A first dipole antenna consisting of dipole antennae 2a, 2b and a second dipole antenna consisting of dipole antennae 2c, 2d are disposed so as to be approximately orthogonal at approximately xcex/4 intervals on a reflecting plate 6 having a diameter of approximately xcex/2 or more. By disposing a plurality of non-feeding elements 3a to 3h around the first dipole antenna and second dipole antenna and isolating them by approximately xcex/4, the transmission gain and axial ratio in a low elevation angle can be improved.

The present invention relates to a cross dipole antenna suitable for being installed in telecommunication equipment employing circularly polarized waves, and to a composite antenna suitable for being used in a communication system employing both circularly polarized waves and linearly polarized waves.
Various proposals have been made on satellite communication systems for the purpose of mobile communication employing circularly polarized waves. As the satellite communication system, there are a geosynchronous mobile satellite system employing a geosynchronous satellite and a non-geosynchronous mobile satellite system employing a non-geosynchronous satellite.
As the non-geosynchronous mobile satellite system, there are a system employing a low/medium-earth orbit satellite, a system employing a highly elliptical orbit satellite and a system employing an inclined geosynchronous orbit. Among the above, there is the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) communication system as the system employing a low/medium-earth orbit. This LEO communication system is a system having a small propagation delay time. Moreover, as the propagation loss is also small, there is an advantage in that the transmission power can be reduced and it is easy to miniaturize the size and lighten the weight of the terminal.
In addition, with this LEO communication system, there are a small scale LEO (Little LEO) for handling only data transmission and a large scale LEO (Big LEO) capable of voice transmission. The Iridium system and ICO (Intermediate Circular Orbit) system (Project 21) are included in this Big LEO. The communication method of the Iridium system is a TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) method employing a frequency in a 1.6GHz band, and conducts communication with (66+6) non-geosynchronous satellites launched to an altitude of 780 km so as to cover the entire globe. These non-geosynchronous satellites are disposed at longitudinal 30xc2x0 intervals for orbiting. In addition, the ICO system disposes 6 orbiting satellites in orthogonally inclined orbits of 10390 km, respectively, and the portable terminal thereof is a dual terminal capable of sharing satellite system networks utilizing satellites and existing ground system mobile phone systems.
With such satellite mobile communication systems, although numerous satellites are required, real-time voice and data communication is possible since the delay time can be disregarded. It is further possible to make the terminal portable since the transmission power of the terminal can be reduced. Thus, carrying a portable wireless device of such satellite mobile communication system will realize real-time communication and data transmission with telephones and mobile phones around the world. Circularly polarized waves suitable for portable wireless devices is employed in satellite mobile communication systems.
Incidentally, across dipole antenna or micro strip antenna capable of transmission and reception is employed in a portable wireless device of such satellite mobile communication systems since it is necessary to receive circularly polarized waves.
A cross dipole antenna is structured from two half-wavelength dipole antennae in which dipole antennae are orthogonally disposed in a cross shape. By mutually shifting the phase of two half-wavelength dipole antennae 90 degrees and exciting the same, circularly polarized waves are generated in a direction perpendicular to the face of the two half-wavelength dipole antennae. Here, as mutually opposing circularly polarized waves are generated in the two directions perpendicular to the face of the two half-wavelength dipole antennae, it is standard to place a reflecting plate at the position of approximately xc2xc wavelength rearward of the two half-wavelength dipole antennae for unidirectional use. Further, in order to obtain circularly polarized waves within the range of a wide elevation angle, employed is an inverted V-shaped or inverted U-shaped dipole antenna which shows small directional change in the electric field face and magnetic field face.
FIG. 20 and FIG. 21 show a fundamental structure of a conventional cross dipole antenna capable of transmitting and receiving this type of circularly polarized waves. FIG. 20 is a diagram showing the fundamental structure of a cross dipole antenna 100 employing an inverted V-shaped dipole antenna, and FIG. 21 is a diagram showing the fundamental structure of a cross dipole antenna 200 employing an inverted V-shaped dipole antenna.
The cross dipole antenna 100 employed in the inverted V-shaped dipole antenna shown in FIG. 20 is structured of a reflecting plate 106, an inverted V-shaped first dipole antenna formed of dipole elements 102a, 102b disposed on such reflecting plate 106, and an inverted V-shaped second dipole antenna formed of dipole elements 102c, 102d disposed approximately orthogonal to the first dipole antenna.
This cross dipole antenna 100, although not shown, comprises a phase shifter circuit in the inverted V-shaped first dipole antenna and inverted V-shaped second dipole antenna for mutually shifting the phase approximately 90 degrees and exciting the same. The cross dipole antenna 100 can thereby be used as a an antenna capable of transmitting and receiving circularly polarized waves, and it can further obtain circularly polarized waves in a range of a wide elevation angle since it is formed of an inverted V-shaped first dipole antenna and an inverted V-shaped second dipole antenna.
The cross dipole antenna 200 employed in the inverted U-shaped dipole antenna shown in FIG. 21 is structured of a reflecting plate 206, an inverted U-shaped first dipole antenna formed of dipole elements 202a, 202b disposed on such reflecting plate 206, and an inverted U-shaped second dipole antenna formed of dipole elements 202c, 202d disposed approximately orthogonal to the first dipole antenna. This cross dipole antenna 200, although not shown, comprises a phase shifter circuit in the inverted U-shaped first dipole antenna and inverted U-shaped second dipole antenna for mutually shifting the phase approximately 90 degrees and exciting the same. The cross dipole antenna 200 can thereby be used as an antenna capable of transmitting and receiving circularly polarized waves, and it can further obtain circularly polarized waves in a range of a wide elevation angle since it is formed of an inverted U-shaped first dipole antenna and an inverted U-shaped second dipole antenna.
Since the aforementioned cross dipole antennae are capable of transmitting and receiving circularly polarized waves, they may be employed in communication systems utilizing circularly polarized waves, such as satellite communication antennae and so on. Next, FIG. 22 and FIG. 23 show the concrete structure of the conventionally proposed cross dipole antenna capable of transmitting and receiving circularly polarized waves. FIG. 22, however, is a plan view of the cross dipole antenna and FIG. 23 is the front view thereof. This cross dipole antenna may be installed in automobiles, ships and vessels, aircraft, portable devices, and so forth.
The cross dipole antenna 300 illustrated in these diagrams is structured of two dipole antennae disposed to be approximately orthogonal and a reflecting plate 306. The diameter D3 of the approximately circular reflecting plate 306 is approximately xcex/2 to xcex when the wavelength of the center frequency in the used frequency band is set to xcex. The two dipole antennae disposed to be approximately orthogonal are structured from a first inverted U-shaped dipole antenna and a second U-shaped dipole antenna being orthogonally disposed. The first inverted U-shaped dipole antenna is structured from a dipole element 302a and a dipole element 302b, and the second inverted U-shaped dipole antenna is structured from a dipole element 302c and a dipole element 302d. Dipole elements 302a to 302d are formed of metal plates, and the approximate center thereof is folded toward the reflecting plate 306, and the end thereof is directed toward the reflecting plate 306. The length L302 of dipole elements 302a to 302d is approximately xcex/4.
In this cross dipole antenna 300, the length L301 between one end of dipole elements 302a to 302d and the reflecting plate 306 is set be approximately xcex/4. In other words, the length from the reflecting plate 306 of a coaxial semi-rigid cable 304a for exciting the first inverted U-shaped dipole antenna structured from dipole element 302a and dipole element 302b is approximately xcex/4. Similarly, the length from the reflecting plate 306 of a coaxial semi-rigid cable 304c for exciting the second inverted U-shaped dipole antenna structured from dipole element 302c and dipole element 302d is also approximately xcex/4. Moreover, the length from a short pole 304b and short pole 304d in which the lower end thereof is short-circuited to the reflecting plate 306 is also approximately xcex/4.
One end of the dipole element 302a is connected to and excited by a covered conductor at the tip of the coaxial semi-rigid cable 304a, and one end of the dipole element 302b is connected to and excited by the tip of the short pole 304b. A center conductor 302e of the coaxial semi-rigid cable 304a is connected to the tip of this short pole 304b. Further, one end of the dipole element 302c is connected to and excited by a covered conductor at the tip of the coaxial semi-rigid cable 304c, and one end of the dipole element 302d is connected to and excited by the tip of the short pole 304d. A center conductor 302f of the coaxial semi-rigid cable 304c is connected to the tip of this short pole 304d.
Moreover, coaxial semi-rigid cables 304a, 304c penetrating through and extending below the reflecting plate 306 are connected to a phase delay circuit 307, coaxial semi-rigid cable 304a is excited at 0xc2x0 phase, and coaxial semi-rigid cable 304c is excited at a 90xc2x0 delayed phase. Thereby, the phase of the first inverted U-shaped dipole antenna and the second inverted U-shaped dipole antenna differ at approximately 90xc2x0, and circularly polarized waves are irradiated pursuant to the excitation from a feeder unit 308.
FIG. 24 illustrates the directivity characteristic inside the perpendicular face of the cross dipole antenna 300 structured as described above. Upon reviewing this directivity characteristic, it is clear that the antenna gain gradually decreases and the axial ratio of the circularly polarized waves deteriorates and becomes an elliptical polarization in the direction of a low elevation angle in which the angle becomes larger from the apex direction.
As described above, with a conventionally proposed cross dipole antenna, the antenna gain decreases and the axial ratio of the circularly polarized waves also deteriorates in the direction of a low elevation angle. This constitutes a problem in a communication system employing circularly polarized waves.
