suggested that this difference is due to the naturally occurring H.sub.2.sup.17 O isotope (0.037 at. ) in the H.sub.2.sup.16 O and at a neutral pH this effect is greater due to scalar coupling interactions between the guadrupole .sup.17 O and protons. Meiboom further demonstrated that at any pH above or below the neutral pH the resident lifetime of the protons on 170 (spin=5/2) is too short to produce any enhancement of relaxation. In contrast to T.sub.2, T.sub.1 was not affected by enrichment or pH.
In work by Hopkins et al Mag. Reson. Med. 4, 399, 1987, there is reported the enrichment effects of H.sub.2.sup.17 O on protein solutions and living tissues which is in agreement with Meiboom's protein exchange rate studies.
In the Research Resources Reporter, Aug., 1988, it is disclosed on page 12 that fluorine was used in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to obtain information about blood flow. It was indicated therein that accurate information could be obtained by the study of several nuclei simultaneously and blood flow could be measured on a real-time basis. Dr. J.S. Leigh, one of the coauthors, disclosed that by combining MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), one could obtain an image of the inside of a person and obtain a very complete biochemical analysis of what is there.
However, as previously indicated, administration of the oxygen-17 isotope had only been effected by the use of water containing the isotope. Accordingly, one or more of the following objects will be achieved by the practice of this invention. It is an object of this invention to provide a method for introducing oxygen-17 into tissues for imaging in a magnetic imaging system. Another object of this invention is to provide a method for detecting localized metabolic activity under physiological conditions by monitoring the in vivo production of H.sub.2.sup.17 O metabolite in tissue utilizing oxygen-17, promoted proton T.sub.2 relaxation enhancement. A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel complex of the oxygen-17 isotope and a biologically acceptable liquid emulsion carrier which can be administered to a warm blooded animal to detect localized metabolic activity. A still further object is to provide a novel complex of the oxygen-17 isomer and a perfluorinated compound. Another object of this invention is to provide a complex of the oxygen-17 isomer and perfluorotributylamine. Another object of this invention is to provide a method for preparing the novel complex of this invention. A still further object of the invention is to provide a method for introducing the complex of the oxygen-17 isomer into a warm blooded animal for the detection of localized metabolic activity. Another object is to obtain information about tissue perfusion by imaging fluorine-19 and oxygen utilization by imaging H.sub.2.sup.17 O as a metabolite. These and other objects will readily become apparent to those skilled in the art in the light of the teachings herein set forth.

Method for introducing oxygen-17 into tissue for imaging in a magnetic resonance imaging system


A method is described for catalyst-induced growth of carbon nanotubes, nanofibers, and other nanostructures on the tips of nanowires, cantilevers, conductive micro/nanometer structures, wafers and the like. The method can be used for production of carbon nanotube-anchored cantilevers that can significantly improve the performance of scaning probe microscopy (AFM, EFM etc). The invention can also be used in many other processes of micro and/or nanofabrication with carbon nanotubes/fibers. Key elements of this invention include: (1) Proper selection of a metal catalyst and programmable pulsed electrolytic deposition of the desired specific catalyst precisely at the tip of a substrate, (2) Catalyst-induced growth of carbon nanotubes/fibers at the catalyst-deposited tips, (3) Control of carbon nanotube/fiber growth pattern by manipulation of tip shape and growth conditions, and (4) Automation for mass production.

