A method performed by a network node operating as a master node (MN) in dual connectivity with a secondary node (SN) for measurement gap configuration, comprises receiving a notification from the secondary node that it will perform a secondary node modification procedure; determining that a measurement gap configuration or reconfiguration is required; and sending a response message to the secondary node in response to said notification, wherein said message includes a gap configuration information.

A mobile communication system supports Dual Connectivity (DC) operation, whereby a User Equipment (UE) is configured to utilize radio resources provided by two distinct schedulers, located in two radio base stations (eNBs), which are connected to each other over an interface.
A radio base station involved in Dual Connectivity operation for a certain UE may assume two different roles. Specifically, an eNB may either act as a Master node (MN), also referred to as Master eNB (MeNB), or as a Secondary node (SN), also referred to as Secondary eNB (SeNB). A UE is connected to one MN and one SN. During measurement gaps, a UE performs measurements on the signals that it can detect, and so it is unable to detect transmissions that are sent to it.
Several secondary node amendment procedures exist, for example a Secondary Node Addition procedure, and a Secondary Node Modification procedure. In each of these secondary node amendment procedures, the SN informs the MN when it configures measurements. This can be in an Information Element (IE) included in one of the following messages:
1. SgNB addition request acknowledge, or
2. SgNB modification request acknowledge, or
3. SgNB modification required.
The first two messages are defined as response messages in class-1 procedures. Therefore, the MN does not provide any reply. However, the MN after receiving a positive response from the UE, will send the following message to the SN:                SgNB reconfiguration complete (after the MN has received the RRC complete message from the UE, in the procedures initiated by the MN).
The third message is part of a class-1 procedure according to which the MN provides to the SN the following response message:                SgNB modification confirm (after the MN has received the RRC complete message from the UE, in the procedure initiated by the SN).
However, the gap information is provided to the SN as part of an IE that is included in one of the following messages:
1. SgNB addition request, or
2. SgNB modification request.
Thus, there currently exist certain challenge(s). The implication of this description above is that, in order for the MN to indicate the measurement gaps to the SN, it has to initiate a (probably dummy) SgNB modification request procedure as neither the SgNB reconfiguration complete or the SgNB modification confirm messages can be utilized to indicate the gaps.
This leads to the problem that, from the moment the UE has received the measurement configuration, the UE will apply the measurement gap configurations, while the SN has to wait for the rest of the procedures to finish and then receive a dummy SgNB modification request message that includes the gap configuration before it becomes aware of the new/updated gap information. This means that, during this time period, as the SN is not aware of the gap configured by the MN and applied by the UE, it might end up sending data to the UE while the UE's gap is on and UE is performing measurements and not listening to the transmission of the SN.


A cosmetology training, teaching and practice system, and a make-up mannequin kit, each charcterized by provision of a soft skin make-up mannequin head having a body carrying an oval symmetrical facial configuration and plural soft skin flexible, elastic, resilient and stretchable companion mask members suitable for mounting upon the make-up mannequin head. Each of the companion mask members having, each of which is formed of size and shape conforming to the size of the make-up mannequin head and having a facial configuration identical to the facial configuration of said make-up mannequin head. Each companion mask member having a surface of skin tone and color representative of the skin tone and color of different plural human ethnic and racial origin. The selected companion mask is stretched to mount upon the make-up mannequin head and is sufficiently resilient to spring back in tight engagement with the facial configuration of the make-up mannequin head. The mannequin kit includes,in addition to the make-up mannequin head and companion masks, all the instructions, application implements and cosmetic compositions required for the teaching, training and practice of the cosmetology art along with a stand for mounting the make-up mannequin head and a carrier for holding and transporting the contents of the kit.

