A healthcare professional terminal 90 creates a question message based on an input operation of a healthcare professional, and transmits the question message to a game apparatus 12. The game apparatus 12 creates, based on an input operation of a healthcare recipient, an answer message including an answer to a question contained in the question message received from the healthcare professional terminal 90, and transmits the answer message to the healthcare professional terminal 90 together with automatically obtained biological information (weight data, exercise time data, and step count data) of the healthcare recipient.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a biological information management system, and in particular, to a biological information management system including a first information processing apparatus and a second information processing apparatus capable of communicating with the first information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there is a system that transmits biological information, obtained by an apparatus, to another apparatus. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2004-118339 discloses a system in which a pedometer counts the number of steps taken, a mobile phone is connected to the pedometer to obtain step count data, and the step count data is transmitted from the mobile phone to a server through the Internet. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H11-151211 discloses a system in which a terminal apparatus obtains data of bloodpressures, body temperatures, and weights, which are measured by health measuring instruments, and transmits the data to a center apparatus through a public line.
However, the system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2004-118339 has a problem that it is difficult to accurately determine the condition of a user because any message created by the user is not transmitted to the server together with the obtained step count data.
Further, in the system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H11-151211, the measured data transmitted to the terminal apparatus is transmitted to the center apparatus with automatic dialing once a day, and if the communication fails, the transmission process is repeated until the communication succeeds. However, the measured data cannot be transmitted at a timing desired by a user, and any message created by the user cannot be transmitted together with the measured data. Thus, it is impossible to accurately determine the condition of the user.

Biological information management system


A mental disorder analysis apparatus includes a storage portion in which sleep electroencephalogram information, which is information on electroencephalograms during sleep of a test subject, is stored, an analyzing portion that performs analysis regarding presence or absence of a mental disorder using the sleep electroencephalogram information stored in the storage portion, and an output portion that outputs a result of the analysis performed by the analyzing portion.

As a conventional mental disorder analysis apparatus, an apparatus is known that can solve disadvantages in medical interview techniques and accurately diagnose a mental disorder, using brain activity diagnostic information acquired by analyzing α wave signals and β wave signals in electroencephalogram (EEG) signals and calculating a ratio of integral values of the β wave signals with respect to integral values of the α wave signals, or by obtaining integral values of complex electroencephalogram signals, α wave signals, and β wave signals for a predetermined number of times of sampling and calculating a ratio of β% with respect to α%, where α% indicates a ratio of integral values of the α wave signals generated with respect to integral values of the complex electroencephalogram signals, and β% indicates a ratio of integral values of the β wave signals generated with respect to integral values of the complex electroencephalogram signals (see Patent Document 1, for example).

Mental disorder analysis apparatus, mental disorder analysis method, and program


A filament lamp lighting module and a manufacturing method thereof, the filament lamp lighting module comprise: at least two upper bridges with at least two bridge arms; and at least three lower bridges with at least one bridge arm; the lower bridge includes two rectifying bridges comprising rectifying bridge arms; the rectifying bridges are connected with the external power supply, the rectifying bridge arms are respectively connected with one ends of two rectifying diodes, and the other ends of the two rectifying diodes are respectively connected with different upper bridges to form a rectifying circuit; the lower bridge includes a bridge arm connected with one end of the filament, and the other end of the filament is connected with an upper bridge arm for rectifying and supplying power to the filament.

A LED filament lamp is widely used as an energy-saving and environment-friendly lighting device. In the prior art, an LED filament lamp comprises an LED filament, an AC-DC power supply and a lamp cap, in which the lamp cap is connected to an alternating main, and the AC-DC power supply is connected with the alternating main and converts it into a direct current for the LED filament to light; however, in the prior art, a traditional AC-DC power supply presents a high cost, with its PCB being sintered and fixed in the lamp cap which is inconvenient for installation and maintenance, as well as production, of the filament lamp.

Filament lamp lighting module and manufacturing method thereof

Hangzhou Hangke Optoelectronics Group Co., Ltd.


The described technology is generally directed towards adaptively selecting a repetition level in wireless communications, based on events to improve coverage range via the repetition level while not unnecessarily reducing throughput. One such event can include a current signal-to-noise-ratio, e.g., as reported in a channel quality indicator report from a user equipment. Another such event can comprise a number of consecutive hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgments or negative acknowledgments (HARQ ACKS/NACKS), in which consecutive ACKs tend to indicate good signal quality, while consecutive NACKs tend to indicate poor signal quality. A combination of channel quality indicator-based adaptive repetition level and HARQ ACK/NACK-based adaptive repetition level can be employed.

In wireless communication systems, providing a deep coverage range for a wireless device is generally desirable, including when using machine-type communication (MTC) which can operate in a low-power, low-mobility, low-data-rate, and delay-insensitive environment. Other devices such as wearables with small antennas, and even cell-phones or the like operating in poor signal condition scenarios (e.g., in an underground parking garage) benefit from improved coverage.
Repetition is one way to enhance coverage, that is, to schedule a data block multiple times to improve the likelihood of at least one repeated data block being correctly received. However, while repetition is beneficial for coverage, repetition costs resources/reduces throughput, and thus if overdone leads to an unnecessary waste of network resources, which degrades the overall network performance.

Adaptive repetition in wireless communication systems


There is provided a lifting engagement chain unit that autonomously erects a pair of engagement chains, ensures engagement accuracy between link plates and improves buckling strength. A plurality of buckling restricting attachment plates is arrayed along an outer surface of the engagement chains in a chain longitudinal direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lifting engagement chain unit assembled in a lifting apparatus used in a manufacturing facility in the field of various manufacturing industries, in a transport facility in the field of transportation, in a nursing facility in the field of medical and welfare industries, in a stage facility in the field of performing art and the like to lift an object from an installation surface.
2. Related Art
Hitherto, there is known a lifting apparatus for lifting an object which uses a pair of engagement chains which are lifted by rotating a driving sprocket that engages with the engagement chains as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei. 11-278797. See the claims and FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 8, the engagement chains used in the lifting apparatus described above lift an object (referred to hereinafter as a 'driven object') 220 such as a load supporting member. The driven object 220 is lifted as flat plate end planes 213S, located on the opposite sides from plate engaging planes of link plates 213, contact with each other obliquely with respect to a lifting direction.
One problem with the lifting apparatus described above, however, is that a horizontal component F of a load may be generated as the pair of engagement chains 211 is inclined in lifting the pair of engagement chains 211 by engaging with each other as shown in FIG. 8. Therefore, it becomes difficult to lift the driven object 220 to higher position within a range of a certain chain length by autonomously erecting the pair of engagement chains 211 straightly in a vertical direction. The lifting apparatus also has problems that it may generate a gap between the link plates 213 engaging with each other, may unbalance a burden of the load acting on the respective link plates 213 and may make it difficult to improve buckling strength of the pair of engagement chains 211.
Still more, the inclination of the pair of engagement chains 211 increases even more and the buckling strength also drops in the condition in which the horizontal component F of the load is increased by continuously causing the load to act on the pair of once inclined engagement chains 211 from an upper part to a lower part in the vertical direction. Therefore, the lifting apparatus described above has other problems that it generates a large amount of work to assemble the apparatus because it requires reinforcing devices for reinforcing the pair of engagement chains 211 be mounted. Also, there is a need for an increased number of parts in the apparatus and an increased size of the engagement chains 211, i.e., a cross-sectional area of the pair of engagement chains 211 integrated by engaging with each other, to assure predetermined buckling strength.


An edge enhancement apparatus comprises an edge detection circuit including differentiators responsive to a video signal and a PLL responsive to a H SYNC for producing a clock for displaying the video signal on a display, for example, a LCD. The PLL further includes an adder between a LPF and VCO thereof for adding an output of the differentiator to an output of the LPF to frequency-modulate the clock for edge enhancement such that when the video signal transits from a shadow to highlight levels at an edge of an image, the clock frequency is increased at the shadow level and is decreased at highlight level. In the display supplied with the frequency-modulated clock and the video signal, a distance between a pixel indicating a shadow level and another pixel showing the high-light level at the edge portion is decreased, so that the video signal is edge-enhanced. In the second apparatus, the clock is frequency-modulated at the edge such that the frequency is increased, then decreased, finally increased. Other apparatus further includes a memory for storing a video signal as a buffer storage in response to the clock to produce a edge-enhanced video signal therein in addition to the first or second apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an edge enhancement apparatus for a video signal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An edge enhancement apparatus for a liquid crystal display (LCD) has been known, which enhances an input video signal in level at edge portions to improve response or increase sharpness.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a prior art edge enhancement apparatus for a video signal for a liquid crystal display. FIG. 8 shows waveforms at each output point of the prior art edge enhancement apparatus. In FIG. 7, an input video signal is sifted in phase by two delay circuits 3 and 4 and then an edge enhancement signal Sd" is obtained at a subtractor 25. Such circuit is also known as a cosine filter. The edge enhancement signal Sd" is added to the input video signal to obtain edge enhanced video signal which is supplied to a liquid crystal display. Such edge enhancement apparatus of a prior art enhances the video signal at edge portions. However, there is a problem that picture quality is deteriorated at edge portions because a unnatural highlight and dark lines are developed near a outline of a picture image. This is because this prior art edge enhancement apparatus develops undershoot and overshoot at an edge portion, as shown by an waveform of Se". Further, in the liquid crystal display, the prior art edge enhancement apparatus does not provide the practical effect sufficiently in edge enhancement because generally, a dynamic rage of the LCD cannot be expected to be large and thus, undershoot and overshoot does not contribute edge enhancement sufficiently.

