A slave cylinder particularly suited for use in a hydraulic clutch release system for a motor vehicle. The cylinder includes a spring boot which serves as both a dust boot and a preload spring device. In one embodiment of the invention, the cylinder is an external slave cylinder and the spring boot extends from a rear end of the cylinder body to a rear end of the pushrod and acts to apply a preload force through the pushrod and through the release lever to the release bearing while simultaneously precluding the entry of dust and other contaminants into the interface between the piston and the cylinder bore. In another embodiment of the invention, the slave cylinder is a concentric slave cylinder and the spring boot is positioned in surrounding relation to the main body of the cylinder housing with the front end of the spring boot bearing against a flange portion of the housing and the rear end of the spring boot bearing against the non-rotating race of the release bearing so that the spring boot exerts the desired preload directly on the release bearing and simultaneously precludes the entry of contaminants into the interface between the housing and the annular piston. The front and rear ends of the boot define annular toothed configurations for respective mating coaction with annular toothed configurations on the flange portion of the housing and on the non-rotating race of the bearing whereby to preclude rotation of the non-rotating race induced by rotation of the rotating race.

This invention relates to hydraulic pressure cylinders and more particularly to a hydraulic slave cylinder especially suitable for use in a motor vehicle clutch release system.
A hydraulic clutch release system typically consists of a clutch, a release bearing, a release lever, a slave cylinder, and a master cylinder operated by a clutch pedal.
It is desirable that free play between the clutch release bearing, release lever and slave cylinder be eliminated to achieve good efficiency. This is normally achieved by providing a preload spring in the slave cylinder.
It is further desirable to preclude the entry of dust or other contaminants into the interface between the piston bore of the slave cylinder and the piston. This is normally achieved by providing a pleated elastomeric boot positioned in surrounding relation to the bore/piston interface.
It is further desirable to preclude rotation of the piston in the bore of the slave cylinder. Such rotation is introduced, for example, by the rotational force exerted on the stationary race of the release bearing by the rotating race of the release bearing.

Hydraulic pressure cylinder with combined boot and spring


Embodiments of the present disclosure resolve natural language temporal expressions into temporal values via a temporal expressions processor that parses a given temporal expression into one or more semantic parses, selects an optimal semantic parse and resolves a value for the optimal semantic parse. The temporal values may pertain to one or more calendar dates, one or more calendar periods, one or more clock times, a clock time period and/or a combination of the above.

Natural language processing and speech recognition are routinely used to improve a user's experience and interaction with a software and system. For example, applications and products such as Amazon Alexa™, Microsoft Cortana™, and Google Home™ allow users to issue commands and questions to devices such as "What is the temperature outside?" or "Play NPR pod cast" and receive a response to control devices. Such applications use an approach to command processing called slot filling to fill values slots of predefined command templates. The values are often text fragments extracted from the natural language command. This extraction is typically performed by a combination of keywords and concepts identification, and shallow parsing. Some of these applications can process simple date and time setting commands such as "set my alarm to 3:30 AM." However, they cannot process command structures with complex recursive slots and those that require reasoning and inference of slot values. For example, they cannot process the command "set my alarm to an hour and half before sunrise". Processing such commands does not work because there is no time reference for "sunrise" from which the alarm time can be computed. It is noteworthy that the reference in the command could itself be indirect. For instance, instead of "sunrise", it could be "two hours after lunch". Therefore, the potential space of expressions to be resolved into values is infinitely large and cannot be effectively performed by current approaches.

System and method for temporal expressions processing


Disclosed are methods and systems for selective inhibition of sintering in 3D fabrication. The disclosure provides methods and systems that use selective heating arrangements to selectively sinter areas during fabrication thereby reducing waste improving efficiency.

Three-dimensional (3-D) objects, such as prototype parts, may be produced directly from computer-aided design databases. Various technologies are known to produce such objects, particularly through the use of layered additive processes. Commercially adapted methods of layered manufacturing use various forms of materials. For example, stereolithography (STL) uses a resin photopolymer resin that is selectively hardened by a laser beam delivering UV light at desirable spots on each thin resin layer. Fused Deposition Method (FDM) uses a plastic filament that is forced through a hot nozzle that deposits the material to form each layer. Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) laminates cut sheets of a special paper to create 3D parts. Two processes commonly used are 3D printing and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). Three-Dimensional printing (3DP) uses adhesive droplets deposited on each thin powder layer to create bonding of powder particles in selected spots of each layer. Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) selectively bonds powdered material using laser. SLS works by depositing and heating by means of a scanning laser beam, which bonds powder material at selected locations of the powder layer. The powder material may include polymer, ceramic, or metal.
However, layer-by-layer selective bonding processes, such as SLS and 3-D Printing, are time consuming and expensive. For example, those methods that use a laser incur the high cost of the laser and the low scanning speed due to relatively wide cross-section area per layer for sintering compared to the beam size. For other methods, difficulties occur from the slow process of scanning the entire volume of the object, layer by layer, by sintering or other fusion process. Furthermore, when sintering or heating a selected area, a relatively uniform temperature needs to be maintained on the powder surface in order to prevent deformations.

Reduction of powder waste in selective inhibition of sintering


A horse shoe cassette system for an animal's hoof. The cassette system comprises a plurality of hollow holders that are screwed into the hoof. Each holder has a threaded outside surface and a threaded inside opening defined therein. A flexible covering, of a general hollow ungulate shape to fit an ungulate's hoof, has a bottom plate that includes a first opening defined therein. A horse shoe is attached to the bottom plate of the flexible covering and the horse shoe has a second opening. A threaded screw member extends through the first and second openings and is screwed into the threaded inside opening of the holder disposed in the hoof.

Horse hoofs are sometimes injured for various reasons, and it is often painful for the horse to walk and to have horse shoe nails removed from and attached to the injured hoof. There is also a risk of infection of the injured hoof, particularly if the injury of the hoof is exposed. Another problem is that the horse hoof may be too dry and that, in turn, can cause harm to the hoof.
There is a need for a horse shoe cassette system that would enable the horse to be outside walking, and even trotting, despite an injury to one or many of its hoofs. There is also a need for a fastening mechanism of a horse shoe to the horse hoof without having to rely on horse shoe nails.
Various devices have heretofore been provided to be worn by hoofed animals such as horses, cows, mules, or the like. The prior art devices are attached to the hoofs by means of straps provided with hook or loop fasteners. Such devices have suffered from lack of sufficient protection to prevent water, manure, and other debris from contacting an injured hoof. Other bandages have suffered from lack of sufficient fixation means to hold the same in place when worn by an active animal. Also, the prior art devices are cumbersome to use.
The present invention is a horse shoe cassette system that provides effective protection of an injured hoof while permitting convenient removal and attachment of a horse shoe to the hoof. The cassette system comprises a plurality of hollow holders that are screwed into the hoof. Each holder has a threaded outside surface and a threaded inside opening defined therein. A flexible covering, of a general hollow ungulate shape to fit an ungulate's hoof, has a bottom plate that includes a first opening. A horse shoe may be attached to the bottom plate of the flexible covering, and the horse shoe may have second opening defined therein. A threaded screw member extends through the first and second openings and may be screwed into the threaded inside opening of the holder disposed in the hoof to tightly hold the horse shoe to the flexible covering and the bottom of the hoof.


Disclosed are a display panel and a preparation method thereof, and a display device. The display panel includes a display area and a peripheral area surrounding display area; display area includes a light emitting device, peripheral area includes a retaining wall, and display and peripheral area include a encapsulation structure covering retaining wall and light emitting device; encapsulation structure includes: a first inorganic encapsulation layer, an organic encapsulation layer, and a second inorganic encapsulation layer in sequence; first and second inorganic encapsulation layers cover display and peripheral area; organic encapsulation layer covers display area and at least part of peripheral area, and there is a gap between organic encapsulation layer and retaining wall; organic encapsulation layer and first inorganic encapsulation layer includes a middle contact surface and a peripheral contact surface surrounding middle contact surface, surface energy of middle contact surface is greater than that of peripheral contact surface.

The production of active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display products involves many process steps, and packaging is a key part of the production. Since a light-emitting device is highly sensitive to water and oxygen, the light-emitting device will be damaged once being invaded by water and oxygen, resulting in abnormal working of a display product.

Display panel, preparation method thereof, and display device

Chengdu BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


A passive transponder may be encoded with a number or code of up to 64 binary bits and then associated with or mounted to virtually any living tissue implant for implantation in a human. After implantation, the transponder's code may be conveniently read with a hand held electromagnetic reader which may merely be brought within proximity of the transponder. The encoded transponder may thus be read in a non-invasive procedure and without the use of any sophisticated or potentially harmful medical equipment or technology such as X-ray. The information encoded in the transponder may correspond to patient demographics and implant data to aid in tracking the implant's progress and use for medical as well as legal reasons.

