An apparatus and method for measuring the ratio of the capacitance values C.sub.1, C.sub.2 of two capacitors having very small capacitances, where the capacitors to be compared are interconnected by means of one of their one electrodes. A signal voltage U.sub.i (t) which can be differentiated, can be reproduced over at least two signal periods and has defined slopes is applied to the interconnected electrodes of the capacitors. The two other electrodes of the capacitors are each connected to current amplifiers (3,4). The amplified output signals U.sub.1 (t), U.sub.2 (t) of the two capacitors are supplied to an A/D convertor and during a first signal period, two digital amplitude values Us.sub.1, Us.sub.2 of the output signals of the one capacitor at an interval of half a signal period (T/2) are determined and, subsequently thereto and likewise at an interval of half a signal period, during the second signal period, two digital amplitude values Us.sub.3, Us.sub.4 of the output signals of the other capacitor are determined. These values are utilized to determine and output the capacitance ratio in accordance with ##EQU1## The circuit arrangement can advantageously be used in an apparatus for inclination and/or acceleration measurements, whose sensor comprises two fixed electrode plates (10, 11) and a capacitor plate (15) arranged in a moving manner between them.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus and method for measuring the ratio of the capacitance values of two capacitors having very small capacitances which have very small differences between them and are interconnected by means of one of their electrodes. Capacitances in the picofarad range and capacitance differences down to the femtofarad range are intended to be regarded as small.
2. Description of the Related Art
A circuit arrangement for measuring the quotient of the capacitance values of two capacitors which are to be compared with one another and are interconnected at one electrode is disclosed in DE 36 23 136 C2. The capacitors are interconnected on the signal output side. A DC signal is supplied via a switch to the free electrode of the one capacitor and is supplied via an operational amplifier and a further switch to the free electrode of the other capacitor. The two switches are connected in antiphase. Additionally connected in series with the operational amplifier is a further switch which opens delayed in time with respect to the other switches. During the time when this switch is open, currents flow from the two capacitors through the switch upstream of the operational amplifier. The mean current during this time is equal to zero. From this it results that the ratio of the input voltages of the capacitors is proportional to their capacitances.
Because of the use of the multiplicity of switches, the known method is problematic particularly for the measurement of very small capacitances. The control signals of the switches lead to small currents which are in the same order of magnitude as the currents flowing through the capacitances, and they are temperature-dependent. A disadvantage is also seen in that the assumption concerning the mean current is based on a time measurement.
The above-mentioned document discloses having pure voltage measurement at the output of the operational amplifier. The two capacitors are connected into the measurement circuit alternately. The frequency of the signal voltage can be selected to be up to the order of magnitude of 300 kHz and is limited by the response time of the analog switches. With a knowledge of the capacitance of one of the capacitors as a reference value, and measurement of the signal output values at the operational amplifier, it is intended to be possible to determine the other capacitance or its change in a sensitive manner. No statements are published on the lower limits of the measurable capacitances.
The measurement of capacitances in the picofarad range is necessary, for example for the characterization of integrated circuits using MOS or MIS technology. In this case, the capacitance must also be measured over a wide frequency range from a few Hertz to a few Megahertz. A suitable circuit arrangement is specified in EP 0,318,596 A1.
The equivalent circuit of an integrated circuit is a parallel circuit consisting of a capacitance and a resistance whose magnitude is not negligible. A DC voltage of variable amplitude and a superimposed AC voltage of variable frequency are applied to the component to measure the impedance. The AC voltage signal is preferably a triangular-wave signal. The output signal is converted into an AC signal via an operational amplifier with feedback. The top gradient and the amplitude of this AC signal are determined at a defined measurement time. The magnitude of the capacitance is then derived from the amplitude and that of the parallel resistance is derived from the top gradient. For absolute measurements, a known circuit can alternatively be inserted into the measurement arrangement as a reference.
It is not possible to measure the ratio of the capacitances of two unknown capacitors directly using this circuit.
The measurement principle of a number of sensors for inclination and/or acceleration indication is based on determining small capacitance changes in capacitor systems having very small capacitances. Such a sensor and a suitable evaluation circuit are described in DE-PS 2,523,446. The sensor comprises two electrode plates which are opposite one another at a fixed spacing between which a capacitor plate is located, suspended in a sprung manner.
The two electrode plates are connected to a generator for generating an AC voltage such that there are voltages of equal amplitude and frequency, but phase-shifted with respect to one another through 180.degree., on the electrode plates. The voltages acting on the capacitor plate thus counteract one another when the capacitor plate is located precisely between the electrode plates. If the capacitor plate deviates under the influence of gravity or inertia forces from its null position, an AC voltage is produced by the change in the capacitances between the electrode plates and the capacitor plate.
The capacitor plate is electrically connected to a measurement transducer in which this AC voltage is converted into a measurement signal for indicating the angle change in the position of the sensor. However, the AC voltage can also be supplied to a regulator which generates therefrom a regulated DC voltage signal which is superimposed on the AC voltage applied to the electrode plates. The regulator is configured such that the capacitor plate is held in its null position against the force acting on it. The angle change of the capacitor plate which is proportional to the inclination and/or acceleration can then likewise be determined from the DC voltage regulation signals.
The capacitance changes to be detected in the sensor are very small so that parasitic capacitances and leakage resistances of the connecting wires and other components of the printed-circuit board used for constructing the circuit have a critical effect on the accuracy and sensitivity. Regulation at the null position is very complex. Since the DC voltage used for returning the capacitor plate must be relatively high, there are additional insulation problems and particular requirements for the mechanical design of the sensor.

Circuit arrangement for measuring the ratio of the capacitance values of two capacitors


An introducer assembly includes a catheter having a proximal end, a distal end extending to a distal tip of the introducer assembly, and an outer catheter wall. The catheter includes a medical device holding portion proximate the distal end, a guide wire lumen extending between the proximal and distal ends, and a side opening extending through the outer wall to the guide wire lumen. The side opening and the guide wire lumen are simultaneously open and the guide wire lumen and side opening are able to receive a guide wire therethrough. The catheter is flexible at least in the location of the side opening. The catheter also includes a plurality of one stiffening mandrel lumens extending from the proximal end and a plurality of stiffening mandrels.

Introducer assemblies are now conventional devices in the performance of endoluminal procedures such as treatments in a vessel or other organ, for delivery of medical devices, diagnostic procedures and so on. Often such assemblies include a catheter or shaft for holding a medical device, for delivery of tools, and/or for delivery of fluids such as for treatment, for contrast or for inflating and/or deflating a medical balloon or other expandable device, and for other purposes. Such catheters and shafts vary in characteristics and dimensions, primarily in dependence upon the nature of the site at which they are deployed and the treatment they are intended to support, as well as on the percutaneous point of insertion into the patient. In many or most cases, the introducer assembly and shaft or catheter thereof need to combine flexibility with strength, whether in compression, extension and/or torque.
A more flexible assembly will be able to track better through tortuous vasculature and over a guide wire, while a stiffer assembly has greater pushability to pass through restrictions in its path and through lesions, plaque or stenosis. In many cases, an assembly needs to be designed to exhibit both of these characteristics, in which case different parts of the assembly may be designed for different purposes. For instance, the distal end of the assembly, that is the end that is inserted into the patient's vasculature, may be more flexible, and the assembly may be designed to increase in rigidity along its length towards its proximal end, which remains outside the patient during the procedure. Often, the stiffness characteristics of the assembly are a compromise between stiffness and rigidity and are not optimal.
An advantageous way of deploying an introducer assembly is over a guide wire, which is first inserted into the patient's vessel, commonly by means of the established Seldinger technique. A guide wire has the advantage of being able to guide the introducer assembly for the entire path from the percutaneous entry point to the treatment location, which could be from tens of centimetres to often significantly more than a metre. For this purpose, the introducer assembly will include a catheter or shaft having a lumen extending along its entire extent for receiving the guide wire.
More recently, introducer assemblies with rapid exchange functionality have gained popularity, in part because they make it easier to carry out more complex multi-stage treatments, such as dual balloon treatments, deployment of multi-branched prostheses and so on. A typical rapid exchange system also saves of the need to have a very long guide wire as is the case with an over-the-wire system and requires less personnel to operate. A rapid exchange system typically comprises a guide wire lumen with an exit port located proximate the distal end of the catheter, such that the guide wire extends beyond the distal end of the catheter, in the same way as an over-the-wire guide wire, but exits to one side.
Issues can also arise with the visualisation of the medical assembly during the course of the medical intervention. For example, it is highly advantageous to be able to visualise the progress of the procedure and it is conventional to use contrast media to achieve this. However, current systems tend to require significant amounts of contrast media for effective visualisation, which can be problematic particularly in patients having reduced kidney function, diabetes or other ailments.
Conventionally, an introducer assembly is an over-the-wire system or a rapid exchange system. Examples of assemblies that may be adapted to be used in either mode include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,702,781, 5,489,271, US-2012/0316436, U.S. Pat. No. 6,458,099, US-2013/0345628 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,184. Reference is also made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,033,331, 4,822,345, 8,016,752 and 6,702,781.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,355 discloses a catheter having a guide wire lumen with a side opening for rapid exchange deployment of a guide wire, as does WO-92/20397.

