The present invention is a torque variator device of the type applicable to transmission shafts of a vehicle. The device is interconnected between its conductor and conducted ends. The device includes a conducting piece that conforms a header end that is run through by a plurality of radial throats that constitute the radial displacement guides of perspective articulate arms; a radially expandable set of articulated arms with articulation ends that are proximal to the connection base of the conducing piece; a conducted piece coupled to the conducted end of the transmission shaft and that, coaxially and proximally opposed to the conductor piece; a positional variator provided with radial displacement for the articulated arms; and a control means of the positional variator.

The present invention consists in a torque variator device which, applied to transmission shafts, allows varying the torque applied when said shafts are functioning; applied to differential gears of vehicles allows to vary the torque of a palier respecting the other palier.
There are different moments and circumstances in which the transmission shaft of a mechanism requires a greater torque than the used normally. Such is the case in the starting step of some mechanisms in which forces liable to overcome the tendency of the set at rest are required. This tendency becomes evident more acutely during the starting step, but, up to certain extent, it can become evident later during other steps of the normal regime. In these cases, the highest torque is tried to be achieved, delivering the least amount of energy possible.
These needs may be satisfied by means of the present toque variator device which is disposed interconnected between the conducting and conducted ends of the application shaft. It includes a conducting piece with radial throat that are used as guides to articulated arm components of a set radially expandable that, in its position of maximum expansion, allows to obtain the maximum torque.
In order to vary the torque, the device counts with a positional variator that, provided with control means, realizes the expansion or contraction of the expandable set. Thus, the torque is varied, which, through the conducted piece is delivered to the conducted end of the application shaft.
A typical case of application is in the paliers (bearings) of vehicles. As is known, these paliers are projected as from the output of the differential gear. In the curves of the road, the external wheel must travel a longer arch, the latter has the function of allowing the same to turn faster than the internal wheel. The drawback is that, in traditional differential gears, the external wheel that turns faster decreases its power allowing problems concerning stability and grip, particularly in difficult or badly maintained roads.
In order to limit this problem one turns to device such as the so called Torsen system which is based in a plurality of helicoidal screws disposed in the satellite pinions. Nevertheless, this system has its limitations as its wearing out gives place to blockage or skidding.
The so called viscous couplings are also employed, which are composed by an alignment of friction discs which are affixed one to another, being immersed in oil. In this case the wearing out or oil leaking produced to same abovementioned unwanted effects.
Instead, with the present torque variator device there is a solution for all these drawbacks, as, not only the mentioned wearing out is prevented, but also the torque of a palier may be varied with respect to the torque of the other, varying it according to the requirements of each wheel, particularly in the curves.
Thus, by means of the radial expansion of the expandable set, the articulated arms are shifted towards the periphery of the conducted piece, obtaining a greater toque over the conducted end of the wheel which is external in the curve. At the same time, by means of the contraction of the expandable set of the other palier, the torque of the internal wheel is decreased in the curve, thus obtaining an optimum functioning of the vehicle even on difficult roads.
On the other hand, the presence of control means as a pneumatic device allows to carry out the control an the operation of the device by means of any compatible commanding device, such as an electronic circuit drive.

San Martin 686, 7.degree.piso Of. "72" - 1004


Provided is a colored resin powder which can reproduce even high lightness and saturation and has spectral reflectance characteristic having a wide gamut. The colored resin powder includes a water-insoluble coloring matter compound represented by the following general formula (1) and a binder resin:

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a colored resin powder to be used in a recording process such as an electrophotographic process, an electrostatic recording process, a magnetic recording process, a toner jet process, or a liquid development process, and to a toner using the colored resin powder.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for an improvement in image quality along with increasing popularity of a color image. In a digital full color copying machine or printer, a color original image is subjected to color separation with filters for blue, green, and red colors, and latent images corresponding to the original image are then developed with developers for magenta, cyan, and black colors. Therefore, a coloring agent in the developer for each color has a large influence on image quality. In general, when a pigment is dispersed in various media, it is difficult to sufficiently micronize the pigment and to homogeneously disperse the pigment.
Out of color toners, a magenta toner is important for reproducing a skin color. In addition, a skin color tone in a portrait is a halftone, and hence excellent developability is also required. As a coloring agent for the magenta toner, there have been conventionally known a quinacridone-based coloring agent, a thioindigo-based coloring agent, a xanthene-based coloring agent, a monoazo-based coloring agent, a perylene-based coloring agent, and a diketopyrrolopyrrole-based coloring agent.
Further, when a dye is used as the coloring agent for the magenta toner, although a bright magenta color is exhibited at an initial stage, stability to light is low, and a variation in color tint after leaving to stand is large. Further, a clear image having high lightness is obtained in a pale color, but it is difficult to obtain a sufficient image density in a region having a deep color. Particularly in the case of mixing colors and reproducing red and blue as deep colors, a color development range is liable to become narrow. The xanthene-based coloring agent is a coloring agent satisfactory in color reproducibility and excellent in color tone. However, when the coloring agent is used in a solution state, its light fastness becomes remarkably poor, and thus various contrivances are required (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-255882 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-117536). Such magenta coloring agent is satisfactory in compatibility with a binder resin and light fastness and provides a magenta toner excellent in tribocharging characteristic and color tone in a fashion. However, there is a demand for a magenta toner having more additionally improved color tone, saturation, and electrophotographic characteristics in order to obtain an image which satisfies transparency and is more faithful to an original image.

Colored resin powder and toner using the colored resin powder

Abstract: in which in the general formula (1), R1 and R2 each independently represent an alkyl group, and R3 represents one of an alkyl group, an aryl group, and an alkoxy group.


An oscillator, generating multiple phases of clock signals having a uniform phase difference with a high precision by a simple configuration, includes a plurality of NAND circuits ND1 to ND8 having the same number of input terminals connected in a ring. Eight NAND circuits are connected, and an output node of each NAND circuit is connected to an input node of each NAND circuit up to the NAND circuit connected exactly two places, that is, the number of input terminals' worth of places, ahead.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oscillator.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the methods employed in digital phase-locked loop (PLL) circuits is to select the optimum pulse from generated multiple phases of clock signals and use it as an output signal of the PLL circuit. In this case, if a difference arises in the phase differences between clock signals forming the multiple phases of clock signals, jitter of the output signal ends up increasing in accordance with the magnitude of the difference. Therefore, it is demanded that the phase difference be made constant with a high precision.
Further, processing for the selection is realized by a digital circuit, but when the number of phases of the multi-phase clock signals is an odd number, the arithmetic operations to be executed in the digital circuit become complex, so a processing circuit having a large circuit size is considered needed.
On the other hand, there is a ring oscillator used as a general clock signal generation circuit. The ring oscillator is comprised of an odd number of inverters connected in a ring. If connecting an even number of inverters in a ring at this time, the circuit becomes stable as a whole in state, so there is no oscillation. The number of phases of the multiple phases of clock signals obtained in a ring oscillator comprised of an odd number of inverters connected as described above is an odd number, and the phase difference between clock signals output from each inverter becomes one period of the odd number.
Here, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 6-216721 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 7-283697 disclose oscillators each generating a plurality of signals having a phase difference of one period of the even number. However, these oscillators do not have symmetry in circuit configuration. At the same time, the number of pulses transmitted between devices forming the oscillators becomes one or two per unit period. From this, there is the problem that power supply noise is generated by fluctuation of the consumed current for every period in the oscillator, so a difference occurs in the phase difference between clock signals forming the multiple phases of clock signals.
By configuring the inverters as differential circuits, oscillation is also possible in a state with an even number of inverters connected. However, a ring oscillator using inverters as components is large in circuit size.


A device for securing one or a plurality of teeth to the alveolar bone (60) of a patient is disclosed. The device includes osseointegratable parts (80), each of which has a screw-threaded fixture part (2a), an intermediate part (6a) and a head part (44a) which is generally dome-shaped A bridge (48) which may support one or a plurality of teeth is arranged to co-operate with the osseointegratable part (80) by means of dimples (52) in the bridge engaging respective head parts (44a), the bridge being secured in position by respective screws (62). As an alternative to a one-piece osseointegratablc part (80), an osseointegratable part which comprises three components is also described. A method of securing one or a plurality of teeth to the alveolar bone, a method of cosmetic treatment and a method of manufacturing parts of the device are also described.

