The present invention provides a method for detecting a nucleic acid, by which a multi-stranded nucleic acid amplified by a nucleic acid amplification method is detected easily and with a high degree of accuracy without the need for specialized equipment, and also provides a nucleic acid detection device. Provided are a method for detecting a nucleic acid under visible light via a color reaction produced by contact between a chromogenic leuco dye and the multi-stranded nucleic acid, as well as a nucleic acid detection device using this method.

Methods for specifically amplifying target nucleic acids have become very important techniques in molecular biological research and in clinical applications including genetic testing.
The most widely used nucleic acid amplification method is the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) method, but this requires complex temperature control. Therefore, the LAMP (loop-mediated isothermal amplification) method, the ICAN (isothermal and chimeric primer-initiated amplification of nucleic acids) method and other isothermal amplification methods have also been developed.
Nucleic acids amplified by the PCR, LAMP and ICAN methods and the like are double strands, and methods using fluorescent dyes are being actively studied as detection methods for them.
The most common method is a method of performing agarose electrophoresis on a solution after the amplification reaction, followed by binding to a fluorescent intercalator such as ethidium bromide or SYBR Green and then observing the specific fluorescence (Non Patent Literature 1). However, the method of detection using a fluorescent intercalator after electrophoresis requires an electrophoresis running time of about 30 minutes to an hour, as well as expensive equipment such as a UV irradiation device or fluorescence detection device for detecting the fluorescence.
If there is no possibility of other DNAs being present and only the presence or absence of the amplified product needs to be determined, the electrophoresis step can be omitted by adding beforehand the fluorescent intercalator to the reaction liquid before the PCR reaction, and then detecting the fluorescence after the amplification reaction (Patent Literature 1). However, the problem is that since fluorescent intercalators bind to primers and other single-stranded nucleic acids, the background signals are then amplified, thereby leading to reduced detection sensitivity. In this context, a method has been developed for reducing background signals by treating with a compound that reacts preferentially with a fluorescent intercalator bound to a single-stranded nucleic acid (Patent Literature 2), and fluorescent dyes have been developed having improved reaction specificity to double-stranded nucleic acids compared to single-stranded nucleic acids (Patent Literature 3), but in both cases fluorescent detection is still used.
Alternatively, a method has been developed for detection by fluorescence polarization by performing a nucleic acid amplification reaction using a fluorescent labeled primer (Patent Literature 4), but in general fluorescent primers are expensive, and the method is also disadvantageous, for example, in that it is complex because it requires an operation to separate out the fluorescent labeled primer not incorporated into the amplified product.

Method and device for detecting nucleic acid, and kit


A housing for a seismic sensor station has a base and a removable lid, which when assembled together form a shell whereby the base and the removable lid both have a shell side and an exterior side. A sensor spike, protruding outward from the shell, may be attached to the base on the exterior side of the base. The housing is further provided with two cable docking ports, each allowing passage of a fiber optical cable from outside to inside the shell. The two cable docking ports are exclusively provided in the removable lid.

Seismic acquisition of subsurface earth structures can be useful for a variety of activities involving the subsurface, including for instance exploration of oil and gas, and monitoring geological formations and/or reservoirs during production of oil and gas and/or during injection of fluids into such formations and/or reservoirs. Seismic sensors may be positioned in a spread about a surface location for sensing properties of the subsurface structures. Such seismic sensors may be housed in sensor stations that may be distributed on a seismic cable.
For land-seismic, sensor stations may each comprise a housing supported on a spike, which may be driven into the ground in order to hold the sensor station in place and in good vibration contact with the ground. An example of such a sensor station on an optical seismic cable, described in US pre-grant publication No. US 2015/0043310, has a sensor unit positioned within a cavity provided inside a sensor housing. The sensor housing includes a base with a removable lid,
a fiber racetrack for routing fibers of the seismic cable therethrough, and cable clamps on either side of the fiber racetrack. The racetrack is positioned in the base, and has a central opening for receiving the sensor unit which is also positioned within the base.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A fitness wall panel has a height chosen to correspond with (1) the height of the user and/or (2) the environmental limitations of the containing room, producing a multifunctional exercise system. Large, rugged hand/foot holds and/or handles are removably bolted in the panel. Elastic straps, bands, ropes, chains, cables, platforms, bars and various other attachments can be mounted on the panel. Optional pulley systems and vibrators are mountable to the panel. Removable attachment of the foregoing devices creates a multitude of functional options and configurations, allowing a multitude of different exercise and training methods to be performed on one piece of equipment. Panels can be configured into arrays, projections or posts standing alone. Users work up and down and side to side doing exercises to perform full body and/or muscle specific or isolating exercises or any combination thereof in a limited space without exposure to dangerous height.

Simulated rock climbing walls are well known. Generally a climbing gym has a belay device to protect a climber from a fall from heights as high as twenty feet or more attached and supporting climber from directly above. Various hand and foot holds are generally small and challenging to find a grip to train the climber to be creative in ascending a simulated rock wall. Climbing walls are made to simulate the act of climbing a real rock surface and to help the user become a better climber. A traditional climbing wall is designed to force the climber up the wall in a slow and tedious manner requiring a lot of linear dimension of surface that the climber travels in a single forward direction, horizontally or vertically, and they generally only reverse the direction to dismount the wall.
Climbing wall holds are made to simulate the type of grip or hold you can achieve on a real rock surface and are not easy to hold on to. Sometimes takes several minutes to find a way to hold on to it. This makes the use of a climbing wall limited to climbing and if done correctly specifically duplicates only the act of climbing a real rock surface.
The foregoing example of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.

Vertical fitness apparatus and method of exercising


A system for reducing power in electronic systems blocks current paths by electrically isolating idle, targeted devices through switching off the various device's entire sets of pins from the rest of the electronic system. Solid state switches are connected to every pin of a targeted device. In one logic state a control signal will turn the switches on and thereby connect the targeted device to the remainder of the system. In another logic state, the control signal will isolate the targeted device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to reducing power consumption and more particularly to electrically isolating idle or non-used devices to save power.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An important objective of battery-powered systems and products is to prolong the life of the battery. This provides many advantages including, lower operating costs because of the reduced frequency of changing batteries, more stable and reliable operation and an edge over competition in the marketplace.
An example where reducing power consumption is critical is a battery-powered portable computer designed for military applications. Battery life is crucial because of the above reasons. A typical computer includes interfacing capability to enable the computer to communicate with many devices and other computers. In any given application, many functions and devices of the computer are sitting idle simply because the application does not use them. In other cases, the uses of some functions will be so sporadic that the hardware implementing those functions will remain inactive for long periods of time. To reduce power consumption, there is a need for a system that can shut off power to idle devices and integrated circuits without impacting the active circuitry.
The prior art addressed the above problem by removing either the power connection or the ground connection or both connections of the idle devices. The problem with these techniques is that the signal pins of the idle devices are still connected to the rest of the circuitry and D.C. current paths remain active through those pins, thereby dissipating valuable energy. Also, in CMOS chips, a latch-up problem can occur by having the power and ground pins in indeterminate states.
A traditional way of reducing power dissipation in clocked CMOS devices is through lowering the clock rate of the chip since the operating frequency is directly proportional to power consumption. Many systems however, do not include clocked CMOS devices that can be targeted for the power down mode of operation.

Electrical isolation for power-saving purposes


A data retention operation is performed in a non-volatile memory in response to detection of a triggering event. The data retention operation includes updating a value of a write parameter of the non-volatile memory and storing into the non-volatile memory at least one copy of contents of a boot portion of the non-volatile memory using the updated value of the write parameter. The updated value of the write parameter increases retention of stored data during extended periods of inactivity at the non-volatile memory.

Non-volatile storage devices such as flash memory devices have enabled increased portability of data and software applications. Electronic devices such as mobile phones, typically use non-volatile storage devices, such as flash memory devices, for persistent storage of information, such as data and program code that is used by the electronic device. Advances in technology have resulted in increased storage capacities of non-volatile storage devices with reductions in storage device size and cost.
Non-volatile storage devices are conventionally configured to verify integrity of stored data and to preform remedial actions to prevent data corruption. However, if a non-volatile storage device is inactive for an extended period of time, such as in a mobile phone that remains powered off for a number of years, "data retention" errors may accumulate in the stored data due to mechanisms such as charge leakage from memory cells. If a number of accumulated errors exceeds an error correction capability of the non-volatile storage device, there is a risk that the mobile phone may not be able to boot properly when powered on. As a result, non-volatile storage devices are typically designed to ensure data integrity for a specified "worst case" period of inactivity. However, design decisions that enhance data retention of a non-volatile storage device may adversely affect performance characteristics (e.g., latency of data write operations) and endurance characteristics (e.g., "wear" of storage elements that reduces a useful life of the non-volatile storage device) of the non-volatile storage device.