In other words, there are cases where radio waves arrive from the direction of a low elevation angle in a communication system employing circularly polarized waves. Particularly in a satellite communication system, a satellite is generally not geosynchronous and the apparent movement speed of the satellite in a position where the elevation angle is high becomes large. This implies that the existing possibility of a satellite in a low elevation angle of approximately 70xc2x0 to 90xc2x0 upon setting the zenith direction to 0xc2x0 becomes high. Thus, a conventional cross dipole antenna has a problem in that the transmission gain is small in a low elevation angle where the existing possibility of a satellite is high, and the axial ratio deteriorates as well.
Meanwhile, a satellite digital sound broadcast system for conducting digital sound broadcast utilizing satellites has been proposed. FIG. 25 illustrates the schematic structure of this satellite digital sound broadcast system.
As shown in FIG. 25, the satellite digital sound broadcast system transmits digital sound broadcasting programs produced by a plurality of providers from the earth station 171 to the broadcasting satellite 170, and transmits such programs to the assigned territories on earth from the broadcasting satellite 170 based on the control of the ground-side controlling station. Radio waves of the digital sound broadcast transmitted from this broadcasting satellite 170 are circularly polarized waves, and are received by a movable mobile body 182. Here, in the cities where skyscrapers are standing side by side, blind areas may arise because radio waves from the broadcasting satellite 170 do not reach such areas.
Thus, in order to enable favorable reception of sound broadcasting by the mobile body 182 in the cities where blind areas easily arise, terrestrial broadcasting is conducted from the earth broadcasting station 181. The digital sound broadcasting programs broadcast from the earth broadcast station 181 are the same as the digital sound broadcasting programs broadcast from the broadcasting satellite 170, and the terrestrial broadcasting and satellite broadcasting are broadcast in synchronization. Moreover, terrestrial broadcasting is transmitted in linearly polarized waves from the earth broadcasting station in order to suppress interference. Transmitted to the earth broadcasting station 181 are digital sound broadcasting programs broadcast terrestrially from the ground-side controlling station (not shown) and digital sound broadcast programs from the earth station 171. Further, it is possible to obtain digital sound broadcast programs broadcast terrestrially from a satellite broadcast transmitted from the broadcasting satellite 170. The frequency band of the terrestrial broadcasting is made identical or adjacent to the frequency band of the satellite broadcasting.
The mobile body 182 capable of receiving the satellite broadcast or terrestrial broadcast is equipped with an antenna 182a having a circular polarization antenna and linear polarization antenna, and selects and receives a favorable reception by detecting the reception power and so on of both broadcasts. This type of satellite digital broadcast system has been put into practical application as Sirius satellite radio and XM satellite radio.
A circular polarization antenna capable of receiving circularly polarized waves are required for a mobile reception terminal to receive the digital sound broadcast transmitted from the broadcasting satellite 170, and a linear polarization antenna capable of receiving linearly polarized waves are further required upon receiving digital sound broadcasts in cities where blind areas easily arise. That is, two antennae; namely, a satellite system antenna and a ground system antenna, are required.
The cross dipole antenna illustrated in FIGS. 20 to 23 described above is an antenna capable of receiving circularly polarized waves. Nevertheless, although this type of cross dipole antenna is capable of receiving circularly polarized waves and linearly polarized waves, the transmission gain decreases in comparison to an antenna dedicated to linearly polarized waves with respect to the linearly polarized waves transmitted horizontally from the earth station. Therefore, regarding the antenna in a mobile reception terminal in a satellite digital sound broadcast system illustrated in FIG. 25, there is a problem in that it is necessary to separately install a ground antenna such as a whip antenna, for example, in addition to installing a satellite antenna such as a cross dipole antenna.
Thus, the first cross dipole antenna of the present invention comprises: a reflecting plate; a first dipole antenna disposed at a prescribed interval on the reflecting plate; a second dipole antenna disposed at a prescribed interval on the reflecting plate so as to be approximately orthogonal to the first dipole antenna; and a plurality of non-feeding elements disposed around the first dipole antenna and second dipole antenna and uprising from the reflecting plate.
According to this type of invention, since a plurality of non-feeding elements are provided so as to be disposed around the approximately orthogonal first dipole antenna and second dipole antenna and uprising from the reflecting plate, it is possible to suppress the decrease of gain in a low elevation angle and to significantly improve the axial ratio characteristic of circularly polarized waves. In other words, the non-feeding elements act as the wave director and improve the antenna characteristic in the direction of the low elevation angle.
Moreover, in the aforementioned first cross dipole antenna of the present invention, the first dipole antenna and second dipole antenna may be structured by being folded toward the reflecting plate.
Furthermore, in the aforementioned first cross dipole antenna of the present invention, the non-feeding elements may be fixated on the reflecting plate via insulation spacers.
Next, the second cross dipole antenna of the present invention comprises: a reflecting plate formed in which the reflecting face is inclined such that the center portion protrudes further than the peripheral portion; a first dipole antenna disposed at a prescribed interval on the reflecting plate; and a second dipole antenna disposed at a prescribed interval on the reflecting plate so as to be approximately orthogonal to the first dipole antenna. By forming the reflecting plate such that the peripheral portion is inclined downward so as to be positioned lower than the center portion, it is possible to suppress the decrease of gain in a low elevation angle and to significantly improve the axial ratio characteristic of circularly polarized waves.
Moreover, in the aforementioned second cross dipole antenna of the present invention, the dipole antenna and second dipole antenna may be structured by being folded toward the reflecting plate.
Furthermore, the aforementioned second cross dipole antenna of the present invention may further comprise a plurality of non-feeding elements disposed around the first dipole antenna and second dipole antenna and uprising from the reflecting plate.
In addition, in the aforementioned second cross dipole antenna of the present invention, the non-feeding elements may be fixated on the reflecting plate via insulation spacers.
Next, the composite antenna of the present invention is a composite antenna in which a cross dipole antenna capable of receiving circularly polarized waves and a whip antenna capable of receiving linearly polarized waves of an identical or adjacent frequency band to such circularly polarized waves are provided on a reflecting plate; wherein the cross dipole antenna is formed of a first dipole antenna disposed at a prescribed interval on the reflecting plate and a second dipole antenna disposed at a prescribed interval on the reflecting plate so as to be approximately orthogonal to the first dipole antenna; the whip antenna is fixated on the reflecting plate by being isolated from the cross dipole antenna at more than approximately xc2xc wavelength of the wavelength in the center frequency of the used frequency band; and the cross dipole antenna is capable of receiving broadcast signals of circularly polarized waves transmitted from a satellite and the whip antenna is capable of receiving broadcast signals of linearly polarized waves of identical contents as with the broadcast signals transmitted from the ground.
According to this type of invention, since a whip antenna capable of transmitting and receiving linearly polarized waves is provided on the reflecting plate structuring the cross dipole antenna, installation of a single composite antenna will enable the reception of both linearly polarized waves and circularly polarized waves. Therefore, upon receiving digital sound broadcast with a mobile reception terminal, it is no longer necessary to install two antennae; namely, a satellite system antenna and a ground system antenna, and a single composite antenna will suffice.
Moreover, another composite antenna of the present invention is a composite antenna in which a cross dipole antenna capable of receiving circularly polarized waves and a whip antenna capable of receiving linearly polarized waves of an identical or adjacent frequency band to the circularly polarized waves are provided on a reflecting plate; wherein the cross dipole antenna is formed of a first dipole antenna disposed at a prescribed interval on the reflecting plate, a second dipole antenna disposed at a prescribed interval on the reflecting plate so as to be approximately orthogonal to the first dipole antenna, and a plurality of non-feeding elements disposed around the first dipole antenna and second dipole antenna and uprising from the reflecting plate; the whip antenna is fixated on the reflecting plate by being isolated from the cross dipole antenna at more than approximately xc2xc wavelength of the wavelength in the center frequency of the used frequency band; and the whip antenna is also used as the non-feeding elements.
According to this type of invention, by disposing a plurality of non-feeding elements around the cross dipole antenna, it is possible to suppress the decrease of gain in a low elevation angle and to significantly improve the axial ratio characteristic of circularly polarized waves. In other words, the non-feeding elements act as the wave director and improve the antenna characteristic in the direction of the low elevation angle. Further, since a whip antenna, which is a ground antenna, can also be used as the non-feeding element, a composite antenna can be structured with only an approximate structure of a cross dipole antenna. The composite antenna can thereby be miniaturized.
Moreover, in the aforementioned composite antenna of the present invention, the first dipole antenna and second dipole antenna may be structured by being folded toward the reflecting plate.
Furthermore, in the aforementioned composite antenna of the present invention, the non-feeding elements may be fixated on the reflecting plate via insulation spacers.
Moreover, in the aforementioned composite antenna of the present invention, the reflecting face may be inclined such that the center portion of the reflection plate protrudes further than the peripheral portion. According to the above, it is possible to further suppress the decrease of gain in a low elevation angle and to significantly improve the axial ratio characteristic of circularly polarized waves.
Furthermore, in the aforementioned composite antenna of the present invention, the cross dipole antenna may be made to be capable of receiving broadcast signals of circularly polarized waves transmitted from a satellite and the whip antenna may be made to be capable of receiving broadcast signals of linearly polarized waves of identical contents as with the broadcast signals transmitted from the ground.
Moreover, in the aforementioned composite antenna of the present invention, the plurality of non-feeding elements are disposed circumferentially with the cross dipole antenna in the approximate center, and the whip antenna may be disposed on the outer side of the circumference.

