A thin-film electrode for a bio-nanobattery is produced by consecutively depositing arrays of a ferritin protein on a substrate, employing a spin self-assembly procedure. By this procedure, a first ferritin layer is first formed on the substrate, followed by building a second, oppositely-charged ferritin layer on the top of the first ferritin layer to form a bilayer structure. Oppositely-charged ferritin layers are subsequently deposited on top of each other until a desired number of bilayer structures is produced. An ordered, uniform, stable and robust, thin-film electrode material of enhanced packing density is presented, which provides optimal charge density for the bio-nanobattery.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to nanoscale energy storage units. It relates particularly to multilayer structures of bioinorganic proteins, especially ferritins, as electrode materials for bio-nanobatteries.
2. Description of Related Art
Miniaturization of electronic devices has been a trend in high technology areas, enhancing the efficiency, reducing the power consumption, and increasing performance, speed and functionality. Since 1954, nanotechnology has been a challenge in science and technology. The development of nano-scale devices has accelerated in recent years. It is deemed that progress in the development of nano-scale devices necessitates micro- or nano-scaled power sources. Although nano-scaled devices are near reality, the development of micro- or nano-scale energy storage technology has not been effectively considered and developed for the benefit of nano-scaled devices. The exploitation of these nano-devices will depend on the development of a suitable power supply. Currently, the power systems for many nano-scaled or even micro-scaled devices are many times larger in size than the functional devices. Nano-scaled energy storage systems are critically needed for nano-devices where a large power supply eliminates the benefits accrued by miniaturizing device size, or where a large power supply makes its application impractical.
The bio-nanobattery concept is based on a nano-scaled power storage element which is made out of bioinorganic proteins, making it suitable for use with autonomous nano-scaled devices. This bio-nanobattery has a number of advantages, including nano-scaled system sizes, flexible array structures, distributed power storage, thin-film fabrication, and potential integration with energy harvesting units.
The capacity of a ferritin-based bio-nanobattery is determined mainly by two factors: the redox potential difference between two electrodes and the number of ferritins per unit area of electrode. The potential difference depends on a selected pair of ferritin electrodes. When electrochemical stability is considered for Fe(OH)2/Fe(OH)3∥Co(OH)3/Co(OH)2 for example, thermodynamic calculation estimates a battery cell potential of 0.66 V from equilibrium potentials of Fe and Co. Other materials carrying a larger reduction potential can produce higher current. If cobalt is replaced with nickel, a similar calculation based on thermodynamic equilibrium potential yields 0.97 V from Fe(OH)2/Fe(OH)3∥Ni(OH)3/Ni(OH)2. The other way to increase the battery capacity is to increase the number of ferritins deposited on a conductive electrode surface such as gold, indium tin oxide (ITO) glass, or doped silicon. Accordingly, multilayered arrays of ferritin proteins should be prepared with a regular and uniform structure to maximize the number density of ferritin in the array structure.
Biological molecules usually form regular nanostructures under certain conditions. Some proteins, for example, enable two- or three-dimensional ordered arrays on a specific substrate. Using such self-assembling characteristics of bioinorganic proteins, the nano-scaled energy storage units can be assembled into well-organized arrays of single or multilayers. Historically, ferritin arrays have been produced in ways such as Langmuir-Blodgett deposition at air/water interfaces, mechanical scratching method, protein crystallization techniques, and physical adsorption, among others.
However, these methods have been found wanting, because they do not provide thin films which are highly ordered uniform, stable and robust, in short periods of time.

Multilayer ferritin array for bionanobattery

National Institute of Aerospace Associates

The United States of America as represented by the Administration of NASA


Method and apparatus for detecting failure of tensioned reinforcements in a structure by means of a plurality of acoustic or seismic detectors disposed about the structure in a known arrangement, processing signals from the detectors to determine frequency contents and origins, and identifying simultaneous signals as due to the failure of tensioned reinforcements in the structure when they meet spectral and origin criteria.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to methods and systems for monitoring the integrity of structures and, in particular, to a method and system for monitoring structural reinforcement or securing members, such as post-tensioning cable, in concrete. More particularly still, breakage of such cables is detected, distinguished from background noise, and located by means of subsequent analysis or on a real-time basis. The source of the breakage is located by known triangulation techniques. In addition, cost saving space multiplexing of sensors is used.
2. Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,353, granted Apr. 6, 1976 to Waters et al, and titled "Underground Mine Surveillance System", discloses a system for maintaining a continuous log of activity in and around an underground mine where seismic energy in the area is continually monitored, processed and classified into meaningful relative data indications; and which system further includes selectively deployable seismic energy monitoring equipment providing more specific data in the event of mine catastrophe. This system utilizes permanently disposed seismic energy detectors and/or emergency detectors placed in accordance with the particular exigency, and detected seismic energy return is continually processed to maintain a data log indicative of general type and location of mine activity, with particular capability for isolation of unusual seismic events by comparison with statistical data constraints of predetermined character.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,343, granted May 31, 1983 to Shiveley, and titled "Acoustic Emission Intruder Alarm System", discloses an acoustic emission burglary detection system for detecting physical attacks made on a protected structure such as a vault, safe or the like. Sensors (13, 14) mounted on the protected structure detect acoustic emission stress wave signals produced by an attack and provide an event signal of a corresponding frequency and with an amplitude and duration dependent upon those of the stress wave signals. Event signals exhibiting a frequency less than 50,000 Hz are much less likely to have been originated by a physical attack upon the protected structure and are filtered out. The remaining event signals which exceed a predetermined level, are integrated over a predetermined time period. If the resulting value exceeds a predetermined level, an alarm is activated. Means are provided for testing the detection circuit by providing electrical pulses through one of the sensors to cause it to generate mechanical stress wave signals in the protected structure which can be detected and processed by the detection circuitry.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,524, granted Mar. 10, 1987 to Vance, and titled "Integrated Acoustic Network" discloses an integrated acoustic network system to provide warning of impending groundfall in underground mines. The system includes a plurality of geophones which derive acoustic signals by which the source of seismic disturbances is located, and an array of high frequency piezoelectric sensors which pick up signals from small ground disturbances which precede groundfall. A warning system is provided both at the scene of mining operations and at a central location of impending groundfall and of the location of its occurrence.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,353, unusual seismic events are isolated by comparison with stored statistical data constraints. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,343, event signals exhibiting a frequency above 50,000 Hz are integrated over a predetermined time period and, if the resulting value exceeds a predetermined level, an alarm is activated. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,524, the number of seismic events is counted and the cumulative amount of energy is estimated for every minute and the ratio of energy/event is calculated.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,629, granted Aug. 20, 1985 to Prine, and titled "Method and Apparatus for Structural Monitoring with Acoustic Emission and Using Pattern Recognition", discloses an acoustic emission monitoring system used for monitoring fatigue crack growth in metal or other materials such as occur, for example, in highway bridges during normal traffic loading. The transducers are placed on the plates to be tested to allow detection of acoustic emission from a particular site. By applying specific recognition methods to the acoustic emission AE, detection of flaws can be detected from a random noise background. The pattern recognition technique first subjects the received AE energy to an energy window test and if the energy is within the window, it is subjected to a rate test and if the energy exceeds predetermined rates, it is passed to a location test so as to locate the position of flaws.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,964, granted Jan. 21, 1986 to Matthews, et al., and titled "Cable Integrity by Acoustic Emission", discloses a system for monitoring the integrity of a cable, for example a cable following a variable depth sonar body through the ocean. Such a cable comprises a core of electrical wires surrounded by load bearing wires which are secured to the sonar body through a terminator. For various reasons cracks can appear in the load bearing wires and in extreme cases one or more of the wires may break. The monitoring system includes a transducer located near the terminator where the wires are most likely to crack or break. Acoustic emissions caused by the incidence of cracks or breaks are picked up by the transducer. The resulting electrical signals are amplified and passed up the electrical core of the cable to the towing vessel where they are processed. Novel aspects of the system are the water coupling between the location of the cracks or breaks and the transducer and special processing circuitry which enables breaks, cracks and electrical noise to be distinguished from each other.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,137, granted Apr. 19, 1988 to Sugg, et al., and titled "Acoustic Emission Frequency Discrimination", discloses an acoustic emission signal processor that selectively sorts acoustic signals on the basis of frequency content, rather than just the frequency. The processor allows rejection of some signals having a particular frequency content, or can provide for separate counting or other processing of these signals. The above mentioned United States patents are incorporated herein by reference.