The cosmetic industry involves not only the marketing of its products but also has considerable interest in the teaching and practice of make-up techniques and application as a important skill to be obtained for future and present practitioners.
The marketing of cosmetic products by the cosmetic industry is effected through various channels. Traditionally, considerable attention is directed to massive advertising via television, the press, bill board advertising, publicly distributed descriptive brochures, point of sale displays and at beauty trade shows, more recently, in the presentation of point of sale demonstrations, home visits, trade show advertising and demonstrations, and other numerous marketing techniques, including technique demonstrations in motion through the electronic computer communications medium of the Internet.
Thus there is a considerable need for cosmetitians to function in the application of cosmetics to individuals in the entertainment industry, including the television, motion picture and theatrical enterprises as well as the fashion industry. Another significant area of cosmetic use requiring unusually skilled practitioners involves the application of make-up on actresses, actors, fashion models both male and female and those individuals encompassing different racial characteristics, particularly differences in skin tone, in facial shape and features, the moods and appearance capable of being can be changed and/or adjusted to fit particular different situations by the selective application of make-up. The various characteristics which are required for producing various and different effects varying significantly both in individuals and in relation to the visual effects to be desired.
In respect of the point of sale demonstrations, home visits, trade show attendance and advertising, the home-party sales demonstrations employed for the sale of cosmetic products, individuals are employed to conduct such demonstrations and sales efforts. These individuals must be trained in the techniques involved in the application of cosmetics. Training in such techniques has been performed by the various commercial organizations within the industry and often involve the use of living models both for the training sessions as well as the empirical practice sessions that are required to assure proper preparation necessary to enable successful demonstration of the cosmetic products. The experience of such trainees must include must include the application of cosmetic application technique and experience with at least plural individuals of different ethnic and/or racial origins with differing skin-tone and color. Therefore, where living models are employed, many are required to fulfill the varied ethnic and racial originated persons likely to be met in the course of performing the demonstrations of cosmetic products to the public. Each ethnic and/or racial group requires techniques specific to that ethnic and/or racial group members facial structure, configuration and skin character. Accordingly, a considerable number of individual living models encompassing all the frequently encountered persons would be required for each member producer of the industry engaged in such type of marketing practices conventionally utilized.
Not only are there few available living models meeting each of the conventionally encountered ethnic and/or racial groups sufficient to meet the need of the industry, the costs to each member of the industry engaged in such marketing efforts would be prohibitive. In addition, particularly for those individuals engaging in the tradeshow demonstration activities, the home visits and the home-party types of marketing, the art has been required to provide portable substitutions for the living model, substitutions such as make-up mannequins which can be portable, capable of being carried to the locations at which the demonstrations are to be carried out in situ, packed up and taken by the demonstrator to the site of another subsequent demonstration.
Now, the art has made available make-up mannequin heads for use in demonstrating the application of cosmetics. However, the available make-up mannequin heads where provided, are specific in color and/of skin-tone representing only one of the plural ethnic or racial individuals. Accordingly, the demonstrator must carry plural ethnically and/or racially specific make-up mannequin heads for each demonstration. This is difficult, unwieldly and represents an undue burden for the demonstrator.
Not only are there difficulties raised for the home sales demonstrator by the presently available make-up mannequin heads, but equally, difficulties are experienced by the industry in providing adequate training and experience as well as practice additionally required by trainees following the instructional and training sessions by the lack of adequate supply of living models and/or make-up mannequin heads for each of the aforementioned trainees, due to cost and/or unavailability. Yet it is nevertheless important that there be sufficient training, experience and practice in the application and technique of transferring cosmetic and make-up skills learned by the trainee to be applied to individuals having various different skin-tone and color as well as applied to individuals having the different color-tone, color and individuals having ones of the different and varied classic facial shapes as will be described hereinafter.
Another significant factor to be considered in the training of cosmeticians is the substantial number of individuals desiring entry into the cosmetology service and retail field involving beauty culture. Schools specializing in the teaching and training of cosmeticians for the retail trade comprise a large portion of the cosmetic industry. Many accredited cosmetology or trade schools are governed by governmental, usually state, professional regulations prohibiting student practice on living persons or models during training unless they are finishing all the instructional courses and reaching the completion of the course of study. Then practical training which is paramount if a part of the following graduation process, i.e. graduate study and internship. Therefore, a make-up mannequin should be provided which is closest to being humam-like, and would provide a tool for training and practical practice for gaining knowledge and experience on various ethnic and/or racial color and skin-tone persons.
Conventionally, two-dimensional drawings, photographs as well as written descriptions have supplied the principal guidelines for the both the industrial demonstrator and the other student trainees in learning specific make-up techniques on individuals having various skin- tone, color and ones of the classic facial shapes, including variations thereof. Instruction is only one of the prime factors in the teaching of such make-up techniques. Practice and a lot of repeated practice is the other of said prime factors, and is essential, whether the trainee is a novice, a beautician, a cosmologist, a company demonstrator or simply a person having strong interest in receiving professional training in the field. Those persons who commercially demonstrate cosmetic application on actual human subjects often reach a certain level of make-up training experience from their respective commercial enterprises or as a result of personal experience or by way of their company's training procedures but truly benefit from experiencing professional courses of study from experts in the field via attendance at teaching institutions specializing in the field.
At the beginning stages of instruction, the training tools involve the aforementioned 2-dimensional pre-drawn diagrams of a human female head, various cosmetics and various pencils and brushes employed in the application of such cosmetics. At the intermediate and later stages of the training, living human models are employed to provide realistic practical cosmetic applications. Generally, it has been found that it is difficult to demonstrate the differences in applying cosmetic make-up to living models of different ethnic and/or racial origin unless there are among the living human models, models of the different ethnic and/or racial origin.
Unless the subject model has the skin-tone and/or color of the particular ethnic and/or racial origin, one cannot realisticaly demonstrate the correct application of cosmetic thereto or thereon for teaching the application of cosmetics to those who differ in color and/or skin-tone. Persons having darker skin-tone use different color of foundation, eye, eyelash, eyebrow, touch-up, shading, shadow and like cosmetic compositions that lighter skin-toned persons or persons of oriental, asiatic or other ethnic and/or racial origin. Thus, trainees would have limited realistic tools for receiving instruction and for practice in a great many of the instructional institutions presently available for gaining instruction in cosmetic make-up application on various different skin-tone persons, not only involving the skin-tone factor but also on a human facial configuration with realistic features.
While ordinary mannequin heads of the type employed to teach hair-styling or fashion mannequins have been utilized in the training of cosmetic artists, beginning and somewhat experienced students, as well as commercial demonstrators, difficulties nevertheless arise due to the surface textures of these conventionally available mannequin heads as well as the necessity to make available to each trainee, individual mannequins and mannequin heads having each of the different skin-tones as well as mannequins having realistic textured surfaces reflecting the differences between actual human subjects of different ethnic and/or racial origins.
The conventional mannequin heads are provided with a smooth but relatively hard facial surface, white or normally Caucasian in color and brown or normally african origin in color. Some more recently available mannequin heads produced especially for use as make-up mannequin heads have been formed from soft plastic material such as urthane, polyvinyl chloride and similar plastics which are characteristically porous. The porosity is fine, ordinarily invisible to the naked eye and is such as to require a foundation or cleanser creme to be applied to the selected area thereon where make-up is to be applied so as to cover the invisible porosity of the application area, sealing the application area inorder to prevent the penetration of the make-up cosmetic and the resulting entrapment thereof within the porous surface. With such a pre-coat of foundation or cleanser creme, the make-up should be able to be removed completely after every use, leaving a fully cleaned working surface. However most conventional make-up mannequin heads are not provided with such surfaces. Accordingly, conventional make-up mannequin surfaces resist full removal of residual make-up compositions, thus making unlimited use, say in application and repeated practice for training purposes, is not provided. The useful life of the make-up mannequin head is limited. Failure to fully remove the residual make-up environment problems in the long run after completion of their useful life and disposal of such effectively fully used exhausted mannequin heads.
Thus, there is a problem relative to the skin surface as well as a problem of providing mannequins having realistic skin surfaces suited for repeated usage yet having skin surfaces from which practice make-up cosmetics can be easily removed without leaving a retained trace or residue, preventing not only unlimited use of the mannequin and failing to reduce reducing the environmental problems of disposal, but limiting the useful life of such mannequin for providing practice for the earnest trainee.
It would be considerably advantageous to provide a solitary make-up mannequin head with a skin surface that is receptive to plural and repeated application of cosmetic make-up without retaining even surface traces which build-up, reducing the useful life of the mannequin head for the purposes desired and the environmental problem
Even if make-up mannequins can be provided with other than the commonly provided Caucasian or standard skin-tone, as mentioned earlier, a plurality of such different skin-tone make-up mannequins are required. Even then, practice heretofore was still required to be performed on live subjects in order to achieve a direct realistic result on prospective clients for their cosmetic products. The graduate trainee generally had been required to use living human models, each having the different colors and skin-tone to demonstrate the differences in make-up applications on persons of different ethnic or racial origin since dark skin-toned persons use different colors of foundation, shadows, etc. than the lighter skin-toned Caucasian, the oriental, the asiatic or the hispanic persons. Further, given the necessity of using different skin-tone human models, the availability of such persons to many trainees is limited even when some are available to few of the trainees. Moreover, fulfiling the required need necessitates substantial expense to keep them available for each trainee for a period of time sufficient for continuous make-up training sessions place to place and for use by the many trainees requiring such contact. The selection of correct skin-tone living models to be representative of the many different ethnic and color-toned persons representing the scope of the likely to be contacted different persons is even more difficult. The range of different skin-tones, facial shapes as well as skin conditions is great so that there are not sufficient numbers of live models with the various skin-tones and the various facial shapes demonstrate and to afford trainee practice thereupon. This is particularly true in the case of beauty schools, trade schools and similar institutions where the numbers of trainees is substantial yet funds are limited preventing a "one-student/one set" instructional program and experience. This is even more of a problem for accredited cosmetology schools and trade schools under the mandates of state professional regulations limiting the use of living models.
The instructional or training arts have long sought means enabling instruction and training individuals in the cosmetic arts, that is, the artistry of ameliorating facial problems by skilled judicious use of cosmetics such as color cosmetic compositions, eye shadow, eyeliner, eyebrow pencil, mascara for eyelashes, lip color, foundation compositions and the like and other make-up products. These arts can be described as the so-called "magical" art of make-up. Such "magical" art involve techniques enabling the creation of different facial shapes from other facial shapes using only colors and shadows provided by the above mentioned cosmetic compositions. Classic facial shapes such as round, oblong, pear-shaped, triangular, inverted triangular, diamond and heart-shaped configurations can be converted one from the other. Moods, differing emotions, various character traits, enhancement of such emotions, moods and reflections of different character traits can be accomplished via the judicious skilled use of relatively simple cosmetic compositions and tools to effect somewhat "magical" transformations. Commonly the so-called "magical" arts are employed in the entertainment fields such as motion pictures, theatrical, operatic, television as well as the advertising and photographic arts, even in the political field. Artistic use of the aforementioned cosmetic products to create the so-called "new image" requires a trained cosmetology practitioner. Such so-called "magical" arts techniques can be and are taught but are learned only by experience and practice.
The cosmetology art has long sought to provide means whereby the teaching of the artistic art of make-up can be facilitated with emphasis on the creative artistic cosmetology technique. Applicant believes that a make-up mannequin can be formed in the configuration of a long-sought "perfect head", one whose facial shape, features, conformations can be transformed by selective artistic employment of various cosmetic compositions and techniques of application thereof. Teaching of these techniques require substantial and repeated practice. The few available living models do little to alleviate the problems of teaching and training individuals in the art of cosmetic transformation technique. The schools specializing in cosmetology even those where not barred by professional regulations, could not afford to use "living models", primarily because of the varients of shape and facial features differ from one to others. The high costs involved in utilization of "living models" is an equally deterrent factor to the employment of such "living models" since the number required would be substantial inorder to meet both the teaching and the practice requirements for quantity of trainees requiring their services.
As mentioned, there are at least eight different distinctive shapes of faces and many more differences between various facial features possessed among individuals having each of said facial shapes. A single living individual model would not provide the teacher and/or trainee with sufficient experience and practice to accommodate instruction and/or practice required for the trainee to learn how to deal with the wide variety of existing individual facial traits.
