A portable cable splicing stand comprises a longitudinally elongated base frame arranged to be supported above a ground surface as by removable leg members. A pair of adjustably spaced apart upright members extend vertically from the base frame, and each supports a chain vise arranged to receive and clamp between them a desired length of cable to be spliced. One of the chain vises is mounted on the frame for rotation about the axis of the cable so that with a cable clamped by the vises, rotation of the one vise in the direction opposite the windings of the cable untwists the cable between the vises and opens spaces between the individual strands so that the terminal ends of individual cable strands may be woven therethrough easily and without significant effort. A ratchet assembly engages the rotatable vise mount to releasably lock the assembly against reverse rotation of the vise when the cable is in tensioned condition. A bale assembly is provided adjacent the non-rotating vise to assist in confining a length of cable and maintaining it in a position closely adjacent the chain vise to facilitate handling of the cable while engaging the vise particularly in forming closed loop end splices with large diameter cables.

This invention relates to devices arranged to loosen the twisted strands of a length of cable and secure the loosened cable in a stationary position while the length of cable is being spliced, and more particularly, this invention provides a portable cable splicing vise stand which is configured to permit one man to accomplish a cable splice without assistance even in remote areas such as logging fields.
Although some cable splicing vises have been known in the art, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,724,986 and 826,766, no device have been known heretofore in the art which secures a length of cable and provides means by which the cable may be easily untwisted in order to permit a conventional cable splice to be undertaken.
It has heretofore been conventional, in a logging field for example, for a cable splice to be accomplished by spiking a cable to a log or stump with railroad spikes, and driving a marlin spike through the cable between the strands in order to open spaces in the intermediate portion of the cable so that a person can "weave" cable strands between the openings in portion of the cable. One can certainly appreciate the difficulty in the foregoing operation when one considers the effort required to accomplish this operation with a tightly woven cable of an inch or 11/2 larger in diameter, with each individual strand being 3/8ths inch or more in diameter. Heretofore in the art, nothing known to the applicant has been provided which substitutes for or assists with the foregoing splicing operation in the field.


A private branch exchange (PBX) or other communication system switch is configured to establish connections for at least first and second calls associated with an external endpoint, using respective first and second trunks. Upon detection of a voice path connection between the first and second calls in a network external to the switch, the switch conferences the first and second calls together within the switch and drops at least one of the trunk connections. The switch may detect the voice path connection using an active approach in which a designated signal is generated on one of the first and second trunks and a determination is made as to whether the designated signal is detected on the other trunk. As another example, the switch may detect the voice path connection using a passive approach which involves monitoring the first and second trunks to determine whether they are connected in the external network.

Conventional communication system switches, such as private branch exchanges (PBXs) and other premises-based telephone switches, generally support a wide variety of useful features, such as bridged call appearances, hunt groups, call forwarding, navigable directories, multi-call conferencing, etc.
However, these and other switch-based features are typically provided only to those user terminals that represent internal extensions within the premises serviced by the switch. As a result, a user terminal associated with an external network is generally unable to avail itself of the full set of features supported by the switch.
By way of example, a mobile telephone or other mobile device representing a given external endpoint of the system generally cannot be treated as an internal extension of a conventional switch. A call directed from an internal extension of the switch to the given endpoint therefore must be processed as any other call to an endpoint of an external network, even if the given external endpoint is a device known to be associated with a user of an internal extension of the switch.
It is known in the art to implement call forwarding routines that will allow a call directed from one internal extension to another to be forwarded to a designated mobile telephone or other endpoint of an external network. However, in conventional call forwarding, the designated mobile telephone is not treated as if it were an internal extension serviced by the switch, and is generally unable to access many desirable features of the switch. Conventional switches are thus typically unable to extend switch-based features to such a call in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Techniques for addressing this problem are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/908,155 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Treating Externally-Originated Calls as Coming from Internal Switch Extensions," and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/908,156 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Extending Calls to Internal Switch Extensions out to External Network Endpoints," both filed Jul. 18, 2001 in the name of inventor Stephen M. Milton, commonly assigned herewith and incorporated by reference herein. Advantageously, these techniques allow mobile telephones and other external system endpoints to access premises-based communication switch features in a manner similar to an internal extension serviced by the switch.
As described in the above-cited U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/908,156, it is possible for a single external endpoint, such as an endpoint referred to therein as an "Xmobile" endpoint, to support simultaneously multiple calls each associated with a different trunk. As a more particular example, it is possible for the switch to be configured such that two calls may be directed to a given registered external endpoint using two different trunks, each associated with a different external port of the switch. However, such an arrangement generally utilizes the two different trunks even under a conference or transfer condition in which an external voice connection is established between the two trunk calls in an external network, e.g., an external wireless cellular network.
Therefore, despite the considerable advantages provided by the techniques described the above-cited applications, a need remains for further improvements in switch-based call processing, particularly with regard to the handling of multiple trunks associated with calls supported by a single external endpoint.

Switch-based call processing with detection of voice path connection between multiple trunks in external network


A pneumatic nail gun has a gun body having a main air housing; a cylinder fixed in the main air housing; a hitting piston slidably movable in the cylinder; a dish-shaped piston disposed at a top end portion of the cylinder; an upper slidable sleeve valve disposed at a top portion of an out peripheral surface of the cylinder, which is driven to move upward by the high pressure air in the main air housing; and a lower slidable sleeve valve disposed at a lower portion of an outer peripheral surface of the cylinder, which is driven to move downward for guiding the high pressure air into the cylinder for upward deposition of the hitting piston when the upper slidable sleeve valve moves upward, and is driven to upward reposite when the hitting piston moves to its upper dead center.

The present invention relates to a pneumatic nail gun, and particularly to a pneumatic nail gun having an upper slidable sleeve valve and a lower slidable sleeve valve.
The pneumatic nail gun generally utilizes a compressed high pressure air to drive nails to punch, which is a gun-shaped pneumatic tool. The general structure and function of a nail gun is briefly introduced as follows. A nail gun has a gun body, the gun body having a gun handle and a gun head; a fastening cylinder disposed in the gun head; a high-pressure gas pipe coupled to one end of the gun handle, and a high-pressure gas being input and introduced into the cylinder; a piston disposed in the cylinder, the piston connected to a nail shooting mechanism at the external end of the gun head, and the nail shooting mechanism coupled to a nail magazine. When the gun body is triggered, and the piston is pushed downward by the compressed high pressure air such that the nail shooting mechanism can shoot out the nail at the nailing position. In addition, an air chamber is provided at an outer peripheral surface of the cylinder, which receives high pressure air from the cylinder to drive the piston to its original position when the piston moves its lower dead center.
However, the air chamber just can receive the high pressure air when the piston moves downward and can not receive high pressure air during the piston moves upward. Thus, the collection of the high pressure air in the air chamber for upward movement of the piston is limited, and the stability of the upward movement of the piston is lower. Especially, in the process of continuous nail punching, the instability upward movement of the piston lowers the speed and efficiency of nail punching.
For resolving the question, one method of adding the cubage of the air chamber is provided in recently technology. However, the method still is not an ideal resolution.
Accordingly, what is needed is a pneumatic nail gun that can overcome the above-described deficiencies.


Antimicrobial coatings with anti-staining properties that exhibit broad range adhesion characteristics are provided. The coating compositions comprise a mixture of water-borne resins that can be crosslinked through use of a suitable crosslinking agent. The coating compositions can be used on a variety of substrates and are highly flexible, thereby permitting their use on flexible and stretchable materials. Testing has shown the coatings to exhibit excellent antimicrobial characteristics against a broad class of particularly virulent pathogens.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed, generally toward antimicrobial coating compositions having excellent adhesion characteristics to a broad range of substrates. In particular, coating compositions described herein are capable of killing a broad range of pathogens, while at the same time providing a flexible barrier capable of elongating and stretching to accommodate fabrication of three-dimensional articles from the substrate to which the coating has been applied.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Protecting surfaces and articles from microbial contamination, particularly surfaces that routinely come into contact with people and food is important in preventing the spread of pathogens that cause serious illness. Pathogen control in places like hospitals, schools, and restaurants is critical to the operation of those establishments. Routine cleaning and disinfecting of articles and surfaces coming into contact with people or food is the primary means of addressing the spread of harmful pathogens. Such methods are highly "active" protection systems requiring significant diligence and labor to be effective. Further, even the most aggressive routine cleaning and disinfecting schedule cannot provide round-the-clock protection, and overly frequent cleaning can interfere with the conduct of normal business operations.
Antimicrobial materials have also been directly incorporated into a number of items during manufacture thereof. Antimicrobial coatings have also been created so that articles can be given antimicrobial characteristics post-manufacture when desired. However, many of these coatings are specific to a particular application, do not offer broad range adhesion to numerous types of surfaces and materials, or are not designed to be a permanent coating. Thus, the utility of these coatings is often fairly limited.
Often, it is also desirable to protect the aesthetic qualities of a surface or article meant for routine contact by people or with food. In order to protect the appearance of such articles, anti-staining or anti-graffiti coatings are used. These coatings prevent soils from permanently bonding with or adhering to the underlying surface, thereby permitting the soils to be washed off of the coated surface.
Heretofore, coatings attempting to combine these antimicrobial and anti-graffiti characteristics are rare, and generally not overly successful at either objective.

