Line defects are removed from an image by providing image data in digital form, analyzing segments of the image data as groups of pixels, detecting line defects in the image by application of a line detector, such as a local radial angular transform, and adjusting the image data to correct the detected line defects within the determined limits.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for the detection and removal of line-like defects from an image. The invention relates to a process of detecting the defects using mathematical procedures and then correcting the detected defects.
2. Background of the Art
As a result of repeated handling or accident, old photographs often develop scratches. They also acquire defects resulting from material failure with age, such as cracking of surface coatings or laminations placed over the surface of the picture. The photograph may also become creased through careless handling, leading to a surface pattern resembling a scratch. Such scratch patterns are in general not simple straight lines. Instead they can be quite complex, having curved as well as straight sections with intersections and line junctions. Since the advent of inexpensive and high quality scanners, many old photographs are being digitized. Such images have high sentimental or historical value and there is a strong desire and need to digitally eliminate defects such as scratches from the images.
Much effort has been expended on restoration of cinema films that have undergone damage. An overview of the area can be found in P. Schallauer, A. Pinz and W. Haas, "Automatic restoration algorithms for 35 mm film", Videre, vol. 1, no.3, Summer 1999. This is an electronic journal available on-line from http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-journals/Videre/. Film scratches are usually substantially straight and lie along the film direction. This orientation of the scratches occurs because the scratches are usually caused by the projector transport mechanism, which lies consistently parallel to the film sprockets, and because scratches caused by trapped dirt during development can move over a few percent of the film width over several frames, again along the path of film movement during development. Compared to the arbitrary scratches that are found in still photographic prints, the scratching of motion picture film is therefore a very restricted form of scratch. Despite this, the authors state that "from an algorithmic point of view, removing defects is an easy task in comparison to detecting them". This position attests to two things: first, detecting even a very specific type of scratch is difficult and, second, correction of films is relatively easy because content can be taken from frames prior to and after the defect. There is, however, no such source of data for a still photo.
In digital image editing software such as, for instance, Paint Shop Pro (Jasc Software, Inc., 7905 Fuller Road, Eden Prairie, Minn., 55344), it is customary to provide a clone tool to repair image defects. This tool is a brush that picks up an undamaged region of the image and allows it to be painted over the damaged portion. Such a tool is effective, but requires considerable skill to produce a natural and seamless result. Moreover, the tool is not helpful when the image contains no area with undamaged content corresponding to that of the damaged area. Other software often provides a "dust and scratch removal" filter where defects are removed with a non-linear filter, such as a median filter. However, since every pixel in the image—not just scratch pixels—can potentially be modified, this technique is of very limited usefulness. For this reason, a number of proposals have been made for improved methods of scratch correction. For example, in M. Bertalmio, G. Sapiro, V. Caselles, and C. Ballester, "Image Inpainting", Preprint 1655, Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, University of Minnesota, December 1999 there is described a method of filling-in scratches, which is done in such a way that isophote lines arriving at the region boundaries are completed inside. Though the method is described as fast, because it is iterative, securing the highest quality results is slow. In a paper entitled "Combining Frequency and Spatial Domain Information for Fast Interactive Image Noise Removal", A. N. Hirani and T. Totsuka, Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 96, 269–276 (1996) report a method of repairing scratches in textured areas in which the user indicates a region of source texture for patching that is applied to the defect by means of frequency domain analysis. This method can be very effective in some cases but can fail in others. Neither of these improvements provide any way to identify the scratch. In fact, both authors assume that the scratch has previously been defined somehow, presumably by hand.
However, when scratches or other defects are small and plentiful, defining the scratches prior to correcting them becomes a main objective and content of labor. For instance, the work of marking every section of every scratch is roughly equivalent to cloning or painting over the scratch in the first place, so little is gained by subsequent automation. Automatic definition of generalized scratches is not at a satisfactory level. Often knowing whether something is a scratch or not depends on understanding the content of the image, something beyond the ability of current methods dealing with arbitrary images. A need therefore exists for an assisted method of scratch removal that will allow a user to define precisely the defects in an image without needing the labor of tracing each individually and then to perform a correction of the so-defined scratches.


A low product stock display system for detecting at least one of fully stocked, partially stocked, and empty (no stock) shelf has been described. The presence/absence of stock can be detected by conductive contact sensors, inductance sensors, weight sensors, optical sensors, and, in the preferred embodiment, with an RF transmission line. The data from a sensor is wirelessly relayed to an external server for processing across a plurality of facilities, and can provide alerts to personnel or systems responsible for reordering or restocking the particular shelf or display at the facility.

Due to the seasonal and impulse-purchase nature of many products, sale facilities can go from fully stocked to out-of-stock on key promotional items very quickly. In many such cases, additional stock can be pulled from proximal storage areas to rapidly remedy situations if alerts can be generated to indicate that stocked product volume is waning or fully depleted. In other cases, early notification of partial or full out-of-stock conditions significantly decreases the period where sales are lost due to lack of merchandise. In the case of temporary or permanent displays, low- or no-stock conditions can result in the display being pulled from the selling area, and in many cases, destroyed or discarded.
Many Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) items have such erratic sales patterns. For example, an entire section of soda or bottled water can be depleted from supermarket shelves in a few hours. Often there is no safety stock in the back room, and it can take a significant amount of time for store personnel to notice that the shelf is depleted and place a replenishment order. Substantial sales increases often occur when product is displayed, featured, or given a significant price reduction for a certain period. Out-of-stock conditions result in missed sales and frustrated customers.
Trade publications forecast widespread use of RFID tags on consumer products to complement the UPC (i.e. ePC) in a 5–15 year timeframe. However, such system is subject to the future development of a very inexpensive tag, cheaper and more effective readers, and full deployment of shelf-based antenna systems in retail outlets. Thus, sophisticated, inexpensive systems predicated on such use of the ePC (passive RFID tags applied to individual product items) are years away from being implemented.
Further, temporary displays are often discarded after only a few days or weeks, which means that stock-status detection equipment would need to be either disposable or very portable and easily redeployed by non-technical in-store personnel. When implemented, such systems may not cover certain types of product or packaging due to their challenging RF properties.
In applicant's commonly assigned and published application S.N. US 2004/0056091, incorporated herein in its entirety, there is disclosed RF tags of various types (e.g. passive, semi-passive, active, and the like), Backscatter Reader Transmitters (BRT), and hubs. Typically, each BRT is a fully self-contained, battery operated unit, and utilizes three antennas. Two medium gain patch antennas are used to read the tags, and a whip antenna is used to report the received data over a wireless link to the hub. Active transmitter tags can have contacts or other sensors that allow them to function like "readers" by collecting data proximal to them and reporting directly to the hub.
It would be advantageous to modify such system for detecting and monitoring presence/absence of stocked product in a simple, economical manner. What is desired, therefore, is a simple, inexpensive device that can detect and report on-shelf product status as being out-of-stock, fully stocked, or some state in between, regardless of where the items are displayed in the store or facility.