Introducer assembly particularly for balloon catheters


A foot for an article of furniture having a groove. The foot includes a base, at least one side wall extending upwardly from the base and at least one T-shaped projection being positioned on the side wall. The projection is received by the groove of the article of furniture.

The present invention relates generally to a foot for an article of furniture. More specifically, the invention is directed to a furniture foot including, among other things, at least one T-shaped projection positioned on at least one side wall of the foot.
Furniture feet are known in the art. These prior art feet are usually attached directly to the bottom of an article of furniture. The feet are used to space the article of furniture from the floor. In the past, furniture feet have been attached to the furniture article by screws, staples, nails, or glue.
It has been found that there is a need for a foot for an article of furniture that can be attached to an article of furniture without screws, staples, nails, or glue. The present invention satisfies this need.


A system for achieving a low level of nitrogen in a lower pressure column in the feed to the argon column in a cryogenic air separation system by use of two beds of structured packing of about equal height in the lower pressure column, with mixing and redistribution of liquid between them. The packed beds are located between the feed from the argon column top condenser and the point where the argon column feed is withdrawn.

Argon is used in the metallurgical industry, particularly in argon-oxygen degassing of stainless and specialty steels and in the cutting and welding of various metals. Plasma jet torches, utilizing an argon mixture heated to temperatures in excess of 10,000 degrees K, are used for cutting operations and for coating metals with refractory materials. More recently argon has become an important ingredient in the electronics industry as a carrier, purge, or blanketing gas to exclude air from certain fabrication processes, especially in the growing of crystals, ion milling, and other etching processes.
The production of argon is an important economic factor in the industrial gas industry. Generally argon is a by-product of cryogenic air separation. However, a number of additional processing steps are necessary to produce a required purity of argon. One of the critical purity requirements is the concentration of contained nitrogen. Many applications of argon demand that it be essentially free of nitrogen.
The use of structured packing in cryogenic distillation columns has presented an opportunity to take advantage of the packing's characteristics of good mass transfer accompanied by low pressure drop (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,050 to Meier). The addition of a large number of theoretical trays in the low pressure column of a cryogenic air separation plant, without incurring the effects of an accompanying large pressure drop, by the use of structured packing presents a significant economic improvement in the production of argon.
In the past, the production of high purity argon involved a number of processing steps to produce a crude argon stream which was then upgraded in a refinery. Argon processing starts with the low pressure column of a cryogenic air separation plant. A low grade argon stream is withdrawn from an intermediate point in the low pressure column. The low grade argon stream is then fed into an argon column where it is separated into an overhead crude argon stream containing about 97.5 percent argon and a bottom stream which is returned to the low pressure column. The overhead stream also typically contains about 1.5 percent oxygen and about 1.0 percent nitrogen.
The crude argon stream from the top of the argon column is then warmed to about ambient temperature, at which time hydrogen is added and the mixture compressed and sent to a Deoxo catalytic furnace where the oxygen is removed. The combusted argon is cooled, dried and then further cooled to essentially liquefaction temperature. The cold argon stream is then sent to the refinery column where the excess hydrogen and remaining nitrogen are removed. Normal production provides an argon product stream containing less than 5 ppm nitrogen or oxygen.
German Patent 1 048 936, describes a means for reducing the nitrogen content of the feed to an argon column. The suggested process increases the number of trays used in the section of the low pressure column, between a feed from the argon condenser and the point where the argon column feed is withdrawn. The use of additional trays in the low pressure column, for the purpose of reducing the nitrogen content of the feed to the argon column, imposes a pressure drop penalty which increases the air compressor discharge pressure and therefore the energy requirements. Further, the increase in pressure level reduces relative volatility within the columns, resulting in a lowering of argon recovery.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,790, Jul. 28, 1992, to Bianchi et al., (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference), the use of structured packing is suggested to increase the number of equilibrium stages in the low pressure column between the feed from the argon condenser and the point where the argon column feed is withdrawn. The additional rectification in the lower pressure column is provided by the incorporation of structured packing rather than by trays. This reduces the nitrogen concentration substantially while maintaining the argon concentration at or near its maximum, enabling the production of nitrogen-free argon directly. The use of structured packing, rather than trays, avoids the energy penalty and reduced argon recovery.
Full scale testing of the system proposed by Bianchi et al., (which utilizes structured packing throughout the low pressure column), revealed that it is difficult to achieve low nitrogen levels in the argon column feed. Attempts were made to achieve low nitrogen levels using a single bed of packing between the feed from the argon condenser and the point where the argon column feed is withdrawn. The performance was not satisfactory.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved argon production system which employs a low pressure distillation column with structured packing.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved argon production system wherein the feed from a low pressure column to an argon column is largely nitrogen free.

Column configuration and method for argon production


An integrated receiver with dual channel transport stream decoding and delivery substantially implemented on a single CMOS integrated circuit is described. For multiple channel transfers to hard disk drive storage, a multiplexed IDE host interface is provided with shared pins for data, address, and chip-select lines of the IDE interface so that multiple hard drives may be interfaced using the common pins of the integrated circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed in general to receivers for processing multiple input signals. In one aspect, the present invention relates to a method and system for servicing two satellite signals by multiplexing two fully independent IDE channels over common pin input/outputs. In a further aspect, the present invention provides an integrated circuit system for multiplexing the data, address, and chip select lines of the IDE interface so that twice as many hard drives may be interfaced using the common pins of the integrated circuit.
2. Related Art
In the context of providing for data storage and retrieval, bus interface standards have been developed, such as the Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) standard interface for hard disk drives that controls the flow of data between the processor and the hard disk. The standard has also been referred to as Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), and the one following it is called Enhanced Integrated Data Electronics (EIDE). The ATA standard defines a command and register set for the interface, creating a universal standard for communication between the drive unit and the PC. The standard was extended to working with CD-ROMs and tape drives, the extension being known as Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI), the full standard now being known as ATA/ATAPI. This standard has evolved through different versions, including AT Attachment with Packet Interface-5. This standard includes new ultra DMA modes to define transfer rates of 44.4 and 66.7 MB/s, and also made mandatory use of an 80-conductor IDE cable for UDMA modes 3 and 4. In addition, proposals have been made for ATA Host Adapter Standards to specify an open host controller interface for ATA host adapters, wherein different types of host adapters, methods for their identification, and the programming interfaces used are defined.
A significant contribution to the overall cost of manufacturing integrated circuits is the pin count. The standard ATA requires at least 27 pins per channel. Under conventional approaches, extra pins are required for each channel, or alternatively, pins are shared during channel storage, such that one channel has exclusive access to the ATA bus until a DMA data transfer is finished, after which time the second channel obtains exclusive access. As a result, the throughput over such a bus will be approximately half of that of the independent 2-channel ATA bus system which provides separate pins for each channel. It is therefore desirable to find a way to regain some of this loss in maximum throughput. It is also desirable to keep pin count to a minimum.
In addition to meeting reduced chip space and pin count requirements, the ever-increasing need for higher speed communications systems imposes additional performance requirements and resulting costs. In order to reduce costs, communications systems are increasingly implemented using Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) techniques. The level of integration of communications systems is constantly increasing to take advantage of advances in integrated circuit manufacturing technology and the resulting cost reductions. This means that communications systems of higher and higher complexity are being implemented in a smaller and smaller number of integrated circuits. For reasons of cost and density of integration, the preferred technology is CMOS.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional systems will become apparent to one of skill in the art after reviewing the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings and detailed description which follow.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for dual IDE channel servicing using single multiplexed interface having first and second channel transfer over a common bus


A sheet stacking device includes a discharge port, an alignment wall, a discharge tray, an alignment belt, and a guide part. The alignment wall extends in an upper-and-lower direction below the discharge port. The discharge tray is provided so as to be capable of moving up and down along the alignment wall. The alignment belt with endless is stretched along the alignment wall in the upper-and-lower direction. The alignment belt has an inner circumferential surface facing the alignment wall and an outer circumferential surface with which an upstream edge of the sheet stacked on the discharge tray comes into contact, and circulates at a same speed as the discharge tray in synchronization with the discharge tray. The guide part is configured to be provided between the alignment wall and the alignment belt. With the guide part, the inner circumferential surface of the alignment belt slides in contact.

