An automated symbolic recognition system and method includes multiple representations of each alphanumeric in the database by identifying a finite number of exemplars per alphanumeric symbol.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to an apparatus for recognizing handwritten text and alphanumeric symbols, and more particularly to a method and system for recognizing handwritten text and alphanumeric symbols that includes a pen and digitizing tablet for real time entry of handwritten alphanumeric symbols by a user and in certain implementations to a system that includes a document scanner for generating scanned images of a previously created document containing handwritten alphanumeric symbols.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Computer vision encompasses a wide range of markets, applications, and customer needs. According to industry analysts, market demand is gravitating towards a system line whose production process is re-examined to achieve high cost-efficiency.
The ability to recognize handwritten text and alphanumeric symbols is very important in many applications, such as pen-based computer systems, automated mail routing systems, bank check recognition, and automatic data and text entry from business forms. Handwriting recognizers transform text in bit map representation to a high level (i.e., ASCII alphanumeric) coded representation. Pen-based computer systems translate pen motions generated by a user into a sequence of X and Y points indicating the locations of the pen on the tablet. In offline handwriting recognition systems, text on a printed surface such as a sheet of paper are typically scanned by an optical scanner which creates a bit map of the pixels (or points) belonging to the image. The recognized alphanumeric symbols may be used for analysis, editing, or other forms of processing via an application software running on a computer.
Computer-aided handwriting recognition is a technology that is continually evolving. A variety of writing styles, combined with poor penmanship continues to stymie researchers' attempts to design a robust system that can decode all forms of handwriting. Currently, texts produced by state-of-the-art handwriting recognizers contain an unacceptable frequency of errors. This prevents the technology from being efficiently used for large-volume information transfer. Today's most advanced commercial systems are at best at reading legible handwriting letters and numbers in predefined form. The reported accuracy results can be only achieved with careful writing by cooperative users.
The rapid and robust identification of alphanumeric symbols that lack standardized characteristics constitutes a development challenge for handwriting recognition systems. More particularly, shape, size, spacing and orientation of alphanumeric symbols vary widely from user-to-user, thus resulting in a distinct alphanumeric symbol that exhibit similar shapes. For example, "g" and "9" or "D" and "O" may appear with similar shapes. This problem is compounded when an alphanumeric symbol is grouped together in a sequence to form a new alphanumeric symbol. For example, a "1"-shaped number followed relatively closely by a "3"-shaped number may be identified as "B".
There are many proposed methods for handwriting recognition known in the prior art. Rejean Plamondon et. al. present a comprehensive survey of on-line and off-line handwriting recognition. The majority of these techniques that have been developed for handwriting recognition can be broadly classified as the statistical, structural and the neural network approaches as described below:
The statistical approach is based on a similarity measure that in turn is expressed in terms of a distance measure or a discriminant function involving the following three groups: explicit, implicit, and Markov modeling methods. In this context, a shape is described by a fixed amount of features defining a multi-dimensional representation space whereby different classes are described with multi-dimensional probability distributions concerning a class centroid. Several examples of the discriminant functions include linear discriminant and polynomial functions, minimum distance, nearest neighbor, and Bayes classifier. A problem associated with this approach is that discriminant function can be quite complex and may involve adjustments to the parameters under a learning scheme. Another problem identified with the statistical approach is that relationships between pattern elements are not preserved.
The fuzzy set theory has played an important role in both statistical and syntactical approaches. In the neural net approach, the amount of built-in prior knowledge of the alphanumeric recognition problem may seriously affect its generalization performance. An advantage of the neural nets is that they provide the degree of membership of the unknown object in each of the known classes. Moreover, they avoid a long and costly conventional development process.
In the structural approaches, the premise of the recognition process was primarily based on the idea that alphanumeric shape can be described in an abstract fashion. However, syntactical and structural approaches overcome the problem of preserving relationships by storing the image as a tree or graph of pattern elements and their relationships. A difficulty in implementation of these approaches is defining the pattern elements or features, and the relationships between them. In addition, each class or types of images should be separately analyzed and described.
Neural network models use a weight matrix to store information gained from the representation of known images. Ideally, as more instances and types of images are added, the system should have an improvement in performance. However, the performance of the neural nets could deteriorate after certain level of learning.
Other methods include, (i) global features (i.e., template matching, transformations), (ii) distribution of points (i.e., zoning, moments, distances), and (iii) geometrical and features. However, each of these techniques has its own drawback, as global features are highly sensitive to distortion and style variation, distribution of points are highly affected by the dynamic size and shape variations of hand printed characters, and geometrical and features are complex and sensitive to local features.
These techniques described above are narrowly focused on a particular type of recognition approach and more importantly, do not conform to the mechanisms underlying alphanumeric formation. Furthermore, these methods have not solved the signal-to-symbol transition problem and thus rely on computations that occur on information derived from images containing low semantic level, unable to contain the variability problem. Moreover, one of the tenets of vision is that choice of representation is crucial in recognition. Representations must be chosen that make relevant information explicit and allow domain constraints to emerge. In the techniques adopted, very little use is made of a priori information in images. Finally, the complexity of the task due to intrinsic and extrinsic variations present in the image, with regards to the development time-line as well as the inherent ill-defined concepts which in turn yield invalid assessments that have not been dealt with.

System and method for automated symbolic recognition including database modeling


An example introducer is disclosed. An example introducer includes an inner liner including a lumen, a distal region and at least one folded portion extending along the distal region. The introducer also includes a reinforcing member having a length and including at least one spine extending along the length of the reinforcing member. The introducer also includes a sheath disposed along at least a portion of the introducer, wherein the sheath includes at least one perforation, wherein material adjacent to the at least one folded portion is removed from a distal portion of the introducer to form a tip region. The introducer also includes a tip member disposed along the tip region.

In some instances, performing percutaneous medical procedures may require the insertion and/or maneuvering of relatively large medical devices through a patient's vasculature. However, inserting the medical device into the vasculature may result in undesirable forces being applied to the vessel walls. For example, as the medical device passes into the vasculature, it may make undesirable contact with one or more vessel walls. This interference may cause injury to the vessel as the medical device is navigated into calcified or diseased vessels. Therefore, in some instances an introducer is utilize to facilitate the insertion of medical devices into the vessel. Further, vessel trauma resulting from forces applied to the vessel wall by a medical device may be lessened by minimizing the size of an introducer used to access the vessel. Therefore, it may be desirable to design an introducer having a reduced insertion profile, yet capable of expansion when necessary (e.g., during the passage of a medical device therethrough).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A safety hypodermic device includes a protective sleeve carried on the barrel of a syringe or the needle holder of an intravenous line. The sleeve has an extended position which envelops and protects the needle and a retracted position which exposes the needle for injection purposes. A coil spring carried on the barrel urges the sleeve toward the extended position. The open end of the sleeve may be provided with internal resilient tabs and a flange for receiving and grasping the head of a medicine bottle and for allowing the needle to penetrate the medicine bottle to the proper depth for filling. The spring may extend into the interior of the sleeve and abut against an internal rim of the sleeve. The plunger and barrel may be provided with tactile feedback to enable a visually impaired person to determine the amount of medicine being filled or dispensed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hypodermic syringes, and more particularly, to a hypodermic syringe having a protective sleeve.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hypodermic devices have become a major factor in health care not only for injectable drugs but also in drawing blood, other bodily fluids and tissue samples, as well as in the introduction of intravenous tubes, catheters, et al. into patients requiring health care or investigation of health problems.
Hypodermic syringes have become a way of life for many diabetics, who often must give themselves insulin injections one or more times each day. Most diabetic persons prefer to give these injections to themselves to avoid reliance on a caregiver and to prevent drawing attention to their diabetic condition. Unfortunately, a frequent consequence of diabetes is visual impairment. Giving oneself an insulin injection can be difficult to impossible, depending on the extent of the visual impairment, because visual impairment reduces or eliminates the diabetic's ability to see the hypodermic needle and the volume scale on the syringe barrel.
It is also difficult for the visually impaired diabetic to align the hypodermic needle with the insulin bottle while avoiding being pricked, insert the hypodermic needle into the insulin bottle head to the proper depth, and to determine whether insulin or air is being drawn into the needle. This determination is critical because injecting air into one's body can be fatal.
Consequently, diabetics become increasingly reliant on caregivers as vision loss progresses to the point of total blindness. Such reduction of the person's independence can have severe psychological and emotional impact. With the availability of blood sugar machines that read blood sugar levels audibly and can be used by the visually impaired without assistance, and the invention described herein for drawing and injecting insulin, visually impaired diabetics will be able to lead more active, healthy, productive and normal lives.
The increase in infectious diseases throughout the world has caused a major concern for all health care workers with the possibility of these workers being accidentally wounded by the sharp needles used for hypodermic devices. This hazard exists both during the injection procedure and following the procedure while removing the needle from the injection site and disposing of the used hypodermic device. This has caused a huge problem in the disposal of used syringe needles. The problem of protection of the health care workers has caused such severe psychological and emotional disturbance among those concerned that many have now refused to deal with patients because of the possibility of contracting an infectious disease through their work.
Therefore, there is a need for a hypodermic device that is safe for use and disposal by health care workers, visually impaired diabetics, and other persons.