A lithographic plate blank for imaging on a laser printer comprises a sheet of flexible electrically non-conductive material and an image receiving etchable layer coating bonded on a surface thereof, the coating including zinc oxide, a resin binder, and an electrical property regulating agent and being effective to provide the plate with a surface resistance of between 10.sup.11 and 10.sup.14 ohms per square and a dark decay rate of at least 15 volts per second. A method of preparation of a blank plate and a method of preparation of an imaged plate are disclosed.

U.S. Patent application Ser. No. 07/439,704 appertains to the imaging of polyester offset printing blanks on laser printers and their preparation and use as offset printing plates. Suitable printing blanks were those such as described in U.K. Application GB 2110161A. (The inventor of the present invention and both of the above U.S. and U.K. applications is M. Figov).
Present computer technology permits and encourages the collection of data from scanners, videos and directly inputted text so that all types of information origination can be used for hard copy composition, assemblage and manipulation within the computer.
In order to generate the hard copy from such inputs, the computer is electronically coupled to a laser printer by which the digitalised information is written as an electrostatic charge onto a photoconductive drum, usually based on Selenium, and the information then transferred by developing the charged latent image with a toner powder and then onto plain paper where it is fused to ensure stability and permanence.
During the past few years, laser printers have been developed that permit larger size copy with greater resolution of the image than hitherto. Thus, whereas laser printers producing A4 copy were the most common ones available in the 1980's, A3 and larger sizes are rapidly becoming popular in the market. The original A4 laser printers had a resolution related to their capability to write at 300 dots per inch. Laser engines are now available with 600 dots per inch and more recently 1200 dots per inch engines have been developed. These developments have further promoted interest in the production of printing plates by this means.
A polyester printing plate is described in U.S. application Ser. No. 07/439,704 based on U.K. Patent Application publication no. GB-2110161A. This plate can be fed directly into the laser printer, where it receives information for printing by the offset litho process. The plate comprises a polyester base on which a mixture of zinc oxide and binder is coated. After laser printer imaging, the plate is treated with a conversion fluid which renders the background hydrophilic whilst the toner image remains oleophilic. This conversion technology is based on the well-known electrophotographic offset paper plate printing process as described for instance in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,522,062 and 4,579,591.
Although there are other direct-to-plate systems of collecting data directly from a computer and depositing it onto a printing plate (for instance as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,149,798 and 4,774,532) they require dedicated laser imagers that have to be manufactured and sold specifically for their application. The inventor's (M. Figov) previously described inventions utilize an existing, growing and developing laser engine population that finds wider application as a disseminator of information via a multifarious selection of communication media which can now combine "one off" or low number multiple copying with high volume printing. Moreover, the movement to larger format size and higher resolution favours the printing process, bearing in mind that the size of a printing plate must exceed that of the required copy size in order to permit gripping the plate at its head and tail, and in order to avoid the edge of the plate printing an unwanted line on the paper. Thus, A4 laser printers can only produce printing plates of a smaller print size than A4 and have to be specially adjusted to give sufficient plate length to enable attachment of both ends of the plate on the offset litho cylinder.
U.S. Patent application Ser. No. 07/439,704 specifically tackles a particular problem experienced in the system-- namely the appearance of small background dots of toner powder that are fused into the background. These dots become a problem during the printing process in that they reproduce on the prints as unwanted image background. An emulsion was patented which when applied to the etched plate reduces the size of these background dots to minimize or eliminate their visibility on the final print as well as sharpening the print and increasing the oleophilic properties of the toner image.
According to the present invention it is possible to design the formulation of the printing plate so as to considerably reduce the background dot formation to such an extent that the emulsion according to U.S. application Ser. No. 07/439,704 needs not necessarily be applied.
In addition, the present invention relates to formulations that have the following advantages over those previous described. They are:
(i) Ease of image erasure after the printing plate has been used This enables correction to be done, and even large extraneous dots to be eliminated. PA0 (ii) Ease of automatic feeding of plates through the laser printer. Polyester plates stick together through static charging and the formulation according to the present invention helps eliminate this. PA0 (iii) Compatibility with alcohol based founts. PA0 (iv) Improved u.v. transparency so that the plate can also be used as an offset intermediate film for making very long run aluminum plates. PA0 (1) An electroconductive base material. This is usually (commercially) a high wet-strength paper impregnated with an electroconductive resin. According to patent literature (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,992) aluminum metal as a base has also been used. An example of a commercially available paper base is Electrostatic Plate Base D7481 from Intermills International. PA0 (2) Zinc oxide of an electrophotographic grade, capable of being dye sensitized to respond to various wavelengths of light. Such a zinc oxide is Photox 801 from the New Jersey Zinc Company-- see U.S. Pat. No. 3,345,162. PA0 (3) A suitable resin binder of good dielectric properties. Commercial examples are given further on. PA0 (4) A dye or combination of dye sensitizers (for instance rose bengal, bromophenol blue and fluorescein) which regulate the spectral sensitivity of the coating making it sufficiently electrophotographic for satisfactory performance. PA0 (1) A polyester base. This is by nature electrically non-conductive. PA0 (2) Zinc oxide. This is not necessarily an electrophotographic grade, but its essential feature is that it can be converted by an electrostatic conversion etch to give a water insoluble but water receptive layer. PA0 (3) A suitable resin binder. This need not necessarily have good dielectric properties but must have good adhesion to polyester, provide good bonding to the laser toner powder, and have mechanical strength to remain intact during the offset printing process.
