A metallic film has apertures located therein in an array arranged in a pattern so that when light is incident on the apertures, surface plasmons on the metallic film are perturbed resulting in an enhanced transmission of the light emitted from individual apertures in the array. The aperture array is used: to filter light of predetermined wavelength traversing the apertures, to collect light over a distance after traversing the apertures, to improve operation of near-field scanning optical microscopes, and to enhance light transmission through masks useable in photolithography.

There has been great interest to control and use light, or photons, in the same way that electrons are put to use in solids to make all types of electronic devices and provide communication between distant points. The development of fiber optics and semiconductor lasers have revolutionized the telecommunications industry. Optics is at the heart of the fabrication of integrated circuits, data storage, compact discs, and so forth. However, while the use of light has already demonstrated many advantages, there are considerable challenges ahead to fully make use of its potential. For example, it is desirable to engineer materials so that the propagation of light occurs only in certain directions for certain frequencies (i.e. photonic band gap materials). Efforts in these areas have led to translucent dielectric materials, known as photonic band gap materials or structures, which are opaque at certain frequencies. Light modes cannot propagate through the materials if their frequencies are within those defined by the band gap. The limitations of such materials is that they will permit light transmission at nearby frequencies. That is, these materials only block a narrow range of frequencies within a broad spectrum. Optical detectors are normally sensitive to a broad spectrum of light so that light of slightly different frequencies from that which is blocked might get through to the detectors and be detected. Therefore it would be much more useful to have a material or a device that operates exactly in a reverse manner, that is, it selectively transmits light only in a narrow range of frequencies within a broad spectrum.
The present invention has application in many areas, including those where the divergence of a light beam is a problem, or where increased light transmission through an aperture array is desirable, or in photolithography, or in optical filtering applications.
Opto-electronics, for example, is concerned with optical inter-chip communication in order to increase computation speed. The chips are usually all located on the same board and efforts are made to integrate optical lasers emitting from one chip to detectors located on other chips. One of the difficulties encountered is to make sure the emitted light does not diverge but rather remains collimated over sufficiently long distances so that the light reaches the desired detector or so that the light can be input into a fiberoptic bundle where each fiber is connected to a preselected chip or destination. As the structures and beam sizes approach that of the wavelength of light, the divergence and transmission of the light become even greater problems.
Also, conventional microscopes, and generally optical imaging and storage devices which operate in the far field, cannot resolve features substantially smaller than about one-half the wavelength of the light used. In order to overcome this resolution problem, near-field scanning optical microscopes (NSOM) were developed where an aperture much smaller than the wavelength of the probing light is placed near the specimen and scanned over its surface. A fraction of the light passing through the specimen is then collected through the aperture and relayed to a photodetector. Alternatively, light passes through the aperture, through the specimen and is then captured by a photodetector. The image of the specimen is then reconstructed by combining the signal at the photodetector with the microscope position over the specimen. However, the problem with an aperture smaller than the wavelength of light is that its transmissivity decreases rapidly and is proportional to the radius of the aperture divided by the wavelength to the power 4, i.e. (d/.lambda.).sup.4. As a result, much effort has gone into designing better apertures, such as fiber tips. However the transmission efficiency of these apertures is still orders of magnitude less than the optimal efficiency.
In another case, the resolution of photolithography, which is central to the chip manufacturing industry, is also limited in resolution to approximately one-half of the wavelength of the incident light. Techniques such as near-field scanning microscopy can be used to create smaller patterns in the photoresist, however such techniques are generally extremely slow since the photoresist patterns must be written on every chip. Unlike the case for traditional photolithography, the patterns cannot be projected through a mask, the standard industrial technique. In addition, as discussed above, the light transmission efficiency through smaller-than-wavelength apertures, such as tapered optical fibers, is very small. This slows the process even more because a minimum amount of light must impinge upon the photoresist in order to change its characteristics.
In another application, filters made from wire-mesh or metallic grids have been used extensively for filtering light in the far IR (infrared) spectrum (e.g. 10.about.800 micrometer wavelengths). These filters comprise thin metallic wires (much thinner than the wavelengths to be transmitted) deposited on an optically clear support. The filters are characterized by a transmission spectrum having a peak at approximately 1.2 times the periodicity of the mesh. The peak is very broad, typically greater than half the periodicity of the mesh. Mesh filters have been extensively studied and their properties have been explained by analogy with transmission line circuits. These filters would be much more useful if their transmission spectra could be narrowed to make them more selective.
The main object of the present invention is to overcome the problems and limitations described above by transmitting light very efficiently through an array of apertures, where each aperture is much smaller than one-half of the wavelength of the light and by allowing light transmission only at certain frequencies of light which can be controlled by the structure and arrangement of the aperture array.

Sub-wavelength aperture arrays with enhanced light transmission


Disclosed is a beverage cooling appliance (10) comprising a base (18) that holds a battery pack (20), a on/off switch (120), and a pair of upright supports (116 and 118). A framework (30) that is able to swivel upward or downward on a pair of hinge pins (112 and 114), near the top of the upright supports (116 and 118), that holds a pair of drive rollers (26 and 28) with motor/gearbox units (22 and 24) inside the drive rollers (26 and 28) mounted on the framework (30) swing downward to contact a beverage container (12) lying on a bed of ice (14) in a ice tray (16) fixed atop the base (18). When the on/off switch (120) is moved to the on position, electricity from a wall socket or from the battery pack (20) causes the motor/gearbox units (22 and 24) to rotate the drive rollers (26 and 28) imparting rotational movement to the beverage container (12) causing circulation of the liquid in the beverage container (12) and substantially reducing the temperature of the beverage as heat is transferred from the beverage to the bed of ice (14).

1. Field of the invention
This invention relates to a appliance for the rapid cooling of beverages in bottles or cans by means of a motor driven appliance that causes a beverage container to rotate while the container is in contact with a bed of ice.
2. Description of the prior art
A number of different devices have been proposed to cool beverage by rotating a beverage container, in or on a bed of ice. The prior art devices however, are large, cumbersome difficult to use and expensive to manufacture.
For example U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,123 issuing Aug. 5, 1997 to Handlin for QUICK COOL DEVICE disclosing a manually powered design that turns a beverage can while it is in a upright position after it is partially buried in pieces of ice. The principle disadvantage being that an ice chest with a large amount of ice has to be used to allow the device to operate, making it inconvenient to cool one or two containers of beverage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,368 issuing Feb. 1, 1994 to Ordoukhanian for BEVERAGE COOLING DEVICE that has to be connected to an ice chest. The principle disadvantage being that if only one or two cans of beverage need to be cooled that a large amount of ice has to be placed in a chest, and it would not be convenient for use on a kitchen counter.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,378 issuing Apr. 9, 1991 to Ottenheimer for LIQUID CHILLING APPARATUS and U.S. Pat. No 4,825,665 issuing May 2, 1989 to Micallef for COOLING BEVERAGES are designs that limit the use of the proposed machines to cooling liquids in bottles only. The main disadvantage of these units is that they are to large for convenient use and cannot be used to cool canned beverages.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,405 issuing Apr. 8, 1986 to Cretsmeyerfor BEVERAGE COOLING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR USING SAME discloses a device that uses a power pack, turning a suction cup that is attached to a beverage can resting in an ice receptacle. The power pack is designed to slid downward on the side of the ice receptacle, thus putting all of the weight of the power pack on the suction cup. The principle disadvantage being that the suction cup has the tendency to come loose from the beverage container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,409 issuing Oct. 29, 1985 to Smith for APPARATUS FOR COOLING BEVERAGE CONTAINERS AND THE LIKE discloses a beverage cooler that is designed to grip and rotate various size beverage containers by means of cups that hold each end of the beverage container that is placed in an ice receptacle, that is allowed to move up or down by means of springs between the ice try and the base of the apparatus. The primary disadvantages being that the device is large, expensive to manufacture and difficult to use, because it is hard to place the beverage container in the cups with one hand, while holding the ice receptacle down with the other hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,851 issuing Aug. 21, 1979 to Bryant for BEVERAGE CONTAINER COOLER discloses a device that uses a chest type cooling compartment with long three inch diameter rollers in the bottom of the chest. The rollers are covered with foam and cannot come in contact with the ice cubes, or the ice may tear the foam, so only four to six ice cubes can be used at a time, by placing the cubes between the beverage container and a ice retaining member that forms a V-shaped groove, thus limiting the cooling capacity of the machine and requiring the addition of ice each time the cubes are melted. The device is expensive to manufacture and is to large for convenient use on a kitchen counter.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,316,734 issuing May 2, 1967 to Crane for APPARATUS FOR COOLING CANNED LIQUID discloses a device for cooling canned liquids. The apparatus is expensive, complicated and to large for convenient use.

Beverage cooling appliance and method for using same


Disclosed is a method of preparing a fluorescent polymer, whereby an ethylenically unsaturated monomer is copolymerized with a polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon or a substituted aromatic derivative thereof, such that the resultant polymer is fluorescent. Also disclosed are coating compositions containing such fluorescent polymers.

