A combined dot density (FM) and dot size (AM) modulation halftoning method and system produces a halftone in which both the density and size of the dots are modulated. In addition to modulating the dot size and density, the halftoning method can also explicitly control the size of dot clusters and different intensity levels.

A digital image can be represented as a matrix of picture elements commonly referred to as pixels. Each pixel has a corresponding intensity value. For an eight bit "continuo us tone" gray scale image, that value can range from zero to two hundred fifty-five with zero representing white, two hundred fifty-five representing black, and the intermediate values representing varying levels of gray.
The digital image must be processed before it can be printed. A conventional black and white laser printer forms the image on a sheet of paper or other media by placing clusters of dots at selected locations on the sheet. Because printers cannot print continuous tones—whether it's the many shades of gray in a grayscale image or the millions of colors in a color photograph—digital images must be converted to halftones. This process is called halftoning or dithering.
Traditional halftoning methods change either the size of printed dots or the relative density of dots on the page. These two approaches are analogous to amplitude modulation (AM) or frequency modulation (FM) used in communications. For example, black and white continuous tone photographs can contain millions of shades of gray. When printed these shades of gray are converted to a pattern of black dots that simulates the continuous tones of the original image. Simply put, lighter shades of gray are composed of fewer or smaller black dots spaced further apart. Darker shades of gray contain more or larger black dots closely spaced.
With AM halftoning, the density of dot clusters, defined as the number of clusters of dots per unit area, is fixed. Tone rendition is achieved by varying the size of each dot. The most commonly used AM halftoning algorithm is clustered dot screening. Cluster dot screening has the advantages of low computational load, stable dot formation, and good resistance to such printer artifacts as dot gain and banding. Thus, it is widely used in laser printers where a single isolated dot may not develop stably. However, there are several drawbacks to AM halftoning. First, there is the well known tradeoff between the number of gray levels that can be rendered and the size of a screen period. Second, the regular dot placement in highlight regions may be very visible, and can cause Moiré artifacts when periodic patterns in the image are similar to the clustered dot frequency. This can be problematic when rendering images scanned from printed material.
With FM halftoning, the dot size is fixed and the tone rendition is achieved by varying the dot density. Commonly used FM halftoning algorithms include dispersed-dot screening, error diffusion, and search-based halftone methods such as direct binary search (DBS). Error diffusion is perhaps the most popular FM halftoning algorithm. Though it requires more computation as compared to screening, it is still very efficient. In general, FM halftoning achieves higher spatial resolution than AM halftoning and is free of Moiré artifacts. However, it can lack the print stability required for electro-photographic printing.
The characteristics of AM and FM methods are complementary to each other. However, traditional halftoning methods take an either/or approach. What is needed is a printing method and system that can take advantage of both methods while avoiding their drawbacks.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The present invention provides a combination pressure cooker and air fryer lid that may be attached to a vessel. The lid may be adjustable between two general cooking positions. In the first cooking position, the lid may operate with the vessel as a pressure cooker. In the second cooking position, the may operate with the vessel as an air fryer. In performing either of the pressure cooking or air fryer cooking functions, the lid need not be replaced.

Many consumers keep a wide variety of kitchen appliances that are tailored to carry out particular cooking functions. For example, many consumers have pressure cookers that can be used to steam or cook food in liquid. Such pressure cookers may substantially reduce cook time.
Consumers also may utilize deep fryers or air fryers to make foods such as potato chips, fried chicken, fish, French fries, or pastries. However, air fryers usually use 70-80% less oil than a traditional deep fryer and are thought of as more healthy. As a result, air fryers have become more commonplace in homes over the past several years.
Many consumers view both pressure cookers and air fryers as necessary appliances due to their usefulness and effectiveness. However, both appliances require storage space when not in use. Given the number of other appliances that a consumer may employ and store (e.g., blenders, food processors, hand and stand mixers, rice cookers), kitchens quickly run out of storage space. As a result, consumers may struggle to find storage space for pressure cookers and air fryers.
Because pressure cooking requires an airtight seal between a lid and vessel, and air frying requires airflow between the lid and vessel and ambient air, it is quite difficult for a single appliance to perform both functions. Current "solutions" to this issue on the market make use of two separate lids that can be used with the same vessel. The first lid can perform pressure cooking functions, while the second lid can perform air frying functions. However, this "solution" defeats the purpose of providing an appliance that can perform both functions since a consumer would need to store each of the two lids, which can be quite clumsy and burdensome. In short, storing two lids does not save enough space in the limited storage space most consumers have in their kitchens. It is therefore desirable for a simply constructed appliance to operate as each of a pressure cooker and air fryer, without the need for additional components.


A method is disclosed for structuring a function plan into function plan sections. The function plan includes function modules. Individual function modules are connected to at least one other function module of at least one function module connection. If the function plan exceeds the predefined area of the function plan section, a first determination of the arising function module external connections in an assignment of the individual function modules to the individual function plan sections occurs for each function plan variant, and the individual function modules are assigned to the function plan sections according to the function plan variant having the least possible number of function module external connections.

Low-voltage switching devices (e.g. motor starters, motor management systems or security systems) are increasingly characterized by a multiplicity of device parameters and device functions. Complex switching devices are increasingly capable of processing application logic (e.g. security programs), and can therefore be adapted flexibly to demands in the field.
The parameterization of these complex electronic switching devices normally takes place using an engineering system which provides both the logic and the parameters for the device. Modern engineering systems also have a graphical user interface (GUI) which makes it easy for the designer to parameterize the corresponding devices.
One aspect of the graphical user interface of the engineering system is that the functions offered by the device can be selected from a function catalog and circuit wired in a function plan by the designer. Within such a function plan, the designer can circuit wire function modules to each other and thereby produce a function logic that is entirely tailored to the specific application. FIG. 1 provides a simplified illustration of a graphical user interface of such an engineering system.
As the complexity of the switching devices increases, so does the number of function modules that have to be circuit wired in a function plan. Consequently, the plans become larger and extend over many pages. The number of connections (function module connections) between the function modules also increases.
One of the core functions of an engineering system is the documentation of such circuit wiring plans. The difficulty lies in extracting (printing out) complex and extensive circuit wiring plans (function plans) in such a way that they remain easy to read and interpret. Only then can the generated documentation be used not only for archiving purposes but also when optimizing the circuit wiring or when fault finding.
The readability of a function plan usually serves as a guide when producing the documentation, since the function plan is divided into n equal parts and each part is assigned to a function plan section (e.g. a printed page). When a printout is made, the paper size and the paper format can be adjusted by means of general options, for example. The page boundaries would have been displayed in the plan view in the engineering system, and therefore the designer could have taken this into consideration and positioned the function elements accordingly when producing the plan. Division of a circuit wiring plan into six printed pages is shown in FIG. 2, for example.

Method for structuring a function plan into function plan sections


A rim for mounting tubeless tires, particularly for bicycles, motorcycles and mopeds, constituted by a profiled element which is curved in a circular fashion and is symmetrical with respect to a centerline plane (P), said profiled element forming an outer annular seat (2) and an inner annular seat which are divided by an annular partition provided with slots arranged opposite the nipples (6) associated with the spokes of said rim, a tire of the tubeless type being associated with said outer annular seat so as to form a pressure chamber. The rim comprises closure elements that engage said slots in order to hermetically separate said outer annular seat from said inner annular seat.

The present invention relates to a rim for mounting tubeless tires, particularly for bicycles, motorcycles and mopeds.
Rims for accommodating tires of the conventional type are already known and are constituted by a profiled element which is curved in a circular fashion, is symmetrical with respect to a centerline plane, and forms an outer annular seat and an inner annular seat; the outer and inner annular seats are divided by an annular partition provided with slots. The outer annular seat is provided, on the side directed toward the center of the rim, with coupling holes through which slots guide nipples for connecting the spokes to the rim. The inner annular seat defines lateral shoulders, which form a receptacle for retaining the beads of the tire.
These rims have a severe drawback, which is due to the fact that they only allow mounting of conventional tires and therefore necessarily entail interposing an inner tube between the receptacle and the tire; accordingly, such rims cannot be used as means for supporting tubeless-type tires.
Rims adapted for mounting tubeless tires are known from the documents EP-A-0 709 141, Patent Abstracts of Japan vol. 2000, no. 06, 22 Sept. 2000, and EP-A-0 615 865.