The polyester laser printing plate referred to in the above mentioned U.S. application Ser. No. 07/439,704 was marketed under the name of Plazer (hereinafter called "Plazer"). The basis of the Plazer plate as far as composition is concerned can be considered as comprising three essential elements. The first is the polyester base. This material is flexible and sufficiently thin (80 to 150 microns) to be fed into the laser printer but not so thin as to be damaged by the heat fusing rollers through which it must pass. Yet it must also be sufficiently robust to withstand successive impacting during the printing process.
The second and third elements of the Plazer are the zinc oxide and the binder resin which combine together to give the coating that must exhibit good reception and adhesion to the toner image as it is formed in the laser printer, must give good conversion using an electrostatic conversion etch to give a clean background on printing, and must withstand the mechanical and chemical forces applied to the surface of the plate during printing on the offset printing machine.
Thus, the combination of the three elements results in a printing blank that receives good quality images from laser printers and then can be chemically treated with etch to give a clear running printing plate which is easy to use and which is robust and durable for more than 15,000 copies.
It is recognized that anyone skilled in the art reading GB Application No. 2110161A and U.S. application Ser. No. 07/439,704 would recognize similarities between the zinc oxide / resin layers therein described which have properties of conversion to hydrophilic layers with oleophilic images and those of commercially available electrophotographic paper offset litho plates which utilize these same principles (as depicted, for instance in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,522,062).
However, a close examination of the technology of the electrophotographic offset paper plate reveals that such plates comprise a number of essential features that are not features of those plates used in the laser printing process described in the inventor's previous invention. Thus, electrophotographic printing plates need the following essential features:
When all these features are combined, the electrophotographic printing blank is such that it will accept a charge of about 400 volts and that this charge will be held with little loss (dark decay) for a period of some seconds U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,419 reports satisfactory results for a 350 volt charge acceptance and a dark decay rate of 4 volts per second. On exposure to light (during the imaging process) the material becomes conductive so that non image or background areas rapidly lose their charge. This is shown diagrammatically in U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,992. The image is subsequently developed with a toner powder which is thermally fused onto the plate.
As described above, in the type of plate involved in the laser printing process of U.S. application Ser. No. 07/439,704, the essential features are somewhat different.
They are as follows:
When these elements are combined, the electrical properties are entirely different from those of the electrophotographic materials previously described. Primarily, these are due to the insulative nature of the polyester base. It has been found, for instance, that if the coating formulations described in GB 2110161A or in U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,886 are applied onto polyester, the coating will hold a charge of up to 1500 volts. These layers then have a dark decay over a minute of less than 5% and a light decay of the same order. If the same above mentioned coatings are then coated onto an electroconductive paper, (Electrostatic Plate Base D7481 -- Intermills), whether they are dye sensitized or not they exhibit an initial charging of around 400-500 volts. A possible explanation for this difference is that the polyester is impermeable and the coating thus resides entirely on its surface, whereas it penetrates into the conductive paper so that its intrinsic electrical properties are modified by those of the paper.
It was also discovered that there was a significant difference in surface resistivity between electrophotographic offset plates and the polyester "Plazer" printing plate. The former was measured at 10.sup.10 ohms per square and the latter at 10.sup.12 ohms per square. In the Patent Application GB 2110161A which describes an offset plate for use with a plain paper copier that used mono-component toner, the essential electrical property was volume resistivity that had to be greater than 10.sup.12 ohms. cms. Surface electrical properties are not recorded. However, the offset litho plates of 2110161A were specifically designed to fit into the special development system of cold pressure fusing of mono component toner because the carrier in mono component toners is deposited with the toner onto the print and thus has entirely different electrical characteristics to the toner of the 2 component system. The electrical requirements of the receptor sheets be they paper or plate, are different in the two cases. Present laser printer technology is not based on this system.


A display may include an array of pixels that receive control signals from a chain of gate drivers. Each gate driver may include a logic sub-circuit and an output buffer sub-circuit. The output buffer sub-circuit may include depletion mode semiconducting oxide transistors with high mobility. The logic sub-circuit may include semiconducting oxide transistors, some of which can be depletion mode transistors and some of which can be enhancement mode transistors with lower mobility. The logic sub-circuit may include at least a carry circuit, a voltage setting circuit, an inverting circuit, a discharge circuit.

This relates generally to electronic devices with displays and, more particularly, to display driver circuitry for displays such as organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays.
Electronic devices often include displays. For example, cellular telephones, tablets, wrist-watches, and portable computers typically include displays for presenting image content to users. OLED displays have an array of display pixels based on light-emitting diodes. In this type of display, gate driver circuitry is used to provide control signals to respective rows in the array of display pixels. It can be challenging to design the gate driver circuitry.

Display with hybrid oxide gate driver circuitry having multiple low power supplies


A network device comprises first and second transceivers configured to aid communication between a plurality of networked devices; first and second communication medium connections in communication with the first and second transceivers, and capable of receiving first and second communication media, respectively; and a sliding door, said sliding door retained between an upper sliding track and a lower sliding track such that said sliding door covers one of said first and second connection while exposing the other of said first and second connection.