Retractable syringe sheath with bottle engagement


A photoelectric-conversion apparatus includes a photoelectric-conversion area where a plurality of photoelectric-conversion elements configured to convert incident light into electrical charges, a plurality of floating-diffusion areas, a plurality of transfer-MOS transistors configured to transfer electrical charges of the photoelectric-conversion element to the floating-diffusion area, and a plurality of amplification-MOS transistors configured to read and transmit a signal generated based on the transferred electrical charges to an output line are provided. An antireflection film is provided on a light-receiving surface of the photoelectric-conversion element. The gate of the amplification-MOS transistor is electrically connected to one floating-diffusion area by providing one conductor in a single contact hole, and the anti-reflection film covers the photoelectric-conversion area except a base part of the contact hole.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photoelectric-conversion apparatus and particularly relates to a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) photoelectric-conversion apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Photoelectric-conversion apparatuses have been rapidly growing in demand, as image-pickup devices of two-dimensional-image-input devices, notably digital-still cameras and video camcorders and/or one-dimensional-image readers, notably facsimiles and scanners. In the above-described photoelectric-conversion apparatuses, MOS-photoelectric-conversion apparatuses using a MOS transistor are used, so as to read a signal. In the MOS-photoelectric-conversion apparatus, both a photoelectric-conversion area and a peripheral-circuit area can be formed at the same time by performing complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-manufacturing processing. Therefore, the MOS-photoelectric-conversion apparatus can be formed by performing a manufacturing processing that is easier than that performed for manufacturing a charge-coupled device (CCD).
When performing the CMOS-manufacturing processing, a contact configured to electrically connect a semiconductor area provided on a semiconductor substrate and/or a gate electrode of a transistor to upper wiring is used.
A shared contact is used for connecting the semiconductor area to the gate electrode by using a single conductor without concern for the two-dimensional distance between the semiconductor area and the gate electrode that are connected to the contact and/or the two-dimensional distance between contacts. The above-described technology is often used for a static random access memory (SRAM), since the technology is advantageous to form a smaller semiconductor device by doing layout.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-368203 discloses an example where the above-described shared contact is used for forming a CCD-photoelectric-conversion apparatus. According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-368203, the shared contact is included in an output-buffer circuit having a MOS transistor in which a gate-electrode unit is electrically connected to a floating-diffusion area, as a drive transistor. Subsequently, an electrical-charge-conversion coefficient is increased due to a reduced capacity.
According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-368203, the shared contact is provided in an output unit of a horizontal CCD, and provided in an area different from a photoelectric-conversion area where a photoelectric-conversion element such as a photodiode is formed. On the other hand, through investigations performed by inventors of the present invention, a new problem is found, the new problem being caused by providing the shared contact in the photoelectric-conversion area where the photoelectric-conversion element is provided.
The area of a contact hole used to form the shared contact should be larger than that of a contact hole used to form an ordinary contact. In that case, the etching rate of the contact hole used to form the shared contact becomes higher than that of the contact hole used to form the ordinary contact due to the microloading effect. Subsequently, the overetching amount of a contact-hole unit used to form the shared contact becomes larger than in the case where the ordinary contact hole is formed. When the overetching amount is increased in the photoelectric-conversion area where the photoelectric-conversion element is provided, an increased number of noises to the photoelectric-conversion element are produced and the image quality deteriorates.
Accordingly, the present invention has been achieved, so as to use a shared contact in a photoelectric-conversion area without increasing a noise to a photoelectric-conversion element.

Photoelectric-conversion apparatus and image-pickup system


A developing device has a developer tank for containing a two-component developer; a partition; a first and a second developer conveyance path for conveying the developer in pairs; a first conveyance member for conveying the developer in one direction, which has a first rotation axis, a first helical blade fixed to the first rotation axis, and a first passive gear provided to an end of the first rotation axis; a second conveyance member for conveying the developer in one direction, which has a second rotation axis, a second helical blade fixed to the second rotation axis, and a second passive gear provided to an end of the second rotation axis; a first communicating path; a second communicating path; a developing roller; and a rotation axis bending prevention belt provided so as to bridge the first and the second rotation axis outside the developer tank.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developing device and an image forming apparatus for image formation with a two-component developer including a toner and a magnetic carrier.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, electrophotographic image forming apparatuses such as copying machines, printers and facsimile machines have been known. In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a surface of a photoconductor, a toner is supplied to the electrostatic latent image by means of a developing device to develop the electrostatic latent image, a toner image formed through the development is transferred and fixed onto a sheet such as a paper sheet.
In recent years, for a full-color compliant image forming apparatus and a high-definition compliant image forming apparatus, a developer (hereinafter, also referred to as a "two-component developer") is often used which is excellent in toner charging stability. The two-component developer includes a toner and a carrier. The toner and the carrier are agitated in a developing device to generate friction between the toner and the carrier, and the friction allows the toner to be appropriately charged. The charged toner is supplied to a surface of a two-component developer holder (developing roller). The toner on the two-component developer holder is moved, by electrostatic attraction, to an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrier (photoconductor). Thus, a toner image is formed on the photoconductor.
Since image forming apparatuses are required to be more high-speed and downsized, it is necessary to quickly perform sufficient charging of a two-component developer and to quickly convey the two-component developer.
In conventional image forming apparatuses, therefore, a circulative developing device in which a two-component developer is conveyed in a circulating manner has been employed in order to instantly disperse a supplementary toner into the two-component developer to give an appropriate amount of charge.
The circulative developing device, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-255723, has two conveyance paths and two conveyance screws in a developer case, in which the conveyance paths allow a two-component developer to be conveyed and circulated therethrough, and the conveyance screws are respectively disposed in the conveyance paths to simultaneously agitate and convey the two-component developer. When the toner concentration of the two-component developer in the developing device falls below a predetermined value, toner is supplied to one conveyance path by a toner supply screw, and the toner supplied and the two-component developer are conveyed while being agitated.
In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-109741 proposes a developing device including, in a housing for containing a developer, a first agitation and conveyance screw, a second agitation and conveyance screw, and a developing roller, wherein the first and second agitation and conveyance screws each have a helical blade and a reverse helical blade having a phase (pitch) moving reversely to the helical blade, and the reverse helical blade is disposed at an downstream side end of the screw in the developer conveyance direction and has a through hole.
In this developing device, each reverse helical blade reversely conveys the developer and returns the developer through the through hole to generate convection in the developer near the reverse helical blade, so that the developer in the dead space is agitated efficiently and generation of a pool of the developer is prevented.
In such a conventional developing device, an auger screw having a helical blade is used as a conveyance member. However, the rigidity of the rotation axis of the auger screw is easily reduced when the rotation axis is formed thin or the rotation axis is formed of resin.
The reduced rigidity causes the auger screw to bend and therefore, in some cases, the helical blade is brought into contact with an inner wall of a developer tank. In such cases, toner stuck between the auger screw and the inner wall is aggregated to cause image defects such as insufficient image transfer.

Developing device and image forming apparatus


A method is provided for identifying a spinning rotor on a rotor spinning machine, wherein the spinning rotor is mounted in a suspended manner in a radially acting magnetic bearing during a spinning operation. At least one system variable that varies between different spinning rotors is identified. The system variable is detected and compared to at least one reference value. The system variable is one or a combination of: an energy consumption of the magnetic bearing; a radial position of the spinning rotor; or a resonant frequency of the spinning rotor. A rotor spinning machine that carries out the method is also provided.

In a rotor spinning machine, textile fibers are compacted into yarns, in a known way, via the rotation of a spinning rotor at a high rotational speed. The spinning rotor is generally composed of a rotor cup, in which the yarn production takes place, and a rotor shaft, which is utilized for torque transmission and for the coupling to a bearing. Modern rotor spinning machines comprise, as is known, a plurality of individual workstations. These machines are capable of manufacturing different yarns, for example, from different materials. Various requirements can be placed on the spinning rotors. For this reason, it is typical to provide replaceable spinning rotors having different sizes and/or shapes. The circumference and the shape of the rotor cup, in particular, can be varied. Upon the changeover of the spinning rotors, the permissible operating parameters of the workstation and/or the spinning machine can change. In order to ensure a uniform yarn quality and a high level of operational reliability, there is a need, therefore, for methods and devices for automatically identifying the installed spinning rotor.
DE 10 2007 028 935 A1 describes a method for detecting soiling or defects in a magnetic bearing of a rotor of an electric machine, in which variable system variables are determined and compared to reference values while the rotor is lifted out of different axial end positions. In the case of a deviation that is too great, for example, the machine is prevented from starting. On the one hand, in the known method, only one axial degree of freedom of movement is utilized for determining the variable system variable. On the other hand, defects or soiling, and not the installed spinning rotor, are/is identified with the aid of the method.

Yarn return unit for returning a yarn as well as a workstation of a textile machine comprising a yarn return unit


Apparatus and methods for authorizing an exchange between a customer and a services provider. The apparatus may include an electronic processor that is configured to: (1) calculate a reference event profile; and (2) determine a difference between a prospective transaction profile and the reference event profile. The prospective transaction profile may be based on the initiation of a prospective transaction by an individual whose identity has not been verified. The reference event profile may be based on a plurality of customer events that correspond to one or many different customers. The apparatus may include an output device that is configured to output authentication test information that corresponds to the difference. The authentication test information may support a revised prospective transaction profile that is more similar to the reference event profile than is the initial prospective event profile.

