An antenna direction adjustment apparatus (10) according to the present invention includes: auxiliary unit (14) for an adjustment of a direction of an antenna; acquisition unit (11) configured to acquire first information related to a first radio communication apparatus, and second information related to a second radio communication apparatus configured to perform opposite radio communication with the first radio communication apparatus; determination unit (12) configured to determine whether a use license of the auxiliary unit (14) is valid based on a combination of the first information and the second information; and instruction unit (13) configured to provide an instruction to operate the auxiliary unit (14) when it is determined that the use license is valid. This configuration makes it possible to provide an antenna direction adjustment apparatus capable of appropriately limiting an adjustment of a direction of an antenna by a license.

In order to perform radio communication between opposed radio communication apparatuses such as P2P (Point to Point), it is important to adjust the direction of an antenna to an appropriate direction so that a reception level between the opposed radio communication apparatuses is maximized.
In recent years, as the frequency used for radio communication has increased, the beam width of an antenna has decreased, thus making the operation for adjusting the direction of the antenna difficult. Therefore, a method using an auxiliary tool for facilitating an adjustment of a direction of an antenna has been conceived.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique for adjusting the direction of an antenna that performs radio communication between a transmitting-side data transmission apparatus and a receiving-side data transmission apparatus using positional information of the transmission apparatuses.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a technique for assisting an adjustment of a direction of an antenna by displaying an antenna angle and reception quality information in association with each other.

Antenna direction adjustment apparatus, antenna direction adjustment system, and method therefor


A fixed focus lens system includes a first lens group having a negative refractive power; and a second lens group having a positive refractive power, wherein the first lens group and the second lens group are sequentially arranged from an object side to an image side, and the second lens group includes two lenses having an Abbe's number of 80 or greater.

1. Field
Apparatuses consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a fixed focus lens system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As electronic imaging devices such as a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) and digital storage devices have been developed, high-pixel characteristics at the level of mega-pixels have been obtained, and demand for lenses suitable to obtain these high-pixel characteristics has increased.
For example, a fixed focus lens used in surveillance cameras such as closed circuit television (CCTV) includes a wide-angle, large-aperture lens so as to monitor a dark space over a wide area, and is required to be able to correct optical aberrations of peripheral portions so as to check the smallest characteristic information of a subject. In addition, changes in focus caused due to variation of a wavelength of light from visible rays to infrared rays as day turns to night needs to be corrected.


An antenna design, having two symmetrical phased array blade antenna elements which provide improved lateral target coverage with an increased effective radiated power and exhibits smooth null-free bi-directional antenna patterns. Each blade antenna element is coupled to a 180 degrees hybrid divider/combiner by a semi-rigid RF cable. Each blade antenna element is also connected to a sub-resonant choke balun for improved impedance matching and resultant distortion-less antenna patterns.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a phased array antenna for use on an airborne platform whose mission is electronic transmission of RF signals. In particular, the present invention relates to a broadband blade array antenna system which includes a pair of modified-shape lightweight dipole blades designed to fit within a radome.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The industry has a number of airborne antennas used with different airborne amplifiers and covering a broad range of frequencies. However, most of the antennas, especially those covering lower frequency bands, provide less than optimal pattern coverage and thus reduced Effective Radiated Power (ERP) performance. This is mainly due to a strong interaction between the antenna radiation fields and the aircraft wings or fuselage at lower operating frequencies. At these lower frequencies the aircraft itself becomes a large contributor to the antenna pattern distortion and produces adverse antenna impedance variations due to antenna and aircraft body proximity. The preexisting antenna designs feature less than optimal gain and largely irregular antenna patterns in the lateral direction significantly reducing operational effectiveness.
There are no known airborne antenna designs in the prior art that will operate in the desired frequency range and avoid the detrimental interaction of the radiated fields with the airplane structure.

United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A network and method of providing near 100% availability of services is provided. According to one feature, redirectors are implemented to direct network traffic to any of two or more application processors providing the same service. The redirectors are provided in data paths at network access points and at data centers with the application processors. The redirectors re-route traffic to other application processors when one processor is unavailable and load balance between available processors. To load balance, the redirectors collect various network management statistics from the processors to determine the most responsive processor for receiving traffic. The various network management statistics are shared among the redirectors for efficient load balancing.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to computer networks. In particular, the invention relates to directing network traffic.
2. Description of Related Art
The Internet is an international network of interconnected government, education and business computer networks. A person at a computer terminal or personal computer with the proper software communicates through the Internet by placing data in an Internet Protocol (IP) packet or datagram. The packet contains, in part, a source address associated with the computer terminal and a destination address associated with the destination of the packet on the Internet. Using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), transport of the packet is managed.
The packet is transported in the source network (the user's network), the destination network, and any intervening networks using communication software on processors or routers. The routers read the destination address of the packet and forward the packets towards their destinations using various algorithms known in the art.
Intranets are typically corporate networks that may use the same networking or transport protocols as the Internet. Thus, both the Internet and Intranets can be IP networks.
On a typical IP network, a dedicated server or application processor provides access to information in a cohesive fashion. For example, documents are stored in a HyperText Markup Language (HTML), and users of the EP network use Web Browser software to obtain access to the documents. Other standards and protocols may be used for the same and other types of information. A user with Web Browser software enters a domain name associated with a desired application, such as web page content. The domain name is converted to an IP destination address and the user's request is then routed through the IP network or a plurality of IP networks to a server or application processor associated with the desired application. Access is thus gained to the application. The user may then request further information, such as an HTML document or further processing associated with the application. For example, using HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP), HTML documents are communicated to the user.
The application desired by the user may reside on more than one server where each server is at a location remote from the other server. For example, company A maintains content information on a server on the east coast of the United States and the same content information on a server on the west coast of the United States. Various mechanisms have been developed to direct user's request to one of the two possible servers, some based on the IP traffic or user request load.
The load associated with a plurality of user requests for the same information is balanced and directed using the Domain Name System (DNS). Upon entry of a domain name by a user, the Web Browser software obtains a destination address from a Domain Name server. Based on the location of the user relative to the possible desired servers and/or the number of instances within a particular amount of time one desired server address versus the other has been provided, the Domain Name server provides one of the possible desired servers' addresses as the destination address, such as the application server on the east coast. Typically, the Web Browser software caches the destination address after the first look-up and all subsequent interactions with that desired server bypass the DNS. Thus, DNS operates generally at Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) layer 7 (the applications layer). Due to the cached IP address, if the server becomes unavailable, the user experiences an outage until a new destination address look-up is forced.
Other OSI layer 7 Load balancing solutions include HTTP redirect. These solutions are typically specific to HTTP and cannot load balance all IP traffic. Additionally, Browser bookmarks used for HTTP refer to a particular destination address, not the Uniform Resource Location (URL) (DNS address server), so reconnections through bookmarks attempt to return directly to a particular destination. If the destination is unavailable, the user experiences an outage.
Some known systems provide geographical load balancing and direction at OSI layers 2 and 3 (the datalink and network layers). Thus, IP traffic is balanced and directed with network components, not Web Browser software. For example, Remote Dispatch by Resonate routes IP traffic associated with a particular application and a particular company or customer to one point. A processor at that point then geographically distributes the IP traffic by changing the destination address to one of several geographically remote servers applying the same application for that customer or company. However, as the amount of IP traffic coming into the single point increases, the response time of all of the application servers appears to decrease.
Another OSI layer 2 and 3 load balancing and direction system is Hopscotch by Genuity. Work stations, not in the IP traffic path, are attached to routers. Using agents or software placed on various application servers, information unique to that agent is provided to a central database. The work stations access the database to obtain load data and use the connections with the routers to geographically distribute based on the load data. However, if the central database fails, the system does not properly distribute EP traffic. If one of several servers in the same location becomes unavailable, the system routes IP traffic to other geographical locations and not to the operational servers at the original location. Furthermore, the application servers must be programmed to allow operation of the agent.
These and other problems are associated with the various load balancing and address assigning systems and methods described above. The present invention attempts to solve these problems.

Method and system for network redirecting


A portable apparatus for conveying blood flow parameters to a user, the apparatus comprising: a transducer device for providing for Doppler monitoring of flows within a patient; a processing unit interconnected to the transducer unit and adapted to extract a blood flow signal from the operation of the transducer and process the blood flow signal so as to produce a video blood flow signal and an audio blood flow signal; a display unit interconnect to the processing unit for visualising the video blood flow signal; and at least one audio emission devices interconnected to the processing unit for emission of the audio blood flow signal to the ears of the user.

The operational characteristics of blood flow through the body has been an important parameter in medical studies for many years. Traditionally, stethoscopes have been used by medical professionals to listen to blood flows within the body in order to determine irregular characteristics. Further, the taking of blood pressure has traditionally relied upon monitoring blood flow utilising stethoscope devices to listen to the onset of flows.
Unfortunately, standard stethoscope techniques rely on simple mechanical transmission of audio information to the ears of a user which provide only limited information to the medical specialist. It would be desirable to provide for a more informative system of providing information on blood flows within the body to the medical specialist.


A flame ignition device for a gas burner is described, comprising at least one ignition circuit and electric switching means that are associated with the gas tap for the respective burner. The electric switching means include at least one electric contact member (50) which is integral, at least in translation, with the control rod of said gas tap.