Network devices, such as routers and Ethernet switch products, provide network interfaces that support different physical media types. For example, a gigabit Ethernet interface can support multiple media types such as copper cables and fiber optic cables. In current network devices, the media type for a gigabit Ethernet interface can be selected by choosing different transceivers supporting different cable connectors such as GBIC or SFP modules.
Currently, a user needs to purchase a media plugin module depending on the type of cable or fiber media the user wishes to use with the network device. If the user subsequently needs to upgrade the network device to a different media type, the purchase of an additional plugin module may be required. In existing network device designs, typically only one type of media is supported at a time. Thus, MAC layer circuitry and media-dependent PHY circuitry are separated.
Network devices can be improved by including two or more transceivers that can be connected simultaneously. Each transceiver is dedicated to a specific media type, such as one transceiver being included for copper cable, another transceiver for fiber optic cable, etc. Such a design provides user flexibility with a relatively low cost and small footprint. Because multiple connectors are presented to the user but the interface can only support one media type at a time, only one cable should be connected with the selected media transceiver. However, a network device presenting multiple connections is likely to cause confusion for the user and require additional configuration to select the proper media type.

Mechanism to select the physical media type connector in network devices


An optical disc writing condition determining method according to the present invention includes the steps of: performing a first test write operation at a low speed on an inner test track; setting condition A for performing a write operation at the low speed on the inner test track based on a result of the first test write operation; performing a second test write operation at the low speed on an outer test track; setting condition B for performing a write operation at the low speed on the outer test track based on a result of the second test write operation; performing a third test write operation at a high speed on the outer test track; setting condition C for performing a write operation at the high speed on the outer test track based on a result of the third test write operation; and calculating either a difference between the conditions A and B or a ratio of the condition B to the condition A and modifying the condition C based on the difference or the ratio, thereby determining writing condition D for performing a write operation at the high speed on user data tracks.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for determining a condition for performing a write operation on an optical disc that is specially designed to perform a write operation thereon at high speeds.
2. Description of the Related Art
Examples of optical discs, from/on which data can be read and/or written optically, include write-once discs such as CD-Rs, DVD-Rs and BD-Rs to which data can be just added and rewritable discs such as DVD-RWs, DVD-RAMs and BD-REs on which data stored is rewritable. For any of these various types of optical discs, a standard writing speed is defined. Specifically, such a writing speed is represented by either a linear velocity or a transfer rate. In this description, the writing speed will be represented by the linear velocity in most cases.
At an increasing demand in the market and thanks to the development of technologies, the highest writing speed on optical discs has been rising these days. And a 16× write operation has already been realized for DVD-Rs as a result. As for BD-Rs, discs and recorders that achieve 4× recording are now under development. As used herein, the "**x" means that the highest writing speed is ** times as high as the standard writing speed.
To increase the writing speed, the recorder needs to not only rotate a given optical disc at higher velocities but also increase the recording power of a laser beam pulse to be applied during the write operation and the signal modulation rate as well. Also, before a write operation is actually performed at such a high speed, the best writing conditions for that writing speed are normally determined by performing a tentative write operation (which will be referred to herein as a "test write operation") on the given optical disc. That is why on an optical disc, areas for performing such a test write operation are provided inside and outside of the user data storage area of the optical disc.
FIG. 4 schematically illustrates a normal track layout for an optical disc 100. As shown in FIG. 4, the optical disc 100 has user data tracks 102 to write user data thereon, an inner test track 101 arranged inside of the user data tracks 102, and an outer test track 103 arranged outside of the user data tracks 102. Data can be either just added once, or rewritten a number of times, on the inner and outer test tracks 101 and 103 and the test write operation is performed on these tracks to determine the data writing conditions.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-352430 discloses a conventional method and apparatus for determining conditions for a high-speed write operation. More specifically, that patent document discloses a method for determining the best writing conditions for the writing speed on user data tracks based on results of test write operations that have been performed at multiple different writing speeds on the outer area of the optical disc. The document also discloses a method of correcting the dependence on a radial location on the disc by making an interpolation based on results of test write operations on the inner and outer areas.
If a high-speed write operation is performed on a normal optical disc with a thickness of 1.2 mm and a diameter of 12 cm, the optical disc is preferably used at a rotational velocity of approximately 10,000 rpm or less, considering the maximum rotation performance of the spindle motor, noise, and precaution against possible rupture of the disc. Also, if the optical disc is rotated at a constant rotational velocity, the write linear velocity on the innermost area with the smallest radius is lower than the one on the outermost area with the largest radius. For that reason, if a test write operation is performed on the inner test track with the smallest radius, it is difficult to perform the test write operation at a high speed due to the limit of the rotational velocity. More specifically, on a BD, for example, if the writing speed is 5×, the rotational velocity in the vicinity of the innermost radius of 22 mm reaches as high as approximately 10,000 rpm. That is to say, the rotational velocity on the inner test track becomes too high to perform a test write operation on it easily at a speed of 6× or even higher speeds.
According to the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-352430, the outer test track that enables a high-speed write operation is used for test writing. And such a method is effective only when the rotational velocity is relatively low. It is also effective if the distribution of write properties from the innermost area of the disc through the outermost area thereof is already known. However, if the relation between the write property on the outer test track and the one on the inner test track or the user data tracks were an unexpected one, writing conditions that could result in greater errors could be obtained unintentionally.
An example of such an awkward situation will be described with reference to FIGS. 5A and 5B, which show how the best recording power changes according to the radial location of a write track in a situation where the writing speed on a certain optical disc is set to be constant. Ideally, the best recording power on an optical disc should be constant irrespective of the radial location. Actually, however, a real optical disc has some property varying according to the radial location. For example, the thickness of the recording film thereof may increase monotonically in the radial direction. In that case, the recording power 1d that has been obtained by making an interpolation between the recording power 1a on the inner test track 101 and the recording power 1b on the outer test track 103 agrees with the actual recording power 1c on the user data tracks 102 as shown in FIG. 5A.
However, the write property could vary distinctly on the outer area of an optical disc, for example. More specifically, the coating layer or the recording film could become extremely thin around the outermost area of a disc. In that case, the recording power 2d that has been obtained by making an interpolation between the recording power 2a on the inner test track 101 and the recording power 2b on the outer test track 103 would disagree with the actual recording power 2c on the user data tracks 102 as shown in FIG. 5B, which is a problem.
Such a problem arises because the conventional method is based on a supposition that any variation occurring on an optical disc in the radial direction should be able to be approximated linearly, for example. That is why if a property of an optical disc varied distinctly on the outer test track 103, then the property on the user data tracks 102 would be unpredictable even by performing a test write operation on the outer test track 103. For that reason, if data is going to be added to an optical disc on which another set of data has already been written through a middle portion of the user data tracks 102, then the conditions for such a write operation to be started at the middle portion cannot be determined properly. That is to say, according to the method of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-352430, it is very difficult to predict properly high-speed writing conditions at such a middle portion.
On top of that, since the outer test track 103 of an optical disc is located outside of the user data tracks 102 thereof, no read/write property could be defined for that track 103 in the specification of a product. That is why even an optical disc that has been shipped as a good product may have a different property on the outer test track 103 from the ones on the inner test track 101 and the user data tracks 102. Such a radial distribution of properties on an optical disc may be produced due to a variation during the manufacturing process, for example. And the distribution can also be produced due to a difference in the method of making the recording film. For example, the recording film could be formed by performing either a spin coating process of an organic recording film or a sputtering process of an inorganic recording film on the optical disc.