Continuous monitoring of reinforcements in structures


In a color toner having toner particles which have toner base particles containing a binder resin, a colorant and a wax, and inorganic fine particles, (i) in the toner base particles, particles having a circle-equivalent diameter of 3.00 μm or more as measured with a flow type particle image analyzer have an average circularity of from 0.920 or more to less than 0.950, (ii) in the particles having a circle-equivalent diameter of 3.00 μm or more in the toner base particles, particles having a circularity of 0.960 or more are in a number frequency cumulative value of 40% or less; and (iii) in the particles having a circle-equivalent diameter of 3.00 μm or more in the toner base particles, particles having a circularity of 0.920 or less are in a number frequency cumulative value of 30% or less. Also disclosed is a full-color image forming method making use of the toner.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a toner used in image forming processes such as electrophotography, electrostatic recording, electrostatic printing and toner jet recording.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, copying machines and printers are severely sought to be more compact, more light-weight, more high-speed and more high-reliability because of demands for energy saving, office space saving and so forth. As the result, hardware has come to be constituted of simple components in various aspects, and on the other hand the performance demanded of toners has come higher. That is, it is coming to pass that any superior hardware can not be provided unless improvements in performance of the toners can be achieved. In particular, what is required of the performance of toner is transfer performance. Improvement in this transfer performance of toner can bring advantages that toner consumption can be reduced, image quality can be made higher and a toner collection system can be made simple.
Accordingly, as one of methods for improving the transfer performance, it is recently prevalent to make the shape of toner base particles closely spherical. For example, it is known to use polymerization toner base particles produced by polymerization such as suspension polymerization or emulsion polymerization, or to make pulverization toner base particles spherical in a solution, to make them spherical by the action of hot air (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-029241) and to make them spherical by applying a mechanical impact force (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H07-181732). These techniques are very effective means to improve transfer performance of toners, but each have various problems. In the case when the polymerization toner base particles are used, a release agent is enclosed in toner base particles, and hence the release agent may come out to toner particle surfaces with difficulty unless a pressure is appropriately applied to the toner at the time of fixing, resulting in a poor fixing performance. Also, in the case when the pulverization toner base particles are made spherical by applying a mechanical impact force, the release agent contained in toner base particles may more easily melt and come to toner particle surfaces because of heat, as they are made spherical more and more. This may adversely affect electrophotographic performance. That is, the release agent having melted and come to toner particle surfaces may make the toner have poor fluidity, or may make toner particles themselves and/or toner particles and carrier particles highly adherent to damage transfer performance. Accordingly, in making spherical the toner base particles to which the release agent has internally been added, it is important to select toner constituent materials capable of being made readily spherical, or to restrain any effect of heat history on toner base particles during the step of spherical treatment.
In order to manage such toner base particles to which the release agent has internally been added, having been improved in sphericity as stated above, it is proposed as disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H10-097095 to control average circularity and circularity distribution of toner base particles to control transfer performance and chargeability of a toner. However, in what is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H10-097095, a styrene-acrylic resin is used as a binder resin to be used in the toner, and no reference is made as to a color toner composed chiefly of a polyester.
In the step of making toner base particles spherical, in particular, in the step of making toner base particles spherical by applying a mechanical impact force, very small-sized fine powder (ultrafine powder) tends to form, and such ultrafine powder may re-agglomerate with the toner base particles having been made spherical. Hence, even if such toner base particles are subjected to the step of classification after the step of making spherical, it is difficult to remove this ultrafine powder from the toner base particles, and the ultrafine powder tends to be mixed into products. This ultrafine powder may be charged in excess in the step of development, and may adhere electrostatically to a sleeve, or a carrier in a two-component development system, to contaminate them to cause faulty charging of the toner fed afterwards.
Proposals to control the quantity of such ultrafine powder are also made in a large number. For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Applications Laid-open No. H10-232507 and H11-149174, a method is proposed in which the ultrafine powder is driven into toner particle surfaces by applying a mechanical impact after the step of classification. However, because of agitation at a developing zone and in a toner container throughout long-term running, the ultrafine powder driven into toner particle surfaces may come off to affect developing performance adversely.
On account of the foregoing, it has been sought to provide, in a color toner containing a release agent, a color toner having superior transfer performance, running performance and charge characteristics.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A read circuit includes a precharge circuit, a discharge circuit, and a sense amplifier. The precharge circuit includes a first transistor which has a gate connected to the bit line, a second transistor which has a gate connected to the bit line, the second transistor having a current path one end of which is connected to one end of a current path in the first transistor, a third transistor which has a current path one end of which is connected to the other end of the current path in the first transistor, the other end of the current path in the third transistor being connected to a power supply, and a fourth transistor which has a gate connected to a junction between the current paths in the first and second transistors and which controls a charge level of the bit line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor storage device that precharges/discharges a bit line to read data from a memory cell.
2. Description of the Related Art
As described in, for example, PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 91, NO. 4, APRIL 2003, R. MICHELONI et al. "The Flash Memory Read Path: Building Blocks and Critical Aspects" pp. 537-553 (see FIG. 6(a)), in a read operation performed by a semiconductor storage device such as a flash memory, a power supply VDD first passes a current through a bit line via a resistor R. Then, the bit line is precharged to a predetermined level. On this occasion, when a memory cell (cell transistor) is on, the bit line is discharged. Accordingly, a sense amplifier senses the level of a node OUT to determine that the memory cell is on. On the other hand, when the memory cell is off, the level of the precharged bit line and node OUT is retained. Thus, the sense amplifier senses the level to determine that the memory cell is off.
With this read system, the precharge level of the bit line is adjusted by controlling a bias voltage BIAS applied to a gate of a MOS transistor M1. If the bias voltage BIAS is at the level of the power supply voltage VDD, the bit line is clamped to a level VDD-Vth (a threshold voltage of the MOS transistor M1). If the charge level of the bit line is excessively high, when the bit line has a large capacitance and the memory cell has only a small current, a long time is required to discharge the memory cell in the on state to a determination level. Further, to input a level equal to or lower than the power supply voltage VDD as the bias voltage BIAS to reduce the charge level of the bit line, a circuit is required which generates a bias voltage equal to or lower than VDD.
FIG. 7(b) in the above article describes, as another read circuit, a circuit in which an inverter carries out negative feedback to suppress excessive charging of the bit line. When a node A2 is at ground potential GND, the bias voltage BIAS supplied to the gate of the MOS transistor M1 is set at the VDD level to rapidly charge the bit line. Once the bit line is sufficiently precharged to, for example, about VDD/2, an output from the inverter is inverted to perform control such that the MOS transistor M1 is turned off. This makes it possible to suppress the excessive charging of the bit line.
This circuit configuration eliminates the need to apply a special voltage to the gate of the MOS transistor M1. Further, the level of the bit line is sensed so that the inverter can control the MOS transistor M1. Consequently, the circuit is simple.
However, since the inverter controls the precharge level of the bit line, a drain of the MOS transistor M1 has a voltage equal to or higher than the bit line voltage and equal to or lower than the power supply voltage VDD. Accordingly, after precharging, the charge on the drain of the MOS transistor M1 migrates to the bit line. As a result, the bit line is continuously charged weakly. This charging does not affect reading from the memory cell in an off state. However, when the bit line is discharged with the memory cell in the on state, the output from the inverter changes so that the MOS transistor M1 is turned on. Consequently, the charge on the drain of the MOS transistor M1 further charges the bit line. This operation charges the bit line being discharged by the memory cell in the on state. This is a factor delaying the operation of reading from the memory cell in the on state.
Further, the inverter need not operate for practical use while the bit line is being discharged. However, an input to the inverter is at an intermediate level between 0 V and VDD after the end of the read operation and before the potential across the bit line is reset to ground potential GND. Thus, during the read operation, the inverter continues to pass a through current. The through current is useless current consumption that is not related to operations.

Semiconductor storage device precharging/discharging bit line to read data from memory cell


In a Fuel Filter arrangement for an internal combustion engine comprising a prefilter and a main filter mounted to the engine by a filter holder, the filter holder has a recess receiving the prefilter, which forms a plug-in unit removably inserted in the recess and position-locked therein.

The invention relates to a fuel filter arrangement for an internal combustion engine.
From German Patent Specification 25 05 091, a fuel filter arrangement is known which includes a curved filter mounting bracket for mounting the main filter to the engine.
From German Offenlegungsschrift 37 10 807, a fuel filter arrangement is known which has a prefilter and main filter arranged in a fuel feed pipe leading to an injection pump of an internal combustion engine. The prefilter is conventionally mounted between the fuel tank and the feed pump at a poorly accessible location within the engine compartment, e.g., beneath the induction manifold in the region of the body side frame and engine mount.
The object of the invention is to mount the preliminary filter in the engine compartment in such a way as to facilitate maintenance service.

Fuel filter arrangement for an internal combustion engine


A method and system for measuring whole-wafer etch pit density (.rho..sub.D) is disclosed in which an etch GaAs wafer is tested for fractional transmission at a plurality of points over its surface. The fractional transmission (T) of light through the wafer is detected, amplified and fed to a computer where at least two points of transmission measurement are selected for calibration. From these measurements, together with an estimate of the average etch pit size (area), the values for fractional transmission in regions of low etch pit density T.sub.O and high etch pit density T.sub.E may be calculated, and used to convert transmission data directly to etch pit density (.rho..sub.D) according to the equation ##EQU1##

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to GaAs wafers and particularly to a method and system for automated measurement of whole-wafer etch pit density in GaAs wafers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One of the prime factors affecting large-scale device development in GaAs is the etch pit or dislocation density. Although there is some disagreement on whether or not a single dislocation near a device such as a field-effect transistor (FET) can significantly affect the electrical behavior of that device, there seems to be general agreement that a large number of dislocations within the region surrounding the device will indeed affect its electrical properties. A good way to study such effects is to compare the variations in dislocation density over a large area, such as a 2-inch or 3-inch wafer, with the corresponding variations in some critical device parameter, such as the threshold voltage. Then standard statistical techniques can be used to determine the degree of correlation. Modern autoprobe techniques can be used to map the particular device parameter, even up to many thousands of devices. However, there is no such convenient technique to map the dislocation density. The standard method is to place the wafer in hot KOH, forming small etch pits where dislocations intersect the surface, and then to count the pits within a given area about the point of reference. This procedure is very tedious, so that seldom are more than lo positions analyzed on a given wafer, making good correlation with device properties nearly impossible.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,726 discloses a system for mapping GaAs and other semiconductor wafers for areas of nonuniformity. The wafer is positioned in a magnetic field and illuminated by a light source at a plurality of points on the surface thereof. A computer initializes the light level and the electronic gain of each detector preamp associated with a fiber optic link from an analyzer. The magnetic field direction is then reversed by computer command, causing a localized change in intensity cf light passing through the wafer due to Faraday Rotation. The resulting change in detector output together with location and wavelength data can be used to compute a map of the wafer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,708 discloses a system and procedure for the inspection of the surface of a semiconductor wafer which ascertains that particulate contaminants have been adequately cleaned from the surface during the manufacture of integrated electric circuits The wafer is advanced in a first direction and is optically scanned in a second direction, transverse to the first direction, for recording intensities of light reflected normally from the wafer surface as a function of location on the scan line.
However, none of the above references teaches a method or system for obtaining whole-wafer dislocation (etch pit density) maps of a GaAs surface.