Make-up mannequin heads presently available in the field do not provide the opportunity for the teacher as well as the trainee to demonstrate and provide for the desired degree of practice of such demonstrable artistry techniques, i.e. transformation and/or convertability techniques. While long sought, provision of a make-up mannequin head having a "perfect shaped head" has not been achieved perhaps because the art yet to define and as well to recognize exactly what would constitute the "perfect head" and how the "perfect head" should appear. Long sought, for example, has been means whereby trainees can be taught techniques exemplifying the "magic" of cosmetics to deal with the application of cosmetics to ameliorate problems possessed by the different shapes and appearance of individuals . . . to modify the actual facial appearance of an individual to result in different desired appearance characteristics.
It is most desirable that the art provide means to encourage the cosmologist's learned skill to be directed to creative efforts to utilize the artistic techniques for application of cosmetics to produce various different facial impressions encompassing changing the visual appearance of the facial configuration of individuals by judicious application of relatively simple cosmetics, such as, for example, shadowing, eyebrow pencil, eye shadow, eye mascara, eye liner and lip color. The mastery of the techniques of cosmetic artistry can convert a round facial type appearance having full cheeks and round chin to a facial type appearance having a broad forehead and chin. Even a heart shaped visage with a wide forehead and narrow chin can be transformed into the appearance of a narrow forehead and wide chin using cosmetic compositions and tools by following the techniques of the artistic make-up artist. The visual impression of an oblong facial configuration can be modified to one having a long and narrow visage by skilled application of shadow and color using only the above mentioned artistic cosmetology techniques upon other classic facial configurations.
With reference to the make-up mannequin and its companion masks, the trainee or student can be taught and can practice the technique of modifying the appearance of such facial problems as deep-set eyes, low forehead, long face, short nose, dark circles under the eyes, under defined cheek areas and receding chin can be improved by use of light foundation, eye disguise and highlighter. Problems which are capable of amelioration can be ameliorated or concealed or literally changed to more pleasing configurations by use of dark foundation or eye disguise such as long nose, large nose, thin nose, hooked nose, crooked nose, pug nose, heavy-lidded eyes, large jaws, double-chin and long chin. Skilled application of eyeliner, eye shadow and eye brow pencil can define improved appearance or actually create the perhaps a more pleasing appearance of small eyes, wide-set eyes, deep-set eyes, close-set eyes and even basic bulging eyes respectively.
The techniques described above are known but the availability of means which can be utilized for training professionals as well as neophytes such as beginning students, commercial cosmetic demonstrators, etc. in the application of cosmetics to persons of varying skin tones and color has not been available at reasonable cost.
Applicant has discovered the definition of the so-called "perfect" or "ideal" facial shape, i.e. configuration is actually the oval facial configuration. Utilization of a make-up mannequin having an oval facial configuration has been found to be capable of use in the teaching and practice of converting such configuration into a desired one of the classic facial shapes using only artistic techniques of applying the above mentioned cosmetic compositions and tools.
Another factor to be considered in the training of make-up technique is the increasing popularity in recent years of permanent make-up or tattooing to provide desired features such as human eyebrows, eyelashes, lip configurations or "beauty spots" directly upon the human skin. Accordingly, it has become necessary to teach these techniques to cosmetology trainees, including professional make-up artists and others skilled in the cosmetic arts. It would be desirable to have the capability to teach such tattooing needle and ink application techniques to cosmetology trainees, professionals and others in the make-up field. Reference has been made above to the necessity of supplementing instruction and demonstration with considerable actual practice. Conventionally, the instruction in permanent make-up technique and the trainee's actual learning of those techniques results by practicing the those taught permanent make-up technique learned involved by tracing pre-drawn eyebrows, eyelashes, lip configurations, etc., on a piece of cowhide or a piece of paper using two-dimensional templates on the piece of cow-hide or paper. Nevertheless, such procedure fails to give the trainee realistic experience in the tattoo technique for permanent make-up applications on or for human facial features. The hand and wrist movements trainees are taught and gained from drawing upon 2-dimensional cowhide or paper cannot truly apply on real human features . . . facial configurations . . . for drawing realistic eyebrows, eyelashes or lip configurations. Such instruction and training which should include training and practice in the use of such tattooing applied to human clients, particularly for use upon clients of different color and/or skin-tone, could not be taught by practice upon human models or human clients since living persons cannot afford to undergo any mistakes made by the practitioner, especially if invoked by the non-skilled practitioner or make-up artist not experienced in the tattooing art. Once the permanent make-up is applied by tattooing, there is no way except painful tattoo removal which can be used to erase the mistake or mistakes.
Therefore, it is desirable, and, in fact, necessary to provide a "tool" in the form of a speciallized soft-skin make-up mannequin kit and assorted additional components to enable a trainee to utilize not only for cosmetic purposes but also for the learning and practice of permanent make-up technique by the professional and by the neophyte in the application of such permanent make-up. Such objects have not been available for the training and practice of application for training and practice of permanent make-up (or tattooing).
The nature of presently available make-up mannequins defining the facial portions thereon were difficult to clean and remove applied cosmetic materials therefrom after application thereof to assure use of such make-up mannequin head for repeated applications or for other trainees' use should the mannequin be shared. With a single make-up mannequin, the student is limited to a single skin-tone and, as well, must thoroughly clean the mannequin facial surfaces after each practice, such cleaning being difficult, time consuming and often, incomplete due to the surface provided on the make-up mannequin head. Generally, the skin surface which is suitable for repeated practice make-up applications to be performed thereupon has not been generally provided. For those instances involving the teaching, training and practice of permanent make-up techniques, the useful life expectancy of available make-up mannequins is shortened with each use due to the impossibility of removing tattoo patterns therefrom once they have been applied. It is likely that such make-up mannequin heads would necessarily be discarded and replaced after a substantially shortened period of use, resulting in environmental problems in the disposal of such large numbers of discarded fully used mannequin heads.
The state of the prior art may be indicated by reviewing the patents to Min, U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,535 (Jun. 14, 1994); Mooney, U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,079 (Dec. 12, 1989);, Mooney, U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,124 (Sep. 18, 1990); Narlo, U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,910 (Feb. 25, 1992) and Ito, U.S. Pat. No. 2,968,104 (Jan. 17, 1961).
The Min patent provides a make-up mannequin head for repeated use in make-up practice after use in lieu of a live model subject. The Min make-up mannequin head has at least one human-like face section having a plurality of lip sections and/or single lip formations and multiple eye and/or multiple eye/eye brow formations or single eye/eyebrow formations formed on the single formation. Min also provides a make-up mannequin head having a full facial formation on the front and on the back of the mannequin head, each carrying a facial formation having the aforementioned feature formations. In one example, the facial formations represent a female face and a male face. Each of these formations carry the grouped feature sections representing respectively different sections ones from the others. Another embodiment taught be Min provides a single facial reproduction on one side of the Min make-up mannequin head and a series of plural eye/eye-brow sections. The eye/eyebrow sections may be alike or each eye section respectively may be different from the others. Likewise, the Min make-up mannequin head may carry only various different lip sections on the entire circumference thereof.
It should be noted that the Min make-up mannequin head can have a soft outer surface formed of a resinous material. However, the soft outer surface of the Min make-up mannequin head has only a single skin-tone or color. Thus, to enable the make-up artist, trainee or professional to experience dealing with individuals of different color skin-tones respectively representative of Asian-American, African-American, Caucasian, Native-American and/or Hispanic persons, the cosmetic industry trainee groups or the educational facility must purchase make-up mannequin heads of each different color and/or color skin-tone. In instances where the educational facility does not purchase the make-up mannequin heads for use by the students, etc., the individual student, trainee, make-up artist or other professional must purchase a collection of the different colored or skin-toned make-up mannequin heads for gaining experience in dealing with the aforementioned different individuals. If the various cosmetic compositions, such as different foundation, skin-cleanser, skin creme, eye and eye brow make-up compositions, special cremes, eye and eye-brow make-up, lip colors, shadows and the like are not provided by the educational facility, the individual student, etc., must purchase these materials suitable use upon each of the different individuals representative of the different ethnic and/or racial groups whom they will experience in the course of their practice for creating make-up particularly suitable for each of these persons. The cost is prohibitive because the adequate course of study must provide the user experience sufficient to treat each of the personna groups having different facial characteristics, in particular, color and/or facial characteristics. It is important that Min does not means for employing a single make-up mannequin head to enable the student, etc., to learn and to practice the suitable cosmetic application techniques for dealing with the plural ethnic and/or racial types except by purchasing plural make-up mannequin heads, each of a different color and/or skin-tone.
Narlo provides a three-dimensional facial display model capable of being changed in form, quality or nature to display each of the classic facial shapes. The make-up mannequin taught by Narlo comprises a skull-form base formed of plastic, rubber, plaster or other material. The forward portion of the base is formed with a countoured support surface for temporarily mounting various shaped facial display components. These support surfaces provide underlying shaped support surfaces to receive selected ones of forehead components, cheek components, jaw-bone components, nose components, alternative eye components, mouth components, plural shaped eyebrows and plural shaped mouth components. Each of these components are formed by moulding a rubber polymer or plastic material which resembles the resilient texture of human skin. The various classic forms are replicated by selection of proper components and fitting selected ones onto the preformed selected underlying receiving areas of the base model.
Thus the single Narlo model can provide the means for constructing and installing each of the seven basic facial shapes one at a time upon the make-up mannequin head, thus enabling the cosmetician trainee, student or professional to develop make-up application experience by routine practice upon those classic facial shapes. However, the resulting various shaped model (or mannequin head) fails to provide means whereby the user can learn, experience and practice the conversion, only by skilled use of make-up, of one classic facial configuration into the selected one of the other classic facial configurations each of the seven basic facial shapes upon the model make-up mannequin head by use of cosmetic make-up techniques. The artistic technique of change-over is an invaluable skill to be obtained in an adequate course of make-up and cosmetology study. The multiplicably applied interchangable components or pieces forming completed ones of the various facial configurations one at a time do not serve to teach or to provide practice the artistry of cosmetic application resulting in conversion between classic facial shapes via sole use of cosmetics.
Narlo is not concerned with the teaching, training or practice relating to the use of cosmetics upon individuals of different ethnic and/or racial types and does not disclose or teach means whereby a single make-up mannequin head can be employed for enabling the cosmetitian trainee, student or professional to gain practical experience in dealing with the different racial and/or ethnic individuals having the different characteristic skin colors and/skin tone.
Mooney offers a cosmetic template formed to shape by heat and applied against the face of an individual in a heated condition in situ to assume the facial shape of that individual. A plurality of small circles are marked on the formed sheet to define the contour lines. The formed sheet is removed and holes are formed in each of the circled areas along the contour lines. An elastic band is secured to what then has become a mask. The thus formed mask is remounted to the individual's face and a cosmetic pencil is extended through the holes onto the face of the individual marking the lines onto the individual's face along the represented contour lines defined on the mask. Cosmetics then are applied in accordance with the pencil guidelines formed on the individual's face. Thus, Mooney'079 provides means for providing visible guidelines upon a client's face rather than providing means for instructing make-up trainees, make-up artists, cosmetologist or cosmetician professionals in the art of either of technique for make-up application or for artistic cosmetology. Mooney'124 is directed to a method of making the above mentioned mask and offers no teaching which would be expected to lead to solution of the various problems discussed above in the teaching and training of cosmetology specialists.
Ito does disclose a head model which extends to the upper breast as a unit and is formed of a molded, thin-walled shell formed of relatively soft plastic material, such as polyvinyl chloride, the shell being filled with a relatively soft foamed material such as granular foamed polyethylene. Ito asserts that the head model can be used in exercising make-up, beauty culture, facial massage and like training where the user can feel substantially the same touch as that of the living human face. However, the principal purpose of the Ito head model is for hair styling training. Hair being firmly and fixedly attached to the shell by passing the hairs through the shell wall at the top of the model head. The provision of providing the head model with a unique facial configuration which is instrumental as a teaching aid for make-up application either cosmetic or permanent is not taught by or obvious from the Ito teachings. The concept of combining the Ito head model with flexible soft-skin masks having the facial configuration identical to and duplicative of that of the head model. Recognition of the problem of teaching trainees and students cosmetic make-up application which takes into account the differences in the facial skin tones and color of different ethnic and racial individuals likely to be encountered in the practice of cosmetoloty is not present in the Ito disclosure. Absence of such recognition clearly indicates the failure to provide a solution to such educational problem.
The state of the art fails to provide any equivalent solution comprising the provision of the said masks, where each of the said masks are provided with the skin tone and color representative of the different ethnic and racial persons likely to be encountered by the trainee or student in practice and which are selectable for mounting on the hair model to provide a working surface is absent from the Ito disclosure.
Likewise, Ito does not provide any teachings to the art leading even to the conception or teachings which would lead on skilled in the art to the include the hair model with other training or teaching components that will be utilized by the trainee or student in a single kit so that the trainee or student will be able to have available the full complement of "tools" and compositions required in the training exercises in one portable package. The concept of providing a teaching, training and practice kit wherein the trainee or student has at hand the availability of all the implements and compositions in a portable kit, which kit can employed at school and enable practice at home.