With the advance of medical technology, there are a number of medical prostheses and devices which are implantable in humans for re-constructive and/or cosmetic purposes. These include breast implants; penile implants; musculature and other soft tissue implants; pace makers; valves; artificial joints and limbs such as knees, shoulders, legs, fingers, etc.; pins; screws; plates; rods; nails and other braces and supports. In order to ensure the continued safety and health of patients receiving these implants, the Safe Medical Device Act of 1990 has been enacted which dictates that manufacturers of Class III implantable medical devices institute a device registry for tracking of their devices, notification of patients, and otherwise monitoring these implants after they have been placed in a patient. Compliance with this Act has been proposed through a method of tracking which requires the surgeon who implants the device to complete and return a form or card with patient demographic data and implant data to the manufacturer or to a third party registry service. This method requires careful accumulation of data by a surgeon or his staff as well as secure inventory control procedures in order to ensure that the data is properly associated with the correct implant. Additionally, there is a risk of loss of data entirely resulting from misdirected or lost communications. Furthermore, access to this data can be impeded in the event of an emergency situation or other circumstances which interfere with a patient's ability to recall or report the proper information which medical personnel may then use to access the registry and data contained therein.
The issues described above with respect to medical prostheses and devices are very similar for living tissue transplants or implants, including complete organs. As with implanted medical prostheses and devices, transplanted tissue is subject to rejection, infection, and a host of other medical complications. Just as pace maker implant patients are closely followed and reviewed by the health care system, so are burn victims with skin grafts, lung transplant patients, kidney transplant patients, etc. For these patients, the ready availability of information relating to the transplanted tissue and the medical procedure utilized would be very helpful not only in treating the patient but also in tracking and monitoring the patient's progress. In emergency situations, access to this data may well be critical to proper diagnosis and treatment, especially if a disorder relating to the transplanted living tissue is what causes the medical emergency.
There have been some suggestions in the prior art of marking the implants themselves with, for example, a radiopaque marker or other marker which contains the information relating to the implant. Ideally, this data could then be viewable by X-ray or some other non-invasive manner. However, there are difficulties with these prior art approaches. First of all, a breast implant with a radiopaque marker would at least partially obscure or mask tissue which is desired to be viewed in order to detect artifacts relating to tumors or the like for diagnosing cancer. Obviously, this is highly undesirable as the incidence of breast cancer presents a significant risk to many females. Additionally, repeated exposure to X-ray is not generally considered healthful or desirable and represents at least an added inconvenience entailing some degree of expense to recall or access the implant data. Therefore, radiopaque markers have not been viewed as a suitable long-term solution to this problem.
In order to solve these and other problems in the prior art, and in order to provide a convenient, fool proof marker secured to the implant itself and yet readable in a non-invasive manner, the inventors herein have succeeded in designing and developing an implant which incorporates a passive transponder which may be encoded and subsequently accessed with a hand held electromagnetic reader in a quick and inexpensive procedure. The passive transponder may be secured to the implant by any convenient means. For example, in a breast implant, the multi-layered shell for the implant may be laminated around the transponder to thereby be permanently and securely fixed to the implant. The transponder may be laminated in the sidewall of the shell, or between layers which comprise the seal patch which is applied to the shell to seal the mandrel opening. Similarly, the transponder may be laminated onto the surface of most other implants in an unobtrusive location. In some other implants, the transponder may be inserted into a hole or inlay and sealed in place.
As with non-living medical devices and prostheses, a transponder may be associated with a living tissue implant and even implanted at the same time as the medical procedure used for implanting the living tissue. Depending on the particular living tissue being implanted, the transponder may or may not be incorporated directly into the transplanted organ or tissue and instead may be separately implanted. This decision would best be left to the medical professional or surgeon performing the medical procedure on a case by case basis, although recommendations could be provided in order to ensure a degree of standardization. The transponder could be encoded with data relating to the living tissue and would be permanently and securely implanted in the patient to provide ready access to data relating to the living tissue implant.
As passive transponders are commercially available in a cylindrical shape sized at 2 mm in diameter and 11 mm in length, the patient will not sense any discomfort or even the presence of the transponder. Also, the transponder may be encoded with any suitable encoding scheme. A commercially available transponder presently provides for the storage of up to 64 binary bits of data. This data capacity may accommodate the direct storage of much, if not all, of the information desired to be recorded and maintained in a device registry. Furthermore, the storage capacity of the transponder is expected to be increased as further development occurs over time. Alternately, a number, collection of numbers, combination of numbers and letters, or other indirect code may be stored which after reading may be used to access a data bank which itself contains the desired information. Of course, if information is directly stored in the implant, it becomes immediately available upon reading the transponder. This provides ready access to information in emergency situations. Alternately, with the widespread availability, accessibility, and use of computers over telecommunications networks including telephone lines, it is not generally considered to be unduly limiting to provide that the code read from the transponder be then used to access an appropriate data bank in order to obtain the patient demographics, manufacturer's name, date of manufacture, surgeon's name, date of implantation, etc.
A companion hand held electromagnetic reader is also commercially available which emits a low frequency magnetic field to activate the passive transponder and thereby cause it to transmit its encoded data to the reader. With this particular commercial device, no battery or other source of electrical power need be included in the passive transponder. This further reduces the size required for the transponder and renders it particularly suitable to this application.
While the principal advantages and features of the present invention have been described above, a more complete and thorough understanding of the invention may be attained by referring to the drawings and description of the preferred embodiment which follow.

Living tissue implant with electrical transponder marker


A housing body of a connector housing has a terminal receiving chamber receiving a connector terminal, a first terminal engagement portion engaging with the connector terminal received in the receiving chamber, a mounting portion to which a rear holder is mounted, and a holder engagement portion projecting within an insertion groove formed on the outer surface of the housing body. The rear holder has a second terminal engagement portion further engaging with the connector terminal engaged with the first terminal engagement portion in a state of being mounted to the mounting portion, a convex portion inserted into the insertion groove, and a engageable portion which projects from the convex portion and engages with the holder engagement portion. A mounting state of the rear holder can be securely maintained by engaging the holder engagement portion with the engageable portion within the insertion groove.

The present invention relates to a prevention structure of a connector housing for preventing a rear holder attached to a housing body from floating over the housing body.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a conventional connector housing 100 disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 63-102184.
The connector housing 100 is constituted by a housing body 110 substantially formed in a rectangular parallelepiped, a first rear holder 130 connected by the housing body 110 and two first bands 101, and a second rear holder 140 connected by the housing body 110 and two second bands 102.
The housing body 110 has a plurality of terminal receiving chambers 111, a first swingable terminal engagement portion 112, a first mounting portion 113, a second mounting portion 114, and first and second holder engagement portions 115 and 116.
Each of the terminal receiving chambers 111 extends from a front end surface 117 of the housing body 110 to a rear end surface 118, and a connector terminal 104 attached to a lead wire 103 is received in the terminal receiving chamber 111. The corresponding terminal is inserted from an opening portion 119 of the front end surface 117 in each of the terminal receiving chamber 111, and the connector terminal 104 is inserted from an opening portion 120 close to the rear end surface 118 in each of the terminal receiving chambers 111. The first terminal engagement portion 112 engages with the connector terminal 104 received in the terminal receiving chamber 111. Second terminal engagement portions 131 and 141 of first and second rear holders 130 and 140 are respectively inserted into the first and second mounting portions 113 and 114. First and second holder engagement portions 115 and 116 respectively prevent the first and second rear holders 130 and 140 mounted to the first and second mounting portions 113 and 114 from floating.
The first and second rear holders 130 and 140 have a plurality of second terminal engagement portions 131 and 141 further engaging with the connector terminal 104 engaging with the first terminal engagement portion 112, and a holding member 132 holding the second terminal engagement portions 131 and 141 in parallel.
A first holder engagement portion 115 is projected in both corners in a rear portion of a surface 121 of the housing body 110, respectively. The rear end surface of the first holder engagement portion 115 is on an extending line of a rear end surface 118 of the housing body 110, and an engagement groove 115a is formed forward from the rear end surface of the holder engagement portion 115. Both end portions 133 of the first holding member 132 are inserted into the engagement groove 115a and engaged therewith. In accordance with this engagement, the engagement between the first terminal engagement portion 131 and the connector terminal 104 can be maintained.
A second holder engagement portion 116 is projected in both corners in a rear portion of a back surface 122 of the housing body 110, respectively. The rear end surface of the second holder engagement portion 116 is on an extending line of a rear end surface 118 of the housing body 110, and an engagement groove 116a is formed forward from the rear end surface of the holder engagement portion 116. Both end portions 133 of the second holding member 142 are inserted into the engagement groove 116a and engaged therewith. In accordance with this engagement, the engagement between the second terminal engagement portion 141 and the connector terminal 104 can be maintained.
However, in the conventional connector housing 100 mentioned above, since the first and second holder engagement portions 115 and 116 of the housing body 110 project from the surface 121 and the back surface 122 of the housing body 110, the both holder engagement portions 115 and 116 are easily broken. When the both holder engagement portions 115 and 116 are broken, both the rear holders 130 and 140 float from the housing body 110, so that a double engagement of the connector terminal 104 by both the rear holders 130 and 140 is not performed.
In the conventional connector housing 100 mentioned above, since the holder engagement portions 115 and 116 for the first and second rear holders 130 and 140 of the housing body 110 project from the surface 121 and the back surface 122 of the housing body 110, the holder engagement portions 115 and 116 for both the rear holders 130 and 140 are broken, so that there is a risk that both the rear holders 130 and 140 float from the housing body 110, and a double engagement of the connector terminal 104 by both the rear holders 130 and 140 is not performed.