Edge enhancement apparatus useful with liquid crystal displays


An image forming apparatus includes a heater to generate heat with AC power for fixing a toner image to a medium and a power supply device to supply the AC power to the heater according to a pattern corresponding to one of at least two different combinations of a control cycle and a resolution in duty ratio. The control cycle corresponds to an integer multiple of a nominal AC power cycle. The duty ratio reflects a number of nominal AC power cycles in the control cycle during which the heater is in an on state.

Duty ratio control is known in which AC power is supplied or stopped (hereinafter, referred to as "on" and "off", respectively) when a voltage of AC power becomes 0 V, and a value of the AC power is controlled. An image forming apparatus is also known that uses such duty ratio control to control a value of AC power supplied to a heater of a fixing device to adjust a heating temperature for fixing a toner image being transferred to paper.
A frequency of the power supplied from a power company (hereinafter, referred to as a "commercial power source") may vary depending on country or region.
A cycle of AC power and a cycle of turning on or off the AC power might not be synchronized if a duty ratio control cycle for the heater of a fixing device is not changed when the frequency of commercial power source is changed. In this case, since a waveform of the AC power supplied to the heater collapses, a harmonic component is increased. In this case, it may not be possible to control a duty ratio of power supply to the heater and a heating temperature of the heater with required resolution according to a configuration and working conditions of an image forming apparatus incorporating the fixing device.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method


A tape cassette has a shutter which can be opened and closed for accommodating a magnetic tape which records information such as music and reproduces recorded information. The shutter is made of thermoplastic resin and hardly generates abraded powders as a result of the sliding of the shutter in contact with the casing. The shutter has engaging portions in specific configurations so as to prevent the shutter from being dislocated from the casing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape cassette for accommodating a tape which records information such as music and reproduces recorded information.
2. Description of the Related Arts
According to a tape cassette accommodating a tape-shaped recording medium (hereinafter referred to as tape) disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 3-44857, a magnetic head inserting window and a pinch roller inserting window are covered with a shutter which can be opened and closed. The shutter is provided to prevent the penetration of dust from the inserting window into the inside of the tape cassette, i.e. to prevent dust from attaching to the recording/reproducing surface of the tape. Thus, signals can be prevented from being erroneously recorded or reproduced. In addition, the shutter prevents a hand from touching the recording/reproducing surface of the tape so as to prevent it from being damaged. According to the shutter of the tape cassette disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 3-44857, a guide is formed on a surface of the shutter, and a guide groove is formed on the casing of the tape cassette main body. This construction has, however, a problem in that the guide of the shutter can come off of the guide groove of the casing by a slight force being applied thereto, and as a result the shutter is dislocated from the casing. Normally, the shutter is made of a metal such as stainless steel. Needless to say, a shutter made of metal is expensive. As a means for solving this problem, it seems preferable that the shutter be made of resin. But a shutter made of resin is very elastic, and thus the conventional shutter construction allows the shutter to be easily dislocated from the casing.


A method for synthesizing 3,5-dichloroanisole from 1,3,5-trichloro-benzene is proved. The method may comprises: a) the reaction between 1,3,5-trichloro-benzene and a methanolate of an alkaline or alkaline-earth metal in a first solvent chosen from among dimethylsulfoxide and 1,1,3,3-tétramethylurea, b) the precipitation of the product resulting from step a) in a second solvent which is not included among substances considered carcinogenic, mutagenic and/or toxic for reproduction by Regulation (EC) no 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 Dec. 2008, then c) the recovery of the precipitate thus obtained. The method may be applied to synthesize 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene in which 3,5-dichloroanisole is an intermediate product.

1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene is a powerful explosive of particularly high insensitivity to shocks, vibrations, impacts and fire making it an explosive of choice for the weapons industry.
This explosive is obtained in particular by nitration of 3,5-dichloroanisole followed by amination of the resulting trinitrated compound. One method allowing these reactions of nitration and amination to be carried out is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,733 (hereinafter reference [1]).
3,5-dichloroanisole is commercially available but is relatively costly to purchase, hence the advantage for explosive manufacturers to be able themselves to conduct the synthesis thereof.
The literature regarding the synthesis of 3,5-dichloroanisole is extremely sparse and in practice is limited to an article published in 1983 by L. Testaferri et al. in Tetrahedron, 39(1), 193-197 (hereinafter reference [2]) and to the Japanese patent application published under number 53-31631 (hereinafter reference [3]).
Reference [2] teaches that it is possible to obtain mono-, di- and trichloroanisoles by nucleophilic substitution of the corresponding di-, tri- and tetra-chlorobenzenes by methanolate ions on the express condition that this substitution reaction is conducted in hexamethylphosphoramide (HMPA), also known as <<hexamethylphosphoric triamide>>.
Therefore, in this reference, 3,5-dichloroanisole is synthesized by adding sodium methanolate to a suspension, previously held under nitrogen at 120° C., of 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene in HMPA and leaving to react for one hour. It is then isolated by extraction with ether and purified by chromatography on a silica gel column using a mixture of petroleum ether and ethyl ether as eluent.
The yield of this synthesis is 78%.
It happens that HMPA is classified under the regulations of the European Union among CMR substances i.e. substances which are considered as potentially or proven to be carcinogenic, mutagenic and/or toxic for reproduction, making the use of this solvent prohibitive in a synthesis method intended to be implemented on industrial scale.
Also, the fact that the 3,5-dichloroanisole must be purified on completion of the synthesis by column chromatography in particular, means that the production of this compound is made cumbersome by increasing the number of operations to be conducted as well as the volume of consumed organic solvents, and is economically penalizing for production on an industrial scale.
Reference [3] proposes synthesizing alkoxy aromatic compounds such as 3,5-dichloroanisole, by causing the corresponding haloaromatic compounds to react with an alkoxide of an alkaline metal in the presence of N,N′-dimethylimidazolidinone.
Therefore, in this reference, 3,5-dichloroanisole is synthesized by causing 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene to react with sodium methanolate in N,N′-dimethylimidazolidinone, for 18 hours at a temperature of 100±5° C. The 3,5-dichloroanisole is then extracted from the reaction medium using ether.
N,N′-dimethylimidazolidinone, compared with HMPA, has the advantage of not being classified among CMR substances by the European Union regulation.
On the other hand, reference [3] shows that the yield of the synthesis of 3,5-dichloroanisole in this solvent is largely insufficient since it is only 47.2%.
The Inventors have set themselves the objective of providing a method which, while not using any solvent considered to have potential or proven harmful effects on the health of man or animals, allows the synthesis of 3,5-dichloroanisole at the lowest possible cost.
From this perspective, the Inventors have more particularly set themselves the goal that this synthesis method should have a high yield, should lead to obtaining sufficiently pure 3,5-dichloroanisole so that it is not necessary for it to undergo any additional purification operation after this synthesis, and should only have recourse to operations that are simple to implement.

Method for synthesizing 3,5-dichloroanisole from 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene

Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives


The processing channel contains textured surfaces with canted passageways to reduce frictional forces and adhering between the photographic material and the contacting surfaces of the processing channel.

The processing of photosensitive material involves a series of steps such as developing, bleaching, fixing, washing, and drying. With the development step being the most critical and sensitive to variations induced by time, temperature, agitation and chemical activity. These steps lend themselves to mechanization by conveying a continuous web of film or cut sheets of film or photographic paper sequentially through a series of stations or tanks, each one containing a different processing liquid appropriate to the process step at that station.
There are various sizes of photographic film processing apparatus, i.e., large photofinishing apparatus and microlabs. A large photofinishing apparatus utilizes tanks that contain approximately 100 liters of each processing solution. A small photofinishing apparatus or microlab utilizes tanks that may contain less than 10 liters of processing solution.
The chemicals contained in the processing solution: cost money to purchase; change in activity and are seasoned by constituents of the photosensitive materials that leach out during the photographic process; and after the chemicals are used the chemicals must be disposed of in an environmentally safe manner. Thus, it is important in all sizes of photofinishing apparatus to reduce the volume of processing solution. The prior art suggest various types of replenishing systems that add or subtract specific chemicals to the processing solution to maintain a consistency of photographic characteristics in the material developed. It is possible to maintain reasonable consistency of photographic characteristics only for a certain period of replenishment. After a processing solution has been used a given number of times, the solution is discarded and a new processing solution is added to the tank.
Activity degradation due to instability of the chemistry, or chemical contamination, after the components of the processing solution are mixed together causes one to discard the processing solution in smaller volume tanks more frequently than larger volume tanks. Some of the steps in the photographic process utilize processing solutions that contain chemicals that are unstable, i.e., they have a short process life. Thus, processing solutions in tanks that contain unstable chemicals are discarded more frequently than processing solutions in tanks that contain stable chemicals.
Textured surfaces have been used to facilitate photosensitive material directional changes in or out of the processing solution. They have also been used to create a solution bearing layer for photosensitive material to be moved over the textured surface.
The prior art used automatic photoprocessing equipment to process photosensitive material. Automatic photoprocessing equipment typically is configured as a sequential arrangement of transport racks submerged in tanks filled with volumes of processing solutions. The textured surface was affixed to the vertically oriented racks and/or tanks. In the above type of configuration when the tank was drained the processing solution fell vertically out of the textured surface and the tank without pooling any processing solution. This also prevented the processing solution from becoming entrapped in the textured surface. In a horizontal processor, there will not be a natural vertical flow of the processing solution.

