A lens holder 2 holds an objective lens 1. Wires 5a.about.5d movably support the lens holder 2 relative to a stationary member 6 in a tracking direction and in a focus direction. The wires 5a.about.5d are integrally formed with the lens holder 2 and the stationary member 6 and one end and the other end of each of the wires are buried in the lens holder 2 and the stationary member 6. At a time of the integral molding, parts of the buried portions of the wires 5a.about.5d are exposed in notches 2a.about.2d and 6a.about.6d to be in contact with a mold for molding, thereby injection pressure of a molding material is received by the mold. This makes it possible to prevent deformation of the wires 5a.about.5d due to the injection pressure of the molding material, resulting in reducing inclination during actuation and degradation of frequency response characteristic.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to objective lens actuators and methods for producing the objective lens actuators, and more specifically to an objective lens actuator to actuate an objective lens for gathering light in a tracking direction and a focus direction relative to a disk-like recording medium such as a MD (mini disc), a CD (compact disc) and a DVD (digital versatile disc), and a method for producing the objective lens a actuator.
2. Description of the Background Art
It is known that an optical disk unit which records and/or reproduces information in/from a disk-like recording medium such as a MD, a CD and a DVD (hereinafter, referred to as an optical disk) is provided with an objective lens actuator for actuating an objective lens which gathers light emitted from a laser light source to apply the light to a recording surface of the optical disk. The objective lens actuator actuates the objective lens on two axes, which are a direction perpendicular to the recording surface of the optical disk (hereinafter, referred to as a focus direction) and a radial direction parallel with the recording surface (hereinafter, referred to as a tracking direction), in order to correct displacement of focus caused by up-and-down movements due to warpage of the optical disk and displacement of tracking caused by decentering and so forth.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a structure of a conventional objective lens actuator disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 8-306059. In FIG. 8, the conventional objective lens actuator includes an objective lens 1, a lens holder 2, a focus coil 3, tracking coils 4a and 4b, wires 5a.about.5d, a stationary member 6, a magnet 7 and a yoke 8.
The lens holder 2 holding the objective lens 1 is movably supported by the stationary member 6 through the elastic metal wires 5a.about.5d. That is, the lens holder 2 can move on two axes, which are a focus direction F and a tracking direction T, by the wires 5a.about.5d which are placed in almost parallel with each other, one ends of which are installed to the lens holder 2 and the other ends of which are installed to the stationary member 6. The stationary member 6 is installed on the yoke 8. The magnet 7 secured on the yoke 8 forms a magnetic circuit cooperating with the yoke 8 to apply a magnetic field to the focus coil 3 and the tracking coils 4a and 4b. The focus coil 3 is fixed to the lens holder 2 and generates an actuation force to actuate the lens holder 2 in the focus direction F. The tracking coils 4a and 4b are fixed to the lens holder 2 and generate the actuation force to actuate the lens holder 2 in the tracking direction T.
Next, operation of the objective lens actuator composed as described in the above will be explained. The actuation force to the focus direction F is generated by a current being applied to the focus coil 3 which is placed within voids of the magnetic circuit formed by the magnet 7 and the yoke 8 and is fixed to the lens holder 2. By the generated actuation force to the focus direction F, the lens holder 2 slidably moves to the focus direction F through the four parallel wires 5a.about.5d. On the other hand, the actuation force to the tracking direction T is generated by a current being applied to the tracking coils 4a and 4b which are placed within voids of the magnetic circuit formed by the magnet 7 and the yoke 8 and are fixed to the lens holder 2. By the generated actuation force to the tracking direction T, the lens holder 2 moves to the tracking direction T parallel to itself through the four parallel wires 5a.about.5d.
In the objective lens actuator composed as described in the above, the lens holder 2, the stationary member 6 and the wires 5a.about.5d are integrally molded (for example, refer to the Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 8-87766), which leads to such advantages that the objective lens actuator is easy to be assembled and a position of each component becomes more precise. However, the objective lens actuator has a problem that the wires 5a.about.5d are deformed by injection pressure of a material at a time of molding to degrade performance of the objective lens actuator.
The above-mentioned problem will be described below. FIG. 9.about.FIG. 11 are top plan views of main portions showing states of molding in a step-by-step manner. FIG. 9 shows the lens holder 2, the stationary member 6 and the wires 5a.about.5d which are integrally molded, gate positions of a mold to which an injection material is injected (illustrated by black points), directions of material flowing in the mold (illustrated by arrows) and a range of a main portion of the mold (illustrated by diagonally shaded areas). When the objective lens actuator is molded by the mold as shown in FIG. 9, there is a possibility that the wires (only the wires 5a and 5c are illustrated in FIG. 10) are deformed at the time of molding at connecting portions between the wires and the lens holder 2 and at connecting portions between the wires and the stationary member 6. In a case of such deformation, since the wires are not parallel with each other after the mold is removed as shown in FIG. 11, such problems occur as inclination of a motion axis of lens holder 2 during actuation and degradation of frequency response characteristic.

Objective lens actuator and method for producing the same

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


An improved heat transfer tube, an improved method of formation and an improved use of such a heat transfer tube is disclosed. The heat transfer tube includes an outer surface with a plurality of radially outwardly extending helical fins, the fins being grooved to define notches, a plurality of channels extending between adjacent fins, at least one nucleate boiling pore formed at the intersection of a notch and a channel. The fins are flattened or pushed down to form a primary nucleate boiling cavity within the at least one nucleate boiling pore; and the tips of the fins are further bent over or flattened to form a secondary nucleate boiling cavity within the at least one nucleate boiling pore. Also disclosed are improved refrigerant evaporator including at least one such boiling tube and a method of making such a boiling tube.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to heat transfer tubes, their method of formation and use. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved boiling tube, a method of manufacture and use of that tube in an improved refrigerant evaporator or chiller.
2. General Background
A component device of industrial air conditioning and refrigeration systems is a refrigerant evaporator or chiller. In simple terms, chillers remove heat from a cooling medium that enters the unit, and deliver refreshed cooling medium to the air conditioning or refrigeration system to effect cooling of a structure, device or given area. Refrigerant evaporators on chillers use a liquid refrigerant or other working fluid to accomplish this task. Refrigerant evaporators on chillers lower the temperature of a cooling medium, such as water (or some other fluid), below that which could be obtained from ambient conditions for use by the air conditioning or refrigeration system.
One type of a chiller is a flooded chiller. In flooded chiller applications, a plurality of heat transfer tubes are fully submerged in a pool of a two-phase boiling refrigerant. The refrigerant is often a chlorinated-fluorinated hydrocarbon (i.e., "Freon") having a specified boiling temperature. A cooling medium, often water, is processed by the chiller. The cooling medium enters the evaporator and is delivered to the plurality of tubes, which are submerged in a boiling liquid refrigerant. As a result, such tubes are commonly known as "boiling tubes." The cooling medium passing through the plurality of tubes is chilled as it gives up its heat to the boiling refrigerant. The vapor from the boiling refrigerant is delivered to a compressor which compresses the vapor to a higher pressure and temperature. The high pressure and temperature vapor is then routed to a condenser where it is condensed for eventual return through an expansion device to the evaporator to lower the pressure and temperature. Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the foregoing occurs in keeping with the well-known refrigeration cycle.
It is known that heat transfer performance of a boiling tube submerged in a refrigerant can be enhanced by forming fins on the outside surface of the tube. It is also known to enhance the heat transfer ability of a boiling tube by modifying the inner tube surface that contacts the cooling medium. One example of such a modification to the inner tube surface is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,212, to Wither, Jr., et al., which teaches forming ridges on a tube's inner surface.
It is further known that the fins can be modified to further enhance heat transferability. For example, some boiling tubes have come to be referred to as nucleate boiling tubes. The outer surface of nucleate boiling tubes are formed to produce multiple cavities or pores (often referred to as boiling or nucleation sites) that provide openings which permit small refrigerant vapor bubbles to be formed therein. The vapor bubbles tend to form at the base or root of the nucleation site and grow in size until they break away from the outer tube surface. Upon breaking away, additional liquid refrigerant takes the vacated space and the process is repeated to form other vapor bubbles. In this manner, the liquid refrigerant is boiled off or vaporized at a plurality of nucleate boiling sites provided on the outer surface of the metallic tubes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,630 to Cunningham et al. shows nucleate boiling cavities or pores formed by notching or grooving fins on the outer surface of the tube. The notches are formed in a direction essentially perpendicular to the plane of the fins. The inner tube surface includes helical ridges. This patent also discloses a cross-grooving operation that deforms the fin tips such that nucleate boiling cavities (or channels) are formed having a greater width than the surface openings. This construction permits the vapor bubbles to travel outwardly through the cavity, to and through the narrower surface openings, which further enhances heat transferability. Various tubes produced in accordance with the Cunningham et al. patent have been marketed by Wolverine Tube, Inc. under the trademark TURBO-B®. In another nucleate boiling tube, marketed under the trademark TURBO-BII®, the notches are formed at an acute angle to the plane of the fins.
In some heat transfer tubes, the fins are rolled over and/or flattened after they are formed so as to produce narrow gaps which overlie the larger cavities or channels defined by the roots of the fins and the sides of adjacent pairs of fins. Examples include the tubes of the following United States patents: Cunningham et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,630; Zohler U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,058; Zohler U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,548; Nishizawa et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,252; Chiang et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,682.
Controlling the density and size of nuclear boiling pores has been recognized in the prior art. Moreover, the interrelationship between pore size and refrigerant type has also been recognized in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,979 to Bohler purports to increase performance using higher pressure refrigerants by employing tubes having nucleate boiling pores ranging in size from 0.000220 square inches to 0.000440 square inches (the total area of the pods being from 14% to 28% of the total outer surface area). In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,430 to Thors et al. also discloses a heat transfer tube having a plurality of radially outwardly extending helical fins. The tube inner surface has a plurality of helical ridges. The fins of the outer surface are notched to provide nucleate boiling sites having pores. The fins and notches are spaced to provide pores having an average area less than 0.00009 square inches and a pore density of at least 2000 per square inch of the tube's outer surface. The helical ridges on the inner surface have a predetermined ridge height and pitch, and are positioned at a predetermined helix angle. Tubes made in accordance with the inventions of that patent have been offered and sold under the trademark TURBO BIII®.
The industry continues to explore new and improved designs by which to enhance heat transfer and chiller performance. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,682 discloses a heat transfer tube having an external surface configured to provide both an increased area of the tube's external surface and to provide re-entrant cavities as nucleation sites to promote nucleate boiling. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,950 discloses a heat transfer tube for use in a condenser with notched and finned surfaces configured to promote drainage of refrigerant from the fin. As shown by such developments in the art, it remains a goal to increase the heat transfer performance of nucleate boiling tubes while maintaining manufacturing cost and refrigeration system operation costs at minimum levels. These goals include the design of more efficient tubes and chillers, and methods of manufacturing such tubes. Consistent with such goals, the present invention is directed to improving the performance of heat exchange tubes generally and, in particular, the performance of heat exchange tubes used in flooded chillers or falling film applications.