Rim for mounting tubeless tires, particularly for bicycles, motorcycles and mopeds


An apparatus to produce a shell-like mold by vacuum sucking molding sand into a shell-like cavity defined by a cope and a drag is disclosed. The apparatus includes a drag and a cope mounted on the drag so that they define a shell-like cavity between them. The drag holds on its upper surface a pattern. The drag has a plurality of sucking apertures at places adjacent to the perimeter of the pattern. The sucking apertures communicate with a vacuum source. The cope has a single molding-sand-supplying bore which communicates with the cavity. To produce a shell-like mold, the molding sand is introduced from the bore into the cavity by means of a vacuum source.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for producing a shell-like mold by introducing self-curing or gas-cured molding sand by vacuum sucking it into a shell-like cavity defined by a cope and a drag, wherein the amount of molding sand used is reduced.
2. Prior Art
Japanese Patent (A) 57-85643 discloses a method to produce a shell-like or thin mold to reduce the amount of molding sand to be used. As shown in FIG. 4 of the attached drawings, the method uses a drag 2 and a pattern 4 disposed above the drag to serve as a cope. The pattern 4, i.e., a cope, is spaced apart from the drag 2 so that the cope and drag define a shell-like cavity 6 therebetween. The drag has a plurality of vertical sucking throughbores 8 therein. The throughbores 8 are in communication with a vacuum source (not shown) through a duct 10. The pattern 4 at its perimeter has a plurality of molding-sand-supplying bores 12 through which molding sand is fed into the cavity 6. To introduce the molding sand into the cavity 6 and to produce a shell-like mold, the vacuum source is activated, and a vibratory table 14 on which the drag 2 is mounted is driven.
The method described above has the following drawbacks:
(a) As the pattern is disposed on the drag with the pattern surface facing downward, the molding sand charged in the cavity tends to move down due to gravity and due to the vibrations of the table, i.e., the sand tends to separate from the pattern surface. Thus the molding sand does not completely fill the cavity to the pattern surface. Accordingly, the desired shape of the mold, which must correspond to that of the pattern surface, cannot be obtained. PA1 (b) Since the pattern extends downward, it requires a plurality of molding-sand-supplying bores at its perimeter. When such bores are used, generally the amount of molding sand fed or sucked through each bore 12 differs, and therefore an extra amount of molding sand must be previously prepared in a hopper. This contradicts the purpose of the invention, which is to minimize the amount of sand used. PA1 (c) Since the sand in the bores 12 remains on the surface of the produced mold, troublesome work to remove the remaining sand is necessary. PA1 (d) As a plurality of throughbores 8, which communicate with the cavity, are disposed, the sand tends to accumulate at the entrances of the throughbores 8 (in FIG. 4 only one throughbore where the sand accumulates is shown, and it is designated by 16). This accumulated sand prevents the molding sand from flowing to a neighboring throughbore.

Apparatus and method for producing shell-like molds


A method is provided in association with a managed system having a substantial number of resources. The method includes the step of selecting an attribute that is common to all of the resources, wherein each resource has a status in regard to the selected attribute that is one of a plurality of prespecified statuses that are available for the attribute. The method further includes compressing the group of resources into a set of subgroups, wherein each subgroup corresponds to a different prespecified status of the plurality, and each resource having a given status is placed into the subgroup that corresponds to the given status. Each of the subgroups is represented by a display element on a single computer display screen, and specified information is displayed with each display element, wherein the specified information for a display element pertains to all of the resources placed into the subgroup that are represented by the display element.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention disclosed and claimed herein generally pertains to a method and apparatus for displaying icons, symbols or other information, associated with a large number of systems management resources, on a single display screen. More particularly, the invention pertains to a method of the above type wherein a compression technique is used to enhance viewability or visualization of the displayed information. Even more particularly, the invention pertains to a method of the above type wherein a user is able to select from alternative approaches in organizing the information into a single topology view.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is very useful for systems management administrators to be able to visualize all the resources they manage at the same time, by displaying the resources together on a single display screen or the like. Such resources can include, without limitation, computing machines, computer related devices, and hardware and software components of many types that are incorporated into a system. At present, administrators may have to manage systems that include on the order of 100,000 devices and other components, and it is not possible to visualize this number of resources at once. More particularly, the user interface (UI) technology that is presently available for use by systems management administrators is generally limited by resolution, screen size and rendering capabilities. Accordingly, an administrator can view only a limited number of resources together, on a single screen.
As used herein, "topology" refers to the arrangement or organization of icons and other graphical elements on a UI display screen. Depending on screen size, resolution and software design of currently available user interfaces, on the order of around 50-500 resources can be depicted at one time on the screen. At lower numbers like 50, it is possible to display many characteristics about each resource, such as its type, name and status. Resource type is typically shown by an icon and/or a label, name is shown by a label, and status is indicated by a color. However, as the number of resources approaches 100 and above, the amount of displayed content has to be scaled back, so that a colored geometric symbol is the only thing available to display each individual resource.
Moreover, in the display of managed systems resources, it may be useful or necessary to illustrate the relationship between different resources. This may be comparatively simple if there is only a single relationship between two resources. However, as the number of resources of the system exceeds 100, and the relationships among different resources become increasingly complex and intertwined, it is increasingly difficult to achieve a useful display of the resources on a single screen.

Compressing topological information pertaining to managed resources to enhance visualization

International Business Machines Corporation


A Keplerian zoom finder optical system having a zoom power variable objective lens, the Keplerian zoom finder optical system comprising: a zoom objective lens including a first lens group having a negative refracting power and a second lens group including at least a positive meniscus lens whose convex surface faces an image and having a positive refracting power, the lens group being moved for the purpose of conducting the zoom power variation; and an ocular used for enlarging and observing the image formed by the zoom objective lens, wherein when a focal length of the first lens group is f.sub.1, a focal length of the second lens group is f.sub.2, and a curvature radius of the convex surface of the positive meniscus lens is r.sub.a, the following conditions are met: ##EQU1##

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power-variable finder optical system, and, more particularly, to a Keplerian zoom finder optical system including a power-variable zoom objective lens.
2. Related Background Art
Finder optical systems are classified into the inverted Galilean virtual image finder, with which a virtual image enlarged by an objective lens can be observed, and the Keplerian finder, with which an intermediate image formed by an objective lens and enlarged by an ocular can be observed.
The virtual image finder exhibits a simple structure and a reduced cost. However, it involves the disadvantage of an unclear boundary of the visual field thereof.
On the other hand, although the Keplerian finder is disadvantageous of the slight complexity of its structure, it is advantageous in function since the visual field can be clarified by disposing a field diaphragm on the focal plane of the objective lens thereof.
In recent years, camera finders of a type capable of continuously varying in their variable power have been required during the progressive improvement of multi focal points imaging lenses for lens shutter type cameras. A variety of disclosures have been made about the virtual image zoom finder. For example, the disclosure disclosed by the applicant of the present invention in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-148228 achieved a sufficiently wide visual angle of 54.degree. at the wide angle end thereof and an excellent variable power of 2.5 to 3.0 times.
Some disclosures have also been made on the Keplerian zoom finder as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open No. 61-156018, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-7017, and the like.
However, the conventional Keplerian zoom finder suffers from a relatively narrow visual field of about 50.degree. at the wide angle end thereof and poor variable power of two times or less. Therefore, the conventional Keplerian zoom finder is not used often since it cannot keep abreast of the trend for a winder angle in the imaging lens and a higher variable power.
In the Keplerian finder, the objective lens thereof and the ocular thereof must be individually subjected to aberration correction in order to make the visual field clear. Therefore, although a conventional imaging zoom lens may be utilized as the zoom objective lens for the Keplerian zoom finder, the complicated structure of the imaging zoom lens renders it unipreferable use as the zoom objective lens for a finder which must be simplified in structure and be reduced in size.


The embodiments herein provide an authentication and tracking and retail analytics system. The system comprises of code generation module, a database server, an authentication module and a communication channel. A code generation module generates unique authentication code. This unique authentication code is printed/labeled on the product. Label/tag that is marked or contains a hidden code is placed on a product requiring verification. In order to verify the product, the consumer or retailer defaces or scratches a portion of the label/tag and reveals its hidden code. Consumer or retailer sends the product authentication code to a specified number mentioned via any communication device capable of sending and receiving SMS/MMS/picture/graphics. The verification software decrypts the encrypted authenticated code and compares decrypted code with the original data assigned for the code to determine an authenticity of the product and sends reply message to the consumer or retailer.