Textured surface with canted channels for an automatic tray processor


A voice communication arrangement having a voice communication program installed in a computer loaded with a versatile OS thereon includes a voice data input/output function for passing through the OS voice data produced from voice sound captured by a microphone of the arrangement or received from another voice communication device, when connected to the arrangement, without being processed by the OS as audio data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voice communication arrangement for causing a computer such as a personal computer commercially available to function as a telephone terminal, or a softphone.
2. Description of the Background Art
In recent years, personal computers having an application for softphone loaded thereon have been used as telephone terminals. For example, a personal computer having a connector, such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface, connectable to an external device is connected through the connector to an external voice input/output device, such as a headset or a handset, comprising a microphone and a loudspeaker, by means of which an operator or user may be on the phone. Further, for example, an audio device dedicated to audio signals may be used as the above-described external voice input/output device to enjoy voice communication of high sound quality.
Forwarding and receiving of voice signals between a personal computer and an external voice input/output device have conventionally been taken place by means of a general of standard audio interface mounted on an OS (Operating System) of the personal computer due to the following two factors.
First, since most of personal computers available on the market have a built-in sound device mounted thereon, which is adapted to analog input/output, and have a preinstalled driver dedicated to the OS installed in the computers, they have been used by many of users. Some of users giving weight to sound quality have separately used an external voice input/output device, such as a USB headset. However, they have still used the standard mechanism of the OS including drivers and PnP (Plug and Play) functions as they are, with the result that voice signals are input and output on the same audio route as the built-in device.
Second, in order to accomplish sound volume control, sound file playback for generating audible sound and a mixing function as well as to cooperate with other applications, API (Application Programming Interface) has been used.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,567,549 to Adan, et al., there is proposed a computer telephony interface adaptor, which can be connected between a telephone network and a personal computer having a headset or the like connected thereto to process voice signals, thereby reducing processing work on the personal computer and delay in the processing.
However, use of the voice input/output interface and drivers generally included in the OS is based on the premises of compatibility with other applications, such as reproduction of music, thus causing, thanks to the versatility expanding, the processing to be dealt with many of those software applications, which possibly cause excessive overhead, thus ultimately resulting in delay. In order to overcome the problem described above, there has been an interface designed with delay partially taken into account, for example, ASIO (Audio Streaming Input Output). Such an interface is specialized for reproduction and play of music and not effectively applicable to both-way real-time communications.
Generally, the newer version of an OS remarkably tends to exhibit more excessive overhead so as to cause more serious delay than before, notwithstanding the performance of hardware including personal computers being substantially improved.
The delay may be raised by a variety of causes. For example, when an application starts up with plural applications simultaneously active so as to render the delay suddenly increase due to the processing on the background, the delay often has a negative effect for example on the operation of an echo canceller and the like.
Such a variety of problems described above has become a significant bottleneck to developing voice communication services, thus rendering the range of applications of softphones limited.
Adan, et al., intends to achieve reduced delay whereas requiring an adaptor dedicated therefor, and thus, it can hardly be said that it is a solution applicable to a variety of users.

Voice communication arrangement for minimizing communication delay caused by audio signal processing in OS


Novel polypeptides having WW domains of interest are described, along with DNA sequences that encode the same. A method of identifying these polypeptides by means of a sequence-independent (that is, independent of the primary sequence of the polypeptide sought), recognition unit-based functional screen is also disclosed. Various applications of the method and of the polypeptides identified are described, including their use in assay kits for drug discovery, modification, and refinement.