A scrolling device includes a first disk, a second disk and a middle disk wherein a shaft extends through the disks and two setting devices are respectively disposed between the middle disk and the respective one of the first and the second disk. A casing receives the three disks therein and is driven by a motor which is controlled by two control members disposed to the first and second disk. Each of the setting devices include a base gear and a plurality of wheels each of which has a toothed periphery and a cam member formed in a first side thereof, and two teeth extending laterally from a second side thereof, a setting member and a positioning member pivotally and respectively disposed between the middle disk and the respective one of the first and the second disk. The setting members each have gears engagable with the wheels and base gear, and a plurality of plates engagable with the cam members to set the wheels. The positioning members each have a plurality of studs which are able to be received in a respective cavity defined in each of the wheels whereby the wheel may be set, and a push member which is able to touch the control member to stop the motor. The shaft has a gear device meshed with a toothed inner periphery of the casing so that the rotating casing is stopped when the studs of the positioning members are received in the cavities of the wheels, while the push members actuate the control members.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scrolling device and, more particularly, to a scrolling device which is used on a scrolling door and able to set positions of the scrolling door.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Conventional scrolling devices used for scrolling doors or scrolling curtains generally involve a complicated structure and a high price. Besides, if a setting of the scrolling door or curtain is to be changed, some very complicated processes and a lot of trial and error is taken.
The present invention intends to provide an improved scrolling device to mitigate and/or obviate the above-mentioned problems.


Bidirectional differential point to point simultaneous high speed signalling is provided between integrated circuits with highly effective echo canceling. Each integrated circuit comprises a transmitter for transmitting a first signal to another integrated circuit and a receiver for receiving a second signal from the other integrated circuit. The transmitter has an output buffer; a receiver has a receiver buffer and is co-located on the same integrated circuit; and a differential buffer is coupled between the input of the transmitter buffer and the output of the receiver buffer. To increase the quality of receiving the second signal, a third signal adjusted in phase and amplitude is coupled at the output of the receive buffer, so that the echoing of the first signal is canceled. Preferably, the rise time of the third signal is also adjusted.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to high speed interfaces using differential signalling for communicating data between integrated circuits.
2. Background of the Invention
Point to point differential signalling is preferred for the communication of very high speed signals between integrated circuits. Such signalling provides significant benefits to the systems integrator and the integrated circuit designer, including reduced ground and power current injection, reduced EMI from the balanced differential lines, a large improvement in common mode noise immunity, and provides a basis to reduce number of power and ground pins compared with single ended signalling. The drawback of differential signalling compared to single ended signalling is that for every signal path, two wires are required. Neglecting the power and ground connections, a simple comparison of the pin and wire count between a differential signalling solution and a single ended signalling solution, such as JEDEC DDR 2, is unfavourable unless the differential solution operates at more than twice the data rate of the single ended solution.
A single ended bus uses tri-state drivers, so data can be transmitted in both directions across a single set of signal wires, with the data separated in time (time division multiplexing of the wire resource). This further improves the efficiency in terms of wire and pin count of the single ended solution. However, the bidirectional time division of the single ended bus requires a gap between the turnaround, such as between read and write operations, or read and command operations.
A differential point to point solution requires no turn around time, as each direction has dedicated wire resources.
Summarising this comparison, a byte wide single ended tristate bus sending 800 Mbps per wire, will require 8 signal pins plus typically 8 power and ground pins. A contemporary differential bus may send the same bandwidth of 6.4 Gbps (800 Mbps×8), across a differential pair in each direction. The total wire count is 4 signal wires, plus 4 power and ground pads. If the data rate is only 3.2 Gbps, the wire count for the same bandwidth as the single ended bus is identical, and below 3.2 Gbps, the wire count is higher.
Simultaneous bidirectional signalling across a differential wire pair is well known: telephone systems have been doing this for over 100 years. In a modern telephone system the return signal is removed using echo cancellation, and in the case of conference telephones, bidirectional echo cancellation. These systems use a hybrid circuit comprising transformers or an analogue network of resistors and operational amplifiers to extract the signal for the loudspeaker and inject the signal from the microphone into wire pair. With the introduction of digital signal processing, the echo cancellation in these telephony systems was implemented using an adaptive filter. In the telephony system, the echo cancellation tries to remove far end echo: significant near end echo is desirable so the user can hear himself—otherwise the user feels the line is dead. For modems, complete cancellation is desirable, and this is accomplished using a large signal processing budget. All these methods, from the simplest transformers up to the adaptive signal processors are impractical for digital systems communicating at very high speed.
A telephony hybrid circuit is shown in FIG. 2, comprising a microphone 1, 2 at each end of the differential channel 30, 31, and a loudspeaker 5 and 6. The microphone and loudspeaker are coupled into the channel by a transformer 7 and 8, and resistors such as 3 and 4. The loudspeaker responds only to currents injected into the channel, the microphone picking up a portion of this signal. The level of cancellation of this circuit is inadequate for the applications under consideration in this invention, and moreover at very high speeds, transformers operate across a narrow frequency band, which makes them unsuitable for sending data unless encoded, this coding reduces significantly the data payload of the channel. Improved passive versions of this hybrid circuit exist, but still provide around −18 dB of coupling between the channel directions which is insufficient rejection for the present application.
At very high speed, amplifiers have very low gain which makes them unsuitable for integration into devices for high speed channels, where significant gain is required to operate with the resistor networks such as is used in extracting the signal in each direction in the telephony system.
A very large number of high performance echo cancelling systems are known and many of these can provide very high levels of rejection between channels, but these need to operate at a multiple of the highest frequency in the channel: the sampling alone must be at least twice the maximum frequency in the channel that is being rejected. For high speed channels, such fast processors and their analogue to digital converters do not exist, nor can they ever exist because the signal processor needs to send data to and from memory a number of times for each sample and it is the connector of the processor to the memory that is a primary application of the present invention.
Echo cancelers have been used to minimize the effects of echo distortion in communication systems susceptible to echo systems including full-duplex, two-wire telecommunication systems. Echo cancelers in these and other systems operate by subtracting a replica of the echo of the original signal from the received signal. Examples of such apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,680 wherein the computational overhead associated with echo cancellation in a data communications system is reduced by utilizing symmetrical information rates at asymmetrical signal rates.
The design of a differential signalling system where both data for both directions is communicated on the same wires through time division multiplexing of the drivers is also well known, such as using tristate LYDS drivers and in RS485. Such an RS485 system provided by Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (CA) is shown in FIG. 3, where two chips communicate across a differential channel 30, 31, each with their own electro-static discharge circuits (18, 19 and 28, 29). The transmit buffers 11, 12 (and 21, 22) may be implemented using parts such as a Maxim integrated circuit part number Maxim 3460 and Maxim 3461. Full duplex operation is provided by having multiple channels, with some channels operating in one direction and some in another, or half duplex operation is supported by using the device enable pins to put the drivers and or receivers into a high impedance state so the other side of the channel can drive the wire resource. The parts Maxim 3463 and Maxim 3464 are designed specifically for this mode of operation using time domain multiplexing of the wire resource, and is shown in Maxim data sheets as well as in very many other documents.
The data rate of such systems is much lower than for the applications contemplated here, such as at 20 MBps for the Maxim parts compared to 6 Gbps and above for the present invention, but the principles could be applied without undue difficulty by persons skilled in the art of high speed signalling at high speeds.