Antimicrobial coating having broad-range adhesion and thermoforming characteristics


The present invention aims at making a transmission casing compact. In the present invention, in the inside of a transmission casing, a traveling-system power transmission mechanism which is interposed between an engine and an axel, a PTO-system power transmission mechanism which is interposed between the engine and a PTO shaft, and a changeover mechanism which is interposed between both power transmission mechanisms are provided, wherein the power transmission of the PTO-system power transmission mechanism is interrupted at a middle portion thereof by the changeover mechanism and, at the same time, the changeover mechanism is allowed to perform a changeover manipulation to connect a downstream side portion of the PTO-system power transmission mechanism and a downstream side portion of the traveling-system power transmission mechanism. In this manner, it is possible to transmit the rotational speed proportional to the rotational speed of the engine to the PTO-shaft (first PTO-system power transmission) with the use of the PTO-system power transmission mechanism, while with the use of the changeover mechanism, it is possible to perform the changeover manipulation which interrupts the power transmission of the PTO-system power transmission mechanism in the middle portion thereof and, at the same time, connects the downstream-side portion of the PTO-system power transmission mechanism and the downstream-side portion of the traveling-system power transmission mechanism so as to transmit the rotational speed proportional to a vehicle speed to the PTO shaft (second PTO-system power transmission).

Conventionally, as a type of a tractor, there has been known a tractor which includes, in a transmission casing thereof, a traveling-system power transmission mechanism which is interposed between an engine and an axle, a first PTO-system power transmission mechanism which is interposed between an engine and a PTO shaft, and a second PTO-system power transmission mechanism which is interposed between a downstream portion of the traveling-system power transmission mechanism and a PTO shaft (see Japanese Utility Model Accepted Publication Hei7(1995)-10925, for example).
Further, a PTO transmission chamber is formed in a rear portion of the inside of the transmission casing, and in the inside of the PTO transmission chamber, a PTO shaft, a PTO transmission mechanism which performs a speed change of the PTO shaft, and a change over mechanism which selectively connects either one of a downstream end portion of the first PTO-system power transmission mechanism and a downstream end portion of the second PTO-system power transmission mechanism with the PTO shaft in a changeable manner are provided.
Further, in the traveling-system power transmission mechanism, an axel is interlockingly connected with a distal end portion of a traveling-system power transmission shaft which has a proximal end portion thereof interlockingly connected with the engine by way of a differential mechanism, wherein the differential mechanism and the above-mentioned first PTO-system power transmission mechanism, second PTO-system power transmission mechanism and PTO transmission chamber are arranged in a rear portion in the inside of the transmission casing.
Here, the first PTO-system power transmission mechanism is a power transmission mechanism which transmits a rotational speed proportional to a rotational speed of the engine to the PTO shaft (so-called live PTO-system power transmission mechanism), while the second PTO-system power transmission mechanism is a power transmission mechanism which transmits a rotational speed proportional to a vehicle speed to the PTO shaft (a so-called ground PTO-system power transmission mechanism).
In the above-mentioned tractor, however, since the differential mechanism, the first PTO-system power transmission mechanism, the second PTO-system power transmission mechanism and the PTO transmission chamber are arranged in the rear portion of the inside of the transmission casing, the transmission casing becomes large sized, whereby a weight and a manufacturing cost of the transmission casing are increased and, at the same time, the structure of the transmission casing becomes complicated thus leading to a cumbersome maintenance operation or the like.
Further, in the inside of the PTO transmission chamber, besides the PTO transmission mechanism, the changeover mechanism which connects either one of the downstream end portion of the first PTO-system power transmission mechanism and the downstream end portion of the second PTO-system power transmission mechanism with the PTO shaft in a selectively changeable manner is provided and hence, the structure of the inside of the PTO transmission chamber becomes complicated thus making a maintenance operation of the inside of the PTO transmission chamber or the like cumbersome.


An electronic device includes: a conductive housing having an upright end wall formed with an opening; a mother board mounted in the conductive housing and having an end that is disposed adjacent to the upright end wall of the conductive housing, and a grounding trace that has a first end portion disposed adjacent to the end of the mother board, and a second end portion distal from the end of the mother board; a connector mounted on the mother board adjacent to the end of the mother board, extending through the opening in the upright end wall of the conductive housing, and having a grounding pin in electrical contact with the first end portion of the grounding trace; and a ground-bridging mechanism disposed adjacent to the first end portion of the grounding trace and bridging electrically the conductive housing and the first end portion of the grounding trace.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic device, more particularly to an electronic device with a grounding mechanism for fast removal of electromagnetic interference and electrostatic charges.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional electronic device including a mother board 11 and a connector 13 mounted on the mother board 11. A grounding trace 12 is formed on the mother board 11, is in electrical contact with a grounding pin (not shown) of the connector 13, and has a distal end 121 distal from the connector 13 and in electrical contact with a screw 14 fastened to a conductive housing (not shown) of the electronic device, thereby establishing a grounding path 100 from the connector 13 to the conductive housing of the electronic device. However, the conventional electronic device is disadvantageous in that the grounding path 100 is relatively long, which results in slower in removal of electromagnetic interference and electrostatic charges on the connector 13.

Electronic device with a grounding mechanism

Universal Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd.


An object of the invention is to provide an optical glass for precision press having optical properties of a high refractive index and a low dispersion property and having a low molding temperature, a high devitrification resistance, an excellent molding property, and a small specific gravity. The optical glass of the invention contains, in terms of % by mass on the basis of oxides, respective components of B2O3: 10 to 20%, SiO2: 0.5 to 12%, La2O3: 25 to 50%, Gd2O3: 0 to 20%, Y2O3: 0 to 20%, provided that La2O3+Gd2O3+Y2O3: 35 to 60%, ZnO: 5 to 20%, Li2O: 0.2 to 3%, ZrO2: 0 to 0.5%, Ta2O5: 3 to 18% and WO3: 3 to 20%, and has optical constants of a refractive index nd of 1.84 to 1.86 and an Abbe number vd of 37 to 42 and a glass transition point (Tg) of 630° C. or lower.

Recently, since highly precise and compact digital cameras, camera-equipped mobile-phones, and the like have been popularized, demands for weight saving and miniaturization of optical systems have been rapidly increased. In order to meet these demands, an optical design using a highly functional glass aspheric lens becomes the mainstream. In particular, a large-aperture aspheric lens using a glass showing a high refractive index and a low dispersion characteristic is important for the optical design.
The highly functional glass aspheric lens is produced by a molding method which forms an optical surface directly by press molding and does not require grinding and polishing steps. In the molding method, a glass molding preform is pressed under a high temperature. Therefore, the preform and the mold are exposed to a high-temperature and high-pressure environment. Accordingly, it is desired to suppress the glass transition temperature (Tg) and yield point temperature (Ts) of the preform to low values.
As a glass showing a high refractive index and a low dispersion characteristic, a glass containing B2O3 and La2O3 as main components is known. However, there have been a problem that the life of a noble metal-based protective film formed on a tungsten carbide (WC)-based mold base metal is short and the durability of the mold for molding does not last long since the molding temperature is generally high, and a problem that a molding cycle is long and thus productivity is low.
In order to solve the above problems, a glass containing, as main components, Li2O in addition to B2O3 and La2O3 is known. However, since it contains a large amount of rare metal elements such as La2O3, there is a problem that a stable glass is not obtained when it is intended to increase the refractive index.
In order to solve the above problems, a glass containing B2O3—SiO2—La2O3—Gd2O3—ZnO—Li2O—ZrO2 as main components has been proposed in Patent Document 1. However, a composition of a high-refractive-index glass having a refractive index of 1.79 or more is not specifically disclosed in Examples. It also involves a problem that the molding temperature is high.
Further, Patent Documents 2, 3, and 4 propose optical glasses for mold press molding containing B2O3—SiO2—La2O3—ZnO—Li2O—ZrO2—Ta2O5 as main components and having nd of 1.84 or more, an Abbe number vd of 35 or more, Tg of 630° C. or lower. However, the glasses excessively contain Ta2O5 and Gd2O3, so that they involve problems when trying to achieve low specific gravity, high refractive index, and cost saving.    Patent Document 1: JP-2003-201143    Patent Document 2: JP-2003-267748    Patent Document 3: JP-2006-016293    Patent Document 4: JP-2006-016295

Optical glass and preforms for precision press molding and optical elements made by using the glass


A unit dose detergent pack includes a pouch formed from a water-soluble film and a liquid detergent composition releasably disposed within the pouch. The liquid detergent composition includes at least two surfactants including from about 3 to about 20% by weight of alkyl polyglycoside and from about 15 to about 70% by weight of an additional surfactant, from about 13 to about 34% by weight of a fatty acid thereof, and less than about 30% by weight of water, with all weight percents based on a total weight of the liquid detergent composition.