Heat transfer tubes, including methods of fabrication and use thereof


A computer vision method for generating a three dimensional reconstruction of an object, the method comprising:                receiving a set of photometric stereo images of the object, the set of photometric stereo images comprising a plurality of images using illumination from different directions using one or more light sources;        using a trained neural network to generate a normal map of the object; and        producing a 3D reconstruction of said object from said normal map,        wherein using said trained neural network comprises converting said set of photometric stereo images to an input form suitable for an input layer of said neural network, wherein said input form comprises, for each pixel, a representation of the different lighting directions and their corresponding intensities which have been obtained from photometric stereo images to which a compensation has been applied, the compensation being determined from an estimate of the distance between the lighting source and a point on the object to which the pixel corresponds.

Many computer vision tasks require retrieving accurate 3D reconstruction of objects from the way they reflect lights. However, reconstructing the 3D geometry is a challenge as global illumination effects such as cast-shadows, self-reflections and ambient light come into play, especially for specular surfaces. The power of convolutional neural networks in conjunction with computer graphics has been leveraged to cope with the need of a vast number of training data in order to invent the image irradiance equation and retrieve the object geometry from photometric stereo images. However, rendering global illumination effects is a slow process, which places a limitation on the training data that can be generated.


A structure of a front fork 10 for a bicycle, which has a buffering mechanism relatively easy to mount and relatively simple in construction, comprising a pair of expandable fork blade portions 13 for the bicycle, including a pair of supporting pipes 21 extending downwardly from a crown portion 11, and a pair of sliding pipes 22 sidably fitted over the supporting pipes 21, wherein cylindrical spring structure 18 for elastically supporting each sliding pipe 22 is provided between the top end 22a of the sliding pipe 22 and the bottom end of the crown portion 11, and the cylindrical spring structure 18 is so arranged as to surround the supporting pipe 21, and wherein a stopper 30 for regulating a stroke of vertical movement of a connection member 17 is provided between the crown portion 11 and the connection member 17 connecting the pair of sliding pipes 22 in a body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of a bicycle front fork, and more particularly to a bicycle front fork in which a buffering mechanism is built.
2. Prior Art
It has been proposed to build a buffering mechanism in the front fork as means for improving the riding comfort on a bicycle.
In one of the conventional buffering mechanisms of this kind, a pair of expandable fork blade portions are provided, in which a pair of supporting pipes extending downwardly from a crown portion of the front fork are respectively fitted in a telescopic configuration with the corresponding sliding pipes , provided at their lower ends with bearing portions to support the front wheel. In the sliding pipes of the fork blades, an elastic member is disposed which receives a compressive force from the compression of the two pipes fitted together in a telescopic configuration. On account of this construction, specifically, by the buffering action of the elastic member, the riding comfort on a bicycle is improved.
However, in the conventional buffering mechanism, the elastic members are disposed in the sliding pipes having the bearings for the front wheel, and in some cases, for reasons of design, the sliding pipes incorporating the elastic members become smaller in diameter toward the lower ends or are often curved forward in an arch.
When the sliding pipes are formed in such a special design, in the thin and long sliding pipes, the capacity of the elastic members is sometimes restricted, so that it becomes difficult to secure a sufficient capacity for the elastic members to adequately buffer a strong impact force.
In addition, in each sliding pipe, two stopper mechanisms are incorporated: one to prevent the elastic members from being subjected to an excessive compressive deformation and the other to prevent the sliding pipe from coming off from the supporting pipe, namely, a measure against a rebound. For this reason, mounting the buffering mechanism in the front fork is not easy and the construction related to the buffering mechanism becomes complicated.


A pair of long-arm gardening shears include a main body, a first casing, a second casing, a cutting blade assembly, a retaining member, a push button, and a spring. Thus, the angle between the cutting blade assembly and the main body is adjusted so that the length of the long-arm gardening shears is adjusted, thereby facilitating a user operating the long-arm gardening shears to shear the lawn at a lower height and the branches at a higher level. In addition, the use only needs to press the push button so as to rotate the cutting blade assembly and to release the push button so as to lock the cutting blade assembly, thereby facilitating the user adjusting the angles of the long-arm gardening shears.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pair of long-arm gardening shears, and more particularly to a pair of long-arm gardening shears having an angle adjustable function.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional pair of long-arm gardening shears has a linear shape with a greater length of shearing the branches or leaves at a higher level. Another conventional pair of long-arm gardening shears has a bent shape with a bent portion for shearing the lawn at a lower height. However, the above-mentioned conventional long-arm gardening shears only have a single function, thereby limiting the versatility of the long-arm gardening shears, and thereby causing inconvenience to a user when needing to shear the branches or leaves at a higher level and to shear the lawn at a lower height simultaneously.

Long-arm gardening shears having angle adjustable function


An information storage medium has a storage area for storing audio information, the storage area being divided into a plurality of sections. At least either one of the sections stores musical accompaniment information and lead voice information in which word-of-song information to be reproduced in relation to the musical accompaniment information is pronounced. The lead voice information is stored in a position which precedes, in time, a position where the word-of-song information is to be reproduced. An apparatus for reproducing information from the information storage medium includes an information reading unit, an information demodulating unit, and a control unit.

The present invention relates to an information storage medium and an apparatus for reproducing information from the information storage medium, and more particularly to an information storage medium suitable for storing musical accompaniments, so-called "karaoke", and an apparatus for reproducing information from the information storage medium.
A conventional apparatus for playing back pre-recorded musical accompaniments, or a musical accompaniment playback apparatus, reproduces such pre-recorded musical accompaniments by playing back information recording medium, such as magnetic tapes, video disks, etc., on which only musical accompaniments are recorded. Such a musical accompaniment playback apparatus includes an amplifier connected to a microphone and a loudspeaker, and mixes vocal signals supplied from the microphone with signals o reproduced musical accompaniments, amplifies the mixed signals, and supplies the amplified signals to the loudspeaker to produce audible sounds.
When a user of the musical accompaniment playback apparatus wants to sing vocal passages of a desired music piece or song recorded in an information storage medium, it is necessary for the user to confirm the words with a song book, subtitles displayed on a video screen or the like.
Some users may desire to use the musical accompaniment playback apparatus in passenger oars. It would be convenient if the user were able to know the words of a desired music piece or song without song book, displayed subtitles, or the like. Certain musical accompaniments do not contain clear information that would indicate a time to start singing. Therefore, it would be advantageous if musical accompaniments would give the user a clue to the timing about when to start to sing the song.

Information storage medium and apparatus for reproducing information therefrom


An apparatus for destroying a buried object includes a targeting system including a sensor operable to detect the presence and location of an object which is at least partially buried in the ground, a gun system including a gun operable to fire a projectile into the ground, and a control system that aims the gun responsive to the presence and location of the buried object as determined by the targeting system. The sensor also desirably detects the presence and location of the projectile fired by the gun system, and the gun pointer is responsive to the location of the projectile. The sensor thus detects the presence of the buried object, the control system aims the gun at the buried object, and the gun fires the projectile. The sensor detects the relative positions of the buried object and the projectile as it passes near the buried object, the control system corrects the aim of the gun in the event that the prior shot misses, and the gun fires another projectile with a corrected aim.