1. Technical Field
The embodiments herein generally relate to a system and method for anti-counterfeiting, authentication and tracking process and more specifically system and method to anti-counterfeiting and goods tracking process between brand owner/manufacturer through supply chain to retailer and ultimately, the consumer. The embodiments also relate to retail analysis method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Counterfeiting and illegal transshipping of goods is an economic and social menace and over the years this has grown into a well-organized criminal activity in most of the countries. Manufacturers and suppliers are increasingly encountering an unauthorized distribution practice known as transshipping. Transshipping is an industry wide problem. Often manufacturer or brand owners want to establish their presence in the new and emerging markets and they sell their products at reduced prices. Products are sometimes sold at a discounted price to government agencies, nonprofit entities, or national accounts serviced by local distributors. Sometimes distributor or an enterprising third party discovers the price discrepancy and sell these discounted products to other territories/regions at higher cost where large profit margin exists. Transshipping destroys manufacturer's potential market and manufacturer losses their credibility. When products are dispersed through unauthorized distribution lines, it becomes difficult for the manufacturer to trace the product. If the product cannot be traced, defending products liability actions is more difficult. So tracking of goods and products becomes very important to prevent transshipping.
Also, increased counterfeiting activities and complex supply chains have compounded the urgency to invent effective method and technology to combat the growing global problem of counterfeiting through better product tracking and management. Every brand today faces serious threat from unauthorized or spurious products' infringement. The onus lies on the brand to protect itself and verify the delivery of the actual quality of goods it is known for to the market and consumer. This task is often unmanageable in the current global business scenario due to complex ordering, shipping, and distribution channels where more often than not, the actual brand has no direct link to the end consumer.
Many attempts have been made to reduce the problem of counterfeiting and illegal transshipping while trying to make product tracking more efficient. Most of the methods involve measures such as alteration to product packaging, the use of special marking inks, holograms, RFID, smart tags and the like; all tactics which may easily be duplicated, do not offer multiple point authentication checks, have low accuracy rates, are cost prohibited, are unable to be easily implemented in existing supply chains, do not offer real time and immediate validation ability, and are not easily readable/recognizable/usable/verifiable by a ordinary means.
Therefore there exists a need for method and system for anti-counterfeiting and goods tracking which is robust, yet simple and unique in distinguishing authentic from counterfeit in the supply chain and market.
In today's competitive industry manufacturers, suppliers and retailers need as much business support as they can get when deciding where to operate, what they should stock, which customers they should fight to retain, and how to communicate with them. Manufacturers and suppliers today want to analyze the enormous amount of retail related data in order to understand the business performance and hence take informed business decisions. Data related to demographic and expenditure variables are ideal anchors for trend analysis. Trend analysis uses historical data to make accurate predictions about future spending-in terms of amounts, categories and brands. Retail analytics optimizes returns and profits in the areas like marketing and sales, operations, logistics, merchandising. Quantitative information helps manufacturers, suppliers and retailers to understand their customer potential and improves marketing, sales and targeting strategies.
Hence there is further need to develop a method for retail analytics that enable today's global manufacturers, suppliers and retailers to make smarter decisions and manage their businesses more effectively.

System and method for authenticating and tracking products


A method and system for modulating and detecting high datarate symbol communications provides superior performance in channels having a fixed spectral efficiency. A quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation and an optimized mapping are employed to encode/detect a communications signal and error correction is provided using high speed forward error correction techniques. A log likelihood detection scheme and/or a novel phase detector may be employed to further enhance performance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communications systems, and more specifically, to a digital satellite communications modulation and detection scheme for multiple-carrier link operation.
2. Background of the Invention
Digital communication systems are presently prevalent in both voice and data communications equipment. One such application is in satellite data link communications equipment, where minimum spectral efficiencies are required for uplink/downlink equipment designed to meet specific standards. In order to meet high datarate requirements on a band-limited channel such as a satellite connection, a minimum spectral efficiency must be met in conjunction with a low symbol error probability requirement. The symbol error probability is dictated by the energy per transmitted bit versus the noise spectral density (Ebt/No). System requirements for gain and noise level that determine Ebt/No are dictated by maintaining minimum energy and maximum noise levels at each link in the communications chain.
The modulation schemes employed in the above-described communications systems have typically been quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) or quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), providing a band-limited signal with a high spectral efficiency. Each phase state (for QPSK) or amplitude-phase state (for QAM) is mapped to a particular value for an interval in the signal (often referred to as a "chip"). The particular phase/amplitude states used to represent information collectively form a "constellation", which is so-called because of the shape defined by a phase-amplitude diagram of the particular modulation states. Selection of the constellation and mapping of multiple chip sequences to symbols provides for rejection of disallowed combinations or sequences, lowering the symbol error probability of the link by increasing the effective Ebt/No.
For satellite systems that operate the output amplifiers near saturation, as in a single-carrier system, phase-shift-keying (PSK) has traditionally been a modulation of choice, as PSK detection is not degraded for amplitude compression of the signals due to non-linearity introduced in a high power amplifier (HPA). However, in multi-band satellite links, where multiple carriers carry multiple data streams, non-linear operation of the HPA is avoided, as signal amplitude distortion and inter-channel interference is introduced by any non-linearity in the link.
Selection of a symbol rate with respect to a known bandwidth generally dictates a spectral efficiency and traditionally a particular modulation type. However, for PSK, as the number of states per chip are increased by increasing modulation order, the ability to distinguish between states decreases and the ability to determine a unique carrier phase reference without cycle slip deteriorates. A transition from QPSK, which provides a maximum spectral efficiency of 2 bits/s/Hz to a system in which a 3 bit/s/Hz requirement may be met, requires (for PSK) an 8 state system known as 8PSK.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a communications link providing a spectral efficiency of 3 bits/s/Hz that outperforms 8PSK so that improved link performance is obtained. It would further be desirable to improve carrier detection performance for a selected constellation.

Method and system for modulating and detecting high datarate symbol communications


A magnetron source, a magnetron treatment chamber, and a method of manufacturing substrates with a vacuum plasma treated surface, generate and exploit on asymmetrically unbalanced long-range magnetron magnetic field pattern which is swept along the substrate surface for improving the ion density at a substrate surface being vacuum plasma treated. The long-range field reaches the substrate surface with a component of the magnetic field parallel to the substrate surface of at least 0.1, and preferably between 1 and 20, Gauss. The plasma treating can be sputter-coating, or etching, for example.

So-called collimated sputtering and long-throw sputtering have been used for coating moderate aspect ratio holes. Ionized Physical Vapor Deposition, IPVD, has been used more recently to deposit films in holes. In the IPVD method a flux of ionized metal atoms is used. Such flux of positively charged metal ions is accelerated in the gap between the plasma and the substrate, e.g. a silicon wafer which has a negative bias with respect to the plasma. As the electric field is perpendicular to the substrate as to a silicon wafer surface, this results in a superior bottom coverage of high aspect ratio holes. There are various ways how to achieve high ionization fraction of metal for IPVD. One way is known from the U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,629. Before discussing this prior art and proceeding to the present invention some definitions shall be established:
1. Magnetron Magnetic Field Pattern
As exemplified in FIG. 1 a magnetron magnetic field pattern as established along a target surface 3 of a target 1 comprises, seen towards the target surface 3, a pattern of magnetic field FM which forms a closed loop. In a cross-sectional view onto the target the magnetron magnetic field pattern FM is tunnel-shaped with magnetic field arcing from an outer area Ao of one magnetic polarity to an adjacent inner area Ai with the other magnetic polarity. The magnetic flux out of the outer area Ao which forms a substantially closed loop is substantially equal to the magnetic flux at the second, inner area Ai except the signum.
Thereby, we define the outer area Ao as confined by a closed loop locus line L′ which is defined by the projection (dashed lines) of the locus L along the magnetic field pattern FM along which the component of magnetic field perpendicular to the target surface 3 is zero.
Further, whenever the present invention is applied with etching the target surface 3 is of a non-sputtered material. For the preferred application of the present invention, i.e. for sputter-coating the target surface 3, the target surface is of a material to be sputtered and is therefore a sputtering surface.
2. Magnetron Magnetic Field with Unbalanced Component Pattern
The magnetron magnetic field pattern becomes unbalanced if, departing from the balanced configuration as of (1), the magnetic flux along one of the inner Ai and of the outer—Ao—areas is increased relative to such flux at the other area. In FIG. 1 there is schematically shown the generation of the magnetron magnetic field pattern FM and, additionally, of an unbalanced field pattern FU. Along the target 1 and adjacent the target surface opposite to the target surface 3 there is provided a magnet arrangement with an inner magnet subarrangement 5 and a second outer magnet subarrangement 7. The surface of first subarrangement 5 facing the target 1 is of one magnet polarity, S, whereas the surface of the outer subarrangement 7 facing target 1 has the second magnet polarity, N. Between the two magnet subarrangements there is formed the magnetron field pattern FM, whereby the magnetic flux at the surfaces of the two magnet subarrangements 7 and 5 is substantially equal.
Whereas in FIG. 1 the field pattern FM is generated by means of magnet subarrangements 5 and 7, which respectively have magnetic dipoles oriented perpendicularly to the target surface 3, this field pattern FM may also be generated by respective magnet arrangements with magnetic dipoles substantially parallel to the target surface 3, one pole providing for the magnetic flux at the inner area Ai, the other magnetic pole for the magnetic flux at the outer area Ao.
The magnetron field pattern becomes unbalanced if according to FIG. 1 the magnetic flux at one of the respective surfaces with the subarrangements 5 and 7, according to FIG. 1 at the outer area Ao, is significantly increased. There occurs, compared with the magnetron field pattern FM, a considerable amount of magnetic flux FU with long range. In FIG. 1 as an example there is shown a centered circular arrangement of the two subarrangements 5 and 7 with respect to a loop central axis AL.
The unbalanced field pattern FU is evenly distributed along the outer magnet subarrangement 7.
Such known unbalanced field pattern FU is thus the result of increasing the magnetic flux e.g. at the outer area Ao with a homogeneous increase of magnetic flux density along a loop of that area Ao. In view of the present invention we call such unbalanced field pattern FU as of FIG. 1 a symmetrically unbalanced field pattern.
Turning to the U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,629 it may be seen that there is provided a magnet arrangement which generates a symmetrically unbalanced field pattern as was explained with the help of FIG. 1, which is moved around an axis offset from the loop central axis AL of the symmetrically unbalanced circular magnetron. There is provided a DC coil which is wrapped around the space between the target and the substrate being sputter-coated so as to generate an axial magnetic field guiding metal ions towards the substrate. The target area which is covered by the symmetrically unbalanced magnetron field pattern is considerably smaller than the overall sputtering surface.
As a symmetrically unbalanced magnetron as shown in FIG. 1 generates an extremely focused plasma on the loop central axis, the ion density at the substrate is strongly inhomogeneous.