The present invention relates to a method for preparing fluorescent polymers, and coating compositions containing such fluorescent polymers. In particular, the present method relates to the inclusion of fluorescent compounds in the preparation of polymers useful in coating compositions such that the resultant compositions are detectable by fluorescent means.
A method for preparing a fluorescent polymer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,929 (Amey). There, a Michael addition reaction produces a linear aminoacid polymer which is fluorescent. In this case, the fluorescence is produced by the polymer backbone. This method is limited by the nature of its chemistry. Moreover, most polymers produced by a Michael addition reaction will not have fluorescence.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,043,406 (Fong) discloses a method for incorporating fluorescent moieties into acrylamide polymers by copolymerizing acrylamide monomers with monomers containing pendant fluorescent moieties. The principal limitation to this method is the lack of commercially available monomers containing pendant fluorescent moieties. Even if other monomers could be modified to incorporate pendant fluorescent moieties, the increased cost of doing so would make the cost of such fluorescent polymers prohibitive.
Both the methods described by Amey and Fong are limited in applicability, either by virtue of the nature of the chemistry involved, or by the lack of available fluorescent starting materials. What is needed is a method for incorporating fluorescence into a broad variety of polymers, thus permitting broader usage of such fluorescent polymers.

Fluorescent polymers and coating compositions


Provided is a gripping portion structure of a gravure plate-making robot in which the accurate gripping of an unprocessed plate-making roll and the positioning accuracy during transfer of the unprocessed plate-making roll to each processing device can be improved by causing a gravure plate-making robot to exhibit a high gripping force when gripping the unprocessed plate-making roll. The gripping portion structure of a gravure plate-making robot to be used in a fully automatic gravure plate-making processing system for manufacturing a gravure plate-making roll by gripping and transferring an unprocessed plate-making roll to each processing device includes: a pair of gripping plates to be mounted on an arm distal end of the gravure plate-making robot, the pair of gripping plates being freely spaced widely or narrowly from each other, and being configured to grip both end portions of the unprocessed plate-making roll; and a gripping surface forming member provided on each of the pair of gripping plates, the gripping surface forming member having a gripping surface that is curved so as to be recessed toward a center of the end portion of the unprocessed plate-making roll to be gripped and having a non-slip function.

In a general gravure plate-making roll, plate making (making of a plate surface) is completed through the processes of: providing a copper-plating layer (plate material) for forming a plate surface to a surface of a plate base material that is a hollow cylinder roll made of a metal, for example, aluminum or iron or a hollow cylinder roll made of plastics, for example, carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP); forming a large number of minute recesses (gravure cells) in the copper-plating layer in accordance with plate making information by etching or an electronic engraving method; and then forming a hard layer through use of a chromium-plating layer, a diamond-like carbon (DLC) layer, or the like for increasing plate durability of the gravure plate-making roll to provide a surface reinforcing coating layer.
In manufacturing of the gravure plate-making roll, the applicant of the present application has provided a fully automatic gravure plate-making processing system with which a gravure plate-making roll can be manufactured rapidly as compared to the related art, space can be saved, unmanned operation can be performed even at night, a manufacturing line can be flexibly customized, and various demands from customers can be satisfied, and the fully automatic gravure plate-making processing system has attracted good reviews. As an example of the fully automatic gravure plate-making processing system, there is given a fully automatic gravure plate-making processing system disclosed in Patent Document 1. In Patent Document 1, there is disclosed a remote administration method for a plate-making consumable material in the fully automatic gravure plate-making processing system.
In the fully automatic gravure plate-making processing system disclosed in Patent Document 1, as illustrated in FIG. 1 of Patent Document 1, two gravure plate-making robots including a first industrial robot and a second industrial robot are used. Gripping portions configured to grip an unprocessed plate-making roll are mounted on distal ends of respective robot arms. As illustrated in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 of Patent Document 1, by widening or narrowing the space of the gripping portions, the unprocessed plate-making roll is gripped and transferred to each processing device.
Meanwhile, in recent years, the hollow cylinder roll being a plate base material has various weights of from about 7 kg to about 140 kg, and the weight of the hollow cylinder roll constitutes a weight of the unprocessed plate-making roll. The hollow cylinder roll has also various lengths of from about 400 mm to about 1,400 mm, and the length of the hollow cylinder roll constitutes a length of the unprocessed plate-making roll. In addition, it is required that the unprocessed plate-making roll being a hollow cylinder roll be rotated under the condition of being mounted on each processing device, and hence the unprocessed plate-making roll cannot be successfully rotated without a core of a chuck cone being matched with a core of the unprocessed plate-making roll. To cope with this, it is required that the unprocessed plate-making roll be accurately set in the processing device, with the result that the positioning accuracy, and the like are important.
Consequently, in order to cause the gravure plate-making robot to grip the unprocessed plate-making roll, a high gripping force is required. In recent years, there has been required that the gravure plate-making robot is adaptable to various kinds of unprocessed plate-making rolls. Further, the manufacturing line of the fully automatic gravure plate-making processing system has also been varied, and hence it was also required that the gravure plate-making robot be adaptable to the various manufacturing lines.

Gripper of a robot for gravure plate-making roll


A system for providing a wireless connection from a cell site to its own operations and maintenance panel (OMP). A new unit is built into a cell site on the radio shelf that includes features of a cellular telephone. Such unit includes a modem so that a laptop or other type of computer may be plugged in. This system operates in a plurality of modes, so that it can communicate with any or all of the wireless telecommunication system types (such as AMPS, TDMA, CDMA), and frequency ranges (i.e, 850 MHz and microwave). While the system is installation, the wireless telephone unit can communicate with another type of wireless system. However, once the system comes on line, the unit can communicate with other cell sites in the area from its own system, thus reducing the cost of maintenance. Furthermore, such a system can be used for informing the OMP of alarms such as an intruder alarm, etc. Advantageously, after installation, emergency telephone service or other directly connected telephone service, may be provided by this system.

Recently, there has been an exponential growth in consumer use of wireless telecommunication systems. To meet such consumer demand, telephone operating companies that provide wireless telecommunication services are installing and upgrading their physical plant at a rate rarely seen in telecommunications history. Furthermore, regions or countries that do not have a wire-line telecommunication system infrastructure are "leapfrogging" technology, by moving directly into wireless telecommunications which can provide a wider area of service coverage with less capital investment.
It is known in the art, however, that installation and maintenance of a cell site in wireless telecommunication systems is an expensive proposition. Turning now to FIG. 1, a typical scenario of an installation and maintenance of a cell site is shown. In this scenario, there is a personal communication system (PCS) 102 being installed in an area that is currently served by an AMPS analog system 104, as is known in the art. This installation scenario occurs, for example, in urban areas where such AMPS systems as 104 are overloaded and there are delays in receiving service. A PCS system, such as 102, can help relieve such congestion by providing service at different frequency spectrums or by providing digital service, again at various frequency spectrums.
As is known in the art, AMP system comprises a mobile switch center (APX-MSC) 106, connected to a plurality of cell sites 108. Each cell site is connected to an antenna 110. Cell sites 108-1 through 108-X are connected to mobile switching center (MSC) 106, via a plurality of trunks 112. Cell site 108-1 controls telecommunications among mobile units within the range of antenna 110 and connects such calls via trunk 112 to MSC 106. MSC 106 is connected via a plurality of trunks 114 to the public switch telephone network (PSTN) 116. PSTN 116 comprises a plurality of local, long distance, and tandem switches, as is known in the art.
In the scenario of FIG. 1, a personal communications service (PCS) 102 is being installed in the same general geographic location as AMPS system 104. PCS 102 comprises a PCS switching center (PCSC) 120, which provides a connection 121 to PSTN 116, switching, and other functionality similar to MSC 106. PSC 120 is connected to a plurality of cell sites 122. Each cell site is connected to an antenna 124, which, as in the prior art, facilitates communication with wireless telephones at preassigned frequencies.
In order to install, test, and maintain PCS cell sites, such as cell site 122-1, the installer must have access to the control system of PCSC 102, known as the operation maintenance panel (OMP) 126. The installer needs to be able to perform functions such as run diagnostics on various components, bring the cell site into and out of service, and perform other functions as known in the art.
In the prior art, cell site 122-1, as it is being installed, is connected to one or two telephone lines (POTS) 128 and 130, which connect cell site 122-1 to a local switch 132 of the local service provider. The installer can then plug in a telephone and/or a computer, such as a laptop computer (or both) to the telephone network, as is known in the art. Local switch 312 is connected to the public switch telephone network (PSTN) 116, which connects to a further local switch 134. Local switch 134 is connected to OMP 126 of the PCSC 120. The installer can then exercise the equipment by voice command to a person at OMP 126, or via remote control of the cell site through a PC. Hard wired connections, such as 128 and 130 are expensive and, in most cases, are permanent. Such wire-line connections require the PCS service provider to incur at least one, and usually two, line charges per cell. Thus, as more and more cell sites overlap, i.e., multiple service providers providing different frequency and different types (analog and digital) services, the higher the physical plant cost.
One partial solution to this problem is also illustrated in FIG. 1. A personal computer, for example a laptop 136, may be equipped with a cellular modem that operates with a currently existing analog (or digital) system that is already operating in that area. In this instance, signals from PC 136 are received at analog cell site 108-1, and are switched at APX-MSC 106 through PSTN 116 the local switch 134, and finally to OMP 126. While this system reduces the cost of physical plant and wires in the field, it incurs the additional cost of maintaining at least one cellular telephone number on analog system 106. Such maintenance of telephone numbers may be as costly, or more so, than a hard wire system, as described above.
Therefore, a problem in the art is that there is no low cost system for providing a connection from a cell site to its own operation and maintenance panel without incurring overhead expenses, possibly from competing service providers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This problem is solved and a technical advance is achieved in the art by a system and method for providing a wireless connection from a cell site to its own operations and maintenance panel (OMP). A new unit is built into a cell site on the radio shelf that includes features of a cellular telephone. This system operates in a plurality of modes, so that it can communicate with any or all of the wireless telecommunication system types (such as AMPS, TDMA, CDMA), and frequency ranges (i.e, 850 MHz and microwave). While the system is installation, the wireless telephone unit can communicate with another type of wireless system. However, once the system comes on line, the unit can communicate with other cell sites in the area from its own system, thus reducing the cost of maintenance. Furthermore, such a system can be used for informing the OMP of alarms such as an intruder alarm, etc. Advantageously, after installation, emergency telephone service or other directly connected telephone service, may be provided by this system.