Method and system for automated measurement of whole-wafer etch pit density in GaAs

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


An electrorheological fluid wherein the discrete phase comprises a layered mixed metal hydroxide of the formulae: EQU Li.sub.m D.sub.d T(OH).sub.(m+2d+3+na) A.sub.a.sup.n and EQU Mg.sub.x Al.sub.y (OH).sub.z. and the continuous phase is a low dielectric fluid. The layered mixed metal hydroxides may be functionalized with an aliphatic carboxylic acid or with the reaction product of a clay and an amine salt to provide a more dispersible particulate phase. The electrorheological fluids have improved thermal stability and provide a strong response to low electric field strengths while requiring a low concentration of layered mixed metal hydroxide component.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrorheological fluids, i.e. fluids which exhibit a significant change in flow properties when exposed to an electric field. These fluids are also known as "electric field responsive fluids," "electro-viscous fluids" or "jammy fluids."
2. Background
Early studies of electrorheological fluids (ERFs) were performed by W. M. Winslow who demonstrated that certain suspension of solids (the "discrete," "dispersed" or "discontinuous" phase) in liquids (the "continuous" phase) show large, reversible electrorheological effects. These effects are generally as follows: in the absence of an electric field, electrorheological fluids exhibit Newtonian flow properties; specifically, the shear stress (applied force per unit area) is directly proportional to the shear rate applied (relative velocity per unit thickness). When an electric field is applied, a yield stress phenomenon appears and no shearing takes place until the shear stress exceeds a minimum yield value which increases with increasing field strength, i.e. the fluid appears to behave like a Bingham plastic. This phenomenon appears as an increase in apparent viscosity of several, and indeed many, orders of magnitude.
Electrorheological fluids change their characteristics very rapidly when electric fields are applied or released, typical response times being on the order of 1 millisecond. The ability of electrorheological fluids to respond rapidly to electric signals make them uniquely suited for use as elements in electro-mechanical devices. Often, the frequency range of a mechanical device can be greatly expanded by using an electrorheological fluid element rather than an electro-mechanical element having a response time which is limited by the inertia of moving mechanical parts. Therefore, electrorheological fluids offer important advantages in a variety of mechanical systems, particularly in those which require a rapid response between electronic controls and mechanical devices.
A range of devices have been proposed to take advantage of the electrorheological effect. Because of the potential for providing a rapid response interface between electronic controls and mechanical devices, it has been suggested that these fluids be applied in a variety of mechanical systems such as electro-mechanical clutches, fluid-filled engine mounts, high speed valves with no moving parts, and active dampers for vibration control, among others.
A wide range of combinations of liquids and suspended solids have demonstrated electrorheological effects. The basic ingredients of prior art electrorheological fluids are fine dielectric particles, the surfaces of which typically contain adsorbed water or some other surfactant or both, suspended in a non-polar dielectric fluid having a permittivity of less than that of the particle and a high breakdown strength. As used herein, the term "dielectric" refers to substances having very low electrical conductivity. Such substances have conductivities of less than 1.times.10.sup.-6 mho per centimeter. These are general system requirements and accordingly a variety of systems have been found to demonstrate electrorheological effects.
While a number of theories have been proposed to explain the electrorheological effect, a comprehensive theory explaining all of the observed phenomenon has not yet been developed. However, those of ordinary skill in the art are aware that certain system parameters affect the electrorheological response of any given electrorheological fluid. These parameters include, amongst others, the size and concentration of the particles (or discrete phase), the polarizability of the particles, the aspect ratio of the particles in the electric field, the particle surface area, the particle solubility or dispersibility in the continuous phase, the particle porosity and adsorbed moisture, presence of surface activators and surfactants, the rate of shear, the electrorheological fluid temperature and the strength o the applied electric field.
While it is known that the continuous phase should be hydrophobic, experimental evidence suggests that the electrorheological effect is related to water adsorbed to the solid particles or discrete phase. Consequently, early and, indeed, many currently proposed electrorheological fluids include adsorbed water in the discrete phase. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,788 to Stangroom et al relates to electrorheological fluids comprised of a water-containing polymer such as phenol-formaldehyde polymer as the discrete phase and an oleaginous hydrophobic fluid as the continuous phase. It is specified that a discrete phase content of 25-35% by volume is preferred. However, the electrorheological effect of these fluids using polymers as the discrete phase is limited by the extent of polarizability of the polymeric molecules, the aspect ratio of the polymer in the electric field, the particle size of the polymer, its surface area and the dispersibility of the polymer in the continuous phase.
The scope for practical application of adsorbed water-dependent electrorheological fluids is, however, limited since many devices in which such fluids may be of use are more desirably operated at relatively high operating temperatures and relatively high electric field strengths.
Some efforts have been directed toward developing electrorheological fluids which do not rely upon the presence of adsorbed or free water and which require relatively low electric field strengths. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,407 to Carlson discloses an electrorheological fluid which includes (1) a dispersed particulate phase of a polarizable solid material which conducts current along only one of its three axes; and (2) a continuous phase of a dielectric liquid. The Carlson electrorheological fluid operates in the absence of free water and is therefore suitable for use at temperatures at which water-containing electrorheological fluids cannot operate because of the evaporation of the water. The electrorheological fluid is also said to require a relatively low electric field strength. The preferred polarizable solid material is lithium hydrazine sulfate. However, a "stabilizer" is necessary to suspend the lithium hydrozinium sulfate which otherwise tends to settle out in the continuous phase. In the absence of this stabilizer, the lithium hydrozinium sulfate-based electrorheological fluid forms a heavy, flocculated grease. When too much stabilizer is added, the mixture separates into two layers: a sediment layer containing the lithium hydrozinium sulfate and a clear layer. While it is not clear from the Carlson patent, it is known that surfactants generally increase fluid conductivity resulting in resistive heating of the solution which reduces the electrorheological effect.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,914 to Filisko et al discloses an electrorheological fluid which may be used at temperatures in excess of 100.degree. C. (typically about 120.degree. C.) which includes (1) a non-conductive liquid phase; and (2) a crystalline zeolite particulate phase. The preferred zeolite is of the formula: EQU M.sub.x/n [(AlO.sub.2).sub.x (SiO.sub.2).sub.y ].wH.sub.2 O
where M is a metal cation or mixture of cations of valence n; x and y are integers and y/x is from about 1 to about 5; and w is a variable. The zeolites of Filisko are dried under vacuum at between about 250.degree. to 350.degree. C. and are not entirely water-free but the residual water does not evolve at operating temperatures. The examples indicate the use of the zeolite in concentrations of 10 and 16 g per 20 ml of liquid phase.
A recent patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,251 to Stangroom, discloses an electrorheological fluid which includes a hydrophobic liquid component and a hydrophilic solid or discrete component. The liquid component is a fluorosilicone of average molecular weight in the range 200-700, while the preferred solid component is either a starch or silica gel. It may be an organic polymer having free or partially salified acid groups, a homo or copolymer of a monosaccharide or an alcohol, a wholly or partially salified copolymer of phenol and an aldehyde. Regardless of the nature of the solid component, the solid component should comprise from about 20 to about 60% of the electrorheological fluid by volume.
There yet exists a need for an electrorheological fluid that will operate at the relatively high temperatures encountered in commercial applications, while requiring a low electric field strength and wherein the discrete phase is present in low concentration.

