A reflective liquid crystal display includes a linear polarizer for converting natural light into linearly polarized light; a retardation film for converting the linearly polarized light into circularly polarized light; a liquid crystal layer for varying the phase of the light differently depending on the presence or absence of an electric field; a cholesteric liquid crystal color filter for selectively reflecting light received from the liquid crystal layer; and a black background for absorbing light passing through the color filter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and more particularly to a reflective LCD device including a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) color filter.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, LCD devices are divided into reflective LCD devices and transmissive LCD devices. The transmissive LCD device uses an internal light source such as a back light, while the reflective LCD device uses ambient light.
Particularly, since the reflective LCD device uses ambient light, the brightness of the display depends on circumstances. In an office, the reflective LCD device is lower in brightness than the transmissive LCD device and, accordingly the color purity of an absorption-type color filter used in the LCD should be sacrificed to increase the brightness.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional reflective liquid crystal display.
As shown in FIG. 1, the liquid crystal panel includes a linear polarizer 26, a retardation film 24, a diffuser film 22, a first substrate 10, a color filter 20, a common electrode 18, a liquid crystal layer 16, a reflective electrode 14 and a second substrate, each are stacked in the above-described order.
The reflective electrode 14 reflects light transmitted from outside the display and also functions as a pixel electrode. The reflective electrode 14 and the common electrode 18 apply a voltage to the liquid crystal layer 16 and change the orientation of liquid crystal molecules. The diffuser film 22 reduces a surface reflection of light and increases a viewing angle. The retardation film 24 such as a λ/4 plate converts linearly polarized light into circularly polarized light. Further, the linear polarizer changes the natural light into linearly polarized light.
The reflective LCD device described above functions and acts as follows.
When natural light is incident into the LCD device, the natural light is converted into linearly polarized light by the linear polarizer 26, then converted into circularly polarized light by the retardation film 24. The circularly polarized light is converted into linearly polarized light while passing through the liquid crystal layer 16 and is reflected on the reflective electrode 14. The reflected polarized light is converted into circularly polarized light while passing through the liquid crystal layer again, then passes through the color filter to produce colored light.
The circularly polarized light is diffused to increase the viewing angle while passing through the diffuser film 22, then is converted again into linearly polarized light while passing through the retardation film 24. The linearly polarized light is displayed to the user after passing through the linear polarizer 26 in the form of images.
FIG. 2 shows the state of light while it passes through each of the components described above when an electric field is not applied to the liquid crystal layer.
The natural light is first converted into linearly polarized light through the linear polarizer 26. The linearly polarized light is changed into circularly polarized light through the retardation film 24. The circularly polarized light is converted again into linearly polarized light through the liquid crystal 16, then reflected by the reflective electrode 14. The reflected linearly polarized light is changed into circularly polarized light through the liquid crystal layer 16. The circularly polarized light is finally converted into linearly polarized light through the retardation film 24.
FIG. 3 shows the state of light while it passes through each of the components described above when an electric field is applied to the liquid crystal layer.
The natural light is first converted into linearly polarized light through the linear polarizer 26. The linearly polarized light is changed into circularly polarized light through the retardation film 24. The circularly polarized light is not changed when passing through the liquid crystal 16 as an electric field is applied to the liquid crystal 16, then reflected by the reflective electrode 14. The reflected circularly polarized light is not varied even when passing through the liquid crystal 16. The circularly polarized light is finally converted into linearly polarized light through the retardation film 24, then absorbed by the linear polarizer 26.
FIG. 4 is a graph illustrating the reflectivity of light with respect to the incident light of the LCD device described above. In FIG. 4, the X-axis indicates a wavelength λ, and the Y-axis indicates a reflectivity. Note that a dominant wavelength region is referred to as region A and other wavelengths are referred to as region B. As shown in the graph, though light's reflective index is relatively high in the region A, because light reflection is also carried out in the region B, the color purity of the LCD is reduced. It is required that the color purity is reduced in order to increase the transmissivity of the color filter, but just lowering the color purity to increase the brightness has a limitation.
Further, since the LCD having the configuration described above has a multi-layered structure in which each layer, i.e., each component differs from one another in reflective index, the intensity of the light is reduced while the light passes through each component. For example, the intensity of the light first is reduced while passing through the linear polarizer 26, and then also prominently is reduced after passing through the color filter 20, because part of the light is absorbed or reflected while passing through the color filter 20.
Further, though the observer can clearly see the image displayed due to a good contrast ratio in the center of the screen, the contrast ratio becomes lower as it gets far from the center of the screen, thereby deteriorating the display characteristic.


A method of managing a packet administration map for data packets to be received via a network. A receiver in the network monitors sequence numbers and stores missing sequence numbers within an internal data structure, called a packet administration map. A reversed keying is used which means that the upper limit of the range of contiguous missing data packets is used as the key entry in the administration map.

In the field of networking and reliable data transport, as for example in case of TCP, bursty packet drops occur during a data transmission. A bursty packet drop might occur due to a disturbance on the network or different packet run times due to different paths via the network. Especially in high speed networks like in 10 Gb Ethernet, the handling of lost and retransmitted packets can introduce a disproportionate decrease of the net data rate. In the field of, e.g., high speed video transmission, a user experiences visible disruption when bursty packet drops occur and the CPU is not fast enough to recover the sequential packets in time. Data packets sent via the network are identified by subsequently increasing sequence numbers so that it is possible for a receiver to determine, whether or not a packet is missing. In case the receiver successfully receives a packet, it sends to the sender an acknowledge message comprising the sequence number of that successfully received packet.
A reliable transport protocol usually retransmits a data packet that a receiver was not able to receive and thus was not acknowledged. In order to manage data packets that are retransmitted, a receiver in the network monitors sequence numbers and stores missing sequence numbers within an internal data structure, hereinafter called packet administration map. For performance reasons the received packets are usually subsequently stored in a receive buffer, sorted according to their sequence numbers. The packet administration map is used to map the retransmitted packets by means of the sequence number to corresponding receive buffer addresses. When a missing packet arrives at the receiver, the receiver needs to update the packet administration map in order to track the progress of the data reception. This map administration overhead needs to be carried out more often when there are numerous transmission errors, that is, when the retransmission rate increases. Depending on the used transport protocol, the overall sending data rate can also be increased, which in total could consume a significant amount of processing power.
In the document WO 01/76189 A2 a data sequencing algorithm using several timers is disclosed.
In the document US 2007/0053303 A1 a means of measuring or estimating the subjective or perceptual quality of decoded audio, voice or video data received over a network is described.

Method of managing a packet administration map


Ultrasound for use in chemical reactions is generated by an electromagnet formed from an ultrasound transducer whose central feature is a loop of magnetostrictive material wound with coils oriented to produce an oscillating magnetostrictive force when an oscillating voltage is applied. The oscillations in the transducer loop are transmitted to an ultrasonic horn that is immersed in a reaction medium where the ultrasonic vibrations are transmitted directly to the reaction mixture.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention resides in the field of process equipment used in the treatment of materials in liquid media by ultrasound.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of ultrasound for driving chemical reactions is well known. Examples of publications that describe chemical uses of ultrasound are Suslick, K. S., Science, vol. 247, p. 1439 (1990), and Mason, T. J., Practical Sonochemistry, A User's Guide to Applications in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ellis Norwood Publishers, West Sussex, England (1991). Of the various sonicating systems that have been developed, those known as "probe"-type systems include an ultrasonic transducer that generates ultrasonic energy and transmits that energy to an ultrasonic horn for amplification.
Ultrasound generators are generally of limited energy output due to the power needed to drive the vibrations and the heat generated by ultrasonic transducers. Because of these limitations, the use of ultrasound for large-scale chemical processes has met with limited success. One means of achieving ultrasonic vibrations at a relatively high power is by the use of magnetostriction-driven ultrasound transducers, but frequencies attainable by magnetostriction drives are still only moderate in magnitude. Disclosures of the magnetostriction ultrasound transducers and their use in chemical reactions appear in Ruhman, A. A., et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,545,060 B1 (issued Apr. 8, 2003), and its PCT counterpart WO 98/22277 (published May 28, 1998), as well as Yamazaki, N., et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,733 (issued Jan. 23, 1996), Kuhn, M. C., et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,467 (issued Dec. 3, 1985), Blomqvist, P., et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,498 (issued Nov. 1, 1994), and Sawyer, H. T., U.S. Pat. No. 4,168,295 (issued Sep. 18, 1979). The Ruhman et al. patent discloses a magnetostriction transducer that produces ultrasonic vibrations in a continuous-flow reactor in which the vibrations are oriented radially relative to the direction of flow and the frequency range is limited to a maximum of 30 kHz. The Yamazaki et al. patent discloses a small-scale ultrasonic horn operating at relatively low power, in which magnetostriction is listed as one of a group of possible vibration-generating sources together with piezoelectric elements and electrostrictive strain elements. The Kuhn et al. patent discloses a continuous-flow processor that includes a multitude of ultrasonic horns and generators supplying frequencies less than 100 kHz. The Blomqvist et al. patent discloses an ultrasonic generator utilizing a magnetostrictive powder composite operating at a resonance frequency of 23.5 kHz. The Sawyer et al. patent discloses a flow-through reaction tube with three sets of ultrasonic transducers, each set containing four transducers and delivers ultrasound at a frequency of 20 to 40 kHz. These systems are suitable for high-throughput reactions where a high reaction yield is required.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Loop-shaped ultrasound generator and use in reaction systems


An image sensor includes a pixel array of pixels arranged in one or more rows and one or more columns, the pixel array configured to generate an image based on light being incident on one or more pixels of the pixel array. The image sensor includes pixel load circuitry connected to one column of pixels and including transistors serially connected to each other. The image sensor includes switches connected in parallel to separate, respective nodes between adjacent transistors. The image sensor includes image sensor processing circuitry configured to receive, from image processor circuitry, gain information indicating an intensity of light concurrently with an image being generated by the image sensor, and control at least one switch of the plurality of switches to be turned on/off to change an electrical path of a current that passes through the pixel load circuitry, based on the gain information.