A financial services provider typically offers a customer several different channels for accessing accounts and account information and for executing transactions using funds held in the accounts. Fraud perpetrators often attempt to use the customer's identity information and electronic device information to steal the customer's funds (ID fraud and IP fraud, respectively). The financial services provider, therefore, undertakes to identify prospective fraudulent transactions.
For example, when the customer initiates a transaction (whether involving fund transfer or information exchange), the financial services provider may execute an authentication process to ascertain that the individual who initiates the transaction is actually the customer. The financial services provider also may execute a risk management process to identify and reject prospective transactions that are likely to be fraudulent.
Because the financial institution does not scrutinize every prospective transaction sufficiently to remove all risk, a fraud perpetrator may gain illicit access to a portion of the customer's identity information. The perpetrator may, therefore, be able to satisfy requirements of the authentication process.
Also, the perpetrator may exploit the existence of the several different channels to make it more difficult for the financial services provider to perform the risk analysis. For example, the perpetrator may steal the customer's identity information in connection with an online transaction, use a telephone channel to establish account permissions and, then, withdraw customer funds using an ATM. If the financial services provider utilizes risk analysis and fraud detection that are not sensitive to cross-channel customer behavior and, therefore, cross-channel fraudulent activities, the customer and the financial services provider may be more vulnerable to cross-channel fraud.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide apparatus and methods for adaptively adjusting authentication criteria in conformance with risk exposure, know, customer behavior, or a combination thereof.
It also would be desirable, therefore, to provide apparatus and methods for reducing cross-channel fraud.


The present invention generally relates to a method and device for encoding an image. The method comprises: —encoding (12) a backlight image determined (11) from the image; —obtaining (13) a residual image by dividing the image by a decoded version of the backlight image, —obtaining (16) a tone-mapped residual image by tone-mapping the residual image; and —encoding (19) the tone-mapped residual image. The invention relates also to a method and device for decoding a bitstream representing a residual image calculated by dividing an image by a backlight image.

The present section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to various aspects of the present invention that are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Low-Dynamic-Range images (LDR images) are images whose luminance values are represented with a limited number of bits (most often 8 or 10). This limited representation does not allow correct rendering of small signal variations, in particular in dark and bright luminance ranges. In high-dynamic range images (HDR images), the signal representation is extended in order to maintain a high accuracy of the signal over its entire range. In HDR images, pixel values are usually represented in floating-point format (either 32-bit or 16-bit for each component, namely float or half-float), the most popular format being openEXR half-float format (16-bit per RGB component, i.e. 48 bits per pixel) or in integers with a long representation, typically at least 16 bits.
A typical approach for encoding an HDR image is to reduce the dynamic range of the image in order to encode the image by means of a traditional encoding scheme (initially configured to encode LDR images).
According to a first approach, a tone-mapping operator is applied to the input HDR image and the tone-mapped image is then encoded by means of a traditional 8-10 bit depth encoding scheme such as JPEG/JPEG200 or MPEG-2, H.264/AVC for video ("Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual Services", SERIES H: AUDIOVISUAL AND MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS, Recommendation ITU-T H.264, Telecommunication Standardization Sector of ITU, January 2012). Then, an inverse tone-mapping operator is applied to the decoded image and a residual image is calculated between the input image and the decoded and inverse-tone-mapped image. Finally, the residual image is encoded by means of a second traditional 8-10 bit-depth encoder scheme.
This first approach is backward compatible in the sense that a low dynamic range image may be decoded and displayed by means of a traditional apparatus.
However, this first approach uses two encoding schemes and limits the dynamic range of the input image to be twice the dynamic range of a traditional encoding scheme (16-20 bits). Moreover, such approach leads sometimes to a low dynamic range image with a weaker correlation with the input HDR image. This leads to low coding performance of the image.
According to a second approach, a backlight image is determined from the luminance component of the input HDR image. A residual image is then obtained by dividing the input HDR image by the backlight image and both the backlight image and the residual image are directly encoded.
This specific approach for encoding an input HDR image is not backward compatibility with a traditional apparatus which is not able to decode and/or display a high dynamic range.

Method and device for encoding a high-dynamic range image and/or decoding a bitstream


A process for forming a polycrystalline silicon layer includes the following steps. Firstly, at least one seed is formed on a substrate. Then, an amorphous silicon layer is formed on the substrate and overlies the seed. Then, the amorphous silicon layer is irradiated with a laser to melt the amorphous silicon layer. Afterward, the molten amorphous silicon layer is recrystallized to form a polycrystalline silicon layer.

Polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors are commonly used as basic electronic devices for controlling pixels of active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs) and active matrix organic light emitting displays (AMOLEDs). In addition, the polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors are also used as basic electronic devices required by the peripheral driving circuits and/or control circuits in these displays.
During production of the polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors (TFTs), the crystallization procedure for forming a polycrystalline silicon layer is critical. The electrical properties and uniformity of the polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors are primarily determined by this procedure.
A conventional process for forming a polycrystalline silicon layer using a crystallization method is illustrated with reference to FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b). Firstly, an amorphous silicon layer 104 is formed on a glass or plastic substrate 100. Then, the amorphous silicon layer 104 is irradiated with an excimer laser to be molten. The molten amorphous silicon layer is cooled and recrystallized into a polycrystalline silicon layer 105.
Referring to FIG. 2, the relationship between the energy density of an excimer laser irradiating on the amorphous silicon layer and the electrical property such as the electron mobility of the resulting recrystallized polycrystalline silicon layer is shown. As shown, the energy density effective for forming a polycrystalline silicon layer with good electrical property is confined to a narrow range. An excessive energy density may result in microcrystalline silicon rather than polycrystalline silicon. The electrical property of microcrystalline silicon is different from that of the polycrystalline silicon. For example, its electron mobility is not as high as required in some applications. On the other hand, an insufficient energy density substantially fails to effectively melt the amorphous silicon for subsequent recrystallization.
Furthermore, due to the variability of the excimer laser, the grain size of the recrystallized polycrystalline silicon layer 105 may be too small and non-uniform, and thus the electron property of the thin film transistor product varies significantly.

Process for forming polycrystalline silicon layer by laser crystallization


A drill head is shown that provides improved steering in difficult ground conditions such as dry and compacted soil. A drill head is shown with features that include a narrow front portion, a sharp hardened insert such as a carbide point, and a curved rear portion of the drill head. Angled porting of liquid is included in selected configurations of the drill head. Porting of liquid within a recess portion is included in selected configuration of the drill head.

Directional drilling is a useful technique for several procedures such as utility installation, etc. One common type of directional drilling is horizontal directional drilling, where a drill stem is extended essentially horizontally to form passages under structures such as roads for example. Drill heads in directional drilling typically have a feature which causes the drill head to steer in one direction when forced ahead by a drilling device. During a boring operation, pressure is applied through a drill stem from behind to the drill head. During a straight bore, the drill stem is typically rotated at a regular rate so that on average, only straight ahead drilling is accomplished. In order to steer a drill head, the rotation is temporarily stopped, and the drill head is allowed to steer in the desired direction. Once the steering maneuver is complete, the drill head is again rotated at a regular rate for straight ahead drilling.
There are numerous types of ground and soil conditions that affect performance of drill heads. As a result, there are numerous designs of drill heads to match each ground type. One difficult type of ground includes tightly packed and dry gravelly soil. One example of this type of ground can be found in southern California. This type of ground is difficult because current drill head designs do not make sufficient forward progress to turn the drill stem when they are not being rotated. This makes steering in such conditions difficult. Although this ground type is used as an example, embodiments of the following invention are not limited to use in such conditions.
What is needed is a drill head and drill assembly with improved steering and improved performance under various ground conditions including, but not limited to dry tightly packed soil.