Method of teaching, training and practice cosmetology techniques and a make-up mannequin kit for use therewith


A device for visual quantification of an amount of target species in a sample solution. The device includes an inlet, a separator, and a trap. The inlet is arranged to receive the sample solution. The separator in fluid communication with the inlet and arranged to separate one or more species from the sample solution. The trap is arranged downstream of the separator, in fluid communication with the separator, and arranged to trap one or more species of the sample solution. The trap is arranged such that the trapped species is visible for determination of the amount of target species in the sample solution.

It is known important to detect and analyze target chemical species in a sample for disease diagnosis, environmental monitoring and analysis, or related health- or environment-related applications. The detection and analysis usually require dedicated equipment, such as spectrometer, fluorescence microscope, thermal cycler, current meter, etc., which are cumbersome and bulky, and require electric power to operate and so are unsuitable for use in resource limited settings.
Recently, portable sensors and detectors incorporating lateral flow strips or colorimetric assays have been designed. These sensors and detectors are convenient to use. However, they may provide only qualitative results, i.e., whether there exists the target chemical species. For applications that require quantitative measurement, UV-Vis spectrometer or lateral flow strip reader is still required to analyze the detected signal to determine spectral absorbance to quantify the optical/fluorescence intensity, which could be a complicated process.

Device and method for visual quantification of an amount of target species in a sample solution


An FM radar system includes an amplifier for amplifying the beat signal at an amplification factor varying with the frequency, and a level correcting device for correcting a spectrum level of an amplified signal or a spectrum level of a signal generated based on the amplified signal, into a spectrum level obtained when the beat signal is amplified without involving Doppler shift caused by a velocity of the target relative to the FM radar system. By virtue of the correction performed by the level correcting device, it becomes possible to obtain a real spectrum level which is observed when the target is stationary or fixed in position relative to the radar system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to frequency-modulated (FM) radar systems for detecting the position of an object or target, and more particularly to such an FM radar system which is particularly suitable for the detection of the position of a target moving at high speeds.
2. Description of the Related Art
FM radar systems are known, which are designed to transmit a frequency modulated (FM) signal while receiving a signal reflected by the object so as to detect an object or target based on a beat signal obtained by mixing the received signal and a signal related to the transmitted signal. The known FM radar systems are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publications Nos. HEI 4-142486, HEI 5-150035, HEI 5-180931, HEI 6-242230, HEI 7-128440 and HEI 8-211145.
In the FM radar system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. HEI 5-180931, a beat signal is detected after amplification by an amplifier whose amplification factor varies in proportion to the frequency. The amplifier may have a gain varying as the fourth power of the frequency. This publication also discloses a method in which a direction to the target is detected from the F-.theta. characteristic on the basis of a spectrum level of the detected signal.
In cases where the target is stationary or fixed in position relative to the FM radar system, the frequency of the beat signal has a value corresponding to a range or distance to the target (i.e., a value proportional to a relative distance between the radar system and the target). However, in the case where there is a relative velocity between the target and a movable body, such as a vehicle or an airplane on which the FM radar system is mounted, and particularly when the target is moving at high speeds relative to the FM radar system, the frequency of the beat signal tends to deviate to some extent from a value corresponding to the real distance (relative distance) to the target due to the Doppler shift or the change in observed frequency of a received signal.
In the case where the beat signal is set to be amplified with a particular amplification factor varying with the frequency, the Doppler shift causes the amplification of the beat signal to be actually executed with a different amplification factor which does not correspond to a real frequency. The amplified signal eventually has a spectrum level somewhat deviated from the real spectrum level.
Especially, in the case where the amplification is set to be taken with an amplification factor varying to such a greater extent as equal the fourth power of the frequency, and when the target is moving at high speeds, the Doppler shift causes a frequency shifting which will make the amplification take place with an amplification factor proportional to the fourth power of the deviated frequency. As a result, the spectrum level of the amplified signal becomes greatly deviated from the real spectrum level. Under these circumstances, the direction to the target, which is detected on the basis of the spectrum level of the amplified signal, is greatly deviated from the real direction.
The FM radar system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. HEI 7-128440 includes: a frequency analyzing means or analyzer for analyzing the frequency of a beat signal to obtain a spectral distribution at every unit frequency interval of the beat signal; a maximum spectrum detecting means or detector for determining from the spectral distribution, the frequency of a maximum spectrum at which the spectrum level takes a maximum value above a predetermined level; a level centroid detecting means or detector for determining the frequency at the level centroid of the spectral distribution within a predetermined frequency width through the front and the rear of the maximum spectrum; and a distance detecting means or detector for determining a relative distance of a target on the basis of the frequency of the level centroid which is a frequency corresponding to the relative distance of the object.
Detection of the maximum spectrum is accomplished by detecting a spectrum which has a spectrum level larger than the predetermined level and which is located between two spectrums at adjacent frequency bands whose spectrum levels each indicate a change from the upward inclination to the downward inclination when viewed from the central spectrum.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. HEI 7-128440 also shows a modified radar system wherein data on the relative distance of a target and data on the radiating direction of a beam are paired to determine the position of a two-dimensional level centroid, and the determined two-dimensional level centroid position is taken to be a two-dimensional relative position of the target.
The radar systems disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. HEI 7-128440 operate generally satisfactorily, however, there is a limit in ability to detect the position of the target with high accuracy because the effect of the Doppler shift is not taken into consideration.


A double walled plant container wherein the two walls or shells form a space for holding water. The outer wall may include a window for viewing water level. The container includes a combination watering funnel and handle arrangement at the top of the container. The watering funnel protrudes or extends from the outer perimeter of the characteristic shape of the container to allow grip of the container for carrying. Preferably two watering funnel and handle structures are included, one each on opposite sides of the container. The rim arrangement allows for convenient carrying without separating the container components. The bottom of the inner shell includes holes for conducting water from the water reservoir into the soil and may include a fiber wick and soil stop barrier to prevent entry of soil into the space between the two walls and to allow water to conduct by capillary action or otherwise into the soil.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains generally to the field of plant husbandry devices and systems, more particularly to the field of self watering plant containers.
2. Background of the Invention
A traditional plant container (alternatively referred to as a pot) typically comes as two parts, the pot itself and a separate saucer. The two piece construction presents certain difficulties in use. Specifically, the two pieces are handled as separate items. If it is desired to move a plant, the pot and saucer are moved separately, i.e., if both hands are necessary to carry the plant, the saucer is carried on a separate trip. If one hand may carry the pot, the other hand carries the saucer, preventing the other hand from carrying another plant. Thus, if many plants must be moved, the separate saucer multiplies the work.
In another aspect, the pot is usually watered from the top, saturating the top of the soil. For some plants and soils, this encourages insects and molds. Watering through the bottom has a further advantage in promoting root growth. To water a plant in the saucer, the water must be directed to a narrow space between the pot and saucer—difficult to accomplish if watering from a pail. A spigot is typically required to reach the saucer. The saucer being located below the plant offers further difficulties in directing the water to the saucer.
Specialized plant pots have been developed to address some of these issues. In one approach, the saucer is attached to the pot. Attached saucers often fit too close for bottom watering. In one approach a port or opening is provided at the bottom of the pot to allow filling the saucer. Again the location at the bottom of the pot and the side watering require special watering apparatus and dexterity. When carrying pots with attached saucers, a slight tilt in the assembly will typically spill water out of the saucer, necessitating careful handling.
In another approach, a series of self watering pots may have an enclosed space for water to be displaced by air as the water is used. These pots must be carefully sealed and require individual attention to remove air tight caps to add water. Because the pots must be air tight, disassembly for cleaning is difficult or not feasible.
Therefore there is a need for a plant pot with a water reservoir to extend the time between watering, a plant pot that allows watering without saturating the surface of the soil and that can be carried conveniently as a single assembly.


