A dental implant system comprising a foundation fixture to be embedded in the jaw bone; said system further comprising a hollow transmucosal abutment member supporting a keeper for either a single tooth prosthesis or multiple teeth prostheses. The abutment comprises a plurality of inwardly curved resilient members defining a hollow column extending from a series of external threads which connect, in torus-like fashion, to a hollow pedestal section for the abutment. The internal surfaces of the resilient members have configured protrusions configured to interlock with the keeper. This configuration, in a no-load condition, allows the keeper to rest within the foundation fixture at sufficiently spaced-apart relationship between the keeper and the fixture to maintain a shock-absorbing fluid reservoir. An elastic seal is fitted between the keeper base and the pedestal of the abutment for closure of the reservoir.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dental implant. More specifically, this invention relates to an endosteal root-form implant system with hydraulic and mechanical means to mimic the movement and shock-absorbing characteristics of natural teeth.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Since the dawn of civilization, man has been concerned with the partial or total lack of teeth: first for aesthetic, then for practical reasons.
The study of Egyptian mummies from the Middle Kingdom up to the Ptolemys showed unusual processes of dental implantation. Some had substitutions derived from the cadaver,s teeth or sculptured ivory taken from the tusks of different animals. This practice was maintained through medieval times.
A scientific breakthrough in the area of dental implants was achieved by Professor Per-Ingvar Branemark and co-workers. By combining a two-stage surgical technique with the use of titanium fixtures, these scientists achieved predictable results in surgical placement of endosteal-route-form implants. In their continued studies in the early 1960s, these same scientists laid the foundation for modern implantology.
However, because of the lack of periodontal ligaments between the bone and the titanium fixture, such prior art implants do not have the natural motion and shock-absorbing capability of natural teeth.
Screw attachments have been used as shock absorbers but under stress tend to fracture. In a publication entitled "Dental Implant Prosthodontics" (J. B. Lippincott Company 1991 ISBN 0-397-51045-4), one of the authors, Ronald P. Desjardins, observes, "The most common prosthesis problem that the author has thus far noted is the loosening or breakage of the gold locking screw with the resultant loosening of the prosthesis."
In the early 1970s, Dr. Kirsch from Germany designed an implant system called IMZ with a plastic shock-absorber called IME. This device provided elastic properties similar to the periodontal ligament. The IME, an inside and outside threaded intermediary sleeve, is installed inside of the implant by screwing it into the threaded bore of the bone fixture. The sleeve itself has an internal threaded bore, into which a prosthesis is screwed.
However, in the same publication mentioned above, this time Robert J. Chapman observes, "The IME must be replaced every year or two, however, because it is plastic and will deteriorate somewhat with function." That deterioration of the plastic sleeve opens a way for bacteria and changes the mechanical characteristics of this device. U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,010 describes a similar device that avoids the threads on the plastic sleeve.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,950 describes a keeper system which uses an 0-ring "to permit universal `rocking` motion of the keeper member relative to the true transmucosal cuff."
U S. Pat. No. 5,006,068 describes a dental implant system with a resilient force-dampening means on the prosthesis itself.
These prior art designs provide only a single means of shock-absorbing capacity. They fail to imitate the longitudinal movement of natural teeth. Prior art implant systems also fail in other respects. Such systems feel unnatural to the person using such prior art dental implant systems when the prosthesis is cemented between a natural tooth abutment and an implant abutment. Furthermore, the cement will be placed under great torquing stress at both ends of the prosthesis. This torquing stress tends to break the cement and cause the failure of the prosthesis.
An important safety feature of the natural tooth has been overlooked by the prior art. If by accident a natural tooth receives a frontal impact which is strong enough to put in jeopardy the integrity of the jaw bone, nature has chosen to loose one or more teeth to preserve the integrity of the jaw bone from major damage.
An object of the present invention is to provide a dental implant system which is able t relieve the prosthesis when impacted by excessive force.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an implant system which mimics the shock-absorbing capabilities of natural teeth, including mimicking the loosening of tooth from the jaw bone.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an implant system which mimics the longitudinal movement of natural teeth.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a reliable implant system which is safe and relatively inexpensive to manufacture.

Stress absorbing semipermanent dental implant system


The mechanism is designed to control two critical performance characteristics of an automobile. The first is body roll or sway. The mechanism will counteract both the side to side roll and the forward roll encountered while cornering. In addition, the mechanism will counteract the forward roll encountered during braking. The amount of body roll allowed by the mechanism can be easily and precisely adjusted to optimize performance. The second performance characteristic is motion dampening. The mechanism acts to dampen an automobiles suspension during expansion of the suspension only. The amount of dampening can be easily and precisely adjusted to optimize performance. Adjustments can even be made by the driver during operation of the automobile.

When installed, the Hydraulic Sway Control and Motion Dampening Mechanism will have many advantages over traditional suspension control mechanisms without the complexity of an active suspension system.
In the past, the most common way to control body roll has been with a sway bar mounted in-between the front or rear wheels. Subject invention offers a greatly improved method of controlling sway while providing the ability to easily and precisely adjust the amount of sway desired.
In addition, subject invention will have motion dampening characteristics similar to those of a shock absorber while providing the ability to easily and precisely adjust the amount of dampening desired.

Hydraulic sway control and motion dampening mechanism


A rotating drum with elevated discharge chute to lower the height requirement of a stacked seed treatment system. The height requirement of stacked seed treatment systems can be lowered by elevated the discharge point of the treated seed without requiring additional expense transfer components. The elevated discharge drum incorporates a series of lifting flights at the discharge end of the drum. These flights elevate the seed onto a discharge chute, which facilitates transfer to the discharge conveyor.

Seeds planted for agricultural and other purposes are often treated with insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, inoculants, micronutrients and/or other compositions prior to planting. Treatment may accomplish various purposes including inhibiting the growth of insects, bacteria, molds, fungus, and parasites that are destructive to the seed and plant growth. Seed treatments are commonly applied by spraying a liquid composition to the surface of seed. Direct application of the seed treatment fluid to the seed before planting requires a smaller quantity of seed treatment composition than the traditional field application of treatment fluids.
Treatment system components are commonly stacked vertically, allowing for the gravimetric flow of seed between components. First, seed is delivered to a weighing or staging hopper positioned at the top of the treatment system. Seed then flows downward into a seed wheel or other metering system that regulates the flow of untreated seed into the treatment chamber. In the treatment chamber, airborne droplets of treatment fluid are applied to the seed surface. The seed exits the treatment chamber into a horizontal rotating drum with hollow ends for receiving and discharging seed. A discharge conveyor or auger then receives the discharged seed. The conveyor, bucket elevator, or auger transfers the treated seed to the subsequent storage or transport vessel.
The vertical stacking requires the first component, the weigh hopper, to be raised high in the air on a large frame. Likewise, the treater chamber is elevated above the rotating drum, which requires the electronic and fluid controls to be extended to the elevated position. The horizontal drum is also mounted to an elevated frame, the legs of the frame are commonly 24 to 36 inches tall, in order to discharge seed into the discharge conveyor.
The rotating drum mixes the treated seed, evenly distributes the treatment coat, and allows the treatment solution to dry. The interior of the rotating drum is lined with a series of lifting flights for mixing the treated seed and propelling the seed towards the discharge end of the drum. The flights pass through the aggregate of treated seed in the bottom of the drum causing the seed to be lifted up the side of the drum, creating a continuous cascade of seed that mixes and evenly distributes treatment across the surface of the individual seeds. At the discharge end of the rotating drum, the flighting pushes the aggregate out the bottom of the open discharge end of the rotating drum.
A significant problem with the height of stacked treatment systems is that since they are very tall, on the order of 21 feet or more in height, the systems rarely fit in existing buildings. Given that ordinary buildings do not have this clearance height, it is necessary to custom design a custom facilities to house the seed treating assembly, or to incur the costs to modify existing building to accommodate the treating assembly. Several existing technologies have been introduced to attempt to lower individual components within the stacked seed treater systems, including low-profile hopper assemblies, such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,177,095 to Jim Renyer et al., and low-profile discharge conveyors and bucket elevators. However, even with the added cost and complexity of these existing solutions, the stacked treater system remains excessively tall.

