Powdered collagen compositions and methods for wound care or the dressing or treatment of wounds in a subject in need thereof. The powdered collagen wound care composition includes powdered collagen or collagen-based material substantially covered with a hydrophobic barrier. In at least some instances, the hydrophobic barrier prevents the complete absorption or dissolution of the powdered collage or collagen-based material when placed on or in a wound or body of a subject for at least three (3) days. The powdered collagen wound care compositions are suitable for dressing or packing wounds or post-surgical incisions.

Wound care in patients and animals is a common clinical challenge faced by the healthcare and veterinary industries. Wounds may include, for example, trauma wounds, burns, ulcers, lesions, abscesses, diabetic wounds, pressure sores or ulcers, and grafts or wounds resulting from surgical procedures and operations. Wounds may result from physical injury, surgical procedures and operations, heat or chemical burns, pressure on the skin, radiation, infections, immune system deficiencies, malnourishment, as well as various medical conditions such as vascular disorders and diabetes.
Collagen is known to improve wound healing and stimulate tissue growth and is well-tolerated at the wound site. In particular, collagen is thought to aid in the migration of fibroblasts and keratinocytes to the wound site thereby improving tissue growth in the wound bed. However, a potential problem with collagen and collagen-based wound care treatments is that collagen can completely dissolve or otherwise be absorbed by the body or wound site in less than three (3) days, resulting in inadequate treatment and/or protection of the wound site as well as overly frequent reapplication or retreatment. The dissolution and absorption of collagen and collagen-based materials at the wound site is facilitated by the fact that collagen tends to absorb blood and other bodily fluids. As a result, the dissolution and absorption at the wound site of collagen or collagen-based materials is especially problematic for powdered collagen or powdered collagen-based materials due to their small particle size and increased surface area for the absorption of fluids. Accordingly, improved collagen wound care compositions are desirable.

Powdered collagen wound care compositions


The present invention is a variety of wearing apparel which employs two-dimensional patterns of optical illusions in three-dimensional applications in or upon the material of said wearing apparel. The applications of said patterns in the design of the apparel are for the purposes of a) novelty, b) highlighting body areas for attention and/or c) creating bodily appearance modification based on the natural properties of the optical illusion pattern itself.

In the field of wearing apparel, garments have been developed in various styles, patterns and colors, typically with the intent to produce a desired visual effect. That effect has sometimes been one of form flattering or form altering attire, such as fitted shirts and corsets, or of body hiding such as camouflage. Other effects have been related to expressions of interests or points of view such as in the use of words or artistic patterns or to novelty such as in costumes.
Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal line and stripe patterns have been used, as have been geometric shapes, plaids, and checkerboard shapes. Patterns in the shapes of animate and inanimate objects as well as abstract art and symbols have been used to create specific impacts. Contrasts from the darkest darks to the lightest lights and patterns mixing black, white and colors have been employed for the purpose of creating various design results.
Some of the pattern effects tend to create optical illusions. As can be seen from a study of prior art, it has been found that garments featuring barely perceptible shading progressions (U.S. Pat. No. 1,817,053 to Zerk) and changes of color across their surfaces (U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,609 to Freedman) can provide a shapely effect due to an illusion of shadowing. Appearance modifying garments have also been developed utilizing appearance enhancing color differences to promote an improved shape of the wearer through the formation of apparent marginal edges on the garment itself (Refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,458 to Johnson).
However, a concept that has yet to be developed is that of clothing created from fabric containing patterns of optical illusions themselves for specific purposes. Therefore, as an enhancement to the current state of the art, the present invention is a style of wearing apparel which employs patterns of optical illusions for the purposes of novelty, to highlight body areas and/or to create bodily appearance modification based on the natural properties of the optical illusion pattern itself.


A vehicle closure hinge includes a mount having a pivot axis flange, a pivot link, a pivot coupling the pivot link to the pivot axis flange and a spring formed by a laterally coiled strand extending from a first coil end to a second coil end in a direction substantially perpendicular to the plane of displacement about the pivot axis. The coil size, the strand size and the number of coils can be varied as desired to vary the spring biasing force exerted against the vehicle closure without varying other components of the hinge. The hinge parts may be designed with various configurations including simple pivoting links or a four bar linkage. A strand end of the coil spring extends along the direction of the coil to a position at a first coil end to maintain biasing force near the plane of displacement about the pivot axis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor vehicle closure hinge having a pivot axis with spring biasing provided by a laterally coiled spring to prop the closure.
2. Background Art
Many previously known vehicle closure hinges such as those used for engine compartment hoods and trunk lids often include spring biasing to assist displacement of the heavy panel which is displaced about a pivot axis at one end of the panel. However, a spring biasing assist force sufficient to maintain the closure in a fully open position is often provided by additional structure such as a prop rod, gas struts or the like that resists closure of the closure panel by the weight of the panel acting in a moment of arm about the pivot axis or force transfer through a linkage.
One method to provide the spring biasing has been to use the torsion rods that can be routed across the car. However, while such spring biasing can be strong enough to resist closure, since the entire length of the torsion rod provides spring biasing force, the elongated torsion rods can obstruct and form a substantial impediment to the access through the opening or within the compartment covered by the closure panel. Other improvements to spring design, such as gas powered struts or powerful springs often require multiple installation steps since the spring biasing force unit must be separately installed to assist a conventional hinge structure. Such improvements substantially increase the difficulty of production, rendering the use of such components prohibitively expensive because they add production steps as well as additional pieces and mass to the vehicle. In the case of a gas strut power source, in a closed position the line up force in the strut is directed to the hinge pivot, thus forcing the pivot to endure high loading that shortens useful life of the original installation. Also, the life of a gas strut is both time-dependent and cycle-dependent, making it much less durable than a steel spring.
Moreover, once the design and the spring force has been determined for a particular application, the hinge designs may not be readily incorporated into other vehicles having differently sized, weighted or balanced mass or center of gravity than the installation for which it was designed. Rather, the alternative closures need specially designed linkage and/or biasing structures for each particular closure panel type, thereby substantially multiplying the number of assemblies and production pieces that must be made and inventoried by automobile manufacturers and dealers trying in order to accommodate production and repair of the entire product lines of vehicles.
A previously known attempt to address the problems discussed above involves the use of a single pivot arm as part of a four bar link assembly and integral radially wound clock spring. However, while the clock spring may integrate spring biasing force to a hinge mechanism, such springs and require an extremely large envelope both vertically as well as fore-and-aft accommodate the four bar linkage. As a result, these known mechanisms are suitable only for large vehicles, such as trucks. Moreover, alternative designs have been complex, requiring numerous parts and assembly operations, the addition of parts rendering the hinge relatively heavy, and thus have not found favor in many production applications due to the large expense compared to more conventional systems.

Single pivot hinge with integral coil spring assist


A dual tube container with one way valves comprises an outer tube and a cap, wherein, the tube head of the outer tube is provided with a base plate; the base plate is provided with a left through hole and a right through hole connecting the outer tube and the inner tube; a connector extends downwards from the right through hole, and the inner tube body in the outer tube body is connected to the connector to form the inner tube; a pair of one way valves are fixed in the tube head; an applicator with a orifice is inserted into the tube head; when the cap is put on to close the tube head, the pintle or elastic gasket in the cap sealing the orifice on the daub part of the applicator to prevent the leaking of liquid contents. It is provided with a pair of one way valves, and the inner tube is fixed in the outer tube; via the opening or closing of the pair of one way valves, the contents of the outer tube and the inner tube are permitted or forbidden to flow out. By using the dual tube container to make a cosmetic apparatus, etc., the technology of filling two kinds of pastes can be implemented via the big holes in the tube head, so as to avoid adopting expensive special equipment for filling and sealing; the operation is greatly simplified, and the cost is reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention involves the technical field of packing pasty products, especially involves a dual tube container with one way valves, and a method for making the dual tube container with applicator, which contains two kinds of pro rata pastes in the inner, and outer tubes, by the built-in one way valves being opened or closed, to allow or forbid the two pastes to flow out
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, plastic tube is widely used to products of cosmetics, medicine, food, dentifrice, medical ointment, excite mostly adopts a single tube structure of squeeze type, which contains pasty cosmetics, etc. in a tube, and while being used, the cap is opened, and the tube is squeezed to make the pasty cosmetics flow out to be used. Some cosmetics, such as a sunscreen lotion, a lipstick, a lip balm, or a hair dye, often require that multiple pastes are pro rata blended to be used, which currently are still separately packed with a single tube, so the product cost is increased. While being used, each single tube is separately opened to separately squeeze two kind of pastes out to be blended before being used, which are not convenient for using and carrying.
A Taiwan patent with the publication number of M297920 disclosed an improved dual tube container structure. The improved dual tube container structure comprises an inner tube, an outer tube, a middle sleeve, and a spigotjoint provided with an outlet and an inlet; the middle sleeve close contacts the spigotjoint to be connected by socket joint; the gear seat below the spigotjoint and the registering section at the lower section of the middle sleeve are together squeezed into the tube orifice of the outer tube, so as to make the spigotjoint and the middle sleeve to be fixed to the tube orifice part of the outer tube. By this design, different cosmetics can be separately filled in the inner tube and the outer tube, and at the same time two kinds of pro rata cosmetics can be squeezed out to be blended to use, so as to provide convenience to the users.
But in this improved structure, the fixing of the inner tube and outer tube needs implement via the parts such as the spigotjoint and the middle sleeve with complicated shapes; the complicated structure make the product cost to increase. Besides, the improved structure has no valve switch; the external liquid out path in the spigotjoint keeps being connected to the outlet of the spigotjoint all along; the outlet of the liquid out path of the inner tube keeps opening all along; the pastes (or the contents) in the inner tube and the outer tube are blended at the outlets in the tubes; the pastes at each outlets easily get bad or dry, leading to the blocking phenomenon. At the same time, when the tube is squeezed to generate a resilience pressure, the blended contents at the outlets in the tubes will be sucked back into the tubes, which causes the contents separately contained in the inner tube and the outer tube to be polluted, so, the contents being separately contained in the inner tube and the outer tube loses its meaning.
Besides, the external liquid out path in the spigotjoint is comparatively long, and each outlet is small, so it can only fits the traditional technology that the contents are separately filled from the tube tail before the tube tail is sealed.