Method and apparatus of determining a recording condition for optical disc


A photographic exposure apparatus includes an exposure lens, a lens carriage having a light shield region and a lens mount region, and a device to move the lens carriage selectively to a position with the lens extending across an axis of exposure light. A first shutter controls the exposure light. A second shutter prevents the exposure to scattered light. A mechanical linking device is responsive to the movement of the lens carriage to close and open the second shutter. When the lens on the lens carriage is dislocated from the axis of exposure light in a standby mode, the mechanical linking device closes the second shutter to interrupt scattered light. When the lens extends across the axis of exposure light in an exposure mode, the mechanical linking device opens the second shutter.

The present invention relates to a photographic exposure apparatus equipped with an optical system including different types of exposure lenses.
Such a photographic exposure apparatus allows an intensity of light emitted from alight source to be passed through a negative film set in a negative mask after being reflected on a reflector mirror, and focused by various focal or zoom lens onto a sheet of photosensitive paper located at an exposure position for reproducing a frame image of the negative film.
The photographic exposure apparatus includes a first shutter for controlling the duration of exposure and a second shutter for shielding unwanted light. Opening and closing of the two shutters are controlled by a controller means. In addition, a scanner is provided for reading relevant data of frame images on the negative film loaded in the negative mask.
The first and second shutters in the conventional photographic exposure apparatus are driven by respective drive means which are actuated by the controller means, for example as shown in Japanese Utility-model Application 1-149648(1989). As the drive means for the shutters are not simple and the controller means requires control software, the overall cost of the apparatus will increase.
It is also known that the optical system including the scanner and various focal or zoom lens should be cleaned by removing dust from the surfaces of the lenses manually with the use of a brush, clean rag, or fan blower. The optical system of the apparatus is mounted substantially in a casing, and therefore cleaning of the optical system will e difficult and troublesome. The cleaning or removal of dust has to be carried out manually and periodically. Dust and dirt on the optical system cannot be removed completely by use of a fan blower or the like.
It is an object of the present invention, in view of the foregoing predicaments, to provide an improved photographic exposure apparatus in which the shutter driving mechanism and controlling software are simplified and the removal of dust from the optical system including an exposure lens and a negative sensor is automatically conducted upon each printing operation.

Photographic exposure apparatus with improved exposure control


A system for distributing electrical current to a plurality of loads includes a first sensor coupled to an input of a protection zone for measuring a first current entering the protection zone, wherein the protection zone includes at least a portion of an electrical distribution feeder. The system also includes a second sensor coupled to an output of the protection zone for measuring a second current exiting the protection zone, and a processor coupled to the first sensor and to the second sensor. The processor is programmed to receive measurements representative of the first current and the second current, and calculate a reactive current differential of the protection zone based on the first current and the second current. The processor is also programmed to compare the reactive current differential with a fault threshold, and generate an error notification if the reactive current differential is greater than the fault threshold.

The present application relates generally to power distribution systems and, more particularly, to protection systems for electric distribution systems.
Known electric power grids typically include power generation plants, transmission and distribution lines, transformers, and other devices that facilitate electric power transmission, and power delivery. After electric power is generated in the generating plants, it is transmitted for extended distances through the high voltage transmission lines to subtransmission/distribution substations. Transmission lines usually operate at voltage levels between approximately 115 kilovolts (kV) and approximately 765 kV. At the subtransmission/distribution substations, transformers reduce the high voltage at which the power has been transmitted to sub-transmission voltage levels that range from approximately 46 kV to approximately 69 kV, or to distribution voltage levels that range from approximately 12 kV to approximately 34.5 kV. Power is then transmitted through a feeder to an end customer through an electric distribution system, and before it reaches the end customer, the voltage is decreased to approximately 120V/240V by a distribution transformer.
Most known electric distribution systems include a plurality of feeders coupled to the substation transformer. The electric distribution systems may also include at least one capacitor bank, at least one voltage regulator, and at least one distributed generation (DG) device, e.g., a diesel generator and a photovoltaic source. The feeder is divided into smaller units via bus-bars, disconnect switches, reclosers, sectionalizers, and fuses, wherein such smaller units are referred to as segments. Each segment may have any number of DG devices coupled thereto.
Therefore, typically, most known electric distribution systems include a plurality of segments with a plurality of DG devices coupled throughout the segments. In the event that a fault occurs on a segment, DG devices may contribute to the fault current along with the substation. This results in a bi-directional fault current, and traditional relays sensitive to current direction may not initiate protective actions within predetermined specifications. Another issue with connection of distributed generators is that it changes the fault current of the distribution system. In other words, when you connect a distributed generator to the distribution system it will contribute to the fault current based on the power it is generating. This can lead to a failure of protection systems to detect faults when there are high levels of distributed generation. Therefore, conventional/traditional protection schemes/systems can be difficult to coordinate.