Eco-friendly detergent compositions typically include ingredients that have no significant impact on the environment. Many eco-friendly detergent compositions include an alkyl polyglycoside (APG), a nonionic surfactant derived from plants. Although suitable for liquid detergent compositions having a high concentration of water (e.g., greater than 30% by weight), difficulties arise when incorporating the APG into a detergent composition requiring a low concentration of water (e.g., less than 30% by weight) such as for unit dose detergent packs. First, the APG is commercially available as a concentrated aqueous solution. This poses a limit on the amount of APG that can be incorporated into a detergent composition requiring a low water content because of the additional water from the APG solution. Second, the APG tends to interact with the water-soluble film of the unit dose pack, resulting in a higher swelling ratio and reduced elasticity of the water-soluble film. This leads to undesirable floppiness and potential leaking of the unit dose detergent pack. The present disclosure is aimed at solving the problems identified above.

Unit dose detergent pack including a liquid detergent composition comprising an alkyl polyglycoside surfactant


An image processor includes an extracting unit and a synthesizer. The extracting unit extracts partial image data corresponding to a set color from pickup image data of first to (N−1)-th frames of the first to N-th frames output from an image pickup unit within one video recording cycle. The extracting unit estimates a region-to-be-extracted based on a color of a pixel from pixels constituting the first to (N−1)-th frames, stores pixel values of pixels included in the estimated region-to-be-extracted, determines validity of the estimated region-to-be-extracted, and stores, in a storage unit, region information of the region-to-be-extracted that is determined as being validated. The synthesizer synthesizes the pixels of the region-to-be-extracted and the pickup image data of the N-th frame based on the region information to generate and output an output frame.

Conventionally, there has been proposed a recording apparatus, or an on-board drive recorder which videotapes a peripheral situation of a vehicle by a camera mounted on the vehicle, and which records the videotaped image information. An image recorded by the drive recorder is utilized for tracking down a cause of an accident when the accident occurs, or is utilized for safe driving education for drivers.
As the peripheral situation a traffic light (traffic signal) may be captured by the camera mounted on the vehicle. Recent traffic lights use light emitting diodes (LEDs) in the light displaying portions. The LED traffic light is advantageous in terms of power consumption and lifetime. When a light displaying portion of a LED traffic light displays light of a color, the LEDs of the light displaying portion are driven by a commercial alternating (AC) power supply for example, and repeat lighting and non-lighting at frequency of the AC power supply of the commercial power supply. The flashing of the LEDs in the light displaying portion may not be recognized by a human with the naked eye. The drive recorder records a videotaped image at a constant recording rate such as 30 frames/second, for example. Depending upon conditions of a camera device of the drive recorder, despite the fact that it seems a light displaying portion of a LED traffic light displays light of a color by the naked eye, an image of the LED traffic light in which all of the light displaying portions are turned off is recorded in some cases.
There have been proposed various types of apparatuses which videotape a traffic light in its lighting state. For example Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-278496 proposes an apparatus which videotapes with timing deviated from a cycle of a power supply of a traffic light. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-288743 proposes an apparatus which videotapes with exposure time which is adjusted longer than a flashing cycle of LEDs. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-301518 proposes an apparatus which videotapes with cycle which is not in synchronization with the flashing cycle of LEDs.

Image processor, image pickup apparatus, image pickup system and data processing method


At least one antenna array including three mutually orthogonal antennas each sharing a common center point senses an electromagnetic signal emitted by a buried object such as a utility line, pipe or sonde. A circuit at least partially mounted in a housing is connected to the array and determines a location of the buried object by measuring signal strength and field angles in three dimensions without having to align the antenna array relative to the buried object while eliminating nulls and false peaks. A graphical user interface (GUI) has user-friendly icons, symbols, menus, numbers and graphical and auditory representation of signal strength. A SEARCH view indicates signal strength by showing a rotating strength indicator, a trace mode MAP view in which line location is shown by a line that moves side-to-side, and a sonde mode MAP view in which sonde location is shown by a moving line, pole and equator.

There are many situations where is it desirable to locate buried utilities such as pipes and cables. For example, prior to starting any new construction that involves excavation it is important to locate existing underground utilities such as underground power lines, gas lines, phone lines, fiber optic cable conduits, CATV cables, sprinkler control wiring, water pipes, sewer pipes, etc., collectively and individually referred to herein with the term "objects." As used herein the term "buried" refers not onlyto objects below the surface of the ground, but in addition, to objects located inside walls, between floors in multi-story buildings or cast into concrete slabs, etc. If a back hoe or other excavation equipment hits a high voltage line or a gas line, serious injury and property damage can result. Severing water mains and sewer lines leads to messy cleanups. The destruction of power and data cables can seriously disrupt the comfort and convenience of residents and cost businesses huge financial losses.
Buried objects can be located by sensing an electromagnetic signal emitted by the same. Some cables such as power lines are already energized and emit their own long cylindrical electromagnetic field. Other conductive lines need to be energized with an outside electrical source having a frequency typically in a range of approximately 50 Hz to 500 kHz in order to be located. Location of buried long conductors is often referred to as "line tracing."
A sonde (also called a transmitter, beacon or duct probe) typically includes a coil of wire wrapped around a ferromagnetic core. The coil is energized with a standard electrical source at a desired frequency, typically in a range of approximately 50 Hz to 500 kHz. The sonde can be attached to a push cable or line or it may be self-contained so that it can be flushed. A sonde generates a more complex electromagnetic field than that produced by an energized line. However, a sonde can be localized to a single point. A typical low frequency sonde does not strongly couple to other objects and thereby produce complex interfering fields that can occur during tracing. The term "objects" as used herein also includes sondes and marker balls.
Besides locating buried objects prior to excavation, it is further desirable to be able to determine their depth. This is generally done by measuring the difference in field strength at two locations.
The prior art includes many battery powered portable sonde and line locators that employ antennas to sense an electromagnetic signal emitted by buried objects and indicate their location via audible tones and displays. Those that have been commercialized have been difficult to use primarily because they are extremely sensitive to the orientation of their antennas relative to the buried object. With commercially available sonde and line locators it is possible to have signal strength go up as the operator moves farther away from the buried object. Thus these locators can indicate a peak, then a null and then a smaller peak. This can confuse the operator, especially if he or she interprets a smaller peak as the buried object. Users of sonde and line locators refer to the smaller peak as a ghost or a false peak. FIG. 1 is a graphical vertical sectional view that illustrates the foregoing difficulty. A sonde 10 is located inside a plastic pipe 12 beneath a concrete slab 14. The electromagnetic dipole field emitted by the sonde 10 is illustrated by concentric ovals 16. A conventional locator will "see" two smaller false peaks 18 and 20 spaced from the true larger peak 22 by a pair of nulls 24 and 26.
Conventional battery powered portable sonde and line locators have also suffered from user interfaces that are cumbersome to use, inflexible and/or limited in their ability to convey useful information. They typically have a small array of labeled push buttons and a display that is primarily dedicated to indicating numerical values in a manner that is not easy for the operator to interpret. Only a small number of commands can be executed in conventional sonde and line locators and the information is not displayed in a manner that intuitively indicates to the operator how close he or she is getting to the buried object.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The apparatus for controlling valves that move linearly along respective axes comprises a number of actuators that is equal to the number of valves. Each actuator has an armature (22) of ferromagnetic material fixed to a valve push rod (24) and movable in a housing (16) of the actuator by a coil mounted on a ferromagnetic circuit. The ferromagnetic circuits of the two actuators allocated to two valves of the same type for a single cylinder are contained in the same housing.

The invention relates to apparatus for controlling valves that move linearly along respective axes, the apparatus comprising as many actuators as there are valves, each actuator having an armature of ferromagnetic material fixed to a valve push rod that is movable in a housing of the actuator by electromagnetic means having at least one coil mounted on a ferromagnetic circuit and having at least one return spring with one end bearing against the rod.
Apparatuses of this kind can have two opposing return springs (U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,170 or French patent application No. 98/12489) or a single spring working alternately in traction and in compression (French patent No. 2,783,631). The electromagnetic means of an actuator can have two coils which, when excited, tend to move the armature in opposite directions. It is also possiblexe2x80x94and this solution is generally preferable for reasons of cost, compactness, and reducing the number of electrical connectionsxe2x80x94for them to use a single coil whose ferromagnetic circuit is of a structure such as to cooperate with the armature to provide two stable magnetic flux paths corresponding to a valve-open state and to a valve-closed state, repetitively (French patent No. 2,784,222 and corresponding European application).
Such apparatus has as many actuators as there are valves. On an engine having sixteen valves arranged in two rows, eight actuators need to be placed side by side. The power of an actuator is limited, forgiven thickness, and this thickness is itself limited because the actuators must be distributed in the same way as the valves. On engines of low cylinder capacity, the power which can be obtained with individual actuators can be insufficient, at least for exhaust valves since they are the most demanding under high engine loads because of the back pressure in the combustion chamber. Furthermore, the need for one electrical power connector per actuator is expensive and reduces reliability.
An object of the invention is to provide valve control apparatus for an engine having two valves of the same type per cylinder, having increased compactness and reliability
To this end, the invention provides apparatus in which the ferromagnetic circuits of the two actuators allocated to two valves of the same type for a single cylinder are contained in a common housing, and the coils of the two actuators can consequently be powered by a single power connector. The single connector can additionally be used for conveying measurement signals to the outside from a sensor for sensing the position of the armature.
In another aspect, the invention provides apparatus in which the ferromagnetic circuits of two actuators allocated to two valves of the same type for a single cylinder are merged. Not only does this disposition reduce overall size and thus make it possible locally to increase the iron section by taking advantage of the empty space between two cylinders, but it also makes it possible to increase the section of the common portion which is entirely beneficial for driving a single one of the valves while the other one remains at rest, e.g. when starting valve oscillation.
The invention is particularly easy to implement with single-coil actuators where it is also possible for sensors for sensing the axial position of the rod and of the armature, by detecting the position of a permanent magnet fixed to the rod, to be placed in a zone where the magnetic flux created by the coil is always very small and does not disturb operation because of the symmetry of the planar graph of the stream lines.
The above characteristics and others will appear more clearly the following description of a non limiting embodiment. The description refers to the accompanying drawings.

