A difference image processing scheme and contrast-only difference image processing scheme is provided for imaging anatomic structures or vessels which have periodic physiological motion that define physiologic cycles. Image data is acquired using ultrasound imaging equipment. In the scheme, a template image is captured at a first time period. The template image comprises image data of a portion of the subject's body acquired at a selected time period during the physiologic cycle. The captured template image is stored. Next, a real-time image is taken at a second time period subsequent to the first time period. The real-time image includes image data of the portion of the subject's body acquired at the same selected time period during the physiologic cycle as the template image. The stored template image and the real-time image are simultaneously displayed on an image display. The simultaneously displayed images have a visually perceptible effect when the real-time image becomes closely aligned with the template image at the same selected time period during the physiologic cycle. After alignment is achieved, a difference image is calculated, stored and displayed. The difference image may be a contrast-only image if a contrast agent has been injected into the imaged region during the second time period. The template image improves the alignment process of pre-contrast and post-contrast images, or pre-event/post-event difference images.

Ultrasound imaging involves the display of information obtained from reflections of (echoes of) pulses of ultrasonic waves directed into the body. These echoes contain information about the underlying structure of the tissue and blood flow in vessels in the region exposed to ultrasound waves. One use of the ultrasound images is for contrast agent imaging for a heart study.
FIG. 1 illustrates the steps associated with a conventional contrast agent imaging technique for a heart study. First, the tissue 10 is insonated (i.e., exposed to ultrasound waves) via an ultrasound transducer probe 12 in the absence of a contrast agent, and a single image frame is acquired and stored in a first location within an image frame memory 14. The pre-injection image is acquired at a known point in the heart cycle by using a QRS trigger, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,683 (Monaghan), incorporated in its entirety herein by reference. Next, the contrast agent is injected into the patient and another single image frame is acquired after the contrast agent has perfused into the heart vessels. This post-injection image is stored in a second location in the image frame memory 14.
Referring to FIG. 2, the two images are then processed by an offline computer 16. The computer aligns the two images as best as possible and performs a subtraction, thereby obtaining a "contrast-only difference image" (not shown). The contrast-only difference image is used for rendering a diagnosis.
To further explain the meaning of a contrast-only difference image, the subtraction of two ultrasound image frames taken at different points in time, but at the same times in the physiological cycle is referred to generically as a "difference image. " A difference image is typically the absolute value of the image differences. Difference images obtained in contrast agent imaging are slightly different than generic difference images. When obtaining a contrast-only difference image of two images which are presumed to be perfectly aligned, pixel brightness differences which are less than zero are typically zeroed instead of being assigned an absolute value, since it is presumed that the post-injection image should always be brighter than the pre-injection image. That is, any pixels in the pre-contrast image which are brighter than the corresponding pixels in the post-contrast image are presumed to represent noise.
The pre-injection and post-injection images may be further improved via filtering. Filtering is useful in reducing acoustic "speckle." Acoustic speckle is caused by interference patterns from wavefronts. The interference patterns cause constructive or destructive interference. Acoustic speckle shows up as bright spots and black holes on the image. In one conventional speckle reduction technique, a plurality of pre-contrast and post-contrast images are obtained at the same point in successive cardiac cycles. Again, the QRS trigger is used as a reference point for identifying when the images should be captured. The plurality of pre-contrast and post-contrast images are then separately filtered using a conventional filtering technique, such as averaging a plurality of such images. The result is a speckle-reduced pre-contrast image and a speckle-reduced post-contrast image obtained at a single point in the cardiac cycle. The resultant filtered images are then subtracted from each other using the offline computer 16.
There are significant deficiencies in the conventional contrast agent technique. For example, there is a significant time period between acquisition of the pre-injection and post-injection image frames. In this time period, the operator may have moved the probe 12, or the patient may have moved, so that the probe 12 is not in the same exact location during the acquisition of the two images. Furthermore, it is not possible to determine that relative movement occurred during the image acquisition. The offline computer 16 can move the pre-injection image up or down, or left or right, to match up with the post-injection image. Thus, while some movement can be corrected, it is frequently impossible to exactly align the images. One reason why the images often cannot be perfectly aligned is that the images are 2-D representations of 3-D structures so that mere X-Y axis movements will not necessarily cause the images be aligned.
FIGS. 3A-3C show one conventional alignment scheme which uses a region-of-interest approach to automatically align the images. While the region of interest may be alignable, this does not mean that the rest of the image is necessarily aligned. See FIG. 3C which shows a perfectly overlapping region of interest, but poor overlap in other image regions. If the images cannot be accurately aligned, the resultant subtraction image will be inaccurate.
Retesting is sometimes necessary if alignment problems occur during offline processing which cannot be corrected by the computer 16. Retesting is expensive and often impractical. When the patient is suffering from an acute condition, the time lost in the process may cause a significant problem in patient management. Furthermore, the offline alignment process may introduce errors into the heart study, particularly if the operator makes a mistake in aligning the images.
At least three significant problems thus exist with the conventional technique, namely that the results are not available instantly, the patient must be retested if the images cannot be sufficiently aligned, and the offline alignment process may introduce additional errors in the heart study. Accordingly, there is a significant and unmet need for an ultrasound imaging system for contrast agent imaging which provides instant contrast images, minimizes the need for retesting, and reduces the opportunity for operator error. Furthermore, there is also a need for a difference image processing scheme which achieves such needs. The present invention fulfills all of these needs.

Ultrasound system for contrast agent imaging and quantification in echocardiography using template image for image alignment


A method and apparatus for detecting and discriminating a copy sheet in an electronic reprographic printing system has a diffuse reflective sensor disposed adjacent a portion of the path over which the copy sheet moves. The sensor is disposed so that its optical axis intersects the copy sheet where the angle of intersection between the copy sheet and the optical axis remains within a specified range of angles for the maximum length of the copy sheet. A diffuse reflective sensor is also disposed adjacent inlet baffles with its optical axis aligned so that a transparent copy sheet is not detected while an opaque copy sheet is.

The invention relates generally to a color electronic reprographic printing system, and more particularly concerns a method and apparatus for distinguishing between opaque and transparent sheets to which are applied a plurality of developed images in a color reprographic system and for reliably sensing the presence of a transparent sheet in such a system in which the sheet's movement is not closely controlled.
The marking engine of an electronic reprographic printing system is frequently an electrophotographic printing machine. In an electrophotographic printing machine, a photoconductive member is charged to a substantially uniform potential to sensitize the surface thereof. The charged portion of the photoconductive member is thereafter selectively exposed. Exposure of the charged photoconductive member dissipates the charge thereon in the irradiated areas. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive member corresponding to the informational area contained within the original document being reproduced. After the electrostatic latent image is recorded on the photoconductive member, the latent image on the photoconductive member which is subsequently transferred to a copy sheet. The copy sheet is heated to permanently affix the toner image thereto in image configuration.
Multi-color electrophotographic printing is substantially identical to the foregoing process of black and white printing. However, rather than forming a single latent image on the photoconductive surface, successive latent images corresponding to different colors are recorded thereon. Each single color electrostatic latent image is developed with toner of a color complementary thereto. This process is repeated a plurality of cycles for differently colored images and their respective complementarily colored toner. Each single color toner image is transferred to the copy sheet in superimposed registration with the prior toner image. This creates a multi-layered toner image on the copy sheet. Thereafter, the multi-layered toner image is permanently affixed to the copy sheet creating a color copy. The developer material may be a liquid or a powder material.
In the process of black and white printing, the copy sheet is advanced from an input tray to a path internal the electrophotographic printing machine where a toner image is transferred thereto and then to an output catch tray for subsequent removal therefrom by the machine operator. In the process of multi-color printing, the copy sheet moves from an input tray through a recirculating path internal to the printing machine where a plurality of toner images is transferred thereto and then to an output catch tray for subsequent removal. With regard to multi-color printing, a sheet gripper secured to a transport receives the copy sheet and transports it in a recirculating path enabling the plurality of different color images to be transferred thereto. The sheet gripper grips one edge of the copy sheet and moves the sheet in a recirculating path so that accurate multi-pass color registration is achieved. In this way, magenta, cyan, yellow, and black toner images are transferred to the copy sheet in registration with one another.
In a color reprographic system, a transparent, polymer copy sheet is developed and fused to different parameters than an opaque, paper copy sheet. It is therefore desirable to distinguish between opaque and transparent copy sheets. As is well known in the art, previous systems have used two-piece transmissive sensors to distinguish copy sheets. Such sensors have an emitter and a photodetector disposed on opposite sides of the path along which the copy sheet moves. An opaque copy sheet interrupts the light transmitted from the emitter to the photodetector while a transparent copy sheet does not. Although this is an effective technique for distinguishing transparent from opaque copy sheets, such sensors are costly, relatively large, cumbersome to locate within the system, and special-purpose. Such sensors are used, for example, in the Canon CLC-1 and CLC-500 color photocopiers.
Another type of sensor, which is commonly used for copy sheet sensing in reprographic systems, is a diffuse reflective sensor. In this sensor, the emitter and photodetector are disposed on the same side of the copy sheet path. A matte black background or open space is disposed on the other side. When no copy sheet is in front of the sensor, light from the emitter is absorbed by the background or open space. When a copy sheet is placed in front of the sensor, light from the emitter is reflected off of the copy sheet and transmitted to the photodetector. In known configurations, such a sensor detects both transparent and opaque copy sheets--it does not distinguish between them. Such a sensor is used, for example, in the Model No. 5046 photocopier manufactured by the Xerox Corporation.
Simply detecting the presence of a transparent copy sheet presents significant difficulties. Mechanical switches placed in the copy sheet path can detect either a transparent or opaque copy sheet. However, such switches are unreliable. As noted above, diffuse reflective sensors can be used to detect both transparent and opaque copy sheets. Opaque copy sheets are readily detected because the reflected light is scattered, or diffused, from the surface of the copy sheet, so that a detectable amount of light will reach the detector over a wide range of angles of the plane of the sheet relative to the axis of the sensor. However, transparent copy sheets produce specular, rather than diffuse, reflection of incident light from the sensor's emitter. Thus, a detectable amount of light will reach the detector only over a narrow range of angles of the sheet plane relative to the sensor axis. This limitation is acceptable in applications in which the copy sheet position is closely controlled. However, this limitation is not acceptable where, as in portions of the copy sheet circulation path of the color reprographic system described herein, the leading and trailing portions of the copy sheet are closely controlled while the body portion is not. In such applications, the known diffuse reflective sensor configuration will not reliably detect transparent copy sheets.

