Connectors are provided for attaching flexible tubular grafts to the body organ tubing of a patient at oblique angles. The connector structures may be formed from two elongated members connected by a series of struts. Wire hooks welded to the connector may be used to engage the graft and the body organ tubing when the connector is used to attach the graft to the body organ tubing. The struts are bendable so that the elongated members can be compressed toward each other when it is desired to install a graft by placing the graft and the connector in a delivery tube. When the connector and graft are released from the delivery tube at the installation site, at least the open end of the connector adjacent to the body organ tubing has an oval shape for insertion into and attachment to an oval aperture in the body organ tubing. The elongated members are longitudinally shifted relative to each other so that the connector is angled obliquely to support attachment of the graft to the body organ tubing at an oblique angle.

This invention relates to replacing or supplementing a patient's natural body organ tubing by installing tubular graft structures. More particularly, the invention relates to connector structures for making oblique-angle connections between such tubular graft structures and body organ tubing.
A patient's weakened or diseased body organ tubing can often be repaired by replacing or supplementing the patient's existing natural body organ tubing with an artificial graft structure. One suitable type of artificial graft structure uses a tubular nitinol mesh frame covered with a silicone coating, as described in Goldsteen et al. U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/745,618, filed Nov. 7, 1996. Such grafts are highly flexible, so they recover their shape after being stretched. Accordingly, a graft of this type may be stretched axially to reduce its radial dimension and then installed in a patient intraluminally (e.g., through an existing vein or artery). Once delivered to the proper location within the patient, the axially stretched graft may be released, whereupon it expands to regain its original shape.
In addition, flexible artificial grafts may be made distensible like natural body organ tubing to help reduce clot formation when used in vascular applications. Flexible artificial grafts may also be made biocompatible by adjusting their porosity and the composition of their coatings.
Various connector structures may be used to attach flexible artificial grafts to a patient's body organ tubing. For example, a graft may be surgically attached to body organ tubing with sutures. To install a graft intraluminally, a pronged ring may be expanded from within the end of the graft, thereby piercing the graft and attaching it to surrounding body organ tubing. Barbed flaps and wire hooks may also be used to attach grafts to body organ tubing. Connector structures of these types and other suitable connector structures are described in the above-mentioned Goldsteen et al. U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/745,618, filed Nov. 7, 1996 and in Bachinski et al. U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/839,199, filed Apr. 23, 1997. Wire-based connector structures suitable for attaching grafts to body organ tubing at oblique angles are described in Berg et al. U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/946,742, filed Oct. 9, 1997.
Although connector structures of these types have various useful features, it would be desirable if other connector structures were available, particularly connectors for making oblique-angle connections between tubular grafts and body organ tubing.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide improved connector structures for attaching grafts to a patient's body organ tubing at oblique angles.


A radio communications device includes a headphone assembly, which includes at least one aural speaker or transducer and a headphone cable functioning as an antenna and providing electrical signals carrying audio information to the at least one aural speaker or transducer. A signal separator coupled to the headphone cable separates the electrical signals carrying audio information transmitted to the headphone cable and radio frequency (RF) signals received from the headphone cable. A radio receiver receives the RF signals from the signal separator and converts the RF signals to electrical signals carrying audio information. A tuner is provided for tuning the headphone cable to a selected operating frequency of the radio receiver. An audio amplifier amplifies electrical signals carrying audio information from the radio receiver to be transmitted through the headphone cable to the at least one aural speaker or transducer.

The present application relates generally to headphone antennas for radio communications devices, including tablet computers and other multimedia platforms.
Headphones with cables that serve as both an antenna and as an audio cable for earpiece speakers are known in the art, particularly for FM radio reception.
The present application is directed to a headphone antenna system that provides improved antenna performance in various radio frequency bands including, but not limited to, VHF (high), VHF (low), FM, and UHF bands.

Headphone antenna for radio communications device


An engine (drive force) control apparatus for a motorcycle that prevents a change in vehicle behavior by noise or the like. A control CPU electronically controls injection and ignition of fuel and a throttle valve. An abnormality detecting portion detects an abnormality of the engine control apparatus by a predetermined abnormality detecting period. When the abnormality is detected, primary abnormality processing of the engine control apparatus is executed. When the abnormality is not detected, primary abnormality processing is released and an electronic control at normal time of the engine control apparatus is executed. When an abnormality detecting signal detected by the abnormality detecting portion continues even an elapse of a predetermined abnormality determining time period, primary abnormality processing is shifted to secondary abnormality processing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drive force control apparatus and particularly relates to a drive force control apparatus of a riding type vehicle that detects an abnormality of the drive force control apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
An electronic throttle valve controls an opening degree of a throttle valve by an electronic control to control an intake amount of an engine (internal combustion engine) to realize low emission gas and low fuel cost. Such a construction is already adopted in portions of passenger vehicles.
In adopting an electronic throttle valve for a motorcycle, a drive motor for controlling an opening degree of a throttle valve needs to be arranged compactly while avoiding, interference with a fuel injection valve arranged at an intake path. Therefore, although a compact electronic throttle control apparatus mountable to a motorcycle is proposed in prior art such as JP-A-2002-256895, an electronic throttle control apparatus has not been adopted yet in motorcycles due to their inherent restrictions.
The electronic throttle valve is provided with a function for cutting the drive of the throttle valve by an electronic motor when some abnormality is brought about in a control system to return the throttle valve in a fully closing direction by an urge force of a spring (see, for example, JP-A-2003-201866).
In order to execute this function, a means for detecting that an abnormality is brought about in a control system of the electronic throttle valve is needed. For example, an opening degree of the throttle valve may be detected by a throttle sensor, and a signal of the throttle sensor needs to be constantly monitored in order to detect an abnormal output of the throttle sensor.
When the throttle sensor is otherwise normal, and an instantaneous abnormal signal is caused by noise or the like, although a normal state is recovered immediately, the state is nevertheless determined as an abnormality.
In order to exclude such instantaneous abnormal signal detection, a determination delay time period longer than a signal width of noise or the like may be provided. When an abnormal output continues for the determination delay time period, an abnormality is finally determined.
However, there is a concern that even when a control system becomes truly abnormal, the control of the throttle valve based on the abnormal output is continued until elapse of the determination delay time period. In particular, when applied to a riding type vehicle, a change in vehicle behavior is increased.
In JP-A-10-238389, when an abnormality of a throttle sensor is detected, a control amount of a throttle opening degree is set to a predetermined value (tentative abnormality control), and the throttle control is stopped when the abnormality continues after a determination delay time period has elapsed.
According to this method, a determination delay time before stopping the throttle control after detecting an abnormality is provided, and therefore, an abnormality detection due to an instantaneous abnormal signal by noise or the like is excluded. Further, the control amount of the throttle opening degree can be fixed to a predetermined amount during the determination delay time, and therefore, control of the throttle valve based on the instantaneous abnormal output of the throttle sensor can be avoided.
Although the method described in JP-A-10-238389 promotes reliability of the electronic throttle system, a tentative abnormality control is still carried out during the determination delay time period and therefore, there is a concern of changing vehicle behavior even by noise. Further, when normality is determined and control is returned to a normal state, there is also a concern of changing vehicle behavior.

Drive force control apparatus of riding vehicle, its control method and riding type vehicle


Provided is a composition that may include an aqueous phase, and extremophilic bacteria having signal transduction chemotaxis machinery and nanoemulsion oil droplets including metal-silica nanoparticles attached to a surface thereof. Further provided is a method for treating an oil reservoir, that may include introducing into the oil reservoir an extremophilic bacteria having signal transduction chemotaxis machinery and nanoemulsion oil droplets including metal-silica nanoparticles attached to a surface thereof. Further provided is method for bacteria mediated enhanced oil recovery that may include introducing extremophilic bacteria downhole to an oil reservoir. The method may further include triggering cell lysis of the extremophilic bacteria, mobilizing the oil trapped by the biosurfactants released from lysed extremophilic bacteria, and producing the oil trapped by the biosurfactants from the oil reservoir.

A petroleum reservoir is an underground pool of hydrocarbon compounds contained in porous or fractured rock formations. The petroleum in the reservoir is accessed through one or more borings in the earth that penetrate the material above the reservoir and enable transport of the petroleum to the surface. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes increase oil production rates of problematic and underperforming hydrocarbon bearing wells and fields. The EOR processes used in modern oil and gas operations may include, for example, chemical, hydro chemical, thermal, fluid/superfluid and microbial-based processes. Many of these EOR processes use water flooding, for example, to increase the pressure within the reservoir, thereby increasing oil production rates; and to displace hydrocarbons within the reservoir. Microbial enhanced oil recovery (microbial EOR) allows for oil entrapped in the reservoir matrix to be targeted by using microbes.

Autonomous extremophiles for downhole oil and gas applications controlled by metal silica nanoparticles


A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus sequentially transmits a plurality of radio frequency (RF) pulses having flip angles of α1°, α2°, −α1°, and −α2° for refocusing transverse magnetization of spins, and brings the transverse magnetization of the spins to longitudinal magnetization after the refocusing of the transverse magnetization of the spins.