Electromagnetic device for valve control


A method for classifying information includes determining a plurality of management characteristics for an information type, determining a plurality of business characteristics for the information type, determining at least one management tally for the information type based on the management characteristics, determining at least one business tally for the information type based on the business characteristics, and determining a global information class for the information type based on the management tally and the business tally. A computer usable medium with suitable computer program code is employed for classifying information.

As the strategic alignment of business with information technology (IT) has become more critical to the success of the business, the management of information has become a higher priority. Additionally, the volume of information that a business must manage has become increasingly large. Some of this information is critical to the business while other information has only minor value to the business. Most of the information maintained by a business falls between these two extremes.
As the volume of information increases the actual cost to maintain that information also increases. The cost of maintaining a storage infrastructure is often the largest part of an IT budget. Businesses looking to limit resources applied to the storage infrastructure must reduce the amount of information that must be stored. Furthermore, information management activities such as backup strategies, archiving strategies and storage priorities require a determination of what information to save and for how long to retain the information before it is discarded. Current methods of classifying information are commonly unstructured evaluations performed by ad hoc groups within an IT organization.
Information classification methodologies must be reproducible and produce consistent results. Furthermore, both objective and subjective factors must be considered when determining the importance of a particular piece of information to the business. Current ad hoc methodologies provide little reproducibility and fail to yield consistent results.
It is therefore desirable to provide a method and system for classifying information that overcomes the limitations, challenges, and obstacles described above.

Method and system for classifying information

International Business Machines Corporation


A method and apparatus to increase a transmit (TX) signal generated by an active stylus without increasing the power consumption of the active stylus. In one aspect, the active stylus increases the amplitude of the TX signal. In another aspect, the active stylus increases the TX signal by providing the capacitance of a body of a user to the stylus.

The use of stylus with touch screens is well established, but some existing technologies have disadvantages of one or more of cost, performance and reliability. Touch screen designs have incorporated many different technologies including resistive, capacitive, inductive, and radio frequency sensing arrays.
A capacitive stylus uses a power source (e.g., a battery) to generate a transmit (TX) signal at the tip of the stylus. Increasing the TX signal (e.g., an electrical current) will allow the touch screen sensing system to better track the position of a stylus that is contacting or hovering over a touch screen (e.g., a capacitive sense array). However, increasing the TX signal will cause an increase in the power consumption of the capacitive stylus. The power source of the capacitive stylus may be not be capable of supplying the extra power (e.g., voltage) to increase the TX signal or the power source of the capacitive stylus may not be capable of supplying the extra power for an extended period of time. For example, the power source may be a battery which is not capable of generating the extra power to increase the TX signal. In another example, if the battery is capable of generating the extra power to increase the TX signal, this may result in draining the battery faster which shortens the time a user can use the capacitive stylus.

Full-bridge tip driver for active stylus


The embodiments disclose an apparatus including a television monitor mount with a foldout portion and a predefined main body, a constant torque hinge on a plate having at least one handle configured to be affixed to a structure that can hold other plates and either contains or holds at least one device, VESA mounting holes or equivalent hole configurations with lockable positions using a locking mechanism, and wherein the foldout portion of the mount along with the main body is configured to mount to other mounts or similar devices.

Flat screen televisions, monitors including smaller/compact or larger high definition televisions/monitors commonly found on film and TV productions sets and control rooms and electronic equipment, brackets, mounting plates, containing embedded or built-in electronics currently require various mounting devices to support their weight and allow a user to adjust the positioning for viewing. A typical wall mounting bracket cannot be used for supporting a monitor on for example a desktop application. Wall and desktop monitor mounting supports do not mount on a pipe stand for example with wheels for movable monitor applications.

Monitor mount with constant torque hinges


Disclosed herein is a battery cell assembly including a battery cell array including two or more battery cells, each of which has an electrode assembly of a cathode/separator/anode structure disposed in a battery case together with an electrolyte in a sealed state, arranged in the lateral direction, and a protection circuit module (PCM) connected to the upper end of the battery cell array to control the operation of the battery pack, wherein the outer sides of the battery cells or the outer side of the battery cell array is coated with a resin by insert injection molding excluding electrode terminals of the battery cells.

Various kinds of combustible materials are contained in a secondary battery. As a result, the secondary battery may be heated or explode due to overcharge of the secondary battery, overcurrent in the secondary battery, or other physical external impact applied to the secondary battery. That is, the safety of the secondary battery is very low. Consequently, safety elements, such as a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) element and a protection circuit module (PCM), to effectively control an abnormal state of the secondary battery, such as overcharge of the secondary battery or overcurrent in the secondary battery, are disposed on a battery cell in a state in which the safety elements are connected to the battery cell.
Meanwhile, a conventional battery pack for laptop computers is manufactured by electrically connecting several secondary batteries exhibiting high flexibility in series or in parallel to each other and connecting the secondary batteries to a protection circuit by welding to manufacture a battery cell assembly, which is called a soft pack, and enclosing the battery cell assembly in a plastic pack case so as to protect the battery cell assembly from external impact or provide an aesthetically pleasing appearance.
In the method of manufacturing the conventional battery pack for laptop computers as described above, however, it is difficult to assemble the battery pack due to high flexibility of the secondary batteries.
Also, a bonding agent or a double-sided adhesive tape is provided between the pack case and the secondary batteries so as to prevent the secondary batteries from moving in the pack case after the battery pack is assembled. As a result, the number of parts constituting the battery pack is increased, and the battery pack manufacturing process is complicated. In addition, the secondary batteries move in the pack case when external impact is applied to the battery pack with the result that the battery pack may malfunction.
Therefore, there is a high necessity for a battery cell assembly having a specific structure that is capable of solving assembly complexity, which is caused when the battery pack for laptop computers with the above-stated construction is manufactured, and preventing movement of battery cells, such as secondary batteries, in a pack case, which is also caused when the battery pack for laptop computers with the above-stated construction is manufactured.
Meanwhile, a battery pack mounted in a laptop computer requires high power and capacity. To this end, a conventional cylindrical battery pack including a plurality of cylindrical battery cells has generally been used. In recent years, however, the size of a laptop computer has been reduced, and therefore, there is a high necessity for a slim type battery pack.
Therefore, there is a high necessity for a technology that is capable of using high capacity pouch-shaped battery cells to manufacture a slim type battery pack, thereby increasing overall current capacity of the battery pack.

Battery cell assembly of novel structure and battery pack employed with the same


A tactile output apparatus is provided that includes a dermal contact surface. The apparatus also includes a first securing member and a second securing member. A first arm may be pivotally coupled to the first securing member, and a second arm may be pivotally coupled to the second securing member. The first arm may also be pivotally coupled to the second arm at an arm pivot point, and the dermal contact surface may move with the arm pivot point. The first securing member may be movable along a first securing member travel path towards or away from the second securing member and movement of the first securing member along the first securing member travel path may cause responsive movement of the arm pivot point and the dermal contact surface in a direction having a movement component perpendicular to the first securing member travel path.

As computing systems and communications devices become more powerful and complex, the interface between these systems and devices and the users continues to provide challenges to seamless human interaction and therefore poses difficult technical problems that have yet to be solved. For example, the conventional ability to depress a button on a keyboard to instruct a device to take an action, has largely been replaced by interaction with a touch screen display that provides little to no haptic or tactile information to the user as selections are made by a user. In an effort to provide some information to the user regarding the interaction with the touch screen display, some devices trigger a vibration in an effort to mimic or replace the feel of depressing a button. However, such vibration-based indications can be awkward and unnatural for the user and therefore can detrimentally affect user experience. Further, such vibration-based indications also prove less effective in implementations that may not involve interfacing with a user's fingers or hands. Such implementations may include those that are, for example, tailored for disabled users that require more discrete indications than a vibrating-approach can offer. As such, further innovation in the area of haptic or tactile outputs and feedback from computing systems and communications devices is needed.

Low-profile tactile output apparatus and method


Techniques for configuring shared routing tables for network devices are provided. In some embodiments, a shared routing context is configured to include common routes across several local routing contexts. When a first packet is received at a first local routing context that is to be routed using one of the common routes, NAT operations may be performed on the first packet and then the shared routing context is used to process the first packet. Similarly, when a second packet is received at a second local routing context that is to be routed using the same common route, NAT operations may be performed on the second packet and then the shared routing context is used to process the second packet.