Dual tube container with one way valves and applicator


An engaging device is provided which is capable of advantageous switchover from an engaging position to an open position. Also provided is a transfer instrument employing the structure of such an engaging device. The transfer instrument (A) includes the engaging device (X) which is capable of gradually moving an engaging surface (23) widthwise of an engaging surface (13) to retract two engaging components relative to each other by pivotally moving a dangling wall (11) of a transfer instrument body (1) and a sidewall (21) of an arm (2) relative to each other to press a sliding contact edge (24) against a guide edge (14) gradually from a first end portion (14a) toward an opposite second end portion (14b) of the guide edge (14).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an engaging device capable of engaging/disengaging two members as well as a transfer instrument employing the engaging device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, wide use has been made of an engaging device structured to engage one member with another by means of a claw capable of engaging such members. Specifically, such an engaging device includes engaging components provided on respective of the two members, the engaging components having respective engaging surfaces. The engaging device is configured such that the two engaging components can take an engaging position in which the two engaging surfaces face each other and an open position in which the two engaging surfaces are spaced apart from each other switchably. Particularly, the engaging device is configured such that the two engaging components take relatively retracted positions temporarily in the course of moving from the engaging position to the open position or vice versa (see the following patent documents 1 and 2 for example).    Patent document 1: Japanese Utility Model Publication No. HEI 7-18676 (FIG. 1 and the like)    Patent document 2: Japanese Patent No. 3459686 (FIG. 1 and the like)
However, in cases where the aforementioned engaging device is used in such a manner that the engaging position and the open position are frequently switched to each other repeatedly, the user may feel tired of performing an operation for releasing the engaging components from the engaging position. Further, it is possible that the claw is damaged by the user trying to release the engaging components kept engaged from the engaging position forcibly due to being oblivious of conducting the operation of releasing the engagement.
In view of such an inconvenience the present invention intends to provide an engaging device capable of advantageously releasing the engaging components from the engaging position as well as a transfer instrument employing the structure of such an engaging device to allow the user to use the transfer instrument conveniently.


An in situ method of cleaning soil and/or water contaminated with a contaminant comprising one or more compounds selected from the group consisting of metal compounds, sulfur compounds and cyanide compounds comprises breaking up contaminated soil, admixing soil with water and a biodegradable detergent in a proportion effective to obtain an aqueous slurry where the soil, any contaminant and the detergent interact to form contaminant-detergent formations, allowing the slurry to stand under conditions effective to permit any contaminant-detergent formations to rise in the aqueous slurry, separating the contaminant-detergent formations from the aqueous slurry now comprising partially decontaminated soil and water, separating the soil from the water, repeating the cleaning and separation steps until the soil has less contaminant than a predetermined value, typically a 80-90% decrease, admixing the soil having a lower contamination level with water and an activating agent for microorganisms capable of removing the contaminants, the agent being capable of generating H.sub.2 O.sub.2 in solution, allowing the activating agent to interact with the soil microorganisms in the aqueous mixture under conditions effective to further remove contaminants remaining therein, separating the activating agent-treated soil from the aqueous mixture comprising the microorganisms, washing the separated soil and returning it to the original site, separating the contaminated water from the decontaminant laden microorganisms, and recycling the decontamined water into the system or returning it to the environment.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an in situ method of cleaning soil, particularly sand, gravel, clay, and the like, and aqueous solutions such as water, that have been contaminated with, e.g., metal ions such as lead, chromium, silver and the like, sulfur-containing compounds, cyanide-containing compounds, and the like. The method relies on the formation of an aqueous slurry, the addition in separate steps of a detergent and an additive to promote the growth of indigenous microorganisms, and the regulation of the temperature at which these steps are conducted to thereby reduce the presence of metals, sulfur compounds, cyanide compounds and/or other contaminants in the soil and/or water. The extraction of these and other contaminants with the detergent may be repeated until their content is reduced to a level such that the remaining amount may be removed by concentration and/or adsorption and/or degradation by microorganisms indigenous to the soil and/or water.
2. Description of the Background
Various methods have been employed in the past to remove contaminants from contaminated solids such as soil. U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,944 to Jones describes a method and apparatus for detoxifying heavy metals such as chromium, arsenic, barium, cadmium, lead, mercury, selenium, silver, nickel, zinc, copper, and others, from contaminated soil, sludge, ashes, and the like. The method fixes the metals with carbon. It does so by heating a soil sample with a carbon-containing material to a temperature below the temperature for complete volatilization of most heavy metals while inhibiting the formation of oxides to produce a carbon bonded metal char residue, then cooling the char residue in the absence of air to insure that the residue will not combust, and then cooling to ambient temperature. The thus obtained residue is non-leachable since it heats to encapsulate the heavy metals by bonding to a carbon material. The metals are affixed to the carbon which may then be disposed of (see, column 4, lines 21-28 and 53-62 of Jones for description of combustion conditions and pyrolysis chamber).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,475 to Harte et al. discloses a method for treating a bed material with chelating agents and the use of this agent to remove a broad range of toxic chemicals from drinking water. The bed material is preferably granulated activated charcoal and the treated bed material is utilized in a water filtration device. Chelating agents, such as EDTA, are embedded in the bed material by application of a polymer/chelating agent-containing solution to the charcoal, rinsing and drying the bed material, treating it with an acidic solution and rinsing and drying.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,848 to Hansen describes an in situ method and apparatus for removing gaseous or vaporizable contaminants from a solid material without wholesale removal of the contaminated material. A perforated container with granules of charcoal providing a large surface for adsorption is inserted in the contaminated soil area. A cryogenic liquid, such as liquid nitrogen, is introduced in the container to cool the granules. The removal of contaminants from the soil is then accomplished by allowing for the gaseous or vaporized contaminants to flow out of the ground and into the container's perforations. The contaminants are thus adsorbed onto the cooled surface of the charcoal, and the container is removed from the ground when approaching saturation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,292 to Durham et al. has claims limited to an in situ method of containing a contaminated liquid such as waste, hazardous liquids, drilling muds and chemicals by absorbing it into biogenetic silica. However, in the patent, it is indicated that the silica may contain a wide variety of additives such as carbon or activated charcoal (see, column 3, lines 28-32). The biogenetic silica is applied, whether alone or with additives, to the surface of the liquids in bulk or in contained form, such as in pellets. It may be added by gravity or sprayed onto or into the liquids, with or without mixing (see, column 3, lines 39-45).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,753 to Scott et al. relates to an aqueous suspension of activated charcoal for use as an in situ agricultural spray. The suspension contains, in addition, a wetting and suspending agent consisting of octylphenoxy(polyethoxyethanol) and a defoaming agent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,628 to Saha et al. discloses and claims a method of disposing waste material that comprises forming a recessed area within the earth, lining it with a layer of zeolite, lining the zeolite with a layer of activated carbonaceous material to form a container, placing the waste material within the cavity, adding a second layer of activated carbonaceous material onto the waste material and a second layer of zeolite thereon. The entire contaminated soil area is buried inside an underground waste barrier structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,239 to Snyder et al. relates to a method of making an ion-exchange material by implanting an element such as carbon into a ceramic material and oxidizing the carbon to carboxylate or carbonate.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,969,294 to Shyne discloses and claims a method of uniformly extracting uranium into a graphite body to form a fuel block for a homogeneous, graphite-moderated nuclear research reactor.
A study published by the U.S. Department of Commerce (National Technical Information Service No. PB84-123637) funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and conducted by Rexnord, Inc. discusses requirements for mobile systems to extract spilled hazardous materials from excavated soils. The study lists the characteristics necessary for an effective extraction fluid. Chief among these characteristics is a solvent possessing low volatility at ambient conditions. A volatile solvent under ambient conditions, such as aqueous ammonia, is not considered a suitable extraction fluid by the above study to decontaminate soil.
Accordingly, there is still a need for a simple and effective method for cleaning contaminated soil such as gravel, sand, clay, and the like, and water, contaminated with metal compounds, sulfur compounds, including sulfhydric acid, and cyanide compounds, that may be easily conducted at the site of a spill and provide a significant reduction in the levels of metal ions such as heavy metal ions, sulfur compounds and cyanide compounds in the soil and in surface and subterranean water layers.