An electron emission cathode includes: an n-type semiconductor film including diamond particles partially projecting from a surface of the n-type semiconductor film; and an anode opposing the n-type semiconductor film with a vacuum interposed therebetween. Electrons are emitted by applying a voltage between the anode and the n-type semiconductor film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electron emission cathode; an electron emission device, a flat display, and a thermoelectric cooling device incorporating the electron emission cathode; and a method for producing the electron emission cathode.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, research directed to realizing high-performance devices, such as ultra-high speed devices, by integrating minute electron emission devices using semiconductor miniaturization techniques has been vigorously conducted. This field of research is referred to as "vacuum microelectronics". Vacuum microelectronics has been attracting particular attention to its applications for flat displays (or field emission displays; hereinafter referred to as "FEDs") because the use of electron emission devices for a FED is considered to lead to a thinner and lighter display device than conventional cathode ray tube displays.
In a FED incorporating electron emission devices, the electron emission devices are disposed in a two-dimensional arrangement so as to oppose an anode on which a fluorescent substance is applied. By applying a voltage between each cathode and the anode, electrons are drawn out into a vacuum, where the electrons collide with the fluorescent substance so as to be excited and emit light.
Hereinafter, a conventional electron emission device will be described. In general, a current density J, when drawing out electrons from a solid electrode in a vacuum, is derived in accordance with Fowler-Nordheim's formula (Eq. 1): EQU J=(A.multidot.F.sup.2 /.PHI.).multidot.exp(-B.multidot..PHI..sup.3/2 /F)eq. 1
In the above equation, A and B represent positive constants; F represents an electric field; and .PHI. represents a work function of the cathode. Assuming that a voltage V is applied when drawing out electrons, the electric field F is derived in accordance with eq. 2: EQU F=.beta.V eq. 2
In the above equation, .beta. is a constant which is determined by the geometrical shape of the cathode.
In accordance with eq. 1 and eq. 2, the current density J can be increased, while keeping the applied voltage V constant, by increasing .beta. and/or decreasing .PHI.. However, in the case where a semiconductor is used for the cathode, the current density J can be increased by decreasing an electron affinity .chi. (which is the difference in energy between a vacuum level and the conduction band of the semiconductor) instead of the work function .PHI.. In order to increase .beta., it is necessary to process the cathode so as to have a sharp point. Specifically, a method is often taken which etches an n-type silicon substrate so as to form an electron emission portion having a sharp-pointed projection, for example.
FIG. 18 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a conventional electron emission device having a sharp-pointed projection as an electron emission portion. As shown in FIG. 18, the electron emission device 500 includes a silicon substrate 504 having an electron emission portion 502 and a gate electrode 508 formed on the silicon substrate 504, with an insulating film 506 interposed therebetween, so as to surround the electron emission portion 502. The electron emission portion 502, which has a pointed conical shape, is obtained by etching the silicon substrate 504. An electrode 510 is provided on the silicon substrate 504.
By placing the electron emission device 500 in a vacuum so as to oppose an anode and applying a positive voltage of several dozen volts to several hundred volts to the gate electrode 508 with respect to a potential of the silicon substrate 504, an electric field concentrates at the electron emission portion 502 because of its pointed tip. Then, a potential barrier formed by a vacuum level is lowered for the electrons in the electron emission portion 502, and the potential barrier becomes thinner, so that electrons are drawn out into the vacuum from the surface of the electron emission portion 502 owing to a tunnel effect. The electrons thus drawn out are captured by the anode opposing the silicon substrate 504, a positive voltage of several hundred to several kilo volts being applied to the anode with respect to a potential of the gate electrode 508.
In the case of an electron emission cathode composed only the silicon substrate 504 and the electron emission portion 502, without any gate electrodes included, electrons are directly drawn out and captured by an opposing anode when a voltage of several hundred to several kilo volts is applied between the anode and the silicon substrate 504.
As a conventional thermoelectric device for converting electric energy into thermal energy, a thermoelectric cooling device 520 shown in FIG. 19 is known. The thermoelectric cooling device 520 has a structure in which n-type semiconductor layers 522 and p-type semiconductor layers 524 are alternately connected to one another in series via metal plates 526 and 528. By applying a voltage between terminals 530 and 532, either the metal plates 526 or the metal plates 528 are cooled, while the other metal plates 526 or 528 are heated.
However, the above-mentioned conventional electron emission device has the following problems.
First, the tip of the electron emission portion must be processed with an accuracy on the order of nanometers, thus requiring highly sophisticated semiconductor processing techniques. Therefore, it is difficult to produce FEDs incorporating such electron emission devices at a low cost. Moreover, the shape of the tip of the electron emission portion tends to vary, thereby resulting in a nonuniform display by the FED. Furthermore, the tip of the electron emission portion is likely sputtered by ion particles colliding in a vacuum, thereby resulting in degradation of the tip within a rather short time period. As a result, it is not expected that a FED having a long lifetime can be realized.
In the case where a FED is constructed by using the above-mentioned electron emission device, it is necessary to realize a vacuum on the level of about 10.sup.8 to 10.sup.10 Torr. Commercial production of FEDs using such a vacuum is not realistic.
Furthermore, a silicon substrate is used as the substrate, which limits the size of the display size of the FED. This leads to the problem of difficulty in realizing large-display FEDs.
In a conventional thermoelectric cooling device, metal plates to be cooled and metal plates to be heated are connected to one another via the n-type semiconductor layers 522 and the p-type semiconductor layers 524. Heat is transmitted from the plates to be cooled to the plates to be heated via these semiconductor layers 522 and 524, thus resulting in a large leakage of heat. This results in a very low cooling/heating efficiency.

Electron emission cathode; an electron emission device, a flat display, a thermoelectric cooling device incorporating the same; and a method for producing the electron emission cathode

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Techniques for determining reliability of a workload migration activity are disclosed. In one embodiment, sub-tasks associated with the workload migration activity may be determined. Further, statistical data associated with an execution of the sub-tasks corresponding to different instances of the workload migration activity may be retrieved. Furthermore, a reliability model may be trained through machine learning using the statistical data to determine reliability of the workload migration activity. Then, the reliability of a new workload migration activity may be determined using the trained reliability model.

Enterprises have shifted computing needs from enterprise owned and operated computer systems to cloud computing providers. Cloud computing providers may allow enterprises to store and run their applications in a cloud-computing facility. The cloud-computing facility may be composed of numerous racks of servers, switches, routers, and mass data-storage devices interconnected by local-area networks, wide-area networks, and wireless communications that may be consolidated into a single data center or distributed geographically over a number of data centers. Enterprises may run their applications in a cloud-computing facility as virtual machines (VMs) that are consolidated into a virtual data center (VDC) also called as a software defined data center (SDDC). A VDC may recreate the architecture and functionality of a physical data center for running enterprise applications.
Particularly, in such virtual computing environments, a number of SDDCs with each SDDC including multiple host computing systems in a single or multiple cluster environment may have to be managed. In the SDDCs, workloads (e.g., VMs) may be migrated from one physical host computing system to another to achieve load balancing, fault tolerance, and/or high availability. Because of the vast numbers of SDDCs and dynamic nature of SDDCs running in the cloud-computing facility, SDDCs introduce management challenges to information technology (IT) managers. For instance, in case of a workload migration activity, managing and monitoring of such multitenant cloud infrastructure may be a challenge as the reliability of the workload migration activity may be compromised at any point of time. For example, there could be instances like slowdown of the workload migration activity, which may be triggered because of latency in a non-volatile dual in-line memory module (NVDIMM) subsystem. Delays like these may manifest in any component of SDDC. Thus, it may be difficult to identify the root cause of the issue in software and hardware layers. Further, identification of the issues and the root cause of the issues may involve significant effort from the engineering team.
The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present subject matter in any way.

Reliability determination of workload migration activities


An optical fiber ribbon including a matrix material and one or more optical fibers disposed therein. The properties of the matrix material have been developed so that the optical fiber ribbon has optimal handling characteristics such as superior heat strip, encapsulation, easy peel and breakout, good fiber geometry and robustness. The optical fiber ribbon achieves optimal handling characteristics by including in the matrix material a polymer having a glass transition temperature of greater than 100.degree. C., an elongation to break of greater than 15% and a rheological behavior wherein the onset of non-Newtonian behavior occurs at a shear rate of greater than 10.sup.3 rad/sec.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to optical fiber ribbons including optical fibers and cables, and more particularly to optical fiber ribbons including one or more optical fibers disposed in a matrix material. Further, the present invention relates to optical fiber ribbons having well balanced ribbon properties desirable for handling optical fiber ribbons during production, splicing operations, and midspan access.
2. Related Art
Optical fiber ribbon is a type of optical fiber cable that has become quite popular for many uses. Unlike conventional loose tube optical cables wherein the 250 micrometer (.mu.m) color-coded optical fibers are placed loosely inside a gel-filled plastic tube, optical fiber ribbons contain a matrix material which fixedly holds a plurality of optical fibers therein. Optical fiber ribbons normally incorporate 250 .mu.m color-coded optical fibers--typically 2-24 optical fibers--which are held together in the form of a flat linear matrix by a suitable ultraviolet (UV) curable encapsulant matrix material. Although different materials can be utilized for the matrix material, the matrix material is most suitably formed from UV curable acrylate based resins which are well known in the fiber optic art. However, a matrix material including a variety of desired handling characteristics such as good heat strip, encapsulation, easy peel, breakout, good fiber geometry and robustness has remained unknown, even though, as discussed below, matrix materials having individual ones of the desirable handling characteristics have been developed. That is, because the properties of the matrix material often affect handling characteristics in different ways, it has been difficult to develop an optical fiber ribbon having optimal handling characteristics.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,363 to Mills (Mills) discloses an optical fiber ribbon which is heat strippable and peelable. Although Mills recognizes that adhesion between the matrix material and the optical fibers therein affects peelability, he does not recognize that the properties of the matrix material affect the heat strippability and peelability of the ribbon. Instead, Mills provides an interfacial layer disposed between the outermost layer on each individual optical fiber and the matrix material. In disposing an interfacial layer, Mills adds complexity and cost to the production of an optical fiber ribbon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,945 to Nishimura et al. (Nishimura) discloses an optical fiber tape which allows easy handling in splicing operations and which also has resistance to lateral pressures, thereby reducing the transmission loss due to microbending of the optical fibers in the tape. However, similar to Mills, Nishimura introduces a peelable coating layer between the optical fibers and the matrix material in which they are disposed. Again, like Mills, this arrangement adds complexity and cost to the production of an optical fiber ribbon.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,750 to Beasley, Jr. et al. (Beasley) discloses a method for midspan entry of optical ribbon fiber. Beasley notes that the success of his midspan entry method is dependent on the properties of the matrix material used in the optical ribbon fiber. In particular, Beasley notes that the midspan access is dependent on the property of peel strength, or adhesion, between the matrix material and the optical fibers therein, and on the sheer strength of the matrix material. However, Beasley does not disclose a matrix material having the desired properties of good heat strip, encapsulation, good fiber geometry and robustness.
In sum, the related art does not provide--in an optical fiber ribbon--a matrix material which includes a variety of desired handling characteristics such as good heat strip, encapsulation, easy peel, breakout, good fiber (geometry and robustness. Further, the related art discussed above does not provide for even individual ones of the desired handling characteristics in an easy to manufacture and cost-effective manner.