It is well known to secure one or a plurality of teeth by means of an implant osseointegrated into the alveolar bone of a patient. One commercially available system, known as the Branemark System (Trade Mark), is shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying diagrammatic drawings. Referring to FIG. 1, the system includes a titanium fixture 2 which is externally screw-threaded and which includes an inner channel 4 which is also screw-threaded. The fixture 2 is positioned within a threaded bore, formed in the alveolar bone, and allowed to osseointegrate over a period of about six months. In due course, an abutment sleeve 6 is positioned on the fixture 2 and secured thereon by means of an abutment screw 8. The abutment sleeve 6 extends through the mucosa above the alveolar bone and an upper part of the abutment screw 8 extends therefrom. The abutment screw 8 includes a tapered neck portion 10 which is arranged to provide a position of location for a correspondingly tapered portion of a gold cylinder 12. When assembled in a patient's mouth, an impression of the arrangement is taken and subsequently a prosthesis 13 which includes a gold framework 14 arranged to co-operate with the gold cylinder 12 and which carries an acrylic tooth 16 is made.
The prosthesis 13 may be positioned by locating the gold cylinder 12 and gold framework 14 upon the neck portion 10 of the abutment screw 8, and then securing the framework in position using a gold screw 20 which is received in internally threaded bore 22 of the abutment screw 8.
A problem associated with the use of the Branemark System as described above is that of the precise location of the tapered portion of the gold cylinder 12 (and tooth 16) with the tapered portion of the abutment screw 8, in order to ensure that any load upon the tooth 16, for example, during mastication, is equally distributed. This problem is particularly acute when a plurality of abutment screws 8 are located at spaced apart positions in the alveolar bone of a patient and wherein gold cylinders 12 are provided for co-operation with a single framework, carrying a plurality of teeth, and being arranged to extend between the abutment screws 8. It has been found in practice that, in many instances, there is an unequal distribution of loads on the abutment screws 8, leading to undue stresses upon specific regions of alveolar bone and also the loosening of the prosthesis. It is also noted that the use of components made of gold in the system described add significantly to the cost of such dental implants.
Dental implant devices have been proposed with a view to equally distributing loads upon the implant and providing an implant of lower cost. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,328 (Branemark) discloses a device for securing a plurality of teeth, comprising components 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 described above. The device further includes a prefabricated rigid splint having an arc shape to fit the curve of the alveolar bone, and being attachable to a plurality of spaced apart abutment screws 8. An assembly comprising a plurality of false teeth is removably attached to the splint and the splint is arranged to function as a force distribution means during use. Optionally, a resilient member may be positioned between the assembly comprising the false teeth and the splint in order to further distribute the load. Nonetheless, with the device, it is still necessary to very precisely fabricate the splint for co-operation with the tapered portions of the abutment screws 8.
More recently, U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,017 (Sillard) has proposed a fixed removable dental implant system which includes components 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 as described above and a precision cast bar securable to a plurality of abutment screws 8 by means of alloy screws. The construction of the precision cast support bar is accomplished using an impression of the patient's mouth from which a mould is made. The precision cast support structure is cast in a vacuum so as to reduce flaws thereof. Again, however, it is necessary to very precisely fabricate the support bar for co-operation with the tapered portions of the abutment screws 8.
It is an object of the present invention to alleviate some of the problems associated with known teeth securement systems.


A method of joining a first dataset configured to store a set of data entries each identified by a respective key of a first type and a second dataset configured to store a second set of data entries identified by a respective key of a second type, the method comprising: selecting an intermediate mapping entity from a set of possible intermediate mapping entities, each mapping entity storing association between keys of the first type and keys of the second type; providing the selected intermediate mapping entity for use in joining the first data set with the second data set; wherein the step of selecting the intermediate mapping entity is based on the intersection weight between the first and second data sets via each of the intermediate mapping entities, wherein the intersection weight is the proportion of overlapping data entries between the first and second datasets.

It has long been the case that it has been possible to query databases holding data to provide a response to the query. Queries are run on databases to find a match for the information being requested responsive to the query. For example, a user providing the query might want to know how many entries in a particular database satisfy a particular requirement, for example, an age range or gender requirement. There are numerous technologies available to handle this. It is becoming an increasing requirement however to use more than one database to satisfy a single query. This can be for multiple reasons. It may be advantageous to access more than one data set due to the extra information that can be gained in doing so. Queries may be more complex, and have more expressions requiring a match. Some expressions may be fulfilled by one database, whereas other expressions may relate to information or data held in a different database.
According to one technique, the two independent datasets are firstly merged together so that they exist as a single dataset which can then be queried with the multiple expressions. This procedure can require the transfer of large amounts of data, and a complex merging exercise at the receiving end. Further, it requires that the two datasets identify entries by the same type of key (e.g. "name"), in order that entries in the first dataset can be correlated with entries in the second dataset. Mapping between two datasets is known, as in D. Deng, R. C. Fernandez, Z. Abedjan, S. Wang, M. Stonebraker, A. Elmagarmid, I. Ilyas, S. Madden, M. Ouzzani, and N. Tang, "The Data Civilizer System" 8th Biennial Conference on Innovative Data Systems Research (CIDR 2017).

Systems and methods for joining datasets


An electrochemical machining apparatus comprises a machining chamber for holding ultrapure water, a cathode/anode immersed in the ultrapure water held in the machining chamber, and a workpiece holding portion for holding a workpiece at a predetermined distance from the cathode/anode so that a surface, to be machined, of the workpiece is brought into contact with the ultrapure water. The electrochemical machining apparatus further comprises an anode/cathode contact brought into contact with the workpiece held by the workpiece holding portion so that the workpiece serves as an anode/cathode, a catalyst having a strongly basic anion exchange function or a strongly acidic cation exchange function, a power source for applying a voltage between the cathode/anode and the workpiece, and a moving mechanism for relatively moving the workpiece and the catalyst. The catalyst is disposed between the cathode/anode and the workpiece held by the workpiece holding portion.

1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to electrochemical machining method and apparatus using ultrapure water, and more particularly to electrochemical machining method and apparatus which can perform machining for removal, formation of an oxide film, or film formation of a workpiece, such as a semiconductor material or a metallic material, with the use of only ultrapure water as an electrolytic solution.
2. Description of the Related Art:
In recent years, the progress of technology has developed various new materials one after another. However, the machining technology useful for these new materials has not been established yet, and the development of the machining technology has followed the development of new materials.
Further, components in various types of equipments have become finer and have required higher accuracy. As submicronic manufacturing technology has commonly been used, the properties of materials are largely influenced by the machining method. Under these circumstances, in such a conventional machining method that a desired portion in a workpiece is physically destroyed and removed from the surface thereof by a tool, a large number of defects may be produced to deteriorate the properties of the workpiece. Therefore, it becomes important to perform machining without deteriorating the properties of the materials.
Some machining methods, such as chemical polishing, electrochemical machining, and electropolishing, have been developed in order to solve this problem. In contrast with the conventional physical machining, these methods perform machining for removal or the like by chemical elution. Therefore, in these methods, alteration of a machined layer due to plastic deformation and defects such as dislocation are not occurred, so that machining can be performed without deteriorating the properties of the materials.
Further, attention has been directed to a machining method utilizing interatomic chemical interaction. This method utilizes fine particles, radicals having highly chemical reactivity, and the like. According to this machining method, machining for removal or the like is performed by a chemical reaction with a workpiece on an atomic level. Therefore, machining can be controlled on an atomic level. This type of machining method includes elastic emission machining (EEM) and plasma chemical vaporization machining (CVM), which have been developed by the inventors. The EEM utilizes a chemical reaction between fine particles and a workpiece, and can realize machining on an atomic level without deteriorating the properties of materials. On the other hand, the plasma CVM utilizes a radical reaction between a workpiece and radicals produced in plasma at atmospheric pressure, and can realize machining on an atomic level.
In the aforementioned electrochemical machining and electropolishing, it is considered that machining proceeds through electrochemical interaction between a workpiece atom and an electrolyte ion in an electrolytic solution (an aqueous solution of NaCl, NaNO3, HF, HCl, HNO3, NaOH, or the like). The contamination of the workpiece with the electrolytic solution is unavoidable as long as the electrolytic solution is used.
Accordingly, the inventors have considered that, in neutral and alkaline electrolytic solutions, machining is related to hydroxide ions (OH−). This consideration has led to such an idea that machining can be performed even with water containing a small number of hydroxide ions. The inventors have experimentally confirmed the feasibility of this technology, and have proposed a method of increasing the ionic product in ultrapure water, in which a small number of unavoidable impurities is contained, as disclosed in Japanese laid-open Patent Publication No. 10-58236.
According to the above method, a workpiece is immersed in ultrapure water having an increased concentration of the hydroxide ion, and machining for removal or oxide film formation is performed through a chemical elution or an oxidation reaction with the hydroxide ions. Further, the inventors have also proposed the utilization of an electrochemical reaction on the surface of a solid having an ion exchange function or catalytic function to increase the number of the hydroxide ion. As a result, there has been developed a novel machining method which can realize machining in a clean manner without leaving impurities on the machined surface through the utilization of hydroxide ions in ultrapure water. This machining method has been expected to be used in wide applications including the field related with semiconductor manufacturing. Thus, the inventors have proposed a machining method using ultrapure water as an electrolytic solution, which is a low-damage machining method utilizing a chemical reaction, and a clean and low-environmental load machining method.

Electrochemical machining method and apparatus


The invention provides a method for injection molding a semi-molten melt of metal to a product, wherein a semi-molten melt of metal is injected into a cavity of the mold through a nozzle of injector to mold the product which is divided in a lower solid fraction portion to require strength and a higher solid fraction portion to require molding accuracy along flow of the melt inside the cavity. In the method of the invention, a part of the melt to be earlier injected is determined to be at a lower temperature in the injector than a part to be later injected among the melt parts composing said lower and higher solid portions in the cavity by injecting a batch of the melt, and that the melt is injected into the cavity on the side on which said lower solid fraction portion for the strength of the product is formed.