In kitchen gas burners, such as burners arranged on the kitchen cooktops, each burner is controlled by means of a gas tap and a spark plug is arranged proximate to each burner to obtain the gas ignition when a determined action is performed on the control rod of the corresponding tap.
The spark plugs are supplied by a suitable ignition circuit, such as an electronic circuit, which is capable of energizing the spark plugs in order to cause a series of electric discharges with a preset frequency in proximity of each burner.
A switching means is associated with each tap, which generally consists of a micro-switch allowing to activate or deactivate the ignition circuit.
However, complications may occur when the micro-switches are mounted on the gas taps both in the design step and during manufacture.
It is a general object of the present invention to propose a flame ignition device in gas taps which is particularly easy and cost-effective to provide.


A lens system in the present disclosure includes: a first lens group that is moved toward an image side along an optical axis in focusing from a far-object in-focus state to a near-object in-focus state, and has positive optical power; and a second lens group that is disposed on the image side relative to the first lens group and has optical power. The lens system satisfies the following conditions (1) and (2).0.5<|fg1/WD|<2.0  (1)20<|fg2/f|<700  (2)                where        fg1 is a focal length of the first lens group,        WD is a distance, on the optical axis, from an object surface to a lens surface located closest to an object side of the first lens group,        fg2 is a focal length of the second lens group, and        f is a focal length of the lens system under the far-object in-focus state.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a lens system, an interchangeable lens device, and a camera system.
2. Description of the Related Art
An interchangeable-lens type of digital camera system (hereinafter, merely referred to as "a camera system") can advantageously take high-sensitive and high-quality images, and perform high-speed focusing and image processing after taking a photograph. Besides, the camera system can easily change an interchangeable lens device according to a desired scene. In recent years, the interchangeable-lens type of digital camera system has been spreading rapidly.
Conventionally, various kinds of compact lens systems with good optical performance have been proposed as a lens system used for the interchangeable lens device.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a lens system that has good optical performance at approximately 1-times magnification and can compensate an image blur caused when the lens system vibrates.
On the other hand, a lens system used for a microscope whose magnification is approximately 10 to 20 times is also proposed variously.
Patent Literature 2 discloses an objective lens system for a microscope whose magnification is 15 to 20 times. The lens system has a high numerical aperture, fully compensates aberrations, and has a flat image surface and a wide scope.

Lens system, interchangeable lens device, and camera system

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


An algorithm is quickly scans a digital image volume to detect density nodules. A first stage is based on a transform to quickly highlight regions requiring further processing. The first stage operates with somewhat lower sensitivity than is possible with more detailed analyses, but operates to highlight regions for further analysis and processing. The transform dynamically adapts to various nodule sizes through the use of radial zones. A second stage uses a detailed gradient distribution analysis that only operates on voxels that pass a threshold of the first stage.

The diagnostically superior information available from data acquired from various imaging systems, especially that provided by multidetector CT (multiple slices acquired per single rotation of the gantry) where acquisition speed and volumetric resolution provide exquisite diagnostic value, enables the detection of potential disease problems at earlier and more treatable stages. Given the vast quantity of detailed data acquirable from imaging systems, various algorithms must be developed to efficiently and accurately process image data. With the aid of computers, advances in image processing are generally performed on digital or digitized images.
Digital acquisition systems for creating digital images include digital X-ray film radiography, computed tomography ("CT") imaging, magnetic resonance imaging ("MRI") and nuclear medicine imaging techniques, such as positron emission tomography ("PET") and single photon emission computed tomography ("SPECT"). Digital images can also be created from analog images by, for example, scanning analog images, such as typical x-rays, into a digitized form. Further information concerning digital acquisition systems is found in our above-referenced copending application "Graphical User Interface for Display of Anatomical Information".
Digital images are created from an array of numerical values representing a property (such as a grey scale value or magnetic field strength) associable with an anatomical location referenced by a particular array location. In 2-D digital images, or slice sections, the discrete array locations are termed pixels. Three-dimensional digital images can be constructed from stacked slice sections through various construction techniques known in the art. The 3-D images are made up of discrete volume elements, also referred to as voxels, composed of pixels from the 2-D images. The pixel or voxel properties can be processed to ascertain various properties about the anatomy of a patient associated with such pixels or voxels.
Once in a digital or digitized format, various analytical approaches can be applied to process digital anatomical images and to detect, identify, display and highlight regions of interest (ROI). For example, digitized images can be processed through various techniques, such as segmentation. Segmentation generally involves separating irrelevant objects (for example, the background from the foreground) or extracting anatomical surfaces, structures, or regions of interest from images for the purposes of anatomical identification, diagnosis, evaluation, and volumetric measurements. Segmentation often involves classifying and processing, on a per-pixel basis, pixels of image data on the basis of one or more characteristics associable with a pixel value. For example, a pixel or voxel may be examined to determine whether it is a local maximum or minimum based on the intensities of adjacent pixels or voxels.
Once anatomical regions and structures are constructed and evaluated by analyzing pixels and/or voxels, subsequent processing and analysis exploiting regional characteristics and features can be applied to relevant areas, thus improving both accuracy and efficiency of the imaging system. For example, the segmentation of an image into distinct anatomical regions and structures provides perspectives on the spatial relationships between such regions. Segmentation also serves as an essential first stage of other tasks such as visualization and registration for temporal and cross-patient comparisons.
Key issues in digital image processing are speed and accuracy. For example, the size of a detectable tumor or nodule, such as a lung nodule, can be smaller than 2 mm in diameter. Moreover, depending on the particular case, a typical volume data set can include several hundred axial sections, making the total amount of data 200 Megabytes or more. Thus, due to the sheer size of such data sets and the desire to identify small artifacts, computational efficiency and accuracy is of high priority to satisfy the throughput requirements of any digital processing method or system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fast, yet accurate, computer-assisted diagnosis ("CAD") system for assisting in the identification of suspicious masses and tissue in digital images, the CAD system being capable of producing an output which directs attention to suspicious portions of digital images. It is an object of the invention to provide such systems and methods for processing digital images that can effectively and quickly identify regions of the image containing suspicious features requiring further consideration and evaluation. It is a further object of the invention to provide a system and method for detecting nodules. It is a further object of the invention to provide a nodule detection approach that can be adapted to perform on or compensate for partial volumes or data sets. It is a further object to provide a nodule detection process and system that is adaptable for a large range of anatomical regions for processing yet is fast enough to permit use of the CAD system in a clinical radiology environment.
The foregoing and other problems are overcome by methods and apparatus in accordance with embodiments of this invention.

Density nodule detection in 3-D digital images


A three-dimensional structure composed of highly-reliable silicon ultrafine wires, a method for producing the three-dimensional structure, and a device including the same are provided. The three-dimensional structure composed of silicon fine wires includes wires (2) on the order of nanometers to micrometers formed by wet etching utilizing the crystallinity of a single-crystal material.

Conventionally, a plate or block structure composed of silicon or a structure formed by bending a metal conducting wire provides elements such as oscillators and coils.
In general, a tip magnetized with cobalt or iron etc. is used as a tip of an atomic force microscope to detect a magnetic field.
Furthermore, the present inventors have already proposed elements such as a cantilever composed of a fine three-dimensional structure in the following Patent Document 1 etc.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-91441 (pp. 7-8, FIG. 4)
[Patent Document 2]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-289768 (pp. 3-4, FIG. 1)
[Patent Document 3]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-114182 (pp. 5-6, FIG. 1)

Three-dimensional structural body composed of silicon fine wire, its manufacturing method, and device using same


A method of locating a first user comprises receiving at a server, via a communication network, video data from a sensor at a predetermined location that is remote from the server. Using a process in execution on a processor of the server, at least one of video analytics, image analytics and audio analytics is performed for determining a presence of the first user at the predetermined location. When a result of the video analytics is indicative of the first user being present at the predetermined location, an indication that the first user is at the predetermined location is retrievably stored within a memory element of the server.

Telecommunication technologies allow two or more parties to communicate almost instantly, even over vast distances. In the early part of the last century, landline telephones became essentially ubiquitous in developed countries. More recently, cellular wireless telephone networks have emerged, allowing parties to communicate with one another from virtually anywhere within a cellular network coverage area.
Videoconferencing has also emerged recently as a viable alternative to voice-only communication. A videoconference is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies, which allow two or more parties to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. Webcams are popular, relatively low cost devices that can provide live video streams via personal computers, and can be used with many software clients for videoconferencing over the Internet.
A voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software client, such as for instance Skype®, is an example of a technology that supports voice-only and/or videoconferencing communication between two or more parties. During use, the VoIP application is in execution on a computer or on another suitable device that is associated with a first party. The VoIP application, and other similar applications, typically provides a list of user names associated with other parties, including an indication of the current status of each of the other parties. Accordingly, a first user can determine when another user is online for a Skype to Skype (VoIP) chat or call, unless the other user wishes to remain hidden. When a second party appears to be available, the first party may attempt to initiate a communication session with the second party. For instance, the first party selects a user name associated with the second party from the list, and then selects an option for initiating a "call" to the second user. The VoIP application that is in execution on a computer or on another suitable device associated with the second party causes an alert to be issued, such as for instance playing a "ringing" sound via a speaker of the computer or other suitable device. In response to the alert, the second party answers the "call" originating from the first party.
Unfortunately, the indicated status of the second party often does not reflect the actual status of the second party. For instance, the second party may fail to change the status indicator from "online" to "away," especially during short or unexpected breaks, or when the second party moves to a different system etc. It is a disadvantage of the prior art that the first party may attempt to contact the second party when the second party is not present. In the prior art system, when the second party is not present to answer the "call," the first party merely receives a message indicating that the second party is not available, and is invited to leave a voice message for the second party. Of course, the second party does not receive the voice message immediately. Often, by the time the second party receives the voice message the first party is no longer interested in establishing a communication session.
It would be advantageous to provide a method and system for making video calls that overcomes at least some of the above-mentioned limitations of the prior art.