The present invention relates to a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus that transmits RF pulses for refocusing transverse magnetization of spins.
In a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, unevenness in signal intensity appears in an image due to ununiformity in static magnetic field (B0 ununiformity) and hence the quality of the image may be deteriorated. There has therefore been proposed a method for reducing image deterioration due to ununiformity in static magnetic field (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-190362).
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-190362 discloses a method of sequentially transmitting four RF pulses having flip angles of 180°, 180°, −180° and −180° between two RF pulses each having a flip angle of 45° to thereby reduce image deterioration due to ununiformity in static magnetic field. However, the method of the patent document 1 also has the problem of occurrence of unevenness in signal intensity due to ununiformity in RF transmission magnetic field (B1 ununiformity).
It is desirable that the problem described previously is solved.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and method utilizing RF pulse flip angels

GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC


A mobile terminal device having a ringing device includes a first control unit configured to be activated at a first activation time after power on; a second control unit configured to be activated at an activation time that is later than the first activation time; and a sound source configured to output a ringing sound in accordance with a program instruction, based on activation of the first control unit.

In recent years, mobile terminal devices such as mobile handsets equipped with a ringing device for security purposes such a buzzer or an alarm are becoming popular with growing security awareness.
Conventionally, a buzzer for security purposes installed in a mobile handset is configured to be controlled by hardware. For example, a mobile handset is equipped with hardware that is capable of ringing regardless of the power on/off state of the mobile handset. This enables the ringing operation upon turning the switch of the buzzer on, even if the power of the main unit of the mobile handset is off.
However, when mounting such a security buzzer with hardware control on a mobile terminal device such as a mobile handset, there is a problem that the hardware needs to be mounted on each mobile terminal device, incurring costs such as production costs in proportion to the number of units.
Therefore, for example, Patent document 1 discloses an alarm control method with which various sounds can be created without a divider circuit and the like for switching sounds, by providing unit for specifying data for deciding the type of the alarm by a program, and unit for outputting the data bit by bit at regular intervals.
However, when providing a mobile terminal device with ringing by software control as in Patent document 1, there is a problem that while the ringing can be performed with no problem in the state in which the mobile terminal device is activated, but in the state in which the mobile terminal device is not activated (for example, in the state in which the power of the mobile terminal device is off), the buzzer cannot perform ringing. In addition, since it requires some time to activate the mobile terminal device, there is a problem that it takes time before the ringing of the buzzer actually starts after an instruction for the start of the ringing is issued by a switch and the like of the buzzer.
In relation to this technique, Patent document 2 discloses a mobile handset equipped with a security function with which even when the mobile handset is performing a process to turn off the power, the security buzzer starts ringing immediately upon turning the switch of the security buzzer on, and continues to ring.                Patent document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 02-253409        Patent document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-082122

Mobile terminal device including ringing device


The system includes a battery charger (300) and a battery pack (100). Upon insertion of the battery pack (100) into a retention area (303) of the battery charger (300), a battery pack channel (101) and a corresponding battery charger rail (305) align the battery pack electrical contacts (201) with the electrical contacts (309) of the battery charger. In order to ensure that a reliable electrical connection is made between the two sets of contacts (201, 309), a compliance rib (501) is disposed within the channel (101) of the battery pack (100). The compliance rib (501) creates an interference between the rail (305) and the channel (101), consequently, creating a force against the rail. The interference is calculated to create a sufficient force in combination with the force created by the weight of the battery pack (100) such that the force of the battery pack meets or exceeds the force created by the set of electrical contacts in the battery charger.

Generally, battery packs are used to retain one or more rechargeable battery cells for use with portable electronic devices. Since most battery packs contain rechargeable cells, the battery packs are also used with a battery charger. Battery packs contain at least one set of electrical contacts to provide electrical connection to the battery cells contained therein.
Battery chargers are often built with battery retention areas. Typically, the battery retention area has a set of electrical contacts for interfacing to the battery pack and charging the battery cells contained therein. The battery charger is designed such that a battery pack may be dropped into the battery retention area. Upon dropping the battery pack, the battery retention area and the battery pack will align electrical contacts of the battery pack with the electrical contacts of the battery charger.
One such battery retention system previously developed includes the following elements. First, a battery pack housing is developed which has two channels running lengthwise along the battery pack housing on opposite sides of the battery pack. Second, the battery charger contains a battery retention area having a width equal to that of the battery pack housing. Third, the battery retention area contains two rails disposed on opposite sides of the battery retention area. The two rails are disposed in such a manner that when the battery pack is dropped into the battery retention area, the two rails are aligned with the channels of the battery pack. Fourth, the battery retention area also provides a set of electrical contacts coupled to the charger within the housing. Upon insertion of the battery pack into the retention area, the channels and corresponding rails align a set of electrical contacts on the battery pack with the electrical contacts of the battery charger. The electrical contacts of the battery charger protrude through openings in the battery retention area of the battery charger and exert a predetermined force upon the battery pack when the battery pack is fully inserted into the battery retention area. Typically, the weight of the battery pack provided sufficient force to overcome the force of the battery chargers electrical contacts, thus, providing a reliable electrical connection between the battery cells contained within the battery pack and the battery charging device.
Today, the market demands and technology has provided us with a lighter, more efficient battery pack and corresponding battery cells. As a result of the lighter battery packs, the force created by the weight of the battery pack is no longer sufficient to overcome the force generated by the electrical contacts of the battery charger. Thus, it would be advantageous to have a battery retention system which provides a reliable electrical connection between the battery charger and the battery cells contained within the battery pack.

Battery pack retention system and apparatus therefor


An electrically assisted vehicle includes a vehicle main body having a driving wheel, a human drive system having a driving force applying part to which a human driving force for driving the driving wheel is applied and a torque detecting part for detecting the human driving force applied to the driving force applying part, and an electric drive system having a motor, a control part for controlling the motor and a battery for power supply, wherein the motor has an electric driving force characteristic such that it outputs the electric driving force only at speeds lower than a predetermined speed, and the control part of the electric drive system controls the motor with a predetermined ratio on the basis of detection results from the torque detecting part of the human drive systems thereby executing power assistance control while maintaining the assist ratio to be less than a predetermined value without providing a speed sensor for carrying out control based on the speed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrically assisted vehicle such as an electrically assisted bicycle or wheelchair having a human drive system for driving a driving wheel by applying a human driving force and an electric drive system for auxiliarily driving the driving wheel by driving an electric motor in correspondence with the human driving force.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally known electrically assisted vehicles of this kind include vehicles which reduce the amount of human driving force needed to drive them by supplementing the human driving force with an electric driving force from an electric motor.
In such electrically assisted vehicles, safety during high speed traveling has been ensured by controlling an assist ratio as shown in FIG. 7, for example. That is, a kind of control has been carried out which sets the ratio of the electric driving force to the human driving force, or so-called assist ratio, to be 1.0 at traveling speeds of 0 to 15 km/h, varies it so that it gradually decreases linearly from 1.0 to 0 with speed increase between 15 and 24 km/h and sets it to be 0 at 24 km/h and over, thereby stopping the auxiliary drive provided by the electric driving force.
To achieve this, normally, a method has been adopted wherein a driving force sensor for detecting the amount of the human driving force applied to the driving wheel, a speed sensor for detecting the traveling speed and a microcomputer for calculating how large the electric driving force is to be made are provided, and the amount of the human driving force and the traveling speed are inputted in the microcomputer which is allowed to vary the assist ratio on the basis of table data stocked therein.
For example, supposing that a human driving force of 100 kg.multidot.cm is acting on the driving force sensor, an auxiliary additional output provided by the electric driving force is set to be 100 kg.multidot.cm when a traveling speed is 10 km/h(see FIG. 7), while it is calculated and outputted to be 44 kg.multidot.cm for a traveling speed of 20 km/h because the assist ratio must be reduced to about 0.44.
However, with the kind of construction described above, it has happened that when the speed sensor is inaccurate or the speed sensor malfunctions, the speed reported by the speed sensor and the actual traveling speed are sometimes different, so that, although normal calculation is carried out in the microcomputer, the assist ratio goes outside the limit of control shown in FIG. 7. Thus, it may sometimes become a dangerous travel or result in an insufficiency of electric driving force assistance.
Also, because the speed sensor detects the traveling speed from a wheel or the like which is a rotating part, there has been a problem that wiring is necessary and the construction is liable to become complicated and the wiring is liable to constitute an obstruction.


In one embodiment, a method includes identifying a plurality of locations associated with a conference system that has a conference server and a mixer, and prioritizing the locations by assigning a first priority to at least a first location and assigning a second priority to a second location. The second priority is lower than the first priority. The method also includes processing received media streams such that media streams received from endpoints associated with the first location are processed as having a higher priority than media streams received from endpoints associated with the second location.

Conference systems typically include mixers that mix and distribute media streams received from one or more active speakers participating in a conference. To mix and distribute media streams, mixers generally determine mixing priorities associated with the various speakers and, hence, streams that originate from the speakers. The energy level of the streams or media streams may be used to determine mixing priorities. By way of example, media streams associated with the loudest speakers and, hence, the highest energy levels, may be mixed at a higher priority than media streams associated with quieter speakers when the number of media streams that may be mixed is limited. Alternatively, the hierarchical ranking of the active speakers participating in a conference may be used to determine a mixing priority, e.g., a conference involving military participants in the field may prioritize media streams received from officers for mixing over media streams received from enlisted men.

Location based mixer priorities in conferences


A method of providing advertisements includes requesting, by a software development kit for an application, an advertisement from an advertisement server in response to playback of a video content item by the application; receiving the advertisement from the advertisement server based on the requesting; displaying, with the application, the advertisement received from the advertisement server; collecting a set of metrics while the advertisement is displayed; and providing the set of metrics to the advertisement server.