Optical fiber ribbon matrix material having optimal handling characteristics


Disclosed herein are pharmaceutical preparations which are suitable for the treatment of postoperative ileus and contain at least one compound of the formula I ##STR1## in which R.sup.1 is Ar, cycloalkyl having 3-7 C atoms or cycloalkylalkyl having 4-8 C atoms,. R.sup.2 is Ar, or PA1 R.sub.1 and R.sup.2 together are ##STR2## R.sup.3 is H, OH, OA or A, R.sup.4 is A or phenyl which can optionally be mono- or disubstituted by Hal, OH, OA, CF.sub.3, NO.sub.2, NH.sub.2, NHA, NHCOA, NHSO.sub.2 A and/or NA.sub.2, PA1 R.sup.5 is OH, CH.sub.2 OH, PA1 R.sup.6 and R.sup.7 in each case independently of one another are H, Hal, OH, OA, CF.sub.3, NH.sub.2, NHA, NA.sub.2, NHCOA, NHCONH.sub.2, NO.sub.2 or methylenedioxy, with the oxy groups bonded to adjacent carbons on the ring, PA1 A is alkyl having 1-7 C atoms, PA1 Ar is a mono- or bicyclic aromatic radical which can optionally contain an N, O or S atom in the ring and can be mono-, di- or trisubstituted by A, Hal, OH, OA, CF.sub.3, NH.sub.2, NHA, NA.sub.2, NHCOA and/or NHCONH.sub.2, PA1 D is CH.sub.2, O, S, NH, NA, --CH.sub.2 --CH.sub.2 --, --CH.dbd.CH--, --CH.sub.2 NH--, --CH.sub.2 --NA-- or a bond PA1 Hal is F, Cl, Br or I.. and

Compounds with a similar structural formula and suitable processes for their preparation are described in the Offenlegungsschrift DE 40 34 785.
Inflammatory bowel disorders frequently lead to colonic pain, digestive disorders and in the worst case to intestinal obstruction. The latter is associated with colic-like pain as a result of a heavy contractile stimulus, stool and wind retention, vomiting and, with increasing duration of the condition, dehydration, rebound tenderness of the abdomen and finally shock.
Functional bowel disorders are attributed to all sorts of causes; inter alia to an abnormality in the contractility of the smooth intestinal muscles and the gastrointestinal motor activity. An excessive contractile activity and a modified coordination of the motor activity can cause pain by the activation of the mechanico-receptor and by transport abnormalities which lead to distension of the intestine. These causes were until now also assumed to explain chest pains which are not due to the heart, and also to explain the pain of irritable bowel syndrome or dyspepsia which is not associated with an ulcer. Meanwhile, this relationship has been further supported by 24-hour recordings of the motor oesophageal and gastroduodenal function of patients who were suffering from chest pain which was not due to the heart or dyspepsia which was not associated with an ulcer (Katz, P.O. et al. Ann. Intern. Med. (1987) 106, 593-7). Motor abnormalities can occur in normal controls without symptoms, but can also disappear, whereby a temporal correlation can be shown with the symptoms of the patient (Fefer, L. et al. Gastroenterology (1992) 102: A447 (Abstract)).
The treatment of the motor abnormalities with all sorts of therapeutically active agents, for example with agents which promote the motions of the gastrointestinal tract, with anticholinergics or calcium channel and cholecystokinin antagonists, are in most cases effective in the correction of the motor abnormalities, but they do not always improve the symptoms of the patients.

Kappa-opiate agonists effective in the treatment of postoperative ileus

Merck Patent Gesellschaft mit Beschrankter Haftung


Two stop valves, associated with bypass ducts containing energy absorbing devices, enable an adjustable fraction of the hot fluid to be diverted past left and right hand heating radiators, so that any change in the adjustment of the fluid flow in either of the radiators has no effect on the fluid flow in the other radiator.

Apparatus of the above kind is employed, in particular, for enabling separate adjustments to be made in the temperature of the two streams of air which are to be delivered, one into the left hand half and the other into the right hand half of the cabin of the vehicle, according to the respective requirements of the driver on one side of the cabin and a passenger on the other side. In these known forms of apparatus, when the flow of fluid in one of the heat exchangers increases, the amount of fluid available for flow in the other heat exchanger diminishes, and vice versa. As a result, any change in the adjustment relating to one side of the cabin has the secondary effect of also changing the temperature of the air on the other side of the cabin.

Apparatus for independently regulating the heating on the two sides of the cabin of a vehicle


A UNLV novel electric/magnetic dot sensor includes a loop of conductor having two ends to the loop, a first end and a second end; the first end of the conductor seamlessly secured to a first conductor within a first sheath; the second end of the conductor seamlessly secured to a second conductor within a second sheath; and the first sheath and the second sheath positioned adjacent each other. The UNLV novel sensor can be made by removing outer layers in a segment of coaxial cable, leaving a continuous link of essentially uncovered conductor between two coaxial cable legs.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the present invention relate to sensors for measuring magnetic field and electric field phenomena at the same time at the same point in space.
2. Background of the Art
Conventional small magnetic field sensors (commonly referred to as B-dots) consist of a coaxial cable with a coil located at the cable end. The center wire of the coaxial cable extends beyond the outer shield and is shaped in the form of a coil. Typically, the coil may be a single half loop, an integer number of loop turns, or an integer number of half loop turns. The coil end is then typically soldered to the outer shield. A conventional differential B-dot makes use of two nearly identical coils spaced closely together in a nearly unique orientation. For packaging purposes, the differential B-dot is housed within a conductive block filled with a dielectric substance. This packaging is not necessary in the differential B-dot design except when trying to eliminate or control proximity effects. Interconnection is made with two individual pieces of transmission line (coaxial cables). The B-dot is used to measure the rate of change of the magnetic fields in the location of the loop. According to Faraday's law, as the magnetic field lines threaded through the B-dot loop changes with respect to time, a voltage is induced in the coil that in turn drives a coil current. In an approximate sense, the induced voltage is proportional to the number of loops, the area of the loop, the magnetic field strength and either the inverse of time duration of the change or the time harmonic frequency of the signal.
More specifically, the voltage induced in a coil is proportional to the frequency of the event, the total-cross section of the coil and the number of turns. Thus, to obtain reliable sensitivity at lower frequencies, it is necessary to increase the cross-section and/or the number of turns. On the other hand, to widen the response to high frequencies, it is necessary for the coil to have low stray capacitances (capacitance between the coil and external entities) and low internal capacitances (capacitance between coil turns). Consequently, a reduced number of turns is desired and the dimensions of the sensor should be small compared with the wavelength corresponding to the highest frequency of interest. Therefore, it is difficult to fabricate a sensor having a wide pass band and with reliable sensitivity throughout the pass band.
A shielded flat coil is also known in the art. The shield is not continuous thereby avoiding a short-circuit loop which would generate a current in response to changes in the external magnetic field. This current would just counter the effects of the external field that the internal sensor would not detect the external field. A flat coil sensor can be optimized either for reliable sensitivity at low frequencies with a large diameter and a large number of turns, or for a response at high frequencies with a small diameter and a small number of turns. Unfortunately, the first optimization leads to a poor response at high frequencies while the latter optimization leads to a limitation of the sensitivity at low frequencies. Capacitive coupling from shield to shield across the gap exposing the sensor offers limitations to the sensitivity of this device.
The differential B-dot probes currently used to measure B field and exclude the E field are three-dimensional loops. This probe is a matched series parallel combination of loops which match a 50 ohm input of a tuned receiver or a power meter. This type probe must be constructed utilizing double sided flexible printed circuit board with low loss dielectric. This material is necessary to implement the complex stripline matching networks. In addition, the assembly of these loops are extremely difficult, time consuming, and the probes are difficult to maintain. The required power meters and receivers utilized to measure the output of these type loop probes are very expensive and hard to use for remote field measurements.
Two dimensional double gap detected probes are used to measure B fields in large test volumes which are remote from electrical power. Due to the large number of measurement points required to map test volumes and remoteness of some areas of interest, the probes need to be portable. In addition, the probe must be small and non-perturbing to the field being measured. The probe described in this disclosure is small, portable, and designed for minimum field perturbation. The output of the probe is read by an ordinary high impedance volt meter, which is inexpensive, small, easily portable, and does not require external power. These B-dot sensors may operate by oscillating a B-field in the loop area to induce a voltage in the conducting loop given by the relationship V=A dB/dt, where V is the voltage output of the loop, A is the area of the loop and dB/dt is the derivative of the time varying B-field. This voltage may be DC shifted by the high frequency voltage doublers and filtered by low pass filters, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,849. The DC outputs of the low pass filters are summed together by semiconductor line and brought out of the field by semiconductor lines to a voltmeter having a capacitor across it. The semiconductor lines are used to minimize the field pick-up in the transmission lines as well as minimize field perturbations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,791 ("the '791 patent") discusses B-dots and their applications. More specifically, the '791 patent recites that a B-dot sensor may act as a microwave detector. In such an embodiment, the sensor comprises a conducting metal loop placed in a microwave signal environment such that magnetic flux passing through the loop changes over time and induces an electrical signal which is then recorded. The '791 patent specifically mentions the inherent limitations of B-dot loops (column 1-2, lines 50-68, 1-9; column 4, lines 46-57). That is, they are designed to only respond to the magnetic flux. However, as set forth above, the magnetic flux is often accompanied by a voltage distribution within close proximity of the loop. The spurious signals interfere with the measurement process. The '791 patent suggests the use of a second B-dot loop oriented in the opposite direction from the first B-dot loop to eliminate the impact of the noise. According to the present inventors, the second B-dot loop will have the same amplitude and 180° phase difference. Therefore, the electric field terms reduce to zero and the magnetic signal is increased by a factor of two. In principle this is reasonable but in practice, for exact cancellation one requires (this assumes that the coil end is terminated on the grounding shield): 1. Identical probes, 2. Identical relative ground line geometry that includes line lengths, bends and twists in the line, line cross-sectional dimensions, line orientations, 3. Line and coil locations must be in close proximity (typically 1/40 of the smallest wavelength associated to the highest frequency in the band pass, 4. Coils must have exact relative 180° orientation, 5. Coils and lines must be immersed in identical mediums and have identical proximity to external structures and 6. Coil axis must be aligned. Deviations from these exactness result in spurious noise signals that may effect the overall measurement especially as the frequency is increase.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,705 describes a sensor to provide information about flux changes in a coil that encloses a region of changing magnetic flux is formed by placing a pair of bifilar windings in the plane of the coil for which flux change is to be sensed. The winding may be inside or outside the coil. The bifilar winding is placed along that coil, one end of the bifilar winding is terminated in a short circuit and each winding is brought out to voltage-measuring equipment at the other end. The bifilar winding limits the response to the flux produced by the coil near which it is disposed and discriminates against changes in magnetic flux enclosed within the inner diameter of the coil. Pairs of bifilar windings may be used to compare differences of voltages, and the windings may be limited to part of the circumference of the coil to make local readiness. This patent describes a B-dot coil in FIGS. 2 and 3 as a top view and a sectional side view of an EF (equilibrium field) coil 18 of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a sectional view along section lines 3—3 of FIG. 2. FIGS. 2 and 3 of this patent also show a sensor 20 that is placed next to and inside EF coil 18 and a second sensor 22 placed next to and outside EF coil 18. Coils such as sensors 20 and 22 are frequently referred to as "B-dot" coils to indicate that they respond to the time derivative of the magnetic flux density B.