The present disclosure relates to a sheet stacking device including a discharge tray on which a sheet is stacked, and a post-processing apparatus.
In a post-processing apparatus, a discharge tray on which discharged sheets are stacked is supported in a posture inclined upward toward the downstream side in the discharge direction. By inclining the discharge tray in the above posture, the discharged sheet is slid on the upstream side along the discharge tray by its own weight, and the sheet can be aligned by bringing the trail edge (the upstream edge in the discharge direction) of the sheet contact with an upright wall. In some cases, an external force is applied to the sheet discharged on the discharge tray to return the sheet on the upstream side in the discharge direction.
In the case of the discharge tray capable of stacking a large amount (3000 to 4000 sheets) of the sheets, the discharge tray is lifted and lowered in accordance with a height of the stacked sheets. That is, since the height of a sheet discharge port is constant, when the height of the stacked sheets is increased, the discharge tray is lowered to maintain a constant distance between the uppermost sheet and the discharge port. When the discharge tray is lifted and lowered in this manner, there is a problem that the trail edges (the upstream edges in the discharge direction) of the stacked sheets are rubbed against the upright wall, and abnormal noise is generated or the trail edges of the sheets are scraped and damaged. In particular, when the external force is applied to the sheet, the load applied from the upright wall to the trail edge of the sheet becomes larger.
Then, a sheet discharge device is sometimes provided with a receiving member which projects outward (on the downstream side in the discharge direction) from a side wall (corresponding to the upright wall) and comes into contact with the trail edge of the sheet. The receiving member lifts and lowers together with the stacking tray (corresponding to the discharge tray).
However, in the sheet discharge device described above, since the load of the sheets stacked on the stacking tray is applied to the receiving member, the receiving member may be bent inward (on the upstream side in the discharging direction), and the sheets may not be accurately aligned.

Sheet stacking device and post-processing apparatus


A headphone device having a listening configuration and a storage configuration. In the listening configuration, the headphone device is configured to provide an ergonomic fit for a user when the headphone device is worn on the user's head with earcups oriented over the user's ears. In the storage configuration, the headphone device is configured to provide an ergonomic fit for the user when the headphone device is worn around the user's neck.

Headphone devices are often used to privately listen to an audio signal such as music, or to conduct a conversation. When listening to an audio signal or conducting a conversation, a user typically wears the headphone device so that speakers included in the headphone device are positioned over the user's ears. When the headphone device is not in use, a user often continues to wear the headphone device, but in a location away from the user's ears rather than completely removing the headphone device. For instance, when the headphone device is not in use, the user may wear the headphone device around the user's neck.


An image reader capable of outputting excellent quality read images, without illumination irregularities, similar to that of flat documents even when the document surface is curved as in the case of book-like documents. An image reader provided with a memory to store correction data to correct differences of illumination of each pixel of a document image, and which corrects the read information of each pixel in a document image using correction data corresponding to the measured height of a document surface among correction data stored in the memory. For one aspect, this image reader is constructed so as to correct a group of read information corresponding to a set of pixels arrayed in one direction by excluding specific frequencies among the illumination distribution from the set.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reader capable of reading bound documents such as bound files and magazines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image readers have been commercialized as so-called book scanners. In these devices, an image sensing unit is arranged above a document table, so as to provide an open space several tens of centimeters in height between said document table and said image sensing unit. When reading a bound document (hereinafter referred to as "book document") such as a bound document file or magazine, a user places the open book document on the document table so that the document surface is facing upward. When the start key is pressed, an illumination lamp is turned ON, and prescanning is executed. Operation settings are set based on the information obtained by the prescan, and thereafter a main scan is executed. In the main scan, a read image is sequentially output to an external device. If the external device is a printer, a copy image is formed in real time. The efficiency of multi-page reading operations is increased because the pages of a book document disposed on a document table can be turned when using a book scanner. Furthermore, damage to scanned documents is greatly reduced 47 compared to arrangements requiring face-down orientation of open book documents. In the following discussion, book documents include filed documents.
Unlike a single sheet document, the document surface (i.e., the surface to be read) of a book document is curved. That is, the height of the document surface differs according to the position in a lateral direction (viewing direction). Due to this height differential, distortion occurs in the read image in accordance with the state of curvature and unsharpness of focus. A book scanner measures the state of curvature, and executes focus adjustment and distortion correction in accordance with said measured curvature. Methods of measuring the state of curvature of a document surface include a method of sensing the edge surface at the so-called "head" of a document and analyzing the edge surface image (U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,926), and a slit-projection method using three-dimensional measurement (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 5-219323).
The quality of the output image is improved by the aforesaid focus adjustment and distortion correction. Conventionally, however, there is the drawback of irregular density in the read image caused by the illumination of the document surface. Irregular illumination of the book document is dependent on the height distribution of the document surface, and cannot be eliminated even by measuring the light distribution of the illumination lamp relative to the flat surface of the document table for correction of reading data (i.e., shading correction) such as is accomplished by sheet-document reading devices such as copiers and the like.

Image reader that stores sets of luminance correction data corresponding to document a surface height


A plurality of LSI circuits including image processing LSI circuits operable in synchronism with a control clock signal from a clock generator are mounted on a graphic board. Temperature sensors are associated with those of the LSI circuits which give off a larger amount of heat than the other LSI circuits. Detected temperature signals from the temperature sensors are supplied to a temperature monitoring microcomputer, which determine respective temperatures of the corresponding LSI circuits based on the supplied detected temperature signals. The temperature monitoring microcomputer determines whether a highest one of the determined temperatures is higher than a first threshold value and a second threshold value which is greater than the first threshold value. If the temperature is higher than the first threshold value and lower than the second threshold value, then the temperature monitoring microcomputer issues a warning signal to a main CPU to suppress overheating of the LSI circuits. If the temperature is higher than the second threshold value, then the temperature monitoring microcomputer issues a clock disable signal to disable the clock generator.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit device having an overheating protector for protecting a semiconductor integrated circuit on a semiconductor integrated circuit board against overheating, and a method of protecting a semiconductor integrated circuit against overheating.
Chips of semiconductor integrated circuits, such as LSI circuits or the like, are greatly heated when the circuits operate at higher speeds. In certain applications, the chip is heated to such a high temperature that it may possibly be destroyed due to its own heat.
Generally, the heating of a semiconductor integrated circuit is closely related to the amount of electric energy consumed thereby so that the greater the electric energy it consumes, the larger the amount of heat it generates. Semiconductor integrated circuits are roughly classified into bipolar and C-MOS types. Recent years have found widespread use of C-MOS semiconductor integrated circuits which have a smaller power requirement when not in operation. The amount of electric energy consumed by C-MOS semiconductor integrated circuits is proportional to the operating frequency thereof. Therefore, the higher the operating frequency of a C-MOS semiconductor integrated circuit, the larger the amount of electric energy consumed thereby. As shown in FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings, the amount of heat generated by the C-MOS semiconductor integrated circuit increases in proportion to the operating frequency thereof.
Personal computers or other electronic products that incorporate semiconductor integrated circuits which can be heated to high temperatures are normally equipped with a cooling system such as a cooling fan or the like for protecting the semiconductor integrated circuits and other parts against overheating. When the cooling system suffers a failure, a warning is issued to prompt the user to take a certain preventive measure for protecting the semiconductor integrated circuits and other parts against overheating.
Electronic apparatus such as video game machines for business use also incorporate various semiconductor integrated circuits and are usually installed in such environments which prohibit them from being directly manually accessed for overheat protection while in operation. Even if the cooling system of such an electronic apparatus fails, such a failure will usually remain undetected until the electronic apparatus itself suffers a failure or operates uncontrollably.

Semiconductor integrated circuit device with overheating protector and method of protecting semiconductor integrated circuit against overheating


The technology disclosed herein presents content dynamically based on physical cues received from a consumer of the presented content. In a particular implementation, a method provides determining first content items for presentation to a user and determining a first sequence in which the first content items should be presented to the user. During presentation of the first content items in the first sequence to the user, the method provides identifying at least one physical cue from the user and modifying the first sequence based on the at least one physical cue to create a second sequence in which the first content items should be presented to the user. The method then provides presenting the first content items to the user in the second sequence.

The amount of electronic content available for consumption by users is staggering. The content may come in the form of various types of media, such as text, audio, video, images, etc. and may be accessed by a user operating a computing device connected to a network, such as the Internet. Given the vast amounts of content available, a user may have trouble discovering and deciding what content they would like to consume. In many cases, the user may be unaware that content in which they would be interested even exists. Moreover, once content has been discovered for the user, the ordering of that content may affect the user's enjoyment of the content. For example, a first item of content may be upsetting to the user and presenting another upsetting item of content to the user right after the first content item may discourage the user from continuing with the consumption of the content.

Dynamic presentation of content based on physical cues from a content consumer


The present invention provides an arc extinguishing device for disposition along a pre-determined path of movement between two electrical contacts in an electrical distribution device. The device includes a generally U-shaped member having a bight portion defined by a bottom wall with two upstanding side walls. The bight portion has sufficient width to allow the movement of the electrical contacts between the two side walls. A pair of magnetic poles having a magnetic field therebetween is formed with and located near the top edge of each side wall. The device includes means for focusing the magnetic field along the longitudinal center axis through the length of the U-shaped member and in the plane overlapping the path of movement of the electrical contacts so as to increase the magnetic flux density encountered by the electrical contacts.. The present invention also includes a method of assembling an arc extinguishing device which includes the step of interlocking a plurality of magnetic material plates into the shape of a yoke. The yoke having the shape of the device described above.