Method for on site cleaning of soil contaminated with metal compounds, sulfides and cyanogen derivatives


An electronic throttle control system is described where a throttle position sensor has multiple slopes depending on the operating region. At low throttle positions, a greater slope, and thus a greater sensitivity is provided, thereby increasing control resolution. At greater throttle positions, a lower slope, and thus lower sensitivity is provided. In this way, an output signal that varies across the entire operating region of the throttle is provided for monitoring and control, while improved performance at low throttle angles can be simultaneously achieved. A method of making the sensor is also described.

The field of the invention relates to electronically controlled throttle units in vehicles having a drive unit.
In some engines, an electronically controlled throttle is used for improved performance. In such systems, position of the throttle is controlled via closed loop feedback control. Typically, to provide redundancy multiple throttle position sensors are provided.
One method to provide two throttle position sensors uses sensors of different gradients, each linear over the entire operating range, another uses gradients of opposite sign. Still other methods use saturating sensors. These methods are described U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,136,880, 5,260,877, and 4,693,111, respectively.
The inventors herein have recognized some disadvantages of the above approaches. In particular, when a high resolution saturating sensor and a low resolution sensor are used together, there is a saturated region where the saturating sensor provides less information than the unsaturated region. Alternatively, when different gradients are used, each linear over the entire region, the analog to digital converters are over-specified and under-utilized to accommodate the low resolution sensor. Another disadvantage with prior approaches is that multiple tracks, interconnections between the tracks, and wiper arms may be required to provide multiple outputs having different characteristics.
An object of the present invention is to provide electronic throttle control systems and sensors.
The above object is achieved and disadvantages of prior approaches overcome by a position sensor according to the present invention. In one aspect, the sensor comprises a substrate, and a track positioned on said substrate including at least two contiguous first and second segments, each of said segments having a different material property.
By having a sensor with two operating regions, it is possible to obtain high resolution at low throttle angles, and thereby have better airflow control as well as to obtain information throughout the operating range without over-specifying and under-utilizing A/D converters.
An advantage of the above aspect of the invention is improved monitoring.
Another advantage of the above aspect of the invention is improved control.
In another aspect of the present invention, the sensor further comprises a single movable wiper for sliding over said track to provide an electrical signal having an amplitude related to position of said wiper.
An advantage of the above aspect of the present invention is that a simplified structure is provided with a single track having two segments, no interconnection between the segments, and only a single wiper arm moving across both segments.


A test apparatus and methods of measuring wear of a material with a laser displacement measurement apparatus based upon displacement of a test sample of the material or the wear of a testing surface and a specimen. A lubricant test method and apparatus measures the thickness of a lubricant film between two test surfaces by comparing the location of the test surfaces at rest and dynamically.

Tribology is the science of the interaction of surfaces in relative motion. It includes the study of friction, lubrication and wear. It is commonly applied to the design and development of bearings. A tribometer is used to measure the performance of materials relating to friction and wear when tested under different conditions, including pressure and velocity over time.
Several different types of tribometers have been developed including a pin on disk, oscillating, four ball, ball-on disk types. The duration of tribometer tests are frequently long and become a holding point in the development of new bearing material. ASTM standards emphasize the importance of test duration to obtain precise results. One example of an ASTM standard is provided below:
ASTM D3702-94 (2009) Standard Test Method for Wear Rate and Coefficient of Friction of Materials in Self-Lubricated Rubbing Contact Using a Thrust Washer Testing Machine:
The precision of wear measurement is relatively independent of test duration or amount of wear, but the precision of wear rate (calculation) improves with test duration and amount of wear. It is generally believed that useful wear rate precision requires the selection of test duration sufficient to produce 0.1 mm (0.004 in) of wear. Test durations will often be in the 50 to 4,000-h range.
One prior art technique involves a test apparatus in which a test surface moving at a selected velocity is contacted by a test sample while applying controlled pressure to the test sample. The test method requires a relatively long run-in period prior to beginning the data collection period. This run-in period is often a necessary step to ensure accurate results in tribology measurements. After a standardized time interval of many hours or days the test sample is removed from the apparatus and weighed to determine the rate of wear at the selected pressure and velocity. The test may include different intervals of constant velocity and pressure, and the difference in weight of the test sample from the beginning of the test interval to the end of the test interval indicates the amount of material lost during that test interval and thus gives the amount of wear achieved under the interval's velocity and pressure.
Similarly, another prior art technique involves a test apparatus in which a test sample contacts a rotating test surface. Again, a relatively long run-in period is required before beginning the test period. The test is conducted over a long period of time to permit the test sample to wear to an extent that is measurable reliably with a conventional measuring device. The test sample is again removed from the apparatus and the dimensions are taken to determine the rate of wear at the selected pressure and velocity. The difference in dimensions of the test sample from the beginning of the test to the end of the test indicates the amount of material lost during the test and gives the amount of wear achieved under the test parameters.
A dynamic measuring system is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,030 in which a proximity sensor is attached to the supporting structure of the test sample to move with the test sample. The proximity sensor faces the wear surface disk and measures the change in distance between the supporting structure and the wear surface disk. A test is run in which pressure is applied to the test sample and the wear surface disk is rotated at a velocity to give the desired pressure and velocity over time. The difference in distance of the test sample from the beginning of the test to the end of the test indicates the amount of material lost during the test and gives the amount of wear achieved under the specific conditions. The system dynamically measures the change in the distance between the proximity sensor and the test surface. Measurements may be taken at various intervals while the test is conducted. The '030 patent also discloses a prior art pin-on-disk type wear testing device and method with reference to FIG. 3 of the patent.
Tribology testing in the field of lubricant testing presents different challenges than testing wear of a material. The thickness of the lubricant layer should be determined in lubricant testing. Optimal performance of a lubricant occurs when a system is operating at a hydrodynamic level in which a first test surface floats on a film of oil on a second test surface. A lubricant may also operate at a mixed level with surfaces partially touching through the film of oil and a minimum level of wear of the test surfaces. A third regime is boundary layer operation and the test surfaces are in contact that results in wear of the surfaces. There are longstanding problems with measuring the thickness of a lubricant layer dynamically and with sufficient accuracy to provide useful data relating to lubricant performance.
The apparatus and methods disclosed by applicant are intended to improve upon the prior art as described above. Applicant's reference to certain prior art techniques should not be construed as a representation that these are the only apparatus or methods or even that they are the most similar techniques.


The invention provides novel substituted 6-arylamino pyridone carboxamides represented by Formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate, poly-morph, ester, tautomer or prodrug thereof, and a composition comprising these compounds. The compounds provided can be used as inhibitors of MEK and are useful in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, cancer and other hyperproliferative diseases. The invention further provides a method of treatment for inflammatory diseases, cancer and other hyperproliferative diseases in mammals, especially humans.