Advertisers provide advertisements in different forms in order to attract consumers. An advertisement ("ad") is a piece of information designed to be used in whole or part by a user, for instance, a particular consumer. Advertisements can be provided in electronic form. For instance, online advertisements can be provided as banner advertisements on a web page, as advertisements presented with search results, or as advertisements presented in a mobile application.
One can refer to the inclusion of an advertisement in a medium, e.g., a web page or a mobile application, as an impression. An advertising system can include an advertisement in a web page, for instance, in response to one or more keywords in a user search query input to a search engine. If a user selects the presented advertisement (e.g., by "clicking" the ad), the user is generally taken to another location associated with the advertisement, for instance, to another, particular web page.

Interfaces to allow video ad serving into a mobile phone application video stream


Systems and methods for blocking nerve impulses use an implanted electrode located on or around a nerve. A specific waveform is used that causes the nerve membrane to become incapable of transmitting an action potential. The membrane is only affected underneath the electrode, and the effect is immediately and completely reversible. The waveform has a low amplitude and can be charge balanced, with a high likelihood of being safe to the nerve for chronic conditions. It is possible to selectively block larger (motor) nerve fibers within a mixed nerve, while allowing sensory information to travel through unaffected nerve fibers.

Spinal cord injury can lead to uncontrolled muscle spasms. Spasticity can also occur as a result of stroke, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis. Peripheral nerve injury can cause pain, such as neuroma pain.
Various nerve blocking techniques have been proposed or tried to treat spasms, spacticity, and pain. They have met with varying degree of success. Problems have been encountered, such as damage and destruction to the nerve, and the inability to achieve a differentiation of nerve blocking effects among large and small nerve fibers in a whole nerve.

Systems and methods for reversibly blocking nerve activity


An adaptive interface is provided that is capable of brokering requests from a diverse set of customer host systems to a diverse set of backend servers (or backend device or backend automation system) controlling product dispensing devices and/or systems. The interface may be fully configurable and extensible (i.e., there is a lot of control over the behavior, and the interface can support future features without requiring code changes). Two areas of extensibility of the interface may be adapting to new message formats from the same or new host systems, and supporting new backend services.

The present invention relates generally to an interface for use in communicating with a controller of a product dispensing system. More particularly, the invention relates to an adaptive interface for managing communications between various host management systems and various product dispensing systems.
Typical product dispensing systems, such as those used to dispense medicaments in a pharmacy, include a host management computer and one or more dispensing stations. Prescription information is entered into the host management computer. If the medicament is located within an automatic dispensing station, a controller or a work flow software program in communication with the host management computer enables a dispensing device within the dispensing station to dispense the medicament. If the medicament is located within a manual dispensing station, a controller or a work flow software program identifies the medicament's storage location within the dispensing station, for example by activating a pick light, so that a user (e.g., pharmacist, pharmacy technician, etc.) may retrieve the medicament to manually fill the prescription.
Once installed, expansion or modification of a typical product dispensing system is difficult. For example, each time that a new type of dispensing station is added to the product dispensing system or a new function is added to an existing dispensing device, programming changes must be implemented to the host management computer so that the host management computer is able to activate the new dispensing devices. For example, a product dispensing system may initially include dispensing stations having Baker Cell™ dispensing devices, Baker Cassette™ dispensing devices, and Baker Universal pharmacy scales. If, for example, additional features are added to the Baker Cell™ dispensing devices the host management computer must be updated to exploit these new features. Additionally, if a different type of dispensing device is introduced to the product dispensing system, new software drivers must be installed so that the host management computer can activate the new type of dispensing device. Each time a driver or software is added or updated, the host management computer must be re-booted before the changes to the system can take effect.
Because the host management computer must be updated to reflect changes made to the product dispensing system, the host management computer's software tends to become customized for each specific installation. Customization increases the time necessary to create software upgrades, increases the likelihood that glitches will be introduced into the host management computer by a software or driver upgrade, increases the time necessary to troubleshoot problems that occur, and raises the expense of operating the product dispensing system.
Therefore, a need exists for an adaptive interface capable of managing communications between and/or amongst a diverse set of host management systems or computers and a diverse set of product dispensing devices or systems.

Adaptive interface for product dispensing systems


Novel Shc-binding protein, oligonucleotides encoding the same, methods of producing and use thereof are disclosed.