There are known methods for forming products from semi-molten metal as methods of producing high quality products. The following methods for using the semi-molten melt are adopted:
Semi-melting forging method is to forge material in the semi-melting state between forging molds or dies to shape and cool a product.
Semi-melting casting method is a method of casting by injecting a semi-molten metal from a sleeve of a high pressure casting machine. In the process the semi-molten melt is prepared previously in some furnace from a billet as a material, carried to the sleeve, and injected from the sleeve into the casting mold.
Semi-melting injection molding method is known as a method of injecting into a mold a semi-molten metal which is prepared in the desirable semi-molten state inside a injector and pressurized by the very injector to mold a product with desired shape in a cavity of the mold. In this method, the melt is prepared to be in a semi-melting state (i.e. in a state mixing of a liquid phase and a solid phase in a metal or alloy) inside the injector by heating and melting the powdered or pelletized metal material in the temperature-controlling cylinder of the injector. The melt is pressurized by the screw toward a nozzle attached to an end of the cylinder and injected into a cavity inside the mold in connection to the nozzle.
This semi-melting injecting molding method has been provided aluminum and magnesium metal/alloy products with high quality and less defect.
In the prior art regarding the semi-melting casting, Japanese Patent Publication No 7-256427 A discloses a method of pouring the melt in the semi-molten metal in a sleeve which is provided close to and passing through the cavity and injecting the melt pressurized by a plunger from the sleeve into the cavity. In the prior art the method can pressurize the melt in the cavity partially by the plunger to overflow into a basin past the cavity through so narrow pass as to filtrate grains of the solid phase in the melt. Thus, the remaining melt in the cavity by filtration has partially higher solid fraction than one in another portion of the cavity. This process can control to differ the solid fractions in some portions of the molded product.
Some cast or molded products such as mechanical components are often required to be provided with different properties in their different portions. Such properties are dimensional accuracy, mechanical property including tensile strength of the product, and the like.
To meet the request there have been used the way of setting the solid fraction of each portion to desired different value, the different solid fractions changing the metal micro-structure of each portion in the metal product after solidified.
Solid fraction of melt has been found to have a relation with shrinkage of cast during solidifying of the metal. FIG. 5A shows that a magnesium alloy cast decreases in dimension change due to shrinkage as the solid fraction of the alloy melt increases and that high solid fraction is required in a portion in which high molding dimensional accuracy is requested for the product. In general, the semi-molten melt contains a solid phase as grains which are dispersed in the liquid metal. As the melt is poured into a mold, the liquid part of the melt supplied is solidified in a cavity of the mold, and the solid fraction formed previously can reduce the shrinkage of the metal product because solid phase dose not almost reduce in volume during solidification. Thus the semi-melting injection method allows the product to obtain high dimensional accuracy.
Solid fraction of the semi-molten melt also have a relation with ultimate tensile strength of the product. FIG. 5B shows that a magnesium alloy product tends to decrease in as-cast tensile strength as the solid fraction in the alloy melt increase. It can be seen that a low solid fraction in the melt is needed to enhance the mechanical property in the strengthening portion of the cast product.
Thus, in the methods employing the semi-molten metal, the solid fraction should be set in each portion in a product in a particular, different value according to the required property for each portion of the product.
However, the prior-art method mentioned above has a disadvantage as follows; the method of using the pressurizing the melt locally in the cavity can manage to vary the solid fractions between the flow range of the pass to the partial pressurized portion and other portion in the cavity, but the locally pressurizing a melt outside the cavity is attended with difficulty of controlling the desired solid fraction in a wide range quantitatively in the desirable portion of the product, and also reduction in yield of production due to the plunger pushing out a part of the melt. The mechanism is also much complicated by arrangement of the sleeve and the plunger movable in it near the cavity of the mold.

Methods for semi-melting injection molding


A thermal imaging apparatus includes an infrared camera module, aligned along a first axis, and a visible light camera module, aligned along a second axis. The apparatus employs a magnification correction factor, along with parallax correction, to register an infrared image, obtained by the infrared module, with a visible light image, obtained by the infrared module.

Thermal imaging apparatus which include both infrared (IR) and visible light (VL) camera modules are known in the art. These apparatus allow an operator to capture both an IR image of an object, or scene, of interest and a corresponding VL image, as a control image on which the IR image may be overlaid. These apparatus often include a display screen and the appropriate electronics to map both the IR and VL images to the screen for a concurrent, or fused, display of the images thereon. Because the VL camera module is typically mounted alongside the IR camera module, in these apparatus, such that their respective optical axes are offset from one another, and extend approximately parallel to one another, the parallax phenomena is accounted for when registering one of the images with the other of the images to create a fused image.
Embodiments of such an apparatus, in which optical axes of the IR and VL camera modules are held in fixed relation to one another so that the parallax error is corrected for electronically, via pre-programmed software, when fusing the two images, are described in co-pending and commonly-assigned U.S. patent application 2006/0289772, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. One example of this type of apparatus is the IR FlexCam®, available from Infrared Solutions, Inc.—a Fluke Company. Although the parallax correction employed by this apparatus provides acceptable fusion of the two images in many situations, there are special situations in which an additional correction is desirable to better register the IR image with the VL image and thereby provide a higher quality fusion.

Registration methods for fusing corresponding infrared and visible light images


This invention is a method for the non-invasive and safe testing of telecommunication and broadcast towers or other airwave or cable transmitting and receiving devices and related equipment using a calibrated infrared camera and computer, computer software, a color monitor or a color printer. This novel method of testing and determination of potential problem sites and failure prediction can be conducted from ground level and at some distance from the tower or device being tested, substantially reducing the risk of falling from extreme heights or being exposed to hazardous EMF fields, microwave or RF transmission waves, all of which are fatal or hazardous to health of the person conducting the testing. Additionally, this method is conducted while the tower of device is full and dynamic operation, and does not require the tower or device to be shut down or inoperable during the test, and also allows for the transmitting and receiving devices to be adjusted while in operation without invasion or disassembly of the tested device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is a method for the non-invasive and safe testing of telecommunication and broadcast towers or other airwave or cable transmitting and receiving devices and related equipment using a calibrated infrared camera, computer software and either a color monitor or color printer. This novel method of testing and determination of potential problem sites and failure prediction is conducted from ground level and at some distance from the tower or device being tested, substantially reducing the risk of falling from extreme heights or being exposed to hazardous EMF fields, microwave or RF transmission waves, all of which are fatal or hazardous to health of the person conducting the testing. Additionally, this method is conducted while the tower of device is in full and dynamic operation, and does not require the tower or device to be shut down or inoperable during the test, and also allows for the transmitting and receiving devices to be adjusted while in operation without invasion or disassembly of the tested device.
2. Description of Prior Art
Infrared technology has existed for some time and the equipment needed for the use of this method is readily available and currently on the market. However, it does not appear that utilization of the technology or equipment is being applied to the testing as described in this method invention.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,830, incorporated herein by reference, and apparatus and method is disclosed for ranging spectroscopy and thermal imaging using a combinate heterodyne detection and active laser or passive local oscillator radiation to produce a three-dimensional or holographic image of a target scene used for pollution study, weather detection or military weapon targeting. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,119, also incorporated herein by reference, a thermal imaging device receives thermal infrared radiation from a viewed scene and provides a visible image of the viewed scene. An infrared focal plane array detecting device which records, displays and photographs infrared images by conversion of infrared images by electronic conversion of infrared images to infrared radiation using a light-emitting apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,428, herein incorporated by reference. A process for thermal image detection of the integrity of bonds between epoxy patches and aircraft structural materials is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,469, and is incorporated herein by reference.
A fluorescent microthermal imaging apparatus and method for integrated circuit failure analysis using a laser to excite a thin fluorescent film disposed over the surface of an integrated circuit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,705,821, and is incorporated herein by reference. Thermal imaging devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,682,035 and 5,663,562, incorporated herein by reference, the first device used in very bright light, such as a fire, with the capability of clear display of a much darker contrast area, such as a dark background of a night sky. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,118, incorporated herein by reference, a thermal detection system having a pyroelectric thermal detection element is disclosed.