Protein kinases constitute a large family of structurally related enzymes that effect the transfer of a phosphate group from a nucleoside triphosphate to a Ser, Thr or Tyr residue on a protein acceptor. A vast array of cellular functions, including DNA replication, cell cycle progression, energy metabolism and cell growth and differentiation, are regulated by reversible protein phosphorylation events mediated by protein kinases. Additionally, protein kinase activity has been implicated in a number of diseases, including cancers. Of the >100 dominant oncogenes known to date, many encode receptor and cytoplasmic protein kinases known to be mutated and/or over expressed in human cancers (Blume-Jensen and Hunter, Nature, 411:355-365 (2001)). Accordingly, protein kinase targets have attracted substantial drug discovery efforts in recent years, with several protein kinase inhibitors achieving regulatory approval (reviewed in Fischer, Curr.'s Med. Chem., 11:1563 (2004); Dancey and Sausville, Nature Rev. Drug Disc., 2:296 (2003)).
The Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK pathway is a central signal transduction pathway, which transmits signals from multiple cell surface receptors to transcription factors in the nucleus which regulate gene expression. This pathway is frequently referred to as the MAP kinase pathway as MAPK stands for mitogen-activated protein kinase indicating that this pathway can be stimulated by mitogens, cytokines and growth factors (Steelman et al., Leukemia 2004, 18, 189-218). Depending upon the stimulus and cell type, this pathway can transmit signals, which result in the prevention or induction of apoptosis or cell cycle progression. The Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK pathway has been shown to play important roles in cell proliferation and the prevention of apoptosis. Aberrant activation of this pathway is commonly observed in malignantly transformed cells. Amplification of ras proto-oncogenes and activating mutations that lead to the expression of constitutively active Ras proteins are observed in approximately 30% of all human cancers (Stirewalt et al., Blood 2001, 97, 3589-95). Mutated, oncogenic forms of Ras are found in 50% of colon and >90% pancreatic cancers as well as many other types of cancers (Kohl et al., Science 1993, 260, 1834-1837). The effects of Ras on proliferation and tumorigenesis have been documented in immortal cell lines (McCubrey et al., Int J Oncol 1995, 7, 295-310). bRaf mutations have been identified in more than 60% of malignant melanoma (Davies, H et al., Nature 2002, 417, 949954). Given the high level of mutations that have been detected at Ras, this pathway has always been considered a key target for therapeutic intervention (Chang et al., Leukemia 2003, 17, 1263-93).
As constitutive or overactivation of MAP kinase cascade plays a pivotal role in cell proliferation and differentiation, inhibition of this pathway is believed is to be beneficial in hyperproliferative diseases. MEK is a key player in this pathway as it is downstream of Ras and Raf. Additionally, it is an attractive therapeutic target because the only known substrates of MEK phosphorylation are the MAP kinases, ERK1 and ERK2 Inhibition of MEK has been shown to have potential therapeutic benefit in several studies. For example, small molecule MEK inhibitors have been shown to inhibit human tumor growth in mouse xenografts, (Seebolt-Leopold et. al., Nature-Medicine, 1999 5(7), 810-816; Trachet et al. AACR Apr. 6-10, 2002, Poster & num; 5426) and inhibit growth of acute myeloid leukemia cells (Milella et. al., J. Clin. Invest., 2001, 108 (6) 851-859).
Compounds suitable as MEK inhibitors are also disclosed in WO 00/41994; WO 00/42022; WO 00/42029; WO 00/68201; WO 01/68619; WO 02/06213, WO 03/077914, WO 05/023251, WO 05/121142, WO 07/014,011, WO 07/044,084, WO 07/071,951, WO 07/121,481, WO 07/123,939, WO 08/021389, WO 08/078,086, WO 08/120,004, WO 08/124,085, WO 09/018,233, WO 09/018,238, WO 09/013,462, WO 09/021,887, WO 09/080,523, WO 09/082,687, WO 09/085,983, WO 09/093,008, WO 09/093,009, WO 09/093,013, WO 09/129,938, WO 09/153,554, U.S. Ser. No. 09/012,4595, U.S. Ser. No. 09/024,6198, U.S. Ser. No. 09/027,5606, WO 10/003,022, WO 10/003,025, WO 10/051,933 and WO 10/051,935.

6-arylamino pyridone carboxamide as MEK inhibitors

Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd.


An image interpolation method comprises searching a motion vector from different pairs of blocks on a first and a second reference image symmetrically, extracting a first and a second image block from the first and the second reference image, respectively, the first and the second image block being located by the motion vector, determining a region determination threshold using an absolute difference between paired opposite pixels of the first and the second image block, extracting from each of the first and the second image block a first pixel region that the absolute difference is smaller than the region determination threshold, and obtaining a pixel value of a second pixel region of the to-be-interpolated block from a pixel value of the first pixel region of each of the first and the second image block, the second pixel region corresponding to the first pixel region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a frame interpolation method and apparatus of interposing at least one interpolation frame between adjacent frames for the purpose of decreasing a display frame interval in playing back a video image, and an image display system using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a hold model picture display apparatus which continues to display a previous frame till an image is newly written in, such as a liquid crystal display and an electroluminescence display, there are problems such as a blurring occurring when eyes of a viewer follow movement of a moving object in a video display, and an unnatural movement due to displaying a video with a few frames.
A display frame interval may be decreased for the problems to be solved. A concrete method of decreasing a display frame interval is to generate an interpolation frame using motion compensation used by MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) and to interpose it between adjacent frames. In the motion compensation in MPEG, a motion vector detected by an image block matching method is used. The image block matching method includes dividing a first reference frame into a plurality of first image block, searching a second reference frame approximate to the first reference frame for a second image block having a maximum correlation with respect to each first image block, and deriving a motion vector from the second image block to the first image block.
In the image block based frame interpolation method using such motion compensation, when an interpolation frame is generated by the motion compensation, at first a scaling process which converts a first motion vector between the first and the second reference frames to a second motion vector between the interpolation frame and the first reference frame is carried out. Carrying out the motion compensation using the second motion vector provided by the scaling process generates the interpolation frame. In other words, the end point of the second motion vector is fixed on the first reference frame, and the image data of the image block indicated by the end point of the second motion vector is copied to the position of the to-be-interpolated block indicated by the starting point of the second motion vector on the interpolation frame.
In this method, the starting point of the second motion vector provided by the scaling does not always coincide with the position of the original to-be-interpolated block on the interpolation frame. For this reason, a gap having no image data or a region on which image data are overlapped may occur on the interpolation frame.
Japanese patent publication No. 2528103 (patent document 1) discloses a frame interpolation method without such a gap or overlapping. This method interpolates a frame by deriving correlation between reference frames located before and after with respect to a to-be-interpolated block on the interpolation frame. As a result, it is possible to generate an interpolation frame directly by using the motion vector derived at first without scaling of a motion vector. Further, the to-be-interpolated blocks are arranged on the interpolation frame in a form of a uniform lattice, so that the gap or overlapping does not occur on the interpolation frame.
The method of the patent document 1 is an image block based method to process an image in units of an image block similarly to MPEG. For this reason, there is a problem that a block distortion occurs on a boundary between the image blocks on the interpolation frame in the case that there are a plurality of movements in the image block.
When an object moves from left to right on a stationary background, interpolation is performed on the background around the object. In this time, completely different backgrounds are averaged, resulting in producing a different background around the object. Therefore, a gap occurs between the background around the object and the original background on the outside thereof. The gap is visually recognized as block distortion.
An object of the invention is to provide a frame interpolation method and apparatus wherein no block-to-block gap and no block overlapping occur on an interpolation frame and block distortion is suppressed, and an image display system using the same.

Frame interpolation method and apparatus, and image display system


An electrolarynx includes tone-producing circuitry, a power switch to turn on the circuitry, a control button (i.e., a pushbutton) to actuate the power switch, a pressure-sensitive-resistor (PSR) that is physically coupled to the pushbutton, and a mode switch. PSR resistance is dependent on the amount of pressure applied to the pushbutton, and the tone-producing circuitry is configured to respond to such variations in PSR resistance according to a user-selected mode of electrolarynx operation set by operation of the mode switch. Said modes preferably include multiple frequency-varying modes (FVMs) in which the frequency of the electrolarynx tone is varied with different sensitivities to variations in PSR resistance, and multiple volume-varying modes (VVMs) having different sensitivities. A preferred embodiment also includes a communications-link mode, for receiving control information from an external device, and a disabled mode. Preferably, the tone-producing circuitry includes a microcontroller component that is configured for electrolarynx operation under program control.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to the electromechanical speech aids commonly referred to as artificial larynxes and as electrolarynxes, and more particularly to an improved electrolarynx construction with increased functionality.
2. Description of Related Art
A person without normal use of their vocal cords or larynx often uses an electrolarynx to speak. The electrolarynx includes a sound-producing component that delivers an electrolarynx tone (e.g., a buzzing sound) having a fundamental frequency in the speech range of the average human voice. To speak, the user introduces this artificially generated tone into a resonant speech cavity (i.e., the mouth, nose, or pharynx). While doing so, the user modulates the electrolarynx tone by varying the shape of the resonant speech cavity and by making the usual tongue, teeth, and lip constrictions so as to articulate the modulated tone as human speech.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,812,681; 6,252,966; 9,031,249; and U.S. Pat. No. 9,116,539 issued to Clifford J. Griffin describe some existing electrolarynxes. Each of those electrolarynxes typically includes a four-inch to five-inch long case that houses an electronic circuit board, a battery, an electro-mechanical transducer for producing vibrations (i.e., the electrolarynx tone), a volume control, and a power switch. The user grasps the case in one hand, actuates the power switch and volume control, and then presses the transducer portion of the electrolarynx against the outside of their throat so that electrolarynx tone vibrations travel through the throat tissues and into the mouth and throat for modulation and articulation.
One such electrolarynx includes a pressure-sensitive resistor (PSR) coupled to a pushbutton; the user depresses the pushbutton with their thumb to actuate the power switch while varying the pressure on the PSR. The PSR is connected to electronic circuitry that varies the frequency of the electrolarynx tone according to changes in the amount of pressure applied to the PSR. That way, the pushbutton-PSR combination enables both electrolarynx power-on and frequency variation of the electrolarynx tone with minimal, unnoticeable movement of the user pressing the pushbutton. Operation is easy, and a wide and continuous range of frequencies allows for increased control and subtle voice inflection, including syllable-specific intonation which may be used to approximate regionally specific or country specific voice patterns. Nevertheless, variation of electrolarynx volume is not as easy.