The present invention relates to carbon nanostructures and methods of growing the same, and more particularly to carbon nanostructures that are attached to catalyst dots, and catalyst-induced methods of growing carbon nanostructures, especially on the tips of cantilevers, nanowires, wafers, conductive micro/nanostructures, and the like.
Programmable Nanometer-Scale Electrolytic Metal Deposition and Depletion
A previous invention, referenced hereinabove, describes nanometer-scale deposition and/or depletion of nanostructures in liquids at preferably ambient temperature and preferably neutral pH through electric field-directed, programmable, pulsed electrolytic metal deposition or depletion.
Application of a programmable and short (nsxe2x80x94ms time scale) pulsing direct current source is used to control the number of atoms being deposited by the electrolytic metal reduction and deposition process. As shown in the following platinum deposition reaction at a cathode using water-soluble hexachloroplatinate, the number of electrons supplied can control the formation of metallic platinum. In electrolytic deposition, electric current and the duration of the current can control the number of electrons.
[PtCl6]2xe2x88x92+4exe2x88x92xe2x86x92Pt↓+6Clxe2x88x92
Other water-soluble metal compounds that have been shown to be applicable include, but are not limited to: PtCl4, OsCl3, Na2[PtCl6], Na2[OsCl6], (NH4)2RuCl6, K3 RuCl6, Na2IrCl6, (NH4)3IrCl6, (NH4)3RhCl6, K2PdCl4, (NH4)2PdCl4, Pd(NH3)4Cl2, ReCl3, NiCl2, CoCl2, PtO2, PtCl2, Pt(NH3)4Cl2, (NH4)6Mo7O24, NaAuCl4, KAu(CN)2K2[PtCl4],and K3Fe(CN)6. Combinations of two or more water-soluble metal compounds can be used sequentially or simultaneously.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a programmable current source 18 is used to precisely control the number of electrons used to achieve the desired nanometer-scale electrolytic metal deposition. A non-conductive substrate 10 supports nanometer sized electrodes, also called nanowires and nanoelectrodesxe2x80x94cathode 12 and anode 14xe2x80x94which are usually comprised of gold but can be other metals or conductive materials. Spacing between the nanoelectrode tips 13, 15 in the range of 1-10 xcexcm produces results that are suitable for many applications.
A preselected metal 16 is deposited onto the tip of the cathode 12. The metal 16 is usually Pt, but can be any metal that can be deposited electrolytically. A programmable, pulsable current source 18 has electrical connections 20, 22 to the respective nanoelectrodes 12, 14. A bypass circuit 24 is shown, which includes a bypass selector switch 26 and a variable resistor 28.
Nanoelectrodes 12, 14 represent a subset of microscopic sized structures (nanostructures) that are suitable for use. Nanostructures acting as electrodes can be of various sizes and shapes. Spacing between the two nanostructures should not exceed 50 xcexcm, preferably 20 xcexcm, more preferably, 10 xcexcm, most preferably, 5 xcexcm.
The programmable, pulsable current source 18 can be of any suitable construction. Keithley Model 220 programmable current source or the latest Keithley Model 2400 series of Source Meters (available from Keithley Instruments, Inc., 28775 Aurora Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44139, or on the Internet at www.keithley.com) are already capable of supplying a minimum of about 9400 electrons per pulse [500 fAxc3x973 msxc3x97electron/(1.60xc3x9710xe2x88x9219 C)], which could translate to a deposition of 2350 platinum atoms per pulse based on the stoichiometry of the deposition reaction. If this amount of platinum is deposited on the end of a nanowire with a 10 nmxc3x9710 nm cross section, 2350 platinum atoms per pulse can translate into about 1 nm of metal deposition (2.6 layers of platinum atoms) per pulse. The programmable, pulsable current source 18 should be capable of controlling the process so that nanometer metal deposition or depletion as precise as about 1500 metal atoms per pulse can be achieved. A preferable range is contemplated to be 1500xc3x971014 atoms per pulse, although the skilled artisan will recognize that the method can operate well beyond this range.
The bypass circuit 24 is preferably added to fine-tune the electron flow for even more precise control of deposition or depletionxe2x80x94the addition or removal of monolayers or submonolayers of atomsxe2x80x94that can be achieved. The bypass circuit 24 is used to divert some of the electricity away from the nanoelectrodes 12, 14 in order to deposit or deplete fewer metal atoms per pulse. For example, when the impedance of the variable resistor 28 is adjusted to 50% of the impedance between the two nanoelectrodes 12, 14, two thirds of the 9400 electrons per pulse can be drained through the bypass circuit 24. In this case, the electrolytic metal deposition can be controlled to a step as precise as 780 platinum atoms (3130 electrons) per pulse, which can be translated to a deposition of 0.87 layer of platinum atoms 16 on a 10- by 10-nm surface at the tip of the cathodic nanoelectrode 12. By allowing a greater portion of the current to flow through the bypass circuit 24, it is possible to control deposition of metal 16 atoms as precise as 100 atoms per pulse. A preferable range for this extremely finely controlled deposition is contemplated to be 100-2500 atoms per pulse, although the skilled artisan will recognize that the method can operate well beyond this ultrafine deposition range.
The bypass circuit 24 can also protect the nanometer structure from electrostatic damage, especially when the structure is dry. For example, after desired programmable electrolytic metal deposition is achieved as illustrated in FIG. 1, the bypass circuit 24 should remain connected with the nanostructures 12 and 14 while the programmable pulsing current source can then be removed. As long as the bypass circuit remains connected with the nanostructures 12 and 14, any electrostatic charges that might be created during wash and dry of the nanostructures will be able to flow through the bypass circuit 24 that, in this case, comprises the closed switch 26, the variable resistor 28, and wires that connect the switch 26 and the variable resistor 28 with the nanoelectrodes 12, 14. This prevents accumulation of electrostatic charges at any one of electrodes against the other electrode from occurring, thus eliminating the possibility of electrostatic damage at the nanometer gap between the tips 13, 15 of the nanoelectrodes 12, 14.
A special nanostructural arrangement can be used to control the initiation point(s) of nanometer bonding. Special structural arrangements of the nanowire electrodes can be made by various lithographic techniques (e.g., photolithography and electron-beam lithography) to control the initiation point(s) of the electrolytic metal deposition. As shown in FIG. 2, multiple nanowire cathodes 12, 12xe2x80x2 should have respective tips 13, 13xe2x80x2 pointing to the respective tips 15, 15xe2x80x2 of nanowire anode 14 so that the strongest electric field is therebetween. Spacing of the multiple nanowire cathodes 12, 12xe2x80x2 should be regulated to ensure deposition of metal 16, 16xe2x80x2 at the desired cathode location, because the electric field (E) is a vector that is strongly dependent on distance (r):
Exe2x88x9drxe2x88x922
Electrolytic metal-dissolving reactions are applied to deplete metalxe2x80x94open nanometer gaps and control gap size as shown in FIG. 3. By conducting the reversal of the metal deposition reaction with sodium chloride solution instead of hexachloroplatinate as an electrolytic substrate, metallic platinum at the anode tip(s) 16 can be electrolytically depleted via dissolution in a controllable way according to the following reaction:
Pt+6Clxe2x88x92xe2x86x92[PtCl6]2xe2x88x92+4exe2x88x92
This metal-dissolution reaction should also be able to control the gap size between the nanoelectrode tips 13, 15. The site and the extent of electrolytic metal depletion can also be controlled by proper selection of the desired polarity of the electric field and by use of a programmable current source with a bypass circuit, as described herein.
The salient features of the method described hereinabove may be applied in full, in part, or in any combination. Any number of nanostructures can be simultaneously bonded or dissolved on a particular substrate.
For metal deposition, the nanostructure to be metal-deposited does not have to be metal. The method can be used to connect any conductive nanowires such as, for example, nanotubes, especially carbon nanotubes, because of their capability for nanometer electrolytic metal deposition.
For metal depletion, the nonmetallic ions do not have to be Clxe2x88x92. Any anions, such as Fxe2x88x92 and CNxe2x88x92, that can electrolytically dissolve metals (Pt, Pd, Au, etc.) may be used as alternative versions of the method.
Carbon Nanotubes/Fibers and Catalyst-induced Growth on 2-D Surfaces
Patterned growth of individual and mutiple vertical aligned carbon nanotubes and fibers has been experimentally demonstrated on a nanocatalyst-doped two-dimensional surface. See Merkulov, V. I., D. H. Lowndes, Y. Y. Wei, G. Eres, and E. Voelkl (2000) xe2x80x9cPatterned growth of individual and multiple vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes,xe2x80x9d Appl. Phys. Lett. 76, 3555.
Carbon nanotubes possess a number of unique properties, some of which make carbon nanotubes ideally suited for use as probe tips in scanning probe microscopy (SPM). Firstly, single-wall carbon nanotubes have intrinsically small diameters (xcx9c1.4 nm), which allow significant improvement of lateral resolution compared to conventional Si, SiN or other tips, which typically have diameters of at least 10-20 nm. Secondly, carbon nanotubes have very high aspect ratios, AR (AR=length/diameter), which provides the ability to measure deep and near-vertical features, especially those having a sidewall slope that cannot be reproduced accurately using conventional tips. Thirdly, carbon nanotubes exhibit high mechanical strength and flexibility and therefore will not break easily upon crashing into a sample surface, which is a fairly common accident in SPM. Fourthly, some carbon nanotubes are electrically conducting, which permits their use for high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Finally, carbon nanotubes can be chemically selectively modified by attaching organic (or other) molecules at their ends, which creates the possibility of using them as functional probes to detect a particular property or molecule of interest.
Multi-wall carbon nanotubes are somewhat larger in diameter than single-wall carbon nanotubes but they share many of the same properties, to varying degrees. Single-wall carbon nanotubes and multi-wall carbon nanotubes differ primarily in their diameter and morphology. A single-wall carbon nanotube can be thought of as a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms, arranged in the hexagonal graphitic crystal structure, that is rolled up and its edges joined seamlessly (edge atoms overlapping) to form a cylinder. A multi-wall carbon nanotube consists of two or more such concentric cylinders.
Closely related to carbon nanotubes are carbon nanofibers. Carbon nanofibers differ from single-wall carbon nanotubes and multi-wall carbon nanotubes mainly in their crystalline perfection, i.e. the graphite lattice contains many structural defects so that different layers (of a multi-walled fiber) can be either interrupted or joined to one another (or both types of defect can occur at different locations along the length or around the periphery of the fiber). One consequence of these defects is that the electrical properties of carbon nanofibers are not as good as for carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanofibers are synthesized at somewhat lower temperatures than carbon nanotubes and their lower growth temperature is responsible in part for these defects. However, we have recently demonstrated that carbon nanofibers also can be grown with sufficiently small diameter to be of interest for scanning probes. Furthermore, there may be future situations for which a low growth temperature is desirable, e.g. sufficiently low-temperature growth will be compatible with on-board electronic circuitry.
The advantages of carbon nanotubes as scanning probes have been demonstrated by placing carbon nanotubes at the end of a conventional Si tip. The carbon nanotubes were either attached to the tip by electrical and mechanical means in an optical or scanning electron microscope or were grown directly on a tip using conventional high-temperature chemical vapor deposition (CVD) along with catalytic pore formation. However, these procedures have a number of disadvantages: (a) the carbon nanotubes first must be grown at high temperatures and separated, cleaned and cut to length; (b) in most cases it is difficult to adjust the length of the nanotube tip and to obtain a strong, reliable attachment; and (c) these complicated manipulations of carbon nanotubes are impractical in an industrial environment or for large-scale production. See the following: Dai, H., J. H. Hafner, A. G. Rinzler, D. T. Colbert, and R. E. Smalley, Nature 384, 147 (1996); Nishijima, H., S. Kamo, Seiji Akita, Y. Nakayama, K. I. Hohmura, S. H. Yoshimura, and K. Takeyasu, (1999) Appl. Phys. Lett. 74, 4061; and Hafner, J. H., C. Li Cheung, and C. M. Lieber (1999) Nature 398, 761.
Accordingly, objects of the present invention include: provision of methods of fabricating carbon nanostructures, especially for use as scanning probe tips; methods of growing perpendicularly oriented carbon nanostructures directly on the tips of scanning probe cantilevers, nanowires, conductive micro/nanostructures, wafer substrates and the like, particularly with precise control of crucial tip parameters (shape, position and length) and mechanically very strong connections to the substrates. Further and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the description contained herein.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the foregoing and other objects are achieved by a method growing a carbon nanostructure, which includes the steps of:
a. providing a substrate;
b. depositing a catalyst dot onto the substrate; and
c. growing a carbon nanostructure on the catalyst dot.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, an article comprising a substrate having an adherent metal dot disposed thereon, the metal dot having a carbon nanostructure disposed thereon.