This invention relates to the destruction of buried objects, and, more particularly, to their destruction by a gun having a closed-loop control system.
Mines, booby traps, unexploded bombs, and other ordnance (collectively herein, "buried objects") buried up to a few feet below the surface of the ground are widely used by most armies as an inexpensive deterrent and impediment to invading ground forces. The removal or destruction of such buried objects is an important consideration for an opposing army moving into the mined region. Unfortunately, it is rare that the intentionally placed buried objects or other weapons such as unexploded buried bombs are carefully cleared after the conflict is over, leaving them in place and active. Many civilians throughout the world are injured and killed each year by the explosion of munitions in former combat areas, and the clearing of mine fields has become an important humanitarian concern.
In military situations, mine fields are often avoided completely or mapped so as to permit military personnel to move through the mine field while avoiding the mines. If it is necessary to destroy the buried objects, several techniques are available. In one, a heavy chain is pulled across the surface of the ground by two tanks and through the mine field, in an attempt to detonate the buried mines. This approach has the drawback that "smart mines" may be programmed to detonate only under certain conditions such as, for example, the passage of the third vehicle over the mine. In another approach, the mines, once detected, are fired at with rifles until they detonate, a slow and uncertain procedure. In yet another approach, the mines are individually dug up and exploded in place or taken to a disposal site, where they are intentionally exploded. This approach exposes personnel to the risk of injury.
The existing techniques for the disposal of buried objects are all limited in application and have drawbacks. There is therefore a need for an improved approach to the disposal of mines and other buried ordnance. The present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.

Method and apparatus for destroying buried objects


There is disclosed an injection mold which may allow for a uniform flow front of the thermo-plastic melt during the injection mold process. Further, a corresponding injection-molded part is disclosed.

Injection-molded parts are known in a great variety of shapes. For certain injection-molded parts, in particular in the area of household goods or entertainment electronics, there are high demands regarding the visual appearance of the injection-molded part as perceived by the user. In particular, it is desired that a visible part of the injection-molded part, i.e. that part of the injection-molded part which is visible to the user and which may be touched by the user, is provided homogenously and uniformly.
If materials with colored particles or pigments are used today, for example colored granulate for obtaining a silver color, the results are not satisfactory today. It is rather required to produce an injection-molded part from raw granulate and paint it with the desired color then. This leads to a complicated and expensive manufacturing process. In addition, the painting typically uncovers tensions in the material which have been locked in the material during the injection mold process. The result is that the painted visible side is visibly inhomogeneous and that the pointed injection-molded part is not suitable for a further use.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved injection mold and an improved injection-molded part which may allow to overcome this disadvantage.

Injection mold and injection-molded part


The present invention relates to a delivery door having anti-theft security means, more particularly to a door structure consists of a pair of casings, area adjustable mounting plate, hinge means and actuation means, which are installed on an entrance door or a window for delivering articles or products thereof. A delivery door installed on an entrance door or a window comprise an outer casing (4) and an inner casing (5) pivotally mounted on hinge means (3, 8, 9, 10), actuation means (12, 13, 15, 16) associated with the outer casing (4) and the inner casing (5) for opening and closing operation of casings and the mounting plate (6) having area adjustable means between the outer casing (4) and the inner casing (5) is characterized in that the mounting plate (6) is rotatable while in the transporting operation which securely controlled by the actuation means.

1. Field of the Invention
This present invention relates to a structure of delivery door having anti-theft security means more particularly to a door structure comprised of a pair of casings, a mounting plate, hinge means and actuation means cooperatively formed on a suitable location of entrance door or window for delivering or transporting articles or products thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has been tremendous growth in the delivery business of small packages in accordance with the rapid increase of ordering amount via Internet-based retail, TV-home shopping or any other communication means. In order to receive the ordered parcels or gifts in safe way, a delivery door having the safe means attached on an entrance door is necessary for the safe final delivery whether the resident is at home or not. Although the resident is at home, a safe door for the delivery purpose is required in order to receive the delivered gift or articles without opening the entrance door because the resident usually want to protect himself without exposure from the unknown person. Furthermore, the deliveries of products are frequently attempted at the times when the residents are not at home. Depending on the business policies of delivery service, the delivery must then be attempted on a subsequent day or the package may be simply left on the recipient's door step. Each of these alternatives has disadvantages for the recipient and often make a trouble for the delivery service. In the case of the vacancy of resident, the delivered parcels or articles are also required to convey into the entrance door in order to prevent the lost of delivered product or the reattempt of delivery.
According to the prior art of structure related to a safe door in the connection with the delivery means, various structures can be found depending on the kind of product or the size of delivering product.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,052 shows a simple structure of delivery door having a shape of secure box or a safe housing attached on the entrance door for the delivery means. But this kind of structure is limited to pick-up article or relatively small size of mail package. Furthermore, the deposited product in the secure box is less safe under the action of theft and the shape of secure box is less compatible with the flat surface of the entrance door.
For the another security purpose, Masachika had devised a series of the security devices of delivery door for the after hour depository having a relatively complicate but the secure structure published on U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,573,416, 4,489,662 and 4,466,357. These kinds of structures are usually applicable in wall of bank or place required a special purpose of depository, for example the after hour depository of video tapes. The relatively larger volume of delivered product based on the conventional package is hard to apply the above-mentioned structure to an entrance door.
Therefore, the main embodiment of present invention is related to provide a delivery door having a simply structure of security means which is compatible to the flat shape of entrance door and to deliver products through the entrance door whether the resident is at home or not.

Structure of delivery door having anti-theft security means


A light emitting device including a light emitting structure having a first conductive semiconductor layer, an active layer disposed under the active layer and a second conductive semiconductor layer disposed under the active layer; a trench formed in a portion of the light emitting structure; a current barrier layer in the trench and configured to hinder current supply to the active layer at a portion where the trench is located and to block the active layer over the trench from emitting light; and a first electrode on the first conductive semiconductor layer above the portion where the trench is located.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a light emitting device.
2. Discussion of the Background
Light Emitting Devices include P-N junction diodes that convert electrical energy into light energy. The diodes are formed by combining group III and V elements on the periodic table. Light Emitting Devices can also emit various colors by controlling the composition ratio of compound semiconductors.
In more detail, when a forward voltage is applied, an electron of an n-layer is combined with a hole of a p-layer to emit energy corresponding to an energy gap between the conduction band and the valance band. The energy is then emitted as light.
In addition, nitride semiconductors, for example, are being considered for the fields of optical devices and high-power electronic devices, because of their high thermal stability and wide band gap energy. In particular, blue LEDs, green LEDs and UV LEDs that use nitride semiconductors are available. Further, the light emitting devices may be categorized into a horizontal type and a vertical type.
Also, an N-type electrode and a P-type electrode are disposed over/under related-art vertical light emitting devices, respectively. In this instance, electrons and holes injected by the N-type electrode and the P-type electrode, respectively, are entered into an active layer, and are combined with each other to generate light. The generated light is then emitted to the outside or is reflected by the N-type electrode and lost.
Thus, related-art light emitting devices have a limitation in that the light emitting efficiency is reduced, because light emitted under the N-type electrode is reflected by the N-type electrode. Also, related-art light emitting devices have a limitation in that excessive heat is generated due to the re-absorption of the light reflected by the N-type electrode. Moreover, related-art light emitting devices have a limitation in a deterioration of life span and reliability because of current crowding.


A twin-clutch manual transmission including: first and second input shafts provided with respective clutches; a counter shaft parallel to these input shafts; gear sets of an odd-numbered gear range group disposed between the rear end portion of the first input shaft and the counter shaft; gear sets of the even-numbered gear range group disposed between the second input shaft and the counter shaft; an output shaft being concentric with and abutting on a rear end of the first input shaft; and a synchronizer provided between the rear end of the first input shaft and the output shaft to provide a direct-coupling gear range. The odd-numbered gear range group includes the direct-coupling gear range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a twin-clutch manual transmission which includes two clutches respectively connected by shafts to two groups of transmission gear sets, in which smooth gearshifts are achieved by alternately disengaging one of the clutches while engaging the other to change the gear set engaged.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication no. 8-320054 discloses a twin-clutch manual transmission for a front engine and front wheel drive vehicle (FF-vehicle), which includes first and second input shafts adapted to be selectively and drivably connected for receiving an engine power output through respective clutches. The second input shaft is hollow and rotatably supported on the first input shaft. The first input shaft protrudes outward from a rear end of the second input shaft at a position remote from the engine. Gear sets of even-numbered gear range group is disposed between a rear end protruding portion of the first input shaft and the counter shaft which is placed in parallel to the first and second input shafts, for suitably providing selective power transfer. Further, gear sets of odd-numbered gear range group are disposed between the second input shaft and the counter shaft for suitably providing selective power transfer, whereby the engine power output resulting from gearshift depending on a selected gear range can be extracted from a front end of the counter shaft in a radial direction at a position closer to the engine.
With such a twin-clutch manual transmission, even when one gear range of one of the groups is selected with the associated clutch being engaged, next gear range of the other group can be pre-selected with the associated clutch therewith being disengaged. A gearshift can be realized by disengaging the clutch associated with the one gear range, while engaging the clutch associated with the next gear range of the other group, that is, upon a so-called clutch changeover control. By alternately selecting an intended gear range between the gear range groups, it is possible to perform an automatic power transmission even with a manual transmission.