2.1. Functional Domains in Proteins
Many biological processes involve the specific binding of proteins to one another. Examples of such processes are signal transduction, transcription, DNA replication, cytoskeletal organization, membrane transport, etc. In many cases it has been shown that specific binding is mediated by small portions of the proteins involved and that these portions can function to a large extent independently of the rest of the proteins. Such independent portions of proteins, mediating specific recognition or binding of one protein by another, have come to be called "functional domains". A variety of functional domains have been characterized to a variety of levels of understanding. Some of these are described below.
Src homology 2 domains (SH2) domains are short (about 100 residues) amino acid sequences that were originally found in the non-membrane bound tyrosine kinase Src. Since then they have been shown to occur in about 20 other proteins. SH2 domains recognize certain phosphotyrosine-containing sites on proteins. Proteins containing SH2 domains participate in a variety of signalling pathways. For reviews discussing SH2 domains see Pawson, 1995, Nature 373:573–580; Cohen et al., 1995, Cell 80:237–248; Pawson and Gish, 1992, Cell 71:359–362; Koch et al., 1991, Science 252:668–674.
Src homology 3 (SH3) domains are another class of short amino acid sequences that were originally found by comparing the amino acid sequence of the Src protein with the sequences of Crk, Phospholipase C-γ, α-Spectrin, Myosin IB, Cdc25, and Fusl (Lehto et al., 1988, Nature 334:388; Mayer et al., 1988, Nature 332:272–275; Stahl et al., 1988, Nature 332:269–272; Rodaway et al., 1989, Nature 342:624). In addition to Src, almost 30 proteins are known to contain SH3 domains and these proteins perform a wide range of functions.
For reviews discussing SH3 domains see Pawson, 1995, Nature 373:573–580; Cohen et al., 1995, Cell 80:237–248; Pawson and Gish, 1992, Cell 71:359–362; Koch et al., 1991, Science 252:668–674.
SH3 domains have been shown to specifically bind certain proline-rich amino acid sequences (Chen et al., 1993, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115:12591–12592; Ren et al., 1993, Science 259:1157–1161; Feng et al., 1994, Science 266:1241–1247; Yu et al., 1994, Cell 76:933–945; Sparks et al., 1994, J. Biol. Chem. 269:23853–23856; Sparks et al., 1996, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93:1540–1544). However, in general, the homology between different sequences that bind SH3 domains tends to be low.
This low homology would explain the specificity that has usually been observed for the interactions between SH3 domains and their natural ligands. Generally, a sequence that is identified by screening for binders to a particular SH3 domain will bind to that particular SH3 domain much more strongly that it binds to other SH3 domains. For example, Cicchetti et al., 1992, Science 257:803–806 probed a λgt11 cDNA expression library with a glutathione S-transferase fusion protein containing the 55 amino acid SH3 region of Abl and isolated two clones that produced proteins capable of specifically binding the Abl SH3 domain. Analysis of one of the clones uncovered the region of the encoded protein responsible for binding to the SH3 domain. This region, as part of a glutathione S-transferase fusion protein, bound the SH3 domain from Abl very strongly, the SH3 domain from Src less well, and the SH3 domains from Crk and neural Src very weakly.
Pleckstrin is the major substrate for Protein Kinase C in platelets. Two domains of about 100 amino acids in Pleckstrin have been found to have counterparts in a number of signal transduction and cytoskeletal proteins. These domains are known as Pleckstrin homology, or PH, domains (Haslam et al., 1993, Nature 363:309–310; Mayer et al., 1993, Cell 73:629–630). Although the sequence homology between PH domains from various proteins is low, structural studies have shown that PH domains fold into a similar conformation containing two antiparallel β sheets and a long C-terminal α helix (Gibson et al., 1994, Trends Biochem. Sci. 19:349–353). Among the proteins that have been found to have PH domains are a number of proteins with important roles in signal transduction or cytoskeletal architecture, e.g., Spectrin, Dynamin, Phospholipase C-γ, Btk, RasGAP, mSOS-1, Rac, Akt.
Leucine zippers consist of alpha helical regions of proteins in which a leucine residue appears at every seventh position along the helix. The leucines interdigitate with leucines from the leucine zipper of a different protein or another molecule of the same protein, leading to dimerization of the proteins containing the leucine zippers. Leucine zippers have been found in a number of proteins that are believed to function as transcription factors, e.g., C/EBP, Myc, Fos, Jun, GCN4. In many of these proteins, dimerization through leucine zippers has been shown to be necessary for the DNA binding activity of the transcription factor.
The binding of leucine zippers exhibits specificity in that some leucine zippers preferably bind to certain other leucine zippers. For example, the Jun-Fos heterodimer formed by the binding of the leucine zippers of Fos and Jun forms in preference to a Jun-Jun homodimer formed by the binding of the leucine zippers of two Jun proteins. Fas/APO-1(CD95) is a member of a class of transmembrane receptors that have been shown to be involved in the phenomenon of programmed cell death or apoptosis (Itoh et al., 1991, Cell 66:233–243). The tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR-1) is also a member of this class (Baglioni, C., 1992, "The Molecules and Their Emerging Roles in Medicine," in Tumor Necrosis Factors, B. Beutler, ed. (New York: Raven Press). Itoh, N. and Nagata, S., 1993, J. Biol. Chem. 268:10932–10937 have shown that certain amino acid sequences in the cytoplasmic domain of Fas/APO-1(CD95) are required for the programmed cell death response mediated by this receptor. Tartaglia et al., 1993, Cell 74:845–853 proposed that a similar region in TNFR-1 also is responsible for programmed cell death. This region of similarity between Fas/APO-1(CD95) and TNFR-1 has come to be called the cell death domain.
Three groups have used the yeast two-hybrid system to clone genes whose products specifically bind to the cell death domains of Fas/APO-1(CD95) and TNFR-1 (Hsu et al., 1995, Cell 81:495–504; Chinnaiyan, et al., 1995, Cell 81:505–512; Stanger et al., 1995, Cell 81:513–523). These genes were shown to induce apoptosis when overexpressed in certain cell types, a result which argues that they are intracellular transducers of death signals from Fas/APO-1(CD95) and TNFR-1.
2.1.1. WW Domains
The WW domain is a small functional domain found in a large number of proteins from a variety of species including humans, nematodes, and yeast. Its name is derived from the observation that two tryptophan residues, one in the amino terminal portion of the WW domain and one in the carboxyl terminal portion, are almost invariably conserved. At about 30 to 40 amino acids in length, it is quite small for a functional domain, most of which tend to be from 50 to 150 residues long. Often a WW domain will be flanked by stretches of amino acids rich in histidine or cysteine; these stretches might be metal-binding sites. The center of WW domains is quite hydrophobic; however, sprinkled throughout the rest of the domain are a high number of charged residues. These features are characteristic of functional domains involved in protein-protein interactions (Bork and Sudol, 1994, Trends in Biochem. Sci. 19:531–533).
Based upon their study of various WW domains, André and Springael, 1994, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 205:1201–1205 ("André and Springael") proposed the following consensus sequence for WW domains:
WX7G(K/R)X1(Y/F)(Y/F)X1(N/D)X2(T/S)(K/R)X1(T/S)(T/Q/S)WX2P (SEQ ID NO:2)
where X represents any amino acid and bold letters represent highly conserved amino acids. André and Springael's analysis of WW domains led them to conclude that WW domains lack α-helical content, instead possessing a central β-strand region flanked by unstructured regions. Other studies predict a structure of β-strands containing charged residues flanking a hydrophobic core composed of four aromatic residues (Chen and Sudol, 1995, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92:7819–7823, and references cited therein).
The WW domain has been found in a wide variety of proteins of varying function. Despite this diversity of function, it appears that most proteins containing WW domains for which a function is known have something to do with either cell signalling and growth regulation or the organization of the cytoskeleton.
For example, the WW domain-containing protein dystrophin belongs to a family of cytoskeletal proteins that includes α-actinin and β-spectrin. Mutations in dystrophin are responsible for Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies. The dystrophin gene gives rise to a family of alternatively spliced transcripts. The longest of these encodes a protein having four domains: (1) a globular, actin-binding region; (2) 24 spectrin-like repeats; (3) a cysteine-rich Ca2+ binding region; and (4) a carboxyl terminal globular region. A short stretch of the dystrophin protein, after the spectrin-like repeats and before the Ca2+ binding region, contains a WW domain. This WW domain is in an area that has been shown to bind β-dystroglycan. This suggests that WW domains may be involved in protein-protein interactions (Bork and Sudol, 1994, Trends in Biochem. Sci. 19:531–533).
Utrophin, a protein having 70% sequence homology to dystrophin, and, like dystrophin, capable of forming tetramers via its spectrin-like repeats, also possesses a WW domain. Utrophin and dystrophin are believed to be involved in membrane stability and the transmission of contractile forces to the extracellular environment (Bork and Sudol, 1994, Trends in Biochem. Sci. 19:531–533).
YAP is a protein that was discovered by virtue of its binding to the SH3 domain of the proto-oncogene Yes (Sudol, 1994, Oncogene 9:2145–2152). Murine YAP was found to have two WW domains; interestingly, chicken and human YAP each have only a single WW domain (Sudol, et al., 1995, J. Biol. Chem. 270:14733–14741). Chen and Sudol, 1995, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92:7819–7823 screened a cDNA expression library with bacterially produced glutathione S-transferase fusion proteins of the WW domain from YAP. They identified and isolated two proteins from the library (WBP-1 and WBP-2) that specifically bound the YAP WW domain. Comparison of the amino acid sequences of WBP-1 and WBP-2 revealed a homologous proline-rich region in each protein. The proline-rich regions contained the shared motif PPPPY (SEQ ID NO:3). Chen and Sudol then showed that as few as ten residues containing this motif conferred upon a fusion protein the ability to specifically bind the YAP WW domain. This binding was highly specific; the motif bound to the YAP WW domain but not to the WW domain from dystrophin or to a panel of SH3 domains.
Nedd-4 is a protein which possesses three WW domains. In mouse, Nedd-4 seems to play a role in embryonic development and the differentiation of the central nervous system (Kumar et al., 1992, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 185:115–1161).
RSP5 is a protein of yeast that is involved in the phenomenon of nitrogen catabolite inactivation whereby a number of permeases that import nitrogenous compounds into the cell are inactivated when yeast are exposed to a good nitrogen source such as NH4+. RSP5 probably interacts with the transcription factor SPT3 since certain alleles of RSP5 can complement mutations in SPT3 (Eisenmann et al., 1992, Genes Dev. 6:1319–1331).
RSP5 contains three WW domains in its amino terminus. RSP5 appears to be a homolog of the vertebrate protein Nedd-4. The 6 total WW domains of RSP5 and Nedd-4 share 30% amino acid sequence identity and 50% similarity. The carboxyl terminal domains of both RSP5 and Nedd-4 are homologous to the carboxyl terminal domain of E6-AP, a human ubiquitin-protein ligase (André and Springael). A region of RSP5 known as HECT can form a high energy thioester bond with ubiquitin, arguing that RSP5 is a ubiquitin-protein ligase (Scheffner et al., 1995, Cell 75:495–505; Huibregste et al., 1995, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92:2563–2567).
Another yeast protein, ess1, contains a WW domain and is thought to be involved in cytokinesis and/or cell separation (Hanes et al., 1989, Yeast 5:55–72).
A search of protein databases, using the WW domains of Nedd-4 and RSP5, identified two proteins of unknown function, YKLO12W from Saccharomyces cerevesiae and Z22176 from Caenorhabditis elegans, each containing two WW domains at their amino terminus (André and Springael).
Among other proteins having WW domains, the rat transcription factor FE65 possesses an amino terminal activation region that includes a WW domain (Bork and Sudol, 1994, Trends in Biochem. Sci. 19:531–533). The human protein kiaa93 has 4 WW domains and shares other regions of sequence similarity with RSP5, and may be the human version of mouse Nedd-4 (Hoffman and Bucher, 1995, FEBS Lett. 358:153–157). The human protein HUMORF1, although of unknown function, has a roughly 350 amino acid region which is homologous to GTPase-activating proteins (André and Springael).
Citation of a reference hereinabove shall not be construed as an admission that such is prior art to the present invention.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Identification and isolation of novel polypeptides having WW domains and methods of using same

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


A guide for passing a tie-down band underneath a pallet. The guide includes a guide body having a pair of spaced apart slotted holes passing there through. One end of a tie-down band is passed through one of the slotted holes and is looped around and passed through the second slotted hole to securely hold the band within the guide body. An elongated handle is threaded into the back of the guide body. The handle is of sufficient length such that it can be used to pass the guide body underneath a pallet of a given length.

This invention relates to apparatus for efficiently passing a length of a tie-down banding material underneath a shipping pallet upon which cargo is loaded so that the ends of a band can be looped about the cargo and joined together thus securing the cargo to the pallet.
Typically metal or plastic tie-down material is provided to the end user wound upon relatively large spools. The spool assemblies are, in turn, mounted upon carriages so that the assemblies can be easily moved from place to place. The banding material that is stored upon the spool generally assumes its stored shape upon the spool and thus tends to curl when unwound from the spool. This, in turn, makes it extremely difficult to pass the free end of the material underneath a pallet. The free end of the banding material generally turns back upon itself and becomes entangled between the platform planking of the pallet.
Various attempts have been made to correct this problem, however, none to date have been entirely successful. For the most part these prior art devices are cumbersome and thus difficult to move about a work area. In addition, these prior art devices typically can only service one size pallet using a single size tie-down band which limits their usefulness.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to improve apparatus for banding cargo to a pallet.
A further object of the present invention is efficiently passing a tie-down band beneath a cargo pallet.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide apparatus for passing tie-down bands of varying sizes efficiently beneath cargo pallets having different lengths.
These and other objects of the present invention are attained by a guide for passing a tie-down band beneath a pallet that includes a guide body having a pair of spaced apart parallel slotted holes passing through the body. The slotted holes are sized to provide a close running fit for a band suitable for tying down cargo mounted upon the pallet. One end of the band can pass through one of the slotted holes, then being looped around and passed back through the other slotted hole to secure the band in the guide body. An elongated handle is secured to the guide body, the handle having a length sufficiently long enough to pass the guide body underneath the pallet between the pallet skids.
In another form of the invention, a plurality of guide bodies are arranged so that they each can be interchangeably connected to any one of a number of handles each of which has a different length. Each guide body contains a pair of spaced apart parallel slotted holes that pass through the guide body. The hole pair in each guide body is arranged to provide a close running fit with a specific size band. Accordingly, a selected guide body can be mated with a selected length handle to service different length pallets carrying varying types of cargo.