The inventive concepts relate to image sensors, and more particularly, to image sensors that fluidly adjust transconductance of a pixel load, and methods of operating the image sensors.
Image sensors can include a pixel array including a plurality of pixels, each pixel including an optoelectronic conversion device (for example, a photodiode). The pixel array can output ("generate") an electrical signal based on using electrons being generated according to the intensity of sensed light that is incident on the pixel array. To form a single image, respective electrical signals generated by the plurality of pixels may be generated and collected.
Electrons generated by an optoelectronic conversion device may obtain ("generate") thermal energy according to an ambient temperature, and kinetic energy of the electrons may increase. Electrons that randomly vibrate according to the increased kinetic energy may cause thermal noise in an image sensor that includes the optoelectronic device.

Image sensors and methods of operating the same


A data acquisition system such as a digital oscilloscope includes a central processing unit which controls the waveform memory, analog to digital converter, trigger generator, and display to automatically adjust the acquisition parameters to optimal values for a particular repetitive waveform received by the data acquisition system. The system initially optimizes the acquisition parameters for determining the length of the input waveform and then determines the input waveform length. Parameters are then determined for best frequency analysis of the input waveform, and the waveform is then frequency analyzed to determine its spectral content. Based on this information, the acquisition parameters are adjusted such that the sampling rate is sufficient to avoid aliasing of the highest significant frequency components of the input waveform while accommodating all or substantially all of the waveform within the memory capacity of the waveform memory, and the voltage range of the analog to digital converter is set so that the range of the input signal will substantially match the input range of the converter.

Many prior art data acquisition devices, such as digital storage oscilloscopes, require that their acquisition parameters be adjusted. Their acquisition parameters, including trigger level, voltage range, number of points (record length), sampling rate, and the pre-trigger amount, have optimal values for the equipment being used and the waveform or input signal being acquired. For example, the voltage range used to acquire an input signal should be greater than the magnitude range which the input signal spans to acquire the entire signal without clipping of the maximum and/or minimum data points. However, increasing the voltage range decreases the resolution in most systems. Therefore, the optimal voltage range is the smallest range that does not clip the input signal.
Optimal values for other parameters must be determined together. For example, the sampling rate and record length should be selected together such that the sampling rate is as fast as necessary to prevent aliasing, but slow enough to record the entire waveform for the selected record length.
Many prior art data acquisition systems require that the acquisition parameters be manually adjusted. This requires either advance knowledge of the input waveform before acquisition begins or the ability to adjust the acquisition parameters in response to data acquired. For example, if a periodic waveform is being acquired, the user may set the acquisition parameters to initial values, acquire data, adjust the acquisition parameters, to acquire data, etc., until the user is satisfied that the acquisition parameters are optimal for the waveform being acquired. This manual process may be slow, inaccurate and difficult to perform properly.
Other prior instruments include autosetting features wherein a microprocessor within the oscilloscope analyzes data acquired and adjusts its acquisition parameters accordingly. However, prior oscilloscopes which automatically adjust their acquisition parameters generally are not able to adjust them rapidly enough that data may be acquired both accurately and without significant delay. Accordingly, the need exists for an data acquisition system which quickly and accurately adjusts its acquisition parameters.

Method and apparatus for adjustment of acquisition parameters in a data acquisition system such as a digital oscilloscope


An apparatus for a variable depth triangulation ranging system, the ranging system including means for emitting a light beam, means for focusing an emitted light beam on an object, and lens means for imaging reflected light onto an input end of said apparatus. The present apparatus includes an optical fiber bundle, the bundle including an input end and an output end, the bundle input end being disposed so as to intercept transmissions from said lens means, means for scanning, in a time-based manner, the bundle output end, the scanning means being configured to generate a time-based signal indicative of a light signals present at the bundle ouput end, and means for calculating system geometry and range from the time-based signal.

Range from a reference point or plane to a given target point can be measured in a variety of ways. Passive techniques, such as stereo or range-from-focus, require illuminated target surfaces and typically require complexly patterned surfaces for reliable results. Active echoing techniques, such as RADAR, SONAR and LIDAR employ emitted electromagnetic, acoustic, and light energy, and monitor the reflected energy from the target surface. These techniques use a time-of-flight measurement as a basis for determining range and are typically expensive and complex.
In machine vision research and application, a different active technique called structured illumination has been employed. A ray of light is directed to the target surface along a direction which is not coaxial with the optic axis of the one or two dimensional sensing device. The intersection of the ray and target surface produces a spot of light which is imaged on the sensing plane of the imaging device. The 3-D position of this spot in space may be calculated from the known position and orientation of the imaging device from basic trigonometric relations. This structured illumination technique is called triangulation.
FIGS. 1a and 1b illustrate simple laser triangulation devices. With the geometry illustrated in FIGS. 1a and 1b, including a laser 10, a lens 11, a detector 12 and an object 13, a reflected spot is imaged higher on the detector 12 as the target surface moves farther from the imaging lens. In most devices using this geometry, however, the reflected spot is in focus for only one target distance and is blurred in varying degrees for all other distances in the depth of field as shown in FIGS. 2a and 2b. Blurring reduces the sensitivity of the device and effectively reduces the depth of field, i.e., the range over which a system can provide satisfactory definition.
Three of the basic performance measures of a ranging system are standoff distance, depth of field, and range resolution. The standoff distance is the nominal range of the device and is typically arbitrarily chosen as the near point, mid point or far point in the depth of field. The resolution is the smallest change in range values the system can discriminate and typically varies over the depth of field. Triangulation devices are engineered for a certain standoff distance, depth of field, and range resolution. That is, the geometry of a device is chosen based on the application, and desired changes in performance require changing imaging optics. In certain applications, such as imaging in remote areas, such inflexibility is unacceptable.
A first problem to be solved, therefore, is to provide blur-free imaging on a detector so that all reflected target returns are in focus. A second problem to be overcome is to construct a sensor that is reconfigurable in the sense that standoff distance, depth of field, and/or range resolution can be varied under eletronic control without requiring the replacement of components.
It is well known in the photographic industry that tilting the camera at the moment of exposure leads to an effect called keystoning, in which parallel lines in the subject appear as converging lines in the result. This can be rectified during printing by tilting the enlarger easel by the same angle by which the camera was tilted. To achieve sharp imagery throughout the result, the enlarger lens must also be tilted slightly so that the planes of the lens, easel, and negative all meet at a common location, in accordance with what is known as the Scheimpflug condition in optics. The Scheimpflug condition can also be interpreted in an alternative way: a line on the object side of the lens is imaged to a line on the image side of the lens, and the two lines intersect with the line representing the plane of the lens, as shown in FIG. 3a. If the ray of light for the system is directed along some line on the object side of the lens, then the detector should be disposed along the Scheimpflug condition--predicted line on the image side to facilitate blur-free imaging of reflected target returns as shown in FIG. 3b.
The three system parameters--standoff distance, depth of field, and range resolution--can be calculated if the geometry of the triangulation ranging system is known as well as information about the imaging lens and detector. Conversely, any two of these three performance measures may be selected and the system geometry can be determined given a specific imaging lens and detector. Providing the mechanical degrees of freedom in such a sensor results in a reconfigurable system capable of a wide range of performance measures without requiring the replacement of the physical components.
A variable depth triangulation ranging system is described in allowed and copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/345,750, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,017 Variable Depth Range Camera, which is assigned to the present assignee. The ranging system includes a light beam emitting component to generate and direct a light ray towards an object, a photodetector component capable of measuring distance along a single axis, i.e. a linear photodetector, and an imaging lens component for imaging light reflected off the object onto the detector. An image line is defined that extends longitudinally through the photodetector, and a plane axis that passes through the lens component. One of the three system components is at a fixed location, and means are provided for adjustably positioning the other two components such that the light beam, plane axis and image line all intersect approximately at a common point and satisfy the Scheimpflug condition. The two movable components are reconfigurable whereby the values of any two performance parameters selected from the group consisting of standoff distance, depth of field, and range resolution at a point within the depth of field may be chosen and the system geometry changed to achieve those values. The system includes means to calculate system geometry and range from received detector signals. A scanner may be provided to scan the light beam along a line or over an area. The light source may be a laser and the photodetector may be a lateral effect photodiode, linear array sensor or position sensitive photomultiplier.
In the above-described system, it has been found that it is preferred that the light beam be focused into a small spot on the target. This facilitates improving the resolution and accuracy with which the receiving optics can collect reflected light from the target and focus it onto a detector. Maintaining a small spot on the target as as the target is scanned requires real-time, dynamic control of laser spot size.
Also, in order to facilitate high resolution, it is preferred that the detector be long with a large number of effective elements. The resolution and accuracy of the detector improves performance of the overall system.
Moreover, as discussed above, the position of the lens relative to the detector may have to be adjusted to obtain a satisfactory resolution. For some lens focal lengths, however, a required lens-to-detector distance is not suitable. For example, the lens-to-detector distance may be more than ten feet for some applications.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a highly sensitive, large dynamic range detector having a large number of effective elements, and to further provide means for scanning the detector to obtain electrical signals representative of range data.