Remote office administrative and maintenance system for cell sites in a wireless telecommunication network


A lockable cradle removably supports a device, such as a radiotelephone. The cradle is configured to be locked and unlocked only upon receipt of authorized locking and unlocking signals. A signal receiver is associated with the cradle for receiving locking signals to lock the cradle to prevent removal of the device from the cradle, and for receiving unlocking signals to unlock the cradle to allow removal of the device from the cradle. A signal generator in communication with the signal receiver generates locking and unlocking signals. The signal generator may generate signals responsive to user input or responsive to input from systems external to the device, such as vehicle security and ignition systems.

Radiotelephones, such as "cellular" telephones, have become increasingly popular for both personal and commercial use. Radiotelephones have also become smaller to facilitate storage and portability. The use of radiotelephones within vehicles has also become increasingly popular. For vehicular use, a radiotelephone is often mounted within a cradle which facilitates "hands-free" operation.
Unfortunately, theft of radiotelephones has become an increasing problem in many parts of the world. In particular, radiotelephones mounted within vehicle cradles are often easy targets for thieves. One method of deterring theft of electronics devices mounted within vehicles, such as radios and tape players, includes allowing the faceplate of the electronics device to be removed, thereby rendering the device unattractive to a thief. Another method utilizes key locks for making removal of a device difficult without a key. Unfortunately, removable portions and key locks are generally undesirable for radiotelephones because of the small size of radiotelephones.


A multi-channel digital equivalent time sampling (MDETS) device having a programmable logic control that can select, delay or create various triggered signals. The MDETS can function independently or with multiple devices allowing for synchronized acquisition of data. The close proximity of MDETS device to a transmitter and receiver allows for the short time delay for acquiring the data.

This invention relates in general to ground penetrating radar systems, and more particularly to the concurrent use of multiple transducers for a ground penetrating radar system (GPR).
There is a growing demand for GPR systems that have the ability to acquire data with more than one transducer. The ability to run more than one transducer at a time is extremely complex given the nature of the problem. Systematic control of accurate timing in a distributed multitransducer network of GPR systems requires unique timing and logic elements.
In current practice, systems most often have one transmitter and one receiver transducer. Generally GPR systems obtain data along a measurement traverse line with the transmitter and receiver in a fixed geometrical configuration with respect to one another (prior art, FIG. 1); the GPR system as a whole is moved over the ground or medium to be explored (Annan, A. P., Davis, J. L., Ground Penetrating Radarxe2x80x94Coming of Age at Last, 1997; Proceedings of the Fourth Decennial International Conference on Mineral Exploration (Exploration""97), Toronto Canada, Sep. 14 to Sep. 18, 1997).
References to the utilization of more than one transmitter or receiver are limited. Prior attempts have been made as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,248,975 issued to Schutz, A. E., entitled xe2x80x9cGround Probing Radar with Multiple Antenna Capabilityxe2x80x9d.
There are four major problems that have to be overcome.
The first problem is that the acquisition of ground penetrating radar traces in single transient waveform capture process, in digital form (or even analog form) is virtually impossible. Current commercially available analog to digital (A/D) converters are simply not fast enough nor do they have sufficient dynamic range to record the signals required for many of the GPR applications.
As a result, GPR systems resort to some sort of repetitive signal in order to capture the desired data. The most common approach is to use equivalent time sampling. Other approaches are to use a step frequency continuous sinusoidal wave technique that acquires data in the frequency domain by detecting the in-phase and quadrature response of the transfer function at a number of frequencies; the time domain signal is created by fourier transform.
A third approach is to use a fast A/D converter with few bits (i.e. limited dynamic range) and then stack the resultant signal for many repetitions in order that the resolution can be brought up. A fourth approach is to transmit some stream of random signals and use a correlation technique to extract the impulse response.
With all these approaches, considerable time is needed at each observation point to acquire data of a satisfactory nature. Combining such complex, individual signal capture processes with multiple spatially distributed transducers and simultaneously maintaining timing synchronization to very tight tolerances is a complicated task. The complexity arises is part arises in part because the transit time to transfer control signals between spatially separated transducers is both finite and are comparable or bigger than the measurement time lags.
The second major problem in trying to operate more than 1 unit is that multiple 2 transmitting sources operating at the same time can interfere with one another. If one wishes to operate two units, which are collecting independent information but operating at the same time then it is important that the signals from the transmitters do not get emitted at exactly the same time so that the two data sets can be acquired with high fidelity. In other words, a multiplexing process is required. In some instances it is desirable to have the transmitters operating simultaneously, but in this case one wants to make sure that the timing of the transmitters is synchronized in order to enhance the measurement process.
The third problem is that the transducers (or antennas) which create, emit and capture the electromagnetic signals which are transmitted into the ground are highly dependent on their immediate surroundings. When multiple transducers are placed in close proximity to one another, the transducers can interact in an almost unpredictable fashion and generate spurious signals.
The final problem is with the spatial distribution of the transducers. Since the signals that are being measured are radio waves that travel at the speed of light, all of the times involved in the measurement process are very short. Since the subsurface spatial dimensions may be similar to the separation distances between GPR components, the travel times on the inter connecting cabling or internal signal paths of the systems can become as large or larger than the travel times of the signals through the media being probed. As a result, it is important that any timing system be able to recognize these time differences and provide a means to measure and/or adjust times to eliminate the time delays associated with spatial distribution of the transducers.
FIGS. 2-5, show the most commonly envisaged multi-unit systems. FIG. 2 shows the use of multi transducer systems where the objective is to obtain data records from a variety of separations between the transducers. Many applications could benefit if data from a multiplicity of separations could be acquired simultaneously. Fisher, E., McMechan, G. A., and Annan, A. P., Acquisition and Processing of Wide-Aperture Ground Penetrating Radar Data; 1992; Geophysics, Vol. 57, p. 495-504, and Greaves, R. J. and Toksoz, M. N, Applications of Multi-Offset Ground Penetrating Radar; Proceedings of the Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems, 1994; (SAGEEP""94), p. 775-793 discuss the use of variable offset measurements and the enhancement of the data that can be achieved by coherent spatial stacking in the spatial dimension.
The acquisition of multiple separation data measurements made at each station along the transect line, is called multi-fold offset surveying. Multi-offset data available at every measurement point allows for the extraction of a velocity cross-section, an attenuation cross-section and an enhancement of data by determining an optimum spatial stacking velocity structure.
The second type of multi-channel system is depicted in FIG. 3. In this case the objective is to cover a larger area more quickly. Many GPR applications require acquisition of data on a series of parallel lines in order that a large area can be covered to obtain a three dimensional volume view of the ground.
One way of improving such surveys is to have a number of measurement systems mounted side-by-side and have these transported over the ground simultaneously. In FIG. 3a, a one channel system is shown sequentially measuring up and down 4 lines to acquire the same data that 4 transducers traversing once simultaneously over the four lines would achieve as shown in FIG. 3b. It is useful to note in this application that the individual units can more or less operate independently. They do not require synchronous sampling times but it is desirable that the transmitter be set up to operate at different staggered times to eliminate any potential of interference between the units caused by simultaneous operation of the individual units.
FIG. 4 depicts still another type of application where multiple transducers or measurements are desirable. The bandwidth of GPR systems is limited by the intrinsic characteristics of antennas. For detailed study of the subsurface, a number of systems with different frequency bandwidths and corresponding different physical sizes may have to be traversed along the same line in order to achieve full coverage of the subsurface.
At present, this type of operation is achieved by surveying the line a number of times as depicted in FIG. 4, once with each transducer. The whole operation could be completed more quickly if all (three transducers in the example shown) transducers are moved simultaneously along the line at one time and the same data acquired. Coordination of spatial acquisition and signal acquisition timing on a moving platform is commonly required for speed and efficiency of data acquisition.
The most general use of multi-unit systems is depicted in FIG. 5 and consists of a full array of transmitters and receivers spread over an area. The operation of transmitters either independently or synchronously together in time, as well as all of the receivers operating and acquiring data synchronized in time, provides a powerful means of subsurface imaging. The whole package shown could be transported along the line to provide multi-offset continuous data in a three dimensional fashion. Such data acquisition then lends itself to use of synthetic aperture processing or the equivalent multifold three-dimensional 3D seismic processing concepts that are commonly applied in the petroleum industry.
Such an application requires precise synchronization of the timing of all of the transmitters and receivers that are spatially distributed. If the platform is moving in space then synchronization of platform position and data acquisition time is an added factor to be managed.
Equivalent time sampling (ETS) is a means of using multiple repetitions of a transient signal to capture a transient waveform (Mulvey, John, Sampling Oscilloscope Circuits; 1970; Internal Publication of Tektronix, Inc., Beaverten, Oreg. and Phillips). Other modes of operations such as continuous wave, step frequency or instantaneous capture and stacking can use the timing control concepts outlined here. We will use ETS to demonstrate concepts of the patent.
As indicated previously, ETS receivers require successive repetitions of the signal waveform to be recorded in order that it can be acquired. Fisher (supra) provides information on ETS and some of the types of systems that have evolved.
Analog ETS systems were spawned in the 1960""s and 1970""s. FIG. 6 depicts a typical ETS. A timing circuit is required which will provide a very controlled time delay between signal creation and the time at which a measure of the signal waveform (sampled over a short time interval) is acquired. Historically two analog ramps, one slow and one fast, were used to drive a comparator that would provide a time delayed trigger output.
For the ETS shown in FIG. 6, the key feature is that the receive trigger is delayed in time progressively on every repetition of the transmit pulse. This time delay is dictated by a control clock delay, increases the delay from a minimum value to a maximum value over a fixed amount of time (i.e., N repetitions of the control clock). When the number of desired repetitions of the control clock which span the time window to be swept has been reached, the whole system is reset and the sequence starts over again. To work properly the control clock has to be very stable and regular.
Using a sample and hold or a sampling head circuit, the transient signal is captured over a short interval in time and is output from the sampling device as a continuous analog voltage. Provided the control clock is stable and the delay time varies linearly, the analog voltage is a replica of the transient waveform input but which is slowed down in time. Time stretching of 1,000:1 or even 1,000,000:1 is common.
The captured signal in the case shown in FIG. 6 requires N repetitions of the master clock and the transmitted signal to acquire one replica of real signal. The real time transient waveform will be sampled over a real time interval Nxcex94t where xcex94t is the amount the receiver trigger is delayed on each successive cycle of the system. What characterizes such a system is the repetition rate. This is the clock shown in the schematic diagram in FIG. 6. If the repetition period of the clock is P, then the real time signal interval Nxcex94t will be acquired in an elapsed time of NP. This is an equivalent time stretch factor that is determined by the ratio       P          Δ                    xe2x80x83                  t        .
When using analog oscilloscope displays or audio tape recorders for data acquisition, the analog signal is stretched to the audio frequency range from the radio frequency range. This enables data display recording and replay using lower-cost and lower speed electronics.
The basic analog ETS system as depicted can be used to support multiple transmitters or receivers. If the triggering signals can be sequenced by a computer, or some sort of preprogrammed logic array, then a number of channels of data can be acquired as shown in FIG. 7.
In this situation the receiver and transmitter triggers as shown in FIG. 6 are fed through a switching network which enables transmitter or receiver units to be switched or enabled or disabled. The output of the receivers are analog traces which can then be digitized or displayed on an oscilloscope or recorded on an analog tape (Mulvey, John, supra).
There are drawbacks in this approach. If there are M transmitter and receiver pairs to be switched, then the acquisition time increases to Mxc3x97NP. In other words, data acquisition rate is slowed down. If a single transmitter and a multiple set of receivers are to be used to acquire time synchronous data, then the full waveform recording sequence for the receivers must be required before switching to another transmitter and repeating the sequence. Such multiplexing reduces the rate at which the system can be moved spatially.
There is no simple way in which the timing associated with delays along the interconnect lines can be handled in any systematic fashion. This may be developed into the system by calibrated cables or may be handled in post acquisition but it is not readily accommodated by the analog ETS configuration shown.
Therefore a multi transducer ground penetrating radar system in a compact self-contained modular form is needed.
This invention is a modular control system to enable time and space synchronized GPR data acquisition from multiple transducers. One aspect of the present invention is to provide an improved multi transducer capability for a ground penetrating radar system where a virtually unlimited number of transducers can be accommodated without the drawback of increased data acquisition time.
Another aspect of the present invention, allows for a completely operational, self-calibrating multi transducer system. The present invention contains modular compact circuits for internal timing of signal emission, detection, digitalization and recording of data. In addition, with suitable control logic, measurement of and compensation for inter transducer communications delays can be automated.
Conveniently, the present invention allows for independent operation of individual transducers but simultaneously permits acquired data to be used in a common process or by several independent acquisition and display systems.
Another aspect of the present invention is the ability to use a master timing computer to coordinate groups of the multi transducer subsystems to acquire data in an interleaved fashion but with each subsystem operating in a totally self contained manner controlled by its own computer or clock. This mode of operation is optimal when there is signal coupling between the subsystems but where the data from each subsystem can be treated as independent data streams.
Conveniently the time bases of the present invention can be synchronized such that all the devices can detect and record signals from all other devices. Operation in this manner is beneficial for enhancement and extraction of information contained in the spatial placement of the transducers. The ability to process all signals coherently allows for the implementation of real time or post acquisition synthetic aperture and multifold signal processing such as used in the petroleum seismic.