A three-dimensional structure of porous silicon considerably improves the anchorage of sensor-active material such as, for example, enzymes, antibodies, etc., on or in the substrate surface of chemical sensors, in particular silicon-based biosensors. This structure is produced by means of suitable etching which forms pore apertures adapted to the penetrability of the sensor-active material. The pore walls advantageously receive a non-conductive boundary layer which consists of oxides of Si and/or Al or Ta or silicon nitride and are preferably 1-100 nm thick. The porous layer is advantageously between 10 nm and 100 .mu.m thick and the pores are preferably in the form of branched ducts whose average diameter is 1 nm-10 .mu.m and in particular 10-1000 nm. The sensor-active material can optionally be distributed in a glass, solid, plastics or polymer membrane.

Chemical sensors and, especially biosensors operating with bioactive components are known and are the subject of vigorous development.
Such sensors basically include a surface layer with a sensor-active material which is exposed to the medium to be tested, especially a liquid. This layer contains the sensor-active material which can be immobilized, for example, in a membrane composed of polyvinylchloride. The signals supplied by the sensor-active material under the effect of an analyte are transformed by a transducer element and are acquired in registrable form by electronic signal processing which can be provided by integrated electronics.
As transducers, particularly semiconductive electrodes, field-effect transistors, potentiometric and amperometric electrodes and the like are considered.
All known sensors have the common characteristic that they generally have insufficient adhesion of the sensor membrane on the respective base element, i.e. the measurement solution can wash it away or penetrate in a detrimental manner directly into the sensor membrane and damage it irreversibly. Connected therewith are stability problems and drift problems with respect to the sensor output signals. Furthermore, there is the need to establish the out-diffusion, i.e. the bleeding or washing out, of sensitive membrane components into the solution. Such sensors, as a consequence have only a limited life. It is also a drawback that the contacts and signal electronics are only separated by a thin passivation layer from the sensitive region and thus the sensor is highly prone to damage.
An attempt to solve this problem is described by Knoll in DE 41 15 414 A1. Here, anisotropic etch pits are incorporated in the substrate material as containments in which the sensor membrane can be anchored. The containments can be jacketed in a nonconductive material and additionally, conductive electrodes can be deposited. These vertical containments comprise openings converging toward the rear side of the chips which are in direct contact with the measurement solution. As a consequence, the above-described drawbacks are overcome. Especially so-called sensor arrays can be realized with this technique with different sensitivities to different substances or ion types.
With this kind of sensor, the containment formation affords a certain protection of the ion selective membrane to limit bleeding out and dissolution. This technology is however only apparently simple in that it can be realized only with expensive lithography techniques.

Chemical sensors, in particular silicon-based biosensors


A hybrid ultracapacitor-battery energy storage system is integrated with a photovoltaic system to help solve fluctuations. A fuzzy-logic-based adaptive power management system enables optimization of the power/energy distributions and a filter-based power coordination layer serving as a rudimentary step for power coordination among the hybrid storage system and a fuzzy-logic-based control adjustment layer that keeps monitoring the operation status of all the energy storage devices, taking into account their dynamic characteristics, and fine-tuning the control settings adaptively.

The present invention relates generally to energy systems, and more particularly, to adaptive control of hybrid ultracapacitor-battery storage system for photovoltaic PV output smoothing.
With the high levels of penetrations of renewable energy resources in a power grid, e.g. Photovoltaic (PV), the system encounters challenges, e.g. power quality, voltage impact, etc. One of the concerns comes from the short-term high-frequency variances of the PV generation during unpredictable sudden weather changes, which has been reported at some central generation stations. A great effort has been put in the mitigation of the short-term fluctuation of PV power generation, which is generally referred to as smoothing or ramp-rate control. The perspective solution is to add proper energy storage buffer and active management system to mitigate the impact of short-term variances. The batteries, as the most common energy storage devices, have high energy density, but relatively low power density. Usually the PV power output smoothing requires frequent and high charging/discharging power from storage devices, which will greatly shorten the battery life.
In the literature, various control techniques have been recommended by researchers, for single-type or hybrid energy storage system. The power management system smooth out the PV power fluctuations through scheduling power generation or consumption among different energy storage devices. The power scheduling approaches include frequency-spectrum-based, constant-power-based, knowledge-based, rule-based, etc.
Accordingly, a hybrid energy storage system is needed to effectively utilize the characteristic of different storage devices, such as the ultracapacitor (UC), featured with high power density and relatively low energy density, and that can compensate for the battery system and alleviate the high power burden on battery system.

Adaptive control of hybrid ultracapacitor-battery storage system for photovoltaic output smoothing


A method for purifying human antithrombin III in an alcoholic solution at low temperature using bound heparin is provided.