Method and data storage device with enhanced data retention


In a laminated coil component include coil conductors are respectively included on magnetic layers and a carbon paste is included on a magnetic layer. The coil conductors include a partial coil conductor and a partial coil conductor respectively corresponding to an outer side portion circle and an inner side portion circle defining two circles. A width of the carbon paste at least partially overlaps an interval between the outer side portion circle and the inner side portion circle defining the two circles, and extends circularly along the two circles. The carbon paste is shifted to the interval between the outer side portion circle and the inner side portion circle defining the two circles at the time of pressure-bonding the magnetic layers. The carbon paste vanishes when being calcined to define an air gap.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to laminated coil components and manufacturing methods for laminated coil components, and particularly relates to a laminated coil component that is defined by stacking and pressure-bonding a plurality of magnetic layers where a plurality of coil conductors defining a coil are respectively included, and then calcining the pressure-bonded magnetic layers, and a manufacturing method for the laminated coil component.
2. Description of the Related Art
Examples of laminated coil components are disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5196038 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-129367. According to Japanese Patent No. 5196038 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-129367, a coil-embedded board is made by laminating magnetic layers and nonmagnetic layers (or feebly magnetic layers). The coil is defined by applying an electrode paste on each of the magnetic layers and nonmagnetic layers in a coil shape. A material that defines an air gap is applied to a coil section so as to alleviate stress strain caused by a difference in thermal expansion coefficients between the magnetic body and the electrode material. The material that defines the air gap is provided within a contour of a circle defined by the coil in plan view of the board. The material that defines the air gap, as applied in the above-described manner, vanishes when the coil-embedding board is calcined, thus defining an air gap inside the board.
In Japanese Patent No. 5196038 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-129367, the coil is wound a single turn in each layer, and none of the above documents describe a structure in which the coil is wound in multiple turns in each layer so as to increase an inductance value of the coil.
If the coil includes the structure of multiple turns as described above in order to increase the inductance value, it is difficult to apply the material that defines the air gap so that it at least partially overlaps with the electrode material. In addition, since unevenness appears in each layer along a diameter direction of the coil, a sufficient pressure is not exerted in a vertical direction when the layers are stacked and pressure-bonded. This raises a risk that unintended separation occurs after the calcination.
If a micro DC-DC converter is used in a light load region, an inductance value significantly influences the conversion efficiency. A spiral structure for increasing the inductance value is considered to play an important role particularly in a laminated coil component for a micro DC-DC converter.

Laminated coil component and manufacturing method for the same


Methods and systems for interfacing computer modeled design and manufacture data from an Manufacturing Process Planning (MPP) system to a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and allowing, via an integration server interface, electronic work instructions of the MPP system to be revised promptly and efficiently in mid-production manufacturing processes.

This invention relates generally to computer systems and methods that facilitate product design and manufacturing. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and systems for managing the integration of virtual design systems with physical manufacturing systems.
Computer systems and software for designing products are advantageous, including Computer-Aided Design (CAD) systems in which the physical structure of potential products may be defined and optimized, Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) systems that simulate the physical behavior of the potential products and allow virtual product testing and performance evaluation, and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) systems for defining and optimizing manufacturing processes and operations for potential products. Using such computer systems, potential products and their manufacture may be designed, modeled, and tested in a virtual on-line environment. For example, in an aircraft design context, computer systems may be utilized to model the entire aircraft and its manufacture, including all of its electrical or mechanical systems, sub-systems, parts, components, mechanisms, or assemblies that define the aircraft. Such designs may be enormously complex, and managing information and data relating to such designs among different computer systems is challenging.
In particular, compatibility issues between different computer systems owned and operated by different business entities can be a significant impediment to effective use of information and data generated by or utilized by the respective systems. Also, difficulties associated with adaptations to and modifications of computer modeled designs during physical manufacture and production processes may lead to costly production delays and undesirable discrepancies between products as designed and products as built.

Methods and systems for managing electronic work instructions for manufacture of product


A cutting system for cutting elongate bands of material is provided. The cutter includes a cutter and a motor connected to the cutter for rotatably driving the cutter. A tube surrounds the cutter at a predetermined spacing from the motor, the tube including an opening having a bladed portion, the bladed portion and tube being of unitary construction. The cutter and bladed portion are immediately adjacent for cutting segments from a band of material disposed between the cutter and bladed portion.

To help safeguard containers during shipping, elongate bands of material, such as plastic or metal, also referred to as banding or banding material, are wrapped about the peripheries of the containers. However, upon arrival at the desired destination, the banding is cut and contents of the containers removed. While the containers can usually be reused, it is typically not practical to reuse the banding. Further, since the banding can maintain the peripheral profile of the container previously secured, it can be difficult to effectively dispose of the banding.
What is needed is a band cutting system that cuts the banding into small segments for convenient disposal, the band cutting system being portable, inexpensive to purchase and use, and both simple and safe to operate.


Embodiments relate to improving user experiences when executing binary code that has been translated from other binary code. Binary code (instructions) for a source instruction set architecture (ISA) cannot natively execute on a processor that implements a target ISA. The instructions in the source ISA are binary-translated to instructions in the target ISA and are executed on the processor. The overhead of performing binary translation and/or the overhead of executing binary-translated code are compensated for by increasing the speed at which the translated code is executed, relative to non-translated code. Translated code may be executed on hardware that has one or more power-performance parameters of the processor set to increase the performance of the processor with respect to the translated code. The increase in power-performance for translated code may be proportional to the degree of translation overhead.

Every processor implements a native instruction set architecture (ISA). An ISA is defined by features such as the semantics of operations, operation codes, instruction formats, endian-ness, memory architecture, and others. These features of ISAs vary from processor to processor. For instance, some ISAs may include operations that others do not. Some ISAs may have different word sizes. Some may lack certain registers that others have. There are many types of ISAs and their differences are well known.
There are problems that stem from the way that ISAs vary among processors. Most notably, compiled executable code is ISA-specific. That is, any given software is compiled only for a specific ISA. Any given compiled executable binary code will be unable to directly execute on chips whose ISA implementations are not compatible with the ISA for which the given code was compiled.
This mobility restriction on compiled code has long been known and several approaches have been used to enable cross-ISA execution. One approach has been the use of fat executable files. A fat executable file contains the binary code for two or more different ISAs. A fat executable contains two independent sets of executable code. When execution of a fat executable is requested, the loader loads the set of executable code that matches the ISA implementation of the machine on which it will execute. This approach requires additional storage. Moreover, a fat executable will still have considerably limited portability.
Another approach has been to use binary translation. Binary translation involves reading binary machine code compiled for one ISA ("source" ISA) and applying what are usually complex translation rules to the binary code to generate executable binary code for another ISA ("target" ISA). The translated binary code is executed on a processor that implements the target ISA. Binary translation can be performed in many ways. Translation can take place at runtime; source ISA code is translated (by translation instructions of the target ISA) to target ISA code when loaded. Such all-at-once translation can also be performed in advance and stored for use when needed, or it can be performed at load time (and perhaps cached for later re-use). In either case, the translated target ISA code is executed after translation is complete. In other cases, an emulator provides a virtual implementation of the source ISA (e.g., a virtual processor) and as the emulator receives source ISA code the emulator issues target ISA instructions that correspond to the source ISA instructions.
Depending on the particular instructions that predominate in source ISA code that is to be translated, most corresponding translated target ISA binary code will be less efficient than the equivalent source ISA code. In other words, given a source processor that implements a source ISA, and given a target processor of comparable performance that implements a target ISA, translated target ISA code will tend to take longer to execute on the second processor than the semantically equivalent source ISA code executing on the first processor. Although this is not always true, there is usually at least some variety of source ISA code that will execute significantly faster than its translated equivalent target ISA code.
There can be many reasons for translation performance degradation. Setting aside the processing needed to actually perform translation, translated code is translated from compiled binary executable code. Consider that a given unit of source code might be compiled for a first ISA and compiled for a second ISA, and the respective executables might be equally fast on their respective processors. However, a translation of the first executable to the second ISA may be much less efficient. Among other reasons, binary executable code lacks much of the information found in corresponding source code that can be used to optimize the code. Furthermore, code optimized for a source ISA may have been constructed in ways that work well with the source ISA but are ill-suited for the target ISA. Architectural differences may also result in some code for particular types of workloads being inefficient when translated. For instance, a source ISA might have an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) that implements a complex arithmetic operation in hardware. If a target ISA lacks that operation, translation to the target ISA will require inserting instructions to do the work of the single instruction of the source ISA. In general, any given compiled code will be likely to execute slower when binary-translated to another ISA.
Although translated binary code is known to be generally less efficient, only the inventors have appreciated that this can translate into user experience problems that can be solved. Most machines that execute translated code also executed non-translated code. If interactive applications of translated code and interactive applications of non-translated code are executed by a same user in a same session, the comparative speed differences of the translated and non-translated may be noticeable in respective graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Although a translated GUI might have acceptable responsiveness and be objectively useable, when experienced relative to a non-translated GUI, the slower speed of the translated GUI may stand out. Translated interactive applications may be perceived as slow when experienced in contrast to non-translated interactive applications. Described herein are techniques that can potentially smooth out the differences in speed and responsiveness of interactive translated code.
Techniques related to differential power/performance treatment for translated code are discussed below.