Timing and control and data acquisition for a multi transducer ground penetrating radar system


An object is to provide: a zoom lens system that has a reduced overall length, a high resolution, and a variable magnification ratio as high as 9 or greater and that is satisfactorily adaptable for wide-angle image taking where the view angle at a wide-angle limit is 70° or greater; an imaging device employing this zoom lens system; and a thin and compact camera. The zoom lens system has a plurality of lens units each consisting of at least one lens element, and, in order from the object side to the image side, comprises a first lens unit having positive optical power, a second lens unit having negative optical power, a third lens unit having positive optical power, a fourth lens unit and a fifth lens unit. In zooming from a wide-angle limit to a telephoto limit at the time of image taking, at least the first lens unit and the second lens unit move in an optical axis direction, while the fourth lens unit and the fifth lens unit each consists of one lens element. An imaging device and a camera employ this zoom lens system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens system, an imaging device and a camera. In particular, the present invention relates to: a zoom lens system that has a reduced overall length, a high resolution, and a variable magnification ratio as high as 9 or greater and that is satisfactorily adaptable for wide-angle image taking where the view angle at a wide-angle limit is 70° or greater; an imaging device employing this zoom lens system; and a thin and compact camera employing this imaging device.
2. Description of the Background Art
With recent progress in the development of solid-state image sensors such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and a CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) having a high pixel, digital still cameras and digital video cameras are rapidly spreading that employ an imaging device including an imaging optical system of high optical performance corresponding to the above-mentioned solid-state image sensors of a high pixel.
Among these, various zoom lens systems have been proposed that can realize a compact type camera provided with, in addition to a high resolution, a zoom function of high magnification such as a variable magnification ratio as high as approximately 9 or greater.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-113453 discloses a zoom lens that, in order from the object side to the image side, comprises three lens units of positive, negative and positive, and further a subsequent lens unit, wherein intervals between the individual lens units vary such that the interval between the first lens unit and the second lens unit increases and the interval between the second lens unit and the third lens unit decreases at a telephoto limit in comparison with a wide-angle limit, and wherein a negative lens where the Abbe number and the partial dispersion ratio satisfy a particular relation is included in the third lens unit. In this zoom lens disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-113453, chromatic aberration is compensated satisfactory in a wide zoom range, so that high optical performance is obtained.
Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-017915 discloses a zoom lens that, in order from the object side to the image side, comprises five lens units of positive, negative, positive, positive and positive, wherein intervals between the individual lens units vary such that at least the interval between the first lens unit and the second lens unit increases while the interval between the third lens unit and the second lens unit decreases and the interval between the fourth lens unit and the third lens unit decreases during magnification change from a wide-angle limit to a telephoto limit, and wherein the interval at a wide-angle limit and the interval at a telephoto limit between the third lens unit and the fourth lens satisfy a particular relation. This zoom lens disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-017915 has a high variable magnification ratio, a high brightness, a small number of lenses, a low price, and compactness.
Moreover, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-194590 discloses an imaging lens device provided with: a zoom lens that, in order from the object side to the image side, comprises two lens units of positive and negative and further a subsequent lens unit, wherein during magnification change from a wide-angle limit to a telephoto limit, the second lens unit moves such as to be always located on the image side relative to a position at a wide-angle limit, wherein the first lens unit consists of three or fewer lenses, in total, including at least one negative lens and at least one positive lens, and wherein at least one positive lens in the first lens unit has particular refractive index and Abbe number; and an image sensor. This zoom lens disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-194590 has high performance, and has a reduced size and a high variable magnification simultaneously.
Nevertheless, although the zoom lens disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-113453 has high optical performance and simultaneously a high magnification zoom function such as a variable magnification ratio of approximately 9 to 10 or the like, this zoom lens does not have a configuration applicable to wide-angle image taking where the view angle at a wide-angle limit is, for example, 70° or greater.
Further, the two zoom lenses disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-017915 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-194590 also have a high magnification zoom function and simultaneously a reduced size, but do not have a configuration satisfactorily suitable for wide-angle image taking where the view angle at a wide-angle limit is, for example, 70° or greater.