Cross dipole antenna and composite antenna


The present invention relates to acenaphtho heterocyclic compounds and their uses in manufacturing the BH3 mimetics as Bcl-2-like protein inhibitors. Structures are shown in the following:

The molecule targeted antitumor drug is becoming a hot spot in new drug research and development and a new generation product during marketization after cytotoxic agents as antitumor drugs. Bcl-2 protein is the most important molecular target for antagonizing and reversing the immortality of malignant tumors. Therefore, specific antagonizing Bcl-2 protein will achieve the goals of anticancer therapy with high selectivity, safety, high performance and low painfulness by inducing intently apoptosis in tumor cells. Among Bcl-2 inhibitors, BH3 analogues (BH3 mimetics) with high selectivity exhibit the most remarkable antitumor effect, the best pharmacodynamic activity and the lowest toxic side effects. In addition, such inhibitors also must possess broad spectrum antagonizing ability on the anti-apoptotic members (including Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and Mcl-1 proteins) of the Bcl-2 family in order to gain single-agent efficacy and limited resistance.
However, until now, there are still no marketed antitumor products using Bcl-2 as target. Among the existing 19 pre-clinical Bcl-2 inhibitors, 3 optimal products are in phase I, phase II and phase III clinical trials respectively, they are ABT-737 researched and developed by Abbott Laboratories, Illinois, USA; Obatoclax (GX15-070) researched and developed by Gemin X; and AT-101 researched and developed by Ascenta in USA. They all are BH3 analogues. The competitive binding constant is up to grade nM with Bcl-2 protein, which is far higher than other 15 similar molecules. However, they all have the following deficiencies: the BH3 analogous level of Gossypol and Obatoclax is insufficient, they are not the authentic BH3 analogue, in other words, they possess cytotoxicity independent on BAX/BAK. This indicates that other target points exist, thus they have toxic side effects. Although ABT-737 is the authentic BH3 analogue, it cannot bind with Mcl-1 and cannot inhibit the Bcl-2 family proteins with broad spectrum, thereby severely limiting its application scope.
The present inventors disclosed a series of acenaphtho heterocyclic compounds of 8-oxo-8H-acenaphtho[1,2-b]pyrrole-9-carbonitrile, and disclosed that these compounds had the activity of inhibiting tumor growth through inducing cell apoptosis (Chinese patent, Authorized Announcement No. CN1304370C). However, as a potential antitumor drug on basis of apoptosis, its research and development faces the same difficulties as the similar drugs: the complexity of apoptosis signal gateway, the potential and intensive cytotoxicity as well as the inevitable blindness resulted from taking medicine. All of these are the important reasons for the failure in the development of such similar drugs. Therefore, the targeting effect of drugs should be prominently emphasized in the research course.

Acenaphtho heterocyclic compound and application thereof

Abstract: Statistical analysis of their bio-activities showed these compounds exhibit better BH3 mimicking property than the reported compounds. These compounds can simulate BH3-only protein, competitively bind and antagonizing Bcl-2 and Mcl-1 proteins in vitro and in cells, and then induce apoptosis. Therefore, they all can be used in the manufactures of anticancer compounds.


A magnetic marker for use in an article surveillance system, and an electronic article surveillance system utilizing the same are presented. The marker comprises a magnetic element including a predetermined number of microwire pieces made of an amorphous metal-containing material coated with glass and having substantially zero magnetostriction, coercivity substantially less than 10 A/m, and permeability substantially higher than 20000, the predetermined number of the microwire pieces and a core diameter of the microwire piece being selected in accordance with a desired detection probability of the marker to be obtained in a specific detection system.