A method for site remediation for mitigating contamination from metals or metal compounds, particularly resulting from the situation of mine tailing waste on or near water sources, including the reprocessing and redeposit of separated sands and slimes in-site in a manner to encourage rather than inhibit leaching of residuals by chelating agents or biological agents with recovery of leachate and removal of metals or metal compounds.

This invention relates to methods of site remediation for mitigating contamination from metals or metal compounds, particularly resulting from the situation of mine tailing waste on or near water sources such as streams or underground aquifers.
In the mining industry milling of mined rock is frequently done proximate to water supplies, since typically large quantities of water are used in the milling process to develop a suitable concentrate for refining operations. Mills are often centrally located to receive ores from a variety of different mine sources such that the composition of discarded material is often complex, having a variety of different potential contaminants. During the milling operation, ore is customarily crushed to a fine consistency, such that discarded tailings include primarily fine sands and slimes. Slimes are generally characterized as material of a particle size that remains suspended in water for a period of time and are usually less than 200 mesh in screen size.
Ore dressing circuits that were designed to obtain a concentrate have historically used water as a carrier medium for classification of material according to size or separation of material according to specific gravity. After separation to recover a majority of the valves from the remaining gangue, the gangue is discharged in tailing dumps either as a slurry or in a wet cake condition.
Since all are dressing circuits ore unable to recover one hundred percent of the target values from an ore, remnants of the target values remain in discarded tailings in concentrations of marginal economic value, particularly when using conventional recovery methods. In addition to target values, the tailing generally include minerals that were not originally targeted for recovery, but which pose hazards to water sources. Such minerals, frequently in the form of metal sulfides oxidize to water soluable sulfates on exposure to the elements including air, rain and underground seepage.
Current remediation techniques are usually directed to isolation of such tailing dumps, using impervious covers or caps to prevent influx of rain and to inhibit blow of fines. Containment may include underlying impervious base pads to isolate the dumps from ground water. Other similar techniques offer temporary solutions that do not resolve the potential problem, and are not truly remedial over the long run. Furthermore, such containment techniques take the site out of use and unnecessarily establish graveyards with all but minimal surface use excluded. Finally, such containment structures do not insure that avenues for escape of contaminants into the proximate water sources do not in fact occur. Eventually, contamination is inevitable and subsequent remediation costs are compounded by the containment structures put in place.

Methods for mine tailing clean-up using recovery technologies


An improved spring tracer for duplicating machine for punched and laser keys comprising a longitudinal spindle suspended from an end of a synchronous lateral lever having the other end laterally connected to a longitudinal shaft for a duplicating tool in parallel with the longitudinal spindle, which can be longitudinally slidably secured on a body portion in accordance with a common longitudinal axis of the longitudinal spindle; a spring-loaded tracer engaged in the inner lower end of the longitudinal spindle for biasing a tracer stylus against an original punched or laser key by means of the spring force for tracing the depths of the key teeth of the original punched key in accordance with the said common longitudinal axis; and a regulating sleeve rotatably secured at the outer lower end of the longitudinal spindle for regulating the elevation of the spring-loaded tracer in accordance with the said common longitudinal axis, in order that a regulating action, a securing action and a biasing action can be effected in a common longitudinal axis, so as to increase the duplicating precision and simplify the construction of the duplicating machine for punched and laser keys.

The present invention relates to an improved spring tracer for duplicating machine for punched and laser keys.
As shown in FIG. 1, the prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,406 discloses a tracer for punched and laser keys which comprises a feeler 28′ which is secured on a carriage 18′, and held by a self-centering chuck 56′, and engaged with a shaft 58′ which is slidably engaged with a an insulated sleeve 60′ which is engaged with a tubular support 62′. Such tubular support is supported by the body of the carriage 18′ and is at its lower end engaged with a ring nut 64′ which is at its one side formed with a plurality of equiangular radial notches for snap engagement of a ball 66′, which are mounted within the body of the carriage 18′, to form a regulation device, for rotation of the ring nut 64′, in order to move feeler 28′ upward or downward. The construction of such a regulation device is complicated, and difficult to manufacture. Furthermore, the upper end of the shaft 58′ is provided with a fixed guide which is provided with a pair of confronting slanting guides at its bottom, for engaging or disengaging with a pair of confronting slanting grooves provided on the top of a ring nut 70′, and a spring sleeve is provided beneath the ring nut 70′, and secured on a tubular support 62′. A compression spring 72′ is provided between the spring sleeve and the tubular support 62′, and is biased between the spring sleeve and the carriage 18′. The ring nut 70′is rotatably movable between two angular end positions. When in one of these two positions the ring nut 70′ provides axially rigid counteraction to the tubular support 62′, whereas when in the other it allows the sleeve 60′ to undergo a predetermined extent of upward axial travel relative to the carriage 18′ against the reaction of the compression spring 72′, so that the feeler 28′ can be moved to a predetermined extent against the reaction of an inner compression spring engaged with the insulated sleeve 60′. In such tracer construction, it needs two compression springs, and hence its construction is complicated. The compression spring 72′ will lose its biasing force if it is broken down due to long duration of being compressed. A known toggle clamp will be used to secure the whole carriage if the feeler is to be secured to a required elevation, i.e. an extension spring will be used to move a movable support in order to secure the carriage. Such toggle clamp will enable the whole construction of the feeler to become more complicated, and form a multi-action line structure on the whole which will result in a relatively large processing error, and reduce the duplicating precision of the duplicating machine for punched and laser keys.
The present invention aims at eliminating the above disadvantages and provides an improved spring tracer for duplicating machine for punched and laser keys which can increase the duplicating precision and simplify the construction of the duplicating machine by means of effecting the regulating action, the securing action, and the biasing action of a duplicating machine in a common longitudinal axis.
In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the improved spring tracer for duplicating machine for punched and laser keys comprises a longitudinal spindle suspended from an end of a synchronous lateral lever having the other end laterally connected to a longitudinal shaft for a duplicating tool in parallel with the longitudinal spindle, which can be longitudinally slidably secured on a body portion in accordance with a common longitudinal axis of the longitudinal spindle; a spring-loaded tracer engaged in the inner lower end of the longitudinal spindle for biasing a tracer stylus against an original punched or laser key by means of the spring force for tracing the depths of the key teeth of the original punched key in accordance with the said common longitudinal axis; and a regulating sleeve rotatably secured at the outer lower end of the longitudinal spindle for regulating the elevation of the spring-loaded tracer in accordance with the said common longitudinal axis, in order that a regulating action, a securing action and a biasing action can be effected in a common longitudinal axis, so as to increase the duplicating precision and simplify the construction of the duplicating machine for punched and laser keys.

Spring tracer for duplicating machine for punched and laser keys


Intraocular lenses are provided having a visible-light selective transmissive zone defined therein. The visible light-selective transmissive zone can be located near the lens center and designed to reduce the transmission of any wave-length of visible light specifically light in the blue light region having wavelength between approximately 400λ to 550λ. In one embodiment he IOLs are made from acrylates and the light absorbing compound is a yellow dye.