Performance scaling for binary translation


There is disclosed a method for extraction of impurities from a powdery or particulate solid material charged into a extractor. According to the disclosure, not only can the extraction of impurities be carried out efficiently, but also the refinement of a solid material can be carried out, with the degree of the extraction of the impurities being very high.

Conventionally, use has been made of, as a method for removing impurities (e.g., solvents, monomers, oligomers, and by-products) remaining in a polymer or a rubber, such means as evaporation by heating and vacuum evaporation. However, small amounts of impurities still remain, and some of these impurities deteriorate the quality of the product, or are harmful to the human body. If the polymer or the like is heated in order to reduce its impurity content, the polymer will be, for example, changed in quality or softened, so that it is impossible to lower the remaining amounts of impurities to below a certain degree.
Therefore, recently, high-pressure extraction processes using for example supercritical fluids have been suggested (e.g., Chem. Ing. Tech. 56 (1984) Nr. 11, S. 856). Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 115419/1982 discloses a process wherein cyclic oligomers in a polymer are removed by the use of supercritical fluids.
However, according to the supercritical fluid extraction described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 115419/1982, cyclic oligomers still remain to a certain degree in the polymer. When impurities are removed by extraction from a polymer by using a high-pressure extraction process, if the polymer is, for example, in the form of a powder or pellets having a small particle size, the volume of the polymer increases due to the absorption of the extractant when the polymer is subjected to the extraction, which sometimes causes the solid particles to stick to each other. Further, in some cases, a change such as a softening or melting of the polymer in the form of powder, pellets, or the like, which is caused under extraction conditions, causes the particles or pellets of the polymer to stick to each other. That is, in conventional high-pressure extraction processes, when a polymer is subjected to extraction, the particles or the pellets of the polymer stick to each other during the progress of the extraction process to form a mass of the polymer. This raises a qualitative problem with the polymer product, is unfavorable when the product is to be removed from the extractor, and raises the necessity of step, such as grinding of the product.
On the other hand, when the temperature is lowered, the extraction speed becomes low, and the extraction requires a longer period of time, which is economically disadvantageous because the apparatus must be made large and the amount of the extractant must be increased.
In particular, when the solid material (e.g., a polymer) to be treated is a powder of small particle size, sticking and the formation of a mass is more liable to take place, and extraction to a high degree is impossible.


There is provided a manufacturing method of a hollow composite magnetic member having weakened magnetism in a portion of a ferromagnetic hollow member, the method includes: a step of forming a weak-magnetic area having weakened magnetism by melting and mixing a Ni-containing material and the hollow member by continuously supplying the Ni-containing material to a portion of the hollow member and heating the irradiation area having a line segment shape with the laser beam. Accordingly, since it is possible to prevent drop of a local portion of a hollow ferromagnetic pipe from being easily generated by a weak-magnetization treatment, to greatly reduce deformation generated by laser irradiation, and it becomes unnecessary to adjust the shielding gas pressure inside the pipe, the weak-magnetization treatment can be performed with higher efficiency and higher quality.

Laser welding is used in various fields because an energy density of the laser beam of the heat source is high and thus low distortion, high speed, and high precision welded joint can be obtained. In the automotive field, there are many products that are welded by stacking or butting together a plurality of materials to be welded to a steel material such as stainless steel or carbon steel, or a metallic material such as an aluminum alloy or a nickel alloy. For example, in the manufacturing of a vehicle body, a fuel pump, an injector (fuel injection valve), and a welding process using a pulse wave or a continuous wave laser light is used.
In addition, in order to improve structure and performance of the surface or a portion of the metallic material, an additive material (wire or powder) having a different component from that of the metallic material is used, and surface reforming for improving the local structure and performance of the metallic material by laser beam irradiation is also applied to a wide range of products.
For example, in order to improve the responsiveness of fuel injection valves used in the automobile field, a local non-magnetic or low-magnetization treatment is performed on the pipe-shaped magnetic material.
However, for a thin pipe, a drop of a reformed portion into an inside surface of the pipe is generated by the laser irradiation and a shape adjustment step is necessary after the low-magnetization treatment.
The reason for the generation of the drop described above is that when irradiating a predetermined low-magnetization treatment area with the laser beam, since a width of a treatment area required from the performance of the fuel injection valve can be obtained, it is necessary to set the laser beam spot diameter to increase or to set the heat input amount of the laser beam to increase. In this case, there is a case where melting down is generated or a case where the thin pipe is greatly deformed, by an increase in the amount of heat input to the thin pipe.
In order to solve the problem of the drop described above, PTL 1 describes a method of performing laser irradiation while supplying a non-oxidizing shielding gas inside the pipe.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing hollow composite magnetic member, and fuel injection valve


A bag holder support system for disposable, loop handled plastic bags provides dual position mounting so that the system can be easily installed in one position to fit in restricted areas and installed in a different position to provide a maximum opening for the bag when installed in an unrestricted area. The support system includes a pair of brackets that hold the plastic bag open by its oppositely disposed integral handle loops so that the bag may be loaded. The brackets are made of a closed wire loop that forms a planar arm having an upwardly extending U-shaped lug in the center of a horizontally extending member for engaging one of said handle loops. Means are provided for mounting each arm to a vertical surface by a vertical side of the arm that the arm extends in a horizontal direction and lies in a vertical plane. An arm positioning ear formed by the wire loop extends out of the plane of said arm at a non-perpendicular angle so that the arms converge or diverge as they extend away from the vertical surface. This dual position mounting provides a simple bag support system that is equally suited and readily installed on a cabinet door under a sink or on an open wall area. The system can also include a flat support panel that pivotally supports the arms. The support panel spaces the arms apart and can be mounted to a vertical surface in a first position so that the arms converge as they extend away from the vertical surface and in a second position so that they diverge as they extend away from the vertical surface.

The use of plastic bags having integral loop handles is steadily supplanting the use of paper bags in commercial establishments. The desirability of reusing these bags for home refuse has been recognized in the prior art. A number of plastic bag holders are available for home use. However, none of these bag holders appear to be widely accepted by consumers.
In order to be successful in home use a plastic bag holder must meet a number of criteria. First the bag holder must be low priced. In addition it must be compact when packaged so that it will not take up excessive shelf space and retailers will be willing to stock it. The bag holder must also be suitable for simple installation into a variety of different locations within a home. For example it must be suitable for installation on cabinet doors under a kitchen sink or in a narrow space against a wall as well as in open areas where space is not restricted. However, none of the commercially or domestically available bag holders offers a low cost design together with simplicity, versatility, and the ability to be compactly packaged.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,020 issued to Collins and U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,689 issued to Jones show light weight plastic bag holders that can be manufactured from sheets of plastic stock. In both of these references the bag holders have arms that extend perpendicularly to the mounting surface and are therefore unsuitable for use under kitchen cabinets or in narrow wall areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,867 issued to Malik, U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,388 issued to Provan, U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,170 issued to Orem, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,407,474 issued to Swenson teach bag holders for commercial use that are constructed of wire or solid sided members. Again the arms on all of these plastic bag holders make them unsuitable for a variety of installations. In addition, aside from being expensive, these bag holders have a rigid construction and occupy a large volume, as a result they are impractical for the home retail market.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,361 issued to McClellan shows a relatively simple bag holder system that consists of two independent arms that are mounted to a vertical surface. However, McClellan only describes and illustrates a perpendicular mounting of the arms relative to the vertical surface.
Bag holders having pivotable arms are well known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 461,291 shows a holder for canvas type bags that uses a complex detente system to adjust the angle at which the arms extend.
A number of other bag holder systems have foldable arms that allow the holders to be compactly shipped or stored. This type of bag holder is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,441 issued to Briggs, U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,307 issued to Malik, U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,689 issued to Prader, and U.S. Pat. No. 447,686 issued to Holladay. All of these bag holders are arranged such that the arms may be folded from a perpendicularly extending position to a position wherein the arms are essentially parallel to the back support.