Circuit breakers are commonly used to protect branch circuits in residential and commercial buildings against overload and fault conditions. Basically, a circuit breaker includes a separable pair of electrical contacts, a spring-operated mechanism for effecting separation of the contacts, and a tripping mechanism upon the occurrence of the overload or fault condition. A representative circuit breaker is fully set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 2,889,428, issued to Kingdon et al., commonly assigned to the assignee herein and incorporated herein by reference.
An electric arc is produced each time the circuit breaker contacts are opened or closed. The detrimental effects from the arc on other internal components is most severe during interruption of the electrical contacts. An arc extinguishing mechanism is used to control and extinguish the arc and protect the other components of the circuit breaker.
For example, a common type of arc shield, which is placed in a recess or arc chamber of a circuit breaker is a series of spaced magnetic plates as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,811,607 issued to Dorfman et al. Another type of arc extinguishing mechanism is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 2,898,427 issued to Nadeau, which discloses a one-piece u-shaped magnetic metallic member having a plurality of parallel slots with an arc runner portion to lead the arc to a venting passage. U.S. Pat. No. 2,429,722 to Jennings discloses an arc extinguisher using insulating side members mounted between the legs of u-shaped magnetic members and the side walls of the breaker casing. Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,200 issued to Fixemer et al. which discloses a molded arc barrier projecting into the arc chamber to shield the operating mechanism of the circuit breaker.
Circuit breakers that successfully protect internal components with an arc extinguishing mechanism at high fault levels sometimes fail at intermediate fault levels. The interrupting mechanism which creates the arc is different at high fault compared to intermediate fault levels. At intermediate fault levels, the arc may become immobile causing damage to internal components of the circuit breaker.
The need also arises to distribute more power through enclosures which are the same size or smaller. This requires increasing the electrical rating of the circuit breaker to carry same voltage and current density while decreasing the size of the enclosure housing the components like the arc extinguishing means.
Among the problems caused by increasing the electrical rating of a circuit breaker is the heat emitted by the arc created by interrupting the electrical contacts. Without dissipation of the arc and the heat build-up the other components of the circuit breaker will be damaged.

Arc extinguishing device having a focused field


A novel hydrocarbon disproportionation process is provided and includes contacting a hydrocarbon feed comprising at least one paraffin with a disproportionation catalyst comprising a support component, a metal, and a halogen in a disproportionation reaction zone under disproportionation reaction conditions.

This invention relates to the disproportionation of hydrocarbons. More particularly, this invention relates to the disproportionation of paraffins in the presence of an isomerization catalyst.
The disproportionation of hydrocarbons is well known in the art. This process has gained importance due to governmental regulations requiring reduction of the amount of volatile C4 and C5 alkanes present in gasoline. Also, there is an incentive to convert isopentanes, for example, to higher isoparaffins, such as, isohexane which is a lower vapor pressure motor fuel component, and to isobutane which is a feedstock for alkylation with olefins to high octane alkylate and also for the production of MTBE.
Therefore, development of an improved process for disproportionating hydrocarbons would be a significant contribution to the art.


In a radio communication apparatus a configuration section sets transmission bands and receiving bands in a band group. A configuration control section controls the configuration section so that each of the receiving bands is not included between the transmission bands in the band group. In a radio communication apparatus a filter section includes a filter which can extract transmission bands lumped together. When a band group which is transmitted from the radio communication apparatus and in which setting is performed so that each of receiving bands is not included between transmission bands is received, a filter control section controls the filter section so as to extract the transmission bands from the received band group.

In recent years a technique, such as OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) or TDD (Time Division Duplex), has been used in radio communication for realizing high frequency use efficiency. A radio communication system using such a technique is, for example, 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project)-LTE (Long Term Evolution).
In order to realize higher-speed communication for a next generation radio communication system, standardization of LTE-A (LTE-Advanced) is in progress in 3GPP. Carrier aggregation (hereinafter referred to as the CA) which is a technique for realizing high-speed communication by the use of a plurality of bands is known (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-178024 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-114780).
With the CA transmission and receiving are performed by the use of a component carrier group in which a plurality of (five, for example) LTE carriers (hereinafter referred to as component carriers (CCs)) are linked together.
An LTE-A user can perform LTE communication by the use of a component carrier group made up of one to five component carriers (by the use of a bandwidth of a maximum of 100 MHz, for example). Each (having a bandwidth of, for example, 20 MHz) of a plurality of component carriers used in LTE-A is compatible with LTE, so an LTE-A user can communicate with an LTE user.
Furthermore, with a TDD system the ratio of UL (Uplink) radio frames to DL (DownLink) radio frames can be controlled flexibly. With a TDD-LTE system in which TDD is applied to LTE, the ratio of UL subframes to DL subframes can also be changed. Several UL-DL subframe configurations are defined.
If a component carrier group is used for defining a UL-DL subframe configuration, a UL signal component is an interference component for a DL signal component. Therefore, only a desired DL signal component needs to be extracted on a receiver side.
On the other hand, UL signal components and DL signal components may mingle on the receiver side on the basis of a UL-DL subframe configuration in a component carrier group.
In order to extract a DL signal component without being interfered with by a UL signal component, the following method, for example, may be adopted on a receiver side. Analog filters the number (five, for example) of which corresponds to that (five, for example) of component carriers included in a component carrier group are prepared and are arranged in parallel so that they will treat the component carriers on a one-to-one basis.
A passing bandwidth of each analog filter is set according to the bandwidth of a corresponding component carrier. As a result, if a signal transmitted by the use of the component carrier group is received on the receiver side, analog filters through which the signal can pass are changed in accordance with a UL-DL subframe configuration of each component carrier at each hour. By doing so, only DL component carriers can be extracted. In this case, however, analog filters the number of which (five, for example) is the same as that of the component carriers are included. As a result, circuit scale increases.

Radio communication apparatus, radio communication system, and radio communication method


A polyurethane resin is synthesized from a compound represented by the following Formula (1), a polymerizable composition includes the polyurethane resin, a planographic printing plate precursor includes a photosensitive layer including the composition, and a method produces a diol compound that can be used as a raw material of the polyurethane resin. In Formula (1), R1 and R2 each independently represent a single bond or an alkylene group optionally having a substituent, R3 represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group, R4 represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group, and A represents a divalent or higher linking group, provided that R1 and R2 are not both a single bond.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polymerizable composition and a planographic printing plate precursor, an alkali-soluble polyurethane resin, as well as a process for producing a diol. More particularly, it relates to a polymerizable composition suitable for a photosensitive layer of a negative planographic printing plate precursor in which writing at a high sensitivity with laser light is possible, a negative planographic printing plate precursor including the polymerizable composition in a photosensitive layer, an alkali-soluble polyurethane resin excellent in solubility in an aqueous alkali solution contained in the polymerizable composition, and a process for producing a diol compound suitable as a raw material of the polyurethane resin.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a photosensitive planographic plate printing precursor, a presensitized plate in which a lipophilic photosensitive resin layer is provided on a hydrophilic support has been widely used. As the process for manufacturing the plate, a desired printing plate has been obtained by dissolving and removing a non-exposed part after mask exposure (surface exposure) via a lithographic film.
In recent years, a digitalization technique has come into wide use, in which image information is electronically treated, accumulated and outputted using a computer. Further, a new image outputting format responding to such a digitalization technique has been put into practice in various ways. As a result, a computer to plate (CTP) technique of scanning light having high directivity such as laser light according to digitalized image information, and directly manufacturing a printing plate without using a lithographic film has received attention, and an important technical issue concerns how to obtain a planographic printing plate precursor adapted thereto.
As such a planographic printing plate precursor which can be scanning-exposed, a configuration in which a lipophilic photosensitive resin layer (hereinafter, also referred to as photosensitive layer) containing a photosensitive compound which can generate an active species such as a radical or Bronsted acid by laser exposure is provided on a hydrophilic support has been proposed, and is already commercially available. By laser exposure-scanning this planographic printing plate precursor based on digital information to generate an active species only in a laser-irradiated region, and by insolubilizing the region by causing a physical or chemical change in the photosensitive layer as a result of the irradiation, followed by developing treatment, a negative planographic printing plate can be obtained. In particular, a planographic printing plate on which a photopolymerizable photosensitive layer including a photopolymerization initiator excellent in photosensitive speed, a compound containing a polymerizable ethylenic unsaturated double bond and a binder polymer soluble in an alkali developer and, further, optionally, an oxygen impermeable protective layer, are provided, can provide a printing plate having a desirable printing performance due to advantages such as excellent productivity, simplified developing treatment, and favorable resolution and ink receptivity.
A polymerizable composition forming a photosensitive layer of such a planographic printing plate precursor is required to have properties such that an energy-imparted region is rapidly cured to form a film having a high strength and, at the same time, an unexposed part is rapidly dissolved and removed by an alkali developer.
Conventionally, for the purpose of improving a cured film strength, and imparting an image region in the planographic printing plate with high printing durability, a polyurethane resin binder comprising an alkali-soluble group has been used in such a photosensitive polymerizable composition (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-B) No. 8-12424 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 1-271741). As the alkali-soluble group contained in such a polyurethane resin binder, dimethylolpropionic acid and dimethylolbutanoic acid are generally used. However, the polyurethane resin binder may not be sufficient in developability due to high aggregating property arising from a urethane bond part and, in a developing layer, development scum is precipitated over time, and adhered to a plate material after plate making to generate stains and, therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult to obtain excellent image forming property when used in the photosensitive layer in the planographic printing plate precursor.
In response to such a problem, for example, a technique of using a carboxylic acid unit having a specified structure in a urethane resin for the purpose of improving alkali developability, and a technique of introducing a unit into a urethane resin for the purpose of assisting developer solubility by a method of using a compound producing an acid group by hydrolysis as a raw material have been proposed (see, for example, JP-A No. 2006-225432). In a polymerizable composition containing a urethane resin obtained by such a method, alkali developability is improved, and precipitation over time of development scum in a developer is effectively suppressed. However, improvement in solubility in an alkali developer influences the excellent film property originally possessed by a polyurethane resin, whereby the film property of the resulting film is degraded, and a problem may arise whereby, when used in the photosensitive layer of the planographic printing plate precursor, printing durability is deteriorated.
In this way, in the polymerizable composition, the strength of a cured film, and developability of an uncured region generally have incompatible properties and, in particular, when used as the photosensitive layer of the planographic printing plate precursor, these properties lower the printing durability of an image part and increase contamination of a non-image part and, therefore, a polymerizable composition which resolve both of these issues is currently necessary.