Zoom lens system, imaging device and camera


A battery array includes: a plurality of batteries arranged into 2N+1 bundles, each of the bundles including M+1 batteries of the batteries arranged in parallel (where N and M are natural numbers); a plurality of connection tabs arranged at a first end of the battery array and at a second end of the battery array, each of the connection tabs being coupled to a corresponding pair of the bundles to electrically couple a first bundle through a 2N+1th bundle of the bundles in series; a first output terminal having a first polarity, and electrically coupled to the first bundle; and a second output terminal having a second polarity, and electrically coupled to the 2N+1th bundle, the second output terminal being adjacent to the first bundle.

1. Field
An embodiment of the present invention relates to a battery pack.
2. Description of Related Art
As a variety of mobile devices have been widely used in recent years, batteries, such as primary batteries and secondary batteries, are widely used.
Batteries used in industries or middle and heavy electronic apparatuses may need high output, such that high-capacity batteries are used or a plurality of standard batteries are connected to increase the output.

Battery array and battery pack having the same


Aerodynamic drag on a moving vehicle is reduced by a forward-mounted wing that is movably mounted for adapting the vehicle's aerodynamic profile according to the forward speed of the vehicle. In certain embodiments, the wing is self-adapting according to air flow over the vehicle. In other embodiments, the wing may be actuated to one of a range of preset positions, according to a measurement of vehicle speed.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to vehicles and, more particularly, to structures for reducing aerodynamic drag on moving vehicles.
2. Discussion of Art
Aerodynamic drag is a long-standing problem relative to wheeled vehicle fuel efficiency. At typical road travel speeds, aerodynamic drag on a wheeled vehicle exceeds tire rolling resistance as a load on the vehicle engine. Thus, engineers have long recognized that it is desirable to reduce the aerodynamic drag of a wheeled vehicle.
Various approaches have been attempted toward reducing aerodynamic drag. Most commonly, wheeled vehicle bodies are streamlined to mitigate flow separation. Flow separation occurs at a place along a vehicle body where a boundary layer of air separates from the surface of the vehicle body due to the boundary layer moving slower than surrounding air. The place where flow separation occurs, will vary based on vehicle speed. Flow separation produces turbulent volumes of air adjacent the vehicle body, and these turbulent volumes effectively increase the cross-section of the vehicle body, thereby increasing drag. Streamlining delays flow separation to a place further along the vehicle body, thereby reducing the turbulent volumes of air and the resultant cross-section of the vehicle body. The effectiveness of streamlining will vary based on vehicle speed.
Efforts have been made to further delay flow separation by introducing forward-mounted spoilers. For example, Elder's U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,232 shows an aerodynamic drag reduction speed-adaptive fairing, which includes a curved inner fairing adjacent an upper rectangular corner at the forward end of a vehicle, together with a spaced air foil member providing high lift characteristics and a convergent path between the members. The combination is said to reduce air resistance and flow separation from top and sides of a vehicle, thus reducing air drag. It is believed that Elder's speed-adaptive fairing is most effective at an optimum speed, whereas at higher or lower speeds the speed-adaptive fairing may actually add to drag.
Another paradigm is to direct air away from high-drag portions of a vehicle. For example, a typical vehicle underbody presents a complex surface with many irregular features, which tend to trap flow and create turbulence between the vehicle and the ground. Accordingly, an air dam is conventionally used to direct oncoming air to either side of the vehicle underbody. For example, GM's U.S. Pat. No. 8,186,746 shows a passively deployable air dam for a vehicle. The passively deployable air dam includes a deployable body, which is mounted by slider bearings onto a pair of slanted shanks. At low vehicle speeds (as might be expected when moving across a surface that included potentially damaging obstacles), springs hold the deployable body in an upward retracted position on the shanks. In the retracted position a lower part of the deployable body is exposed to air flow. At sufficient vehicle speed, the air flow pushes the entire deployable body down the shanks (against the spring forces), toward a downward deployed position. As the deployable body moves down the shanks, additional area is exposed to the air flow, thereby augmenting the downward force to hold the deployable body in its deployed position. Thus, the deployable body is not positionable to any intermediate position between the retracted position or the deployed position.


A warning signal included in a wireless signal received, and the warning signal is displayed in the form of a warning information message. The warning information displaying method includes receiving a wireless signal through one channel among channels including a warning broadcasting channel, changing the current channel to the warning broadcasting channel when the current channel is not the warning broadcasting channel at predetermined intervals, receiving the wireless signal through the warning broadcasting channel, reading warning information corresponding to a warning signal if the wireless signal includes the warning signal, and visibly or audibly outputting the warning information.

In general, an electric device such as a white home appliance displays information on a current operation, information on an operation state (for example, temperature, pressure, etc.) and information on reservation.
A conventional refrigerator includes a display unit such as an LCD panel for providing information on the refrigerator and controlling the refrigerator. The display unit displays a user interface. The user interface displays a temperature inside a refrigerating chamber, a temperature inside a freezing chamber, and a service type of a dispenser (water, flake ice, etc.) in the form of numbers, characters or icons. The user interface includes an input unit (for example, buttons) for controlling the temperature inside the refrigerator and the service of the dispenser.
FIG. 1 is a structure diagram illustrating a display unit of a conventional refrigerator. Referring to FIG. 1, the display unit displays a service type of a dispenser (cube type ice, water, flake ice), a set temperature of a freezing chamber and a set temperature of a refrigerating chamber, and includes an input means at its bottom end.
The conventional electric device such as the refrigerator does not receive a warning signal included in a wireless signal and provide a warning message based on the warning signal to the user.

Warning information displaying apparatus and method of electric device


A system and method for propagating media item recommendation messages on a media item recommendation system is disclosed. A first media item recommendation message comprising a media item identifier and presence information of a recommender is received from the recommender. The first media item recommendation message is sent to a first recipient. A second media item recommendation message comprising the presence information of the recommender adapted by the first recipient is received from the first recipient. The second media item recommendation message is then sent or forwarded to a second recipient. The first recipient may adapt the presence information by including the presence information of the recommender unmodified, by including the presence information of the recommender modified by the first recipient, and/or by including the presence information of the first recipient with or without the presence information of the recommender.

In recent years, there has been an enormous increase in the amount of digital media available online. Services, such as Apple's iTunes® for example, enable users to legally purchase and download music. Other services, such as Yahoo!® Music Unlimited and RealNetwork's Rhapsody®, provide access to millions of songs for a monthly subscription fee. YouTube® provides users access to video media. As a result, media items have become much more accessible to consumers worldwide. Due to the large amount of the accessible digital media, recommendation technologies are emerging as an important enabler to assist users in identifying and navigating large databases of available media. Recommendations are useful to help users identify and select media items of interest for usage and/or play.
Recommendations may be programmatically-generated by a company based on the user's predefined preferences and/or profiles. Recommendations also may be provided by other users. Particularly, the users may be peers on a social network. The social network provides for the exchange of media item recommendations among the users. As such, the user on the social network may be both a recommender user of media items to other users and a recipient user of media item recommendations from other users. In this manner, the user may receive a media item recommendation from another user and transmit a media item recommendation to other users.
Typically, the users on the social network have some type of relationship. For example, the users may be friends, acquaintances, or members of a defined group or community. Because of these relationships, the users may have similar traits, profiles, likes and dislikes, and/or media item preferences. Therefore, the social networks provide an opportunity to develop and strengthen the interaction between the users not only with respect to the media items, but also with respect to the users personally. The development and strengthening of the user interaction promotes the continued use of the social network for media item recommendations and the acquisition and playing of the media items recommended.
The ability of the user on the social network to be both the recommender of media items and recipient of media item recommendations provides an opportunity to further develop and strengthen user interaction on the social network. This could be better accomplished if the media item recommendation could be propagated among the users on the social network. Propagation of media item recommendations means that, instead of the recipient user just receiving the media item recommendation, the recipient, and each subsequent recipient, would be able to further transmit, or retransmit, the media item recommendation. In this way, the media item recommendation would be progressively transmitted among the users on the social network thus providing ancestry-like information to new recipients.
Additionally, propagating the media item recommendation would allow additional information to be included in the media item recommendation with the transmission, and with subsequent retransmissions of the media item recommendation. The additional information may be that of the recommender and/or the recipient, and may provide personal information of the recommender, recipient and/or information about the media item or the artist. As a result, incorporating additional information into the media item recommendation would increase the enjoyment, educational effect, and entertainment value of the media item recommendation itself.
Therefore, because of the above, being able to propagate the media item recommendation would result in continued communication between the users, thereby promoting and enhancing the personal interaction among the users and the interest in the media item being recommended.
However, current media item recommendation applications do not provide for the propagation of media item recommendations. The current media item recommendation applications allow the recommender to send a media item recommendation to the recipient. While the recipient user may send his or her own recommendation of the media item, the current media item applications do not allow for the retransmission or progressive transmission of the media item recommendation including presence information of the recommender and/or the recipient.
Accordingly, a need exists for a media item recommendation system and method that provides and propagates a media item recommendation message that includes presence information of a recommender and/or the recipient.

