A thick, highly filled, shaped elastomeric body comprising a thermally conductive elastomer suitable for high temperature, e.g. 240.degree.-260.degree. C. mechanical applications. The elastomer composition comprises organopolysiloxane, particulates, and a viscosity modifier. The organopolysiloxane crosslinks between the vinyl or allyl functionality of an organopolysiloxane polymer, and the silyl hydride functionality of an organopolysiloxane oligomer. The particulate comprises silica as well as a thermally conductive alloy powder of first row transition elements. The addition of a viscosity modifier comprising silicone oil is essential to the inclusion of the high levels of particulates.

Elastomers for use in rotary regenerator assemblies are known, e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,354 which is herein hereby incorporated by reference. These assemblies comprise ceramic core surrounded by steel ring gear with elastomer therebetween. The elastomer accomodates differential rates of expansion during assembly and during operation.
Materials proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,354, while satisfactory, do have certain deficiencies. For example, the materials may not function optimally under certain conditions for as long periods as might be desired.
A particularly acute problem is that these materials tend to degrade during extended high temperature service. Others have proposed certain filled organosiloxane and other organic polymers for use in making articles that resist degradation when exposed to extreme conditions. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,098,836; 3,255,152; 3,274,145; 3,506,607; 3,676,420; 3,746,662; 3,791,998; 3,865,784; 3,867,315; 3,911,045; 4,025,485; and 4,069,083.
These patents show that desirable properties may result by loading certain organic polymers with inorganic particulate.
It has been discovered in accordance with this invention that besides enhancing certain physical properties as well as potentially reducing material costs, certain particulates also offer improved thermal stability. Improved thermal stability is insufficient by itself, however, to provide a more acceptable material for applications as ring gear assemblies. Rather, such improved thermal stability, when provided by increased particulate loading, is accompanied typically by higher initial viscosities and shorter working times. The higher initial viscosities and shorter working times can make such materials undesirable for high volume production use.
It is an object of this invention to provide elastomers with improved thermal stability.
It is an object of this invention to provide elastomers with improved thermal stability and whose precursors have desirable initial viscosities and working times.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide elastomer precursors for filling difficult to fill mold cavities.
It is even a still further object of this invention to provide improved elastomer for use in rotary regenerators comprising ceramic core surrounded by steel or other metal ring gear.
These and other objects have been accomplished with elastomers made in accordance with the hereinafter disclosed invention.

Highly filled thermally conductive elastomers III


A sensor has an image sensing unit including pixel blocks, and a readout unit for reading out a signal from the image sensing unit. The pixel block includes a photoelectric converter, first and second transistors, and a current source. First main electrodes of the first and second transistors are connected to a common node, and the current source is provided between the common node and a predetermined voltage. A signal readout operation includes an operation in which a voltage corresponding to charges in the photoelectric converter is supplied to a control electrode of the first transistor, and a temporally changing reference voltage is supplied to a control electrode of the second transistor. The readout unit reads out a signal from the image sensing unit via a second main electrode of the first transistor.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state image sensor and image sensing system.
Description of the Related Art
FIG. 2 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-223566 shows a comparator including pixels 201, 202, and 203, a current path formation block 210, a current path 211, and a comparison unit 215. The current path formation block 210 includes MOS transistors 204, 205, and 206 having gates to which charge-voltage converters of the pixels 201, 202, and 203 are respectively connected. The current path 211 includes a MOS transistor having a gate to which a reference voltage 212 is supplied. The comparison unit 215 includes an arithmetic amplifier including the current path formation block 210 and current path 211 as a differential pair, and can obtain a digital signal corresponding to a pixel signal based on the output from the comparison unit 215.
In this arrangement shown in FIG. 2 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-223566, a transistor 213 which forms the differential pair together with the amplification transistors 204, 205, and 206 of the pixels 201, 202, and 203 is provided outside the pixels 201, 202, and 203. In an arrangement like this, it is difficult to improve the balance between one current path and the other current path forming the differential pair, and this sometimes makes it difficult to sufficiently increase the readout accuracy of a pixel signal.

Solid-state image sensor and image sensing system with readout unit including current source


Various systems and apparatuses for heating molds, including for example tire molds, are disclosed. Heating of molds may be effected via induction heating technology. In one embodiment, a system for heating a tire mold is provided, the system comprising: a tire mold formed from a mold material having a base material relative permeability, wherein the tire mold includes a mold surface for contacting a tire, the mold surface for contacting a tire having a mold surface for contacting a tire relative permeability, wherein the tire mold includes a mold back oriented substantially opposite the mold surface for contacting a tire, and wherein the mold surface for contacting a tire relative permeability is greater than the base material relative permeability.

Many articles are manufactured via a molding of materials into a desired shape. For example, many polymeric articles, including composites containing polymers, are formed via heated molds. One such article may include tires. Tires may be placed into contact with a mold and heated, under pressure, until the rubber within the tire is crosslinked and cured.
Many molds, including tire molds, are heated by a hot water, steam, heated gas, or other heating mediums. Molds are typically made from a metallic material. The metallic material of the mold may be heated through thermal conduction wherein heat is transferred from a heat medium, through the mold, and into the article to be molded. As a result, each portion of the mold typically obtains the same or similar temperature upon heating of the mold to the desired curing temperature. Also, portions of the mold, molding press, peripheral components, and other elements may be unnecessarily heated as these elements do not contribute to heating the article to be molded.
Heating of molds via hot water, steam, heated gas, or other heating mediums typically requires extended periods of down time during which an entire mold is heated to a curing temperature before molding, and cooled to a safe temperature following molding to permit manipulation of the mold to remove a molded article, the totality of which, including cure time, is commonly referred to as "cycle time." Additionally, heating of molds in such a manner may lead to inefficiency due to loss of heat from the mold to the surrounding environment via thermal convection and thermal conduction. Heat transferred to the surrounding environment may need to be removed via cooling such that workers in the surrounding environment are comfortable and to prevent damage to other equipment.
What is needed is a system and apparatus for heating a mold that minimizes heating and cooling times, allows for application of different mold temperatures at different portions of the mold, and maximizes energy efficiency.

Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC


A synchronous machine (22) can be run up with increasing frequency by a controllable frequency converter (21) with an opened switch (S1) and a closed switch (S2), the exciter direct current for its exciter winding (22E) being supplied by a starting converter (23). When the synchronous machine (22) is operated from the power system, it is excited by the direct-current link of this frequency converter (21). In order to increase the availability of the synchronous machine (22), the two static converters (18, 19) of the frequency converter (21) can be selected in two channels so that when one static converter fails due to a fault, the other one generates the link direct voltage (Uzk) required for the direct-current excitation. The rotor of the synchronous machine (22) can be coupled to a gas turbine (28) via a transmission (27).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is based on a method and a device for operating a synchronous machine in accordance with the preamble of claims 1 and 2.
2. Discussion of Background
In the preambles of claims 1 and 2, the invention refers to a background which is known from the ASEA Journal 1976, Vol. 4, pages 75-80. In this journal, a static frequency converter, the link voltage of which is used for exciting the rotor windings, is used for starting pump turbine units with synchronous machines. Above a frequency of 5 Hz, the system switches from self-commutation with resonant-circuit control to load-controlled commutation with the aid of the voltage generated by the motor. At about 15% of the rated speed, the water is pushed down in the pump turbine so that the runner rotates in air during the remaining run-up. The plant is provided with an integrated protection device for detecting and signalling internal disturbances such as overvoltages and ground faults. There is an electronic pulse inhibitor as protection against overcurrents.
German Offenlegungsschrift 21 10 747 discloses a comparable background for starting gas turbines or pumped-storage units.
There is no provision for redundantly using the static converters of the frequency converters in a fault case.
Additional reference relating to the relevant background is made to the house journal of the Swiss firm BBC Brown, Boveri & Company, Baden, publication No.: CH-E 2.0340.0 E, title: Standardized Starting Equipment, January 1979, pages 1-8, from which it is known to start synchronous machines, which can be used, for example, in conjunction with gas turbines, pumped-storage plants and synchronous compensators, by means of a static frequency converter.

Method and device for operating a synchronous machine


Alkoxylated- or polyalkoxylate-amine-phosphite derived olefin adducts are superior as lubricating fluid media and as multifunctional additives with internal synergistic antioxidant and extreme pressure/antiwear properties for both mineral and synthetic lubricating oils as well as fuels.