A process for forming a metal suicide gate in an FET device, where the suicide is self-forming (that is, formed without the need for a separate metal/silicon reaction step), and no CMP or etchback of the silicon material is required. A first layer of silicon material (polysilicon or amorphous silicon) is formed overlying the gate dielectric; a layer of metal is then formed on the first layer, and a second layer of silicon on the metal layer. A high-temperature (>700° C.) processing step, such as source/drain activation anneal, is subsequently performed; this step is effective to form a silicide layer above the gate dielectric by reaction of the metal with silicon in the first layer. A second high-temperature processing step (such as source/drain silicidation) may be performed which is effective to form a second silicide layer from silicon in the second layer. The thicknesses of the layers are such that in the high-temperature processing, substantially all of the first layer and at least a portion of the second layer are replaced by silicide material. Accordingly, a fully silicided gate structure may be produced.

The ongoing reduction in size of electronic device elements poses problems in device performance which must be addressed using new materials and fabrication techniques. These problems are especially acute in the case of gate structures for high-performance CMOS devices. A typical CMOS gate structure is shown schematically in FIG. 1. Gate structure 100 (often called a gate stack) is fabricated on the surface of substrate 1, which typically is a semiconductor wafer (e.g. Si, Ge, SiGe, as well as semiconductors over a buried insulator). Source and drain regions 22, 23 are formed near the surface of the wafer. Gate structure 100 includes conducting element 110 (typically polysilicon; p+ doped and n+ doped in PFETs and NFETs respectively) overlying dielectric layer 111. In present-day devices the equivalent oxide thickness of the gate dielectric has been reduced to less than 2 nm. At the same time, linewidths have been reduced so that the lateral extent of gate structure 100 is now in the sub-65 nm range.
With present-day gate dielectric thicknesses, it is desirable to minimize the polysilicon depletion effect, which occurs when the gate is turned on and a region devoid of charge forms at the polysilicon/dielectric interface (interface 112a in FIG. 1). The appearance of this depletion region reduces the capacitance of the gate and thus increases the electrical thickness, so that device performance is reduced. If the polysilicon depletion region could be eliminated, the electrical dielectric thickness would be reduced with no substantial increase in the leakage current. This would permit improved device performance without a further reduction in the thickness of the gate dielectric 112.
It therefore is desirable to eliminate the polysilicon from the gate structure (or at least remove the polysilicon from contact with the gate dielectric), as several benefits may be obtained. The elimination of the polysilicon depletion effect would decrease the effective electrical thickness of the gate dielectric. Interactions between the polysilicon and gate dielectric materials would be avoided, which in turn would avoid the problem of boron penetration. This would lead to faster devices which consume less power. Replacing the polysilicon with other materials also may enable new designs for gate stacks which are compatible with high-k gate dielectrics.
Recently there has been substantial interest in replacing polysilicon gate conductors with metal silicide gate electrodes. In general, forming a silicided gate involves reacting a layer of metal with an underlying layer of silicon (polysilicon or amorphous silicon), which in turn is in contact with the gate dielectric. A substantial number of additional process steps are required as compared to fabrication of a conventional polysilicon gate. Furthermore, a typical silicide gate fabrication scheme requires chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) or etching back of the polysilicon layer. These processes often fail to provide adequate uniformity (across the wafer) in the polysilicon thickness. This in turn results in low-quality silicided gates and low device yields.
Accordingly, there is a need for a metal silicide gate fabrication process which minimizes the number of additional steps, and avoids the uniformity problems associated with conventional fabrication techniques.

Self-forming metal silicide gate for CMOS devices

International Business Machines Corporation


A surgical instrument comprises a first member including an inner surface that defines a cavity and an outer surface configured to space tissue. The first member includes a first locking surface. A second member is configured for disposal within the cavity and extends between a first end configured to penetrate tissue and a second end configured to generate a signal representative of a position of the second member. The second member includes a second locking surface. The members are disposable between a first orientation such that the locking surfaces are engaged to resist relative axial translation of the members and a second orientation such that the locking surfaces are disengaged and the second member is axially translatable relative to the first member. Systems and methods are disclosed.

Spinal pathologies and disorders such as scoliosis and other curvature abnormalities, kyphosis, degenerative disc disease, disc herniation, osteoporosis, spondylolisthesis, stenosis, tumor, and fracture may result from factors including trauma, disease and degenerative conditions caused by injury and aging. Spinal disorders typically result in symptoms including deformity, pain, nerve damage, and partial or complete loss of mobility.
Non-surgical treatments, such as medication, rehabilitation and exercise can be effective, however, may fail to relieve the symptoms associated with these disorders. Surgical treatment of these spinal disorders includes correction, fusion, fixation, discectomy, laminectomy and implantable prosthetics. As part of these surgical treatments, implants such as bone fasteners, connectors, plates and vertebral rods are often used to provide stability to a treated region. These implants can redirect stresses away from a damaged or defective region while healing takes place to restore proper alignment and generally support the vertebral members. Surgical instruments, such as, for example, wires and cannulated instrumentation can be employed to establish passageways for delivery of the implants. This disclosure describes an improvement over these prior art technologies.


Compositions which contain an agonist substance of one or a number of receptors associated with a chlorine channel are useful for slackening and/or relaxing cutaneous tissue, and in particular for the purpose of treating wrinkles and fine lines of the skin. Such compositions can be administered topically or by injection. Preferred agonists include glycine, serine, taurine, .beta.-alanine, N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)glycine (Z-glycine), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), isoguvacine, isonipecotic acid, 4,5,6,7-tetrahydroisoxazolo5,4-c!pyrid-3(2H)-one, benzodiazepines, steroids, and barbiturates. The composition can additionally contain a retinoid and/or a hydroxy acid.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the use of substances which are agonists of a receptor associated with a chlorine channel in a cosmetic and/or dermatological composition, in particular for the purpose of treating wrinkles and fine lines of the skin, and to cosmetic and/or dermatological compositions which contain such a substance.

Compositions and methods for treating wrinkles and/or fine lines of the skin


An implantable hydrogel precursor composition can include: a cross-linkable polymer matrix that is biocompatible; and a plurality of polymer particles in the cross-linkable polymer matrix. The cross-linkable polymer matrix can include a cross-linkable hyaluronic acid polymer that has cross-linkable functional groups. The hyaluronic acid polymer can be a methacrylated hyaluronic acid polymer. The methacrylated hyaluronic acid polymer can have a molecular weight from about 500 kDa to about 1.8 MDa. The polymer particles can include a cross-linked hyaluronic acid. The cross-linkable polymer matrix having the polymer particles has a yield stress. The cross-linkable polymer matrix having the polymer particles has shape retention at physiological temperatures. The composition can include live cells in the cross-linkable polymer matrix. The composition can include a biologically active agent in the cross-linkable polymer matrix.