The present invention relates generally to the identification and isolation of a novel Shc-binding proteins, to novel nucleic acid molecules encoding such polypeptides and more particularly to the isolation and identification of a unique Shc binding protein designated PAL (Protein expressed in Activated Lymphocytes), and nucleic acid molecules encoding PAL.
The ubiquitously expressed Shc adapter proteins play a role in coupling growth factor receptor activation to intracellular signaling pathways. The mammalian Shc gene encodes at least three overlapping proteins with molecular weights of approximately 46 kDa, 52 kDa and 66 kDa (also called the p46, p52, and p66 isoforms or proteins, Bonfini et al., TlBS 21:257-261 (1996); Migliaccio et al., EMBO J. 16:706-716 (1997); Pelicci et al., Cell 70:93-104 (1992)). All three protein products share a carboxy terminal Src Homology 2 (SH2) domain, a central glycine/proline rich domain with homology to alphal collagen (CH1), and an amino terminal phosphotyrosine binding (PTB) domain which is different from the SH2 domain. The p52 and p46 isoforms differ only by 46 amino acids at the extreme amino terminus and are generated by the use of alternative translation initiation sites (Pelicci et al., Cell 70:93-104 (1992)). The p66 isoform is produced via alternative splicing of the Shc gene and contains an amino terminal extension which encodes a second collagen homology region (CH2) in addition to the common PTB, Ch1, and SH2 domains. Interestingly, it has recently been demonstrated that the expression of p66 is more restricted, and that some of its biological properties are distinct from those of the p52 and p46 Shc isoforms (Bonfini et al., TIBS 21:257-261 (1996); Migliaccio et al., EMBO J. 16:706-716 (1997)).
Shc proteins are typically tyrosine phosphorylated following activation of receptor tyrosine kinases (van der Geer et al, Ann. Rev. Cell Biol. 10:251-337 (1994)), such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) (Pelicci et al., Cell 70:93-104 (1992)), the platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) (Yokote et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269:15337-15343 (1994)), the nerve growth factor receptor (TrkA) (Obermeier et al., EMBO J. 13:1585-1590 (1994)), the insulin receptor (Pronk et al., J. Biol. Chem. 268:5748-5753 (1993)), and erbB-2 (Segatta et al., Oncogene 9:2105-2112 (1993)), as well as following activation of receptors that lack intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity, such as the T-cell receptor (TCR) (avichandran et al., Science 262:902-905 (1993)), the B-cell receptor (Saxton et al., J. Immunol. 153:623-636 (1994)), the receptors for the interleukins (Bums et al., J. Biol. Chem. 268:17659-17661 (1993); Cutler et al., J. Biol. Chem. 268:21463-21465 (1993); Ravichandran et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269:1599-1602 (1994)), and the erythropoietin receptor (Damen et al., Blood 82:2296-2303 (1993)). Additionally, tyrosine phosphorylation of Shc proteins has been detected after activation of G-protein coupled receptors (Cazaubon et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269:24805-24809 (1994); Chen et al., EMBO J. 15:1037-1044 (1996);al., Ptazniket et al. J. Biol. Chem. 270:19969-19973 (1995); Touhara et al., Proc. Natl. Acad Sci. USA. 92:9284-9287 (1995); van Biesen et al., Nature 376:781-784 (1995)), ligation of integrins (Maniero et al., EMBO J.. 14:4470-4481(1995); Wary et al., Cell 87:733-743 (1996)), and in cells expressing activated Src, Fps, Sea or Lck (Baldari et al., Oncogene 16:1141-1147 (1995); Crowe et al., Oncogene 9:537-544 (1994); McGlade et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:8869-8873 (1992); Pelicci et al., Oncogene 11:899-907 (1995)), which implicates Shc proteins as important substrates of cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases.
Shc Protein Binding
Shc proteins are able to directly bind to tyrosine-phosphorylated peptides or proteins, including activated receptor tyrosine kdnases, typically by virtue of their SH2 or PTB domains (Bonfini et al., TIBS 21:257-261 (1996); Pawson, Nature 373:573-579 (1995)). The Shc SH2 domain preferentially binds to tyrosine phosphorylated peptides in the sequence context pY-E/I -X-I/L/M (where X represents any amino acid) (Songyang et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 14:2777-2785 (1994)) and mediates the binding of Shc to the PDGFR (Songyang et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 14:2777-2785 (1994)), EGFR (Pelicci et al, Cell 70:93-104 (1992)), receptor tyrosine kinase (RET) (Pronk et al. J. BioL Chem. 268:5748-5753 (1993)), and the CD3 zeta chain (Ravichandran etal., Science 262:902-905 (1993)). The PTB domain of Shc proteins also recognizes tyrosine phosphorylated peptides, but in a different context by selecting specific residues amino terminal to the phosphorylated tyrosine (Songyang et al., J. Biol Chem. 270:14863-14866 (1995)). The Shc PTB domain has been shown to bind directly to N-P-X-pY sequence motifs in the cytoplasmic domains of the EGFR (Blaikie et al., J. Boil Chem. 269:23031-32034 (1994)), TrkA (Diklic etal., J. Biol. Chem. 270:15125-15129 (1995)), RET (Lorenzo et al., Oncogene 14:763-771 (1997)), and the IL-2Rxcex2 chain (Ravichandran et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 28:5275-5280 (1996)).
Phosphorylated Shc proteins are also able to associate with the Grb2 adapter protein by binding of the Grb2 SH2 domain to the phosphorylated tyrosine residue 317 (Y317) within the CH1 domain of Shc proteins (Rozakis-Adcock et al., Nature 360:689-692 (1992); Salcini et al., Oncogene 9:2827-2836 (1994)). Grb2 is stably associated with the Ras guanine nucleotide exchange factor, SOS (Batzer et al., Nature 363:85-88 (1993); Buday et al., Cell 73:611-620 (1993); Chardin et al., Science 260:1338-1343 (1993); Egan et al., Nature 363:45-51 (1993); Rozakis-Adcock et al., Nature 363:83-85 (1993)), and membrane localization of the Grb2-SOS complex results in activation of Ras (Aronheim et al., Cell 78:949-961 (1994)). Therefore, it has been proposed that Shc proteins are involved in coupling cell surface receptors to Ras activation. Several studies on the effects of Shc protein over expression provide support for this hypothesis. First, co-expression of a dominant negative mutant of Ras blocks neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells induced by Shc protein over expression (Rozakis-Adcock et al., Nature 360:689-692 (1992)). Second, over-expression of Shc protein in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts results in transformation (Pelicci et al., Cell 70:93-104 (1992)), and this can be abrogated by mutation of the presumed Grb2 binding site (Salcini et al., Oncogene 9:2827-2836 (1994)). Also, over-expression of Shc protein enhances EGF induced activation of MAP kinases (Migliaccio et al., EMBO J. 16:706-716 (1997)), and cell motility and growth in response to hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) (Pelicci et al., Oncogene 10:1631-1638 (1995)).
The modular structure of Shc proteins permits their interaction with multiple signaling molecules, suggesting that Shc proteins could finction to couple activated receptors to pathways other than Ras. Two additional sites of Shc protein tyrosine phosphorylation have recently been mapped to tyrosine residues 239 and 240 (Y239/240) (Gotoh et al., EMBO J. 15:6197-6204 (1996); Harmer et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 17:4087-4095 (1997); van der Geer et al. Curr. Biol. 6:1435-1444 (1996)). Tyrosine 239 is present within a Grb-2 SH2 binding motif, and has been demonstrated to associate with Grb-2 in vivo (Gotoh et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 17:1824-1831 (1997); Harmer et al. Mol. Cell. Biol. 17:4087-4095 (1997)). The Y239/240 phosphorylation sites may also couple Shc proteins to additional downstream SH2 containing proteins, since phosphopeptides corresponding to Y239/240 have been demonstrated to bind to a variety of as yet, unidentified proteins, in addition to Grb2 (van der Geer et al., Curr. Biol. 6:1435-1444 (1996)). A novel role for Shc proteins has been suggested in which phosphorylation of Y239/ Y240 leads to c-myc induction, and suppression of apoptosis in Ba/F3 cells, in a Ras-independent manner (Gotolet al., EMBO J. 15:6197-6204 (1996)).
The Shc PTB domain has been demonstrated to bind directly to the cytoplasmic enzyme SHIP, an SH2 domain containing inositol 5-phosphatase, in response to growth factor and cytokine stimulation in hematopoietic cells (Damen et al., Proc. Natl. Acad Sci. USA 93:1689-1693 (1996); Kavanaugh et al., Curr. Biol. 6:438-445 (1996); Lioubin et al., Genes and Development 10:1084-1095 (1996)). Furthermore, proline rich sequences in the Shc CH1 domain are proposed to mediate the interaction between Shc proteins and the SH3 domain of eps8, a tyrosine phosphorylated protein involved in EGF receptor mediated signaling (Bonfini et al., TIBS 21:257-261 (1996); Matoskova et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 15:3805-3812 (1995)). Therefore, it is likely that Shc proteins participate in diverse signal transduction pathways by interacting with multiple cytoplasmic signaling molecules. Shc proteins are generally believed to be involved in various cell proliferation pathways. Specifically, Shc proteins appear to be involved in signaling pathways that lead to cell division.
The invention is directed to an isolated and purified Shc binding protein designated PAL (Protein expressed in Activated Lymphocytes ) and to nucleic acids encoding the proteins.
In certain embodiments, the invention is directed to a PAL polypeptide comprising the polypeptide set out as SEQ ID NO.:2; the polypeptide set out as SEQ ID NO.:4; a polypeptide that is at least 75 percent identical to the foregoing polypeptides; and a biologically active fragment, homolog or variants, conserved variants, allelic variant analogs. The PAL polypeptide optionally may have an amino terminal methionine. The polypeptides of the invention may also be covalently modified with for example water soluble polymers, and fusion with peptides preferably at the amino or carboxy terminus of a PAL polypeptide according to the invention. Also encompassed by the invention are polypeptides having about 50% sequence similarity to the polypeptides set out as SEQ ID NOS.:2 or 4.
The invention is further directed to anti-PAL antibodies directed against such PAL polypeptides.
In certain embodiments, the present invention is directed to a polynucleotide molecule encoding a polypeptide selected from the group comprising of the polynucleotide molecule of SEQ ID NO.:1; the polynucleotide molecule of SEQ ID NO.:3; a polynucleotide molecule encoding the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.:2 or a biologically active fragment thereof; a polynucleotide molecule that encodes a polypeptide that is at least 75 percent identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.:2; a polynucleotide molecule encoding the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.:4 or a biologically active fragment thereof; a polynucleotide molecule that encodes a polypeptide that is at least 75 percent identical to the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO.:4; a polynucleotide molecule that hybridizes under stringent conditions to a polynucleotide molecule complementary to any of items (a)-(f) below; and a polynucleotide molecule that is the complement of any of items (a)-(g) below.
In other embodiments, the invention is directed to vectors comprising these polynucleotide molecules, and host cells, either prokaryotic or eukaryotic, comprising the vectors, and recombinant host cells containing the polynucleotide molecules or vectors according to the invention.
In other embodiments, the invention is directed to a polynucleotide or fragment(s) thereof, which can be used to detect the presence of polynucleotide molecules that encode PAL polypeptides. In other embodiments, the invention provides methods of using such nucleic acids or fragments to detect the presence of nucleic acids encoding PAL polypeptides.
In other embodiments, the invention provides a process for producing a PAL polypeptide including the polypeptides described above.
In yet other embodiments, the invention is directed to a process for producing a recombinant host cell that expresses a PAL polypeptide according to the invention, and to methods of producing PAL polypeptides using those host cells.
In still another embodiment, the invention is directed to a mammalian cell containing a PAL polypeptide encoding DNA and modified in vitro to permit higher expression of PAL polypeptide by means of a homologous recombinational event consistent of inserting an expression regulatory sequence in functional proximity to the PAL encoding DNA thereby increasing the expression of a PAL polypeptide by activating of an endogenous PAL gene.
In other embodiments, the invention provides a process of using such recombinant host cells to screen compounds or compositions for their ability to block cell division or proliferation.
In yet other embodiments, the invention provides a transgenic animal that produces PAL polypeptide, according to the present invention on to transgenic animals in which one or more of its PAL genes is disrupted or xe2x80x9cknocked outxe2x80x9d and
The invention also provides a process of using such a transgenic animal to screen compounds or compositions for their ability to block cell division or proliferation by measuring the effect on PAL production and inhibition of cell proliferation in vivo in the transgenic animal by the compounds or compositions.