Electrolarynx control button arrangement


An FDDI transmitting apparatus employs a scrambler to scramble input NRZ data which in turn is input to an NRZI-to-NRZ pre-encoder. This is in turn coupled in series with an NRZ-to-NRZI encoder to produce scrambled FDDI data for transmission whose spectral content is predistorted as a result of the scrambling to minimize spectral content peaks above about 30 MHz. The scrambling is performed according to the equation y.sub.i =x.sub.i +y.sub.i-14 +y.sub.i-15. A complementary receiving apparatus employs an NRZI-to-NRZ decoder which, according to the invention, is coupled to an NRZ-to-NRZI postdecoder. This data is thence coupled to a descrambler according to the invention to recover the original data.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for changing the spectral content of a data stream suitable for high-speed local area network communications over wire lines. It is contemplated that serial information is to be transmitted at extremely high data rates over specific media and relatively short distances (up to 100 meters on data grade unshielded twisted pair cabling or level 5 cable, and up to 200 meters on Type 1 shielded cabling). The particular field of application is in communications according to the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) standard.
FDDI is a high-speed LAN protocol based on use of a token in a ring topology and originally designed only for fiber optic networks communicating at video data rates. According to the FDDI Physical Media Dependent (PMD) layer protocol encoding is Non Return to Zero Invert (NRZI) with a 4-bit to 5-bit conversion/translation which guarantees no more than a 14% deviation from a reference d.c. level. Data rates are such that unwanted spurious emissions may be generated which cause electrical interference.
FDDI allows two types of network stations or nodes on an electrically-connected ring. One class, Class A, may couple to a primary and a redundant secondary ring simultaneously. Another class, Class B, may be coupled to only one ring at a time. Class B nodes are intended to use a single connection to carry both incoming and outgoing lines of a ring. However, because of the dual fiber configuration of the primary ring, Class A nodes and Class B nodes can be interconnected only through an interfacing device referred to as a wiring concentrator. The wiring concentrator provides connection points into the primary ring that are suitable for Class B type connections.
The connection between Class B nodes and the wiring concentrator may be optical fiber or copper twisted pair wire, such as IBM Type 1 shielded wire. It would be advantageous to use Data Grade high twist cabling or conventional telephone DIW unshielded twisted pair cabling, particularly in a building structure already wired with such wiring. However, it has been considered difficult, if not impossible, to use such wiring at data rates comparable to the fiber optic speeds of interest. As a consequence, there is a constraint on the rate of data exchange which prevents the use of such wiring in the connection between a Class B node and a data concentrator. It turns out that data rates of 125 MB/s can be supported by twisted pair wiring, provided that RF emissions can be reduced to acceptable levels. FCC standards require that emission levels be suppressed in the spectrum of 30 MHz to 1 GHz. Current FDDI modulation schemes cannot meet these constraints on unshielded twisted pair wiring.
Data scramblers are known for the purpose of encrypting data for secure transmission or to provide for error detection and correction in noisy communication channels. Some incidental spectral modification generally results. However, such spectral shaping is generally a side effect which typically results in a degraded spectrum. A primitive scrambling and descrambling technique, NRZ/NRZI encoding, is part of the FDDI specification. The specified scrambling technique aggravates the emissions problem by producing, especially in response to the FDDI "idle" signal, a strong square-wave frequency characteristic with a fundamental frequency of 62.5 MHz and strong odd harmonics. The FDDI "idle" symbol is 11111. In between frames of data, the "idle" signal is transmitted to keep the receive clocks at each "listening" station synchronized to the transmit clocks at each "talking" station. After NRZI encoding, this idle signal becomes 10101--a 62.5 MHz square wave.
What is needed is a scheme for communication of baseband signals on copper wiring which is capable of data rates comparable to that of fiber optic cables while satisfying the stated constraints.

Method and apparatus for controlling the spectral content of a data stream


The invention relates to a device including a substrate and at least one biologically active substance bound to at least a part of the surface of this substrate, which is obtained by simultaneous or sequential reaction of said substrate and of said substance with a bifunctional coupling agent in which one of the functional groups is capable of being photoactivated and generates carbenes and is used to bind the coupling agent to the inorganic substrate and the other functional group is used to bind the coupling agent to the biologically active substance, in which said substrate is a covalent inorganic nitride.

The invention relates to a device including a biologically active substance immobilized on a covalent nitride substrate by a bifunctional coupling agent.
The ability to determine quantitatively a substance or a mixture of substances in a given medium is of considerable interest in various applications such as process monitoring, quality control, the determination of pollutants in air and water, the quantitative determination of analytes in physiological fluids, the diagnosis of diseases, the histological compatibility between individuals, food duality and the like. The concentrations of substances to be measured range from molar to picomolar quantities.
There is therefore a need for fast and sensitive detection devices for this purpose.
It has become apparent in particular that it would be advantageous to have available devices in which the biologically active substance is immobilized on an inorganic substrate which is substantially inert as to physical bonding (physisorption) with molecules of said substance and which would also be capable of being incorporated into integrated electronic and/or optical devices. Such materials are lo be found among covalent nitrides such as boron nitride (BN), titanium nitrides, phosphorus nitrides such as P.sub.3 N.sub.5, carbon nitrides, silicon nitrides and transition metal nitrides. Silicon nitride is particularly preferred because of its refractive index, its waveguide properties, its low optical absorption properties and its chemical inertness, which make it well-suited to applications which rely on integrated optics.
In a different technical field, that of surgical Implants or Of surgical hardware, there is a continual need for articles whose surfaces are made biologically compatible, for example in order to minimize or eliminate rejection reactions or adverse reactions of the blood (for example coagulation) in contact with implants and instruments. Although techniques of immobilization) of biologically active substances, for example heparin, are already known, there is still a need for improvements in this field. It has become apparent that nitride coatings, for example titanium nitride coatings, applied to implants or medical or surgical devices and on which an appropriate biologically active substance would be immobilized could be of interest.

Device including a biologically active substance immobilized on a covalent nitride substrate by a bifunctional coupling agent

CSEM - Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique SA


An approach for minimizing queuing delay of packets is disclosed. M number of queues are configured to store packets. A memory stores a search order table that has table entries corresponding to the M queues. Specifically, the table entries store values that correspond to relative positions of the M queues and that are selected based upon a transmission constraint of the communication system. A scheduler is coupled to the memory and is configured to schedule transmission of the packets stored in the M queues based upon the search order table. According to one embodiment of the present invention, this queuing mechanism is applied in a satellite communication system with transmission constraints to the downlink cells.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communication systems, and is more particularly related to providing fairness in the servicing of queues in a switching communication system.
2. Discussion of the Background
As businesses and society, in general, become increasingly reliant on communication networks to conduct a variety of activities, ranging from business transactions to personal traffic congestion. For example, the maturity of electronic commerce and acceptance of the Internet as a daily tool pose an enormous challenge to communication engineers to develop techniques to reduce network latency and user response times. With the advances in processing power of desktop computers, the average user has grown accustomed to sophisticated multimedia applications, which place tremendous strain on network resources (e.g., switch capacity). Also, because the decrease in application response times is a direct result of the increased processor performance, the user has grown less tolerant of network delays, demanding comparable improvements in the network infrastructure.
Network latency is attributable, in part, to queueing delays. Conventionally, queueing delays are difficult to predict or bound, in part, because of the correlation between the output traffic and the input traffic, which can exhibit a wide variety of behaviors (e.g., stochastic, deterministic, or a combination thereof). As a result of the inability to readily determine an upper bound on the queueing delay, applications cannot efficiently determine a timeout period for retransmitting lost or greatly delayed packets. Without accurate knowledge of the upper bound, the end users are unable to receive a guarantee on their application response times. To further exacerbate the increased response times, the delays are not uniform across the users; that is, some users, by virtue of the relative position of the queues that store their traffic, may experience significantly more delay than other users. Thus, the queues are not serviced fairly during network congestion, for example.
One traditional approach to minimizing queueing delays is to upgrade the hardware to increase capacity—e.g., processing power. The main drawback with this forklift approach is cost. Further, in some systems, such as a communication satellite, hardware replacement is impractical.
Based on the foregoing, there is a clear need for improved approaches to minimizing queueing delay.
There is also a need to optimize the use of existing network hardware.
There is also a need to determine an upper bound of the worst-case queueing delays.
Based on the need to improve system throughput, an approach for providing fairness by minimizing queueing delays is highly desirable.

Approach to minimize worst-case queuing delay for a switching communication system with transmission constraints


A process for recovering oil by injecting into a subterranean oil-bearing reservoir through one or more injection wells, an aqueous solution containing one or more amphoteric alkyl amido betaine surfactants that form a viscoelastic gel reducing interfacial tension and increasing the viscosity of the injection fluid simultaneously, displacing the solution into the reservoir, and recovering the oil from one or more production wells. These viscoelastic gels are tolerant to electrolytes and multivalent cations. They are shear reversible and adsorbed little onto the reservoir. Their viscosity is reduced when contacting certain hydrocarbons but remains high when contacting water or brine. This allows the fluid to preferentially penetrate the oil-bearing portions of the formation and resulting additional oil recovery. These viscoelastic surfactant gels are particularly suitable for use with reservoirs and brines characterized by medium to high temperatures, higher salinity, higher concentrations of divalent cations, and low formation porosities.