Layered mixed metal hydroxides in electrorheological fluids


Provided is a method where a power management apparatus (a) acquires, from a server managed by a manufacturer of an electronic appliance, a public key paired with a secret key that the electronic appliance and the server hold, (b) generates a ciphertext by generating a random number and encrypting the random number by the public key, and (c) transmits the ciphertext to the electronic appliance and the server, where the electronic appliance (d) restores the random number by decrypting the ciphertext transmitted in (c), (e) causes an electrical part to operate, based on the random number, and (f) transmits to the server the value of current flowing through the electrical part, and where the server (g) restores the random number by decrypting the ciphertext transmitted in (c), (h) calculates the value of current to flow through the electrical part based on the random number, and (i) compares values of current.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an appliance authentication system, and a method of controlling power supply.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a technology called smart grid has been gaining attention. The smart grid is a technological framework to realize efficient power usage by constructing a new transmission network having a communication channel along with the transmission network and using this intelligent transmission network. The background idea of the smart grid is to realize efficient management of the amount of power use, swift handling of an incident when such an incident occurs, remote control of the amount of power use, distributed power generation using power generation facilities outside the control of a power company, or charging management of an electric vehicle. Particularly, effective utilization of in-house power generating stations using renewable energy by ordinary households or operators other than power companies and charging management of various electric vehicles typically including electric cars have been attracting considerable attention. Incidentally, renewable energy is energy generated without using fossil fuel.
Power generated by ordinary households or operators other than power companies is used by power generation operators. Remaining power after use by the power generation operators is currently purchased by power companies. However, purchasing power supplied from power generation facilities outside the control of a power company is a heavy burden to the power company. For example, amount of power supplied from photovoltaic power generation facilities depends on the weather. Moreover, amount of power supplied from in-house power generating stations of ordinary households depends on power use of ordinary households that largely changes day by day. Thus, it is difficult for power companies to receive stable power supply from power generation facilities outside the control of power companies. For the above reason, it may become difficult for power companies to purchase power in the future.
Thus, a home battery initiative that uses power generated by power generation facilities outside the control of power companies after temporarily storing the power in batteries has recently been gaining attention. For example, a method of using power generated by photovoltaic power generation facilities by storing such power in batteries and making up for shortages in the night or when the weather is bad is considered. Furthermore, a method of limiting amount of power received from a power company in accordance with the battery storage amount or using power stored in batteries in the daytime when power rates are higher by storing power, in batteries, supplied by a power company in the night when power rates are lower are considered. Also, batteries can store power as DC, which makes DCem MaAC conversion or ACem MaDC conversion during transmission unnecessary so that losses during conversion can be reduced.
Thus, various expectations regarding power management mingle with one another amid the smart grid initiative. To realize such power management, the smart grid initiative is premised on having a communication channel along with a transmission network. That is, exchanging information about power management by using this intelligent transmission network is assumed. However, in a region where a communication infrastructure is already built, instead of using a transmission network as a communication channel, information about power management may be exchanged by using a network constructed by the deployed communication infrastructure. That is, what is important in the smart grid initiative is how to efficiently manage power generation facilities and storage facilities that are not uniformly managed.
For example, JP-A-2008-109849 discloses a technology of detecting, for a plurality of electronic appliances, a current waveform of current consumed by each electronic appliance as a feature, and transmitting the feature to a server. Furthermore, a technology is disclosed according to which the server that received the feature compares the received feature and a feature registered in advance in a database and identifies each electronic appliance. The feature described in the above patent document is a change in current consumption, an average value, a peak value, an effective value, a crest factor, a form factor, a settling time of current change, a conduction time, a peak position, a time difference between a peak position of a power supply voltage and a peak position of current consumption, or a power factor. When using the technology described in the above patent document, each electronic appliance can be identified more reliably than when relying on authentication.

Appliance authentication system, and method of controlling power supply


A system and method for compiling includes, for a parallelizable code portion of an application stored on a computer readable storage medium, determining one or more variables that are to be transferred to and/or from a coprocessor if the parallelizable code portion were to be offloaded. A start location and an end location are determined for at least one of the one or more variables as a size in memory. The parallelizable code portion is transformed by inserting an offload construct around the parallelizable code portion and passing the one or more variables and the size as arguments of the offload construct such that the parallelizable code portion is offloaded to a coprocessor at runtime.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a compiler, and more specifically to an optimizing compiler for many-core coprocessors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many core processors, such as the Intel™ Many Integrated Core (MIC), are aimed at accelerating multi-core high performance computing (HPC) applications. Legacy applications can be compiled and executed on MIC by selectively inserting Language Extensions for Offload (LEO) keywords in the application code identifying parallel code portions to be offloaded to the MIC coprocessor. The goal is to improve overall application performance by taking advantage of the large number of cores on MIC (for multithreading) and the wide single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) units (for vectorization). However, porting legacy applications to the MIC architecture may involve manually identifying highly parallel code portions and corresponding data transfers, which may require significant developer effort and experimentation to maximize performance.

Compiler for X86-based many-core coprocessors


In a jet engine having a plug nozzle and a plug extending rearwardly from the nozzle exit, the improvement comprising a plug having successive cross sections spaced apart rearwardly of the nozzle exit, the cross sections transitioning from circular or near circular at the exit plane defined at the nozzle exit, to progressively non-circular, rearwardly.

A need exists for aircraft engine propulsion nozzles with reduced acoustic noise signatures for low speed operations around airports and the surrounding community. Recently more stringent FAR36 Stage 4 regulations for community noise standard were enabled which further restrict allowable noise emissions from aircraft. The major source of noise from aircraft is the high speed jet emanating from the exhaust nozzles of turbofan engines. Past experimental work established the potential for high radius plug nozzles to reduce jet noise with relatively modest reductions in thrust efficiency. See "Initial Results of a Porous Plug Nozzle for Supersonic Jet Noise Suppression", by Maestrello, NASA TM-78802, 1978, and "Jet Noise Suppression by Porous Plug Nozzles" by Bauer, Kibens, and Wlezian, NASA Contractor report 3613, 1982.
A high radius plug nozzle consists typically of a circular annulus outer ring 10 on the nacelle exit surrounding a concentric circular inner "plug" shape 11 of smaller diameter, as illustrated in FIG. 1. The exhaust flows out the gap 12 between inner and outer surfaces, with the inner plug lengthwise extending surface generally being several plug diameters in length.
"High radius" refers to a relatively high ratio of the radius of the inner plug relative to the outer cowl radius at the exit plane 13. A high radius plug features a relatively large plug and thin exit annular opening. One of the phenomena leading to reduced noise relative to a simple circular nozzle is the greater shear area relative to the thickness of the annular jet, leading to shorter mixing length between the high speed jet and the relatively lower speed external flow (due aircraft flight speed) passing around the outside of the nozzle and joining at the exit plane. Much of the acoustic work on plug nozzles has focused on "porous" plugs which feature a hollow plug drilled with arrays of small holes, this to suppress "screech" tones associated with shock cells of high pressure ratio supersonic aircraft nozzles. Test results, have also showed significant noise reductions with solid plugs at the lower pressure ratios associated with subsonic aircraft.
Some recent work on jet acoustics has focused on inducing non-circular shaping of the exhaust plumes of simple (non-plug) nozzles, such as by two-dimensional (2-D) rectangular or elliptical cross-sections, or by cutting the nozzle along an angled plane not normal to the direction of flow—a "bevel nozzle". It has been shown that under favorable circumstances elongating the cross-section of the plume behind these designs can produce a directivity pattern to the noise emissions, typically being reduced in the direction of the elongation of the plume.

Jet nozzle plug with varying, non-circular cross sections


An isolated nucleic acid construct including a nucleic acid molecule encoding a light-labile, phytochrome A, a light-inducible promoter which is 5′ to the nucleic acid molecule encoding a light-labile, phytochrome A, and a terminator region which is 3′ to the nucleic acid molecule encoding a light-labile, phytochrome A is disclosed. Methods for regulating a plant's canopy architecture and regulating a plant's seed yield, which involve transgenic plants or transgenic plant seeds including an isolated nucleic acid construct according to the present invention, are also disclosed.