Simultaneous bidirectional differential signalling interface


This invention improves the capability of bleeding a chamber, disposed in the course of a line, that receives pressure fluid. On the pressure side of a high-pressure pump that pumps pressure fluid through a line, a chamber of circular-cylindrical cross section is disposed in its course. Two line segments of the line discharge into the upper face end of the chamber. A guide body disposed coaxially with the longitudinal axis of the chamber is received in the chamber in the region of this face end. The guide body embodied substantially in the form of a circular disk, defines an annular gap toward the inside circumference of the chamber and a subchamber of the chamber toward the face end of the chamber. The guide body directs air located in the chamber into the subchamber, from which it is carried away by the flow of pressure fluid. The hydraulic brake system is especially suitable for motor vehicles.

The invention is based on a hydraulic unit having an anti-lock unit, particularly for motor vehicles.
Such hydraulic systems have voids disposed in the course of lines, such as a damper chamber that follows the pressure side of a high-pressure pump for pumping pressure fluid. This chamber must be free of trapped air, in order to fulfill its function. Moreover, it must be assured that the entire brake system be free of air inclusions. Bleeding of the brake system must therefore be done, the first time it is filled with pressure fluid, and during maintenance and repair work.
To facilitate the bleeding process, it has therefore been proposed (German Patent P 40 13 160.2) that the chamber be disposed with a vertical longitudinal axis in a housing and that the mouths of the connected line segments be provided on the upper, horizontally extending face end. With such an arrangement, air inclusions in the chamber can easily escape through the outgoing line segment during the filling with pressure fluid. However, bleeding becomes more difficult if the chamber is installed in a vehicle with its longitudinal axis departing from the vertical.


An inkjet recording apparatus includes: a conveyance device for moving a recording medium P in a predetermined direction; a recording device for recording an image on the recording medium P by using an ink cured by photo irradiation; light irradiating devices for irradiating light to the ink landed on the recording medium P; sensors for detecting illumination intensity of the light irradiated from each of the light irradiating devices; and a controller for controlling each of the conveyance device, the recording device, the light irradiating devices, and the sensors, wherein the controller controls the illumination intensities of the light irradiating devices so that the illumination intensities are substantially the same as each other, in accordance with the light irradiating device having the lowest illumination intensity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an inkjet recording apparatus, in particular, an inkjet recording apparatus for curing an ink landed on a recording medium, by photo irradiation.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an inkjet recording apparatus has been known as the recording device capable of printing for various recording media including plain paper. The inkjet recording apparatus is the recording apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium by directly discharging an ink which is a color material from a nozzle placed on a side of a recording head facing the recording medium, and landing, infiltrating or fixing the ink on the recording medium. The inkjet recording apparatus has characteristic superiority in the simplicity of a process, the silence in printing, and the quality of printing texts and pictures.
As the inkjet recording apparatus, there is the apparatus where, for example, a serial head system which forms an image by moving a recording head back and forth on a recording medium and conveying the recording medium in the direction perpendicular to the scan direction of the recording head, and a line head system which comprises a recording head and forms an image by conveying a recording medium in the direction perpendicular to the direction of recording width of the recording medium, the recording head fixed and comprising a nozzle array extending across the recording width of the recording medium, is adopted.
In late years, in the case where image recording is performed by using an inkjet recording apparatus, materials without ink absorption characteristics such as resin or metal have been used as recording media. In addition, in order to fix an ink to such recording medium, a photo curable ink is often used.
A light irradiating device for curing an ink is usually placed in the inkjet recording apparatus using the photo curable ink. When an image is recorded on the recording medium, the ink is cured and fixed by irradiating the ultraviolet rays from a light source which the light irradiating device comprises, in the condition of certain irradiation time and the number of times of irradiation where the ink can be cured, just after the ink has been landed on the recording medium (refer to, for example, JP-Tokukai 2001-310454 A).


A collapsible table includes an integrated storage space for folding chairs. The storage space is formed by an open frame base that is not enclosed with side panels or a floor panel. The open frame configuration thus prevents the accumulation of rain water inside the storage area and makes the table better suited for outdoor recreational use. The table includes a center leaf having an opening into which a table umbrella may be inserted to shade users from sun and rain. Rubber bumpers may be placed along one of the sides of the table to allow a user to store the table on that side without fear of damaging the table, providing a user with more choices as far as storage space is concerned. Side leaves are also included and designed to releasably lock in the folded position, facilitating transportation and storage without the threat of the leaves swinging open unexpectedly.

The present invention relates to collapsible Lables, specifically to collapsible tables with integrated storage compartments.
Collapsible tables have a wide variety of uses, especially in recreational settings outdoors. Most known designs for collapsible tables concentrate on achieving the smallest possible folded package.
Convenience in storage, however, is not always increased by simply making the folded package more compact. For example, although collapsible tables are very often used in conjunction with folding chairs, most known designs for collapsible tables fail to integrate storage space for folding chairs.
Furthermore, even those known collapsible tables that include integrated storage space for folding chairs are not well designed for outdoors use. They lack, for example features that take into account the accumulation of rain water in the storage area, or protection for users of the table from the sun or the rain.
Additionally, known collapsible tables with integrated storage are often designed to stand only on their legs when in the folded position. Such collapsible tables may either be damaged by being stored, for example, on one of its sides or lack a side leaf lock that will lock the leaves of the table in the lowered position. However, the ability to store a collapsible table on its side would be very desirable, as this adds to the ease with which the table may be stored.
The present invention provides a collapsible table that overcomes known problems in the art. The table of the present invention comprises an integrated storage space for folding chairs. The storage space is not enclosed with side panels or a floor panel. It is in the form of an open frame base and thus prevents the accumulation of rain water inside the storage area and makes the table better suited for outdoor recreational use. The table""s center leaf further includes an opening into which a table umbrella may be inserted, which serves to shade users from sun and rain.
The present invention also provides rubber bumpers along one of the sides of the table, which allow a user to store the table on that side without fear of damaging the table. This provides a user with more choices as far as storage space is concerned.
The side leaves are also designed to releasably lock in the folded position. Thus, the table may be transported or stored on its side more easily without the threat of the leaves swinging open unexpectedly.


A portable display system including an array of modular corrugated paperboard panels arranged in a matrix having at least two vertically adjacent rows of panels. Each panel has peripheral flaps folded back to provide strength and to capture threaded fasteners that protrude from the rear of the panels. Attachment hinges engage the fasteners at the rear of the panels to align and join adjacent panels. A vertical reinforcing tube is attachable at each end of the display by passing through holes defined in flaps at the rear of the panels.

Free standing display backdrops are used to provide aesthetic backgrounds for trade show display booths, often carrying printed matter or attached objects for display.
A first type of conventional trade show display is a permanent reusable display designed for long-term usage. These are generally custom fabricated, and are very heavy and durable for frequent reuse. Such displays are very costly to buy and to use. For transport, the displays must be broken down into numerous component parts, which are crated for shipping. In a typical installation, such assemblies must be received at a proper loading dock and constructed by site personnel at a substantial cost. Often, unless an exhibitor's display is hand carried through the front door of a trade show site, the exhibitor may not construct the display, and only venue employees may do so. Accordingly, the large, permanent displays require several extra days between shows to ensure they are shipped, received and constructed in a timely manner.
A second type of conventional display is a lower cost portable display. These are generally designed to be carried by a single person and to be set up without substantial labor costs. An example of such a display is an umbrella-type display having a foldable skeleton across which is suspended a fabric layer. Generally, these displays do not present a high quality, sturdy appearance, particularly in view of the appreciable cost of such displays. Also, such displays are limited in their ability to support attached objects and to be imprinted with various graphic images.
An intermediate display type may provide a better quality appearance than the low cost portable display, but with the disadvantage of reduced portability due to increased weight and bulk. Such displays typically employ hinged hard panels, where each panel is a bulky and expensive assembly of molded plastic parts and laminated surface panels, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,609 to Arico and U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,198 to Ytter. These assemblies require overlays to provide a smooth and contiguous appearance and conceal their thick, exposed edges, and are limited in their ability to be enlarged by the addition of more panel modules.
There is, therefore, a need for a low cost, portable and reusable display screen assembly that has a high-quality, attractive appearance and that is easy to carry and assemble by one person and has the ability to support attached objects.