Horizontal rotating drum with elevated discharge


A stylus for use with a digitizer sensor includes a housing confined by a first and second end, a primary tip positioned at the first end of the housing and associated with a first transmitting element, the first transmitting element having a first diameter, a secondary tip positioned at the second end of the housing and associated with a second transmitting element, the second transmitting element having a second diameter that is larger than the first diameter, a transmitting unit for transmitting a first signal with a first amplitude via the first transmitting element and for transmitting a second signal with a second amplitude via the second transmitting element, wherein the first amplitude is at least twice the second amplitude and a powering unit for powering transmission of the first and second signal.

Touch technologies are commonly used as input devices for a variety of products. The usage of touch devices of various kinds is growing sharply due to the emergence of new mobile devices such as mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), tablet PCs, wireless flat panel displays (FPD) and other devices. Some of these devices are not connected to standard keyboards, mice or like input devices, which are deemed to limit their mobility. Instead there is a tendency to use touch input technologies of one kind or another, such as using a stylus and/or finger for user interaction.
Styluses are known in the art for use with a digitizer sensor. Position detection of the stylus provides input to a computing device associated with the digitizer sensor and is interpreted as user commands. Position detection is performed while the stylus tip is either touching and/or hovering over a detection surface of the digitizer sensor. Often, the digitizer sensor is integrated with a display screen and a position of the stylus over the screen is correlated with virtual information portrayed on the screen.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0155153 entitled "Digitizer, Stylus and Method of Synchronization Therewith," describes a method for operating a digitizer with an autonomous asynchronous stylus. Typically the stylus is self-powered, e.g. battery operated. The method includes sampling outputs from a digitizer, detecting from the outputs at least one pulsed signal transmitted from an autonomous asynchronous stylus at a defined rate, determining a location of the stylus interaction with respect to the digitizer, and tracking stylus interaction with the digitizer over subsequent pulsed signals transmitted from the stylus.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0146351 entitled "Position Input Device and Computer System," the content of which is incorporated herein by reference describes a computer system including a position pointing device for transmitting position signals. The position pointing device includes a built-in power supply unit, a plurality of signal transmitting units provided at a plurality of portions of the position pointing device, and a power control unit for controlling transmission power of each of a plurality of signal transmitting units.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,292,229 entitled "Transparent Digitizer" which is assigned to N-trig Ltd., the contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a passive electro-magnetic stylus which is triggered to oscillate at a resonant frequency by an excitation coil surrounding a digitizer. The stylus operates in a number of different states including hovering, tip touching, right click mouse emulation, and erasing. The various states are identified by dynamically controlling the resonant frequency of the stylus so that the stylus resonates at a different frequency in each state. There is also described a stylus including both a front tip and a reverse tip, the reverse tip located at a second end of the stylus remote from the front tip. Both the front tip and the reverse tip are associated with a same resonant circuit, and an electric field concentration is created in a gap formed in the vicinity of each of the front tip and the reverse tip in response to triggering the stylus at the resonant frequency. A position of a tip of the stylus, e.g. the front tip and/or the reverse tip with respect to the digitizer sensor is determined based on signals sensed by the sensor. It is described that a detectable difference between output from the front and reverse tips is obtained by forming a gap in the vicinity of the front tip with a different geometry than that of a gap in the vicinity of the reverse tip.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,843,439, entitled "Touch Detection for a Digitizer" assigned to N-Trig Ltd., the contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a detector for detecting both a stylus and touches by fingers or like body parts on a digitizer sensor. The detector typically includes a digitizer sensor with a grid of sensing conductive lines, a source of oscillating electrical energy at a predetermined frequency, and detection circuitry for detecting capacitive influence on the sensing conductive lines when the oscillating electrical energy is applied, the capacitive influence being interpreted as a touch. The detector is capable of detecting simultaneous occurrences of multiple styluses and/or finger touches.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,360 entitled "Digitizer Eraser System and Method," the contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes writing/erasing digitizer pen including a resonance tuning circuit associated with a writing tip of the pen and a separate resonance tuning circuit associated with the erasing tip of the pen. A phase output of the resonance tuning circuit of the eraser tip is altered responsive to pressure applied on the eraser tip. A digitizer sensor detects the change in phase and identifies that input is being received from the eraser tip. The eraser tip is used to select and delete text, cells or other objects displayed on an associated display screen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,502 entitled "Pointing Unit and Improved Stylus Pen," the contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes an eraser unit or pointing unit for a second pen unit of a pressure sensitive stylus. The eraser unit includes a main body with a dome shaped cap that is inserted in an opening of a main body of the stylus. The cylindrical main body with the dome shaped cap is movable with respect to the main body of the stylus and recedes toward the main body of the stylus responsive to pressure applied on the cap.


The disclosure describes a method for incorporating into double stranded DNA and RNA base pairs composed of pairing units that fit the Watson-Crick geometry in that they involve a monocyclic six membered ring pairing with a fused bicyclic heterocyclic ring system composed of a five member ring fused with a six membered ring, with the orientation of the heterocycles with respect to each other and with respect to the backbone chain analogous to that found in DNA and RNA, but with a pattern of hydrogen bonds holding the base pair together different from that found in the AT and GC base pairs (a "non-standard base pair").

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention pertains to increasing the number of building blocks that can be incorporated independently into oligonucleotides via DNA and RNA polymerases, and nucleoside analogs capable of forming non-standard Watson-Crick base pairs joined by patterns of hydrogen bonding different from those found in the adenine-thymine and cytosine-guanine base pairs.

Method for incorporating into a DNA or RNA oligonucleotide using nucleotides bearing heterocyclic bases


An obstruction device includes an obstruction disc mounted on a proximal portion of a shaft. Anchoring members are disposed on the shaft on a proximal side of the obstruction disc. The anchoring members include a pair of loops which are orthogonal to each other, one being a longitudinal member and the other a latitudinal member. One or more support struts, which include one or more loops, are disposed on a distal side of the obstruction disc.

Gastroplasty procedures are known for treating obesity, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), cancer, diabetes and the like. Gastric bypass procedures include the well-known Roux-En-Y procedure, as well as other techniques that reduce the size of the stomach and/or form restrictive barriers, alternative paths, pouches and the like in the stomach or other parts of the gastrointestinal tract. These surgical procedures can be performed with endoscopic tools such as a gastroscope, though traditionally they are performed with open or minimally invasive surgery devices.
In the prior art, when an occlusion of the pylorus is required in the course of a gastroplasty procedure or in a procedure that involves the duodenum, the surgeon staples the pylorus shut (in the stomach) and this is a short term occlusion to allow the duodenum to recover from an operation. Transpyloric devices have also been proposed, which may partially and/or intermittently obstruct the pylorus, thereby decreasing the flow of gastric contents into the duodenum.


A support for a hand held phone or computing device is formed by a curved, elongated projection extending from a first end engagement with the phone or computing device to a distal end extending a distance past a portion of the perimeter edge of the phone or computing device. A curve formed on a first surface of the projection is adapted to contact the curved surface of a finger of a user placed against the perimeter edge of the phone or computing device to support it during use. The first end engagement can be formed as a permanent, rotational or removable engagement.