Polynucleotides encoding a novel SHC-binding protein


A Mach-Zehnder type electro-optic modulator based, for example, on GaAs/GaAlAs of InP/InGaAsP comprises coplanar stripline (CPS) electrodes, and optical waveguides, disposed on a conducting substrate or a conducting epitaxial layer, wherein the regions underlying the CPS electrodes are selectively rendered insulating by ion implantation to electrically isolate the CPS electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electro-optic waveguide devices, in particular to electro-optic modulators, to a method of fabricating travelling-wave RF electro-optic modulators and devices produced thereby.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Conventional wafer based waveguides provide a convenient means for guiding light within a semiconductor wafer. In such waveguides light is confined within a core layer by cladding layers, exhibiting a lower refractive index than the core material, arranged above and below the core layer. Light is confined at the edges of the waveguide by the core/air interface.
For example, such waveguides can be fabricated from III–V semiconductors such as lattice matched GaAs/AlGaAs. In this example the refractive index of the general material AlxGa(1-x)As depends on the aluminium mole fraction (x). Propagation of light may be confined primarily to the plane of the semiconductor wafer by growing epitaxial layers of AlxGa(1-x)As with different values of the aluminium mole fraction x. Propagation of light may be further confined to a narrow waveguide by etching the requisite waveguide pattern into the AlxGa(1-x)As layers.
It is well known that the optical properties of the waveguide may be altered by applying an electric field across the waveguide. For example the refractive index of the waveguide core (and the upper cladding layer) may be altered via the linear electro-optic effect (Pockels effect), which in turn may be used to alter the phase of light passing through the waveguide.
In practice, the core and upper cladding layers are undoped and behave effectively as insulators. The lower cladding layers are usually doped to provide a conducting layer below the waveguide. The substrate is usually undoped and also behaves effectively as an insulator. By placing an electrode on the top of the waveguide, and a second electrode in contact with the doped lower cladding layer, an electric field can be applied across the guiding region by applying a voltage between the upper and lower electrodes. Accordingly, the refractive index of the waveguide core, and hence the phase of light passing through the waveguide, may be modulated electrically.
This effect provides the basis for electro-optic waveguide interferometers in which light can be switched from one output to another by applying an electric field across the waveguide.
The linear electro-optic effect is a very fast effect, and the switching speed of the waveguide interferometer depends mainly on how quickly the voltage can be applied to the electrodes. For a simple electro-optic waveguide interferometer the switching speed will be limited by the capacitance of the electrode, or in practice, by the capacitance of the bond pad used to connect a wire to the electrode.
The linear electro-optic effect is however a weak effect, necessitating long electrodes (of the order of tens of millimeters in length) within the device in order to keep the drive voltage at acceptable levels. The length of the electrode can cause complications if the device is to be operated at very high switching speeds (for example where the interferometer is switched at radio frequencies (RF) of the order of 50 GHz) since the length of the electrode is long compared to the wavelength of the RF drive signal (for example, a 50 GHz drive signal has a wavelength of 6 mm in air). This means the transit time of the light under the electrode would correspond to a few RF cycle periods. The light would be phase shifted in one direction by the positive half-cycles of the RF drive signal, and then phase shifted in the opposite direction by the negative half-cycles, before it has had time to pass under the full length of the electrode. The total phase shift would be small, if not zero, and so the device would not be very efficient.
To overcome this effect, the RF wave must be made to travel along the device in the same direction, and at the same speed, as the light in the waveguides. In this manner the same part of the RF wave always acts on the same part of the light beam, and the required optical phase shift grows continuously as the light propagates along the device. This type of device is called a "travelling-wave" electro-optic waveguide modulator.
One of the main difficulties in making this type of travelling-wave electro-optic modulator is that the epitaxy needed to apply the RF drive signal to the waveguide has to have conducting lower cladding layers in order to confine the applied field strongly in the core and upper cladding layers only.
Due to the high frequency of the drive signal, coplanar stripline is employed to route the RF drive signal to the modulator electrodes. If the coplanar stripline (CPS) were placed on top of the conducting layers of epitaxy (the doped lower cladding layer of the waveguide), the CPS line would be very lossy and the RF drive signal would propagate only a few millimeters at most before being completely attenuated by the conducting layers. Ideally, the CPS line should be placed on an insulating (or in semiconductor terms, semi-insulating) substrate to avoid severe losses. However, further processing would then be required to provide a conducting epitaxial layer beneath the waveguide in order to confine the applied field within the waveguide core and upper cladding layers.
An alternative method of reducing unwanted attenuation of the RF drive signal is to fabricate the device on a semi-insulating substrate and to etch a deep trench between the coplanar stripline primary electrodes and any conducting epitaxy employed underneath the waveguide core, thereby effectively isolating the two structures. In this configuration bridging electrodes are utilised to span the trench between the coplanar stripline and the waveguide [see for example "High-speed III–V semiconductor intensity modulators", Walker R G, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, 27: (3) 654–667 March 1991]. However, this isolation technique is complex and expensive due to low processing yields. The technique also results in a non-planar substrate making subsequent processing of the device more difficult.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method for producing an electro-optic waveguide modulator and specifically for producing a travelling-wave electro-optic modulator.

Travelling-wave guide electro-optic modulator


The ornamental device comprises a unitary body having a spine and a plurality of arms extending from the spine, each of the arms having a free end. The spine and at least one arm are selectively bendable at any point along their lengths. The spine is bendable rotationally and sideways. In certain desired embodiments, the ornamental device is selectively bendable at any point along the length of each arm. Most desirable in where the ornamental device is bendable into a configuration having each arm resting in a different plane. Also desirable is an embodiment that finds the device bendable into a configuration substantially planar.

Various decorative objects have been created from thin sheet-like material. Such objects have included illusion-producing devices and Christmas tree ornaments.
Three-dimensional ornamental devices described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,783,815, D472,183 and U.S. application Ser. No. 10/749,603 disclose objects having a series of elongate strips with both ends connected to a spine member having a single vertical axis. These devices are each adapted to rotate about the axis of the spine member. None permit their spines to be bent laterally away from its vertical axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,780 (Vermeire) discloses another three-dimensional decorative device with a plurality of fins on its center strip portion. Similar to the devices described above, the Vermeire device is adapted to give the appearance of an axially moving, sinusoidal, optical wave pattern when rotated. Consequently, the axis of the central strip is maintained substantially vertical to achieve full rotation. This does not allow the central strip to be bent laterally away from its vertical axis. Moreover, the Vermeire device is fabricated from a louvered material such as thin aluminum sheet. Although the final shape of the device is produced by twisting the central strip about its vertical axis, the strip loses about one half of its twists when the twisting force is released because of resilience in the material used.
There are other decorative structures having a series of horizontal slats on a vertical axis. Such structures are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,578,291, 4,428,988, 4,186,503, 4,380,562, D130,937 and 2,111,109. However, all of these structures are assembled from a number of separate elements, namely, horizontal slat-like members removably secured to a vertical member with an axis that is maintained in its vertical orientation.


An array of optical RF bandpass filters which is fabricated from planar waveguides on a single substrate. The array of filters receives an input of frequency multiplexed optical signals and separates the intensity modulated optical signal of the desired frequency from signals at other frequencies. Each bandpass filter comprises a resonant cavity formed from a segment of a planar optical waveguide with mirrors deposited at each end. By using ultra high purity CVD techniques common in the optical fiber industry, material absorption is dramatically reduced. Much thicker waveguides are grown than those conventionally fabricated, allowing the use of refractive index differences between waveguide and cladding which are much smaller than those normally used in planar waveguides. To enable the fabrication of a monolithic array of filters having differing center frequencies, the substrate is cut at an angle so that resonant cavities of different lengths are formed.

New developments in fiber optic transmission systems indicate that frequency division multiplexing (FDM) is desirable to achieve high data rate communications. A limitation is placed on the technology by the fact that bandpass filters necessary to extract the optical signals from the carrier are only manufacturable using discrete fiber optics. This has inhibited the ability to achieve the goal of fully-integrated optics for frequency division multiplexing, in addition to making the components prohibitively expensive due to the required assembly of separately fabricated parts.
Optical RF bandpass filters can be created from optical waveguides by creating a resonant cavity formed of small lengths of optical waveguides, with length being one half the modulation wavelength, so that the RF signal will be extracted from the carrier. The RF bandpass filter is created out of the optical waveguide by deposition of mirrors at both ends. Thus far, only fiber optic technology has been used in the manufacture of RF bandpass filters relying on resonant cavities. Planar waveguides have not been used to form RF bandpass filters up to this point because absorption and scattering have been found to be too great to allow high "Q" resonators to be fabricated. The absorption and scattering found in the planar waveguides have been thought to be caused by surface imperfections at the walls of the waveguide. These factors lead to typical attenuation factors of about 10 dB/m for planar waveguides. The forced reliance on fiber optic-based bandpass filters has prevented the creation of monolithic arrays of optical filters.
It would be desirable to be able to fabricate optical RF bandpass filters using planar technology to allow the fabrication of an array of RF bandpass filters on a single substrate. The array of bandpass filters could be made with varying center frequencies to allow a single substrate to contain multiple bandpass filters. It is to this end that this invention is directed.

Monolithic array of fiber optic bandpass filters

General Dynamics Corp., Electronics Divn.


In one general aspect, a computer-readable storage medium can be configured to store instructions that when executed cause one or more processors to perform a process. The process can include sending from a client device to a host device an indicator of a size of a target display area of a moving window session with respect to a host display area of an application operating at the host device where the application can be remotely controlled via the client device and where the host display area can have a resolution different from a resolution of the target display area of the client device. The process can include analyzing a stream of images associated with the target display area of the moving window session, and defining at the client device a plurality of regions within the target display area based on the analyzing.

A client device can be used to interact with an application operating at a host device via a client-host session (e.g., a client-host session). The host device can be configured to define a stream of images (e.g., stream of screenshots) representing the interactions of the client device with the application, and can send the stream of images to the client device as the interactions are occurring via the client-host session. In some known client-host systems, the image processing capabilities of the client device can be different from the image processing capabilities of the host device. In some known client-host systems, the host device can be configured to encode (e.g., compress) the images before sending the images to the client device where they are displayed; the compressed images can consume significant bandwidth over a connection between the client device and the host device. If image updates consume too much bandwidth of the connection, interactions between the client device and the host device during a client-host session can be, for example, disrupted. Also, consumption of bandwidth for updates of the images at the client device can reduce the available bandwidth, which can already be limited, for other functions. Thus, a need exists for systems, methods, and apparatus to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.

Efficient processing of streams of images within a moving window session


A continuously variable transmission includes a first asymmetrical differential, having a transmission input shaft and a first output shaft, aligned along a transmission axis, a second asymmetrical differential, having a transmission output shaft and a first input shaft, aligned along the transmission axis, and a reduction gear unit, coupled between the first output shaft of the first asymmetrical differential and the first input shaft of the second asymmetrical differential. Rotation of the input shaft at a first input speed and torque is converted into rotation of the transmission output shaft at a second output speed and torque that varies independently of the first input speed and torque in response to a rotational resistance on the transmission output shaft.