Method and system for locating an individual


In embodiments of an autonomous vehicle interface system, system nodes are each implemented as a distributed node for independent data processing of low-level sensor data and/or high-level system data. The high-level system data is abstracted from the low-level sensor data, providing invariance to system configuration in higher-level processing algorithms. The autonomous vehicle interface system includes at least one real-time bus for data communications of the low-level sensor data and the high-level system data between the system nodes. The system also includes an application programming interface (API) configured for access by the system nodes to the low-level sensor data and the high-level system data that is published on the real-time bus and accessible via the API.

Autonomous vehicles are developed to navigate and operate either unmanned or to assist a vehicle operator, and can utilize many different types of sensors, automation, robotics, and other computer-controlled systems and mechanisms. Inherently, autonomous vehicles are also developed with many active safety systems, which can not only increase driver comfort and reduce fatigue, but also reduce and/or eliminate vehicle injuries and deaths resulting from motor vehicle accidents. However, the many automated systems, sensors, and algorithms developed for use in an autonomous vehicle are costly and require considerable expertise to implement. Further, automobile companies and other vehicle manufacturers must each develop their own team of core competencies, technology infrastructure, and proprietary systems, which can be difficult and is cost prohibitive to include in mainstream consumer vehicles. To remain competitive in the marketplace, the companies and manufacturers that are unable to develop the internal competencies will need to partner with third parties that provide the autonomous vehicles systems. Likely, this will significantly decrease time to market for new vehicles but will tie a company to a third party proprietary system, which may be undesirable.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a conventional autonomous vehicle system 100, to include features of active safety systems. Generally, the autonomous vehicle system is representative of systems that include a centralized logging and data processing computer that receives sensor data input from a multitude of different sensors and components. Typically, these centralized systems have limited feature sets, as well as a lack of platform, sensor, and interface compatibility. Further, these centralized systems are susceptible to failure and can unexpectedly shut-down, such as due to cascading errors that cause the system to lockup, resulting in operation failure and potential loss of the autonomy platform. For example, an obstruction in the pathway of a vehicle may cause an unexpected failure of the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm at 102, causing the fusion calculations of the ego motion to no longer converge at 104. Data flow through the ego motion (e.g., data received and communicated) can become blocked or stalled, resulting in a failure of the path planner at 106, and rendering the autonomous vehicle system inoperable and/or the vehicle immobile.


A compound comprising a disazo chromaphore and an optionally substituted acyl group linked together through a xe2x80x94SO2xe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94 group, inks comprising these compounds, ink jet printer cartridges containing these inks and their use in ink jet printing.