With the advent of smartphones, and ever wider employment of such devices by users, problems have developed due to the handling of such devices by users. While in years past, smartphones were not much bigger or heavier than flip phones and similar cell phones, due to the improvements in battery life and video interface technology, smartphones have evolved to more sizeable hand-held computers. Along with this increase and size and the enhanced graphics provided thereby, has come an increase in weight, as well as an increase in the grasping requirements of a user holding a modern smartphone device.
While cell phones in the past could be held on the shoulder or easily just held to the ear of the user, smartphones further provide a video display which gives the user an input device to operate the phone. Such requires the user to employ a finger of choice to touch icons, and to scroll depicted screens, and interact and input commands in other screen touching actions. Of course, when one hand is being employed to use a finger which must be precisely positioned or dragged across the smartphone display to use the phone, the other hand must hold the smartphone in a substantially fixed position.
Thus, a hand-holding of the smartphone is required to hold the perimeter edge of the phone to position the video display screen in front of the face of the user for reading. Additionally, as noted, the hand-holding of the smartphone must hold it steady for the precise touching and movements of the other hand interacting with the display to operate the phone.
While holding the phone between the thumb and fingers contacting opposing sides of the smartphone would seem like a common manner to hold such devices, such a grip does not always work well. One reason is the weight of such smartphones can easily fatigue the hand holding the smartphone tight enough to prevent it from falling from the muscular imparted compression between the thumb and fingers of the holding hand. As the hand tires of such gripping pressure, especially during extended periods of use, the muscles tend to relax, and such can cause the phone to easily slip for the grip of the user.
As a consequence, many smartphone users have adopted a non ergonomic grip on the phone, where the smallest finger on the hand, is curved underneath the bottom edge of the smartphone, to support the weight of the phone. While this hand configuration allows the user to grip the opposing sides less tightly, since the phone is resting on the small finger, holding the smartphone in this matter for long durations each day, while checking email, surfing the internet, looking at photos, etc., can cause compression as well as other injury to the small finger of the hand holding the smartphone in this manner.
Indeed, there is a physical malady being seen by physicians which has become known as "smartphone pinky finger" which is a term raising multiple results in an internet search. Such results in a permanent curvature of the small finger of the hand, forming the long term curved positioning while supporting the lower edge of a smartphone. In addition to the abnormal curvature caused by damaged ligaments of the finger, the skin and muscles covering the bones of the small finger are also known to suffer from compression injury and essentially visible "dents" in the finger, subsequent to long term use to support a smartphone thereon.
With smartphones getting ever larger as screen and battery technology improves, and with small pad computers being more widely employed instead of laptops, the physical problems suffered by the small finger of the hand supporting such devices for minutes or even hours of use every day, are just getting worse.
The forgoing examples of the hand and finger injuries resulting to the hands of smartphone holders and limitations related therewith, are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the invention described and claimed herein. Various other limitations of the related art are known or will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the specification below and the accompanying drawings.


A capillary and capillary retaining system including a capillary assembly having first and second end holders. The first and second end holders are adapted to be received by first and second retainers. The first end holder may include protruding portions and the first end retainer includes clips or clamps to engage the protruding portions. The second end holder may include opposite recesses and the second retainer is adapted to receive optical cables that are received within the recesses to retain the second end holder. The second retainer can further include a lever on the retainer body to pry the second holder out of the second retainer. Locks or clips retained by the second end retainer cooperate with grooves in the optical cables to retain the optical cables.

The value of capillary electrophoresis as a separation and analytical technique has been recognized for some time. In capillary electrophoresis, a small tube or capillary is filled with an electrically conductive fluid, or buffer. A small quantity of a sample to be analyzed is introduced into one end of the capillary bore, the ends of the capillary are placed into separate reservoirs of buffer, and a direct current high voltage is applied to the ends of the capillary by means of electrodes positioned in the buffer reservoirs, causing a small current to flow through the capillary.
With the correct polarity applied across the capillary, the sample begins to migrate toward the other end of the capillary. As this migration occurs, different molecules in the sample travel at different rates, causing the sample to become separated into bands of these different molecules. These bands or groups of different molecules are detected near the other end of the capillary by, for example, passing a perpendicular light beam through the bore of the capillary. Changes to the light beam, such as absorbance caused by the different molecules, are detected as the separated molecules pass through the beam, thus identifying the different molecules or the classes or categories of molecules in the sample and the relative concentration of such molecules.
Capillary electrophoresis analyzers typically use a single capillary to perform an analysis. For example, European Patent Application number 89302489.3, publication number 0,339,779 A2, corresponding to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/188,773, filed Apr. 29, 1988 (Burolla) now abandoned, describes an automated capillary electrophoresis apparatus using a single capillary, as does U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,172 to Guzman. To increase throughput, however, a plurality of capillaries may be utilized in parallel, thus performing a corresponding plurality of capillary electrophoresis analyze simultaneously. An analysis employing parallel capillaries is disclosed, for example, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07,916,308 filed Jul. 17, 1992 issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,686 on May 9, 1995, and entitled "Multi-Channel Capillary Electrophoresis Systems."
In such an analyzer, there is a need for easy replacement of the capillaries. Such replacement should be possible without the use of special tools. Further, the capillaries should occupy a relatively small volume within such an analyzer, and thus the capillaries should be as closely spaced as possible while retaining each capillary in a fashion that allows replacement by hand. Due to the closely spaced nature of such capillaries, there is also a need for capillaries that can be easily replaced in such a confined space with relatively little manipulation, which is particularly important given the extremely small diameter of such capillaries.
Thus, there is a need for capillaries and a capillary retaining system that is easy to use, can be operated by hand without the need for special tools, that readily lends itself to closely-spaced capillaries, and that requires a relatively limited amount of manipulation to remove and replace capillaries.


Ternary mixtures of C.sub.4 to C.sub.8 alkyl acetate, C.sub.4 to C.sub.8 alkyl alcohol, and water, formulated to have a flash point of above 100.degree. F., are disclosed, particularly for use in edge residue removal processes in the fabrication of integrated circuits and like products.

The present invention relates generally to the field of microelectronics, e.g., integrated circuits, and more particularly to compositions and methods for removing photoresist compositions from the surfaces of substrates, e.g., silicon wafers, used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. In its most particular regard, the invention relates to compositions and methods for removing unwanted edge residues of photoresist composition from a wafer which has been spin-coated with photoresist.
In very general terms, the fabrication of integrated circuits involves steps for producing polished silicon wafer substrates, steps for imaging integrated circuit pattern geometries on the various wafer surfaces, and steps for generating the desired pattern on the wafer.
The imaging process involves the use of photoresists applied to the wafer surface. Photoresists are compositions which undergo change in response to light of particular wavelength such that selective exposure of the composition through a suitable patterned mask, followed by development to remove exposed or non-exposed portions of the photoresist as the case may be, leaves on the wafer a pattern of resist which replicates either the positive or negative of the mask pattern, and which thus permits subsequent processing steps (e.g., deposition and growth processes for applying various layers of semiconductive materials to the wafer and etching-masking processes for removal or addition of the deposited or grown layers) to be carried out in the desired selective pattern.
The photoresists used in the imaging process are liquid compositions of organic light-sensitive materials which are either polymers per se or are used along with polymers, dissolved in an organic solvent. Critical to the effectiveness of the selective light exposure and development in forming a resist pattern on the wafer substrate is the initial application of the photoresist composition in a thin layer of essentially uniform thickness on the wafer surface. The coating process of choice in the industry is spin-coating. In this process, the flat circular silicon wafer on which has been deposited a predetermined volume of photoresist composition is subjected to high-speed (e.g., 500 to 6000 rpm) centrifugal whirling to cause the photoresist to spread out evenly as a layer along the wafer surface and such that excess photoresist is spun off the edges of the wafer.
Spin-coating per se is well-known in the art, as is the equipment for such coating and the process conditions employed therein, e.g., to bring about coatings of particular thickness. See, e.g., S. Wolf and R. N. Tauber, "Silicon Processing For The VLSI Era", Volume 1 , (Process Technology) (Lattice Press, Sunset Beach, Calif. 1986), incorporated herein by reference, and Skidmore, K., "Applying Photoresist For Optimal Coatings", Semiconductor International, February 1988, pp. 57-62, also incorporated herein by reference.
Despite its widespread use, certain undesirable results also accompany spin-coating. Thus, owing to the surface tension of the resist composition, some of the resist may wick around to and coat the back side edge of the wafer during the spin-coating process. Also, as the spin-coating process progresses, the resist becomes progressively more viscous as solvent evaporates therefrom and resist being spun off the wafer in the latter stages of the process can leave fine whiskers ("stringers") of resist which dry on the edge of the wafer. So too, as the resist continues to dry and increase in viscosity during the spin-coating process, excess resist is less likely to leave the wafer and instead builds up as an edge-bead at the outer reaches of the wafer surface.
These coating-related problems can cause significant difficulties in the overall integrated circuit fabrication process. Resist on the back side of the wafer can be deposited elsewhere and cause contamination, and also prevents the wafer from lying flat on ultraflat surfaces, thereby affecting focus, alignment, planarity, and the like, in subsequent imaging steps. Whiskers on the wafer edges can easily break off in subsequent processing steps and cause particulate contamination in virtually all of the manufacturing equipment. Finally, the edge-bead leads to a distorted surface which can greatly affect focus, alignment, planarity and the like.
The art is aware of the problems associated with residual resist at the edges and sides of the wafer, and generally seeks to overcome them by application at the edge of the wafer of a small stream of a solvent for the resist so as to dissolve and remove the unwanted residue. In many cases, the solvent stream is applied to the backside edge of the wafer and is permitted to wick around by capillary action to the front edges so as to remove backside edge residue, whiskers and edge bead. With certain newer equipment, it is possible to apply the solvent stream from both front and back sides of the wafer simultaneously. In all cases, the object essentially is to remove from the wafer a strip of resist which is adhered to the wafer sides, the back surface outer edges of the wafer, and the outer edges of the front surface of the wafer, which strip typically is at least about 0.5 mm in thickness, and often can be up to 4.0 mm thick. See in this regard, Wolf and Tauber, supra; Skidmore, supra; and N. Durrant and P. Jenkins, "Defect Density Reduction Utilizing Wafer Edge Resist Removal", Microcontamination, April 1985, pp. 45-51, incorporated herein by reference.
Positive-acting photoresists are those most commonly employed in the manufacture of integrated circuits, and typically comprise a binder resin (e.g., a phenol-aldehyde condensation polymer such as a novolak) and a photoactive compound (e.g., an o-quinonediazide) in a suitable organic solvent. For such photoresists, the solvent conventionally employed in removal of the unwanted resist from these edge and side areas after spin-coating (generally termed "edge bead removal (EBR)" processes), is butyl acetate or mixtures of butyl acetate and alcohol. These solvents are not without their own difficulties, however, most notably with respect to their low flash point, and special precautions are required in their handling and use, particularly to avoid spillage during transfer operations.
Generally speaking, the differentiation point between flammability and combustibility is 100.degree. F. (38.degree. C.), TCC, and thus edge bead removal solvents having flash points above 100.degree. F. would be highly desirable. Solvents which have been investigated as possible replacements for the butyl acetate or butyl acetate/alcohol EBR solvents include those which are commonly used in the positive photoresist compositions themselves, such as ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate (Cellosolve acetate), propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate, ethyl 3-ethoxy propionate, and ethyl lactate. Despite desirably low flash points, these solvents do not function well in edge bead removal processes, particularly those involving backside application, in that they typically result in less than 0.25 mm removal.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a solvent composition for use in edge residue removal processes in integrated circuit and related fabrication sequences, which has a suitably low flash point (i.e., greater than 100.degree. F.) and which efficiently and effectively removes the resist residue in question even when applied in a backside solvent application technique.

