A clot lysis time determining device for determining the time necessary for fluid to lyse a clot. The device comprises: a body defining a chamber; a fluid receiving inlet port to the body in fluid communication with the chamber, the inlet port permitting fluid to flow into the chamber; a fluid discharging outlet port to the body in fluid communication with the chamber, the outlet port permitting fluid to flow out from the chamber; the inlet port, chamber, and outlet port defining a communicating fluid passageway; a body opening formed in the body along the fluid passageway, the body opening permitting a portion of fluid to flow against a clot supported by clot-supporting porous membrane; and a membrane cover detachably connectable to the body and configured for holding a clot-supporting porous membrane over the body opening.

Clot lysis time determinations are important clinical tests. Clot lysis, or thrombolysis, occurs through fibrinolysis. In the body, fibrinolysis is carefully coordinated with coagulation so that prompt control of bleeding can occur through coagulation, and yet eventual resolution and healing can occur through fibrinolysis.
Blood clotting is a very complex series of events triggered by damage to a blood vessel. Clot formation is essential for preventing continuous bleeding. A clot is composed of platelet and fibrin, (predominately fibrin) as the clot matures. This is known as insoluble fibrin. However, sometimes clots form for other reasons and cause several problems including heart attacks, strokes, and embolisms. The clotting system is counter-acted by the fibrinolytic system naturally present in the body. This system breaks up the clot which is mostly composed of fibrin, thus the term fibrin-o-lysis. Lysis means break apart or degrade.
Fibrin formation (coagulation) and dissolution (fibrinolysis) are thought to occur simultaneously during wound clotting and healing. Studies of pathologic thrombosis support this concept of clot remodeling and indicate that the balance of the two opposing processes varies in different areas of a single large clot. Thus, there is a complex interaction between activation and inhibition of fibrinolysis.
Practitioners of medicine must be careful when altering the interaction of coagulation and fibrinolysis because pharmacological intervention can produce symptoms of bleeding and thrombosis, as well as correct symptoms of bleeding and thrombosis. For instance, disruption of the body's control of fibrinolysis can, by shifting the balance of clot formation and dissolution, lead to bleeding if there is inappropriate fibrinolytic inhibition. The bleeding caused by excess fibrinolytic stimulus can be corrected by administration of a fibrinolytic inhibitor. However, if the patient is predisposed to venous thrombosis or disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), clinical thrombosis could occur when the fibrinolytic inhibitor is given.
Bleeding may result either from defective inhibition, or from excessive activation of fibrinolysis. Conversely, either defective activation, or excessive inhibition of fibrinolysis can lead to thrombosis. The fact that therapy with fibrinolytic agents may dissolve a thrombus, and may also lead to bleeding, complicates clinical management. Also, the fact that antifibrinolytic therapy may stop bleeding due to excess fibrinolysis, or may lead to thrombotic complications, complicates clinical management. For instance, stimulation of fibrinolysis through therapeutic administration of plasminogen activator for treatment of thrombosis may result in uncomplicated thrombolysis, or may result in bleeding complications in susceptible patients.
Thus, the need to accurately determine the fibrinolytic capabilities of a patient's blood is critically important. Successful therapy, that is, restoration of effective hemostasis or achievement of thrombolysis without complications depends critically on selection of the appropriate treatment for the patient. Clearly, the balance between coagulation and fibrinolysis influences the occurrence and clinical course of thrombotic disease.
The fibrinolytic system is much less understood then the clotting system. The fibrinolytic system is activated through the release of tissue plasminogen activator from blood vessel endothelial cells. Tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) activates plasminogen on the surface of clots. Fibrin degradation products (FDPs) are released from the lysed clot when it is digested. FDPs are small fragments which result from the digestion of fibrin. The FDPs, called D, X, Y, and E fragments, can be measured. These fragments, along with fibrin degradation products, fibrinogen, and plasmin, are all part of the fibrinolysis cascade and are the only elements measured. They are the end result of fibrin degradation. Low levels of FDPs, seen in the serum of patients after surgery or trauma, appear to have little effect on the coagulation systems. However, fragment degradation products seen in DIC or with fibrinolytic therapy may have an inhibitory effect on the bleeding time and coagulation screening tests. These products may also contribute to the defect in fibrin formation in these patients.
Fibrinolytic therapy with tissue plasminogen activator, urokinase, or streptokinase can cause lysis of fibrin as well as lysis of fibrinogen. Fibrin degradation products are distinguished from fibrinogen degradation products by the presence of Factor XIII cross-linkage of fibrin D domains. Commercial kits for immunologic detection of "D-D" dimers are available to detect a "segment or portion" of fibrinolysis. Currently, there are techniques available to measure static parameters of fibrinolysis, such as the end results of the fibrinolytic pathway (e.g., D-dimers), but there is nothing to measure the dynamics of fibrinolysis.
Rheology is a general term for the study of blood flow or any deformation of flow. Rheology is pertinent for coagulation processes. There are three important characteristics of blood clotting and lysis of the clot. These characteristics are: (1) the vascular integrity (e.g., structure--internal and external elastic membrane of a vessel, and function--the endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, and fibroblasts); (2) the blood within the vessel (e.g., the cells, coagulation proteins, inhibitors, etc.); and (3) the flow of blood through the vessels and across the endothelial cells.
Among the current tests for determining the fibrinolytic capability of a fluid are tests which involve measurement of the levels present of various chemicals and proteins involved in the fibrinolytic pathway such as fibrinogen and factor XIII, or measurement of the chemicals and proteins involved in the plasmin/plasminogen cascade that induces lysis of fibrin. The chemicals and proteins involved in the fibrinolysis cascade include plasminogen, tissue plasminogen activator, serine protease plasmin, tissue plasminogen activator inhibitor, and alpha 2-antiplasmin. The total concentration of these chemicals and proteins can be measured immunologically or by chromogenic assays. The degree of fibrinolysis can be assessed indirectly by the measurement of fibrin degradation products.
Currently, screening tests for fibrinolysis are extremely limited. The thrombin clotting time will detect an abnormality in fibrinogen, but otherwise chromogenic and immunological assays of specific proteins must be performed. A diagnosis of an increased fibrinolytic state requires further assessment, often beginning with the global clot lysis time. Clot Lysis Time (CLT) measures the action of plasminogen activators and plasmin in the blood and is usually performed on clots formed from the euglobulin fraction of the plasma or whole blood. In these tests, inhibitors of activators and plasmin are removed by precipitation of plasma or whole blood at low ionic strength and low pH. After removal of the supernatant fluid, the precipitate is resuspended in an appropriate buffer and clotted with thrombin, and the time required for clot lysis is recorded. Abnormally short lysis times (less then 2 hours) reflect acute episodes of excessive fibrinolysis that accompany a variety of acquired disorders or that result from the administration of plasminogen activators such as streptokinase. CLT is currently not a useful screening test due to the time necessary to obtain results.
A problem concerning the handling of blood, and blood-derived products, is health safety. Blood samples may carry sexually transmitted infectious agents such as HIV 1 and 2, Hepatitis B, syphilis, etc. which could infect the clinician if proper safeguards are not in place.

Methods of forming a pre-clotted clot supporter, methods of storing a pre-clotted clot supporter and clots adhered to fluid permeable membranes


A roof opening and closing apparatus for a vehicle includes a cover member opening and closing mechanism including a front side opening and closing mechanical unit, a rear side opening and closing mechanical unit, and an intermediate support unit connecting the front side opening and closing mechanical unit and the rear side opening and closing mechanical unit, a panel moving mechanism including a panel member and a panel movement mechanical unit, the panel member covering a portion of a vehicle body in a case where a roof is in a stored state, the portion of the vehicle body being positioned at a lower end of a rear corner portion of the roof when the roof is in a developed state, and the panel movement mechanical unit supporting the panel member to be moved to the storage compartment in a case where the roof is in the deployed state.

A known vehicle is equipped with a roof that is changeable between a deployed state where a vehicle interior space is covered and a stored state where a luggage room provided at a rear of the vehicle is used as a storage compartment of the roof.
The aforementioned vehicle includes pillar portions that are provided at both left and right sides of a rear window of the roof in a width direction of the vehicle and that extend in a vertical direction of the vehicle. In a case where the roof is in the stored state, a clearance originally covered by a lower end of the pillar portion and penetrating through the luggage room is covered by a panel member. That is, in a case where the roof is in the stored state, an improved appearance of the vehicle is ensured by the panel member. In order to return the roof from the stored state to the deployed state, a panel moving mechanism of a roof opening and closing apparatus for a vehicle is provided to store the panel member in the luggage room.
A mechanical unit of the aforementioned panel moving mechanism is attached to a vehicle body within the luggage room. When the roof is deployed or stored in the luggage room, the panel member is positioned within the luggage room in such a way that the panel member is prevented from interfering with the roof. After completion of the storage of the roof in the luggage room, the panel member is moved to a position where the pillar portion is provided when the roof is in the deployed state by means of an operation of the panel moving mechanism. Such panel moving mechanism is disclosed in DE10132547B4.
However, according to the panel moving mechanism disclosed in DE1013247B4, an area and a shape of the panel member is restricted so as to prevent the interference between the panel member and the roof within a limited space of the luggage room. As a result, an effect for ensuring the improved appearance of the vehicle may not be adequately achieved.
A need thus exists for a roof opening and closing apparatus for a vehicle which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.