Methods and apparatus are adapted for acquiring seismic data from an array of sensors deployed along a section of a deviated, including horizontal, wellbore for monitoring seismic and microseismic activity. The sensors may be permanently deployed in the wellbore.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to downhole seismic services and more particularly to a system and method for deployment, mounting, and coupling of seismic sensors downhole.
2. Description of the Related Art
Seismic sources and sensors are often deployed in wellbores for a variety of oilfield operations, including monitoring of injection well operations, fracturing operations, performing "seismic-profiling" surveys to obtain enhanced subsurface seismic maps and monitoring downhole vibrations. Such operations include slim-to large-diameter boreholes, vertical to horizontal wells, open and cased holes, and high pressure and high temperature wells. Downhole sensors are sometimes utilized in combination with other logging services, either wireline, coiled tubing-conveyed, or with pipe to provide additional reservoir information.
Seismic sensors deployed in wellbores are particularly useful to monitor fracturing and injection well operations, to generate cross-well information and to obtain seismic measurements over time, to obtain enhanced subsurface maps and to improve reservoir modeling. As used herein, seismic data refers to seismic signals generated by conventional surface or subsurface active seismic sources and to micro-seismic signals generated by formation fracturing. The majority of seismic data gathering is accomplished by wireline methods or by deploying seismic sensors such as geophones on coiled tubing or production pipe. Multi-component geophones are usually preferred for such applications. An example is the classical three (3) axis geophone which detects particle motion in three mutually orthogonal directions (x, y and z directions).
Coupling of the geophone/accelerometer elements to the formation via the casing/liner is a critical issue for the acquisition of microseismic energy around a sensor location. It is key to the processing of microseismic information that a particular microseismic event can be seen, and properly characterized, at multiple levels of the sensor string. Thus it is critical that sensor/formation coupling should be consistent from level to level. If the seismic event is not similar, in terms of amplitude, phase and frequency, from level to level, event identification and characterization (e.g. P-wave vs. S-wave) will prove difficult to impossible.
It is desired that the seismic sensors should be in a consistently coupled from level to level. Microseismic events are low amplitude and high frequency and are therefore extremely vulnerable to noise. Identification depends on being able to compare the signals from level to level, requiring that geophone placement is as consistent as possible.
Seismic coupling of the sensors to the formation is a major problem with prior art permanent and semi-permanent seismic sensors arrays for detecting seismic and microseismic events in deviated wellbores. As used herein, the term "deviated" is defined to mean all wellbores inclined from the vertical and includes horizontal wellbores. In vertical wellbores bow-spring technology, where the sensors are commonly held against the wall by the bow-spring, can be used to couple the sensors to a casing or liner that is coupled to the formation by cement. The bow-spring acts to decouple the sensors from the mass effects and vibration effects of the tubing, providing good frequency response. In deviated wellbores, bow-springs can not support the relatively heavy weight of the conveying tubulars. Difficulties in obtaining consistent sensor coupling and/or response can result. For example, if the sensor carrying bow-spring is oriented to the bottom of the hole, the weight of the tubing may be coupled to the sensor causing resonance/noise problems and reduced frequency response. If the sensor carrying bow-spring is oriented toward the high side of the hole, the sensor may be only lightly forced against the wall or it may not even contact the wall. The use of bow springs to couple multiple spaced apart sensors to the wellbore in deviated wellbores requires that the bow springs be oriented the same to provide substantially uniform coupling. Pipe or tubing that has been rotated during insertion in the deviated well bore may have latent rotational torque in the tubing causing rotational misalignment of initially aligned sensors. In addition, coiled tubing has a natural torque and tends to corkscrew in the wellbore providing unpredictable coupling.
When the wellbores are vertical and susceptible to cement injection, the sensors may be cemented in place to provide and effective acoustic coupling with the formation structure. However, seismic sensor coupling to the formation structure by means of cementing may be precluded in deviated, including horizontal, wellbores due to the type of completion used. For example, seismic acquisition may be desired in an open-hole section of a long horizontal wellbore.
Thus there is a need for an apparatus and method for deploying permanent seismic sensors in deviated wellbores and ensuring that the sensors are consistently seismically coupled to the wellbore.

System and method for acquiring seismic and micro-seismic data in deviated wellbores


A device that opens the flap of an envelope before the envelope is separated from the envelope supply/stack hopper. A vacuum/suction device is used to pull the envelope flap below a stripping surface before the envelope is fed out of the supply/stack hopper. Thus, the envelope flap will be completely opened as each envelope is individually separated and fed out of the hopper.

In mail production equipment, various activities take place for the purpose of producing mail pieces. Such activities include the selection of inserts, the collection and stacking of the selected inserts, the placing of the inserts into an envelope and the sealing of the envelope to form the mail piece. In order for the inserts to be stuffed into an envelope, the mouth of the envelope may be opened so as to be able to receive the inserts.
Typically, the flap of the envelope is opened after the envelope has been removed from an envelope supply stack.
The prior art used a variety of different stripping blades to open the envelope while the envelope was in motion. The foregoing proved difficult to accomplish because the envelope was typically moving at a high rate of speed while the stripping blade attempted to engage the underside of the envelope flap to separate the flap from the envelope body. Consequently, the stripping blade did not always engage the underside of the envelope flap, resulting in unflapped or closed envelopes. A closed envelope will cause jamming during the insertion process.

Envelope feeder and integral flap opening device


Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for generating subimages of an image to use to represent the image. A determination is made of a pixel location on one axis of an image comprising a plurality of pixels. The image is divided into multiple subimages at the determined pixel location on the axis. A determination is made as to whether each subimage can be cropped to remove regions of white pixels from the subimage. Each subimage is cropped to remove a region of white pixels in response to determining that the subimage can be cropped. An image file is generated defining the image including the subimages.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and article of manufacture for generating subimages of an image to use to represent the image.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image may be represented in different image formats. For instance, in a bitmap format, such as Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), a bitmap data structure includes a bit for every pixel of the image and provides a value for the pixel, such as a white space value, color value, grayscale value, etc. The Image Object Content Architecture (IOCA) file format allows for "sparse" tiles such that the bitmap image 12 can be composed of multiple tiles that can be located at any position and have any size. Areas of the IOCA image that are not covered by a tile are empty (white).

Generating subimages of an image to use to represent the image

International Business Machines Corporation


A system, method, and computer program product enable compression with programmable sample locations, where the compression is a function of the programmable sample locations. The method includes the steps of storing a first value specifying a programmed sample location within a pixel in a first sample pattern table that is associated with a first display surface and storing, in a memory, geometric surface parameters corresponding to a first attribute at the programmed sample location within a first pixel of the first display surface. A second value specifying the programmed sample location within the pixel in a second sample pattern table that is associated with a second display surface is also stored and the first attribute is reconstructed based on the geometric surface parameters and the first value.

Anti-aliasing techniques are well-known in the art of computer-generated graphics. Aliasing refers to image artifacts caused by a limited sampling resolution of edges. One common artifact produced as a result of aliasing is a Moire pattern, which is a type of spatial aliasing that causes alternating bands of light and dark colors to appear when, e.g., two grids are overlaid at an angle.
There are many common techniques to reduce the artifacts caused by aliasing. For example, supersample anti-aliasing (SSAA) is a technique that selects multiple points within each pixel (not just the pixel center), shades each of the multiple points to generate multiple color values for the pixel, and then blends the multiple color values to generate a filtered color value for the pixel. It will be appreciated that SSAA increases the resolution of the generated digital image and then down-samples the digital image (i.e., filters) to get a digital image at the desired resolution. The artifacts due to aliasing in the down-sampled digital image are reduced when compared to an image generated at the final resolution. However, SSAA has drawbacks in that each point sampled within a pixel increases the computation required to generate the digital image (e.g., 4×SSAA requires approximately 4 times the number of texture operations compared to techniques which compute a single color for the pixel).
Another anti-aliasing technique is multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA), which is a special case of SSAA. In MSAA, the graphics processing pipeline implements certain operations using multiple sample points within each pixel; however, the fragment shading program is only computed once per pixel and is typically evaluated based on a sample location at the center of the pixel. MSAA typically involves a smaller number of computations when compared to SSAA because, e.g., texture reads are only performed for a single point for each pixel.
Modern graphics processors typically implement at least one technique to reduce aliasing artifacts. However, implementation of anti-aliasing techniques may reduce the processing efficiency of the graphics processing pipeline. Furthermore, many implementations of SSAA or MSAA in graphics processors utilize a fixed set of sample locations stored in static random access memory (SRAM), which limits the different anti-aliasing algorithms that can be implemented by software. Some algorithms for implementing anti-aliasing may benefit from varying sample patterns across the pixels of a digital image, which is not possible with fixed sample locations specified by the hardware architecture.
However, when sample patterns can be changed, data that is stored in a compressed format may not be correctly reconstructed. For example, when a first sample pattern is used to compress data, the data cannot necessarily be correctly reconstructed using a second sample pattern. Thus, there is a need for addressing this issue and/or other issues associated with the prior art.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System, method, and computer program product for using compression with programmable sample locations


An illumination system having an array optical element with different illumination regions corresponding or matched to different line width variations printed on a photosensitive material. The array optical element may be a filter, diffractive optical element, or micro lens array having illumination regions producing different types of illumination properties or characteristics. Each of the illumination regions are matched or correspond to a respective region on a patterning device to provide optimized exposure of a photosensitive material. The optical element may be used to tailor a conventional illumination system to the unique characteristics of the projection optics used in a system, thereby compensating for vertical and horizontal bias or variations in line width for features oriented in the vertical and horizontal direction.