A thermal energy recovery device of the present invention includes a heater that evaporates a working medium by a heat medium, an expander into which the working medium flowing out from the heater flows, a power generator that recovers expansion energy of the working medium expanded in the expander, a condenser of a condensing unit that condenses the working medium flowing out from the expander, and a pump that feeds the working medium condensed in the condenser to the heater. A connection portion between the condenser and the pump has a connection end portion connected to an inflow port of the pump, a bent portion bent upward from the connection end portion, and a standing portion extending upward from the bent portion so that the working medium in a gas phase is suppressed from coming into the pump even in an environment where vibration is generated.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal energy recovery device that recovers exhaust heat.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is a known device that recovers thermal energy generated in various facilities. As one example of this device, JP 2012-202374 A describes a power generation device including a circulation flow passage in which an evaporator that evaporates a liquid of a working medium by a heat medium, an expander that expands steam of the working medium, a condenser that condenses the steam of the working medium, and a pump that circulates the working medium are connected in series. In the power generation device described in JP 2012-202374 A, the expander includes a screw rotor, and the screw rotor is rotated by the steam of the working medium expanded in the expander. This screw rotor is connected to a power generator, and the power generator converts rotation of the screw rotor into electric power.
The power generation device described in JP 2012-202374 A further includes a pressure sensor that detects pressure of the working medium on the inlet side of the pump, and a derivation means that detects saturated steam pressure of the working medium from a temperature of the working medium on the inlet side of the pump. The power generation device described in JP 2012-202374 A suppresses generation of cavitation in the pump by adjusting a circulation amount of the working medium in accordance with a pressure difference between the pressure detected in the pressure sensor and the saturated steam pressure derived in the derivation means.
The power generation device described in JP 2012-202374 A suppresses the generation of the cavitation by adjusting the circulation amount of the working medium as described above. However, in a case where the power generation device is mounted on a moving body such as a vessel or a vehicle, there is a possibility that due to vibration of the moving body, the working medium in a gas phase is mixed into a pipe part between the condenser and the pump which should essentially be filled with the working medium in a liquid phase and a gas comes into the pump. As a result, there is a possibility that the cavitation is generated in the pump.


In a tire vulcanizer, a single long-stroke cylinder is mounted at the central position of a top frame, and is supported to a mounting frame fixedly mounted on the top frame rather than being fixed directly to the top frame. Furthermore, a centering mechanism for a pressure plate is provided between the pressure plate and each of opposed side frames so as to adjust the levelness of the pressure plate with respect to both the longitudinal and transverse directions of the pressure plate.

The present invention relates to a tire vulcanizer, and more particularly to an improved opening/closing and centering device in a tire vulcanizer including a long-stroke cylinder for vertically moving an upper mold relative to a lower mold.
In such a tire vulcanizer of the above-mentioned type, the upper mold is required to be maintained in parallel to the lower mold and be centered with a high accuracy. To meet such a requirement, there has been proposed a tire vulcanizer as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 61-134210, for example. The construction of the prior art vulcanizer is schematically shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. Referring to these figures, a lower mold 102 is fixed to a mold support 105 connected through a press cylinder 106 to a press frame 107. A pair of long-stroke cylinders 119 are mounted at right and left side portions of a top frame 108. A pair of piston rods 118 of the long-stroke cylinders 119 are connected to a pressure plate 117 fixed to an upper mold 101. The upper mold 101 is vertically moved to be opened and closed relative to the lower mold 102 by operating the piston rods 118 of the long-stroke cylinders 119. A guide column 109 is connected at its lower end to the pressure plate 117 at the central position thereof. During the vertical movement of the upper mold 101, the guide column 109 is guided by the top frame 108 to be vertically moved. The guide column 109 is formed on its outer circumferential surface with a pair of vertical guide ridges 110 each having a pair of vertical guide surfaces defining a given angle. The top frame 108 is provided with four upper guide rollers and four lower guide rollers 111 rotationally contacting the guide surfaces of the guide ridges 110. A stop jaw 114 with a locking cylinder for locking a closed condition of the upper mold 101 is provided on the top frame 108, and a stop nut 113 abutting against the stop jaw 114 is adjustably mounted on the guide column 109.
However, the opening/closing and centering means in the above-mentioned conventional vulcanizer has the following problems. First, the two long-stroke cylinders 119 are mounted to the top frame 108 at the right and left portions thereof, and the pressure plate 117 is vertically moved by lifting and lowering the two piston rods 118 of the long-stroke cylinders 119. Accordingly, it is difficult to tune both the cylinders 119, with the result that there will arise an error in levelness of the pressure plate 117, to cause an error in parallelism between the upper mold 101 and the lower mold 102.
Secondly, the centering means for the pressure plate 117 is constructed of the guide surfaces of the guide ridges 110 formed on the outer circumferential surface of the guide column 109 fixed at the central position of the pressure plate 117 and the guide rollers 111 rotationally contacting the guide surfaces of the guide ridges 110. However, a mechanical gap of each guide roller 111 at the central position of the pressure plate 117 is magnified at the outer circumferential portion of the circular pressure plate 117. Therefore, the centering of the pressure plate 117 with a high accuracy is difficult, causing a low registerability between the upper mold 101 and the lower mold 102.

Opening/closing and centering device for tire vulcanizer


A method for adjusting an ambient brightness received by a pair of shutter glasses which are operative under a two-dimensional image viewing mode includes: generating an ambient brightness control signal; and adjusting a shutter-open period of eyeglass (s) of the shutter glasses according to the ambient brightness control signal, for adjusting a length of the shutter-open period of the eyeglass (s) to be longer than an activation time length of a backlight of a display device so as to adjust the received ambient brightness.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scheme of adjusting ambient brightness received by shutter glasses, and more particularly to shutter glasses, and a corresponding electronic apparatus and method for dynamically adjusting the ambient brightness received by the shutter glasses when the shutter glasses operates under a two-dimensional image viewing mode.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Due to recent developments in video technology, users are pursuing three-dimensional (3D) and more real video displays as opposed to high quality images. Currently, there are two techniques for presenting a 3D video display. The first technique uses a video display apparatus which collaborates with 3D glasses (e.g. anaglyph glasses, polarization glasses or shutter glasses) while the second technique directly uses a video display apparatus without any accompanying 3D glasses.
The above-mentioned shutter glasses include two shutter lenses, which allow a user's left eye to see left-eye images and the user's right eye to see right-eye images via properly switching the shutter lens between an open state and a closed state.
When the user wears the shutter glasses, the brightness of a display area perceived by the user (e.g. the brightness of the 3D image displayed by the display screen) may be different from the ambient brightness beyond the display area as perceived by the user (i.e. the brightness of the ambient environment not belonging to the display screen). For example, the light beams of the ambient environment may not particularly undergo polarization processing, and the polarizer included in the shutter lens structure of the conventional shutter glasses will therefore cause the ambient brightness to have a significant decrease. When the liquid crystal layer in the shutter lens structure of the shutter glasses is in an open state, at least 50% of the ambient light is filtered by the polarizer, resulting in the ambient brightness perceived by the user being only 35-40% of the original ambient brightness. That is, regarding the ambient light, the light transmission rate of the shutter lenses operated under the open state is about 35-40%.
In the video output apparatus (e.g. a linear polarization or circular polarization display device), the image light output of the 3D image has a certain polarization direction, and the shutter lens structure of the shutter glasses which is used to collaborate with the video output apparatus has the same polarization direction. The polarizer in the shutter lens structure of the shutter glasses will therefore not cause the brightness of the original image light output to have a significant decrease. When the liquid crystal layer in the shutter lens structure of the shutter glasses is in an open state, only 10-20% of the brightness of the display area is filtered out by the polarizer, so about 65-70% of the original brightness of the display area finally reaches a user's eyes. That is, regarding the image light output of the display area, the light transmission rate of the shutter lens operated under the open state is about 65-70%. Since the shutter lens alternatively switches between the open state and closed state rather than constantly being in the open state the actual shutter-open period of the shutter glasses has an impact on the brightness of the ambient environment beyond the display area perceived by the user via the shutter glasses. Thus, the final brightness perceived by the user (i.e. the light transmission rate of the shutter lens) is substantially equal to the light transmission rate of the shutter lens operated under the open state multiplied by a ratio of the shutter-open period of the shutter lens to the whole glasses period (assuming that the liquid crystal layer can filter out any incoming light beams when in the closed state). The shutter lens operated under the open state has a light transmission rate of 35% for ambient light and has a light transmission rate of 70% for the image light output of the display area. When the ratio of the shutter-open period of the shutter lens to the whole glasses period is 16%, the final brightness of the display area the user feels is 11.2% (70%×16%). The final ambient brightness perceived by the user, however, is only 5.6% (35%×16%), which is lower than an acceptable level.
The shutter lens control mechanism employed by the conventional shutter glasses only takes 3D image viewing into consideration, and does not consider the ambient brightness perceived by the user. In other words, there is no function implemented for adjusting the ambient brightness perceived by the user. When the user perceives insufficient ambient brightness, they may fail to recognize objects (e.g. a keyboard or a remote control) beyond the display area of the video display apparatus.