Method for non-invasive and safe testing of telecommunication and broadcast towers or other airwave or cable transmitting and receiving devices


A base mountable in a container supports a plurality of article support members having notches offset from notches in adjacent article support members for supporting articles in a horizontally nested orientation. Additional article support members are engagable with upper portions of the articles for receiving articles in a second overlaying tier in which the second tier of articles are nested vertically within the first tier of articles as well as horizontally from other articles in the second tier of articles. Each article support member is formed of an extruded tubular member having exterior flanges which receive a rack carrying the notches. The rack is formed of cross-linked polyethylene.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an article transport and storage apparatus and, more specifically, to apparatus for storing and transporting circular articles, such as vehicle steering wheels, from the manufacturing facility to the installation plant.
2. Description of the Art
Storage racks are used to store articles, such as steering wheels, in the manufacturing plant and for transporting the articles to the installation plant to make to steering wheels available in an easily accessible position adjacent to the production line for installation in a vehicle.
One steering wheel storage rack utilizes a number of vertical spindles in a container which store the steering wheels in vertical stacks through the center hole in each steering wheel. This type of steering wheel storage apparatus has been obsolete due to the trend toward integrated assemblies in which the air bag and steering wheel are integrated into an assembly in the steering wheel manufacturing plant and shipped to the installation plant in a single assembly operation.
Another steering wheel storage rack employs a metal frame with a plurality of vertically arranged, pivotal shelves. Each shelf supports two pairs of spaced, article support members formed of molded urethane foam or E.V.A. with spaced notches sized to receive a peripheral portion of each steering wheel. The notches are offset in two article support members to nest each steering wheel in each row vertically between portions of steering wheels in adjacent top and bottom rows.
Another steering wheel rack utilizes a square wood stud with four notched racks of cellular polyethylene mounted by means of adhesive on the four sides of the stud. The ends of the racks are mounted in supports attached to the inner sides of a container in a vertically and horizontally spaced matrix arrangement of rows and layers. The notches in the racks are offset from end to end to nest the steering wheels in horizontal rows.
It would be desirable to provide further improvements to article storage apparatus, such as storage apparatus devised for storing and transporting steering wheels from a steering wheel manufacturing facility to the installation plant. It would be desirable to provide an article storage apparatus in which the articles are arranged in horizontal and vertical rows and are nested in two dimensions, i.e., horizontally and vertically, to increase the number of articles which can be stored in a single container. It would also be desirable to provide such an article storage apparatus which is constructed of a minimal amount number of different components. It would also be desirable to provide such an article storage apparatus which is durable for long term reuse. It would also be desirable to provide such an article storage apparatus in which the article storage racks are formed of a material resistant to dirt while at the same time being compatible with a Class A article surface. Finally, it would be desirable to provide such an article storage apparatus in which vertical rows of articles are supported on underlying rows without attachment to the container.


A method of migrating data from an old storage subsystem to a new storage subsystem in a data processing system which comprises host computers and storage subsystems. There is provided a route-changing phase before the data is migrated from the old storage subsystem to the new storage subsystem. In the route-changing phase, each host computer can access both the old and new storage subsystems and the new storage subsystem writes data into the old storage subsystem in response to a write request from the host computer and reads data from the old storage subsystem and sends the data to the host computer in response to a read request from the host computer.

This invention relates to a method of migrating data from a storage subsystem to another in a computer system. More specifically, this invention relates to a method of connecting a number of storage subsystems and migrating data from old storage subsystems to new ones without affecting a plurality of host computers.
IBM proposed Extended Remote Copy (XRC) and Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy (PPRC) to migrate data which are stored in a storage system and which a host computer is accessing (Implementing ESS Copy Services on S/390, IBM P. 502. 8. 5 DASD migration).
EMC proposed Symmetrix Data Migration Services (SDMS) (Symmetrix Data Migration Services, EMC Corporation, http://japan.emc.com/pdf/products/sdms/sdms_ds.pdf).


A wire harness grommet assembly includes a sheet metal panel having a speaker hole and a grommet for supporting a wire harness from an audio speaker disposed in the speaker hole. The sheet metal panel has an emboss formed along a peripheral edge of the speaker hole. The grommet has an extension portion and an attachment portion. The extension portion has a tube for supporting the wire harness therein. The attachment portion is disposed within the emboss so that an outer surface of the attachment portion is substantially continuous with an outer surface of the sheet metal panel.

Automotive vehicles generally include vehicle doors having a multitude of wires or wiring harnesses routed from inside the door between tie inner and outer panels to an inboard side of an inner panel to power various structures such as the window, speakers or other systems. An existing problem includes the routing outlined above while maintaining a water seal and keeping the complexity of the wire routing to an acceptable level. In general, the routing structure must keep the correct drip loop structure for the harness and maintain minimum clearances to the other parts contained within the door.
Standard door routings include wire harnesses that route from the cabin to the door through a grommet along the inside of the door and exiting through a service hole near the center or rear of the door. However, packaging considerations and conditions may require different wiring routes to accommodate wire harnesses having a large doubled-over drip loop. Additionally, forming larger holes in the door to accommodate the large wiring harnesses may often not be an option due to the requirement to maintain specific rigidity and packaging requirements of the door components.

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.


A personal authentication apparatus includes a facial region extraction which extracts an image of a facial region of a person obtained from image sensing input unit, a guide unit which guides motion of the person of interest, a feature amount extraction unit which extracts the feature amount of a face from the image of the facial region extracted by the facial region extraction unit while the motion is guided by the guide unit, a dictionary registration unit which registers the feature amount extracted by the feature amount extraction unit as a feature amount of the person of interest, and an authentication unit which authenticates the person of interest in accordance with the similarity between the feature amount extracted by the feature amount extraction unit, and a feature amount which is registered by the dictionary registration unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a personal authentication apparatus and personal authentication method, which can implement registration and a personal authentication method with high reproducibility.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, interests and demands about the security technique are growing. There are some personal authentication methods that assure security. In a personal authentication system that uses a magnetic card such as a credit card or the like, or a contact type IC card with a built-in IC chip, a user must insert such card into a reader. When the user has his or her hands full with some pieces of baggage, the operation for inserting the card into the reader is troublesome and very inconvenient. In a personal authentication system that uses a non-contact type IC card represented by a commuter pass ticket examination system using a wireless communication, the user need not manually insert the card into a reader unlike the system that uses the contact type IC card. However, if the user loses his or her card, such card may be illicitly used as in the contact type. Also, the user must always carry the IC card.
By contrast, a personal authentication system that uses biometric information (biometrics) such as a fingerprint, iris, voice, face, and the like is known. In this system, the iris pattern of the user is registered in an authentication apparatus in advance, and is verified upon authentication. This authentication system can assure authentication precision 10 times as high as fingerprints. However, in order to assure high authentication precision, the eye must be irradiated with auxiliary light, and the user must bring his or her face into contact with an authentication apparatus. Hence, the system forces the user to take given authentication actions, and cannot assure user's hygiene. For this reason, such authentication system is used for only some limited users who require very high security. Recently, a non-contact authentication system which authenticates the user by sensing an image of the user's eye using a camera is available. However, in case of such non-contact system, since the image sensing condition of the user by the camera is unstable, sufficiently high authentication precision cannot be assured.
In a system that uses user's fingerprint information, the user touches a reader with his or her finger to sense its fingerprint, and can be authenticated by matching feature points. This system is unsusceptible to physical growth and aging as in the iris pattern. However, since the user's skin touches the contact surface of a detection device with his or her finger, the contact surface is contaminated with fat and sweat of the hand, and the precision deteriorates during use. Since the users directly touch the detection surface with fingers, some users may hate to use such system in terms of hygiene. If the hand of a person to be authenticated is dry, his or her finger cannot well contact the detection surface, and a fingerprint cannot be satisfactorily read.
In a personal authentication system using user's voice/utterance information, the authentication precision depends on user's physical conditions. For example, even the same person may often have lower voice reproducibility (e.g., a person may have a hoarse voice due to cold or hangover). For this reason, speaker recognition has a problem with its authentication precision, and has not been developed to a practical level.
In a personal authentication system that uses user's facial information, the user need not directly physically touch an authentication apparatus, and the user's facial image which is sensed by a camera need only be analyzed to authenticate that user. Therefore, compared to other systems, the load on the user can be lightened, and such system can be relatively easily used to open/close a gate. Such personal authentication system using user's facial information is described in, e.g., Jpn. Pat. KOKAI Publication Nos. 9-251534 and 11-175718.
In order to improve the authentication precision of the authentication system that utilizes a facial image, a facial image with a large information size must be sensed, and pixels equal to or larger than a predetermined value in number are required. However, when the height of the user is relatively higher than the camera position for image sensing or when the standing position of the user is far from the camera, a facial image to be sensed is small, the number of pixels of the facial image is also small and, hence, a given image information size cannot be assured, thus impairing the recognition precision. If the standing position of the user or the illumination condition of the image sensing site is different from that upon registration, i.e., the image sensing conditions between registration and authentication are largely different, the obtained image information varies, and personal authentication consequently fails.
If the user creates another facial expression upon sensing a facial image, the obtained facial pattern changes. Therefore, in order to improve the precision of personal authentication, various facial expressions must be registered upon registering a dictionary of a given user. Upon registering various facial expressions, if the user is strained, his or her expression looks stern. As a result, expected facial expressions cannot be registered, and a facial expression upon authentication becomes largely different from that upon registration, thus disturbing improvement in recognition precision. Conversely, if the system asks for user's cooperation to sense various facial expressions upon registering a dictionary, some users overreact, and a facial expression upon overreaction becomes largely different from that upon authentication.