Some network devices can be configured with several routing tables. Each routing table may be configured to process packets received at a particular set of interfaces of the network device. These routing tables may not share routes. Thus, packets are only forwarded between interfaces for which a routing table is configured to process packets. Often times many of the routing tables can each have the same routes (e.g., routes to network hosts in a public network such as the Internet). Because routing tables do not share routes, the same routes are duplicated into each routing table. This introduces a scalability problem if there are many of the same routes and/or many routing tables configured in the network device because the network device can run out of resources.
Traditional network address translation (NAT) solutions for computer networks typically perform packet routing of a packet and determine an egress interface through which the packet is forwarded. An egress interface may be configured to perform NAT operations on packets that are forwarded out of the egress interface. Thus, if the egress interface determined for a packet is such a configured egress interface, NAT operations are performed on the packet. Some of these traditional NAT solutions are implemented using multiple devices. For example, a first device may be configured to perform the routing and a second device coupled to an egress interface of the first device may be configured to perform the NAT operations.

Shared routing tables for network devices


Implementations provide an efficient system for calculating inner products between high-dimensionality vectors. An example method includes clustering database items represented as vectors, selecting a cluster center for each cluster, and storing the cluster center as an entry in a first layer codebook. The method also includes, for each database item, calculating a residual based on the cluster center for the cluster the database item is assigned to and projecting the residual into subspaces. The method also includes determining, for each of the subspaces, an entry in a second layer codebook for the subspace, and storing the entry in the first layer codebook and the respective entry in the second layer codebook for each of the subspaces as a quantized vector for the database item. The entry can be used to categorize an item represented by a query vector or to provide database items responsive to a query vector.

Many tasks involve computing the inner product of a query vector with a set of database vectors to find database instances having the largest, or maximum, inner products (e.g., highest similarity). This is a Maximum Inner Product Search (MIPS) problem. But computation of the inner products via a linear scan requires O(nd) time and memory, which is prohibitive when the number of database vectors (n) and the dimensionality (d) is large.

Hierarchical quantization for fast inner product search


The invention is an edge densified lumber product of improved strength and stiffness and the method of its manufacture. The method is based on the parallel lamination of multiple plies of wood veneer. Narrow longitudinal reinforcing strips are laid along each edge of the veneer assembly between at least some of the veneer plies. Additional spaced apart veneer strips, about twice the width of the edge strips, are laid up at preselected locations in the mid-portion of the veneer assembly. These strips in the mid-portion are preferably spaced so that the distance between their centerlines corresponds to standard lumber widths. Appropriate adhesives are used to bond the assembly. The assembly is pressed to a uniform thickness so that the areas along the narrow veneer strips are densified relative to the adjacent portions. Longitudinal saw cuts are then made along the centerlines of the interior veneer strips to separate the assembly into multiple units of lumber. Bending strength and stiffness is significantly increased by having the densified areas along each edge of the resulting lumber units.

Sawn lumber in standard dimensions is the major construction material used in framing homes and many commercial structures. The available old growth forests that once provided most of this lumber have now largely been cut. Most of the lumber produced today is from much smaller trees from natural second growth forests and, increasingly, from tree plantations. Intensively managed plantation forests stocked with genetically improved trees are now being harvested on cycles that vary from about 25 to 40 years in the pine region of the southeastern and south central United States and about 40 to 60 years in the Douglas-fir region of the Pacific Northwest. Similar short harvesting cycles are also being used in many other parts of the world where managed forests are important to the economy. Plantation thinnings, trees from 15 to 25 years old, are also a source of small saw logs.
Whereas old growth trees were typically between two to six feet in diameter at the base (0.6 m to 1.8 m), plantation trees are much smaller. Rarely are they more than two feet (0.6 m) at the base and usually they are considerably less than that. One might consider as an example a typical 35 year old North Carolina loblolly pine plantation tree on a good growing site. The site would have been initially planted to about 900 trees per hectare (400 per acre) and thinned to half that number by 15 years. A plot would often have been fertilized one or more times during its growth cycle, usually at ages 15, 20 and 25 years. At harvest the 35 year old tree would be about 40 cm (16 in) diameter at the base and 15 cm (6 in) at a height of 20 m (66 ft). Trees from the Douglas-fir region would normally be allowed to grow somewhat larger before harvest.
American construction lumber, so-called "dimension lumber", is nominally 2 inches (actually 11/2 inches (38 mm)) in thickness and varies in nominal 2 inch (51 mm) width increments from 31/2 inches to 111/4 inches (89 mm to 286 mm), measured at about 12% moisture content. Lengths typically begin at 8 feet (2.43 m) and increase in 2 foot (0.61 m) intervals up to 20 ft (6.10 m). Unfortunately, when using logs from plantation trees it is now no longer possible to produce the larger and/or longer sizes and strength grades in the same quantities as in the past.
There is another problem with plantation wood lumber that is not as generally recognized as are the tree size limitations. Typically, in plantation wood the average wood density is lower than old growth wood. This, in turn, affects strength and stiffness. Strength in flexure, otherwise termed modulus of rupture (MOR), and especially the stiffness measured as modulus of elasticity in flexure (MOE), may be lower and more variable than old growth wood. This is a problem for members used in a bending situation and it can be one for those members used in compression; e.g. longer wall studs. Typical of bending uses are floor joists, roof rafters, truss members, and headers over wide windows and doors, such as garage doors.
The problems noted above were outlined 20 years ago in a paper by A. Bendtsen Forest Products Journal 28 (10): 61-72 who noted the implications for construction lumber but offered no suggestions how to deal with them.
Since loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) and its closely related southern pines are particularly important timber species they will be used in the following discussion as a non-limiting example of coniferous trees in general. A frequently used unit related to density is specific gravity measured as oven dry weight/green volume. For loblolly pine, near the base of the tree specific gravity of the first several growth rings surrounding the pith will typically range around 0.38. By about age 20 the wood being formed near the bark at the same height will have a specific gravity of about 0.51-0.56. Density even of the outer mature wood portion of the tree varies longitudinally along the tree, being generally lower in the upper portions. Density of woods has been shown to correlate directly with stiffness, measured as modulus of elasticity in flexure. This variability has not been seriously taken into account in the manufacture of lumber products. Current sawmill procedures make no attempt to specifically deal with these inherent differences in density. The general assumption appears to have been that density variability was a factor which was not subject to any control.
Solid sawn wide dimension lumber is not without its own significant drawbacks. In particular, inconsistency in dry dimensions and strength properties and limited availability of long lengths are major deficiencies. Decrease in moisture content after installation causes shrinkage which is not consistent from piece to piece due to differences in grain orientation. This results in variability in dry width even though initial width was uniform. Particularly when the lumber is used as floor joists, inconsistent width from piece to piece results in poor conformation of sheathing or subfloor laid over the joists. This is a major contributor to the cause of annoying squeaks as people walk on the floor.
Lumber is graded visually by established rules that take into account many factors; i.e., knot size and placement, density, grain slope, manufacturing defects, etc. Any piece of lumber within a given grade is presumed to have some minimum stress rating. Unfortunately, the actual stress ratings of individual pieces within any one grade will vary considerably since the rules are established to ensure that the poorest piece will fall within grade.
Many approaches have been taken to engineer structural grade wood products to take the place of the larger and/or longer lumber sizes now in short supply. One successful approach is based on adhesively bonding a number of plies of rotary cut veneer. Unlike typical plywood products, the grain direction of all the plies is normally in the same direction. In one way of producing this product wide panels of appropriate thickness are ripped into pieces of standard dimension lumber width then finger jointed to the desired length. Other processes start with relatively narrower veneer sheets which can be butted end-to-end and continuously bonded to make units of almost any desired length, width, and thickness. The butt joints of adjoining plies are preferably staggered to prevent introducing points of weakness. This so-called laminated veneer lumber (LVL) has been in commercial production and use for a number of years, often as the tension members of trusses; e.g., as seen in Troutner, U.S. Pat. No. 3,813,842. It has the advantage that defects, particularly knots, do not run entirely through the piece as they do in sawn wood. This generally allows a higher stress rating for a LVL member of any given cross sectional dimensions. Other exemplary products of this type are described by Peter Koch, Beams from bolt-wood: a feasibility study, Forest Products Journal, 14: 497-500 (1964) and by E. L. Schaffer et al., Feasibility of producing a high yield laminated structural product, U.S.D.A. Forest Research Paper FPL 175 (1972).
Many combinations of veneer, solid sawn wood, and reconstituted wood such as engineered strandboard or flakeboard have also been explored for use as structural lumber products. Lambuth, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,754, shows a structural member in the form of an I-beam using a plywood web with solid sawn flange members. When used as a joist, this is presumably substitutable for sawn lumber of the same cross sectional dimensions. The web is friction fit and glued into tapered slots in the flange pieces. Other very similar constructions use composite wood strips such as oriented strandboard or flakeboard as the web member.
Barnes, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,765, notes the importance of stiffness (modulus of elasticity in flexure) (MOE) in lumber products. The product described uses splinters or strands of sliced veneer from 0.005-0.1 inch (0.13-2.5 mm) thick, at least 0.25 inches (6.4 mm) wide and at least 8 inches (203 mm) long. These must be free of any surface or internal damage and have their grain direction within 10.degree. of the longitudinal axis of the product. After addition of adhesive the product is pressed to have "an MOE equivalent to a composite wood product having a MOE of at least 2.3 mm psi [1.59.times.10.sup.7 kpa] at . . . a density of 35 lbs/cubic foot".
In the above patent the inventor refers to his earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,819 which teaches that the strength of wood composite products is density dependent; i.e., ". . . the higher [the] density generally the higher the strength of the product for the same starting materials". The earlier patent describes a very similar lumber-like product to the above having a modulus of elasticity approaching or reaching the MOE of clear Douglas-fir at various densities. Products similar to those described in the Barnes patents are now commercially available. However, the very high adhesive usage they require has a significant negative impact on cost of the products. Also, the strandwood products have significantly higher density than sawn lumber and are heavier to handle and more expensive to ship.
Many other patents teach the manufacture of clear wood members by various combinations of sawing and edge, end, and/or face gluing. Exemplary of these are U.S. Pat. No. 1,594,889 to Loetscher, U.S. Pat. No. 1,638,262 to Neumann, U.S. Pat. No. 2,942,635 to Horne, U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,259 to Barker, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,653 to Brown. Other workers have explored surface densification for various purposes. Exemplary of these are U.S. Pat. No. 3,591,448 to Elmendorf and U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,754 to Lund et al.
Compressed wood products have been known for many years. One commercially available product is formed of a plurality of thin parallel grain veneer sheets that have been impregnated with a thermosetting resin prior to compression. This product is limited to specialty uses, principally kitchen and table knife handles. Walsh et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 1,465,383, describe a cross laminated compressed wood product useful for pulleys and similar items. Travis, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,136,722 and 4,199,632 shows a tool handle made of parallel laminated veneer sheets. The veneer sheets at the tool attachment end of the handle are interleaved with additional narrow veneer strips. The product is then compressed to uniform thickness so that the tool attachment end is of significantly higher density than the residual portion of the handle.
An earlier development by some of the present applicants, published as PCT Application WO 98/10157, describes selective placement of the denser wood from the trees along the edges of lumber products where it enhances stiffness and bending strength.
Most of the products noted above have not found significant success for one or more reasons. There are exceptions, however. Laminated veneer lumber and edge and end glued pieces reassembled to produce clear boards or for use as door cores have been in commercial use for many years. Composite I-beams similar to those described in the Lambuth patent are now also widely available. One such product family manufactured by Trus Joist MacMillan, Boise, Id., is typical of the products which appear to have become an industry standard.
The composite I-beams have found considerable acceptance in the building industry where long spans, consistent dimensions, and known and dependable strength properties are required. However, they are not without their drawbacks. Their performance under common residential dynamic loads is not as good as solid sawn construction, due primarily to a lack of mass. As a result most builders use I-joists at a shorter than suggested span or at a reduced spacing. They cannot entirely be used as a replacement for sawn lumber. For example, they need reinforcing blocking to fill out the sides of the web to full width at many loading points. Their cross section essentially prevents side nailing and they present a major problem in attaching other members to the sides. Also, since the flange portions of the I-joist provides most of the stiffness it cannot be notched as is commonly done with solid sawn lumber. The nature of the geometry increases shear forces in the web member to higher values than are found in solid products of rectangular cross section.
It is notable in view of the highly heterogeneous nature of the smaller trees now available that the art has not more seriously heretofore addressed the problem of producing strong members of uniform and dependable properties from smaller plantation trees. The present invention overcomes the noted deficiencies in solid sawn lumber and composite I-beams. In addition, it results in a much higher utilization of the tree into useful lumber products.