Method for manufacturing sputter-coated substrates, magnetron source and sputtering chamber with such source


A binary is received at a binary verification service from a binary verification client agent. The binary verification service performs binary verification of the binary, wherein binary verification includes determining whether the binary is complicit with a set of usage rules. The binary verification service sends a binary verification result to the binary verification client agent.

Software quality is of paramount importance especially in the context of security and reliability. There are tools that may be run on source code as part of the development process that check for a variety of common bugs or vulnerabilities as well as verify the source code's compliance with certain rules. Source code may also be tested to ensure that the source code does not have serious security problems such as buffer overflow. However, in any software system or product, the content that's actually shipped to the customer is the raw bits (referred to as a binary) of different executables that comprise the product. Today's systems for providing binary verification are inadequate.


An air bearing including a unitary, i.e., single piece, housing, which removes the need for an insert, is disclosed. The air bearing may include a shaft opening longitudinally extending through the housing for receiving the shaft; a plurality of passages that longitudinally extend into the housing for communicating a gas; a set of a plurality of nozzle seat openings, each nozzle seat opening extending from the shaft opening and intersecting one of the passages; and a nozzle positioned in each nozzle seat opening at a distance from the shaft opening for injecting the gas into the shaft opening to support the shaft. The air bearing allows for contact of the shaft to the shaft opening in the housing without damage, no leakage, and easier and more cost-effective manufacturability.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to air bearings, and more particularly, to an air bearing including a unitary housing for supporting a shaft using a gas.
2. Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional air bearing 8 including a housing 10 for supporting a shaft 12. Housing 10 includes an outer body 14 and an insert 16. Pressurized gas is delivered to support shaft 12 via a passage 18 that extends though body 14 and insert 16. Conventional air bearings 8 suffer from a number of disadvantages. First, conventional air bearings use inserts 16 that do not allow touching of shaft 12 to the insert. For example, where insert 16 is made of a soft material such as bronze, touching of shaft 12 to insert 16 may cause material transfer to shaft 12 with the bronze or debris to be released within the system, and/or galling of shaft 12. Second, manufacturing of conventional air bearings requires assembly of multiple parts of housing 10, i.e., outer body 14 and insert 16, which adds complexity to the process. In particular, inserting of insert 16 into outer body 14 requires interference conditions, which leads to yield loss issues where insert 16 is made of a brittle material such as graphite. Third, insert 16 may leak to the extent that collapse of insert 16 under normal operating pressures can occur. For example, graphite inserts 16 tend to collapse when the pressure is turned on.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for an air bearing that does no suffer from the problems of the related art.

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.


A glass antenna for a vehicle includes: a window to be disposed along a metal window frame. The window includes a first wire, a second wire and a heating conductor wire. The first wire is capacitive-coupled with a part of the metal window frame. The second wire is capacitive-coupled with the heating conductor wire. The first wire and the second wire are connected with each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna for AM/FM radio broadcast bands and television broadcast bands disposed on the upper remaining part above heating conductor wires of a defogger mounted on the rear window of automobiles.
2. Background Art
Hitherto, in the case where a glass antenna is mounted on a window of vehicles, the antenna mounted on the rear window is generally adopted because it blocks a driver's view when it is mounted on the front window on the driver side.
Many applications have been filed in the past regarding the glass antenna for the AM radio broadcast waves/FM radio broadcast waves and the TV broadcast waves. The upper remaining part above the heating conductor wires on the rear window has relatively large space for mounting a glass antenna, and the receive gain can be increased as the position to mount the antenna is higher. Therefore, the glass antenna is mounted on the upper remaining part in the most cases, and there are many antennas commercially available.
On the other hand, a defogger, in which current is carried between bus bars connected to both ends of a plurality of heating conductor wires disposed nearly horizontally by a direct-current power supply and the conductor wires disposed nearly horizontally are heated to defog a window, is also used as an antenna in many cases in addition to functioning it as a defogger.
The defogger like this is often used as an antenna. The defogger is disposed with conductor wires arranged nearly vertically and orthogonal to the heating conductor wires formed of a plurality of nearly horizontal wires and they are connected to an antenna terminal directly through leads from the heating conductor wires or bus bars of the defogger. Alternatively, a part of the horizontal wires of an antenna element mounted on the upper remaining part above the defogger is brought close to the heating conductor wire of the defogger and capacitive-coupled thereto.
For example, JP-A-9-69713 discloses a glass antenna for automobile windows including: a feeding terminal formed on the surface of a window; an antenna device conductor; a connection line for outputting reception signals of the antenna device conductor to the feeding terminal on the corner part of the window or the side part of the window; and two conductor lines, wherein one of the two conductor lines is disposed along the edge of the window, one end of this conductor line is connected to the connection line joined to the antenna device conductor, and the other end is an open end, and the other of the two conductor line is disposed along the conductor line, one end of this conductor line is connected to the feeding terminal, and the other end is an open end.
Furthermore, JP-A-8-84011 discloses a glass antenna having defoggers and antenna conductors extended on the glass, the glass antenna including: a feeding point disposed above or below the defoggers; first antenna conductor elements in a closed loop form fed from the feeding point and extended along the glass surface; and a second antenna conductor vertically extended along the glass surface in the area where the defogger is extended and a part thereof directly connected to a part of a hot wire of the defogger, wherein the first antenna conductor elements are disposed with respect to the defoggers so that the hot wire connected a part of the second antenna conductor element is capacitive-coupled to a part of the first antenna conductor element.


The invention provides for a method of enhancing immunological responses to an antigen in a vaccine formulation, and for a vaccine formulation that provides for an enhanced immunological response to an antigen. In the method and formulation the antigen is administered with an adjuvant which adjuvant comprises a solution of nitrous oxide gas in a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier solvent for the gas and which adjuvant includes at least one fatty acid or ester or other suitable derivative thereof selected from the group consisting of oleic acid, linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid, gamma-linolenic acid, arachidonic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid [C20: 5ω3], decosahexaenoic acid [C22: 6ω3], ricinoleic acid and derivatives thereof selected from the group consisting of the C1 to C6 alkyl esters thereof, the glycerol-polyethylene glycol esters thereof and the reaction product of hydrogenated natural oils composed largely of ricinoleic acid based oils, such as castor oil with ethylene oxide.