The present invention is in the field of article surveillance techniques and relates to a magnetic marker for use in an electronic article surveillance system (EAS).
Magnetic markers are widely used in EAS systems, due to their property to provide a unique non-linear response to an interrogating magnetic field created in a surveillance zone. The most popularly used markers utilize a magnetic element made of soft magnetic amorphous alloy ribbons, which is typically shaped like an elongated strip. A marker of this kind is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,184. This strip-like marker usually is of several centimeters in length and a few millimeters (or even less than a millimeter) in width.
It is a common goal of marker designing techniques to decrease the marker dimensions and to enhance the uniqueness of its response. One of the important parameters of a marker is its detection probability determined, for example in EAS systems of Meto International GmbH, as a minimal angle of inclination of the marker from the central vertical plane of an interrogation zone at which the marker is detectable. The interrogation zone is typically a space between detection coils, i.e., a magnetic detection system capable of identifying the existence of a magnetic marker on an item passing through the gate. Another important parameter of a marker is its length. It is known that the longer the magnetic element of the marker, the less the sensitivity value of the system, which is sufficient for the detection of the marker-associated article. Moreover, the conventional attaching device, known as the so-called xe2x80x9ctagging gunxe2x80x9d, is capable of automatically attaching markers of up to 32 mm in length to various items. Longer markers have to be attached manually. For example, the conventional 32 mm-length marker (made from amorphous ribbon) commercially available from Meto International GmbH has the minimal detection angle (the so-called xe2x80x9cMeto anglexe2x80x9d) of about 30-35xc2x0, at an aisle width of 90 cm. Additionally, it is desirable to increase the marker flexibility so as to enable its attachment to various flexible and flat articles like clothes, footwear, etc. in a concealed manner. For these purposes, a magnetic element in the form of a thin wire is preferable over that of a strip.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,630 discloses a method for preparing a magnetic material with a highly specific magnetic signature, namely with a magnetic hysteresis loop having large Barkhausen discontinuity at low coercivity values, and a marker utilizing a magnetic element made of this material. The material is prepared from a negative-magnetostrictive metal alloy by casting an amorphous metal wire, processing the wire to form longitudinal compressive stress in the wire, and annealing the processed wire to relieve some of the longitudinal compressive stress. However, a relatively large diameter of the so-obtained wire (approximately 50 xcexcm) impedes its use in EAS applications. Additionally, a complicated multi-stage process is used in the manufacture of this wire. Furthermore, amorphous wire brittleness unavoidably occurs, due to the wire-annealing process. Such brittleness will prevent the use of the wire in flexible markers.
A technique for manufacturing microwires known as Taylor-wire method enables to produce microwires having very small diameters ranging from one micrometer to several tens of micrometers by a single-stage process consisting of a direct cast of a material from melt. Microwires produced by this technique may be made from a variety of magnetic and non-magnetic alloys and pure metals. This technique is disclosed, for example, in the article xe2x80x9cThe Preparation, Properties and Applications of Some Glass Coated Metal Filaments Prepared by the Taylor-Wire Processxe2x80x9d, W. Donald et al., Journal of Materials Science, 31, 1996, pp. 1139-1148.
The most important feature of the Taylor-wire process is that it enables to produce metals and alloys in the form of a glass-coated microwire in a single operation, thus offering an intrinsically inexpensive way for the microwire manufacture.
A technique of manufacturing magnetic glass-coated microwires with an amorphous metal structure is described, for example, in the article of xe2x80x9cMagnetic Properties of Amorphous Fexe2x80x94P Alloys Containing Ga, Ge, and Asxe2x80x9d, H. Wiesner and J. Schneider, Phys. Stat. Sol. (a) 26, 71 (1974).
The properties of amorphous magnetic glass-coated microwires are described in the article xe2x80x9cHigh Frequency Properties of Glass-Coated Microwiresxe2x80x9d, A. N. Antonenko et al, Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 83, pp. 6587-6589. The microwires cast from alloys with small negative magnetostriction demonstrate flat hysteresis loops with zero coercivity and excellent high frequency properties. The microwires cast from alloys with positive magnetostriction are characterized by ideal square hysteresis loops corresponding to their single-domain structure.
There is a need in the art to facilitate the article surveillance by providing a novel magnetic marker to be used in EAS system.
It is a major feature of the present invention to provide such a marker that has minimum dimensions, while maintaining the necessary level of response to an interrogating magnetic field.
It is a further feature of the present invention that the marker has highly unique response characteristics.
It is a still further feature of the present invention that the marker is extremely flexible, and can therefore be introduced to articles made of fabrics and having a complex shape.
The main idea of the present invention is based on the use of amorphous metal glass-coated magnetic microwires with substantially zero magnetostriction, very low coercivity (substantially less than 10 A/m) and high permeability (substantially higher than 20000) to form a magnetic element of a marker. The present invention takes advantage of the use of the known Tailor-wire method for manufacturing these amorphous glass-coated magnetic microwires from materials enabling to obtain the zero magnetostriction.
Although amorphous magnetic glass-coated microwires and their manufacture have been known for a long time, no attempts were made for using them in magnetic elements of EAS markers. These amorphous magnetic glass-coated microwires, however, have good mechanical strength, flexibility, and corrosion resistance, and can therefore be easily incorporated in paper, plastic, fabrics and other article materials.
The inventors have found that the use of the Tailor-wire method allows for obtaining thin glass-coated amorphous microwire (with the core diameter of about 30 xcexcm and less), and that the properties of the microwire can be controlled by varying the core diameter value, as well as varying the metal-containing composition to meet the above-indicated magnetostriction, coercivity and permeability conditions. The glass-to-metal ratio is also controlled, such that the glass-coating thickness is about 1-5 xcexcm the 45-60 xcexcm core diameter wire, and preferably 1-3 xcexcm for 30 xcexcm core diameter wire.
Additionally, the inventors have found that, in the detection system of Meto International GmbH (for example, the Meto 2200/EM3+ model), a 32 mm-length marker formed from three 30 xcexcm core diameter microwires renders a 22-250xc2x0 detection probability at an aisle width of 90 cm, and that a single-microwire marker with the 45-60 xcexcm core diameter (preferably 50 xcexcm) microwire renders a detection probability of about 17-20xc2x0. The same 17-20xc2x0 detection probability can be obtained with a marker formed from an array (e.g., bundle) of five 30 xcexcm core diameter microwires. Moreover, a 50 xcexcm core diameter microwire with a 26 mm length renders the detection probability of about 18-22xc2x0 (with the detection systems of Meto International GmbH), where ribbon-based markers of this length do not work at all.
The term xe2x80x9cdetection probabilityxe2x80x9d used herein signifies a minimal angle of inclination of the marker from the central vertical plane of an interrogation zone defined by a detection system, at which the marker is detectable by the system.
There is thus provided according to one aspect of the present invention, a magnetic marker for use in an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system, the marker comprising a magnetic element including a predetermined number of microwire pieces made of an amorphous metal-containing material with glass coating and having substantially zero magnetostriction, coercivity substantially less than 10 A/m and permeability substantially higher than 20000, said predetermined number of the microwire pieces and a core diameter of the microwire piece being selected in accordance with a desired detection probability of the marker to be obtained in a specific detection system.
The marker may contain the single microwire piece with the above magnetic properties and a core diameter substantially within a range of 45-60 xcexcm, or at least three microwire pieces, each with the above magnetic properties and the core diameter substantially not exceeding 30 xcexcm. These markers are characterized by the detection probability substantially not exceeding 25xc2x0 (more specifically 17-25xc2x0) at the aisle width of 90 cm in the detection systems of Meto International GmbH (specifically, the Meto 2200/EM3+gates model).
The microwire preferably has a length substantially not exceeding 32 mm (e.g., 26-32 mm length), and can therefore be easily attached to an item (i.e., by the conventional tagging gun.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a magnetic marker for use in an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system, the marker comprising a magnetic element having a single microwire piece, which is made of an amorphous metal-containing material with glass coating and has substantially zero magnetostriction, coercivity substantially less than 10 A/m and permeability substantially higher than 20000, a core diameter of the microwire piece being of about 45-60 xcexcm.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a magnetic marker for use in an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system, the marker comprising a magnetic element including at least three microwire pieces, each of the microwire pieces being made of an amorphous metal-containing material with glass coating and having substantially zero magnetostriction, coercivity substantially less than 10 A/m and permeability substantially higher than 20000, a core diameter of the microwire piece substantially not exceeding 30 xcexcm.
Preferably, the microwire piece is manufactured by a single-stage process of direct cast from melt (i.e., Tailor-wire method). The properties of the microwire piece are controlled by varying the metal-containing material composition and the glass-to-metal diameter ratio.
As indicated above, the microwire piece comprises a core, made of the metal-containing material, and the glass coating. The metal core and the glass coating may be either in continuous contact or may have only several spatially separated points of contact.
Preferably, the metal containing material is a cobalt-based alloy. For example Coxe2x80x94Fexe2x80x94Sixe2x80x94B alloy (e.g., containing 77.5% Co, 4.5% Fe, 12% Si, and 6% B by atomic percentage), Coxe2x80x94Fexe2x80x94Sixe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94Cr alloy (e.g., containing 68.7% Co, 3.8% Fe, 12.3% Si, 11.4% B, and 3.8% Cr by atomic percentage), or Coxe2x80x94Fexe2x80x94Sixe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94Crxe2x80x94Mo alloy (e.g., containing 68.6% Co, 4.2% Fe, 12.6% Si, 11% B, 3.52% Cr and 0.08% Mo by atomic percentage) may be used. The microwire piece made of the Coxe2x80x94Fexe2x80x94Sixe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94Crxe2x80x94Mo alloy shows less sensitivity to external mechanical tensions, due to the fact that in this microwire the metal core and glass coating are physically attached to each other only in several spatially separated points of contact, rather than being in continuous contact.
Preferably, for making a single-microwire marker (with a 45-60 xcexcm core diameter), the cobalt-based alloy of Co, Fe, Si, B, Cr and Mo is used, e.g., the following composition: 68.6% Co, 4.2% Fe, 12.6% Si, 11% B, 3.52% Cr and 0.08% Mo by atomic percentage.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic article surveillance system utilizing a marker mounted within an article to be detected by the system when entering an interrogation zone, the system comprising a frequency generator coupled to a coil for producing an alternating magnetic field within said interrogation zone, a magnetic field receiving coil, a signal processing unit, and an alarm device, wherein said marker comprises a magnetic element including a predetermined number of microwire pieces, made of an amorphous metal-containing material with glass coating and having substantially zero magnetostriction, coercivity substantially less than 10 A/m and permeability substantially higher than 20000, wherein the marker has one of the following designs:
it has the single microwire piece with a core diameter of about 45-60 xcexcm; and
it has at least three microwire pieces, each with a core diameter substantially not exceeding 30 xcexcm.

Glass-coated amorphous magnetic mircowire marker for article surveillance


Human behavior is determined by sequential event detection by constructing a temporal-event graph with vertices representing primitive images of images of a video stream, and also of idle states associated with the respective primitive images. A human activity event is determined as a function of a shortest distance path of the temporal-event graph vertices.

The present invention relates to the analysis of human activities in videos, and more particularly to accurately determining and distinguishing behaviors represented thereby.
In a variety of contexts, there may be a desire to monitor human activities for the occurrence or omission of certain activities, for example to comply with activity processes and policies. Compliance failures may result in injuries from failure to observe safety regulations or physical barriers, theft in business and retail establishments and other losses or loss exposures. Gaps in procedure may be identified for remedy, for example through retraining, by capturing and recording behavior deviations with video systems for subsequent or contemporaneous analysis. However, human review and analysis of video feeds is time consuming and perhaps inefficient with respect to human resources allocations, and accordingly it is desirable to implement automated systems for video analysis. Automated analysis of videos for determining human activities and behaviors presents a number of challenges, including providing for desired levels of accuracy in determinations of occurrences of human activities of concern, which must be recognized and sometimes distinguished from other activities, and wherein false alerts and missed event recognitions must occur at an acceptable level.