A bias power supply device includes: a temperature detecting unit; a control signal generation unit generating and outputting an output frequency setting signal for setting a frequency of an alternating current power in accordance with a repetition frequency and a resonance frequency signal being set at a lower or higher repetition frequency according to the measured temperature; a waveform signal generation circuit generating a waveform signal for pulse-width modulation having a time constant for rising set by capacity and resistance based on the resonance frequency signal; a modulation circuit generating a pulse-width-modulated modulation signal based on the waveform signal and the output frequency setting signal; a switching circuit driven by the modulation signal; and a transformer having a first winding and a second winding, and supplying an alternating current power with a repetition frequency of the output frequency setting signal to an external load connected to the second winding.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a bias power supply device and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
In an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoconductive drum, a toner image is formed by developing the electrostatic latent image, and thereafter, the toner image is transferred onto a recording sheet or the like. In such an image forming apparatus, the surface of the photoconductive drum is charged to a predetermined potential (charging bias) to form the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive drum. Moreover, a predetermined potential (developing bias) is applied to a developing unit to form the toner image by developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductive drum. For generation of such a charging bias or a developing bias, bias power supply devices of a harmonic modulation method have been used. The bias power supply devices of the harmonic modulation method are very effective in energy savings.

Bias power supply device and image forming apparatus


A thin film transistor substrate of a poly-silicon liquid crystal display device and a simplified method of fabricating the same are disclosed. A liquid crystal display device according to the present invention includes a gate line and a data line connected to a thin film transistor; a gate pad connected to the gate line and a data pad connected to the data line, the data pad having the same cross-sectional structure as the gate pad; and a data link extended from the data pad and connected to the data line via a first contact hole, wherein the data line and the first contact hole are formed inside an area sealed by a sealant.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a display device, and more particularly to a thin film transistor substrate of a poly-silicon liquid crystal display device and a simplified method of fabricating the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, which includes a plurality of liquid crystal cells in a matrix configuration in a liquid crystal display panel, displays images by controlling the transmittance of light in accordance with video signals. In each liquid crystal cell, a thin film transistor (TFT) is used as a switching device to independently supply a video signal. An active layer of such a TFT is generally formed of either amorphous silicon or polycrystalline silicon (poly-silicon). Because the carrier mobility of poly-silicon is approximately hundred times faster than the carrier mobility of amorphous silicon, high-speed driving circuits can be integrally formed in the LCD panel with the poly-silicon technology.
A poly-silicon LCD device generally includes a TFT substrate provided with driving circuits and a color filter substrate provided with a color filter, with liquid crystal provided therebetween.
FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating a portion of a TFT substrate in a poly-silicon LCD device according to the related art, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the TFT substrate taken along the line I-I′ in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the TFT substrate includes a thin film transistor (TFT) 30 connected to a gate line 2 and a data line 4, and a pixel electrode 22 connected to the TFT 30. Although either an NMOS-TFT or PMOS-TFT can be used for the TFT 30, the TFT 30 employing an NMOS-TFT will now be described.
The TFT 30 has a gate electrode 6 connected to the gate line 2, a source electrode connected to the data line 4, and a drain electrode 10 connected to the pixel electrode 22 via a pixel contact hole 20 passing through a protective film 18. The gate electrode 6 overlaps a channel area 14C of an active layer 14 provided on a buffer film 12 with a gate insulating film 16 therebetween. The source electrode and the drain electrode 10 are formed in such a manner to be insulated from the gate electrode 6 with an interlayer insulating film 26 therebetween. Further, the source electrode and the drain electrode 10 are connected to a source area 14S and a drain area 14D of the active layer 14 doped with an n+ impurity, respectively, via a source contact hole 24S and a drain contact hole 24D passing through the interlayer insulating film 26 and the gate insulating film 16.
The TFT substrate of the related art has disadvantages in that the manufacturing process is complicated and the manufacturing cost is high.

Liquid crystal display device and method of fabricating the same


The present invention provides a system which enables searching documents at one time, even if they may be written in plural languages, according to key words written In the searcher's language. The system also enables translation of the search results into the searcher's language prior to being displayed. In the document searching system for multilingual documents of the written by the seacher's language is provided. Another translation control means for the search results that translates the whole text of the selected documents is provided independently. As for the key word translation means, a simple translation system is applied because the objects of the translation are words such as nouns, verbs and so forth. On the other hand, for the search result translation means, a high-level translation system may be applied because the objects of the translation are common sentences and the appropriate translation is deduced from the context of the document. Therefore, in the processing steps of the free key word translation means, where the search formula may be changed, added, modified or deleted frequently to improve the exactness of the search result, the processing speed in these steps is not decreased so that the whole system response may speed up.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a document searching system which enables to search discretionally the documents described by plural different languages (multilingual documents) according to the key word written by the designated language (e.g. native language) and to display the search result by the designated language.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Recently information must be exchanged between areas having different languages from each other due to the development of communication networks, including the Internet. On the other hand, the information is currently delivered by the use of the electrical memory devices (such as databases, CD-ROMs, etc.). For example, information searching service systems use of databases of documents from science, technology and patents are prevalent.
When documents are searched for by the words used in the documents, it should be noticed that each author of their document may use different words to describe the same meaning, material, matter, etc. Therefore, the search result may miss some expected documents when the searcher fails to designate some alternative words. To prevent such errors, it is known to use a synonym dictionary to automatically collect the words or terms having identical or equivalent meanings and to make a search formula using the collected terms.
When the database to be searched is written in another language from the searcher's native language, the searcher should translate the key words for searching from their native language to that used in the database prior to inputting the search. Such a searching system has been provided in which the search formula input is written by the searcher's native language and then is translated automatically to that used in the database to be searched. The search is then carried out in the database. Such a system is disclosed by Japanese Kokai Patent No. 8-202721 where the search result is translated automatically to the searcher's native language and then displayed.
The documents to be searched are generally text data only, but they are usually supplemented by objects such as drawings, photographs or animations. As for the search result, each object is usually arranged in a designated area and shown together with the text data on the same page. In this case, the object is linked to the text data by assigning a tag with specified function in the document, and such text is referred to as hyper-linked text. SGML and HTML, used in WWW, are two kinds of texts of this type. Such software such as viewers or browsers are generally utilized to interpret and develop the hyper-linked text and then display it.
Such a system may be constructed by combining these techniques mentioned above as follows. When the language used to input the search condition formula is different from that of the documents to be searched, the search condition formula is translated automatically to an equivalent one written in another language so as to include synonyms. The search is then carried out and then the search result is automatically translated to and displayed by the language defined during the input of the search condition formula.