Optical fiber based sensor for a variable depth range camera


A speed control and stall protection system 10 for an electric DC brush motor includes a DC brush motor M. At least one relay K3 is connected between the motor and a power supply. A speed sensing circuit 20 is constructed and arranged to generate a signal indicative of a speed of the motor. A motor control and protection circuit 116 is constructed and arranged to receive 1) the signal from the speed sensing circuit and 2) a control signal input for operating the at least one relay to control operation of the motor. When a stall condition is determined based on the signal from the speed sensing circuit, the motor control and protection circuit is constructed and arranged to control the at least one relay to disconnect power to the motor.

A widely used method for implementing a dual speed control for automotive applications using permanent magnet (PM), direct current (DC), brush motors is shown in FIG. 1. The relays K1 and K2 are included in the vehicle electrical system. K1 is used to connect the motor M to the power supply via the serial resistor Rs, for low speed operation. K2 is used to connect the motor directly to the power supply, for high-speed operation. Both relays are fully controlled by the vehicle computer. However, the system of FIG. 1 does not provide stall protection for the motor.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide speed control combined with a stall protection feature, wherein existing relays are employed for both features.

System and method for speed control and stall protection combination for electric motors such as in engine cooling applications


An inflatable picnic table which includes an integrally formed pedestal, tabletop and bench, all of which are inflatable, so that the picnic table may be stored in a deflated condition, taken to a picnic area, and inflated to provide a temporary and portable picnic table including a tabletop and bench.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an inflatable picnic table and more particularly to an inflatable picnic table which includes a tabletop supported upon a pedestal which is surrounded by a bench.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many times families travel to parks or picnic areas for picnic or gathering purposes. Frequently, the number of people at the park or picnic area vastly exceeds the number of picnic tables available to the public. The only solution to such a problem is to spread a blanket or the like on the ground, but the same is totally inadequate inasmuch as it does not provide a tabletop or a seating area.


An electric meter that is configured to regenerate meter state data after a power loss includes a memory with at least one volatile and non-volatile memory device and a processor connected to the memory. The processor is configured to retrieve a backup copy of meter state data and a plurality of meter input data samples that were generated after the backup copy of the meter state data and prior to the power loss from a non-volatile memory device. The processor is configured to regenerate meter state data by updating the backup copy of meter state data with the plurality of meter input data samples to regenerate the meter state data at the time of a final meter input data sample prior to the power loss.

Electricity meters are devices that measure and/or meter aspects of energy provided to a load. The load may be a residence, business, or even part of a larger electricity distribution system. Commonly available meters include electromechanical meters and electronic meters. Electromechanical meters employ a rotating disk that rotates in response to electric and magnetic fields induced by the electricity passing to the load. As is known in the art, the disk rotation speed is a function of the amount of electricity delivered to the load. Mechanical counters accumulate the number of disk rotations, which is indicative of energy consumed by the load. In some cases, an electromechanical meter can employ processing circuitry to perform additional operations with the consumption information provided by the rotating disk.
Electronic meters typically employ processing circuitry instead of the rotating disk and mechanical counters. In such meters, sensors within the meter detect the voltage and current that is delivered to the load. Circuitry within the meter converts the sensed voltage and current into digital values. Processing circuitry then employs digital signal processing to calculate consumed energy, among other things, from the digital values. Electronic meters provide greater flexibility in the types of energy consumption information that they may calculate, track, and store.
An electric meter that measures the electrical power flow through a power line typically uses a small portion of the electric power that flows through the line to provide electrical power to the circuits, processors, and other components within the electric meter itself. Of course, in some situations the flow of electricity to the electric meter is interrupted due to a power outage. Some simple electric meters, such as electromechanical disk meters, cease operation when the electric power supply is interrupted and resume operation upon restoration of electric power. However, more sophisticated electric meters generate measurements and billing data based on measurements of the electrical power over longer periods of time, and a loss of electrical power means that the electric meter loses a significant amount of data. More sophisticated prior art electric meters use a form of uninterruptable power supply (UPS) with an independent energy store such as a battery or large capacitors (sometimes referred to as "supercapacitors") that enables the electric meter to either maintain operation during a short interruption in electrical power through the power line or, in the case of longer interruptions, to transmit information stored in the memory of the electric meter to an external monitoring system prior to exhaustion of the energy store in the UPS.
While prior-art UPS implementations reduce the likelihood of data loss in an electric meter due to unexpected losses of electrical power, these devices add to the cost and complexity of the electric meter while simultaneously increasing the electrical energy consumption of the electric meter and potentially reducing the reliability of the electric meter. In some situations, the potential for a failure of the battery or other component in the UPS can actually increase the likelihood that the electric meter will experience a failure and be unable to monitor an electric line, which is actually counterproductive since the underlying reason to include the UPS is to improve the reliability of the electric meter. Consequently, improvements to electric meters that mitigate the effects of power loss without requiring prior-art UPS implementations would be beneficial.

Device and method for data preservation and power loss recovery in an electric meter


The present invention provides A PPARγ activator comprising a butenolide compound represented by the formula (1) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof:

Fragrance vinegars (aromatic vinegars) are fermented foods that are typically produced by the fermentation of glutinous rice followed by aging for a long period, and have been used as vinegar seasonings in China from a long time ago. The fragrance vinegars have also become increasingly popular in Japan in recent years as health foods that help maintain or promote health, because of their higher contents of organic compounds such as amino acids than those of rice vinegars, which are vinegars generally used in Japan.
For example, the present inventors disclose, in Patent Literature 1, a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α activator and a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ activator each containing a lower alkanol extract of fragrance vinegar as an active ingredient. This literature states that the lower alkanol extract of a fragrance vinegar exhibits the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) α-activating effect of improving sugar metabolism by participating in the stimulation of fatty acid oxidation and mediating effects on serum lipids as well as the PPARγ-activating effect of bringing about, for example, decreases in blood glucose level and lipids in blood by participating in the differentiation of fat cells.

Abstract: wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom, a phosphate group, a fatty acid group, an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms and optionally having a substituent or a sugar residue optionally having a substituent, and R2 represents a phenyl group, a methylphenyl group, a dimethylphenyl group, an ethylphenyl group, a benzyl group, a methylbenzyl group, a dimethylbenzyl group, an ethylbenzyl group, a phenethyl group, a methylphenethyl group, a dimethylphenethyl group, or an ethylphenethyl group.


A file system is distributed over a plurality of computers connected to each other by a network. The plurality of computers execute user programs, and the user programs access files stored on a plurality of physical disks connected to the plurality of computers. The file system includes a plurality of file servers executing on the plurality of computers as a single distributed file server layer. In addition, the file system includes a plurality of disk servers executing on the plurality of computers as a single distributed disk server layer, and a plurality of lock servers executing on the plurality of computers as a single distributed lock server to coordinate the operation of the distributed file and disk server layers so that the user programs can coherently access the files on the plurality of physical disks. The plurality of file servers executes independently on a different one of the plurality of computers, and the plurality of file servers communicate only with plurality of disk servers and the plurality of lock servers, and not with each other. Furthermore, the disk server layer organizes the plurality of physical disks as a single virtual disk having a single address space for the files.