In EP 93912877.3 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,284 and their equivalents there is disclosed that dermatological or topical compositions comprising the combination of nitrous oxide [N2O] and at least one fatty acid, or lower alkyl ester thereof, in a dermatologically acceptable carrier medium, are useful in the treatment of a variety of skin, muscle and joint disorders. It further disclosed therein that such combinations might beneficially also include additional active ingredients. The following active ingredients are specifically mentioned in this regard: coal tar solution, collagen, nicotinamide, nicotinic acid, lanolin, vitamin E, methyl salicylate, arnica and H1-antagonist antihistamines of which only diphenhydramine chloride is specifically mentioned. In WO97/17978 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,377 and their corresponding applications and patents there is further disclosed that the action of analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic drugs may be enhanced by administering such drugs in conjunction with a medium which comprises nitrous oxide and at least one long chain fatty acid selected from the group consisting of oleic acid, linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid, gamma linolenic acid, arachidonic acid, and any of the C1 to C6 alkyl esters of such long chain fatty acids, mixtures of such acids and mixtures of such esters. The medium may comprise the mixture known as Vitamin F Ethyl Ester and may optionally further comprise eicosapentaenoic acid [C20:5ω3] and decosahexaenoic acid [C22:6ω3].
In WO 02/05850 there is disclosed that the effect of anti-infective drugs may be enhanced by formulation thereof in the same carrier medium.
In WO 02/05851 it is disclosed that the effect of known agents affecting the central and/or peripheral nervous system may similarly be enhanced by their formulation in the same carrier medium.
In WO 02/05849 it is disclosed that the same carrier medium may also beneficially be used for the transportation of nucleic acid compounds across cell membranes.
Antigens for use in forming vaccines are not amongst the active ingredients mentioned in the aforementioned patents and patent applications as being capable of being formulated with beneficial effect with the aid of the carrier medium therein disclosed.
The aforementioned disclosures would not have been understood as suggesting that the nitrous oxide and fatty acid combination have any adjuvant contribution in the preventative effect against diseases caused by infective agents. Within the context of the disclosure in the abovementioned patent family the notional addressee most likely would, as did the inventor, have understood the role of the anti-infective agents to be the treatment of patients already suffering from an infection.
It has now surprisingly been found that the aforesaid medium and media related thereto may itself act as an adjuvant, thereby enhancing the immunogenicity of known vaccines.
The expression "vaccine" as used herein is intended to have its extended meaning as compound(s) contributing in the prevention of infectious disease by any method or mechanism of priming of the body, and to include viral-based, peptide-based, bacterially-based, VLP-based, and synthetic compound-based formulations, but to exclude anti-infective agents used for the treatment of disease.
The exclusion of anti-infective agents from the ambit of the present invention is introduced without thereby conceding that the aforementioned patents and applications contain any disclosure of any preventative properties of such excluded compounds, or that such properties are obvious in the light of the disclosures in such patents or applications. Such inferences are specifically denied. The exclusion is introduced simply to avoid what is anticipated to be a potential obstacle to the grant of a patent in respect of a part of potential subject matter which part in itself is not considered worth contesting during examination as it might unduly delay the implementation in practice of the significant features of the present invention. It is expected that the remaining bulk of the subject matter of the present invention will greatly contribute to the accessibility of vaccines for the prevention of a large range of infections, at significantly reduced costs in cases such as Hepatitis B.
The expression "therapeutic vaccine" is further intended to cover vaccines which serve to prevent and/or treat an existing infection by eliciting and/or enhancing a specific immune response to the infective agent without the use of antimicrobial, antifungal or antiviral agents. The expression is hence intended to be understood in the wider sense of the immune response, namely all compounds that contribute in eliciting or enhancing an immune response against specific microscopic and sub microscopic organisms. This term is further specifically intended to include all antigens or native and synthetic biologicals falling within class 26 (Biologicals) of the pharmacological classification employed in the Monthly Index of Medical Specialities ("MIMS") published by Times Media in South Africa. It is thus intended to include:
anti-bacterial vaccines;
anti-fungal vaccines;
anti-viral vaccines (including anti-retroviral vaccines);
anti-protozoal agents;
and anti spirochaete vaccines.
The finding of adjuvanticity of the media referred to above is made against the background of the fact that there appears to be no earlier suggestion in the literature to the effect that either nitrous oxide itself or the addition of nitrous oxide to the long chain fatty acids used in the formulation referred to above, has an additional stimulatory effect on the immunogenicity of vaccines.
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the development of novel vaccine systems for prophylactic and therapeutic purposes. Formulation strategies and the use of adjuvants that can affect the immune response in both quantitative and qualitative terms have attracted a lot of attention from those familiar with problems in drug delivery. Early efforts were focussed on parenteral vaccines and on the role of controlled release technologies with an emphasis on biodegradable microspheres1-3.
The primary aim of vaccination is to prevent disease. Historically, vaccination is the only strategy that has ever led to the elimination of a viral disease, namely smallpox. While the biology of most pathogens is less favourable than smallpox to vaccine development, some vaccines do, to varying degrees, protect humans and animals against related pathogens. An indirect relationship has been observed for vaccine immunogenicity and safety. Human immune responses to synthetic and recombinant peptide vaccines administered with standard adjuvants tend to be poor; hence there is an urgent need for effective vaccine adjuvants to enhance the immunogenicity and immunostimulatory properties of vaccines, although even imperfect vaccines could deliver public health and economic benefits and provide further insights for prevention and treatment strategies. While microbicides may usefully extend prevention options and serve as valuable prototypes for vaccine development, it is not clear that these can be delivered sustainably to everyone at risk.
Targeted vaccine campaigns against diseases such as hepatitis B have generally failed to affect disease incidence. To maximise public health and economic benefit, it may be necessary to aim for universal immunisation of children and young animals. This implies the need for an extremely high level of safety, comparable to current widely used vaccines given to children throughout the world. These considerations have favoured the use of vaccines based on relatively small parts of the pathogens.
There is of course, much greater potential in vaccines that are shown to be capable of inducing potentially relevant immune responses than in those that are not. Animal studies and laboratory measurements of human immune responses may be used to provide 'correlates of protection' that speed up further research and development.
Vaccines primarily use a harmless form of a pathogen, or some component of it, to induce a protective immune response involving one or both arms of the immune system: humoral and/or cell-mediated immunity. Humoral immunity is based on antibodies and the B cells that produce them. Antibodies recognise a specific target, usually a sub-part of a protein of the infective organism. 'Neutralising' antibodies play an important role in fighting off infections whereas cytotoxic T cells or CD8+ cells play a major role in cell-mediated immunity. Cytotoxic T cells are able to destroy most pathogen-infected cells, identified by the presence of very small fragments of pathogen proteins that are displayed on the cell surface, bound to cell proteins. Helper T cells (CD4 cells) recognise fragments of pathogens, displayed on the surface of specialised 'antigen presenting cells (APC)'. These produce proteins, which activate B cells and/or cytotoxic T cells. When the immune system is activated by vaccination, memory T cells and sometimes memory B cells are produced. These cells enable a rapid and effective immune response when the pathogen itself is encountered, preventing infection and/or disease.
A major hindrance that has prevented the development of effective mass immunization programs is the inability to induce an appropriate, protective, immune response. For example, for vaccines against intracellular pathogens cell-mediated immunity, as characterized by cytolytic T-lymphocyte activity, is required4. Such a response can be extremely difficult to elicit, especially by recombinant, soluble protein subunits. This deficiency is due to the inability of these antigens to access the machinery of the appropriate antigen-processing pathway. Following an improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying such processing, as well as the realization that delivery systems can affect, quantitatively and qualitatively, the resulting immune response, the last decade has witnessed an intense research effort in this field4-8. New adjuvant formulations now mostly contain a vehicle that carries antigens to antigen-presenting cells.
Examples of vehicles are generally particulate e.g. emulsions, microparticles, iscoms and liposomes, and microfluidized squalene-in-water emulsions4-8. The main function of such delivery systems is to target associated antigens to antigen presenting cells (APC), including macrophages and dendritic cells. A number of adjuvants that are particulates of defined dimensions (<5 micron) have been shown to be effective in enhancing the immunogenicity of weak antigens in animal models. Two novel adjuvants that possess significant potential for the development of new vaccines include an oil-in-water micro-emulsion and polymeric microparticles.
The parenteral route is still the most common route used for the administration of antigens. However, the induction of an efficient local immune reaction is dependent on the presence of air or food born pathogens at the mucosal surfaces, which presence can result in the production of neutralising antibodies. Furthermore, products given by syringe are inherently more expensive than those which can be taken by mouth or—for example—as a nasal spray. The danger of re-use of needles in underdeveloped countries is a compounding factor.
The tissues of the mucosae encounter the majority of antigens that enter the host and infections of the intestine, respiratory tract and urogenital tract are the most common cause of mortality and morbidity in humans2. With mucosal vaccination it is possible to stimulate both arms of the immune system and provide both humoral (antibody) and cell-mediated responses (cytotoxic lymphocytes)1. Despite the urge for an efficient mucosal vaccine, its introduction is still hindered by the degradation of antigens during transport to and low uptake by the mucosal associated lymphoid tissue (MALT). To circumvent these problems, antigens for mucosal vaccine delivery can be associated to or co-administered with an adjuvant acting simultaneously as efficient delivery system3.9.
Since each part of the MALT has its own specific barriers, each administration route needs its own vaccine delivery system. Oral vaccination is firstly complicated due to degradation of antigens by both the acidic environment in the stomach and the enzymes in the gut. Moreover, the soluble antigens are not always taken up efficiently by the M-cells of the gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). By entrapping the antigen in microparticulate adjuvants, the antigen may be protected against degradation on its way to the mucosal tissue and efficiently targeted to and taken up by the M-cells10-13.
Nasal vaccination is mainly complicated by the fast clearance of the antigen and the low uptake by the nasal associated lymphoid tissue (NALT). For antigen transport over the nasal epithelial barrier, three different approaches can be followed: co-administration of the antigen with an adjuvant that contributes to the immune response but is at the same time absorbable by the nasal mucosae, co-administration of the antigen with an absorption enhancer, or entrapment into a microparticulate system to stimulate M-cells, which are also present in NALT, to internalise the antigen14-15.
A number of strategies to produce protective immune responses have in the past been explored. These include:                a) Live attenuated vaccines—a defective pathogen that would be harmless to subjects e.g. nef deleted viruses. These types of vaccines are not safe for use in some cases.        b) Inactivated or 'killed' vaccines. These have still not been fully evaluated for their ability to protect against pathogens. For instance, challenge viruses grown in cells matched to the host and vaccine strains may or may not shed their envelope proteins during inactivation. This type of vaccine is illustrated in the development of a more effective rabies virus.        c) Recombinant sub-unit vaccines—or peptide vaccines—seek to stimulate antibodies to the pathogen by mimicking proteins on its surface (e.g. the proposed Hepatitis B vaccine). Sub-unit vaccines researched to date have been strain-specific and have produced poor antibody responses. Recent research into adjuvants has opened up new areas of envelope vaccine research, with some vaccines capable of inducing neutralising antibodies effective against a range of pathogen strains.        d) Recombinant vectored vaccines—incorporate genes or parts of genes of the pathogen into established vaccines using delivery systems. Delivery systems may include live but harmless viruses, such as the canary pox viruses. Vector vaccines have been shown to produce pathogen-specific cytotoxic T cell responses in subjects. These can be enhanced with DNA vaccine priming.        e) DNA vaccines and replicons—involve genetic sequences injected into subjects to induce the expression of antigens by cells. In the case of replicons, these sequences are wrapped in the outer coat of an unrelated virus.        f) Combination vaccines or 'prime and boost vaccines'. These entail strategies for the combination of two or more different vaccines to broaden or intensify immune responses. Examples include a vector with antigen to prime a T-cell response with a subunit booster to produce antibodies, or delivery of DNA followed by a vector with genes or gene sequences expressing the same gene(s) or gene sequence. It is possible that two different vaccines could be given at the same time, where one acts more rapidly than the other. This would result in a 'prime-boost' effect from a single dose.        g) An important recent development in vaccine design is the use of synthetic genes to maximise their expression in the human cell. This technique has been used in the design of HIV vaccines that enhanced immune responses in animals and at least three vaccines using this technique have now entered early stage clinical trials. It is important to realise that evidence of immune responses in subjects do not necessarily mean that the vaccine prevent infection. Prevention of infection has to be confirmed in animal and human trials. The above stated problems associated with vaccines have led to the investigations associated with the present invention.
The fatty acid/nitrous oxide-based technology comprise of a unique submicron emulsion type formulation within which stable vesicular structures or particles are formed. It was pointed out, inter alia, in WO97/17978 referred to above that nitrous oxide is a natural gas which is also produced synthetically, that it is also known by the trivial name "laughing gas", and that it has been in use for many years as an inhalation anaesthetic and analgesic, particularly in dentistry.
Nitrous oxide is known to be soluble in water and it has been reported that at 20° C. and 2 atm pressure one liter of the gas dissolves in 1.5 liters of water, see The Merck Index 10th Ed. p. 6499.
There appears to be no suggestion in the literature, other than in the patents and patent applications referred to above, that solutions of nitrous oxide might have any effect on man or animals. As far as the present applicant knows, it has also never been suggested that nitrous oxide may be used in conjunction with fatty acids as an adjuvant to enhance the immune response against antigen-specific diseases.
It is known in the pharmaceutical field that antigens can be formulated in so-called lipid-based formulations. None of these lipid-based formulations are used in combination with nitrous oxide, unlike the present invention in which the combination of nitrous oxide and fatty acids and esters thereof forms the basis of the micro-emulsion adjuvant system. As will be shown below, investigation confirmed the essential role of nitrous oxide in the stimulation of the immune response. The combination of nitrous oxide and fatty acids as an adjuvant for vaccines according to the present invention as described herein shows significant differences to that based on the fatty acids only.