Personal authentication apparatus and personal authentication method


A touch sensing structure is provided. The touch sensing structure includes a substrate, a plurality of first conductive traces and a second conductive trace. The plurality of first conductive traces is formed on the substrate. Each of the first conductive trace includes a trunk and at least one branch. The trunks of the first conductive traces are disposed to be parallel with each other. The branch of each first conductive trace is extended from one side of the trunk toward the adjacent first conductive trace. The branches between the two adjacent first conductive traces are disposed to be opposite and alternative. A path is composed of the two adjacent trunks and the branches disposed to be opposite and alternative. The second conductive trace is formed on the substrate, disposed between the two adjacent first conductive traces and extended along the path.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a capacitive touch panel, in particular, to a touch sensing structure of the capacitive touch panel.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, the operating and input interface of an electronic device includes a keyboard or a mouse in keying type. However, operating electronic device by touching screen becomes the current trend. Particularly, touching screen may simplify the operating interface and provide user with more user-friendly input methods like gestures.
Referring to FIG. 1A, FIG. 1A is a schematic view illustrating a conventional capacitive touch sensing structure. Touch electrode units are usually disposed in matrix-type such as first axial electrodes 91 (Y-axis) and second axial electrodes 92 (X-axis) as illustrated in FIG. 1A. The first axial electrodes 91 and the second axial electrodes 92 comprise a plurality of electrode units. Conventionally, the form or the pattern of the electrode units is the diamond type as illustrated in FIG. 1A. Each electrode unit corresponds to a coordinate in the matrix. The capacitive touch sensing structure is usually covered by an insulating layer, e.g. glass, to form a capacitive touch panel. When user's finger or other conductors approach the capacitive touch panel, the capacitance of the electrode units will be changed so that the detecting circuit connected to the electrode units can detect the changes of the capacitance of the electrode units to generate touch screen signals. The form or the pattern of the electrode units may affect the magnitude of the changes of the sensing capacitance or the sensitivity of the touch screen.


A novel method and device to align a flexure tail of a head gimbal assembly (HGA) to a flex cable of a head stack assembly (HSA) is disclosed. An alignment pin is passed through a first alignment hole in the flex cable, and a second alignment hole in the flexure tail. The second alignment hole is disposed in a region of the flexure tail that lies in a flexure tail plane that is approximately parallel to the flex cable plane adjacent the first alignment hole. A novel head gimbal assembly (HGA) has a flexure tail that includes a first bend line. The flexure tail is bent out-of-plane about the first bend line to create a residual bend angle in the range 10° to 80°. The first alignment tab is abutted against a first guide surface of an alignment fixture.

Information storage devices are used to retrieve and/or store data in computers and other consumer electronics devices. A magnetic hard disk drive is an example of an information storage device that includes one or more heads that can both read and write, but other information storage devices also include heads—sometimes including heads that cannot write.
In a modern magnetic hard disk drive device, each head is a sub-component of a head-gimbal assembly (HGA) that typically includes a laminated flexure to carry the electrical signals to and from the head. The HGA, in turn, is a sub-component of a head-stack assembly (HSA) that typically includes a plurality of HGAs, an actuator, and a flex cable. The plurality of HGAs are attached to various arms of the actuator, and each of the laminated flexures of the HGAs has a flexure tail that is electrically connected to the HSA's flex cable.
To facilitate reliable electrical connection and secure attachment of the flexure tail(s) to the flex cable, the flexure tail(s) must first be precisely aligned with and positioned on or adjacent the flex cable. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved flexure tail configurations to facilitate and/or improve the use of alignment tooling used in the alignment and attachment of the flex cable and the flexure tail(s).

Method to align a flexure tail having bent alignment tab feature to a flex cable of a head gimbal assembly


A portable lighting lamp 10 comprises an emitting module equipped with at least one light-emitting diode 11 for emitting a light beam, a fixing and connecting element 12 of said diode, and an optical focussing device 15 able to be moved in front of the diode 11 to make the visualization angle of the light beam vary. The optical focussing device 15 is advantageously constituted by one or more Fresnel lenses 16 mounted on a swivelling support 17 or a rotary knob designed to occupy either an inactive position situated outside the light emission field of the diode or an active position wherein said light beam passes through the lens so as to obtain either broad lighting with a short range or narrow lighting with a long range.

The invention relates to a portable lighting device comprising at least one light-emitting diode for emitting a light beam, a fixing and connecting element of said diode, and means for adjusting the light beam.
A light-emitting diode LED comprises in conventional manner a semi-conducting component in conjunction with a reflector inside an enclosure made of transparent plastic material, for example epoxide resin-based. The front part of the molded enclosure forms an internal lens or magnifying glass through which the light ray produced by the light-emitting diode passes when the latter has been connected to a power supply source. The visualization angle emitted by the diode depends on the shape of the reflector and on the internal distance between the component and the lens. This visualization angle is constant for a LED type diode, for example 20°, and concentrates most of the useful light flux.
To make the intensity of the light flux emitted by a LED diode vary, it is conventional to supply it by means of an adjustable current electronic circuit, for example a DC-DC converter, or a microcontroller connected to a disposable or rechargeable battery. This adjustment of the supply current causes a variation of the lighting power, but does not act on the radiation of the useful light flux. A conventional reflector of an incandescent lamp does not enable the visualization angle of a LED diode to be varied either, as it acts in a zone where the lamp emits very little light.
The document U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,837 concerns a lighting lamp with light-emitting diodes, comprising a rotating plate in the form of a diaphragm drilled with holes and equipped with lenses placed facing the holes.
The document WO 01/57,431 describes a lighting device composed of a LED diode in front of which there is permanently arranged a lens movable in translation to modify the relative distance with respect to the diode.

Portable lighting device with light-emitting diode


A system and computer-implemented method including receiving a request from a service provider, at a central account manager, to provide a user account for a user logging into the first service provider, identifying one or more user accounts associated with the user at one or more user account providers maintained at the central account manager, selecting a first user account of the one or more user accounts and providing, using the one or more computing devices, the selected first user account to the first service provider in response to the request.

When a user attempts to log into a service provider, the user may log into the service provider using an existing as his/her user name at a user account (and additionally as his/her password). The user account may be linked with the user's account at the service provider, such that the user account is used to confirm the user's identity. When the user accesses the login page of the service provider, the user may be provided with a listing of user account providers that the user can choose to log into the service provider.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An adhesive for dental resin composite materials is disclosed, which comprises (a) from 10 to 40 parts by weight of tetrahydrofurfuryl methacrylate; (b) from 90 to 60 parts by weight of one or more methacrylates having at least one unsaturated double bond in one molecule thereof; and (c) from 0.04 to 0.12 part by weight, based on 100 parts by weight of the monomer mixture consisting of (a) and (b), of a photopolymerization initiator, the adhesive for dental resin composite materials of the present invention having a proper viscosity, not causing the color remaining, is superior in the operability and esthetics, having further a satisfactory adhesive strength, and is of safe even when used in the mouth.

Hitherto, in cases of dental restoration requiring the esthetics, restoration by dental prostheses such as resin jacket crowns, porcelain jacket crowns, resin facing crowns, and porcelain facing crowns, and restoration by filling with composite resins, have been widely employed. In particular, in recent years, since the resin capacity is greatly improved, restoration by resin facing crowns, or by filling with composite resins, which is easy in operation and inexpensive, is the main current in the restoration.
The resin facing crowns are produced by the operation in which tooth color resins called as composite resins for crown and bridge are applied on the surface of a crown and after forming the surface characterization, are polymerized and hardened. The application with the composite resins for crown and bridge is carried out by application with an opaque resin, application with a dentin resin, and application with an enamel resin, to thereby impart the surface characterization. In this case, the operation is carried out in such manner that primary polymerization (polymerization while retaining unpolymerized portions) is carred out at every stage of the application with an opaque resin, the application of a dentin resin, and the application with an enamel resin, and that when a prescribed surface characterization is completed, the applied resins are completely polymerized. However, since when such composite resins for crown and bridge are once completely polymerized, unpolymerized portions do not remain, the later applied composite resins for crown and bridge do not adhere but peel off and drop from the added portions. For this reason, it is substantially impossible to undergo forming the surface characterization after the resins have been once completely polymerized. When it is forced to undergo forming the surface characterization, an operation in which one layer of the surface of the polymerized and hardened resin is shaven off, and the resulting surface is coated with a radical polymerizable substance containing a polyfunctional (meth)acrylate, such as opaque liquids of composite resins for crown and bridge and dilute solutions of pastes for adjusting the shade, to again apply with a composite resin for crown and bridge, is employed. However, the adhesive strength in the added portions is at most about 60 kgf/cm.sup.2 so that no satisfactory adhesive strength is obtained. In addition, the opaque liquids of composite resins for crown and bridge and the dilute solutions of pastes for adjusting the shade are so viscous that the shade of the photopolymerization initiator remains. Therefore, they can not be satisfied at all for use as an adhesive.
In cases of filling composite resins, the resins are filled in a tooth cavity in a mouth and after forming the surface characterization, are polymerized and hardened to undergo restoration. However, since no adhesive to strongly adhere the filling composite resins to each other is available, after the resins have been once completely polymerized, it is impossible to undergo additional filling for the purpose of forming the surface characterization. For this reason, operations for removing the filling composite resins filled and hardened in the tooth cavity and again undergoing filling were necessary.
Taking into consideration the present state that no adhesive for adhering dental resin composite materials such as composite resins for crown and bridge and filling composite resins to each other is present and that with the opaque liquids of composite resins for crown and bridge and the dilute solutions of pastes for adjusting the shade to be used as a substitute, not only a satisfactory adhesive strength is not obtained, but also the viscosity is high, the color remains, the operability and esthetics are not satisfactory, the present inventors had as their object to developing an exclusive adhesive for dental resin composite materials, which has a proper viscosity, which is free from the color remaining and is superior in the operability and esthetics, has a satisfactory adhesive strength, and which is safety even when it is used in the mouth.