Catalyst-induced growth of carbon nanotubes on tips of cantilevers and nanowires


A new and distinct Kniphofia plant characterized by its numerous spikes of coral red flowers the first year, repeat blooming from June through September in Canby, Oreg., a compact habit with multiple crowns, narrow, grassy leaves, and excellent vigor.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct Kniphofia, and given the cultivar name is 'Redhot Popsicle'. Kniphofia is in the family Asphodelaceae. 'Redhot Popsicle' is a hybrid resulting from a planned breeding program to produce a series of compact, reblooming Kniphofia. The cross was made using the following proprietary, unreleased plants: Kniphofia 26-1, as the seed parent, and Kniphofia 20-1, as the pollen parent. It was selected for best habit, flower color, reblooming, and crown count from many seedlings of the cross in Canby, Oreg.
Compared to Kniphofia 'Bressingham Comet' (an unpatented plant), the new cultivar is more free flowering with red flowers rather than yellow to red orange flowers.
Compared to Kniphofia 'Nancy's Red' (an unpatented plant), the new cultivar is shorter and much more free flowering.


In a video processor for compression encoding a series of picture elements of video data (frames or fields) based on macroblocks in some of the video data, each macroblock consisting of up to a predetermined number, such as 16.times.16, of picture elements in each video datum, a buffer stores the picture elements of the video datum. Controlled by a control signal produced in responses to the video data, an address signal is generated to assign the picture elements of each macroblock to one of memory sequences in one of parallel accessible banks of a frame memory, which is preferably a synchronous DRAM. The banks are allotted to each macroblock and two macroblocks which are contiguous to this each macroblock in each video datum in each macroblock row and each macroblock column, respectively. In this manner, the banks are allotted, when two in number, to the macroblocks which are arranged in each video datum in a checkered pattern.

This invention relates to a video data arranging method for arranging macroblocks in a plurality of parallel accessible banks of a frame memory and to a video processor for processing macroblock by macroblock the video data by using the frame memory, wherein the frame memory is particularly an SDRAM (synchronous dynamic random access memory) capable of high-speed data transfer.
In the manner which will later be described in greater detail, a conventional video processor of this type comprises a video processing unit for compression encoding, as by an MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) scheme, the video data into an encoded bit stream based on macroblocks read from the frame memory. The MPEG scheme is featured by an appreciable decrease in an amount of information by the so-called motion compensation of using correlation among a succession of the video data, each of which may be a frame or a field. Although each macroblock should be a square area consisting in each video datum of sixteen by sixteen picture elements or pels in the MPEG scheme, no restriction is imposed therein on the manner of compression encoding. It is therefore possible to make the video processing unit have an optional structure even when the MPEG scheme is used.
Such a video processor is described in a paper presented by A. Ohtani and ten others to the IEEE 1995 Custom Integrated Circuit Conference, pages 405 to 408 or 17.4.1 to 17.4.4, under the title of "A Motion Estimation Processor for MPEG2 Video Real Time Encoding at Wide Search Range". In this paper, a search range input interface is described to a certain extent for use in generating an address signal of the frame memory consisting presumably of banks of the SDRAM. Such banks are, however, referred to merely as external Synchronous-DRAM's (SDRAM's) with no mention to their details.
In general, each bank of the frame memory comprises a plurality of memory sequences which may be memory rows consecutively arranged in memory columns and consist of memory cells serially given memory addresses, respectively, in each of the banks. As for the video data, each video datum comprises the macroblocks in macroblock rows and macroblock columns. Each macroblock comprises a plurality of picture element rows and a plurality of picture element columns, such as a matrix of sixteen picture element rows and sixteen picture element columns. Each picture element row is alternatively called a subblock which is used in the video processor as a signal burst having a burst length of sixteen picture elements and may consist of a plurality of words, such as four words. The video data are supplied to the video processor according to a raster scan and may be of the NTSC technique comprising luminance data Y, blue chrominance data Cb, and red chrominance data Cr. Amounts of data of such luminance and chrominance data are dependent on the manner of encoding and may be 4:4:4, 4:2:2, 4:2:0, or the like. Although specified in the MPEG scheme, each macroblock may have an area dependent on an efficiency of the motion compensation and an amount of overhead information of motion vectors which must somehow be searched in the macroblocks in order to implement the motion compensation. It will be surmised mainly throughout the following that the banks are two in number and are a bank A and another bank B.
In the conventional video processor described above, the picture elements of consecutive subblocks in each macroblock are assigned alternatingly to the banks A and B. More particularly, let a certain one of the macroblock consist of subblocks N, N+1, . . . , and N+15, where N represents an integer identifying the macroblock under consideration in one of the video data. In the video processor being described, a read or write command is issued cyclically to the banks, such as the banks A and B, to transfer the words of each subblock in connection as the signal burst.
It is possible to presume without loss of generality that the read or write command first indicates the memory address of one of the memory cells that is assigned in the bank A to a leading or leftmost picture element of the subblock N. Next, the read or write command indicates the memory address of one of the memory cells that is in the bank B for the leading picture element of the subblock N+1. For one of the macroblock that is under consideration, the read or write command eventually indicates in the bank B the memory addresses of a different one of the memory cells that is for the leading picture element of the subblock N+15. In this manner, the video data are wholly transferred as sixteen signal bursts in connection with the macroblock in question.
In connection with the two or more banks in general, it should be noted on accessing a specified one of the memory sequences leaving a preceding one of the memory sequences that the read or write command must be accompanied by an active command for preliminarily activating memory addresses of the specified one of the memory sequences. On accessing a succeeding one of the memory sequences leaving the specified one of the memory sequences, the read or write command must be accompanied by a precharge operation for subsequently precharging the specified one of the memory sequences. Alternatively, it is known to substitute a read or write auto-precharge command for a combination of the read or write command and the precharge command in automatically precharging the specified one of the memory sequences after read or write of the specified memory sequence.
It may be mentioned here that the video processor is kept in operation by a system clock of a clock period. Several clock periods are necessary in general for activation or precharge of the specified one of the memory sequences. On the other hand, it has been mandatory in the conventional video processor to change or switch a sequence or row address signal every time when the data transfer is completed in connection with each subblock of the macroblock. It has therefore been impossible with the conventional video processor to achieve a raised efficiency of the data transfer and to thereby provide a video data arranging method and a video processor which are of the type described before and are operable at a high speed.