Roof opening and closing apparatus for vehicle


A cruise control system for motor vehicles is described, having a sensor device for measuring the vehicle's performance characteristics and for measuring the distance to a target object ahead of the vehicle, and a controller which is used to control the vehicle's speed or acceleration as a function of the measured performance characteristics and distance data and has a stop function for automatically braking the vehicle to a standstill as well as at least one standstill state in which the vehicle is held in a stationary position by automatic brake activation, and from which it may only drive off again via an operational command by the driver, the operational command becoming effective only when a confirmation signal is present in addition to the operational command.

Cruise control systems make it possible to set the vehicle's speed to a desired level selected by the driver, or, if a vehicle whose speed is lower than this desired speed is detected traveling ahead, to automatically maintain an adequate safety distance to the vehicle ahead.
While most conventional cruise control systems of this type, which are also referred to as ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) systems, are only activatable above a determined minimum speed of, for example, 40 km/h, German Published Patent Application No. 199 58 520 describes a cruise control system also having a stop function which allows the vehicle to be automatically braked to a standstill, e.g., when approaching the tail end of a traffic jam. Within the scope of a stop-and-go function, automatic drive-off is possible under certain conditions when the vehicle ahead starts moving again.
The ACC function, as well as the stop-and-go function may generally be activated or deactivated by the driver via push-button control. If a vehicle having an automatic transmission is braked to a standstill using the stop-and-go function, the controller holds the vehicle brake automatically applied to prevent the vehicle to roll again. If the controller is inactivated by a driver's command, this results in the brake being released and the vehicle rolling again. If the driver has not foreseen this consequence, critical situations or irritations of the driver may result.

Cruise control system having a stop function


A system for shielding an interior metal surface of a metal container from a hot fluid within the metal container wherein the hot fluid is at a temperature greater than a temperature limit of the metal, including a first insulating layer including metal clad insulation proximate the interior metal surface, a second insulating layer spaced from the first insulating layer including a perforated reflective metal shield and a third insulating layer spaced from the second insulating layer which is structurally stable and substantially inert to the hot fluid.

A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to central-station power-generation systems and, more particularly, to a combined Rankine/Brayton heat engine cycle.
B. Description of the Related Art
The Rankine-cycle, typified by a conventional steam engine, minimizes compression work by capitalizing on the energy exchange involved when a liquid changes to a vapor. Although Rankine-cycles can have higher thermal efficiency than other cycles because pressuring water is simple and does not consume much energy, transferring heat to the steam poses a problem. The necessity of using high-temperature, boiler-tube materials capable of containing the high-pressure working fluid limits the maximum possible superheated-steam temperatures to less than 1300.degree. F. Efforts to maximize the thermal efficiency of power plants employing a Rankine-cycle have plateaued at an efficiency of approximately 40%.
The Brayton-cycle, typified by a conventional gas-turbine engine, ideally consists of two constant-pressure (isobaric) processes and two adiabatic-reversible (isentropic) processes. In actuality, irreversible losses occur; therefore, no engine is capable of wholly isobaric or isentropic processes. In an ideal Brayton-cycle system, gas is compressed isentropically, heated at constant pressure, and then expanded isentropically through a turbine. In an open-loop Brayton-cycle system, cooling occurs in the open atmosphere. In a closed-loop Brayton-cycle system, cooling occurs in a heat exchanger.
In a Brayton-cycle system, the fuel consumes less than 100% of the air's oxygen content. This is because part of the air must be used for cooling, so that heat limits of the engine's materials are not exceeded. Present state-of-the-art metallic materials have heat limits of about 1800.degree. F. Present state-of-the-art ceramic materials have heat limits of about 2300.degree. F. Recently, carbon-carbon materials have been considered for use in Brayton-cycle, due to the ability of the carbon-carbon to retain tensile strength at high temperatures. A carbon-carbon turbine rotor, for example, was tested at temperatures of approximately 2800.degree. F. at 30,000 revolutions per minute in a stoichiometric-fueled turbojet-engine, as discussed in "LTV, Garrett Run Carbon/Carbon Turbine Rotor," Aerospace Propulsion, vol. 3, no. 5, p. 2 (Mar. 5, 1992) and in "LTV, Garrett Run Carbon/Carbon Turbine Rotor at 3000.degree. F.," Aerospace Daily, vol. 161, no. 39, p. 310 (Feb. 26, 1992).
A combination of the Brayton-cycle and the Rankine-cycle in series has been proposed to recover waste heat from the single Brayton-cycle system. This combined-cycle system uses the Brayton-cycle exhaust heat to heat the Rankine-cycle water/steam. Thus, the heat rejection of the overall system is from the Rankine-cycle and can be close to ambient temperature. In an integrated, combined-cycle system, part or all of the shaft power necessary to drive the Brayton-cycle compressor is supplied by the Rankine-cycle turbine. Combined-Brayton-Rankine-cycle systems produce higher efficiency than either system alone. However, these systems are complex since they essentially combine two thermodynamic heat engines into one powerplant system.
A combined Brayton-Rankine-cycle for a high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor is discussed in Powerplant Technology, by M. M. El-Wakil, on pages 350 and 351. In this system, the closed-loop Brayton-cycle is coupled to the Rankine-cycle via a feed-water heater. In the Brayton-cycle, helium is compressed in a helium compressor. The compressed helium is preheated in a regenerator then enters the high-temperature, gas-cooled nuclear reactor and emerges at a higher temperature. The helium then expands in a helium turbine and enters a regenerator. Remaining energy is transferred to the Rankine-cycle via a closed-type steam feed-water heater. The helium reenters the helium compressor.

Radiation convection and conduction heat flow insulation barriers


The invention concerns a forming head for an apparatus for the production of a non-woven fabric by depositing fibers on a conveyor belt, comprising a fiber feeder which opens into a fiber processing chamber and which has a lower deposit opening for the delivery of fibers, wherein arranged in the fiber processing chamber are interengaging needle rollers with longitudinal axes oriented in mutually parallel relationship, which can rotate about their respective longitudinal axis, and the interengaging needle rollers enclose an inner chamber and are arranged with respect to the fiber feeder and the deposit opening in such a way that fibers fed to the forming head in operation enter the inner chamber by passing through between interengaging needle rollers and leave the inner chamber also by passing through between interengaging needle rollers.

1. Technical Field
The invention concerns the production of fabric, and more particularly, the production of non-woven fabric.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The invention concerns on the one hand a forming head for an apparatus for the production of a non-woven fabric and on the other hand a process for processing fibres for the production of a non-woven fabric. The forming head has at least one fibre feed means which opens into a fibre processing chamber. The fibre processing chamber has a deposit opening for the delivery of fibres for example on to a conventional, air-permeable conveyor belt, below which is arranged a so-called suction box. A plurality of needle rollers which engage into each other, with longitudinal axes oriented in mutually parallel relationship, are arranged in the fibre processing chamber. The needle rollers are rotatable about their longitudinal axis.
Accordingly the process includes as process steps the feed of fibres to a forming head and the uniform distribution of the fibres on a conveyor belt by means of the forming head.
Forming heads and processes of that kind are already known in various different forms, thus for example from WO 99/36623 or WO 03/016605.
The non-woven fabrics to be produced usually contain a mix of natural fibres, for example cellulose fibres of cotton or loosened wood cellulose which has already been treated mechanically and/or chemically (fluff pulp), synthetic matrix fibres such as for example polyester, polypropylene or viscose as well as synthetic binding fibres such as for example so-called bi-component fibres as well as for example as absorption agents so-called super-absorbent polymers in particle form (SAP) or fibre form (SAF). Bi-component fibres usually have a core melting at elevated temperatures (190-250° C.) of for example polypropylene (PP) or polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) which are enclosed by a sheath which melts at lower temperatures (140° C.) and which comprises for example polyethylene (PE), or are connected in another form (side-by-side, fibril type).
Non-woven fabrics of that kind are used for example as a semimanufactured article for the production of diapers and sanitary towels, absorbent inserts for the foodstuffs industry or for insulating material.
An important process step in the production of such a non-woven fabric is for the fibre mix to be deposited as uniformly as possible on an air-permeable transport or conveyor belt. That deposit operation is effected by means of a forming head in which the fibres are mixed. The deposit operation is assisted by a suction device (suction box) beneath the conveyor belt, with which the fibres are sucked through the air-permeable conveyor belt towards the conveyor belt. The fibre mixes which are deposited in an admittedly tangled but uniform form are transported on the conveyor belt in the form of a fibre bed for further processing in subsequent process steps, for example the effect of heat on the fibre bed, so that the polyethylene sheaths of the bi-component fibres fuse together and stick together. Treatment with latex can also be effected. In addition it is possible for a plurality of fibre bed layers to be deposited one upon the other in order in that way for example to produce a multi-layer non-woven fabric or also only a thicker non-woven fabric.
The range of variations in the products which can be produced with conventional apparatuses and processes is usually restricted by virtue of the fact that only given kinds of fibres or fibre lengths are to be processed therewith, so that the known processes and apparatuses cannot be used to produced non-woven fabrics which contain both relatively short fibres and also relatively long fibres, in one forming step. The state of the art includes installations in which the deposit of the short and long fibres takes place in succession (EP 1 299 588) or with a card (WO 03/086709). Disadvantages here are the increased level of machine complication and expenditure and the low weights in relation to surface area which can be achieved, if the fibres are provided by way of a carding process.
Therefore the object of the invention is to provide an apparatus and a process which have a greater range of variations in respect of the fibres to be processed and thus in respect of the products to be manufactured.