Composition and method for removing photoresist composition from substrates surfaces


Various embodiments of the invention describe a method, system and computer-readable storage medium containing instructions for improving the recognition of text present in an image. The image is processed by applying different operators to the image to obtain multiple processed versions of the image. Thereafter, characters and location information of the characters from each of the multiple processed versions of the image are obtained. The location information includes the pixel coordinates of the characters in the text. The text present in the image is edited, based on the relative location of the characters, to improve the recognition of the text in the image.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems are generally used to detect text present in an image. An OCR system detects text present in the image and converts the text in the image into its equivalent electronic representation. The electronic representation can be stored and manipulated on a computer or an equivalent data processing machine. In order to accurately recognize the text in an image using OCR, the image should be of a high quality. The quality of the image depends on various factors such as the power of the lens, light intensity variation, relative motion between the camera and text, focus, and so forth. An OCR system can accurately detect text in good quality images, captured with mega-pixel cameras or scanned with high quality flatbed scanners, which have uniform intensity, no relative motion, and good focus. Conversely, an OCR system generally misinterprets text in poor quality images with relative motion between the camera-and-text, high level of intensity variations, and poor focus. Poor quality images are generally captured by using low-resolution digital cameras or mobile phones with built-in digital cameras or by unskilled users. Moreover, since an OCR system cannot perform semantic analysis of the text present in an image for mapping detected text onto some standard character, the OCR system cannot assign meaning to the text in many signs that have a stylized appearance, such as retailer product signs. This results in misinterpretation of the text in the image, which may include errors such as splitting a word into two separate words, concatenating two words into one word, missing characters in a word, loss of adjacency information between words, and so forth.
A known method for improving the quality of an image before sending it to an OCR system is disclosed in Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, vol. 2, pp. 366-373, 2004 titled, "Detecting and Reading Text in Natural Scenes". The paper discusses an algorithm for detecting and reading text in natural images. The algorithm includes collecting a set of images. The set of images is analyzed and detected text is extracted from it. The statistical analysis of the text is performed to determine the image features that are reliable indicators of text and have low variation among them. Another known method of improving the text detected by an optical character recognition system includes comparing words or phrases found in an image to a dictionary or database, and correcting words that are relatively close to known words. However, these methods do not deal with the editing of text in a context-independent manner, or with the inference of higher-level information such as identifying a retailer based on the physical layout of text in an image.
In light of the above discussion, there is a need for a method, system and computer program product for improving recognition of text in captured images, using low-quality image capture instruments, such as mobile phones with cameras and low-resolution digital cameras.

Method and system for improving the recognition of text in an image


A hinge assembly for a toilet seat includes a mounting base, a hinge leaf assembly, a threaded bolt, a threaded nut, a washer, and an expanding dowel. The hinge leaf assembly includes hinge leaves configured to attach to a toilet seat and a toilet lid. The threaded bolt configured is to attach the mounting base to a flange portion of a toilet bowl, the bolt having a bolt head at one end. The threaded nut has a sloped surface and is configured to screw onto the bolt. The washer has a sloped surface and is configured to surround the bolt between the bolt head and the nut. The expanding dowel is configured to expand outward and is further configured to surround the bolt between the washer and the nut.

Toilet seats and lids have existed in various forms for many decades. A toilet seat provides a surface for an occupant to comfortably sit and a toilet lid provides a protective cover for the toilet facility. A toilet seat generally requires more frequent replacement than a toilet bowl due to wear and tear. Also, a toilet seat can be replaced to match a bathroom color scheme or motif. In most cases, a toilet seat can be replaced without replacing the entire toilet. Typically, a toilet seat is affixed to a toilet bowl by placing mounting screws or bolts through a flange portion of the toilet bowl and by fastening washers and screw nuts from the bottom surface of the toilet bowl to the mounting screws. In many cases, to replace the toilet seat, each of the screws or mounting bolts needs to be unfastened from the washers and nuts.

System and method for removably mounting toilet seat to toilet bowl


The embodiments of the invention relate to a transmitter apparatus (TA1) for conditioning a multicarrier signal (RFS). The transmitter apparatus (TA1) contains means (FE-PU) for grouping subcarriers of the multicarrier signal (RFS) into a first frequency block, which contains a first group of the subcarriers and into at least a second frequency block, which contains at least a second group of said subcarriers. The transmitter apparatus (TA1) further contains first filtering means (LPF-1) for sideband suppression outside of the first frequency block and at least second filtering means (LPF-2, LPF-M) for simultaneous and separate sideband suppression outside of the at least second frequency block. The embodiments of the invention further relate to a method for conditioning a multicarrier signal (RFS). The method contains grouping subcarriers of the multicarrier signal (RFS) into a first frequency block, which contains a first group of said subcarriers and into at least a second frequency block, which contains at least a second group of said subcarriers. The method further contains filtering the first frequency block for sideband suppression outside the first frequency block, and filtering the at least second frequency block for simultaneous and separate sideband suppression outside the at least second frequency block. The embodiments of the invention even further relate to a computer program having a program code for performing the method, when the computer program is executed on a computer or processor and to a network node, which contains the transmitter apparatus.