International Business Machines Corporation


A spectroscopic method is disclosed for detecting and measuring contaminants in fluids such as water or oil, where the hydrophilicity of the contaminant is substantially different from that of the contaminated fluid. Good calibrations can be obtained at very low concentrations using infrared spectroscopy with ATR crystals that have not been additionally coated or otherwise modified.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the use of spectroscopic methods to detect and measure very low levels of contaminants in water, oils, and other media.
2. Background of the Invention
Contamination of water, including drinking water, ground water, and seawater, poses considerable problems for human health and for the environment. Certain industrial processes also require water that is free from organic materials at the level of parts per million (ppm) or parts per billion (ppb). For different reasons, it can be important to detect small quantities of water in organic matrices such as crude oil, kerosene, lubricating oil, or gasoline.
A range of analytical procedures for the determination of hydrocarbons in water is available in the literature. A number of ISO standards have been published that specify methods for measuring organic contaminants in water (see Table 1).
TABLE 1Examples of ISO standards for organic contaminant analysis in waterStandard NumberTargetMethodISO 10301: 1997Highly volatile halogenatedGas chromatographic (GC)hydrocarbonsmethodsISO 10695: 2000Selected organic nitrogen andGC methodsphosphorus compoundsISO 11423-2: 1997Benzene and some derivativesExtraction and GCISO 15680: 2003A number of monocyclic aromaticGC determination using purge-hydrocarbons, naphthalene andand-trap and thermal desorptionseveral chlorinated compoundsISO 17495: 2001Selected nitrophenolsSolid-phase extraction and gaschromatography with massspectrometric detection(GC/MS)ISO 17858: 2007Polychlorinated biphenylsGC/MSISO 17993: 200215 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbonsHigh-Performance Liquid(PAH)Chromatography (HPLC) withfluorescence detection afterliquid-liquid extractionISO 18857-1: 2005Selected alkylphenolsMethod for non-filtered samplesusing liquid-liquid extraction andGC/MSISO 6468: 1996Certain organochlorine insecticides,GC method after liquid-liquidpolychlorinated biphenyls andextractionchlorobenzenesISO 7981-2: 2005PAHHPLC with fluorescencedetection after liquid-liquidextractionISO 8165-1: 1992Selected monovalent phenolsGC method after enrichment byextractionISO 8165-2: 1999Selected monovalent phenolsDerivatization and GCISO 9377-2: 2000Determination of hydrocarbon oilSolvent extraction and GCindex
All of the listed ISO methods include at least an extraction/concentration step, or a purge-and-trap step; some include a derivatization step. All are essentially laboratory-based methods, unsuitable for implementation in the field, or for continuous monitoring of process or waste fluids.
The determination of water content in hydrocarbon streams such as crude oil, fuel oil, or mineral oil is also of considerable economic importance. The presence of even quite small amounts of water can interfere with the processing of crude oil, and can compromise the performance of fuel oil. Water in machine or engine oil can lead to accelerated wear or corrosion of machine or engine parts. Consequently, a range of standard methods exist for the determination of water content in oil (see Table 2).
TABLE 2Examples of standards for water determination in oilStandard NumberTargetMethodASTM D4006 - 07Standard Test Method for WaterDistillation(ISO 9029)in Crude Oil by DistillationASTM D95Test Method for Water inDistillationPetroleum Products andBituminous Materials byDistillationASTM D96Test Methods for Water andCentrifugationSediment in Crude Oil byCentrifuge Method (FieldProcedure)
In general, the standard methods are based on distillation, which is a complex method and not suitable for field or process use, or on centrifugation.
A Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic method for analyzing organics in water has the potential to be a fast, non-complex technique, offering the elimination of the extraction/concentration step, the purge-and-trap step, or the derivatization step. However, existing procedures for IR analysis of organics in water generally include an extraction step (see, for example Application Note: Determination of Oil and Grease in Water with a Mid-Infrared Spectrometer, PerkinElmer Inc., 2009). While a number of small, portable instruments are available that lend themselves to field use, they too require an extraction step (see, for example Application Note: New ASTM Test Method Offers Quick and Easy Oil and Grease, Sandra Rintoul, Wilks Enterprise Inc.) The extraction step is carried out because (a) water absorbs very strongly in the mid-IR, making transmission measurements impossible and (b) the ATR method has not generally been considered sensitive enough to detect parts per million of organics in water.
FIG. 1 illustrates the mechanism of the attenuated total reflectance (ATR) effect in an infrared element (IRE) such as a zinc selenide, zinc sulfide, or diamond crystal. When the IRE is immersed in a fluid sample, the evanescent wave penetrates into the sample to a depth determined by the ATR equation:
      d    p    =      λ          2            π                                                                    n            p                                          (                                                            sin                  2                                                θ                            -                              n                sp                2                                      )                                    1                                /                              2                                    where dp is the penetration depth at each bounce                    λ is the wavelength of the radiation            np is the refractive index of the crystal            θ is the angle of incidence of the light beam            nsp is the ratio of the refractive indices of sample and crystal
Based on this equation, the signal penetration depth into water, using any of the conventional ATR materials, is in the range of a few micrometers. While this enables the use of mid-IR spectroscopy in high-absorbing media such as water by decreasing the path length dramatically versus transmission methods, it limits the sensitivity of the technique. Typically, an ATR measurement is expected to be at least an order of magnitude less sensitive than a comparable transmission measurement, even at the lowest obtainable transmission path lengths. Considerable effort has been made to develop a method that combines the desirable attributes of ATR-FTIR methods (rapid, direct, reproducible measurement, effective in water) with the sensitivity of extraction methods or transmission-FTIR.
Efforts to eliminate a separate extraction step, or other concentration step, have included the use of so-called molecular enrichment layers, or solid-phase micro-extraction layers (SPME layers), on ATR crystals. These layers are applied to the surface of the ATR element so as to selectively concentrate the target analyte close to the crystal surface and within the region that is sampled by the evanescent wave during the ATR measurement. Much of the published work in this area has involved thin polymeric coatings on zinc selenide or zinc sulfide ATR crystals (see, for example, "Amplified" Fiber-Optic ATR Probes with Improved Detection Limits in the Mid IR, presented at the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS) Meeting in Providence, R.I., 2002, by P. Melling, M. Thomson, B. Mizaikoff, and M. Karlowatz; From the Lab to the Field—Recent Developments in Polymer Coated ATR, thesis by M. Karlowatz, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004; Development of an SPME/ATR-IR chemical sensor for detection of phenol type compounds in aqueous solutions, J. Yang and M-L Cheng, The Analyst, 2001, 126, 881-886). These layers, typically comprising hydrophobic polymers such as ethylene-propylene copolymer or PTFE, have the effect of selectively concentrating hydrophobic analytes close to the ATR surface and thus enhancing the resulting FTIR signal. While this method has proven to be very sensitive, it is difficult to calibrate and the robustness of the coated ATR elements has not been demonstrated. Coatings made from oxide nanoparticles, from zeolites, and sol-gel silica have also been used as SPME layers to promote ATR detection of organics in water.
A related, but different, approach involves combining an ATR crystal with a membrane-based micro liquid-liquid extraction cell to create a sensor which performs a micro-extraction of organics from an aqueous stream to deliver a concentrated sample to the ATR element (M. Vacarcel et al., ATR-FTIR membrane-based sensor for the simultaneous determination of surfactant and oil total indices in industrial degreasing baths, Analyst, 2006, 131, pp. 415-421). Like the SPME layers, this method has the potential to be very sensitive. However, it is essentially a laboratory-based approach which would be difficult to implement in the field. Furthermore, as described by Valcarcel, it involves the use of environmentally unacceptable solvents such as carbon tetrachloride.
Water content in oils, e.g. in industrial lubricants, is also an important measurement, and presents a similar challenge. Many currently accepted standard methods, such as Karl Fischer Titration, for example, are laboratory-based. An FTIR method is described in ASTM E2412-10 Standard Practice for Condition Monitoring of Used Lubricants by Trend Analysis Using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectrometry, and an improved method using FTIR has been proposed recently (US Patent Application 2009/0257047 by Higgins and Seelenbinder, and Application Note 101: On-Site, Low Level Quantitative FTIR Analysis of Water in Oil Using a Novel Water Stabilization Technique, by Higgins and Seelenbinder, A2 Technologies). The method of Higgins and Seelenbinder involved treating the oil sample with a surfactant to stabilize and evenly distribute the water content before measuring a transmission spectrum and using a suitable univariate or multivariate calibration to determine the water content.
All of the FTIR methods described for both oil-in-water and water-in-oil analysis involve specific steps to concentrate the analyte, or stabilize its distribution throughout the sample, before carrying out the FTIR analysis. In the ATR measurement, which is the only practical method for measuring FTIR spectra in aqueous samples due to the very high IR absorption of water, the development of a suitable process to concentrate the analyte has been extensively studied. The concentration is Carried out either as a separate step, resulting in a sample where the analyte is concentrated, or by treating a conventional ATR material, such as zinc selenide, zinc sulfide, or diamond, with specialized coatings which enhance the analyte concentration near the ATR surface, so as to facilitate analysis down to the level of parts per million (ppm).
In light of the extensive literature describing pre-concentration or stabilization of the analyte, and pretreatment of ATR crystals to enhance analyte detection by surface concentration, the present discovery that certain ATR materials are sufficiently hydrophobic to promote analyte enrichment close to the ATR surface, and thus to enable detection of organics in water down to ppm levels, is completely contrary to expectations. Similarly, the ability of more hydrophilic ATR materials to enable detection of ppm water in organic media such as oil is surprising.

Method for detecting and measuring low concentrations of contaminants using attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy in the mid-IR range


An engine device including an exhaust gas purification device above cylinder head through a support pedestal. The support pedestal has a flat portion on which the exhaust gas purification device is mounted, and a plurality of legs which protrude downward from the flat portion and are fixed to the cylinder head. The flat portion and the leg portions are formed integrally. Portions between the legs are each formed in an arch-shape.

Recently, enactment of strict emission regulation on diesel engines (hereinafter, simply referred to as engine) has led to increased demands for installation of an exhaust gas purification device configured to execute purification processing for air pollutants in the exhaust gas, in an agricultural work machine or a construction machine including the engine. As an exhaust gas purification device, a diesel particulate filter (DPF) configured to capture particulate matter (soot, particulates) and the like in the exhaust gas is known (see Patent Literatures 1 to 3 for example; hereinafter referred to as PTL 1 to PTL 3, respectively).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A heating and/or air conditioning apparatus for an automotive vehicle includes an inlet duct for supplying ambient air from outside the vehicle and dividing into a first branch and a second branch. A heat exchanger is mounted in the second branch, and the first and second branches communicate with each other through a junction, at which a control means is situated. The latter enables the temperature of the air leaving the outlets from the apparatus to be varied. A flap valve with two flaps, pivotting about an axis, is arranged in the said junction close to that edge of the junction which is nearest to the heat exchanger.