Forming head and process for the production of a non-woven fabric


A system, method, apparatus, means, and computer program code that may help reduce and possibly minimizes the burden on a network, components of the network, etc. when one or more alarms are created involving the network or one or more of its components. A state driven architecture guiding communication between a first device or application, such as a network management system (NMS), and a second device or application, such as a serving mobile location center (SMLC), may be used to handle communications or information regarding one or more alarms that may be generated by the second device or application as a result of problems involving the network or one or more of its components.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing or otherwise handling an alarm, or information regarding the alarm, for a communication network.
In some networks containing devices, a network management system may be used to monitor the network and devices. In addition, the network management system may be used to allow an operator to receive messages regarding the status of the network, components or links in the network, etc. In some situations, an alarm or other message may be created when a problem exists in the network or with a component or device in the network. For example, a switch in the network may experience a power failure or a communication link between a base transceiver and a mobile device (e.g., a cellular telephone) may suffer quality problems.
An alarm or message indicative of a network problem may include information regarding the problem. As a network may experience a variety of problems simultaneously, sending such information to the network management system each time a problem exists or an alarm is created may impact the performance of the network or the network management system or otherwise create data traffic burdens for the network or the network management system. For example, if enough problems occur in a network at about the same time, the network management system may not be able to handle all of the alarms or other messages sent to it. Thus, some of the alarm or message information may be lost or another device may need to store the alarms or other messages on behalf of the network management system. As a result, the device and the network management system may need to periodically align themselves with regard to the alarms or other information, thereby creating further traffic on the network and increasing the burden of the network management system.
It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus that overcame the drawbacks of the prior art. In particular, it would be desirable to provide a system, method, apparatus, means, and computer program code that reduced the burden on a network management system, network, components of the network, etc. when one or more alarms are created.

Methods and apparatus for handling information regarding an alarm for a communication network


A system, apparatus and method are provided for discerning a host interface, the method including connecting a pull resistor to the interface, sequentially applying a pull voltage to the pull resistor, measuring a loaded electrical characteristic of the interface while the sequentially applied pull voltage is applied to the pull resistor, comparing the loaded electrical characteristic with a predetermined value, and identifying a specification of the interface in accordance with the comparison.

The present disclosure relates to device to host interfaces, and more particularly relates to device interfaces with host-type recognition. Devices such as smart cards, Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards, and flash cards first connect to a host and then operate in accordance with an application. The types of hosts to which the devices can be connected continue to increase. For example, a card device may be alternately connected to a mobile phone an MP3 player, a Portable Media Player (PMP), and the like.
As shown in FIG. 1 a conventional interface system 10 includes a host 12 and a device 16. The host 12 includes a host interface 14. The device 16 includes a fixed device interface 18, and a controller 20 connected to the device interface. In operation the device 16 is connected to the host 12. The host 12 and the device 16 communicate with each other via the host interface 14 and the fixed device interface 18. The host interface 14 and the fixed device interface 18 have to have the same interface specification.
It is desirable to connect the device to an increasing variety of types of hosts and still enable to device to operate in accordance with an application. Unfortunately, since the typical host does not support all types of interfaces, the host can only communicate with the specific devices that use the same type of interface as the host. Devices such as smart cards, SIM cards and flash cards can be designed to support a plurality of interfaces. However, if the device cannot match its interface to the host interface, the device cannot communicate with a host having a fixed interface of a different type. The present disclosure addresses these and other issues.

Apparatus and method for discerning a host interface


An image display apparatus projects a first image by using a light source constituted by a plurality of point light sources, performs lighting in a unit of lighting formed from at least one point light source of the plurality of point light sources, and controls, in the unit of lighting, lighting in an overlapped area between the first image and a second image projected from another image display apparatus so as to equalize luminances in the overlapped area and a non-overlapped area when the second image is a solid black frame.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display apparatus which displays a larger projection image by combining a plurality of projection images, a method of controlling the same, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, there have been widely used apparatuses which provide various kinds of information by using large image display apparatuses regardless of whether they are used outdoors or indoors. For example, many large image display apparatuses which provide various types of advertisements and environmental images exist in front of train stations and commercial districts. These large image display apparatuses include liquid crystal displays, plasma displays, and projection type image display apparatus (to be referred to as image display apparatuses hereinafter). When a screen size is 100 inches or more or the screen is not flat, in particular, a large image display apparatus is formed by using a multi-projection system which displays an image by combining a plurality of image display apparatuses. This is because a multi-projection system can easily display a large screen by combining a plurality of image display apparatuses, and can display images on a screen even if it is not flat.
A multi-projection system projects adjacent projection images while partially overlapping them so as to make the boundaries between the adjacent projection images inconspicuous. In this case, since a plurality of images overlap each other, overlapped areas where projection images overlap each other have a higher luminance than the remaining areas. There is known a method of suppressing the luminance signals of projection images in overlapped areas so as to make overlapped images have the same luminance after overlapping as that in areas other than the overlapped areas.
This method, however, cannot prevent a phenomenon called a misadjusted black level, in which black looks gray instead of black. A display element is designed to generate a projection image from an input image signal. Owing to this characteristic, even if a luminance signal is 0, that is, an input image is black, the image projected by the image display apparatus is not a black color equivalent to that of black body radiation. Assume that when the image display apparatus projects an image with a luminance signal of 0, that is, a black image, the luminance of the projection image is represented by black level (BL). In this case, since the luminance signal of the black image is 0, it is not possible to further suppress the luminance signal. Therefore, in an overlapped area where projection images from n image display apparatuses overlap each other, even if black is displayed, the black area has a luminance of n×BL. That is, misadjusted black level becomes prominent.
In addition, in a reflective liquid crystal display element, radiant light from a light source is reflected by members in the element, and the reflected light leaks outside the range of a projection image. For this reason, when constructing a multi-projection system by using image display apparatuses to which reflective liquid crystal display elements are applied, this leaked light leaks into the projection image area projected by another image display apparatus. This raises a problem that the luminance of the peripheral area of the overlapped area increases due to the influence of this leaked light. In addition, since the luminance of the peripheral area of the overlapped area increases, the misadjusted black level in the peripheral area of the overlapped area becomes prominent.
In consideration of such problems, it is possible to reduce the value of BL by controlling the light source of the image display apparatus and suppressing the light beam emitted by the light source. This can eventually reduce the misadjusted black level in the overlapped area. Furthermore, suppressing a light beam in a peripheral portion of a display element can reduce the light reflected by members in a reflective liquid crystal display element, thereby eventually suppressing an increase in luminance in the peripheral area of the overlapped area. Conventionally, there have been proposed techniques of controlling the light source of an image display apparatus. The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-89454 is a technique of controlling the light beams emitted from a solid-state light source array including a plurality of solid-state light sources at the duty ratio between an emission period and a non-emission period. In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-114980 discloses a technique concerning a light source apparatus designed to generate fluorescence by using excitation light emitted from two light sources. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-76837 discloses a technique concerning a light source apparatus having a mechanism having a plurality of lenses fixed on the optical axis of light emitted from a light source. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-18806 discloses a technique of forming a light beam.
The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-89454 has a problem that if there is no emission period/non-emission period synchronization between image display apparatuses, projection images suffer from flickering and contrast inconsistency.

Image display apparatus, method of controlling the same, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium


A glove box energy absorbing structure that does not use braces to attach to an instrument panel or instrument panel reinforcement is provided. The energy absorbing structure includes a selectively collapsible pillar proximate to a bottom region of an upper glove box and a selectively collapsible pillar as part of a top wall of a lower glove box. The selectively collapsible pillar of the lower glove box is oppositely disposed from and adjacent to the selectively collapsible pillar of the upper glove box. The two selectively collapsible pillars afford for engagement with each other and thereby afford for energy to be absorbed during an accident when the lower glove box is impacted by the knee of a passenger sitting in the front seat of a motor vehicle.