Optical transparency detection and discrimination in an electronic reprographic printing system


A gearset assembly includes a pinion carrier containing long pinions mutually spaced angularly about an axis and supported for rotation on the carrier, and short pinions, each short pinion supported for rotation on the carrier and meshing with a long pinion. A ring gear meshes with the long pinions. A first sun gear meshes with the short pinions, and a second sun gear meshes with the long pinions.

The invention relates to gearsets for motor vehicle transmissions, particular to Ravigneaux gearsets for automatic transmissions.
A conventional Ravigneaux gearset includes a single carrier containing two sets of planet pinions, long pinions, and short pinions. Each pinion set includes three pinions, each pinion being mutually spaced angularly about a central axis, each short pinion meshing with a corresponding long pinion. There are two sun gears, a short sun gear meshing with the three short pinions, and a long sun gear meshing with the three long pinions. There is one ring gear, which meshes with the three long pinions.
Both planet pinion sets are supported for rotation on the carrier. Each long pinion is in mesh with a short pinion, the ring gear, and the long sun gear. Each short pinion is in mesh with a long pinion and the short sun gear.
Ravigneaux gearsets are used in many automatic transmissions due to their compact size. A Ravigneaux gearset can be used instead of two simple planetary gearsets to produce four forward speeds and a reverse gear. They are smaller, and require fewer components than two simple planetary gearsets because they have a common pinion, one ring gear, and one carrier. Their manufacturing and assembly costs compare favorably to those of simple planetary gearsets.
Ravigneaux gearsets, however, are limited in torque capacity due to the pairing requirement for the pinions. Unlike conventional planetary gear sets, which can be made more robust by adding an extra pinion, the pairing requirement of a Ravigneaux gearset requires that two pinions be added to increase torque capacity. Because there is not enough space in the annular zone surrounding the carrier to add a long pinion and a short pinion, the toque and power capacity of a Ravigneaux gearset is usually increased by making the gearset larger, widening the gears and pinions and increasing the diameter of the shafts, or by incorporating premium processes to the manufacture of the gears, pinions and carrier. But this increases the cost weight and package size of the transmission. Heretofore, Ravigneaux gearsets have been limited to three pairs of planet pinions, six pinions.
There is a need to increases the power and torque capacity of a Ravigneaux gearset, preferably by adding pinions, but without increasing the size of the gearset.

Planet pinion carrier assembly for ravigneaux gearset


The present invention relates to a method for separating and preparing a TNFR-Fc fusion protein using hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC). More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for separating and preparing a highly pure active protein from clipped proteins due to displacement effect by adjusting the conductivity of a protein sample using a high concentration of salt solution and by adjusting a loading amount thereof, and a TNFR-Fc fusion protein prepared by the method.

Overexpression of TNF alpha (tumor necrosis factor alpha) in the human body is known to cause autoimmune diseases. TNFR (tumor necrosis factor receptor) is a TNF alpha receptor, and binds to an overexpressed TNF alpha to function as a therapeutic agent for autoimmune diseases. In addition, TNFR is fused with the human immunoglobulin G (IgG) Fc region to be expressed as an Fc fusion protein, thereby being used as a therapeutic protein drug.
TNFR-Fc can be prepared by fusion of 235 amino acids of TNFR with 232 amino acids of the Fc region including a hinge region. When TNFR-Fc is produced as a dimer by recombinant DNA technology, it shows a biological activity.
TNFR comprises 235 amino acids possessing 4 domains and a transmembrane region. TNFR has 22 cysteines, and all of them form disulfide bonds to have a steric structure. However, when TNFR-Fc is produced from animal cells, cysteines bind with each other at random, and thus they do not form disulfide bonds identical to those of a native protein. TNFR may be also partially truncated, and fail to form a correct TNFR-Fc dimer.
TNFR-Fc with incorrect disulfide bonds cannot show the proper biological activity due to a drastic reduction in the binding ability to TNF alpha. When the entire or a part of TNFR is truncated, it may also not exhibit the biological activity.
Therefore, when the TNFR-Fc dimers are produced using a recombinant DNA technology and an animal cell culture technique, active proteins, inactive proteins with incorrect disulfide bonds, aggregates, and clipped forms are produced at the same time, and thus a technique for isolating active proteins from the protein mixture is needed.
Therapeutic biomolecules must be purified with greater than 99% purity prior to human use. This degree of purification can be achieved through use of three or four liquid chromatography processes such as ion exchange chromatography, reversed phase chromatography, size exclusion chromatography, affinity (dye, metal, antibody, protein A, etc.) chromatography, and hydrophobic interaction chromatography which are required during the isolation process. The type and sequence of chromatographic processes chosen are based on physicochemical characteristics of contaminants that coexist with the target biomolecule. Usually, size exclusion chromatography is employed in a final step, because it removes protein aggregates and also exchanges the purified proteins into the final formulation buffer.
However, size exclusion chromatography negatively affects productivity because of the limited sample volume that can be loaded. Column load volume of sample greater than about 5% of the overall column volume results in diffusion-related band spreading and dilution as the solute band moves through the column. The volume limitation can be circumvented through the use of an ultrafiltration concentration step prior to column loading. Ultrafiltration concentration also introduces productivity losses due to non-specific binding of the protein to the membrane and other materials in the system, volume losses to tubing and pumps, and complications associated with equipment preparation, operation, and cleaning. Therefore, the purification process can clearly be simpler and productivity losses can be avoided by applying a concentrated target protein to hydrophobic interaction chromatography to obtain displacement effect. However, the separation method of the target protein using hydrophobic interaction chromatography requires different separation conditions depending on the type of the target protein, the expression vector including a polynucleotide encoding the protein, etc. Frequently, the known separation methods of the target protein cannot be applied in the separation of other target proteins or in the separation of the target protein prepared under different conditions. In the market for protein drugs, therefore, it is very important to investigate suitable conditions for separating a desired target protein with high purity and concentration.

Methods for preparing an active TNFR-Fc fusion protein


Provided herein is an apparatus, including a patterned resist overlying a substrate; a number of features of the patterned resist, wherein the number of features respectively includes a number of sidewalls; and a sidewall-protecting material disposed about the number of sidewalls, wherein the sidewall-protecting material is characteristic of a conformal, thin-film deposition, and wherein the sidewall-protecting material facilitates a high-fidelity pattern transfer of the patterned resist to the substrate during etching.

Patterning features at high resolutions can be difficult. Difficulty in patterning features may include, for example, one or more difficulties in pattern transfer, which can lead to variations in the transferred pattern including variations in feature size and/or shape, as well as feature position. In view of the foregoing, patterning features at high resolutions can be difficult due to one or more difficulties in pattern transfer.

Apparatus with sidewall protection for features


A system and method of allowing a new device to join an existing network are disclosed. A configuration tool is used to communicate relevant information from the new network device to the gateway in the existing network using a secondary network protocol different from that used by the primary network. For example, in one embodiment, messages are exchanged between the configuration tool and the new device and between the configuration tool and the gateway using BLUETOOTH®. Once all of the pertinent information has been exchanged, the new device is able to securely join the primary network, which may be based on the IEEE802.15.4 standard.

The explosion of network connected devices has led to an increased use of certain protocols. For example, protocols based on IEEE802.15.4, such as ZIGBEE®, are now commonly used in many applications, including utility meters, lighting systems and the like. As the use of ZIGBEE® expands, many are attempting to address some perceived security weaknesses inherent in the protocol.
One such security weakness is the process by which a new device joins an existing ZIGBEE® network. Once a device is part of the ZIGBEE® network, its packets will be encrypted using a network key. However, relaying that network key to the new device may be problematic. Many existing networks use one of two schemes to allow new devices to join.
The first scheme is to encrypt the network key using a well known security key, such as the default ZIGBEE® link key. However, this default key is well known. Thus, hackers or other malicious users can easily intercept the network key by observing traffic as a new device joins the network, thus allowing them to decrypt all traffic occurring over a ZIGBEE® network that uses the default key.
The second scheme is to encrypt the network key using a device-specific key. Unfortunately, this device-specific key must be communicated to the ZIGBEE® gateway. Currently, this is done by providing an indication of the key at the device. For example, a slip of paper with the device-specific key may be placed in the shipping box with the device. The user must then locate this indication and program that device key into the ZIGBEE® gateway. The possibility of losing this key is high, and the process may require a level of expertise that does not exist at all deployment sites.
Therefore, an improved system and method of allowing a new device to securely join a network, such as a ZIGBEE® network is needed. Further, it would be beneficial if this system and method was simple to implement so as to be easily accomplished.