In modern computer systems, large collections of data are usually organized on disk storage as files. If the number of files is large, then the files may be distributed over multiple computer systems. Users'programs access the files by requesting file services from one or more file systems. The file systems also perform administrative actions such as controlling coherent access by the clients, communicating with physical storage components, maintaining redundant copies, and recovering from failure.
In most file systems, the files comprise user data and metadata. The metadata are all information required to manage the user data, such as names, locations, dates, file sizes, access protection, and so forth. The organization of the user data is usually managed by the client programs.
It is laborious to administer a large distributed file system that serves a large and growing user community. For instance, to store more files, and to serve more users, one must add more disks and more server computers. Each of these components requires human attention. To simplify the distribution of files, groups of files or "volumes" are often manually assigned to particular disks. Then, the files can manually be moved or replicated when components fill up, fail, or become throughput bound.
Joining many thousands of files distributed over many disks into a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) is only a partial solution; administration problems still arise when the system grows so large to require multiple RAIDs, and multiple server processors.
In the prior art, there are have been numerous attempts to construct distributed file systems that are scalable. Scalable in this context means that the file system can be adjusted to any desired size without changing the underlying architecture of the system. Some of these prior art file systems are now described to illustrate the need for a better scalable file system.
The Cambridge File Server (CFS), described by Birrell et al. in "A universal file server," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, SE-6(5):450-453, September 1980, takes a two-layered approach to building a distributed file system. There, the layers provide the users with two abstractions: files and indexes. File systems built on the two layers can use these abstractions to implement a distributed file system. As a characteristic, the CFS manages the entire distributed file system from a single server computer. Controlling data flow from a single server is simple, but in situations where a single server cannot handle the task, the CFS falls short. Also, a single server based system is vulnerable to failure.
The Network File System (NFS), as described by Sandberg et al. in "Design and implementation of the Sun network file system," Proceedings of the Summer USENIX Conference}, pages 119-130, June 1985, is not a file system in itself, but rather a remote file access protocol. The NFS protocol provides a weak notion of cache coherence, and its stateless design requires client users to make many unnecessary and frequent accesses to the servers to maintain a marginal level of coherence in the data.
The Andrew File System (AFS), described by Howard et al. in "Scale and performance in a distributed file system," ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 6(1):51-81, February 1988, and its offshoot DCE/DFS as described by Kazar et el., in "DEcorum file system architectural overview," Proceedings of the Summer USENIX Conference, pp. 151-164, June, 1990, provides better cache performance and data coherence than NFS. AFS is designed for a different kind of scalability than will be described herein. The AFS has a global name space and security architecture that allows client computers to connect to many separate file servers using a wide area network.
The Echo file system described by Mann et al in "A coherent distributed file cache with directory write-behind," ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 12(2):123-164, May 1994, is log-based. The Echo file system replicates data for reliability, and access paths are allowed to span multiple disks for availability. In addition, the Echo file system provides coherent caching.
However, the Echo file system cannot easily be scaled. There, each volume can only be managed by a single server computer. Failover, in the case of a hardware failure, can only be to a predetermined backup server. A volume can only span as many disks as can be connected to a single server. Although there is an internal layering of file services on top of a disk service, the Echo file system requires both layers to execute in the same address space on the same machine.
The VMS Cluster file system, described by Strecker et al. in "VAXclusters: A closely-coupled distributed system," ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 4(2):130-146, May 1986, off-loads file system processing to individual servers that are members of a cluster, i.e., a plurality of closely-coupled computers.
Each server in the cluster executes its own instance of the file system program in conjunction with a shared physical disk. Synchronization is provided by a distributed lock service. The shared physical disk is accessed either through a special-purpose cluster interconnect (CI) to which a disk controller can be directly connected, or through an ordinary local area network (LAN) such as Ethernet, and a processor acting as a disk server.
The Spiralog file system described by Johnson et al. in "Overview of the Spiralog file system," Digital Technical Journal, 8(2):5-14, 1996, also off-loads processing of its file system to individual members of a cluster of interconnected servers that run above a shared storage system layer.
The interface between layers in the Spiralog file system differs from the VMS cluster file system because the lower layer is neither file-like, nor simply disk-like. Instead, Spiralog provides an array of stably-stored bytes, and permits atomic actions to update arbitrarily scattered sets of bytes within the array. Spiralog's split between layers simplifies the file system, but complicates the storage system considerably. Spiralog does not scale easily, nor does Spirolog tolerate hardware faults readily. A Spirolog volume can only span the disks connected to a single server, and the volume becomes unavailable when the server suffers a failure.
Though designed as a cluster file system, Calypso, described by Devarakonda et al. in "Recovery in the Calypso file system," ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 14(3):287-310, August 1996, is more similar to Echo than the VMS cluster file system. Like Echo, Calypso stores its files on multi-ported disks, i.e., disks that can be accessed by multiple servers. One of the servers directly connected to each disk acts as a file server for data stored on that disk; when the server fails, another server takes over. Other servers in a Calypso cluster access the current server as file system clients. Like Echo, the client computers can maintain coherent caches using a multiple-reader/single-writer locking protocol.
Shillner et al., in a "Simplifying distributed file systems using a shared logical disk," Technical Report TR-524-96, Dept. of Computer Science, Princeton University, 1996, describe a distributed file system on top of a shared logical disk. There, a lower layer uses multiple servers cooperating to implement a single logical disk. In an upper layer, multiple independent servers execute the same file system code on top of the logical disk to provide access to shared files. However, the logical disk layer does not provide redundancy. The system can recover from a failure in a local server, but dynamic reconfiguration of other failed servers is not possible.
Their file system uses careful ordering of operations that write file metadata, but the writes are not logged. Their technique avoids the need for a full metadata scan to restore consistency after a server failure. Unfortunately the shared logical disk can lose track of free blocks after a server failure. This necessitates a time consuming garbage collection process to locate the free blocks.
The xFS file system, described by Anderson et al. in "Serverless network file systems," ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 14(1):41-79, February 1996, distributes management responsibility for files over multiple servers and provides good availability and performance. However, xFS has a predesignated manager for each file, and the storage server is log-structured working independent of other servers. File system recovery and reconfiguration is not addressed.
An ideal distributed file system would provide all of its users with shared access to the same set of files. Access would be controlled in a coherent and transparent manner so that any users's view of any file at any one time is consistent with any other user's view. In addition, the distributed file system needs to be scalable to any arbitrary size to provide more storage space and higher performance as the need for data by an ever increasing number of users increases. The users would also like to have uninterrupted access to the data of the files, so high availability is a necessity, despite the fact that it is well known that hardware components can unpredictably fail at any time. In order to keep maintenance costs down, the distributed file system should require a minimal amount of human administration, and the complexity of the administration should not increase as more hardware components or users are added.


A method and system are provided. The method includes receiving, by a GNSS receiver, a GNSS signal, rotating, by a carrier rotator, samples of the GNSS signal with carrier phase inputs, inverting, by a chip matched filter (CMF), the rotated samples, and generating, by the CMF, an output based on the inverted samples.

A GNSS receiver receives and processes signals from a GNSS satellite constellation to determine a location/position of the receiver. A GNSS receiver typically focusses on bi-phased shift keying (BPSK) modulated signals. Satellite signals are recovered and sampled at 8fx sampling rate.
Due to the emergence of GNSS such as Galileo, Beidou, and Glonass, in addition to the global positioning system (GPS), efficient and spectrally relevant signals are desired. For example, Galileo and GPS will share two central frequencies and will both send several signals on common carriers. This means that other signal modulations may be required to minimize inter-system and intra-system interference. For example, a binary offset carrier (BOC) modulation scheme provides a split spectrum that spectrally isolates the signal from the BPSK modulation. Thus, it is desirable to receive both the existing L1 signals and the new signals to enhance overall system performance. Various types of BOC signals are introduced for GPS L1C, Beidou B1C, Galileo and Glonass code division multiple access (CDMA) navigation systems.

System and method for providing a unified global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver


The present invention provides a computer method and apparatus for detecting mutations in DNA fragments. Specifically, percent acetonitrile and threshold temperature, for use in the denaturing high performance liquid chromatography method of separating DNA fragments, are determined. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention serves as a preprocessor to the DHPLC system described in the cited art.