Lipid and nitrous oxide combination as adjuvant for the enhancement of the efficacy of vaccines


An article of manufacture may include a dielectric having a top surface and a bottom surface. The top surface provides a planar surface corresponding to a mating surface of test equipment. The bottom surface has a relief pattern that is formed to straddle components extending above a surface of a load board for a circuit tester. Also disclosed are methods and apparatus that use this and other dielectric plates to mate test equipment to a load board of a circuit tester.

In automated test systems, a "load board" often provides an electrical and mechanical interface between a circuit tester of the test system and a device under test (DUT). The load board usually takes the form of a printed circuit board having one or more DUT contactors and impedance matching circuits thereon. The contactor(s) serve to mechanically hold (and provide electrical connections to) a number of DUTs, while the impedance matching circuit(s) serve to electrically couple DUT(s) held by the contactors to circuitry of the circuit tester.
At times, test equipment such as an automated DUT handler or environmental control system needs to mate to the load board of an automated test system. In the past, this has been dealt with by requiring the exterior surface of the load board to be free of obstructions. This, in turn, has forced load board designers to confine bias and impedance matching circuit(s) of the load board to the underside of the load board. However, placement of impedance matching circuit(s) on the underside of a load board can introduce a variety of design hurdles, such as: 1) signal routes may be longer, thereby increasing the likelihood of signal delay, signal skew, and signal noise; 2) vias through the load board are needed, thereby causing signals to bend at right angles and likely introducing signal reflections (not to mention that vias are typically less desirable interconnects than signal traces; and 3) termination impedances cannot be placed as close to a DUT.

Construction and use of dielectric plate for mating test equipment to a load board of a circuit tester


A breathing-controlled inhalation device for dry powder comprises a casing with a mouthpiece, a reservoir for dry powder in the casing, and an air guiding unit between a transfer area for the dry powder and the mouthpiece. A dosing conveyor accepts a predetermined amount of powder from the conveyor and upon manual depression of the conveyor, transfers the powder to the inlet of the air guiding unit. The air guiding unit has an air flow channel comprising a cylindrical component having semispherical indentations formed alternatively from opposite walls and extending into the channel to increase turbulence in the air flow and enhance distribution of the particles.

The invention relates to a breathing-controlled inhalation device for dry powder, particularly dry powder which has been mixed with medicines.
For a long time, one of the primary methods for the treatment of respiratory diseases has been the introduction of suitable agents into the respiratory tract. In this regard, the devices used for thisxe2x80x94often also as mechanisms to stimulate transportxe2x80x94have gained an ever-growing significance because of the increase in the number of respiratory diseases in the last number of years. In particular, breathing-controlled devices, which offer a mild alternative to propellant-controlled devices, are being increasingly used, since they do not have the unpleasant effect of stimulating colds.
A device of this type is known from DE 40 04 904 A1, in which the agent is kept ready on the periphery of a dosing drum and is regulated radially. The inside of the dosing drum contains a control unit for the active output of the divided inhalation amount from open dosing recesses in a radially outwards direction. Moreover, the bottom of the equally-angled distributed arranged dosing recesses forming slides are centrally cam-controlled. Since this control mechanism is additionally activated by a control key which lies practically along the whole length of the device, the expenditure in this regard is considerable. Moreover, the dosed medicines can be added by means of a forced emptying of the dosing recess. This can lead to a dangerous over-dosage. In terms of volume, the space which remains for the reservoir represents only a fraction of the pocket-format device.
DE 198 25 434 A1 describes an inhalation device in which the dosing device is made taut before the intake of the medicine and is held in this condition on a stopper which can be moved during inhalation. The dosing device is released and accelerated during inhalation, so that the accelerated movement is abruptly interrupted in that the stopper on the dosing device strikes the casing or the bottom of the casing. This sudden interruption of the rotation of the dosing device results in the powdery medicine being released from the dosing cavity at greater speed and being widely distributed in the air channel. This design is also relatively complicated and, in addition, demonstrates the lack of inclusion of flow-orientated air guidance. The air channel has a straight design and does not permit any circulation or turbulence of the agents to be inhaled.
DE 43 40 768 A1 describes a device for the inhalation of powdery agents, which is provided with a special turbulence chamber in spiral form, the complicated construction design of which case disadvantageous. Although, the turbulence chamber does facilitate a certain evenness in the distribution of the powder, the spiral turning of the turbulence chamber leads increasingly to friction and resistance points which prevent complete passage of the particles.
Furthermore, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,789, an inhaler for dry powder, in which a dosing conveyor is provided, has a reservoir container projecting into the air-flow channel which takes a predetermined amount of dry powder and is positioned inside the air guiding unit. The air which passes through the air-flow channel has to move around both the reservoir container and a nose located near the inlet opening. In this way, a certain turbulence of the air is achieved, though it cannot be ensured that all the conducted dry powder is conveyed through the inlet opening in a homogenously distributed manner.
In EP-A-938907 an inhalation device for dry powder is described in which inwardly projecting plates are provided alternately in the air-flow channel in order to achieve a turbulence of the air. Because of the high volume of clearance areas in this device it cannot be ensured that the total amount of dosed powder is conveyed outwards during inhalation.
A similar inhalation device is shown in the WO-A-993305. Powder residue can also remain in the device in this case, which adulterates the dosage.
The invention therefore relates to the creation of a breathing-controlled inhalation device of the type mentioned at the beginning, which, as a result of a simple design with few simple components, can be cost-effectively manufactured, has a small size, is provided with a double dose protector, and with which a complete and even distribution of the dry powder during the inhalation procedure can be attained. Furthermore, a method is provided which enables a complete and even respirable distribution in the breath of the dry powder to be inhaled.
The invention overcomes the disadvantageous of prior art devices with an air guiding unit consisting of an essentially cylindrical central component which is provided alternately with semi-spherical indentations reaching from opposite walls of the central component into the air-flow channel, the air-flow channel having a rising inhalation area in the application area of the inhalation device, and with a dosing conveyor positioned directly downwards in front of the inhalation area. An air guiding unit designed in this manner permits a very effective and complete distribution of the dry powder during the inhalation procedure, since the air which has been drawn in circulates and the rising particles can be mixed with each other in an optimal way.
By means of this special arrangement of the inhalation area, the dry powder can, when required, get directly into the air-flow channel and can from there be directly drawn in. In this way, the risk of the intrusion of moisture or of an unintentional proportional loss of portioning during inhalation is reduced.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the casing is provided with an air inlet which is positioned downwards opposite the inhalation area. The opening of the device in the form of the air inlet permits an increased intake of the particles, independent of the remaining air.
Moreover, the inhalation device of the invention comprises a dosing conveyor in the form of a flat slide number having a laterally oriented dosing bole hole for receiving a predetermined amount of dry powder from the reservoir. The slide member is movable between a first position in which it receives the dry powder and a dosing position in which the borel hole is directly in front of the inhalation area of the air guiding unit. In the dosing position, the slide keeps the reservoir essentially locked.
In this way double dose protection can be ensured, since only the amount of dry powder located in the dosing drill hole is available for each inhalation procedure. Should the inhalation procedure be broken off or interrupted, the remainder of the dry powder located in the dosing drill hole is conveyed back into the reservoir or is removed from the inhalation area and is thereby not available for a further inhalation procedure.
A favourable design feature here ensures that the slide is held in a spring-loaded start position in which the reservoir is locked and that the slide is moveable against a spring resistance into the dosing position. A spring-controlled movement mechanism guarantees that accidental escape, unintended intrusion of moisture or an unintentional actuation of the device are practically excluded. Moreover, an important advantage of this design is that, because of the simplicity of the functional construction, besides the necessary readjusting spring, only one moving part (dosing conveyor) is required, which further guarantees the constant availability for use of the device and minimizes the risk of any possible errors.
The air guiding unit can have a single-part or multi-part design, whereby glass or plastic as cost-effective materials have proved themselves to be particularly suitable. Other suitable materials, such as metals, may also of course be used for the, manufacture of the air guiding unit.
Furthermore, the advantages of the invention are achieved in that the acceleration of the air-flow is effected by means of cross section narrowings in the air guiding unit in the form of semi-spherical indentations which project alternately into the airflow channel in the air guiding unit from opposite walls of the central component. The air circulation and flow guiding provided in this special method make possible effective turbulence of the individual dry powder particles. The movements of the air spread the particles evenly and guarantee optimum distribution at the moment of inhalation.
By means of the concentration of the flow of particles with kinetic energy their movement and distribution capacity is increased and a possible loss of energy caused by gravity is compensated, which makes for an overall improvement of the turbulence effect.