Photolithography is often used in the manufacture of semiconductors. The image of a reticle having a circuit pattern thereon is projected onto a photosensitive substrate such as a wafer. The wafer is subsequently processed, forming printed patterns thereon. This process is generally repeated several times, forming multiple layers. As the art develops and the element sizes of the semiconductor devices become smaller, there is a need for improved illumination sources used in the lithographic printing systems. Accordingly, there have been many types of illumination systems disclosed which may enhance the quality of imaging of a reticle onto a photosensitive substrate. One such illumination system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,892 entitled "Illuminating Apparatus and Projection Exposure Apparatus Provided With Such Illumination Apparatus" issuing to Mori on Mar. 22, 1994, which is herein incorporated by reference. Therein disclosed is an illumination system having an optical integrator or fly's eye lens positioned next to a condenser. The optical integrator or fly's eye lens is designed to be replaceable so that the numerical aperture of the illumination system can be varied. Another illumination system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,312 entitled "Illuminating System In Exposure Apparatus For Photolithography" issuing to Tounai on Oct. 18, 1994, which is herein incorporated by reference. Therein disclosed is an illumination system that desirably shapes a uniform light beam rather than by blockage with an aperture diaphragm thus reducing loss of illuminating light. Additionally, the cross sectional intensity profile of the light beam in the source aperture can be rendered annular. Yet another illumination system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,336 entitled "Exposure Method and Apparatus" issuing to Hirano et al on Jul. 12, 1994. Therein disclosed is an exposure apparatus having a detector that is compensated for due to coherence changes in the exposure apparatus. Additionally, the concept of zone and modified light source illumination is disclosed for the purpose of optimizing the image of a reticle pattern. Accordingly, there is a need to provide different illumination characteristics to reduce variations of line width due to the photolithographic system or tool. However, due to the complexity of illumination sources and the difficulty of modifying them for a particular optical system to compensate for variations of the photolithographic system, and in particular the projection optics, often the image is not optimized. As a result, some portions of the field may be illuminated adequately while others are not. This may result in different imaging results on different portions of a wafer. Additionally, the projection optics may not provide an image of a reticle onto a photosensitive substrate that when processed has line widths that are within a predetermined tolerance. Therefore, there is a need for an illumination system that compensates for the projection optics variation to optimize the exposure of a photosensitive substrate.

Illumination system with spatially controllable partial coherence compensating for line width variances


A method for defining machine cutting path safety zones for use in laser machining devices. The method includes indentifying safety zone positional coordinates in a computer aided design model, using a machine vision system to image the modeled physical machining device, determining the positional difference between the design model safety zone points and the imaged points and converting the design model safety zone coordinates into machine specific coordinates for input into a machining cutting path program.

In material removal devices and processes, commonly referred to as material machining or simply machining, a cutting head, typically in the form of a carbide cutting wheel or bit, or in more advanced machining techniques, a laser head, is placed in contact or close proximity with the material to be machined. The cutting head is then moved along a path of travel across the material until the desired material is removed and/or altered from its original condition. In modern machining equipment, the cutting path and other parameters are programmed into a computer numerically controlled (CNC) machining device executing a computer program that, in one function, guides the cutting head along the desired path of travel.
In conventional and CNC machining devices, it is vital that the expensive and often delicate cutting heads, whether a cutting bit or a laser, not be subject to a path of travel that would contact portions of the material that are not to be machined or other surrounding equipment, for example, fixtures that may position and secure the material to be machined to a table or workstation. Any such unintended or unauthorized contact of the cutting head with these areas or equipment can damage or misalign the cutting head and/or the potentially delicate material that is to be machined.
In order to avoid unintended contact of the cutting head with surrounding equipment or portions of the material, safety zones are often established to prevent the cutting head from entering into certain areas where such undesirable contact of the cutting head may occur. Depending on the material to be machined, for example a planer or non-planar material surface, or where complex fixturing is used, these safety or restricted zones may take the form of two-dimensional x-y coordinate areas or may be three-dimensional zones having an x-y area as well as a z-coordinate height aspect.
Definition of these safe or restricted zones, where it is undesirable for the cutting head to travel or pass through, typically has to be defined on a job-by-job basis as either the material to be machined or the fixtures used to position or secure the object are different. In CNC machines, these coordinates, often three-dimensional, need to be identified in the coordinate system used by the cutting machine and then input into the computer program. Where many safety zones or safety zones with complex configurations are required, identification of the coordinates or boundaries of the safety zones, and input of these coordinates, can be very tedious and time consuming.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to develop a method for establishing safety or restricted zones in machining devices, for example laser machining devices, that is more efficient and takes less time than prior methods. It would be further advantageous to develop a method for identifying three dimensional coordinates defining the boundaries of desired restricted zones and importing them into the computer program, or programs, of computer numerically controlled machining devices.

Method for defining safe zones in laser machining systems


A roller sponge mop which is used for routine floor surface or similar surface cleaning and moisture absorbing mopping is combined with an integral mop attachment with an outer abrasive surface, designed and formed to be positioned within a wall surface of the lower frame of the mop, to be used for cleaning more difficult and ingrained soiled surfaces. The attachment is removable and interchangeable for use on similarly configured roller mops. The sponge mop roller squeeze feature is actuated by a cammed lever which is rotatably connected to the mop's handle and is positioned adjacent to a sleeve slidable mounted on the handle. At its lower end, the sleeve comprises the frame which carries the mop attachment and connects to the mop's rollers. The bias action of a spring at the lower end of the handle maintains the sponge element of the mop in the cleaning position. As the lever is moved against the sleeve and toward the rollers, the handle is caused to move away from the rollers, drawing the sponge element between the rollers, squeezing dirt and water out of the sponge member. Releasing the lever causes the spring to return the handle and the sponge member to the cleaning position. Tabs on the sleeve and camming lever interact to lock the sleeve and handle to hold and maintain the sponge element between the rollers independent of the use of manually exertion. In this manner, the abrasive surface can be used without interference from the extended sponge element. A handle attachment piece is secured at one end to the handle and at the other end comprises bottom walls. The bottom walls are self-aligning with corresponding ridged openings on the channel member which holds the sponge element. This alignment system allows for simply and easy replacement of the sponge element of the mop.

This invention relates generally to mops and more specifically to mops of the roller type in which spaced apart roller members are connected to a frame and a deformable floor cleaning member may be drawn through the rollers to squeeze dirt and water out of the floor cleaning member. Mops and particularly roller sponge mops are well known and have achieved a wide level of consumer acceptance. However, known roller sponge mops require some substantial force to draw the cleaning element between the rollers. Some persons, particularly small females and elderly persons, have difficulty performing this action due to limited hand and arm strength. Examples of such roller mops are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,381,579, 5,655,248, and Des. Pat. No. 334,263. Additionally, roller mops are available which feature replaceable cleaning elements; but such replacements tend to be cumbersome. An example of such a mop is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,727.
Past attempts to connect abrasive scrubber attachments to roller sponge mops have been by securing such attachments to the rollers themselves, as seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,491,998 and 4,654,920. These arrangements are awkward and the sponge portion of the mop often interferes with the scrubber. The use of the scrubbers on these mops is even more difficult when the sponge portion of the mop must be held in a withdrawn position in order to use the scrubber.
Therefore, while roller sponge mops have achieved relatively wide commercial acceptance, there are aspects to the operation of roller mops which require improvement of the roller mop as a floor cleaning tool.

Cam actuated roller mop with scrubber attachment


The present invention relates to a method for preparing SiH(OR3)-type trialkoxysilane (wherein, R is a C1-C3 methyl, ethyl, propyl or isopropyl group), and more specifically, the method comprises the steps of: preventing the oxidation of a silicon surface by pulverizing raw silicon material in a solvent environment without contact with the air so that the initial induction period of the direct synthesis of trialkoxysilane is dramatically reduced; and removing impurities from a reaction environment by continuously selecting a part of the solvent through a membrane filter provided in a reactor body.