There are three primary structures within the human eye that are essential to vision and subject to age-related damage: the, lens (100), cornea (102) and retina (104) (see FIG. 1). The retina is a multi-layered sensory tissue that lines the back of the eye. It contains millions of photoreceptors that capture light rays and convert them into electrical impulses. These impulses travel along the optic nerve (106) to the brain where they are turned into images. There are two types of photoreceptors in the retina: rods and cones. The retina contains approximately 6 million cones. The cones are contained in the macula, the portion of the retina responsible for central vision. They are most densely packed within the fovea, the very center portion of the macula. Cones function best in bright light and allow us to appreciate color. There are approximately 125 million rods. They are spread throughout the peripheral retina and function best in dim lighting. The rods are responsible for peripheral and night vision. The retina is essential for vision and is easily damaged by prolonged unprotected exposure to visible and near visible light. Light-induced retinal pathologies include cystoid macular oedema, solar retinopathy, ocular melanomas and age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). Light-induced retinal damage is classified as structural, thermal or photochemical and is largely determined by the exposure time, power level and wavelength of light (W. T. Ham. 1983. Journal of Occupational Medicine. 25:2 101-102).
In healthy adults the retina is generally protected form the most severe forms of light-induced damage by the outer eye structures including the cornea and crystalline lens. The cornea is a transparent proteinaceous ocular tissue located before the iris and is the only eye structure exposed directly to the environment. The cornea is essential for protecting the delicate internal structures from damage and facilities the transmission of light through the aqueous media to the crystalline lens. The cornea is the primary light filter and therefore is particularly susceptible to excessive light exposure-related damage including corneo-conjunctival diseases such as pterygium, droplet climatic keratopathy, and pinguecula. In the healthy eye the cornea, in conjunction with the aqueous medium, absorbs, or blocks, wavelengths (λ shall be used hereinafter to denote wavelengths of light in nanometers) in the short ultraviolet (UV)-B and UV-C region (less than ≈320λ).
The crystalline lens is an accommodating biological lens lying directly behind the iris and cornea and facilitates the convergence of both far and near images onto the retina. The natural crystalline lens blocks near UV radiation (UV-A) (320λ to 400λ) from reaching the retina. Therefore, most of the damaging UV A, B and C radiation are prevented from reaching the retina in healthy people with an intact crystalline lens and cornea. Thus in the normal mammalian eye only wavelengths between 400λ-1,400λ can reach the retina. However, high transmittance levels of violet-to-blue light (wavelengths from about 400λ to about 515λ) has been linked to retinal damage, macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, and night blindness. In addition, blue light tends to be scattered in the atmosphere, especially in haze, fog, rain, and snow, which in part can cause glare, and diminished visual acuity. As the eye ages the crystalline lens begins to take on a yellow tint that does not adversely affect visual acuity but does absorb the majority of near UV radiation. Thus, the natural crystalline lens protects the eye's delicate retina from near UV light throughout life and subtly yellows with age increasing the about of shorter wavelength blue light that is absorbed.
The natural crystalline lens is also susceptible to age-related degenerative eye diseases such as cataracts. Cataract is a clouding of the crystalline lens caused by the coagulation of lens proteins within the capsular sac. Many ophthalmologists believe that cataract formation results from a life time of oxidative insults to the lens and is exacerbated by smoking, excessive exposure to bright light, obesity and diabetes. Cataracts develop slowly in most people and eventually reach the point where vision is substantially impaired resulting in near to total blindness. In these persons lens removal and replacement with synthetic polymer intraocular lenses (IOLs) is the preferred means for restoring normal sight. However, once the natural crystalline lens is removed the retina is left unprotected from damaging UV and short wavelength blue light. Thus early synthetic IOLs were provided with UV absorbing compounds such as benzophenone and benzotriazole-based UV light absorbers. Intraocular lenses provided with UV absorbing compounds soon became common-place and are found in virtually all IOLs. Moreover, many benzophenones and benzotriazoles are polymerizable and thus can be stably integrated into most modern IOL compositions including acrylates, silicones, and hydrophilic hydrogel comonomers and copolymers.
Recently, blue light absorbing dyes have been incorporated into IOL materials in order to approximate the blue light blocking effects of the aging adult natural crytalilline lens. Many IOL manufactures are designing lenses that contain yellow dyes at concentrations that absorb, or block visible light in the blue region. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,676, describes polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) polymer IOLs incorporating yellow dyes that selectively absorb UV/blue light radiation up to approximately 450λ. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,528,322; 5,543,504; and 5,662,707 are assigned to Alcon and disclose acrylic-functionalized yellow azo dyes having an inert chemical spacer between the dye and acrylic portions of the molecule. Thus the blue light-absorbing portion of the molecule is protected from undesirable color shifts when polymerized with the lens polymer. Moreover, because the dye is acrylic-functionalize it is polymerizable with the lens polymer and thus stably incorporated into the IOL polymer matrix. Similarly, Menicon holds U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,277,940 and 6,326,448 both disclosing specific acrylic-modified azo dyes structurally similar to Alcon's. Hoya owns U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,663 that discloses non-covalently linked yellow dyes including solvent yellow numbers 16, 29 and others incorporated into a PMMA matrix. Moreover, Hoya also owns U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,215 that discloses acrylic-functionalized pyrazolone dyes suitable for use in acrylic and silicone IOLs.
However, these and other prior art IOLs have the blue blocking dyes evenly distributed throughout the IOL material at concentrations that simulate the natural yellow color of the 53 year-old individual's crystalline lens. However, unlike the natural crystalline lens, an IOL is lathed and shaped to a specific diopter power causing the IOL to have a non-uniform thickness. Thus the effective amount of blue light blocking dye is a function of the IOL thickness. Because lens thickness varies with lens shape and diopter power, the effective amount of blue light blocking compound at any one point on the IOL varies. This is especially relevant near the lens center where the constricted pupil concentrates and focuses the light in bright light conditions. Moreover, the entire lens contains dye including its surfaces and thus eye's delicate tissues are in intimate contact with the dye. Consequently, patients that are sensitive to blue blocking dyes cannot benefit from blue light blocking lenses containing those dyes. Furthermore, some patients may develop hypersensitivity to the blue blocking dye after prolonged contact.
As stated previously, the prior art IOLs, like the natural aging lens, have a yellow pigment distributed throughout the entire lens. Consequently, all light and images are filtered through a yellow color before being projected on the retina. For many applications this is desirable, for instance people who engage in certain outdoor sports or activities including skiers, baseball players, football players, pilots, and boaters are exposed to high levels of ultraviolet, blue, and visible light radiation which can affect visual acuity required in such activities. Drivers of motor vehicles also have specific needs in terms of reducing glare and enhancing visual acuity under bright, sunlit driving conditions and reducing headlight glare at night. For these specific needs, alteration of light transmittance over the spectrum of visible light including the blue-violet end of the visible spectrum to the red end of the spectrum may be necessary. However, there are non-vision related eye functions that are impaired when the inner eye is continuously shielded from blue light wave-lengths such as those associated with circadian rhythm and melatonin secretion.
Therefore, it is an objective of the present invention to provide an IOL having a uniform distribution of blue light blocking compound that does not vary with lens diopter.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide an IOL having one or more blue light blocking compounds that is not in intimate contact with delicate eye structures.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide an IOL having blue light blocking properties limited to a defined region of the lens to minimize interference with non-vision related eye function and yet maximize the blue light blocking properties under bright light conditions.

Intraocular lenses having a visible light-selective-transmissive-region


The apply and release hydraulic parking valve (20, 120) comprises a housing (40, 140) having therein a bore (42) with first (52, 152) and second (54, 154) reservoir grooves communicating with one or more reservoir ports (46, 146A, 146B), a supply groove (63) communicating with a supply port (47, 147), and apply (44, 144) and release ports (48, 148) communicating with said bore (42, 142). A spool valve (60, 160) is located slidably within the bore (42), the spool valve (60, 160) activated by a lever (31, 131) received within an opening (67, 167) of the spool valve (60, 160). One end of the spool valve (60, 160) has a pair of washers (74, 76) disposed thereabout with a spring member (80, 180) located about the spool valve (60, 160) and between the washers (74, 76), and a stop sleeve (82, 182) located about the spool valve (160, 60). The spool valve (60, 160) includes a chamfered groove (61) engaging a check valve (50, 150) within the supply port (47, 147). Displacement of the lever (31, 131) effects axial displacement of the spool valve (60, 160) which opens the check valve (50, 55) to permit hydraulic fluid pressure to be communicated to the bore (42) and with the apply and release ports (44, 144, 48, 148) corresponding to the direction of axial displacement of the spool valve (60, 160).

Parking brake mechanisms utilizing pressurized hydraulic fluid to apply and release the brakes have been disclosed previously in U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,650 and copending U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,201,387 and 5,128,007, assigned to the same assignee and incorporated by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 5,281,007 discloses an electric solenoid operated system for effecting the parking application and release of brakes such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,650. It is highly desirable to provide a mechanically and hydraulically operated parking valve which has a high degree of reliability and which would cost less than an electrically controlled system. However, such a mechanically and hydraulically controlled parking valve must meet all legal and functional requirements. When the valve is not being used to apply or release the brakes for parking, hydraulic pressure must be released from the brake lines, but maintained within an accumulator supply line with zero leakage. When the vehicle operator selects to apply or release the parking valve, the valve must remain by itself in the apply or release position or mode until the hydraulic actuators within the vehicle brakes have completed their movements, and then must return automatically to the off or inactive position. Also, if an accumulator within the parking brake system is not charged above a predetermined hydraulic pressure, it must not be possible to effect a release of the brakes because of a legal requirement that once the brakes are released, the system must be able to reapply the brakes. Therefore, the parking valve must prevent a release of the brakes if the accumulator within the parking brake system is not charged above a predetermined pressure.