Crude oil is generally recovered from an oil-bearing reservoir by three processes, designated primary, secondary and tertiary recovery. The latter is also known as Enhanced Oil Recovery. In primary recovery the oil is produced through a producer well by taking advantage of the pressure exerted on underground pools of oil by gas or water present with the oil. Approximately 20% of the original oil in place (OOIP) is recovered by this process. Once the pressure has been exhausted, other means of recovering the remaining oil must be employed. In secondary recovery the well may be re-pressurized with gas or water injected through one or more injection wells to recover approximately an additional 20% of the OOIP. Other secondary recovery methods include acidizing, fracturing, water flood, etc. After secondary recovery means have been exhausted, EOR processes can be employed to recover additional oil up to approximately 60% OOIP.
Many EOR techniques have been disclosed in the past yet the EOR process is not widely used by the industry for several reasons. For example, in the EOR processes employing chemicals, petroleum sulfonates and synthetic alkylaryl sulfonates are predominantly used as the surfactant to lower the interfacial tension (IFT) between the residual oil and the injection fluid in order to overcome the capillary forces trapping the oil. Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamides are generally employed as the viscosifier for mobility control. Both the polymers and surfactants used are not salt and multivalent cation tolerant and therefore either a fresh water source or pre-treatment of the injection water is required. Also, a costly hydration unit is often required for the polymer in order to properly dissolve and develop its viscosity. Furthermore, often a high concentration of the surfactant is required for proper oil displacement, or, alkali is used with the surfactant to enhance the interfacial tension and reduce the surfactant adsorption. In addition, the polyacrylamide may precipitate and cause serious formation damage when contacting the connate water containing multivalent cations. Most polymers are not stable at temperatures above 140° C. and are irreversibly degraded by shear. The huge up-front investment and product limitations currently discourage the wide use of the EOR process. This is especially the case for many marginal fields, owned by smaller independent companies even though the fields contain considerable residual oil reserves.
The present invention relates to the composition and process for injecting amphoteric viscoelastic surfactant gels into a subterranean oil bearing formation through one or more injection wells, displacing the fluid into the formation and recovering oil from one or more production wells. The viscoelastic surfactant gels contain amphoteric surfactants, commonly known as betaines. These are used alone or in combination with certain other surfactants and/or polymers in an aqueous injection fluid, to reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) between brines and crude oils and increase the viscosity of the injection brine.
There are many citations in the prior art that have recognized the use of various amphoteric surfactants for water flood and other oil recovery processes. U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,911 describes a three-surfactant system containing a water soluble salt of an alkyl or alkylaryl sulfonate, a phosphate ester surfactant and sulfonated betaine for oil recovery in formations having high temperature and high concentrations of polyvalent ions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,491 describes the use of naphthenic acid based betaines for recovering mineral oil from oil deposits.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,452 employs a surface active amphoteric quaternary ammonium sulfonate and an aliphatic alcohol containing 5 to 8 carbon atoms to produce a thicken injection fluid for waterflooding. U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,097 uses amphoteric surfactants having an inner quaternary ammonium group linked to a terminal sulfonated or carboxylate group to reduce the oil-water interfacial tension in relatively high salinity aqueous media that include the presence of significant quantities of divalent metal ions. The amphoteric betaines used in this case are based on tertiary amines they do not increase the viscosity of the injected fluid as do the alkyl amido betaines of the present invention. They are primarily used to lower the IFT between the injection fluid and the residual oil. As explained in the example included in U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,097, xanthan gum was used as a mobility control agent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,974 discloses a method for recovering petroleum from a subterranean reservoir by injecting an aqueous slug of a mixture of amphoteric surfactant to reduce the interfacial tension and a high molecular weight polysaccharide gum as the thickener.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,950 uses a betaine as an IFT lowering surfactant along with two different polymers to form an electrolyte tolerant injection fluid for oil recovery. The first polymer is primarily for thickening and the second is used to prevent the first polymer and the surfactant from interfering with each other through interaction and/or precipitation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,831,108 and recent US Patent Applications 2004/0082484 and 2004/0176478 use zwitterionic/amphoteric surfactants such as dihydroxyl alkyl glycinate, alkyl amido ampho acetate or propionate, alkyl betaine, alkyl amidopropyl betaine and alkyl imino mono and di-proprionates derived from certain waxes, fats and oils in viscoelastic surfactant based aqueous fluids systems useful as thickening agents in conjunction with an inorganic water-soluble salt or organic additives such as phthalic acid, salicylic acid or their salts for suspending particles during the excavation of geologic formations. Also the intent of the viscoelastic fluids of the above citations is not to recover residual oil from subterranean reservoirs by injecting through one or more injection wells and producing the oil from one or more production wells, as is the intent of the present invention.
The recent US Patent Application 2004/0214725 employs quaternary ammonium salts and alkyl amido amine salts of inorganic acids and/or organic acids to produce viscoelastic aqueous systems. These fluids are suggested for use in fracturing, gravel packing, drilling, completion fluids, as well as several non-oilfield based applications
None of these examples of the prior art disclose the use of amphoteric surfactants, preferably alkyl amido betaines, specifically chosen and designed to be used in aqueous injection fluids and especially in produced brine without any water treatment or water softening to provide both low IFT and mobility control for the recovery of residual oil by injection into one or more injection wells, displacing the fluid into the formation, and recovering the oil from one or more production wells.

Process for oil recovery employing surfactant gels


A mute for a musical brass instrument comprises an external body and an adjustable muting device coupled to the external body. The adjustable muting device selectively mutes sound from the musical brass instrument. The adjustable muting device is a mechanical device, which is selectably activated and/or adjusted using mechanical and/or electronic controls, thus permitting a musician to mute/unmute the musical brass instrument without removing the mute.

The present disclosure relates to the field of musical instruments, and specifically to brass instruments. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to mechanical mutes used in conjunction with brass instruments.
A "brass instrument" is a musical instrument in the family of wind instruments that include, but are not limited to, trumpets, cornets, trombones, tubas, etc. Such instruments include a mouthpiece, into which the player blows air through pinched lips, which acts as a vibrating reed. Hence, brass instruments are sometimes referred to as being in the "lip-reed" family of musical instruments. The pinched air creates a sound that is amplified and/or modulated by a series of tubes. The passage of air through these tubes is controlled by finger buttons connected to valves and/or slides, thus controlling the pitch of the sound, which eventually exits the bell of the brass instrument.

Mechanical mute for selectively muting a brass instrument


Techniques to perform an incremental backup of a large-scale distributed database, such as a massively parallel processing (MPP) database, are disclosed. In various embodiments, a set of table partitions each of which satisfies one or more criteria to be included in a current incremental backup is determined at backup time, at least in part by comparing a current table partition meta-information with corresponding meta-information from a prior backup. The table partitions in the set are included in the incremental backup, while other table partitions not in the set are not backed up. In some embodiments, certain tables are designated to be of a type such that existing records are not modified. Tables are partitioned in a manner that isolates changes, e.g., added rows, in a relative few table partitions, leaving others unchanged and therefore able to be omitted from subsequent incremental backups.

Large-scale distributed data storage systems, such as an EMC Greenplum® massively parallel processing (MPP) database, may store very large volumes of data.
A full database backup takes time and a lot of storage space. In many typical use scenarios, large portions of a database may not change between backups. For example, in an EMC Greenplum® database certain types of table are configured to only have data added to them, such as append-only (AO) tables, to which new rows may be added but the pre-existing rows of which are not modified, or column-oriented (CO) tables, which is an append-only table with column orientation. A column-oriented table stores its content on disk by column rather than by row. In either case if the tables are created as partitions, since the data is only appended to the newest partition the older partitions are never modified and does not have to be backed up.
Performing an incremental backup that includes only data that has changed since the last backup can reduce the time and space required for the backup significantly, but in an MPP or other large-scale distributed database the time and cost associated with determining which data and/or metadata has changed, and which has not, could be very high.

Partition level backup and restore of a massively parallel processing database


The present technology relates to a wireless communication apparatus and a wireless communication method that make it possible to read necessary information even in a case where a physical header at a top portion of a signal transmitted from a base station of another BSS fails to be received and the signal is received from the middle. The wireless communication apparatus includes a communication section configured to generate and transmit an OFDM signal in which second information is superimposed in a frequency axis direction of the OFDM signal which includes first information destined for one or more subordinate client devices. The present technology can be applied to a wireless communication apparatus and so forth that perform wireless communication, for example, standardized by IEEE 802.11.