Crop productivity per unit area is a function of both available resources and how those resources are partitioned. The relative distribution of energies to different portions of the growing plant determines the proportion of useful biomass in the crop. This is referred to as the "harvest index". The pattern of resource allocation is plastic and can be regulated in response to changing environmental conditions, such as light and nutrient availability. However, adaptive competition strategies that have evolved through natural selection may be at odds with the agronomic performance of cultivated plants. The response exhibited by plants to competing vegetation has been termed "shade-avoidance", and is characterized by increased stem elongation, decreased leaf expansion, and precocious reproductive development. Smith, H., "Physiological and Ecological Function Within the Phytochrome Family," Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol.—Plant Mol. Biol. 46:289-315 (1995). The onset of shade avoidance is triggered by changes in the light environment caused by surrounding vegetation. Full sunlight contains equal fluxes of red light ("R") and far-red light ("FR"). Holmes et al., "The Function of Phytochrome in Plants Growing in the Natural Environment," Nature 254:512-514 (1975). However, when light filters through a crop canopy, the majority of R is either reflected or absorbed. Cumming, B., "The Dependence of Germination on Photoperiod, Light Quality and Temperature in Chenopodium sp.," Can. J Bot. 41:1211-1233 (1963). As a consequence, the ratio of R:FR falls from approximately 1 in incident sunlight, to approximately 0.2 at ground level. Holmes et al., "The Function of Phytochrome in Plants Growing in the Natural Environment," Nature 254:512-514 (1975). Plants use this change in R:FR ratio to monitor the proximity of local vegetation. Holmes et al., "The Function of Phytochrome in Plants Growing in the Natural Environment," Nature 254:512-514 (1975); Holmes et al., "The Function of Phytochrome in the Natural Environment IV, Light Quality and Plant Development," Photochem. Photobiol. 25:551-557 (1977). Although plants possess a number of photoreceptor systems that might mediate neighbor perception, genetic and physiological analyses have demonstrated that changes in R:FR ratio are primarily detected by members of the phytochrome family. Quail et al., "Phytochromes: Photosensory Perception and Signal Transduction," Science 268:675-680 (1995); Smith, H., "Phytochromes and Light Signal Perception by Plants—An Emerging Synthesis," Nature 407:585-591 (2000); Nagy et al., "Phytochromes Control Photomorphogenesis by Differentially Regulated, Interacting Signaling Pathways in Higher Plants," Annu. Rev. Plant Biol. 53:329-355 (2002).
The phytochromes are the best characterized family of photoreceptors, mediating many of the plant responses to changes in their light environment. Quail, P., "Phytochrome Photosensory Signaling Networks," Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 3:85-93 (2002). In Arabidopsis thaliana, the phytochrome family consists of five genes: phytochrome A ("PHYA"), phytochrome B ("PHYB"), phytochrome C ("PHYC"), phytochrome D ("PHYD"), and phytochrome E ("PHYE"). Clack et al., "The Phytochrome Apoprotein Family in Arabidopsis is Encoded by Five Genes: The Sequences and Expression of PHYD and PHYE," Plant Mol. Biol. 25:413-427 (1994). In grasses, including rice, the family consists of only three members: PHYA, PHYB and PHYC. Dehesh et al., "PHYB is Evolutionarily Conserved and Constitutively Expressed in Rice Seedling Shoots," Mol. Gen. Genet. 225:305-313 (1991); Mathews et al., "The Phytochrome Gene Family in Grasses (Poaceae): A Phylogeny and Evidence That Grasses Have a Subset of the Loci Found in Dicot Angiosperms," Mol. Biol. Evol. 13:1141-1150 (1996). The basis of phytochrome action is the reversible photoconversion between a red light absorbing form ("Pr") and a far-red absorbing form ("Pfr"). Quail, P., "Phytochrome Photosensory Signaling Networks," Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 3:85-93 (2002). Although this mechanism is common to all phytochromes, genetic analyses in Arabidopsis have shown that PHYA and PHYB have both distinct and overlapping roles during plant development. Whitelam et al., "Phytochrome A Null Mutants of Arabidopsis Display a Wild-type Phenotype in White Light," Plant Cell 5:757-768 (1993); Nagatani et al., "Isolation and Initial Characterization of Arabidopsis Mutants that are Deficient in Phytochrome A," Plant Physiol. 102:269-277 (1993).
Functional divergence between PHYA and PHYB is due, in part, to differences in Pfr stability. Quail, P., "Phytochrome Photosensory Signaling Networks," Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 3:85-93 (2002). PHYA is rapidly degraded following conversion of Pr to Pfr, and it is most abundant prior to de-etiolation. Clough et al., "Phytochrome Degradation," Plant Cell Environ. 20:713-721 (1997). In contrast, PHYB is relatively light stable in both Pr and Pfr forms, and accumulates as the principal phytochrome in mature plants. Wagner et al., "Overexpression of Phytochrome B Induces a Short Hypocotyl Phenotype in Transgenic Arabidopsis," Plant Cell 3:1275-1288 (1991). PHYB mutants of Arabidopsis show a weak response to reductions in the R:FR ratio, and PHYB has been assigned a major role in the induction of the shade avoidance response. Whitelam et al., "Retention of Phytochrome-mediated Shade Avoidance Responses in Phytochrome-deficient Mutants of Arabidopsis, Cucumber, and Tomato," J. Plant Physiol. 139:119-125 (1991).
In view of the light-labile nature of PHYA, one of the more surprising results of genetic analyses has been the demonstration that PHYA is required for the normal development of light-grown plants. Johnson et al., "Photoresponses of Light-grown PHYA Mutants of Arabidopsis," Plant. Physiol. 105:141-149 (1994). Interestingly, PHYA plays a role in the regulation of plant architecture that appears to be antagonistic to that of PHYB. In a characterization of seedling growth, PHYA mutants of Arabidopsis displayed an exaggerated response to a reduction in the R:FR ratio, while transgenic tobacco plants expressing high levels of an oat PHYA displayed reduced sensitivity to changes in the R:FR ratio. Casal, J., "Phytochrome A Enhances the Promotion of Hypocotyl Growth Caused by Reductions in Levels of Phytochrome B in its Far-red-light-absorbing Form in Light-grown Arabidopsis thaliana," Plant Physiol. 110:965-973 (1996). In contrast, PHYA mutants of japonica rice (Nipponbare) did not show noticeable morphological changes in mature rice plants even though the expression pattern of chlorophyll a/b-binding proteins ("CAB") and small subunit of the Rubisco ("RbcS") was slightly altered. Takano et al., "Isolation and Characterization of Rice Phytochrome A Mutants," Plant Cell 13:521-534 (2001). Similarly, overexpression of rice PHYA partially complemented PHYB deficiency in Arabidopsis, but did not restore responses to low R:FR ratio. Halliday et al., "Overexpression of Rice Phytochrome A Partially Complements Phytochrome B Deficiency in Arabidopsis," Planta 207:401-409 (1999). Thus, precise roles for PHYA and PHYB in regulating mature plant development have been difficult to ascertain.
In recent years, shade avoidance has become a target of genetic modification of plants with the expectation that a reduction in the response may have positive effects upon yield. Based upon the characterization of light-signaling in Arabidopsis, these attempts have aimed to use the transgenic over-expression of PHYA to inhibit the action of PHYB. Clough et al., "Expression of a Functional Oat Phytochrome A in Transgenic Rice." Plant Physiol. 109:1039-1045 (1995); Robson et al., "Genetic Engineering of Harvest Index in Tobacco Through Overexpression of a Phytochrome Gene," Nat. Biotechnol. 14:995-998 (1996). Clough et al. successfully expressed an oat PHYA in rice under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter, and detected a four-fold increase in total phytochrome activity in light-grown transgenic lines. However, under standard growth conditions, the phenotype of mature transgenic rice plants was indistinguishable from that of non-transgenic plants. Clough et al. concluded that a larger increase in the level of PHYA would be required to significantly alter the phenotype of the transgenic rice or that the japonica rice (Gulfinont) used in their study may be insensitive to increased PHYA levels.
Rice is the staple food for more than half of the world's population and therefore, stands as the world's most agronomically important crop. Indica rice varieties, including aromatic rices, represent 80% of rice grown worldwide. Aromatic rice varieties, including Basmati rice, are characterized by exquisite aroma and grain quality. Rani et al., "Current Status and Future Prospects for Improvement of Aromatic Rices in India," in Chaudhary et al., eds., Specialty Rices of the World: Breeding Production and Marketing, Science Publishers, Inc., Enfield, N.H., USA, pp. 49-78 (2000), and receive a premium price in global agricultural markets. Bhasin, V., "India and the Emerging Global Rice Market," in Singh et al., eds., Aromatic Rices, Science Publishers, Inc., Enfield, N.H., USA, pp. 257-276 (2000).
To date, however, it has been difficult to improve traditional Basmati cultivars into high yielding "elite" Basmati evolved lines by conventional rice breeding. This is mainly due to the complex nature of quality traits and the association of undesirable traits of Basmati, such as its tall stature, low yield, weak-stem and droopy leaves, sensitivity to photoperiod, and poor response to fertilizer. Khush et al., "Developing Basmati Rices with High Yield Potential," in Chaudhary et al., eds., Specialty Rices of the World: Breeding Production and Marketing, Science Publishers, Inc., Enfield, N.H., USA, pp. 49-78 (2000).; Rani et al., "Current Status and Future Prospects for Improvement of Aromatic Rices in India," in Chaudhary et al., eds., Specialty Rices of the World: Breeding Production and Marketing, Science Publishers, Inc., Enfield, N.H., USA, pp. 49-78 (2000). Hence, the development of genetically engineered Basmati plants with improved agronomic characteristics presents a current challenge in crop biotechnology.
The present invention is directed to overcoming these and other deficiencies in the art.

Transgenic expression of a phytochrome a gene


An air tool includes a housing containing an air motor with a shaft rotatable about a longitudinal axis and connectable to an implement for working the surface of a workpiece. Power handle and idle handles have upper and lower ends connected to the housing at angularly spaced locations. Air power is supplied to the motor by an air passage extending through the power handle to an intake at the top of the housing. The upper and lower connections of the handles to the housing have axes extending generally perpendicular to each other and vibration insulators prevent metal to metal contact with the housing. One of the vibration insulators also is used in sealing against the loss of power air before entering the motor. Between their upper and lower ends, the handles are slanted at an angle of about fifteen degrees (15.degree.) relative to the axis of the tool.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to air powered tools and is primarily concerned with an improvement in the arrangement for the mounting of handles on the housing of an air powered tool such as a grinder.
2. Background Information
The maneuverability of hand-held air powered tools such as grinders has popularized their use for a wide variety of production tasks for both large and small products. Some grinders are termed vertical grinders. A conventional vertical grinder includes a housing containing a pneumatically driven motor with a vertical power shaft serving as the spindle carrying a grinding wheel. One such grinder is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,530, wherein a pair of horizontal handles are attached to a cast housing. Pneumatic power is supplied to drive the air motor by way of a power air passage having one portion extending through one of the handles and a second portion cast into the housing. The portion of the passage through the housing connects with an intake opening to the motor at the top of the housing. More recently, grinders such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,967 have been equipped with a guard completely surrounding the grinding wheel at the rear of the housing beneath the handles and having an open front area.
Under most service use conditions, the operator of a vertical grinder of the foregoing type positions the grinding wheel so that it is tilted slightly out of the surface plane of the workpiece with the forward peripheral edge of the wheel along the open front of the guard performing the majority of the work. The surface to be worked may be in any angular position from horizontal, to vertical to directly overhead of the operator.
Of importance to the versatility of the tool is that it provide a wide latitude and freedom of postures from which it can be easily operated. Moreover, it is of specific importance to the speed, quality and quantity of work performed using such grinders that the effort required of the operator in holding the grinder in any working position, even for extended periods of time, be kept to a minimum and that factors tending to fatigue an operator be eliminated if not reduced substantially wherever possible.


A method of parallel hash-based data compression comprising generating a hash value based on one or more original input data bytes of an incoming data stream using a processor, looking up, by the processor, a hash head comprising a first potential match location identified by the hash value and looking up, by the processor, at least one additional potential match location in a hash chain that comprises a linked list of potential match locations starting with a location indexed by the hash head. The method further comprises checking, by the processor, the at least one potential match location of the hash chain for one or more valid matches in a history buffer random access memory (RAM) and outputting, by the processor, a length and distance pair if a valid match is detected or the original input data byte if a match is undetected.