This invention is directed to hydroxyl-nitrogenphosphite derived olefinic adducts as multifunctional lubricant additives or as multifuntional fluids or partial replacement fluids having EP/antiwear properties.
The general peroxide catalyzed reaction of dialkyl hydrogen phosphites with conventional olefins to give phosphonate derivatives is known, as disclosed for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,957,931. The use of these materials as multifunctional additives in a variety of lubricant applications is also known. These products have demonstrated excellent high and low temperature lubricating properties with exceptional EP/antiwear properties with potential friction reducing and corrosion inhibiting properties.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,770,800 and 4,717,491 generally disclose the reaction of dialkyl and trialkyl phosphites with sulfur and thereafter reacting the resultant product with an amine, an olefin or an alkaline oxide to form lube oil products.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,774 discloses a method of N-phosphorylating heterocyclic amines to produce products suitable for use as flame retardants.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,912 discloses reaction products prepared from sulfurized olefins, dialkyl hydrogen phosphites and primary alkyl amines which are useful for improving lubricant compositions with respect to copper corrosion protection and antiwear protection.
However, no prior art known to applicants disclose hydroxyl-amine-phosphite or hydroxyl nitrogen containing phosphite derived adducts of functionalized and/or polymeric or oligomeric olefins as multifunctional additives as well as multifunctional lubricants with inherent multifaceted internal synergism.
Accordingly it is an object of this invention to provide compositions which exhibit excellent lubricating properties in conjunction with good extreme pressure/antiwear, antioxidant and friction reducing properties.

Lubricant composition containing the reaction product of an olefinic compound and an alkoxylated-amine-phosphite


An axial piston pump including a housing, a cylinder block, and a swash block. The cylinder block is rotatable within the housing about a vertical axis and includes an array of openings in the cylinder block distributed about the vertical axis and an array of pistons reciprocatably movable within the respective openings. The swash block is rotatable about an axis of rotation that is transverse to the vertical axis, and the degree of rotation is configured to control the extent of reciprocation of the pistons as the cylinder block rotates. The swash block has arc shape conical bearing surfaces tilted relative to the axis of rotation that are configured to guide movement of the swash block rotationally about the axis of rotation and prevent movement of the swash block axially along the axis of rotation.

Axial hydraulic piston pumps are used in a variety of applications, whether as a stand alone pump or as part of, for example, a hydraulic transmission. The components of an axial hydraulic piston pump typically include a cylinder block, a group of pistons vertically movable within openings in the cylinder block, a swash block the underside of which the pistons bear against, and a pair of arch bushings seated within recesses having axially spaced walls on the upper surface of the swash block. The cylinder block rotates the group of pistons about a vertical axis. A control arm rotates the swash block about an axis of rotation. During rotation, the swash block slides relative to the bushings, causing the bottom of the swash block to tilt upward on one side of the rotation axis and downward on the opposite side of the rotation axis. As the cylinder block rotates, each piston moves vertically downward on the downward tilted side and vertically upward on the upward tilted side in sliding relation in the openings into and out of the cylinder block, which, in turn, causes fluid to be transferred. The dual swash block bushings are formed in a matching arch to guide the swash block about its axis of rotation in a single plane when actuated by for example the control arm input. The matching arch bushings provide a vertical force to the swash block to counter the forces produced by the piston rotating group.
Some existing swash block assemblies have various shortcomings, drawbacks, and disadvantages relative to certain applications. For example, the swash block bushings formed in matching arches along the axis of rotation do not supply any guidance for the swash block in the lateral or rotational (yaw) directions. Typically, the movement of the swash block in the lateral and yaw directions is limited by mechanical surfaces or edges that are not coated to reduce friction, for example the walls of the recesses in the swash block and/or walls of the housing in which the swash block is mounted. In turn, the contact with these surfaces under high force creates significant drag which translates to the amount of force needed to actuate the swash block through the control input by the operator. FIG. 22 shows contact stresses on the swash block in the form of different shades. The highest contact stresses, which are identified by the reference numeral 700 in FIG. 22, are at the walls where the sides of the arch bushings contact due to lateral movement of the swash block along the axis of rotation and/or yaw movement about the vertical axis.
The lack of guidance in the yaw direction also allows the swash block to move within that direction due to clearance between the edges of the bushings and the afore mentioned mechanical surfaces or edges such as walls of the swash block and/or housing. This movement is introduced by the actuation of the swash block by the control arm and is most significant when the actuation of the control arm is changed from one direction to the other. This freedom of movement of the swash block in the yaw direction allows for movement of the control arm input without a corresponding change in displacement of the pump until the contact with the mechanical surface or edge, for example walls, is made. This causes what is known as dead band, an undesirable effect in which there is an inaction or lag in action between the input of the control function and the corresponding change in what is being controlled.
Accordingly, there remains a need for further contributions in this area of technology.


The present invention provides a cyclic amine compound represented by formula (I) (in formula (I), Cy1 and Cy2 independently represent a C6-10 aryl group or a heterocyclyl group; R1a to R5a independently represent a hydrogen atom or an unsubstituted or substituted C1-6 alkyl group; R10, R11, R20 and R21 independently represent an unsubstituted or substituted C1-6 alkyl group, an unsubstituted or substituted C1-6 alkoxy group, a halogen atom or the like; m, n, p, and r each represent an integer of 0 to 5; and Y represents an oxygen atom or the like) or salt thereof, and an acaricide including the same.

A compound represented by formula (A), which is structurally relevant to the compound of the present invention is disclosed in Patent document 1. It is described that this compound is effective as a serotonin 4 acceptor stimulant. However, a specific synthesis process and effect of the compound represented by formula (A), wherein X represents an oxygen atom, Y represents an alkoxy group and q represents 0, is not described.

In addition, a compound represented by formula (B), a salt and an N-oxide of the compound represented by formula (B), and a pest control agent including the compound represented by formula (B) as an active ingredient are disclosed in Patent document 2 (in formula (B), R1 represents a hydroxy group or the like, m represents 0 or an integer of 1 to 5, R2 represents a halogen atom or the like, k represents 0 or an integer of 1 to 4, R3, R31, R4, R41, R5, R51, R6, R61 and R7 independently represent a hydrogen atom or the like, X represents an oxygen atom or the like, n represents 0 or 1).

In addition, an N-pyridyl piperidine compound represented by formula (C) is disclosed in Patent document 3. It is disclosed that the compound represented by formula (C) has a miticidal activity against spider mites and rust mites (in formula (C), R1 represents a halogen atom, a C1-4 haloalkyl group, a cyano group, a nitro group or a C1-4 alkoxycarbonyl group. R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8 and R9 independently represent a hydrogen atom or a C1-4 alkyl group. R10 represents a hydrogen atom or the like. R11 represents a halogen atom or the like. X represents an oxygen atom or a sulfur atom. m represents an integer of 1 to 4. n represents 1 or 2).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Patterned articles, such as RFID antenna, are made by subablation, a process comprising the steps of:. A. providing a substrate having a coating, such as a metal or metal oxide, and an interface comprising the thin region where the coating and the substrate are closest to each other;. B. exposing at least one part of the total area of the coating to a flux of electromagnetic energy, such as a focused excimer laser beam, sufficient to disrupt the interface but insufficient to ablate the coating; and. C. removing the parts of the coating in registry with the portion of the interface area that was disrupted, by means such as ultrasonic agitation.. The process has advantages over photo-resist processes in that there is no residual chemical resist left on the product and no undercutting of the pattern or image. It has advantages over laser ablation processes in that higher throughput is possible at the same energy level and there is no microscopic debris left on the product surface.

Surface layer materials are often imaged or patterned for many utilitarian purposes. The surface layers may include vacuum deposited thin films, solution coatings, and electroless or electroplated films. Patterned conductive surface layers may find use in both passive and active electronic circuits, display components, antennas for radio frequency identification tags (RFID), wireless local area networks (LAN), and proximity detectors as well as antennas for communication such as pagers, cell phones, and satellite reception. Optical surface layers may find application as optical components such as diffractive optical elements and security images, or in telecommunication applications as components that can perform optical switching, modulation, and multiplexing or demultiplexing.
There are techniques for forming patterns in surface layers. Two useful methods are chemical etching and laser ablation. Images or patterns created by chemical etching are formed by selectively dissolving the surface layer with the appropriate chemicals or by energy ablation are formed by explosively detaching and removing a thin surface layer in a selective manner to create an image or pattern. However, each of these methods has limitations.
Chemical etching is a multiple step process that may create hazardous waste. Typically a chemical or photo-resist is applied to selected parts of a surface that is to be patterned or imaged. Then, a chemical is applied on the entire surface and is able to remove the coating (e.g. copper) exposed on the surface but not the coating on the part of surface covered by the chemical or photo-resist. The chemical solution containing the dissolved surface layer material is then washed off of the imaged article. The often hazardous solution is collected and treated in a safe manner at some expense. This method is undesirable due to the multiple process steps and the imaged article can have residual photo-resist residue and undercut sidewalls of the image.
Contemporary methods of utilizing lasers to pattern or micro-machine materials rely on the physical phenomena of ablation. Energy ablation is a simpler process that does not involve hazardous waste disposal. Typically, the surface layer of an article to be imaged is exposed (for example through a mask) with light pulses from a high-energy source, such as a laser or a flash lamp. These pulses of energy are absorbed by parts of the surface layer not covered by the mask, and the energy impacting the layer causes a sudden increase in surface temperature for a short time. The rapid rise in temperature causes the surface layer material to explosively detach or eject from the substrate and create a pattern corresponding to the mask pattern.