Effective tissue engineering has the potential to improve the quality of life of millions of patients, and may even day or prevent future medical costs related to tissue regenerative procedures. Advances in tissue engineering for cartilage and bone are especially needed. Scaffolds possessing the functional and mechanical features resembling tissue, such as cartilage and bone, can be useful for tissue regeneration and useful for quality of life during tissue regeneration because this allows the scaffold to function as the tissue. Such scaffolds can be important in joints that are moved often and that support a lot of weight, such as knee joints; however, any cartilage or bone defect can benefit from a scaffold that has sufficient mechanical integrity to provide normal use functionality. The scaffolds for tissue engineering may be created to have suitable mechanical compression, shear stress resistance, and hydrostatic pressure SUMMARY
In one embodiment, an implantable hydrogel precursor composition can include: a cross-linkable polymer matrix that is biocompatible; and a plurality of polymer particles in the cross-linkable polymer matrix. In one aspect, the cross-linkable polymer matrix includes a cross-linkable hyaluronic acid polymer that has cross-linkable functional groups. In one aspect, the hyaluronic acid polymer is a methacrylated hyaluronic acid polymer. In one aspect, the methacrylated hyaluronic acid polymer has a molecular weight from about 500 kDa to about 1.8 MDa. In one aspect, the polymer particles include a cross-linked hyaluronic acid. In one aspect, the polymer particles have a molecular weight of about 10 kDa to about 20 kDa. In one aspect, the polymer particles have a particle size of about 10 nm to about 500 nm. In one aspect, the cross-linkable polymer is present from about 2% to about 10% and the polymer particles are present from about 5% to about 30%. In one aspect, the ratio of cross-linkable polymer to polymer particles is from 1:15 to about 2:1. In one aspect, the cross-linkable polymer matrix having the polymer particles has a yield stress. In one aspect, the cross-linkable polymer matrix having the polymer particles has shape retention at physiological temperatures. In one aspect, the composition includes live cells in the cross-linkable polymer matrix. In one aspect, the composition includes a biologically active agent in the cross-linkable polymer matrix.
In one embodiment, a hydrogel composition can include: a crosslinked polymeric hydrogel matrix that is biocompatible; and a plurality of polymer particles in the crosslinked polymer matrix. In one aspect, the crosslinked polymeric hydrogel matrix is cross-linked methacrylated hyaluronic acid polymer and the polymer particle is cross-linked hyaluronic acid, wherein the crosslinked polymer matrix encapsulates the polymer particles. The hydrogel may also include features and components derived from the hydrogel precursor from which it was crosslinked from.
In one embodiment, a method of forming an implant can include: providing an implantable hydrogel precursor composition in accordance with the embodiments described herein; and crosslinking the cross-linkable polymer matrix to form a hydrogel containing the plurality of polymer particles. In one aspect, the method further includes shaping the hydrogel precursor composition while in the body. In one aspect, the method further includes: placing the hydrogel precursor in a defect in a tissue in the body; and crosslinking the cross-linkable polymer in the defect. In one aspect, the defect is in a cartilage tissue, and the method regenerates cartilage tissue. In one aspect, the defect is in a nerve tissue, and the method regenerates cartilage tissue. The tissue being regenerated with the hydrogel described herein can include cells, bioactive agents, growth factors, or other substances to facilitate the tissue regeneration.
The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description.

Hydrogel precursors having nanoparticles


This application provides a reference signal communication method and communication apparatus. The method includes determining a resource block offset of a frequency domain position of a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) based on a frequency domain density of the PTRS, an identifier of a terminal device, and a first bandwidth, in accordance with a ratio of the first bandwidth to the frequency domain density of the PTRS being a non-integer. The first bandwidth is a bandwidth scheduled by a network device for the terminal device. The method further includes sending or receiving the PTRS based on the resource block offset of the frequency domain position of the PTRS.

As a network system develops, requirements for a communication rate and a communication capacity gradually increase, and a requirement for high-frequency resources increases accordingly. However, a frequency increase is accompanied with an increase of phase noise generated by random jitter of a frequency component, namely, a local oscillator. Therefore, impact of the phase noise cannot be ignored in high-frequency wireless communication. Generally, a transmit end device may send a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) that is known in advance, and a receive end may estimate phase noise based on the received PTRS.
When a plurality of terminal devices use a same PTRS sequence in one cell or sector, PTRS frequency domain positions to which the plurality of terminal devices perform mapping by using a same PTRS port are the same. In this case, different PTRSs mapped to a same frequency domain position interfere with each other, thereby affecting phase noise estimation. Therefore, how to randomize PTRS interference becomes an urgent problem to be resolved.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Reference signal transmission method and transmission apparatus


A system and method to detect similarities between images. The system and method allow comparisons between a query image and one or more catalog images in a manner that is resilient to scanning, scaling, rotating, cropping and other distortions of the query image. The system includes an image processing module that determines and/or calculates principle features of a catalog image and constructs a feature vector using one or more of the principle features. The system also includes a matching module that matches a query image to one or more catalog images. The system finds matches based on a distance measure of features present in the query image and features present in the catalog images.

Image rights holders may post images in professional image banks, where they can be viewed and licensed by others. Professional image banks will often utilize technologies to mark digital images so that their proper use can be monitored and charged for, and their unauthorized use identified. For example, image banks may watermark an image by embedding special codes directly into the image. By searching for images with watermarks, the professional image bank can identify uses of images and assess whether such uses were authorized or unauthorized by the rights holder.
While image protection schemes are typically very effective when images are copied and used directly, many protection schemes can be defeated if changes are made to the image. For example, it can be difficult to detect images that have been cropped, resized or partially modified. In addition, it may be very difficult for typical protection schemes to identify unauthorized digital images that are scanned copies of printed originals. For example, images provided by newspapers or magazines may be scanned and then posted on the Internet in a manner that makes them very difficult to detect.
Some existing image comparison systems may match an image for different versions of the same image. However these systems typically have limited effectiveness identifying redigitized versions of images. These image comparison systems are particularly ineffective if the image has been cropped, flipped, rotated, the color balance has been changed and/or if other distortions have been applied.

Efficient image matching for large sets of images


The present invention relates to a method for producing a mixture containing fatty acid monoglyceride from glycerin and a compound having at least one acyl group, selected from fatty acids and fatty acid glycerides, including: (i) a step of obtaining a mixture containing fatty acid monoglyceride by heating and reacting glycerin and a compound having at least one acyl group, selected from fatty acids and fatty acid glycerides in the presence of a catalyst; (ii) a step including adding glycerin, which is liquid and has a lower temperature than the temperature of the mixture, to the mixture to cool the mixture; and (iii) a step of separating the mixture containing fatty acid monoglyceride from glycerin, obtained in the step (ii), by separating layers.

Fatty acid monoglycerides used widely as an oil agent and the like in cosmetics, foods, and industrial emulsifiers or lubricants are produced by esterification reaction of glycerin with fatty acid or by ester exchange reaction of glycerin with fat and oil.
Those reactions are carried out in the absence or presence of a catalyst, and generally a mixture of glycerin, fatty acid monoglyceride, fatty acid diglyceride, and fatty acid triglyceride is generated.
For such reasons, a purification step is required depending on a purpose. When it is desired to obtain a fatty acid monoglyceride with high purity, purification based on molecular distillation or thin layer distillation is performed. Fatty acid diglyceride and fatty acid triglyceride contained in residuals after distillation of monoglyceride can be recovered again as monoglyceride according to a transesterification reaction with glycerin. However, from the viewpoint of production efficiency of monoglyceride, higher purity of the monoglyceride before distillation step is preferred.
As disclosed in JP-A 57-24327, it is known that the equilibrium of the ester exchange reaction shifts to the fatty acid monoglyceride production side as the reaction temperature increases. By maintaining fat and glycerin as a raw material at high temperature like 220° C. or higher in the presence of a catalyst, concentration of the fatty acid monoglyceride increases.
However, when time is required for cooling in the presence of a catalyst, it is known that the reaction toward the equilibrium at that temperature, that is, the reaction from two molecules of fatty acid monoglyceride to fatty acid diglyceride and glycerin, becomes larger, so that the concentration of fatty acid monoglyceride is decreased.
It is then disclosed in JP-A 57-24327 to neutralizing an alkali catalyst with an acid, after completion of the reaction, to inactivate it, decrease the reaction rate and prevent the concentration of fatty acid monoglyceride from decreasing.
It is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,909,540 to prevent the concentration of fatty acid monoglyceride from decreasing by lowering the reaction rate by evaporating glycerin at a reduced pressure, after the reaction for producing fatty acid monoglyceride, and cooling the liquid of the completed reaction with heat transfer accompanied with evaporation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,083,216, production of higher fatty acid monoglyceride is disclosed. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,079,412, continuous production of fatty acid monoglyceride is disclosed.

Method for producing mixture containing fatty acid monoglyceride


A device for detecting charged particles includes a substrate, a charge detection plate and an integrated circuit unit that are electrically connected together and respectively disposed on non-coplanar first and second sides of the substrate, and an interference shielding unit substantially enclosing the charge detection plate and the integrated circuit unit in such a manner as to permit impingement on the charge detection plate by the charged particles from outside of the interference shielding unit. The integrated circuit unit disposed on the second side is non-coplanar with the charge detection plate disposed on the first side so as to prevent interference on the integrated circuit unit by the charged particles.

Charged particle detectors are used in many applications requiring, for example, ion or electron detection. One such application is mass spectrometry. Mass spectrometers are widely used to separate and analyze charged particles on the basis of their mass to charge ratio (m/z) and many different types of mass spectrometers and charged particle detectors are known.
A first conventional charged particle detector for mass spectrometry comprises an electron multiplier, such as discrete or continuous dynode electron multiplier (e.g., micro-channel plate (MCP)), which makes use of the physical phenomenon called "secondary emission" for charge amplification, usually in the scale of 106. However, since secondary emission is a strong function of velocity of incoming charged particles, the first conventional charged particle detector is unsuitable for performing mass spectrometry of a mixture of large biomolecules, which are usually too slow for creating secondary emission.
A second conventional charged particle detector, termed ion collector, such as Faraday cup, has been used with mass spectrometers for charge detection of large DNA fragments or whole viruses. However, the large amount of electronics noise associated with the second conventional charged particle detector renders it impractical for direct charge measurements of cells or microparticles.
A third conventional charged particle detector, like the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,963,075, is based on the principle of electromagnetic field induction. While the third conventional charged particle detector is suitable for performing mass spectrometry of highly charged large particles, such as DNA fragments or viruses with for example ten thousand charges per particle, when the incoming charged particles are composed of a great number of small charged particles (ion cloud), the third conventional charged particle detector fails to generate an accurate detection result since the resultant readout would have an undesirable damping/tailing effect.

