An electrostatic actuator includes a movable piece provided on a substrate via supporting beams such that the movable piece can be displaced in the Y-axial direction. The movable piece is displaced by an electrostatic force between movable and stationary electrodes to drive a mirror, so that an optical path of an optical device is switched over. The electrode plates of the movable electrode have lengths in the Y-axial direction which are stepwise decreased in order from the electrode plate nearest to the movable piece to the electrode plate farthest from the movable piece. Thus, the total overlapping length of the electrode plates of the stationary and movable electrodes is reduced to a minimum smallest value. Therefore, even if the sizes of the electrode plates are varied, the movable piece is prevented from being displaced and inclined due to electrostatic forces in the X-axial direction. Thus, the movable piece is stably operated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrostatic actuator in which a movable piece disposed on a substrate can be driven by an electrostatic force between electrodes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, electrostatic actuators are used in optical communication devices such as optical switches, optical shutters, optical attenuators, angular velocity sensors, resonators, and suitable devices (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,315,462).
Conventional electrostatic actuators include a substrate, a movable piece supported on the substrate, a stationary electrode composed of a plurality of electrode plates disposed on the substrate in a comb-like pattern, and a movable electrode composed of a plurality of electrode plates provided for the movable electrode. The plurality of the electrode plates of the movable electrode extend toward the electrode plates of the stationary electrode to have a comb-like pattern. The movable electrode causes the movable piece to be displaced by an electrostatic force generated between the stationary electrode and the movable electrode.
The movable piece is supported on the substrate by supporting beams in such a manner that it can be displaced in a predetermined direction. The stationary electrode and the movable electrode are formed, for example, by etching a silicon material. A plurality of the formed electrode plates having lengths substantially equal to each other are arranged in comb-like patterns. To drive the movable piece, a voltage is applied between the stationary electrode and the movable electrode. The electrode plates of the movable electrode are attracted the electrode plates of the stationary electrode. The stationary electrodes and the movable electrodes are meshed with each other. Thus, the movable piece is displaced.
While the electrodes plates of the stationary electrode and the movable electrode are meshed with each other, they overlap and are opposed to each other. Thus, electrostatic forces act on the electrode plates not only in the length direction (displacement direction of the movable piece) of the electrode plates but also in the direction (width direction of the electrode plates) that is perpendicular to the displacement direction. Therefore, for example, stationary electrodes and movable electrodes are arranged in a right-left symmetrical pattern with respect to the axial line in the displacement direction of the movable piece. Therefore, electrostatic forces in the width direction applied to the respective electrode plates on the right and left sides cancel each other out.
For example, the electrostatic actuator having the above-described configuration is used for an angular velocity sensor, a resonator, or suitable device. In this case, an AC voltage or the like is applied across a stationary electrode and a movable electrode. Thereby, the movable piece of the actuator can be vibrated in its resonant state of which the displacement (amplitude) is in the range of about several μm to about 20 μm.
In the case of electrostatic actuators used in optical switches or other optical device, a mirror provided on a movable piece is caused to enter or emerge from a light path so that a light beam is reflected or transmitted. Thus, the optical path is switched over. In this case, it is necessary to displace the movable piece (including the mirror) by a distance that is at least larger than the diameter of a light beam so that switching is securely carried out. Thus, in many cases, the displacement is in the range of about 20 μm to 100 μm.
Accordingly, in the conventional actuator the stationary electrode and the movable electrode are formed in a symmetric pattern. When the conventional electrostatic actuator is operated, the movable piece is displaced in a predetermined direction and the electrostatic forces in the width direction (in the direction perpendicular to the displacement direction) cancel each other out.
However, the sizes and shapes of the stationary electrodes and the movable electrodes tend to be dispersed when they are formed, due to errors in size, processing, or the like. Accordingly, in many cases, the shapes of these electrode plates are slightly unsymmetrical.
As a result, when the actuator is operated, the electrostatic forces in the width direction applied to the respective electrode plates of the movable electrodes are not sufficiently cancelled out. In some cases, the movable electrode is displaced so as to be inclined and come into contact with the stationary electrode. Therefore, in the conventional actuator, problems occur in some cases in that the movable piece comes into contact with the stationary piece so that the movable piece can not be sufficiently displaced, or the operation of the actuator becomes unstable. Thus, the reliability of the conventional actuator is reduced.
In particular, for electrostatic actuators such as optical switches or other optical devices, it is necessary to cause a large displacement of the movable piece in its static state. That is, in contrast to conventional actuators used in angular velocity sensors or suitable device, conventional actuators used in optical devices are not used in their resonant state. Thus, when the conventional actuator is operated, the electrode plates of the stationary electrode and of the movable electrode overlap each other over relatively large lengths thereof.
Therefore, large electrostatic forces depending on the overlapping lengths of the electrode plates are applied to the movable electrodes in the width direction. Thus, problematically, because the electrostatic forces can not be cancelled out sufficiently by the electrode shape or by other suitable means, the operation of the conventional actuator becomes insufficient.


Clock signal jitter detection circuit for detecting a clock signal jitter in a reference clock signal (CLK), having a switched-capacitor reference digital-analogue converter (15) which is clocked by the reference clock signal (CLK) and which converts a digital input signal into a first current, a current-controlled digital-analogue converter (16) which is clocked by the reference clock signal (CLK) and which converts the digital input signal into a second current, and having a current integrator (18) which integrates the difference between the first current and the second current to produce a signal which indicates the clock signal jitter in the reference clock signal (CLK).

The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for spectrally shaping a reference clock signal for a converter, particularly for a digital-analogue converter, which is provided in the feedback loop of a sigma-delta modulator.
Clock signal jitters are a source of error in converters, particularly in clocked digital-analogue converters. Digital-analogue converters may, inter alia, also be used in feedback loops in sigma-delta analogue-digital converters.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a sigma-delta analogue-digital converter based on the prior art. The analogue-digital converter ADC converts an analogue input signal into digital data or into a digital data stream. These data are then processed further and stored. The analogue-digital converter quantizes the continuous analogue input signal both in terms of time and in terms of amplitude. The digital output signal is stepped following the conversion. In the case of a sigma-delta analogue-digital converter, as shown in FIG. 1, the analogue input signal X(t) is supplied to a subtractor, which subtracts an analogue feedback signal produced by a digital-analogue converter DAC. The difference signal is integrated by an integrator and is then compared with a threshold value by a comparator. The digital output signal from the comparator is fed back to the digital-analogue converter DAC, which converts a digital output value to produce an analogue voltage which is subtracted from the input signal by means of the subtractor. A digital filter connected downstream of the sigma-delta analogue-digital converter converts the serial and high-frequency bit stream into digital values which reproduce the analogue value at the input of the sigma-delta analogue-digital converter at a lower rate but at a very high resolution. The comparator and the digital-analogue converter DAC are clocked by a reference clock signal. The digital-analogue converter used in the feedback path is conventionally a current-controlled digital-analogue converter.
A drawback of sigma-delta analogue-digital converters based on the prior art is that they are particularly sensitive towards clock signal jitters. If the reference clock signal which clocks the digital-analogue converter DAC fluctuates over time, this clock signal jitter results in noise being injected into the feedback signal. The noise caused by the clock signal jitter is brought about by the slight changes in energy or changes in the area of the pulses generated by the current-controlled digital-analogue converter DAC. By contrast, digital-analogue converters using switched-capacitor technology are based on transfer of charges Q between the capacitors, the charge being almost independent of small variations in the clock signal. However, digital-analogue converters which are produced using switched-capacitor technology have the drawback that they are relatively slow, since the charge reversal operations take a relatively long time. Although current-controlled digital-analogue converters which produce current pulses whose amplitude is proportional to a digital value operate relatively quickly, they are sensitive towards clock signal jitters.
FIG. 2 shows a general block diagram of a conventional digital-analogue converter DAC which is clocked by a reference clock signal CLKref. The digital-analogue converter DAC receives a digital input signal from a data source, which is likewise clocked by the reference clock signal, and converts it into an analogue output signal. The output signal from the digital-analogue converter DAC is a sequence of square-wave pulses which are weighted with the digital input value and which have a predetermined time period Ts. If the reference clock signal has a clock signal jitter, the duration of the clock pulses deviates from the ideal instant Ts, as shown in FIG. 3. The instants at which the output signal from the current-controlled digital-analogue converter DAC changes can be defined as follows:τ=nTs+β[n]where β[n] is the periodically occurring jitter. The periodically occurring jitter forms a random noise signal with a constant variance which is generated when the reference clock signal CLKref is produced, for example by a PLL (Phase Locked Loop) circuit. The error signal obtained between the ideal output signal from the digital-analogue converter DAC and the actual output signal is as follows:
      e              (      t      )        =                              y          idcal                                  (          t          )                    -              y        rcal            -              (        t        )              =                  ∑                  k          =          0                ∞                                    (                                    u                                            (                                  t                  -                                      (                                                                  β                                                                          [                          k                          ]                                                                    +                                              kT                        S                                                              )                                                  )                                      -                          u                                            (                                  t                  -                                      kT                    S                                                  )                                              )                ·                  (                                    y                                            [                k                ]                                      -                          y                                            [                                  k                  -                  1                                ]                                              )                    The error signal is shown in FIG. 3B. The area obtained for an error pulse within a sampling interval is as follows:s[n]=β[n]·(y[n]−y[n−1])If the integral of the error signal is calculated as the sum of the error signal pulse areas and this is sampled for the instants T=n·Ts then the following integrated error signal q[n] is obtained:
            q                    (        t        )              =                  ∫        o        t                                    e                                (            τ            )                          ·                  ⅆ          τ                                q                    [        n        ]              =                  q                          (                      nT            S                    )                    =                        ∑                      k            =            0                    n                                              β                                      [              k              ]                                ·                      (                                          y                                                  [                  k                  ]                                            -                              y                                                  [                                      k                    -                    1                                    ]                                                      )                              The integrated error signal sequence q[n] can be expressed as follows:q[n]=s[n]+q[n−1]Z transformation produces the following:S(z)=(1−z−1)·O(z)
The error signal shown in FIG. 3B is the error caused by the clock signal jitter.