This section introduces aspects that may be helpful in facilitating a better understanding of the invention. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admission about what is in the prior art.
In 3GPP LTE (3GPP=3rd Generation Partnership Project, LTE=Long Term Evolution) for example it is suggested to use so-called fragmented bands by carrier aggregation for increasing the data rates in a wireless communication system. Thereby, the wireless communication system may be allowed to use a frequency band or a part of a frequency band of another wireless communication system, when one base station or several base stations of the other wireless communication system is/are not operated at full capacity. In such a case, an emission of a radio frequency signal by the wireless communication system in a frequency band still used by the other wireless communication must be prevented without fail.
For upcoming machine-to-machine communication with low cost radio transmitters, synchronization requirements with respect to timing and frequency stability will likely be less stringent than for radio transmitters which are currently applied in cellular radio communication systems. Also so-called CoMP transmissions (CoMP=coordinated multipoint) exhibit timing offsets and frequency offset, when radio frequency signals propagate for example from two or more base stations via different propagation paths to a mobile station. The timing offsets may cause inter-carrier interference. By using conventional OFDM subcarriers transmission quality degrades fast, when the timing offset exceeds the so-called cyclic prefix.
Classical multicarrier signals such as OFDM multicarrier signal (OFDM=Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) are based on time domain signals having a rectangular shape. The rectangular shape in the time domain is associated with a shape of a so-called sinc-function in the frequency domain. Thereby, subcarriers of a multicarrier signal have rather high side-lobe levels. When using an OFDM multicarrier signal for the above mentioned application in fragmented spectrum, guard bands separating the fragmented sub-bands of the fragmented spectrum must be sufficiently large.

Transmitter apparatus for conditioning a multicarrier signal, network node, method for conditioning a multicarrier signal, and computer program thereof


A radiation responsive detector arrangement for use with a range determination system. A first plurality of detector pairs are mounted to receive radiation from a lenslet array which produces a plurality of images of the exit pupil of a first objective lens whose f number is equal to or less than a predetermined value and a second plurality of detector pairs are mounted to receive radiation from the lenslet array which produces a plurality of images of the exit pupil of a second objective lens whose f number is greater than the predetermined value. Switch means is provided so as to use the outputs of the first plurality of detector pairs in the range determination system when the first objective lens is employed and to use the outputs of the second plurality of detector pairs in the range determination system when the second objective lens is employed.

The present invention relates generally to a detector arrangement for use in an optical system and more particularly to an improvement relating to the detector arrangement found in my copending application Ser. No. 912,688, filed June 5, 1978, my copending application Ser. No. 23,866, filed Mar. 26, 1979, my copending application Ser. No. 23,865, filed Mar. 26, 1979, and the copending application of Stauffer and Wilwerding Ser. No. 16,595, filed Mar. 1, 1979.
In the above-mentioned copending applications, radiation from a remote scene to be focused upon is directed by an objective lens to a plurality of lenslets mounted proximate the image of the objective lens. Each lenslet produces an image of the exit pupil of the objective lens and proximate the image plane of each lenslet is mounted a pair of radiation sensitive detectors which produce output signals usable for range determination or auto focussing of cameras. The image of the exit pupil is generally circular in nature or, in the case of the above-mentioned copending application Ser. No. 23,866, oblong or oval. It is desirable that the detectors be as large as possible to maximize the signal available for range determination but are generally rectangular for ease of production. The rectangular detectors are mounted in pairs so that they fit within the entire circular or oblong image of the exit pupil. The size of the image varies with the f number of the objective lens and since the most commonly used lenses have a maximum aperature in the range of f/1.4 to f/2.8, the size of the detectors is chosen so that they will fit entirely within the image produced by an f/2.8 lens. In some cases, however, it is desirable to uses lenses that have an f number greater than 2.8 as, for example, a telephoto lens which may have an aperture as small as f/4.0. When this occurs, the image of the objective lens pupil is smaller than the detectors and errors in detector output may occur.

Automatic focusing apparatus for use with a plurality of lenses


A normally white mode twisted nematic liquid crystal display devices having significantly improved viewing angle characteristics of display contrast and gray scale inversion comprising an about 90.degree. twisted nematic liquid crystal cell and a first and a second light polarizing film separately disposed on two sides of said liquid crystal cell, a first and a second optical compensation layer which each comprises at least one optical compensation layer and has almost no refractive index anisotropy in-plane of the optical compensation layer A and has a characteristic wherein a refractive index in the thickness direction of the optical compensation layer A is lower than that in-plane of the optical compensation layer A, and a first and second optical compensation layer B, which each comprises at least one optical compensation layer and has optically positive refractive index anisotropy and has a characteristic wherein a principal optic axis of the optical compensation layer B is tilted 20 to 70.degree. from the normal direction of the optical compensation layer B, wherein said liquid crystal cell, said light polarizing films and said optical compensation layers A and B are laminated in the following order: said first light polarizing film, said first optical compensation layer A, said first optical compensation layer B, said liquid crystal cell, said second optical compensation layer B, said second optical compensation layer A and said second light polarizing film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device improved in viewing angle characteristics, and particularly in viewing angle characteristics of display contrast and gray scale inversion.
2. Description of Related Art
The most widely used liquid crystal display device (hereinafter referred to as LCD) at present is a normally white (hereinafter referred to as NW) mode twisted nematic LCD (hereinafter referred to as TN-LCD). In this NW mode TN-LCD, a nematic liquid crystal is held between a pair of glass substrates having transparent electrodes. The nematic liquid crystal has a helical axis in the normal direction of the pair of glass substrates, and also has an alignment structure characterized in that the twisted angle of the axis is about 90.degree.. This combination of the nematic liquid crystal and the pair of glass substrates forms a liquid crystal cell. The liquid crystal cell is held between a pair of linear polarizing films disposed so that the absorption axes thereof are orthogonal to each other.
When no voltage is applied to the NW mode TN-LCD, linearly polarized incident light is rotated by 90.degree. by the optical rotatory power of the liquid crystal cell and delivered, thereby generating a white condition. When voltage is applied, liquid crystal molecules rise with respect to the glass substrates, and the optical rotatory power is lost. The linearly polarized incident light is delivered while keeping its condition, thereby generating a black condition. The white condition, the black condition and an intermediate condition there between are used to perform gray scale display.
However, the nematic liquid crystal for the LCD has a bar-shaped molecular structure, and exhibits positive refractive index anisotropy having a high refractive index in the direction of the molecular axis. Because of the phase difference due to the refractive index anisotropy of the liquid crystal, the polarized condition of light obliquely passing through the LCD changes in a direction different from the normal direction of the LCD. As a result, when the display on the LCD is viewed from an angle different from the normal direction of the LCD, improper viewing angle characteristics are generated; that is, the contrast of the display is lowered, and the gray scale display is inverted.
Since this viewing angle characteristics are caused by the refractive index anisotropy of the liquid crystal molecules, investigation for its improvements have been conducted by using a phase retarder film exhibiting refractive index anisotropy opposite to that of the liquid crystal so as to compensate for a phase difference due to the refractive index anisotropy of liquid crystal molecules.
In the improvements in the viewing angle characteristics, a significant effect can be obtained by improving the viewing angle characteristics in the black display condition, namely in the voltage application condition. In the voltage application condition, the liquid crystal molecules are aligned in a direction nearly perpendicular to the glass substrates. By regarding this condition as a positive index anisotropic substance having an optical axis in the normal direction of the glass substrate, a method of using a phase retarder film having an optical axis in the normal direction of the film and having negative refractive index anisotropy as a phase retarder film for compensating for the positive index anisotropy has been disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos.2-015239, 3-103823 and the like. However, in an actual LCD, since the liquid crystal molecules remain tilted near the glass substrate even in the voltage application condition because of the restraint force of the alignment film of the substrate, it is difficult to sufficiently compensate for the light polarization condition caused by the liquid crystal cell by using the phase retarder film having an optical axis in the normal direction of the film and having negative refractive index anisotropy.
In order to also compensate for the tilted liquid crystal molecules, a method of using a phase retarder film having an optical axis in a direction tilted from the normal direction of the film and having negative refractive index anisotropy has been disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 63-239421, 6-214116 and the like. However, although these methods can improve the compensation condition for the liquid crystal cell being in the voltage application condition, compensation becomes insufficient in the intermediate gray scale display condition wherein the tilted liquid crystal portions increase and take more complicated alignment configurations because of lower application voltage. Therefore, it is difficult to improve the gray scale inversion phenomenon, although the viewing angle characteristic of display contrast can be improved. As a result, only incomplete viewing angle characteristics can be obtained.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publications Nos. 5-080323 and 7-306406 and WO96/10773 describe that the viewing angle characteristics can also be improved by using a phase retarder plate having an optical axis tilted from the normal direction of the film although having the same positive refractive index anisotropy as the liquid crystal has. Although showing that the use of the phase retarder plate having positive refractive index anisotropy and having an optical axis tilted from the normal direction of the film is effective for curbing gray scale inversion of the liquid crystal cell, these publications make no concrete references to manners in which the phase retarder plate is used to achieve the curbing effect. With the modes described in these publications, TN-LCDs cannot be obtained having significantly improved viewing angle characteristics of both display contrast and gray scale inversion.
Thus, for the optical compensation plate used for improving viewing angle characteristics of the TN-LCD, no plate has been found that is capable of significantly improving viewing angle characteristics of not only display contrast but also gray scale inversion.
In view of these circumstances, the inventors assiduously made examinations to find that TN-LCDs having significantly improved viewing angle characteristics of both display contrast and gray scale inversion are obtained by combining a layer (optical compensation layer B) comprising at least one optical compensation layer having optically positive refractive index anisotropy and having a characteristic wherein the principal optic axis thereof is tilted 20 to 70.degree. from the normal direction of the film and a layer (optical compensation layer A) comprising at least one optical compensation layer having almost no refractive index anisotropy in-plane of the film and having a characteristic wherein the refractive index in the thickness direction of the film is lower than that in-plane of the film, or further a layer (optical compensation layer C) comprising at least one uniaxial optical compensation layer having optically positive refractive index anisotropy and by laminating these optical compensation layers having different characteristics in a specific order with respect to the polarizing films and the liquid crystal cell, namely in the order of, on both sides of the liquid crystal cell from the side of the liquid crystal cell, the optical compensation layer B and the optical compensation layer A, or the optical compensation layer C, the optical compensation layer B and the optical compensation layer A, so that the present invention has been completed.