A glove compartment or glove box is a compartment typically present as part of a dashboard or instrument panel in a motor vehicle and is located above the front-seat passenger's foot well. The glove box can be used for storage of a number of different items such as gloves, the motor vehicle owner's manual, proof of insurance documents and the like. Given the location of the glove box being in front of a passenger traveling in the front seat of the motor vehicle, it is desirable that the glove box have energy absorbing capabilities in case of an accident.
Heretofore, glove boxes have typically used a brace or bracket to attach a glove box to an instrument panel reinforcement. The brace or bracket attaching the glove box to the instrument panel reinforcement absorbs energy if and when the glove box is impacted, for example by a passenger's knees during a sudden stop or collision. In addition, the glove box itself can absorb energy by deflecting or collapsing when impacted by a passenger's knees. Although the brace or bracket that attaches the glove box to the instrument panel reinforcement can absorb energy during a collision, an energy absorbing structure or structures that would eliminate the need for such braces could reduce hardware, cost and labor to attach the glove box to the instrument panel reinforcement. Therefore, such an energy absorbing structure or structures would be desirable.

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.


Specific methods of inducing high nucleation rates in thermoplastics, such as polyolefins, and particularly, though not necessarily, polypropylenes, through the introduction of two different compounds that are substantially soluble within the target molten thermoplastic resin (such as, as one non-limiting example, an added compound including at least one acid group and an added organic salt) are provided. Such introduced components react to form a nucleating agent in situ within such a target molten thermoplastic resin which is then allowed to cool. Preferably, one compound is an acid, preferably bicyclic (i.e., two cyclic systems sharing at least three carbon atoms) or monocycloaliphatic (i.e., a single, saturated ring system) in nature, such as, without limitation, bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane dicarboxylic acid or hexahydrophthalic acid, and the other compound is an organic salt, such as a carboxylate, sulfonate, phosphate, oxalate, and the like, and more preferably selected from the group consisting of metal C8–C22 esters. Such a production method thus provides a manner of generating in Situ the desired nucleating agent through reaction of such soluble compounds. Kits (e.g., masterbatch methods, for example) comprising such components for easy introduction within target molten polyolefin resins are also contemplated within this invention.

All U.S. patents cited below are herein entirely incorporated by reference.
As used herein, the term "thermoplastic" is intended to mean a polymeric material that will melt upon exposure to sufficient heat but will retain its solidified state, but not prior shape without use of a mold or like article, upon sufficient cooling. Specifically, as well, such a term is intended solely to encompass polymers meeting such a broad definition that also exhibit either crystalline or semi-crystalline morphology upon cooling after melt-formation through the use of the aforementioned mold or like article. Particular types of polymers contemplated within such a definition include, without limitation, polyolefins (such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polybutylene, and any combination thereof), polyamides (such as nylon), polyurethanes, polyester (such as polyethylene terephthalate), and the like (as well as any combinations thereof).
Thermoplastics have been utilized in a variety of end-use applications, including storage containers, medical devices, food packages, plastic tubes and pipes, shelving units, and the like. Such base compositions, however, must exhibit certain physical characteristics in order to permit widespread use. Specifically within polyolefins, for example, uniformity in arrangement of crystals upon crystallization is a necessity to provide an effective, durable, and versatile polyolefin article. In order to achieve such desirable physical properties, it has been known that certain compounds and compositions provide nucleation sites for polyolefin crystal growth during molding or fabrication. Generally, compositions containing such nucleating compounds crystallize at a much faster rate than un-nucleated polyolefin. Such crystallization at higher temperatures results in reduced fabrication cycle times and a variety of improvements in physical properties, such as, in one example, stiffness.
Such compounds and compositions that provide faster and or higher polymer crystallization temperatures are thus popularly known as nucleators. Such compounds are, as their name suggests, utilized to provide nucleation sites for crystal growth during cooling of a thermoplastic molten formulation. Generally, the presence of such nucleation sites results in a larger number of smaller crystals. As a result of the smaller crystals formed therein, clarification of the target thermoplastic may also be achieved, although excellent clarity is not always a result. The more uniform, and preferably smaller, the crystal size, the less light is scattered. In such a manner, the clarity of the thermoplastic article itself can be improved. Thus, thermoplastic nucleator compounds are very important to the thermoplastic industry in order to provide improved clarity, physical properties and/or faster processing.
Dibenzylidene sorbitol compounds are common nucleator compounds, particularly for polypropylene end products. Compounds such as 1,3-O-2,4-bis(3,4-dimethylbenzylidene) sorbitol (hereinafter DMDBS), available from Milliken Chemical under the trade name Millad® 3988, provide excellent nucleation characteristics for target polypropylenes and other polyolefins. Other well known compounds include sodium benzoate, sodium 2,2′-methylene-bis-(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl) phosphate (from Asahi Denka Kogyo K.K., known as NA-11), talc, and the like.
Other acetals of sorbitol and xylitol are typical nucleators for polyolefins and other thermoplastics as well. Dibenzylidene sorbitol (DBS) was first disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,118 by Hamada, et al. as an effective nucleating and clarifying agents for polyolefins. Since then, large number of acetals of sorbitol and xylitol have been disclosed. Representative US patents include: Kawai, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,039 on di(alkylbenzylidene) sorbitols; Mahaffey, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,645 on di-acetals of sorbitol having at least one chlorine or bromine substituent; Kobayashi, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,280 on di(methyl or ethyl substituted benzylidene) sorbitol; Rekers, U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,605 on bis(3,4-dialkylbenzylidene) sorbitols including substituents forming a carbocyclic ring.
Other examples of effective nucleating agents are the metal salts of organic acids. Wijga in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,207,735, 3,207,736, and 3,207,738, and Wales in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,207,737 and 3,207,739, all patented Sep. 21, 1966, suggest that aliphatic, cycloaliphatic, and aromatic carboxylic, dicarboxylic or higher polycarboxylic acids, corresponding anhydrides and metal salts are effective nucleating agents for polyolefin. They further state that benzoic acid type compounds, in particular sodium benzoate, are the best embodiment of the nucleating agents.
Another class of nucleating agents, alluded to above, was suggested by Nakahara, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,113, in which cyclic bis-phenol phosphates were disclosed as nucleating and clarifying agents for polyolefin resins. Kimura, et al. then suggests in U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,868 that the addition of an alkali metal carboxylate to basic polyvalent metal salt of cyclic organophosphoric ester can further improve the clarification effects of such additives. This patent thus at best discloses the reaction of a salt with a base, although such a reaction is never actually stated to occur within this reference. Compounds that are based upon these technologies are marketed under the trade name NA-11 and NA-21.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,300,549 and 5,319,012, as well as published PCT Application WO 01/53404 all disclose the addition of metal salts to acidic catalyst residues (i.e., aluminum catalyst by-products having low pH levels, but no acid functionalities, such as carboxyl groups, thereon) already present within a target resin as a means to provide nucleation and clarity to thermoplastics. None of these patents discloses the ability to introduce separately to molten resins different soluble compounds therein to generate a bicyclic or monocycloaliphatic nucleating agent in situ.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,126 teaches beta-nucleation of polypropylene through the reaction of linear aliphatic or aromatic acids with oxides, hydroxides, or salts within target polypropylene. Such a method requires specific types of dibasic acids to accomplish the desired beta-polypropylene crystal generation at sufficiently high levels. Generally, however, the production of such high levels of beta-crystals is unwanted and thus such beta-nucleation of target polypropylene is to be avoided. In fact, in order to provide the best clarity in target polypropylene, the amount of beta-crystals should be at most 5% of the total amount of polypropylene crystals within the target plastic itself, with the closer to 0% beta-crystals the better for the best level of low haze (and thus a non-opaque result).
Furthermore, a certain class of bicyclic compounds, such as bicyclic dicarboxylic acid and salts, have been taught as polyolefin nucleating agents as well within Patent Cooperation Treaty Application WO 98/29494, to Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. The best working example of this technology is embodied in disodium bicyclo[2.2.1]-5-heptene-2,3-dicarboxylate and formulations with such compounds.
Such compounds all impart relatively high polyolefin crystallization temperatures; however, each also exhibits its own drawback for large-scale industrial applications.
For example, of great interest is the compatibility of such compounds with different additives widely used within typical polyolefin (e.g., polypropylene, polyethylene, and the like) plastic articles. For instance, calcium stearate is a very popular acid neutralizer present within typical polypropylene formulations to protect the end product from catalyst residue attack. Unfortunately, most of the nucleator compounds noted above exhibit deleterious reactions with such compounds within polyolefin articles. For sodium, and other like metal ions, it appears that the calcium ion from the stearate transfers positions with the sodium ions of the nucleating agents, rendering the nucleating agents ineffective for their intended function. As a result, such compounds sometimes exhibit unwanted plate-out characteristics and overall reduced nucleation performance (as measured, for example) by a decrease in crystallization temperature during and after polyolefin processing. Other processing problems are evident with such compounds as well.
As noted above, beta-crystal polypropylene structures are preferably avoided, with at most 5% in terms of total numbers of polypropylene crystals in the final article preferred. Such beta-crystals do generally aid with impact resistance and stiffness of the target polypropylene article; however, in terms of clarity, the presence of above 5% is detrimental and such a small amount can cause high degrees of unwanted opacity in target transparent resin articles.
Other problems encountered with the standard nucleators noted above include inconsistent nucleation due to dispersion problems, resulting in stiffness and impact variation in the polyolefin article. Substantial uniformity in polyolefin production is highly desirable because it results in relatively uniform finished polyolefin articles. If the resultant article does not contain a well-dispersed nucleating agent, the entire article itself may suffer from a lack of rigidity and low impact strength. Thus, simplicity of production as well as effective dispersion of the initial components (reactants) within the target thermoplastic resin is needed, as well as effective nucleation thereby.
Furthermore, storage stability of nucleator compounds and compositions is another potential problem with thermoplastic nucleators and thus is of enormous importance as well. Since nucleator compounds are generally provided in powder or granular form to the polyolefin manufacturer, and since uniform small particles of nucleating agents is imperative to provide the requisite uniform dispersion and performance, such compounds must remain as small particles through storage. Certain nucleators, such as sodium benzoate, exhibit high degrees of hygroscopicity such that the powders made therefrom hydrate easily resulting in particulate agglomeration. Such agglomerated particles may require further milling or other processing for deagglomeration in order to achieve the desired uniform dispersion within the target thermoplastic. Furthermore, such unwanted agglomeration due to hydration may also cause feeding and/or handling problems for the user.
Also of great interest is the compatibility of such compounds with different additives widely used within typical polyolefin (e.g., polypropylene, polyethylene, and the like) plastic articles. As noted previously, calcium stearate compatibility is particularly important. Unfortunately, most of the nucleators compounds noted above (such as sodium benzoate, NA-11, disodium bicyclo[2.2.1] heptene dicarboxylate) exhibit much deleterious nucleating efficacy with such compounds within polyolefin articles. In order to avoid combinations of these standard nucleators and calcium salts, other nonionic acid neutralizers, such as dihydrotalcite (DHT4-A), would be necessary for use in conjunction with such nucleators. Such a combination, however, has proven problematic in certain circumstances due to worsened aesthetic characteristics (e.g., higher haze), and certainly higher costs in comparison with standard calcium salts.
Some nucleating agents, such as certain DBS derivatives, exhibit certain practical deficiencies such as a tendency to plate-out at high processing temperatures. DBS derivatives, particularly where the aromatic rings are mono-substituted, show much improved thermal stability. However, such compounds also tend to exhibit undesirable migratory properties coupled with problematic organoleptic deficiencies within certain polyolefin articles. As a result, such compounds are limited in their practical in some important areas, such as medical device packaging.
These noticeable problems have thus created a long-felt need in the polyolefin nucleator compound industry to provide such compounds that do not exhibit the aforementioned problems and provide excellent peak crystallization temperatures for the target polyolefin themselves. To date, the best compounds for this purpose remain those noted above. Unfortunately, nucleators exhibiting exceptionally high peak crystallization temperatures, low hygroscopicity, excellent thermal stability, and non-migratory properties within certain target polyolefin, and compatibility with most standard polyolefin additives (such as, most importantly, calcium stearate) have not been developed within the polyolefin nucleator industry.
Furthermore, methods of utilizing the benefits of typical salt additives within thermoplastics and polyolefins have heretofore been unexplored. In such a potential scenario, the ability to react added salts, such as acid scavengers, with nucleator precursor compounds could possibly provide, in situ, the desired type and amount of ultimate nucleating agent within the target thermoplastic resin. To date there has been no teaching of the viability of providing nucleation of thermoplastics (preferably polyolefins, more preferably polypropylene of very low beta-crystal levels) through the reaction of added bicyclic or monocycloaliphatic components (preferably, though not necessarily acids of such types) with added organic acids. Again, the closest art discloses either the production of high beta-crystal polypropylene levels, reactions between organic salts and bases, or the introduction of organic salts to already-present catalyst residues within target thermoplastics. Such an in situ reaction between added components could potentially reduce cost through supplying the needed metal ions from the already-present salts, as well as through simplification of the overall reaction itself through improved dispersion of the initially added compounds. Such a situation could be beneficial, for example, if the nucleator precursor exhibits better stability or other characteristic prior to introduction within target thermoplastic, as compared with the desired ultimate nucleating agent. However, again, no such teaching or fair suggestion has been presented within the pertinent prior art of this specific potential reaction.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Bimolecular nucleation methods for thermoplastics