Apparatus and method for spectrally shaping a reference clock signal


The present invention is directed to the modulation and entrainment of a local biofield through the use of a biofield modulation device comprising a plurality of resonators and a first and second side. Each resonator of the plurality of resonators comprises a dielectric substrate, a resonant cavity, and a conductive coating. The resonant cavity collect low potential ambient radiation and amplifies it to energize the dielectric substrate. This generates a surface effect in the conductive coating that causes it to emit biofield radiation that modulates and entrains the local biofield in the direction that the conductive coating is pointing. The modulation and entrainment of a local biofield catalyzes the growth of plants when compared to average growth rates.

Every living being emits its own biofield. While the biofield is subtle and not yet fully characterized, its existence is widely accepted, for example in the fields of alternative and complementary medicine. Kafatos et al., "Biofield Science: Current Physics Perspectives," Glob. Adv. Health Med. 2015 November; 4(Suppl): 25-34. The biofield is believed to comprise both energy and information regulating homeodynamic and homeostatic functions of living organisms. Id. at 25. As currently understood, the collective biofield consists of at least the following components: electromagnetic, acoustic, optical, and non-classical energy fields associated with living organisms. Id. at 29.


A filter element with a filter medium and at least one retainer, to which the filter medium is fixed. The retainer comprises a retainer base body and a retainer attachment. The filter medium is arranged between the retainer base body and the retainer attachment at least in sections, and at least one profile element is formed on the retainer base body and/or on the retainer attachment to allow form-fitting and/or force-fitting retention of the filter medium there between.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a filter element, particularly a filter press plate. Such a filter element is designed with a filter medium, particularly a filter fabric, and at least one retainer, to which the filter medium is fixed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Filter press plates for plate-type filter presses are known. Such plates generally have a centrally disposed passage opening which allows the liquid to be filtered to pass through. A plurality of filter press plates are arranged and pressed one beside the other in the plate-type filter press in such a way that the passage openings are aligned and form a channel, via which the liquid to be filtered is fed into the filter.
In order to fix the filter medium in the region of the passage opening it is known that the filter medium can be sewn to parts of a filter passage tube. U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,416 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,526 B2 for example teach this point. It is further known that the filter medium can be joined by material engagement, particularly by induction welding, to the passage tube, as follows for example from U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,173, U.S. Pat. No. 6,932,906 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,859 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,178. U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,717 also discloses the deformation of a flange element for the purpose of holding the filter cloth.

Filter element including a filter press plate


A wildlife feeder is provided, including a wildlife feeder that may be used for squirrels. The wildlife feeder includes a frame and an axle. The axle is rotatably attached to the frame and has a cage wheel and a feed dispensing wheel attached thereto, such that rotation of the cage wheel such as will occur when an animal is running therein, will cause rotation of the feed wheel. The feed wheel is adjacent a container having a container opening, which container contains a multiplicity of food particles gravity fed to the opening. As the feed wheel, which has cutouts therein, rotates, it dispenses particular wildlife feed therefrom.

Squirrel feeders and wildlife feeders in general are known in the art. Examples of such wildlife feeders include those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,537,429; 3,638,617; and 4,632,062.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,537,429 discloses an animal and bird feeder in which ears of corn project laterally from a vertical member which is rotatable around the horizontal axis, and is mounted to a tree trunk. Animals, such as squirrels, will stand on a platform mounted on the tree trunk just below the vertical member, typically a disk, having ears of corn projecting therefrom. When the squirrels are finished eating one ear of corn they will reach up and pull down another, causing the disk to rotate.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,617 discloses a deer and wild turkey feeder. This patent discloses a granular feed dispenser for animals including a hopper body with a lower downwardly opening outlet and a generally horizontal panel member disposed beneath the outlet. The panel located below the outlet is set on a axle which may be rotated to dispense corn and other feed falling from the hopper body onto the panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,062 discloses a squirrel feeder which includes a frame mounted perpendicularly to a support bar. The bar is rotatably connected to the frame and the frame is attached to the trunk of a tree. Food items are attached to the end of the bar and a squirrel, running out on the frame and climbing on the support bar to get to the food, will cause the support bar to rotate.
The above-described animal feeders all have some advantages. They are fairly simple to construct. They also require some ingenuity on behalf of the animal to obtain the food.
Applicant, however, has provided, an invention that incorporates some of the simplicity of the foregoing inventions but provides for more action by the animal. It also incorporates interaction of the animal with the feeder to dispense food therefrom. It provides for, in addition to these features, visual entertainment for the viewer as a squirrel, or other animal, works to dispense the food.
More specifically, Applicant provides a vertically mounted rotatable wheel cage with a dispensing apparatus and dispensing container adjacent thereto, which wheel cage, when rotated, as by a squirrel treading on the inner or outer surface thereof, will cause the dispensing apparatus from dispensing food from the dispensing container.


The present invention relates to a device for aligning an X-ray grating to an X-ray radiation source, the device (10) comprising at least two flat X-ray grating segments (11-19); at least one alignment unit (31-39) for aligning one of the at least two flat X-ray grating segments; wherein the at least two flat X-ray grating segments (11-19) are arranged in juxtaposition and are forming an X-ray grating (20); wherein the at least two flat X-ray grating segments (11-19) each comprise a grating surface (41-49) for X-ray radiation, each grating surface (41-49) comprising a geometrical center; wherein normals (21-29) to each of the grating surfaces (41-49) define a common plane (73), wherein the normals (21-29) intersect the geometrical center of the grating surface (41-49); wherein at least a first of the at least two flat X-ray grating segments (11-19) is rotatable around an axis (131-139) that is perpendicular to the common plane (73); and wherein the first of the at least two flat X-ray grating segments (11-19) that is rotatable around the axis (131-139) is connected to a first of the at least one alignment unit (31-39). The invention provides a device (10) and a method (100) which provide an improved X-ray grating (20).

Dark field X-ray image acquisition uses small angle scattering to obtain information that is not obtainable from normal X-ray imaging. A dark field X-ray image acquisition system uses three gratings: G0, G1, and G2. Grating G0 and G1 are small and are typically arranged close to the X-ray radiation source. The G0 grating is arranged at the X-ray radiation source and is used to provide a two-dimensional array of virtual sources. The G1 grating may modulate the amplitude or phase of the X-ray radiation. The G2 grating is used to analyze the wave front of the X-ray radiation which has travelled through an object to be imaged. The G2 grating is arranged close to the X-ray radiation detector and preferably covers the full-size of the active area of the X-ray radiation detector.
The gratings G0 and G2 consist of stripes of material that are blocking for X-ray radiation interspaced with stripes that are transparent for X-ray radiation. The X-ray blocking stripes must have a finite thickness to be able to block X-ray radiation. The grating has a focal point on the X-ray radiation source, i.e. the stripes are orientated along the optical axis of the X-ray image acquisition system. However, almost all production methods lead to an unfocused grating structure, i.e., the grating stripes are all parallel to each other.
JP 2001 206161 A describes a first absorption type grating which comprises a plurality of small gratings arrayed along the virtual cylindrical surface whose center axis is a virtual line passing through an X-ray focus and an X-ray radiation source. A phase differential image generation calculator applies a correction amount for each grating, calculating a phase deviation of the intensity change.
DE 101 36 795 A1 describes a grating which is manufactured in a flat manner and then brought into a curved shape by mechanical stress.

Device and method for aligning an X-ray grating to an X-ray radiation source, and X-ray image acquisition system


A traffic reporting system and method for geographic area of interest. The system includes standard wireless telecommunication components configured to establish search criteria, determine a sample size, collect traffic information, calculate additional traffic information, and generate reports.