Conventionally, a heating and/or air conditioning apparatus for an automotive vehicle includes an air supply duct for delivering external air, i.e. ambient air from outside the vehicle, with this duct dividing into a first branch and a second branch, the first branch having first outlet means into the interior of the vehicle, the second branch comprising a heat exchanger for heating air passing through it, the second branch having second outlet means for delivery of air into the interior of the vehicle, the apparatus further comprising junction means for bringing the first and second branches into communication with each other and control means for adjusting the temperature of the air delivered from the various said outlet means.
The means for regulating the temperature of the air delivered via the outlets may for example be a valve, and is so arranged that this air may be delivered at the same temperature through the first and second outlets, or with the air from the first outlets being at a different temperature from that at the second outlets. In this latter case, the apparatus can function in a "bi-level" manner, in which the temperature levels are stratified in such a way as to cause the temperature to be different as between the first and second branches.
It has however been established that such an arrangement has some disadvantages. In the embodiments known at the present time, the different air outlets include flap valves in the vicinity of their outlets, allowing the flow of air delivered to be regulated. When for example the flap valves of the outlets of the first branch are closed, there is a back flow of air into the junction region, and this back flow mixes with treated air inside the apparatus, so disturbing the temperature of the latter.

Heating and/or air conditioning apparatus for an automotive vehicle


A canine trainer and toilet station has an impervious flat one piece housing bounded by an integral peripheral upstanding side wall having a peripheral integral horizontal ridge for supporting a perforated platform on which newspaper or other absorbent sheets are placed. Fecal matter is caught on the absorbent sheets and excess urine drains through the sheets and perforations into an inclined integral housing bottom to a central drain aperture. The sidewall has a side opening into which a removable drawer may be inserted to a position under the drain aperture. The horizontal ridge includes pairs of integral wells having flexible top entry lips into which support rods extending across opposite sides of the peripheral horizontal ridge are forced in a removable interference fit. The rods support the perforated platform which can then support the weight of a urinating or defecating dog.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a puppy or dog trainer or toilet for initiating and continuing routine urination and defecation of a canine species, particularly in a home environment. More specifically, the invention includes a dog-acceptable receptacle for supporting a dog's weight which employs the time-tested newsprint paper method coupled with effective urine collection and clean-up.
2. Material Art
Pet pans such as that seen in U.S. Pat. 3,358,647 have been suggested for training a puppy or full-grown dog to exercise its bodily functions in a given location by providing a flat water-proof bag draped over the margins of a tubular frame to form a dish-like liquid-proof container, the central part of the loose bag being supported by a supporting surface such as a room floor. A disposable absorbent material such as cut-up newspaper known as Kitty Litter.TM. or sheets of newspaper are positioned on the bag bottom. Due to the thickness of the absorbent layer, the absorbent layer stays wet and is difficult to remove due to its high liquid content. Training pads per se have been suggested as seen in U.S. Pat. No 3,626,899 in which absorbent sheet material is lined with fluid-impervious material and impregnated with an odor imparting substance to attract young dogs to the pads for the purpose of urination and defection while discouraging the desire to chew and destroy the pad. The pads may be laid directly on a floor or placed in a cage while transporting the animal. U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,121 shows an artificial grass impregnated pad adhered to a perforated plastic sheet and an impervious plastic sheet, the pad being positioned in a reinforced bottom-grooved vacuum-formed plastic tray for support and collection of fluids. U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,401 describes an animal toilet including a reusable porous mat with porous paper thereon positioned on a porous supporting platform extending over a drain basin. A drain cock for removal of urine is provided in the basin.
Sectional pet cages as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,545; 5,092,270 and 5,148,771 have also incorporated a perforated floor and a urine-collecting bottom; a removable cat litter box drawer; and a water flushing system, respectively.
As can be seen in the patents discussed above there has been no trainer proposed that allows for easy removal of an upper layer of newspaper sheets, which permits quick drying of the newspaper sheets which have absorbed urine, which allows for easy wrapping of relatively dry sheets around fecal material for disposal and which provides for removal of drained urine without lifting and tilting of the overall catch basin.


The described embodiments relate generally to a dielectric wave guide interconnect for an electronic device including a first routing circuit, a second routing circuit, and a dielectric wave guide coupling the first routing circuit to the second routing circuit. The interconnect may also include a first coupling element securing a first end of the dielectric wave guide proximal to the first routing circuit and a conductive element to insulate the dielectric wave guide from radio-frequency (RF) signals. In some embodiments, the first routing circuit is in a bottom portion of the electronic device; and the second routing circuit is in a top portion of the electronic device. An electronic device including a dielectric wave guide interconnect as above is also disclosed. A coupler for an electronic device including a first end adapted to receive an electrical signal and a propagating electromagnetic signal is also disclosed.

In the field of electronic devices, the availability of high end display devices has become an industry standard. As a result, the complex data management and signaling schemes for state-of-the-art video systems has increased the demand for faster and more reliable data transport. Electric cables using metal conductors such as copper are used to pass data between transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) components. However, at the required data rates, an exposed metal conductor acts as an antenna capable of propagating electromagnetic energy at frequencies that interfere with co-operating wireless circuits within the device. For example, cable interconnects have the capability of emitting (incidental) electromagnetic energy at frequencies that interfere with nearby wireless RF circuits (such as WiFi or Bluetooth). This interference can be particularly troublesome in small form factor computing devices such as a laptop computer. For example, incidental energy generated by metal conductors can couple with a nearby WiFi antenna resulting in reduced WiFi performance. In order to prevent such affects, expensive shielding or re-location of the sensitive circuits, or both, can be used to isolate the sensitive circuits from the incidental energy. Moreover, in addition to acting as an antenna, metal conductors experience metal fatigue induced by repeated bending (during opening and closing of a lid of a laptop, for example). The metal fatigue results in damage to metal conductors (such as breaking) with the resultant loss of device functionality and reduced reliability.
One approach that is used to avoid the problems associated with using an unshielded or only partially shielded metal conductor for high speed data transport in small form factor electronic devices, and more particularly laptop computers, relies upon optical wave guides, and more particularly, fiber optic cables. Although, fiber optic cables eliminate the problems of incidental electromagnetic energy and metal fatigue, a photonic communication system that relies upon fiber optics generally requires a much more complex and expensive suite of circuits. For example, in order to generate optical signals, extra circuitry for lasers are required at a transmitter (Tx) portion of a fiber optic cable. Likewise, a photo-detector circuit (and amplifier) is required in a receiver (Rx) portion of the fiber optic cable. Moreover, power consumption used to operate the photonic communication system can be substantial. In portable systems that rely upon a battery for operating power, the increase power consumption reduces battery life. In addition to increased power consumption, manufacturing can be adversely affected since photonic based circuitry is not easily made compatible with the silicon-based integrated circuits (ICs). Furthermore, in order to minimize transmission loss, alignment precision of a few tens or hundreds of microns is required between electronic components and any fiber optic cable. Precision of this magnitude can substantially increase manufacturing complexity and reduce resultant yield loss with a concomitant increase in overall manufacturing cost.
A reliable and cost effective high speed data transport system for use in a portable computer is desired.

Data transport in portable electronic devices


A capacitive position sensing system has a pickup electrode, a shield electrode partially enclosing the pickup electrode, and an essentially grounded relatively movable target near the pickup electrodes; a capacitance-to-digital converter, and switching means for connecting each electrode in turn to the converter input or to ground. A capacitive position sensing method in the system includes measuring a first capacitance C1 of at least one pickup electrode set with the shield electrode set grounded, measuring a second capacitance C2 of at least one shield electrode set with the pickup electrode set grounded, and measuring a third capacitance C3 of the pickup electrode set and the shield electrode set connected together; and calculating a first result indicating a position of a target using the first capacitance C1, the second capacitance C2 and the third capacitance C3.

Existing capacitive position sensors directly measure mutual capacitance between relatively movable electrodes to avoid or at least reduce the influence of parasitic capacitance. ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) have been the only way to implement such sensors, but only a few applications like digital calipers and levels had markets big enough to write off an ASIC's high development costs.
Recently, several mass-produced microcontrollers with integrated capacitive touch-sensing electronics have become available. These can also be used for position sensing applications other than touch detection. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,997,132 to Ross Jr. et al. discloses a capacitive sensor assembly for sensing position or liquid levels through one or more "antenna probes" connected to "an integrated chip normally associated with touch screen displays".
These microcontrollers sense electrodes' self-capacitance, adequate for keyboard touch detection. However, capacitance to the sensed object is only a fraction of an electrode's self-capacitance, parasitic capacitance, mainly from interconnections, making up the rest. The contribution of this parasitic capacitance, as well as of its drift with contamination such as moisture and condensation, must thus be cancelled. This is usually done by monitoring capacitance in the absence of touch and keeping the touch detection threshold just above it. For position sensing, though, other approaches are needed. An obvious one is to reduce parasitic capacitance, but there are limits: on a printed circuit board for example, most of the parasitic capacitance is through the substrate, with typically 4 to 5 times the dielectric constant of air, and varies strongly with temperature, moisture absorption and condensation.
A well-known and efficient method for removing the effects of parasitic capacitance is by surrounding an electrode with a shield driven by a unity gain buffer having its input tied to the electrode: coupling is virtually eliminated by the nulled shield-to-electrode voltage and by the shielding provided. U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,679 to Vranish et al. discloses a capacitive proximity sensing element backed by a shield driven at the same voltage. U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,388 to Vranish et al. discloses multiple sensing elements backed by a common shield, with circuitry adjusting all sensing element voltages to the shield voltage: this reduces mutual coupling between elements to a negligible level, so that all elements can be sensed simultaneously. A simpler approach is used in the "Electric Field Imaging Devices" integrated circuit family exemplified by the Motorola MC33794 and the Freescale MC33941: multiplexers switch one electrode at a time to the capacitance-sensing circuit and to a unity gain buffer driving the shield output, while the remaining electrodes are grounded. As this does not take care of mutual coupling between electrodes, the data sheets suggest using one coaxial cable per electrode and connecting all shields to the shield output. And unlike microcontrollers, these integrated circuits are not programmable.
In general, unity gain buffers and multiplexers are not integrated in microcontrollers with integrated touch sensing, so they would have to be added to the circuit. Anyway, whether integrated or added externally, unity-gain buffers driving capacitive loads with the bandwidth and slew rate required for the output voltage to follow the input voltage need a much higher supply current than a simple touch-sensing microcontroller without shield driving outputs.
Finally, a drawback of capacitive position sensors in general is the difficulty in monitoring contamination, which can in most cases only be detected when the measured capacitance, or its change, exceeds some threshold. As the sensor is very likely to become unreliable way before the threshold is reached, the warning would come too late.