This application is a national phase application based on PCT/GB00/03113, filed Aug. 14, 2000, and which further claims priority from British Application No. 9921928.9 filed Sep. 16, 1999. These applications in their entirety are incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to compounds, to inks comprising these compounds, to ink jet printer cartridges containing these inks and to their use in ink jet printing (xe2x80x9cIJPxe2x80x9d).
IJP is a non-impact printing technique in which droplets of ink are ejected through a fine nozzle onto a substrate without bringing the nozzle into contact with the substrate.
There are many demanding performance requirements for dyes and inks used in IJP. For example they desirably provide sharp, non-feathered images having good water-fastness, light-fastness and optical density. The inks are often required to dry quickly when applied to a substrate to prevent smudging, but they should not form a crust over the tip of an ink jet nozzle because this will stop the printer from working. The inks should also be stable to storage over time without decomposing or forming a precipitate which could block the fine nozzle.
According to the present invention there is provided a compound comprising a disazo chromophore and an optionally substituted acyl group linked together through a xe2x80x94SO2NHxe2x80x94 group.
Preferably where, the nitrogen atom of the xe2x80x94SO2NHxe2x80x94 group is attached to the acyl group through a single covalent bond. It is especially preferred that the compound is of Formula (1) and salts thereof:
Axe2x80x94COxe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94SO2xe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94Nxe2x95x90Nxe2x80x94Dxe2x80x94Nxe2x95x90Nxe2x80x94Exe2x80x83xe2x80x83Formula (1)
wherein:
A is an optionally substituted alkyl or aryl group;
B and D are each independently optionally substituted phenylene or naphthylene; and
E is optionally substituted naphthylene.
A is preferably an optionally substituted alkyl or aryl group it is especially preferred that A is optionally substituted C1-4-alkyl or optionally substituted phenyl. Preferred optional substituents are selected from; alkoxy, more preferably C1-4-alkoxy; polyalkylene oxide; nitro; cyano; amino; sulpho; halo, especially bromo, chloro or fluoro; ureido; PO4H2 SO2F; hydroxy; carboxy; ester, more preferably xe2x80x94CO2(C1-4-alkyl); and xe2x80x94NR1R2xe2x80x94COR1, xe2x80x94CONR1R2 and xe2x80x94SO2NR1R2 wherein R1 and R2 are each independently H or alkyl, preferably H or C1-4-alkyl
Preferably B is optionally substituted phenylene, more preferably optionally substituted 1,4-phenylene
Preferred optional substituents which may be present on B, D or E are selected from alkyl more preferably C1-4-alkyl; alkoxy, more preferably C1-4-alkoxy; polyalkylene oxide; nitro; cyano; amino; sulpho; halo, especially bromo, chloro or fluoro; ureido; PO4H2; SO2F; hydroxy; carboxy; ester, more preferably xe2x80x94CO2(C1-4-alkyl); and xe2x80x94NR1R2COR1, xe2x80x94CONR1R2 and xe2x80x94SO2NR1R2 wherein R1 and R2 are each independently H or alkyl, preferably H or C1-4-alkyl.
Preferably D is an optionally substituted 1,4-phenylene group, more preferably D is of the formula:
wherein each:
W independently is H, optionally substituted alkyl, optionally substituted alkoxy, polyalkylene oxide, nitro, cyano, sulpho, halo, ureido, SO2F, PO4H2,hydroxy, carboxy, ester, xe2x80x94NR1R2, xe2x80x94COR1, xe2x80x94CONR1R2 or xe2x80x94SO2NR1R2;
X independently is O, NH or S;
R1 and R2 are each independently H or alkyl, preferably H or C1-4-alkyl; and
R3 independently is H, optionally substituted alkyl or optionally substituted aryl.
Preferably each W independently is H, C1-4-alkyl or C1-4-alkoxy more preferably H, methyl, ethyl, methoxy or ethoxy, especially H. Preferably both groups represented by W are H and X is O.
Preferably each R3 independently is optionally substituted C1-4-alkyl or optionally substituted phenyl more preferably C1-4-alkyl or C1-4-alkyl-OH; phenyl or phenyl carrying one or two substituents selected from carboxy and sulpho.
When D is also optionally substituted naphthylene it preferably carries one or more (preferably 1 to 4) substituents selected from hydroxy, amino, sulpho and carboxy.
Preferably E is optionally substituted naphthylene, more preferably carrying one or more (preferably from 1 to 4) groups selected from hydroxy, amino, sulpho and carboxy. More preferably E is naphthylene carrying one hydroxy group, one amino group and 0, 1 or 2 sulpho groups. It is especially preferred that E is a 1-hydroxy-3-sulphonaphth-2-ylene group carrying an optionally substituted amino group at the 7-position; or a 1-hydroxy-5-sulphonaphth-2-ylene group carrying an optionally substituted amino group at the 8-position; or a 1-hydroxy-3,6-disulphonaphth-2-ylene group carrying an optionally substituted amino group at the 8-position or a 1-hydroxy-3,6-disulphonaphth-2-ylene group carrying an optionally substituted amino group at the 7-position.
Preferred optionally substituted amino groups are of the formula xe2x80x94NR4R5 where R4 and R5 are independently selected from H, optionally substituted alkyl and optionally substituted phenyl. Preferably R4 and R5 are both H.
The compounds described hereinbefore are preferably soluble in water. To achieve this solubility, the compounds preferably have 1, 2 or 3 water-dispersing substituents. Preferred water-dispersing substituents are polyalkylene oxides and more preferably sulpho and carboxy.
Preferred polyalkylene oxide groups which may be present on A, B, D and/or E are poly(C2-3-alkylene oxide) groups, more preferably polyethylene glycol or polypropylene glycol, preferably having from 1 to 20 glycol units and terminated with a hydroxy or C1-4-alkoxy group.
Preferably A, B, D and E are selected from the definitions given above such that the pKa of the linking xe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94 group (e.g as shown in FIG. 1)is from 8 to 3, more preferably 7.5 to 4, especially 7 to 4.5. These preferences arise from the finding that compounds having such an xe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94 group have a particularly good combination of water-fastness and optical density when printed on paper.
Any acid or basic groups on the compound, particularly carboxylic acid and sulphonic acid groups, are preferably in the form of a salt. Thus the Formulae shown herein include the compounds in free acid and in salt form.
The compounds of the invention may be prepared by condensing a diazo chromophore and an optionally substituted acyl compound, where one has a sulphonyl halide substituent and the other has an amino substituent. This condensation is preferably performed in the presence of base to absorb hydrogen halide as it is generated during the condensation.
The compound of Formula Axe2x80x94COxe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94SO2xe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94Nxe2x95x90Nxe2x80x94Dxe2x80x94Nxe2x95x90Nxe2x80x94E may be prepared by diazotising an amine of the formula Axe2x80x94COxe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94SO2xe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94Nxe2x95x90Nxe2x80x94Dxe2x80x94NH2 and coupling the resultant diazonium salt with a compound of the formula Hxe2x80x94E.
The compound of Formula Axe2x80x94COxe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94SO2xe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94Nxe2x95x90Nxe2x80x94Dxe2x80x94NH2 may be prepared by diazotising an amine of the formula Axe2x80x94COxe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94SO2xe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94NH2 and coupling the resultant diazonium salt with an amine of the formula Hxe2x80x94Dxe2x80x94NH2. In some cases it may be necessary for the amino group to carry a protecting group which should be removed on completion of the reaction.
Many compounds of the formula Axe2x80x94COxe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94SO2xe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94NH2 are commercially available.
Preferably they may be prepared by condensing an amine of formula Bxe2x80x94(NH2)2, in which one of the amino groups is protected, with a compound of formula Clxe2x80x94SO2xe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94COxe2x80x94 A followed by removal of the protecting group.
More preferably they may be prepared by condensing an amine of formula Axe2x80x94COxe2x80x94NH2 with a compound of formula Clxe2x80x94SO2xe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94NH2 carrying a protecting group on the amino group of the Clxe2x80x94SO2xe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94NH2 compound, followed by removal of the protecting group.
Diazotisation is preferably performed at a temperature below 6xc2x0 C., more preferably at a temperature in the range xe2x88x9210xc2x0 C. to 5xc2x0 C. Preferably diazotisation is performed in water, preferably at a pH below 7 for the monoazo intermediate and above pH7 to form compounds of Formula (1). Dilute mineral acid, e.g. HCl or H2SO4, may be used to achieve the desired acidic conditions.
In the above processes, A, B, D and E are as hereinbefore defined.
Any acid or basic groups on the compound, particularly carboxylic acid and sulphonic acid groups, are preferably in the form of a salt. Thus the Formulae shown herein include the compounds in free acid and in salt form.
Preferred salts are alkali metal salts, especially lithium, sodium and potassium salts, ammonium and substituted ammonium salts. Especially preferred salts are salts with ammonia and volatile amines. The compounds may be converted into a salt using known techniques. For example, an alkali metal salt of a compound may be converted into a salt with ammonia or an amine by dissolving an alkali metal salt of the compound in water, acidifying with a mineral acid and adjusting the pH of the solution to pH 9 to 9.5 with ammonia or the amine and removing the alkali metal cations by dialysis or by treatment with an ion exchange resin.
The compounds may exist in tautomeric forms other than those shown in this specification. These tautomers are included within the scope of the present claims. The compounds are particularly useful as dyes, especially for ink jet printing compositions.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a composition comprising a compound according to the first aspect of the invention, preferably of Formula (1) and a liquid medium.
Preferred compositions comprise:
(a) from 0.01 to 30 parts of a compound according to the first aspect of the invention, preferably of Formula (1): and
(b) from 70 to 99.99 parts of a liquid medium;
wherein all parts are by weight and the number of parts of (a)+(b)=100.
The number of parts of component (a) is preferably from 0.1 to 20, more preferably from 0.5 to 15, and especially from 1 to 5 parts. The number of parts of component (b) is preferably from 99.9 to 80, more preferably from 99.5 to 85, especially from 99 to 95 parts.
Preferably component (a) is completely dissolved in component (b). Preferably component (a) has a solubility in component (b) at 20xc2x0 C. of at least 10%. This allows the preparation of liquid dye concentrates which may be used to prepare more dilute inks and reduces the chance of the dye precipitating if evaporation of the liquid medium occurs during storage.
Preferred liquid media include water, a mixture of water and an organic solvent and an organic solvent free from water.
When the medium comprises a mixture of water and an organic solvent, the weight ratio of water to organic solvent is preferably from 99:1 to 1:99, more preferably from 99:1 to 50:50 and especially from 95:5 to 80:20.
It is preferred that the organic solvent present in the mixture of water and organic solvent is a water-miscible organic solvent or a mixture of such solvents. Preferred water-miscible organic solvents include C1-6-alkanols, preferably methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, isopropanol, n-butanol, sec-butanol, tert-butanol, n-pentanol, cyclopentanol and cyclohexanol; linear amides, preferably dimethylformamide or dimethylacetamide; ketones and ketone-alochols, preferably acetone, methyl ether ketone, cyclohexanone and diacetone alcohol; water-miscible ethers, preferably tetrahydrofuran and dioxane; diols, preferably diols having from 2 to 12 carbon atoms, for example pentane-1,5-diol, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, butylene glycol, pentylene glycol, hexylene glycol and thiodiglycol and oligo- and poly-alkyleneglyols, preferably diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, polyethylene glycol and polypropylene glycol; triols, preferably glycerol and 1,2,6hexanetriol; mono-C1-4-alkyl ethers of diols, preferably mono-C1-4-alkyl ethers of diols having 2 to 12 carbon atoms, especially 2-methoxyethanol, 2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethanol, 2-(2-ethoxyethoxy)-ethanol, 2-[2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethoxy]ethanol, 2-[2-(2-ethoxyethoxy)-ethoxy]ethanol and ethyleneglycol monoallylether; cyclic amides, preferably 2-pyrrolidone, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidone, caprolactam and 1,3-dimethylimidazolidone; cyclic esters, preferably caprolactone; sulphoxides, preferably dimethyl sulphoxide and sulpholane. Preferably the liquid medium comprises water and 2 or more, especially from 2 to 8, water-soluble organic solvents.
Especially preferred water-soluble organic solvents are cyclic amides, especially 2-pyrrolidone, N-methyl-pyrrolidone and N-ethy-pyrrolidone; diols, especially 1,5-pentane diol, ethyleneglycol, thiodiglycol, diethyleneglycol and triethyleneglycol; and mono- C1-4-alkyl and C1-4-alkyl ethers of diols, more preferably mono- C1-4-alkyl ethers of diols having 2 to 12 carbon atoms, especially 2-methoxy-2-ethoxy-2-ethoxyethanol.
Although not usually necessary, further colorants may be added to the ink to modify the shade and performance properties. Examples of such colorants include C.I.Direct Yellow 86, 132, 142 and 173; C.I.Direct Blue 199, and 307; C.I.Food Black 2; C.I.Direct Black 168 and 195; C.I.Acid Yellow 23; and any of the dyes used in ink jet printers sold by Seiko Epson Corporation, Hewlett Packard Company, Canon Inc. and Lexmark International. Addition of such further dyes can increase overall solubility leading to less kogation (nozzle blockage) for the resultant ink.
Examples of further suitable liquid media comprising a mixture of water and one or more organic solvents are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,189, U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,113, U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,284 and EP 4,251,50A.
When the liquid medium comprises an organic solvent free from water, (i.e. less than 1% water by weight) the solvent preferably has a boiling point of from 300 to 200xc2x0 C. more preferably of from 40xc2x0 to 150xc2x0 C., especially from 50 to 125xc2x0 C. The organic solvent may be water-immiscible, water-miscible or a mixture of such solvents. Preferred water-miscible organic solvents are any of the hereinbefore described water-miscible organic solvents and mixtures thereof. Preferred water-immiscible solvents include, for example, aliphatic hydrocarbons; esters, preferably ethyl acetate; chlorinated hydrocarbons, preferably CH2Cl2; and ethers, preferably diethyl ether; and mixtures thereof.
When the liquid medium comprises a water-immiscible organic solvent, preferably a polar solvent is included because this enhances solubility of the compound in the liquid medium. Examples of polar solvents include C1-4-alcohols. In view of the foregoing preferences it is especially preferred that where the liquid medium is an organic solvent free from water it comprises a ketone (especially methyl ethyl ketone) and/or an alcohol (especially a C1-4-alkanol, more especially ethanol or propanol).
The organic solvent free from water may be a single organic solvent or a mixture of two or more organic solvents. It is preferred that when the medium is an organic solvent free from water it is a mixture of 2 to 5 different organic solvents. This allows a medium to be selected which gives good control over the drying characteristics and storage stability of the ink.
Liquid media comprising an organic solvent free from water are particularly useful where fast drying times are required and particularly when printing onto hydrophobic and non-absorbent substrates, for example plastics, metal and glass.
The liquid media may also contain additional components conventionally used in ink jet printing inks, for example viscosity and surface tension modifiers, corrosion inhibitors, biocides, kogation reducing additives and surfactants which may be ionic or non-ionic.
It is preferred that a composition according to the second aspect of the invention is an ink or liquid dye concentrate.
A third aspect of the invention provides a process for forming an image on a substrate comprising applying an ink according to the second aspect of the invention thereto by means of an ink jet printer.
The ink used in this process is preferably a composition as defined in the second aspect of the present invention.
The inks preferably have a total concentration of divalent metal ions and trivalent metal ions below 1000 more preferably below 100, especially below 20, more especially below 10 parts per million by weight relative to the total weight of ink. Pure inks of this type may be prepared by using high purity ingredients and/or by purifying the ink after it has been prepared. Suitable purification techniques are well known, e.g. ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, ion exchange and combinations thereof.
The ink jet printer preferably applies the ink to the substrate in the form of droplets which are ejected through a small orifice onto the substrate. Preferred ink jet printers are piezoelectric ink jet printers and thermal ink jet printers. In thermal ink jet printers, programmed pulses of heat are applied to the ink in a reservoir by means of a resistor adjacent to the orifice, thereby causing the ink to be ejected in the form of small droplets directed towards the substrate during relative movement between the substrate and the orifice. In piezoelectric ink jet printers the oscillation of a small crystal causes ejection of the ink from the orifice.
The substrate is preferably paper, plastic, a textile, metal or glass, more preferably paper, an overhead projector slide or a textile material, especially paper.
Preferred papers are plain or treated papers which may have an acid, alkaline or neutral character.
A fourth aspect of the present invention provides a paper, an overhead projector slide or a textile material printed with a composition according to the second aspect of the invention, a compound according to the first aspect of the invention or by means of a process according to third aspect of the invention.
A fifth aspect of the present invention provides an ink jet printer cartridge comprising a chamber and an ink wherein the ink is in the chamber and the ink is according to the second aspect of the present invention.
A final aspect of the invention is a method for the colouration of a substrate which comprises treating with a compound according to the first aspect of this inventon.
The invention is further illustrated by the following Examples in which all parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise stated.