Breathing-controlled inhalation device for dry powder and method for the even distribution of the dry powder in the air


A flow noise restrictor for use with a valve. The flow noise restrictor reduces the flow area as the valve closes and forms vortices to reduce the noise such as due to the Bernoulli effect.

Numerous valves utilize a valve seat in their structure. Many of these structures have a valve structure that, typically, descends to seat upon the valve seat. Where there is a pressure differential between the area "upstream" of the valve seat and the area "downstream" of the valve seat, the energy of the system may be dissipated in undesirable ways. For example, cavitations and/or vibrations can occur, particularly at the moment the valve closes. These occurrences are often reflected in noise at the valve or its associated fixture or upstream/downstream due to vibrations traveling throughout the system. In liquid systems, the vibrations are sometimes caused by pressure waves traveling in the piping system that supplies the valve including what is commonly called water hammer. At other times the cause of the vibrations is more local due to gas trapped in the liquid providing an unstable dynamic system that tends to vibrate at certain flow conditions.
One particular type of valve that can exhibit "noise" problems is a flushometer, commonly used with water closets and urinals. Two particular types of flushometers are well known: diaphragm flushometers and piston flushometers. Diaphragm-type flushometers are exemplified by the flush valve shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,119, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Piston-type flushometers are also known, as exemplified by the flush valve shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,545, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
A flushometer or faucet valve includes a body 10 with an inlet 12 and outlet 14, a valve assembly 15 with a valve seat 26, a valve member 17 movable in the body 10 toward or away from the valve seat 26 to control flow from the inlet 12 to the outlet 14. The valve assembly 15 has a pressure chamber 50 acting on one side of the valve member 17 opposing the inlet pressure on the other side of the valve member 17. A bypass 40 connects the chamber 50 with the water inlet side. Pressure in the chamber 50 maintains the piston 80 or diaphragm 18 seated to the valve seat 26 and the valve assembly 15 in the closed position. There is a relief valve 30, which may be a mechanical relief valve stem 32 or a solenoid 99 (FIG. 3A) driven, that vents the chamber 50 to the outlet 14 side of the valve to permit the piston 80 or diaphragm 18 to move away from the valve seat 26 and open and control the water flow thru the valve. The piston 80 or diaphragm 18 may have a portion 89/48 to keep it concentric to the valve seat 26 and in axial alignment with the valve seat 26. The valve typically has a refill head 47 or similar flow control device on the outlet side of the diaphragm 18 or piston 80 to confine the path of flow. Valves of this kind are taught in prior art for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,881,993; 5,887,848; 5,213,305; 5,244,179; 6,182,689; 6,260,576; 5,332,192 5,967,182.
It is well known, that in certain environmental and flow conditions, flushometers, such as those discussed above, can start to vibrate and cause noticeable and sometimes undesirable noise. Valve noise in the above described type of valves can be generated thru various mechanisms. If the pressure in some areas falls below vapor pressure due to the Bernoulli Effect, cavitation can occur, which can cause violent oscillations and forces on the valve. Air may become trapped or present in the air chamber, such as due to a high level of gas dissolved in the water from the inlet. Air entrapped in the pressure chamber 50 can introduce a different impedance, due to the variance in compression of the mixed air/water fluid compared to only water, of the piston/diaphragm and pressure chamber 50 and therefore make the flow unsteady. In addition, the piping upstream or downstream of the valve can cause undesirable oscillations in the valve.
This noise can also be described as flutter or water hammer. Numerous attempts have been made to address such noise. Some valves as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,270 employ a resilient flow control device that deflects or deforms under the inlet pressure, and therefore dynamically controls the flow rate. U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,119 employs a diaphragm that has a molded rubber skirt on the inlet side of the flush valve which deforms with pressure and controls the flow. The skirt attempts to dampen vibration with "friction" tabs. The disadvantage of the resilient member often is that the modulus of elasticity of such members rapidly changes with temperature. It therefore makes it difficult to control the flow rates consistently over different operating temperatures due to the tabs' (of the '119 patent) friction against the outer diameter of the barrel.
Another means to control noise is to introduce friction between the moving diaphragm or piston and the valve housing. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,420 diaphragm teaches a refill head 47 on the outlet side of the valve which introduces friction between the housing and the moving refill head, therefore damping vibrations. The aforementioned refill head 47 on the inlet side also touches the housing barrel to introduce friction.
Some valves, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,440 employ sound absorbing treatment on the outlet side, or generate turbulence as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,998. Some flushometer designs have grooves in the outlet skirt as well (made of plastic or metal) to control the flow as well. Other cage type valves employ perforated and grooved members, plugs and skirts as a means to make the flow turbulent to reduce noise throughout the flush cycle as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,891 or 3,990,475. However, the limited stroke of the chamber controlled valves does not allow for elaborate absorption treatment or perforation of members. In addition, the difficulty of those perforated and grooved members shown in prior art, is that even though they suppress noise thru the introduction of turbulence, they severely restrict flow thru the valve when the valve is in an open position or opening/closing stroke. In other configurations, the geometry adds friction or flow resistance to the opening or closing stroke. This cannot be adopted in valves that have a smaller stroke and larger flow rate requirements.
Further complicating matters, some of the portion of the noise/hammer occurs at the moment before the closing of the valve is completed. The Bernoulli effect is especially strong at that moment, as the inlet pressure builds up to static pressure of a typical residential or commercial water supply line, while at the same time the pressure on the outlet dramatically reduces (typical to atmospheric pressure). Present mechanisms at the outlet side of the valve seat have only little effect at that moment.


A method of determining whether printing components suitable for a type of a substrate are correctly set in a screen printing device that makes a mask provided with a pattern hole abut on the substrate, supplies paste onto the mask, and slides a squeegee to thereby print the paste on the substrate through the pattern hole, includes reading identification marks attached to respective printing components, verifying pieces of component information corresponding to the read identification marks using pieces of component information allocated to the substrate in advance in production data, and informing purport when a printing component having discordant component information is present in the verification. The printing components include at least a mask, a squeegee, and paste.