Apply and release hydraulic parking valve


A waste line stoppage detector and automatic water shutoff system is utilized to prevent the overflow of raw sewage from a plumbing fixture. Electronic shutoff valves are electronically connected to a waste line stoppage detector. One application involves using an electronic waste line stoppage detector. Another application involves using a diaphragm and switch waste line stoppage. A further application involves using a float ball and switch waste line stoppage detector.

The field of the present invention is plumbing.
Typically, in multilevel residential structures such as apartment buildings and condominium complexes, the plumbing fixtures, e.g. sinks, toilets, showers and bathtubs, are stacked such that a given fixture on the top level will share common waste and water supply lines with the same type of fixture on all the lower levels. Occassionally, a stoppage will occur in the waste line below the waste line connection between an upper and lower unit. Such a stoppage may occur due to too large an item being sent down a drain, a collection of various waste materials, or some other event which may clog a waste line. When such a stoppage occurs, the resident of the lower unit may not be aware of the stoppage until the fixture overflows from water and raw sewage backing up the waste line. The resident in the upper unit may not be aware of the stoppage unless he or she becomes aware of the overflow in the lower unit. In any event, since the stoppage has occurred in the waste line below the connection between the upper and lower units, as the resident of the upper unit continues to use the upper stacked fixture, the lower stacked fixture will continue to overflow with water and raw sewage until the stoppage is removed. And, if the resident of the lower unit is at work, asleep or on vacation when the stoppage occurs, substantial water damage to floors, carpeting, cabinets, and other items near the fixture may occur due to continued use of the upper fixture.
When such a stoppage occurs between in a unit between the lower and top unit, such as a third level unit, the health and safety risks are exacerbated by water and raw sewage leaking through the ceiling into the lower units and may damage the ceiling and other parts of the lower units. An overflow in any unit constitutes a serious health and safety hazard due to the overflow of raw sewage into a residence.

Waste line stoppage detector and automatic water shutoff system

Direct, Plumbing, Heating & Rooter, Inc.


Methods of manufacturing board products include the steps of drying lignocellulosic material in a first stage dryer, further drying the lignocellulosic material in a second stage dryer, forming the dried lignocellulosic material into a mat, hot pressing the mat, utilizing the pressed air stream from the hot pressing step and a supply of fresh air as the source of drying air for the first and second stage dryers, utilizing the exhaust air from the second stage dryer as a source of drying air for the first stage dryer, and utilizing the exhaust air from the first stage dryer as a source of drying air for the first stage dryer and as a source of combustion air in a furnace.

The manufacture of board of the type mentioned above is carried out by disintegration of the material, gluing, drying and forming into a mat, which is then hot pressed into finished board.
During the manufacture of board material, gaseous organic impurities, such as formaldehyde and other volatile hydrocarbons (VOC, or volatile organic compounds) are generated and emitted. These impurities are primarily emitted from the drying step, but to a certain extent also from the hot pressing step. These substances contribute to the greenhouse effect, and there is an increasingly stronger demand for reducing these emissions. In addition, particulate impurities, in the form of wood dust, are also emitted from the drying, and fly ash is emitted from the heat energy plant.
During the manufacture of board relatively large amounts of heat energy are consumed. The greatest heat consuming steps during the manufacture of MDF (medium density fiberboard) are the defibering process, the drying of the fiber material, and the hot pressing of the fiber mat. In the defibering process steam is used as the heating medium. The fiber dryer and press can be heated with steam, hot oil or hot water.
The fiber dryer can also be heated directly with hot flue gases from a burner in the dryer or from a common heat energy plant. The exhaust air from the drying step also contains fly ash from the flue gases.
With the use of continuous press technology the main portion of the organic substances emitted during the pressing operation can be sucked off with a limited volume of air. The exhaust air can be used as combustion air in the heat energy plant, where the organic impurities are transformed to water vapor and carbon dioxide.
Exhaust air from a dryer, however, has a much larger volume than is the volume of air from a press exhaust by suction. This fact implies that the exhaust air from the dryer cannot simply be used as combustion air in the same way as is the case with the exhaust air from the press. In the case of stringent environmental requirements it can, therefore, be necessary to apply expensive and complicated cleaning technology, for example in the form of gas scrubbers, wet electrostatic precipitators (WESP) or the use of regenerative thermal oxidation (RTO), depending on the requirements of the authorities concerned. These technologies are expensive in terms of both investment and operation costs.


The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a method and apparatus for controlling the scroll rate of a scroll bar slider in a graphical user interface. The preferred embodiment uses a domain mechanism that divides large documents into multiple domains. The document is displayed in a viewing window with the slider moving the document from one of the current domain to the other end. Because the slider only moves within one domain, and not the whole document, the slider sensitivity is reduced such that it can be effectively used to scroll through documents. The document can be moved within the viewing window to other domains by activating one of a plurality of domain marks, where each domain mark represents a domain not currently scrollable with the slider. Thus, the entire document can be easily browsed while the scroll rate is maintained at an effective level. This provides a user with a high degree of control when viewing all sizes of documents.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to user interfaces for computers. More specifically, the present invention relates to scroll bars in graphical user interfaces.
2. Background Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely sophisticated devices that may be found in many different settings. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware (e.g., semiconductors, circuit boards, etc.) and software (e.g., computer programs). As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer hardware higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful that just a few years ago.
Early computer systems required an extensive knowledge of commands for a user to perform any type of function. These computer employed what is known as a command line in which a specific command would have to be entered to perform just about any type of operation. This limited the use of computers to those who had the time to learn a large number of relatively cryptic commands.
Later computer systems used a more advanced user interface to make it easier for a computer user to perform functions without knowledge of specific commands. The most common modern interface is the graphical user interface, or GUI. A GUI uses some type of symbol, menu or other mechanism which is activated by a computer user with a pointing device (e.g., a mouse, a trackball) to perform many commonly performed tasks. These graphical mechanisms are usually designed to be somewhat consistent and self-explanatory to make it as easy as possible for a user to perform common functions.
Most graphical interfaces display documents in a portion of the screen called a window. Where the document is large, only a partial view of the document is visible in the window at a time. To view other portions of a document a graphical device called a scroll bar is used. Scroll bars allow a user to move down or across a document using a pointing device. In particular, the scroll bar allows a user to move to other document portions by either clicking and dragging the slider in the scroll bar or by clicking somewhere on the scroll bar.
Turning to FIG. 8, an exemplary graphical user interface 700 is illustrated. The graphical interface 700 is like many of the current applications and operating systems available that use graphical elements to facilitate commonly used operations. The graphical interface 700, in this case for a word processing program, uses a scroll bar 702 with a slider 704 to facilitate a user moving to view different document portions. With the slider 704 at the top of the scroll bar area 706, the user interface displays the top portion of the document. When the slider 704 is moved to the bottom of the scroll bar area 706, the user interface displays the bottom portion of the document. In the illustrated example, a user can move down in the document by clicking and dragging the slider 704 with a pointing device. Alternatively, the user can move down in the document by clicking on the exposed scroll bar area 706 under the slider 704, or by clicking on the down arrow 708.
Turning to FIG. 9, the graphical user interface 700 is shown displaying a larger document with the slider 704 correspondingly smaller and the exposed scroll bar area 706 correspondingly larger.
Slider sensitivity is a function of the document size and the available scroll bar area. The larger the document, the larger the amount of document movement results from a given amount of slider movement. Thus, with a large document, moving the slider even a small amount results in large amounts of movement in the document. This high sensitivity to slider movement makes it very difficult to scroll by clicking and dragging the slider without "jumps" in the view of the document. Because the desired location in the document may be skipped during a jump, these jumps make it very difficult to controllably scroll the document. Thus, with prior art systems it can be very difficult to effectively scroll though large documents.
Without an improved mechanism for controlling a slider in a scroll bar, the efficient and effective work on large documents will continue to be hampered by the limits of the present day graphical user interface.

Document interface mechanism and method for navigating through large documents

International Business Machines Corporation


A method includes obtaining an equivalent core of multiple cores in a System-on-Chip circuit, and applying linear-feedback shift register LFSR reseeding for compressing test data of the equivalent core.