Machines that are powered by an engine, such as motor vehicles, typically include a transmission to adjust the rotational speed and torque between the engine and the machine. Some engines, such as internal combustion engines, typically operate at higher rotational speeds (except when operating in an overdrive condition, for example) than are desired as output for their associated machine. On the other hand, some engines, such as electric motors, may typically operate at lower rotational speeds than are desired for their associated machine. However, various types of engines will have characteristic operating range(s) that is/are considered most desirable in terms of operational speed, torque, power output, and for the mechanical health and longevity of the engine. Accordingly, a mechanical transmission is typically provided between an engine and its associated machine so that a drive ratio between the engine output and the machine output can be varied over a desired operating range of the engine. Such transmissions typically include a power train of multiple gears of varying diameters and gear ratios that can be shifted between different gear combinations, to provide a desired output rotational speed for the machine that varies from the engine operating speed, in various power and torque conditions. This allows the machine be operated closer to its desired operating torque and speed range while permitting the output to vary over different and usually broader torque and speed ranges.
In automobiles, for example, manual transmissions were developed to allow a user to manually select one of several discrete gear ratios. Automatic transmissions were later developed in which an appropriate gear ratio for given conditions and power demand are automatically determined and implemented. Conventional transmissions, whether manual or automatic, are often complicated, heavy, and bulky, and therefore expensive. Further, such systems often shift abruptly in a stepped manner between discrete ratios, rather than in a smooth and continuous manner. These characteristics of conventional transmissions tend to reduce the overall efficiency of the machine, and also introduce operational characteristics that are considered undesirable.
These characteristics become particularly noticeable in other transmission applications. For example, farm equipment typically operates within a relatively narrow range of speeds. However, a tractor, for example, may have another piece of farm equipment connected to a power take-off (PTO). The additional piece of farm equipment may be preferably operated at a nearly constant operational speed, thus involving a relatively large number of gear ratios to drive the tractor at varying speeds while maintaining the engine at a nearly constant rotational speed for the sake of the PTO.
To address some of these issues related to mechanical transmissions, continuously variable transmissions have been developed. Continuously variable transmissions select and provide output power along a continuously variable range of gear ratios, rather than in discrete steps, thus allowing more optimum and continuous operation of the engine. However, conventional continuously variable transmissions typically employ belt and pulley systems or frictional cones and the like, which rely upon friction for operation. They can also be relatively mechanically complicated. Consequently, known continuously variable transmissions tend to present significant mechanical losses, which reduces their efficiency, and are also limited in the maximum torque which they can transfer, thus limiting their use to relatively low torque applications (e.g. small motor vehicles). Other concerns also exist with conventional manual, automatic and continuously variable transmissions.
The present application is directed to overcoming one or more of the above-mentioned issues.


A connector for a plurality of coaxial cables includes: a conductive common base with a contact surface; a plurality of conductive contact pads embedded in the common base, each of the plurality of contact pads having a contact surface; and a plurality of dielectric pads embedded in the common base, each of the dielectric pads surrounding a respective contact pad to isolate the respective contact pad from the common base.

Coaxial cables are commonly utilized in RF communications systems. A typical coaxial cable includes an inner conductor, an outer conductor, a dielectric layer that separates the inner and outer conductors, and a jacket that covers the outer conductor. Coaxial cable connectors may be applied to terminate coaxial cables, for example, in communication systems requiring a high level of precision and reliability.
Coaxial connector interfaces provide a connect/disconnect functionality between (a) a cable terminated with a connector having a particular connector interface and (b) a corresponding connector with a mating connector interface mounted on an apparatus or on another cable. Typically, one connector will include a structure such as a pin or post connected to an inner conductor and an outer conductor connector body connected to the outer conductor; these are mated with a mating sleeve (for the pin or post of the inner conductor) and another outer conductor connector body of a second connector, wherein one of the outer conductor bodies fits within the other outer conductor body Coaxial connector interfaces often utilize a threaded coupling nut or other retainer that draws the connector interface pair into secure electro-mechanical engagement when the coupling nut (which is captured by one of the connectors) is threaded onto the other connector.
Passive Intermodulation Distortion (PIM) is a form of electrical interference/signal transmission degradation that may occur with less than symmetrical interconnections and/or as electro-mechanical interconnections shift or degrade over time. Interconnections may shift due to mechanical stress, vibration, thermal cycling, and/or material degradation. PIM can be an important interconnection quality characteristic, as PIM generated by a single low quality interconnection may degrade the electrical performance of an entire RF system. Thus, the reduction of PIM via connector design is typically desirable.
One manner of addressing PIM is to create connectors that capacitively couple when connected, rather than galvanically coupling through direct electrical contact in the manner of conventional connectors. In one example, the inner conductor post of one connector is covered with a dielectric layer, as is the outer surface of one of the outer conductors. When the two connectors are engaged, the dielectric layers insulate the conductors from each other, thereby creating a capacitive coupling between conductors. Capacitively coupled connectors may decrease PIM caused by minute debris contaminating the metallic connection normally found in mating RF connectors. Because physical contact is not required to couple RF energy through the interfaces, a major cause of contact debris, namely the contact force and wiping of the interfaces necessary for stable contact resistance, can be eliminated. An exemplary set of connectors of this type is shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/102,042, filed on Dec. 10, 2013, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety. However, other designs that employ capacitive coupling may also be desirable.

Coaxial cable and connector with capacitive coupling


A novel process of preparing a Grignard reagent is disclosed. The process is effected by electrochemically reacting a Grignard precursor with an electrode which comprises a metal for forming the Grignard reagent, in the presence an electrolyte solution that comprises a room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL). Electrochemical cells and systems for performing the process, and uses thereof in various applications are also disclosed.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to chemical synthesis and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a novel process of preparing Grignard reagents and to uses thereof in organic syntheses.
Metal-organic compounds are widely used in the industry to produce fine chemicals as well as pharmaceutical agents with complex molecule structures. The most common type of such metal-organic compounds is the Grignard reagent (herein also referred to interchangeably as GR), which is formed by the reaction of an organic halide with Magnesium or a similar metal.
Grignard reagent is used in numerous industrial processes involving reactions with C—C bond formation. Examples of industrial processes which utilize Grignard reagent include the synthesis of tramadol [Kleemann et al. Pharmaceutical Substances; Thieme-Verlag: Stuttgart (Germany), 2000; pp. 2085.]; syntheses of various organo-tin compounds [Stoermer, M. J.; Pinhey, J. T. Molecules 1998, 3, M67] used as stabilizers for vinyl chloride resins, catalysts for hardening urethane and other industrial purposes; production of organo-silicon products [Narain, R. P. Mechanisms in organic chemistry; New age international: New Delhi, 2008]; production of organo-phosphorous compounds used for vitamin synthesis [Kolodiazhnyi, O. I. Phosphorous Ylides, chemistry and application in organic synthesis; Wiley-VCH: New-York, 1999] and production of organo-boron compounds used for conjugated polymer synthesis [Tanaka, K.; Chujo, Y. Macromolecular Rapid Communications 2012, 15, 1235-1255]; production of tamoxifen derivatives used in the pharmaceutical industry of flavor enhancers for the food industry in the form of maltol or ethyl maltol, of various anti-inflammatory analgesics such as Naproxen, of pharmaceuticals for pain treatment such as propoxyphene [Richey, H. Grignard reagents—new developments; John Wiley and sons, LTD: New York, 2000] and many other uses.
Grignard reagents form via the reaction of an alkyl or aryl halide with magnesium metal. The reaction proceeds through single electron transfer, as depicted in Scheme 1 below:R—X+Mg→R—X.−+Mg.30 R—X.−→R.+X−R.+Mg.+→RMg+RMg++X−→RMgX  Scheme 1wherein R is alkyl, cycloalkyl or aryl and X is halide.
Alkyl and aryl bromides and iodides are common substrates for preparing Grignard reagent. Chlorides are also used, and fluorides are generally unreactive, except with specially activated magnesium. The reactions involved in preparing a Grignard reagent are typically highly exothermic.
The solvent media plays a key role in formation of Grignard reagent and its following reactions. The most suitable and universally used solvents are ethers, specifically tetrahydrofuran (THF) or diethyl ether.
In practice, the production of Grignard reagent is often difficult, as the surface of the magnesium is usually covered by a layer of hydroxides and oxides such as MgO, which impairs the reaction of the Mg-metal with organic halides. In particular, when Mg is in contact with different organic media, a non-conductive passivation layer is present and slows down or completely prevents chemical and electrochemical reactions that would otherwise occur in its absence [Lu et al. J Electroanal Chem 1999, 2, 203-217; Meitav, A.; Peled, E. J. Electrochem. Soc. 1981, 4, 825-831].
Different initiating methods have been introduced to the synthesis procedure in order to weaken the passivating layer of MgO, and thereby exposing highly reactive magnesium to the organic halide. Mechanical methods include crushing of the Mg pieces in situ, rapid stirring, and sonication of the suspension. Chemical methods involve activating agents such as iodine, methyl iodide, and 1,2-dibromoethane. Physical methods include application of heat and environmental dryness.
Grignard reagents are produced in industry for use in situ, or for sale. As with at bench-scale, the main problem is that of initiation; a portion of a previous batch of Grignard reagent is often used as the initiator.
Grignard reactions are exothermic, and this exothermicity must be considered when a reaction is scaled-up from laboratory to production plant.
Grignard reagents such as methylmagnesium bromide, methylmagnesium chloride, phenylmagnesium bromide, and allylmagnesium bromide are available commercially as tetrahydrofuran or diethyl ether solutions.
Efforts to synthesize GR electrochemically in ethers have been characterized as hazardous and resulted in low yields per unit time [Richey, H. (2000) supra].
Other efforts, which attempt regular chemical GR synthesis in a separate step, suffer from numerous problems such as reduced safety, non-controllability and sluggish reaction rates. In addition, carrying out GR synthesis in a separate step rather than integrating it into a single process combined with subsequent reaction steps, leads to higher costs.
Room temperature ionic liquids, abbreviated RTILs, are a relatively new class of solvents that have been studies thoroughly for the past two decades as an electrolyte media. RTILs are liquids at room temperature that are composed essentially of 100% ions excluding contaminations. Typically, in RTIL, the cations are organic and anions are inorganic.
RTILs are characterized by a wide electrochemical window, low volatility and vapor pressure, high conductivity, chemical stability, low boiling temperature, environmental friendliness and having the ability to adjust different properties by minutely adding or subtracting functional groups on the cation.
Because of these properties, RTILs have found many applications in diverse areas such as bioscience, CO2 capture, organic synthesis and energy management. In particular, a large number of uses have been found in electrochemistry for applications such as electrodeposition, batteries, fuel cells, solar cells, and capacitors.
In the area of Mg electrochemistry, certain non-acidic ionic liquids such as [1-butyl-1-methyl pyrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide] (BMPTFSI) and [N,N-diethyl-N-methyl-N-(2-methoxyethyl) ammonium-bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide] (DEMETFSI) have been found to be suitable as co-solvents for externally added GRs such as phenyl-magnesium bromide (PhMgBr) and ethyl-magnesium bromide (EtMgBr) [Lu et al., 1999, supra; and Yoshimoto et al. Power Sources 2010, 7, 2096-2098].
Additional background art includes Handy S. T., J. Org. Chem., 2006, 71 (12), pp. 4659-4662, which teaches non-electrochemical Grignard reactions utilizing RTIL as a solvent; and Law et al., Chem. Commun., 2006, pp. 2457-2459.