Shutter glasses, and electronic apparatus and method for adjusting ambient brightness received by shutter glasses operative under two-dimensional image viewing mode


The present invention includes an illuminated winter sports board having a deck equipped with a plurality of light emitting devices, such as LEDs, which are mounted to the deck in a distinct ornamental pattern. The LEDs are in electrical connection with an energy source, such as a rechargeable battery in a removable battery pack. In a preferred embodiment, the rechargeable battery is mounted into the deck in a removable pack which can be charged without removing it from the deck. A microcontroller may be incorporated which provides for the selective illumination of the light emitting devices, and which may pulse, flicker, or create other aesthetically pleasing illumination patterns.

Skateboards have been around for years. In the 1970, the skateboard became a staple in nearly all children's outdoor activities. While the popularity of the skateboard has ebbed and flowed over the decades, the technology for the skateboard and its components has continued to improve. It is not uncommon today to have a skateboard made from sophisticated composite materials and equipped with state-of-the-art wheels, bearings, and trucks.
In efforts to provide product brand identity and uniqueness within the skateboard industry, various skateboard manufacturers have incorporated colorful and artistic images on the upper surface and lower surface of the deck. While these images are indeed aesthetically pleasing, they are rather ordinary when comparing boards manufactured by various manufacturers. In fact, in some cases, the only distinction between various skateboard manufacturers is the proprietary artwork or logo.
In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide a skateboard with a unique, customizable appearance. It would also be advantageous to provide individual skateboarders with the ability to visibly stand out in the crowd of skaters.
In addition to the street-related sports activities, winter sports activities have also become increasingly popular, and in some cases, can be dangerous due to the congestion of skiing and snow-boarding areas during peak season. Thus, the ability to provide an aesthetically pleasing snowboard which simultaneously minimizes the danger inherent in the activity by increasing visibility to surrounding skiers and snowboarders would be advantageous.


A process for making a strong, bulky, absorbent paper sheet with improved uniformity by forming the web on a forming fabric with a furnish having a consistency in the range of from about 0.08% to about 0.6% solids, dewatering the web noncompressibly such that the web is the range of from about 30% to about 40% dry, transferring the web from the forming fabric to an imprinting fabric, lightly pressing the web and the imprinting fabric against the drying can to form a pattern of densifications in the web, can drying the web from no more than about 30% to 40% dry to at least 55% to 60% dry, and restraining the web between the imprinting fabric and the drying can during the can drying step until the web is at least 55% to 60% dry. In addition to the benefits on uniformity, chemicals added to the furnish such as wet strength resins, dry strength resins, surfactants and dyes will migrate during the drying step to the face of the sheet facing the drying can and, specifically, to the densifications formed in the sheet.

1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates generally to non-creped webs for towel and tissue and, more particularly to methods for making non-creped webs with improved uniformity in the base sheet.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art,
U.S. Pat. No. 3,301,746 to Sanford, et. al. teaches a process for forming absorbent paper by imprinting a fabric knuckle pattern thereon. Sanford, et. al. teaches a process whereby the papermaking furnish is delivered to a forming wire. The uncompacted paper web is vacuum dewatered and transferred to the imprinting fabric. The imprinting fabric carries the web through a hot air dryer to thermally pre-dry the web from about 30% to 80% dry. The pre-dried web still supported on the imprinting fabric is pressed against and transferred to the surface of the Yankee dryer. The web is then creped from the Yankee dryer surface. An alternative embodiment is also taught by Sanford et. al. wherein the papermaking furnish is distributed directly on an imprinting fabric. The web is once again vacuum dewatered, thermally predried, and then pressed against and transferred to the surface of the Yankee dryer, while supported on the imprinting fabric. The web is then pulled from the surface of the Yankee Dryer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,737 to Morton teaches a twin wire forming operation wherein the foraminous drying/imprinting fabric used to thermally pre-dry a moist web is extended to the twin wire formation zone. As in Sanford, the web is ultimately transferred to the surface of the Yankee drum being pressed thereon using the imprinting fabric and the web is then creped from the drum. Prior to the transfer of the web to the surface of the Yankee dryer, the web is thermally pre-dried to a fiber consistency of at least about 30%, and most preferably, to a fiber consistency between about 30% and about 98%.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,597 to Wells, et. al. teaches a method for shortening a wet laid embryonic web through the use of a differential velocity transfer from the carrier fabric to a transfer or imprinting fabric (negative draw). The web is ultimately transferred to a Yankee and creped therefrom. Prior to transfer to the Yankee dryer surface, the web is pre-dried.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,589 to Cook, et. al. teaches a non creped and/or wiper towel is made by forming a furnish which includes a chemical debonder, depositing that furnish on a forming wire, moving the web on the forming wire to a through dryer to non-compressibly dry the web, and then removing the dried web from the foraminous wire without creping. Cook et. al. further suggests that the transfer from the forming wire to the through dryer can be made with a negative draw. By negative draw, it is meant that the forming wire is travelling faster than the through drier belt.

Method for making a strong, bulky, absorbent paper sheet using restrained can drying


A water heater, a burner unit therefor and methods of making the same are provided, the water heater comprising a tank for containing water therein and a burner unit for receiving fuel from a source thereof and issuing the fuel therefrom so as to burn and heat the tank and thus the water therein by conduction, the burner unit comprising a top burner plate having a top wall provided with an opening therethrough for draining away water that has accumulated thereon and that comprises condensate that has dripped from the flue of the tank onto the top wall, the opening to be so constructed and arranged that the water that drains therethrough is adapted to pass out through a central opening of the bottom burner plate of the burner unit and through which fuel is directed to the burner unit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new water heater and to a new burner means for heating the water in the tank of the water heater as well as to a new method of making such a water heater and to a new method of making such a burner means.
2. Prior Art Statement
It is known to provide a water heater comprising a tank for containing water therein and a burner means for receiving fuel from a source thereof and issuing the fuel therefrom so as to burn and heat the tank and, thus, the water therein by conduction, the tank having a bottom wall means and a flue passage extending upwardly from the bottom wall means for conveying away combustion products of the burner means, the burner means comprising a top burner plate and a bottom burner plate secured together and defining a plurality of burner ports disposed around the outer periphery of the plates and a chamber therebetween for receiving fuel therein and issuing the fuel outwardly through the ports, the bottom burner plate having a central opening therethrough for receiving fuel from the source substantially vertically upwardly through the central opening and into the chamber, the top burner plate having a top wall provided with opening means therethrough for draining away water that has accumulated thereon and that comprises condensate that has dripped from the flue passage onto the top wall, the opening means connecting with opening means through the bottom wall and located outboard of the central opening of the bottom burner plate.

Water heater, a burner unit therefor and methods of making the same


A character input apparatus and method in a terminal are provided, in which a touch screen displays a first key set and a second key set. The first key set includes first letter keys with all consonants and a second letter key with symbols indicating Tone Marks (Tms) and positions of predetermined vowels, for inputting all vowels and Tms. The second key set includes the predetermined vowels or Tms. Upon selection of a symbol by the second letter key, the controller controls the touch screen to display the second key set and receives at least one letter by the first key set and the second key set.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the present invention relate generally to an apparatus and method for inputting characters in a terminal. More particularly, to an apparatus and method for inputting Thai characters on a touch screen of a terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Personal terminals, i.e., small-size terminals that users carry with them, include, for example, Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), wireless communication terminals, Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) players, Bluetooth devices, and digital cameras. A PDA will be used as an example herein.
A PDA typically has the core of a computer, i.e. a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a memory, an Operating System (OS), OS-based software programs, and peripheral devices. PDAs can carry out the functions of information collection, storage, editing, and search. The PDA has also developed into a composite device equipped with a portable phone module, for voice communications and data communications (including over the Internet) in recent years.
PDAs usually include a touch screen. The touch screen is composed of a display such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and a touch panel mounted on the display. A user invokes an intended application by touching an icon displayed on the touch screen or enters characters by touching a touch screen keyboard displayed in a predetermined area of the touch screen, with his finger or a pointer.
FIG. 1A illustrates a conventional keyboard layout for inputting Thai characters on a touch screen keyboard of a terminal.
Referring to FIG. 1A, the touch screen of the terminal includes a touch screen keyboard area 110 with keys for inputting characters and a display area 130 for displaying a character corresponding to a key entered through the touch screen keyboard area 110. For example, a keyboard layout designed for a Personal Computer (PC) also applies to the touch screen keyboard area 110.
FIG. 1B illustrates a conventional 3×4 layout for inputting Thai characters on a touch screen keyboard of a terminal.
Referring to FIG. 1B, 5 to 17 Thai letters are mapped to each key in the 3×4 layout for inputting Thai characters. With the 3×4 layout, a user enters an intended character by repeatedly pressing a key corresponding to the character and thus rotating letters mapped to the key.
In case of the keyboard layout of FIG. 1A, the touch screen keyboard of the touch screen must be scaled down, due to a limited size of the touch screen. The resulting decrease in key size on the touch screen keyboard makes it inconvenient for users to view and touch keys. Thus, character entry is difficult. The 3×4 layout of FIG. 1B has another shortcoming in that a character input speed is reduced, because the same key must be repeatedly pressed a maximum of 20 times in order to enter one Thai letter.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a method for facilitating Thai character entry on a touch screen in a terminal.