Assign of pels of a macroblock for compression encoding to a memory sequence in one of banks of DRAM


A method and assembly for operating at least two lifting gears in a group operation, where each lifting gear has a hoist via which a respective cable or chain can be raised or lowered. The hoists are first operated in a synchronous operating mode to perform a common lifting procedure to move a load supported by the hoists. At least one of the hoists involved in the common lifting procedure is then deactivated to switch from the synchronous operation into an individual operation or a multi-operation, with at least one of the hoists remaining activated to carry out a lifting or lowering process relative to each deactivated hoist. A load value is then determined for the at least one deactivated hoist and compared to a predetermined threshold value of the at least one deactivated hoist.

The invention relates to a method for operating at least two lifting gears in a group operation, wherein each lifting gear has a hoist, via which a respective load picking-up means can be raised by a lifting procedure or can be lowered by a lowering procedure, in which group operation, in a synchronous operating mode, firstly a common lifting procedure is carried out by means of the at least two hoists in order to move a load fastened to the load picking-up means, after the common lifting procedure, for changing from the synchronous operation to an individual operation or a multi-operation, at least one of the hoists involved in the common lifting procedure is deactivated, and at least one of the involved hoists remains activated such that only each activated hoist can carry out a lifting procedure or lowering procedure relative to each deactivated hoist.
The invention also relates to an assembly comprising at least two lifting gears.
German laid-open document DE 10 2011 053 014 A1 describes a method for operating at least two lifting gears in a normal operation and in a group operation. Within the group operation, a tandem operation is possible, in which via a single control switch the hoists of both cranes can be operated synchronously and in this case can also be moved horizontally. Within the group operation, it is also possible to perform an individual operation, in which the cranes and in particular their hoists and load picking-up means can be moved individually relative to one another.
The tandem operation can cause critical operating states, such as e.g. an oblique position of the load, which require an individual operation for this to be rectified. Since in this case the distribution of the load to the hoists and load picking-up means supporting the load is changed, this can result in the hoist, which is deactivated for the individual operation, becoming overloaded and consequently can result in a load crashing down.
It is known that hoists have an overload safety device comprising a load sensor which determines a load value corresponding to a load acting upon the hoist during a lifting procedure, the determined load value is compared to a permissible threshold value and the lifting procedure is prevented if the determined load value exceeds the threshold value. However, such an overload safety device which detects and monitors hoists which are active merely during a lifting procedure, cannot detect the overloading of a deactivated hoist and cannot prevent an imminent crash of the load.
It is known from German laid-open document DE 31 47 158 A1 to prevent an oblique position of the load in the case of two crane hoists operated in a tandem operation. For this purpose, a sensor is arranged on a load cross-beam which is suspended on load picking-up means of the two crane hoists, said sensor being used to determine and evaluate the position of the load cross-beam. Since a hoist which is deactivated after the tandem operation can be overloaded even without a detectable oblique position of the load, an imminent crash of the load also cannot be reliably prevented by such a sensor.
It is known from German load-open document DE 10 2006 040 782 A1 to operate two rotary luffing cranes in each case in a normal operation and in this case to coordinate their mutually independent movements in order to be able to move a common load with both cranes. This is referred to as tandem operation in said document. A synchronous operation of the two cranes which is effected via a single control switch is not performed in this case. Instead, in a manner which is typical of a normal operation the controllers of the two cranes are active so that the crane operator of each crane can instigate movements of his crane. In this case, the overload safety devices of both cranes are integrated in order to ensure that movements of the first crane do not cause any overload states in the other crane. The movements of the rotary mechanism and of the luffing mechanism which are instigated by the respective crane operators in this coordinated normal operation are not carried out if one of the overload safety devices detects an overload. It is also described that the controller of one crane can be deactivated and the rotary mechanism and the luffing mechanism of this crane can be controlled from another crane.

Method for operating at least two lifting means in a group operation, and assembly comprising at least two lifting means


An improved floral scissors assembly includes a clamping jaw extended from a top end of a first handle, a blade, a second handle pivotally coupled to the bottom of the clamping jaw, a long hole formed on the blade, plural stop protrusions formed in the long hole, and a link rod installed between the second handle and the blade. The link rod has an end extended into the long hole by a stop pin and the other end coupled to a switching mechanism including a slice member and a stop portion. The stop portion is situated at an upper or lower fixed position. An active end of the link rod is switchably limited by the stop portion at the upper or lower fixed position, and the stop pin is moved in an opposite direction of the active end and between the upper and lower ends in the long hole.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved floral scissors assembly, in particular to a pair of garden scissors assembly switchable to a multi-stage type or a single-stage type.
2. Description of the Related Art
In FIG. 12, a conventional floral scissors assembly comprises two handles 90, 91, a clamping jaw 92 and a blade 93, and the clamping jaw 92 is combined to the handle 90, and the blade 93 is coupled to the handle 91, such that when a user holds the two handles 90, 91 by hands to apply a force, the two handles 90, 91 approach each other to move a cutting-edge portion 930 of the blade 93 in a direction towards the clamping jaw 92 to cut stems or branches of flowers and trees.
The conventional floral scissors assembly comes with a labor-saving structure, wherein the blade 93 has a long hole 931 formed at another end of the cutting-edge portion 930, and the long hole 931 has a plural sections of stop protrusions 932, and the handle 91 coupled to the blade 93 is extended into the long hole 931 through an end of a link rod 910 by a stop pin 911. In FIG. 13, when a user holds the handles 90, 91 to apply a force, the stop pin 911 in the long hole 931 is moved from the bottom end and across the stop protrusion 932 to the top end, so as to provide a labor-saving effect for a multi-stage shear.
However, if the conventional floral scissors are used for cutting softer branches, the conventional floral scissors need not to leverage the labor-saving effect since the branches are soft, and the labor-saving effect may take more time for the cutting. In other words, the conventional floral scissors cannot cut the branches quickly by a single-stage operation, and the design of the conventional floral scissors capable of switching to a single-stage operation has a certain level of difficulty.


A navigation beacon controls movement of a mobile robot in first and second areas. The navigation beacon includes a portable housing, a power source, and an emitter. The emitter is operable to emit a gateway marking emission when the robot is within a field of detection that extends between the areas. The gateway marking emission is detectable by the robot and prevents the robot from moving from one of the areas, through the field of detection, to the other of the areas. A switch is operable to switch the navigation beacon to be in an OFF mode in which the gateway beacon emitter is in an OFF state, a confinement mode in which the gateway beacon emitter is in an ON state, and a navigation mode in which the gateway beacon emitter is in the ON state and automatically switches to the OFF state in response to a predetermined condition.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to robots, and more particularly to autonomous coverage robots and associated navigation systems.
2. Background
Autonomous robots are robots which can perform desired tasks in unstructured environments without continuous human guidance. Many kinds of robots are autonomous to some degree. Different robots can be autonomous in different ways. An autonomous coverage robot traverses a work surface without continuous human guidance to perform one or more tasks. In the field of home, office and/or consumer-oriented robotics, mobile robots that perform household functions such as vacuum cleaning, floor washing, patrolling, lawn cutting and other such tasks have been widely adopted.