1. Technical Field
Aspects of this document relate generally to the fields of data compression and decompression.
2. Background Art
Existing specialized content addressable memory (CAM)-based architecture has traditionally been used for searching for optimal matches among historical data in data compression engines. This architecture has allowed every possible match to be tracked to find the longest match; however, one drawback of such a system is that it doesn't scale well with larger history sizes and causes routing problems, particularly in FPGA's.
The general concept of a hash-based compression architecture is also known in software compression engines as well as hash-based compression hardware. A hashing algorithm typically looks only at one potential match at a time and has to evaluate several potential matches to determine which potential match is the best one. To improve the speed of this process the search ends when a "good enough" match is found. This results in variable throughput based on the number of potential matches searched and the data being compressed.
The complexity of Lempel-Ziv (LZ) compression lies in searching for repeated strings in a stream of data. This search has traditionally been time consuming in software development and resource-intensive in terms of hardware needed. U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,532 provides one such example of CAM based data compression, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

System and method for parallel hash-based data compression


A strain measurement device to assess the integrity of a structural repair to a surface comprises a detector, a processor, and a memory module coupled to the processor. The memory module comprises logic instructions stored in a computer readable medium which, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to use the detector to obtain a first strain measurement from an external strain indicator, use the detector to obtain a second strain measurement from the measurement sensor after at least one stress test is applied to the structural repair, and generate a signal when a difference between the first strain measurement and the second strain measurement exceeds a threshold.

The subject matter described herein relates to the structural repair of vehicles, and more particularly to a patch load indicator which may be used to assess the integrity of a repair on a surface of a vehicle.
Surface skins of vehicles, e.g., aircraft, watercraft, and automobiles, may require periodic repair for in-service damage. For example, aircraft may experience small stress cracks near rivet holes or along seams of connecting panels. Similarly, panels may be cracked by impact damage from birds or other airborne articles. Small cracks may be repaired with temporary patches which are positioned over the crack. Accordingly, systems and methods to assess the integrity of a repair on a surface of a vehicle may find utility.


Logical processors/hardware contexts are assigned to different jobs/threads in a multithreaded/multicore environment. There are provided a number of different sorting algorithms, from which one is periodically selected on the basis of whether the present algorithm is giving satisfactory results or not. The period is preferably a super-context interval. The different sorting algorithms preferably include a software/OS priority. A second sorting algorithm may include sorting according to hardware performance measurements. The judgement of satisfactory performance is preferably based on the difference between a desired number of time quantum attributed per super-context switch interval to each job/thread and a real number of time quantum attributed per super-context switch interval to each job/thread.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the scheduling Jobs in a multitask operating system.
2. Description of Related Art
In the last decade microarchitecture design innovations such as speculation and out-of-order superscalar execution dramatically improved microprocessor efficiency and accordingly performance gains. One such innovation is the Multi-core/multi-threaded on a chip which allows multiple cores to be integrated on a single chip with different levels of sharing chip resources such as memory sub-system known as chip cache memories. In multi-core/multi-thread processors, an Operating system is used to schedule multiple jobs/threads to run concurrently on the underlying platform of multiple logical processors, each on a logical processor. In order to efficiently share the machine resources (specifically the cache system among multiple jobs/threads) an OS job scheduler should be optimized.
Jobs/threads may share machine resources either constructively or destructively based on many factors. Choosing the best set of jobs to share chip resources is a vital step to machine performance and hardware resource utilization. A naive job scheduling will result in inefficient resource allocation, poorly utilized machine resources, and as a result, sub-optimal machine throughput. The dominant factor in all of the job scheduling proposed is to schedule the best candidate applications for using the underlying hardware. The measure of success for a job scheduling should not only take into account the machine throughput but also should avoid job starvation. In reality, applications running concurrently are not equally important. Some applications may require hard deadlines to finish their tasks such as real time applications. OS designers have given the users many levels of priorities for their applications to define the importance of the running jobs. In single thread processors achieving the job/thread priorities is very simple and is achievable by simple time quantum sharing of the microprocessor. On the other hand achieving the same goal in multi-core/multi-threaded machines is not that trivial, given the significant level of sharing of the machine resources. One other solution to this problem is the one taken in Patent Application EP08172360.3 (Applicant's reference FR920080216), in which a comparable approach to the one invented here is taken but with different conditions and at a finer granularity level. In Patent Application EP08172360.3 (Applicant's reference FR920080216) sharing of the Fetch bandwidth of SMT processors is controlled using a thread selection and scheduling method. However, in Patent Application EP08172360.3 (Applicant's reference FR920080216) the assumption is that only a limited number of jobs/threads, running on the computer system, exist. This number should be less than or equal to the number of logical processors (hardware contexts) the processor could run/execute simultaneously. Modern OS kernels are built with time sharing capabilities to facilitate scheduling more jobs to run on the system than the hardware contexts. The OS kernel is in charge of taking the decision to context switch jobs/threads to share the hardware resources among so many jobs/threads running on the system. That means control fetch bandwidth utilization may not always be enough to control sharing of the machine resources, since the OS decisions to schedule jobs/threads concurrently to run on the system will directly affect machine throughput (given the high level of resource sharing in Multi-core/multi-threaded processors). Accordingly, OS job scheduling should use both machine performance/throughput measurements as well as software priority during its scheduling process.
In the article entitled Symbiotic Job scheduling with Priorities for a Simultaneous Multithreading Processor. Sigmetrics 2002 by Allan Snavely, Dean M. Tullsen, and Geoff Voelker [Allan], SMT processors could run in either single threaded or multithreaded (SMT) mode. The time quantum for each application, defined by its priority, is divided into two parts: one for the application to run with others in SMT mode and the second for the application to run alone to achieve its time quantum. There are at least two drawbacks for using this method. First, running an application in a single thread mode on an SMT machine for a full context switch period may result in a significant waste of the SMT machine resources that could be utilized by other threads/applications. A more fine grained mechanism is required to achieve both machine-efficient utilization as well as application priority. Second, the mechanism described to reduce the waste in machine resources relies on SOS (Sample, Optimize, Symbios) job scheduling which has scaling limitations.
Another solution to the thread priority problem in SMT processors is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 6,658,447. In the referenced disclosure, thread hardware execution heuristics are scaled based on each application OS priority. The success of the technique is highly dependent on the success in finding the appropriate scaling function as well as the simplicity of that function to be implemented in hardware to get cycle by cycle feedback information which is not guaranteed. Another drawback is that scaling may completely invert the hardware priority in favour of OS priority or vice versa. It could be argued that the dynamic change of the scaling functions could compensate for that effect but this will make it even harder to implement and run on a cycle by cycle basis. Also there is no guarantee that the high priority threads will actually achieve their assigned time quanta for hard deadline applications. In US2006/0184946 a method is implemented to strictly achieve the OS thread priority for two threads on a cycle by cycle basis without any consideration to the SMT machine performance or throughput.

International Business Machines Corporation


An electro-hydraulic power steering system for a vehicle includes a booster pump rotated by an electric motor, under control of a computer, as a function of a signal representing speed of the vehicle and a signal representing rate of steering wheel angle change. The computer generates the signal representing the rate of steering wheel angle change by computation from current supplied to the motor to control the booster pump.

The invention relates to an electro-hydraulic power steering system, for an automobile with a steering wheel, rotationally connected with a steering column, intended for determining the orientation of the steered wheels of the vehicle, through a steering device with an integrated hydraulic cylinder the system having a booster pump rotated by an electric motor controlled by a computer as a function of a signal representing the speed of the vehicle and a signal representing the rate of steering wheel angle change.
In known systems of this type, the signal representing the rate of steering wheel angle change is provided by an angle sensor. These known systems have the disadvantage that the presence of such a sensor considerably increases the cost of the system.

Electro-hydraulic power steering assist system for an automobile


Various embodiments include a method for verifying sensors for a sensor network including a reference sensor comprising: identifying a first sensor; locating the identified sensor; comparing a measured value recorded by the identified sensor to a measured value recorded at the same time and within a defined spatial environment using the reference sensor; determining a deviation of the measured value of the identified sensor from the measured value of the reference sensor; and assigning the sensor to precisely one of at least two categories depending on an amount of the deviation.

Sensor networks are used, for example, to capture data relating to the air quality, in particular in conurbations such as cities. There is, for example, an open data platform on the Internet www.luftdaten.info which can be used to map data. These data may be provided by self-constructed or officially installed sensors. This is an initiative by the company Büro für Gestalten/DE-natürlich Werben, domiciled in Stuttgart. The self-constructed sensors consist of inexpensively offered sensor construction kits which can be purchased from www.luftdaten.info. The initiative is therefore a solution which is based on as many users as possible purchasing the sensor construction kits in order to obtain a network of sensors which is as comprehensive as possible. The quality of the sensor network therefore depends on the purchasing behavior of the users. However, there is also a problem here since rather socially weaker residents of a conurbation, who can get involved to a lesser extent with the required investments, live, in particular, in problematic air pollution zones, for example.
A further problem is that the measurement accuracy of said sensor network is assessed to be fluctuating by the provider. Therefore, there is no claim to a particularly high degree of accuracy, as communicated by the provider itself. The evaluation of the data by means of databases and algorithms therefore does not provide any particularly accurate results.
Furthermore, there are commercial providers, for example the company Hawa Dawa. A network of specifically developed pollutant sensors for weather and traffic data is offered by said company. An appropriate investment can therefore produce comprehensive information relating to air quality in real time, but this solution depends, for example, on the municipal administration of a conurbation making greater investments in this network. The budget required for this is often not available.
In addition, the German Federal Environmental Agency, for example, also operates a number of calibrated measurement stations. The German Federal Environmental Agency cooperates with the state governments for this purpose. However, the density of these measurement stations is very low, with the result that measured values are mathematically interpolated between the measurement stations or are determined by means of model calculations. Although this approach is suitable for running nationwide evaluations, it is not possible to use it to locally exactly measure or predict the exact development of the air quality in conurbations.