A yo-yo includes a first yo-yo half defining a first starburst, a second yo-yo half defining a second starburst, and an axle fixedly mounted between said yo-yo halves. The yo-yo also includes a roller bearing fixedly attached to the axle, and a spool fixedly attached to the roller bearing, the spool having a circumferential outer rim with a groove therein. A bearing pocket defines an annular radial gap between each yo-yo half and the outer rim, the gap sufficiently small that a string cannot wedge in the gap.

The invention relates to yo-yos and in particular to high performance roller bearing yo-yos.
A typical prior art roller bearing yo-yo consists of two disk-like yo-yo halves attached at their center by an axle, and a roller bearing slidably mounted to the axle between the yo-yo halves. FIG. 6 is a cross-section view of a particular prior art roller bearing yo-yo. This yo-yo includes an axle 74, an inner shell 72 fixedly mounted to the axle by axle threaded end 80 screwed into embedded hex nut 82 of inner shell 72. Outer shell 71 is fixedly attached to inner shell 72. Roller bearing 76 is slid onto the axle and is held in place between facing rims 83 of two spacers 75. Facing rims 83 of the two spacers pinch race 84 of the roller bearing between the halves of the yo-yo. The two spacers are located in spacer pockets 73 which are defined by inner shells 72. Facing rims 87 constrain the strings axial travel on the roller bearing to prevent the string from sliding off the edges of the circumferential surface of the bearing.
Prior art roller bearing yo-yos use single loop stringing because multiple loops of string would cause binding between the bearing and spacer faces 87 and between the bearing and starburst region 88. This would prevent the yo-yo from sleeping. In the single loop stringing method, the string is merely looped around the roller bearing. This allows clearance between faces 87, thereby allowing the roller bearing yo-yo to sleep.
However, prior art roller bearing yo-yos have two disadvantages that limit performance as follows: (1) The sliding of the string around the surface of the roller bearing absorbs energy; and (2) the single loop stringing method allows the string to float from side-to-side across the relatively wide circumferential surface of the roller bearing race 85, which is undesirable because the string, not being centered, will tend to rub on facing rims 87 of the spacer and inner shell starburst regions 88.
A yo-yo according to the present invention includes a first yo-yo half defining a first starburst, a second yo-yo half defining a second starburst, and an axle fixedly mounted between said yo-yo halves. The yo-yo also includes a roller bearing fixedly attached to the axle, and a spool fixedly attached to the roller bearing, the spool having a circumferential outer rim with a groove therein. A bearing pocket defines an annular radial gap between each yo-yo half and the outer rim, the gap sufficiently small that a string cannot wedge in the gap.


A package for biological specimen slides made of an elongated sheet divided by a transverse crease line into a cover portion and a base portion. A tab at one end engages a slot near the opposite end for keeping the sheet folded along the crease line to cover a slide held between the base and cover by two slide retainers on the base portion. The cover is longer than the base and arches away from contact with a biological specimen on the slide. One slide retainer has a retaining strip defined between two openings in the base for holding one end of the slide inserted under the retaining strip and bridging the two openings. The second slide retainer has an opening defined in part by two oblique edges and a tab extending into the opening between the oblique edges, such that the opposite end of the slide can be inserted into the opening and engaged between the oblique edges and the tab.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
It is current medical practice in the screening of patients for various medical disorders to collect small specimens of tissue, scrapings or fluid for subsequent laboratory analysis. These specimens are collected by means of small tools suited for this purpose and deposited on a specimen carrier which typically is a glass slide suitable for viewing of the specimen under a microscope, or for testing of the specimen with chemical reagents.
It is usual for these specimen slides to be placed within a protective package immediately upon collection so as to protect the specimen during subsequent handling and transport to the laboratory. Such packages are made of lightweight pliable stock such as heavy paper or light cardboard. A single sheet is cut with various tabs, flaps, openings etc., in different configurations.
The collection of biological samples for analysis is frequently, carried out under time pressure and less than ideal working conditions. Also, current practice is to wear protective gloves while collecting medical specimens as a precautionary measure against contagion, which adds to the difficulty of quickly and properly handling the small glass specimen slide, placing it into its protective package without smearing the specimen which is exposed on the glass surface, and then folding closed the package.
Since, the specimen package is discarded at the laboratory, it is desirable for such packages to be low cost, while at the same time being very simple in construction, easy to use, and reliable in protecting the slide and the specimen. A continuing need exists for greater simplicity of manufacture, ease of use and improved package performance.

Carrier package for biological speciman slide


A plier tool for cutting multi-conductor electrical cables is disclosed. The tool has a pair of levers having pivotally connected boss portions. The levers also having coacting handle and jaw portions on opposite sides of the boss portions such that upon manipulation of the handles toward one another the jaw portions close to perform a work operation. The jaw portions include coactable cutter sections each having stepped parts oriented such that on closure on a multi-conductor cable a first pair of the parts will substantially sever a first conductor before a second pair of the parts commences to sever a second conductor.

This invention relates to plier tools and more particularly to that class of plier tool which is especially suited for use with three wire insulated electrical cable and a process of severing such cable.
Three wire insulated electrical cables such as those sold under the trademark Romex are now widely used for many applications such as distributing electricity in residential units. These cables include spaced positive and negative insulated conductors with a ground conductor wire disposed between them. In copending application for Pat. Ser. No. 09/185,493 filed Nov. 3, 1998 a tool and method for stripping sheathing from the wires is disclosed. While the tool and process taught in that Application have greatly improved and simplified the preparation of an end section of a three wire cable for connection to an electrical device such as a switch or light fixture their remains a problem in that cutting such cables to length is difficult and requires high force. The need for high force occurs in part because with a conventional plier type cutting tool an operator is attempting to cut through all three wires at the same time during a substantial portion of the cutting operation. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a plier tool which is effective to sever three wire cables with substantially reduced force.
The orientation of cutting edges of conventional cutter has been found to be a further reason that high forces are required. With typical wire cutters, cooperating cutting edges are each located in an imaginary plane including the pivot axis of the cutting levers. As a consequence forces applied to a cylindrical wire being cut include vectors tending to push the wire away from the cutter""s pivot and thus out from between the cutter edges. Force wasted in these outward vectors result in a higher total force being needed to effect a closure of the cutting tool and severance of a wire. Moreover, some amount of force must be applied to the wire being cut to resist its being urged out from between the cutter edges. Expressed another way, the straight cutter edges of the prior art induce forces that tend to push the wire away from the pivot, thus decreasing the mechanical leverage and increasing the force need to effect cutting.
The tool of the present invention comprises a pair of levers with pivotally connected boss sections. Each of the levers has a handle section projecting in one direction from the boss section and a jaw section projecting in the opposite direction such that the handles and the jaws are respectively coactable.
With the tool of the present invention coacting stepped, non parallel cutter blades are provided in the jaw sections. Each blade has three interconnected parts respectively for cutting the three wires of a Romex type cable. A central one of the three parts is offset from an end part which is nearest the plier pivot. The offset in a direction which is transverse to the jaws cutting action. The third part which is remote from the pivot and substantially adjacent to central part is offset from the central part transversely of the tool such that three parts are of a stepped configuration.
One of the outstanding of the features of the invention is that cutting edges of each of the pairs of cutting parts are oriented such that they are either parallel or canted outwardly in the direction toward the pivot. In contrast to the prior art the cutting edges do not tend to push a wire being cut away from the pivot but rather exert all forces radially of the wire or apply forces such that the cutter edges tend to push the wire being cut toward the pivot. To accomplish this orientation, the edges of each pair of cutter parts are other than parallel to corresponding edges of the other two cutting parts so that as the tool is closed successively on the three wires the cutting forces applied to each of the wires being cut are either radial or include a vector tending to push the wire being cut toward the pivot. This cutter edge orientation results in a significant reduction in the forces required to effect cutting.
The inward angling of the cutter parts minimizes the opening span needed to cut a cable of the type a tool is designed to cut. Since the opening is minimized, so to is the spreading of the handles which contributes to comfortable positioning of the handles when cuts are being initiated. Further, the described orientation of the cutting edges results in the cutter parts each being closer to the pivot axis than the respective parts of a prior art blade cutting the same three wire cable. Thus reducing the arc of travel during a cutting operation. Since the amount of arc travel is reduced so to is the overall handle span from full open to fully closed with the consequence that the handle span is within a comfortable range for a user.
The transverse offset and orientation of the blade parts enables the sequential cutting of the three wires of a cable of a size the tool is designed to cut. In the preferred arrangement a first of the conductive wires will be about 80 percent severed by the cutter parts nearest the pivot before the central part commences to cut the ground conductor. In turn the ground conductor will be about 80 percent severed and the first conductor fully severed when the cutter part remote from the pivot commences to sever the second conductor. Tests on each standard size Romex type cable have shown forces required to cut a cable are reduced from 33 to 40 percent as compared with good quality prior art three wire cable cutters. Moreover this tool is also effective to cut European type cables with corresponding force reductions.
Accordingly, the objects of the invention are to provide a novel and improved plier tool for severing multiwire cable and a process of severing such cable.


Method of forming ultra thin coreless substrates are described. In an embodiment, the method utilizes a debond layer including high and low adhesion surface areas to the carrier substrate, and cutting through the low adhesion surface areas to remove a build-up structure from the carrier substrate. An electrical short layer may be formed as a part of or on the debond layer to facilitate electrical testing of the build-up structure prior to debonding, and aid in the formation a “known good” substrate on a support substrate.