Autonomous coverage robot navigation system


An electronic book display control device capable of solving the problem of a conventional page turning method of an electronic book device that pages are turned in accordance with a value predetermined by a speed controller and hence it is difficult to turn pages flexibly in accordance with the contents of the book and the characteristics of the user. The control device is provided with a CPU (1) which controls the whole device, an image data storage unit (2) in which the contents of the book are stored as image data, an image data control unit (3) which receives the image data and performs the required control, a display preparation image data memory unit (4) in which image data of the page being displayed and the page to be displayed next are stored, and a display unit (5) on which information concerning the image data and information concerning the operation of the electronic book are displayed. The data displayed on the display unit at a specific time in a page turning period are stored in a page turning data memory unit (9) and the column information of the page turning data is stored in a column information storage table (10). In accordance with the column information, the address of the display preparation image data memory unit (4) and the image data on the page being displayed and the page to be displayed next are selected by a display changeover control unit (11).

Prior arts relating to electronic book display control methods for changing display scenes just like turning pages of a printed book are disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 64-86191 and 2-181864. The former provides an electronic book device that has a control portion including a memory for storing two kinds of images, two selectors and a speed controller and can changeover a display image just as it turns a page of the book by presenting a next image on a part of a display area of a preceding image and by gradually increasing the next image and finally displaying a full image on a full screen. The latter provides a user-friendly electronic book device that has a book-contour display portion to display a contour image of the book and open the book when the user points a position on a fore-edge of the book and giving the user a feeling of reading the book by changing the thickness of the fore-edge of the book displayed on the display portion.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-53726 describes a display tablet device that detects a trace, a direction and a speed of movement of a pen on a display screen by an input detector.
With a display device for displaying a plurality of data-recorded sheets such as data of plural document pages and image data of a image filing device, one may often change in succession display images to search objective data. In this instance, if display data is fully displayed every time, high-speed changeover of data images cannot be realized and the retrieving efficiency is decreased. In view of the above, an image filing device disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1-269174 performs the retrieval of objective data in a data image memory in such a manner that a part area of data being displayed on the screen is designated first by the user, the data is then retrieved from the specified data area in the image data memory and displayed by repeating the above cycle of retrieval operations to find the objective data. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 4-120670 also discloses such a method that original image data and contracted data of the original image are stored in a memory device, contracted data is read in retrievaling and displayed in succession like turning pages at a high speed.
However, methods disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publications No.64-86191 and No. 2-181864 have such drawbacks that the display is controlled according to the data calculated by the speed controller and hence it is difficult to flexibly change the speed of display in accordance with the type and contents of data stored in a memory. For example, it is impossible to change a display image just as turning of a page of the book in spread state. The both systems have the limit to its display control and cannot realize, in this sense, a display that is so called friendly to users.
The above systems can turn pages at a specified display speed calculated by its controller and hence cannot control the display speed in accordance with the contents of data to be displayed or skip a page.
The system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-53726 involves such a problem that it requires, besides display memory, the provision of an additional image-memory whose capacity is two times larger than the display area.
The system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1-269174 has no consideration of a method for storing display data necessary for changing page images at a high speed and hence requires time for turning pages.
The system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 4-120670 has to store a large number of data because the contracted images preliminarily registered include redundant data.
Furthermore, the above systems cannot be adapted to turning pages of a recent available document whose pages may include various kinds of data such as characters, pictures, audio signals and moving pictures on one page.
To solve the above problems involved in the prior arts, the present invention is intended to provide a display changeover control portion including a table for storing column information necessary for turning pages and means for selecting addresses of a display preparation image data storage portion and image data of a current display page and a next display page from the column information, which can control the display speed flexibly in accordance with image data to be displayed, realizing changeover of display images just as turning pages of a printed book.
To solve the problem involved in the prior arts, the present invention also aims at saving of an image data memory capacity to a half the memory capacity of the prior art devices by providing a data latch for reading image data from the display image data storage portion and temporally storing it.
Another object of the present invention is to realize high-speed turning of pages by storing information of a display image sequence in a high-speed read-only memory.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a data structure and a reproduction display device that can perform high-speed changeover of display images.

Display control device and reproduction display device for electronic books


A flow straightening vane made of composite materials includes a core made up of three-dimensional woven textile rods which core is surrounded by a textile covering, this core and this covering being consolidated using a thermoset resin.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
As shown in FIG. 1, a propulsion unit of a dual-flow turbojet engine comprises typically an outer structure 1 including an upstream part 3 forming an air inlet, an intermediate part 5, the inner skin 6 of which forms a casing for the blower 7 of the engine, and a downstream part 9 which can incorporate reversing thrust means.
This nacelle further includes an inner structure 11 having a fairing 13 of the engine 15.
The volume delimited in particular by the inner skin 6 of the outer structure 1 and by the fairing 13 of the inner structure 11, defines an annular air vein 17, often referred to as "cold air vein", as opposed to the hot air generated by the engine 15.
The blower 7 consists of a propeller provided with blades 19, rotationally mounted on a rotating shaft connected to and centered on a bearing 21, the bearing 21 is connected to the blower casing 6 by a set of transverse structure 25 identified in FIG. 1, radially extending in the cold air vein 17, such as structural arms able to be distributed to 90 or 120 degrees, for example.
In this same cold air vein 17 is located a flow straightening structure comprising flow straightening vanes 23, also called OGV "Outlet Guide Vanes", allowing to straighten backward the cold air flow generated by the blower 7.
Concepts in which the wheel of the vanes OGV replaces the structural arms, providing thus the two functions of flow straightening and of connecting the bearing 21 to the blower casing 6 are also known.
Wheels OGV called structural in which the OGVs are metallic are thus known.
Nonstructural composite wheels OGV associated with the metallic structural arms are also known.
The design of composite and structural OGVs, allowing thus to totally or partially overcome structural arms, presents a significant challenge to design and produce the fasteners of these vanes at their ends and the structure continuity of these fasteners with the body of the vanes.