Polymerizable composition and planographic printing plate precursor using the same, alkali-soluble polyurethane resin, and process for producing diol compound


An electric switch comprises a housing which is provided therein with a receiving cell having in the bottom thereof two through holes. Located in the receiving cell are a first fixed conducting member and a second fixed conducting member which is pivoted with a movable conducting member capable of swiveling between the first and the second fixed conducting members. A switch member is pivoted with the housing and provided at the bottom thereof with a push rod for pushing the movable conducting member to be connected or disconnected with the first fixed conducting member, thereby resulting in the connection or the disconnection of electric circuit.

As shown in FIG. 1, an electric switch 10 of the prior art comprises a housing 11 which is provided with a receiving cell 12 in which a first fixed conducting piece 13 and a second fixed conducting piece 14 are disposed. A movable conducting piece 15 is pivoted with the first fixed conducting piece 13. A switch lever 16 is provided at the bottom thereof with a push rod 17 which is in turn provided at the bottom end thereof with a rolling ball 171. The switch lever 16 is pivoted with the housing 11 such that the rolling ball 171 is in contact with the movable conducting piece 15 and is urged by a spring 173 so as to keep the rolling ball 16 in the state of being constantly in contact with the movable conducting piece 15. In operation, the switch lever 16 is actuated such that the movable conducting piece 15 is pushed by the rolling ball 171 to swivel so as to become connected or disconnected with the second fixed conducting piece 14.
Such a prior art electric switch 10 as described above is defective in design in that the assembly of the electric switch 10 is rather inefficient and time-consuming in light of the special arrangement of the rolling ball 171 which must be urged constantly by the spring 173 and must urge the movable conducting piece 15 at the same time. In addition, the rolling ball 171 is vulnerable to being ejected from the bottom end of the push rod 17 at the time when the switch lever 16 is displaced.


The invention provides methods of determining a correction for a misalignment between at least two images in a sequence of images due at least in part to sample movement. The methods are applied, for example, in the processing and analysis of a sequence of images of biological tissue in a diagnostic procedure. The invention also provides methods of validating the correction for a misalignment between at least two images in a sequence of images of a sample. The methods may be applied in deciding whether a correction for misalignment accurately accounts for sample motion.

In modern medical practice, it is useful to analyze a sequence of images of in vivo tissue obtained throughout the course of a diagnostic medical procedure. For example, in screening for some forms of cervical cancer, a chemical agent is applied to cervical tissue and the optical response of the tissue is captured in a sequence of colposcopic images. The tissue is characterized by analyzing the time-dependent response of the tissue, as recorded in the sequence of images. During this type of diagnostic procedure, the tissue may move while images are being taken, resulting in a spatial shift of the tissue within the image frame field. The tissue movement may be caused by the natural movement of the patient during the procedure, which can occur even though the patient attempts to remain completely still. Accurate analysis of the sequence of images may require that the images be adjusted prior to analysis to compensate for misalignment caused at least in part by patient movement.
There is currently a method of stabilizing an electronic image by generating a motion vector which represents the amount and direction of motion occurring between consecutive frames of a video signal. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,274 to Kondo. However, this method accounts for certain gross movements of a video camera—in particular, certain vibrations caused by the operator of a handheld camcorder. The method does not compensate for misalignment caused by movement of a sample. For example, such a method could not be used to adequately correct an image misalignment caused by the small-scale movement of a patient during a diagnostic procedure.
Another image stabilization method is based on detecting the physical movement of the camera itself. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,071 to MacKay, which describes the use of a gimbaled ring assembly that moves as a camera is physically jittered. These types of methods cannot be used to correct misalignments caused by the movement of a sample.

Methods and systems for correcting image misalignment


Based on the concept of minimization, a method of static compaction has been developed for a digital circuit. The compaction method is a combination of two main procedures: one for the selection of essential test stimuli and the other for the elimination of redundant test stimuli, and effective in minimizing any set of test stimuli without modifying any of the test stimuli.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the testing of digital circuits and more particularly to an apparatus for compaction of test stimuli and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to ensure the production of reliable digital/computer systems, test stimuli are generated to test the systems. For a digital circuit, a test stimulus may be a single input pattern or a sequence of input patterns that comprises an initializing subsequence, a sensitizing subsequence and a propagation subsequence. In some cases the sensitizing subsequence is the same as the propagation subsequence. Hereafter the term "test vector" will also be used to represent a general test stimulus for a digital circuit and the term "test set" will be used to represent a set of test vectors.
An important objective of test generation is to achieve significant fault coverage with the generated test vectors for the circuit under test. The generation algorithms are such that, by of necessity concentrating on fault coverage, they generate sets of test vectors with redundancies. These redundancies are not easy to detect and result in a large set of test vectors.
The cost of applying the large set of test vectors is high since the cost of test equipment is related to its memory capacity. Thus, the number of test vectors impacts on the cost of testing which is indispensable in the production and maintenance of reliable digital/computer systems. Memory capacity is one of the main factors that determine the cost of test equipment. Large memory means high cost. If available test equipment does not have enough memory capacity for loading all the test vectors, then there is the need to load the test equipment more than once during test application to the circuit under test. More test vectors than can be contained in the memory of the test equipment calls for memory update (reloading of a subset of the test vectors) during test application. Re-loading of the test equipment during testing significantly prolongs the test application time (TAT). Even a single memory update leads to a big leap in the test application time. The long test application time impacts the time-to-market of the manufactured IC (integrated circuit) products.
It is evident, from the foregoing, that small test sets are desirable to reduce test cost and shorten the time-to-market of the reliable systems. Thus, there is the need to maintain a small number of test vectors. Reducing the number of the test vectors without compromising fault coverage is called test compaction. Test compaction algorithms should find ways of achieving small test sets without diminishing fault coverage. In other words, the algorithms should keep numbers of test vectors low while maintaining as high fault coverage as possible.
Two types of compaction techniques exist—dynamic and static compaction. Dynamic techniques attempt to reduce the number of test vectors while they are being generated. Often dynamic compaction requires the modification of the test generator. Static techniques, on the other hand, seek to reduce the number of the already generated test vectors. Thus static compaction is a post-processing step to test generation. Static techniques are therefore independent of the test generation algorithms and do not require any modifications of the algorithms. Moreover, even if dynamic compaction is used during test generation, static compaction can further reduce the size of the generated test set. This suggests that static compaction is more effective in reducing the sizes of test sets and hence the subsequent cost of testing.
Hsiao et al. have reported on their work on methods of test sequence compaction for sequential circuits in the following documents.    (1) M. S. Hsiao and S. T. Chakradhar, "Partitioning and reordering techniques for static test sequence compaction of sequential circuits," Proc. of the 7th IEEE Asian Test Symposium, pp.452-457, 1998.    (2) M. S. Hsiao and S. T. Chakradhar, "State relaxation based subsequence removal for fast static compaction in sequential circuits," Proc. of Design, Automation, and Test in Europe Conf., pp.577-582, 1998.    (3) M. S. Hsiao, E. M. Rudnick and J. H. Patel, "Fast algorithms for static compaction of sequential circuit test vectors," Proc. of IEEE VLSI Test Symposium, pp.188-195, 1997.
Their methods seek to shorten the sequences. Pomeranz et al. have proposed a method of efficient storage of test responses in the following document.    (4) I. Pomeranz and S. M. Reddy, "On test compaction objectives for combinational and sequential circuits," Proc. of IEEE International Conference on VLSI Design, pp.279-284, 1998.
Kajihara et al. and Hamzaoglu et al., have reported on their work on test pattern compaction for combinational circuits in the following documents.    (5) S. Kajihara and K. Saluja, "On test pattern compaction using random pattern fault simulation," Proc. Of IEEE International Conference on VLSI Design, pp.464-469, 1998.    (6) I. Hamzaoglu and J. H. Patel, "Test set compaction algorithms for combinational circuits," Proc. of ACM International Conference on CAD, pp.283-289, 1997.
They have developed methods of static compaction that are tailor-made to work together with previously proposed methods of generating compact tests.
Digital systems employ both sequential and combinational circuits. Also, different test packages employ different test generation algorithms. Therefore, for a general digital circuit, there is the need for a general method of static test compaction the effectiveness of which is completely independent of any test generation algorithm.