Detection of a mutation in a DNA fragment is important for many reasons, for example determining the existence of disease, malfunction or abnormality in an animal or human organism. By way of background, DeoxyriboNucleicAcid (DNA) is the chemical inside the nucleus of a cell that carries the genetic instructions, or code, for making living organisms.
DNA comprises two long, molecular strands lying side by side in a double spiral referred to as a double helix. The double helix structural arrangement of DNA looks something like a long ladder twisted into a coil. The sides of the "ladder" are formed by sugar and phosphate molecules, and the "rungs" are made of a large number of chemical building-blocks called bases, with a pair of bases forming the rung. The bases are referred to by the code letters A, T, G and C which stand for the chemicals adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, respectively. At each end of a rung are complementary bases (i.e. the "base pair") which form the bond between the two strands forming the DNA. In base pairing, adenine (A) always pairs with thymine (T), and guanine (G) always pairs with cytosine (C). That is, if on one side of the ladder rung there is an A, the base on the other side of the ladder rung is a T, and if one end of the rung is a G, the opposite end is a C. As a result, the two strands of the DNA structure are inverted copies of each other.
Although there are only four different kinds of bases, the order in which they appear along the strand of DNA dictate the genetic code of an organism. A DNA strand can therefore be referred to by its unique sequence of letters commonly called a DNA sequence. The effort of determining the exact order of the base pairs in a segment of DNA is referred to as DNA sequencing.
The strength of the bond between the two strands of the DNA structure is subject to several factors. One factor is the length of the DNA fragment. Longer fragments possess a stronger bond between the strands than shorter fragments. In addition, the specific sequence order of the fragment has an effect on the strength of the bond. That is, a strand sequence of GGGAAATTT has a different bond strength than a strand sequence of GATGATGAT. A third factor in bond strength is the actual bond pair itself. Bonds formed between Gs and Cs are stronger than bonds formed between As and Ts
A mutation is a permanent structural alteration in DNA. These mutations in some cases may have no effect on the organism however, in some instances they may cause disease, malfunction or abnormality in the organism. Accordingly, it is beneficial to identify such mutations as well as to determine whether an identified mutation exists in a particular individual.
A method for determining the existence of a mutation has evolved where a DNA fragment is exposed, for a period of time, to a threshold temperature, specific to that DNA fragment, which forces the two strands of the DNA apart, breaking the bond between the base pairs. The percent of the strand pair which is split apart at different moments in time, is referred to as the percent melted (or fraction single stranded).
A copy of a "good" (mutation-free) DNA fragment is typically made using a process called polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This "good" DNA fragment is separated and each strand is annealed with a strand from a DNA fragment which includes a mutation, the strands of which have also been separated. As mentioned above, the two strands of a DNA structure should be inverted copies of each other. When the series of bases on one copy of the DNA fragment do not match the series of bases on the other copy of the pair, a "mutation" is said to exist. Where a mutation in the DNA structure exists, the bond between the two strands is weakened. In the instance where a mutation exists within a strand, the percent melted at a specific period of time will differ from that if the strand had no mutations. A number of analytic separation methods can be used to detect differences in double stranded character of DNA.
The threshold temperature for analyzing a given DNA fragment for mutations is dependent on the length of the fragment as well as the specific fragment sequence. As described above, the length, base pairing and sequence order of the DNA fragment are each determinative of the strength of the bond and are, therefore, factors in determining the amount of heat required to separate the strands of the DNA fragment.
Historically, more is known about the separation of DNA fragments than is known about specific mutations. The separation of DNA fragments using chromatographic techniques has been studied and reported on by Peter Oefner and colleagues. See "High Resolution Liquid Chromatography of DNA Fragments on Non-Porous Poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) Particles", Nucleic Acids Research, Volume 21, No. 5, pages 1061-1066 (1993). In U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,236 to Bonn et al., an improved chromatographic technique for separating nucleic acids is disclosed. More recently, Oefner disclosed the exploitation of the chromatographic separation technique for mutation detection in a "DHPLC Workshop" at Stanford University, California, Mar. 17, 1997. By that time, the chromatographic technique was referred to and known as DHPLC (Denaturing High Performance Liquid Chromatography). A specific example of the DHPLC technique for detection of Y chromosomes in biallelic polymorphisms is given by Peter A. Underhill et al., "Detection of Numerous Y Chromosomes Biallelic Polymorphisms by Denaturing High Performance Liquid Chromatography", Genome Research 7:996-1005 (1997). Also see, Oefner, P. J. and Underhill, P. A. U.S. Pat. application, Ser. No. 08/512,681, "Detection of DNA Heteroduplex Molecules by Denaturing High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Methods for Comparative Sequencing", filed on Aug. 8th, 1995.
Briefly summarizing the DHPLC method for separating DNA strands, a straw-like apparatus, referred to as a separation column, is adjusted to a specific concentration of acetonitrile solution and a specific temperature. A DNA fragment is prepared from a given individual, typically using PCR which provides multiple copies of a piece of DNA. The DNA fragments are injected onto the column and adhere. The concentration of the acetonitrile solution is gradually increased and the elution rate of the DNA fragments is monitored. Typically, the process is repeated for the same fragment from multiple individuals and the patterns of elution of the DNA fragments over time are compared. For those individuals whose DNA includes a mutation, a lower concentration of acetonitrile will cause an amount of the DNA to strip from the column than for those individuals whose DNA samples do not include a mutation.
Accordingly, in the various foregoing disclosures of the DHPLC technique, there are two conditions which must be specified by the user in order to analyze any specific DNA fragment: (1) temperature and (2) percent acetonitrile, which is the solution used by the chromatography column. In the current publications, the key or threshold operating temperature used for the chromatography columns is assumed as a given value or, at most, described as being empirically determined. That is, multiple DNA test fragments are studied under a range of operating temperatures. After much experimentation, a viable temperature is determined. See page 1003, right hand column of Underhill, et al. Such empirical determination is often inexact, time consuming and laborious.

Computer method and apparatus for analyzing mutations in DNA

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research


A suspension system is provided for a vehicle having a chassis supported on at least one front pair of laterally spaced wheels and at least one rear pair of laterally spaced wheels. The suspension system includes vehicle support devices for supporting the chassis above each pair of wheels, and roll moment reaction devices for providing location of the chassis about a substantially level roll attitude. The roll moment reaction devices include a respective roll attitude control mechanism for each pair of laterally spaced wheels for passively controlling the position of the wheels relative to each other and the chassis. Each roll attitude control mechanism is connected to at least one other roll attitude control mechanism by roll mechanism interconnection devices. The roll mechanism interconnection devices are arranged such that the roll moment reaction devices resist roll of the vehicle chassis with respect to the wheels, while simultaneously permitting cross-axle articulation motions of the wheels. The vehicle support devices for at least one pair of wheels include at least a first support for supporting at least a portion of the load on the vehicle support devices. The first support provides substantially zero roll stiffness of the vehicle. The roll moment reaction devices are separate devices from the vehicle support devices, thereby providing substantially zero load carrying capacity.

The objectives of many suspension systems are to provide a high level of roll control, independent of the pitch and four wheel bounce stiffness rates, and also to provide control over the attitude of the body whilst providing a minimal stiffness to cross-axle articulation motions as the vehicle traverses rough terrain. These systems are especially suitable for use on vehicles which have high centres of mass and consequently experience high roll moments when cornering, so benefit from the combination of superior roll control, comfort and traction provided by suspension systems having the above characteristics.
One way that has been attempted for achieving the abovenoted suspension characteristics is to use active suspension systems which use fast-acting, closed loop control systems to determine how to modify their characteristics in response to ground surface inputs. This enables them to eliminate some of the compromises forced on the designers of conventional passive suspension systems and thereby achieve enhanced dynamic performance. The disadvantage of active systems is that they consume large amounts of power to provide a supply of fluid under pressure to drive the actuators as dictated by the control systems. The actuators are usually double acting hydraulic cylinders which are connected through control valves to the pressurised fluid supply or to a return to the reservoir. A hydropneumatic accumulator is often provided to reduce harshness and the need to operate the control valves for each cylinder for smaller wheel motion. To resist roll for example, fluid is supplied to the cylinders on one side of the vehicle. To return to level straight line running, fluid must be exhausted from the cylinders on the first side and supplied to the opposite cylinders.
In order to reduce the power consumption requirements of active suspension systems, there is a trend towards combining conventional support springing with active roll control systems, such as coil springs with active, powered anti-roll bar adjustment systems. Although these systems reduce the power requirements of the suspension system, they still need to have pumps, supply accumulators, reservoirs, supply plumbing and a control system. The pumps still draw power to provide pressurised fluid to the control system and can generate noise, as can the valves in the control system. Systems such as these demand detailed design and development to reach the levels of refinement required by vehicle manufacturers, yet their off road performance is still not entirely satisfactory as the support springs compress in cross-axle articulation, generating uneven wheel loadings and limiting performance.
There is disclosed in International Application Number PCT/AU96/00528 a roll stabilisation system linked front to rear to passively resist roll motions of the vehicle, without introducing substantial cross-axle articulation stiffness. In the above noted patent application there is disclosed a number of arrangements, some of which are improved roll stabilisation systems which can be applied to conventionally suspended vehicles, others include improved support means to suspend the vehicle body thereby conveying all the desirable characteristics discussed above. A potential limitation of the systems disclosed in the above patent application is that the packaging requirements of the combined freely cross-axle articulating roll stabilisation and support systems may not always be compatible with many typical modern, space-efficient vehicle designs.
Other mechanical systems with the same objections of resilient support, roll control and free cross-axle articulation are disclosed in International Application Number PCT/AU95/00135 and in U.S. Pat. No. 2,099,819.