Aircraft engine air flow straightening vane and associated flow straightening structure


Systems and methods for processing encoded messages within a wireless communications system are disclosed. A server within the wireless communications system performs signature verification of an encoded message and provides, together with the message, an indication to the mobile device that the message has been verified. In addition, the server provides supplemental information, such as, for example, a hash of the certificate or certificate chain used to verify the message, to the device, to enable the device to perform additional checks on the certificate, such as, for example, validity checks, trust checks, strength checks, or the like.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an electronic messaging system that is capable of processing encoded messages and information. In particular, the disclosure is directed to a system in which an electronic message server performs at least a portion of the verification functions typically performed by a mobile wireless communications device having secure electronic messaging capability, wherein the electronic message server, in addition to providing an indication of whether a message has been verified by the server, provides information to the mobile wireless communications device so that the device can perform additional trust, validity and strength checks, or the like.
2. Related Art
Exchanging cryptographically encoded secure electronic messages and data, such as, for example, e-mail messages, is well known. In many known electronic message exchange schemes, signatures, encryption or both are commonly used to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of information being exchanged between a sender and a recipient of the electronic messages. In an e-mail system, for example, the sender of an e-mail message may either sign the message, encrypt the message or both sign and encrypt the message. These actions may be performed using well-known standards, such as, for example, Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME), Pretty Good Privacy™ (PGP™), OpenPGP, and numerous other secure e-mail standards.
In general, secure e-mail messages are relatively large. For example, S/MIME can increase the size of an e-mail message by a factor of ten or more in some situations. This size augmentation presents difficulties, especially in devices that have a limit on the size of a message that can be processed, such as, for example, a mobile wireless communications device. Such a device may also experience difficulty handling a message wherein only a portion of the message has been transferred to the device because of the above-mentioned size limitations.
For example, if a message is larger than the size limit of the device, then the entire message will never reach the device. If this large message is a signed or encoded message, then all the data required to verify the signature may not be sent to the device, and thus, the device may not be able to verify the signature.
Exemplary solutions wherein an electronic message server performs some or all of the verification functions typically performed by the device are described in co-pending, commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/914,634 entitled "Server Verification of Secure Electronic Messages" and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/916,098, entitled "System and Method for Processing Encoded Messages," the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. In these applications, various systems and methods for providing server-based verification of electronic messages are described. Typically, these solutions provide an indication to a device that a message or digital signature appended to the message has been verified by the server. Additionally, these solutions may provide partial processing of a large electronic message to assist the device in completing its own verification process. As a further enhancement to these solutions, it is envisioned that additional information may be provided to the device so that the device can perform additional trust, validity and strength checks, or the like, on the message, if the user desires.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for updating message trust status


An applicator device for a liquid, powder or pasty material includes a housing having a foil cartridge therein containing the liquid, powder or pasty material, and an ejector device is slidably mounted on the housing to provide for squeezing out the material from the foil cartridge for application at a desired site.

The invention relates to an applicator device for liquid, powdered or pasty composition with an applicator, through which the composition that is in a dispenser cartridge can exit under the action of a metering element, especially for cosmetic and medical applications.
Such applicator devices are already known in widely differing branches of technology, for example in the form of tooth brushes with toothpaste accommodated in the handle, shaving brushes, shoe polishing brushes, or also nail polish brushes, which are screwed to the front of a dispenser bottle.
In the simplest cases, the liquid is discharged simply by inverting the device so that the liquid can flow out forwardly through the applicator. Apart from the fact that this can function reliably only for low-viscosity composition, such a procedure has the disadvantage that a meaningful seal is not possible and that the liquid can thus also run out unintentionally, causing considerable soiling. This is intolerable especially in cosmetic applications where such applicator devices are carried, for example, in a handbag. Furthermore, there are already metering devices, such as pistons for expelling the composition which can be moved through the cartridge by means of a screw displacement mechanism. Apart from the complicated mechanism, which is not well suited for simple mass-produced articles, this type of metering also has the disadvantage that complicated dispenser cartridges are needed.