Apparatus and method for test-stimuli compaction


Exemplary pumps, refill units and dispensers having angled outlets are disclosed herein. An exemplary refill unit for dispensing fluid on a hand includes a container and a pump. The pump includes an angled outlet passage. Fluid flowing out of the angled outlet passage is directed toward the palm of a hand when fluid is dispensed.

Liquid dispenser systems, such as liquid soap and sanitizer dispensers, provide a user with an amount of liquid upon actuation of the dispenser. Inverted dispensers for soaps and lotions often have an outlet that extends downward and dispenses fluid straight down on a users' hand in a pile. It has been discovered that it is more desirable for the soap or lotion to dispense across the users hand instead of in a pile.

Pumps with angled outlets, refill units and dispensers having angled outlets


The present invention relates to methods to treat dry eye in a mammal by intraocularly administering a composition comprising a peptide.

Dry eye disease is a condition where the tear film loses water and becomes more concentrated, which can cause a corresponding rise in tear osmolarity. This increased osmolarity can result in symptoms such as a sandy-gritty feeling in the eye, burning, irritation, or a foreign-body sensation. As set forth in US Patent Application No. 2003/0203849, dry eye patients have been increasing in recent years with spread of use of contact lenses and increase in a VDT-operation.
Also as reported in US Patent Application No. 2003/0203849, lacrimal fluid serves other functions in addition to prevention of dry eye, such as, protection of cornea and conjunctiva, bacteriostatic action, prevention of infection with bacteria, fungus, virus and the like, feeding of oxygen and a variety of nutritions to cornea and removal of a carbon dioxide gas and metabolites therefrom, dilution and removal of harmful stimuli in the case where cornea and conjunctiva injured, transportation of liquid components such as epidermal growth factors which participate in wound healing and the like and hematocyte components such as fibronectin and the like to the injured portion, retainment of cornea and a conjunctival epithelial cell, regulation of wound healing.
As set forth in U.S. Patent Application No. 2005/0025810, dry eye disease may result from a number of s the following factors: (i) the disease may be a natural part of the aging process, affecting 15%-20% of adults over age 40; (ii) the disease may result from pathological processes such as diseases of the lacrimal glands, mucus glands, and/or lipid producing glands, and may occur with cell infiltration or atrophy of the lacrimal gland (Sjögren's syndrome); and (iii) estrogen deficiency in postmenopausal women may result in dry eye disease.
The proteinase-activated receptor-2 (PAR-2) is a G-protein-coupled receptor that is activated by proteolytic cleavage of the amino terminus extracelular domain, which unmasks a tethered peptide ligand that auto activates the receptor. PAR-2 is activated by trypsin and mast cell tryptase (see, e.g., Nystedt, et al., Eur J. Biochem 232(1):84-89 (1995); Bohm, et al., Biochem J 314, 1009-1016 (1996); and Molino, et al., J. Biol Chem 272(7):4043-49(1997)), as well as by synthetic peptides corresponding to the first amino acids of the receptor's tethered ligand: SLIGKV-NH2 (human sequence) or SLIGRL-NH2 ("SLIGRL"; mouse and rat sequence which is actually more potent than the human sequence for PAR-2 activation).
PAR-2 is expressed in many tissues, including the human cornea and human corneal epithelial cell lines (see, R Lang et al, Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 44(1):99-105 (2003)). PAR-2 activity has been associated with inflammatory reactions in many tissues (see, e.g., Steinhoff et al, J Neurosci. 16;23(15):6176-80 (2003), Seeliger, et al., FASEB J. 17(13):1871-85(2003), and Uehara, et al., J Immunol 170(11):5690-96 (2003)).
PAR-2 activation in corneal epithelial cells induce intracellular calcium rise followed by pro-inflammatory cytokines release (R Lang et al, Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 44(1):99-105 (2003)). PAR-2 activation by SLIGRL was shown to induce Tear Secretion in Rats (Nishikawa H et al, J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2005 January ;312(1):324-31). US Patent Application No. 2003/0203849 discloses the use of the peptide SLIGRL, which activates PAR-2, for promoting tear secretions.
Mucin1 is one of the mucins expressed in the ocular surface (see Gibson, Exp Eye Res. 78(3)379-88 (2004)). Since ocular surface drying diseases also alter mucin production, it is expected that studies of mucin gene regulation may yield treatment modalities for these diseases (see Gibson, Exp Eye Res. 78(3)379-88 (2004)).
Applicants have unexpectedly found that the peptide LIGR induces the expression of the mucin1 gene in corneal epithelial equivalents. Applicants have found that unlike SLIGRL, the peptide LIGR does not induce calcium mobilization, and does not induce the secretion of inflammatory mediators, so the peptide is not activating PAR-2 like SLIGRL. Moreover, since LIGR is not inducing the secretion of inflammatory mediators, the peptide could be more useful in the treatment of dry eye conditions.

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc.


In a method, a device, and a computer program for reducing the resolution of an input image, wherein input image shows a three-dimensional scene that was recorded by a surveillance camera, the distance between surveillance camera and objects in the three-dimensional scene is referred to as the object distance, and the resolution reduction is adjusted with consideration for the object distance in the three-dimensional scene and/or the perspective distortion of the three-dimensional scene.

The present invention relates to a method for reducing the resolution of an input image, wherein the input image shows a three-dimensional scene that was recorded by a surveillance camera, and wherein the distance between the surveillance camera and the objects in the three-dimensional scene is referred to as the object distance; the present invention also relates to a related device and a computer program for carrying out the method. Methods for reducing resolution without accounting for the object distance are known from the literature.
Video surveillance systems are used to monitor public spaces, such as train stations, market places, street intersections, or the like, and public buildings, such as libraries, agencies, courtrooms, prisons, etc. Video surveillance systems are also used in the private sector, e.g. as alarm systems or for watching over individuals who require attention.
Video surveillance systems usually include a plurality of permanently installed cameras which observe the relevant areas in the surroundings, and they include a possibility for evaluating the video sequences that were recorded using the cameras. While the evaluation was previously carried out by monitoring personnel, automatic evaluation of the video sequences has become more common.
In a typical application of automatic monitoring, in a first step, moving objects are separated from the essentially stationary background in the scene (object segmentation), they are tracked over time (object tracking), and, if relevant movement or patterns of movement take place, an alarm is triggered. One possible design of automatic monitoring of this type is described, e.g., in EP 0710927 B1 which discusses a method for the object-oriented detection of moving objects.
It also appears to be commonly known to approximately determine object properties such as size or speed based on estimated object positions in 3-dimensional space, or based on variables related thereto, using an assumed base plane in the scene (see, e.g. the operating instructions "IVMD 1.0 Intelligent Video Motion Detection, Configuration Instructions" for Bosch IVMD Software). It is also known to automatically control the zoom function/focal length of a PTZ camera (pan-tilt-zoom camera) based on an estimated object distance or the angle of inclination of the camera with the goal of depicting a tracked object independently of a changing position in such a manner that the tracked object is the same size in every image in the video sequence (Bosch AutoDome cameras with AutoTrack function, see EP1427212A1).
Despite the continuous increase in processor performance, it is still a challenge to process video sequences in real time, that is, to perform object segmentation and object tracking in real time. To reduce the processor load, it is common for the resolution of video sequences to be reduced equally in the horizontal and/or vertical directions before the images are processed via down-sampling. In this manner, the amount of computing effort required for every individual image in the video sequence, and therefore, for the entire video sequence, is minimized or at least reduced.
Moreover, it is known from the field of videocoding, e.g. as described in the conference presentation "Ingo Bauermann, Matthias Mielke and Eckehard Steinbach: H.264 based coding of omnidirectional video; International Conference on Computer Vision and Graphics ICCVG 2004, September 2004, Warsaw" that a rectification, e.g. in the case of 360° panoramic cameras and fisheye lenses, of perspective distortions that occur may have an advantageous effect on the subsequent image-processing procedure.
Methods for the targeted rectification or distortion of images or image sequences have furthermore been known for a long time, e.g. from the field of analog and digital photography (rectification of aerial photographs, compensation of converging verticals) and computer graphics (warping and morphing methods).
The prior art also makes known methods for camera calibration, with which important camera characteristic values such as lens properties, and the position and/or orientation relative to objects may be derived automatically based on suitable image sequences.