Techniques for controlling the transmit power for a number of data streams in a wireless multi-channel (e.g., MIMO) communication system. In one method, a number of received symbol streams are initially processed in accordance with a particular (e.g., CCMI, CCMI-SC, MMSE, or MMSE-SC) receiver processing technique to provide a number of detected data streams. The post-detection SNRs of the detected data streams are estimated, and each SNR that exceeds a setpoint is identified. This setpoint may correspond to (1) the SNR needed to achieve the maximum allowed spectral efficiency or (2) the target SNR needed to achieve a specified spectral efficiency. A new (or adjusted) transmit power for each detected data stream associated with a post-detection SNR that exceeds the setpoint is determined and used for the data stream. Different power control schemes are provided for different classes of receiver processing techniques with different characteristics.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to data communication, and more specifically to techniques for controlling transmit power in multi-channel communication systems (e.g., multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) systems) that utilize partial channel-state information (CSI).
2. Background
In a wireless communication system, an RF modulated signal from a transmitter may reach a receiver via a number of propagation paths. The characteristics of the propagation paths typically vary over time due to a number of factors such as fading and multipath. To provide diversity against deleterious path effects and improve performance, multiple transmit and receive antennas may be used. If the propagation paths between the transmit and receive antennas are linearly independent (i.e., a transmission on one path is not formed as a linear combination of the transmissions on other paths), which is generally true to at least an extent, then the likelihood of correctly receiving a data transmission increases as the number of antennas increases. Generally, diversity increases and performance improves as the number of transmit and receive antennas increases.
A multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) communication system employs multiple (NT) transmit antennas and multiple (NR) receive antennas for data transmission. A MIMO channel formed by the NT transmit and NR receive antennas may be decomposed into NS independent channels, with NS≦min{NT, NR}. Each of the NS independent channels is also referred to as a spatial subchannel (or a transmission channel) of the MIMO channel and corresponds to a dimension. The MIMO system can provide improved performance (e.g., increased transmission capacity) if the additional dimensionalities created by the multiple transmit and receive antennas are utilized. For example, an independent data stream may be transmitted on each of the NS spatial subchannels to increase system throughput.
Multiple data streams may be transmitted on the spatial subchannels using channel-state information (CSI), which is descriptive of the characteristics of the MIMO channel. CSI may be categorized as either "full CSI" or "partial CSI". Full CSI includes sufficient characterization (e.g., amplitude and phase) of the propagation path between each transmit-receive antenna pair in a (NR×NT) MIMO matrix. Full CSI may not be available or practical for many MIMO systems. Partial CSI may comprise, for example, the signal-to-noise-and-interference ratios (SNRs) of the spatial subchannels, which may be estimated by detecting the data streams and/or pilots transmitted on these subchannels. Each data stream may then be coded and modulated in accordance with a particular coding and modulation scheme selected based on the subchannel's SNR.
The spatial subchannels of a MIMO system may experience different channel conditions (e.g., different fading and multipath effects) and may achieve different SNRs for a given amount of transmit power. Consequently, the data rates that may be supported by the spatial subchannels may be different from subchannel to subchannel. Moreover, the channel conditions typically vary with time. As a result, the data rates supported by the spatial subchannels also vary with time.
A key challenge in a MIMO system is the determination of the transmit powers to use for the data transmissions on the spatial subchannels based on the channel conditions. The goal of this transmit power control should be to maximize spectral efficiency while meeting other system objectives, such as achieving a particular target frame error rate (FER) for each data stream, minimizing interference, and so on.
In a practical communication system, there may be an upper limit on the data rate that may be used for any given data stream. For example, a set of discrete data rates may be supported by the system, and the maximum data rate from among these discrete data rates may be considered as the maximum spectral efficiency for any given data stream. In such a system, utilizing more transmit power than necessary for each data stream to achieve the target FER at the maximum data rate would result in an ineffective use of the additional transmit power. Even though the excess transmit power may result in a lower FER, this improvement in FER may not be considered substantial since the target FER has already been achieved. The excess transmit power for a given data stream may result in additional interference to other data streams, which may then degrade the performance of these data streams.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to control the transmit power of the data streams in a MIMO system utilizing partial CSI.

Power control for partial channel-state information (CSI) multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) systems


A vibration sounder includes an enclosure having a receiving space, a stator received in the receiving space and a conductive terminal. The stator includes a magnetic yoke formed with a through hole. The mover locates above the stator. The conductive terminal includes an insulative portion received in the through hole and a conductive portion connecting with the insulative portion. The vibration sounder of the present disclosure has a small volume and a simple structure.

In the modern era that is experiencing rapid development of portable devices such as mobile phone, people's requirements on functions of the mobile terminals become increasingly higher. Correspondingly, development of sounders becomes ever faster. Vibration sounders can drive a resonant medium to make a sound through vibration and, meanwhile, have a small volume and a desirable low-frequency sound effect, so they have gradually found wide application.
A conventional vibration sounder comprises a stator, a mover, an enclosure for receiving the stator and the mover, and a conductive terminal fixed on the enclosure.
However, as the conductive terminal is fixed on the enclosure, the form of the enclosure becomes relatively complex and the space occupied is relatively large, which makes it difficult to reduce the volume of the vibration sounder.