Document searching system for multilingual documents


The present invention relates to a method for producing chlorinated polyvinyl chloride resin in which polyvinyl chloride resin is chlorinated by radiating ultraviolet light in a reactor into which polyvinyl chloride resin and chlorine have been introduced, wherein the radiation of the ultraviolet light is performed by using at least one light source selected from the group consisting of an ultraviolet LED, an organic EL and an inorganic EL, the light source is disposed within the reactor, at least one radiation direction of the ultraviolet light is within a range of 30° or more and 115° or less with respect to a stirring direction of polyvinyl chloride resin, and an amount of ultraviolet light radiated within the range of 30° or more and 115° or less with respect to the stirring direction of polyvinyl chloride resin is 24% or more based on a total amount of ultraviolet light radiated from the light source taken as 100%.

Chlorinated polyvinyl chloride resin has a higher heat resistant temperature than that of polyvinyl chloride resin because it is chlorinated. Accordingly, chlorinated polyvinyl chloride resin is used in a wide variety of fields including heat resistant pipes, heat resistant industrial plates, heat resistant films and heat resistant sheets.
Generally, chlorinated polyvinyl chloride resin is produced by chlorinating polyvinyl chloride resin while chlorine is supplied to an aqueous suspension obtained by suspending polyvinyl chloride resin particles in an aqueous medium. In the case where the chlorination is performed by a photochlorination method, ultraviolet radiation using a mercury lamp is usually performed in order to generate chlorine radicals (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Method for producing chlorinated polyvinyl chloride resin


A clot retrieval device is provided. The clot retrieval device includes a capturing basket having an opening at a proximal end where the capturing basket is deployable downstream from a clot in a blood vessel. The capturing basket is configured to surround a portion of the clot and the opening in the proximal end of the capturing basket is configured to reduce in size such that the capturing basket conforms around the portion of the clot and be retrieved after the capturing basket conforms around the portion of the clot.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a condition resulting from emboli or thombi getting lodged in one or more of the pulmonary arteries. The presence of a pulmonary embolus can cut off blood to large portions of the lungs and be potentially fatal. Emboli are particularly difficult to remove because they are often large in size and need to traverse a complex and tortuous pathway to be extracted out of the body using an endovascular approach. Pulmonary embolism can cause right heart strain resulting in heart failure leading to death in many cases. PE results in more than 100,000 deaths in the US each year. One approach to treat PE is by removing the clot present in pulmonary arteries outside the body. There is a need for a method and device that safely removes embolic mass from pulmonary arteries.


A method for producing an ultra-thin semiconductor chip and an ultra-thin back-illuminated solid-state image pickup device utilizing a semiconductor layer formed on a support substrate via an insulating layer to improve separation performance of a semiconductor layer from a support substrate and thereby improve the productivity and quality. The method uses two porous peeling layers on opposite sides of a substrate to produce an ultra-thin substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultra-thin semiconductor chip according to a new ultra-thin silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate production method, more particularly a method and an apparatus for producing a back-illuminated solid-state image pickup device for detecting light incident from a back side of the substrate of an ultra-thin single-surface resin sealed chip size hollow package according to the new ultra-thin SOI substrate production method.
2. Description of the Related Art
For an image sensor having sensitivity with respect to an input of UV rays, soft X-rays, or an electron beam, use is being made of a back-illuminated charge coupled device (CCD) etc.
Namely, UV rays, soft X-rays, and electron beams have a large absorption coefficient, so a CCD having no polycrystalline silicon electrodes or other obstacle at the incident surface, that is, a back-illuminated CCD illuminated from the back of the CCD forming surface is preferred.
A usual silicon substrate has a thickness of 400 to 500 μm, however, so it cannot be used as is for a back-illuminated. Therefore the back of this silicon substrate is made thinner mechanically and chemically, that is, by grinding down the back, by grinding down the back and polishing the back, or by grinding down the back and chemical etching.
The technology disclosed in for example Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 6-326293 comprises first forming a polyimide resin film on a substrate surface having a CCD back-illuminated function formed thereon, affixing substitute silicon substrate on this, grinding down the entire back of the CCD substrate, then polishing the back to a mirror surface state. Next, it calls for chemically etching the polished substrate surface to remove the altered layer near the front surface of the substrate caused due to the mechanical grinding and thereby obtain a back-illuminated light detection substrate having a desired substrate thickness.
Further, the technology disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 7-245386 comprises forming a silicon nitride film on the back of the substrate having the CCD back-illuminated function formed thereon, removing the silicon nitride film at the center of the back of the chip where light etc. will strike while leaving the silicon nitride film at the chip periphery in a frame state and using it as a mask at the time of silicon chemical etching, and chemically etching the back to thereby obtain a predetermined thickness of 10 to 20 μm.
Summarizing the problems to be solved by the invention, with such mechanical, chemical, or mechanical and chemical methods, variation occurs in the substrate thickness needed at the center of the back of the chip where light etc. will strike, the light reception sensitivity of the CCD sensor will become uneven, fixed pattern noise due to dark current will increase, and other problems will easily arise.
Further, a chip becomes susceptible to mechanical shock and temperature changes along with the reduction of the thickness, so breaks, becomes chipped, etc. leading to a drop in the yield and the quality. Also, the increase in the number of work steps leads to a deterioration of the productivity and consequently an unavoidable increase in costs.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-267542 discloses technology concerning an infrared ray sensor comprised of an SOI layer formed with a pn junction, while Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-88640 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 9-166497 disclose technology concerning an infrared ray detector utilizing an SOI substrate.
Accordingly, in a back-illuminated solid-state image pickup device as well, it is also considered to utilize an SOI layer as a thin semiconductor layer for back-illuminated to eliminate the mechanical and chemical polishing. In actuality, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 10-209417 discloses technology concerning a solid-state image pickup device for detecting X-rays, y-rays, and charged particles utilizing a bonded SOI substrate.
Here, the problems occurring when trying to fabricate a thin semiconductor chip and a thin back-illuminated solid-state image pickup device by utilizing the well known SOI substrate fabrication processes will be explained in detail below.
At the present, as methods for the production of an SOI substrate, the ELTRAN (epitaxial layer transfer (Canon)) method, hydrogen ion peeling method (also referred to as the "SMART CUT method" (Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique; France)), the SIMOX method, etc. are known.
The ELTRAN method disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2608351, well known ELTRAN technical papers, etc. comprises first chemically processing a seed Si wafer surface to a sponge structure of a porous Si layer formed with innumerable fine holes having a diameter of 0.01 μm by anodic oxidation. Then, it calls for epitaxially growing a single crystalline Si layer on this porous Si layer. Further, it thermally oxidizes this single crystalline Si layer surface to form an insulating film, bonds this with a handle Si wafer, then separates the seed Si wafer at the porous layer by a water jet. Next, it removes the porous layer left on the handle Si wafer by ultra-high selective etching and finally flattens the surface by hydrogen annealing to thereby fabricate the SOI substrate.
That is, this is a bond and etch-back silicon-on-insulator (BESOI) structure obtained by a combination of epitaxial growth and surface flattening by hydrogen annealing on a porous Si layer processable by ultra-high selective etching.
The above method is characterized by separating the seed Si wafer at the porous Si layer by a water jet, but the thinner this single crystalline Si layer and the larger the wafer size, the harder the separation and the more easily problems arise in the yield and quality due to breakage, chipping, cracks, etc.
Further, the technology disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-195562 calls for forming a plurality of porous Si layers having different porosities as the above porous layer to thereby facilitate the peeling, but in this case as well, similarly, at the time of peeling by tension the porous Si layer, problems easily arise in the yield and quality due to breakage, chipping, cracks, etc.
The hydrogen ion separation method (SMARTCUT method) comprises forming a hydrogen ion implanted layer at a location of a predetermined depth from the Si wafer surface, bonding the result with an Si wafer separately thermally oxidized to form an insulating film, then heat treating the result and peeling the layers apart at the hydrogen ion implanted layer and finally flattening the surface by hydrogen annealing to thereby fabricate an SOI substrate (refer to for example Japanese Patent No. 3048201, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-196047, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-77044, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-211128).
The above method is characterized by causing strain in the high hydrogen ion implanted layer by the action of the pressure in the micro bubbles of hydrogen and the action of crystal realignment and pulling apart and separating the two substrates. In this method as well, the thinner this single crystalline Si layer and the larger the wafer size, the harder the separation and easier problems arise in the yield and quality due to breakage, chipping, cracks. etc.
As explained above, when trying to fabricate a thin semiconductor chip and a thin back-illuminated solid-state image pickup device by utilizing these well known SOI substrate fabrication processes, in each case, separation becomes difficult when the wafer size becomes large and consequently there is a problem in the yield, quality, and reliability due to breakage, chipping, cracks, etc.