Method, device, and computer program for reducing the resolution of an input image


The invention addresses the current need for selective and potent protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors by providing potent inhibitors of c-fms kinase. The invention is directed to the novel compounds of Formula I:

The invention relates to novel compounds that function as protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The family of 5-oxo-5,8-dihydro-pyrido-pyrimidines has exhibited promising pharmaceutical properties in the past; U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,709, JP 09221424 and DE 19532235 are indicative of recent investigations. More particularly, the invention relates to novel compounds that function as inhibitors of c-fms kinase.
c-Fms is a type III receptor tyrosine kinase selectively expressed on macrophages and their progenitors. The extracellular Ig domain of c-fms binds macrophage colony stimulating factor (M-CSF), also known as colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1). Binding of CSF-1 induces receptor dimerization and trans-phosphorylation of the intracellular c-fms kinase domain on Y723 and other tyrosine residues. Once phosphorylated, c-fms efficiently phosphorylates several cytoplasmic signaling molecules that lead to de novo gene expression and proliferation. Small molecule inhibitors of the kinase catalytic site of c-fms are expected to prevent CSF-1 induced cellular responses.
Macrophages are a predominant source of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin-1 (IL-1) in the destructive pannus of rheumatoid arthritis. TNF and IL-1 activate stromal expression of hematopoietic factors including CSF-1. In turn, CSF-1 recruits monocytes and promotes macrophage survival, functional activation, and in some settings, proliferation. Thus, TNF and CSF-1 interact in a perpetuating cycle that leads to inflammation and joint destruction. The exclusive receptor for CSF-1 is c-fms, and the disclosed invention is a c-fms inhibitor designed to interrupt this cycle.
Macrophages are abundant at sites of chronic inflammation where they are are often the most important source of TNF, IL-1, and other cytokines. Moreover, macrophages can be an important source of factors that function in tissue remodeling such as plasminogen activators, matrix metalloproteases, vascular endothelial growth factor, and transforming growth factor-β. The numbers of macrophages present within target tissues have strongly correlated with disease severity in rheumatoid arthritis (Ann Rheum Dis 53 (1994) pp 39-44), immune nephritis (Kidney Int 54 (1998) pp 143-151), and graft rejection (Transpl Int 7 Suppl 1 (1994) pp 577-579). Macrophage numbers are also elevated in atherosclerotic plaque (Arch Pathol Lab Med 109 (1985) pp 445-449), adipose tissue in obesity (J Clin Invest 112 (2003) pp 1796-1898), diabetic nephropathy (Kidney Int 65 (2004) pp 116-128), cardiac hypertrophy (Hypertension 25 (1999) pp 132-138), and in many solid tumors (Trends in Immunology 23 (2002) pp 549-555), particularly breast cancer (J. Experimental Medicine 193 (2001) pp 727-739), where they are thought to contribute to disease progression. Modulation of macrophage function through inhibition of c-fms thus is expected to be useful in treating inflammatory mediated diseases and conditions.
Another example of the invention is the use of any of the compounds described herein in the preparation of a medicament for treating: rheumatoid arthritis, graft rejection, atherosclerosis, obesity, diabetic nephropathy, cardiac hypertrophy and solid tumor diseases, especially breast cancer, in a subject in need of such treatment.
Preclinical data suggest CSF-1/FMS is a particularly viable therapeutic target for rheumatoid arthritis. Recent work has shown that neutralizing antibodies to CSF-1 reduce substantially the severity of collagen-induced arthritis in mice (J Leukoc Biol 68 (2000) pp 144-150). The authors additionally demonstrated that recombinant CSF-1 exacerbated the disease progress in this model. Therefore, a preferred use for the invention is the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

5-oxo-5,8-dihydro-pyrido-pyrimidines as inhibitors of c-fms kinase

Abstract: or a solvate, hydrate, tautomer or pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, wherein: W, A, Y, n, Z, and R102 are described in the specification.


A compound oxide catalyst carrier which comprises a silica-alumina or a titania-alumina and has a relative standard deviation of peak intensity of aluminum ranging from 0.100 to 0.170, as measured by scanning a cross section of a particle of the compound oxide catalyst carrier with an EPMA in a scan-line direction along a diameter-line or an approximate diameter-line of the cross section, has a moderately uniform aluminum concentration distribution in solid particles a moderate acidity and, therefore, is suitable for use as a catalyst carrier requiring attrition resistance and ability of inhibiting generation of coke or excessive cracking, such as a carrier of catalysts for production of middle distillate fractions by a suspension bed process hydrocracking of heavy oil.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compound oxide catalyst carrier which comprises silica-alumina or titania-alumina and is a useful catalyst or catalyst carrier for use in various processes, such as petroleum refining processes. Particularly, the present invention relates to a compound oxide catalyst carrier consisting of silica-alumina or titania-alumina or containing them as main components, which has a moderately uniform aluminum concentration distribution in solid particles, has a moderate acidity due to the absence of strong acid sites and is excellent particularly in attrition resistance and, therefore, is suitable for use as a catalyst carrier requiring attrition resistance and ability of inhibiting generation of coke or excessive cracking, such as a carrier of catalysts for production of useful middle distillate fractions by a suspension bed process hydrocracking of heavy oil.
The present invention further relates to a suitable method of producing the above-described compound oxide catalyst carrier.
The present invention further relates to a method of treating heavy oil for producing middle distillates efficiently, wherein heavy oil is hydrocracked by the above-described compound oxide catalyst carrier.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Hydrocracking of heavy oil, such as atmospheric residue, vacuum residue or petroleum derived from coal, shale or tar sands, using solid catalysts has been carried out for producing more useful middle distillates (MD). Such hydrocracking of heavy oil is generally conducted by a suspension bed process wherein catalyst particles are mixed with heavy oil and contact is made between the mixture and hydrogen, and the catalysts used have requirements for high attrition resistance as well as a requirement for good reaction results including a high yield of middle fraction of distillate and generation of little coke.
As the techniques for the hydrocracking of heavy oil by a suspension bed process, there have been proposed a method using FCC spent catalysts (specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,648) and a method using direct desulfurization spent catalysts. For the above-described hydrocracking of heavy oil, however, the FCC spent catalysts are insufficient in catalytic activity, causing problems including a low yield of middle distillates (MD) and generation of much coke, and on the other hand, the direct desulfurization spent catalysts are not so poor in catalytic activity, but their mechanical strength is insufficient for saving them from attrition.
Other commonly proposed catalysts for suspension bed process hydrocracking of heavy oil than the above-described direct desulfurization spent catalysts are those comprising acidic compound oxide carriers, such as silica-alumina or titania-alumina, supporting metallic components, such as Ni-Mo, Co-Mo or Ni-W.
However, the conventional silica-alumina and titania-alumina, because of their extremely high acidity and insufficient mechanical strength including poor attrition resistance, are unsuitable either as the carriers of catalysts for suspension bed process hydrocracking of heavy oil or as other catalysts or catalyst carriers requiring high attrition resistance, so that their use is limited.

Compound oxide catalyst carrier, method of producing the same and method of treating heavy oil with the same


Provided are a multilayer-structured bolometer and a method of fabricating the same. In the multilayer-structured bolometer, the number of support arms supporting the body of a sensor structure is reduced to one, and two electrodes are formed on the one support arm. Thus, the sensor structure is electrically connected with a substrate through the only one support arm. According to the multilayer-structured bolometer and method of fabricating the bolometer, the thermal conductivity of the sensor structure is considerably reduced to remarkably improve sensitivity to temperature, and also the pixel size of the bolometer is reduced to obtain high-resolution thermal images. In addition, the multilayer-structured bolometer can have a high fill-factor due to a sufficiently large infrared-absorbing layer, and thus can improve infrared absorbance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer-structured bolometer and method of fabricating the same, and more particularly, to a multilayer-structured bolometer that has one support arm supporting the body of a sensor structure and two electrodes formed on the support arm and thus can be electrically connected with a substrate through the only one support arm and a method of fabricating the multilayer-structured bolometer.
This work was supported by the IT R&D program of MIC/IITA. [2006-S054-02; Development of CMOS-based MEMS Combined Sensor Technology for Ubiquitous Terminal]
2. Discussion of Related Art
Infrared sensors are classified into a cooled type operating at liquid-nitrogen temperature and an uncooled type operating at normal temperature. The cooled infrared sensors sense electron-hole pairs generated when semiconductor material having small bandgap, such as HgCdTe, absorbs infrared rays using a photoconductor, a photodiode and a photocapacitor. On the other hand, the uncooled infrared sensors sense conductivity or capacitance changed by heat generated when infrared rays are absorbed, and are generally classified into a pyroelectric type, a thermopile type and a bolometer type. The uncooled infrared sensors have a lower sensitivity to infrared rays than the cooled infrared sensors, but do not need an additional cooling device. Thus, the uncooled infrared sensor has a small size, consumes little power, is low priced, and thus is used in various fields.
A most frequently used bolometer among uncooled infrared sensors detects an increase in the resistance of a thin metal film, such as Ti, caused by heat generated when infrared rays are absorbed, or a reduction in the resistance of a semiconductor thin film, such as VOx and amorphous Si, thereby sensing infrared rays. In a bolometer, a resistive thin film, i.e., a resistive layer, is formed on a sensor structure floated by a specific height from a substrate in which an infrared detection circuit is formed. The resistive thin film is formed apart from the substrate by a specific height in order to isolate heat of the substrate and effectively sense heat generated when infrared rays are absorbed.
FIGS. 1A to 1C are perspective views of conventional bolometers.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a conventional bolometer includes a substrate 110 including a detection circuit (not shown), and a sensor structure 150 floated from the substrate 110 by a height of λ/4 (λ: infrared wavelength).
The sensor structure 150 is fixed on the substrate 110 by support arms 130 coupled to both edges thereof. Here, the support arms 130 prevent heat from leaking from the sensor structure 150 to the substrate 110.
In the bolometer as constituted above, the sensor structure 150 must have high infrared absorbance, high thermal isolation and low heat capacity to prevent heat generated upon infrared absorption from leaking to the substrate 110 and to rapidly sense the generated heat.
For these reasons, the bolometer must be constituted to have a two-layer structure as shown in FIG. 1A or a multilayer structure as shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C to intercept heat and increase infrared absorbance.
However, in a two-layer structure as shown in FIG. 1A, support arms cannot absorb infrared rays, and thus infrared absorbance deteriorates.
On the other hand, in multilayer-structured bolometers as shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C, an infrared-absorbing layer can be formed sufficiently large, and support arms for heat separation can be formed sufficiently long. Thus, multilayer-structured bolometers have better characteristics. In addition, when a unit pixel size is reduced in a bolometer array for infrared images, optical characteristics of an existing pixel do not deteriorate.
However, in multilayer structures as shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C, all support arms supporting a sensor structure are electrically connected to a lower substrate. Therefore, the pixel size of the bolometer as well as thermal conductivity increases.