Herein, the number in parenthesis [ ] refers to the number of related art document cited for reference.
Trialkoxysilane is used in various fields such as production of siliceous oligomer, monosilane, silicon for solar energy or semiconductor, and the like, and for synthesis of such trialkoxysilane, two basic methods are used.
First method is to synthesize trialkoxysilane in fixed bed or fluidized bed under a vapor-gas environment. The method for preparation in a vapor-gas environment is to pass alcohol vapor through a silicon powder layer including catalyst in fixed bed or fluidized bed. However, a fixed bed reactor is not widely-used because of the difficulty of maintenance of uniformly distributed temperature throughout the whole reactor volume. In case of direct synthesis in fluidized bed, such disadvantage is avoidable.
In [1], a method for diluting gas in alcohol vapor may be used to prevent or minimize that temperature in fluidized bed reaches peak. As a diluting gas, argon, nitrogen, helium, neon, hydrogen, and the like may be used. However, if additional material is applied, production cost, and also losses of trialkoxysilane and alcohol caused by the carryover of inert gas are increased. Meanwhile, the output power of desired trialkoxysilane is improved by synthesis under a lower pressure. In this case, conversion rate of silicon is 90%, selectivity of silicon is 84.2%, while under a normal pressure, 65%, and 48.8%, respectively. However, there is a disadvantage in that as pressure is lowered, reaction rate decreases, and as a result, productivity is deteriorated.
[2] suggests passing hydrogen with alcohol vapor through contact mass. If hydrogen is applied to the technical process of preparation of trialkoxysilane, additional preparing and purifying parts for hydrogen are needed, which increases preparation cost. When contact mass was activated with nitrogen, and zinc was added as an accelerator at reaction temperature of 280° C. or less, the content of triethoxysilane in reacting materials was 87%, but the conversion rate of silicon was very low, 23%.
It is preferred to stepwise carry out the activation of contact mass including silicon and a catalyst, at 450° C. or less in [1], or at 300-350° C. in [2] and [5], under a nitrogen or other inert gas atmosphere.
[6] to [9] suggest a method of applying hydrogen for silicon and catalyst activation. Activation using hydrogen is carried out at about 400° C. in fixed bed or fluidized bed. The mixture of silicon and catalyst contains 1.5% or more of copper. However, any information as to the resulting selectivity, reactivity, and reaction stability is not presented.
In [1] to [9], as a result of synthesis in fluidized bed for obtaining triethoxysilane, in case the reaction is carried out under atmospheric pressure, the yield of triethoxysilane and the conversion rate of silicon are not high, and in case the reaction is carried out under low pressure, main synthesis index is improved, but such advantage is offset by consequent technical features. In addition, in case liquefied material is additionally injected with alcohol, some numerical values increase, but some problems arise in the synthesis process of trialkoxysilane in fluidized bed, and minor carryover of silicon and catalyst necessarily occurs, thereby requiring an additional filtering process for final product.
Second method is to carry out a direct reaction between silicon and alcohol in suspension state in the liquid solvent environment of a reactor equipped with a stirring device. This method is recently widely used, because in case of using a solvent, the temperature of reaction mixture may be uniformly maintained to greatly reduce the possibility of overheating reaction environment, and prevent side reaction, thereby raising the selectivity of trialkoxysilane and the conversion rate of silicon.
In the synthesis of trialkoxysilane, the temperature is maintained high, up to 300° C., and thus, a solvent used in the synthesis should not be decomposed at such temperature. Solvent should effectively maintain uniform temperature in reaction system. In addition, it should not generate oxidation at reaction temperature ranging 100-300° C., as well as highly disperse the powder.
[10] and [11] suggest using alkylated benzene, and [12] suggests using alkylated naphthalene-"THERMINOL" oil. Details of high temperature solvents of THERMINOL® 59, 60, 66, DOWTHERM® HT, MARLOTHERM® S, MARLOTHERM® and other trademarks are described in [13] and [25].
[13], [14] and [15] suggest that the amount of solvent used in synthesis should be 1:2-4:1 of solvent:silicon, preferably 1:1-2:1.
In [16]-[20], it takes a considerable induction period to activate the reaction after pouring reaction raw materials of silicon and alcohol, which may last for 1 hour to 12 hours. The main reason for generation of induction period is an oxide film on the surface of silicon. In order to reduce induction period, it is suggested that activation step should be added in the synthesis process of trialkoxysilane.
[13] reviews the activation process in very detail. Activation may be carried out in the corresponding reactor in which the reaction proceeds or a separate equipment. It is preferred to move silicon activated in a separate equipment from dry neutral environment to the reactor. Activation is carried out at 20 to 400° C., preferably 150 to 300° C. It is suggested that hydrogen and nitrogen are used together as activating gas, and silicon is activated by methanol for the reaction with ethanol, because methanol has higher reaction activity to silicon than ethanol or higher alcohol. For example, if 5% of methanol is added to ethanol, reaction rate significantly increases. Herein, a reaction suspension containing 1 kg of silicon, 14.1 g of copper hydroxide, and 2.1 kg of solvent Marlotherm®S was activated at 150 to 250° C. for 65 minutes using hydrogen and nitrogen. Methanol was fed at 250° C. for 5 hours at a rate of 4.3 g/min. Thereafter, the temperature was lowered to 230° C., the feed of methanol was stopped, and ethanol was fed at the same rate, wherein the feed of hydrogen was stopped, and that of nitrogen was sustained. The total amount of activating material is stoichiometrically calculated, and enough to convert divalent or monovalent copper catalyst to free copper. It takes considerable time for an actual activity process, and it is asserted that it is caused by a large silicon-copper mass surface (fine particle diameter of silicon 50-300 μm). Meanwhile, a special condition as to granularity of used catalyst is required. Fine particle size should range 1-100 μm, preferably 0.1-50 μm, more preferably 0.1-30 μm. At the same time, specific surface area of the catalyst within a raw material is 0.1-2 m2/g, preferably 10-50 m2/g. Direct synthesis reaction of silicon using alcohol is feasible both in periodic mode and continuous mode. In periodic mode, all silicon is put into a reactor early in the process, while alcohol is continuously fed until all silicon is reacted. Depending on the output, it is also possible that a certain amount of silicon is fed in turn, and alcohol is continuously fed. In case of a reactor in continuous mode, only silicon or silicon containing a catalyst is added after starting process. In this case, the content of catalyst is minimum, or controlled so that side reaction decomposing alcohol does not occur. Reaction temperature is 150° C. or more, but not higher than the temperature where the decomposition of alcohol and solvent occurs. It is preferred to carry out the reaction at 200-260° C. In methanol reaction, 220-250° C. is preferred, and in ethanol reaction, 200-240° C. is preferred. It is possible to carry out the direct synthesis reaction of trialkoxysilane at both high pressure and low pressure, but atmospheric pressure is preferred.
[21] and [22] suggest treating powdered silicon with hydrogen fluoride in order to remove an oxide film on silicon surface prior to working for shortening induction period.
[10] and [22] suggest activating reaction mass by maintaining high temperature under a nitrogen, argon, and other inert environment, and [23] suggests pre-mixing silicon and a catalyst in mill for 8 hours in an inert atmospheric condition, respectively.
[21] suggests injecting alkyl chloride, hydrogen chloride, or ammonium chloride for activating silicon prior to synthesis, and [24] suggests injecting halides such as NH4HF2. However, in case materials such as halide, alkyl halide and methanol are injected to a reactor prior to synthesis, a distillation step of aimed material is added for removing impurities in aimed material, which means that the preparation technique of trialkoxysilane becomes complicated.
Therefore, it is appreciated that induction period in a direct synthesis process of trialkoxysilane is not simply understood, and effective solution therefor does not exist. In case of injecting an additional reagent in synthesis process, the reagent should be removed from the final product, which adds a further step, and consequently makes the preparation technique of trialkoxysilane complicated and its production cost high.
In [11], [13], [14], [17] and [21], the main synthesis reaction of trialkoxysilane is accompanied by a side reaction which may form oligoalkoxysiloxane, moisture and other side reaction products, and they may be gradually accumulated under reaction environment to lower reaction rate of synthesis process. In [14], the reason is that metal being in the form of impurity in the synthesis of silicon may be contained in a catalyst and used. Copper metal is accumulated in a solvent component as a result of decomposition of a catalyst. If silicon and trialkoxysilane containing such remaining silicon and impurities are accumulated, reaction rate decreases. In such case, in order to continuously use a solvent in synthesis process of trialkoxysilane, the solvent must be regenerated.
[16] suggests using aluminium (0.01-10%, preferably 0.1-2%), [2] suggests using zinc, [25] suggests using an organic or inorganic compound possessing at least one phosphorus-oxygen bond, as an accelerators of reaction forming trialkoxysilane for increasing efficiency of main synthesis index of trialkoxysilane. However, any information about the effects therefrom is not provided.
[1] suggests a process for producing trialkoxysilane comprising pulverizing silicon and performing interaction of ground silicon and alcohol under the action of a catalyst.
Industrial silicon ground to a particle size of 500 μm in the air is used as a feedstock. Ethanol and methanol are used as alcohol reagents, and a copper-containing compound such as copper (I) chloride (CuCl) is used as a catalyst. They are mixed with ground silicon, and heated at 300° C. or less for several hours, thereby activating the catalyst to activate technical interaction of alcohol and silicon. Such technical method is also used in other methods similar to that of [1]. Together with this, for the purpose of interaction of silicon and alcohol, an additional catalyst in the form of halides is applied, and as organic and inorganic materials containing a halogen component, chlorides, fluorides, methyl bromide, ethyl bromide, ethylene trichloride, hydrogen fluoride (HF), hydrogen chloride (HCl), hydrogen bromide (HBr), hydrogen iodide (HI), and the like are mentioned. The above method has significant disadvantages in spite of its usability. The most important thing among those is additional considerable energy loss caused by pre-heating treatment at 300° C. or less for a long period, thereby extending entire processing time, and increasing energy consumption. In addition, the technical measures to apply gas-type halides for activation of process is not environmentally safe.
[26] includes pulverizing process of silicon, and interaction process of alcohol and ground silicon through a catalyst in a heated solvent environment with a reagent activated. Silicon is milled to fine particles to a size of 500 μm in the air using a ball mill. As an alcohol reagent, ethanol and methanol are used, and triethoxysilane and trimethoxysilane are obtained as a final product. As a catalyst, usually a copper-containing compound, mainly CuCl is used. As a solvent, polyaromatic oil is used, and the main technical process of an interaction between milled silicon and alcohol is performed under the environment where the solvent is heated to 200° C. The activation technique for an reagent is applied, and the reason for applying such technique is as follows: In the preparation of trialkoxysilane according to the illustrated schematic, impurities in raw materials are accumulated in reaction mass to make the consumption of reaction mass uneven, and solvent is partly consumed in a side reaction caused by impurities in raw materials, thereby generating unreacted silicon. Therefore, a technique to activate reagent is applied, which bleeds and participates a reaction mixture suspension containing unreacted silicon, and adds an adequate amount of solvent and catalyst, to return the concentrated suspension to the process. Such process is carried out several times during technical processing as unreacted silicon is accumulated in a reactor in the form of deposits. Like other similar methods, in spite of decrease in side reaction, increase in product yield, decrease in raw material loss, and increase in equipment productivity, the method has a technical disadvantage of having very complicated process, because the process is activated by applied technical measures, that is, separating unreacted silicon, and periodically repeated adding concentrated mixture of solvent and catalyst to reaction mass, in order to supplement the loss of solvent and catalyst. Moreover, since it is possible to rapidly reduce or slow down the reaction in the addition of an amount of new reagent instead of bled part, any measures followed by remove or shortening of reaction induction period are not considered.