In an electronic component mounting process, screen printing has been used as a method of printing paste such as soldering paste or conductive paste on a substrate. In this method, the paste is printed on the substrate through a pattern hole provided in accordance with an area to be printed, the paste fills the pattern hole through a squeegeeing operation of moving a squeegee in a horizontal direction in a state where a lower end portion of the squeegee is pressed against a mask, and the paste is printed on the substrate which is set on the bottom face of the mask.
In this screen printing, since an appropriate mask and paste are required to be used in accordance with characteristics of a substrate which is a target for printing, it has been verified hitherto whether or not a mask and paste used are suitable for a substrate which is a target for printing, at the time of performing printing (for example, see PTL 1 and PTL 2). In the prior art disclosed in PTL 1, the use of a mask suitable for a substrate is guaranteed by reading and verifying bar codes provided in the substrate and the mask. In addition, in the prior art disclosed in PTL 2, printing conditions are set by writing characteristic data of past in a container accommodating the past using a bar code or the like and by reading the characteristic data during production.

System for determining suitability of printing component set in screen printing device and method for determining suitability of set printing component

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A system and method for on-demand printing is provided. The system includes at least one image capturing device, preferably a digital camera, which captures images during an event. The images captured by the digital cameras are transmitted to at least one printing station in which the captured images are stored and displayed, preferably but not necessarily after editing. The spectators of the event may request during the event, or shortly after, that any of the displayed images will be printed and the printing system of the present invention is suited to address their request on demand, i.e. it prints the desired image within a short time, preferably in the range of tens of seconds.

Spectators of events, such as sports events often wish to purchase a souvenir as a memoir of the event they have attended. Typical souvenirs include items which are indirectly related to the event. For example, hats, shirts, pins or any other item bearing the symbol and name of the sports team are souvenirs not related to the particular event in which a person actually takes part as a spectator.
However, it is not practical to record images of an event in progress and simultaneously or within a short time thereafter produce a print therefrom. Images generally require a large amount of storage space and preferably the process of capturing the image and then transferring it onwards for printing is best achieved by compressing (and later de-compressing) the images.
Representing an image as digital data (typically in a bitmap) requires a large amount of storage space. For example, if the image is of the A3 size (11.5 in.times.17 in) at 300 dots per inch (dpi) resolution, the image will have 17.4 million pixels. If the image is a color image stored at 32 bits/pixel, the image will require 66 Mbytes of storage. To print a stored image requires a printer having a large amount of Random Access Memory (RAM), which increases the cost and size of memory circuits. To reduce the amount of space required for storage, numerous compression techniques have been developed.
However, for the compression technique to be effective, it has to be "lossless", that is the decompressed image must strongly resemble the original image. The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) has a still-image coding scheme which provides a virtually lossless compression ratio of 7:1 for "bitmap" images (for example, images produced from photographs). A compression ratio of 2:1 is usually lossless.
Unfortunately, for artificial images such as are produced in a pre-press environment, the JPEG compression technique provides an unacceptably high amount of loss. Such artificial images, or "pages", are common to many publications and are combinations of bitmap images, text and vectors. The JPEG compression technique cannot compress the text and shape elements of the `page` without significant losses in the quality of the areas surrounding the lines forming the text and shape elements. JPEG is not suitable for printers requiring good image quality.
Other compression techniques are known. For example, the page can be run-length encoded, such as via the Linework format of Scitex Corporation Ltd. of Herzlia, Israel. In run-length encoding, each sequence of neighboring pixels which have the same color pixels are compressed into a color value and a length of the run of similar colored pixels. Run-length encoding provides varied compression ratios which depend on the amount of color changes in the image. For images, such as text, which have long lengths of similar colored pixels, run-length encoding provides 1:20 compression ratios for a whole page. However, for continuous tone images, such as those scanned from a photograph, run-length encoding provides terrible compression ratios of up to 2:1 (i.e. the "compressed" image is twice as large as the uncompressed one).
The article "Implementation of Image Compression for Printers", by K. Oka and M. Onishi, Color Hard Copy and Graphic Arts, SPIE Vol. 1670, 1992, describes a compression technique for artificial images. Their compression technique utilizes a block truncation coding (BTC) technique which codes a 4.times.4 pixel block of page data. An original image with 24 bits/pixel for each color component is compressed into 9 bits/pixel, a compression ratio of 3:8. The BTC technique has the advantage of being able to compress both computer graphics and text images. However, the BTC technique does not produce a small compressed file. For certain applications, further compression is still required.

System and method for on-demand printing


The invention relates to a method for the preparation of trans- or cis-diammoniumdichlorodihydroxoplatinum(IV) and derivatives thereof. What is suggested is reacting trans- or cis-diammoniumdichloroplatinum(II) with a solution comprising >30% peroxide at temperatures below 30° C. and dissolving the product thus obtained in a mineral acid and subsequently precipitating with an alkaline solution.

It is well-known that metals such as molybdenum, vanadium, as well as gold and platinum, in particular, can be used in the therapy of acute and chronic diseases such as rheumatism, cancer or autoimmune diseases. Frequently, the metals being used are contacted in the form of complex compounds with the organism to be treated—in many cases via oral ingestion.
The complex compounds comprising the metals are difficult to produce with the required pharmaceutical purity. Numerous production methods which have been described either fail to generate the compounds with sufficient pharmaceutical purity or result in numerous byproducts giving rise to undesirable side effects in the organism. In particular, the preparation of pharmaceutically interesting cis- and trans-oxoplatinum compounds with the required purity or absence of byproducts is not possible with known methods (SU 1137698 A1, SU 1021116 A1). SU 1 137 698 A1 discloses preparation methods for cis-diaminodichlorodihydroxoplatinum(IV). The preparation methods disclosed therein achieve a purity of the final product of 99 to 99.6%.
Furthermore, various acyl derivatives of cis-platinum compounds have been disclosed in the prior art (Kelland et al., Cancer Research, 1992). According to the teaching of Kelland et al., it is the substituents on the nitrogen residue, rather than the acyl residues, that are essential to the effect of these compounds on ovarian cancer cell lines. In the opinion of the authors, there is a close relationship between the substituents on the nitrogen residue and the cytotoxic activity of the compounds. The cytotoxic activity of the cis-platinum compounds increases with increasing amounts of carbon atoms of the substituents on the nitrogen residue. That is, according to the explanations given by Kelland et al., a person skilled in the art would have had no motivation of replacing acyl residues by other moieties, e.g. alkyl residues, because the attention of a person skilled in the art has been drawn to the substituents on the nitrogen residue by Kelland et al. According to Kelland et al., it would make sense to a person skilled in the art to introduce substituents having a preferably large number of carbon atoms as substituent on the nitrogen residue into the respective cis-platinum compounds. According to Kelland et al., ring compounds are particularly advantageous, and a person skilled in the art would therefore be motivated to incorporate other, especially very large, ring compounds in the cis-platinum compounds by means of amine ligand substitution.
The object of the invention was therefore to provide a method allowing easy, reliable and effective provision of cis- or trans-oxoplatinum compounds.
The invention accomplishes the above object by means of a method for the preparation of cis- or trans-diammoniumdichlorodihydroxoplatinum(IV) or diammoniumdichloro-trans-dihydroxoplatinum(IV) and derivatives thereof, wherein cis- or trans-diammoniumdichloroplatinum(II) is reacted with a solution comprising >30% peroxide at temperatures below 30° C., and the product thus obtained is dissolved in a mineral acid and subsequently precipitated with an alkaline solution.
Surprisingly, the combination of features of a solution comprising >30% peroxide and relatively low temperatures, i.e., temperatures below 30° C., allows easy and reliable production of oxo-cis-platinum and oxo-trans-platinum compounds in such a way that small amounts of undesirable by-products are obtained. The method according to the invention utilizes cis- or trans-diammoniumdichloroplatinum(II) compounds as starting compounds, which are converted into the corresponding cis- or trans-form of diammoniumdichloro-trans-dihydroxoplatinum(IV). Advantageously, the solution comprising peroxide is added to the starting compound over a prolonged period of time, preferably in a continuous fashion. The solutions comprising peroxide can be solutions which liberate peroxide during the reaction or behave in a functionally analogous manner due to their specific structure, as is the case with e.g. hydrogen peroxide solutions or perchloroacetic acid solutions.

Method for the preparation of trans-or cis-diammoniumdichlorodihydroxoplatinum(IV) and the use thereof in the production of pharmaceutical active substances


The invention relates to a build validation engine for a software build process. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a computer implemented system a build validation engine further configured to perform the steps comprising: receiving inputs from a software platform, the inputs comprising a build identifier and a mode indicator; initiating, via the build validation engine, validation of a plurality of configuration file categories for a software build; identifying and applying, via the build validation engine, a set of configuration rules, the set of configuration rules associated with each configuration file category and further comprising server class validation, inputs validation, indexes validation and props validation; and determining whether a successful build is achieved and if a successful build is not determined, failing the build and deleting corresponding deployment bundles.

Currently, build jobs simply create deployment files that are in a software versioning and revision control system, such as Subversion (SVN) or Bitbucket. Any issues with the configuration will not be known until the bundle is deployed to a running application. Certain configuration issues may be very harmful and cause instability to the environment. In such systems, configuration files may be syntactically invalid and cause the product to crash or have significant run time errors.
These and other drawbacks exist.

Method and system for implementing a build validation engine