Multilayer-structured bolometer and method of fabricating the same

Electronics & Telecommunications Research Institute


An image forming apparatus for forming an image by use of photosensitive microcapsules each consisting of an outer shell and a liquid component encapsulated in the outer shell. The liquid component contains an image forming material and a photocuring substance that is polymerized by light. The microcapsules are electrically charged to be supported on a support member. Then, the microcapsules are exposed to light having image information to selectively harden the microcapsules. The microcapsules not cured are ruptured to discharge the image forming material, thereby forming an image by the image forming material on an image receiving paper. Then, a residue inclusive of the remaining microcapsules and a part of the liquid component left on the support member are exposed again to light to be cured and solidified. The solidified residue on the support member is wholly removed by a cleaning member. Accordingly, the support member can be repeatedly used and a clear image with no stain can be formed on the image receiving paper.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image forming apparatus and, more particularly, to an image forming apparatus such as a monochromatic or full color copying machine or printer using a photosensitive microcapsule.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally known is a so-called photosensitive microcapsule formed by encapsulating a core substance in an outer shell. The core substance is composed of an image forming material and a photocuring substance. The image forming material is a dye precursor, dye or pigment. The photocuring substance is sensitive to light having a certain wavelength to change its mechanical strength. The outer shell is formed of resin. Accordingly, the photosensitive microcapsule is cured when exposed to light having a certain wavelength.
Further, an image forming apparatus using such a photosensitive microcapsule is also generally known. The image forming apparatus employs a photosensitive medium formed by coating a plurality of photosensitive microcapsules with a binder on a substrate. The substrate is a plastic film formed of PET (polyethylene terephthalate). In forming an image, the photosensitive medium supporting the photosensitive microcapsules is first exposed to light having image information. As a result, the photosensitive microcapsules on the photosensitive medium are selectively cured to thereby form a chemical latent image according to differences in the mechanical strength between the photosensitive microcapsules on the photosensitive medium. Thereafter, an image receiving medium is superimposed with the photosensitive medium, on which the chemical latent image has been formed, and a pressure is applied to the image receiving medium and the photosensitive medium, thereby rupturing uncured ones of the photosensitive microcapsules to discharge the image forming material from the ruptured microcapsules.
In the case where the image forming material is a dye precursor, a special paper having a developer layer as an absorbing layer is used as the image receiving medium, while in the case where the image forming material is a dye or a pigment, a plain paper or the like is used as the image receiving medium. The image forming material discharged from the microcapsules is absorbed by or deposited on the image receiving medium, thereby forming an image on the image receiving medium.
However, the photosensitive medium to be used in this apparatus employs a plastic film as the substrate as mentioned above. Once the image is formed with use of the photosensitive medium, the substrate of the photosensitive medium is discarded with the spent microcapsules in spite of the fact that the substrate does not directly contribute to the image formation. Accordingly, the operating cost is high in this image forming apparatus.
To cope with this problem, the same applicant as that of the present application has disclosed, in Japanese Patent Application No. 3-124919, an image forming apparatus capable of forming an image by using only powdered photosensitive microcapsules without using a substrate as described above.
In this image forming apparatus, the powdered photosensitive microcapsules are first applied, in a dry condition, to a support member formed as an endless belt or a roller. Then, the coating of the photosensitive microcapsules on the support member is exposed to light having image information. As a result, the photosensitive microcapsules on the support member are selectively cured to thereby form a chemical latent image according to differences in the mechanical strength between the photosensitive microcapsules on the support member. Then, the support member is superposed on an image receiving medium and they are pressed by a pressure roller or other means for the application of pressure. As a result, the uncured photosensitive microcapsules are ruptured and the core substance of the uncured microcapsules is discharged. The core substance thus discharged from the ruptured microcapsules is transferred to the image receiving medium, thereby forming an image on the image receiving medium. Thereafter, a residue, including the cured photosensitive microcapsules and the outer shells of the ruptured microcapsules, left on the support member is removed from the support member by a cleaning blade or similar apparatus. Thus, the support member can be used repeatedly.
However, the above residue also contains some of the core substance. Since the core substance is a liquid material containing an adhesive polymerizable monomer as a primary component, it is difficult to completely remove the residue from the support member by using a cleaning blade or similar apparatus. Accordingly, the support member is imperfectly cleaned as it is repeatedly used so that a clear image cannot be formed on the image receiving medium.


A security circuit is disposed within the housing of an input/output (I/O) connector assembly that is configured to implement the functionality of a computer system I/O port. Thus, when the connector assembly is mounted on a computer system board the security circuit is mounted right along with the connector assembly. The I/O connector assembly includes a connector housing, an I/O connector, and the security circuit. The connector housing is adapted to mount on the computer system board. The I/O connector is disposed within the connector housing and defines a receptacle adapted to electrically couple to a peripheral device. The security circuit is disposed within the connector housing and is electrically coupled to the I/O port. The security circuit is configured to implement one or more security routines, and is transparent to the I/O functionality until it is needed to implement the security routines.

Recently, personal computer (PC) and computer server use, in both the home and office environments, has become widespread. This widespread use has also lead to increased concerns over data security. With the growth of the Internet, wireless communication technologies, and mobile computing, data security is becoming an ever increasing issue. For example, many PCs often operate outside of a secure firewall environment, and may periodically communicate with a network or the Internet. During such communication, a determined hacker can attack the communication channel used by the PC or server. This poses a threat not only to sensitive data resident on the PC, but also to data resident on the network, and data being transmitted between the PC and the network.
Various solutions have been proposed to address problem of data theft and hacking. One proposed solution is the use of an external device called a hardware key, or "dongle." A dongle is a device that is externally coupled to an input/output (I/O) port on a host PC. Although these devices do work satisfactorily, dongles do suffer certain drawbacks. For example, the dongle is installed in an I/O port, which prevents that port from being used for a peripheral device, such as a printer, a scanner, or other I/O devices. Alternatively, if a PC or server can verify that another PC or server in a network or the Internet is trusted to share information or data then hacking or data theft by the other computer can also be eliminated. This is because if the PC or server is not trusted, then communication between the PC or server and the non-trusted PC or server is terminated.
Yet another solution has been proposed by the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA). Specifically, the TCPA developed a security solutions specification for a trusted platform module (TPM). A TPM is a circuit included within a computing system to support trusted computing. The TPM may be implemented as a separate integrated circuit chip that is mounted on the motherboard of a PC or server, or integrated with other circuits within the computing system such as, for example, the CPU chip set or within the CPU itself. No matter its specific physical implementation, the TPM is configured to provide various security functions. For example, the TPM typically includes a public/private key pair for cryptographic operations, can generate anonymous key pairs for use by other entities, can perform encryption and decryption operations, can sign and verify data, and can establish a root of trust.
Although quite effective in implementing trusted computing, and reducing the likelihood of secure data theft, the present instantiation of the TPM suffers certain drawbacks. For example, not all PC motherboards are presently designed and manufactured to receive a TPM, or other type of security circuit. Thus, many PC or server motherboards need to be specially designed and manufactured to receive a TPM or circuits integrated with a TPM. This can significantly increase overall manufacturing costs, which can in turn be passed on to the consumer. Moreover, a TPM, whether implemented as a stand-alone circuit or integrated into other circuits, is typically unique to a specific chip vendor, which can significantly impact manufacturing flexiblity.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a means of implementing a trusted computing environment that does not suffer the above-noted drawbacks. Namely, a means that does not rely on any type of externally connected device or devices and/or a means that does not rely on specially designed PC motherboards. The present invention addresses at least these needs.

Computer input/output (I/O) connector assembly having a security circuit disposed therein