Adhesive for dental resin composite materials


This invention provides water-based compositions, particularly coating, ink, and agricultural compositions, manifesting reduced equilibrium and dynamic surface tension by the incorporation of a surface tension reducing amount of certain cyclic urea compounds of the structure ##STR1## where R is a C6 to C12 alkyl group or R"O--(CH.sub.2).sub.m -, R' is hydrogen or methyl, R" is a C4 to C12 alkyl group, m is 2-4 and n is 1 or 2.

The ability to reduce the surface tension of water is of great importance in waterborne coatings, inks, adhesives, and agricultural formulations because decreased surface tension translates to enhanced substrate wetting in actual formulations. Surface tension reduction in water-based systems is generally achieved through the addition of surfactants. Performance attributes resulting from the addition of surfactants include enhanced surface coverage, fewer defects, and more uniform distribution. Equilibrium surface tension performance is important when the system is at rest. However, the ability to reduce surface tension under dynamic conditions is of great importance in applications where high surface creation rates are utilized. Such applications include spraying, rolling and brushing of coatings or spraying of agricultural formulations, or high speed gravure or ink-jet printing. Dynamic surface tension is a fundamental quantity which provides a measure of the ability of a surfactant to reduce surface tension and provide wetting under such high speed application conditions.
Traditional nonionic surfactants such as alkylphenol or alcohol ethoxylates, and ethylene oxide (EO)/propylene oxide (PO) copolymers have excellent equilibrium surface tension performance but are generally characterized as having poor dynamic surface tension reduction. In contrast, certain anionic surfactants such as sodium dialkyl sulfosuccinates can provide good dynamic results, but these are very foamy and impart water sensitivity to the finished coating.
There is a need for a family of surfactants which provide good equilibrium and dynamic surface tension properties, are low-foaming and would be widely accepted in the coating, ink, adhesive, and agricultural formulation industries.
The importance of reducing equilibrium and dynamic surface tension in applications such as coatings, inks, and agricultural formulations is well-appreciated in the art.
Low dynamic surface tension is of great importance in the application of waterborne coatings. In an article, Schwartz, J. "The Importance of Low Dynamic Surface Tension in Waterborne Coatings", Journal of Coatings Technology, September 1992, there is a discussion of surface tension properties in waterborne coatings and a discussion of dynamic surface tension in such coatings. Equilibrium and dynamic surface tension were evaluated for several surface active agents. It is pointed out that low dynamic surface tension is an important factor in achieving superior film formation in waterborne coatings. Dynamic coating application methods require surfactants with low dynamic surface tensions in order to prevent defects such as retraction, craters, and foam.
Efficient application of agricultural products is also highly dependent on the dynamic surface tension properties of the formulation. In an article, Wirth, W.; Storp, S.; Jacobsen, W. "Mechanisms Controlling Leaf Retention of Agricultural Spray Solutions"; Pestic. Sci. 1991, 33, 411-420, the relationship between the dynamic surface tension of agricultural formulations and the ability of these formulations to be retained on a leaf was studied. These workers observed a good correlation between retention values and dynamic surface tension, with more effective retention of formulations exhibiting low dynamic surface tension.
Low dynamic surface tension is also important in high-speed printing as discussed in the article "Using Surfactants to Formulate VOC Compliant Waterbased Inks", Medina, S. W.; Sutovich, M. N. Am. Ink Maker 1994, 72 (2), 32-38. In this article, it is stated that equilibrium surface tensions (ESTs) are pertinent only to ink systems at rest. EST values, however, are not good indicators of performance in the dynamic, high speed printing environment under which the ink is used. Dynamic surface tension is a more appropriate property. This dynamic measurement is an indicator of the ability of the surfactant to migrate to a newly created ink/substrate interface to provide wetting during high speed printing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,478 discloses water-based ink compositions comprising water, a pigment, a nonionic surfactant and a solubilizing agent for the nonionic surfactant. Dynamic surface tension in ink compositions for publication gravure printing must be reduced to a level of about 25 to 40 dynes/cm to assure that printability problems will not be encountered.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,762 discloses an aqueous jet ink of water, dissolved dyes and a tertiary amine having two polyethoxylate substituents and that low dynamic surface tension is important in ink jet printing.
Substituted cyclic ureas have been reported to have utility in many applications. Nomura et al, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 1987, 26, 1056-1059, state these materials are useful as intermediates for medicines and resins and directly as chemotherapeutic agents, delignification reagents, and in cosmetics.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 3,876,657 discloses 1-alkyl-2-imidazolidones (ethylene ureas) as having recognized utility as bactericides, central nervous system depressants, plant growth promoters, female fly sterilants, adhesives, textile treating agents, and as monomers for deriving polymers and copolymers.
In addition, Naumov et al, Khimiya Geteotsikl. Soedin. 1973, 1, 90-93, state these materials are useful as biologically active compounds, specifically as insecticides and insect repellents. Despite this extensive listing of utility, alkylated cyclic ureas have not been reported to have utility as surface tension reducing agents in water. In fact, Kanetani et al, Chem. Abs. 98:145450, converted long chain N-alkylimidazolidones (C8, C10, C12, C14, C16) to the propane sultone derivatives in order to make useful surfactants.
DE 4,341,984 discloses that a very large number of ureas and cyclic ureas, including N-methyl-N'-octyl propyleneurea, act as crystallization inhibitors for azole derivative fungicides, such as triazolyl methyl compounds, in aqueous solution.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,131 discloses substituted cyclic ureas have efficacy for enhancing drug absorption through the skin for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes. The emphasis appears to be on utilizing the strong hydrogen bonding properties for these materials.


A can opener of the type having a housing, a motor, a feed wheel for rotating a can about its axis, a gear assembly connecting the motor and the feed wheel, and a cutter for severing a can lid from a can includes a cutter control associatively connected to the cutter and operable to bias a switch contact to a closed position while the cutter is severing the can lid from the can and to automatically open the switch contact after the can lid has been severed, the cutter control comprising an integrally formed spring operable to engage an armature mounted on the housing, and a cutter support plate supporting the cutter and associatively connected to the cutter control, the cutter support plate operable to lower a magnet assembly into contact with the can lid when the cutter is moved into contact with the can lid and to raise the magnet assembly and the can lid when the cutter is raised from the can after the can lid has been severed from the can.

The present invention relates to the field of can openers and, more particularly, to improvements therefor.
The first motorized can openers typically required an operator to depress and hold a cutter blade, via an operating lever, to pierce the can lid and to activate the can opener motor to start the cutting operation. After the can lid was severed from the can, the cutter blade had to be raised from the can to deactivate the can opener motor. Since the operation of this type of can opener depended upon the physical strength and exertion of the user, many people, especially the elderly, desired a can opener which would cause the cutter blade to pierce and sever the can lid without the user having to pierce the can lid and, further, which would automatically shut off after the can lid had been severed from the can.
Automatic can openers of the type described directly above have been available for a number of years. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,675,321, automatic can openers typically do not require the can lid to be pierced by the cutter blade to close a motor switch and thereby activate the motor to start the cutting operation. Rather, the motor switch is closed, and the motor activated, when the cutter blade comes into contact with the can lid. The cutter blade is usually oriented in such a way that the rotation of the can forces the cutter blade to pierce the can lid. A cutter control mechanism is operatively associated with the cutter blade such that the force developed between the cutter blade and the can lid as the cutting operation occurs causes the cutter control mechanism to maintain the switch in a closed position. After the lid is severed from the can, the force between the can lid and the cutter blade is reduced. This force reduction is sufficient to cause the cutter control mechanism to open the switch and shut off the motor.
Many prior art automatic can openers, however, require the use of relatively complicated and expensive cutter control mechanisms to provide an automatic shut-off feature. Often, cutter control mechanisms are subject to failures and may require frequent maintenance. Additionally, known can openers do not utilize a cam-operated magnet arm assembly for lifting a severed can lid from a can.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved can opener which includes a relatively uncomplicated and inexpensive cutter control.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cam-operated magnet assembly operative to lift a severed can lid from a can at the same time as the cutter blade is removed from the can.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent during the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


Method and apparatus for the real time detection of the formation of ice on a surface in which a sensor having spaced electrodes along the surface is embedded in the surface for which detection is to be provided. Resistance between the electrodes is monitored and electrode temperature is monitored. When a sharp rise in resistance on the surface due to the presence of ice is detected at the same time that the surface temperature is at or below the freezing temperature of water, then a computer provides a signal to indicate the formation of ice.