Field
Embodiments described herein relate to electronic packaging. More particularly, embodiments relate to electronic packaging substrates.
Background Information
Plastic ball grid array (BGA) substrates are commonly used for memory, controller, and chipset applications amongst others. BGA substrates are commonly sold in the strip form, and characterized as rigid substrates that include a core, such as a resin layer reinforced with glass cloth, and build-up layers on opposite sides of the core. The build-up layers can be interconnected by through vias extending through the core layer. In response to the continued trend for higher density and lower profile (z-height) packages, for example, in mobile devices, recent packaging developments have investigated reduction of the core layer thickness as well as fabrication of coreless substrates.


A method of processing bone material using supercritical fluids is disclosed. The method comprises placing the bone material in a processing chamber, adding supercritical fluid to the processing chamber, pulsing the supercritical fluid in the processing chamber, and rinsing the bone material. A processing system for processing bone material using supercritical fluids in accordance with the present invention comprises a processing chamber for housing the bone material, a vat for storing a processing fluid, a pump, a heating element, a flow path, a tank, and a solvent port.

The treating and processing of bone material is becoming increasingly important as the demand for bone implants and grafts (hereinafter "bone grafts" or "grafts") rises. Bone material must be processed properly; otherwise, disastrous consequences may result from implants of improperly processed bone material into a host. Such disastrous consequences include but are not limited to: a host's immunogenic response to the graft, a host's rejection of the bone graft altogether, the possible transfer of diseases and infectious agents from the donor to the host due to unclear bone grafts, prolonged recovery time for the host, and multiple avoidable operations on the host to remove an improperly processed bone graft. To avoid such problems, bone material must be properly processed to selectively eliminate fats, proteins, donor cells, viruses, bacteria, and the like, before the bone material can be successfully implanted into the host.
Conventionally, the processing of bone material includes a number of steps. FIG. 1 shows a flow chart 100 of the steps using the conventional method of processing bone material as disclosed in the prior art. In the step 101, the bone material is obtained from a donor. In the step 110, the bone material is degreased by placing it into a container of acid or acetone. In the step 120, the bone material is rinsed using a rinse medium, such as a water bath. Next, in the step 130 the bone material is oxidized, where the bone material is sterilized from viruses and the like. Usually, this oxidizing step requires the bone to be treated with hydrogen peroxide. In the step 140 the bone material is rinsed again. In the step 150, the bone material is treated with a base for protein removal. In the step 160, the bone material undergoes yet another rinse. Then, in the step 170, the bone material is dried using some type of alcohol or acetone. Optionally, in the step 180, the bone material is treated with gamma radiation. In the step 190, the final product resulting from the conventional method is a white, bleached sterile demineralized bone matrix, which oftentimes has denatured collagen and lacks bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs), which are growth factors key to bone osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity.
The conventional method falls short in providing the ideal bone graft. The ideal bone graft is one that is both osteoconductive and osteoinductive. Osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity are two vital mechanisms for the regeneration and rebuilding of bone. Osteoinductivity refers to the ability to build, heal and regenerate bone in humans, and this is realized through active recruitment of host stem cells from surrounding tissue, which differentiate into bone-forming osteoblasts. Growth factors, particularly BMPs, aid and stimulate bone osteoinductivity. Collagen found inside the bone material provides an exceptional osteoinductive substrate for bone formation. To be osteoinductive, the ideal bone graft must contain undamaged BMPs and collagen. In contrast with osteoinductivity, osteoconductivity refers to the ability of a bone graft to form a scaffold or a structure on which the host's cells are able to form new bone. Thus, the ideal bone graft is both osteoinductive and osteoconductive, since such a graft allows for new bone to form at the implant site and further provides structural support for the formation and incorporation of the new bone.
The disadvantages of the conventional method are several-fold. First, the conventional method requires several separate processing chambers for the bone material to be processed, using a multitude of chemicals, some of which are toxic. For instance, acetone can be used for the degreasing step, step 110, and the drying step, step 170, of the conventional method, and yet in some countries, acetone is a prohibited processing agent due to its toxicity. Second, the conventional method can be expensive, labor-intensive, and time-consuming, given the numerous steps and various processing agents that are required. Also, the number of steps required by the conventional method increases the likelihood that some type of error will occur and the bone material will be improperly processed. Further, the oxidizing step, step 130, of the conventional method destroys the BMPs in the bone, leaving a sterile mineral matrix. Finally, the base step of the conventional method, step 150, can denature collagen and destroy BMPs. By denaturing collagen and killing growth factors, such as the BMPs, the conventional method unfortunately can result in a decrease of both the osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity of the bone material, which translates into a longer time for the bone material to incorporate properly into the host body or a complete rejection of the bone material.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,579, issued to Fages et al, entitled "Process for Treating Bone Tissue and Corresponding Implantable Biomaterials," issued Mar. 10, 1998, it was disclosed that the degreasing step, step 110, and the rinse step, step 120, of the conventional method (FIG. 1) can be replaced by a single step of treating a bone material with supercritical fluid. However, under Fages, the remainder of the conventional method steps, namely, the steps 130, 140, 150, 160, and 170 (FIG. 1), must follow after treating the bone material with supercritical fluid, for the cleaning process to be completed.

System for and method of processing bone material using supercritical fluids


In a cleaning apparatus, a boil sump containing a cleaning solvent within four sidewalls and a bottom. Additionally, the boil sump has a partition extending between two opposing sidewalls that separates the boil sump into a boiling compartment and a cleaning compartment. Furthermore, the partition contains a conduit therethrough that permits the solvent to flow between the cleaning and boiling compartments. The boiling compartment contains a heater that heats the solvent to a boil while the cleaning compartment contains an ultrasonic transducer array for ultrasonically cleaning an object placed in the cleaning compartment. In addition to the boil sump, the cleaning apparatus contains a rinsing compartment for rinsing an object that has been cleaned in the cleaning compartment. The boil sump, as well as the rinsing compartment, are contained in a single, enclosed chamber within the cleaning apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to cleaning apparatus and more particularly, to cleaning apparatus that contains a partitioned boil sump.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional apparatus for cleaning objects, such as piece parts of manufactured goods, circuit boards, screws, bolts, nuts, and the like, typically use a multi-stage cleaning process in which an object is sequentially immersed in a series of chambers or tanks. Typically, these tanks contain a single solvent and, as such, the apparatus is known as a mono-solvent cleaning apparatus. Furthermore, conventional apparatus continuously cleanses the solvent during operation of the apparatus using a distilling process. Such distilling processes use a distinct boil sump to boil the solvent into a vapor and a condenser to condense the vapor into the solvent solution. The boil sump is generally separate from the tanks used for cleaning and rinsing an object.
Conventional solvents used for degreasing and cleaning metal and other non-absorbent objects include 1,1,1-trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene, methylene chloride and the like. However, these solvents are suspected of depleting the earth's ozone layer. Consequently, so-called "ozone safe" solvents have recently been used in commercial cleaning apparatus. Illustratively, volatile solvents that are ozone safe include perflourocarbons (PFCs) and hydroflourocarbons (HFCs). Additionally, non-volatile, ozone safe solvents include hydrocarbon-based products such as dimethylsiloxane produced by DOW Chemical of Midland, Mich. and AXEREL produced by E. I. duPont de Nemours and Company of Wilmington, Del.
A typical cleaning apparatus using a multi-stage, single solvent cleaning process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,082 issued Dec. 12, 1989 to S. Kato et al. (the '082 Kato et al. patent). This patent specifically teaches a three stage process by which objects are cleaned in three separate tanks of solvent.
To clean an object in accordance with the teachings of the '082 Kato et al. patent, the object is first placed in a vapor cleaning tank wherein a solvent is heated above its boiling point and the vapor of the solvent cleans the object. The object is not immersed in the solvent itself, but rather is positioned above the boiling liquid solvent.
After vapor cleaning for a pre-defined duration, the object is moved from the vapor cleaning tank to an ultrasonic cleaning tank. The vapor cleaning tank and the ultrasonic cleaning tank contain the same solvent. The object is immersed in the liquid solvent contained in the ultrasonic cleaning tank and ultrasonic transducers located at the bottom of the tank apply ultrasonic waves to the solvent. As is well known in the art, ultrasonic cavitation of the solution caused by the ultrasonic waves removes particulate material from the object.
Lastly, the cleaning process taught by the '082 Kato et al. patent teaches immersing the object into a liquid solvent in a rinse tank. The solvent contained in the rinse tank is the same solvent as that used in the vapor cleaning and ultrasonic cleaning tanks. The object, now that it is clean, is then removed from the cleaning apparatus and air dried.
To continuously cleanse the solvent while it is used in the cleaning apparatus, the '082 Kato et al. patent teaches continuously removing a portion of the solvent from the vapor cleaning tank and channeling the removed solvent to a separate distilling tank, also known in the art as a boil sump. In the distilling tank, the solvent is heated to a boil to produce solvent vapor. A condenser, located above the distilling tank and maintained at a temperature substantially below the boiling point of the solvent, condenses the solvent vapor into a solution. The solvent solution is channeled from the condenser into the rinse tank. The rinse tank is separated from the ultrasonic tank by a spillway that enables the solvent from the rinse tank to overflow into the ultrasonic cleaning tank. A conduit connects the ultrasonic tank to the vapor cleaning tank to provide solvent thereto. Lastly, the vapor cleaning tank is connected, via a conduit, to the distilling tank. As such, a closed system is produced that requires the solvent to sequentially circulate through each of the tanks and ultimately be boiled in the distilling tank before recirculation. Therefore, particulate contaminants, grease and oil contained in the solvent solution are continuously removed from the solvent by the distilling process and those contaminants remain in the distilling tank.
The '082 Kato et al. patent teaches using a distinct distilling tank that is separate from the cleaning and rinsing tanks. To reduce the footprint of the cleaning apparatus and, also, simplify the overall design thereof, it would be advantageous to have a single tank that can be used for both ultrasonic cleaning of objects and distilling the solvent, i.e., an integrated cleaning and distilling tank.
Furthermore, in cleaning some objects, a single solvent is not sufficient and two different solvents, i.e., co-solvent cleaning, must be used to facilitate complete cleansing of the object. For example, some types of grease and oils are best removed by a non-volatile hydrocarbon-based solvent. However, such non-volatile solvents do not dry very quickly and may not remove all forms of contaminants from the object. Moreover, when air dried, a non-volatile solvent may leave a solid residue on the object. Therefore, a second solvent, typically a volatile solvent, is used to remove the residual non-volatile solvent from the object and also remove any remaining oils, greases or particulate matter not removed from the object by the non-volatile solvent. Advantageously, volatile solvents dry by evaporation in a relatively short period of time. Thus, a co-solvent cleaning process removes a variety of particulate matter, grease and oil from an object as well as produce a dry object within a relatively short period of time. Thus, it would be also advantageous to have a cleaning apparatus that is capable of both mono-solvent and co-solvent cleaning operations.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for a single cleaning apparatus having a distilling tank that is an integral portion of the cleaning tank and that performs both mono-solvent and co-solvent cleaning.