A packet processing method includes receiving a first packet by a first receiving interface of a media conversion module of a first network device, where the first packet includes a first alignment marker (AM), sending a second packet by a first sending interface of the media conversion module, where the second packet includes the first AM, and the second packet is the first packet processed by the media conversion module, and calculating a time interval T1 between a time at which the media conversion module receives the first packet and a time at which the media conversion module sends the second packet, where the T1 is used to compensate for a first timestamp at which the first network device receives or sends the third packet.

In an existing communications device, most solutions for performing time synchronization between devices are implemented according to a precision time protocol (PTP) standard of a network measurement and control system proposed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the standard is also referred to as an IEEE 1588 protocol (1588 protocol).
A core idea of the 1588 protocol is to use a master-slave clock mode. During synchronization, a master device periodically issues PTP packets, a slave device receives timestamp information sent by the master device. A master-slave line time delay and a master-slave time offset are calculated based on the timestamp information, and a local time is adjusted using the time offset such that a slave device time is kept consistent with a master device time, to implement time synchronization.
The 1588 protocol requires that a delay between a stamping point and a physical layer medium (PHY), for example, an optical fiber, be stable and that there be no asymmetric delay change. However, in an existing network system, there is an asymmetric link delay, and a key to resolve an asymmetric delay problem is how to obtain the delay. In a plurality of current clock synchronization systems, a delay in a PHY chip is largely considered. However, internal processing, such as first in first out (FIFO), also exists between the stamping point and an egress of a media conversion module, and a delay of the internal processing is uncertain. An existing solution is to estimate a delay of the media conversion module based on internal circuit processing. In this solution, the obtained delay may be inaccurate, resulting in relatively low synchronization performance of the 1588 protocol.

Packet processing method and network device


A cabinet washer is supported on legs above a floor. Fluid dispensing heads discharge wash fluid within the cabinet. A sump collects wash fluid leaving the cabinet, for recirculation as desired through a pump. A wheeled cart has a frame which supports a tray and a rack above the wheels. Items to be washed are positioned on the rack and the cart is received within the cabinet, at which point the bottom wall of the tray underlies the cabinet bottom wall opening. The tray bottom wall slopes to receive fluid discharged within the cabinet interior compartment and convey it through a cabinet rear wall opening. The sump may be provided with a deflector which alternately sends fluid to be recirculated or drained from the sump. The front door may be hinged to the cabinet, or may be mounted to the cart itself.

The present invention relates to devices for treating elements with fluid within an enclosed cabinet.
Cabinet style washers are used in commercial and industrial applications to clean equipment and products in batches. Typically the parts to be cleaned will be loaded on a rack of a cart exterior to the cabinet, and then brought into the cabinet for cleaning. Because the cleaning fluid, which can be costly, is recirculated throughout the cleaning cycle, fluid will be collected and recirculated from a sump which is located beneath the level of the rack, thus requiring that the sump be recessed into the floor, or that the rack travel by ramp or lift to the level of the cabinet. If a sump is to be located at or above floor level in such a system, a suction pump is required to bring the liquid from its point of collection to the sump. Ramps, lifts, and sumps add cost to the installation. Moreover, ramps and lifts require additional space and hence add cost. In addition extra safety precautions must be taken when working with ramps and lifts to avoid inherent hazards. Recessed sumps can flood causing damage to nearby electrical equipment. Another approach uses nested carts comprising a first wheeled cart which is releasably mounted to an underlying second wheeled cart. The assembly is then brought adjacent to a cabinet washer with an elevated wash chamber, and the first cart is then rolled into and out of the wash chamber.
What is needed is a fluid treatment assembly which permits for the convenient treatment of cart mounted elements while obviating the need for a below grade sump, ramp, lift, or multiple nested carts.


The invention provides a device and method for monitoring inflammation of the epithelium. The device consists of a head region, a handle region and an optical bundle. At least two of the optical fibers in the bundle are utilized as a source of radiation, these two fibers are at two different angles from normal. At least one of the other optical fibers is utilized as a detector for the reflected radiation, or alternatively an image guide can be used as the detector. The device of the invention can be part of an external or internal system that can include a light source, the device, a multiplexer, a spectrometer, and a computer for data analysis. The method of the invention allows for the detection and monitoring of general inflammation of the oral epithelium. The inflammation of the epithelium can be detected or monitored to diagnose diseases of the oral epithelium, monitor such diseases, monitor treatment of such diseases, or pre-screen for and monitor preventative treatments of such diseases.

Diagnosis of mammalian oral health often focuses on the epithelium. The epithelium is the covering of internal and external surfaces of the body, including the lining of vessels and other small cavities. It is made up of cells that are joined by small amounts of cementing substances. Epithelium is classified into different types, based on the depth of the layers and the shape of the cells residing at the surface.
The oral epithelium has a base layer of progenitor cells that are constantly replicating. As the newly replicated cells are formed at the base, they push the overlying cells toward the upper epithelial surface. As these cells approach the surface, they are flattened, eventually detached from the surface and will slough off. A healthy oral epithelium has a thickness in the range of 50-150 μm.
The first clinical symptom of an unhealthy oral epithelium is inflammation. Inflammation of the oral epithelium may result from either an increased proliferation rate of progenitor cells, a decreased detachment rate from the upper surfaces of the oral epithelium, or a combination thereof. Inflamed cell populations, including inflamed oral epithelium regions, produce cytokines that can specifically stimulate growth of evolving cancer clones. Normal epithelium populations will also respond to the chronic presence of mitogenically active cytokines by increasing their rate of cell growth. This increased cell growth is called hyperplasia. Normal epithelial cell hyperplasia can thereby be a measure of the promotional environment of a cancer clone.
The general health of the oral epithelium can sometimes be determined by visual inspection. For a more thorough diagnosis however, the thickness of the epithelium should be quantified. In order to quantify the thickness, more advanced techniques, such as endoscopy must be used.
Endoscopy is the visual inspection of a cavity of the body by use of an endoscope. An endoscope is generally a highly flexible viewing instrument that may also be capable of diagnostic and therapeutic functions. Endoscopy is widely used to diagnose, monitor and treat a number of diseases and maladies of the digestive system. Many diseases of the human digestive tract can be diagnosed by visual appearance, for example tumors possess a characteristic salmon pink color. In practice, these factors combine to allow one procedure, endoscopy, to be a relatively simple, non-surgical diagnosis and monitoring tool of many digestive tract diseases.
Use of diagnostic scopes as clinical tools was greatly advanced by the development of fiber optics in the 1950s. The use of fiber optics in diagnostic scopes allowed better images to be recorded. It also allowed more organs to be viewed because of the flexibility that fiber optics brought to the instrument. The flexibility added by fiber optics also decreased the incidence of puncturing body tissue and organs that occurred more often with rigid scopes.
Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is a technique that was developed for use in surface analysis of powdered organic and inorganic samples. The technique is based on the diffuse reflectance of radiation that occurs when it is directed onto a surface with a matte finish or a powdered sample. The reflected radiation penetrates the sample and interacts with it before the radiation emerges from the sample as a "reflection". While the radiation is in the sample, scattering occurs such that the diffusely reflected light emerges from the sample at all angles, as opposed to the one angle that would be observed if the scattering had not occurred.
Reflectance spectroscopy has been used previously in a clinical setting. For example, reflectance spectroscopy has been used to determine oxygen levels in the myocardium in vivo. For details of such uses see, for example, Arai, A. E., Myocardial oxygenation in vivo: optical spectroscopy of cytoplasmic myoglobin and mitochondrial cytochromes. Heart Circ. Physiol. 46: H683-H697, 1999; or Gandjbakhche, Visible-light photon migration through myocardium in vivo. Heart Circ. Physiol. 46: H698-H704, 1999.
The use of reflectance spectroscopy in the diagnosis of oral health problems would provide a noninvasive, simple and inexpensive manner of diagnosis. However, little has been done furthering the diagnosis of oral health problems using such techniques. Further, the early diagnosis of maladies, such as gum disease and oral cancer often reduces the need for painful, if not disfiguring medical intervention. Therefore, there is a need for devices and methods that utilize reflectance spectroscopy that could be used in the diagnosis of oral health problems.