The Board of Regents University Community College System of Nevada on Behalf of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas


The present invention implements an automated blank time function, which calculates a horizontal and/or a vertical blank time for a desired integration time and window size. Input data and control signals for predetermined integration time and window size are provided to a register interface, which generates configuration signals. The configuration signals are applied to machines, which generate reset control signals and read control signals from the configuration signals for controlling the imager.

In any type of image capture system that uses the rolling shutter technique to capture video images there is a fundamental limitation on the maximum exposure time. In rolling shutter image acquisition, the row Reset and Read sequences need to increment through the frame at the same rate in order to preserve a constant integration/exposure time on a row-by-row basis. If the integration time is larger than the frame readout time, the row Reset sequence can wrap around to the first row before the Read sequence for that row has begun, thereby destroying the proper image information.
FIG. 1 is a simplified illustration of the Reset and Read sequence in rolling shutter, where the horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis represents the row number.
If the Read sequence is moved to the left on the time axis, integration time is decreased, and increased if moved to the right. However, if the Read sequence is moved too far along to the right of the time axis, such that Tint>Tframe, the Reset sequence repeats prior to reading, destroying the original frame information. This yields an actual integration time of Tint, act=Tint−Tframe as shown in FIG. 2. Also, if the row or column frame size is decreased, Tframe and the maximum integration time will also be decreased. As the column window size, illustrated in FIG. 6, is increased, the slope ΔRow Number/ΔTime decreases, which in turn increases the frame time Tframe. Likewise, decreasing the column window size increases the slope, which decreases the frame time. Therefore, the smaller the window size the smaller the maximum available integration time.
A non-zero vertical blank time Tvblank, consists of a time-delay inserted between the end of the current reset sequence and the initiation of a new reset sequence. This will produce a delay between consecutive frames as shown in FIG. 3.
A non-zero horizontal blank time Thblank, consists of a time-delay inserted between the end of the reset sequence for a particular row number, and the initiation of the reset sequence in the next subsequent row. This will decrease the slope- ΔRow Number/ΔTime as shown in FIG. 4. Increasing either Thblank or Tvblank will increase the frame time Tframe thereby increasing the maximum integration time Tint.
Maximizing the integration time Tint for small window sizes can be quite complicated, since many calculations may be required. However, one solution is to capture one frame at a time or just set the horizontal Thblank and vertical blank Tvblank times to large values. Since many applications require high frame rates, both these solutions are undesirable and not very flexible.
There are a few simple solutions already known in the art, as can be demonstrated from the data sheet for the LM9627 Color CMOS Image Sensor VGA 30 FPS imager, produced by National Semiconductor, which is incorporated herein by reference. In this system, the user must select values for the various time delays and variables which affect the operation of the imager. The simplified description of this method is to insert a vertical blank time Tvblank equal to the integration time Tint before the Reset and Read sequence repeats. This is illustrated in FIG. 5. Because a blank time Tvblank equal to the integration time Tint is inserted between frames, the problem of the Reset "wrap-around" prior to the row Read is completely eliminated and the imaging cycle will get the proper integration time no matter what the window size is.
Usually, the user determines the integration time that is desired and can calculate the additional values, or use a look up table to find the appropriate values and then enter them into the imager's memory.
The equation used to calculate these values is generally understood to be:Tint<[(ΔCol*Tcol)+Trow—blank+Thblank]*ΔRow+TvblankTcol is the period at which a column or columns are read out Trow—blank is defined generally here as the delay time from sampling and latency in the imager, it is related to the time that it would take to do a single read, and other similar delay times. The ΔCol value means the number of columns that a particular window size will use, as the window size varies the ΔCol value will change accordingly. The ΔRow value is the number of rows that a particular window size will use; as the window size varies the ΔRow value will change accordingly. The horizontal blank time, Thblank, and the vertical blank time, Tvblank, are defined values that are entered into the imager and will vary depending on the desired settings the user wishes to accomplish, both in terms of integration time Tint, and other settings. In order for a user to determine an appropriate integration time for a particular window size (ΔCol and ΔRow) the Tvblank, and Thblank times have to be adjusted in order to create the appropriate environment for the image to be captured, optimization is often difficult. As can be seen from the above equation, four variables must be adjusted and optimized for changing window sizes.
These methods are both time consuming and require an intimate knowledge of the imager's functionality. It is apparent from this that an automatic blanking time mode needs to be developed which will allow the user and controlling software to have an simple way to adjust the blanking time or the frame readout time, without performing any calculation or manually entering a number of controlling variables.
Therefore, there is a need for apparatus and a method of automatically setting vertical and horizontal blanking times for a selected integration time and window size.


A new and distinct cultivar of Euonymus plant named ‘Hooij’, characterized by its compact outwardly spreading plant habit; yellow and dark green variegated leaves with random speckles; and leaves twisting in aspect.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Euonymus, grown as an ornamental shrub, botanically known as Euonymus fortunei and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Hooij'.
The new Euonymus is a naturally-occurring branch mutation of the Euonymus fortunei cultivar Sunspot, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,340. The new Euonymus was discovered and selection by the Inventor from within a population of plants of the cultivar Sunspot in a controlled environment in Ederveen, The Netherlands in March, 2001.
Asexual reproduction of the new Euonymus by cuttings in a controlled environment in Ederveen. The Netherlands since June, 2001, has shown that the unique features of this new Euonymus are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


A brake pressure computing apparatus acquires a target cylinder pressure which is a target value of the pressure inside the brake cylinder of an air brake, and is equipped with a target cylinder pressure acquirer, a deceleration differential information acquirer, and a target cylinder pressure correction value acquirer. The target cylinder pressure acquirer acquires a target cylinder pressure on the basis of a required braking force and a target cylinder pressure correction value. The deceleration differential information acquirer acquires deceleration differential information indicating the difference between the target value of the deceleration and the actual value of the deceleration. The target cylinder pressure correction value acquirer acquires the target cylinder pressure correction value on the basis of the deceleration differential information.