Use of a network to commission a second network


Disclosed are a method of, as well as an apparatus for, weighing items of poultry, such as poultry or chicken carcasses, in conjunction with a meat processing systems (5, 7). The method includes: a first step of providing a weighing bridge (1) having force measuring means (25) with two load cells; a second step of conveying a suspended item of poultry in a predefined path extending over the weighing bridge (1); a third step of transferring substantially the weight of the suspended item of poultry onto the weighing bridge; and a fourth step of reading out values detected by the load cells of the force measuring means (25); and calculating an actual weight using an average of the detected force values over a predetermined period of time. The apparatus includes components for carrying out the method.

Weighing apparatus are known, amongst others, from prior art patent documents U.S. Pat. No. 1,902,512, GB 1481495, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,622,000, and 4,187,945. In these prior art systems generally an overhead conveyer track has a section associated therewith that is independently movable relative to the majority of the overhead track. Weighing devices are operatively connected to the independently movable section. Shackle assemblies for supporting bird or poultry carcasses are suspended for movement along the overhead track by carriers. Each shackle comprises an upper portion, including the carrier, and a lower portion that is relatively movable with respect to the upper portion. The lower portion includes a hook formation for holding a poultry carcass and a supporting slider or wheel for engaging a weighing platform of the independently movable section. When the lower portion of the shackle has engaged the weighing platform, it has slightly been lifted to transfer its entire weight onto the weighing platform, while the upper portion of the shackle remains suspended from the overhead track as the shackles travel therealong.
It is also common for such weighing apparatus either to be associated with a circular conveyer path, as additionally shown by U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,644, or with a linear conveyer path as shown by U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,351. It has also been practised to combine such weighing apparatus with transfer stations that transfer chicken or poultry carcasses from one processing line to a subsequent processing line. A transfer station in general is described in patent document U.S. Pat. No. 6,905,404, and although this does not disclose a weighing apparatus combined therewith, it is known that various suppliers, such as Linco and Meyn, offer such transfer stations.
The existing devices are critical with respect to their operating speed. As the speed is increased the reliability and accuracy of the measured weight tends to be compromised. Now that the operating speeds of meat processing systems is continuingly increasing, the weighing apparatus are more and more becoming a limiting element to the operating speed of processing lines. There thus has arisen a need for weighing apparatus that operate with greater accuracy and reliability at an increased speed.
Accordingly it is an aspect of the present invention to propose an improved weighing apparatus for use in conjunction with meat processing equipment or systems, which measures weight more accurately and allows an increased conveyer speed. In a more general sense it is an object of the present invention to at least overcome or ameliorate one or more of the disadvantages of the prior art. It is also an object of the present invention to at least provide alternative structures which are less cumbersome in manufacture and use and which can be made and used relatively inexpensively. At any rate the present invention is at the very least aimed at offering a useful alternative and contribution to the existing art.

Weighing method and apparatus for meat processing systems


By providing a hand holdable, reusable, holding system which enables users to insert any small diameter, shaft supporting pyrotechnic device, such as a sparkler, into an aperture and be assured that the shaft of the pyrotechnic device is securely locked to the holding system for protecting the individual from harm, an easily constructed, easily used holding system is attained which is capable of enabling any elongated, small diameter wire or shaft to be quickly inserted into the holding system and securely lockingly engaged therewith. In this way, the pyrotechnic material which is adhered to the upper portion of the elongated shaft or wire is easily held by the user in a safe and effective manner.

For many years, people have been entertained by pyrotechnic devices such as sparklers, punks and the like, particularly during patriotic holidays such as Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. In addition, many children wish to emulate adults by holding and waving sparklers and punks to show their enthusiasm.
Once thought of as something to be used only on holidays alone, sparklers are now being used in many other types of celebrations. In this regard, sparklers are now finding their way into many areas, such as weddings and parties. With an exciting show of gold sparks, the sparkler can be used indoors and outdoors and can be held by guest to form an arch or passageway through which the married couple passes. They can be used as party favors and placed beside each place setting on a table at a reception or party. They can be painted to match a color scheme or theme and even placed on a cake to produce a light show effect.
Sparklers are designed to burn over a long period of time (up to a minute) and produce extremely bright and showering light. Sparklers are often referred as "snowball sparklers" because of the ball of sparks that surround the burning portion of the sparkler.
The sparkler consists of a fuel composed of charcoal and sulfer, an oxidizer such as potassium nitrate, iron or steel powder, and a binder which can be made of sugar or starch. Once these components are mixed with water, these chemicals form a slurry which can be coated on a wire by dipping.
After the composition has dried on the wire, the sparkler is complete and ready for use. When a sparkler is ignited, it burns from the lit end down to the bottom. The fuel and oxidizer are proportioned, along with the other chemicals, resulting in a sparkler that burns slowly.
However, during this burning process the wire to which the sparkler composition is adhered can become very hot and burn the hand. In addition, the sparks emitted from the sparklers can burn the skin, particularly the tender skin of young children.
Therefore, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a hand held holding device in which a sparkler or other pyrotechnic device is retained to protect the skin.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hand held holding device having the characteristic features described above which can be reused.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a hand held holding device having the characteristic features described above which is colorful and will add to the excitement and enjoyment of the user.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a hand held holding device having the characteristic features described above which is completely reusable, thereby being both safe and effective, as well as cost efficient.
Other and more specific objects will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

Reusable holding system for pyrotechnic, shaft bearing devices


A fencing connector and fencing system utilizing fencing connectors. The fencing connectors include a swivel mount having a cavity configured to receive a first swivel assembly. The first swivel assembly is rotatable about a first axis within the swivel mount. A second swivel assembly is rotatably attached to the first swivel assembly. The second swivel assembly is rotatable about a second axis. The second swivel assembly further having a pocket configured to receive a structural member.

Vinyl or plastic products are known for constructing, for example, decks, fences for yards and/or railings for use on staircases. Vinyl and plastic fencing is aesthetically pleasing and easy to maintain, but requires assembly of various, typically prefabricated, fence components by an installer. Connection of the fence rails to the vertically extending fence posts is difficult due to the fact that the components need to be aligned and connected together. Installation becomes more difficult on uneven surfaces, staircases or on railing spanning multiple levels because the railing requires attachment at various angles that may be non-uniform and/or may require custom sized components.
What is needed is an inexpensive mounting structure that is capable of providing easy and reliable installation of fence rails at various angles between posts.


An apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes a laser source and a ring-down optical resonator that performs cavity ring-down spectroscopy, the optical resonator receives coherent optical energy from the laser, wherein an extinction rate of optical resonance within the optical resonator is at least 100 times longer than an extinction rate of optical energy emitted from the laser source first following deactivation of the laser source.

Spectroscopy is generally known. Spectroscopy relies upon that fact that the atoms and molecules of most materials will absorb radiation of a specific wavelength. In spectroscopy, a sample is bombarded with a radiant signal from a radiant source that is swept through a predetermined frequency range. A detector measures the amount of radiation absorbed at each frequency by the sample as the source is swept through the frequency range in order to determine a composition of the sample.
Devices that use cavity ring-down spectroscopy are also generally known. Such devices provide a highly reliable and accurate method of detecting both the presence and levels of a variety of different gaseous materials.
In general, cavity ring-down spectroscopy is based upon the principle that the presence of a predetermined gas within an optical resonator will change the rate of decay of a coherent signal resonating within the optical resonator. The change in the rate of decay may occur either because the gas changes the frequency of resonance or level of absorption of an optical signal resonating within the resonator.
Cavity ring-down spectroscopy devices require precise timing between a coherent energy source that excites the resonator and the measurement of signal decay. In general, signal decay typically occurs within a few microseconds. Accordingly, the deactivation of the coherent source and subsequent signal measurements must be highly coordinated. However, there are a number of factors that can disrupt this process and the results. Accordingly, a need exists for better methods of controlling this process.