There are several proposed methods for determining automobile and pedestrian traffic data by aggregating cell phone data on location, speed and direction. Several companies have developed methods for taking raw data and interpreting them, for example, Intellione, whose brochures located on www.intellione.com, state that for each second, io-traffic™ collects and aggregates millions of GPS and mobile phone locations, creates road speeds, then paints a live picture of traffic conditions in a geographic area. Such a method requires an incredible amount of data collection and analysis. Moreover, after collecting such data, it is limited in its usefulness as it relates only to traffic issues.
There are other methods for determining traffic flow such as network probes which monitor voice data as it passes through the network and other methods which involve installing "sniffers" into the core radio infrastructure (BSC/RNC). Device probes can be programmed to send location/direction/speed data to a central database on certain intervals. These all have drawbacks. Network probes are expensive. Infrastructure enhancements will take years to bring to market. Device probes are unreliable for "ad hoc" demands for a particular area and are battery and network intensive and often end up generating data that isn't used or useful.

System and method for using cellular network components to derive traffic information


Aromatic compounds for treating various diseases and pathologies are disclosed. The methods use of such compounds are also provided. Accordingly, the present invention makes available methods and compositions for inhibiting aberrant growth states resulting from hedgehog gain-of-function, ptc loss-of-function or smoothened gain-of-function.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the use of compounds to treat a variety of disorders, diseases and pathologic conditions and more specifically to the use of various aromatic compounds for inhibiting signaling pathways.
2. Background Information
Pattern formation is the activity by which embryonic cells form ordered spatial arrangements of differentiated tissues. Speculation on the mechanisms underlying these patterning effects usually centers on the secretion of a signaling molecule that elicits an appropriate response from the tissues being patterned. More recent work aimed at the identification of such signaling molecules implicates secreted proteins encoded by individual members of a small number of gene families.
Members of the Hedgehog family of signaling molecules mediate many important short- and long-range patterning processes during invertebrate and vertebrate development. Exemplary hedgehog genes and proteins are described in PCT publications WO 95/18856 and WO 96/17924. The vertebrate family of hedgehog genes includes at least four members, three of which, herein referred to as Desert hedgehog (Dhh), Sonic hedgehog (Shh) and Indian hedgehog (Ihh), apparently exist in all vertebrates, including fish, birds, and mammals. A fourth member, herein referred to as tiggie-winkle hedgehog (Thh), appears specific to fish. Desert hedgehog (Dhh) is expressed principally in the testes, both in mouse embryonic development and in the adult rodent and human; Indian hedgehog (Ihh) is involved in bone development during embryogenesis and in bone formation in the adult; and, Shh is primarily involved in morphogenic and neuroinductive activities. Given the critical inductive roles of hedgehog polypeptides in the development and maintenance of vertebrate organs, the identification of hedgehog interacting proteins and their role in the regulation of gene families known to be involved in cell signaling and intercellular communication provides a possible mechanism of tumor suppression.
The ability to modulate one or more genes that are part of the hedgehog signaling cascade thus represents a possible therapeutic approach to several clinically significant cancers. A need therefore exists for methods and compounds that inhibit signal transduction activity by modulating activation of a hedgehog, patched, or smoothened-mediated signal transduction pathway, such as the Hedgehog signaling pathway, to reverse or control aberrant growth.


The present invention relates to key management in a secure microcontroller, and more particularly, to systems, devices and methods of automatically and transparently employing logic or physical address based keys that may also be transferred using dedicated buses. A cryptographic engine translates a logic address to at least one physical address, and processes a corresponding data word based on at least one target key. The target key is selected from a plurality of keys based on the logic or physical address. A universal memory controller stores each processed data word in the corresponding physical address within a memory. Each key is associated with a memory region within the memory, and therefore, the logic or physical address associated with a memory region may be used to automatically identify the corresponding target key. A dedicated secure link may be used to transport key request commands and the plurality of keys.

A. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to key management in a secure microcontroller, and more particularly, to systems, devices and methods of automatically and transparently employing logic or physical address based keys that may also be transferred using a dedicated secure link between a cryptographic processor and key sources.
B. Background of the Invention
A microcontroller is normally a single integrated circuit comprising a central processing unit (CPU) core, memory, and input/output (I/O) peripherals. A secure microcontroller is used for applications that involve trusted operations on valuable assets in a trusted environment where a thief or hacker may attempt to gain access to sensitive data through processor cores, memory devices or I/O peripherals that are used to communicate and process sensitive data. This sensitive data may include account numbers, access codes, financial transactions/balances, rights management, metering data (e.g., energy, units), program algorithms and other information. The secure microcontroller may use non-volatile RAM rather than ROM for storage, and additional enhanced security features are employed to avoid unauthorized accesses. To date, the secure microcontroller has been applied in a wide range of security-critical applications such as electronic banking, commercial transactions, and pay-TV access control, or any application that requires protection of sensitive assets.
Since the sensitive data may be stored in an external memory of the secure microcontroller, memory content confidentiality and integrity are two distinct characteristics that should be addressed against different threats. The first threat is associated with sensitive information disclosure where confidential data are revealed and weakness in a program is exposed. The second threat is associated with modification of application behavior which involves programs and data being modified in the external memory and results in a data integrity issue.
The secure microcontroller is designed to offer a high level of security to data stored in the memory. For instance, physical security may be established against probing by anti-tampering enclosure. However, this solution may be expensive and does not cover new attack methods based on fault injection from power supply glitch, light, synchronous or asynchronous laser, or radioactive particles. The security features may also comprise memory encryption where data and addresses stored in the memory are encrypted or decrypted during the data exchanging process. As a result, the physical security perimeter can be limited to the microcontroller while the memory and their communication buses can remain exposed physically.
Data integrity control is implemented for the programs and data stored in the memory to detect any willing or unwilling corruption between what was originally sent for storage and what is stored in the memory. Specific integrity check methods are used to generate integrity control data (i.e., a tag or signature) during a memory write operation, and validity of the stored data are verified by its consistency with the corresponding integrity control data during a memory read operation. Integrity control constitutes a sufficient protection against fault injection attacks, and sometimes, it is implemented in software and embedded in the secure microcontroller to ensure a sufficient level of trust to stakeholders.
The aforementioned data security and data integrity concerns may be addressed by incorporating a hardware engine for cryptographic operations (e.g., data encryption, data decryption and integrity check) at the interface of the microcontroller to the external memory rather than relying on software. The hardware engine allows faster reaction to fault attacks, enhanced performance for data encryption or decryption. Also this allows direct porting of standard operating systems to the secure microcontroller without major software modifications. One or several keys may be employed in any cryptographic operation. Although the methods implemented in the hardware engine may be public, these keys are kept confidential to avoid compromising data security or integrity. As a result, a need exists to manage cryptographic keys.

Systems and methods for managing cryptographic keys in a secure microcontroller


A conveyor for use in a conveying plant for recovery of diamond and other precious stones, semi-precious stones and minerals, and for conveying any material includes an endless conveyor with both its feed and return portions enclosed in a pipe, with a drive for driving the belt and a return idler, with the feed portion above the return portion and the feed portion cupped by the pipe, the pipe preferably being of plastic material and supported by a steel half pipe under the plastic pipe.

Conveyor belts that have the feed portion of the belt located inside a pipe are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,545, in the applicant's earlier South African patent 2002/00644 and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,735,386, 6,405,855, 6,422,381 and 6,675,958.
The applicant's patent 2002/00644 dealt primarily with diamond recovery where the conveyor belt feed being located inside a pipe improved security by enclosing the diamond-bearing gravel, with its return portion located below, as in the above cited US patents. The pipe has a hinge at an intermediate position of its length, capable of hinging the pipe into a reduced length, for transport to remote sites, with the belt still in the pipe. Idler rollers are provided at intervals to support the belt on its return stretch. The drive roller, return idler and idler roller supports are mounted on the pipe so that assembly of these items on site and set up is not required, so that maintenance is simplified. A key difficulty with this apparatus, however, is that a new belt cannot be installed in the pipe except by threading it through the pipe and then on site joining the ends to form a closed loop; a factory formed joint is not an available option. From practical experience of working in conditions where the material is damp or wet it adheres to the belt and causes spillage; this requires the belt to be scraped clean and belt scrapers do not function well with the type of belt joint that is possible on site, they become damaged or ineffectual and/or damage the belt at the joint.