Cleaning apparatus having a partitioned boil sump


An inter-view video decoding method includes determining a reference value that is a reference for splitting a current block of a depth image corresponding to a texture image, from reference samples at a predetermined location of a reference block included in the texture image; determining a binary map of the current block by comparing the reference value and reference samples of the current block; splitting the current block into a plurality of partitions based on the binary map; and determining prediction values of the plurality of partitions based on adjacent samples of the current block and the binary map.

As hardware for reproducing and storing high resolution or high quality video content is being developed and supplied, a need for a video codec for effectively encoding or decoding the high resolution or high quality video content is increasing. According to a conventional video codec, a video is encoded according to a limited encoding method based on a coding unit having a predetermined size.
Image data of the space domain is transformed into coefficients of the frequency domain via frequency transformation. According to a video codec, an image is split into blocks having a predetermined size, discrete cosine transformation (DCT) is performed on each block, and frequency coefficients are encoded in block units, for rapid calculation of frequency transformation. Compared with image data of the space domain, coefficients of the frequency domain are easily compressed. In particular, since an image pixel value of the space domain is expressed according to a prediction error via inter prediction or intra prediction of a video codec, when frequency transformation is performed on the prediction error, a large amount of data may be transformed to 0. According to a video codec, an amount of data may be reduced by replacing data that is consecutively and repeatedly generated with small-sized data.
A multi-view video codec encodes and decodes a base-view picture and one or more dependent-view pictures. The base-view picture and the one or more dependent-view pictures respectively include a texture picture and a depth picture corresponding to a view. Redundancy of the base-view picture and the one or more dependent-view pictures and redundancy between the texture picture and the depth picture are removed, thereby reducing data of a multi-view video.

Multi-view image encoding/decoding methods and devices


Disclosed is a lidar sensor system, including: a transmission unit including one DV lens which emits laser light to a front area of a vehicle, and two SV lenses which emit laser light to left and right side areas of the vehicle; and a reception unit including one DV reception lens which receives light reflected from the front area of the vehicle, and two SV reception lenses which receive light reflected from the left and right side areas of the vehicle.

Recently, there has been developed a system for recognizing a pedestrian in front of a vehicle, and warning a driver or automatically controlling braking or steering when there is a collision risk to avoid a collision.
The system for recognizing an object in front of a vehicle includes a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor system, which is capable of detecting a distance to a target, a direction, a speed, a temperature, and a material of a target, and the like in order to recognize a target around the vehicle, and the lidar sensor system may emit a laser to a target, and receive information about the target through light reflected from the target.
However, there is a problem in that the lidar sensor used in the related art detects a front obstacle at a relatively long distance and has a narrow field of view, thereby failing to detect a vehicle suddenly entering from a next lane as illustrated in FIG. 4. That is, recently, in order to recognize a vehicle in a situation where the vehicle suddenly cuts in from a next lane in addition to recognize an obstacle in a front area of the vehicle, a demand for a lidar sensor having a wider field of view (FOV) has been increased.
In order to expand the FOV of the lidar sensor, there is a method of increasing sizes of all of lenses and a detector in proportion to the FOV, or expanding only lenses. In the case where all of the lenses and the detector are expanded, there is a problem in that cost of the detector is increased in proportion to the FOV, and in the case where the FOV is increased by expanding only the lenses, resolution and a detection distance are decreased, so that performance deteriorates, that is, a rate of detection of a front obstacle is decreased.


A modulator includes an oscillator to start an oscillation operation when an input data changes from a first logic to a second logic, and stops the oscillation operation when the input data changes from the second logic to the first logic, a pulse generator to output a predetermined number of pulses of a pulse signal having a predetermined pulse width when the input data changes from the second logic to the first logic, and a signal selector to select an oscillation signal outputted from the oscillator when the input data has the second logic, and selects the pulse signal outputted from the pulse generator when the input data has the first logic.

An OOK modulator is known, in which an oscillator performs an oscillation operation when input data having two values is at a High value, for example, and stops the oscillation operation when the input data is at a Low value when generating a modulation signal. A signal transmission system is also known, in which the modulation signal modulated by the OOK modulator of the aforementioned type is transmitted to the receiver side via an isolation device.
In the OOK modulator, the timing at which the input data is inputted is not in synchronization with the oscillation signal of the oscillator. Therefore, the phase of the oscillation signal at the time when the input data changes is not the same. Therefore, the value of the modulation signal varies when the input data changes from High to Low. As a result, the waveform of the modulation signal that is obtained when the oscillator stops the oscillation operation differs for every input data. Therefore, every time the input data is inputted, the delay time of the modulation signal varies, and jitter is generated. It is preferable to curb the jitter, which degrades the signal quality.
In a method for curbing the jitter, two modulation paths for performing OOK modulation are provided, one for an oscillation operation that is performed when input data is at a first logic level, and the other for an oscillation operation that is performed when the input data is at a second logic level, and the path for an oscillation signal is switched from the one path to the other in synchronization with the timing at the rising edge of the oscillation signal.
The two modulation paths, however, may increase the circuit size and the power consumption. Furthermore, in the signal transmission system using the isolation device, the area occupied by the isolation device is greater than the area occupied by other circuit blocks. Therefore, the need of a plurality of isolation devices may be disadvantageous.

Modulator and signal transmission system


There is provided an image processing apparatus including a presentation controller configured to control presentation of degrees of focus in a target image corresponding to an image to be processed on the basis of a first determination result corresponding to a determination result of a degree of focus in a pixel unit in the target image and a second determination result corresponding to a determination result of a degree of focus in a region unit in the target image.

For example, as the number of valid pixels of an image captured by an imaging device and the number of pixels used to display the captured image increase, it becomes difficult to obtain focused images when images are captured by the imaging device.
In view of this, technology for improving focusing accuracy has been developed. As technology for compositing an indicator generated based on high-frequency components extracted from an image with the image and allowing a user who views the image to recognize a focused portion in the image, for example, the technology described in the following Patent Literature 1 may be exemplified. In addition, as technology for detecting high-frequency components from an image and emphasizing and displaying the edge of a subject, the technology described in the following Patent Literature 2 may be exemplified.