Patent Literature 1 discloses a railroad car (hereinafter, car) brake apparatus that pushes a brake shoe against a wheel to produce braking force by supplying air pressure to a brake cylinder. In this brake apparatus, the braking force required to set the deceleration of the car to a target value is computed, and the air pressure supplied to the brake cylinder is controlled such that this braking force is produced.

Brake pressure computing apparatus, brake control system, and non-transitory computer-readable memory medium


A deformable, artificial intraocular contact lens for implantation into the human eye to correct normal-vision problems. The lens may be positioned posteriorly from the iris, resting against the anterior surface of the posterior capsule""s natural lens. Alternatively, the lens may be positioned in the anterior chamber of the eye. The implanted lens works in conjunction with the cornea and natural lens to provide proper vision, as a substitute for regular contact lens, spectacles, and radial keratotomy. The lens may be designed from a rigid or semi-rigid material. Due to the thinness of the structure, the lens may be rolled and inserted into the eye, minimizing both the length of the corneal incision and the stretching of the cornea.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a deformable intraocular contact lens to correct vision problems, which lens is inserted into the eye anterior to the natural lens and has a functional design which minimizes cutting or stretching of the cornea to do so.
2. Description of the Related Art
Doctors trained in ophthalmology routinely surgically extract cataract-impaired lenses from patients"" eyes and subsequently implant artificial lenses to prevent blindness. The artificial lens is typically manufactured from polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), an acrylic plastic. PMMA is a preferred material because it is biologically compatible with the tissue of the eye, and it does not degrade over time.
Over the last 50 years, the success rate for implanting these intraocular lenses has improved to the point that surgeons now want to implant intraocular contact lenses anterior to the natural lenses to correct common vision problems, such as myopia (near-sightedness), hypermetropia (far-sightedness), and astigmatism (aberration in the convexity of the optic lens or cornea) However, using an intraocular lens for vision correction is currently problematic. in order to insert an intraocular lens, an incision of approximately 10 mm is made through the cornea or sclera. The new lens is passed through the incision into the anterior chamber of the eye. The inserted lens is then positioned over the pupil and anchored either anteriorly to or posteriorly from the iris. Unfortunately, the making of the incision causes astigmatism of the cornea.
Experience from cataract surgeries shows that the astigmatism will be reduced if smaller incision is made. Is follows that if the lens could be manipulated through a smaller incision, it will reduce the severity of the astigmatism. The optical portion of the intraocular lens, though, must have a diameter of at least is approximately 6 mm in order to properly cover the pupil. So, the only way to pass a lens through a smaller incision is to first fold the lens into a U-shape or roll it so, that the opposite edges are overlapping. However, currently designed PMMA lenses are rigid and too brittle to be rolled or folded. While it is known that a material which is rigid at a given thickness may be flexible at a lesser thickness, the maximum material thickness under which PMMA. is flexible is approximately 0.25 mm. This thickness is too thin for use in a conventional contact lens because of the lens"" optics requirements.
A lens has a convex lenticular surface into which incident light passes. The lens also has a posterior surface, opposite the lenticular surface, from which the refracted light exits. The posterior surface may be convex, planar or concave. The power of the lens is determined by the curvature of the lenticular and posterior surfaces. Because the optical portion of the contact lens is approximately 6 mm wide and the thickest portion is at the center of the lens, a conventional lens having a maximum thickness of under 0.25 mm at its center in order to be rolled cannot possess the requisite curvature to be optically useful.
Alternative lens materials are also currently used for the replacements of the natural lenses of cataract patients. One such alternative lens material is an acrylic that has a lower molecular weight than PMMA. This lower-weight acrylic lens is softer than PMMA so it can be folded in a U-shape. However, if not handled very carefully, the lower-weight acrylic will crease, rendering it unusable. In addition, the material is soft enough to adhere to itself if it is rolled or folded far enough to allow overlapping.
Another alternative lens material is silicone, the same material that is used in breast implants. The silicone collects protein in some patients, giving a yellow appearance and reducing the passage of light. The protein can become so dense as to create the appearance of a secondary cataract, significantly reducing the patient""s ability to see. This is usually a lesser concern for cataract patient, when compared to the blindness which would result from the cataract. Also, most cataract patients tend to be elderly so the protein build-up might not advance too far during their lifetimes. For some cataract patients, though, the protein build-up necessitates that the silicone lens be removed and replaced. because of the problems associated with protein build-up, silicone cannot be used to make long-term intraocular contact lenses for implantation into younger persons.
Two inventions for a deformable intraocular lens are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,998 issued March 1986, to Mazzocco; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,890 issued June 1996, to Nakajima et al. These inventions employ a lens made of a molded elastic material. They do not suggest the use of PMMA.
Other inventions generally related to the art of optical lenses include: U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,509 issued March 1981, to Tennant (Accommodating Intraocular Implant); U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,456 issued April 1986, to Blackmore (Corrective Lens for the Natural Lens of the Eye); U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,775 issued April 1987, to Clasby (Intraocular Lens with Ridges); U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,035 issued September 1988, to Kelman (Artificial Lens and the Method for Implanting Such Lens); U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,462 issued January 1989, to Grendahl (Cylindrically Segmented Zone of focus Artificial Lens); U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,032 issued March 1989, to Hetland (Arrangement in an Intraocular Anterior Chamber Lens); U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,290 issued August 1990, to Kamerling (Posterior Chamber Intraocular Lens); U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,080 issued February 1991, to Shepard (Optical Lens Having at Least One Stenopaeic Opening Located in the Central Area Thereof); U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,684 issued December 1991, to Simpson et al. (Multi-Focal Diffractive Ophthalmic Lenses); U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,444 issued March 1992, to Feaster (Epiphakic Intraocular Lens and Process of Implantation); U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,711 issued November 1992, to Portney (Multifocal Ophthalmic Lens); U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,797 issued July 1993, to Futhey et al. (Multifocal Diffractive Ophthalmic Lenses); U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,025 issued November 1993 to Fedorov et al. (Corrective Intraocular Lens); U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,428 issued January 1996, to Fedorov et al. (Corrective Intraocular Lens). None of these inventions solves the above-disclosed problems associated with currently known deformable intraocular lenses.
Thus, a need exists for a deformable intraocular contact lens which requires a minimal incision through the cornea, but does not, possess the drawbacks associated with the currently known, alternative lens materials. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe such a lens as is achieved by the instant invention as claimed.
The present invention is a deformable intraocular contact lens constructed from PMMA for rolled or folded insertion into the human eye to correct common vision problems. The PMMA is deformable because all portions of the lens are manufactured to a thickness which is within a predetermined range of thicknesses. More particularly, at the first end of the range, the thickness of the lens is less than a maximum material thickness, the threshold under which the PMMA is flexible. At the second end of the range, the thickness of the lens is also greater than a minimum material thickness, the threshold above which the lens material will retain its pre-flexed shape subsequent to flexing. The novel design also enables the deformable PMMA lens to possess any desired convexity or concavity which would be required for vision correction. Of course, the deformable lens of the present invention may also be constructed from any other biologically compatible material that can be manufactured thinners than a pre-determined maximum material thickness to be rolled or folded for passage through a small incision in the cornea or sclera. The improved lens replaces the need for spectacles, contact lenses or radial keratotomy.
The intraocular contact lens has an anterior convex lenticular surface. The posterior surface of the lens comprises a planar, central disk which is surrounded by a series of concentric, planar, annular rings of increasing diameter. The annular rings are parallel to each other and to the central disk. The central disk and annular rings are also perpendicular to a radial axis passing though the apex of the lenticular surface. In combination, the central disk and the series of annular rings form a series of steps extending radially from the disk across the posterior surface to maintain a close proximity to the lenticular surface.
The thickness of the lens between the central disk of the posterior surface and the apex of the lenticular surface must be less than a predetermined maximum thickness. The predetermined maximum thickness is the thickness under which the material may be rolled or folded without exceeding the elastic limit of the selected lens material. For a lens constructed of PMMA, the maximum thickness between the posterior surface and the apex of the lenticular surface should be less than or equal to 0.25 mm.
The thickness of the lens at the periphery of the central disk must be greater than a pre-determined minimum thickness. The predetermined minimum thickness is the thickness above which the lens material will retain its pre-flexed shape subsequent to flexing. The minimum thickness is determined by the manufacturing process and the strength of the lens material. For PMMA, the minimum thickness between the lenticular surface and the periphery or the central disk should be greater than or equal to 0.0125 mm.
The radial width of the central disk of the posterior surface also falls within a predetermined range. The thicker the lens is at its apex, the farther the radial width may extend before the periphery of the central disk approaches the predetermined minimum thickness. The specific range of radial widths is determined by both the convexity of the lenticular surface and the thickness of the lens at its apex.
Similar to the central disk, the thickness between the lenticular surface and the posterior surface of the lens at the internal diameter of each annular ring should be less than or equal to the predetermined maximum thickness. The thickness between the lenticular surface and the posterior surface of the lens at the external diameter of each annular ring should be greater than or equal to the predetermined minimum thickness. The radial width of the annular rings will be within a predetermined range of lengths which is determined by the convexity of the lenticular surface and the thickness of the lens at the internal diameter of the annular ring. The greater the thickness of the lens at the internal diameter of the annular ring, the greater the radial length may be extended before the exterior diameter approaches the predetermined minimum thickness.
If an imaginary line is drawn to connect the posterior surface""s internal diameters of the annular rings and the center of the central disk, the imaginary line will form an arc or parabola, depending on the various thicknesses chosen. This imaginary line forms the effective posterior surface. By changing the thicknesses and widths of the central disk and annular rings, the effective is posterior surface may be shaped as desired. This is particularly relevant for applications in which the implanted lens is implanted posterior from the iris, as further described below. This is because the effective posterior surface may thereby be constructed in a predetermined shape which enables the implanted lens to be properly rested against the anterior surface of the natural lens capsule.
In one alternate embodiment of the invention, the central disk and annular rings of the posterior surface are not planar. Rather, each surface of the central disk and annular rings is convex. In a second alternate embodiment of the invention, each surface of the central disk and annular rings is concave. Thereby, particular degrees of convexity or concavity of each section of the posterior surface may be chosen to further help obtain particular focusing powers for different lenses. Also, in any of these embodiments, the central portion and annular rings of the lens may be of a symmetric or asymmetric ovular shape for correction of astigmatisms.
The periphery of the optical portion comprises a parallel lenticular area. The parallel lenticular area is of uniform thickness. The parallel lenticular area prevents the phenomenon known as edge effects which occurs if the optical portion of the lens does not adequately cover the periphery of the pupil. The edge effects are produced in various situations including when overhead lights are illuminated in low lighting situations, such as in roadway tunnels.
An anchoring means is attached to the optical portion to securely position the deformable intraocular contact lens anteriorly to the natural lens of the eye. The contact lens also has a non-optical transition area interconnecting the anchoring means to the optical portion of the lens. The transition area has a thickness of approximately 0.025 mm. The anchoring means comprises a pair of haptic fingers extending from the transition area and circumvolving the optical lens. The thickness of the haptic fingers is preselected to provide the optimal combination of strength and flexibility. Preferably, the thickness of each of the haptic finger is approximately 0.076 mm. The outer circumference of the haptic finger comprises the haptic edge. The haptic edge of the implanted lens is biased against the intraocular tissues. The thickness of the haptic edge is preselected to provide minimal stress to the eye tissues. Preferably, the thickness if the haptic edge is approximately 0.125 mm.
Once rolled and passed through the cornea, the implanted contact lens may be placed in either of two selected positions. Specifically, the implanted lens may be positioned anterior to she iris, in the anterior chamber of the of eye. If this position is chosen, the haptic edge of each of the haptic fingers will be biased against the trabeculum. Once positioned and allowed to unroll, the implanted lens will return to its original shape.
Alternatively, the implanted lens may be positioned posteriorly from the iris, and rest against the capsule of the natural lens of the eye. If this position is chosen, the haptic edge of each of the haptic fingers will be biased against the zonulas or ciliary sulcus. The implanted lens is able to be placed posteriorly from the iris because of the thinness of the implanted lens. The lens"" thinness provides adequate clearance between the natural lens when at rest and the posteriorly positioned, implanted lens. The biconvex natural lens is in its most curved position when at rest. Contraction of the zonulas places tension on the capsule, flattening the curvature of the natural lens. Thus, with the implanted lens in position, the natural lens will continue to have the ability to change shape, without the possibility of injury arising from contact with the implanted lens.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a deformable intraocular contact lens which requires a minimal incision through, or stretching of, the cornea for insertion.
It is another object of the invention to provide a deformable intraocular lens from a material such as PMMA which is biologically compatible with the eye tissue but will neither crease nor adhere to itself when rolled, nor cause eye disease as it ages.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an intraocular contact lens which may be positioned either anterior or posterior to the iris.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an intraocular lens for correcting common vision problems, such as myopia, hypermetropia, and astigmatism.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof in a deformable intraocular contact lens for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.
These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.