Method for verifying sensors in a sensor network, and sensor network


A method of manufacturing a modular textile system includes dividing a textile web into a plurality of frames that define carpet tiles to be formed from the textile web, providing each frame with an indicium, and forming the textile web into a plurality of carpet tiles. The indicium may include at least one of a variously oriented indicium and a variously positioned indicium for indicating the orientation of each carpet tile in an installation.

Textile tiles, for example, carpet tiles, have been used in many floor covering applications due to their ease of installation. Traditionally, carpet tiles have been installed in a manner that seeks to mimic the appearance of a broadloom installation. Since carpet tiles are cut from a textile web, the tiles are typically installed monolithically, that is, with all of the tiles oriented in the same direction, usually the machine direction. To facilitate the installation, an indicium, for example, an arrow, may be printed on the back of each tile to indicate how the tiles should be oriented. The installer simply rotates each tile as needed so the arrows are pointing in the same direction.
Carpet tiles have also been designed with various patterns and designs that allow the tiles to be installed "randomly." As used herein, the term "random installation" generally refers to an installation technique in which each tile is oriented variably and indiscriminately with respect to an adjacent tile. For instance, in one exemplary random tile installation, the installer positions a first tile, and for each subsequent tile, the installer can choose one of four rotational positions (0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees) relative to the previous tile. After the tiles are arranged on the flooring surface, the installer is charged with reviewing the installation and reorienting any tiles that do not appear to have been laid randomly, based on the particular installer's perception. Unfortunately, by reconfiguring the tiles in this manner, some degree of true randomness of the installation is substituted by the judgment of the installer. Further, this step of reorienting tiles to create a more random "look" in the installer's view is both time-consuming and burdensome.
In some cases, the tiles may be provided with an arrow indicating the machine direction to assist the installer with rotating the tiles in a more "random" manner. However, if the installer focuses too much effort on trying to orient the arrows, and thereby the tiles, randomly, the installer may intentionally or inadvertently use a pattern of rotation, such that the resulting installation may not be random at all. Thus, there is a need for a method and system that provides a more truly random installation as compared with conventional tile systems, without placing a burden on the installer.

Random tile installation using non-random installation technique


A compound having a carbodiimide in its molecule is incorporated in a dental adhesive composition. With this composition, dental composite material can be firmly bonded to the enamel and dentin of a tooth, thereby avoiding formation of a gap which may otherwise cause secondary caries.

This invention relates to a dental adhesive composition for bonding acrylic resin to teeth and, more specifically, to a dental adhesive composition for restorative teeth and for bonding dental composite material (composite resin) to enamel and dentin. A bonding force with respect to dentin is particularly needed for restorative teeth.
With a conventional adhesive for bonding restorative composite resin to an enamel, a bonding strength higher than 100 kg/cm.sup.2 that meets clinical requirements well enough is obtained between an enamel and the restorative composite resin. This is true even when an enamel is treated by acid etching using phosphoric or citric acid, then washed with water and dried, and finally coated with a primer which is composed of a methacrylic ester monomer and a curing agent and shows no adhesion to the dentin. However, as only poor adhesion to a dentin is obtained by using the primer having no adhesion to the dentin, various dentin treatment solutions or primers considered to be adhesive have been proposed. For instance, Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-30768 describes a phosphoric ester compound as being adhesive to the dentin, but it fails to give the aforesaid high bonding strength, as measured by the present inventors.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 54-12338 discloses a functional monomer 4-methacryloxyethyl trimellitic anhydride (hereinafter 4META for short), and the "Journal of the Japan Society for Dental Apparatus and Materials", 23(61), pp. 29-32 (1982) teaches that when a dentin is treated with an aqueous solution of 10% citric acid and 3% ferric chloride and then restored with a restorative filler (4META-containing methyl methacrylate/tri-n-butyl borane/polymethyl methacrylate), a bonding strength of 12-18 Mpa is obtained. When measured by the present inventors, however, such a high bonding strength could not be obtained. Furthermore, when using a chemical polymerization type restorative composite resin made up of a redox initiating system of a tertiary amine-benzoyl peroxide, a problem will arise in connection with the reaction between the tertiary amine and 4META.
In view of the present state of the art where no clinically efficacious adhesive is obtained yet, as mentioned above, we have made an effort to achieve an adhesive which is not only improved in terms of its adhesion to a dentin but serves to reinforce a dentin as well, and so have accomplished the present invention.


Compositions having a mixture of lidocaine, prilocaine and tetracaine, or their pharmaceutically acceptable salts. A preferred composition includes the following components in the indicated approximate w/w percentages: 1.5% lidocaine base; 1.5% prilocaine base; 4% tetracaine base and water. In some implementations, also included may be about 10% methylpynrolidone; 2% dimethyl sulfoxide; 0.08% topical hyaluronidase; 1.5% guar gum; 1% polyoxyethylenesorbitan monolaurate; 0.5 polyoxyethylenesorbitan monooleate, and water to 100%. Such compositions exhibits a high concentration on skin, a deep anesthetic effect and a significantly more rapid onset of the anesthetic effect than comparable transdermal anesthetics.

Surgical techniques can only be performed after the highly sensitive nerve endings in the skin are anesthetized. Anesthetic agents are pharmacologically active agents that block nerve impulses conduction in sensory and motor nerve fibers when applied in therapeutically effective amounts. Their action is reversible, their use being followed by the complete recovery in nerve function with no evidence of structural damage to nerve fibers or cells.
To be effective, a topical anesthetic should contain sufficient concentration of the active agent to produce an anesthetic effect, it should penetrate intact skin sufficiently to deliver a therapeutic dose, it should exhibit a rapid onset of anesthetic action and have a prolonged anesthetic effect. Potency of anesthetics in clinical situations depends on both their ability to reach the nerve fibers and their intrinsic blocking activities. Factors such as nerve penetration, vascular absorption, and local tissue binding are all of them determinants for anesthetic potency.
Local anesthetics are traditionally injected into the desired site with a syringe. Most formulations of local anesthetics are aqueous solutions designed for injection into tissue, around nerves, or into the epidural spaces. The use of syringe is disadvantageous because the needle itself causes pain on penetration, the volume of anesthetic dissolution can cause stretching at the site (also causing pain), and furthermore preservatives contained in the aqueous dissolution can cause stinging at the wound site. Pain relief is especially important in the area of pediatrics, where even minimal pain may result in an anxious and uncooperative patient.
It is known the use of topical anesthetics. Transdermal delivery is advantageous over intravenous delivery because the former avoids risks associated with parenteral treatment and eliminates gastrointestinal adverse effects due to pharmaceutical active ingredients, preservatives, etc. However, the use of transdermal anesthetics (i.e. through the skin) is often problematic, and fluid and in gel compositions have often proven unsuccessful.
The amide of formula (I), known as lidocaine, has a melting point of 68-69° C. and it is the most commonly used local anesthetic, especially in the form of aqueous dissolutions of its hydrochloride, which are administered intravenously or topically, as jelly, ointment or spray (cf. U.S. Pat. No. 2,441,498). Unfortunately, when administered topically, these formulations are not effectively absorbed transdermally, but only through mucosal surfaces.