One illustrative method disclosed herein includes the steps of decomposing an initial overall target exposure pattern into at least a first decomposed sub-target pattern and a second decomposed sub-target pattern, performing first and second retargeting processes on the first and second decomposed sub-target patterns while using the other sub-target pattern as a reference layer, respectively, to thereby define retargeted first and second decomposed sub-target patterns, respectively, and, after performing the first and second retargeting processes, performing at least one process operation to determine if each of the retargeted first decomposed sub-target pattern and the retargeted second decomposed sub-target pattern is in compliance with at least one design rule.

1. Field of the Invention
Generally, the present disclosure relates to the manufacture of semiconductor devices, and, more specifically, to various methods that involve color-aware retargeting of individual decomposed patterns when designing masks or reticles to be used in multiple patterning processes, such as double patterning processes, and the use of such masks or reticles in various photolithography systems to manufacture integrated circuit products.
2. Description of the Related Art
Photolithography is one of the basic processes used in manufacturing integrated circuit products. At a very high level, photolithography involves (1) forming a layer of light or radiation-sensitive material, such as photoresist, above a layer of material or a substrate, (2) selectively exposing the radiation-sensitive material to a light generated by a light source (such as a DUV or EUV source) to transfer a pattern defined by a mask or reticle (inter-changeable terms) to the radiation-sensitive material, and (3) developing the exposed layer of radiation-sensitive material to define a patterned mask layer. Various process operations, such as etching or ion implantation processes, may then be performed on the underlying layer of material or substrate through the patterned mask layer.
The design and manufacture of reticles used in such photolithography processes is a very complex and expensive undertaking as such masks must be very precise and must enable the repeated and accurate formation of a desired pattern in the underlying layer of material (for an etching process). It is well known that, for a variety of reasons, photolithography systems do not print features in a layer of photoresist that correspond exactly to the features depicted in a theoretical target exposure pattern, e.g., the lengths of line-type features may be shorter than anticipated, corners may be rounded instead of square, etc. There are several factors that cause such printing differences, such as interference between light beams transmitted through adjacent patterns, resist processes, the reflection of light from adjacent or underlying materials or structures, unacceptable variations in topography, etc. One technique used in designing and developing masks for use in semiconductor manufacturing to overcome or at least reduce such optical proximity errors involves the use of software-based optical proximity correction (OPC) techniques in an effort to make sure that a mask, when used, generates the desired pattern on the target material or structure in a reliable and repeatable manner.
In recent years, the accuracy of pattern transfer in photolithography processes has become even more important and more difficult due to, among other things, the ongoing shrinkage of various features on integrated circuit devices. Of course, the ultimate goal in integrated circuit fabrication is to faithfully reproduce the original circuit design on the integrated circuit product. Historically, the feature sizes and pitches (where the pitch is equal to the width of the feature plus the spacing between identical edge features) employed in integrated circuit products were such that a desired pattern could be formed using a single patterned photoresist masking layer. However, in recent years, device dimensions and pitches have been reduced to the point where existing photolithography tools, e.g., 193 nm wavelength photolithography tools, cannot perform a single exposure process to form a single patterned mask layer that will enable the formation of all of the desired features of the overall target pattern.
Accordingly, lithography engineers have resorted to various resolution enhancement techniques to form features on integrated circuit products. Such resolution enhancement techniques include, but are not limited to, so-called multiple-exposure (e.g., "double exposure") and multiple-patterning (e.g., "double patterning" or "triple patterning") techniques. It is understood that these general categories can be extended beyond two masks to include multiple exposures and multiple patterning; however, in the present application, only double exposure and double patterning will be referenced. In some double exposure processes, a single layer of photoresist material is subjected to two different exposures using two different reticles, and that single, twice-exposed layer of photoresist is then developed and processed to create the final patterned photoresist masking layer that will be used in performing a process operation, e.g., an etching process, to define features or structures of an integrated circuit product. Other variations in such a double exposure process are known to those skilled in the art. In a double patterning process, an intermediate transfer mask layer is formed above a layer that is to be patterned, e.g., a layer of gate electrode material. Thereafter, a first photoresist layer is exposed with a first mask, then developed, and the pattern in the first patterned photoresist mask layer is transferred to the underlying intermediate transfer mask layer by performing an etching process through the first patterned photoresist mask layer. Then, the first patterned photoresist mask layer is removed and a second layer of photoresist material is formed above the partially patterned intermediate transfer mask layer. The second photoresist layer is then exposed with a second mask, and then developed, and the pattern in the second patterned photoresist mask layer is transferred to the underlying intermediate transfer mask layer by performing an etching process through the second patterned photoresist mask layer. This results in the intermediate transfer mask layer having the pattern reflected by the combination of the first and second patterned photoresist mask layers. The second patterned photoresist mask is then removed, and the underlying layer to be patterned is thereafter patterned using the now fully patterned intermediate transfer mask layer. While such techniques effectively increase the complexity of the photolithography process, they do result in improving the achievable resolution and they enable the printing of far smaller features that would otherwise not be possible using existing photolithography tools and a single masking layer, single exposure, lithography process. There are many variations of double exposure and double patterning process operations and, as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art after a complete reading of the present application, many of those variations may benefit from the methodologies set forth in the present application. For clarity, in the subsequent discussion, no distinction will be made between double exposure and double patterning process operations, and, in all cases, these will simply be referred to as double patterning processes.
Despite all of these techniques, the lithography process that is exerted to a point at or near its limits will still not allow all patterns to be faithfully reproduced on the wafer in the presence of normal manufacturing process variations. As a result, some design target shapes must be modified to align with process capabilities. Such a so-called "retargeting" process often involves making isolated patterns larger, making patterns with small areas larger and/or smaller and expanding regions where patterns transition from one periodicity to another (i.e., so-called fan-out regions). In general, retargeting is done in an effort to make manufacturing easier and to get more process margins in regions where features sizes can be changed.
The photolithographic masks or reticles referred to above comprise geometric patterns corresponding to the circuit components that are part of an integrated circuit product. The patterns used to create such masks or reticles are generated utilizing computer-aided design (CAD) programs, wherein this process is sometimes referred to as electronic design automation. Most CAD programs follow a set of predetermined design rules in order to create functional masks. These rules are set by processing and design limitations. For example, design rules define the space tolerance between circuit devices (such as gates, capacitors, etc.) or interconnect lines, so as to ensure that the circuit devices or lines do not interact with one another in an undesirable way. The design rule limitations are typically referred to as "critical dimensions" (CD). A critical dimension of a circuit can be defined as the smallest width of a line or hole or the smallest space between two lines or two holes. Thus, the CD determines the overall size and density of the designed circuit.
FIGS. 1A-1E and FIG. 2 (flowchart form) depict one illustrative example of a prior art method of retargeting an overall target exposure pattern that is to be formed using double patterning processes. As shown in FIG. 1A, an initial overall target exposure pattern 10 is comprised of a plurality of features 12. For ease of reference, the features 12 have been labeled with additional numerical reference numbers 1-4. In the particular example depicted in FIG. 1A, the features 12 all have the same critical dimension (width), but the spacing between the features 2-3 is less than the spacing between the features 1-2 and 3-4. The space (or pitch) between the features 12 in the initial overall target pattern 10 is such that the initial overall target pattern 10 cannot be printed using a single mask with available photolithography tools. Thus, as shown in FIG. 1B and step 22 of FIG. 2, the initial overall target exposure pattern 10 is decomposed into a first exposure pattern 10A (comprised of the features 1 and 3) and a second exposure pattern 10B (comprised of the features 2 and 4). Shading has been added to the features 12 in the second exposure mask 10B for ease of explanation. At the point depicted in FIG. 1B, the decomposed first exposure pattern 10A and second exposure pattern 10B will be subject to various design rule checks (DRC) to make sure that the decomposed first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B can each be patterned using a single layer of photoresist material without exceeding the capability of the photolithography tools and systems that will be used to manufacture an integrated circuit product.
As shown in FIG. 1C and step 24 of FIG. 2, after the first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B have passed the various design rule checks, the first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B will be recombined into a recombined overall target exposure pattern 10R.
With reference to FIG. 1D and step 26 of FIG. 2, the next process operation involves retargeting of the recombined overall target exposure pattern 10R. More specifically, using the recombined overall target exposure pattern 10R as the starting point, the width of the feature 1 in the first exposure pattern 10A is increased by an amount indicated by the arrow 14, while the width of the feature 4 in the second exposure pattern 10B is increased by an amount indicated by the arrow 16. As shown in FIG. 1D, this retargeting results in a retargeted, recombined overall pattern 10RT comprised of the original features 2, 3 and the retargeted (enlarged) features 1 and 4. As discussed above, such changes in the width of the features 1 and 4 may facilitate more accurate manufacturing. Of course, the changes in the width of the features 1 and 4 need not be the same.
Thereafter, as indicated in FIG. 1E and step 28 of FIG. 2, the retargeted, recombined overall target exposure pattern 10RT is decomposed into the first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B. Then, as indicated at decision block 30 in FIG. 2, the decomposed first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B are examined to determine if they are design rule compliant. If the decomposed first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B are not design rule compliant (the "NO" branch), then the process restarts at step 22 in FIG. 2. Various changes may be made to any or all of the first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B, as well as the overall target exposure pattern 10, until such time as the first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B can pass the design rule check indicated at decision block 30 in FIG. 2.
Ultimately, when the mask design process is completed, data corresponding to the first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B (modified as necessary during the design process) will be provided to a mask manufacturer that will produce a tangible mask (not shown) to be used in a photolithographic tool to manufacture integrated circuit products. More specifically, the various sub-wavelength resolution assist features (SRAF) may be added to one or both of the first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B, optical proximity correction (OPC) and/or OPC verification analysis (OPCVA) may thereafter be performed on the first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B, as indicated in blocks 32 and 36. The data corresponding to the first and second exposure patterns 10A, 10B may then be provided to the mask manufacturer, as indicated in blocks 34 and 38.
The present disclosure is directed to various methods that involve color-aware retargeting of individual decomposed patterns when designing masks or reticles to be used in multiple patterning processes, such as double patterning processes, and the use of such masks or reticles in various photolithography systems to manufacture integrated circuit products.