Passive vehicular suspension system including a roll control mechanism


An end flange for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system and method for manufacturing an end flange are provided. One end flange is for a vacuum vessel of the MRI system. The vacuum vessel includes a housing configured to receive therein a magnet assembly and an end flange forming an end of the housing. The flange includes an outer surface, an inner surface, and a core coupled between the outer and inner surfaces, wherein the core has a greater stiffness than the outer surface and the inner surface.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to cryogenically cooled magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, and more particularly to end flanges for a vacuum vessel of the MRI systems.
In superconducting coil MRI systems, the coils forming the superconducting magnets are cryogenically cooled using a helium vessel. The cryogen cooling system of some of these MRI systems may continually cool the superconducting magnet coils during system operation. Additionally, a thermal shield may be provided, which is typically positioned within a vacuum vessel between the vacuum vessel and the helium vessel.
Conventional flanges for the vacuum vessel of MRI systems have to be formed as thick metal structures for supporting the components therein. The thick metal flanges add cost and weight to the overall MRI system. Moreover, a cover is typically provided over the end flanges with a gap therebetween. Thus, for a given footprint for the MRI system, a shorter coil length for the superconducting magnet assembly results due to the spacing created by the gap. This shorter coil length results in a reduced Electromagnetic (EM) envelope.

End flange for a magnetic resonance imaging system and method of manufacturing


Highly Scalable Multi-granular Node Architecture based upon strictly non-blocking waveband switch constructed around cyclic arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) routers. In one implementation, the invention includes a first N×N cyclic arrayed waveguide grating (AWG); a middle stage includes N tuner modules, and a second N×N cyclic AWG for routing information from a plurality of different optical networks. Another implementation of the invention further provides an add/drop switch, and a shuffler for performing add/drop functions and preserving the wavelength order.

The use of dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) offers efficient transportation of several Terabit/s per single fiber. The high level of aggregation of information in an optical signal, on the other hand, increases the amount of processing required in order to access a single packet of information on an optical signal.

Highly scalable multi-granular node architecture


A pocket-flap pressing device for pressing pocket flaps of different sized pockets located on a garment. The pocket-flap pressing device is used to press the pocket flaps of a standard-issue military uniform that includes four different sized pockets on the military blouse and pants. The pocket-flap pressing device includes a board-like body that is flexible and has a padding attached to one side of the body. A heat resistant, flame-retardant cover encloses the board-like body. The board-like body includes a plurality of edges that each have a length corresponding to one of the different sized pocket flaps. A first edge of the pocket-flap pressing device corresponds to the length of a top pocket located on a military blouse. The second edge of board-like body 42 corresponds with the length of the pocket flaps of the bottom pocket of a military blouse. A third edge of the board-like body corresponds with the length of pocket flaps of the cargo pockets of a pair of military pants. The fourth edge of the board-like body corresponds in length to the back pocket of a pair of military pants. Each of the edges is inserted into a flap opening of a pocket flap such that the buttons of the pocket are positioned between the outer pocket flap and the button. The inserted pressing device protects the pocket from being damaged by an underlying button during the pressing process. A notch positioned adjacent to fourth edge extends into the board-like body such that the board-like body can be fully inserted into the back pockets of the pants.

The appearance of a uniform is particularly important in the military. Military personnel are routinely required to undergo uniform inspections where their uniforms are critically reviewed for appearance. To pass a military inspection, the uniform being inspected must be carefully pressed and show no signs of excessive wear. Accordingly, military personnel spend a substantial amount of time preparing their uniforms for inspection.
One type of military uniform is the utility uniform which is a standard issue for various branches of military service. One well-known example of a utility uniform is a camouflage fatigue. The camouflage fatigue includes a blouse and a pair of pants. The blouse has a pair of top pockets and a pair of bottom pockets, while the pants have a pair of back pockets and a pair of cargo pockets. A pair of buttons are attached to a top portion of each pocket. Overlying each of the pair of buttons is an inner pocket find and an outer pocket flap for closing the top opening of the pocket. The inner pocket flap includes a pair of button holes enabling the inner pocket flap to be buttoned to the pocket. The outer pocket flap covers the buttoned inner pocket flap to prevent the buttons holding down the inner pocket find from being torn from the uniform.
One of the more difficult portions of the camouflage fatigue to be pressed are the pocket flaps. If the pocket flaps are pressed while the pocket flaps overlie the buttons, the buttons will rub against the pocket flaps during the pressing process. This rubbing between the pocket flaps and underlying buttons will eventually cause visible wear-and tear in the pocket flaps of the uniform. Such wear-and-tear in the pocket flaps will result in the uniforms being unsuitable for a military uniform inspection.
Military personnel often insert a pressing surface between the pocket flaps and buttons while pressing the pocket flaps such that the buttons do not damage the uniform. For example, a book can be inserted between a pocket flap and a pair of buttons to act as a pressing surface which protects the pocket flaps from damage. However, using a book as a pressing surface for pocket flaps is unsatisfactory because the pocket flaps are of different sizes and cannot properly fit each pocket flap. In addition, use of a book as a pressing surface can require the time consuming task of unbuttoning and buttoning of the pockets to effectively press the pocket flaps. Another method used to press the pocket flaps is cutting an individual piece of cardboard for each different sized pocket. Cutting individual pieces of cardboard sized appropriate for each of the pockets is very time consuming. In addition, the cardboard pieces must be frequently replaced because they become worn and bent after being used only a few times.


A reel seat body is provided at one end with an external thread and at the other end with a fixed hood that is to fix a reel leg and is open toward the external thread. An internally threaded tubular body threadedly fitted onto the external thread is provided with a slidable hood that is open toward the fixed hood. The body is provided between the external thread and the fixed hood with a step that abuts on an end of the internally threaded tubular body that defines the end of the slidable hood. Within the fixed hood, there are located a reel leg-engaging member that is slidably displaceable toward or away from the slidable hood and an elastic material for backing up the member.

The present invention is an improvement relating to a reel seat for use on fishing rods that enables fishing rod reel leg to be attachably and detachably mounted on the fishing rod.
A conventional reel seat for fishing rods includes on a fishing rod-mounting body a step that abuts on the end of a tubular body inserted into a slidable hood and an outer surface that is smoothly contiguous to the outer surface of the slidable hood. The mounting legs of the fishing rod reels are of varying sizes, i.e., long, medium and short sizes.
When a long size mounting leg C of a fishing rod reel is fixed with a fixed hood A and a slidable hood B, as illustrated in FIG. 4, an end D of the slidable hood B will not come in a contact with a step F on a reel seat body E to which the fishing rod is attached, leaving a niche G between the end D and the step F.
According to Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 3-76462, such a niche can be covered by fitting some spacer into that niche G created by various size of reel legs. In order to cover all the widths of niches G must require many sizes of spacers which are likely to be lost during use or storage.
In view of the problems associated with the prior art reel seats for use on fishing rods, an object of the invention is to provide a reel seat for use on a fishing rod, which assures that fixing reel legs of varying lengths.


A medical system according to the present invention comprises a medical apparatus including an operation unit manipulated by a surgeon and a treatment section formed away from the operation unit for treating a subject, a detector or a pressure sensor for detecting a state of contact between the subject and the treatment section, and a reproduction mechanism for amplifying a small contact pressure according to the output of the detector and thus reproduce the state of contact so that the surgeon can perceive the state of contact.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical system having a reproduction means for detecting a state of contact of a treatment section formed at the distal end of a medical apparatus for treating a subject and reproducing the state of contact in an operation unit a surgeon manipulates so that the surgeon can perceive the state of contact.
2. Description of the Related Art
Endoscopes have been adopted widely in the field of medicine in recent years, wherein an observation means or imaging means is installed at the end (distal end) of an elongated insertion tube and an eyepiece unit formed at the back (proximal end) of the insertion tube or a monitor is used for observation. These endoscopes obviate dissection but permit treatment with a treatment adapter inserted into a channel, if necessary.
Instead of dissection, a small hole is formed in the abdomen to insert an endoscope or a treatment adapter. Then, the treatment adapter is used to allow surgery to proceed under endoscopic observation.
Under microscopic observation, a delicate surgical procedure may be carried out.
In the foregoing medical apparatus, an operation unit manipulated with a hand is separated from a treatment section for treating a subject, and a state of contact between the treatment section and the subject is not conveyed to a surgeon (operation unit). Moreover, a moving rate of the treatment section must be very small or delicate to achieve treatment. Accordingly, a manipulation rate or a manipulation force for manipulating the operation unit must be drastically lessened to realize precise treatment.
For example, when delicate treatment is required, a contact pressure of a treatment section in contact with a subject is so small that it is very difficult to recognize the state of contact correctly.
A surgeon hardly can reduce a moving rate or a moving force of his/her own hand according to the size of a region to be treated. The medical apparatus of the prior art sometimes fails to provide preferable treatment.