Image processing apparatus and image processing method


A plasma display apparatus having a structure capable of improving a light efficiency is disclosed. The reflecting mirror plane or a metal reflecting film is formed on a back surface of a back plate of the plasma display apparatus, so that the back face light is reflected more than 95%, and thus, the light loss due to the back face light can be minimized, so that the light efficiency of the plasma display apparatus can be heightened. Especially, by forming the reflecting film having almost the same diameter as that of the discharge cell and a predetermined curvature at the positions corresponding to the discharge cells on the rear plate of the plasma display apparatus, the light interference between the discharge cells due to the reflected light can be prevented. Also, since the reflecting film serves as a high frequency blocking film, the loss of high frequency of the high frequency plasma display apparatus can be prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat panel display apparatus, and more particularly to a plasma display apparatus having a structure capable of improving a light efficiency.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently, flat panel display apparatuses such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a field emission display (FED) and a plasma display panel (PDP) are actively being developed. Especially, the PDP is the most remarkable owing to its advantages in that it is easily produced due to its simple structure, an excellence in the high luminance and a high light-emitting efficiency, a memory function, and a wide view angle more than 160xc2x0 is obtained, and a large screen more than 40 inches can be implemented.
With reference to FIG. 1, the structure of a surface discharge AC PDP in accordance with a conventional art will now be described.
First, a front plate 10 and a back plate 20 are disposed facing each other spaced apart at a predetermined interval, between which discharge spaces 29 defined by barrier ribs 23 are formed.
A plurality of address electrodes 21 are formed in parallel in one direction on the upper surface of the back plate 20, and the upper surface of the back plate 20 and the upper surface of the address electrodes 21 are covered by a dielectric layer 22.
A plurality of barrier ribs 23 are formed on the upper surface of the dielectric layer 22 between the address electrodes 21. The barrier ribs 23 serve to prevent the discharge spaces 29 prepared between each barrier rib from interfering electrically and optically. Black matrix bands 24 are formed on the upper surface of the barrier ribs 23, to prevent a contrast degradation caused due to reflection of an external light.
A florescent layer 25 is coated on the both wall side of the barrier rib 23 and on the dielectric layer 22 covering the address electrode 21.
On one side of the front plate 10, a sustain/display electrode 11 and a scan electrode 12 are disposed spaced apart at a predetermined interval in the direction perpendicular to the direction of the address electrode 21. As a material of the sustain/display electrode 11 and the scan electrode 12, a translucent material, specifically, an indium tin oxide (ITO), is typically used so that luminescent light can pass through effectively.
Bus electrodes 13 are formed at the end portion of the sustain/display electrodes 11 and the scan electrodes 12, so as to apply a stable driving voltage.
The bus electrode 13 is formed of an Al(aluminum) or Cr/Cu/Cr(chrome/copper/chrome) layer.
A dielectric layer 14 covers the sustain/display electrode 11, the scan electrode 12, the bus electrode 13 and the front plate 10.
An MgO film 15 is coated on the surface of the dielectric layer 14, as a protective film. The MgO protective film protects the PbO dielectric layer from a sputtering of ion. Also, when a low ion energy hits on the surfaced during plasma discharging of the PDP, due to its comparatively high second electronic generation coefficient characteristics, it renders the driving and sustain voltage of the discharge plasma to be lowered down.
The inside of the plasma display panel of FIG. 1, that is, the discharge cells (the discharge spaces 29) surrounded by the barrier ribs are filled with He, Ne or Ar, or their mixed gas and a mixed gas of Xe.
FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the surface discharge AC PDP taken along line of IIxe2x80x94II of FIG. 1. The same reference numerals of FIGS. 1 and 2 represent the same elements, and thus, descriptions of FIG. 2 are omitted.
Operational principle of the plasma display panel of the conventional art is as follows.
When a predetermined driving voltage is applied between the sustain/display electrode and the scan electrode, the plasma discharging occurs on the surface of the dielectric layer. Then, the ultraviolet ray generated from the plasma discharging excites the florescent material of a red color, (referred to as xe2x80x98Rxe2x80x99, hereinafter), a green color (referred to as xe2x80x98Gxe2x80x99, hereinafter) and a blue color (referred to as xe2x80x98Bxe2x80x99, hereinafter) so as to be luminescent, and the visible ray of the R, G and B luminescent from the florescent material proceeds to the front plate through the dielectric layer and the display electrode, thereby displaying characters and graphic.
However, as to the plasma display panel of the conventional art has a problem in that the light luminescent from the florescent material is partially leaked through the back plate, degrading the light efficiency.
In an effort to solve the problem, there has been an attempt to heighten the light efficiency in a manner that the a material having a high reflectivity, that is, TiO2, is added in the dielectric layer so that the light luminescent in the discharge cell is directed to the front plate by being reflected on the dielectric layer without being penetrated through the back plate.
However, in spite of applying the method, the luminance of the light leaked through the back plate reaches 20% of the luminance of the light penetrated through the front plate, resulting in that the light efficiency of the plasma display panel is still low.
Light efficiency of the plasma display panel that has been recently developed is quite low, having approximately 1 Im/w, which is the biggest problem in view of commercial use of the plasma display panel. Therefore, the persons in the pertinent art try to find a method for improving light efficiency of the plasma display panel.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a plasma display apparatus which is capable of minimizing a loss of a back light through a back plate to thereby improve light efficiency.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purposed of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided a plasma display apparatus of which a back plate has a reflecting film on one side surface thereof.
In order to achieve the object, the reflecting film of the plasma display apparatus is a metal film.
In order to achieve the object, the metal film of the plasma display apparatus is made of one of aluminum, silver copper or chrome.
In order to achieve the object, the reflecting film of the plasma display apparatus is a metal film made by one of sputtering, evaporation, chemical vapor deposition, spin coating or a sol-gel method.
In order to achieve the object, the reflecting film of the plasma display apparatus is a mirror plane.
In order to achieve the object, the mirror plane is formed by using a silver mirror reaction.
In order to achieve the object, one side of a plate of the plasma display panel is flat, and the other side thereof forms a plurality of semicircular curves on which the reflecting film is formed.
In order to achieve the object, a flat plate micro lens is provided on the front surface of the reflecting film so as to condensing incident light.
In order to achieve the object, the plate micro lens is formed only at a portion corresponding to discharge cells between barrier ribs.


A container for presenting and storing an object comprises a base and a shell with a first end and second end. The first end is operatively coupled to the base so the shell is rotatable relative thereto. The second end defines an aperture opposite to the base. The container includes a carriage that is received within the shell and that is configured to translate between a presentation position proximal to the aperture and a storage position distal to the aperture. The container includes an actuatable member, which is adjacent to the aperture, and which is configurable between an open position and a closed position. Rotation of the base relative to the shell, in a first direction, opens the actuatable member and the carriage moves towards the presentation position. Rotation in a second direction closes the actuatable member and moves the carriage towards the storage position.

Objects—such as rings, bracelets, brooches, jewels, pendants, watches, necklaces and the like—are often provided in an accompanying box that is intended to store and display the personal ornament in an attractive manner. Conventional personal ornament boxes often feature a clam-shell design with a hinge connecting a first segment and a second segment. The hinge is typically equipped with a means for biasing the first segment and the second segment together in a closed configuration and a means for biasing the first segment and the second segment apart in an open configuration. Generally, the closed configuration is used for storing the personal ornament, and the open configuration is used for displaying the personal ornament. The act of switching the personal ornament box between the closed configuration and the open configuration is often an important part of presenting a personal ornament, and yet conventional personal ornament boxes are not configured to accentuate this act. In short, they do little to draw attention to their contents during presentation. Personal ornament boxes that include mechanical arrangements to present their contents in more sophisticated manners have been proposed, but such boxes are often bulky, unreliable, expensive, unattractive, and/or overly complex. Accordingly, there exists an unmet need for personal ornament boxes that address one or more of these limitations.

Methods, uses, and apparatus for presenting and storing objects


A new scheduling discipline is disclosed for the forward link of a wireless network such as a CDMA network. The new discipline, which we denominate Modified LWDF (M-LWDF), resembles the known LWDF discipline in that only one queue is served at a time, and the queue to be served is that having the largest weighted delay. According to M-LWDF, the weighted delay of the i""th queue is defined as                     γ        i                                    W          i                                  (          t          )                                    c        i                          (        t        )              ,