Normally white mode twisted nematic liquid crystal display device having improved viewing angle characteristics


In a video head position control apparatus utilizing a bimorph element (1), one or two surface acoustic wave oscillators (13, 15) is (are) formed by using piezoelectric element(s) (3, 4) of the bimorph element (1) for measuring displacement of a video head (5) attached to tip portion of the bimorph element (1) by detecting oscillating frequency variation. The oscillating frequency is used to detect an error of the position of the video head (5) with respect to a desired position indicated by a control voltage (V.sub.C1) which is fed from a video tape recorder such that peak voltage of the control voltage changes throughout different video tape velocity on various operating modes. The control voltage is thus corrected by an error voltage (V.sub.E) so that a corrected voltage is applied to the bimorph element (1) to cause the same to accurately position the video head (5).

This invention generally relates to apparatus for controlling the position of (a) video head(s) mounted on a rotary cylinder of video tape recorder, and more particularly, to such apparatus using a bimorph cell or element.
Amongst conventional video tape recorders, some of them are arranged such that a video head is fixed to a rotary cylinder for recording a video signal and for effecting normal playback, while another video head is additionally attached to a tip portion of a bimorph element which is fixed to the rotary head at the other end. This additional head is periodically moved in a direction normal to the plane of rotation thereof with a voltage being applied to the bimorph element so as to obtain accurate tracking on special playback, such as fast playback, slow playback, still playback, where the tape motion speed is different from that on recording.
However, since there is hysteresis in the relationship between the applied voltage and the displacement of the bimorph element, the amount of displacement cannot be simply determined by the applied voltage. Therefore, recording and normal playback cannot be effected by way of the video head attached to the bimorph element. As a result, conventional video tape recorders suffer from a drawback that four video heads in total, namely two for recording and the other two for special playback, are needed.


A thermoplastic polyblend of high density polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, a polyester elastomer, and a mixture of two aromatic phosphites. The polyblend has greatly improved impact strength and low gasoline permeation properties.

High density polyethylene (HDPE) is a low-cost, high performance thermoplastic material. In its crystalline state, HDPE has superior physical properties and good thermal stability. Being a thermoplastic, it can be economically processed by an injection molding machine.
HDPE is presently the plastic material of choice for making automobile fuel tanks. It has excellent tensile and impact properties at temperatures as low as -50.degree. C. and at temperatures as high as 70.degree. C. which is the temperature range normally experienced by a fuel tank in service. Since HDPE has low cost, it is competitive with steel which is presently used for making most automobile fuel tanks.
One drawback of HDPE that needs improvement in its continued use for plastic fuel tanks, is the permeation of HDPE to automotive fuels. At present, this drawback is being compensated by treating the interior surfaces of the HDPE tank with chlorinating or sulfonating agents. These treatments are effective against gasoline permeation but are less effective in gasoline/alcohol blends. Another problem is that the chemical used in the fluorinating or sulfonating treatments are toxic and corrosive and pose some potential health hazards.
One other approach to improve the permeability of HDPE is to blend it with highly crystalline polar materials. One such candidate is polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyethylene terephthalate is a low-cost material and an excellent barrier to non-polar fuel components. However, it has low impact strength and a low melt viscosity which are inadequate for fuel tank applications. Furthermore, blends of high density polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalates are highly incompatible due to their large differences in polarity and melt viscosities which result in materials having poor physical properties as compared to either component of the blend. A method for compatibilizing the blend is therefore needed before the blend can be effectively used in making automobile fuel tanks. Some work was performed to compatibilize high density polyethylene/polyethylene terephthalate blends by using styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymers or acrylic acid grafted polypropylene with very limited success. Only minor improvements in tensile strength, flexural strength and impact strengths were noted.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a polyblend of high density polyethylene/polyethylene terephthalate having improved impact properties.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a polyblend of high density polyethylene/polyethylene terephthalate having low permeation properties to gasoline fuels such that the polyblend can be used in molding automobile fuel tanks.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an moldable, high impact strength polyblend of high density polyethylene/polyethylene terephthalate for use in automobile fuel tanks applications.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a low cost, moldable polyblend of high density polyethylene/polyethylene terephthalate having superior impact properties and low permeation properties to gasoline fuel such that it can be used in molding automobile fuel tanks.


Embodiments of the invention provide methods for inserting a non-metallic multi-strand braid through a coil tube. Techniques for bonding one end of a lead line to one end of a multi-strand non-metallic braid are provided. There are also embodiments of steerable instruments described having a plurality of hinged segments; a multi-strand non-metallic braid connected distally to one segment of the plurality of segments and proximally to an actuator; and a steering controller adapted to control the actuator to move the hinged segment using the multi-strand non-metallic braid.