Method and apparatus for producing ultra-thin semiconductor chip and method and apparatus for producing ultra-thin back-illuminated solid-state image pickup device


Methods are disclosed for use of apatite chromatography, particularly without reliance upon phosphate gradients, for purification or separation of at least one intact non-aggregated antibody, or at least one immunoreactive antibody fragment, from an impure preparation. Integration of such methods into multi-step procedures with other fractionation methods are additionally disclosed.

Hydroxyapatite [HA] is a crystalline mineral of calcium phosphate with a structural formula of Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2. Fluorapatite may be prepared by fluoridating hydroxyapatite, creating a mineral with the structural formula Ca10(PO4)6F2. Protein-reactive sites on both minerals include pairs of positively charged calcium ions (C-sites) and triplets of negatively charged phosphate groups (P-sites). C-sites interact with proteins via HA calcium chelation by protein carboxyl clusters. C-sites interact with phosphorylated solutes such as DNA, endotoxin, phosphoproteins, and lipid enveloped viruses via HA calcium coordination by solute phosphate residues. Calcium chelation and coordination are sometimes referred to as calcium affinity. P-sites interact with proteins via phosphoryl cation exchange with positively charged protein amino acid residues (Gorbunoff, Analytical Biochemistry 136 425 (1984); Kawasaki, J. Chromatography 152 361 (1985)). Hydroxyapatite is most commonly eluted with phosphate gradients. The strong calcium affinity of phosphate suspends calcium chelation and coordination interactions, while its ionic character suspends phosphoryl cation exchange interactions. Some applications elute hydroxyapatite with combinations of phosphate and chloride salts. Chlorides preferentially elute the phosphoryl cation exchange interaction while having relatively little effect on calcium affinity interactions. (Gagnon et al, Bioprocess International, 4(2) 50 (2006)).
Native hydroxyapatite and fluorapatite can be converted to calcium-derivatized forms by exposure to soluble calcium in the absence of phosphate. (Gorbunoff, Anal. Biochem., 136 425 (1984)). This converts P-sites into secondary C-sites, abolishing phosphoryl cation exchange interactions, increasing the number of C-sites, and fundamentally altering the selectivity of the apatite support. Small alkaline proteins typified by lysozyme (13.7-14.7 Kda, pI 10.7) and ribonuclease (14.7 kDa, pI 9.5-9.8) fail to bind to calcium-derivatized apatites, but most other proteins bind so strongly that even 3 M calcium chloride is inadequate to achieve elution (Gorbunoff). Other chloride salts also fail to achieve elution. Calcium-derivatized apatites are restored to their native forms by exposure to phosphate buffer, at which point they may be eluted by methods commonly applied for elution of native apatite supports.
The effects of different salts on the selectivity of a given apatite are unpredictable. For example, in the absence of phosphate, sodium chloride is unable to elute most IgG monoclonal antibodies from native hydroxyapatite, even at concentrations in excess of 4 moles per liter (Gagnon et al, 2006, Bioprocess International, 4(2) 50). This implies extremely strong binding. In exclusively phosphate gradients, IgG is typically one of the latest eluting proteins, usually requiring 100-150 mM phosphate. This also implies strong binding. When eluted with a combination of lower concentrations of both salts, such as 0.25 M sodium chloride and 50 mM phosphate however, IgG is one of the earliest eluting proteins. Other paradoxes reinforce the point: increasing the sodium chloride concentration in the presence of phosphate, which causes IgG to bind less strongly, has the opposite effect on DNA (Gagnon et al, 2005, Bioprocess International, 3(7) 52-55). Additionally, lysozyme elutes at a higher phosphate concentration than BSA in the absence of sodium chloride but fails to bind in the presence of 1 M sodium chloride.
Ammonium sulfate, sodium sulfate, and other sulfate salts are commonly used for precipitation of proteins, or to cause proteins to bind to hydrophobic interaction chromatography media. They can also be used to enhance binding with biological affinity chromatography media such as protein A, and have even been reported to cause proteins to bind to ion exchangers (Gagnon, 1996, Purification Tools for Monoclonal Antibodies, ISBN 0-9653515-9-9; Mevarech et al, 1976, Biochemistry, 15, 2383-2387; Leicht et al, 1981, Anal. Biochem., 114, 186-192; Arakawa et al, 2007, J. Biochem. Biophys. Met., 70, 493-498). Sulfates have occasionally been reported for elution of ion exchangers at low concentrations for research applications but are seldom exploited in preparative applications due to concerns over protein precipitation (Kopaciewicz et al, 1983, J. Chromatogr., 266 3-21; Gooding et al, 1984, J. Chromatogr., 296, 321-328; Rounds et al, 1984, J. Chromatogr., 283 37-45). None of these methods is an appropriate model for apatites because none of them exploits calcium affinity for binding.
Several authors have concluded that, "The presence of . . . (NH4)2SO4 seems not to affect the elution [of hydroxyapatite]." (Karlsson et al, 1989, in Protein Purification: Principles, High Resolution Methods, and Applications, Chapter 4, ISBN 0-89573-122-3). Even this reference mentions the application of sulfate strictly in the context of phosphate gradients. In the rare cases where alternatives to phosphate as a primary eluting salt have been discussed in the literature, suggestions have included calcium chloride, citrate and fluoride salts, but without mention of sulfates (Gagnon, 1996; Karlsson et al, 1989; Gorbunoff). Other publications indicate that sulfate salts in particular should be unsuitable as primary eluting agents for hydroxyapatite because " . . . SO3H do[es] not form complexes with calcium." (Gorbunoff).
Borate salts have been likewise overlooked. Borate is occasionally used in the field of chromatography as a buffering agent at pH values from about 8.8 to 9.8 (pK˜9.24). It is also used infrequently at alkaline pH to modify the charge characteristics of cis-diol compounds to selectively enhance their retention on anion exchangers. In contrast to phosphates, chlorides, and sulfates, all of which exhibit molar conductivities of about 90 mS/cm, a 1 M solution of borate at pH 7 has a molar conductivity of about 9 mS.
Acetates have been compared to chlorides for hydroxyapatite separation of IgG from aggregates and were found to support inferior fractionation (Gagnon et al, Practical issues in the industrial use of hydroxyapatite for purification of monoclonal antibodies, Poster, 22nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society, San Francisco, Sep. 10-14, 2006 <http://www.validated.com/revalbio/pdffiles/ACS_CHT_02.pdf>. Monocarboxylic acid salts have been neglected, and the elution potential of monocarboxylic zwitterions totally so.
Hydroxyapatite is used for purification of antibodies and antibody fragments (Bowles et al, Int. J. Pharmacol., 10 537 (1988); Guerrier et al, J. Chromatography B, 755 37 (2001); Gagnon et al, BioProcess Int., 4(2) 50 (2006)). The column is usually equilibrated and the sample applied in a buffer that contains a low concentration of phosphate. Adsorbed antibodies are usually eluted in an increasing gradient of phosphate salts. Alternatively, they may be eluted in an increasing gradient of chloride salts but both elution formats impose disadvantages on purification procedures. The high phosphate concentration in which antibodies elute in phosphate gradients has strong buffer capacity that may interfere with subsequent purification steps. The high conductivity at which antibodies elute in chloride gradients may also interfere with downstream steps. Both situations require either that the eluted antibody be diluted extensively, or that it be buffer-exchanged, for example by diafiltration, in order to modify the conditions to render the antibody preparation suitable for application to a subsequent purification step. Dilution and buffer exchange have a negative impact on process economics. As a result, apatite chromatography steps are often placed at the end of a purification process. This tends to eliminate them from consideration as capture steps. It also discourages the use of HA as an intermediate step. A further disadvantage of chloride gradients is that the application of chloride to hydroxyapatite causes an uncontrolled reduction of pH. Acidic pH causes destruction of hydroxyapatite and risks adverse affects to antibodies bound to it.
Another limitation of hydroxyapatite with antibody purification is that IgG binding capacity is reduced at elevated conductivity values. This strongly reduces its versatility since the salt concentration of cell culture supernatants and antibody-containing fractions from purification methods such as ion exchange and hydrophobic interaction chromatography, confers sufficient conductivity to reduce the IgG binding capacity of hydroxyapatite to such an extent that it may not be useful for a particular application. This disadvantage can be overcome by diafiltration or dilution of the sample prior to its application to the hydroxyapatite column, but as noted above, these operations increase the expense of the overall purification process. Alternatively, the disadvantage can be ameliorated by using a larger volume of hydroxyapatite, but this increases process expense by requiring larger columns and larger buffer volumes. It also causes the antibody to elute in a larger volume of buffer, which increases overall process time in the subsequent purification step.

Enhanced purification of antibodies and antibody fragments by apatite chromatography