This invention relates to method and apparatus for the detection of the presence of ice on a surface.
The formation of ice on surfaces such as roads and the wings of aircraft may present safety hazards. In the case of aircraft, the hazard may present itself quite rapidly as the buildup of ice, once its formation is initiated, can proceed at a fast pace, sometimes with serious consequences. As has been tragically learned, deicing of an aircraft waiting to take off can produce a false sense of security, because after only a few minutes, ice formation can begin again and proceed at a rapid pace.
Efforts up to now to provide a warning at the presence of ice have produced a variety of techniques and systems which will indicate that ice is present. However, such arrangements have generally proven to be unacceptable for regular use due to a variety of factors, including the need for excessively complex apparatus. Problems of cost, lack of reliability, false warnings, and slow response times are some of the reasons why no system presently available has become generally accepted for use.
A number of ice detection systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,688,185, 4,570,881, 3,517,900, 3,276,254, 2,432,669, 2,359,787, 2,127,823, and 4,766,369. None of the preceding patents teaches the present invention.


A voltage controlled oscillator includes a first NMOS transistor having a base terminal configured to receive an input signal INP and a drain terminal connected to an output node OUTN, a second NMOS transistor having a base terminal configured to receive an input signal INN and a drain terminal connected to an output node OUTP, a third NMOS transistor having a source terminal connected to a low voltage supply VSS and a drain terminal connected to source terminals of the first NMOS transistor and the second NMOS transistor. A first PMOS transistor includes a base terminal connected to the output node OUTP and a drain terminal connected to the output node OUTN. A second PMOS transistor includes a base terminal connected to the output node OUTN and a drain terminal connected to the output node OUTP.

The present invention relates to a voltage controlled oscillator.
Voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is widely being used in various fields and is particularly useful in phase locked loop (PLL). PLL is usually used as clock generator with VCO being the main component for frequency generation. Microcontrollers or microprocessors often include embed PLL-based clock generators to generate clock signals at different frequencies. VCO therefore plays an important role for frequency variable oscillations. Wider clock-frequency range can allow the more flexible operations in the microcontrollers or microprocessors and broader applications.
VCO is implemented as a series of delay cells with outputs from previous stage connected to the inputs of the next stage. The number of delay stages can be either odd or even, and depend on the design of delay cells. The oscillation frequency depends on the total delay from the delay cells and can be controlled by an external voltage. Larger delays correspond to lower the oscillation frequencies, while smaller delays correspond to higher oscillation frequencies.
A conventional cross-coupled oscillator 100, shown in FIG. 1, includes a pair of NMOS transistors 103A, 103B with their sources connected to a low voltage supply VSS (or the ground). A pair of PMOS transistors 102A, 102B is respectively connected between a positive voltage supply VDD and NMOS transistors 103A, 103B. The base nodes of the NMOS transistors 103A, 103B can respectively receive two input signals INP and INN. The base nodes of the PMOS transistors 102A, 102B are cross-coupled to the drain nodes of the NMOS transistors 103A, 103B wherein two output signals OUTN and OUTP can be provided. The cross-coupled oscillator 100 can provide full rail-to-rail oscillation signals (i.e. with voltage magnitudes reaching almost VDD to almost VSS) that are relatively insensitive to noise in VDD and VSS. The cross-coupled oscillator 100 is self-oscillating at fixed oscillation frequency without being controlled by an external signal.
Microcontrollers or microprocessors are typically required to operate from several MHz to over hundreds of MHz. This frequency large range can be difficult to achieve for conventional oscillators. There is therefore a need for an oscillator capable of operating over a wide frequency range.

Voltage controlled oscillator capable of operating in a wide frequency range


A first example embodiment comprises the following steps and the structure formed therefrom. A trench having opposing sidewalls is formed within a substrate. A stress layer having an inherent stress is formed over the opposing trench sidewalls. The stress layer having stress layer sidewalls over the trench sidewalls. Ions are implanted into one or more portions of the stress layer to form ion-implanted relaxed portions with the portions of the stress layer that are not implanted are un-implanted portions, whereby the inherent stress of the one or more ion-implanted relaxed portions of stress layer portions is relaxed.

1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to semiconductor devices and more particularly to strained channel transistors and the fabrication of same.
2) Description of the Prior Art
Size reduction of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), including reduction of the gate length and gate oxide thickness, has enabled the continued improvement in speed performance, density, and cost per unit function of integrated circuits over the past few decades.
To enhance transistor performance further, strain may be introduced in the transistor channel for improving carrier mobilities. Therefore, strain-induced mobility enhancement is another way to improve transistor performance in addition to device scaling. There are several existing approaches of introducing strain in the transistor channel region.

Selective STI stress relaxation through ion implantation

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Ltd.


The present invention provide: a novel process for culturing animal cells and a kit for culturing animal cells, in which, even if the number of cells as sampled for biopsy is extremely small, the proliferation can sufficiently be maintained so as to enable to carry out various culture and/or tests, especially anticancer agent sensitivity tests, and the contamination with bacteria can be inhibited without damaging physiological activity of cells, especially sensitivity to anticancer agents. The process for culturing animal cells, according to the present invention, comprises the step of culturing a sample containing animal cells obtained from living body tissue in order to subject the sample to further culture and/or a test, with the process being characterized in that a culture medium is used wherein the culture medium has a proliferating action and physiological activity-retaining action on the animal cells, and further has a killing action and/or multiplication-inhibition action on bacteria.

A. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a process for culturing animal cells obtained from living body tissue. More particularly, the invention relates to a process for culturing animal cells obtained from living body tissue in order to use them for further culture and/or a test.
B. Background Art
Anticancer agent sensitivity tests sometimes have been carried out using subcultured cancer cells hitherto, but for the purpose of evaluating effects of anticancer agents upon respective individuals, methods of evaluating the effects of the anticancer agents by utilizing so-called primary culture, in which samples taken from a living body are directly cultured, are widely employed. However, when cancer cells were taken from living body tissue as a sample and then used, there were problems such that: a necessary and sufficient amount of live cells maintaining proliferativity cannot be obtained, and in addition, the sample contains normal cells other than the aimed cancer cells, and further contains many other components such as bacteria.
Accordingly, as a method for efficiently carrying out anticancer agent sensitivity tests, for example, the following method has been applied in recent year: a method in which primary cells containing cancer cells in a collagen gel is embedded, and then cultured. Even if the absolute amount of the cancer cells as used for the tests is small, the cancer cells can favorably be proliferated in the collagen gel. In addition, even if the collagen gel is contaminated with cells other than the cancer cells such as fibroblast cells and each is grown and extended, they can easily be distinguished morphologically. Therefore, the evaluation of the sensitivity of only the cancer cells both the anticancer agents are added thereto and not can easily be carried out.
Furthermore, for the purpose of enhancing the accuracy of the tests, well known is a method that involves: placing a droplet of a cancer-cell-containing collagen solution on a surface of a supporting base material; allowing the droplet to gel; and forming and embedding a globular collagen gel, in order to culture the cancer cells under more favorable density and circumstances to proliferated the cancer cells more easily (Japanese Patent No. 2879978).
These methods may be theoretically and technically preferred, but, when such as anticancer agent sensitivity tests are carried out using cells sampled for biopsy as actually sampled from living bodies, the test success rate is still low, and the level of the tests is not sufficient to say that it is in on a realistic and practical level in the clinical. As to its cause, the following is mentioned first: there are many cases where cells of which the number has a level such that the test can sufficiently be carried out cannot be collected, or the cells cannot be collected at all. In order to solve this, it is thought necessary to reduce the loss of the number of the cells as sampled from the living bodies as low as possible. However, the washing step regarded as necessary in conventional methods has problems such that: it is very difficult to carry out the step for a very slight sample amount of biopsy materials; the sufficient washing is impossible; and further the yield is very low and the loss is increased. As to the second cause, the following is mentioned: the culture cannot be continued often because of the contamination with such as bacteria. It is natural to cause the possibility of the contamination on the operation, and tissue sampled in vivo especially from such as intestines includes Escherichia coli and various bacteria that are bacteria ordinary living in vivo. Therefore, under the present circumstances, even if the process of the above-mentioned washing step is gone through, the inhibition of the contamination still cannot entirely be performed, resulting in serious problems.

Process for culturing cells sampled for biopsy


Implementations set forth herein relate to providing selectable autofill suggestions, which correspond to application actions that are at least partially fulfilled using server command data—prior to a user selecting a particular selectable autofill suggestion. Proactively fulfilling command data in this way mitigates latency between user selection of a suggestion and fulfillment of a particular action. Initially, a partial input can be processed to generate autofill suggestions, which can be communicated to a server device for further processing. The autofill suggestions can also be rendered for selection at a touch display interface, thereby allowing a user to select one of the autofill suggestions. As command fulfillment data is provided by the server, the command fulfillment data can be available to a corresponding application(s) in order that any corresponding actions can be at least partially fulfilled prior to user selection.