Apparatus and method for inputting characters in a terminal


The present invention relates to a composition in the form of a mixture comprising at least two components a) and b), wherein component a) comprises at least one mono and/or multifunctional thiol and component b) comprises at least one mono and/or multifunctional ene, wherein the molar ratio between the thiol groups and the ene groups is 1:0.1 to 1:100. Further, the invention relates to an impregnated wood element, wherein it is obtainable by impregnating a wood element with a composition according to the present invention or a mixture of the components of the composition in batch form (multi-component) according to the present invention and thereafter curing the composition or the mixture. The invention also relates to a method of impregnating a wood element.

Thiol-ene free radical chemistry is known from early works that are dated back to late 1930s. A review "Thiol-Enes: Chemistry of the Past with Promise for the Future" is written by Charles E. Hoyle, Tai Yeon Lee, Todd Roper in J. Polym. Sci. Part A: Polym. Chem.: Vol. 42 (2004). Thiolenes have been used in the following fields: clear protective coatings, pigmented coatings, photoinitiated liquid crystalline structural materials and adhesives.
Impregnation/modification of wood is described in many applications and patents. The main objective in these applications has been to prevent the wood from degradation and fungi by improving the water resistance. Focus for the last years has been to replace old impregnation methods with new, environmental friendly techniques. Several promising techniques are based on treating wood with furfuryl (WPT/Kebony), acetyl (Accoya/Accsys/Titanwood), phenol (Fibron, C-K composites, Permali etc) or urea/melanin/formaldehyde resin (BASF/Belmadur).
Water/aqueous based impregnation techniques depend largely on controlled swelling of the wood cells during an energy intensive process including high temperature and pressure over time. Several of the techniques show good performance with improved water resistance, but none have so far proved to be cost efficient. Common drawbacks are also limited penetration of the impregnation liquid, discolouring and to some extent swelling of the impregnated wood products.
Impregnation with organic oils like Tung and Linseed oil has historically been the preferred impregnation technique for wood. The oils depend on a slow air oxidation mechanism to cure properly. Penetration is limited, often resulting in an incomplete water resistance.
Wood is a preferred material for furniture productions. However, massive wood constructions have limited mechanical strength compared to materials like metal and various composite materials. Furniture designers are therefore forced to use other materials when thin constructions are required.
Further, rapid deforestation of tropical rain forest combined with a dramatic climate change have put focus on how to substitute dark coloured tropical wood in applications like flooring, furniture and boat decking. In several of the recent impregnation techniques mentioned earlier, the resulting wood is usually darkened and/or miscoloured. This side effect can be utilized in copying some tropical wood species by impregnating lighter/softer wood. This colouring is however hard to control with respect to exact copying the tropical appearance.
There is therefore a demand for improving the properties in wood products in several areas. Examples are water resistance, improved hardness, dimension stability, mechanical strength, stiffness and colourisation. Colourisation combined with increased mechanical strength will be a important area in the years to come. The objective will be to substitute rainforest wood in most applications to preserve a scarce and fragile resource.

Composition and method for treating wood


In a discharge lamp lighting circuit, a DCxe2x80x94DC converting circuit has a switching element to be connected to a transformer and a primary winding thereof, and control is carried out in such a manner that the transformer stores energy while the switching element is set in an ON state in response to a signal sent from a control circuit, the energy is output from a secondary winding of the transformer while the switching element is set in an OFF state, and the switching element is turned ON when the energy is completely output from the secondary winding in a stable lighting state of a discharge lamp. A fluctuation is applied to the control of an output current or power related to the discharge lamp which is carried out for the ON period of the switching element, thereby changing a switching frequency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a discharge lamp lighting circuit, and more particularly to a discharge lamp lighting circuit incorporating noise countermeasures.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a structure in which a DCxe2x80x94DC converting circuit, a DC-AC converting circuit and a starting circuit are provided in the lighting circuit of a discharge lamp, such as a metal halide lamp.
In order to suppress the influence of a noise generated by the DCxe2x80x94DC converting circuit, there is a method of causing a switching frequency to have a fluctuation. By changing the noise into a white noise that can be dispersed, it is possible to reduce an influence on an apparatus for receiving an electric wave, such as a radio wave.
For example, in the case in which PWM (pulse width modulation) control is to be carried out in the DCxe2x80x94DC converting circuit, a fluctuation having a certain width is given to a switching frequency and is defined to be a predetermined frequency so that the generation of a beat noise can be prevented. In other words, in the case in which the switching frequency has a fixed value, a noise is generated at a harmonic frequency.
FIGS. 14 and 15(a) and 15(b) are diagrams for explaining the application of a fluctuation related to a switching frequency, FIG. 14 being a diagram showing the main part of a control circuit (a sawtooth wave generating section) and FIGS. 15(a) and 15(b) being schematic waveform diagrams.
In this case, the PWM control is supposed for the switching control of the DCxe2x80x94DC converting circuit, and a resistor b and a capacitor c are connected to a terminal xe2x80x9cRT/CTxe2x80x9d of a sawtooth wave generating circuit as shown in FIG. 14. The terminal xe2x80x9cRT/CTxe2x80x9d is provided for determining the frequency of a sawtooth wave and is connected to a node of the resistor b and the capacitor c. More specifically, one of the ends of a constant voltage source representing a reference voltage xe2x80x9cVrefxe2x80x9d is connected to one of the ends of the resistor b and the other end of the resistor b is connected to the terminal xe2x80x9cRT/CTxe2x80x9d and is grounded through the capacitor c.
In order to change the switching frequency, it is preferable that the resistance value of the resistor b to be connected to the terminal xe2x80x9cRT/CTxe2x80x9d should be changed (the resistor b is shown as a variable resistor in the drawing) or a current (a source current) to flow to the capacitor c should be changed. Consequently, the inclination of the sawtooth wave can be varied.
In FIGS. 15(a) and 15(b), xe2x80x9cSAWxe2x80x9d indicates a sawtooth wave and xe2x80x9cCVxe2x80x9d indicates a control voltage, and the switching control of the DCxe2x80x94DC converting circuit is carried out based on a signal xe2x80x9cScxe2x80x9d (which has an H level if CV is larger than SAW) determined by a level comparison therebetween.
The frequency of Sc is low because the inclination of the sawtooth wave SAW is small as shown in FIG. 15(a), and the frequency of Sc is increased because the inclination of the sawtooth wave SAW is very great as shown in FIG. 15(b).
The switching frequency is determined by the frequency of Sc. For example, therefore, it is preferable that a frequency should be controlled to swing between an xe2x80x9cXxe2x80x9d kHz (kilohertz) and xe2x80x9cYxe2x80x9d kHz and xe2x80x9cZxe2x80x9d Hz should be set to be the frequency of a fluctuation by the application of the fluctuation to the frequency (the frequency of a change related to a current supplied to the capacitor c is defined to be xe2x80x9cZxe2x80x9d Hz and a degree of the change is defined to be (Yxe2x88x92X)/X).
As indicated by FIGS. 15(a) and 15(b), referring to the fluctuation in the PWM control, the switching frequency is changed with a variation in the inclination of the sawtooth wave SAW. In the case in which the level of CV is constant, the duty cycle (or duty ratio) of Sc is almost constant. As the fall of the sawtooth wave SAW is very great, the stability of the duty cycle is increased.
However, the suppression of a beat noise in the related art circuit structure is a matter formed at the sacrifice of the efficiency of the circuit. Accordingly, there is a problem in that a power loss is generated. In other words, an increase in the efficiency and the suppression of the beat noise are contrary to each other.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to cause an increase in an efficiency and the suppression of a beat noise to be compatible with each other in a discharge lamp lighting circuit.
The invention provides a discharge lamp lighting circuit comprising a DCxe2x80x94DC converting circuit for converting a voltage input from a DC power source into a desirable DC voltage, a DC-AC converting circuit provided in a latter stage of the circuit, and a control circuit for controlling to turn ON a discharge lamp, in which the following structures are employed.
(A) The DCxe2x80x94DC converting circuit has a switching element to be connected to a transformer and a primary winding thereof, and control is carried out in such a manner that the transformer stores energy while the switching element is set in an ON state in response to a signal sent from the control circuit, the energy is output from a secondary winding of the transformer while the switching element is set in an OFF state in response to a signal sent from the control circuit, and the switching element is turned ON when the energy is completely output from the secondary winding in a stable lighting state of the discharge lamp.
(B) An output current or power related to the discharge lamp is controlled for an ON period of the switching element in response to a signal sent from the control circuit.
(C) Fluctuation generating means for applying a fluctuation to the control of the output current or power in the (B) is provided.
According to the invention, therefore, a fluctuation is applied in the control of the output current or power related to the discharge lamp. Consequently, the switching frequency can be changed to suppress a beat noise. In addition, control is carried out to always turn ON the switching element when the energy stored in the transformer constituting the DC-AC converting circuit is completely output from the secondary winding. Consequently, it is possible to reduce a power loss caused by turning ON the switching element. Thus, it is possible to prevent the efficiency of the circuit from being deteriorated.