Method and apparatus for correcting bias error in ring-down spectroscopy


A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag including a substrate, an RFID chip, a chip contact part, a folding circuit and a radiation part is provided. The chip contact part is formed on the substrate and electrically coupled to the RFID chip. The folding circuit is formed on the substrate and electrically coupled to the chip contact part. The folding circuit has a winding part, which forms a hollow region, for compensating the antenna electric length. The radiation part is formed on the substrate and electrically coupled to the folding circuit, wherein one terminal of the winding part of the folding circuit is open, and the other terminal is electrically coupled to the radiation part. At least one of the folding circuit and the radiation part is asymmetric to the chip contact part.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) system uses radio waves to transmit identification data such that the user can obtain required data wirelessly. RFID system includes a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and a reader.
An RFID tag is mainly constituted by an RFID chip and a tag antenna. The RFID chip of the RFID tag stores corresponding identification data such as product name, supplier, and replenish data. The tag antenna of the RFID tag will perform wireless transmission between the reader, to obtain required data.
The cost of the RFID tag is mainly caused by the RFID chip, the metal usage in the tag antenna and the tag manufacturing process (such as package). The cost of the RFID tag will be cut down if the metal usage in the RFID tag antenna can be reduced.
Let a commonly RFID tag be taken for example. Its size is normally 1×4 inches (25 mm×100 mm), its length is smaller than ½ times of the wavelength of UHF frequency band (900 MHz: 135 mm), the metal coverage rate is about 20%˜80% of the total area, and the metal coverage rate of the tag antenna is an important factor that makes the tag cost difficult to be reduced.
Of the current technologies, the RFID tag antenna normally adopts the meandering design to compensate the antenna electric length. As the tag antennas adopt a larger metal plane with a larger coverage rate, the material and cost of the tag can hardly be reduced further.
Thus, the application provides an RFID tag.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A magnetism detecting apparatus of this invention includes a magnetic sensor (11) constituted by a ferromagnetic core (12) and a detection coil (13) wound around the core (12), a parallel resonance circuit (15) constituted by the detection coil (13) of the magnetic sensor (11) and a capacitance element (14) connected in parallel with the detection coil (13), an oscillation circuit (18), which is constituted by an amplifier (16) to which the parallel resonance circuit (15) and a resistor (17) are connected as a feedback circuit, and the parallel resonance circuit (15), and excites the core (12) to a saturation region by using an oscillation current, and a waveform change detecting circuit (22, 24) for detecting a change in waveform of an output signal from the oscillation circuit (18). That is, the core (12) is excited to the saturation region by the oscillation circuit (18) using the detection coil (13) of the magnetic sensor (11) as part of the parallel resonance circuit (15), and an external magnetic field (H) applied to the magnetic sensor (11) is detected on the basis of the amount of change in waveform of an output signal (a) from the oscillation circuit (18). As a result, the circuit arrangement can be simplified, and a reduction in size and manufacturing cost of the overall apparatus can be realized while maintaining high measurement precision.

A magnetism detecting apparatus incorporating a saturable type magnetic sensor can detect magnetism with high precision (Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 1-308982).
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a schematic arrangement of a magnetism detecting apparatus using a saturable type magnetic sensor. A rectangular wave generating circuit 1 outputs an AC rectangular signal e.sub.1 having a predetermined period T.sub.1, as shown in FIG. 6. A 0-volt line is located in the middle of the signal waveform of the rectangular signal e.sub.1. The rectangular signal e.sub.1 output from the rectangular wave generating circuit 1 is input to a differentiating circuit 2. The differentiating circuit 2 differentiates the rectangular signal e.sub.1. As a result, the differentiating circuit 2 outputs a pulse signal having a trigger waveform, which is synchronized with the leading and trailing edges of a rectangular wave included in the rectangular signal e.sub.1.
The pulse having the trigger waveform, output from the differentiating circuit 2, is applied, as an AC excitation signal e.sub.2, to a magnetic sensor 4 through an impedance element 3 constituted by a resistor. This magnetic sensor 4 is constituted by a rod-like ferromagnetic core 5 and a detection coil 6 wound around the core 5. The AC excitation signal e.sub.2 is applied to one end of the detection coil 6 of the magnetic sensor 4 through the impedance element 3. The other end of the detection coil 6 is grounded. The terminal voltage of the detection coil 6 is extracted as a detection signal e.sub.0 obtained by the magnetic sensor 4 and is input to a voltage detecting circuit 7.
The voltage detecting circuit 7 comprises a positive detector for detecting a positive peak voltage +Va of the detection signal e.sub.0 shown in FIG. 6, a negative detector for detecting a negative peak voltage -Vb of the detection signal e.sub.0, and an adder for adding the peak voltages +Va and -Vb detected by the respective detectors. An output voltage V.sub.0 corresponding to a magnetic field strength detected by the magnetism detecting apparatus is obtained by the voltage detecting circuit 7.
An operation principle of the magnetic sensor 4 will be described below with reference to FIGS. 7 to 11.
AC power having an AC voltage waveform shown in FIG. 7 is applied to the detection coil 6 of the magnetic sensor 4 through the resistor of the impedance element 3. In this case, a voltage e0 generated across the two ends of the detection coil 6 is determined in correspondence with a resistance R of the resistor and an impedance Zs of the detection coil 6. That is, EQU e.sub.0 =e.multidot.Zs/(R+Zs) (1)
where e is the applied voltage value.
Since the detection coil 6 is wound around the ferromagnetic core 5, the voltage e.sub.0 changes in proportion to the impedance Zs and the magnetic permeability of the core 5.
Assume that an AC current is supplied to the detection coil 6 while no external magnetic field is applied to the magnetic sensor 4. In this case, the magnetic permeability characteristic of the core 5 changes in accordance with the hysteresis characteristic of the core 6, as shown in FIG. 10. Note that reference symbol n denotes the number of turns of the coil; and i, a coil current.
For this reason, an output voltage generated across the two ends of the detection coil 6 has a waveform shown in FIG. 8. In the absence of an external magnetic field, positive and negative waveforms are symmetrical, and a positive voltage V.sub.1 is equal to a negative voltage V.sub.2.
If an external magnetic field is applied in this state, a magnetic flux crossing the core 5 becomes a composite magnetic flux constituted by the magnetic field generated by the detection coil 6 and the external magnetic field. As a result, the waveform of a voltage generated across the two ends of the detection coil 6 exhibits V.sub.1 >V.sub.2, as shown in FIG. 9.
The external magnetic field, therefore, can be indirectly measured by obtaining the difference between the positive and negative voltages V.sub.1 and V.sub.2 of an output voltage generated across the two ends of the detection coil 6.
By using the magnetic sensor 4 of such a saturable type, output voltages V.sub.0 of 0 to 500 mV can be obtained with respect to small magnetic flux densities of 0 to 10 gauss, as shown in FIG. 11.
An operation of the magnetism detecting apparatus shown in FIG. 5 will be described below with reference to the above-described operation principle and the timing chart in FIG. 6.
The rectangular signal e.sub.1 output from the rectangular wave generating circuit 1 is converted into the pulse-like AC excitation signal e.sub.2 by the differentiating circuit 2. The signal e.sub.2 then flows in the detection coil 6 of the magnetic sensor 4 to excite the core 5. Note that the AC excitation signal e.sub.2 is set to a current value at which the core 5 is magnetized up to a saturation region. In this state, therefore, the waveform of the detection signal e.sub.0 indicated by the terminal voltage of the detection coil 6 exhibits a constant amplitude, as shown in FIG. 6.
In a state wherein an external magnetic field does not cross the saturated magnetic field generated by the detection coil 6, the positive and negative peak values Va and -Vb of the waveform are equal to each other, as indicated by a detection signal e.sub.0A on the left side of FIG. 6. If, however, an external magnetic field approaches the core 5 excited to the saturation region and crosses the saturated magnetic field formed by the detection coil 6, although no change in amplitude value occurs, positive and negative peak values Va and -Vb change, as indicated by a detection signal e.sub.0B on the right side in FIG. 6. These peak values Va and -Vb are detected by the above-mentioned positive and negative detectors to be converted into a DC voltage. The above-mentioned adder adds the peak voltages +Va and -Vb respectively detected by the positive and negative detectors to obtain a difference voltage (Va-Vb). The voltage detecting circuit 7 outputs this difference voltage (Va-Vb) as an output voltage V.sub.0. This output voltage V.sub.0 corresponds to the external magnetic field applied to the magnetic sensor 4. Therefore, a magnetic field strength can be detected by this magnetism detecting apparatus.
By using a saturable type magnetic sensor in this manner, the magnetic detection sensitivity of the apparatus can be improved, and the detection precision can be increased because a measurement result is substantially free from the influence of zero point variations due to variations in ambient temperature and the like, as compared with a magnetism detecting apparatus using a Hall element or a magnetoresistive element.
In this magnetism detecting apparatus, the ferromagnetic core 5 of the magnetic sensor 4 must be magnetized to the saturation region by supplying an AC excitation current to the detection coil 6 wound around the core 5. In order to accurately detect the positive and negative peak values Va and -Vb of the detection signal e.sub.0 output from the magnetic sensor 4, a pulse signal having a trigger waveform is used as the AC excitation signal e.sub.2 to be applied to the magnetic sensor 4 through the impedance element 3. Because of this trigger waveform, a high-frequency current flows in the detection coil 6. That is, in order to magnetize the core to the saturation region by using the pulse signal having the trigger waveform, an excitation current of, e.g., several 100 mA is required.
For this purpose, the voltage of the AC excitation signal e.sub.2 must be greatly increased. For example, even in the compact magnetic sensor 4, the above-mentioned voltage must be 15 to 25 V.sub.P--P. Since the rectangular wave generating circuit 1 needs to output the rectangular signal e.sub.1 having a peak value of 15 to 25 V.sub.P--P, a DC power source for applying a high voltage of 15 to 25 V is required in addition to a 5-V DC power source used in a general TTL circuit. As a result, the circuit arrangement is complicated, and the overall apparatus is increased in size. At the same time, the manufacturing cost is greatly increased.
In addition, since pulse-like noise due to pulses contained in the detection signal e.sub.0 may be mixed with the output voltage V.sub.0 from the voltage detecting circuit 7, a filter for removing such pulse-like noise is required.