One technique for transmitting actuation forces to the moveable segments of articulating instruments involves the use of a cable within a housing or a coil tube. This arrangement is commonly referred to as a Bowden cable and is similar in operation to a brake system on bicycle. This cable is used to transmit an actuation force from a control handle out to a steerable active segment. In some cases the forces needed to maneuver a steerable instrument can be large. In some cases, the large actuation force results from friction between the steel cable and the coil tube. It is desirable to reduce the amount of force the frictional forces in the cable/tube arrangement including the use of lubricants such as, for example, molybdenum disulfide.
However useful the lubricants may be, a number of practical challenges remain, such as, for example: (1) the molybdenum disulfide lubricant in powder form will eventually wear out with use of the scope causing degradation of scope performance; (2) the molybdenum disulfide lubricant is difficult to apply inside the coil and is messy during application; (3) the addition of any lubricant between cable and coil tube also causes lubrication issues between each of the coils of the coil tube allowing them to slip over each other under compressive loads. Coil tube buckling rapidly degrades endoscope performance and require expensive rebuilt of the scope coils.
What is needed is an improved way of overcoming the friction forces associated with transmitting actuation forces to the moveable segments of an articulating instrument. strand non-metallic braid while maintaining the diameter of the bonded area the same as or less than the diameter of either the non-metallic multi-strand braid or the lead line. Next, advance the multi-strand non-metallic braid through a coil tube using the lead line. In one alternative, the lead line is altered before the bonding step to improve adhesion to the non-metallic multi-strand braid. In another alternative, the bonding step includes gluing one end of the lead line to one end of a multi-strand non-metallic braid. In another alternative, the bonding step includes thermally bonding one end of the lead line to one end of a multi-strand non-metallic braid. In one aspect, a strand of the multi-strand braid is cut before the bonding step. In another embodiment, before the bonding step, placing one end of the lead line and one end of the non-metallic multi-strand braid into a fixture. In one aspect, the diameter of one end of the lead line or one end of the non-metallic multi-strand braid is reduced before bonding the lead line and the non-metallic multi-strand braid. In one aspect, the lead line is formed from the same material as the non-metallic multi-stranded braid.
In another aspect, the end of the multi-strand non-metallic braid is terminated. In one aspect, terminating includes forming a knot in the multi-strand non-metallic braid. In another aspect, the multi-strand non-metallic braid is passed through a threaded element before the terminating step. Termination may be accomplished by applying an adhesive to the knot formed in the multi-strand non-metallic braid, gluing a ball within the multi-strand non-metallic braid, securing a crimp to the multi-strand non-metallic braid or forming a loop in one end of the multi-strand non-metallic braid.
In another embodiment, there is provided a steerable instrument having a plurality of hinged segments; a multi-strand non-metallic braid connected distally to one segment of the plurality of segments and proximally to an actuator; and a steering controller adapted to control the actuator to move the hinged segment using the multi-strand non-metallic braid. In one aspect, a connector assembly couples the multi-strand non-metallic braid to the actuator. In another aspect, there is a carriage assembly in the connector and attached to one end of the multi-strand non-metallic braid. In another aspect, the multi-strand non-metallic braid passes through a coil tube extending between the connector assembly and the segment. In one alternative, the ratio of the clearance between the multi-strand non-metallic braid and the interior surface of the coil tube to the inner diameter of the coil tube is less than or equal to 15%. In one embodiment, the multi-strand non-metallic braid comprises ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). In one aspect, the multi-strand non-metallic braid is connected distally to one segment of the plurality of segments by terminating the multi-strand non-metallic braid at the desired segment. In another aspect, there is a threaded element on the one end of the multi-strand non-metallic braid to attach the one end of the multi-strand non-metallic braid to the carriage assembly. In another aspect, there is a knot formed in the multi-strand non-metallic braid positioned between the threaded element on the one end of the multi-strand non-metallic braid and the carriage assembly. In one embodiment, there is a knot formed in the multi-strand non-metallic braid. In one aspect, there is an adhesive applied to the knot. In another aspect, the adhesive contains a pigment that provides a visual indication that the adhesive is present.

Non-metallic, multi-strand control cable for steerable instruments


Systems and methods for classifying URLs by a hybrid classifier are provided. According to one embodiment, a hybrid classifier receives a candidate URL. A naïve Bayes classifier of the hybrid classifier classifies the candidate URL to generate a first classification of the candidate URL and a sublink classifier of the hybrid classifier classifies the candidate URL to generate a second classification of the candidate URL. The hybrid classifier determines a classification of the candidate URL based on the combination of the first and second classification.

Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the field of network security techniques. In particular, various embodiments relate to classifying documents by hybrid classification engines.
Description of the Related Art
Web pages/sites may belong to different categories such as sports, news, entertainment, business, pornography, hate speech and the like, depending on the content/services being offered. As there are millions of web domains that include different types of content, some of such domains may include desired content, while some other may include content that is undesirable for different types of users. Such undesired web domains therefore are typically classified, and a list of restricted web domains, which may be included in a blacklist, for example, is compiled so as to help network security devices/applications filter or block such traffic and/or inform a network administrator/user about the type of content that the requested web page and/or web domain contains.
Existing security devices/applications generally include a list of websites that need to be blocked depending on network settings and/or the profile of the user who attempts to access the websites. For example, if a child attempts to access a pornographic website, the security device/application may block access to the adult content website to prevent access by the child. Similarly, if someone tries to access similar objectionable content from office premises, such access can be blocked/denied by the security device/application. It is also possible that, for the same web domain, access is allowed for one user (for example, an adult), but not allowed for another user (for example, a child).
Existing security devices/applications also typically maintain a reference table that includes a list of websites that are classified in different categories, and refer to one or more policy rules to decide whether access to a particular website should be allowed to a particular user. Compilation of such a list is a tedious and time consuming task, wherein the network administrator either has to manually provide a list of restricted websites or the security device/application needs to expend valuable computing resources to classify observed websites into different categories to determine whether access to a particular website should be given.
Web page classification, also commonly referred to as web page categorization or web domain classification, is a process of classifying web pages and/or a web domains and/or Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) into different meaningful categories. Prior art solutions provide different classification approaches for classifying a web domain or a web page in different categories based on the content of the web page. A naïve Bayes classifier is a web content classification based on Bayes' theorem with strong independence assumptions between the terms. For example, a term vector for adult website (Category Pornography) can be obtained from a training set of category Pornography. A naïve Bayes classifier can classify web pages/sites that contain enough text content with high accuracy. Bigger training sets and vocabulary can further improve performance of the naïve Bayes classifier. However, for rich media web pages with limited text content and which include mostly images, videos and/or contents that are dynamically generated by script languages, e.g., JavaScript and PHP, the accuracy of a naïve Bayes classifier is not so good.
Therefore, there exists a need for systems and methods for classifying web pages/sites by a hybrid classification engine with a naïve Bayes classifier and a sublink classifier.

Document classification by a hybrid classifier


A device and method for writing/reading a piece of data in/from a memory register shared by a plurality of peripherals, each peripheral having a peripheral clock signal, when two or more of the plurality of peripherals need to write/read such piece of data at the same time, the digital device including a central unit having the memory register and a bank of SL modules in signal communication with the central unit, the bank of SL modules being designed to write/read the piece of data. The bank of SL modules comprises a plurality of writing/reading modules whose priority value ranges between maximum and minimum priority values, each module being connected to a respective peripheral, the central unit includes a multiplexer in signal communication on the one hand with the plurality of writing/reading modules, and on the other hand with the memory register, each module comprises an arbitration cell, such that the first module is identified by the maximum priority value (Prmax′) and the other N−1 modules are identified by decreasing priority values, the central unit operating at a predetermined main clock frequency to write/read the piece of data in the memory register.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a device and method for writing/reading a memory register shared by a plurality of peripherals.
Particularly, the present disclosure relates to a digital device that can manage writing/reading of a piece of data in a memory register shared by a plurality of peripherals, when two or more peripherals need to write/read such piece of data at the same time.
The field of the present disclosure is, for instance, the automotive field, where it may happen that two or more electronic control units in a motor vehicle need to simultaneously write/read (i.e. access to) a piece of data stored in a memory that is shared by the electronic control units.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A digital system having a Ram memory bank, for instance with a dual/multi port for access to data stored therein is known in the prior art.
The operation of writing/reading data in/from the memory bank is ensured by a single clock signal, as disclosed, for instance in EP 505779. Nevertheless, while the system of EP 505779 allows, for example, two peripherals to access the memory bank according to stringent timing rules, it still cannot afford simultaneous access to the data stored in the Ram memory.
Furthermore, the system as disclosed in EP 505779 is not scalable, since addition or removal of a peripheral from management by a digital system requires the system to be redesigned anew.
In other words, it is difficult to adapt the system of EP 505779 to the changing needs of managing varying numbers of peripherals, once the digital system has been designed.

Device and method for writing/reading a memory register shared by a plurality of peripherals


An image forming apparatus (10) includes an apparatus main body (20), a first processing unit (30) and a second processing unit (40). The apparatus main body (20) performs an image forming process onto a paper sheet. The first processing unit (30) and the second processing unit (40) are disposed in vertical direction (91) such that one is located on an upside of the other on a same side face's side of the apparatus main body 20. The second processing unit (40) is disposed on the upside of the first processing unit (30), and is configured in such a manner as to be capable of being slidingly moved in an approaching-leaving direction (92) in relation to the apparatus main body (20).