A skateboard with propulsion, visual and aural enhancement. The propulsion enhancement is provided by a transmission device which is mounted adjacent at least one wheel of the skateboard. The transmission device includes a spring for storing energy during one mode of operation and releasing energy during a second mode. A lever controlled by the foot of the user shifts between the two modes. The transmission may also include a retarding force for controlling the speed of the skateboard. Various devices, e.g., lights, sound, smoke and hubcaps, are included which add to the attractiveness of the skateboard.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a skateboard and, more particularly, to a skateboard having enhanced features such as propulsion enhancement as well as visual and aural enhancement.
2. Background Prior Art
Skateboards are a popular toy for exercise and enjoyment. The conventional skateboard is totally powered by the user and has no features to control speed and efficiency of movement.
The user typically stands with one foot on the body of the board and pushes with the other foot in the direction opposite to that in which he desires the skateboard to move. This results in an increase in speed followed by a gradual decrease to zero speed depending on the power of the push, and the frictional retarding force between the surface contacted by the wheels and the wheels themselves.
Inexperienced users are frequently hurt when going downhill because the typical skateboard picks up too much speed due to the pull of gravity. The awareness of parents of this danger in many cases restricts use of a skateboard to older children who have sufficient maturity not to ride down hills that are so steep that the speed of the skateboard exceeds the user's ability to successfully slow or stop himself or herself.
The conventional board also does not provide a means to travel on level ground or upgrades without physical effort. Users may also become quickly frustrated with the need for continuous periodic pushing to keep the board in motion. This limits the distance the user can go at maximum speed without resting, hence it shortens the enjoyable time when both feet may be on the board and no pushing is necessary to keep the board in motion.
During this pleasurable non-pushing time, a novice user can relax and rest his pushing leg. An experienced user can do fancy body moves to make the board zigzag or stand on its back wheels, but he or she must continue to push to get any consistency of, or increase in, speed.
The conventional skateboard is not particularly stylish, has a rather simple unadorned, flat elongated body for standing, and has wheels that spin independent of their axles. Enjoyment consists simply of pushing, coasting and whatever motions the user can maneuver the board into. Thus the attention a user can attract is limited to the skill with which he can manipulate the board, since the board itself is more or less unadorned.

Skateboard with propulsion, visual and aural enhancement


A thin film EL display panel is composed of an EL layer placed between scanning electrodes and data side electrodes which are arranged at right angles to the scanning electrodes. A thin film EL display panel drive circuit includes a first and a second switching circuits connected to each of the scanning electrodes to apply voltages of negative and positive polarities, respectively, with respect to the voltage of the data side electrodes; and third and a fourth switching circuits connected to each of the data side electrodes to respectively charge and discharge the EL layer corresponding to the scanning electrode.

The present invention relates to a drive circuit for a thin film EL display panel such as an AC driven capacitive flat matrix display panel.
The construction of a double insulation (or three-layered) thin film EL display panel is described below with reference to FIG. 10.
Strips of transparent electrode (2) composed of In.sub.2 O.sub.3 are put in parallel to one another on a glass substrate (1). Then a dielectric layer (3) composed of Y.sub.2 O.sub.3, Si.sub.3 N.sub.4, TiO.sub.2 or Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, an EL layer (4) composed of ZnS doped in activating agent such as Mn, and another dielectric layer (3') composed of Y.sub.2 O.sub.3, Si.sub.3 N.sub.4, TiO.sub.2 or Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 each with thickness between 500 and 10,000.ANG. are deposited in turn, by a thin film technology such as evaporation or sputtering, on the transparent electrodes (2) to form the three-layered construction. Finally, strips of counter electrode (5) composed of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 are provided, at right angle to the transparent electrode (2), on the three-layered construction.
The thin film EL element thus obtained is considered as a capacitive element in terms of circuit equivalence because the EL layer (4), clamped between the two dielectric layers (3) and (3'), is placed between the electrodes. As obvious from the voltage-to-luminance characteristic shown in FIG. 11, the thin film EL element is driven by a relatively large voltage of the order of 200 V.
Conventionally, the thin film EL display panel with such construction is driven by a field reversal drive unit which is equipped with an N-ch MOS driver and a P-ch MOS driver as scanning side electrode drive circuits and reverses the polarity for each field (for each line sequential drive of a field). Since the EL element construction is not symmetrical with respect to the emitting layer, however, application of write voltage with its polarity reversed for each field will cause luminous intensity variation in a picture element between fields, thus resulting in flickering pictures.
In the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 737,068 by Harada et al. (The British counterpart is Application No. 8513058 and the counterpart in West Germany is Application No. P3518596.1), the applicant has proposed a drive circuit which employs an N-ch high withstanding MOS driver and a P-ch high withstanding MOS driver for field reversal drive of a scanning, side electrode. This circuit reverses the polarity of the write waveform applied to a picture element for each scanning line, thereby eliminating luminous intensity irregularity caused by the polarity inversion of the voltage applied to the panel, and minimizing flickers in a picture.
With the proposed drive circuit, the scanning period of a scanning line involves three different drive periods; precharge period (10.mu.s), discharge/pull-up charge period (10.mu.s) and write drive period (30.mu.s). This means at least 50.mu.s is required for sufficiently high luminance of a scanning line. Accordingly, it is necessary to use lower frame frequency as the number of scanning side electrodes increases, which further causes a picture of a poor quality with flicker and low luminance.
In addition, according to the proposed drive circuit, the charged electrodes are discharged and the potential of the electrodes is pulled up in the reverse direction. This drive method involves large power consumption in modulation.

Thin film EL display panel drive circuit


A horizontal centrifuge has a basket rotatably mounted within a housing. The basket has a plurality of rings disposed between open and closed ends of the basket and a plurality of guide rails circumferentially spaced with respect to the rings. The guide rails have respective lengths extending between the open and the closed ends of the basket and provide a plurality of respective bearing surfaces. A tubular screen is supported in the basket by the plurality of bearing surfaces of the guide rails. A scroll with helical screw flights is also rotatably mounted within the basket. In various aspects of the invention, the tubular screen is made from six arcuate screen segments; the bearing surfaces of the guide rods and the peripheral edges of the helical screw flights are machined surfaces; and the scroll is fabricated.