A method of manufacturing a master plate includes the steps of forming a photoresist film on a substrate, disposing a photomask having a plurality of island radiation shields on the photoresist film followed by integrating the photomask and the photoresist film, applying light from a light source to the photoresist film through the photomask for selectively exposing the photoresist film, and developing the photoresist film to form a master plate, in which the method includes irradiating the photoresist film with the light from plural directions through the photomask to selectively expose the photoresist film from the respective directions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a master plate, a method of manufacturing a microneedle patch used as a tool for administering drugs to a specified layer in the skin, a microneedle patch and an exposure apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid drug has been usually applied on the skin for administering the drug through the surface of a living body such as the skin. Application of the drug to the skin is a non-invasive method, and is excellent in that the method gives no stress on a patient. However, the applied drug is easily removed by sweat or touch. Daily repeated application of the drug involves problems in terms of convenience and safety. It is another problem that control of permeability is not easy when the drug is to be permeated into the inner layer of the skin.
Under the circumstances, a microneedle having a transport function of the drug has been proposed. The microneedle may be used for transport of various substances such as sampling of the blood. Although a method of permitting the drug to infiltrate into the skin using microneedles or a microneedle patch on which the drug has been applied in advance is not a perfectly non-invasive application method of the drug, stimulation to the patient is relatively small since the drug is injected into a shallow region of the skin such as the epidermis using an ultra-fine microneedle. The drug may be infiltrated with high efficiency as compared with the method of applying the drug merely on the surface of the skin.
There is known a method of manufacturing a microneedle in which silicon is subjected to dry etching (Devin V. McAllister et al., PNAS, Nov. 25, 2003, vol. 100, No. 24, 13755-13760; Shyh-Chyi Kuo et al., Tamkang Journal of Science and Engineering, Vol. 7, No. 2, 95-98 (2004)).
While a quite fine and complicated planar pattern may be formed on the surface of a photoresist film or substrate by these methods, the three-dimensional shape obtained is columnar, and the depth of a recess to the surface is fixed to be constant. This is because, while the planar shape may be freely changed in accordance with a photomask, there was no method of freely forming the recess in a depth direction. Consequently, a cone shape such as a round cone and square cone cannot be formed, and it is difficult to apply the method of the manufacturing the microneedle. Since etching residues are left behind on the surface when the surface of the silicon microneedle is observed with an electron microscope, the surface is roughened due to the residues. Consequently, high surface roughness remains on a replication plate and on the microneedle manufactured using the silicon microneedle as a master plate.
It has been known to use a method referred to as LIGA (Lithographic, Galvanoformung and Abformung) to manufacture a microneedle (Moon, Sang-Jun et al., Transducers '03, 3E95.P (The 12th International Conference on Solid State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, Boston, Jun. 8-12, 2003; Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2005-246595).
The method of manufacturing the microneedle by LIGA involves the following steps. An X-ray sensitive photoresist such as a polymethyl methacrylic (PMMA) resin is applied on the substrate. Island radiation shields made of a material such as gold are applied on the resist, which is irradiated with X-ray having a high parallel nature. A three-dimensional structure made of PMMA is obtained upon development. A master plate is manufactured by electroforming of nickel on the three-dimensional structure. It is an advantage of this method that the tip of the microneedle may be sharpened with a smooth surface.
However, synchrotron radiation equipment that is large size equipment is necessary for the LIGA process. Accordingly, this method is inappropriate for manufacturing the microneedle patch (microneedle array) that is required to be manufactured with a low cost on a large scale.
The conventional methods have complicated steps of manufacturing the microneedle patch, and require large equipment to manufacture the microneedle patch having small surface roughness.
It is promising to manufacture the master plate for microneedle patch through exposure to a resist film as described above. Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-356187 discloses a XYθ stage apparatus used for the exposure apparatus, which precisely moves an object to be processed in a desired X-axis position, Y-axis position and θ-axis position at high speed. The XYθ stage apparatus includes a pair of linear motors disposed in an opposed relation to one another in the X-axis direction, a pair of linear motors disposed in an opposed relation to one another in the Y-axis direction perpendicular to the X-axis, a movable table on which the object to be processed is mounted, rotating support means for rotatably supporting the movable table in the θ-axis direction in the same plane as the X- and Y-axes, a XY encoder, a θ encoder, and a positional controller for controlling the X-axis position, Y-axis position and θ-axis position of the movable table by independently actuating the two pairs of liner motors.
However, it was difficult for the conventional exposure apparatus to expose the photoresist into a desired shape such as a cone. It was particularly difficult to manufacture a structure in which the same shapes are arrayed in parallel such as the microneedle array.

Method of manufacturing master plate, method of manufacturing microneedle patch and apparatus exposure apparatus


A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus, comprises frontal information detecting means for detecting solid object information in front of an own vehicle, preceding vehicle recognizing means for recognizing a preceding vehicle based on the solid object information, traveling path estimating means for estimating a traveling path of the own vehicle, first evacuation possibility judging means for judging a first possibility of relative evacuation between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle according to positions of the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle, second evacuation possibility judging means for judging a second possibility of relative evacuation between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle according to information of solid objects other than the preceding vehicle, and preceding vehicle evacuation possibility judging means for judging a final possibility of relative evacuation between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle based on the first possibility and the second possibility.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus for recognizing traveling circumstances in front of an own vehicle by stereoscopic cameras, monocular cameras, millimeter wave radars, and the like and for making an accurate judgment of evacuation of a preceding vehicle from the lane and, more particularly to a traveling control system incorporating such a vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus.
2. Discussion of Related Arts
In recent years, such a traveling control system as detecting traveling circumstances in front of an own vehicle by a camera and the like mounted on a vehicle, estimating traveling paths of the own vehicle from the traveling circumstances data, detecting a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the own vehicle and making a follow-up control of the preceding vehicle or an intervehicle distance control between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle, has been put into practical use.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Toku-Kai-Hei 9-91598 discloses a traveling control system in which a traveling path of an own vehicle is estimated from traveling conditions such as yaw rate and other data and a nearest obstacle on the traveling path is detected as a preceding vehicle to be monitored. Further, in the traveling control system, when the preceding vehicle goes out of the traveling path of the own vehicle, the monitoring of the preceding vehicle is released.
In the traveling control system, the technology of recognizing a preceding vehicle is very important. The preceding vehicle sometimes travels in such a manner as trying to avoid an obstacle, sometimes changes the lane, and sometimes goes out of the lane and other vehicle enters the lane in place of the preceding vehicle. If the traveling control system fails to correctly catch the behavior of the preceding vehicle, the traveling control becomes awkward and rather inconvenient for a vehicle driver.

Vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus and traveling control system incorporating the apparatus


In at least some embodiments, a system comprises a computer configured to boot using at least one of a plurality of boot techniques involving tape media. The system further comprises a tape drive coupled to the computer and a tape that is readable by the tape drive, wherein the tape is formatted to support a plurality of different boot techniques and wherein at least one of the supported boot techniques is compatible with the computer.

Computer systems can benefit from the ability to directly boot from tape media devices for the purpose of system recovery or other system administration operations. However, many computer systems lack the ability to directly boot from tape media devices. This limitation has been handled through various workarounds. For example, one existing tape-based system recovery technique enables systems to be booted from digital versatile disk (DVD) media and recovered from tape media. Another tape-based system recovery technique stores a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) image on the tape and uses a tape drive to simulate a CD-ROM device during a system boot.
Modern computer systems often have the ability to run a number of different operating systems. The requirements of different operating systems and recovery applications place differing demands on the format of boot tapes. For example, some mainframe computers require boot tape formats with specific labeling while some mid-range servers do not allow tape labels. Similarly, some operating systems expect tape media to be labeled while other operating systems do not handle labeling well. Such variations increase the difficulty of managing boot tapes and recovery tapes in a data center tape library or filing system. Thus, systems and methods that enable direct tape booting while adapting to computer system and operating system differences are desirable. Also, systems and methods that are compatible with existing tape-based system recovery techniques such as those mentioned above are desirable.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A belt buckle with a fastener fitting for vehicle-fixed mounting comprising a carrier plate fixedly connected to the belt buckle. The carrier plate being connected to the fastener fitting. The carrier plate includes an opening by which the carrier plate is mounted rotatably on a pin extending through the opening and fixed to the fastener fitting. A return element is provided which urges the belt buckle relative to the fastener fitting rotationally about the centerline of the pin and rotationally about an axis perpendicular to the centerline of the pin and to the longitudinal axis of the belt buckle into a resting position. For the belt buckle being, for one thing, movable with respect to the fastener fitting, so that it can either be oriented at any time in a position optimal for the function or it permits being moved from a temporarily unwanted position, and for another, the belt buckle automatically returned after such a maladjustment into a resting position which is optimal for introducing the insert tongue into the belt buckle, the opening in the carrier plate is an elongated hole, the longitudinal axis which is roughly parallel to the longitudinal axis of the belt buckle, and the return element further urges the belt buckle into a resting position relative to the fastener fitting translationally in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the belt buckle.