Saturable core magnetometer with a parallel resonant circuit in which the W3 DC level changes with a change in an external magnetic field


A three dimensional (3D)imaging system capable of effectively displaying a 3D image suitable for a user by use of different cameras, and an image reproducing method thereof, the 3D imaging system configured to have different cameras freely selected without restriction while enabling the placement of the cameras thereof to be changeable according to the disposition of eyes of the user, so that a 3D image is generated and displayed from a stereo image adapted to the user, and by using the by-user generated 3D image, various contents services including a real time broadcasting, a Contents on Demand (COD), games, and a video communication are provided to a user, so that the fatigue or dizziness of a user is reduced, and the optimum perception of 3D sense is provided.

1. Field
Example embodiments of the following disclosure relate to a three-dimensional (3D) imaging system for displaying a 3D image suitable for a user, and an image reproducing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
When an object is viewed through a screen of a television during a movie, for example, or a computer screen during a game, the object, the figure of which is a 3D form, is viewed by a user in a two-dimensional (2D) form due to the flatness of the screen of the television or computer. However, in recent years, various methods have been developed to view an object in the form of a 3D stereoscopic image through a flat (2D) screen.
The 3D stereoscopic image that represents a 3D figure depends on the stereo vision theory through two eyes that enables a 3D sense of an object to be perceived by use of the disparity of two eyes, that is, the binocular disparity caused by the distance of about 65 mm between two eyes. That is, when each of the left eye and the right eye of a user views a respective 2D image that is related to each eye, the images of the two eyes are transmitted to the brain through a retina, and the brain fuses the two images, thereby reproducing the depth perception and the sense of reality.
As described above, in order to view a 3D image of an object from the 2D screen, a left side 3D image viewed from the left eye and a right side 2D image viewed from the right eye are obtained from a stereo camera, and a signal processing is performed on each image, thereby displaying a 3D stereoscopic image.
In general, the stereo camera uses two camera modules each having camera parameters (e.g., the size of the screen, the focus, the brightness, the sense of color, and field of view (FOV)) that are almost same in between the two camera modules in terms of hardware (H/W). In addition, by synchronizing the operation (e.g., capture, white balance and focusing) of the two cameras with each other, the disparity of images generated due to asynchronous operation is restrained at the most. However, the stereo camera manufactured as above is costly and is provided with a lowered freedom of operation, and in particular, has a narrow section of the cameras.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved 3D imaging system.

Three-dimensional imaging system and image reproducing method thereof


Suitcase for transport of tools or the like, which includes a box-shaped bottom (1), a corresponding lid (2) and a flip-up handle (3) on the side of the bottom (1). The bottom (1) and the lid (2) are connected with each other by one or more hinges. A lock is provided for locking the lid (2) to the bottom (1), and said lock includes a latch device (4), which is turnably mounted on the bottom (1) on the same side of the suitcase as the handle (3). Said latch device (4) is adapted so that by turning, it engages with the lid (2) and fixes the lid in its closed position. The latch device (4) and the handle (3) have interacting cam means (22 and 23), which effect turning of the latch device (4) into the locked position when the handle (3) is turned to flipped-up position.

It is known to transport tools or the like in suitcases of the above type. However, the problem of such suitcases is that sometimes the user forgets to lock the lid and thus prevent it from opening. The consequence is often that the lid opens and the contents fall out when the suitcase is lifted in the handle.
CH 683585 A5 discloses a suitcase, which includes a box-formed bottom with a corresponding lid and a flip-up handle on the side of the bottom. The flip-up handle forms part of a lock. When the handle is flipped-up, the lid is locked to the bottom thus avoiding that the contents fall out of the suitcase.


A method for manufacturing a semiconductor laser device includes forming a laminate having a semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, an active layer and a semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type. The waveguide region is formed to guide light perpendicular to the direction of width by restricting the light from spreading in the direction of width in the active layer, such that the semiconductor laser device has a first waveguide region and a second waveguide region. The first waveguide region is formed to confine light within the limited active layer by means of a difference in the refractive index between the active layer and the regions on both sides of the active layer by limiting the width of the active layer. In forming the second waveguide region, light is confined therein by providing effective difference in refractive index in the active layer.

Recently, nitride semiconductor laser devices have been receiving increasingly demands for the applications in optical disk systems such as DVD which are capable of recording and reproducing a large amount of information with a high density. Accordingly, vigorous research efforts are being made in the field of nitride semiconductor laser device. Because of the capability to oscillate and emit visible light over a broad spectrum ranging from ultraviolet to red, the nitride semiconductor laser device is expected to have wide applications such as light sources for laser printer and optical network, as well as the optical disk system.
With regard to the structure of the laser device, in particular, various researches have been made and a number of proposals have been made for the structure that enables preferable control of transverse oscillation mode. Among these, ridge waveguide structure is viewed as promising, and is employed in the nitride semiconductor laser device that was shipped first in the world.
The ridge waveguide structure for a semiconductor laser device makes it easier to drive laser oscillation due to the simple structure, although variations are likely to occur in the characteristics of the devices during volume production. This is because the characteristics are caused to vary by variations in the dimensions of mesa stripe in the case of ridge waveguide structure, while the dimensional accuracy of the mesa stripe is determined by the accuracy of etching and the dimensional accuracy of the mesa stripe cannot be made higher than the accuracy of etching. In the case of a semiconductor laser device made from a semiconductor material which is likely to suffer significant etching damage in the active layer or damage caused by exposing the active layer surface to the etching atmosphere, laser characteristics degrade due to the etching damage in the active layer and on the active layer surface when a semiconductor laser device of perfect refractive index guided type is made by etching deeper than the active layer thereby forming ridges. Therefore, such a semiconductor laser device must be made in the effective refractive index type waveguide structure wherein stripes are formed to a depth that does not reach the active layer. However, in the case of effective refractive index type waveguide structure, variations in the device characteristics due to the variation in the stripe configuration mentioned above become significant, thus resulting in considerable variations in the device characteristics during volume production.
In order to apply the nitride semiconductor laser device in the fields described previously, it is indispensable to provide a device which can be mass-produced with stable quality.
However, the structure of the laser devices known at present has a bottle neck in the formation of the ridge waveguide. This is because, while the ridge waveguide is formed by growing nitride semiconductor that constitutes the device, then removing a part of the nitride semiconductor by etching the upper layer thereby forming the ridge which constitutes the waveguide, accuracy of the etching has a great effect on the characteristics of the laser device obtained as mentioned previously. That is, since the transverse mode is controlled by the configuration, particularly height and width, of the ridge that constitutes the ridge waveguide and the far field pattern (F.F.P.) of the laser beam is determined accordingly, an error in the control of the depth of etching when forming the ridge waveguide is a major factor which directly causes variations in the device characteristics.
Dry etching techniques such as reactive ion etching (RIE) have been known for etching nitride semiconductor, but it has been difficult to control the depth of etching to such an accuracy as to completely solve the problem of variations in the device characteristics with these etching techniques.
Design of devices in recent years in a trend to have a multitude of layers that are controlled to be several atoms in thickness formed in the device, such as in the case of super lattice structure. This also contributes to the variations in the device characteristics caused by the etching accuracy. Specifically, when forming the layers which constitute the device structure, the layers are formed with an extremely high accuracy and it is difficult to achieve the device structure of sophisticated design by forming the ridge and other structure with the etching technique having an accuracy lower than the accuracy of film forming by several orders of magnitude, thus making an obstacle to the improvement of device characteristics.
For example, when forming a nitride semiconductor laser device having a high output power in the refractive-index guiding type structure where ridge waveguide is provided on the active layer without etching the active layer, accuracy of etching depth must be controlled so as to keep the effective difference in refractive index between a portion of the active layer right below the ridge and other portion of the active layer to one hundredth. In order to achieve this accuracy, the ridge must be formed by etching while controlling the depth with an accuracy within 0.01 μm till a very small portion of p-type cladding layer remains, in case the layer right above the active layer is the p-type cladding layer. On the other hand, width of the ridge waveguide may have lower accuracy but must be etched with an accuracy of 0.1 μm.
When the RIE process is employed for etching the nitride semiconductor, the layer exposed by etching and the surface thereof are prone to damage, which leads to deterioration of the device characteristics and reliability. Etching can be done in a wet etching process as well as a dry etching process, although wet etching solution which is applicable to nitride semiconductors has not been developed.
As described above, whether nitride semiconductor laser device having high functionality can be made or not in volume production with less variations in the characteristics heavily depends on the accuracy of forming the ridge waveguide in the etching process, and it has critical importance to form the ridge waveguide with a high accuracy.
In light of the circumstances described above, the present inventors have invented a laser device or an end face light emission device and a method for manufacturing the same which, even in the case of a semiconductor laser device of stripe configuration and despite the semiconductor laser device has a resonator of excellent oscillation and wave guiding characteristics, allows stable control of transverse mode and is capable of emitting laser beam of excellent F.F.P., with less variations in the device characteristics even when mass-produced.