Device for detecting charged particles and an apparatus for mass spectrometry incorporating the same


Through combination of gears with different sizes in a transformation gear set configured in the height adjustment device, the height adjustment device can be fine-tuned. When an actuator of the height adjustment device is pressed, a first gear engaging with the actuator rotates and has a first relative distance with the actuator while a second gear engaging with a rack of the supporter has a second relative distance with the rack. The second relative distance is shorter than the first relative distance and the supporter is adjusted in a large scale and is fine-tuned through operating one single actuator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a height adjustment device, and more specifically, to a height adjustment device with fine-tuning for an image system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Image systems like projectors at the present time are usually either configured on the ceiling to cast images onto a project screen in a nearly horizontal way or on a desk and cast images in an elevation angle. Except for the first way to fix the projectors on the ceiling, which is generally used in a large meeting room environment, as the portability of presentation systems or movie playback systems is concerned, most projectors with high mobility adopt the second way, i.e., to place the projector on a surface (generally on a desk lower than the project screen) and by providing the adjustability of the projection lens' height and of the built-in trapezoid distortion parameter of the projectors, the images can be cast on a wall or the project screen.
The conventional height adjustment devices of a projector can be categorized in two. A first type has rack with fixed teeth distance and to adjust the height of the adjustment device, simply press an actuator that engages with the rack to release the rack so that the adjustment device can be adjusted to a needed height. Afterward, the actuator engages with the rack again to keep the adjustment device at the needed height. The first type of the height adjustment devices provides fast adjustment for configuring the projector but the precision for adjusting the height is also limited by the fixed distance of the rack and is rather rough due to manufacture limitation of the rack.
A second type of conventional height adjustment devices utilizes screw for height adjusting, which has very high precision. However, this type of height adjustment devices is too poor in efficiency for adjustment compared to the previous first type height adjustment devices since rotating the screw every single round only moves the height adjustment device a tooth distance of the screw in height.
An improved height adjustment device combining the features of both previous two types utilizes a latch to engage with the screw. The screw can move in a large scale with the latch disengaged and also rotate in a fine scale with the latch engaged. Such type of height adjustment device is also disclosed in the Taiwan patent #528,916. Even so, it always requires two separate operations to satisfy the requirement of precision and efficiency for the height adjustment devices in image systems such as the projectors. Situations below happen quite frequently: users know how to operate one operation (adjusting in a large scale or fine-tuning) while the other operation is always forgotten.

Height adjustment device with fine tuning for an image system


A system and method include receiving a temperature signal from a temperature sensor, controlling operation of an air conditioner condenser, and controlling an electric vehicle charger to operate to charge an electric vehicle battery only when the air conditioner condenser is not running.

In recent years many plug-in electric vehicles have been introduced into the market. These electric vehicles can be either fully electric vehicles or hybrid electric vehicles. These vehicles run on electrical energy stored in a battery. Electric vehicle owners typically charge the battery in their homes and garages using a charging outlet connected to the main electrical supply from the utility to the home.
Electric vehicles draw a major amount of power from the power grid at around 7.2 KW and take about 6-8 hours to charge completely. The current draw for the chargers is about 30 Amps at 240 Volts. Such amounts of power draw create a heavy load on transformers and other electric power delivery grid infrastructure installed by utilities. Utilities typically install a single transformer for every 4-6 houses in a neighborhood. If two or more people in the houses connected to a transformer charge their electric vehicles at the same time, degradation or even failure of the transformer may occur. Failure or degradation of a transformer can result in loss of electricity for all the households. These failures will be even more pronounced in case of variable pricing for the electrical energy. When electricity prices go down based on the time of the day, for example at 9 PM, owners of electric vehicles may all want to start charging their vehicles at the same time to take advantage of the reduced price.

Coordinated control of electric vehicle charging and HVAC


A salty water absorbing composition, salty water ice packs, and salty water absorbing packs used to preserve freshness of meat, fresh fish and shells, vegetables and other watery food when they are transported over a long distance. The salty water absorbing composition and packs containing the composition absorb drippings or exudation discharged from such food, in particular the salty drippings, which ooze from the fresh fish and shells and other marine products. The salty water absorbing pack containing antibiotic materials is accommodated in a bag made of paper sheet coated with a perforated polymer to construct a salty water absorbing pack. The salty water ice pack is obtained by absorbing the pack with salty water and freezing.

The present invention relates to a salty water absorbing composition, a salty water ice pack, and a salty water absorbing pack, respectively, used when food containing a high water content, such as meat, fresh fish and shells, and fresh vegetables and the like are stored, kept or preserved, and transported. The salty water absorbing composition is adapted to absorb the exudation or drippings discharged from such food as described above, in particular, the exudation discharged from fresh fish and shells with salt contained therein. The salty water ice pack has the effect of controlling the reproduction of bacteria as a result of using ceramics provided with fresh preserving properties and antibiotic characteristics. The salty water absorbing pack is made by soaking salty water in the pack and freezing the soaked pack.
When food containing a high water content, such as meat, fresh fish and shells, and fresh vegetables and the like is stored, kept and displayed in a shop window, exudation or drippings are discharged from the food. Drippings are collected on the bottom of containers and trays, so that appearance of the food in such container is made dirty or soiled, the food is likely to discolor, or generate an unpleasant odor, and preservability is lowered.
As a result of the above problems, the drippings must be removed from the food. When drippings are removed or discarded by exchanging the container or trays for such food, this removing operation is troublesome and the cost of preparing the food is increased. In order to solve the problems of the prior art, sheets of paper and sheets of non-woven cloth to absorb the drippings, for example, are placed or laid on the bottoms of containers and trays so as to absorb the drippings and the soaked sheet thereafter removed. However, it is not sufficient to completely absorb the drippings. As a result, nowadays water absorbing sheets made by packing water absorbing resin by paper or non-woven cloth has come into use.
The conventional water absorbing sheets can only sufficiently soak fresh water-containing drippings, but they cannot effectively absorb salty water containing drippings. This means it has not been possible to preserve fresh fish, shells and the like and to prevent the discoloration thereof.
In addition, in the case where food such as meat, fresh fish and shells, and fresh vegetables are transported over long distances, in general refrigerators and freezing or cold-chain trucks, or ice and dry ice are used. It is apparent that there are restrictions on the volume of food to be transported as well as the transport time. It is said that the transportation of food, such as fresh fish and shells, in a fresh condition over more than a predetermined distance is difficult.

Salty water absorbing composition, salty water ice pack, and salty water absorbing pack

c/o Limited Company Ichihuji Suisan, 97-1, Tsurugaoka, Tsurugashimacho

c/o Bylo Industrial Co. Ltd., 2-7-10, Shonandai


A crustacean trap that includes a collapsible frame assembly surrounded by a collapsible net body. The frame assembly includes a lower collar perpendicularly aligned and attached to a hollow mast. The mast extends upward from the lower collar and slides through an upper collar. Pivotally attached to the upper collar are four radially aligned upper legs. Pivotally coupled to the lower end of each upper leg is a lower leg that is vertically aligned under the upper leg. Each lower leg extends inward and pivotally connects to the lower collar. The upper and lower collars are aligned and registered so when the mast is extended downward through the upper collar, the upper collar and the lower collar separate thereby forcing each upper leg diagonally downward from the upper collar and forcing each lower leg horizontally outward from the lower collar.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to animal traps, and more particularly to traps placed in water used to catch crustaceans.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traps positioned by fishermen in water from a boat or dock are used to catch crabs and other types of crustaceans. Crustacean traps are cage-like structures temporarily stacked on the upper deck of the boat. Crab bait is placed into the trap before it is dropped into the water where crabs are believed to be located. The traps slowly sink to the floor of the water so that the crabs may crawl along the floor and into the trap and reach the bait. After waiting 1 to 24 hrs, the traps are then retrieved and lifted on board the boat or dock where the crabs in the traps are removed and processed.
Ideally, the crab traps should fold into a compact configuration on board the boat or dock when not in use. Also, the traps should be sufficiently heavy so that they sink vertically in the body of water and then remain relatively stationary on the floor. Also, the crab openings on the trap should be sufficiently wide so that crabs can easily enter the trap and retain them inside the trap.


A method for automatically segmenting lung regions in a chest radiographic image comprising; providing an input digital chest radiograph image; preprocessing the input digital radiographic image; extracting the chest body midline and lung centerlines from the preprocessed image. Locating one-by-one, the chest body model, the spine model and the two lung models in the image based on the extracted chest body midline and two lung centerlines; and detecting the lung contours by deforming the lung shape models to converge to the true lung boundaries as a function of the extracting and locating image processing.