The invention relates to a belt buckle with fastener fitting for vehicle-fixed mounting comprising a carrier plate fixedly connected to said belt buckle, said carrier plate being connected to said fastener fitting, wherein the carrier plate includes an opening by means of which the carrier plate is mounted rotatably on a pin fixed to the fastener fitting, and wherein a return means is provided which urges the belt buckle relative to the fastener fitting rotationally about the centerline of the pin and rotationally about an axis perpendicular to the centerline of the pin and to the longitudinal axis of the belt buckle into a resting position.
Together with the fastener fitting the belt buckle forms an assembly known in general in the field of vehicle occupant restraint systems. The belt buckle serves to receive an insert tongue shiftingly applied to a seat belt for buckling up a vehicle occupant. The fastener fitting serves to attach the belt buckle fixedly to the vehicle, for example, to a vehicle seat or to the vehicle body. Usually, a wire cable portion is used to connect the belt buckle to the fastener fitting.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,534 shows a belt buckle with fastener fitting for vehicle-fixed mounting which comprises a carrier plate fixedly connected to said belt buckle, said carrier plate being connected to said fastener fitting. The carrier plate includes an opening by means of which the carrier plate is mounted rotatably on a pin fixed to the fastener fitting. A helical spring is provided which urges the belt buckle relative to the fastener fitting rotationally about the centerline of the pin and rotationally about an axis perpendicular to the centerline of the pin and to the longitudinal axis of the belt buckle into a resting position. In case a vehicle occupant sits down on the belt buckle, the belt buckle can therefore only give way in two directions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,434 shows a belt buckle with fastener fitting which is mounted to a vehicle seat. A pin is fixed to the fastener fitting and comprises, on its end facing away from the fastener fitting, a ball shaped end. A carrier plate of the belt buckle surrounds by means of a correspondingly shaped recess and a holding part said ball shaped end of the pin, thereby forming a ball-joint. A helical spring is provided, to urge the belt buckle relative to the fastener fitting about the axes of the ball-joint into a resting position.
A belt buckle with fastener fitting, which is fixed to a vehicle seat, is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,087. The belt buckle comprises a carrier plate, which is mounted rotatably on a pin fixed to the fastener fitting. To limit the extent of rotational movement of the carrier plate, a stop means is provided. The stop means consists of a finger portion of the carrier plate which extends into an elongated hole of the fastener fitting.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,610 describes a belt buckle which is secured to a vehicle door. The carrier plate of the belt buckle is divided in two parts, a first one being fixed to the vehicle door and a second one being connected to the belt buckle. The first and the second parts of the carrier plate are connected by a hinge. The belt buckle is rotatably mounted to the second part of the carrier plate by means of a pin.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,010 shows a deflector fitting, rotatably mounted to a fastener fitting. The deflector fitting is connected to fastener fitting by means of a pin and is urged into a resting position by a helical spring.
One requirement on such a belt buckle involves it being, for one thing, movable with respect to the fastener fitting, so that it can either be oriented at any time in a position optimal for the function or it permits being moved from a temporarily unwanted position, and for another, the belt buckle being automatically returned after such a maladjustment into a resting position which is optimal for introducing the insert tongue into the belt buckle.


Provided is a method of producing prepreg including: inspecting, with an optical device, in a resin sheet made of a release paper and a resin film which is formed by coating the release paper with a resin to be impregnated into a carbon fiber bundle, the surface of the resin film, detecting a defect in the surface of the resin film which would be the cause of a defect in the prepreg to be produced, and judging the type of the detected defect; or inspecting, with an optical device, the surface of the prepreg after the release paper is separated from the prepreg sheet which is formed by impregnating a resin forming the resin film into the carbon fiber bundle, detecting defects in the surface of the prepreg, and judging the type of the detected defect.

Composite materials made of a reinforcing fiber and a resin are widely used for sporting or leisure goods such as fishing rods and golf shafts, and equipment for airplanes, automobiles and industries. A molding material, referred to as prepreg, formed by impregnating a resin into a reinforcing fiber sheet made of reinforcing fiber bundles arranged in one direction, or a reinforcing fiber sheet made of reinforcing fibers arranged in at least two directions, for example a reinforcing fiber cloth, is used for molding of these composite materials. The composite material is produced by laminating a plurality of molding materials and molding the resulting laminate into a desired shape.
For production of the prepreg, in general, a resin sheet including a resin sheet formed of a release paper and a resin film formed from a resin coated the release paper, that is, a resin film with a release paper, and a carbon fiber bundle or a carbon fiber sheet including a carbon fiber bundle previously impregnated with a resin are used.
The surface of the resin film of the resin sheet is opposed to at least one surface of the carbon fiber sheet, and thereby a laminated sheet including the resin sheet and the carbon fiber sheet is formed. The resin in the formed laminated sheet is impregnated into the carbon fiber bundle in the laminated sheet under heating and/or pressure to produce a prepreg sheet including the carbon fiber bundle and the resin impregnated thereinto.
There are cases where two resin sheets are used and prepreg is produced by sandwiching the carbon fiber sheet between the two resin sheets.
As the resin, usually, an uncured thermosetting resin, for example, an uncured epoxy resin is used. The resin is coated the release paper by thin-film coating to form a resin film on the release paper. The thermosetting resin usually contains a curing agent. The thermosetting resin may be used in the form of a resin mixture including a thermoplastic resin mixed for the purpose of improving performance of a composite material or for the purpose of adjusting the viscosity of the resin in the production process.
As the carbon fiber bundle, a lot of carbon fibers arranged in one direction, or a lot of carbon fibers arranged in at least two directions, for example, a carbon fiber cloth, are used.
The impregnation of the resin into the carbon fiber bundle is usually conducted by a hot melt method. The impregnation of the resin into the carbon fiber bundle is performed once, or two or more times as required. The second or later impregnation of the resin into the carbon fiber bundle is performed for a carbon fiber bundle of prepreg formed by impregnating a resin into the carbon fiber bundle formed at the previous stage.
In the production process of the prepreg, defects due to foreign matter contamination that foreign matters such as cured products of a resin and fragments of a release paper are mixed in the prepreg, or due to the defective impregnation of a resin into the carbon fiber bundle (defective transfer of a resin to the carbon fiber bundle) may occur in the prepreg. Accordingly, it is important to minimize the occurrence of these defects in the production process of prepreg or detect the defects having occurred for producing composite materials of high quality which are free of defects or have little defects.
The detection of these defects of the prepreg is desirably performed without variation and with the defects classified by the type thereof according to criteria previously set in accordance with the type of the prepreg to be produced. Further, it is also desired that the position of the detected defect in the prepreg being continuously produced can be identified, and that the position of the defect can be marked on the prepreg. If the type of the defect can be identified and the position of the defect can be identified, reworking of the defect or elimination work of the defect area is enabled, and prepreg with high quality can be produced.
Conventionally, the detection of the defect of prepreg is generally performed by visual inspection. However, the visual work has problems that not only it requires extremely high concentration power, but also it tends to vary in judgment of the defect from person to person or some defects may be overlooked.
Introduction of a technique of automation of the prepreg defect inspection, which is aimed at solving these problems or saving manpower, into the production process of the prepreg is facilitated, and various techniques are proposed for shortening the inspection time or improving the inspection accuracy.
In Patent Document 1 is proposed a method of producing prepreg and an apparatus in which defects of the prepreg appearing in the production process are detected by classifying them into a fuzz defect, a gap defect and a foreign matter defect, and prepreg is produced by using the results of the detection. In this defect inspection method by Patent Document 1, the surface of the prepreg after the release paper is separated is irradiated with light to detect the defect in the surface of the prepreg. In this method, however, when a release paper is present on one surface of the prepreg, it is basically impossible to detect the defect occurred in the surface of the prepreg opposed to the release paper.
In Patent Document 2 is proposed an apparatus for producing prepreg and a method of producing prepreg in which a state of resin transfer (resin impregnation) to a reinforcing fiber bundle in the production process of the prepreg is detected, and prepreg is produced by using the results of the detection. In the inspection method of the state of resin transfer by Patent Document 2, after a resin coated a release paper is transferred to the reinforcing fiber bundle, remained resin on the surface of the release paper is inspected, and thereby, the state of resin transfer on the surface of the prepreg on a side from which the release paper has been separated is presumed. In this method, although the state related to resin transfer is detected, when a release paper is present on one surface of the prepreg, it is all the same basically impossible to detect the defect occurred in the surface of the prepreg opposed to the release paper.
In Patent Document 3 is proposed a method of inspecting defects of prepreg in which, among defects of prepreg, a gap defect and a fuzz defect are detected. However, a plurality of kinds of defects are present in the prepreg other than the gap defect and the fuzz defect, and therefore this method cannot completely save manpower and improve the inspection accuracy.
In Patent Document 4 is proposed a method of inspecting defects of prepreg in which, among defects of prepreg, a foreign matter defect, a fuzz defect, a streak defect and a wrinkle defect are detected. However, since a plurality of kinds of defects are present other than the foreign matter defect, the fuzz defect, the streak defect and the wrinkle defect, this method cannot completely save manpower and improve the inspection accuracy.
On the other hand, in the step of coating the release paper with a resin mixture to form a resin film on the release paper, the resin is partially lost on a coating roll to cause defects of resin coating that the resin is missed in the shape of a streak on the release paper, or the resin is missed in the shape of a point on the release paper.
Among these defects of resin coating, a streak-like defect may be referred to as a streak defect, and a spot defect may be referred to as a point defect. Further, foreign matters such as cured products of a resin and fragments of a release paper are sometimes mixed to cause a defect in a resin film before rolling-up a produced resin sheet. The defect due to foreign matters mixed may be referred to as a foreign matter defect.
These defects of a resin film may remain as defects in prepreg even after the resin is transferred to the reinforcing fiber bundle in the resin impregnation step of impregnating the resin into the reinforcing fiber bundle. Therefore, a criterion of the defect is defined for every kind of prepreg. Judgment of the defect is performed according to the criterion, and the position of the defect is recorded, and the defect is corrected or the defect area is eliminated from a product.
It is known to detect these defects in the production process of a resin film in which a resin film used for production of prepreg is formed.
In Patent Document 5 is proposed an apparatus for producing a resin sheet and a method of producing a resin sheet which detect a defect of a resin film formed by coating the surface of a release paper with a resin in the production process of a resin film, that is, a defect of resin coating. The defect inspection method described in Patent Document 5 is a method of detecting a defect of coating of a resin onto the surface of a resin film in the production process of a resin sheet.
However, in the production process of the resin sheet, even if a defect is detected before rolling up the resin sheet, it is basically impossible to detect a time-dependent change in the resin sheet before it is supplied to the subsequent production process of prepreg, a defect occurring in the rolling-up step of the resin sheet, or a defect occurring at the time of spreading a resin sheet from a resin sheet rolled body in the production process of prepreg, for example, a foreign matter defect occurring due to the mixing of the foreign matter.
Conventionally, usually the prepreg to which a release paper still adheres to one surface thereof, that is, prepreg with a release paper, is taken up in consideration of the handleability of prepreg when the prepreg is produced by a hot melt method. Therefore, the inspection of the defect on a surface of the prepreg on the side of the release paper is performed after separating the release paper. The release paper should be adhered to the prepreg in shipping the prepreg to a customer. However, the number of defects may be increased due to these operations, and insufficiently, only the inspection of the surface of the prepreg to which the release paper is not adhered is implemented. Accordingly, defects present on the opposite surface may be detected first upon use of the product, and remedy of this point is desired.