Semiconductor laser device and method of manufacturing the same


Active agent-containing printing ink which contains fine particles of thermoplastic polymer containing an active agent. The effect of active agent contained in a printed matter can be properly and effectually produced for a long period of time without causing undesirable release or deterioration of the active agent in printing and uses.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a printing ink which contains an active agent or agents. More particularly, the invention relates to an active agent-containing printing ink which can be used for printing articles made of synthetic resin as well as other various goods made of paper, cloth, leather, wood or bamboo, china or porcelain, glass and metals, and wall surfaces of rooms.
The active agent-containing printing ink of the present invention is characterized in that the effect of active agent contained therein can be properly controlled and can be maintained for a long period of time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the conventional art, perfumes or other functional chemicals (hereinafter referred to as "active agents") are sometimes blended into printing ink in order to give the effect of active agent on printed goods.
In Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 62-572, it is disclosed that a chemical agent is directly mixed into a printing ink. Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 61-102598 and No. 61-103324 disclose that a chemical agent which is included in cyclodextrin is mixed in printing ink. Japanese Patent Publication No. 51-15769 discloses the use of chemical agents which are adsorbed by a porous substance or contained in microcapsules.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,849; Keino et al., teaches a printing ink which can be formulated form a high polymer thermoplastic resin. However, Keino reference relates to a transfer printing sheet which comprises a base sheet such as cellulose fiber paper, a releasing resin layer, a pattern layer and a dissolving agent layer. The art is similar to that of the above Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 62-572 wherein a chemical agent is mixed directly into printing ink. This reference does not teach the utilization of a thermoplastic polymer as a carrier impregnated with the active agent and then mixing the active agent-containing thermoplastic polymer into printing ink.
There have been, however, several problems in that, when an active agent is directly mixed into a printing ink, the active agent is liable to be evaporated and released during printing operation, which fact shortens the effective life of the active agent. In the case that cyclodextrin is used, full effect of the active agent is hardly produced because most part of the active agent remains as included. In the method to use a porous substance, the effective life is not long enough. In the microcapsule method, it is necessary to rupture the microcapsules in order to produce the effect of active agent.
In order to solve the above problems in the prior art, the inventors of the present application have made extensive investigations, and as a result, the present invention has been accomplished.


Disclosed is a mechanism to control presentation of visible desktop objects in a graphical user interface (GUI). It is particularly related to a scenario where application windows are masking icons with regard to a window overlaying technique. The concept of the invention is to move hidden icons or windows to visible locations of the desktop when they are obscured by other windows, or other desktop objects like icons themselves. Desktop objects which are provided with the above presence functionality regularly call up a routine which compares the actual positions of all windows or other desktop objects with the own location. Calling-up can be initiated also by changes of the desktop contents. If an icon is covered by an other object, it determines a visible target location and will be presented at the new position. The motion of a desktop object can be performed without need of any interaction by the user. Therefore, this mechanism enables a very intuitive comprehensible solution of the above problems.

Operating systems like OS/2, Windows95 or MacOS (registered trademarks by IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Apple Computer Inc., respectively) commonly provide a virtual electronic desktop as a human-machine interface. Application programs running under those operating systems and respective data resources are represented as desktop objects, where inactive desktop objects (icons) can be activated by use of a pointer device (mouse pointer) and hereby change into active objects usually represented by application windows (window sessions). In those windows the operations and processes of according application programs are performed.
This GUI concept causes the problem that, when a user's desktop becomes busy and cluttered with multiple icons and windows, the lack of available screen makes it very difficult to navigate between various sessions represented by those icons or windows, because often one or more windows or icons cover one or more icons which are then hidden beneath those windows or icons, respectively. A common way for finding an application window that is not clearly visible, or activating such "hidden" icons, by use of a mouse pointer, is to rearrange the position of a covering window, or to minimize that window to an icon.
Thereupon, generic operating systems commonly provide a mechanism to bring an icon to focus by positioning the mouse pointer on the icon and clicking on the mouse select button. Often times, users have a plurality of icons (containers) on their desktop whereby some are viewable and some are obstructed. Therefore users must manually rearrange the position of the icons to view a related set of icons. This can be a tedious job when many icons are on the desktop and some are obstructed by others. In an article by A. Salahshour and M. Williams, published in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 37, no. 1, January 1994, pages 657-658, a respective desktop rearrangement methodology, based on incoming calls for desktop objects, is proposed. A described control mechanism detects an incoming call and automatically surfaces the icons and windows associated to that call. Further to maximize the usage of the viewing display area, the icons and windows are rearranged and re-sized to best fit the display area.
In addition, there exist more adequate approaches for solving the above problem. Some of the known desktop systems like the Presentation Manager (PM) under OS/2 provide a so-called "launchpad" usually comprising smaller icons from which frequently used desktop objects can be activated. Those launchpads have a "float on top" functionality which ensures that they are always visible and can not be masked by an application window. This approach has the disadvantage that the viewport for an active application program is reduced by the permanent visibility of the launchpad. Beyond that such a static solution is less flexible i.e. allows only small adaptations of the desktop, and is only a very reduced representation of a real (physical) desktop. Further that static approach does not allow a full-screen view of a window with a high priority for visibility.
Another approach enables activation of an application program by a specific combination of key strokes or mouse operations. For instance, OS/2 provides a general-purpose window ("icon park") for displaying icons which are currently active. In the icon park all icons can be visualized whether the window itself is visible or not. The icon park is a functional window that can be moved, scrolled and re-sized. In particular, the icon park has the capability to re-surface an open but hidden window from the background screen. More detailed information about the icon park concept is contained in an article by R. Hillis et al. published in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 9, no. 11, Nov. 1991, entitled "Icon Park".
There exist a number of solutions specifically concerning the problem of hidden windows. A first approach is disclosed in U.S. application for Ser. No. 923,698 (IBM docketno. DA992016) assigned to the present assignee and entitled "Method of and Apparatus for Providing Navigation to a Hidden Desktop Window". Hereby a user is provided a capability to automatically pop into the foreground of the desktop a hidden window or a plurality of hidden windows. The selection of which hidden window to pop into the foreground is based on a priority queue which may depend on the area of a window covered by other windows and/or the number of other windows covering a window.
A second approach, a method and system which allow to identify a window on the desktop even when the title bar and list objects are covered up by other windows, is disclosed in a publication by W. Johnson and O. Weber published in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 36, no. 8, Aug. 1993, pages 143-144. The system causes the title bar of a hidden window to move to another position on that window which is still visible to the user. Further, when only the title bar is masked by another window, the title bar is repositioned at a visible portion of that partially hidden window.
A further method to reveal hidden icons which are displayed within a viewport (window) and obscured behind other windows is disclosed in U.S. application for Ser. No. 703,434 (IBM docketno. DA991001) assigned to the present assignee and entitled "Method to Reveal Hidden Target Objects During Graphic User Interface Drag and Drop Operations". That approach is particularly related to a drag and drop scenario where an icon shall be moved from one (source) viewport to another (target) viewport, wherein the target viewport is not visible since being hidden by another viewport, for example the source viewport. Hereby it is particularly assumed that one of a set of selectable visual icons is to be relocated to an exposed portion of the target viewport. That movement between the viewports triggers an automatic rearranging of the order in which the viewports overlap, causing the target viewport to be raised to a topmost position relative to all the other viewports.
An alternative solution for the problem of icons hidden by windows is disclosed in an article by G. Fitzpatrick et al. published in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin vol 36, no. 6A, June 1993, pages 135-136. The authors propose a so-called "Translucent Window Attribute" where a translucent window allows objects immediately below it to show through. Hereby confusion and screen clutter of a busy desktop can be minimized.
A so-called "Icon Safe Zone" approach is disclosed in an article by L. Cahill et al. published in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin no. 6, Nov. 1992, pages 34-35. This safe zone is visually differentiated from the rest of the desktop through the use of shading which, for instance, can be displayed at the bottom of the desktop, wherein a user can decide which icons, e.g. those he works with the most, are placed in that safe zone. Those icons are protected from being covered by other windows.
A kind of "ghost icon" approach is disclosed in an article by J. Doran and G. Koets published in IBM Research Disclosure no. 312, April 1990 and entitled "Hidden Icon Notification". According to that approach, icons are shown briefly in a faded manner which does not obstruct the view of the current window but still can inform the user of an icon change. The proposed method allows a user to communicate with an icon hidden beneath a window although being covered.
A more particular solution concerning mobile trainable icons is disclosed in U.S. application for Ser. No. 227,149 (IBM docketno. Y0993077) assigned to the present assignee and entitled "A Method and System for Facilitating the Selection of Icons". It is proposed that those icons which are next likely to be used are selected and automatically moved towards a cursor thereby facilitating selection of the icons. The likeliness that one or more icons will be used within a predefined amount of time is determined. The appearance of those icons determined not likely to be used within that time is gradually changed. Additionally, those icons likely to be used, or other icons selected by a user, may track the cursor such that those icons are always close to the cursor and capable of being easily selected. In addition, it is possible to reduce the amount of clutter on a computer display so that icons may be easily selected. In order to clean up the computer display, icons which are least likely to be used are faded, eliminated or shrunk to a smaller size. The above approaches all have the drawback of troublesome operability and a missing realization of a virtual desktop and its desktop objects which normally can be activated by simple mouse operations.
The objective of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a mechanism to control visibility of icons in a viewport (window) environment, which allows improved visibility of icons and windows and simple and user-friendly adaptation like on a real desktop. Further the mechanism should re-organize the desktop of the GUI automatically with respect to a changing windows environment.
The underlying concept of the present invention, to solve the above objective, is that desktop objects, i.e. icons or windows, are moving to visible locations of the desktop when they are obscured by active (opened) windows which usually are a user's current focus, or other desktop objects like icons themselves. That motion can be advantageously performed without need of any interaction by the user. The proposed basic functionality can be arbitrarily adapted to different technical requirements of the GUI desktop or needs of the respective user of the GUI. In particular the invention is a very intuitive comprehensible solution of the above problems.
It is emphasized that a user's current focus on an application (program) is not restricted with regard to "opened" or "closed" viewports since icons can also be active programs running in the background, and thus an application currently focussed by a user is not only characterized by its active or non-active state.
In a first embodiment of the invention desktop objects which are provided with the above functionality regularly call up a routine which compares the actual positions of all windows or other desktop objects with the own location. Calling-up can be initiated also by changes of the desktop contents. If an icon is covered by an other object, it determines a visible target location and will be presented at the new position. A particular advantage of the proposed concept is that the development tools, programming languages and system interfaces required for implementation of the proposed mechanism are already provided by known operating systems which support mouse pointers together with windows-oriented desktop objects.
In a further embodiment of the mechanism according to the invention the user equips multiple desktop objects with self-controlling presence (visibility) functionality by use of a common "notebook" which is already provided for example by OS/2 for configuration of objects. In such a notebook the user can also activate or inactivate the presence functionality for one or more objects.
In another embodiment, the direction of motion of the objects can be controlled by priority. For instance, the desktop can be partitioned into a number (e.g. 4) quadrants each of which having assigned a different weight by the user. If a self-controlled icon is covered by an other object, it first will try to be presented at a visible portion of the desktop corresponding to a quadrant with the largest weight. The order for selecting a visible portion of the desktop can also be controlled by points of the compass or clockwise direction.
According to a further embodiment of the invention the motion of the icons can be adjusted with respect to the habit of the respective user and with respect to a most clearly arranged desktop. For instance, moving objects can be presented discreet with regard to shape, brightness or contrast of non-moved objects in order not to irritate the user who is busy with an active window. The motion of icons can also be presented invisible to the user wherein moved icons only appear at the target location.
Furthermore, the user is free in configuration of the behavior of desktop objects after close of a previously masking window. Hereby the following rules can be implemented:
The "moved" object remains at the target position; the moved object appears at the origin position which becomes visible again due to the close of the window; PA1 the object has not really "moved" to the target position, but only a copy of that object was generated at a visible portion of the desktop, wherein after close of the window the origin object as well as the copy are presented, or only the copy is discarded.
The essential features of the invention will now be explained through the embodiment examples in the following illustrations, and within the framework of a comparison with the relevant state of the art.