Position sensing device and method using self-capacitance


An addition symbol to add two destinations selected from a list of destinations including a group name representing mail addresses of multiple members, and a subtraction symbol to subtract a mail address of an arbitrary member from a group destination are predefined in electronic mail software, so that when an electronic mail message is transmitted to multiple destinations from a communication terminal, the addition symbol or the subtraction symbol is placed between one destination and the other destination in a destination field in a window for composing an electronic mail message to add a destination address to or delete a personal address of a group member from a group name.

There has been a known method of communicating characters by electronic mail between information processors such as personal computers having a communication function in a network such as the Internet or an intranet or between communication equipments such as mobile phones connected to a public communication line and connectable to the Internet. In the following description, the apparatus capable of communicating by electronic mail as described above is generally referred to as a "communication terminal."
When an electronic mail message is transmitted from one communication terminal to another communication terminal, a mail address specified for the communication terminal as a destination is specified in an outgoing mail composing window at the one communication terminal, so that the electronic mail message can be transmitted.
A network such as the Internet or an intranet has at least one mail server, and a mail server managing the mail addresses of recipients is provided with mailboxes for the respective mail addresses, and distributes incoming electronic mail messages to mailboxes corresponding to the mail addresses for storing. A mail server passed through during transmission determines the mail address data of a recipient specified in the data of the outgoing mail, and transfers the electronic mail message to the mailbox of the specified mail address.
The communication terminal, which can transmit and receive electronic mail messages in this way, may transmit the same electronic mail message to multiple destinations for the purpose of, for example, distribution of bulletins or notification to general users. Therefore, the electronic mail software is generally provided with a function of simultaneous transmissions to multiple destinations.
In an outgoing mail composing window, for example, if a destination or recipient field or section is filled with multiple destinations separated by commas or semicolons, the communication terminal running the electronic mail software determines that the electronic mail message is to be sent to the multiple destinations, and transmits the electronic mail message with the same contents to the multiple mail addresses corresponding to the names filled in the destination or recipient section.
In recent electronic mail software, multiple destinations can be grouped and registered under a single group name. Therefore, in such software allowing the group registration, a sender may simply specify a group name as a destination in order to transmit an electronic mail message with the same contents to multiple destinations.
The electronic mail software is provided with an address book for recording destination addresses. The sender does not have to type the address of each recipient using the keyboard in composing an outgoing mail message but simply reads out the address book from a storage such as a hard disk drive in the communication terminal to select and specify the mail address of the destination.
Not only personal names but also group names can be registered in the address book. The address book registered with group names has a hierarchical structure, and the sender, for example, double-clicks a group name to display a window showing details of the group and can refer to or edit personal names or mail addresses of all the members registered under the group name.
As described above, with a communication terminal running conventional electronic mail software, multiple mail addresses can be separated by commas or semicolons in order to specify multiple recipients (destinations) and send them an identical electronic mail message at a time. Destinations can be more easily input using the address book. In addition, an electronic mail message with the same contents can be transmitted to multiple destination by simply selecting a group name registered in the address book.
With such a communication terminal running conventional electronic mail software as described above, if a message should not be transmitted to one of the multiple destinations registered under a group name in the address book, for example, the group name could not be used to specify the destinations and individual addresses would have to be specified one by one from the mail addresses in the address book.
In the above case, if the number of personal mail addresses registered under the group name is small, the trouble is of little consequence. However, if the number of mail addresses registered under the single group name is large, selecting all the mail addresses of the group members from the address book should be troublesome and could lower the work efficiency.
Furthermore, in an intranet or the like, a mail server in the network may be provided with an address book in which a group name representing mail addresses of all members of the group including a user concerned is registered, and if the user specifies the group name as a destination, a user's electronic mail message is also transmitted to the user him/herself.
In order to solve the above problems, a technique has been suggested in which registered contents of mail addresses included in a single group name registered in the address book are read out and edited, and the edited contents are registered under a new group name, before specifying the destinations of electronic mail. The new group name can then be specified as a destination, so that only a relatively simple re-registering operation is necessary for transmitting an electronic mail message to multiple correct destinations even if the destinations under the original group name are not entirely in agreement with the destinations of the electronic mail.
However, with the above method of re-registering the addresses under the new group name and specifying the name, the items to be registered under the group name are edited and re-registered before composing an outgoing electronic mail message, which is cumbersome, and still complicated as in the case of inputting all the mail addresses. In addition, if the number of personal mail addresses registered under the group name is small, for example, specifying all the mail addresses from the address book could be quicker. In groupware such as Lotus Notes (TM), only an administrator can change and register the contents of a public address book, and therefore a general user (client) who is not an administrator cannot register a new group name in the public address book. Therefore, a general client user of the Lotus Notes cannot re-register in the public address book and specify a new group name.
In order to solve this problem, a known destination selecting method according to the disclosure of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 10-257051 provides an option which allows the addresses of all the members registered under a group name to be displayed so that desired addresses can be selected therefrom when the destination is specified by the group name. An electronic mail message is transmitted only to the selected mail addresses under the notation of the group name as a destination. This method could be used by a client user of the groupware in which the original public address book is not changed and the destination can be changed only once in transmitting the electronic mail message.
According to this method, however, the members of the group whose mail addresses have been selected would believe all the members of the group have received the electronic mail message, while any members left out have not received the electronic mail message. Therefore, there arises disparity in acquired information between the members though they are unaware of it.
In addition, according to the above method, if an electronic mail message to group members is to be also transmitted to a mail address other than the group members, the mail address must be separately specified as a destination in addition to the group name. In that case, the recipient of the electronic mail message at the mail address might feel insecure about possible information disparity from the group members because the destination is specified by the mail address.

Method of setting destinations of electronic mail


A magnetic powder-dispersed carrier for use in electrophotography, electrostatic printing, and other reprographic methods, comprising a large number of magnetic particles dispersed in a binder resin, the particles having a BET surface area no greater than 5 m.sup.2 /g, and an oil-absorbing capacity of no more than 25 ml/100 g.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a carrier which is a component of a two-component developer used to develop a latent electrostatic or magnetic image in electrophotography, electrostatic recording, electrostatic printing or other reproduction methods. More particularly, the present invention relates to a carrier of a magnetic powder dispersed type.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method commonly employed in electrophotography comprises the steps of forming a latent image on a photoreceptor comprised of selenium or other photoconductive materials through a variety of electrical means, and rendering the latent image visible by depositing toner particles using a magnetic brush method. In this step of development, carrier particles, which are simply referred to as "carriers," are employed to impart an appropriate level of positive or negative electric charge to the toner. Various types of carriers have been developed and used commercially.
While carriers are required to possess various characteristics, particularly important requirements include the following: appropriate chargeability, impact resistance, wear resistance, developability and service life. In light of these requirements, the prior art carriers have several problems. For example, iron oxide powders and other conductive carriers are capable of efficient development of a solid image, but their ability to reproduce fine-line images is rather poor. In addition, a special charge control agent must be incorporated in the toner to extend the service life. On the other hand, carriers having an insulation coating exhibit a long life and are capable of efficient reproduction of fine-line images. However, such coated carriers are poor in their ability to reproduce a solid image.
With a view to reducing or eliminating the effects of these drawbacks, so-called "microtoning carriers," or small-particle carriers having fine magnetic particles dispersed in a binder resin, have been proposed and commercially used, as described in JP-A-53-83630. However, because of the small diameter of the carriers, they suffer from the disadvantage of being deposited on the photoreceptor. This phenomenon could be prevented by increasing the diameter of the carrier particles, but then their chargeability is reduced, resulting in problems such as fogging and fouling of the developing machine.
Carriers having magnetic particles dispersed in a resin are generally referred to as dispersed carriers. Compared with ordinary carriers employing iron oxide or ferrite particles as nuclei, such "dispersed carriers" produce a smaller magnetic force per particle. Although this property is a factor that contributes to improvement in the quality of a developed image, it also is a potential cause of carrier deposition on the image (including both image areas and background areas).