An optical member for biological information measurement has a prism, which has a light incident surface being injected with emitted light, a living body tissue measuring section which a living body tissue contacts, and a light emitting surface which emits the light reflected by the living body tissue measuring section which the living body tissue contacts, or the light which has passed the living body tissue through the living body tissue measuring section which the living body tissue has contacted. A prism cover is provided so as to expose the living body tissue measuring section and to surround all or a part of the outer circumferential portion of the prism.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical member for biological information measurement, a biological information calculation apparatus, a biological information calculation method, a computer-executable program, and a recording medium for calculating noninvasively glucose, cholesterol, urea, triglyceride, protein, and the like in body fluid by measuring a living body tissue optically.
2. Related Art of the Invention
A conventional optical measuring instrument for measuring a specific component in a living body or a solution will be described.
There exists an optical measuring instrument for measuring a blood glucose level with making upper and lower lips adhere to a transparent attenuated total reflection element having a pair of reflecting surfaces facing each other in parallel (hereafter, referred to as an ATR prism) (e.g., refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 97-113439). It is assumed that this conventional optical measuring instrument is called first conventional art.
More specifically, as shown in FIG. 12 which is a view of a conventional optical member for biological information measurement, light is injected in an ATR prism 1201 from an optical fiber 1202 in the state of holding the ATR prism 1201, which is constituted of selenium zinc, silicon, germanium or the like, in a mouth to press down the ATR prism 1201 by the lips 1203.
Then, light which repeatedly performs total reflection on boundaries between reflecting surfaces of the ATR prism 1201 and lips 1203 with infiltrating into the lips 1203 slightly (i.e., performs attenuated total reflection), and is emitted to the outside of the ATR prism 1201 is taken out and analyzes using an optical fiber 1204. Thus, it is possible to know how much the light at each wavelength is absorbed by the specific component by analyzing the light spectrum of the emitted light and calculating the amount of the light at wavelengths which the specific component which is the measuring object tends to absorb. In this way, it is possible to measure quantitatively the specific component in a living body.
In addition, there is an optical measuring instrument for measuring a blood glucose level and a blood ethanol concentration by injecting a laser beam with a wavelength of 9 to 11 μm is into this ATR prism after making the ATR prism, which is constituted of ZnSe crystal, or the like, adhere to mucosae of lips, performing multipath reflection inside the ATR prism, and analyzing attenuated total reflection light, scatter reflection light, and the like (i.e., refer to Hideo Fukushima, et al., "Non-invasive mensuration technique—development of optical glucose sensor of blood glucose level—", BME, Japan Society of Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering, 1991, vol. 5(8), p. 16-21). It is assumed that this conventional optical measuring instrument is called second conventional art.
The light which proceeds to the inside of the ATR prism is reflected after infiltrating into lips slightly.
The reflected light receives the influence of each component in body fluid which exists in lips, and decreases more than before infiltrating into lips.
Then, it is possible to obtain information on each component in the body fluid by measuring the light amount of the reflected light.
The first and a second conventional art apply an evanescent wave (being the so-called seeping light) to a quantitative analysis.
In addition, there exists a contact for biological information detection including abutting means of having a concave portion abutting against the living body tissue, detected-light emission means of emitting detected light from a part of the concave portion, and detected-light incident means which is provided in another part of the concave portion and is injected with the detected light, wherein the abutting means is constituted of a material which has a refractive index higher than a refractive index of a living body tissue, and wherein the detected light is injected into the detected-light incident means in the state that the abutting means and living body tissue abut each other after passing the living body tissue which is wrapped up in the concave portion (e.g., refer to National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2001-058355). It is assumed that this conventional contact for biological information detection is called third conventional art.
There are few damages to a living body tissue, and it is possible to measure biological information easily and highly accurately.
Nevertheless, also in the first to third conventional art, light from other than a light source for measurement such as sunlight and light from illumination may constitute disturbance light in many cases.
Thereby, the above-mentioned conventional art has a subject that an adverse effect to biological information measurement by disturbance light may arise.
In addition, in the first and second conventional art, the seeping depth d of an evanescent wave filtrating into a living body can be obtained as follows:
                    d        =                              λ            0                                2                        π                                                                                n                    1                    2                                                                          sin                    2                                                                          θ                    1                                                  -                                  n                  2                  2                                                                                (                  Formula                                                              1                )
d: Penetration depth
λ0: Wavelength in vacuum
n1: Refractive index of first medium
n2: Refractive index of second medium
θ1: Incident angle from first medium to second medium
With computing the case that λ0=10 μm and θ1=45° using ZnSe crystal (n1=2.0) as the ATR prism, since a refractive index of a living body is approx 1.3 to 1.5, d becomes 29 μm at the time of n2=1.41, and hence, it turns out that it is possible to obtain the information with regard to the state of approx tens of μms of surface and its vicinity.
Here, an electric field of the evanescent wave exponentially decreases according to the depth.
Hence, it is very important to make the living body tissue adhere to the living body tissue measuring section of the ATR prism.
Nevertheless, in both the first and second conventional art, the ATR prism is just held or is just pressed in lips.
Therefore, it is hard to make lips adhere to the ATR prism.
For this reason, in the first and second conventional art, the accurate measurement of biological information may become hard.
In addition, although it becomes possible in the third conventional art to upheave the living body tissue to the formed concave portion, and to measure selectively a region which is upheaved, similarly to the above-mentioned first and second conventional art, the adhesion of the living body tissue and living body tissue measuring section is very important.
Nevertheless, since the adhesion of the living body tissue and living body tissue measuring section is hard, when the adhesion of the living body tissue and living body tissue measuring section is insufficient, optical path length may vary, and the accurate measurement of biological information may become hard.
In consideration of such conventional subjects mentioned above, the present invention aims at providing an optical member for biological information measurement, a biological information calculation apparatus, a biological information calculation method, a computer-executable program, and a recording medium which can suppress the adverse effect to biological information measurement by disturbance light.

Optical member for biological information measurement, biological information calculation apparatus, biological information calculation method, computer-executable program, and recording medium

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Shock dampener bumper for motor-vehicles, adapted to be applied on to motor-vehicles of various kind, both for personal uses and for sports contests, for protecting the constructive structure of each motor-vehicle from any possible damage and/or breakage thereof, in the case in which the motor-vehicle falls. Bumper composed of first and second component parts combined and assembled to each other with adequate arrangements, of which said first component parts (disc 8, bush 10 and cap 11) are made of semi-rigid materials such as magnesium, plastic, Teflon, aluminium and other metallic and/or plastic materials having similar characteristics, which are able to be fixed to and supported by the motor-vehicle constructive structure and to come into contact with the ground during the fall of the motor-vehicle, and said second component parts (disc 9) are made of elastic material, preferably elastomers such as for example rubber, said second component parts (9) being interposed between said first component parts (8, 10, 11), for damping and absorbing the energy of shocks and related vibrations, which are produced during the fall and which are transmitted to the motor-vehicle constructive structure.