Medical system for reproducing a state of contact of the treatment section in the operation unit


Purified bacterial strains that are effective for the inhibition of plant pathogens, including the fungi Rhizoctonia solani and Pythium ultimum have been isolated. These strains are useful as biocontrol agents, and can be used to produce antifungal metabolites, such as antibiotic compounds, active against the plant pathogenic fungi Rhizoctonia solani and Pythium ultimum. Both the purified bacterial strains and the antibiotic compounds can be used as active agents for biocontrol compositions.

It has been recognized that crops grown in some soils are naturally resistant to certain fungal pathogens. Furthermore, soils that are conducive to the development of these diseases can be rendered suppressive, or resistant, by the addition of small quantities of soil from a suppressive field. Scher et al. Phytopathology 70:421 (1980). Conversely, suppressive soils can be made conducive to fungal diseases by autoclaving, indicating that the factors responsible for disease control are biological. Subsequent research has demonstrated that root colonizing bacteria are responsible for this phenomenon known as biological disease control (BDC). Baker et al., Biological control of plant pathogens, (Freeman Press, San Francisco) (1974).
In many cases, the most efficient strains of biological disease controlling bacteria are fluorescent pseudomonads. Weller et al., Phytopathology, 73:463-469 (1983). These bacteria have also been shown to promote plant growth in the absence of a specific fungal pathogen by the suppression of detrimental rhizosphere microflora present in most soils. Kloepper et al., Phytopathology 71:1020-1024 (1981). Important plant pathogens that have been effectively controlled by seed inoculation with these bacteria include Gaeumannomyces gramminis, the causative agent of take-all in wheat, Cook et al., Soil Biol. Biochem 8:269-273 (1976) and Pythium ultimum and Rhizoctonia solani, pathogens involved in damping off of cotton. Howell et al., Phytopathology 69:480-482 (1979). Rhizoctonia is a particularly problematic plant pathogen for several reasons. First, it is capable of infecting a wide range of crop plants. Second, there are no commercially available chemical fungicides that are effective in controlling the fungus. Because of these circumstances, an inhibitor against R. solani would be of substantial interest as a potential control for this pathogen.
Many biological control Pseudomonas strains produce metabolites, such as antibiotics, that inhibit the growth of fungal pathogens. Howell et al., Phytopathology 69:480-482 (1979); Howell et al. Phytopathology 70:712-715 (1980). These have been implicated in the control of fungal pathogens in the rhizosphere. Several past studies have focused on the effects of mutations that result in the inability of the disease control bacterium or fungus to synthesize these compounds. Kloepper et al., Phytopathology 71: 1020-1024 (1981); Howell et al., Can. J. Microbiol. 29:321-324 (1983). In these cases, the ability of the organism to control the disease was all but eliminated. In particular, Howell et al., Phytopathology 69:480-482 (1979) discloses a strain of Pseudomonas fluorescens which was shown to produce an antibiotic substance that is antagonistic to Rhizoctonia solani.
In Baker et al., Biological Control of Plant Pathogens, (American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, Minn.)( 1982), pages 61-106, it is reported that an important factor in biological control is the ability of an organism to compete in a given environment. Thus, it is desirable to obtain novel strains of biocontrol agents which effectively control the growth of plant pathogens, particularly fungi, such as Rhizoctonia solani and Pythium ultimum, and are able to aggressively compete with indigenous bacteria and other microflora that exist in the rhizosphere of the plant.

Anti-pathogenic bacterial strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens

The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Agriculture


A network (100) comprises at least a network device (110) and a further network device (120). The network device (110) arranged for detecting an event (170), for receiving a first timestamp (420) of the further network device and for taking a second timestamp. The network device is arranged for providing a signal (180) in dependence of a counter (450) reaching an end count. The network device arranged for synchronizing the signal (180) with a further signal (190) provided by the further network device (120) by adjusting a value of the end count (60) to a modified end count (230), the modified end count being in dependence of the first and second timestamp. After having provided the synchronized signal (180c, 180d) the value of the end count is re-adjusted from the modified end count to its value prior to the adjustment.

A network device according to the opening paragraph may be used in a sensor network. Sensor networks require a common notion of time among the network devices. In 'Time Synchronization in Sensor Networks: A survey', by Fikret Sivrikaya et, al., IEEE Network, July/August 2004, time synchronization in wireless networks such as sensor networks is discussed. Time synchronization in a network aims to provide a common timescale for local clocks of the network devices comprised in the network. A common notion of time is for example needed to be able to correlate measurement data taken by multiple network devices. To enable a correlation of the measurements each measurement is given a timestamp reflecting the time at which the measurement was done. This induces a need for synchronization of the clocks of the network devices.
Commonly network time synchronization methods rely on some sort of message exchange between network devices. Such a message may comprise a timestamp including a clock value of a sending network device. On receiving said message a receiving network device may compare its clock value with the received timestamp included in the message and synchronize its clock. However the local clock of the receiving network device may drift away from time to time from the local clock of the sending network device causing a recurring need to synchronize said local clocks.
In a wireless network the network device may have a limited energy source such as a battery. Each clock synchronization requires the exchange of time stamps and a sequence of calculations, and thus each synchronization causes energy consumption.
It is therefore a problem that while the available energy source of the network device may be limited the calculations involved in the time synchronization between network devices contribute to the energy consumption and a reduction of battery life.

Network synchronization with reduced energy consumption


A pharmaceutical formulation having a geometric configuration that affects the release characteristics of active agents contained therein and associated methods are provided. In one aspect, a sustained release oral dosage pharmaceutical tablet may include a first layer having a first active agent, where the first layer is disposed between two adjacent controlled release layers, at least one of the adjacent layers including at least one second active agent. The two adjacent layers are arranged such that they cover a portion of the first layer. The two adjacent layers may be separate layers or they may be joined into a single continuous layer, depending on the overall configuration and geometric design of the oral dosage form.

Combinational drug therapy has been used for years as a mechanism for either pharmacologically addressing conditions presenting multiple symptoms, or for providing greater relief of a single symptom without overdose. One classic example of combinational therapy for addressing multiple symptoms can be found in many over-the-counter cold and flu medicines. Such medicines often combine a nasal decongestant, such as pseudoephedrine with a cough suppressant, such as dextromethorphan HBr, and an analgesic/antipyretic agent, such as acetaminophen.
Pain is one example of a single symptom that can be treated with combinational therapy in order to avoid overdose or to at least minimize the total dose of a single analgesic agent and thereby potentially avoid or reduce adverse effects. Acute pain, often the result of a traumatic event, can be effectively treated with doses of short acting analgesics, such as opioids. Chronic pain, however, because of its occurrence frequency and/or sustained presence, requires either multiple daily doses of short acting analgesics, or longer acting analgesic formulations in order to obtain effective management.
Long acting or "sustained release" formulations have in fact, been found to be desirable in treating many chronic conditions, such as chronic pain, that would otherwise require inconvenient multiple daily doses. However, oral dosage sustained release formulations are often complicated in their design, and while effective for many single drug therapies, may present a number of challenges when attempting to formulate combinational drug therapy.
As a result, sustained release formulations that are simple in design and construction that can effectively accommodate multiple active agents in a stable manner, and which can provide effective combination drug therapy over sustained periods continue to be sought.

Controlled release formulations and associated methods


A system and method for determining differences and other conditions on a multi-monitor system is provided. A first line is displayed across two monitors. A user aligns one segment of the line on one monitor with the other segment. A second line is displayed across the monitors, parallel to the first. The user then aligns a segment of the second line with the other segment of the second line. A wedge is displayed across the monitors. The user aligns a portion of the wedge such that the wedge appears as a contiguous wedge partially obscured by the physical separation between monitors. The system then determines the relative physical alignment of the monitors, the relative pixel resolution of the monitors, and the physical separation between the display areas of the monitors. If a monitor is rotated, an additional step to determine the rotation of the rotated monitor is also performed.