Methods involving color-aware retargeting of individual decomposed patterns when designing masks to be used in multiple patterning processes


This invention is relative with a tape cassette attachment device applied to a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus, such as a cassette tape recorder, wherein a cassette holder into which is inserted and held a tape cassette having a closure plate mounted to the bottom surface of the cassette half for movement between the position of closing the reel drive shaft insertion openings formed in the bottom surface of the cassette half rotatably accommodating a pair of tape reels carrying a magnetic tape and the position of opening the reel drive shaft insertion openings is shifted horizontally and vertically for attaching the tape cassette at a predetermined tape cassette attachment position in the main body of the apparatus. The tape cassette enables the shifting operation of the cassette holder to effect tape cassette attachment only when the tape cassette is correctly inserted and held with respect to the cassette holder.

This invention relates to a tape cassette attachment device applied to a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus, such as a cassette type tape recorder, wherein a cassette holder into which the tape cassette is inserted and held is shifted both horizontally and vertically for attaching the tape cassette at a predetermined tape cassette attachment position in the main body of the apparatus. More particularly, it relates to such tape cassette attachment device wherein the tape cassette is provided on the bottom side of the cassette half with a closure plate for closing reel drive shaft insertion openings and wherein the closure plate is shifted by the tape cassette inserting operation to open the reel drive shaft insertion openings.
Conventionally, a digital audio tape recorder (DAT), making use of a rotary magnetic head device, is employed as the cassette type tape recorder. For protecting the magnetic tape therein as the recording medium, the tape cassette used in this tape recorder DAT has the structure of completely sealing the magnetic tape during non-use when the tape cassette is not attached to the tape recorder. That is, the front side or the tape extracting side of the tape cassette is covered by a front cover that may be turned to open or close the front side, while its bottom side is covered by a closure plate that may be slid to open or close the reel drive shaft insertion openings.
In the above described magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus, such as the digital audio tape recorder, employing the tape cassette provided at least with a closure plate, in order for the tape cassette to be attached at a predetermined tape attachment position fitted with the reel drive shafts, it is necessary to shift the closure plate previously to its opening position to open the reel drive shaft inserting opening before the tape cassette is attached in the tape cassette attachment position.
The digital audio tape recorder employing the tape cassette provided with the closure plate as the recording medium is provided with a tape cassette attachment device whereby the tape cassette is attached to the predetermined tape cassette attachment position as the closure plate is shifted to open the reel drive shaft insertion openings. As this type of the tape cassette attachment device, the present Applicant has proposed the device such as disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 283060/1986 or the Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 147156/1987. In the tape cassette attachment device shown in these Publications, the cassette holder in which the tape cassette is inserted and held is provided with means for opening or closing the closure plate, which is shifted to its opening position as the cassette holder is fed towards the main body of the apparatus to open the reel drive shaft insertion openings. The closure plate is alternatively shifted in operative association with the operation of inserting and retaining the tape cassette in the cassette shifted to open the reel drive shaft insertion opening. Meanwhile, in the tape cassette attachment device for attachment of the above described tape cassette provided with the closure plate, it is necessary that, after the closure plate is shifted to open the reel drive shaft insertion opening and the tape reel in the tape cassette is enabled to engage with the reel drive shafts of the recording/reproducing apparatus, the cassette holder holding the tape cassette be shifted towards the tape cassette attachment position.

Tape cassette attachment device with closure plate actuated insertion sensor


In a method, an evacuation state is activated, and the number of people awaiting evacuation on specific floors is determined. At least one of a number of elevator cars and of evacuation times needed for the evacuation of specific floors is calculated based on the capacity of the aforementioned one or more elevator cars and of the number of people awaiting evacuation, and floor-specific evacuation is controlled to one or more exit floors.

If an exceptional incident occurs in a building, which incident can cause danger to the users of the building, it is important to enable a safe exit from the building for the users. This kind of serious exceptional incident can be e.g. a fire, an earthquake, a bomb threat or a similar type of event, which is of danger to the people in the building. An evacuation order can be given in the building, either for certain floors of the building or for the entire building, after detecting an exceptional incident. The transport systems located in the building, such as elevators, are in this case placed in an important role.
Generally the use of elevators in the event of fire can be prohibited. This is because a fire can damage an elevator system, in which case elevators are no longer safe to use for evacuating people to the exit floor of the building. It is also possible that the elevator stops working during an elevator run, in which case the elevator car may stop between floors leaving the elevator passengers trapped. Also the extinguishing water to be used for extinguishing fires may damage the electrical parts of the system e.g. by causing short-circuits in the electronics parts of the system.
Additionally in the event of a fire it is not sensible to direct the elevator car to, and then open the doors to, a floor on which the fire has progressed to an advanced stage. In this case the safety of the people already traveling in the elevator is endangered and the time needed for evacuation becomes longer, if it can be assumed that on this kind of floor there are no longer any people awaiting evacuation.
On the other hand, if the elevator system is constructed to be such that it withstands heat well or it is protected with suitable structures, the elevator system can very well be a feasible additional aid in the evacuation of the building. In high-rise buildings this is especially prominent, because the safe evacuation of a large number of people along the stairs and out of the building is extremely slow. If the elevators can be safely and reasonably controlled also during an emergency, the evacuation time can be substantially shortened. It follows from the above that travel of the elevators in emergencies must be controlled in accordance with a special evacuation state.
When an evacuation situation arises, one awkward point is receiving reliable information about the number of people to be evacuated on each floor. Additionally, if e.g. a destination call system is in use, in which each elevator user gives his/her personal destination information to the elevator system with a separate destination call panel instead of up-down pushbuttons, each person should separately give a destination call. In this case, after each destination call the group control optimizes the routing and allocates an elevator car to each person. If the number of people to be evacuated is considerable, the group control is significantly loaded and the route selections are not necessarily optimal from the viewpoint of evacuation.

Elevator systems and methods for building evacuation


System, method and computer program product for 1) preparing queries for retrieving related content based on existing data content. For instance, titles of existing documents or entities extracted from documents can be used as queries. 2) Retrieving content from other repositories of unstructured, semi-structured, or structured data. For instance, web pages can be retrieved using existing search engines. 3) Extracting smaller units of text from the retrieved content. For instance, web pages can be split into coherent paragraphs of text. 4) Judging the quality of the smaller units of text and their relatedness to existing data. For instance, paragraphs can be scored using a statistical model based on lexico-syntactic features and topic models. 5) Synthesizing new sources from high-quality related text. For instance, paragraphs that score above a threshold can be concatenated into a new document.

In question answering (QA) systems such as described in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_answering, it is common to locally store and index text collections, e.g., encyclopedias and newswire corpora, that are expected to provide reasonable coverage of the information required for a given QA task. However, compared to the Web, these sources are less redundant and may not contain the information sought by a question.
QA systems need to be improved with regard to the following common types of failures: 1) Source failures, i.e. the sources do not contain the information sought by a question. 2) Search and candidate extraction failures, i.e. the system is unable to retrieve or extract a correct answer, often because of insufficient keyword overlap with the question. 3) Answer ranking failures, i.e. the answer is outscored by a wrong answer, often because of insufficient supporting evidence in the sources or because it was ranked low in the search results.
Performing query expansion or using pseudo-relevance feedback in the search can (at most) address the above-mentioned failures of types 2) and 3). In practice, these approaches can introduce noise and may hurt QA performance. Often, they are only applied as a fallback solution if an initial query yields low recall.
While current web search engines typically must be used as black boxes, local sources can be indexed with an open-source IR system such as Indri or Lucene which provide full control over the retrieval model and search results. Local sources can also be preprocessed and annotated with syntactic and semantic information, which can be leveraged in structured queries that better describe the information need expressed in a question. Furthermore, in applications where speed and high availability are important, where the knowledge sources contain confidential data or restricted-domain knowledge, or where a self-contained system is required, a live web search may be infeasible. Moreover, the Web and algorithms used by web search engines change constantly.
While QA systems often utilize the Web as a large, redundant information source, it has also been noted in the QA research community that there are situations where a local search is preferable. For instance, Clarke et al. in the reference entitled "The impact of corpus size on question answering performance" (In Proceedings of the 25th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, 2002) analyze the impact of locally stored web crawls on a TREC QA dataset. It has been found that large crawls of over 50 GB were required to outperform the 3 GB reference corpus used in TREC, and that performance actually declined if the crawl exceeded about 500 GB.
It would be highly desirable to provide an effective strategy for improving performance of a QA system.