Antithrombin-III (AT-III) is an .alpha..sub.2 globulin known to inhibit the coagulation of blood. AT-III acts essentially as an irreversible inhibitor. It is believed that AT-III inhibits serine proteases in plasma during the activation of either the coagulation or the fibrinolytic systems. AT-III has significant inhibitory activity of factor Xa and thrombin.
Families congenitally deficient in AT-III have a high incidence of thromboses. Administration of AT-III to patients with thrombotic disorders has been attempted.
There are reports of attempts to purify AT-III from human plasma and plasma pastes using conventional techniques. However, those procedures were lengthy or the yields were poor. A substantial improvement in the purification methodology took place with the incorporation of an affinity chromatography step using purified heparin as the solid phase bound ligand.
Damus & Wallace (Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 61 (4); 1147, 1974) purified canine AT-III in a scheme that incorporated heparin-Sepharose chromatography. Heat defibrinated plasma was passed over a small column containing heparin-Sepharose at 8.degree. C. The end product was still heterogeneous as determined by the distribution of specific activity throughout the elution profile.
Miller-Andersson et al. (Thromb. Res., 5:439, 1974) teaches the use of heparin-Sepharose to purify human AT-III. Citrated human plasma that had been frozen immediately after removal of blood cells by centrifugation was added in batch fashion to heparin-Sepharose at 5.degree. C. The gel suspension then was poured into a column, allowed to settle and the adsorbed material was eluted with a salt gradient. The entire procedure, which included ion exchange and gel filtration chromatography, provided a 34% yield. The large number of chromatographic separations minimizes the possibility of large scale production of AT-III by that method.
Thaler & Schmer (Br. J. Haemat., 31:233, 1975) described an isolation procedure for human and bovine AT-III that involved heparin-agarose chromatography and polyethylene glycol precipitation. All procedures were carried out at 4.degree. C. Either chromatography or precipitation can serve as the initial step in the purification scheme.
Wickerhauser et al. (Vox Sang., 36:281, 1979) describes a large scale method for the preparation of AT-III from plasma or from Cohn fraction IV-VI. The method begins with a polyethylene glycol precipitation followed by batch adsorption on heparin-Sepharose, desalting by ultrafiltration and followed by pasteurization of the final product. The recovery by activity was 32% from plasma and 16% from Cohn fraction IV. All purification steps were carried out at 5.degree. C.


A reinforced composite article and method for making the same. The article and method employ at least one elongated plastic member as a reinforcement phase. An intermediate form including the elongated member is made and can be processed, for example, to form a composite article with a smooth exposed reinforcement surface.

The past several decades have seen considerable advancement in engineering materials through the development of improved composite materials. Composites allow designers to combine advantageous features of multiple component materials to arrive at a material that typically has one or more different properties than the component materials individually.
One area that has seen particularly rapid advancement is the area of reinforced plastics. For example, it is popular to improve properties of a plastic by incorporating an inorganic reinforcement phase, such as the employment of a fiber that is made of glass, carbon, metal or another inorganic material. In a number of instances, a form is provided that incorporates the inorganic reinforcement material, and is impregnated or otherwise intermixed with a thermoplastic or thermoset plastic matrix. One particular example that has seen increased popularity in recent years is a Glass Mat Thermoplastic (GMT) composite, which ordinarily employs a glass mat reinforcement phase that is impregnated with a thermoplastic such as polypropylene. The difference of material types between the glass and the thermoplastic matrix tends to complicate any reclamation or recycling efforts with these GMT materials.
In recent years, the plastics industry also has seen experimentation in the development of thermoplastic "fabrics" that employ a weave of one or more thermoplastic fibers, with or without a glass fiber as well. Typically, these materials are offered in a woven and consolidated form, namely, upon weaving the fibres, they are heated to melt at least a portion of their outer surface. Upon solidification, adjoining fibers are solidified together.
To date, efforts to provide a suitable thermoplastic reinforcement form that can readily be processed to form a resulting article, particularly an article that is shaped by molding or forming under elevated temperature, have been limited. It has been observed, for example, that the step of consolidation (wherein the fibers or other units of the reinforcement form are heated to fuse together), requires at least a first heat history, and the step of forming the resulting shaped article requires at least a second heat history. With each additional heat history, the opportunity for morphology change is increased, with the attendant loss of mechanical properties, such as impact strength.
A review of various polypropylene composite technologies is provided in the thesis of Cabrera, "Recyclable All-Polypropylene Composites: Concept, Properties and Manufacturing", Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (2004)(ISBN 90-386-2676-2), incorporated by reference herein.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved composite systems that overcome one or more of the obstacles faced by existing materials.

Plastic composite articles and methods of making same


Systems and methods are provided for identifying candidates for new search terms that may be purchased from a search engine company. Candidate search terms are identified from a session log, such as by analyzing the presence of the candidate search terms in relation to data stored in the session log.

Many web site operators purchase search terms from search engine companies in an attempt to drive users to their web site. Web log analysis tools are available that provide a list of search terms to bring users to the web site along with counts such as number of sessions attributed per search term.
In accordance with the teachings described herein, systems and methods are provided for identifying candidates for new search terms that may be purchased from a search engine company. As an example, a method can be used with one or more processing devices in order to identify candidate search terms and may include the steps of: receiving a session log that stores data associated with pages in a web site that were accessed during a web browser session; and processing the session log to identify one or more candidate search terms based upon analyzing the presence of the candidate search terms within the data stored in the session log. The one or more candidate search terms may be provided for use as input to a search engine program to locate information associated with the web site.
As another example, a system can be configured to identify candidate search terms and may include a web server and software instructions. The web server may be configured to communicate with a web browser over a computer network, and to create a session log that stores data associated with pages in a web site that were accessed during a web browser session. The software instructions may be configured to process the session log to identify one or more candidate search terms based upon analyzing the presence of the candidate search terms within the data stored in the session log.