Conventionally, among image forming apparatus are ones each provided with a processing device having a plurality of processing units to expand functionality, apart from an apparatus main body that performs an image forming process onto a paper sheet. For example, for the processing unit, a paper feeder capable of containing an extensive number of paper sheets to supply to the apparatus main body, and a post-processor applying a post-processing to paper sheets onto which the image forming process have been performed by the apparatus main body can be given. However, in a case where a first processing unit and a second processing unit are provided on either side face on opposite sides of the apparatus main body, an installation area of the image forming apparatus increases.
Then, an image forming apparatus having a paper receiving tray disposed on an upside of a paper feed tray became known (for example, refer to Patent Literature 1). In this conventional image forming apparatus, the paper receiving tray and the paper feed tray are provided so as to be disposed in vertical direction such that one is located on the upside of the other, and thereby reduction of the installation area is sought as compared with the case where the paper feed tray and the paper receiving tray are provided on either side face on opposite sides of the apparatus main body.


There is provided a process for the preparation of composite semi-permeable membrane superior in selectivity and permeability, capable of improving bonding strength between a porous support layer and a reinforcement and mechanical strength of semi-permeable membrane.. The composite semi-permeable membrane is prepared by subjecting woven fabric or non-woven fabric to corona discharge with a discharge power of approximately 10 to approximately 15 watt for a period of approximately 20 to approximately 40 seconds, spraying water over one surface of the fabric, casting porous support substance on the other surface of the fabric when a time of approximately 5 to approximately 10 seconds has elapsed after the spray, and laminating a crosslinked polyamide ultrathin film on the porous support substance, the polyamide ultrathin film being synthesized by interfacial polycondensation of a multifunctional amine solution and a multifunctional halogen solution.

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a process for the preparation of semi-permeable membrane superior in selectivity and permeability and, more particularly, to corona treatment of a reinforcement for semi-permeable membrane, thereby improving bonding strength between a porous support layer and the reinforcement and mechanical strength of semi-permeable membrane.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known that various dissolved substances or solutes can be separated from their liquids or solvents by various useful separation process or techniques known as ultrafiltration or reverse osmosis. Especially, reverse osmosis membranes are high permeability barriers. For example, In a liquid-liquid system, reverse osmosis membranes have high permeability for water yet are impermeable to microorganisms, colloidal particles, salts and organic materials, so that these solutes or undesirable materials can be removed.
Reverse osmosis technology, which is generally applied to separation of solutes with a size of 10 Angstrom or less, is efficient for the desalination of seawater, contaminated water or saline, to obtain pure water for drink or other uses. That is, the use of this technology which has apparently gained the widest attention to date is the desalination of brackish water or seawater to provide large volumes of relatively non-salty water for industrial, agricultural, or home use.
Purification of water through reverse osmosis membrane is accomplished by applying pressure to the seawater or contaminated water to force the water through the reverse osmosis membrane, so that purified water passes through the membrane and the salt or contaminant is rejected.
With regard to the characteristics of reverse osmosis membrane, first, it should have high salt rejection coefficient. For commercial practicality, it is required salt rejection capabilities of 98% or more. In addition, the reverse membrane should also permit high fluxes at reasonable pressures in a view of economy. Several additional requirements may be imposed on the commercial applications of reverse osmosis membrane, according to the realities of such applications. Among the additional requirements, chlorine resistance is necessary for the reverse osmosis membrane to be used for, especially, tap water.
Separation technologies using separation films are virtually based on two factors: pressure and concentration. For example, precise filtration or ultrafiltration is dependent on the former factor, whereas gas separation or permeable evaporation is on the latter factor. Reverse osmosis is based on both pressure and concentration and reverse osmosis membranes, which can filter monovalent ions or salts incapable of being filtered by precise filter membrane or ultrafiltration membrane, are useful for a wide range of uses including desalination of seawater, treatment of bittern, treatment of industrial waste water, preparation of ultra deionized water for washing semiconductor device.
In order to allow for high fluxes in desalination, the optimum type of reverse osmosis membrane is extremely thin. However, extremely thin membranes lack structural integrity as they stands. In many cases, the reverse osmosis membrane is synthesized or laminated on a porous support layer reinforcement. Of cause, the porous support layer reinforcement is required to have pore sizes large enough to pass the permeated water through the porous support layer without reducing or affecting the fluxes.
However, large pores of the porous support layer reinforcement may provide the thin synthetic semi-permeable membrane with an opportunity of filling or infiltrating the pores, so that there would be potent possibility of membrane breakdown upon operation under high pressure or of membrane deformation. Accordingly, large size of the pores on the porous support layer reinforcement is not always good, since it is apt to lose the reverse osmosis capability of the thin synthetic semi-permeable membrane as just mentioned.
Reverse osmosis membranes have been prepared from a wide variety of known polymeric materials. Many of the reverse osmosis membranes posses salt rejection capabilities of 98% or more. A part of the reverse osmosis membranes cannot permit satisfactory amount of water per area of membrane, e.g. flow rate or flux, which is another important factor for commercial practicality.
Prior patents have suggested various membranes useful for reverse osmosis technology. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,344 describes a semi-permeable membrane prepared from a crosslinked aromatic polyamine which is a product of interfacial polymerization between monomeric polyacyl halide and monomeric arylene polyamine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,445 discloses a membrane useful for desalination of water prepared from a copolymer consisting of a monomer containing hydroxyl group, such as methacrylic acid and hydroxyethyl methacrylic acid, and optionally additional multifunctional carboxylic acid, such as 1,2,4,5-bezenetetracarboxylic acid or citric acid.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,168,352 teaches a process for producing a membrane useful for reverse osmosis, using a monomer of hydroxyethylmethacrylate and another polymer, such as polyacrylic acid, closely mixed together. In this patent, polymerization of hydroxyethylmethacylate is conducted in a photochemical manner, and the resulting membrane comprises a homopolymer of hydroxyethylmethacrylate mixed with different polymers. There is no chemical bond between the polymerized hydroxyethylmethacrylate and polycarboxylic acid.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,295 describes hydrogel which is prepared by crosslinking acrylates, such as glycerlymethacrylate, methylmethacrylate and hydroxyethylacrylate, with diacrylate, such as ethyleneglycoldimethacrylate. Polymerization for the hydrogel is initiated by a free radical initiator, such as azobisisobutyronitrile. The resulting film has free hydroxyl groups which are unreacted during formation of the film and is composed of crosslinked, heterogeneous polymer of various monomers.
In addition, there are many patents that are concerned with composite semi-permeable membranes using various materials. Among the patents are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,744,642, 4,005,012, 4,366,062, 4,606,943, 4,618,534, 4,634,531, 4,661,254, 4,761,234, and 4,783,346.
To date, interfacially synthesized reverse osmosis membranes which are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,344 have generally been adopted, in consideration of general aspects of membrane capability.
As previously mentioned, the porous support layer for composite semi-permeable membrane must have mechanical strength and toughness sufficient to endure under high pressures as well as pore sizes large enough not to be resistant to water flow. In addition, it should satisfy a requirement that a porous support layer solution is not transuded from one surface of the reinforcement when it is cast on the other surface thereof. For example, if the porous support layer solution infiltrates into and is transuded to the opposite surface of reinforcement, the membrane is adversely affected in an aspect of the flux, although not in selective permeability. This ill influence gives rise to increasing difficulty in operating process steps, continuously and thus, in large scale.
In an effort to solve the above problems, U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,834 intended to improve the mechanical strength and flux of semi-permeable membrane, along with a production process therefor. In this process, the degree of infiltration of a support layer substance into a support layer reinforcement is controlled by soaking a back side of a porous fabric, the support layer reinforcement, in a solvent incompatible with the support layer substance and casting the support layer substance on a front side of the porous fabric. However, this prior technology neither is operated continuously nor exhibits satisfactory flux.

Process for the preparation of composite semi-permeable membrane


Subject matter herein disclosed relates to a method for the manufacture of a CEM switching device providing that the CEM layer comprises a doped metal compound substantially free from metal wherein ions of the same metal element are present in different oxidation states. The method may provide a CEM layer which is born on and capable of switching with operating voltages below 2.0V.

Electronic switching devices are found in a wide variety of electronic device types, such as computers, digital cameras, cellular telephones, tablet devices, personal digital assistants and so forth, where they may function as memory and/or logic devices.
Factors of interest to a designer in considering whether a particular electronic switching device is suitable for such a function, may include physical size, storage density, operating voltages, impedance ranges, and/or power consumption. Other factors of interest may include cost of manufacture, ease of manufacture, scalability and/or reliability.