The invention relates to a shock dampener bumper for motor-vehicles, adapted to be applied on to motor-vehicles of various kind, both for personal uses and for sports contests and made in a simple, practical and versatile manner, in order to prevent damages to the motor-vehicle constructive structure in cases in which they fall, by dampening effectively the shocks deriving from the contact with the ground. Shock dampener bumpers built in on the motor-vehicles of the kind referred to are known, for dampening shocks deriving when such motor-vehicles fall on to the ground, in a way to avoid or limit as much as possible the damages to the constructive structure of the same motor-vehicles. These bumpers are generally constituted by a single adequately shaped part of aluminium or plastic material, which is secured at its one end portion laterally on a suitable position to the motor-vehicle constructive structure, by utilizing suitable thickening elements and screws, and the other free end portion of which is slightly projected from the profile of the relative motor-vehicle constructive structure and, during the fall, comes into contact with the ground by damping such shocks, thereby preventing that such constructive structure comes into contact with the ground, by damaging or breaking it. These kinds of bumpers provide for effective damping actions which depend on the their size and the composition of their material, in that during the impact with the ground they transmit unavoidably some vibrations to the constructive structure of the relative motor-vehicle too, and these vibrations are absorbed effectively by the material of the same bumpers, and therefore do not produce damages to such structure, until the bumpers have pre-established sizes. On the contrary, in the case in which such bumpers have sizes greater than such pre-established values, the vibrations produced when the motor-vehicle falls exceed the safety values and may also be amplified, and under such circumstances when impacting the ground the bumper behaves like a component integral with the motor-vehicle constructive structure, in such a manner to safeguard only the more external parts of the constructive structure, by discharging through the bumper securing support all the energy deriving by the impact of both such support and the remaining component parts of the structure (engine, etc.), thereby producing the breaking and damaging of all these parts.


A method for eliciting or inducing an immune response in a human or animal subject, comprises administering to said subject a composition comprising an antigen and an adjuvant, wherein the composition is administered to the subject by the intra-lung route.

Over many years, various attempts have been made to utilise the respiratory tract as a means to deliver non-living vaccine antigens. This route was seen as conferring advantages in terms of vaccine acceptability (avoiding "needle phobia"), the opportunity to induce local immune responses and the potential to induce responses at distant mucosal sites given the assumed unity of the mucosal immune system. Much attention has been given to delivering vaccines by the intranasal route in humans and animals. Results to date indicate that this route requires very high antigen doses and/or the use of specialised delivery technologies to ensure antigen uptake and immune induction.
Similarly, delivery of vaccines via the intra-lung or pulmonary route has in the past generally required specialised delivery techniques, such as microencapsulation (see, for example, Oya Alpa et al., 2005), in order to optimise immune responses.
In work leading to the present invention, the inventors have observed that delivery of vaccines by the intranasal route is highly inefficient, inducing poor local immunity even at high antigen doses. Accordingly, the inventors have investigated an alternative route of vaccine administration which retains the advantage of avoiding "needle phobia".
Surprisingly, the inventors have demonstrated the superiority of vaccine delivery to the lung over that by the intranasal route as a means of inducing immune responses. They have also demonstrated that strong systemic immune responses can be induced using very small quantities of antigen when delivered with adjuvant via the lung. In particular, the inventors have shown that a straightforward vaccine composition combining antigen and adjuvant induces strong systemic immune responses on intra-lung delivery without the need for specialised uptake technologies. Significantly, it has been shown that intra-lung delivery results in lung mucosal immune responses, which can be as much as one hundred-fold (100×) greater than that induced by conventional parenteral immunisation, even when very small quantities of antigen are delivered with adjuvant via the lung.
Griffith et al (1997) describe the intratracheal delivery of ricin toxoid formulated either in liposomes, with aluminium hydroxide or in PBS. The liposome formulated group showed best protection; aluminium hydroxide did not improve protection over PBS. WO 2005/110379 describes the pulmonary delivery of a particulate malaria vaccine. The formulation was delivered as a particulate formulation and permitted sustained release of antigen.
The reference in this specification to any prior publication (or information derived from it), or to any matter which is known, is not, and should not be taken as an acknowledgment or admission or any form of suggestion that that prior publication (or information derived from it) or known matter forms part of the common general knowledge in the field of endeavour to which this specification relates.
Throughout this specification and the claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise", and or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or step or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or step or group of integers or steps.

Method of elicting or inducing an immune response


An Ethernet MAC APS Control sublayer is provided for supporting SDH/SONET APS standard functionality in Ethernet Networks. In accordance with one embodiment, an Ethernet MAC APS Control sublayer is provided for processing Ethernet MAC APS Control frames. The MAC APS Control sublayer provides support for a MAC Client APS Controller to implement all of the SDH/SONET APS standard functionality. The MAC APS Control frame provides support for SDH/SONET K/1K2 APS signaling protocol on Ethernet networks. The near end APS Controller can use the MAC APS Control frames to communicate with the far end APS controller during switchover and other APS operational requests. The far end APS controller, in turn, can use the MAC APS Control frames to communicate with the near end APS controller for switchover and other APS operational requests.

SDH/SONET (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy/Synchronous Optical Network) standards evolved originally for use in a voice network. SDH is a European version of a standard that is substantially the same as the SONET standard developed in North America. SDH/SONET contains connection oriented synchronous TDM circuit switching technology. The SDH/SONET configured network runs at the same clock domain (e.g., every section of the network can be traced to a primary clock reference). The network allocates fixed bandwidth time slots for each circuit. The SDH/SONET architectures are connection based protocols in that there is a physical circuit arrangement between ports in a switch to establish an end to end path. The digital transitions in signals traveling through an SDH/SONET network occur at the same rate, however there may be a phase difference between the transitions of any two signals caused by time delays or jitter in the transmission system.
Ethernet evolved primarily as a data network. In contrast to SDH/SONET, Ethernet is a connectionless asynchronous Carrier Sense, Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) packet switching technology. The Ethernet architecture does not rely on a single clock domain like the SDH/SONET architecture. The Ethernet architecture sends a series of packets across the network containing data. Whenever a packet needs to be sent, the transmitter will try to transmit the packet. The Ethernet architecture is also connectionless in that the packets travel from node to node within the network without establishing a logical or physical circuit. The end to end path is discovered through a process called "Bridging". Ethernet is fundamentally a Local Area Networking (LAN) technology.
SDH/SONET networks provide reliable, guaranteed available bandwidth, low jitter connections. These characteristics are required for voice quality networks. SDH/SONET, however, is bandwidth inefficient and has a higher overhead that many other network architectures. Ethernet networks, in contrast, provide lower reliability best effort delivery, and low cost bandwidth connections. These characteristics are suitable for data quality networks. Ethernet has non-guaranteed transmission and low overhead and supports fewer operational functions than SDH/SONET. In SDH/SONET, once the circuit is established, bandwidth is allocated for an application and cannot be used by any other application, even if the original application is not using the bandwidth. In Ethernet, applications only use bandwidth when they need the bandwidth to transmit packets.
In SDH/SONET networks, Automatic Protection Switching (APS) functionality is known. SDH/SONET standards define APS controller as the "part of a node that is responsible for generating and terminating information carried in the APS protocol and implementing the APS algorithm." SDH/SONET standards also define APS signaling protocol and APS (K1/K2) bytes. SDH/SONET standards also define various algorithms for linear, ring and mesh protection. SDH/SONET APS functionality can support 50 ms switchover, unidirectional and bi-directional switchover, revertive and non-revertive switchover, manual or automatic switchover. SDH/SONET APS functionality can also support linear, ring, and mesh topologies, and Line and Path protections. The APS feature enables the switchover of circuits in case of circuit failure and is often utilized in optical network systems. In general, the APS feature organizes a network into a collection of "working" interfaces and "protect" interfaces. When a working interface fails, a protect interface immediately assumes the working interface traffic load. In APS there is a working port/link and a protect port/link. Upon initialization and full functioning of a network system, the working port/link is active and the protect port/link maintains a standby mode. If there is an equipment failure during operation, the protect port/link becomes the active port/link, taking over for the failed working port/link, i.e., the protect port/link becomes the new working port/link. Under known APS systems, there can be a minimal traffic disruption during the switchover, on the order of less than 50 ms.
In voice networks, SDH/SONET APS Standard functionality provides the architecture for protection in under 50 ms from equipment failure for ring, linear, or mesh topologies. In order for data networks to be able to support voice traffic, the network must be able to provide the same level of protection both in terms of time to recover and working with different network topologies, i.e., support rings and linear topologies. Ethernet is the most common data network data link layer protocol. There is no Ethernet standard to provide APS functionality.
In Ethernet networks, several standards and proprietary technologies support link failure. Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) IEEE 802.1 D standard provides topology changes. STP calculates and maintains the topology by sending and listening to Configuration Messages and several timers. These Configuration Messages are emitted every time a "Hello Timer" times out. Typical this is set to 2 seconds. This means that STP cannot support 50 ms recovery as required for link APS SDH/SONET standard. As the number of nodes grows larger in a STP domain, STP convergence also slows down considerably. It can take minutes to converge. Because of polling, STP also consumes some bandwidth. STP was mainly designed for loop resolution, and original assumptions were that topology changes would be infrequent. STP did not place more emphasis to quick recovery from failures. In data networks, quick recovery is most often not a requirement.
Link Aggregation (LA) IEEE 802.3ad standard is designed to support aggregated links. One of the features Link Aggregation is the support of the possibility of one of the physical link failure in the aggregated link. A Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is defined "to automatically configure and maintain aggregations among cooperating systems." These messages are emitted on a regular, periodic basis. Typically, the period is every second for fast rate and every 30 seconds for slow rate. This means that Link Aggregation also does not support 50 ms recovery. Before the standard was formalized there were several proprietary implementations of link aggregation, most notably Fast EtherChannel product developed by Cisco Systems.
Recently several proprietary technologies have evolved to accomplish the 50 ms second recovery requirement for carrier networks. These technologies can be classified into two main categories: Ethernet based and new non-Ethernet based. In Ethernet based systems most technologies use 20 ms based "Heartbeat" or "Hello" protocol polling to detect link failure along with upper layer software to recover within 50 ms. Atrica's Atrica Resilient Ethernet Access (AREA) framework technology is an example of that. Occam Networks Ethernet Protection Switching (EPS) technology is also an example. Internet Photonics uses interframe gap in Ethernet to support similar functionality.
There are other Ethernet efforts in progress that are also trying to solve the fast recovery problem. Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) IEEE Committee is working on modifications to STP, but currently, there is a requirement of 1 second guaranteed convergence/recovery, not 50 ms. Ethernet First Mile IEEE Committee is also working on modifying Ethernet to support 50 ms recovery.
Non Ethernet based technologies being defined include Metro Ethernet Forum, which uses Multi Label Protocol Switching (MPLS) to support protection. Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) technology is being defined by RPR Alliance. RPR is a new protocol that is not compatible with Ethernet protocol, but is designed to support 50 ms recovery in rings.
Most of the above mentioned technologies solve limited functionality for Ethernet. Typically, they support 50 ms protection either in a linear or ring environment, but not both. In addition, they are limited to link failures. They address only a subset of the capabilities as defined by the SDH/SONET APS standard.