Identification of lung regions in chest radiographs is an important pre-processing step for most types of computer analysis of digital chest radiographs, such as interstitial disease, pneumothorax, cardiomegaly and pulmonary nodules. A considerable amount of work in recent literature has addressed this topic, and various image processing methods have been applied. These methods can be basically classified into two categories. One is feature-based pixel classification and the other is ruled-based reasoning. In pixel classification systems, each pixel in the image is represented by a set of features, such as density, histogram, entropy, and gradients etc, and is classified into a region type based on the output of Neural Networks or Markov Random Field Modeling. Prior work in this subject area includes the work of McNitt-Gray et al. Feature Selection classification problem of digital chest radiograph segmentation, IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging, 1995, 14, pp 537–547, who developed a pattern classification scheme consisting of stepwise discriminate analysis as a basis for feature selection which has then used to train and test classifiers, Tsuji et al., Automated Segmentation of anatomical region in chest radiographs using an adaptive-sized hybrid neural network, Med. Phys., 25 (6), June 1998, pp 998–1007, who used an adaptive-sized hybrid neural network to classify each pixel into two anatomic classes (lung and others) according to relative pixel address, density and histogram equalized entropy and Hassegawa et al., A Shift-Invariant Neural Network for the Lung Field Segmentation in Chest Radiography, Journal of VLSI Signal Processing, No. 18, 1998, pp 241–250, who employed a shift-invariant neural network to extract the lung regions. Vittitoe et al., Identification of lung regions in chest radiographs using Markov random field modeling, Med. Phys. 25, (6), 1998, pp 976–985, developed a pixel classifier for the identification of lung regions using Markov Random Field modeling. Lung segmentation by rule-based reasoning consists of a series of steps, each containing specific processing and, usually, certain adjustable parameters. For example, Armato et al., Automated Registration of ventilation/perfusion images with digital chest radiographs., Acad. Radiology, 1997, 4, 183–192, used a combination of a global and local gray-level thresholding to extract lung regions and then smoothed the lung contours by a rolling ball technique. Duryea et al., A fully automated algorithm for the segmentation of lung fields in digital chest radiographic images, Med. Phys., 1995, 22, 99 183–191, proposed a heuristic edge tracing approach with validation against hand-drawn lung contours. Pietka, Lung Segmentation in Digital Radiographs, Journal of Digital Imaging, vol. 7, No. 2, 1994, pp 79–84, delineated lung borders using a single threshold determined from the gray-level histogram of a selected region, then refined the lung edges by gradient analysis. Xu et al., Image Feature Analysis For Computer-Aid Diagnosis: Detection of Right and Left hemi diaphragm edges and Delineation of lung field in chest radiographs, Med. Phys., 23 (9), September 1996, pp 1613–1624, determined the lung regions by detecting top lung edges and ribcage edges, then fitting the edges into smooth curves. Carrascal et al., Automatic Calculation of total lung capacity from automatically traced boundaries in postero-anterior and lateral digital chest radiographs, Med. Phys., 25 (7), July 1998, pp 1118–1131, detected the lung boundary segments in a set of automatic defined Regions of Interests (ROIs), then corrected and completed the boundary by means of interpolation and arc fitting.
Generally speaking, the methods described in the prior art are low-level processing, which operate directly on the raw image data; even through a few of them utilize embedded domain knowledge as heuristics within segmentation algorithms. These approaches pose problems when processing images of abnormal anatomy, or images with excessive noise and poor quality, because the abnormal anatomic structures or noise often confuse the segmentation routines. Thus, there exists a need for high-level analysis, incorporating both the anatomical knowledge and low-level image processing, in order to improve the performance of segmentation algorithms. To solve the problem, Brown et al., Knowledge-based method for segmentation and analysis of lung boundaries in chest x-ray images, Computerized medical Imaging and Graphics, 1998, 22, pp 463–477, presented a knowledge-based system which matches image edges to an anatomical model of the lung boundary using parametric features and reasoning mechanisms. Ginneken et al., Computer-Aided Diagnosis in Chest Radiography PhD thesis, Utrecht University, March 2001, used a hybrid system that combines the strength of a rule-based approach and pixel classification to detect lung regions. Although the latter methods demonstrate improved performance, to automatically and accurately detect lung regions is still a difficult problem. There are several factors that contribute to this difficulty including (1) a high degree of variation in chest image composition from person to person, (2) the variability in the habitus and level of inspiration of the lungs during the examination, and (3) the superimposed structures in the lung regions of chest radiographs, such as lung vasculature, ribs, and clavicles. The latter structures cause the lung boundaries to appear ambiguous, which greatly reduces the performance of low-level image processing.
To reliably segment lung regions, both low-level processing and high-level analysis must be employed, and low-level processing techniques should be constrained and directed by knowledge of the relevant local anatomy, which is supplied through high-level analysis. The present invention provides a solution to the problems of the prior art and employs a robust means to automatically segment lung regions in digital chest radiographs by using a knowledge-based model, which not only encapsulates the properties of anatomic structures, but also specifies an efficient way to detect them and evaluate their relationships.

Method for automated analysis of digital chest radiographs


In a printer apparatus of the invention, a file storage unit stores an archive file including plural files each having a reservation keyword, a processing content designation data holding unit holds plural processing content designation data in which the reservation keyword and processing content on the file are made to correspond to each other, a processing content designation data retrieval unit extracts the reservation keyword from the file name of each of the plural files and retrieves one or plural processing content designation data including the extracted reservation keyword among the plural processing content designation data, and a print processing unit print-processes the data to be printed contained in the stored document file in accordance with the processing content on the file held in the processing content designation data holding unit corresponding to the retrieved processing content designation data. By this, printing can be performed at high speed, and convenience of the print processing can be raised.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer apparatus and a printing method used in the printer apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case where a file created by application software operating on a PC (personal computer) is printed, PDL (Page Description Language) for describing print pages by a page printer, such as Postscript (trade mark or registered trade mark of Adobe Systems Incorporated) or PCL (Printed Control Language), PDF (Portable Document Format) to enable each page to be printed, or the like is generally used as a file format. For example, a file created by application software, such as a word processor or spreadsheet, is once converted in an intermediate processing, and a PDL file is created.
In the case where the user performs printing while a background image, a company logo or the like is superimposed together, the print processing is performed after a processing (superimposing processing) of superimposing the data, such as the background image or company logo, on the data created using the application software.
As techniques to print the background image, there is proposed a technique in which an original image is separated into a background part and a print image, the ground color of a transfer object is detected, and the color of the separated background part is replaced by the detected ground color of the transfer object, so that the color of the background part does not appear in a transferred image (for example, JP-A-2002-166608). Besides, there is also proposed a document editing apparatus in which creation means for creating document information relating to plural electronic documents is provided, and the summary of an electronic document inside a set electronic document can be retrieved (for example, JP-A-2006-146703).
However, in the printing by the printer apparatus of the related art, in the case where vector format data such as complicated line art is heavily used in the file, since the vector format data is not compressed, the size of the PDL file becomes large. Besides, recently, as security measures, a user desires to uniformly insert a specific background image or a company logo into all original documents to be printed. When the superimposing processing to the original documents and the print processing are performed, when the PC of the user inserts data, such as the background image or the company log, into data by using the application software one by one, there occurs a disadvantage that the efficiency is poor.

Printer apparatus and printing method for printer apparatus


Certain example embodiments of this invention relate to sputtered aluminum second surface mirrors with permanent protective coatings optionally provided thereto, and/or methods of making the same. A mirror coating supported by a substrate may include, for example, first and second silicon-inclusive layers sandwiching a metallic or substantially metallic layer including aluminum, and an optional layer including Ni and/or Cr in direct contact with the metallic or substantially metallic layer comprising aluminum. A protective paint is disposed directly over and contacting an outermost layer of the mirror coating. The protective paint, once applied and cured, is adapted to survive seven day exposure to an 85 degree C. temperature at 85% relative humidity, as well as seven day exposure to a 49 degree C. temperature at 100% relative humidity.