Technion Research & Development Foundation Limited


The whole surface of an insulating substrate having an amorphous silicon film formed thereon is scanned/irradiated with a solid-state pulsed laser beam shaped linearly or rectangularly, to form a uniform fine poly-crystalline silicon film for forming a pixel region. The periphery of the pixel region is scanned/irradiated with a time-modulated continuous-wave solid-state laser beam formed linearly. Thus, a peripheral circuit region including a drive circuit is formed as a poly-crystalline silicon film with crystals growing up in the scanning direction. Pixel portion thin film transistors are produced in the uniform fine poly-crystalline silicon film, while a drive circuit or an interface circuit is produced in the peripheral circuit region. One of substrates of a display panel is formed thus. A display panel including transistors with uniform properties in the pixel portion and transistors with excellent properties in the peripheral circuit portion including the drive circuit is obtained.

The present invention relates to a display panel, and particularly relates to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing a display panel in which an amorphous or poly-crystalline semiconductor film formed on an insulating substrate constituting the display panel is irradiated with a laser beam so as to be formed into a semiconductor film whose film quality is improved or whose crystal grains are enlarged, so that the properties of active devices such as thin film transistors both in a pixel region and in a peripheral circuit region can be optimized to display with high definition and high quality.
In a so-called active matrix display panel of a liquid-crystal display, an organic electro-luminescence display or the like, active devices such as thin film transistors formed out of a semiconductor film are disposed on one (active substrate or thin film transistor (TFT) substrate) of substrates constituting the panel. For example, in a liquid crystal panel in which liquid crystals are enclosed between two substrates preferably using glass, fused quartz or the like, a large number of pixels to be driven by thin film transistors formed out of an amorphous silicon film on the substrate are arrayed in a matrix, and the pixels are switched on/off by the thin film transistors so as to form a two-dimensional image. The thin film transistors for driving the pixels on the substrate are also referred to as "pixel transistors". Then, a display signal is supplied to the pixel transistors selected by a drive circuit (hereinafter also referred to as "driver circuit", whereas thin film transistors constituting the driver circuit are also referred to as "driver transistors") placed in the periphery (peripheral circuit portion) of the substrate. The display signal is applied to a pixel electrode connected to an output electrode of each of the selected pixel transistors. Thus, the pixels corresponding to the selected pixel transistors are lit.
Currently, the peripheral circuit including the driver circuit is typically mounted in the periphery of the pixel region (display region) of the substrate in the form of an integrated circuit chip. If the driver circuit can be formed in the peripheral circuit portion of the substrate together with the pixel transistors, a so-called system-in panel can be realized so that exponential reduction in manufacturing cost and improvement of reliability can be expected. In the present circumstances, however, the silicon film (semiconductor film) forming the active layer of transistors is so poor in crystallinity that the performance of thin film transistors represented by mobility is low. Thus, it is difficult to manufacture a circuit required to have a high speed and a high function. In order to manufacture such a high-speed and high-function circuit, high-mobility thin film transistors are required. In order to realize the high-mobility thin film transistors, it is necessary to improve the crystallinity of the silicon thin film.
As a method for improving the crystallinity, excimer laser annealing has got a lot of attention in the background art. According to this method, an amorphous silicon film (whose mobility is not higher than 1 cm2/Vs) formed on an insulating substrate (hereinafter also referred to as "substrate" simply) of glass or the like is irradiated with excimer laser so that the amorphous silicon film is transformed into a poly-crystalline silicon film. Thus, the mobility is improved. However, in the poly-crystalline silicon film obtained by irradiation with excimer laser, the grain size is about several hundreds of nanometers and the mobility is about 100 cm2/Vs. Thus, the poly-crystalline silicon film is deficient in performance to be applied to a driver circuit or the like for driving a liquid crystal panel.
As a solution to this problem, there has been proposed an annealing technique using continuous-wave laser as disclosed in F. Takeuchi et al. "Performance of poly-Si TFTs fabricated by a Stable Scanning CW Laser Crystallization", AM-LCD '01 (TFT4-3) or a technique in which a crystal nucleus generated by excimer laser is grown as a crystal with harmonics of a pulsed YAG laser as disclosed in JP-A-2002-270505.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing display panel


The invention relates to performing a transaction between a user and a server. It relates to a method that comprises setting up a call (A3-A5) between a user and the server via an exchange, and transmitting user identification data to the server. According to the invention, the identification data is transmitted in two steps: a first step (A1-A2) prior to the call being set up (A3-A5) and in which data is read from a data medium; and a second step (A6) subsequent to the call being set up (A3-A5) and in which the identification data is transmitted by the exchange to the server. The method is applicable to telephone transactions

In an ordinary telephone transaction performed between a terminal and a server via an automatic telephone exchange, a call is set up between a terminal and the server once the telephone exchange has identified the terminal (by its number which defines its physical connection and represents an account) so as to be able to charge the cost of the call to the account of the terminal, i.e. to the subscriber. There also exist cases where the cost of the call is charged to the account of the server ("800 numbers").
There also exist embodiments in which it is not the account of the terminal, i.e. of the subscriber, that is debited, but the account of a user. For example, a user having a memory card can call from a public telephone, and on the basis of information read from the memory card, the telephone exchange charges an account opened in the name of the user and identified by the memory card.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,966 relates to a system for verifying credit cards when setting up long distance calls. It does not relate to any transmission of identification data to a server after a call has been set up.
Document EP-A-0 494 530 relates to a system in which an exchange makes connections to various servers as a function of information coming from credit cards or as a function of an authorization code issued on the basis of data transmitted by a user. Billing is performed by the undertaking that manages the exchange. No identification data is transmitted to the server.
French patent No. 2 596 598 describes a very flexible system in which an exchange performs filtering operations by maintaining tables of authorized calls: the exchange enables calls to be set up either as a function of data relating to a terminal, or as a function of data relating to a user and carried by a data medium (badge, memory card, etc.).
In all those embodiments, the operations of determining which account to charge (terminal, user, server), or of authorizing a call, are independent of the server to which the terminal is to be connected once the call has been set up. More precisely, once a call has been set up between a terminal and a server in any of the above systems, either the server interchanges information with the terminal without knowing the identity of the caller (terminal or user), or else the server begins by performing a session for the purpose of determining whether the terminal or user participating in the transaction is indeed authorized to interchange information with the server. For example, when a bank customer calls the bank's server, the server identifies the user concerned because the user inputs information enabling the server to identify the caller (an access code). In other words, an interchange of information between the terminal and the server requires firstly that a call be set up under the authority of an exchange (public or private), and then once the call has been set up, it further requires a session during which the server asks the user for information (access code) telling the server that the user is indeed authorized to perform a transaction with the server.
The overall process therefore comprises two operations in which the terminal or the user partaking in the transaction is identified, firstly for the purpose of setting up the call (to determine an account to be charged), and subsequently for validating the interchange of information with the server (determining an account number, an access code, etc.).