Mechanism to control visible presence of desktop objects in a graphical user interface

International Business Machines Corporation


An organic composition having liquid-crystal alignment characteristics includes a photosensitive compound and a binder resin represented by Formula 1 below:

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic composition, and more particularly, to an organic composition having alignment characteristics, a liquid crystal display including the organic composition and a method of manufacturing the liquid crystal display.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display ("LCD"), which is one of the most widely used flat panel displays, includes two substrates having a plurality of electrodes and a liquid crystal ("LC") layer interposed therebetween. A voltage is applied to the electrodes to allow liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer to be rearranged to adjust the amount of light transmitted therethrough, thereby displaying images. In the LCD, thin film transistors ("TFTs") are used as switching elements for controlling picture signals applied to the respective electrodes, thereby displaying images.
Among the LCDs, a vertical alignment ("VA") mode LCD, which aligns LC molecules such that the long axes of the LC molecules are perpendicular to the substrates in absence of electric field, is spotlighted because of its wide reference viewing angle. A vertical alignment layer is coated on pixel electrodes and a common electrode by an alignment film printing process using a polyimide based material. The vertical alignment layer is then subjected to a cleaning process. During the alignment film printing process, a portion may be created where the polyimide based material is not coated, which may cause degradation in the alignment characteristic and contamination of the liquid crystal layer. In addition, since the alignment film printing process is a complicated process, processing efficiency may be poor.
Meanwhile, in vertical-alignment mode LCDs, methods for realizing a wide viewing angle include forming cutouts in the electric-field forming electrodes, forming organic films having a pretilt angle on the electric-field forming electrodes and printing vertical-alignment films. Further, for processing simplicity, a method of forming a column spacer for maintaining a cell gap between the organic layer and each of the upper and lower substrates, followed by printing the alignment layer, is being researched and developed.
However, it is difficult to print an alignment film due to poor surface flatness of organic films, thereby increasing the probability of quality degradation using the above method.

Organic composition, liquid crystal display including the same and method of manufacturing liquid crystal display

Abstract: wherein each R1 is independently hydrogen or a methyl group; R2 is an alkyl group of 4-16 carbon atoms; R3 is an alkyl group of 1-7 carbon atoms, a cyclooxyalkyl group of 1-7 carbon atoms, a benzyl group, or a phenyl group; l, m, and n represent molar ratios of polymerization units and are respectively from about 0.01 to about 0.50, from about 0.10 to about 0.60, and from about 0.03 to about 0.50.


A wheel bearing apparatus has an outer member, an inner member and double row rolling elements freely rollably contained between double row inner raceway surfaces and outer raceway surfaces of the inner member and the outer member. A plurality of bolt insertion bores, that fastening bolts pass through to fasten to the knuckle, are formed on the body mounting flange at plurality of positions circumferentially along the body mounting flange. The outer member is previously formed by hot forging. A seating surface for the fastening bolts is formed on an outboard-side surface of the body mounting flange by cold forging.

In general, wheel bearing apparatii is classified into a so-called first, second, third and fourth generation type. In a first generation type, the wheel bearing includes double row angular-contact ball bearings fit between the knuckle and the wheel hub. In a second generation type, a body mounting flange or a wheel mounting flange is integrally formed on the outer circumference of an outer member. In a third generation type, one of the inner raceway surfaces is directly formed on the outer circumference of the wheel hub. In a fourth generation type, the inner raceway surfaces are directly formed on the outer circumferences, respectively, of the wheel hub and the outer joint member of a constant velocity universal joint.
Recently, there has been a strong desire to improve fuel consumption in view of resource savings or anti-pollution. Reduction of weight in automobile parts, particularly in a wheel bearing apparatus, has been noticed. In response of these demands, there is a strong desire to reduce the weight of the wheel bearing apparatus while maintaining its strength and rigidity. A wheel bearing apparatus 50 has been proposed, as shown in FIG. 5, that can solve these objectives.
The wheel bearing apparatus 50 is a third generation type used for a driven wheel. It has a wheel hub 51, an inner ring 52, an outer member 53, and double row balls 54, 54. The wheel hub 51 has, on its one end, an integrated wheel mounting flange 55. An inner raceway surface 51a is formed on the outer circumference of the wheel hub 51. A cylindrical portion 51b axially extends from the inner raceway surface 51a. Furthermore, hub bolts 55a are secured equidistantly along the periphery of the wheel mounting flange 55.
The inner ring 52 is formed with an inner raceway surface 52a on its outer circumference. The inner ring 52 is press-fit onto the cylindrical portion 51b of the wheel hub 51. Axial falling out of the inner ring 52, from the wheel hub 51, is prevented by plastically deforming an end of the cylindrical portion 51b of the wheel hub 51. This forms a caulked portion 51c.
The outer member 53 is formed with a body mounting flange 53b on its outer circumference. The body mounting flange 53b is mounted on a knuckle (not shown). The inner circumference of the outer member includes double row outer raceway surfaces 53a, 53a. The double row balls 54, 54 are rollably contained between the double row outer raceway surfaces 53a, 53a and the double row inner raceway surfaces 51a, 52a.
As shown in FIG. 6, the body mounting flange 53b, of the outer member 53, is formed with a plurality of bolt insertion bores 56, 57. Bolts to be fastened to a body of a vehicle are inserted through the bores 56, 57. The total number of the bolt insertion bores 56, 57 is four. Two bores 56 are arranged at an upper portion, at a position below the uppermost position of the body mounting flange 53b, at an angle of about 60° of the body mounting flange 53b. The other two bores 57 are arranged at a lower portion positioned above the lowermost position of the body mounting flange 53b by an angle of about 45°.
The thickness of upper and lower portions 58, that are positioned between two upper bolt insertion bores 56, 56 and between two lower bolt insertion bores 57, 57, is the same as a thickness of the peripheral portion 59 around the bolt insertion bores 56, 57. The thickness of the upper and lower portions 58 is made thicker than the fore and aft portions 60.
When the total number of the bolt insertion bore is three, two of them are arranged on both the upper sides of the uppermost portion of the body mounting flange 53b. One of them is arranged at a position near the lowermost portion of the body mounting flange 53b. The thickness of the peripheral portion around the bolt insertion bores is not thinned. The thickness of the peripheral portion around the lower bolt insertion bore is thinner than those of the peripheral portions around the two upper bolt insertion bores.
The wheel bearing apparatus 50 receives vertical loads, lateral loads and fore and aft loads. The largest moment is applied to the upper and lower portions 58 of the body mounting flange 53b when the lateral load is applied to the wheel bearing apparatus 50. Accordingly, the upper and lower portions 58 of the body mounting flange 53b are formed thicker. This improves the strength and rigidity of the body mounting flange 53b. On the other hand, the moment applied to the fore and aft portions 60 is relatively small. Thus, the fore and aft portions 60 do not require the same strength and rigidity as those of the upper and lower portions 58. Thus, it is possible to form the fore and aft portions 60 relatively thinner than the upper and lower portions 58 to reduce the weight of the body mounting flange 53b. This balances the strength, rigidity and light weight at a higher level. See JP 2007-71352 A.
However, in the prior art wheel bearing apparatus 50, the bolt insertion bores 56, 57 are simple threadless insertion bores and not tapped bores. Thus, the outer member 53 can be secured to the knuckle by inserting fastening bolts (not shown) through the bolt insertion bores 56, 57 from the outboard-side, the wheel mounting flange 55 side. The fastening bolts are secured to tapped bores in the knuckle. In this case, a bolt seating surface 62 is required on the outboard-side surface 61 of the body mounting flange 53b, as shown in FIG. 7, in order to improve the mounting accuracy.
As shown in FIG. 8, the outer member bolt seating surface 62 is formed by lathe turning, shown by a dot-and-dash line, after hot forging, shown by two-dot chain line, and bored by using a boring jig such as a drill. A chamfered portion 63 is formed on an inboard-side surface 64 of the body mounting flange 53b. A pilot portion 65 and outer raceway surfaces 53s etc. are formed by lathe turning.
As described above, the bolt seating surface 62 is formed by lathe turning. However, a re-chucking operation of the outer member 53 is required to carry out the lathe turning of the bolt seating surface 62. Thus, problems occur such as increasing the number of processing steps and cycle time and therefore the manufacturing cost.