Carrier of a magnetic powder dispersed type


A method of forming a dental tool or instrument having a memorized shape. The method comprises selecting a nitinol wire having an initial transition temperature below room temperature; grinding the nitinol wire to form the dental tool or instrument so as to have a shank, located adjacent a first end, and a working area, with at least one cutting edge, located adjacent an opposite second leading end; molding the working area into a molded shape having at least one protrusion formed therein; heating the dental tool or instrument to both: a) alter the initial transition temperature of the dental tool or instrument to a final transition temperature, and b) memorize the Molded shape including the at least one protrusion so that the dental tool or instrument will automatically return to the molded shape having the at least one protrusion when at a temperature at or above the final transition temperature.

Cleaning and preparing root canals of a tooth for receiving filling material is accomplished using drilling instruments with an active portion called the working portion, the purpose of which is to shape and clean the root canal in preparation for receiving the materials used to treat and fill it.
Root canals often have specific shapes with complex curves and narrow cross-sections formed of constricted or oval areas that do not lend themselves to the introduction of preliminary shaping instruments. This is why instruments known as files must have characteristics that sometimes are contradictory: the files must be fine but resistant, yet flexible enough to conform to the curves of the root canal and reach the end of the canal, while nevertheless remaining durable enough to shape and cut the walls of the canal.
These exigencies oblige the odontologist to undertake a preparatory root canal treatment process using a broad array of tools and working progressively to adapt to the root canal morphology, the array of tools having various structures and dimensions. The intervention begins with a flexible fine instrument which will then be replaced by instruments of increasing cross-section until the root canal has an interior cavity large enough to receive the filling material. This is a long, delicate series of operations, being mindful that for safety reasons, the treating and filling material must completely fill the root canal and taking precautions to ensure that no residual air remains at the base of the cavity created in order to prevent any growth of bacteria and eventual infection.
These instruments are difficult to introduce into the root canal. In addition, to date there is no universal instrument adapted to the morphology of the root canal to be treated which would perform all the preparatory operations in one procedure. There is a risk of instruments cracking, becoming blocked in the canal, or greatly over-heating, which may cause breakage. This risk is notoriously present when using mechanically driven instruments made of nickel-titanium alloy, which wear out and must be carefully monitored by the odontologist throughout use. There is no doubt that using several different instruments in succession increases not only the cost of the intervention, but the complexity of the odontologist's work and risk to the patient.
U.S. Publication No. US2010/0233648 describes a method and an endodontic instrument made of superelastic material. A rod of superelastic material is set into a shaped configuration to form an instrument, such that the instrument may be inserted into a root canal in a configuration different than the shaped configuration and revert towards its shaped configuration during the endodontic procedure. In order to form the rod into a desired instrument shape, the rod is compressed (preferably ranging from about 550 MPa to about 1500 MPa) between heated forming surfaces (typically between about 100° C. to about 200° C.) which cause a stress on the rod.
When the instrument is made of a flexible metal alloy, the instrument is designed to resume its retracted shape through a mechanical action after it has been used in the expanded structured shape.
A significant drawback to conventional root canal procedures is that a practitioner must generally use a series of endodontic files to clean out and shape a diseased root canal. Typically, this series of instruments consists of a set of files of increasingly larger diameter and, as a result, an increasing taper, as the length of the working portion is often maintained substantially constant. Sets of such files are used to sequentially and gradually enlarge the root canal until the desired shape is achieved. A stepped enlargement in relatively small increments is believed to be an important part of the conventional strategy of avoiding undesirable damage to and other effects on the tooth structure during the enlargement process, and in avoiding imposition of too much torsional load or stress on the material comprising the instrument. In this regard, a set of instruments are often used only once for a particular patient and then discarded, with each instrument in the set provided at substantial individual expense. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved endodontic file design that limits the number of endodontic files necessary to achieve a desired bore shape or degree of enlargement during root canal therapy/filing procedures.

Endodontic instrument for drilling the root canals of a tooth


An image forming apparatus includes an output image forming unit that forms an output image from an image-repeat image which is obtained by arranging a plurality of input images on one recording medium based on predetermined repeat conditions, a preview image generating unit that generates reduced images of the input images, sets arrangement positions of the reduced images based on the repeat conditions, and arranges the reduced images in the arrangement positions in accordance with the repeat conditions, thereby generating a preview image, and a display unit that displays the preview image generated by the preview image generating unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-079787, filed Mar. 27, 2009 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-168032, filed Jul. 16, 2009, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
An image forming apparatus such as a copy machine or a multifunctional device has a function for image-repeat printing. According to the image-repeat printing, an image (original document image) of one sheet of an original document read by a scanner is printed on one sheet of a recording paper a number of times (the number of repeats) designated by a user. Further, according to the image-repeat printing, a variable magnification process is performed with respect to the original document image to generate an image for image-repeat, the image is mapped to a data storage area by the number of repeats to generate a printing image (image-repeat image) corresponding to one sheet of the recording paper, and the image-repeat image is printed on the recording paper. For example, Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. 2004-248262 discloses one example of the related art for the above-described image-repeat printing.
Further, the image forming apparatus has a function of preview-displaying the printing image on a display in order to check in advance the image to be printed. According to the preview-display, when the original document image is read, reduced images (thumbnail) are generated by reducing the original document image at a predetermined reduction ratio, and the thumbnail images are displayed on the display as a preview image. In general, since the size of the display is smaller than that of the recording paper, after thumbnail images having a size smaller than that of the original document image are generated, the thumbnail images are used for the preview-display. The above preview-display is disclosed in detail in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. 2000-078395.
Meanwhile, the preview image in the image-repeat printing is generated by mapping the thumbnail images by the number of repeats such that they are adjacent to each other but do not overlap with each other. That is, in the image-repeat printing, an image-repeat image and a preview image, which are actually provided for printing, have a difference therebetween. That is, the former is generated based on the original document image and the latter is generated based on the thumbnail images obtained by reducing the original document image.
However, when thumbnail images are generated by reducing the original document image at the predetermined reduction ratio, a difference may occur between the preview image and the image-repeat image due to a calculation error in the image forming apparatus. In particular, if the number of repeats is increased, the above difference also increases, so differences between each repeat may occur between the preview image and the image-repeat image. That is, if the size of the thumbnail images includes a calculation error with respect to the size of the original document image, when the thumbnail images are arranged so as to be adjacent to each other without overlapping each other, a part of the preview image may be broken at an end portion thereof or a white space may occur. Due to such a difference between the preview image and the image-repeat image in the image-repeat printing, significant technical problems remain in the image forming apparatus, since the preview image may lose the original quality.

Image forming apparatus forms an output image from an image-repeated image


A spindle motor and a hard disc drive including the same are provided. The spindle motor including: a rotary member; and a fixed member rotatably supporting the rotary member by fluid dynamic pressure, wherein upper radial dynamic pressure generating grooves and lower radial dynamic pressure generating grooves are formed in at least one of surfaces of the rotary member and the fixed member facing each other in a radial direction, and thrust dynamic pressure generating grooves are formed in at least one of surfaces of the rotary member and the fixed member facing each other in an axial direction. In the thin spindle motor, a burden of slope rigidity may be transferred from the radial bearing to the thrust bearing so that the rotary member can have slope rigidity enough to be returned to its original position, when the rotary member is sloped to one side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spindle motor and a hard disc drive including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disc drive (HDD), an information storage device, is a device for reading data stored on a disc or writing data to a disc with a read/write head.
A hard disc drive requires a disc driving device for driving a disc, and a small spindle motor is used in the disc driving device.
Such a small spindle motor employs a fluid dynamic pressure bearing assembly, in which a lubricating fluid is interposed between a shaft, a rotary member of the fluid dynamic pressure bearing assembly, and a sleeve, a fixed member of the fluid dynamic pressure bearing assembly, and the shaft is supported by fluid pressure generated in the lubricating fluid.
Also, a rotor hub, rotated together with the shaft and having a recording disc mounted thereon, is mounted on an upper side of the shaft. The rotor hub is fixedly coupled to an upper portion of the shaft and has a disc-like shape spread in a radial direction with the shaft as the center. Thus, a lubricating fluid is interposed between an upper surface of the sleeve and the rotor hub.
In the related art, a hard disc drive (HDD) used for a mobile device has a thickness of 9.5 mm, while an HDD used for a server has a thickness of 15 mm, so a spindle module installed therein may be formed to extend in an axial direction to a degree. Namely, since a bearing span of a vertical radial bearing is sufficiently secured, even in the case that a rotary member of the spindle motor is sloped to one side by external force or other force while rotating, the rotary member does not have a difficulty in being returned to its original position by the hydrodynamic condition of the vertical radial bearing formed between the shaft and the sleeve.
However, recently, as the size of electronic devices has been reduced, a thickness standard of a hard disc drive used in electronic devices is required to be 5 mm or smaller, and thus, a spindle motor used therein is formed to be significantly short in an axial direction.
Thus, as the length of the shaft is reduced relative to the related art spindle motor, it is difficult to form fluid dynamic pressure for returning the rotary member of the spindle motor to its original position when sloped to one side. Namely, a bearing span of the vertical radial bearing is too short to secure sufficient slope rigidity.
As a solution to a lack of slope rigidity according to a radial bearing, a method of increasing bearing rigidity by generating strong fluid dynamic pressure by reducing a bearing clearance, i.e., a gap between the shaft and the sleeve may be considered. In this case, however, if dynamic pressure is increased, frictional loss is increased, eventually leading to an undesirable increase in power consumption.

Spindle motor and hard disc drive including the same