The present invention relates generally to test data compression in manufacture testing, and, more particularly, to a test data compression method for System-on-Chip (SoC) using linear-feedback shift register reseeding.
The following works by others are mentioned in the application and referred to by their associated reference:    [1] J. Rajski, I. Tyszer, M. Kassab, and N. Mukherjee, "Embedded deterministic test," in IEEE Tran. CAD, vol. 23, pp. 776-792, May 2004.    [2] E. J. Marinissen, R. Kapur, M. Lousberg, T. McLaurin, M. Ricchetti, and Y. Zorian, "On IEEE 1500's standard for embedded core test," in Journal of Electronic Testing: Theory and Applications (JETTA), vol. 18, pp. 365-383, August 2002.    [3] V. Iyengar, K. Chakrabarty, and E. J. Marinissen, "Test access mechanism optimization, test scheduling, and tester data volume reduction for System-on-Chip," in IEEE Trans. Computers, vol. 52, pp. 1619-1632, December 2003.    [4] A. B. Kinsman and N. Nicolici, "Time-multiplexed test data decompression architecture for core-based socs with improved utilization of tester channels," in Proc. European Test Symp., 2005, pp. 196-201.    [5] P. T. Gonciari and B. M. Al-Hashimi, "A compression-driven test access mechanism design approach," in Proc. European Test Symp., 2004, pp. 100-105.    [6] E. H. Volkerink and S. Mitra, "Efficient seed utilization for reseeding based compression," in Proc. VTS 2003, pp. 232-237.
Test data compression has been widely used in manufacturing testing. To achieve high reduction in both test data volume and test application time, some state-of-the-art compression techniques such as [1] usually use special test generation tools to generate test patterns that are suitable to achieve maximum compression. The configuration of scan chains is also optimized for better compression results. However, when testing System-on-Chip (SoC) devices, these flexibilities are usually not available because no structural information is available for some intellectual property (IP) cores, especially, hard cores that are delivered in the form of layouts and whose scan chain configurations cannot be modified.
In addition to the problem of limited applicability of existing test compression techniques, restricted access to internal cores is another issue in SoC testing. To tackle with this restriction, test access mechanism (TAM) and test wrappers have been proposed as key components of an SoC test architecture [2]. Many techniques have been proposed to co-optimize TAM/wrapper design and test scheduling to reduce test application time for SoCs [3]. However, these techniques either do not consider test data compression, or utilize less efficient compression techniques.
Intuitively, the SoC integrator has the flexibility to combine test data compression, TAM/wrapper design, and test scheduling into a unified problem formulation, and hence to achieve decreased test data volume and test application time for the entire SoC. Prior work [4] presents a time-multiplexing technique to reduce test application for SoCs that support test data compression. The major drawback of [4] is that extra data and on-Chip hardware are needed to enable the time-multiplexing mechanism. To keep the multiplexing mechanism easy-to-implement, [4] resorts to fixed length blocks, which will however decrease the encoding efficiency. An optimal block length for one core is not necessarily optimal for other cores. Prior work [5] uses XOR network called XNet for compression, which is less efficient for high compression. It also requires two different data streams from the ATE: data and load control streams.
The diagram 10 of FIG. 1 shows the core configuration for prior art [4]. In the FIG. 1, DCMP means decompressor and can be a linear-feedback shift register LFSR. Each core, core 1, core 2, core 3 and core 4, has its own decoder. In addition, a control unit 14 is needed to route seed data 15 to the core designated by the control data. The diagram 20 of FIG. 2 shows how seed streams are packed into one stream, i.e., how tester channels are time-multiplexed. It also shows how control data are determined. Cores in an SoC are compressed individually using LFSR reseeding. Tester channels are time-multiplexed to transfer seed data to the on-Chip decompressors when necessary. To perform seed calculation, test patterns of each core are first split into blocks of fixed length. A seed is obtained by solving linear equations formed by care bits from variable number of blocks. As many as possible blocks are concatenated before a new seed is generated. When an LFSR decoder is expanding a seed to a series of blocks, it does not need to receive data from the tester, until all blocks encoded by this seed have been generated. Hence, seed streams for different cores can be time-multiplexed (or packed) together into a single stream. The overall test application time is therefore reduced by testing cores simultaneously in a time-multiplexing fashion.
The major drawback of architecture of FIG. 1 is that extra data and on-Chip hardware are needed to enable the time-multiplexing mechanism. To keep the multiplexing mechanism easy-to-implement, [4] resorts to fixed length blocks, which will however decrease the encoding efficiency. An optimal block length for one core is not necessarily optimal for other cores.
The diagram 30 of FIG. 3 shows the XNet architecture used in prior art [5]. The LFSR and the phase shifter of the invention shown in FIG. 4A are replaced by a shift register (SR) 31 and an XOR network 32 called XNet. A data word is loaded into the SR to generate a pattern for a scan slice. If a pattern for a scan slice has many care bits, then it may not be possible to find a data word that can justify the pattern for the slice. To account for this problem, a separate load control stream is provided from the automatic test equipment ATE to control operation of the wrapper scan chains WSCs (WSC1, WSC2, WSC3, WSC4), which feed into the multiple input shift register MISR. If values required for some WSCs cannot be justified in a cycle, then the only WSCs for which values are justified are loaded with new values and the other WSCs hold. Then another data word is loaded into the shift register SR 31 to load the rest of the WSCs, which were not loaded in the previous cycle. Since the operation of each WSC should be individually controlled, data to generate load streams can be significant. Hence, achieving high compression by this scheme is difficult.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method applicable to an SoC chip that reduces test application time and achieves maximum compression.

Test data compression method for system-on-chip using linear-feedback shift register reseeding


A simplified operation control panel for industrial sewing machines powered by an electric motor controlled through a programmable microprocessor is configured as a structurally independent unit and comprises a display, and at least a pair of control keys, each adapted for activating in quick succession the displaying of graphic symbols related to sewing program steps.

As is known, in the specific technical field to which this invention is related, there exists a growing demand for sewing machines which be extremely flexible as concerns their operation.
This demand has been met in part by the availability of direct current electric motors controlled through a programmable microprocessor. In fact, the use of such motors on industrial sewing machines has enabled the use of their associated microprocessor for storing and subsequently carrying out varying types of sewing programs in an automatic fashion. Each program comprises pre-selected sequels of sewing steps to be carried out with great accuracy.
While being advantageous from several aspects, and basically achieving their objectives, prior art sewing machines have, however, some limitations arising from their practical inability to follow any types of sewing programs, or in other words, any sequel of sewing steps possibly wanted by their users.
It should be noted that this practical inability is more due to the prior art failure to provide the user with control panels for the microprocessor which could allow said sewing programs to be changed as desired, than to the size of the program memory associated with the microprocessor, which can be easily expanded as required to accommodate a larger number of sewing programs. In fact, the prior art currently proposes as a solution that sewing machines be equipped with control panels including an alphanumeric display and a control keyboard effective to enable the values to be changed of various operational parameters related to the sewing programs.
These conventional control panels have shown to be only usable by highly qualified personnel familiar with every detail of the nature of the various sewing programs. In fact, alteration of just one program step would involve the entry and/or change of certain alphanumeric codes, available from the handbook of the machine, but not to be arrived at intuitively by ordinary users of the machine.
In addition, the complicated structure of the control panel imposes a training work on the user which is often inconsistent with his/her professional qualifications.

Simplified operation, electronic control panel for industrial sewing machines


Provided is a current application device capable of applying a test current of a magnitude necessary for testing of a semiconductor element without any trouble. A current application device 1 is configured to have a contacting section having a plurality of projections 21 for contacting a contact region 24 inside an active region 23 of a semiconductor element 22 and applying the test current thereto, and a pressing section 3 which presses the contacting section 2 against the semiconductor element 22 such that each projection 21 contacts the contact region 24. A plurality of the projections 21 are arranged such that an arrangement density of outside projections 21 is larger than the arrangement density of inside projections 21.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a current application device which applies a test current to a semiconductor element, and a method for manufacturing the semiconductor element using the same.
Description of the Related Art
Generally, a semiconductor element testing device used in testing the semiconductor element is configured to have a current application device which applies a test current for testing electrical characteristics of the semiconductor element to the semiconductor element. Conventionally, as such current application device, the one in which the test current is applied via a contacting section (a probe) having a projection group comprising a plurality of projections that are arranged at a constant interval (for example, refer to Japanese patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-218675).
In such current application device, the test current is applied while pressing the contacting section against the semiconductor element with a spring, such that each projection constituting the projection group contacts an electrode and the like of the semiconductor element. At this time, a reaction force that the contacting section receives from the semiconductor element from the contact is dispersed to each projection, so that it becomes possible to delay a progress in abrasion of a gold metal layer and the like at a leading end of the projection.
By doing so, it becomes possible to maintain a stable electrical contact between the semiconductor element and the contacting section during application of the test current for a long period of time. Further, by doing so, it is conceivable that application of large test current is possible, from the contact portion contacting well with an electrode and the like of the semiconductor element with each projection, and also from the test current being dispersed and applied via each projection.
In a screening test for power semiconductor elements such as an IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) or power MOSFET and the like, large current is applied to a contact region within an active region of the semiconductor element. In this case, it is conceivable that it is preferable to use the contacting section having the projection group as is explained above, and distribute and apply the test current uniformly with each projection, so as to be capable of applying the large current uniformly throughout the whole contact region as much as possible.
In this case, number of projections necessary may be determined, on the basis of a magnitude of necessary test current, and a critical current value that can be applied from one projection. Further, it becomes possible to set an arrangement pitch of the projections at the contacting section so as to correspond to an area of the contact region in the active region, according to the number of projections.
However, in a case where such contacting section is used, it has been discovered that there is an inconvenience that a current value flowing in a part of the projections reaches the critical current value by only supplying a current smaller than the test current with necessary magnitude to the contacting section, so that the test current with the necessary magnitude cannot be applied.

Current application device and manufacturing method of semiconductor element