Methods of detecting inflammation of an epithelium layer in the oral region with a probe using diffuse-reflectance spectroscopy

The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services


A test bench assembly for simulating cardiac surgery includes a passive heart having at least one pair of cardiac chambers with an atrial chamber and a ventricular chamber. A reservoir is adapted to house working fluid. A pressure generator fluidically connects both to the ventricular chamber of the passive heart and to the reservoir. A pressure regulation device provides working fluid in input to the atrial chamber with preload pressure, and working fluid in output from the ventricular chamber with afterload pressure. The pressure regulation device fluidically connects both to the atrial chamber of the passive heart and to the ventricular chamber of the passive heart. The pressure regulation device has a single compliant element for each pair of cardiac chambers, which provides working fluid with both preload, and afterload pressures.

One of the purposes of training for cardiac surgeons and for interventional cardiologists is to provide clinical personnel with a certain familiarity and acquaintance with the particular physiological conditions they will have to confront in the course of an intervention which involves the beating heart of a living patient. The aspects which can mainly interfere with the intervention of the clinical operator are of a fluid dynamic nature and due to blood circulation, to the opening and closing of the heart valves and to the deformation of the organ during the cardiac cycles. Hence, there is a need to provide a test bench able to faithfully replicate the physiological conditions of the cardiac cycle.
The four cardiac chambers comprise two atria and two ventricles, in which each atrium receives the blood coming from body tissues and flows in a ventricle which in turn flows in an artery. The left atrium and the left ventricle, separated by the mitral valve, form the left heart, which receives blood from the lungs and pumps it in the body, while right atrium and right ventricle form the right heart which receives blood from the body and transmits it to the lungs.
Generally, known test benches comprise a heart from a human or animal donor, for example hearts of porcine origin. This heart is generally explanted by cutting the blood vessels directly connected to the atria and to the ventricle but leaving intact a section of the veins and of the arteries as well as the native cardiac valves. Such an explanted heart is incapable of contracting spontaneously to pressurize the fluid received in the cardiac chambers which determines the opening of the cardiac valves to carry out the pumping action for which it is intended in vivo. Therefore, said explanted heart is connected to a pumping system provided in the test bench and comprising one or more pulsatile pumps, as well as a system of hydraulic conduits and containers which simulate the hydraulic impedances out of the heart and into the heart.
Usually, the pumping system is connected to the explanted heart by making a hole in the wall of the heart, usually in the apical portion of the heart, and providing a conduit which flows directly into the ventricular chamber. Through this piping the pumping system pressurizes fluid within the ventricular chamber to determine the opening of the aortic outflow valve, out of the left ventricle. Downstream of the aortic valve out of the left ventricle, a piping is provided being connected to a hydraulic impedance and an afterload container, in order to simulate the systemic impedance seen by the heart when it ejects the blood.
Known test bench solutions have been designed to model by means of a system of four impedances and four respective containers both the fluid dynamic impedance which the heart sees during the ejection of blood from the ventricle, known as afterload, and the pressure due to the blood returning to the atria, known as preload. In these known solutions, it has been opted to realize as many impedance simulation systems as there are cardiac chambers, because the preload pressure of the fluid flowing into the atria is far lower than the afterload pressure which the blood sees in ejection. For example, solutions of this type are shown in the documents US-2011-0217684, US-2013-0288218, US-2014-0370490, US-2014-0099620, US-2015-0024362 and the non-patent disclosure Andrew L. Richards et al.: "A Dynamic Heart System to Facilitate the Development of Mitral Valve Repair Techniques" (ANNALS OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS-PLENUM PUBLISHERS, NE, Vol. 37 No. 4. 18 Feb. 2009).
Solutions of this kind impose large dimensions of the test bench and require the presence of highly qualified personnel to manage them during the installation and utilization of the test bench. These aspects make the test bench difficult to transport, forcing the heart surgeon to go to the place where the test bench is installed. At the same time, this type of test benches is substantially impossible to put in operation without the intervention of specialized technical personnel, forcing the technical personnel to go to the place where the test bench is installed.
Thus, there is a strongly felt need to provide a test bench solution which faithfully reproduces the physiological conditions without thereby being bulky or complicated to operate.
There is a need to provide a test bench solution which allows to reduce the installation and operation costs of the test bench compared to known solutions, without thereby resulting in diminished functionality or reliability.
There is a need to provide a test bench with a reduced number of components and with reduced size compared to known solutions, without thereby resulting in diminished functionality or reliability.
There is a strongly felt need to provide a test bench solution which faithfully reproduces the physiological conditions while allowing to reduce the costs associated with the procedures for training the heart surgeon/interventional cardiologist.

Test bench assembly for the simulation of cardiac surgery and/or interventional cardiology operations and/or procedures


This invention discloses a high-precision alignment system for aligning a mask with a wafer in a high-resolution microlithography system. This alignment system has a high-sensitivity mask-wafer displacement detection system characterized by an optical heterodyne technique that uses two laser frequencies to generate by diffraction and interference a displacement signal at a different frequency, and has a high-precision mask-wafer positioning system that uses a laser modulation spectroscopic technique characterized by controlling the cavity spacing of a highly stable optical resonator with a modulated frequency-stabilized laser, making it possible to align a wafer pattern with a mask pattern with a precision on the order of a few nanometers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to alignment systems for aligning a pattern on one object to a pattern on another object, and more particularly relates to alignment method and apparatus for aligning a mask with a wafer in a high-resolution microlithography system, having a high-sensitivity mask-wafer displacement detection system characterized by an optical heterodyne technique that uses two laser frequencies to generate by diffraction and interference a displacement signal at a different frequency, and having a high-precision laser-modulation mask-wafer positioning system characterized by controlling the cavity spacing of a highly stable optical resonator with a modulated frequency-stabilized laser, making it possible to align a wafer pattern with a mask pattern with a precision on the order of a few nanometers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lithography systems are extensively used in the production of integrated circuit chips and electronic circuit boards. Such systems typically include an exposure source such as a high intensity lamp or a laser or source of other radiation, mask and substrate positioning systems, a projection system to illuminate and image the pattern present on the mask onto the substrate, and an alignment system to accurately position the mask and the wafer with respect to each other prior to exposure. The intent typically is to illuminate a wafer coated with a layer of a radiation-sensitive material so as to produce the desired circuit pattern, which later will be metallized or otherwise activated during further processing. During production of integrated circuit chips, a wafer typically undergoes numerous physical treatment steps following illumination through several different masks. This requires that prior to exposure using each new mask, the wafer position be precisely realigned with respect to the new mask so as to carry out each process step at the desired microscopic physical locations as dictated by the preceding process steps. The precision of such alignment typically must be a small fraction of the minimum feature size of the circuit patterns.
As the demand for chips with ever greater memory and processing power increases, the individual bits on the chips get smaller in size. This requires that the lithography equipment used for imaging these patterns have higher and higher resolution. Simultaneously, the reduced minimum feature size of the circuit patterns demands that successive mask levels be aligned with respect to each other with ever greater accuracy. For example, in production of 1 Mb (megabit) and 4 Mb memory chips using, respectively, 1 micron and 0.7 micron geometries, the lithography system typically must have an alignment precision of 0.3 micron and 0.2 micron, respectively. Lithography systems for producing 16 Mb devices will need to have an alignment capability of 0.15 micron, and it is expected that production of 64 Mb chips will demand that lithography apparatus possess alignment precision of 0.1 micron or better. Performance of current alignment technology as seen in today's lithography tools is limited in accuracy in the 0.2-0.3 micron range.
Prior art alignment approaches have used various techniques for sensing the relative positions of the mask and the wafer. All approaches rely on detecting certain targets, fabricated on the mask and the wafer prior to the alignment step. The targets are illuminated by light and through scattering, reflection, diffraction or interference, they produce light signals which are detected and analyzed to determine the relative displacement required between the mask and the wafer to bring them in the desired alignment. A common approach found in the prior art uses mask and wafer targets that are sets of etched lines in a reflective background and arranged in the form of squares or chevrons. The targets are illuminated with visible light and the beams reflected from them are observed simultaneously in a viewing system. In the viewing microscopes the target backgrounds appear bright due to directly reflected light whereas the etched lines appear dark due to light being scattered out of the collection angles of the microscope objectives. The alignment process consists in aligning the line patterns of the two targets as seen in the viewing system by producing the appropriate relative displacement between the mask and the wafer using a conventional laser interferometer. This alignment approach achieves a precision of 0.25-0.30 micron.
Another approach used in prior art, known as dark-field alignment method, consists in fabricating on the wafer a pattern that is a set of rectangles and fabricating on the mask a pattern that is a set of parallel slits which, under perfect mask-wafer alignment, are imaged on the edges of the rectangles on the wafer. The lens which collects the light scattered from the wafer is so apertured that all specular reflection, i.e. directly reflected light, is blocked. Thus, the detector sees only those light rays which are scattered from the edges of the rectangular targets on the wafer. By optimizing the mask and wafer positions such that the transmission of these scattered rays through the slits on the mask is maximized, the mask and the wafer are brought in alignment. The required relative displacement between the mask and the wafer is accomplished, as above, by use of a conventional laser interferometer, delivering an overall alignment accuracy in the 0.20-0.25 micron range.
Other prior art approaches have used diffraction gratings as alignment targets. The intensity or phase information in light diffracted from a wafer grating (and in some cases, again through a mask grating) is appropriately analyzed so as determine the relative mask-wafer displacement necessary to produce alignment. Again, in systems using diffraction grating targets, the relative mask-wafer displacement is carried out using conventional laser interferometers, and the alignment precision achieved lies in the vicinity of 0.20 micron. Although optical phenomena and techniques exist that in principle are sensitive to finer physical displacements, none have been developed in a way that makes them suitable for lithography alignment systems.
In view of the limitations in prior art as discussed above, there is an important need to develop a superior alignment system for high-resolution lithography machines to deliver greater mask-wafer alignment precision that will be required in the fabrication of higher-density microelectronic devices.