The present invention relates generally to the area of fluid handling and solid/liquid separation and, more particularly, to a horizontal scroll and screen centrifuge.
It is well known to use a scroll and screen centrifuge to separate a crystalline, a granular or a fibrous product from a liquid in which the crystalline, granular or fibrous product is carried. Scroll and screen centrifuges are typically used with a continuous process in which a combined liquid and solid material is continuously fed into and continuously discharged from the centrifuge. The continuous process is distinguished from a batch process in which a batch of the liquid and solid material is fed into the centrifuge; and the liquid and solid materials are separated. The centrifuge is stopped, and the separated materials are removed before another batch is loaded into the centrifuge. Both the continuous and batch separation processes are also considered to dry the solid material. The separation process is used in a wide range of applications including the production of soap powders, coal, gypsum, plastic granules, potash, salt, etc.
In a typical horizontal scroll and screen centrifuge, a scroll and basket assembly is frustoconical, that is, shaped like a frustum, and is mounted for rotation within a housing with respect to a generally horizontal axis of rotation. A frustoconical scroll has a tubular side wall with outwardly projecting helical screw flights and rotates within an independently rotating frustoconical screen and basket assembly. The scroll rotates at a slightly different angular velocity from the screen and basket assembly, so that the helical screw flights on the scroll pass close to an inner directed surface of the screen. The helical length of the screw flights varies in a range of from about a fraction of a revolution to several revolutions around the scroll member. A liquid containing solids to be separated therefrom is fed into a closed rearward portion of the scroll and the rotations of the scroll and the screen and basket assembly produce a centrifugal force causing the liquid to pass through openings in the screen thereby separating the liquid from the solids. The rotational velocity difference between the scroll and the screen and basket assembly causes the screw flights to push the solid material across the screen from the smaller, closed, rear end of the scroll flights to the larger open, forward end of the scroll from which the solid material is discharged. The processing time or retention time of the material in the centrifuge is controlled by the pitch of the helical screw flights on the scroll and the difference in angular velocities between the scroll and the screen and basket assembly. Retention time can also be influenced by the design of the feed openings in the scroll. The solid particles pass from the centrifuge to another processing station, a conveyor or a collection unit.
Using a centrifuge to separate a liquid from a solid material in oil mud presents numerous challenges. First, the centrifuge must often be located on an oil derrick platform at sea. As will be appreciated, it is very important that the centrifuge be as small as possible to minimize its footprint and consume the least possible area on the platform.
Second, the solid material separated from the oil mud must be removed from the oil rig platform for proper disposal, either by hauling it inland or, if properly processed and reduced to a low enough moisture level, disposed of at sea. Therefore, it is desirable that the centrifuge be very efficient in order to minimize the quantity of liquid in the solid material.
Third, a centrifuge mounted on an oil rig platform is exposed to the elements, and therefore, the design of a centrifuge intended for use on an oil rig platform must be rugged to withstand extended exposure to the elements.
Fourth, unlike many other environments in which a centrifuge is located, an oil rig platform does not have a crane readily available to lift various components, for example, the scroll, when the centrifuge is being serviced or the screen is being changed. Therefore, it must be possible to perform all of the routine maintenance and service on the centrifuge without the need of an independent and separate crane.
Fifth, a centrifuge separating oil mud on an oil rig platform is subjected to long periods of continuing use and therefore, must operate very reliably between scheduled down times. Further, such a centrifuge must be price competitive with other liquid/solid separation equipment.
Thus, there is a need for a centrifuge that provides an improved performance and is particularly suitable for separating liquid and solids in oil mud on an oil rig platform.
The present invention provides a horizontal centrifuge having a relatively small footprint and very efficient in operation. Further, the horizontal centrifuge of the present invention includes a self-contained scroll removal tool and is especially useful for separating oil mud on an oil rig platform.
According to the principles of the present invention and in accordance with the described embodiments, the invention provides a horizontal centrifuge for separating oil mud into a liquid and a solid material. The centrifuge has a basket rotatably mounted within a housing. The basket has a plurality of rings disposed between open and closed ends of the basket and a plurality of guide rails are circumferentially spaced with respect to the rings. The guide rails have respective lengths extending between the open and the closed ends of the basket, and the guide rails provide a plurality of respective bearing surfaces. A tubular screen is supported in the basket by the plurality of bearing surfaces of the guide rails. A scroll is mounted within the basket to rotate about the axis of rotation relative to the basket. The scroll has a tubular side wall and a plurality of helical screw flights extending outwardly from the tubular side wall between outer and inner ends of the scroll. Each of the plurality of screw flights has an edge moving in close proximity and relative to an inner surface of the screen. The scroll further has a feed opening proximate the rear end of the tubular side wall, and an infeed tube with an outlet extending into the outer end of the scroll. The infeed tube directs oil mud into the rotating scroll and through the feed opening. The helical screw flights of the scroll carry solid material to a solid material exit while liquid passes through the rotating screen and basket to a liquid exit.
In one aspect of this invention the tubular screen is made from six arcuate screen segments joined together. Using six arcuate segments provides the screen with greater circularity and allows the screen to better conform to the bearing surfaces on the guide rails, thereby making the screen more concentric with the basket and the scroll. A retaining ring or clamp ring urges the screen against the bearing surfaces, which helps maintain the roundness of the screen. The greater concentricity permits the edges of the helical screw flights to be positioned more closely to the inner surface of the screen. The net result is that the centrifuge is more effective at separating the liquid from the solid material, thereby resulting in lesser volume of solid material that must be transported for proper disposal. In another aspect of this invention, the bearing surfaces of the guide rods and the peripheral edges of the helical screw flights are machined surfaces to provide even greater concentricity between the scroll and the screen, thereby further improving the performance of the centrifuge.
In another embodiment of the invention, a horizontal scroll screen centrifuge of the type generally described above has a fabricated scroll. The fabricated scroll has a tubular side wall with outer and inner ends adjacent respective open and closed ends of the basket. The fabricated scroll further has a plurality of helical screw flights attached to and extending outwardly from the tubular side wall. Each of the plurality of screw flights has an edge moving in close proximity and relative to an inner surface of the screen. An end plate is attached at the inner end of the tubular side wall to form a generally closed scroll end, and an infeed plate is attached circumferentially inside the tubular side wall intermediate the inner and outer ends. A fabricated scroll is used instead of the known cast scrolls; and further, machining the edges of the screw flights as described above permits the fabricated scroll to achieve a superior performance than centrifuges using known cast scrolls. In addition, the fabricated scroll weighs less and is easier to handle during a scroll changing process.
In a further embodiment of the invention, a horizontal scroll screen centrifuge of the type generally described above further has a scroll changing tool mounted to the housing to support the scroll during a screen changing process. The scroll changing tool has a base mounted to an upper side of a centrifuge housing, and an overarm support mounted on the base and extending forward of the housing. In one aspect of the invention, the overarm support is pivotally mounted in the base. Thus, the scroll can be removed from the centrifuge, the screen replaced and the scroll reinstalled in the centrifuge without the need for a crane or other device separate from the centrifuge.


Disclosed herein is a protein sweetener that has been isolated from Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baillon. The sweetener is thermostable, lysine rich, and has a relative long lasting taste. Also disclosed is a recombinant host capable of producing the sweetener in large quantities. Compositions of this sweetener with other sweeteners are also disclosed.

The most widely used natural sweetener, sugar, has problems associated with its use (especially causing weight gain by users). Many other sweeteners either have undesirable side effects or are deficient in certain respects. For example, aspartame loses its sweetness when exposed to elevated temperatures for long periods. This renders aspartame unsuitable for use in most baking applications.
Another problem is that existing artificial sweeteners have temporal sweetness profiles which do not exactly match that of sugar. For example, the sweetness may die out sooner. It may therefore be desirable to mix an existing artificial sweetener with another sweetener having a different temporal profile (so as to create a mixed sweetener that more closely matches the overall temporal sweetness profile of sugar).
Thus far, only relatively few sweet proteins (as distinguished from sweet carbohydrates) have been found in nature. See e.g. J. A. Morris et al., Biochem. Biophys. Acta. 261:114-122 (1972) (Monellin); H. Van Der Wel, FEBS Letters 21(1):88-90 (1972) (Thautmatin); D. Ming et al., Acta Botanica Yunnanica 8(2):181-192 (1986) (Mabinlin); and H. Yamashita et al., J. Bio. Chem. 265 (26):15770-15775 (1990) (Curculin). The disclosure of these articles and of all other articles referred to herein are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. These sweet proteins are many times sweeter (for a given weight) than sugar, and are lower in calories.
The search for non-carbohydrate sweeteners has led to an examination of various plants which are known to be sweet. In H. van der Wel, et al., 14 Chemical Senses 75-79 (1989) the authors reported the existence of a sweet protein in Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baillon of about 12,000 Daltons per subunit that they named "Pentadin". This plant is a climbing shrub found in tropical Africa, especially in Gabon. It bears red globular berries of approximately five centimeters in diameter. Under their thick epicarp, these berries contain one to five reniform seeds surrounded by a thick soft layer of red pulp. The fruit used by these authors in their isolation attempt was a smoked and dried form of the plant. Unfortunately, attempts to isolate purer forms of Pentadin were unsuccessful.
As such, it can be seen that the need exists for an improved low calorie sweetener, especially one that is heat stable and has a different temporal sweetness profile from known artificial sweeteners.