A method is disclosed for forming a patterned thick metallization atop a semiconductor chip wafer. The method includes fabricating a nearly complete semiconductor chip wafer ready for metallization; depositing a bottom metal layer of sub-thickness TK1 together with its built-in alignment mark using a hot metal process; depositing a top metal layer of sub-thickness TK2 using a cold metal process thus forming a stacked thick metallization of total thickness TK=TK1+TK2; then, use the built-in alignment mark as reference, patterning the stacked thick metallization. A patterned thick metallization is thus formed with the advantages of better metal step coverage owing to the superior step coverage nature of the hot metal process as compared to the cold metal process; and lower alignment error rate owing to the lower alignment signal noise nature of the cold metal process as compared to the hot metal process.

Semiconductor power device is one of the major pillars supporting modern day electronics industry. As part of the ongoing trend due to ever increasing chip integration density with concomitant higher power handling ability, low power consumption and low cost, copper wire becomes attractive in replacement of gold wire and Aluminum wire for use in wire bonding as copper wire provides the most cost effective solution to achieve a same design goal of connection loss. The major technical difficulty is its hardness, which requires increasing metallization thickness on the power semiconductor chip to accommodate copper wire bonding. Metal thickness in the range of 3 μm-6 μm (1 μm=1×10−6 meter) is usually required. Semiconductor power devices using traditional bonding wires use a single hot metal layer in the range from 1-3 micron to serve as both contact and bonding pad. Hot Al metal is used for its good step coverage to provide reliable contact within the contact holes as cold Al metal tends to cause voids within contact holes resulting in reliability failure. This is becoming more significant as the advance of technology improves the semiconductor area usage efficiency through the shrinkage of feature size. For example, the wall-to-wall pitch size of some of power MOSFETs in use today are in the order of 1 micron, leading to smaller contact holes dimension and tighten mask alignment tolerance. However the attribute of good step coverage of hot metal would degrade the sharpness of alignment mark for later masking process thus requiring larger tolerance margin while increasing the thickness of metal layer, leading to low semiconductor area usage efficiency. It is therefore desirable to develop new and improved approaches for deposition of thick metal layer in the range of 3-6 micron that would provide both reliable contact and effective alignment marks.

Method for forming a patterned thick metallization atop a power semiconductor chip


A combined handle-securing arrangement for unsecuring and opening a drawer in a cabinet and for closing and securing the drawer in the cabinet by a single action, and a drawer-cabinet including the combined handle-securing arrangement. The combined handle-securing arrangement including (a) a substantially L-shaped element having a first arm and a second arm being connected therebetween to form the substantially L-shaped element, the first arm being disposed substantially along a frontal face of the drawer, the second arm being disposable above the drawer, the L-shaped element being hingedly attachable to the drawer via a hinge, the hinge being located about a connection region of the first and second arms, the second arm being formed with a securing mechanism for accommodating an edge element of the cabinet; and (b) a spring element being connected to the second arm of the L-shaped element, the spring element being disposable against a contra element being connected to the drawer, such that when the drawer is closed the spring element forces together the edge element of the cabinet and the securing mechanism of the second arm, thereby securing the drawer closed, whereas when a user pulls the first arm away from the face of the drawer against a force imposed by the spring element, the L-shaped element rotates about the hinge, so as to separate the edge element of the cabinet and the securing mechanism of the second arm, thereby the drawer may become unsecured and concomitantly openable.

The present invention relates to a handle and SECURING arrangement and, more particularly, to a combined handle-securing arrangement.
A handle is used for opening and closing a drawer in a cabinet by slideably pulling or pushing the drawer along suitable rails present in the cabinet.
A securing arrangement is used to secure the drawer in its closed situation.
Thus, when a user wishes to open a drawer, the user must first to unsecure the securing arrangement and then to pull the drawer's handle in order to open the drawer.
When the user wishes to close a drawer, the user must first to push the drawer via the handle and then to secure the drawer closed using the drawer's securing arrangement.
Thus both opening a secured drawer and closing and securing an opened drawer require two independent actions.
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a combined handle-securing arrangement which enables unsecuring and opening a drawer and/or closing and securing a drawer in a single action.


Novel structures of the photodetector having broad spectral ranges detection capability (from UV to 1700 nm (and also 2500 nm)) are provided. The photodetector can offer high quantum efficiency >95% over wide spectral ranges, high frequency response >8.5 GHz. The photodiode array of N×N elements is also provided. The array can also offer wide spectral detection ranges (UV to 1700 nm/2500 nm) with high quantum efficiency >85% and high quantum efficiency of >8.5 GHz, cross-talk of <1%. In the array, each photodiode can be independently addressable. The photodetector element consists of the substrate, buffer layer, absorption layer, contact layer, and the illumination surface with thin contact layer. The illumination surface can be circular, square, rectangular or ellipsometrical in shape. The photodiode array consists of the photodiode elements of N×N, where each element can be independently addressable. The sensor can be fabricated as top-illuminated type or bottom-illuminated type. The photodiode and its array provided in this invention, could be used in multiple purpose applications such as telecommunication, imaging (where CCD and CMOS sensor cannot be used), and also many sensing applications including surveillance, satellite tracking, advanced lidar systems, etc. The most important advantage of this photodiode is that the performance will not be degraded under wide range of temperature variation, which eliminates the use of the temperature controller. Other advantage of this invention is that conventional fabrication technology can be used to fabricate the single photodiode or its array herein described.

This invention relates to optical detector for broad spectral detection covering the wavelengths from ultra-violet (UV) to near infrared. More particularly, this invention is related to the multicolor detector, which can detect the light wavelengths ranges from as low as UV to the wavelengths to 2500 nm covering the most of the sensing and communication wavelengths. This invention is related to the multicolor sensor arrays for multicolor imaging.
Solid-state imaging devices with higher resolution are used in many commercial applications especially camera and also for other light imaging uses. Such imaging devices typically comprise of CCD (charge coupled device) photo detector arrays with associated switching elements, and address (scan) and read out (data) lines. This CCD technology is matured so much that now days a million of pixels and surrounding circuitry can be fabricated using the CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) technology. As today's CCD technology is based on silicon (Si)-technology, the detectable spectral ranges are limited to the wavelengths below 1 μm where Si exhibits absorption. Besides, CCD based imaging technique has also other shortcomings such as high efficiency response combined with high quantum efficiency over broad spectral ranges, required for many applications. One of them could be the free space laser communication where shorter (in visible ranges) and near infrared wavelengths are expected to be used. Photodiode array having broad spectral detection capability is expected to provide those features not available in today's CCD technology. With well designed of the array, appreciable resolution can also be achieved in photodiode array technology.
Photodiodes especially of p-i-n type have been studied extensively over the last decade for its application in optical communication. These photodiodes are for near infrared detection, especially the wavelength vicinity to 1310 and 1550 nm. Now a day, the photodetector speed as high as 40 Gb/s, as described in the publication by Dutta et. al. in IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 20, pp. 2229–2238 (2002) is achieved. Photodetector having a quantum efficiency as close to 1, as described in the publication by Emsley et. al. in the IEEE J. Selective Topics in Quantum Electronics, vol. 8(4), pp. 948–955 (2002), is also available for optical communication. InGaAs material is usually used as absorption material, and the diode is fabricated on the InP wafer. On the other hand, Si based photodiodes are used for detection of visible radiation. For covering broad spectral ranges, conventionally two photodiodes fabricated from Si and InP technology, discretely integrated, are usually used. Although wafer bonding can be used to bond Si and InP to cover the wavelengths from visible to near infrared, the reliability of wafer bonding over wide range of temperature is still an unsolved issue and a high-speed operation is not feasible with a wafer bonding approach. It is highly desirable to have a monolithic photodiode array, which could offer high bandwidth (GHz and above) combined with high quantum efficiency over a broad spectral ranges (UV to 1700 nm/2500 nm). For using especially in imaging purpose where CCD based device is used, the photodiode array with the possibility to rapidly and randomly address any pixel is also very much essential.
It is our objective to develop a monolithic photodiode array for broad spectral ranges covering from UV to 1700 nm/2500 nm wavelength detection with having frequency response as high as 8 GHz and above bandwidth, and high quantum efficiency over 85% over the entire wavelength region.
Our innovative approach utilizes surface-illumination type (top or bottom-illumination type) photodiode structure having single or multiple absorption layer which can provide broad spectral response. The absorption layers will be designed to achieve the required quantum efficiency and also required speed. In array, to make possible to rapidly and randomly address any pixel independently, we will utilize the metal line to connect each pixel separately to the outside contacts pads for top-illumination type detector-array and etch-off substrate (thinning substrate) with flip-chip bonded type individual photodiode element for bottom-illumination type detector array. In top illumination detector array vase, as each metal line usually needs to connect outside pads to inside photodiode pixel, the pitch and element size is limited by the width of the metal line and array number. For example, the element size (i.e. photodiode pixel size) and pitch can be made to 5 μm and 10 μm, respectively, for the array size of 25×25 and metal line of 1 μm. More than 1000×1000 array could be possible for both top and bottom-illumination type detector structures.
According to the current invention, photodiode having broad spectral ranges, high quantum efficiency (>85%), and high frequency response over 10 GHz @ 3 dB, can be fabricated using the single wafer. According to this invention, in the case of photodiode array, each array can also be operated independently. The manufacturing thereof is also simpler as compared with the prior art. Some applications include multicolor imaging applications such as for astronomical observation, imaging etc. Other applications include communication and sensing.