Wheel bearing apparatus and its manufacturing method


The present disclosure suggests methods of selecting a stimulation site for stimulating a patient's brain or methods of effectuating a neural-function of a patient associated with an impaired body function. In one exemplary implementation, such a neural function may be effectuated by selecting a stimulation site, positioning at least a first electrode at the stimulation site, and applying an electrical potential to pass a current through the first electrode. If one aspect, this stimulation site may be selected by a) identifying a second body function that is a corollary to the impaired body function, and b) determining a corollary location of the patient's brain that is associated with the second body function and is ipsilateral to the impaired body function.

A wide variety of mental and physical processes are controlled or influenced by neural activity in particular regions of the brain. The neural-functions in some areas of the brain (i.e., the sensory or motor cortices) are organized according to physical or cognitive functions. Several other areas of the brain also appear to have distinct functions in most individuals. In the majority of people, for example, the occipital lobes relate to vision, the left interior frontal lobes relate to language, and the cerebral cortex appears to be involved with conscious awareness, memory, and intellect.
Many problems or abnormalities can be caused by damage, disease and/or disorders in the brain. Effectively treating such abnormalities may be very difficult.
For example, a stroke is a common condition that damages the brain. Strokes are generally caused by emboli (e.g., obstruction of a vessel), hemorrhages (e.g., rupture of a vessel), or thrombi (e.g., clotting) in the vascular system of a specific region of the brain. Such events generally result in a loss or impairment of a neural function (e.g., neural functions related to facial muscles, limbs, speech, etc.). Stroke patients are typically treated using various forms of physical therapy to rehabilitate the loss of function of a limb or another affected body part. Stroke patients may also be treated using physical therapy plus an adjunctive therapy such as amphetamine treatment. For most patients, however, such treatments are minimally effective and little can be done to improve the function of an affected body part beyond the recovery that occurs naturally without intervention.
The problems or abnormalities in the brain are often related to electrical and/or chemical activity in the brain. Neural activity is governed by electrical impulses or "action potentials" generated in neurons and propagated along synaptically connected neurons. When a neuron is in a quiescent state, it is polarized negatively and exhibits a resting membrane potential typically between −70 and −60 mV. Through chemical connections known as synapses, any given neuron receives excitatory and inhibitory input signals or stimuli from other neurons. A neuron integrates the excitatory and inhibitory input signals it receives, and generates or fires a series of action potentials when the integration exceeds a threshold potential. A neural firing threshold, for example, may be approximately −55 mV.
It follows that neural activity in the brain can be influenced by electrical energy supplied from an external source such as a waveform generator. Various neural functions can be promoted or disrupted by applying an electrical current to the cortex or other region of the brain. As a result, researchers have attempted to treat physical damage, disease and disorders in the brain using electrical or magnetic stimulation signals to control or affect brain functions.
Transcranial electrical stimulation is one such approach that involves placing an electrode on the exterior of the scalp and delivering an electrical current to the brain through the scalp and skull. Another treatment approach, transcranial magnetic stimulation, involves producing a high-powered magnetic field adjacent to the exterior of the scalp over an area of the cortex. Yet another treatment approach involves direct electrical stimulation of neural tissue using implanted electrodes.
The neural stimulation signals used by these approaches may comprise a series of electrical or magnetic pulses that can affect neurons within a target neural population. Stimulation signals may be defined or described in accordance with stimulation signal parameters including pulse amplitude, pulse frequency, duty cycle, stimulation signal duration, and/or other parameters. Electrical or magnetic stimulation signals applied to a population of neurons can depolarize neurons within the population toward their threshold potentials. Depending upon stimulation signal parameters, this depolarization can cause neurons to generate or fire action potentials. Neural stimulation that elicits or induces action potentials in a functionally significant proportion of the neural population to which the stimulation is applied is referred to as supra-threshold stimulation; neural stimulation that fails to elicit action potentials in a functionally significant proportion of the neural population is defined as sub-threshold stimulation. In general, supra-threshold stimulation of a neural population triggers or activates one or more functions associated with the neural population, but sub-threshold stimulation by itself does not trigger or activate such functions. Supra-threshold neural stimulation can induce various types of measurable or monitorable responses in a patient. For example, supra-threshold stimulation applied to a patient's motor cortex can induce muscle fiber contractions in an associated part of the body.
Although electrical or magnetic stimulation of neural tissue may be directed toward producing an intended type of therapeutic, rehabilitative, or restorative neural activity, such stimulation may result in collateral neural activity. In particular, neural stimulation delivered beyond a certain intensity, period of time, level, or amplitude can give rise to seizure activity and/or other types of collateral activity. It will be appreciated that collateral neural activity may be undesirable and/or inconvenient in a neural stimulation situation.
The human brain has two hemispheres that are connected via the corpus callosum. Each hemisphere of the brain generally exerts majority control over motor functions and/or sensory functions on the opposite or "contralateral" side of the patient's body. Hence, for example, the left hemisphere of the brain has majority control over movement of the right arm and right leg. Through transcallosal connections, though, each hemisphere of the brain exerts some degree of control over the functions on the same or "ipsilaterial" side of the patient's body. Hence, the right hemisphere of the brain may have some involvement in controlling movement of the right arm and right leg.
Some studies have concluded that damage to or disorders of the cerebral cortex on one hemisphere can induce long-term changes in the structure and function of a homotopic location of the contralateral hemisphere, namely a location on the undamaged cortex that is at about the same position as the position of the damaged tissue in the opposite cortex. Damage to the cortex in one hemisphere may impact the contralateral homotopic cortex in a variety of fashions, including causing increased cortical thickness, dendritic growth and/or elimination, neuronal hyperexcitability, and synaptogenesis. See, e.g., Nudo, "Recovery After Damage to Motor Cortical Areas," Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 1999, 9:740–747, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. See also Keyvani et al., "Suppression of Proteasome C2 Contralateral to Ischemic Lesions in Rat Brain," Brain Research 858, (2000) 386–392.

Methods and apparatus for effectuating a lasting change in a neural-function of a patient


In detection of a temperature of fresh air which is supplied to an intake manifold of an engine, by a fresh air temperature sensor, the invention aims at preventing precision of an engine control from dropping due to difference in an attached position of the fresh air temperature sensor. The engine device has an intake pipe for supplying fresh air to the intake manifold, a breather chamber for separating lubricating oil, the breather chamber being arranged within a head cover covering an upper surface side of a cylinder head, and a blow-by gas return pipe. The intake pipe and the breather chamber are connected via the blow-by gas return pipe. The fresh air temperature sensor detecting a temperature of the fresh air introduced into the intake pipe is attached to the intake pipe.

It have been conventionally carried out to detect a temperature of fresh air which is supplied to an intake manifold of a diesel engine (hereinafter, refer simply to as an engine), by a fresh air temperature sensor. This kind of fresh air temperature sensor is arranged in an intake passage of the engine (refer, for example, to Patent Document 1).