Mirrors have been in existence for years and have been used in interior building applications such as, for example, in bathrooms, as decorations, etc.; for exterior applications such as, for example, in concentrating solar power (CSP) and concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) applications, as well as in secondary reflector panels (SRPs); as well as handheld vanity and a host of other products. Mirrors generally are either (a) first surface mirrors, where the mirror coating is provided between the viewer and the supporting glass substrate, or (b) second surface mirrors, where the supporting glass substrate is interposed between the viewer and the mirror coating. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,276,289 and 7,678,459; U.S. Publication Nos. 2006/0077580; 2007/0178316; 2008/0073203; 2008/0164173; 2010/0229853; 2011/0176212; 2011/0176236; and 2012/0087029. The entire content of each of these patent documents is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Many second surface mirrors include silver-based reflecting layers. Silver is highly reflective in the visible and infrared ranges, therefore making it a good choice from a total reflectance perspective.
Unfortunately, however, silver is quite expensive. It also is not particularly durable and, for example, is subject to corrosion when exposed to even building interior environments. Durability problems can be overcome with silver-inclusive mirrors, however, by applying one or more layers of protective paint. Yet these paints are sometimes expensive and, at a minimum, inject time delays in the process because they need to be coated and dried and sometimes re-coated and re-dried. Wet coating techniques also are "messy" and potentially hazardous to humans, especially where "heavy metals" are used.
Thus, it will be appreciated that there is a need in the art for improved mirrors and/or methods of making the same.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, a mirror is provided. A multilayer thin film coating is supported by a substrate. The multilayer thin film coating comprises, in order moving away from the substrate: a first silicon-inclusive layer, a metallic or substantially metallic layer comprising aluminum, an optional layer comprising Ni and/or Cr in direct contact with the metallic or substantially metallic layer (e.g., comprising aluminum), and a second silicon-inclusive layer in direct contact with the layer comprising Ni and/or Cr. A protective paint is wet-applied directly over and contacting an outermost layer of the multilayer thin film coating, with the protective paint being applied to ensure a post-cure density of at least 5 (and more preferably at least 10, with an example of 35) grams per square meter. The protective paint is cured (e.g., using at least one UV radiation source). The protective paint, following the curing, is adapted to survive seven day exposure to an 85 degree C. temperature at 85% relative humidity, as well as seven day exposure to a 49 degree C. temperature at 100% relative humidity.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, a method of making a coated article is provided. A coating comprising at least the following layers are sputter-deposited on a glass substrate in the following order: a first silicon-inclusive layer, a metallic or substantially metallic layer (e.g., comprising aluminum), and a second silicon-inclusive layer. A protective paint is wet-applied directly over and contacting an outermost layer of the coating, with the protective paint being curable in less than 2 seconds of exposure to a UV radiation source. The protective paint is cured using at least one UV radiation source. The protective paint is wet-applied and cured at a line speed of greater than 7 meters per minute.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, a method of making mirrors is provided. The method includes, for example, receiving, at a fabricator location, a coated article made in accordance with one of the methods described herein; and cutting the coated article into pieces of one or more respective desired sizes in making the mirrors.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, a coated article is provided. A glass substrate supports a sputter-deposited coating. The coating comprises at least the following layers in the following order: a first silicon-inclusive layer, a metallic or substantially metallic layer (e.g., comprising aluminum), and a second silicon-inclusive layer. A protective paint is provided directly over and contacting an outermost layer of the coating, with the protective paint being curable in less than 2 seconds of exposure to a UV radiation source and at a line speed of greater than 7 meters per minute. The protective paint, after curing, is adapted to survive seven day exposure to an 85 degree C. temperature at 85% relative humidity, as well as seven day exposure to a 49 degree C. temperature at 100% relative humidity, with no evidence of delamination of the protective paint and no evidence of deterioration of the coating.
The features, aspects, advantages, and example embodiments described herein may be combined to realize yet further embodiments.

Mirror with optional protective paint layer, and/or methods of making the same

Centre Luxembourgeois de Recherches pour le Verre et la Ceramique (C.R.V.C.) SaRL


A multi-purpose, functional electrical stimulation (FES) system 10 includes an implantable stimulator unit 12 for stimulating a plurality of different sites in a patient's body 14. A transmitter 20 is arranged externally of the patient's body 14 for supplying signals transcutaneously to the stimulator unit 12. A controller 16 is in communication with the transmitter 20. At least one implantable switching node 26 has an input terminal 30 in electrical communication with the stimulator unit 12 and a plurality of output terminals to each of which one of a further switching node 26 and a stimulating element 24 is connected. The switching node 26 including addressing circuitry 44 for switching at least one output terminal into electrical connection with the input terminal 30 of the switching node 26 in response to a control signal received from the controller 16 via the stimulator unit 12.

Neurological impairment, such as spinal cord injury (SCI), can occur in people of any age, and is often caused by injuries sustained in accidents associated with motor vehicles, firearms, sports injuries, and the like. Many of the individuals who sustain such injuries are young male adults between the ages of 16 and 30 who, up to the point of the accident, have lead active and healthy lives.
In the USA, the prevalence of neurological impairment resulting from SCI is estimated at between 712 and 906 per million with the incidence of SCI being calculated at between about 30 and 40 per million. It is widely recognised that SCI has a large impact on society in general and is a sudden and irreversible change to an individual's quality of life.
In order to define SCI, it should be understood that an SCI is a traumatic lesion to the spinal cord and the associated nerves. Thirty-one spinal nerves originate from the spinal cord and can be grouped as follows: 8 cervical (C1 to C8), 12 thoracic.(T1 to T12), 5 lumbar (L1 to L5), 5 sacral (S1 to S5) and 1 coccygeal. An injury to the spinal cord can result in varying degrees of impairment depending on where and to what extent the spinal cord is injured. In general, the higher up on the spinal cord the injury, the more severe the resulting impairment.
People suffering from an SCI are essentially categorised into two main groups: tetraplegics and paraplegics.
Tetraplegics are individuals who have sustained an injury to one of the eight cervical segments of the spinal cord, C1 to C8. Such an injury results in impaired use of the arms and hands as well as the legs. A person who has suffered such an injury generally experiences significant loss of sensation and volitional body movement as well as the loss of volitional bladder and bowel control. Many tetraplegics may also have loss of psychogenic and impaired reflex erections.
Paraplegics are individuals who have sustained an injury at the thoracic level, T1 to T12. These individuals usually have sensation and volitional control over their upper limbs, but have lost sensation and control of their lower limbs and bladder and bowel control, as well as erection problems in males.
Due to SCI individuals being unable to control bladder function, individuals must regularly self cathertise. This procedure is problematic, especially for females, and can result in an increase in the incidence of urinary tract infections. Still further, persons suffering from SCI must often undertake lengthy bowel evacuation procedures using, for instance, digital evacuation. SCI patients are also prone to secondary medical problems, such as pressure sores, osteoporosis, muscular atrophy in the lower limbs, muscle spasticity, deep vein thrombosis, cardiovascular disease and depression. Pressure sores are caused by the occlusion of blood flow during sitting and lying. They are a major health problem which may require surgery to repair and months of rehabilitation including requiring the patient to remain lying on their abdomen for an extended period of time.
Therefore, whilst restoration of bladder and bowel control is a primary need of SCI individuals, reduced incidence of pressure sores is also highly needed. This, together with the ability to exercise and stand and step, are functions that would greatly improve the quality of life of SCI individuals.
It is therefore evident that a large proportion of the population who have an SCI would benefit from a device that would be able to assist in the at least partial restoration of such lost functionality, in particular bowel and bladder function, erectile function, the reduction in the incidence of pressure sores and the provision of exercise and upright mobility. Various systems have been proposed by numerous organisations to deal with one or other of the functions that have been lost to SCI individuals.
The Applicant has previously developed a multi-purpose, functional electrical stimulation system. That system is described in International Patent Application PCT/AU03/00044, and is used to stimulate a number of sites in a patient's body using a single stimulator unit.
The stimulator unit is, in use, implanted in a costal region of the patient's body and may be required to stimulate regions such as the upper or lower extremities of the patient's body and the sacral and/or thoracic regions of the patient's spinal cord. Each site has multiple stimulation points which necessitates the leading of numerous electrical leads from the location of the stimulator unit to the relevant site.
In addition, it may occur that, at a later date, additional stimulation points at the site need to be stimulated which may necessitate the leading of additional electrical leads from the location of the stimulator unit to the stimulation point of the site.

Distributed functional electrical stimulation system


An ammunition clip is provided for supplying cartridges to a firearm. The ammunition clip includes an elongated housing having an internal chamber for holding a plurality of laterally aligned cartridges, said elongated housing having a loading end and an opposing end, a movable carriage disposed within the internal chamber for urging the aligned cartridges towards the loading end and a spring that urges the movable carriage towards the loading end, said spring being disposed completely outside the internal chamber, said spring being coupled on a first end to the elongated housing and on a second end to the movable carriage and being operatable in a direction of spring pressure that is parallel to a longitudinal axis of the longitudinal housing.

Ammunition clips (magazines) for firearms are widely used. Such clips often hold large numbers of cartridges and are often associated with automatic and semi-automatic weapons. The ease and speed with which an empty clip can be replaced with a full clip makes the use of ammunition clips very popular with the police, the armed forces and gun hobbyists, in general.
Gun clips are typically constructed with an elongated housing with one end of the housing engaging the gun and the other, lower end extending downward. The lower end is frequently used as a handle.
Cartridges are typically loaded from the gun end and are usually inserted cross-wise to the elongation of the housing. A spring underneath the cartridges is compressed by insertion of each cartridge and functions to urge the loaded cartridges towards the gun breech during firing.
While existing gun clips work well, their spring mechanisms are unnecessarily complex. In order to maximize the number of cartridges that a clip holds, the spring is required to have a very low profile and to occupy a relatively small volume at the bottom of the clip when the clip is full loaded. Because of the importance of gun clips a need exists for a more space efficient spring mechanism.