Multicolor photodiode array and method of manufacturing thereof


Apparatus and method for making pizza in a continuous process and in commercial quantities using radio frequency energy and hot air impingement ovens in a conveyorized system.

The process of making pizza begins with preparing dough and forming the dough into individual pizza shells. Toppings are added to the pizza shell and the topped pizza is placed in an oven. The oven subjects the pizza to controlled heat and humidity to raise and bake the dough and cook the toppings. Traditionally a hot air convection oven has been used for this purpose. The time required to prepare and cook a single pizza is approximately 8 to 20 minutes at an oven temperature of 200 to 315 degrees Celsius.
The time required to cook pizza is generally limited by the time required for the leavened dough to rise. This process of raising the dough is known in the baking trade as proofing. Shorter baking times, or higher baking temperatures will affect the proofing of the pizza shells such that the dough may not raise at all, or may blister and burn. The pizza toppings do not have such critical limitations and can be baked with fewer restrictions on time and temperature.
To facilitate the making of pizzas in commercial quantities, an assembly line approach has been developed. In this type of pizza making approach, the pizza shells are normally proofed before toppings are added to them. After the shells have been proofed, the process of adding the toppings and baking the fully prepared pizza can be accomplished relatively quickly in large quantities. The critical limitation on the efficiency of this approach is the amount of time required to proof the pizza shells. Traditionally, the shells are proofed in a heated, humidity-controlled chamber requiring approximately 40 minutes at a temperature of approximately 40 degrees Celsius and an 80 percent relative humidity.

Radio frequency proofing and convection baking apparatus and method for making pizza


An apparatus for crushing a bird's head includes a first member and a second member that are pivotally attached and which are adapted to pivot about an axis. An inner arcuate recessed area is provided on an interior side of each member intermediate a second end and a first end. The arcuate recessed area is adapted to receive a bird's head with a bill or beak of the bird extending beyond the arcuate area. A ridge or protrusion protrudes from at least one member so that it initially makes contact with the bird's head when the first and second members are urged together. This concentrates the force that is applied to the head and also prevents the bird from moving out of the apparatus. The members are then urged together and the bird's head is crushed thereby instantly killing the bird.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention, in general relates to birds and waterfowl and, more particularly, to a humane way of killing a bird.
Countless numbers of birds are killed by people everyday, most commonly for food. Chickens, ducks, geese, game birds, and other types of birds including waterfowl are either raised for human consumption or are killed by hunters. A quick, and therefore humane, economical way of killing birds is desired that an individual who, on such occasion, may use. Even the farmer who must kill an occasional chicken for dinner desires a clean and merciful way to accomplish the task.
Waterfowl hunters share a common experience of shooting and dropping their intended quarry, which can include Widgeon, Pintail, Mallard, Wood and other ducks as well as Canada, Snow, Speckle Belly or other types of geese. Often, the birds are not instantly killed by the wounds they receive by gunshot.
After fetching the birds, the hunter may then commonly "ring" the bird's neck (i.e., twist the neck) in order to kill them. The hunters then place the presumed "dead" birds near them in a blind while they continue to hunt until the maximum limit is obtained or until they run out of time or light.
However, quite often the presumed "dead" birds are still able to slowly move their feet and legs sufficient to leave the blind. If the "dead" bird makes its way into the nearby water, it will instinctively swim away until it finally succumbs and drowns. Many birds have been lost because of these types of instinctual reflex reactions that keep them moving or because a hunter has assumed the bird was dead and immobile when, in fact, it was not.
Edible game is thereby often wasted in this manner. Also, the "dead" or dying bird may be forced to experience a protracted and somewhat inhumane death. The hunter, busy in his blind, cannot detract himself from his future quarry for a lengthy period of time to ascertain that his present kill is really dead and immobile. A way to quickly and humanely kill a bird is required.
Accordingly, there exists today a need for a device that can quickly kill a bird. There is, therefore, a need for a crushing device for a bird's head that helps ameliorate the above-mentioned difficulties.
Clearly, such an apparatus would be a useful and desirable device.
2. Description of Prior Art
Commercial methods of killing animals are, in general, known. While the structural arrangements of the above described devices may, at first appearance, have certain similarities with the present invention, they differ in material respects. These differences, which will be described in more detail hereinafter, are essential for the effective use of the invention and which admit of the advantages that are not available with the prior devices.


A towel roll holder and dispenser has a housing for receiving a towel roll therewithin. The housing has a pair of sidewalls, a base connected to the sidewalls for mounting the housing on a support surface, and a pair of cover members pivotable between a closed position and an open position. One of the cover members has an opening through which towels may be dispensed from the towel roll. The cover members are releasably fastened to the sidewalls of the housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices for holding rolls of towels and, more specifically, to a device for supporting and enclosing a roll of continuous towel sheets such as paper towel sheets, and which facilitates dispensing of the sheets.
2. Background of the Invention
Rolls of towels, such as paper towels, have widespread use in both residential and commercial environments. Paper towels are typically dispensed from a roll of paper towels that is formed from a web of continuous paper towel sheets and are rolled about a tube. Several methods are known for dispensing such paper towels. In one method, the roll of paper towels is attached to a pair of brackets mounted underneath a cupboard or cabinet that includes spindles for engaging each end of the tube upon which the paper towels are rolled. When mounted in the horizontal orientation, the roll of paper towels is easily visible hanging from the cabinetry. Another method involves placing the paper towel roll over a vertical post mounted to a base and set on a countertop to stand vertically or mounted to a wall to extend outward horizontally. In either of these methods, the roll of paper towels is easily visible and can present an unsightly and cluttered appearance.
Moreover, another problem with the conventional paper towel dispensers is that they are not able to prevent the paper towels from becoming dirty due to, for example, handling of the roll of paper towels prior to or during dispensing of the paper towel sheets. This results in the paper towels being subjected to unclean and unsanitary conditions.
Many conventional paper towel holders and dispensers have been proposed which attempt to solve the foregoing problems in the conventional art. However, such paper towel holders and dispensers have a complex construction and are expensive to manufacture.


A pump head includes a main body defining a chamber and having a top end and a bottom end, a first force transmitting member slidably positioned in the chamber adjacent the top end of the main body, and a second force transmitting member slidably positioned in the chamber adjacent the first force transmitting member and the top end of the main body. A camming device is pivotally mounted at the top end of the main body, the camming device having first, second third and fourth engagement surfaces, the first, second, and third engagement surfaces in selective engagement with the first force transmitting member, and the first, second and fourth engagement surfaces in selective engagement with the second force transmitting member. A resilient collar stationarily positioned in the chamber between the bottom end and the first force-transmitting member, and defining an axial cavity having an inner wall and an inside diameter. The inside diameter is at a maximum dimension when the first engagement surface en cages the first force transmitting member, the inside diameter is at a intermediate dimension when the second engagement surface engages the first force transmitting member, and the inside diameter is at a minimum dimension when the third engagement surface engages the first force transmitting member. The second force transmitting member is displaced downwardly a first distance when the first engagement surface engages the second force transmitting member, and is displaced downwardly a second distance when the second engagement surface engages the second force transmitting member, and is displaced relatively upwardly when the fourth engagement surface engages the second force transmitting member.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pump head for use in connection with pumps for inflating bicycle tires or other inflatable objects, and more particularly to a dual purpose pump head able to be used with both Schraeder and Presta valve stem types.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Virtually every bicycle tube has a valve stem which allows the tube to be inflated and deflated. The two most popular types of valve stems are the Schraeder valve seem and the Presta valve stem, both well known in the art. The Schraeder valve stem generally comprises a hollow cylinder including a depressible valve having an upper or sealed position and a lower or unsealed position. The valve is spring biased into the upper or sealed position to keep air from escaping from the inner tube through the valve. When an inner tube is filled through a Schraeder valve, the pump head is required to have a nipple which depresses the valve against the spring bias to allow air to flow past the valve and into the tube. When the pump head is removed, the spring bias, as well as the internal air pressure, move the valve to the upper or sealed position. The Schraeder valve is very popular on most styles of bicycle inner tubes.
The Presta valve stem is also a very popular valve for use on bicycle inner tubes. The Presta valve stem generally comprises a hollow cylinder (smaller in diameter than the Schraeder valve stem) having a valve at the top end thereof. The valve includes an externally threaded post movably positioned in the hollow cylinder and protruding away from an upper end thereof. An internally threaded nut mates with the external threads on the post, whereby advancement of the nut along the post causes the nut to engage the top of the cylinder, pulling a sealing head on the bottom of the post into a sealing relationship with a seat inside the cylinder. In this position, the post keeps air from leaking out of the inner tube through the valve. When the nut is backed-off or unscrewed along the length of the post, the post is free to slide downwardly into the cylinder until the nut again engages the top of the cylinder, in which position air is free to flow into or out of the inner tube. The post is not spring biased into the sealed position as in the Schraeder valve. When the nut is unscrewed, the air pressure inside the inner tube biases the valve to maintain the sealed position. The nut has notches formed in its sidewalls to allow air to flow through the nut past the post and into the valve, and ultimately into the inner tube.
Application of air pressure to inflate the tube overcomes the tube pressure, and forces the post down into the cylinder until the nut engages the top of the cylinder, allowing, air to flow into the tube through the Presta valve stem.
Currently available pump heads for use in inflating inner tubes having either the Schraeder, Presta, or Italian style valve stems have required either an adapter, or the manipulation of the pump head mechanism to convert it to a suitable configuration for use with the different style valve stems. The prior art pump head version requiring an adapter utilizes the adapter to increase the smaller diameter Presta valve stem to a larger diameter to replicate the size of a Schraeder valve stem. The adapter is a separate piece that is releasably attachable to the upper end of the Presta valve and can be easily lost or damaged, thus affecting, the ability of the user to inflate an inner tube having a Presta valve stem.
Pump heads having convertible mechanisms generally have an inner mechanism which must be removed and reinserted in a different orientation to allow the conversion of the pump head for use with both Schraeder and Presta valve stems. During conversion, the mechanism can be lost or damaged, causing the pump head to be useless in inflating inner tubes having, either the Schraeder or Presta valve stems. Such convertible pump heads are manufactured by A-PLUS Manufacturing of Taiwan, and are available under the brand names TREK or Blackburn, among others.
It is to overcome the shortcomings in the prior art that the present invention was developed.