Method of implanting a deformable intraocular corrective lens


An electrical connector (100) for translating from a first plurality of interconnects (108) formed at a first pitch to a second plurality of interconnects (125) formed at a second pitch smaller than the first pitch comprises a first heat seal connector (105), which includes the first plurality of interconnects (108), and a second heat seal connector (120), which includes the second plurality of interconnects (125). The electrical connector (100) further comprises a translation circuit (110), which includes a first set of outer terminals (115) formed at the first pitch, wherein the first set of outer terminals (115) is aligned with and electrically coupled to the first plurality of interconnects (108). The translation circuit (110) further includes a second set of outer terminals (548) formed at the second pitch, wherein the second set of outer terminals (548) is aligned with and electrically coupled to the second plurality of interconnects (125). Connection circuitry (510-545) electrically couples the first and second sets of outer terminals (115, 548).

Electrical connectors are well known in the art. One type of conventional electrical connector is a heat seal connector, which allows the flexible interconnection of a first electrical component to a second electrical component. Heat seal connectors typically comprise a flexible substrate formed from a polymer material such as mylar. Graphite interconnects are printed onto the heat seal connector to provide electrical coupling from the first electrical component, which is heat sealed to the interconnects at a first edge of the connector, to the second electrical component, which is heat sealed to the interconnects at a second edge of the connector.
Such a flexible interconnection is especially useful in smaller consumer devices, e.g., selective call receivers, in which space is of primary consideration, because the flexible interconnection allows the coupled electrical components to be arranged into a position in which the available space is efficiently utilized. For example, in credit card-type selective call receivers, which are extremely small, a heat seal connector is utilized to electrically couple the terminals of a liquid crystal display (LCD) to corresponding terminals of a printed circuit board. Because it is flexible, the heat seal connector can be folded such that the LCD is positioned parallel to the printed circuit board, thereby efficiently utilizing the small amount of interior space. Additionally, the heat seal connector, similar to other electrical connectors, can be utilized to translate from a larger pitch termination, e.g., the LCD terminals, to a smaller pitch termination, e.g., the printed circuit board terminals. This allows the printed circuit board terminals to be designed as small and as closely together as current design guidelines permit, thereby efficiently utilizing-the space on the printed circuit board.
A drawback, however, to the use of heat seal connectors, which are typically one-layer connectors, is the fact that a relatively large amount of area, which is dictated by the limitations of existing manufacturing equipment, is necessary to translate from a larger pitch termination to a smaller pitch termination. This large amount of area is dictated both by the limitations of existing manufacturing equipment and by the amount of bending to which the heat seal connector is exposed during manufacturing and assembly. It would be unwise, for example, to form graphite interconnects at extreme angles if the heat seal connector is to be flexed often or secured in a position which stresses the interconnects. As a result, heat seal connectors employed to electrically couple a larger pitch termination to a smaller pitch termination often include surplus connector material, the sole purpose of which is to effect the translation between the different pitches. This surplus connector material must then be accommodated by an electronic device, which, as described above, may include only a limited amount of space for components.
Thus, what is needed is an electrical connector which is flexible, yet does not require a large amount of area for translation from a larger pitched termination to a smaller pitched termination.

Electrical connector for translating between first and second sets of terminals having different pitches


Multi-layered articles that include a first textile and an adhesive layer having a non-uniform adhesive pattern is provided. The non-uniform adhesive pattern creates regions free or substantially free of adhesive. The adhesive regions, together with the non-adhesive regions, create a visible pattern on the surface of the article. A second textile may optionally be bonded to the adhesive opposing the first textile to form a multi-layered article. The first textile or adhesive layer may be shrinkable or expandable. Additionally, the multi-layered article has a stretch force at 20% elongation of less than three times the stretch force of the first textile at 20% elongation. The multi-layered articles are breathable, insulative, aesthetically pleasing, and demonstrate superior stretch and recovery properties.

Discontinuously coated textiles are known in the art. It may be advantageous to coat a textile with a discontinuous polymer layer in order to provide surface texture, abrasion resistance, aesthetic interest, or as an intermediate step in creating a laminated article. For example, discontinuous epoxy coatings are applied to textiles to provide abrasion resistance. Although advantages exist for discontinuously coating textiles, there are several shortcomings. As one example, it is difficult to increase the amount of surface texture without significantly increasing the coating thickness. As a result, if a large amount of surface texture is desired, a thick coating would need to be applied which would negatively impact both weight and flexibility of the article. Additionally, existing discontinuous coatings do not substantially improve the thermally insulative qualities of the article beyond the extent to which the coatings themselves are thermally insulative. Thus, assuming that a particular coating consists of some insulative material, increased thermal resistance can only be achieved by increasing the coating thickness, which also detrimentally increases the weight and decreases the flexibility of the article. Another example is that existing discontinuous coatings act to increase the stretch force of the coated textile. Thus, if a discontinuously coated textile is desired, an increase in the force required to stretch the textile will result.
There exists a need in the art for a coated article that provides novel aesthetic characteristics, as well as enhanced surface texturization and increased thermal insulative properties, while maintaining both low weight, flexibility, and ease of stretch.

Multi-layered articles having discontinuous adhesive regions