This invention relates to scheduling disciplines for packet transmissions in a wireless network, and more particularly to the downlink scheduling in a CDMA network.
Within the base station of a wireless network such as a CDMA network, packets destined for individual mobile stations accumulate in a buffer until they can be served by the base station and transmitted to their destinations. A queue of waiting packets can be identified for each mobile station served by the base station.
An important area of current study is how best to devise a rate scheduling rule (also referred to as a scheduling discipline or queueing discipline) that directs the base station, at a given time, how to allocate its total capacity among individual data transmission rates to the respective mobile stations. Desirably, the rate scheduling rule is devised such that all the queues are stable; that is, in such a way that each queue reaches a steady-state delay that on average does not increase with time. Moreover, it is desirable to devise the rate scheduling rule such that no queue experiences excessive delay as measured, e.g., by the age of the oldest packet in the queue. The age of a packet is typically measured from the arrival timestamp of the packet.
A scheduling rule known to those skilled in the art as Largest Weighted Delay First (LWDF) was described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/393,949, filed on Sep. 10, 1999 by K. Ramanan et al. under the title xe2x80x9cMethod And Apparatus For Scheduling Traffic To Meet Quality Of Service Requirements In A Communication Networkxe2x80x9d and commonly assigned herewith. Under the LWDF scheduling rule, only one mobile station (more generally, only one xe2x80x9cuserxe2x80x9d) is served at a time, and transmission to that user is made at the greatest available mobile data transmission rate. Within a scheduling interval identified, e.g., by its initial time t, the LWDF rule directs that the base station should serve that queue which has the greatest weighted delay aiWi(t), where the number of distinct queues is N, i=1, . . . , N, Wi(t) is the delay of the longest-waiting packet in the i""th queue, and {ai} are a set of constants, described in more detail below.
The LWDF discipline is useful, under at least certain conditions, for maintaining packet delays within certain bounds, which we refer to as probabilistic delay bounds. (A probabilistic delay bound is a requirement that with at least a specified probability, packet delays must be less than a specified threshold.) However, LWDF generally provides the best results when channel conditions are constant. Channel conditions are typically characterized by a set of weights {ci}, each weight expressing the transmission power required per unit data rate to transmit data to a respective mobile station. Because in many cases there are significant fluctuations in the channel conditions, a need has remained for a scheduling discipline that will dependably provide queue stability and probabilistically bounded delay even in the presence of such fluctuations.
We have devised a new scheduling discipline, which we denominate Modified LWDF (M-LWDF). We have mathematically proven that if any scheduling discipline can yield stable queues for a given traffic pattern of arriving packets, then M-LWDF can. We have proven that this is so even under changing channel conditions. Moreover, we have found that M-LWDF can provide favorable probabilistic delay bounds. That is, M-LWDF can lead to a low probability that the delay of any queue will exceed a threshold. This probability is also low compared to those delay-violation probabilities typically achieved by, e.g., the known LWDF discipline.
Like LWDF, the M-LWDF discipline directs that only one mobile station should be served at a time. It is generally desirable, although not essential, to serve that one mobile station at the greatest available mobile data transmission rate. Moreover, as will be explained below, certain extensions of pure M-LWDF in which multiple mobile stations may be served at one time also fall within the scope of the invention.
In certain exemplary embodiments of M-LWDF, the queue to be served in each scheduling interval is the queue having a maximum weighted delay. However, the weighted delay is defined differently from the weighted delay of the LWDF discipline. One example of a weighted delay suitable for M-LWDF is                     γ        i                                    W          i                                  (          t          )                                    c        i                          (        t        )              ,
where Wi(t) is defined as above, the time-dependence of the weights ci(t) (which, as noted, reflect channel conditions) is now explicitly indicated, and {xcex3i} is a fixed set of positive constants that can be chosen arbitrarily.
Significantly, each weighted delay now grows larger as the corresponding weight ci(t) grows smaller. Smaller weights signify better signal-propagation channels, because less power is required for transmission at a given data rate. Thus, the new weighted delay presented above represents a trade-off between two possibly competing effects. On the one hand, the weighted delay tends to grow, and thus the likelihood of serving the corresponding queue tends to grow, as Wi(t) grows, i.e., as the packets of the queue grow older. On the other hand, the weighted delay tends to grow as the weight ci(t) falls, but tends to fall as the weight ci(t) rises. Thus, increases in either packet age or channel quality can increase the likelihood of serving the pertinent queue.
The M-LWDF discipline, as we envisage it, is broad enough to encompass other definitions of the weighted delay that also take into account the possibly competing effects of packet age and channel quality. For example, the weight ci(t) may be normalized by a statistically calculated variable such as its own average or median value {overscore (c)}i over an appropriate time interval. According to still other alternate definitions of the weighted delay, the ratio       γ    i              c      i                  (      t      )
multiplies, not Wi(t), but instead an increasing function of Wi(t). Advantageously, such a function gives preferential weight to queues whose delays (possibly adjusted by a scaling coefficient) exceed by a threshold quantity an average scaled delay, i.e., the scaled delay averaged over all queues. Such a threshold quantity is desirably an increasing function of the average scaled delay.
Although Wi(t) has been described above as representing the age of the oldest packet in the i""th queue, it can also represent the length of the i""the queue, i.e., the amount of data waiting in the queue. Thus, without deviating from the scope and spirit of the invention, queues can be selected on the basis of weighted delay for all queues, weighted queue length for all queues, or weighted delay for some queues and weighted queue length for others.
As noted, pure M-LWDF demands that in each scheduling interval, only one queue should be served. However, the base station in some wireless systems will be prohibited from allocating its full transmission capacity to a single mobile station. In such a case, the maximum transmission rate that is xe2x80x9cavailablexe2x80x9d to serve a given queue may not account for the full transmission capacity of the base station. In such cases, for example, it will be advantageous to rank the queues in descending order of their respective weighted delays. The maximum transmission rate available for serving the first queue is allocated for that purpose. Of the transmission capacity that remains, the maximum available rate is then allocated to the next queue, and so on, down through the rank ordering until the total transmission capacity is exhausted. We consider such a scheduling method, in which the weighted delay is defined as in pure M-LWDF, to also fall within the scope of the present invention.

Method of packet scheduling, with improved delay performance, for wireless networks

Abstract: wherein Wi(t) is a packet delay, a queue length, or an increasing function of packet delay or queue length for the i""th queue, ci(t) is a weight coefficient descriptive of channel conditions for the i""th user, and xcex3i is a fixed constant that can be chosen arbitrarily. We have found that if any scheduling discipline can yield stable queues for a given traffic pattern of arriving packets, then M-LWDF can, even under changing channel conditions. Moreover, we have found that M-LWDF can provide favorable QoS in terms of delay bounds.


A method for estimating at least one of a fastener-hole depth and a fastener length prior to forming a hole in a bone can include selecting a position on a proximal side of a proximal cortical bone layer for forming the hole, transmitting a transmitted wave into the bone from the selected position, and receiving a reflected wave at the selected position after the transmitted wave has been reflected by a distal cortical bone layer. The method can further include determining a distance from the selected position to the distal cortical bone layer based on times at which the transmitted wave is transmitted and the reflected wave is received, and estimating the at least one of the fastener-hole depth and the fastener length based on the distance to the distal cortical bone layer.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and does not constitute prior art.
Bone screws and bone plates are used to fix bone fragments when repairing complex fractures. Typically, when inserting a bone screw into a bone, a hole is drilled into a bone at a desired depth and a bone screw is inserted into the hole. To determine if the desired depth has been reached, a surgeon either uses tactile feedback while drilling into the bone or uses a depth gauge after drilling into the bone. Using tactile feedback while drilling into the bone can be inaccurate due to variations in bone density. Using a depth gauge after drilling into the bone can be inaccurate since the drill depth is not determined until after the hole has been drilled.
Thus, there is need for procedures and depth gauges that enable estimating screw trajectories, such as a screw-hole depth or a screw length, prior to forming a hole in a bone. In addition, there is a need for procedures and depth gauges that minimize the amount of fluoroscopy necessary for bone screw insertions, thereby reducing the time and costs required for bone screw insertions.

Method and apparatus for aligning bone screw holes


A wire grid polarizer (20) and a fabrication method thereof,and a display device are provided. The fabrication method of the wire grid polarizer (20) includes: applying a mixture (100) including a polymeric monomer (101) and a metal particle (102) on a surface of a base substrate (01); performing a curing treatment on the mixture (100) at a predetermined position; and forming a wire grid pattern including protrusions (110) arranged at intervals on the surface of the base substrate (01). Problems of a complicated process, great difficulty and high cost in a fabrication process of the wire grid polarizer (20) are solved.

Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD), as a flat-panel display device, is more frequently applied to high-performance display field, due to its characteristics such as small size, low power consumption, no radiation and relatively low fabrication cost.
A TFT-LCD, as shown in FIG. 1a, comprises an array substrate 10 and a color filter substrate 11. A liquid crystal layer 12 is filled between the array substrate 10 and the color filter substrate 11. In addition, a first polarizer 13 is provided on an upper surface of the color filter substrate 11, and a second polarizer 15 is provided between the array substrate 10 and a backlight module 14, and an optical axis of the first polarizer 13 and an optical axis of the second polarizer 15 are perpendicular to each other. In the case that no electric field is applied to the liquid crystal layer 12, light emitted from the backlight module 14 is incident on the liquid crystal layer 12 through the second polarizer 15, the light is rotated by the liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer 12 during traveling through the liquid crystal layer 12, and then the light is emitted from the first polarizer 13. In the case that an electric field is applied to the liquid crystal layer, an arrangement direction of the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer 12 changes, so that the incident light cannot pass through the TFT-LCD. In this way, intensity of light emitted from the TFT-LCD can be controlled. In addition, under a filtering effect of the color filter substrate 11, color image display can be implemented.
In the case shown in FIG. 1a, the above-described polarizers (the first polarizer 13 and the second polarizer 14) may be made of a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film. The polarizer allows one polarization component in natural light to transmit, while the other polarization component is absorbed by the polarizer. As a result, a lot of light loss will be caused, so that utilization of the light from the backlight module 14 is greatly reduced.
In order to solve the above-described problem, a wire grid polarizer 20 made of a metal material is employed, as shown in FIG. 1b. In the case that light is incident on the wire grid polarizer 20, under an oscillatory action of free electrons on a surface of the metal wire grid polarizer 20, almost all light having an electric field vector component parallel to the wire grid is reflected, and almost all light having an electric field vector component perpendicular to the wire grid is transmitted. In addition, the light reflected by the wire grid polarizer 20 can be reused. Thus, the utilization of light is effectively improved.
However, in a process of fabricating the above-described metal wire grid polarizer 20, it is necessary to form a metal layer by using a metal target material, and it is also necessary to pattern the metal layer to form the pattern of the wire grid polarizer 20 by a relatively highly accurate etching process. Therefore, the fabrication process thereof is complicated, with great processing difficulty and high fabrication cost.