In order to weld a reinforcing tape piece formed of a synthetic resin to a separable bottom stop attachment portion of a slide fastener chain by ultrasonic heating over a core portion and a main tape portion in a fastener tape, a welding time and/or an amplitude which are/is suitable for welding the reinforcing tape piece to the core portion and the vicinity of the core portion, and a welding time and/or an amplitude which are/is suitable for welding the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion are preset respectively. The welding of the reinforcing tape piece to the core portion and the vicinity of the core portion and the welding of the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion are carried out in two stages in accordance with the welding time or the amplitude which is set.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for welding a reinforcing tape formed of a synthetic resin to a portion to which the separable bottom stop of a slide fastener chain is to be attached over the core portion of a fastener tape and a main tape portion by ultrasonic heating.
2. Description of the Related Art
A space portion (a tool lacking portion) for attaching an upper stopper and a separable bottom stop is intermittently formed in a fastener chain for a slide fastener having the separable bottom stop. The separable bottom stop is attached to the space portion. Before the separable bottom stop is attached, a reinforcing tape piece formed of a synthetic resin is usually bonded to the separable bottom stop attachment portion of the fastener chain, thereby giving a reinforcement.
The reinforcing tape piece is bonded in such a configuration as to hold opposed tape side edges in the space portion of the fastener chain, and a core cord is woven into each of the opposed side edges of the fastener chain and they are therefore thick. When the whole reinforcing tape piece is simultaneously bonded to a thick portion and a flat portion by pressure, wrinkles and air bubbles to cause a separation remain. Furthermore, the bonding configuration of the reinforcing tape piece is apt to be broken. In order to solve the problem, the reinforcing tape piece is bonded and integrated in two stages as described in JP-B-62-54001 and JP-B-63-40085, for example.
In JP-B-62-54001, for example, a reinforcing tape piece is provided orthogonally to the space portion of a fastener chain for each transfer stop period of each fastener chain, the upper and lower edges of the reinforcing tape piece are bent and the reinforcing piece is held from the inside and outside of the space portion. A core cord portion held by the reinforcing tape piece and a tape portion in the vicinity thereof are then pressurized and heated from the inside and outside to bond a part of the reinforcing tape piece to the core cord portion, and subsequently, the reinforcing tape piece provided adjacently to the bonding region and the non-bonding region of the tape portion are pressurized and heated from the inside and outside to completely bond and integrate both of them.
In JP-B-63-40085, moreover, a reinforcing tape piece having a constant dimension which is formed of a thermoplastic synthetic resin is caused to abut across the opposed edges of left and right fastener tapes from both upper and lower sides of a reinforcing tape attachment portion in the space portion of a slide fastener chain. The reinforcing tape piece is interposed by pressure between an ultrasonic horn and an anvil. The ultrasonic horn includes a straight concave groove in a portion corresponding to the core cords of the left and right fastener tapes and a cutting blade on the outer end of the core cord. The anvil includes a straight concave groove in a portion corresponding to the core cord and a cutting blade on the outer end of the core cord in the same manner. Then, an ultrasonic processing is carried out and the reinforcing tape piece is welded to the outer periphery of the core cords of the left and right fastener tapes and a tape portion in the vicinity thereof, and at the same time, the reinforcing tape piece provided between the opposed core cords is cut out and the residual portion of the reinforcing tape piece is then welded to the both faces of each of the left and right fastener tapes by pressurization and heating.
On the other hand, for example, JP-B-2-35661 and JP-A-63-315223 have disclosed the control method for welding, which utilizes an ultrasonic vibration in which the temperature of a horn is detected to control the amplitude of the ultrasonic vibration of the horn. In the control method, control is carried out such that a temperature detecting element, for example, a thermistor is attached to a presser tool or a receiving portion to detect a temperature, and the amplitude of the ultrasonic vibration is increased if the temperature is low and the amplitude is reduced if the temperature is high. Moreover, as disclosed in JP-A-62-140823 and JP-A-5-299480, for example, the temperature of an ultrasonic horn including a heating device such as a heater is detected and the heating device is controlled to maintain the temperature of the horn to be constant.
According to each of the bonding (welding) techniques for the reinforcing tape piece disclosed in JP-B-62-54001 and JP-B-63-40085, the core cord portion of a fastener tape and a tape portion in the vicinity thereof is are welded to be held by a reinforcing tape piece in a first stage and the residual non-welding region of the reinforcing tape piece is welded to the fastener tape in a second stage so that integration is carried out in two stages. In JP-B-62-54001, development has been carried out on the assumption that the reinforcing tape piece is bonded to the space portion of the fastener chain through an adhesive in the two stages, and the bonding (welding) can be carried out by heating and welding using a heater if a thermoplastic synthetic resin material is used for the reinforcing tape piece. On the other hand, in JP-B-63-40085, ultrasonic welding means is employed in a first stage and heating and welding means using an ordinary heater is employed in a second stage.
As described above, it is necessary to strictly control a heating temperature and a processing time for the welding using the heater. If either of them is lessened, a bonding failure is caused. If either of them is excessive, the reinforcing tape piece enters the fastener tape in a fusing state. Consequently, the fastener tape is caused to be fragile and excessively rigid so that it might be bent or damaged easily. In addition, the welding using heater heating takes a longer time for the processing as compared with general ultrasonic welding. As disclosed in JP-B-63-40085, for example, in the case in which a welding step using the heater heating is to be carried out after the ultrasonic welding, a difference is made on the processing time. If the heating temperature of the heater is increased to match the difference in the processing time with an ultrasonic welding time in order to prevent a separation from being caused by a bonding failure, excessive heating is generally apt to be caused so that a welding portion becomes rigid and fragile. In the case in which the heating is carried out by the heater, furthermore, an air bubble is easily generated between a core cord portion and a main tape portion.
On the other hand, in the case in which a reinforcing tape piece is to be bonded to the space portion of a fastener tape of this kind, the holding configuration of the reinforcing tape piece is to be usually arranged uniformly by molding as well as welding in order to decide the configuration of the core cord portion. On the other hand, it is sufficient that the bonding of the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion of the fastener tape is simply carried out without changing a surface configuration thereof as long as a bonding strength is maintained. In the welding to be carried out by the ultrasonic heating under the proper conditions, only a welded surface is fused and bonded by internal heating. Consequently, a processed surface is finished finely without a deformation.
If the core cord portion of the fastener tape and the main tape portion are to be welded at the same time by using a single ultrasonic horn and a single anvil as disclosed in JP-A-5-299480, an ultrasonic oscillation is carried out with the same amplitude in an equal time for the core cord portion of the fastener tape and the main tape portion during the welding. On the other hand, it is desirable that the pressing force of the molded surfaces of the ultrasonic horn and the anvil for the core cord portion of the fastener tape at time of the ultrasonic vibration should be smaller than the pressing force of the molded surfaces of the ultrasonic horn and the anvil for the main tape portion of the fastener tape because the pressing and molding is carried out at the same time as described above.
However, conventionally, the pressed surfaces of the ultrasonic horn and the anvil are set to be lightly held with respect to the fastener tape and are set to be strongly pressed in order to obtain a predetermined sectional configuration with respect to the core cord portion. When the ultrasonic welding is carried out with the same amplitude in an equal time with such a configuration of the pressed surface, an excessive energy is given to the core cord portion having the great pressing force. As a result, the reinforcing tape piece portion of the core cord portion is greatly fused so that the core cord portion becomes rigid and fragile in many cases.
The invention has been made to solve the conventional problems and has an object to provide a welding method in which a core cord portion and a main tape portion are welded by ultrasonic heating under proper conditions respectively in order to weld a reinforcing tape piece to the space portion of a fastener chain and a welding apparatus therefor.
The object can be attained effectively by an ultrasonic welding method for welding a reinforcing tape to a fastener tape having a main structure according to a first aspect of the invention.
The structure is characterized by a method for welding a reinforcing tape piece formed of a synthetic resin to a separable bottom stop attachment portion of a slide fastener chain by ultrasonic heating over a core portion and a main tape portion in a fastener tape, including the steps of setting a welding time and/or an amplitude which are/is suitable for welding the reinforcing tape piece to the core portion and the vicinity of the core portion, and a welding time and/or an amplitude which are/is suitable for welding the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion, and welding the reinforcing tape piece to the core portion and the vicinity of the core portion and welding the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion based on the welding time or the amplitude which is set.
As fifth and ninth aspects, moreover, the invention related to a suitable welding apparatus for carrying out the invention related to the method is characterized by an ultrasonic horn and an anvil having outer configurations of the core portion and the main tape portion in the fastener tape in the separable bottom stop attachment portion of the slide fastener chain, and a control portion connected to an ultrasonic vibrator connected to the ultrasonic horn and having a time and/or amplitude setting portion capable of setting a suitable welding time and/or amplitude for welding the reinforcing tape piece to the core portion and the vicinity of the core portion and a suitable welding time and/or amplitude for welding the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion respectively. In the invention, accordingly, the expected object can be attained by only setting one of the welding time and the amplitude, and both the welding time and the amplitude can also be set at the same time.
With such a structure, the reinforcing tape piece and the core portion and the main tape portion in the fastener tape in the separable bottom stop attachment portion of the slide fastener chain are subjected to the ultrasonic welding under proper conditions respectively. Therefore, the core portion can be prevented from being fragile and rigid and the main tape portion can be prevented from being welded insufficiently, and furthermore, the reinforcing tape piece can be prevented from separating from the main tape portion during the use of the slide fastener. Moreover, the ultrasonic welding is carried out under the proper conditions. Therefore, an air bubble generated on the welded surface is efficiently removed out by an ultrasonic vibration. Consequently, the air bubble can be prevented from remaining on the welded surface so that finishing can be carried out with a high transparency.
As a second aspect of the invention, it is preferable that the welding time or amplitude which is suitable for welding the reinforcing tape piece to the core portion and the vicinity of the core portion should be set to be smaller than the welding time or amplitude which is suitable for welding the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion. Whether the ultrasonic welding is carried out properly depends on the welding time, the pressing force and the amplitude. As described above, the core portion is to be molded to have a desirable section simultaneously with the welding of the reinforcing tape piece. Therefore, the pressing force to be applied to the core portion is greater than the pressing force to be applied to the main tape portion. For example, in the case in which the welding times for the core portion and the main tape portion are set to be equal to each other, the amplitude of the core portion is set to be smaller corresponding to the greater pressing force. In the case in which the amplitudes are set to be equal to each other, moreover, the welding time of the core portion is set to be shorter than the welding time of the main tape portion.
Third and fourth aspects of the invention are directed to the welding method wherein the welding of the reinforcing tape piece to the core portion and the main tape portion in the vicinity of the core portion and the welding of the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion are carried out independently and separately or the reinforcing tape piece is welded to the main tape portion and the main tape portion and the reinforcing tape piece are successively welded to the core portion and the main tape portion in the vicinity of the core portion at the same time.
Accordingly, as a sixth aspect of the invention, for example, the ultrasonic horn is formed by a single horn and the anvil is provided with a first anvil for supporting a pair of core portions and a pair of main tape portions in the vicinity of the core portions in the slide fastener chain and a pair of second anvils for supporting the main tape portions to be operable independently each other.
In this case, as a seventh aspect of the invention, for example, it is desirable that the control portion should further include a sequence control portion for moving the second anvil to a welding position to hold the reinforcing tape piece and the main tape portion together with the ultrasonic horn and for operating the ultrasonic vibrator for the set time to heat and weld the reinforcing tape piece and to then move the second anvil to a standby position and for moving the first anvil to a welding position to hold the reinforcing tape piece, the pair of core portions and the main tape portions in the vicinity of the core portions together with the ultrasonic horn and for operating the ultrasonic vibrator for the set time to heat and weld the reinforcing tape piece and to then move the second anvil to the standby position.
As an eighth aspect of the invention, for example, the control portion can further include a sequence control portion for moving the second anvil to a welding position to hold the reinforcing tape piece and the main tape portion together with the ultrasonic horn and for operating the ultrasonic vibrator for the set time to move the first anvil to the welding position in the middle of heating and welding for the reinforcing tape piece and to hold the reinforcing tape piece, the pair of core portions and the main tape portions in the vicinity of the core portions together with the ultrasonic horn, thereby heating and welding the reinforcing tape piece in a residual operating time together with the main tape portion and then moving the first and second anvils to the standby position.
More specifically, according to the seventh aspect of the invention, the welding of the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion and the welding of the reinforcing tape piece to the core portion and the main tape portion in the vicinity of the core portion are carried out separately in accordance with each set time. According to the eighth aspect of the invention, the welding of the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion and the welding of the reinforcing tape piece to the core portion and the main tape portion in the vicinity of the core portion are carried out continuously by utilizing a difference between the set times.
In the case in which the control portion includes the amplitude setting portion, as a tenth aspect of the invention, the ultrasonic horn is formed by a single horn and the anvil is provided with a first anvil for supporting a pair of core portions and a pair of main tape portions in the vicinity of the core portions in the slide fastener chain and a pair of second anvils for supporting the main tape portions to be operable independently each other. The control portion further includes an operation indicating portion for operating an ultrasonic horn with the corresponding set amplitude when holding the reinforcing tape piece, the pair of core portions and the main tape portions in the vicinity of the core portions by the ultrasonic horn and the first anvil, and for operating the ultrasonic horn with the corresponding set amplitude when holding the reinforcing tape piece and the main tape portion between the ultrasonic horn and the second anvil. In this case, the single horn is operated with a change into each preset amplitude and the first or second anvil is operated to the welding position corresponding to the operating amplitude of the horn, thereby sequentially carrying out the welding of the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion and the welding of the reinforcing tape piece to the core portion and the main tape portion in the vicinity of the core portion.
As an eleventh aspect of the invention, moreover, the ultrasonic horn includes a first horn for exciting the core portions and the main tape portions in the vicinity of the core portions in the slide fastener chain and a second horn for exciting the main tape portion. The anvil is provided with a first anvil opposite to the first horn and a second anvil opposite to the second horn to be operable independently each other, and the control portion further includes an operation indicating portion for operating an ultrasonic horn with the corresponding set amplitude when holding the reinforcing tape piece, the pair of core portions and the main tape portions in the vicinity of the core portions by the first horn and the first anvil, and for operating the second horn with the corresponding set amplitude when holding the reinforcing tape piece and the main tape portion between the second horn and the second anvil.
More specifically, according to a tenth aspect of the invention, the single horn is operated in accordance with the two preset amplitudes and the first or second anvil is moved according to each set amplitude, and the welding of the reinforcing tape piece to the main tape portion and the welding of the reinforcing piece to the core portion and the main tape portion in the vicinity of the core portion are carried out separately in accordance with each set time. According to a eleventh aspect of the invention, the reinforcing tape piece, the core portion and the main tape portion in the vicinity of the core portion are welded to each other with the set amplitude between the first horn and the first anvil which are operated with the set amplitude, and the reinforcing tape piece and the main tape portion are welded to each other between the second horn and the second anvil which are operated with different set amplitudes.