Humans may engage in human-to-computer dialogs with interactive software applications referred to herein as "automated assistants" (also referred to as "digital agents," "chatbots," "interactive personal assistants," "intelligent personal assistants," "conversational agents," etc.). For example, humans (which when they interact with automated assistants may be referred to as "users") may provide commands and/or requests using spoken natural language input (i.e., utterances) which may in some cases be converted into text and then processed, and/or by providing textual (e.g., typed) natural language input.
In some instances, an automated assistant or other application may provide functionality for suggesting, to a user, certain commands for the user to issue to the automated assistant or application. However, oftentimes the suggestions rendered for the user may not be readily interactive because of some further operations that need to be performed. For example, in order to be responsive to a suggested command selected by the user, an application may need to retrieve data from one or more server computing devices or applications, and/or buffer certain data at the client computing device. This can add latency between a selection of a suggestion by the user and fulfillment of a request by the application. Such latency can result in certain resource-preserving actions being delayed to the detriment of other applications and/or computing devices. For example, a suggested command that corresponds to turning off an appliance may not be executed expeditiously after a user selects the suggested command. As a result, the appliance may continue to consume energy and/or other resources until a respective application fulfills the suggested command. Moreover, messages and/or other communications between users can be delayed as a result of such latency, thereby resulting in unintended schedule alterations and/or other consequences that can amount to loss of time and/or other resources.

Fulfillment of actionable requests ahead of a user selecting a particular autocomplete suggestion for completing a current user input


A flooring in a pigpen includes first and second grates which provide two levels to the flooring, the upper level intended for the sows and the lower level for the piglets. The second grates, which provide the upper flooring level, can be positioned on the first grates or on a steel subfloor support grid. The flooring can include third and fourth grates which enable the second grates forming the upper flooring level to extend obliquely to a side of the pigpen.

The present invention relates to a flooring in a pigpen which includes at least one first, substantially rectangular grate that is provided with supporting means for support on a first set of supporting steel along at least two of the sides of the grate, and which first grate is positioned in a first area of the pigpen and with the walking surface of the grate in a first level in the pigpen, and at least one second, substantially rectangular grate which is positioned in a second area of the pigpen and has the walking surface of the grate in a second, higher level in the pigpens and a grate for use in such flooring.
When constructing farrowing pens in stables for pigs it is necessary that various conditions be taken into consideration. It has to be possible to construct the pen for existing needs, just as it has to be possible to change the construction of the pen as needs change. Additionally, there has to be the possibility of providing pens which fulfill the existing needs independent of the dimensions of the pen, i.e., the length and the width of the pen.
For farrowing pens in stables for pigs, in some countries it is important that the sow is at a higher level than normal floor level. Thereby, the risk of piglets being caught under the sow is reduced substantially when the sow lies down or turns over. This means that in a limited part of the farrowing pen it is necessary to provide a second, higher level for the walking surface in the pigpen in relation to the walking surface in the remaining parts of the pigpen.
Floorings are known where a separate grate is positioned above an already made standard grate, which separate grate in its own way is fastened to the standard grates and which thus provides a higher level for the walking surface in the part of the pen which is covered by the separate grate. However, there are several drawbacks when creating a higher level according to this principle. Firstly, the separate grates are not adjusted to the individual pen, wherefore these seldom fulfill the existing needs in a satisfactory way. Secondly, the hygienic conditions are reduced substantially by positioning a separate grate above the already made standard grates, as waste and other impurities are gathered in the spacing between the underside of the separate grate and the top side of the standard grates. Thirdly, it is difficult to fasten the separate grate to the standard grates, as it is necessary to use means which do not generate permanent changes in the grates in consideration of later use of the pen, also, it is important that the fastening means do not break the uniform, level surface of the walking surface.
Thus, it is the object of the present invention to provide grates for constructing a flooring and such flooring of the above-mentioned type, and which is constructed by grates which constitute modules which may co-operate mutually in order to fulfill the necessary needs, and which may be changed depending on changing needs.


A packaging material for batteries, which is not susceptible to the formation of a pinhole or cracking during the forming, while having excellent formability, and is effectively suppressed in curling after the forming, which is formed of a laminate with at least a base layer, an adhesive layer, a metal layer and a thermally fusible resin layer in this order, and wherein: the tensile modulus of elasticity of the base layer in one direction and the tensile modulus of elasticity of the base layer in a perpendicular direction in the same plane are both within the range of from 400 N/15 mm to 1,000 N/15 mm (inclusive); and the absolute value of the difference between the tensile modulus of elasticity of the base layer in the one direction and the tensile modulus of elasticity of the base layer in the other is 150 N/15 mm or less.

Various types of batteries have been developed heretofore, and in every battery, a packaging material is an essential member for sealing battery elements such as an electrode and an electrolyte. Metallic packaging materials have been often used heretofore as battery packagings.
On the other hand, in recent years, batteries have been required to be diversified in shape and to be thinned and lightened with improvement of performance of electric cars, hybrid electric cars, personal computers, cameras, mobile phones and so on. However, metallic battery packaging materials that have often been heretofore used have the disadvantage that it is difficult to keep up with diversification in shape, and there is a limit on weight reduction.
Thus, in recent years, there has been proposed a film-shaped laminate with a base material, a metal layer and a heat-sealable resin layer laminated in this order has been proposed as a battery packaging material which is easily processed into diversified shapes and is capable of achieving thickness reduction and weight reduction.
In such a battery packaging material, generally, a concave portion is formed by cold molding, battery elements such as an electrode and an electrolytic solution are disposed in a space formed by the concave portion, and heat-sealable resin layers are heat-welded to obtain a battery with battery elements stored in the battery packaging material. However, such a film-shaped packaging material is thinner as compared to a metallic packaging material, and has the disadvantage that pinholes and cracks are easily generated during molding. If pinholes and cracks are generated in a battery packaging material, an electrolytic solution may permeate to a metal layer to form a metal precipitate, resulting in generation of a short-circuit, and therefore it is absolutely necessary that a film-shaped battery packaging material have a property that makes it hard to generate pinholes during molding, i.e. excellent moldability.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses that in a laminated packaging material which includes an inner layer including a resin film; a first adhesive agent layer; a metal layer; a second adhesive agent layer; and an outer layer including a resin film, at least one of the first adhesive agent layer and the second adhesive agent layer is formed of an adhesive agent composition containing a resin having an active hydrogen group on the side chain, a polyfunctional isocyanate and a polyfunctional amine compound to give a packaging material having high reliability in deeper molding.

Packaging material for batteries, method for producing same, and battery


The display control device has a register for holding mode data for giving: a direction about which of a first display mode for performing display control of display data supplied together with a display timing signal from outside, and a second display mode for performing display control of display data written in RAM without accepting supply of a display timing signal from outside to select; and a direction about whether or not to select a scale-up mode for scaling up the display data, so that the mode data can be rewritten from the outside. The display mode is controlled based on the setting values on the register. The control register can be rewritten according to the type of data to be displayed, the system working situation, user settings, etc. Therefore, the low power consumption allowable in terms of system, and a required display performance can be obtained timely and readily.

The present invention relates to a display control device and a data processing system, and a technique useful in application to e.g. a liquid crystal controller driver.
In recent years, it has been planed to make the resolution of a compact communication portable terminal device such as a smart phone as high as FHD (full high definition). In regard to FHD, it has been concern that because of the number of pixels as many as 1080×1920, the amount of data to be processed per hour is increased in a display control device operable to perform the display control as well as a host processor, resulting in the considerable increase in electric power in the total system. To decrease the data amount to display resolution, an operation for enlarging a display image may be performed by a scaling technique as described in JP-A-2006-215320.
Further, what is controlled by a display control device is not only video data, such as moving-image data, but also a menu display and graphic data to be drawn by application software. In the former case, video signals supplied together with synchronizing signals are display-controlled in real time. In the latter cases, the display control of display data whose image has been drawn in RAM is performed according to a command issued by a processor. A display control device for performing the display control in these cases is described in JP-A-2008-129557.

Display control device and data processing system


Generally discussed herein are systems and apparatuses for gesture-based augmented reality. Also discussed herein are methods of using the systems and apparatuses. According to an example a method may include detecting, in image data, an object and a gesture, in response to detecting the object in the image data, providing data indicative of the detected object, in response to detecting the gesture in the image data, providing data indicative of the detected gesture, and modifying the image data using the data indicative of the detected object and the data indicative of the detected gesture.

Augmented reality (AR) includes a presentation of a real world image or image stream that is augmented (e.g., modified, altered, or amended) with a sensory output such as a sound or visual augmentation. Augmenting image data is generally done in real-time. In general, AR supplants a real world view that is captured, processed, and output to provide a simulated view. AR has many applications including gaming, maintenance, entertainment, directions, and guidance, among others.

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for gesture recognition and interaction