Source expansion for information retrieval and information extraction

International Business Machines Corporation


Endothermic engine for an industrial vehicle includes a continuous braking device capable of actuating a supplementary opening of the exhaust valves. so as to dissipate the compression energy produced inside the cylinders, in which the profile of the exhaust valves control cams consists of a first section with null lift, corresponding to one stage of the suction stroke of the relevant cylinders, a second section with a constant reduced lift, corresponding to the last stage of the suction stroke and to both compression and power stroke of the relevant cylinders, and a third lobe section corresponding to the exhaust stroke of the respective cylinder. The continuous braking device includes an actuator. capable of displacing rotation axis of control rocker arms of exhaust valves from a first normal work position, in correspondence to which valve clearance is large enough to cause second section. of the cams profile to be ineffective, and a second braking position, in correspondence of which the value of valve clearance is reduced in such a way, as to activate the second section.

The present invention relates to an engine comprising a continuous braking device, particularly for an industrial vehicle. As is known, industrial vehicles must be fitted with a continuous braking device, besides service and parking brakes. Such a device aims, by exploiting the braking capacity of the engine when in use, to guarantee a continuous deceleration of the vehicle on long slopes, without resorting to service brakes. The ever increasing rate of progress in supercharging allows for engines having higher and higher working power, with equal displacement, and, therefore, for ever heavier vehicles being pulled. Therefore, the engine braking capacity, as well, should increase proportionally, so that the braking power/active power ratio be constant, as much as possible. To this end, over the past few years engines have been fitted with continuous braking devices based on the principle of dissipating the engine compression energy in order to generate braking power. In such well-known engines, said dissipation is achieved by opening the exhaust valves at the end of the compression stroke; the effectiveness of such a solution being increased by the supercharging provided by the turbine, thus causing the compression power, and therefore, the braking power, to be increased. Being the turbine of a centrifugal type, its contribution decreases along with the speed of the engine; therefore, the effectiveness of the known devices is reduced at low engine speed, whereas a high braking torque at low speed should be desirable. Other engines are also known, each cylinder of which presents an additional exhaust valve, open during each stroke of the cycle. The effectiveness of such a further solution being increased by the use of a throttle valve on the exhaust manifold, which generates an exhaust back pressure inside same manifold. Quite a high braking power can be obtained in such a way; however, the maximum braking power to be obtained is limited by the air flow rate through the engine being reduced and, therefore, by the temperature inside the combustion chambers being increased.

Engine comprising a continuous braking device, particularly for an industrial vehicle


An optical receiver includes: a first generator to generate, from an optical signal to which a reference signal is inserted, a first digital signal representing a signal component of a first partial band including the reference signal, using a first local oscillation light of a first frequency; a second generator to generate, from the optical signal, a second digital signal representing a signal component of a second partial band including the reference signal, using a second local oscillation light of a second frequency being different from the first frequency; a frequency compensator to adjust a frequency of the signal component of the first partial band and a frequency of the signal component of the second partial band according to a frequency of the reference signal; and a combiner to combine the first and second partial bands adjusted by the frequency compensator.

The next-generation optical communication requires transmission of terabit data. As the speed of optical communication increases, studies and development of an optical receiver that receives an optical signal using digital signal processing have been conducted.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an optical receiver that receives an optical signal using digital signal processing. In FIG. 1, an optical signal transmitted through an optical transmission link is input to an optical hybrid circuit. The optical hybrid circuit obtains the I component and Q component of the optical signal by mixing local oscillation light and the optical signal. A photo detector circuit converts the I component optical signal and the Q component optical signal obtained by the optical hybrid signal respectively into an electric signal. An A/D converter converts the signals output from the photo detector into digital signals, respectively. Then, the digital signal processor recovers transmission data from the digital signals.
The digital signal processor may provide a function to compensate for the difference between the frequency of the signal light and the frequency of the local oscillation light (that is, the offset frequency), and a function to compensate for the carrier phase. In addition, the digital signal processor may also provide a function to compensate for characteristics of the optical transmission link (for example, chromatic dispersion).
As a related art, a coherent optical receiver having a mixer, O/E converter, received data processor, modulator described below has been proposed. The mixer mixes local oscillation light and received signal light. The O/E converter performs O/E conversion for the light of the mixed signal mixed in the mixer. The received data processor performs a process to obtain received data included in the received signal light through a digital signal process for the mixed signal converted into an electric signal in the O/E converter based on the first clock. The modulator modulates the local oscillation light or the received signal light using a clock with a phase synchronized with that of the first clock used for the digital signal processing in the received data processor (for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-49613). In addition, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-41210, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-21887, and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 09-252283 describe other related arts.
In the transmission of super high-speed data, the signal band of the optical signal may be extended into, for example, several hundred GHz or more per wavelength. However, in the optical receiver illustrated in FIG. 1, the band of the analog receiver circuits (such as the photo detector circuit and the A/D converter) is, for example, about several dozen GHz, and it is difficult to receive the broadband optical signal as mentioned above.
In order to solve this problem, for example, a configuration in which the signal band of an input optical signal is divided into a plurality of partial bands using an optical circuit, and a plurality of analog receiver circuits respectively receive the signal in the corresponding partial band may be considered. However, in this configuration, a plurality of local oscillators to obtain the plurality of partial bands need to be synchronized. In this case, it is preferable that the phases of the plurality of local oscillation light are synchronized with each other. However, since an optical circuit that generates a plurality of local oscillator light synchronized with each other has a complicated configuration and a large circuit size, it is difficult to be implemented in the optical receiver.

Optical receiver and optical transmission system


One embodiment provides a method, including: capturing, using at least one sensor of an information handling device, environmental audio; receiving, at an audio capture device associated with the information handling device, a user query, wherein the user query comprises at least one deictic term; disambiguating, using a processor and by analyzing the captured environmental audio, the user query; and providing, based on the disambiguating, a response to the user query. Other aspects are described and claimed.

Individuals often have questions about various things that they seek the answers to. For example, individuals may require directions to a location, may want recommendations for restaurants or movies, may want opinions about a topic, etc. Generally, the quickest and easiest way to obtain these answers is by interacting with an information handling device ("device"), for example, smart phone, tablet, digital assistant, laptop and/or personal computer, and the like. More particularly, an individual may provide their question to their device (e.g., to a digital assistant embodied on the device, to a search engine, etc.) that may thereafter return one or more responsive results.

Query disambiguation using environmental audio


A fastener is provided having a bolt releasably securable to a nut. The bolt includes a collar and resilient locking prongs with shoulders to anchor the bolt to a first member, such as a grommet or panel, and the nut has a nut body and resilient locking prongs with shoulders to anchor the nut to a second body, such as a second grommet or panel. A bolt shank having several curved channels open at one end and having locking slots at the other end is insertable into a cavity in the nut which has engagement lugs disposed therein. Rotation of either the nut or the bolt causes the engagement lugs to travel within the channels and engage the locking slots, thereby securing the nut to the bolt. Either a spring washer or resilient collar material can be used to apply a locking force to urge the nut and bolt in opposite directions to ensure that the lugs remain in the locking slots. Pressing the lug and nut together with an unlocking force greater than the locking force allows the nut and bolt to disengage.

Fasteners in seemingly endless varieties exist to attach one object to another. It is often desirable to effect a temporary connection between, for instance, separate pieces of fabric or leather having grommets, or between a tarpaulin and a truck bed. This connection may be effected by a temporary fastener, a permanent fastener having pieces affixed to each object to be joined, or by passing the fastener through the objects to be joined and into a substrate. The fastener can be used to form a one-time connection or be repeatedly engaged and disengaged.
Unfortunately, the need for permanent fasteners requires forethought and anticipation of a specific application. Additionally, permanent fasteners are exceedingly difficult to replace if defective or broken in use. A temporary fastener is a versatile alternative to the permanent fastener. The classic temporary, add-on fastener, a threaded bolt, nut, and washer, is easily replaced and provides a more secure attachment than a snap fastener for example, which is prone to "popping apart" under stress. However, nuts, washers, and bolts are easy to misplace when separated, and are relatively tedious and slow to connect. While add-on or aftermarket fasteners have a flexibility of use advantage over permanent fasteners, the features which make pieces of the fasteners easily securable to each item to be joined also make the pieces easy to lose, especially when the items are disconnected from each other.
An example of a specialized temporary fastener is U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,704 to Acker which teaches a snap fastener that uses a specialized grommet to attach layers of fabric to each other. However, in use, the pieces of the Acker device would be easily misplaced. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,011,356 to Fernandez: 4,874,276 to Iguchi; 4,375,342 to Wollar et al.; and 4,276,806 to Morel each depict two-piece fasteners wherein a first fastening piece is anchored to a first object and is matable with a second fastening piece that secures a second object to the first object, but is not itself anchored to the second object in a manner that will prevent its disengagement or loss when the fastener is in a disengaged state.
Of the seemingly endless varieties of fasteners, there is no single fastener or combination of fasteners which simply and reliable join a plurality of annular members, such as eyelets, grommets or the like to one another. Further, the fastener art lacks fasteners that can be securely affixed to the members to be joined so that objects attached to the members can be connected and disconnected repeatedly without losing one or both of the fastening pieces.