Ultrasonic welding method and apparatus for welding reinforcing tape piece to fastener tape


A detergent composition comprising an alkylsaccharide surface active agent and a silicone derivative is disclosed. The composition can produce fine, slippery, creamy foam, imparts the least irritation to the skin and hair, a tense, slippery feeling to the hair, and a light, refreshing feeling to the skin. The detergent composition thus can be favorably used as a shampoo and a body shampoo.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a detergent composition which can favorably be used as a shampoo, skin cleanser, and the like, and more particularly, to a detergent composition which can produce fine, slippery, creamy foam. It imparts the least irritation to the skin and hair, and, at the same time, a tense, slippery feeling to the hair, and a light, smooth feeling to the skin.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventional detergents such as shampoos contain anionic surface active agents, e.g. alkyl sulfate, polyoxyethylene alkyl sulfate, as their major components. Such anionic surface active agents, however, are known to damage the skin and the hair, since the hair and horny layers to be washed are made up of keratinous protein which are liable to be denatured by anionic surface active agents.
Nonionic type shampoos has been introduced as a product which cause less damages to the hair (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 13609/1978). Polyoxyethylene sorbitan ester (TWEEN) and alkyl glycoside are proposed as nonionic surface active agents used in the shampoo. The foam produced by nonionic surface active agents, however, is not necessarily sufficient in terms of both the amount and the quality. That is to say, the foam is coarse and less slippery. Alkylsaccharides are known as nonionic surfactants having better foaming capability. The foam, however, does not satisfy the basic quality requirements, imparting a creaky feeling upon use. Alkylsaccharides thus are not necessarily satisfactory surface active agents for shampoos and body shampoos.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide, with due consideration to the drawbacks of such conventional shampoos and the like, a detergent composition which imparts the least damages to the skin and produces fine, smooth, slippery foam.

Mild liquid aqueous detergent compositions containing an alkylsaccharide surface active agent and a silicone derivative


Data bits are mapped to a lower number of slots than the number of slots available for a retransmission frame and control channels are transmitted in all available slots of the retransmission frame. The number of available slots in the retransmission frame is greater than the number of available slots in the original frame.

Described below is a method of retransmitting an original frame, in particular for enhanced uplink channel (E-DCH) for 3rd generation project partnership (3GPP) frequency division duplex (FDD).
Proposals have been made that in E-DCH retransmission of a data transmission for enhanced dedicated physical data channel (E-DPDCH), where at least one of the original transmission or the retransmission is in compressed mode, should be on the basis that the mapping of data to slots is unchanged, so that if a retransmission frame has more available slots than in the original transmission, no more of them are used than were used for the original transmission and the remaining slots are subject to discontinuous transmission (DTX).
It has also been assumed that the same method should be followed for retransmission of the enhanced dedicated physical control channel (E-DPCCH).

Method of re-transmitting an original frame


A control method for an electronic device, an electronic device and a computer-readable storage medium are provided. The electronic device includes a transparent display screen and an infrared sensor. The transparent display screen includes a display area. The infrared sensor is stacked below the display area. The infrared sensor is configured to emit infrared light and receive infrared light reflected by an object to detect a distance between the object and the electronic device. The control method includes: acquiring an ambient brightness of the electronic device when the infrared sensor is turned on; determining whether the ambient brightness is less than a preset brightness, and controlling the infrared sensor to operate at a first predetermined power in a case that the ambient brightness is less than the preset brightness. The first predetermined power is less than a rated power of the infrared sensor.

In a case that an infrared sensor is stacked below a display screen, electrons in the TFT substrate of the display screen are excited, and flickering of the display screen is caused due to infrared light emitted by the infrared sensor, which results in interference with the normal display of the display screen.

Control method for electronic device, electronic device, computer-readable storage medium

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.