System and method for propagating a media item recommendation message comprising recommender presence information


A communication terminal apparatus which includes a non-volatile memory device that stores parameters of various kinds, and a control device that performs an operation based on at least the parameters. The non-volatile memory device includes a read-only non-volatile memory, for example, a ROM, storing parameters regarding a plurality of geographical divisions, such as countries, areas and the like, and a re-writable non-volatile memory, for example, an EEPROM, capable of storing at least the parameters. When a geographical division is selected, the control device initializes the re-writable non-volatile memory on the basis of at least the parameters regarding the selected geographical division read from the read-only non-volatile memory, that is, the control device reads the parameters regarding the selected geographical division from the read-only non-volatile memory, and stores the parameters into the re-writable non-volatile memory.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication terminal apparatus that operates based on parameters and the like stored in a non-volatile storage device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to different communication standards, specifications and the like in different countries, the specifications of communication terminal apparatuses for export need to be modified separately for their importing countries so that each communication terminal apparatus complies with the communication standards and the like of its importing country. Therefore, it is a normal practice in production of a communication terminal apparatus for export, to prepare a non-volatile memory dedicated to store parameters that are specifically for the importing country and then install the non-volatile memories into communication terminal apparatuses.
Thus, in a communication terminal apparatuses each incorporating such a dedicated non-volatile memory mounted on a control circuit board, the parameters and the like regarding a country once stored in the dedicated non-volatile memory cannot be changed to those regarding another country. Therefore, if the number of apparatuses for export to a given country is changed after a previously set number of apparatuses for the country have been produced, an excess inventory or a low inventory may immediately occur.

Communication terminal apparatus and method


Precipitated silica compositions, and methods for making the same, with improved dentifrice performance characteristics. In particular, precipitated silica compositions of the present invention have a 40% slurry viscosity build of less than approximately 20,000 centipoise and a 10% Brass Einlehner abrasion value of approximately 2.5 to 20.0 mg loss/100,000 rev. Precipitated silica compositions of the present invention also have reactor slurry average particle sizes (50%) of approximately 10 to 50 .mu.m. Methods for preparing precipitated silicas of the present invention include the steps of: (a) adding sodium silicate and a mineral acid to a reactor, thereby initiating a precipitation reaction between the reactor contents; and (b) subjecting the reactor contents to shearing forces as the reaction proceeds.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improved precipitated silica compositions. More particularly, the present invention relates to improved precipitated silica compositions that impart improved cleaning and abrasive performance to dentifrice formulations. Further, the present invention relates to methods for preparation of the improved precipitated silica compositions of this invention.
2. Description of the Related Art
The function of an abrasive substance in formulations intended for use in dentifrice compositions is to remove various deposits including pellicle film from the surface of teeth. Pellicle film is tightly adherent and often contains brown or yellow pigments which impart an unsightly appearance to the teeth. While cleaning is important, however, the abrasive should not be so abrasive as to damage the teeth. Thus, an effective dentifrice abrasive material should maximize film removal without causing undue abrasion to the hard tooth tissue. Accordingly, dental researchers are continually seeking dentifrice abrasives that demonstrate satisfactory levels of cleaning without being unduly abrasive and damaging to oral tissues.
Precipitated silica (silicon dioxide) abrasive compositions and their use in dentifrice formulations are well known. In known silicas, however, there is a nearly linear relation relationship between abrasiveness and cleaning ability. As a result, the ability to develop dentifrice compositions with improved cleaning ability is limited by the tendency of the silicas to become more abrasive as their cleaning properties improve. Thus, there is a need for silicas for use in dentifrice compositions that impart improved cleaning ability to the toothpaste compositions without being overly abrasive and, therefore, damaging to oral tissues.
The cleaning and abrasiveness properties of dentifrice compositions are typically expressed in terms of Pellicle Cleaning Ratios ("PCR") and Radioactive Dentin Abrasion ("RDA") values, respectively. The PCR test measures the ability of a dentifrice composition to remove pellicle film from a tooth under fixed brushing conditions. The PCR test is described generally in "In Vitro Removal of Stain With Dentifrice", G. K. Stookey, T. A. Burkhard and B. R. Schemehorn, J. Dental Research, 61, 1236-9, 1982, which is incorporated herein by reference. The RDA test measures the abrasiveness of dentifrice compositions by measuring the amount of radio-labeled dentin removed from a tooth under fixed brushing conditions. Both PCR and RDA results vary depending upon the nature and concentration of the components of the dentifrice composition.
One key variable affecting PCR and RDA results is the nature and quantity of silica abrasive loaded into the dentifrice composition. It is generally believed that higher concentrations of a given silica abrasive will increase PCR results. Thus, it is desirable to load silica abrasives into dentifrice compositions at relatively high concentrations to improve cleaning. It is also generally believed that relatively hard or abrasive silicas tend to impart relatively high (poor) RDA values to dentifrice compositions. Thus, it is desirable to provide relatively soft or low abrasiveness silicas for use in making dentifrice compositions with low RDA values without sacrificing cleaning properties.
Unfortunately, however, known silicas tend to build viscosity relatively rapidly in dentifrice compositions. As a result most commercial dentifrice compositions contain only approximately 15 to 25% by weight of silica abrasive. Higher loading levels of known silicas tend to make the dentifrice compositions too viscous for their intended purpose. Thus, there is a need for silicas with lower viscosity build characteristics that can be loaded into dentifrice compositions at greater concentrations.
Also, known silicas tend to have a relatively large reactor slurry average particle size (APS). APS is believed to be correlated to abrasivity. While it is possible to dry and mill a silica to almost any desired final, or milled APS, the milling process is itself time consuming and expensive and can have undesired side effects, such as causing discoloration of the silica. More importantly, it is now believed that silicas with lower reactor slurry APS are softer than similar silicas with higher reactor slurry APS. As a result, it is now believed that if two silicas are milled to the same dry milled APS, the silica with the smaller reactor slurry APS will be softer than the silica with the higher reactor slurry APS, will have a lower functional APS and will, therefore, be less abrasive. Accordingly, there is a need for silicas with smaller reactor slurry APS.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide novel precipitated silica compositions that impart improved performance in dentifrice formulations.
It is a further object of the present invention is to provide precipitated silica compositions that impart improved cleaning and abrasive characteristics to dentifrice formulations.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide precipitated silica compositions that have relatively low viscosity build characteristics compared to known silicas.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide precipitated silica compositions that have relatively low reactor slurry APS compared to known silicas.
It is a further object of the present invention is to provide methods for the preparation of the novel precipitated silica compositions of the invention by acidulation of an alkali metal silicate by a mineral acid in the absence or presence of an electrolyte.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiments which follows.

Precipitated silicas having improved dentifrice performance characteristics and methods of preparation


The invention is related to a hydrated silicone hydrogel contact lens having a layered structural configuration: a lower water content silicone hydrogel core (or bulk material) completely covered with a layer of a higher water content hydrogel totally or substantially free of silicone. A hydrated silicone hydrogel contact lens of the invention possesses high oxygen permeability for maintaining the corneal health and a soft, water-rich, lubricious surface for wearing comfort.