A blind aid device including enabling a blind person to activate the blind aid device; capturing one or more images related to a blind person's surrounding environment; detecting moving objects from the one or more images captured; identifying a finite number of spatial relationships related to the moving objects; analyzing the one or more images within the blind aid device to classify the finite number of spatial relationships related to the moving objects corresponding to predefined moving object data; converting select spatial relationship information related to the one or more analyzed images into audible information; relaying select audible information to the blind person; and notifying the blind person of one or more occurrences predetermined by the blind person as actionable occurrences.

1. Field of the Related Art
The present disclosure relates to a blind aid device employing motion detection, image recognition, and voice recognition capabilities.
2. Background of the Related Art
People without the sense of sight live in a difficult world. The simple act of walking from one place to another becomes difficult and often dangerous. Walking canes and seeing-eye dogs are helpful for avoiding some obstacles, but do not solve the larger problem of navigation and situational-awareness (e.g., there is a window on the left, a table on the right, there is a bus approaching, etc.). Reading signs and printed materials present additional problems. People who are blind rely heavily on their auditory senses to make sense of the world's ongoings, especially in an urban environment.
According to statistics, over 1.1 million people in the United States are legally blind, and at least an additional 10 million have vision conditions which are not correctable by glasses. A great deal of research has been focused on finding ways to aid the blind in "reading" and "seeing." In addition to more familiar techniques such as Braille, substantial work has been done in presenting printed materials to the blind in the form of coded sounds. Generally speaking, devices of this type, often called optophones, convert a light image of the material to be "read" into a corresponding electrical signal using optical-electronic transducers such as photo-cells. This electrical signal is used to control the output of a variable frequency oscillator or oscillators so that a distinctive tone is generated.
Thus, for someone who is completely unable to use a normal screen or read a printed text, there are two alternatives: Braille reading or speech. Currently available assistance for blind and visually impaired people comprises a wide range of technical solutions, including document scanners and enlargers, interactive speech software and cognitive tools, screen reader software and screen enlargement programs. Moreover, cell phones remain an important part of blind peoples' lives, in spite of their disabilities.


Methods and apparatus are provided for minimizing the inherent time delays within external defibrillators and allowing operators to administer CPR therapy as close in time as possible to the delivery of a defibrillation shock to a patient. The methods and apparatuses utilize timing schemes for initiation and completion of charging or maintaining the charge of an energy storage device of an external defibrillator for at least a portion of a predetermined CPR therapy delivery time.

Defibrillators are devices for providing life-saving electrical shock therapy to persons experiencing an irregular heart beat, such as Ventricular Fibrillation (VF). A defibrillator provides an electrical shock to the heart, in order to convert the irregular heart beat to a normal sinus rhythm. One type of defibrillator is surgically implanted in patients who are considered likely to need electrical shock therapy, precluding the necessity of constant monitoring by medical personnel.
A more commonly used type of defibrillator is the external defibrillator, which sends electrical shock pulses to the patient's heart through external electrodes applied to the patient's chest. External defibrillators may be manually operated, as are typically used in hospitals by medical personnel or may be semi-automatic, semi-automated, fully automatic, or fully automated devices, where they can be used in any location where an unanticipated need may occur.
Recent research has shown that administration of CPR therapy close to the time of the delivery of a defibrillation shock may be beneficial to a patient. Prior art defibrillator configurations have attempted to apply this finding by compressing the time gap between the analysis of the patient's ECG signal and the delivery of the defibrillation shock. However, these attempts have presented problems. For instance, one known defibrillator includes circuitry that reduces the charging time of the energy storage device. These types of defibrillators include complex circuitry, which can add more components to the defibrillator and increase the overall size of the apparatus. In certain instances, increase in size may not be favorable, especially because users of external defibrillators typically may need to travel from one site to another to administer treatment. Thus, a large, bulky machine may not be desirable. Moreover, the additional circuitry may be more costly to implement, and thereby may increase the price of the defibrillator.
Other defibrillators begin to charge the energy storage device as soon as power is turned on. However, a decision to shock is generally rendered in less than fifty percent (50%) of all cardiac arrest cases, and charging the energy storage device at every power on instance may reduce battery life. Yet other defibrillators allow caregivers to administer CPR therapy during the collection and analysis of the patient's heart rhythm data. However, added outside physical movement of the patient may cause the defibrillator to collect inaccurate data.
Accordingly, it is desirable to find a solution that allows the delivery of CPR therapy before the administration of a defibrillator shock that does not compromise the safety of the user or patients, or increase the costs or size of the defibrillators. In addition, it is desirable to implement the solution in all types of external defibrillators, including fully automatic, semi-automatic, fully automated or semi-automated and manual defibrillators. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.

External defibrillator and methods for operating the external defibrillator

Medtronic Physio-Control Manufacturing Corp.


A thin-film transistor (TFT) includes a gate electrode, a gate insulation layer, a source electrode, a drain electrode and an active layer arranged on a base substrate. The active layer includes an un-doped a-Si layer, a first doped a-Si layer and a second doped a-Si layer. One of the source electrode and the drain electrode is in contact with the first doped a-Si layer, and the other of the source electrode and the drain electrode is in contact with the second doped a-Si layer. The source electrode and the drain electrode are on different horizontal planes and spaced apart from each other, and the un-doped a-Si layer is positioned between the source electrode and the drain electrode.

The present disclosure relates to the field of display technology, and in particular to a thin-film transistor (TFT) and a method for fabricating the same, an array substrate and a method for fabricating the same, and a display device.
Thin-film transistors (TFTs) have been arranged on substrates of electronics products, such as a flat display, a thin-film solar cell and so forth. The TFTs are key elements for any liquid crystal display devices, which play a vital role for performance of these display devices.
As display technology improves, display panels that have a super narrow bezel, or even no bezel, and a super high aperture ratio will prevail in the market, which needs a smaller size of the TFTs. As shown in FIG. 1, according to a conventional technology, a-Si TFT may include a gate electrode 11, a gate insulation layer 12, an active layer 13, a source electrode 14 and a drain electrode 15 arranged sequentially on a base substrate 10. Here, the active layer 13 may include an un-doped a-Si layer 131 and doped a-Si layers 132, 133. The source electrode 14 is in contact with the doped a-Si layer 132, while the drain electrode 15 is in contact with the doped a-Si layer 133, so as to reduce resistance. A method for fabricating the TFT as shown in FIG. 1 usually adopts patterning processes, which may include exposure process and the like. Provided that a size of the TFT needs to be reduced, a ratio between width and length (W/L) of the TFT has to be increased. However, since a length of the TFT can hardly be further reduced due to exposure process according to the conventional technology, it is almost impossible to further reduce the size of the TFT.

Thin-film transistor and method for fabricating the same, array substrate and method for fabricating the same, and display device

Beijing BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


A system and method for a wall anchor including a washer for use in a cavity wall to connect to a veneer tie that joins an inner wythe and an outer wythe of the cavity wall are disclosed. The washer includes an opening configured to receive a shaft associated with the wall anchor, a washer body first side configured to abut one or more surfaces associated with the inner wythe, a washer body second side, and a washer body side wall. The washer body having at least one receiving element, including at least one receiving element opening configured to receive a portion of the veneer tie.

Minimizing the use of natural resources are vital components of the global strategy to protect the environment and mitigate climate change. The building construction sector represents a large portion of resource consumption. Much of today's anchoring systems require a backup wall to support horizontal transverse loads exerted by a veneer wall. The backup wall typically consists of stud wall, masonry wall, concrete wall, steel elements, etc. Anchoring systems for cavity walls are used to secure veneer walls of a building to overcome seismic and other forces, i.e., wind shear, etc.
A veneer wall is commonly defined as a wall having a facing of masonry units (brick veneer, stone veneer, etc.), or other weather-resisting, non-combustible materials, securely attached to the backup wall, but not so bonded as to exert common action under load intentionally. The veneer wall is supported horizontally by the backup wall via veneer ties embedded in joints on one end and attached to a backup wall anchor on the other end. Typically, the veneer ties the inner wythe and the outer wythe together and is flexible for in-plane horizontal and vertical movement and rigid perpendicular to the wall face. As a result, the veneer wall and the backup wall are isolated and do not behave identically under load. While the displacements perpendicular to the wall are typically the same, the vertical flexibility provided by the veneer tie allows for differences in response to vertical loading.
Current building construction methods require a wall anchor that connects a veneer tie that joins an inner wythe and an outer wythe of the cavity wall—subsequently requiring wall anchors to involve numerous parts. Among one of the numerous essential wall anchor parts, includes a washer. A washer is commonly configured to seal the opening into the inner wythe. Other embodiments of washers may include fastening an anchor bracket to a steel stud. As a result of the number of the wall anchors parts required, maintaining and, or stocking an adequate level of the different parts creates a lot of problems. Therefore, a need exists to improve over the prior art and, more particularly, for an improved washer that allows for the interconnection with veneer ties for use in conjunction with cavity walls having an inner wythe and an outer wythe.

Wall anchor system and washer for connecting to a veneer tie