The amide of formula (II), known as prilocaine, is a local anesthetic agent which takes the form of crystalline needles having a melting point of 37-38° C. (cf. GB 839.943-A). Its hydrochloride is crystallized from ethanol and isopropyl ether and it is readily soluble in water. Unfortunately, methemoglobinaemia and cyanosis appear to occur more frequently with prilocaine than with other local anesthetics. Methemoglobinaemia is a disease state of the erythrocyte consisting in the formation of oxidized iron compound in the heme protein of the erythrocyte. Symptoms usually occur when doses of prilocaine hydrochloride exceed about 8 mg per kg body-weight although the very young may be more susceptible. This fact severely limits the size of the area to be anesthetized.
Enhancement of drug absorption through the skin has been a challenge for researchers for many years. Research has been also focused on finding effective topical formulations of an anesthetic which provide a rapid onset and a long duration of anesthesia. When applied onto intact skin, currently available topically used anesthetic preparations are generally ineffective or only partially effective.
One approach to the prolongation of anesthesia involves the combination of topical anesthetics with a vasoconstrictor, but also involves considerable adverse side effects. Another approach involves the combination of several anesthetic agents and different topical excipients (cf. e.g. EP 43.738-A, WO 9633706-A). In fact, at present, the most successful commercially available preparation for dermal anesthesia is the lidocaine-prilocaine cream named EMLA (a registered trademark in some countries) of Astra Lakemedel AB, Sweden (cf. U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,060). In some clinical tests, EMLA cream has been found preferable to lidocaine or to ethylchoride. EMLA is an oil-in-water emulsion in which the organic phase is an eutectic mixture of lidocaine and prilocaine bases (2.5% and 2.5% by weight) in water which is thickened with carbomer (Carbopol®). An eutectic mixture has a melting point lower than the one of any of its ingredients. EMLA cream is applied as a thick layer under an occlusive or semiocclusive dressing for inducing a rapid absorption through the skin.
A major inconvenience of EMLA is that its onset time for anesthesia is relatively long, approximately one hour or more. This onset time is not very practical for several clinical procedures. For more invasive procedures such as split skin graft harvesting, EMLA has to be applied at least two hours prior to surgical operation. Such delay is a problem for both patients and for medical staff, particularly in the area of pediatrics. Moreover, EMLA is formulated at pH 9.0 to incorporate the anesthetic agents in base form. The skin, which has an acidic pH (5 to about 5.5) is sensitive to such a high basic pH and significant skin irritation can occur. Dermal application of EMLA may cause a transient, local blanching followed by a transient, local redness or erythema. Another disadvantage of EMLA is that for deep penetrative effect it is necessary that the cream is applied under occlusive dressing.
There have been several attempts trying to improve EMLA cream. One example are topical anesthetic compositions which additionally include a vasodilator. A formulation including lidocaine base, prilocaine hydrochloride, dibucaine, a vasodilator and carrier is described in the patent application WO 01/54679-A. Another example is the topical anesthetic composition comprising an eutectic mixture of lidocaine and prilocaine in a lipophilic base described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,993,836. It has been reported that this anesthetic formulation has significantly more rapid onset than similar transdermal anesthetics, such as EMLA cream.
Tetracaine hydrochloride (amethocaine) is a local anesthetic of the ester type with formula (III) (cf. U.S. Pat. No. 1.889.645). There are many topical formulations in the market containing tetracaine hydrochloride, one of them is AMETOP of T.J. Smith & Nephew Limited, England (cf. GB 2.258.397-A) which contains 40 mg of active ingredient (4%, w/w), an aqueous gelling agent and a pharmaceutically acceptable salt.
Thus, it appears to be highly desirable to have a topical anesthetic composition which provides a rapid and deep anesthesia, with a high concentration on skin. In particular, it would be desirable to have a topical anesthetic with the benefits of lidocaine and prilocaine, but free of the above-described limitations associated therewith.

Anesthetic composition for topical administration comprising lidocaine, prilocaine and tetracaine


A process for preparing an optically active 3-hydroxybutanoic acid represented by formula (I): ##STR1## wherein: R.sup.1 represents a protective group of carboxylic acid, and. R.sup.2 represents a hydrogen atom; a lower alkyl group which may be substituted with a halogen atom; a lower alkoxy group; a phenyl group which may be substituted with a lower alkyl group or a lower alkoxy group; or a benzyloxy group which may be substituted with a lower alkyl group or a lower alkoxy group,. is disclosed, comprising asymmetrically hydrogenating a 3-oxobutanoic acid ester represented by formula (II): ##STR2## wherein R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are as defined above, in the presence of a ruthenium-optically active phosphine complex as a catalyst. The compound of formula (I) which is useful for synthesizing a 4-acetoxyazetidin-2-one derivative, a useful intermediate for obtaining penem antibiotics, can be prepared economically.

Penem antibiotics represented by thienamycin have attracted attention as medicines because of their broad antimicrobial spectra:
Various processes for preparing penem antibiotics have been reported, e.g., in Kametani, Heterocycles, Vol. 17, pp. 463-506 (1982) and Shibuya, Yuki Gosei Kaqaku Kvokai Shi (Journal of Organic Synthetic Chemistry), Vol. 41, pp. 62 (1983). Among the proposed processes, a process using a 4-acetoxyzetidin-2-one derivative represented by formula (VII): ##STR4## wherein R.sup.3 represents a hydrogen atom or a protective group for a hydroxyl group, as an intermediate is advantageous for obtaining various kinds of penem antibiotics in that the compound of formula (VII) exhibits reactivity with various nucleophilic agents.
Known processes for preparing the 4-acetoxyazetidin-2one derivative of formula (VII) include those disclosed in Tetrahedron Letters, Vol. 23, pp. 2293 (1982); Tetrahedron, Vol. 39, pp. 2399 (1983); ibid, Vol. 39, pp. 2505 (1983); JP-A-59-181254; JP-A-61-50964; and JP-A-63-45251(the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application").
However, these known processes must start with expensive raw materials, and it has therefore been demanded to develop an economical process.

Process for preparing optically active 3-hydroxybutanoic acid


Provided is a device for treatment of wounds using reduced pressure, which includes a pump, a gas barrier cover, a first compressible material which expands after compression, and a second material capable of absorbing wound fluids several times its own weight. The first and second materials are arranged inside the cover and form a reservoir connected to the pump. The device also includes an inlet for connecting the reservoir with a wound, a wound pad to be arranged in the wound cavity, and a sealing covering the wound and the wound pad. A third material with high liquid spreading capability is arranged around at least a major part of the first material, and the second material is in the form of at least one layer arranged outside the third material and separated from the first material by the third material.

Several methods are earlier known for treatment of difficult wounds, such as infected wounds, diabetes wound, pressure sore or deep wounds.
Drainage of for instance operation wounds or other liquid discharging wounds with the aid of negative pressure is a standard treatment that has been used for decades. An example of a manual suction pump for said use is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,952.
In said publication is described a pump in form of an elastically compressible body of an open-cell foam, preferably a polyurethane foam. Said body also serves as a canister for exudate drained from the wound. It is stated that the pump has a capacity to hold a negative pressure of 15-80 mmHg more than 48 hours. A drainage tube is arranged with a perforated end part in the wound cavity and via tube connected to the pump.
A similar device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,166. In the description of said publication is specifically stated that the negative pressure in addition to drain wound fluids from the wound also presses the edges of the wound together, thereby stimulating rapid tissue granulation and healing of the wound. The two mentioned publication thus teach that vacuum treatment of wounds stimulates the healing of the wounds.
The terms vacuum treatment, treatment at a reduced pressure and treatment with negative pressure are alternatively used in the literature. When using any of this terms in the present description the terms always concern treatment at pressure below normal atmospheric pressure.
Treatment of deep wounds have earlier also been performed by adding an irrigation liquid to the wound and then draining the injected liquid and pus and bacteria present in the wound before the irrigation. Examples of such devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,385,494 and 4,382,441.
Extensive investigations of the effect of continuous and intermittent treatment of wounds under negative pressure, i.e. pressure below atmospheric pressure, were performed in the 1980's at Russian institutes. One was able to establish that difficult and normally slow-healing wounds healed considerably faster with the aid of vacuum treatment compared with conventional treatment.
One was inter alia also able to show that treatment at a reduced pressure provides a significant antibacterial effect. Said Russian investigations are described in several articles in the Russian medical journal Vestnik Khirurgii. The relevant articles from said journal are:                1) Kostiuchenok et al, September 1986, pages 18-21.        2) Davydov et al, September 1986, pages 66-70.        3) Usupov et al, April 1987, pages 42-45.        4) Davydov et al, Oktober 1988, pages 48-52.        5) Davydov et al, Februari 1991, pages 132-135.
In an article by Chariker et al in the journal Contemporary Surgery, No. 34, June 1989 is stated that vacuum treatment stimulate tissue granulation and contraction of wounds, which with conventional treatment are very difficult to heal.
Vacuum treatment of wounds is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,880, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,645,081, 5,636,643, 6,855,135 B2 and WO 2006/025848 A2.
Hitherto known devices for vacuum treatment of wounds are not satisfactory in every respect.
There is a need for a device which works satisfactory several hours also when the pump is disconnected. It may be necessary to disconnect the pump for instance when the patient is performing an activity or when the patient is travelling. It is also an advantage if the device works and holds a sufficient reduced pressure when there is a malfunction of the pump.

Device for treatment of wound using reduced pressure


A zoom lens includes, in sequence from an object side to an image side along an optical axis, first to sixth lens groups respectively having positive, negative, positive, positive, negative, and positive refracting powers. The first lens group includes a reflecting member for bending the optical axis by substantially 90 degrees. The first and third lens groups remain stationary on the optical axis when the zoom lens zooms or focuses. Zooming is performed by moving the second, fourth, and fifth lens groups along the optical axis. Focusing is performed by moving the fourth lens group and/or the fifth lens group along the optical axis. Image shift is performed by moving the sixth lens group in a direction substantially perpendicular to the optical axis. The fourth lens group includes a single positive lens and a single negative lens.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel zoom lens and imaging device, and more specifically, to a technology for increasing the zoom ratio of a zoom lens using a so-called bending optical system to reduce the thickness in the direction of the optical axis of the incident light.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, imaging devices such as digital still cameras, which use solid-state imaging elements, have become popular. As digital still cameras become popular, they are expected to have a higher image quality. Demands are growing for digital still cameras having a particularly large number of pixels to have lenses for taking pictures, in particular, zoom lenses, having a good imaging performance to be used with solid-state imaging elements having a large number of pixels. Further, digital still cameras are expected to be small. Accordingly, compact and high-performance zoom lenses are desired. Some cameras have been further reduced in thickness by using a prism disposed between lenses to bend the optical axis of the optical system.
In addition, demands for a higher zoom ratio are strong. However, an increase in zoom ratio leads to degradation in image quality due to hand shake, which results from unstable holding of a thin camera.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-71993 discloses a zoom lens including five lens groups, namely, positive, negative, positive, positive, and negative lens groups, arranged in sequence from the object side to the image side. In the zoom lens disclosed therein, a fifth lens group is divided into two subgroups, namely, a negative lens subgroup and a positive lens subgroup. The positive lens subgroup is moved in a direction substantially perpendicular to the optical axis to shift images.