High precision alignment system for microlithography


In a process for friction stir welding together pieces of dissimilar material, a first piece of a second metal is overlaid onto a first piece of a first metal that is dissimilar from the second metal such that at least a portion of the first piece of second metal overlaps a portion of the first piece of first metal. The first piece of second metal has a plurality of holes therein and the holes are disposed in overlapping relationship with the portion of the first piece of first metal. Each of the holes is filled with a plug formed from the first metal. The first piece of first metal is friction stir welded to the first piece of second metal at each of the plug locations.

The field of the invention relates generally to friction stir welding and more particularly to friction stir welding of dissimilar metals and to workpiece assemblies formed by friction stir welding dissimilar metals together.
Recent surveys conducted by the Joining and Welding Research Institute (JWRT) of Japan and the Edison Welding Institute (EWI) of the U.S. have identified welding of dissimilar metals as a top priority in materials joining technologies. For instance, being able to weld aluminum-to-copper would be advantageous in many industries where electric connections are made during the manufacturing process. In another instance, being able to weld aluminum-to-steel or aluminum-to-magnesium would result in significant weight reduction in some applications, which would be advantageous in many industries, e.g., the aircraft, locomotive, shipbuilding, and automotive manufacturing industries. Being able to efficiently and effectively weld aluminum-to-magnesium is of particular interest because magnesium has a specific strength (i.e., strength to density ratio) that is 14 percent higher than aluminum and 68 percent higher than iron making it one of the lightest metallic structural materials. Although aluminum and magnesium alloys are typically soft materials and often have relatively similar melting points, they tend to react with each other when heated such as during friction stir welding. The more they are heated up, that is, the more heat input during friction stir welding, the more they react with each other to weaken the resultant weld.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, friction stir welding is typically preformed using a cylindrical tool T having a pin P extending downward therefrom. During use, the pin P is rotated at a constant speed and fed at a constant traverse rate along a joint line JL between two pieces of sheet or plate material P1, P2. The pieces P1, P2 can be butt welded (side-to-side) together, as illustrated in FIG. 1, or lap welded (overlapped) together, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The pin P of the tool T typically has a length that is slightly less than the desired weld depth. During the welding process, a shoulder S of the tool T is often in direct contact with an upper surface of both the pieces P1, P2 being welded. As a result, heat is generated by the friction between the tool shoulder S and pin P and the pieces P1, P2 being welded. This heat causes the pieces P1, P2 to soften about the joint line JL without reaching their melting point. In other words, the friction stir welding process causes both of the pieces P1, P2 to plasticizes adjacent the joint line JL. As the tool T is fed transversely with respect to the pieces P1, P2, a leading face of the pin P directs the plasticized material toward a back of the pin. Angling the pin P by 2-4 degrees in the transverse direction facilitates feeding the pin through the pieces P1, P2 and directing the plasticized material toward the back of the pin.
With reference to FIG. 1, prior efforts have been made to butt weld an aluminum alloy to a magnesium alloy using friction stir welding. In conventional butt welding using friction stir welding, an end of a piece of aluminum alloy (e.g., piece P1) is accurately aligned with and placed against an end of a piece of magnesium alloy (e.g., piece P2) to form a seam or joint line TL. The tool T and thereby the pin P are fed along the joint line JL (i.e., in a longitudinal direction with respect to the two pieces P1, P2 as viewed in FIG. 1). The pin P can be coaxial with the joint line JL or offset toward either the piece of aluminum alloy P1 or the piece of magnesium alloy P2. In addition, the piece of aluminum alloy P1 can be placed on either the advancing side, as illustrated in FIG. 1, or retreating side of the tool T. The piece of magnesium alloy P2 is placed on the opposite side from the piece of aluminum alloy P1. In the illustrated configuration, the piece of magnesium alloy P2 is placed on the retreating side of the tool T. While the butt weld formed between the pieces of aluminum and magnesium alloys P1, P2 can be relatively strong, strict tolerances and controls are needed during the welding process to form such a weld thereby making it difficult, relatively time consuming, and costly.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, prior efforts have also been made to lap weld a piece of aluminum alloy (e.g., piece P1) to a piece of magnesium alloy (e.g., piece P2). Lap welding is typically preferred by manufacturers because the tolerances and controls needed during the welding process are substantially less than those needed during the butt welding process. As seen in FIG. 2, lap welding is preformed by overlapping a portion of one of the pieces with a portion of the other piece. In the illustrated configuration, the piece of magnesium alloy P2 overlaps the piece of aluminum alloy P1. The overlapped portions of the pieces P1, P2 are welded together using friction stir welding. That is, the overlying piece P2 is friction stir welded to the underlying piece P1.
The pieces P1, P2 can be welded together along a single joint line using conventional single-pass lap welding or can be welded together along two joint lines using conventional double-pass lap welding. When conventional double-pass lap welding is used, the pieces P1, P2 of materials are flipped over after they have been welded on one side and are then welded on the opposite side using the same process. When dissimilar metals (e.g., aluminum alloy and magnesium alloy) are lap welded together using friction stir welding, brittle intermetallic compounds (e.g., Al12Mg17, Al3Mg2) are often formed, which severely degrades the strength of the weld. As a result, prior efforts to lap pieces of dissimilar materials have been relatively unsuccessful.

Process for friction stir welding dissimilar metals and workpiece assemblies formed thereby


An instrument calibration apparatus and a calibration method using same. The apparatus comprises a physical quantity input/output unit, a physical quantity measurement unit, a physical quantity configuration unit, a display unit, a man-machine interaction unit, a storage unit, and a control unit. The apparatus can be widely applied to automatic calibration of multivariable instruments.

To ensure the accuracy of instruments in actual applications at industrial sites, usually testing and calibration (abbreviated as "calibration") is required for the measured values or indicated values provided by the instruments. A basic method for testing and calibration is to directly compare the measured value or indicated value provided by the instrument with a standard value, so as to ascertain whether the measured value of the instrument is accurate, and then perform calibration as required.
Regarding instruments, there are mainly single-variable instruments and multi-variable meters in actual applications. A single-variable instrument means that the measured value of a single physical quantity is displayed directly on the instrument after the measured value of the physical quantity is connected to the instrument. However, there are often multiple varying physical quantities in a system, and all of them have influences on the system. In such a case, a multi-variable instrument has to be used for measurement.
For the calibration of such multi-variable instruments, two calibration methods, i.e., calibration by direct comparison and separate calibration of multiple variables, are both widely used presently.
The calibration by direct comparison is to simultaneously input multiple physical quantities to the tested instrument and a special calibration apparatus for calibration by comparison. After multiple physical quantities (pressure, temperature, electrical signal, and the like) are inputted to the tested instrument and the special calibration apparatus, the tested instrument and the special calibration apparatus use built-in calculation logics to process the physical quantities and provide final test results. For example, a flow calculator calculates flow information according to pressure (pressure difference), temperature, liquid density, and orifice diameter, and the like.
The traditional method of calibration by direct comparison can only use special-purpose calibration apparatuses in a field. For example, special-purpose flow calibration apparatuses have to be used in the flow field, special-purpose valve calibration apparatuses have to be used to test valve opening, and special-purpose methane concentration calibration apparatuses have to be used to test methane concentration. The user has to acquire and keep a special-purpose calibration apparatus for each type of equipment, which not only brings inconvenience to the user, but also causes increased cost to the user. In addition, multiple special-purpose calibration apparatuses are inconvenient to carry to a site together or can't be used in the field. Therefore, many instruments have to be calibrated in a laboratory.
The separate calibration of multiple variables is to simultaneously input multiple physical quantities to a tested instrument and a special calibration apparatus and then compare the inputted physical quantities between the tested instrument and the calibration apparatus for calibration. Since the tested instrument has to perform complex calculations of the inputted physical quantities to output final measurement results, it is unable to evaluate the overall error of the tested instrument by separate calibration of multiple variables (because different physical quantities have different weights in the calculations), though the error of each physical quantity can be evaluated by separate calibration of multiple variables; instead, an external computing system has to be used to evaluate the overall error of the tested instrument indirectly (manually). However, it is difficult for an external computing system to compute multiple variables accurately in real time, which introduces severe inconvenience to the calibration process.