As computer systems have increased in power and capacity, and particularly as graphic display subsystems increase in power and capacity, it is has become more and more commonplace for computer systems to include more than one display device or monitor. As an example, FIG. 1 illustrates a typical, exemplary multi-monitor computer system 100 including a computer 102, a first monitor 104 (sometimes referred to as the primary monitor), and a second monitor 106.
Multi-monitor computer systems are not exclusive to typical desktop systems, such as the exemplary system 100. Instead, multi-monitor computer systems are found on a variety of computer systems including, but not limited to: notebook or tablet computers; hand-held personal digital assistants (PDAs); multi-user computer systems such as mini- and mainframe computers; and the like. Furthermore, many multi-monitor display systems exist that are not connected to a computer system.
Irrespective of the underlying base computer system, or system in general, each multi-monitor system is faced with a similar issue: how to manage the display of information across multiple monitors. For example, the actual display areas of the multiple monitors are separated by the frames of the monitors as well as the physical separation of the monitors, hereafter referred to as an "occlusion area." Physical alignment of monitors impacts the display of information across multiple monitors. Additionally, multiple monitors attached to the system may not be identical, or even nearly identical. As shown in FIG. 1, monitor 104 and monitor 106 have different physical dimensions. Screen resolution, i.e., the number of pixels displayed on a monitor, and pixel resolution, i.e., the physical size of a pixel, also affect multi-monitor display. All of these differences and conditions contribute to making the display of information on a multi-monitor system a challenge.
The typical approach by which most computer systems "deal" with multi-monitor issues systems is to conceptualize a single, contiguous display surface (referred to hereafter as the "display surface") that encompasses the display areas of all monitors. Thus, to the system, and to any applications that wish to render to the attached display system, there is only one surface on which to write. The computer system's graphics display subsystem is responsible for mapping information written to the display surface to each monitor's display area. Thus, software applications write to a single display surface entirely unaware that some information may be displayed across multiple monitors, and the graphics display subsystem takes care of putting the information onto the appropriate monitor. Unfortunately, this approach fails to recognize or compensate for the differences and conditions that exist among the multiple monitors attached to a computer system. As a result, the display anomalies that arise from failing to compensate for these differences and conditions must be sorted out, when possible, by the user's imagination. The following examples illustrate more clearly these display anomalies.
FIG. 2A is a pictorial diagram illustrating an exemplary display surface 200 upon which a single horizontal line 202 has been drawn. The display surface 200 encompasses two display areas, display area 204 and display area 206, corresponding to two monitors in a multi-monitor system that have the same screen resolution. As can be seen, a software application has rendered line 202 as a continuous, horizontal line on the display surface 200, very likely unaware of any display area regions. Naturally, the expectation is that the line 202 will appear as a continuous, horizontal line to the computer user. However, because no effort is made to identify and compensate for differences between monitors, this is not always the case.
FIG. 2B is a pictorial diagram of the exemplary multi-monitor computer system 100 displaying the horizontal line 202 described above. Display areas 204 and 206 (FIG. 2A) correspond to the display areas of monitors 104 and 106. As can be seen, even when the screen resolution between monitor 104 and 106 is the same, due to differences in the actual physical dimensions of monitors 104-106, the physical alignment of the monitors, and separation of the monitors, line 202 visually appears as two distinct lines, line segment 208 and line segment 210, on the multi-monitor computer system 100. Obviously, unless a user/viewer is aware that a software application was rendering a single line 202, the user/viewer is unlikely to interpret line segments 208 and 210 as segments of line 202.
Another factor contributing to the user's confusion as to whether line segment 208 and line segment 210 are actually portions of line 202 is the fact that line segment 210 appears to be drawn thicker than line segment 208. This is due to differences in pixel resolution. As mentioned above, it is assumed that the monitor 104 and monitor 106 share the same screen resolution, i.e., number of displayed pixels. For example, both monitor 104 and monitor 106 could have a screen resolution of 1280 by 1024, meaning there are 1280 pixels in each row of pixels and that there are 1024 pixels in each column of pixels. However, even though screen resolutions are similar, monitor 104 and monitor 106 are of different physical sizes. Thus, to share screen resolution, the pixel resolution for the monitors must be different. In other words, the pixel resolution, i.e., the size or dimension of each pixel, on monitor 104 is smaller than the pixel resolution on monitor 106. As such, even though line 202 is drawn on the display surface 200 with a constant pixel thickness, the apparent/visual thickness of line segment 208 is thinner than the apparent visual thickness of line segment 210 due to pixel resolution differences.
FIGS. 3A-3C further illustrate another display problem that arises when failing to account for differences and conditions in multi-monitor systems. More particularly, FIG. 3A illustrates the display surface 200 encompassing the display areas 204 and 206 of monitors 104 and 106. Again, it is assumed that the screen resolution for each monitor is the same. On the display surface 200, a software application has rendered two diagonal lines, such that a first portion 302 of the diagonal lines falls in display area 204 and the second portion 304 of the diagonal lines falls in display area 206.
FIG. 3B is a pictorial diagram illustrating the diagonal lines displayed on the display areas of monitor 104 and monitor 106. As can be seen, due to the physical separation of the monitors, the alignment of the monitors, the difference in physical size of the monitors, and the differences in pixel resolution, it is difficult for a user to visualize whether or how the first portion 302 of the diagonal lines aligns with the second portion 304 of the diagonal lines. In fact, due to the failure to compensate for the differences mentioned above, it is far more likely that a user visualizes the first portion 302 and second portion 304 of the two diagonal lines as two portions of three diagonal lines displayed on the display surface 200, such as depicted on the display surface 200 in FIG. 3C.
Accordingly, what is needed, is a system and method to determine the differences between monitors in a multi-monitor computer system so that software applications on the computer system that render to a display surface 200 may compensate for such differences. The present invention addresses these and other issues found in the prior art.

System and method for determining display differences between monitors on multi-monitor computer systems


A relatively small amount of a plasticizer having an SP value of at least 8.8 and a molecular weight of at most 550 is added to blend rubber of NBR-PVC in which NBR has an AN content of from 43 to 50% by weight. The fuel impermeability and the low-temperature flexibility of the resulting rubber composition are improved to be comparable to those of FKM, and the amount of the plasticizer and its reaction product to be released from the rubber composition in fuel is reduced. Adding a controlled amount of carbon black to the rubber composition makes the composition have favorable electroconductivity. The rubber composition is formed into hoses or electroconductive hoses of low fuel permeation.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rubber composition, a hose of low fuel permeation, and an electroconductive hose of low fuel permeation. More particularly, it relates to a rubber composition of good fuel impermeability and low-temperature flexibility, and a hose of low fuel permeation utilizing this rubber composition, and also to a rubber composition of good fuel impermeability, low-temperature flexibility and electroconductivity, and an electroconductive hose of low fuel permeation utilizing this rubber composition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Control on the leakage of fuel by permeation from an automobile, which is similar to the SHED control (Shield Housing for Evaporative Determinations) in the United States, is put into practice in Japan and Europe in 2000 A.D. A fuel transporting hose is required to be highly impermeable to fuel, since it is greatly responsible for the leakage of fuel by permeation from an automobile, as is well known.
In Japan and Europe, NBR (acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber) or blend rubber of NBR and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) of general specifications is used for a fuel hose in an automobile, such as a filler, breather or evaporation hose. However, that type of hose fails to achieve any fuel impermeability conforming to the strengthened domestic control as stated above. In addition, the rubber material noted above often releases a plasticizer, a vulcanizing agent or its reaction product, when dipped in fuel. In particular, the vulcanizing agent or its reaction product, if released, will corrode the metallic members of a fuel pump or will clog the valves in fuel piping.
In the United States in which the SHED control is already in force, FKM (fluororubber) or resin is used for the inner layer of a hose, and NBR-PVC (blend rubber of NBR and PVC), ECO (epichlorohydrin rubber), CSM (chlorosulfonated polyethylene rubber), etc. for its outer layer. These United States specifications can be expected to achieve the fuel impermeability conforming to the control. There are, however, problems, since FKM and fluororesins are expensive, and the inner layer of FKM or resin is difficult to bond to the outer layer.
It has heretofore been said that increasing the AN content (combined acrylonitrile content) of NBR in NBR-PVC to a range falling between 36 and 42% by weight or so could improve the fuel swelling resistance of NBR-PVC. The inventors of this invention, however, have found that the fuel impermeability of NBR-PVC in which the AN content of NBR falls within that range is still poor.
The inventors have further found that increasing the AN content of NBR to a range falling between 43 to 50% by weight or so realizes good fuel impermeability of NBR which is comparable to that of FKM.
However, increasing the AN content thereof to such a high level will decrease the low-temperature properties of the rubber material necessary to fuel hoses (for example, the flexibility of hoses used in cold districts where the ambient temperature often reaches -30.degree. C. or so). To improve the low-temperature properties of rubber materials for hoses, in general, the amount of the plasticizer to be added thereto will be increased, which, however, adversely affects the fuel impermeability of the hoses formed of such rubber materials.
Apart from the problems of fuel impermeability and low-temperature flexibility of hoses noted above, it is also advantageous to make fuel hoses have electroconductivity. While an automobile is driven or refueled, fuel flows in the fuel hose to generate static electricity. If kept charged with static electricity, the fuel hose will give sparks dangerous to fuel when it is contacted with a metallic refueling gun or the like. To avoid the dangerous trouble, for example, an earth wire may be disposed between a filler hose and the body of an automobile thereby to remove static electricity through it, which, however, requires some specific members and an additional step for fitting it. It will be rather reasonable to use a filler or breather hose having electroconductivity. However, FKM and fluororesins essentially have large electric resistance, and hoses having the inner layer formed of these materials could hardly have electroconductivity.

Rubber composition, hose of low fuel permeation, and electroconductive hose of low fuel permeation