Silicone hydrogel (SiHy) contact lenses are widely used for correcting many different types of vision deficiencies. They are made of a hydrated, crosslinked polymeric material that contains silicone and a certain amount of water within the lens polymer matrix at equilibrium. According to the FDA's contact lens classification, hydrogel contact lenses are generally classified into two main categories: low water content contact lenses (containing less than 50% of water) and high water content contact lenses (containing greater than 50% of water). For SiHy contact lenses, high oxygen permeability, which is required for a contact lens to have minimal adverse effects upon corneal health, is achieved by incorporating silicone, not by increasing water content, in the crosslinked polymeric material. As a result, unlike conventional hydrogel contact lenses, SiHy contact lenses can have a low water content while still having a relatively high oxygen permeability (Dk), for example, Focus® Night & Day® from CIBA Vision Corporation (ca. 23.5% H2O and Dk˜140 Barrers; Air Optix® from CIBA Vision Corporation (ca. 33% H2O and Dk˜110 Barrers); PureVision® from Bausch & Lomb (ca. 36% H2O and Dk˜100 Barrers); Acuvue® Oasys® from Johnson & Johnson (ca. 38% H2O, Dk˜105 Barrers); Acuvue® Advance® from Johnson & Johnson (ca. 47% H2O, Dk˜65 Barrers); Acuvue® TruEye™ from Johnson & Johnson (ca. 46% H2O, Dk˜100 Barrers); Biofinity® from CooperVision (ca. 48% H2O, Dk˜128 Barrers); Avaira™ from CooperVision (ca. 46% H2O, Dk˜100 Barrers); and PremiO™ from Menicon (ca. 40% H2O, Dk˜129 Barrers).
Water in a SiHy contact lens can provide the desirable softness that enable a SiHy lens to be worn for sufficiently long periods of time and provides patients with the benefits including adequate initial comfort (i.e., immediately after lens insertion), relatively short period of adapting time required for a patient to become accustomed to them, and/or proper fit. Higher water content would be desirable for providing SiHy contact lenses with biocompatibility and comfort. But, there is a limit to the amount of water (believed to be 80%) that a SiHy contact lens can contain while still possessing sufficient mechanical strength and rigidity required for a contact lens, like conventional hydrogel contact lenses. Moreover, high water content could also have undesired consequences. For instance, oxygen permeability of a SiHy contact lens could be compromised by increasing water content. Further, high water content in a SiHy lens could result in greater in-eye dehydration and consequently dehydration-induced wearing discomfort, because a SiHy contact lens with a high water content could deplete the limited supply of tears (water) of the eye. It is believed that in-eye dehydration may be derived from evaporation (i.e., water loss) at the anterior surface of the contact lens and such water loss is primarily controlled by water diffusion through a lens from the posterior surface to the anterior surface, and that the rate of diffusion is closely proportional to the water content of the lens bulk material at equilibrium (L. Jones et al., Contact Lens & Anterior Eye 25 (2002) 147-156, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety).
Incorporation of silicone in a contact lens material also has undesirable effects on the biocompatibility of the contact lens, because silicone is hydrophobic and has great tendency to migrate onto the lens surface being exposed to air. As a result, a SiHy contact lens will generally require a surface modification process to eliminate or minimize the exposure of silicone of the contact lens and to maintain a hydrophilic surface, including, for example, various plasma treatments (e.g., Focus® Night & Day® and Air Optix® from CIBA Vision Corporation; PureVision® from Bausch & Lomb; and PremiO™ from Menicon); internal wetting agents physically and/or chemically embedded in the SiHy polymer matrix (e.g., Acuvue® Oasys®, Acuvue® Advance® and Acuvue® TruEye™ from Johnson & Johnson; Biofinity® and Avaira™ from CooperVision). Although surface modification techniques used in the commercial SiHy lens production may provide fresh (unused) SiHy lenses with adequately hydrophilic surfaces, a SiHy lenses worn in the eye may have dry spots and/or hydrophobic surface areas created due to air exposure, shearing forces of the eyelids, silicone migration, and/or partial failure to prevent silicone from exposure. Those dry spots and/or hydrophobic surface areas are non-wettable and susceptible to adsorbing lipids or proteins from the ocular environment and may adhere to the eye, causing patient discomfort.
Therefore, there are still needs for SiHy contact lenses with hydrophilic surfaces that have a persistent hydrophilicity, wettability, and lubricity that can be maintained in the eye throughout the entire day.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Silicone hydrogel lenses with water-rich surfaces


Identifying the geographic region of a geographic area which contains a geographic zone. To identify the geographic region which contains a geographic zone, one of the plurality of geographic regions in a geographic area is selected as a selected region. A determination is made as to whether the geographic zone is located within the selected region by determining whether the zone boundary points of the geographic zone are located within the selected region. If a predetermined percentage of the zone boundary points of the geographic zone are located within the selected region, then the geographic zone is located within the selected region and the geographic region is identified. To determine whether a zone boundary point is located within the selected region, a determination is made as to whether a line of predetermined slope drawn through the zone boundary point intersects the region boundary of the selected region. If the line intersects the selected region, then a determination is made as to whether the zone boundary point is located within the selected region.

A number of wireless devices have been developed to meet the needs of an increasingly mobile society. Devices such as telephones which were once hard-wired to a single location are now portable. Traditionally, when a customer requested telephone service, the customer was assigned a telephone number that was operable from a fixed location such as the customer's home or office. However, when a wireless customer requests service, the wireless customer is assigned a number which is operable over a large geographic area.
Wireless service is available virtually throughout the United States. The geographic area of the United States has been divided into geographic regions commonly referred to as Basic Trading Areas ("BTA's") by Rand McNally & Company. The Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") uses BTA's to define wireless coverage areas throughout the United States. The FCC issues a license for each BTA to permit a wireless service provider to operate within a specified frequency block within the BTA. A license permits a single service provider to operate within the BTA's frequency block and to serve wireless customers with billing addresses within the BTA. A single service provider may hold multiple licenses and may operate in multiple BTA's.
The wireless service provider for a particular BTA determines the calling features or services offered to customers within the BTA. Different service providers may offer different services and even the same service provider may offer different services in different BTA's. Not only may the services differ from BTA to BTA, but the tax rate for wireless service may differ from BTA to BTA.
To apply the proper tax rate to the customer's bill, the BTA which contains the customer's address must be identified. The BTA could be identified manually by a customer service representative or by a computer program using some type of lookup table or map. However, in either case there is room for error. If the address supplied by the customer is in error or is incorrectly recorded by the customer service representative, the correct BTA will not be identified. In addition to the possibility of human error, if the address is in a new development and is not yet included in the table or map, a BTA will not be identified. Thus, there is a need for a reliable method for identifying the BTA which contains a customer's address.
Once the correct BTA is identified, a BTA identifier may be included in the customer's file. The service provider may use the BTA identifiers to determine customers with billing addresses located in a selected BTA. If a service provider intends to offer additional calling features to customers in a selected BTA, those customers in the BTA can be targeted to receive information regarding the additional features.
In addition to relating a customer's billing address to a BTA, relating a customer's operating location to a BTA or other geographic region is also useful. When a customer reports a problem it is helpful to identify the BTA in which the customer was located when the problem occurred. If a customer reported that a calling feature was inoperable, it would be helpful to know whether the customer was in a BTA where the feature was offered when the problem occurred. It is also useful to relate a customer's operating location to a geographic region defined by the operating range of an antenna or other piece of equipment. By monitoring the locations of customer problems, a service provider may become aware of developing trends and may be able to take preventive action. For example, the occurrence of a number of problems in close proximity to an antenna or other piece of equipment may indicate an equipment problem.
To relate a customer's billing address or operating location to a BTA or other geographic region, the operating location and the geographic region may be geographically encoded or geocoded. To geocode an address or operating location, the address or description of the operating location is converted into longitude and latitude. A geocoder is a program module which converts a location description into longitude and latitude. An example of a geocoder is P.A.C.E. (Probabalistic Address Coding Engine) from Matchware Technologies, Inc., 15212 Dino Drive, Burtonsville, Md. 20866.
Longitude and latitude for a location may be obtained for a street address using a geocoder such as P.A.C.E. However, there may be times when a street address is unavailable. For example, at activation, a customer may provide a street address which cannot be resolved into longitude and latitude because the address is in a new development. In this case, the customer's location may be estimated by the geographic zone defined by the customer's zip code. Since it is preferable to store longitude and latitude for a single point, the longitude and latitude for the centroid of the customer's zip code zone may be stored. Another example is where a customer reports a problem but cannot identify a street address where the problem occurred. If the customer could identify a neighborhood, the longitude and latitude for the centroid of the neighborhood zone could be used.
To geocode a region, the region boundary points of the region are converted into a plurality of longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. Similarly, to geocode a zone, the zone boundary points of the zone are converted into a plurality of longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. Libraries of geocoded data are available which contain longitude and latitude for geographic regions such as BTA's and for geographic zones such as zip code zones. Examples of geocoded data libraries include Dynamap/2000 Street Network File from Geographic Data Technologies, 11 Lafayette Street, Labanon, N.H. 03766 and BTA/MTA Boundaries U.S. from MapInfo Corp., One Global View, Troy, N.Y. 12180. Once a location and a region are described by longitude and latitude, a comparison may be made between the longitude and latitude for the location, and the longitude and latitude for the region to determine whether the location is located within the geographic region.
If the identification of the geographic region which contains the location is made in real time, the identification is more useful. In the account activation example, if the location information provided by the customer is resolved into longitude and latitude for a zip code zone within the geographic area, but the longitude and latitude do not identify a BTA served by the wireless service provider, then there is probably an error in the zip code. If the identification of the BTA which contains the location can be made while the customer is still available, then the customer can immediately correct or supplement the location information. In the case of problem reporting, if the BTA or other geographic region which contains the problem location can be determined quickly, the problem is more likely to be resolved during the initial problem report, eliminating the need for a subsequent customer call-back. Real time determination also provides valuable information for system analysis and resource allocation.
Accordingly, in the field of geographic coding, there is a need for a system and method for identifying the geographic region of a geographic area which contains a geographic zone.
There is an additional need for a system and method for identifying the geographic region of a geographic area which contains a geographic zone in real time.