INSTITUTION OF ION-PLASMA AND LASER TECHNOLOGIES


A portable power supply powers the light in a dental handpiece. The portable power supply includes a rechargeable battery for the electric power, and has connectors for connection to the handpiece and its fluid supply and exhaust. The connectors communicate with a manifold which has a port for connection of a pressure operated switch. The pressure operated switch operates the light so the light is illuminated only when the handpiece is operating.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to dental handpieces, and is more particular concerned with a portable electric power source for the light on a dental handpiece.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The convention dental handpiece contains a turbine which is operated by gas under pressure. The usual handpiece also includes an electric light, the light from which is carried to the handpiece by fiber optics bundled with the tubes connected to the handpiece. The usual means for providing electric power to the light includes wiring that must be done by a skilled electrician, the wiring passing through the arm supporting the dental delivery unit, through the standard, and to a transformer on the floor. The transformer is then plugged into a conventional power outlet.
Those skilled in the art will understand that a dentist, or someone on the office staff, can move a dental handpiece from one station to another by simply unscrewing the connector from the delivery unit, and screwing the connector to the delivery unit where the handpiece is desired. However, the office personnel cannot move the power source for the light. Because of this, a dental office normally has a power source installed in each room wherein a handpiece will be used. This of course increases the cost of outfitting a dental office.
There has been some effort at providing a portable operating system for a dental handpiece, as shown by U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,949 to Holt, Jr. The Holt device, however, is concerned with a portable system that provides the handpiece, or drill, the syringe and a suction device, all in one unit. The Holt device would not be used in a normal dental office, but is designed to replace the entire delivery unit.

Portable power source for dental handpiece illumination


A pixel structure including a scan line, a data line, a first sub-pixel, a coupling electrode and a second sub-pixel is provided. The first sub-pixel includes a first thin film transistor (TFT) and a first pixel electrode, and the first pixel electrode is electrically connected to the scan line and the data line via the first TFT. The coupling electrode is disposed above the data line and electrically insulated from the data line. The second sub-pixel includes a second thin film transistor and a second pixel electrode. The second pixel electrode is electrically connected to the second TFT, and the second TFT is electrically connected to the coupling electrode. When seeing an image from a slant direction, color shift of image can be solved by utilizing the pixel structure. Besides, a liquid crystal display panel having the described pixel structure is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a pixel structure and a liquid crystal display panel having the pixel structure, in particular, to a liquid crystal display panel and a pixel structure thereof, which can alleviate color shift of image.
2. Description of Related Art
The thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) is becoming the mainstream in the display market because of its superior characteristics, such as high image quality, high space utilizing efficiency, low power consumption and no radiation etc. Recently, high contrast ratio, fast response time and wide viewing angle are the major demands. In order to reach the achievement, a multi-domain vertically alignment (MVA) TFT-LCD is proposed.
FIG. 1 is a schematic, cross-sectional view showing a conventional MVA TFT-LCD. Referring to FIG. 1, the liquid crystal display panel 100 includes a thin film transistor array substrate 110, a color filter substrate 120 and a liquid crystal layer 130. By means of the protrusions 140 or slit patterns (not shown) formed on the thin film transistor array substrate 110 and the color filter substrate 120, when an electric field is applied between the substrates 110 and 120, the liquid crystal molecules 132 in the liquid crystal layer 130 are rearranged along different orientations to thereby define a four-domain (4 domain) distribution and thus achieve the effect of the wide viewing angle.
Although the MVA TFT-LCD or a horizontal alignment TFT-LCD can achieve the purpose of the wide viewing angle, users still encounter color washout when viewing an image thereon from different viewing angles.
FIG. 2 shows gamma (γ) curves of a conventional MVA TFT-LCD in different viewing angles (θ), (φ=0). Referring to FIG. 2, the ordinate represents the brightness, and the abscissa represents the gray level. As shown in FIG. 2, the larger viewing angle, the worse distortion of the gamma curve, that is, the color shift of image becomes aggravating. The color shift occurs in a large viewing angle when the middle and the low gray level has a higher brightness. Therefore, an efficient method for solving the color shift of image is to decrease the brightness of the middle and the low gray level. The US patent publication No. 2005/0030439 discloses a design of dividing a pixel into two sub-pixels.
FIG. 3 is a schematic, the top view showing a conventional thin film transistor array substrate. Referring to FIG. 3, a first pixel electrode 190a and a second pixel electrode 190b are located in a left region and a right region of a pixel structure 190, respectively. The first pixel electrode 190a is electrically connected to a drain 175 via a contact hole 181. The drain 175 extends underneath to the second pixel electrode 190b. A voltage applied to the second pixel electrode 190b undergoes a voltage drop by the capacitance coupling effect, thus the voltage applied to the second pixel electrode 190b is smaller than that applied to the first pixel electrode 190a. Thereby, the region of the second pixel electrode 190b is darker than that of the conventional one in the middle and the low gray level, while the brightness of the region of the first pixel electrode 190a is similar to that of the second pixel electrode 190b. Therefore, the pixel structure 190 can solve the problem of color shift of image in a large viewing angle.
However, complying with the optimistic response time and the transmittance of various panels with different scales and resolutions, the gap between the protrusions or slits is limited, and the adjustment for the area ratio of the first pixel electrode 190a to the second electrode 190b is accordingly restricted.
In addition, the pixel structure 190 corresponds to the same thin film transistor; the voltage applied to the first pixel electrode 190a and the second pixel electrode 190b respectively are different, which aggravates the flicker phenomenon of the frame.
FIG. 4 is a schematic, the top view showing a color filter substrate corresponding to the thin film transistor array substrate in FIG. 3. Referring to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the drain 175 is opaque as being made of metal. In order to avoid the aperture ratio of the pixel structure 190 is decreased; the drain 175 must be disposed corresponding to the protrusion 272, as shown in FIG. 4. However, if an assembly shift occurs in the fabrication of the panel, wherein the drain 175 is not exactly corresponding to the protrusion 272, the aperture ratio of the panel is affected due to the exposure of the drain 175.

Pixel structure having a second TFT electrically connected to a coupling electrode formed over and electrically insulated from the data line