Method for enabling a transaction between a terminal user and a server


A resource allocator for allocating at least two different types of hardware resources for users within a communication system, wherein the system supports up to a first predetermined number of users of one particular type and a second predetermined number of users of a second particular type. The resource allocator provides a mapping of resources, either from fixed resources to shared resources or from shared resources to fixed resources, which is both cost effective and transparent to software.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resource allocator for allocating a predetermined number of hardware resources from among a plurality of hardware resource types within a communication system.
2. Description of Related Art
When designing a system to support a predetermined number of total users of more than one type, wherein different hardware is required for at least one type of user and the system can support at most a specific number of users of a first type and a remaining number of users of other types. One solution to the problem is to require the system to support the same number of users of each type. However, this is a costly alternative because separate hardware needs to be used for each type of user.
For example, in a system which can support eight type 1 users, which require type 1 hardware, and twelve type 2 users, which require type 2 hardware, and a total number of 12 users, hardware could be provided to support twelve users of both types 1 and 2. This solution requires twelve of type 1 hardware and twelve of type 2 hardware, or a total of twenty-four units of hardware. However, this is somewhat wasteful because there will always be at least four type 1 users that cannot be supported.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a hardware and software based solution to the above-mentioned problem which is more efficient, cost effective and shields software from the mapping details.
In order to achieve this, the present invention allows up to a given number of total users, for example, 12, wherein up to eight users require, for example RSOLD type hardware, and a remaining number of users require, for example, RSNEW type hardware. This is accomplished by mapping, for example, twelve shared resources into, for example, twelve fixed resources via two tables, one table having twelve entries, corresponding to a maximum number of total users, and another table having eight entries, corresponding to the eight units of RSOLD type hardware.


An embodiment method for controlling a physical object to be shared by several potential users and in an enclosure in an open state or in a closed state includes detecting a presence or an absence of the object in the enclosure in the closed state via a first wireless link between the object and a reader situated in the enclosure, the first wireless link being contained in the enclosure in the closed state. The method also includes transmitting a first information item representative of the presence or of the absence of the object in the enclosure to a computer server via a second link and an internet network, the computer server being accessible via a website configured to be managed by an administrator.

In recent years, the collaborative economy, notably in the form of the sharing economy, arising from the convergence of digital and social innovation, has been expanding rapidly around the world and is beginning to change the way of life of a large number of people.
With services accessible via dedicated websites, it is possible to share, particularly between individuals, dwellings, offices, cars, boats, second-hand products, etc.
In most cases, this kind of sharing requires a physical meeting between parties, for example the owner of the thing or the agent and at least one user of at least one thing to be shared, for example, to handover an dwelling or car key in person.
In other cases, owners and renters of this kind of sharing can use, for example, a conventional safe accessible by password, to transmit keys or things of high value to be shared.
There is thus a need to propose a system of things to be shared that makes it possible to remotely perform a respective access control for each user, a remote verification of the presence or of the absence of the keys or of the things to be shared in a predetermined place, and a tracking, that can be consulted remotely, of the actual access of each user to these things and of different parameters of the system.
A conventional safe does not allow an administrator to generate a password dedicated to each user without physical intervention on the safe after each use, to authorise given time bands, and to know what user has had access to the safe and the exact moment of the access.

Method and system for controlling a physical object to be shared by several potential users


Disclosed is a shape data processing method illustratively for use with a CAD,CAM (computed aided design/ computer aided manufacturing) system. The method involves measuring the volume of a target product based on the shape data of that product. In operation, a virtual projection surface is established for the target object to be measured. The surface of the object is divided into small regions. A column portion is formed as an extension from each small region to the projection surface. The volume of the column portion is measured for each small region. The measured volumes are accumulated in accordance with the orientation of the normal vector to each small region. This method allows the volume of the target object to be measured easily and with precision even if the shape thereof is complex.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shape data processing method and, more particularly, to a method used by a CAD/CAM (computed aided design/computer aided manufacturing) system in measuring the volume of a product using the shape data thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, a number of methods for creating shape data of an object having sculptured surfaces have been proposed (including U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,931 and 4,819,192). These methods create the data by expressing surfaces using vector functions comprising a cubic Bezier equation and by connecting such surfaces under the condition of tangent plane continuation.
As shown in FIG. 19, a designer illustratively designates node vectors P(00), P(03), P(33)1, P(30)l, P(33)2 and P(30)2 in a three-dimensional space. Two spaces are formed using these node vectors, one enclosed by four contiguous node vectors P(00), P(03), P(33)1 and P(30)l, the other by P(00), P(03), P(33)2 and P(30)2. A surface (called a patch) made of these spaces is defined by the following cubic Bezier equation: EQU S(u,v)=(1-u+u E).sup.3 (1-v.div.vf).sup.3 .multidot.P(00) 1)
which provides a vector S ( u , v ) , where u and v are parameters representing the u and v directions respectively. To the node vector P( 00 ) made of control points , the following equations using shift operators E and F apply: EQU E.multidot.P(i,j)=P(i+1, j)(i,j=0,1,2) (2) EQU F.multidot.P(i,j)=P(i,j+1) (i,j=0,1,2) (3) EQU 0.ltoreq.u.ltoreq.1 (4) EQU 0.ltoreq.v.ltoreq.1 (5)
Then control point vectors P(01), P(02), P(10)l, P(20)l to P(23)1, P(31)l and P(32)l are set for the space enclosed by the four node vectors P(00), P(03),P(33)l and P(30)l; vectors P(01), P(02), P(10)2 to P(13)2, P(20)2 to P(23)2, P(31)2 and P(32)2 are set for the space enclosed by the vectors P(00), P(03), P(33)2 and P(30)2. This allows patch vectors S(u, v)l and S(u, v)2 to be generated for the surface shape determined by the control vectors P(01) through P(32)1 and P(01) through P(32)2 via passage through the four node vectors P(00), P(03), P(33)1 and P(30)l as well as through the vectors P(00), P(03), P(33)2 and P(30)2.
Furthermore, at the patch vectors S(u, v)I and S(u, v)2, internal control point vectors P(11)l and P(12)l as well as P(11)2 and P(12)2, with common control point vectors P(01) and P(02) sandwiched therebetween, are modified and set again. This allows the patch vectors S(u, v)l and S(u, v)2 to be connected smoothly.
Specifically, the internal control point vectors P(11)l and P(12)l as well as P(11)2 and P(12)2 are modified and set again as follows. Using node vectors P(00), P(30)l, P(33)1, P(03), P(33)2 and P(30)2 given by framing, control side vectors al and a2 as well as cl and c2 are set to meet the condition of tangent plane continuation on a boundary curve COM12 of contiguous patch vectors S(u, v)l and S(u, v)2. These control side vectors are used to modify and set again the internal control point vectors P(11)l and P(12)l as well as P(11)2 and P(12)2.
When the above method is applied to the other boundary curves surrounding the patch vectors S(u, v)l and S(u, v)2, these patch vectors are eventually connected smoothly under the condition of tangent plane continuation with contiguous patches.
In the description above, a tangent plane is a plane formed by tangent vectors in the tl and v directions at various points of the boundary curves. For example, the condition of tangent plane continuation is met when the tangent plane is the same for the patch vectors S(u, v)l and S(u, v)2 at each of the points on the boundary curve COM12 in FIG. 19.
The condition of tangent plane continuation regarding a point (0, v) on the boundary curve COM12 is determined as depicted in FIG. 20. That is, for the patch vector S(u, v)l, the equation EQU n1=Ha.times.Hb (6)
represents a normal vector nl regarding a tangent vector Ha traversing the boundary curve COM12 (i.e., direction) as well as regarding a tangent vector Hb along the boundary curve COH12 (v direction). For the patch vector S(u, v)2, the equation EQU n2=Hc.times.Hb (7)
represents a normal vector n2 regarding a tangent vector Hc traversing the boundary curve COM12 as well as regarding the tangent vector Hb along the boundary curve COM12.
To meet the condition of tangent plane continuation Under the above constraints requires that the tangent vectors Ha and Hb as well as Hc and Hb exist on the same plane. As a result, the normal vectors nl and n2 are oriented in the same direction.
To satisfy these conditions requires setting the internal control point vectors P(11)l through P(22)1 and P(11)2 through P(22)2 in such a manner that the equation ##EQU1##
will hold, where .lambda.(v), .mu.(v) and .nu.(v) are scalar quantities,
As described, where the designer wants to design a certain external shape, parametric vector functions are used to represent the shape through the use of the boundary curves surrounding each framing space involved.
With the external shape thus generated, a metal mold is prepared and products are manufactured therewith. In advance of actual manufacture, it is convenient to know the volume and other data about the product. Illustratively, knowing the product volume affords the benefit of being able to determine how much raw material is needed to produce a given amount of products.
The typical prior art method for obtaining volumes from external shapes has one notable disadvantage. That is, the shape represented by sculptured surfaces tends to be very complex and changes in such a subtle manner that it often defies precise measurement by conventional procedures which are relatively crude in methodology. With some shapes, there is no conventionally feasible way of measuring the volume thereof.
Consider for example a hollow object shown in FIG. 21. Conventional methods are incapable of distinguishing the hollow portion from the actual object portion. It is virtually impossible to automatically measure the volume of such objects.
Then consider variations of the object illustrated in FIG. 22, the object having its top and bottom left open. FIG. 23 shows one variation whose side wall is discontinued. It is difficult conventionally to measure the volume of this variation of the object.
FIG. 24 shows an object formed with its parts overlapping with one another. This type of object occurs when pipes are connected in a complicated manner. These objects are also difficult to measure in terms of volumes.