Instrument calibration device and calibration method using same


A thermostatic valve for a diesel fuel system includes a valve housing and a valve element movable within the housing between a position directing heated diesel fuel returning from an engine to the inlet of a fuel pump and a position dumping the fuel into a reservoir where the fuel mixes with lower temperature fuel. A temperature responsive thermostatic element moves the valve element in response to the temperature of the diesel fuel. A temperature relief valve is provided in the housing to dump the returning fuel into the reservoir if the temperature reaches a temperature indicating overheating of the fuel. The temperature relief valve is a bi-metal valve mounted in an end wall of the valve housing.

The viscosity of diesel fuel is sensitive to the temperature of the diesel fuel, such that it is desirable that the fuel reaching the engine is neither overly cold nor overly hot. The prior art has disclosed various methods for achieving improved engine performance by managing the temperature of the diesel fuel supplied to the engine. In one modern solution, diesel fuel that is returning from the engine is routed directly to the fuel pump so that the benefit of heat transferred into the fuel within the engine compartment is retained. This is achieved by a thermostatic valve installed in the fuel return line. When the returning fuel is below a certain threshold temperature the fuel is directed directly to the fuel pump for immediate return to the engine. However, after the fuel temperature reaches an upper threshold, the thermostatic valve will dump the returning fuel into the fuel reservoir so that the heated fuel will become mixed with the larger volume of fuel held in the reservoir. In this way, the engine can be supplied with relatively warmer fuel during engine warm-up and yet the fuel will not be overheated to the detriment of engine performance.
It would be desirable to improve the afore described thermostatic valve to prevent the possibility of returning overly heated fuel to the engine by assuring that the overly heated fuel will be dumped in the reservoir.


A resilient cylindrical tubular container for spherical objects such as medicinal pills, includes a stopper with flexible fingers extending into the tube to restrain the objects from movement during shipment. An adsorbent desiccant cushion in the bottom of the tube cushions the objects and keeps them dry. Objects are dispensed by removing the cap, pressing the tube at a point below the number of objects desired, and then inverting the tube to pour out only that number.

This invention relates to a dispensing container for spherical objects, such as medicine in the form of spherical pills.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,768,636 was issued to me on Oct. 30, 1973. It discloses a resilient cylindrical tubular container for spherical pills. The pills are of a diameter slightly smaller than the tube so they can be poured from it. A stopper has flexible fingers extending into the tube to restrain the pills from movement during shipment. The pills are dispensed by removing the cap, pressing the tube at a point below the number of pills desired, and then inverting the tube to pour out only the desired pills. The compression of the tube forms a barrier against discharge of the remaining pills. The present invention is an improvement of that device described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,768,636. The specification of U.S. Pat. No. 3,768,636 is hereby incorporated by reference in this specification.

Cylindrical container and dispenser for spherical objects


Methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media for generation of a unified view of the graphical user interface. Implementations include actions of receiving, from a server, structured data of an interface template that is generated by the server by parsing interface template data associated with the interface template. The interface template is identified based on an interface identifier included in the service data. A virtual view node for the widget is determined based on the structured data. The widget is retrieved based on the location information associated with the virtual view node. A unified view of the graphical user interface is generated by rendering the widget with a plurality of widgets associated with the graphical user interface and is displayed on a display device.

An interface framework of a client application is usually written by native codes. The interface framework can remain unchanged after being set in advance based on service needs. The framework and style of each interface can be adapted to a corresponding service data structure. If the interface framework needs to be changed based on a change of service, or a new framework interface needs to be added to add new service data, the client application usually needs to be recompiled, re-downloaded, and re-installed. If a user does not update the client application, service data changes or additions cannot be presented to the user.

Generating a graphical user interface based on formatted structure data


A motor control system is provided. The motor control system includes a motor having plurality of motor harmonics, and a torque ripple compensation controller in communication with the motor. The torque ripple compensation controller is configured to determine a harmonic ripple current for a corresponding one of the plurality of motor harmonics. The harmonic ripple current is based on a reference q-axis current and a reference d-axis current. The torque ripple compensation controller is configured to add the harmonic ripple current for each of the plurality of motor harmonics together to determine the ripple compensating current.

The present invention relates to a control system for a motor, and more particularly to a control system for a motor that determines a ripple compensating current.
The output torque of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) (either a surface permanent magnet (SPM) or an interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor) may be determined by a voltage command and a phase advance angle. A specific output torque of the PMSM is determined by first selecting a specific quadrature axis (also referred to as the q-axis) reference current and a direct axis (also referred to as the d-axis) reference current, and then determining the voltage command and the phase advance angle based on the selected quadrature axis reference current and the direct axis reference current.
Interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSMs) are relatively inexpensive, but typically produce a relatively high torque ripple during operation Electric motors utilized in electric power steering (EPS) applications are generally required to produce relatively low torque ripple. Thus, the torque ripple produced by an IPMSM or an SPM may need to be reduced before being used in an EPS application.

Motor control system to compensate for torque ripple

Steering Solutions IP Holding Corporation


Provided herein are exogenous terminator sequences for use in fungi cell transcriptional termination.

Commonly used expression constructs and synthetic biology tools in fungi cells use native terminator sequences to end transcription. These native terminator sequences are lengthy, typically greater than 500-1000 base pairs in length. This length imposes additional transcription burden on the cell as well as foreclosing synthesis in a lab on large scale. Thus, there is a need in the art for short exogenous terminator sequences in fungi cells. Provided here are solutions to these and other problems in the art.

Exogenous terminators for controlling fungal gene expression

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System


The present invention is directed to a fluid tank for carrying hazardous materials such as a automobile gasoline tank which is non flammable and flame resistant. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a fluid tank_having an outer layer of a polyolefin containing a non halogen char forming additive to prevent flammability.

The present invention is directed to a non-flammable fluid tank, such as an automobile gasoline tank.
The industry has used metal gasoline tanks on automobiles for years. When using metal tanks, a metal tank is susceptible to bursting upon impact. In addition, once the tank is burst or penetrated, the exposure to gasoline spillage is cause for fire and/or explosion. Plastic tanks have been used in recent years but there has been a concern regarding plastic tanks in the event of fire to cause melting and exposure to the gasoline in the tank. The present invention is directed to a plastic tank which is not only non flammable but resistant to exposure of flames at high temperatures.
The protection of gasoline tanks by using a metal shield is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,069. The present invention in contrast provides the protection to fire as part of the fuel tank composition.
The manufacture of fuel tanks by blow molding plastics is shown in the following patents:
U.S. Pat No. 5,384,172 discloses a multi-layer plastic fuel tank. The multi-layer structure comprises an outer and inner high-density polyethylene layer, a central polyamide layer and an intermediate modified high-density polyethylene layer which bonds the adjacent high-density polyethylene layer to the central polyamide layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,781 discloses a multi-layer plastic fuel-tank. The multi-layer plastic tank comprises a gas barrier layer (a modified polyamide), an adhesive layer (a modified poyethylene and a high-density polyethylene layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,101 discloses a hollow molded article container and method for producing the same. The article container is a laminated structure comprising a layer of liquid crystal polyester resin and a layer of a thermoplastic resin, such as high-density polyethylene.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,158 discloses laminar articles of polyolefin and nylon/polyvinyl alcohol blends.
In each of the foregoing patents are multi-layer articles which may include an automobile gasoline tank and the method for producing such articles. However, no patent discloses the use of an additive package in the outer layer polyethylene which produces a flame resistant and non flammable tank.
The present invention is directed to a fluid tank for carrying hazardous materials such as a automobile gasoline tank which is non flammable and flame resistant. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a fluid tank_having an outer layer of a polyolefin containing a non halogen char forming additive to prevent flammability.


An optical sheet includes a base film in which light is incident from a lower side, a plurality of prism patterns and a diffusion member. The prism patterns are protruded to be spaced apart from each other on the base film to enhance the front luminance of light incident from the lower side of the base film. The diffusion member is disposed between prism patterns to have a diffusion surface in parallel with the base film. The diffusion member includes a plurality of diffusion dots capable of enhancing the luminance uniformity of light incident from the lower side of the base film. Thus, front luminance and luminance uniformity may be enhanced due to a juxtaposition of the prism patterns and the diffusion portion, and the viewing angle of the LCD device may be enhanced.

1. Field of the Invention
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to an optical sheet and a method of manufacturing the optical sheet. More particularly, example embodiments of the present invention relate to an optical sheet having enhanced optical characteristics and a method of manufacturing the optical sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel of an LCD device includes two substrates facing each other, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the substrates. The LCD panel controls the light transmittance of the liquid crystal layer to display an image.
LCD devices have characteristics such as thinness, light weight, low driving voltage and low power consumption compared to those of other display devices, and thus the LCD devices have been used in many industrial fields and have been widely used for portable computers, communication devices, television sets, etc. However, since the LCD panel of an LCD device is a non-light-emitting device that is not capable of emitting light on its own, a backlight assembly for supplying light to the LCD panel is required in the LCD device.
The backlight assembly includes a light source and an optical sheet enhancing optical characteristics of light generated by the light source. The optical sheet includes a prism sheet, a diffusion sheet, a light guide plate, etc.
When the optical sheet includes various optical sheets, optical characteristics of a backlight assembly may be enhanced. However, when the number of the optical sheets is increased, assembly properties may be decreased and manufacturing costs may be increased.
In addition, defects due to scratches may be generated in an area where the optical sheets contact each other.
In addition, the viewing angle of an LCD device may be limited due to the thickness of the liquid crystal layer.

Optical sheet having enhanced optical characteristics