Combination pump head with slotted camming device


1,3,5-(2H2,4H2,6H2) tripropanediamine N,N,N′,N′,N″,N″ hexamethyl is used to scavenge sulfur compounds from hydrocarbons. A novel method of making the triazine comprises autocondensing (CH3)2NCH2CH2CH2N═CH2.

Various compositions have been proposed and used for the treatment of hydrocarbons to remove or otherwise treat hydrogen sulfide and/or other sulfides present in them. See, for example, Gatlin's U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,128,049, 5,486,605, 5,488,103, and 5,498,707, U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,512 in the name of Dillon, and Stanchem's Canadian Patent 2,269,476.
The treating agents for the removal of sulfides are often referred to as scavengers in the patent literature. Frequently the compositions are reaction products of aldehydes and amine compounds, and may or may not contain one or more triazines or derivatives thereof. See the descriptions in columns 5–8 of Trauffler et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,698,171, Sullivan III et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,674,377, 5,674,377 and 5,744,024, Rivers et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,591, Weers et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,074,991, 5,169,411, 5,223,127, 5,266,185, 6,024,866 and 5,284,576, Pounds et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,462,721 and 5,688,478, Bhatia et al. Canadian patents 2,125,513 and 2,148,849, and Callaway U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,352. They may be contacted with the hydrocarbons in various ways as mentioned in these patents and others such as Galloway U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,591 and Fisher U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,282. Note that Callaway's ('352) trimer has the structure:
,not the triazine structure

Sexton's GB patent 2,245,588 (p. 14) suggests the use of a reaction product of dimethylaminopropylamine and paraformaldehyde to treat fuel oils to prevent color and sediment formation. See also the triazines said to be useful for removing H2S in petroleum liquid, in Bhatia's U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,453. All of the patents identified in this paragraph and the preceding one are incorporated entirely by reference, as my invention may include the use of any of the sulfide scavengers recited or identified in them, particularly those containing at least one nitrogen, as a complement to the invention described herein.
The above cited references do not utilize the triazine compound described below to remove sulfides from hydrocarbons.
Many of the scavengers mentioned in the above cited patents remain, in one form or another, in the hydrocarbons they are used to treat. That is, they may be effective at suppressing the evolution of hydrogen sulfide, for example, but the sulfur is left in the hydrocarbon. There is a need for a method of treating hydrocarbons which does not merely neutralize the sulfur compounds, but enables the ready removal of them from the hydrocarbons.


The invention relates to a method for creating scatter-corrected mass density image in dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. The mass density image is created using additional information provided by attenuation images at different energy levels in an inhomogeneous correction image area. A multi-dimensional mass density is found that is consistent for a plurality of the attenuation images by inverting a primary radiation function. A scatter fraction is determined on the basis of the multi-dimensional mass density.

A method of this kind is known from WARP, R. J.; DOBBINS, J. T.: Quantitative evaluation of noise reduction strategies in dual-energy imaging, in: Med. Phys. 30 (2), pages 190 to 198, February 2003. In the context of dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, X-ray beams with differing energy levels are directed at the examination subject, generally a patient. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry can be accomplished using a single X-ray shot or a series of consecutively taken shots.
In the first case, a dual detector is used which incorporates two different scintillation materials whose response has energy centers that are as far apart as possible. In the second case, consecutive shots are taken using as differing X-ray spectra as possible which, when using X-ray tubes, can be generated by varying the tube voltage by means of which the electrons are accelerated, or by selecting pre-filters.
For each pixel of the projection images recorded, the material composition in the beam path between the point X-ray source and the pixels can be inferred from the attenuation behavior at the different energy levels. The projection images will hereinafter also referred to as attenuation images. Material composition is also to be understood as the mass density of the different materials along the beam through the examination subject.
By combining the attenuation images captured at different energy levels, mass density images can be created which render, at least approximately, the mass density of the materials contained in the subject examined. The attenuation images are usually combined linearly, the weighting factors being determined empirically. However, mathematically precise determination of the mass density is virtually impossible using the known methods.
Mathematically precise determination of mass density is also made more difficult by the scattered radiation present. Even in projection radiography using flat panel detectors, scattered radiation plays a critical role because of the large solid angle detected. To reduce the scattered radiation, anti-scatter grids are frequently inserted directly above the detector input surface. As a quantitative method, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry places more exacting requirements again on the accuracy of the measurement data than simple projection imaging in the context of projection radiography. In spite of anti-scatter grids, the data-distorting scatter fraction may be considerable. For example, in the thorax area a very small air gap is usually employed, with the result that in spite of anti-scatter grids the scatter intensity may if anything outweigh the primary intensity, particularly in image regions with high attenuation and at higher photon energies, corresponding to X-ray tube voltages above 100 kV. Moreover, it is an empirical fact that scatter fractions are very different for the higher and lower energy image data, particularly in the case of a small air gap, i.e. where the distance between the scatter object and the detector is small. All in all, in dual energy X-ray absorptiometry the presence of scattered radiation may, in spite of anti-scatter grids, yield unreliable and in some cases unusable results, e.g. negative material thicknesses. Scatter correction is therefore of major importance for dual energy X-ray absorptiometry.
With dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, it is therefore necessary to use computerized scatter correction methods in addition to anti-scatter grids.
It should be noted at this point that scattered radiation will hereinafter also be referred to as secondary radiation. The sum of primary and secondary radiation which produces the measured image values will be termed total radiation.
HINSHAW, D. A.; DOBBINS III, J. T.: Recent progress in noise reduction and scatter correction in dual-energy imaging. In: Proc. SPIE, 1995, Vol. 2432, pages 134 to 142, describe a scatter correction method in the context of dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. In the known method, for each of the attenuation images captured at different energy levels, scatter correction is performed by determining for a given pixel an empirically calculated scatter fraction as a function of the pixel. The scatter fraction determines the shape and width of a distribution function for the scattered radiation. On the basis of the scatter function, the scatter contributions in adjacent pixels are calculated. The method is then repeated for further image values and the scatter contributions in the individual pixels are summed. A convolution of the image registered by the detector device with a distribution function therefore takes place, the width and shape of which depend on the image values of the attenuation image captured by the detector device.
FLOYD, C. B.; BAKER, J. A.; LO, J. Y.; RAVIN, C. E: Posterior Beam-Stop Method for Scatter Fraction Measurement in Digital Radiography. In: Investigative Radiology Feb. 1992, Vol. 27, pages 119 to 123, describe a measurement-based method for determining scattered radiation according to the beam-stop method. This method is suitable for laboratory applications using phantoms, but hardly for clinical use.
In addition, ZELLERHOFF, M.; SCHOLZ, B.; RÜHRNSCHOPF, E.-P.; BRUNNER, T.: Low contrast 3D-reconstruction from C-arm data. In: Proceedings of SPIE. Medical Imaging, 2005, Vol. 5745, pages 646 to 655, describe various computerized methods for scatter correction in the context of computed tomography.
However, the known computerized methods are generally quite complex and laborious.
Moreover, there therefore exists a need for comparatively simple correction methods enabling significant image quality improvements to be achieved.

Method for creating mass density images on the basis of attenuation images captured at different energy levels