In a wireless LAN, a base station (Access Point) and one or more client devices (Station) that are to be connected to and communicate with the base station form a network called Basic Service Set (hereinafter referred to as BSS), and communication is started in a decentralized autonomous manner in a unit of a BSS to perform wireless communication.
However, in recent years, the installation density of base stations per a unit area increases to cause an environment in which the distance between BSSs is short (dense environment), and the problem that the communication speed decreases by interference originating from an adjacent BSS has been becoming serious. In order to solve this problem, a technology has appeared which aims at improvement of the communication efficiency of an entire network by performing control so as not to give interference while necessary information is exchanged between BSSs different from each other and performing communication at the same time.
For example, PTL 1 discloses a method for reducing interference between BSSs by performing information exchange between the BSSs. Information exchanged between the BSSs is included in a physical header at a top portion of a signal transmitted from a base station of another BSS.

Wireless communication apparatus and wireless communication method


An image forming apparatus includes: a sheet feed section including a plurality of sheet feed cassettes, a designation receiving section configured to receive a designation of a sheet feed cassette for exclusive use from among the plurality of sheet feed cassettes; an exclusive use control section configured to put the sheet feed cassette the designation of which has been received by the designation receiving section into an exclusive use state and, when a predetermined condition is satisfied, switch the sheet feed cassette from the exclusive use state to a non-exclusive use state; and a sheet discharge control section. When the predetermined condition is satisfied, the sheet discharge control section allows the discharge of particular paper sheets remaining in the sheet feed cassette in the exclusive use state before the sheet feed cassette is switched from the exclusive use state to a non-exclusive use state.

The present disclosure relates to image forming apparatuses and particularly relates to a technique for putting a particular sheet feed cassette into an exclusive use state.
In an image forming apparatus including a plurality of sheet feed cassettes, each sheet feed cassette can contain a different type of paper sheet. Each user can form an image on a desired type of paper sheet by, upon entry of an image formation job, selecting from the plurality of sheet feed cassettes one to be used for the image formation job. However, in a general image forming apparatus, all of sheet feed cassettes included therein can be used by anyone at will and, therefore, particular paper sheets, for example, expensive exclusive paper sheets, contained in a certain sheet feed cassette and owned by a user may be used by other users.
As a solution to the above, there is known a technique in which in using a particular one of a plurality of sheet feed cassettes, a password is required to be entered and, if the entered password is not valid, the use of the particular sheet feed cassette is not permitted. In this technique, the user can put the particular sheet feed cassette into an exclusive use state and prevent particular paper sheets contained in the particular sheet feed cassette from being used by other users.
There is disclosed another technique in which when a sheet feed cassette put in an exclusive use state has not been used for a predetermined period of time or longer, the exclusive use state is canceled. Since in this technique the exclusive use state of the sheet feed cassette can be canceled when the image forming apparatus has not been used for a long time, the number of usable sheet feed cassettes can be increased.


A wiring board includes a core layer; a through hole penetrating through the core layer in a thickness direction of the core layer; and an electronic part accommodated inside the through hole, wherein the through hole includes a first opening portion provided on a first surface of the core layer, a second opening portion provided on a second surface of the core layer, and an inward protruding portion inwardly protruding relative to the first and second opening portions, and wherein the electronic part is held by the inward protruding portion.

As an example, a wiring board may be provided with through holes by press work or drill work. An electronic part such as a capacitor may be accommodated inside the through holes of the wiring board. The through holes formed by the press work or the drill work penetrate the wiring board in its thickness direction while maintaining a substantially constant opening area (a through hole having a longitudinal cross-sectional shape other than a tapered shape). In the manufacturing process of the wiring board, for example, a mounter for an electronic part may be used to accommodate the capacitor or the like into the inside of the through hole as disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2011-216740.
However, it is not easy to accommodate the electronic part inside the through hole penetrating the wiring board in the thickness direction while maintaining the substantially constant opening area. Said differently, if a mounter having a high accuracy is used to accommodate the electronic part, the electronic part is accurately mounted into the through hole. If a mounter having a low accuracy is used to accommodate the electronic part, the electronic part is not accurately mounted into the through hole. Specifically, there are problems that an electronic part is obliquely accommodated into a through hole, an electronic part is not accommodated into a through hole because of being prevented from being inserted into the through hole (the electronic part contacts an edge of the through hole so as to be dropped off), and so on.

Wiring board and method of manufacturing the same


A magnitude comparator circuit can include a bitwise comparison section that includes two passgates for each bit of two values that are compared to one another. The passgates can be enabled according to corresponding bit values of the two values.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to content addressable memories. More particularly, this invention relates to circuits and methods for determination of the priority of the selection of the index address based on programmed priority.
2. Description of Related Art
As is known in the art, a content addressable memory (CAM) has comparand data supplied to the memory and the memory returns an address if a corresponding match is found. The entire CAM can be searched in a single clock cycle and if a match is found, the address returned may be used to retrieve data associated with the search string. Such associated data is typically stored in a separate, discrete memory in a location specified by the result of the CAM search.
The structure and function of the CAM permits the determination of the best routing of messages on a network such as an intranet or the Internet. A router employs a CAM to quickly determine the location of the fast route for a message rather than a slower software based search through a standard memory array to determine the path.
Generally, when a comparand has multiple matches to locations within the CAM, a priority encoder selects the address or index of the location with the matching content and having the greatest priority dependent on the priority scheme implemented within the CAM. Generally the priority scheme used is fixed and not easily changeable in CAMs as manufactured at the present time.
Magnitude comparators are well known in the conventional art for determining the relative magnitude of two binary numbers. A general form of a magnitude comparator compares a group of most significant bits of the two binary numbers for equality and the next less significant bits if they are less than or greater than one another. All the groupings are then logically OR'ed to determine the relative magnitudes of the two binary numbers. The equality of the two binary numbers is determined by performing an exclusive NOR (XNOR) for each bit pair of the two binary numbers. The results of the XNOR's of each bit pair are then combined with a logical AND. Refer to FIG. 6 for a discussion of an example of a conventional structure of a magnitude comparator as presented in Digital Design, Mano, Prentice Hall PTR, Published 1991, pp. 163-165. Each of the exclusive NOR's U1, U2, U3, and U4 have a pair of bits (A3, B3), (A2, B2), (A1, B1), (A0, B0), respectively representing the digits of each of the two binary numbers connected as inputs. The exclusive NOR function as is known in the art is the function for equivalence in Boolean algebra and therefore each of the XNOR's U1, U2, U3, and U4 provides a signal indicating the equality of each of the pairs of bits (A3, B3), (A2, B2), (A1, B1), (A0, B0). The XNOR's U1, U2, U3, and U4 as is further known in the art has the Boolean function:An*Bn+ An* Bn
The XNOR's U1, U2, U3, and U4 each have two inverters I1 and I2 which provide the complement for each of the pairs of bits (A3, B3), (A2, B2), (A1, B1), (A0, B0). The AND gate I3 has the complement of the bit An and the bit Bn as inputs and the AND gate I4 has the bit An and the complement of the bit Bn as inputs. The output of the AND gate I3 provides the inequality An<Bn and the output of the AND gate I4 provides the inequality An>Bn. The inputs of the NOR gate I5 are the outputs of the AND gates I3 and I4. The output of the NOR gate I5 is the indication of the equality of the input bits (An, Bn).
The AND gates I6, I8, I10 combine the equality of the more significant bits and the inequality indicating An<Bn of the lesser significant bit. The outputs of the AND gates I6, I8, I10 are combined by the OR gate I13 to generate the inequality A<B of the two binary numbers.
The AND gates I7, I9, I11 combine the equality of the more significant bits and the inequality indicating An>Bn of the lesser significant bits. The outputs of the AND gates I7, I9, I11 are combined by the OR gate I14 to generate the inequality A>B of the two binary numbers.
The AND gate I12 has the equality outputs of XNOR's U1, U2, U3, and U4. Since all of the pairs of bits (A3, B3), (A2, B2), (A1, BI), (A0, B0) must be equal for the binary numbers to be equal, the output of the AND gate I12 provides the indication that all the pairs of bits (A3, B3), (A2, B2), (A1, B1), (A0, B0) are equal and therefore the indication of the equality of the two binary numbers.
The outputs F1, F2, F3 of the magnitude comparator provide individual or "one hot" indication of the relative magnitudes of the two binary numbers A and B. Having this conventional structure forces an implementation of the circuit to occupy excess area within an integrated circuit. While the structure of the magnitude comparator as shown is essentially a canonical structure, an actual circuit implementation would require more circuits than shown to implement the function. It is well known in the conventional art that basic function of a CMOS logic circuit is an inverter and that more complex functions formed are normally NAND gates or NOR gates. This requires use of inverted logic and thus extra inverters to accomplish a simple AND or OR function.
The implementation of an inequality function as an exclusive OR function using a passgate or transmission gate is explained in Mano pages 430-433 and shown in FIG. 7. The two input bits A and B are connected respectively to the inverter circuits I1 and I2 to provide the complements for the two input bits A and B. In this implementation, the control of the transmission gates TG1 and TG2 is determined by the state of the input bit A. The state of the input bit B or its complement at the output of the inverter I2 is the connected to transfer through the pass-gates TG1 or TG2 as controlled by the state of the input bit A. It is shown in Table 1 that the output F is the exclusive OR (XOR) of the two input bits A and B.
TABLE 1ABTG1TG2F00CLOSEDOPEN001CLOSEDOPEN110OPENCLOSED111OPENCLOSED0
It is well known in the conventional art that the exclusive OR as shown in Table 1 is a negative function of the XNOR or an equality function. Thus the function F of Table 1 can be represented as:F=(A≠B)= (A=B)
U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,550 (Stein) describes a method and apparatus for compressing a data vector of a predetermined number of data points. The apparatus includes a memory for storing the compressed data vector, a first comparator for determining a largest and smallest data point of the data vector and a second comparator for comparing the largest and smallest data point and when they are equal, causing a first data point of the data vector to be stored in the memory as the compressed data vector. The apparatus also includes a first processor for determining a data field width necessary to uniquely describe a largest relative magnitude data point and a second processor for storing the data points of the data vector as the compressed vector in data fields of memory of the data field width. The apparatus also includes a comparator and register for creating a difference vector of difference values of adjacent data points of the data vector, a first processor for determining a data field width necessary to uniquely describe a largest magnitude difference value of the difference vector, and a second processor for storing the difference points of the difference vector as the compressed vector in data fields of the memory of the determined field width along with a magnitude and sign of the first data point of the data vector.