Wire grid polarizer and fabrication method thereof, and display device


An electrostatographic toner comprising toner particles that have been surface treated with a solvent and silica particles having a BET surface area of 40 to 400 m.sup.2 /g; wherein the solvent is selected from aliphatic alcohols, diols and triols, aliphatic ketones, aliphatic esters, cyclic ethers and aliphatic ethers.

Digital electrostatographic printing products are being developed for printing high quality text and half tone images, hence there is a need to formulate electrostatographic toners and developers that produce improved image quality (See Schinichi Sata, et al., STUDY ON THE SURFACE PROPERTIES OF POLYESTER COLOR TONER, IS&T NIP13, 149-152 (1997) and Nash, R. & Muller, R. N. THE EFFECT OF TONER AND CARRIER COMPOSITION ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TONER CHARGE TO MASS RATIO AND TONER CONCENTRATION, IS&T NIP 13, 112-10, (1997)). Surface treatment of toners with fumed silica powders, results in toner and developer formulations that have improved powder flow properties and reproduce text and half tone dots more uniformly without character voids (See, Schinichi Sata, et. al., supra). The improved powder fluidity of the toner or developer can however create unwanted print density in white background areas.
The triboelectric charge of electrostatographic developers changes as prints are made, referred to as the "life" of the developer. This instability in charging level is one of the factors that require active process control systems in electrostatographic printers to maintain consistent image-density from print to print.
There is need in the art for developers that are stable with life and that have the advantage of improved electrostatic transfer and higher density capabilities.

Electrophotographic toner surface treated with silica mixtures


A solid-state imaging apparatus has an imaging unit which is partly shielded against incident light to produce an optically shielded signal. A memory unit is provided for storing the optically shielded signal as a dark state signal during one horizontal scanning period. A line defect signal representative of a line defect present in the imaging unit is stored in the memory unit during the one horizontal scanning period. An optical signal of the imaging unit and a dark state signal stored in the memory unit during the one horizontal scanning period are subtracted so that the line defect signal contained in the optical signal of the imaging unit and the dark state signal are cancelled out to produce a signal having no line defect.

Generally, a solid-state imaging apparatus such as an image pickup apparatus or an image sensor is constituted by a light receiving section for picking up an optical image signal and a shifting section for shifting a picked-up image signal. If various defects incident to the manufacturing process of the solid-state imaging apparatus take place in the light receiving section or the shifting section, black or white lines in the form of a black and white stripe pattern is displayed on the screen, thereby degrading the quality a picture reproduced thereon. When the light receiving section is constituted by PN photodiodes, for example, the defective picture is thought due to a large leakage in the PN photodiode which results from defects in a diffused layer caused in the manufacturing process. The large leakage causes excessive carriers to flow into shifting stages via transfer MOS transistors connected thereto and in addition, the excessive carriers prevailing in one stage of the shifting section immigrate into adjacent stages, resulting in a so-called overflow. If the overflow carriers prevail in the shifting section in one column, the one column is displayed as a white line on the screen.
When the shifting section is constituted by charge transfer devices such as a BBD or CCD device, irregularities in the thickness of an insulating oxide film or formation of pinholes in the insulating oxide film may be produced in the manufacturing process. The pinholes thus formed in the insulating film cause the transfer pulse voltage to be sent to the shifting stage as a spurious information signal. The spurious information signal is added to optical information and displayed as a defective black or white line on the screen.
Various approaches have been tried to improve the manufacturing process in order to eliminate the defective stripe pattern on the screen incident to the manufacting a process, however difficulties in obtaining a high yield rate of production of the solid-state imaging apparatus have been encountered as such an apparatus occupies a much larger area, e.g., several to ten square mm, than other IC circuits. Accordingly, for correcting the stripe pattern it has also been proposed to employ an external circuit which detects the position of a line defect and corrects the same. This method uses an ROM (Read Only Memory) for storing the position and size of a line defect. More particularly, the size of the line defect is quantized into a digital value and stored in the ROM. Then, a portion of an image signal corresponding to the position of the line defect and the information from the ROM are differentiated to correct the line defect. This method is, however, disadvantageous as it requires the provision of separate ROMs for separate devices and a complicated external circuit.
Essentially, a solid-state imaging apparatus is a finely fabricated, large-area integrated circuit device and if subjected to defects in the light receiving section caused in the manufacturing process, it suffers from line defects such as white lines or black lines displayed on the screen.
Line defects are displayed as black or white lines on the screen even when the light receiving section of the solid-state imaging apparatus is not irradiated with light. If the solid-state imaging apparatus is provided with a light receiving section for picking up an optical signal representative of an optical object which is usually converted into an electric signal and a light shielded section shielded from the incident light, it is possible to obtain a signal representative of the line defect through the light shielded section and a signal representative of a mixture of optical signal and line defect through the light receiving section.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A polycyclic fused ring type π-conjugated organic material (VIIa, VIIb, VIIc, VIId) is obtained in the following manner. That is, as shown in Scheme 1 below, a starting material (I) is dimetalated with an organometallic base. The starting material (I) thus dimetalated is trapped with an organosilicon reagent (i: (1) n-BuLi or t-BuLi; (2) HMe2SiCl). As a result, an intermediate is obtained. Thereafter, the intermediate is allowed to react with a metal reductant. This causes an intramolecular reductive cyclization reaction to proceed. As a result, a dianion intermediate is produced. The dianion intermediate is trapped with an electrophile (ii: (1) LiNaph, THF, rt, 5 min; (2) electrophile or NH4Cl) In this way, the polycyclic fused ring type π-conjugated organic material is obtained. The polycyclic fused ring type π-conjugated organic material, an intermediate therefor, a method for producing the polycyclic fused ring type π-conjugated organic material, and a method for producing the intermediate make it possible to provide a polycyclic fused ring type π-conjugated organic material having excellent light-emitting and charge-transporting properties.

Conventionally, a display device using an electroluminescence (EL) element makes it possible to attain lower power consumption and thinner thickness, and therefore has been variously studied. Further, the EL element made of an organic material makes it easy to attain lighter weight and larger size, and therefore has been vigorously studied.
Particularly, vigorous studies have been thus far conducted for the purpose of developing (i) an organic material which has a property of emitting light having a color such as blue, which is one of the three primary colors, and (ii) an organic material which has a capability of transporting charges such as holes and electrons (i.e., has a possibility of serving as a semiconductor or a superconductor), regardless of whether such an organic material is a polymer compound or a low-molecular compound.
(Non-patent Document 1) M. Serby, S. Ijadi-Maghsoodi, and T. J. Barton, XXXIIIrd Symposium on Organosilicon Chemistry, Abstract No. PA-35, Apr. 6-8, 2000, Saginaw, Mich., USA.

Polycyclic fused ring type π-conjugated organic material, intermediate therefor, process for producing polycyclic fused ring type π-conjugated organic material, and process for producing intermediate of polycyclic fused ring type π-conjugated organic material


A hospital sink and faucet assembly includes a sink with a sink body having an angled faucet deck, a bowl adapted to receive water, and a rim. A laminar flow faucet is connected to the faucet deck and includes an outlet adapted to direct a laminar flow water stream into the bowl. The faucet includes a chamber with a preferably tangential water inlet at the bottom and at least one mesh layer that extends across a cross-section of the chamber to creates a generally constant velocity profile for the water flow across the cross-section of the chamber. The water flow progresses upwardly in the chamber to the outlet where a laminar flow nozzle cuts the water and discharges a circular stream of water out an angle generally perpendicular to the deck and toward the sink bowl. An ozone generator is preferably also in the chamber.

Hospital sink and faucet assemblies are known which provide for touch-free washing by hospital personnel. While these are referred to as hospital sink and faucet assemblies, they are often used in other healthcare facilities, laboratories, and other applications, so the designation of "hospital sink and faucet assembly" is considered generic to this type of sink and faucet, regardless of the particular application.
Some of the known sinks are made from ceramic or porcelain and are not wheelchair accessible due to the base and housing. Additionally, such sinks typically use a goose neck faucet fixture and have a hand sensor which is activated by a user's hands passing beneath the faucet. Issues with such arrangements include splashing since the user's hands are general above the sink bowl. Further splashing can be caused due to turbulence in the water flow from the faucet and the bowl configuration.
It is also known to provide hospital sinks made from stainless steel material. These are generally used in operating suites and intensive care units. Aside from the material change, the drawbacks noted above generally apply. A further sink provided by the assignee of the present invention provides infection control features due to an anti-microbial coating in the bowl.
It would be desirable to provide an improved hospital sink and faucet arrangement that encourages proper hand-washing in a hospital or other healthcare facility as well as provide for reduced splashing and hands-free operation.