Method for identifying the geographic region of a geographic area which contains a geographic zone

BellSouth Intellectual Property Corporation


A sensor arrangement includes an optical sensor, a non-optical sensor, a sensor holder, and main and flexible interconnect devices. The sensor arrangement can be fixed to a vehicle window by the sensor holder. The sensor holder is in the form of a sensor housing having a sensor housing cover and a second housing body attached to one another. The sensor housing cover and the sensor housing body each have corresponding bracket sections which form a bracket connected to the sensor housing. The main interconnect device is positioned within the sensor housing. The optical sensor is connected to the main interconnect device. The flexible interconnect device is connected to the main interconnect device and extends from the main interconnect device to the bracket connected to the sensor housing. The non-optical sensor is connected to the flexible interconnect device within the bracket and is held by the bracket.

DE 20 2006 010 426 U1 describes a sensor holder which is fabricated as a press bent part. The sheet metal frame that forms the sensor holder can be latched with a support piece connected to a vehicle window. The sensor holder attaches a rain sensor centrally. The sensor holder has a molded elastic retaining tongue that projects to the side. The tongue holds a condensation sensor which is miniaturized in comparison with the rain sensor. It is not clear from DE '426 how a cover piece surrounding the sensor mechanism can be fabricated in an advantageous manner. Further, DE '426 lacks information regarding how the electrical connection of the condensation sensor could be achieved advantageously.


In a polymerizing apparatus which comprises a polymerization vessel and a circulating line comprising a heat exchanger installed outside said polymerization vessel and a circulating pipeline extending from said polymerization vessel and returning to said polymerization vessel through said heat exchanger, the improvement comprising a strainer installed in the course of said circulating pipeline. Since polymer scale and a polymer in the form of blocks formed in the circulating line can be trapped, the circulating pipeline and tubes of the heat exchanger can be prevented from being blocked up. Further, since they can be prevented from mixing with a reaction mixture in the polymerization vessel, when the obtained polymer is worked into a molded item such as a sheet, fish eyes can be prevented from increasing. Therefore, a polymer can be produced efficiently with high productivity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polymerizing apparatus for polymerizing a monomer having an ethylenically unsaturated double bond wherein in a polymerization is carried out in a polymerization vessel while a reaction mixture is circulated through a heat exchanger installed separately from the polymerization vessel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The polymerization reaction of a monomer having an ethylenically unsaturated double bond is carried out in such a manner that a polymerization medium such as water, a dispersant, a polymerization initiator, a monomer having an ethylenically unsaturated double bond, and, optionally, other various additives are charged into a polymerization vessel equipped with a jacket and a reflux condenser, then the temperature in the polymerization vessel is elevated and the polymerization reaction is effected while a certain temperature is kept. Further, during this polymerization reaction, in order to retain the inside of the reaction vessel at that certain temperature, it is required to remove the heat of polymerization reaction, so that cooling water is circulated through the jacket and the reflux condenser.
In recent years, in order to improve the productivity, the following measures are taken: (1) the polymerization vessel is made large in size and (2) the polymerization time per batch is shortened. However, since the enlargement of the polymerization vessel has resulted in a decrease in the ratio of the heat transfer area to the volume of the reaction mixture, the above prior technique of removing the heat of polymerization reaction has become insufficient in capacity for removing the heat. In addition, if the polymerization time per batch is shortened, the capacity for removing the heat becomes insufficient further because the rate of the generation of heat due to the polymerization reaction per unit time increases.
Some techniques for overcoming the above disadvantages are suggested and, as effective techniques out of them, techniques wherein a reaction mixture is circulated through a heat exchanger installed outside a polymerization vessel (see Japanese Pre-examination Patent Publication (kokai) Nos. 54-24991 (1979), 56-47410 (1981), and 58-32606 (1983) and Japanese Patent Publication (kokoku) No. 64-11642 (1989)) can be mentioned. These techniques are quite effective in that the ratio of the heat transfer area to the volume of the reaction mixture can be increased.
However, according to these techniques, there is a problem that polymer scale or a polymer in the form of blocks which is supposed to be formed in a circulating line made up of the heat exchanger and a circulating pipeline connecting the heat exchanger and the polymerization vessel blocks up the circulating pipeline or heat exchanger tubes. Further, when the obtained polymer is worked into a molded product such as a sheet, fish eyes increase.


Apparatus and methods provide a Tomlinson-Harashima precoder scheme in which a feedback filter may be constructed to match an approximated feedforward filter, where the feedforward filter is approximated using autoregressive moving average modeling.

Channels in a communication network may typically experience channel distortion: This channel distortion may result in intersymbol interference (ISI), which essentially is the spreading of a signal pulse outside its allocated time interval, causing interference with adjacent pulses. If a communication channel is uncompensated with respect to its intersymbol interference, high error rates may result. Various methods and designs are used for compensating or reducing intersymbol interference in a signal received from a communication channel. The compensators for such intersymbol interference are known as equalizers. Various equalization methods include use of maximum-likelihood (ML) sequence detection, linear filters with adjustable coefficients, decision-feedback equalization (DFE), and Tomlinson-Harashima precoders for ISI cancellation. To provide higher-speed reliable data communication, what is needed are enhanced schemes for providing channel equalization, which at the same time can be implemented without a significant amount of complexity.

Autoregressive moving average modeling for feedforward and feedback Tomlinson-Harashima precoder filters


According to one aspect of this disclosure, a printing apparatus and method is provided. The printing apparatus comprising a media sheet first inverter and a media sheet second inverter, the first inverter and second inverter operatively connected to provide a media sheet pass-through route, wherein the media sheet pass-through route transports a media sheet through the first inverter and the second inverter.

The present disclosure relates to a xerographic printing system. Specifically, a xerographic printing system that may include one or more printing devices, where one or more of the printing devices include a media sheet inverter. In addition, this disclosure is related to a printing system that may include a media sheet inverter independently operatively coupled to one or more printing devices.
In a typical xerographic printing device, such as a copier or printer, a photoconductive insulating member is charged to a uniform potential and thereafter exposed to a light image of an original document to be reproduced. The exposure discharges the photoconductive insulating surface in exposed or background areas and creates an electrostatic latent image on the member, which corresponds to the image areas contained within the document. Subsequently, the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive insulating surface is made visible by developing the image with a developing material. Generally, the developing material comprises toner particles adhering triboelectrically to carrier granules. The developed image is subsequently transferred to a print medium, such as a sheet of paper. The fusing of the toner to the paper is generally accomplished by applying heat to the toner with a heated nip and application of pressure. In multi-color printing, successive latent images corresponding to different colors are recorded on the photoconductive surface and developed with toner of a complementary color. The single color toner images are successively transferred to the print media to create a multi-layered toner image on the paper. The multi-layered toner image is permanently affixed to the print media paper during the fusing process.
A common trend in the office equipment market, particularly in relation to copiers and printers, is to organize a printing system on a modular basis, wherein distinct subsystems of the printing system are configured into modules which can be readily removed from the printing system and replaced with other modules. A modular design facilitates servicing and repair since a service provider can remove a module from the printing system and repair the module at a convenient place with minimal disruption to the operation of the printing system.
Recently, printing systems have been developed which include a plurality of printing modules, where the printing modules are integrated such that a media sheet can travel from one printing module to another via a media sheet path. These systems enable high overall outputs by printing portions of the same document on multiple printers. Such systems are sometimes referred to as "tandem engine" printers, "parallel" printers, and "cluster printing", in which a print job may be allocated among multiple printing modules, such as separate printing for the color and monochrome pages.
As discussed above, printing systems can include color printing modules and black printing modules. A cyan, magenta and yellow (CMY) printing module can print in color or black. However, the cost of producing a black only print on a color printing module is often higher than printing a black only print on a monochrome printing device. For example, some color printing devices require the media sheet to be circulated through an image transfer zone multiple times to produce a color or black only print. Another added cost can be associated with the toner required for a color printing device as compared to a monochrome printing device.
In addition to printing systems which include a combination of color printing modules and monochrome printing modules, some printing systems include only color printing modules or only monochrome printing modules. These printing systems may be configured to provide a variety of print sequencing operations to maximize printing thruput and/or minimize overall operational costs.
To provide additional functionality to a printing system device and enable two sided printing, a duplex printing operation can be implemented utilizing a media sheet inverter. Media sheet inverters can be located at the input and/or output of a printing device. The media sheet inverter simply inverts a media sheet for subsequent printing by one or more printing devices.
As can be appreciated from the discussion heretofore, the integration of multiple printing devices provides a multitude of media sheet routing possibilities. In addition, by integrating printing devices which can have different media sheet processing cycle times, management of media sheet routing through the printing system can be important to maximize the throughput and minimize costs.

Bi-directional inverter printing apparatus and method

Abstract: According to another aspect of this disclosure, a printing system is disclosed. The printing system comprising an inverter module. The inverter module comprising a first media sheet input/output zone, and a second media sheet input/output zone, the first and second media sheet input/output zones operatively connected to provide a media sheet pass-through route. The inverter module is configured to selectably route a media sheet to a printing device for image transfer and the inverter module is configured to invert a media sheet from the printing device media sheet output.