Magnitude comparator circuit for content addressable memory with programmable priority selection


The invention relates to a magneto-optical switching device for switching magnetization in a medium, comprising a magnetizable medium. According to the invention, a radiation system suited for imparting angular momentum to the magnetic spin system of said magnetizable medium, so as to selectively orient the magnetization of said medium. In addition, the invention relates to a method of switching a magnetizable medium, comprising providing a magnetizable medium; providing a radiation beam of a selectively chosen angular momentum; and targeting said radiation beam to said medium so as to transfer said angular momentum to a magnetic spin system of said magnetizable medium. Accordingly, spin states in magnetic materials can be manipulated using radiation of a suitable angular momentum. An effective magnetic field is generated for orienting the magnetization of the domains and can simultaneously be used to locally heat the material.

In magnetic and magneto-optical switching devices, in particular, used for recording purposes, information bits are stored as oppositely oriented magnetic domains representing the values "0" and "1" respectively. The conventional way of switching spins or magnetic domains is to apply an external magnetic field along the direction of spins, opposite to their initial orientation. This is a rather slow reversal process. Alternatively the external field can be applied perpendicular and not parallel to the spin orientation. This will trigger a much faster reversal process via a precessional motion of the spins around the external applied field. A plurality of magnetic and magneto-optical recording devices is being currently manufactured using such principles for reversing magnetization and thereby write and re-write the information.
A new type of such magnetic recording devices designed to achieve ultra-high data storage densities, is the so called heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). Here a high anisotropy magnetic medium is heated by a laser beam such that the external applied field can still be efficient in reversing the magnetization. However, this approach does not simplify the magnetic recording process but instead involves more elements leading to high manufacturing costs of the magnetic devices as well as higher power consumption. Furthermore, by I. Tudosa et all., Nature 428, 831 (2004) and C. H. Back et al., Nature 428, 808 (2004) it has been demonstrated that the ultimate speed of magnetic switching triggered by a magnetic field is bounded in the picosecond time scale. Since the demand for ever increasing the density of data storage requires increasing of the magnetization switching speed too, new and faster ways of switching the magnetization other than by magnetic fields are desirable. Incorporated by reference, in Kimel et al. "Ultrafast non-thermal control of magnetization by instantaneous photomagnetic pulses", Nature Letters, Published online 25 May 2006, further referred to as "Nature Letters article" non-thermal excitation was demonstrated for dielectric materials. Also incorporated by reference, in Hansteen et al. "Femtosecond photomagnetic switching of spins in Ferrimagnetic Garnet Films", Physical Review Letters, 047402 (2005), further referred to as the PRL article, small angle magnetization precessions were demonstrated to have been successfully controlled. The materials in which optically induced effects were demonstrated are insulating materials.

Magneto-optical switching device and method for switching a magnetizable medium


A method for forming a substrate sheet for optical recording media having a preformat on the surface is disclosed. This method has the steps of extruding a melted resin to form a melted resin sheet, pressing the melted resin sheet between a mirror roll and a resin roll prior to the curing of the melted resin sheet, thereby forming a resin sheet, the resin roll being disposed in the face of the mirror roll and being covered on the peripheral surface thereof with a resin, and forming a photocurable resin composition layer on the surface of the resin sheet with which the resin roll has come in contact, and forming the preformat on the photocurable resin composition layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for forming a substrate for an optical recording medium on which optical recording and reproducing or playback are carried out by a laser beam or the like.
2. Related Background Art
Heretofore, an optical recording medium has been formed by providing a recording layer on a substrate transparent to light such as a semiconductor layer by which recording and playback of information are carried out, and then laminating a protective layer on the recording layer. On the surface of this substrate for the optical recording medium, there are engraved fine preformats of micron order or submicron order such as grooves for tracking and address information pits. As conventional methods for forming these preformats, for example, an injection molding method and a compression molding method are known. However, these methods are unsatisfactory in points of mass productivity and cost.
In order to solve this problem, the present applicant has suggested, in EP-A-0 369 780 and EP-A-0 369 781, methods for preparing substrate sheets for optical recording media which comprises the steps of melting and extruding a resin to mold resin sheets, and then pressing the melted resin sheets 104 between a molding roll 102, having a preformat pattern on the surface thereof, and an oppositely disposed mirror roll 101 to transfer preformats thereto as shown in FIG. 3.
According to the above-mentioned methods, the substrate sheets for optical recording media can be continuously formed which are excellent in transferability of the preformat and which controls double refraction which will be the cause of the decline in a C/N value, even when a resin such as polycarbonate which easily causes the double refraction is used.
However, as a result of the investigations on the above-mentioned methods, it has been found that the double refraction and the transfer accuracy of the substrate sheet for optical recording media change owing to the increase or decrease of the amount of the extruded melted resin attributable to the slight alteration of conditions at the time of the molding, for example, the heating temperature of an extruder or a T-die. This increase or decrease of the amount of the extruded melted resin causes the change of the thickness of the melted resin sheet pressed between the molding roll 102 and the mirror roll 101. On the other hand, the molding roll 102 and the mirror roll 101 which can be used are each made usually from a steel roll plated with chromium, and therefore, it can be considered that when the thick melted resin sheet 104 is extruded from a T-die 105 and then pressed by the rolls, excessive pressure is applied to the resin sheet, with the result that the value of the double refraction and the transfer accuracy of the substrate sheet for optical recording media are uneven.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, there is a technique for covering the surface of the mirror roll 101 with a resin. According to this technique, when the polycarbonate sheet coming from the T-die is molded by a resin roll and the molding roll, the resin is not forcedly pressed, so that the resultant substrate sheet for optical recording media is less strained in the process of the sheet's preparation.
However, in the case that the resin roll is used, it is necessary to subject the surface of the resin roll to a mirror processing, but the resin roll is poorer in durability as compared with a metal roll. Thus, as molding is repeatedly carried out, the surface of the resin is damaged, and the surface of the roll must often be polished or the roll is required to be exchanged.

Method and apparatus for forming substrate sheet for optical recording medium


The chip package includes a first and second semiconductor chip. The first semiconductor chip has a first connection structure that electrically connects to a bond pad on a first surface of the first semiconductor chip. The second semiconductor chip has a second connection structure. The second connection structure is electrically connected to a bond pad on a first surface of the second semiconductor chip and extends through the second semiconductor chip to a second surface of the second semiconductor chip. A portion of the second connection structure extending to the second surface of the second semiconductor chip is electrically connected to the first connection structure and formed of a harder material than the first connection structure.

This application claims priority on Korean Patent Application No. 2004-47659, filed on Jun. 24, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety by.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor package, and more particularly, to a multi-chip semiconductor package having a stacked structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the size of electronic products has decreased and the demand for high performance, portable mobile products has increased, the demand for ultra-slim large-capacity semiconductor memories has increased over time. In general, in order to increase the storage capacity of a semiconductor memory, integration of a semiconductor chip can be increased or several semiconductor chips can be assembled as one semiconductor package. In the former case, much effort, capital resources and time are required. However, in the latter case, the storage capacity of the semiconductor memory may be increased by changing only a method of packaging. In addition, in the latter case, since less capital resources, effort in research and development and time are required for development than those in the former case, semiconductor memory manufacturers have endeavored to increase a storage capacity of a semiconductor memory device using a multi-chip semiconductor package formed by inserting several semiconductor chips into one semiconductor package. A plurality of semiconductor chips can be inserted into one semiconductor package both in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction.

Stacked multi-chip semiconductor package improving connection reliability of stacked chips