Method for supporting SDH/SONET APS on Ethernet


A foam saddle is disclosed, where the foam saddle comprises a first casing, a second casing, a foam body and an intensified structure. The second casing is capped on the first casing. The foam body is formed in a cavity of the first casing and is bound to the first casing and the second casing. The intensified structure is embedded in the foam body. By means of the above structure, the first casing of the foam saddle of this invention and the foam body possess great bonding in between, and the foam body and the intensified structure possess great bonding in between too.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention disclosed herein relates, in general, to foam saddles. More specifically, the present invention relates to a foam saddle having a first casing in which a foam body is formed and an intensified structure is embedded therein, where the first casing is capped by a second casing to have the foam body enclosed in between.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior bike saddle 9, as in some Taiwan patents (Taiwan Patent No. TW M452113, I340706, and M253539), shown in FIG. 14, comprises a hard bottom housing 91, a foam body 92 and a skin 93. The foam body 92 is attached to the top of the hard bottom housing 91 while the skin 93 is laminated adhesively to the top of the foam body 92 to protect it 92. The hard bottom housing 91 is generally made from plastic or metal. The foam body 92 is foamed by foam material of polyethylene. And the skin 93 is made from thermoplastic rubber, thermoplastic polyurethane, polyethylene and the like.
The applicant's previous patent application, Taiwan Patent No. I323216, discloses a method of manufacturing a foam product, where the method is first to place a thermoplastic plastic skin in a mold, and then to inject plural foam particles into the mold, followed by the foaming of the foam particles by means of high temperature pressurization and at the same time by the bonding to the plastic skin by means of thermal welding, eventually to obtain a foam product that comprises a plastic skin and a foam body formed by the foaming of polyethylene foam particles.


A physical exercise/therapy apparatus includes a generally upstanding frame with a plurality of support bars at the top of the frame. The support bars are adapted to support a plurality of exercise pulleys, whereby a plurality of exercise devices are provided. The respective positions of the pulleys are adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of different types of muscle exercises. The frame includes a plurality of stall bars adapted to support a relatively flat board in an inclined position and a plurality of support rods spaced vertically along each side of the frame for supporting a stacking board. A guide mechanism is provided for guiding the movement of an exercise weight, such that the weight is constrained to move along a vertical axis. The guide mechanism includes inner and outer hollow members and a plate member attached to the inner hollow member. The plate member is configured to ride up and down within a vertically oriented slot in the outer hollow member to constrain the weight to move up and down along a vertical axis parallel to the slot.

Apparatus for exercising various muscle groups are known in the art. Typically, each apparatus is specially designed for a particular muscle exercise. In order to perform a wide variety of muscle exercises, multiple apparatus are typically required.
In addition to use in connection with body building and muscle toning exercises, exercise apparatus are also used in physical therapy to help a person recover from a physical injury. Physical therapy clinics usually no not have sufficient space to accommodate a large number of exercise apparatus. There is therefore a need for an exercise apparatus which can accommodate a wide variety of muscle exercises in a relatively compact unit.


The present invention relates to a vehicle power controlling apparatus, and more particularly, to a vehicle power controlling apparatus for interrupting a dark current from an ECU power front stage of a motor driven power steering (MDPS) system.

Generally, in an electronic control unit (ECU) front stage of a motor driven power steering (MDPS) system, a dark current (leakage current) is generated until vehicle ignition is turned on to discharge a vehicle battery.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram illustrating an ECU power circuit in the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, when a Vlink voltage becomes 60% of a Vbat voltage through circuit path #10 during power up, the Vlink voltage is relayed on, and when the Vbat−Vlink voltage becomes a predetermined voltage or less after the relay on command, it can be confirmed that the relay on command is accurately applied.
During power down, in order to stably check a relay off after a relay off command, the Vlink voltage is reduced through a discharge circuit 13, and when the Vbat−Vlink voltage has a difference of a predetermined voltage or more, it can be confirmed that the relay off command is accurately applied.
As such, in the related art, even before the vehicle ignition is turned on, that is, even before an IGN_ENA signal is applied, a current path 11 is formed in the EC to generate the dark current (leakage current). Further, in order to prevent a large amount of dark current, since R426 and R427 resistances are largely set, during power down, the discharge circuit needs to be formed.

Abstract: The vehicle power controlling apparatus includes: a power control signal receiving block configured to receive a power control signal (for example, a vehicle ignition signal IGN_ENA); a dark current preventing block configured to prevent a power voltage Vbat from flowing before the power control signal from a next stage of the power control signal receiving block; a relay block that is relayed on or off when the power voltage is turned on or off to supply a current to the motor from the power voltage; a relay shortening block configured to shorten the relay-on time by rapidly increasing the voltage before the relay is turned on of the relay block, between the dark current preventing block and the relay block; and a relay recognizing block configured to recognize the relay on or the relay off by reducing the voltage after a relay on signal or relay off signal which is applied to the relay block.


A substrate processing apparatus includes a chamber, and a cleaning-liquid supply unit that supplies a cleaning liquid containing hydrofluoro ether onto a substrate to be processed placed in the chamber. In the chamber, there is further disposed a gas supply unit that supplies into the chamber a gas for preventing moisture from being adhered to a substrate to be processed, when a cleaning liquid containing hydrofluoro ether is supplied onto the substrate to be processed.

In manufacturing steps of a semiconductor device, there is a possibility that particles adhere to a surface of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter also referred to simply as "wafer"), during a film-deposition process and an etching process for the wafer, for example. Thus, it is necessary to clean the surface of the wafer.
As a wafer cleaning apparatus for cleaning a wafer, there has been known an apparatus that cleans a wafer, by supplying a cleaning liquid of a deionized water or a chemical liquid onto a surface of the wafer which is being rotated by a spin chuck, then rinsing the wafer, and finally rotating the wafer at a high speed to dry the same.
There is a case in which a cleaning liquid containing hydrofluoro ether (hereinafter also referred to simply as "HFE") is used as a cleaning liquid to be supplied to the wafer (see, IP2005-5469A, IP2006-41065A, and JP2002-124504A). As compared with a conventional cleaning liquid of, e.g., a deionized water, a surface tension and a viscosity of the cleaning liquid containing HFE are significantly lowered. Thus, the cleaning liquid containing HFE is capable of easily entering small recesses in a surface of a wafer, so that a slight amount of particles resting in the small recesses can be favorably removed. Further, a specific gravity of HFE is about 1.5, which is greater than a specific gravity of water. Thus, when HFE is supplied onto a surface of a wafer, the HFE collides with the wafer with a greater kinetic energy. As a result, a processing efficiency of the wafer can be enhanced. Furthermore, since HFE does not have a flash point, there is no possibility that HFE catches fire during a process of the wafer.

Substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method