Systems and methods for analyzing web site search terms


The present invention relates to a housing of a flatbed scanner which uses a plurality of clasps to fix its transparent planar board. The housing comprises a rectangular transparent planar board for placing documents to be scanned and a rectangular case for placing a scanning module. The transparent planar board comprises front, rear, left and right ends, and the rectangular case comprises a rectangular opening installed on its top side for mounting the transparent planar board. A plurality of long-clasps and short-clasps are installed below the front and rear sides for mounting the front and rear ends of the transparent planar board respectively. The left side of the opening comprises two corner-clasps and the right side of the opening comprises a positioning device for mounting the left and right ends of the transparent planar board respectively and fixing the four ends of the transparent glass to the opening of the case.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a housing of a flatbed scanner, and more particularly, to a housing of a flatbed scanner which uses a plurality of clasps to fix its transparent glass.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior art flatbed scanner has a rectangular transparent planar board made of glass for placing documents to be scanned and a rectangular case with a recess for placing such a scanning module or other components. The case comprises a bottom casing and a top casing. The top casing comprises a rectangular opening in the middle portion of its surface for installing the transparent planar board. The transparent planar board is commonly fixed to the opening of the top casing by double-sided tape to prevent dust and impurities from entering and causing damage to the scanner. However, this method is not only costly but also causes problems over time when the double-sided tape ages and begins to disintegrate from external influences such as temperature extremes, humidity and stress thus leading to instability of the transparent planar board.

Using clasps to fix a transparent glass in a housing of a flatbed scanner


A signal processing apparatus converts interlaced 4:2:2-format video signals including a luminance component and two chroma components into interlaced 4:2:0 format video signals. A downsampling low-pass filter has such a group delay that a modulo-1 remainder of the group delay at frequency ω=0 is substantially equal to 0.25. The downsampling low-pass filter is designed together with an associated upsampling low-pass filter such that the first downsampling low-pass filter and the upsampling low-pass filter substantially satisfy perfect reconstruction filter bank condition, and such that a sum of the group delay of the first downsampling low-pass filter and a group delay of a normalized filter obtained by making the sum of all the coefficients of the upsampling low-pass filter equal to 1 is substantially equal to an integer number at frequency ω=0.

Video signals for moving pictures include a luminance signal and two chroma signals Cb and Cr. There are several formats for varying chroma signal resolutions. The 4:2:2 format is typically used for a digital interface in video equipment. An example of this video format includes the SMPTE 292M standard (i.e., HD-SDI) defined by the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) For the purpose of video encoding in consumer products, on the other hand, the 4:2:0 format is typically used.
FIGS. 1A through 1D are drawings illustrating the sample point locations for luminance and chroma signals in the 4:2:2 format and the 4:2:0 format with respect to each of progressive scanning and interlaced scanning as defined in ITU-T H.264. In these figures, the symbol "∘" represents the positions of luminance pixels, and the symbol "Δ" represents the positions of chroma pixels. It should be noted that although the illustration is given such that the horizontal positions of chroma pixels are slightly displaced from the positions of the luminance pixels for the sake of clarity, these pixels actually occupy the same horizontal pixel positions. As illustrated in FIG. 1A, the chroma samples are decimated by a ratio of 2:1 relative to the luminance samples in the horizontal direction for the progressive 4:2:2 format. In the vertical direction, however, the number of chroma samples is equal to the number of luminance samples. In the progressive 4:2:0 format illustrated in FIG. 1B, on the other hand, the number of chroma samples is decimated by a ratio of 2:1 relative to the number of luminance samples in both the horizontal direction and the vertical direction.
FIG. 1C illustrates the interlaced 4:2:2 format. The interlaced video frame is comprised of a top field and a bottom field. For both luminance and chroma components, the top field is formed by the even-numbered lines (i.e., 0, 2, 4, 6, . . . , lines starting from 0) taken out from the progressive 4:2:2 format frame illustrated in FIG. 1A. For both luminance and chroma components, the bottom field is formed by the odd-numbered lines (i.e., 1, 3, 5, 7, . . . , lines) taken out from the progressive 4:2:2 format frame illustrated in FIG. 1A.
FIG. 1D illustrates the interlaced 4:2:0 format. For both luminance and chroma components, the top field is formed by the even-numbered lines (i.e., 0, 2, 4, 6, . . . , lines starting from 0) taken out from the progressive 4:2:0 format frame illustrated in FIG. 1B. For both luminance and chroma components, the bottom field is formed by the odd-numbered lines (i.e., 1, 3, 5, 7, . . . , lines) taken out from the progressive 4:2:0 format frame illustrated in FIG. 1B. As can be seen by comparing FIG. 1C and FIG. 1D, the number of chroma pixels in the interlaced 4:2:0 format are decimated by half in the vertical direction relative to the chroma pixels in the interlaced 4:2:2 format. In various standards for moving picture encoding such as MPEG-2 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, the 4:2:0 format is widely used. MPEG-2 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC support the 4:2:2 format in addition to the 4:2:0 format. While consumer products typically employ the 4:2:0 format, equipment that employs the 4:2:2 format may typically be limited for professional use.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-92512    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent No. 3292486    [Non-Patent Document 1] "Problem and Solution of Current TV/HDTV Compatible Encoding Scheme," The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Proceedings of Spring Conference, D-334, 1992

Image processing apparatus and method for format conversion


Insulin-like growth factor I and II binding protein have potentiating and inhibiting activities. Cloning vectors and portable DNA sequences are disclosed.

This invention relates to methods for potentiating the activity of insulin-like growth factor. This invention also relates to a human insulin-like growth factors I and II (IGF-I and II) binding protein (stimulatory form) which has this activity and to methods for producing this binding protein. The binding protein (stimulatory form) has utility in potentiating follicular development in vivo and in vitro, potentiating wound and burn healing, ulcer healing, and for re-epithelialization of damaged tissue of the kidney, lung or skin. The protein may also have utility in potentiating healing of damaged neurons and oligodendrocytes.
In addition, this invention relates to a human insulin-like growth factor binding protein (inhibitory form). The IGF binding protein (inhibitory form) may be used to inhibit tumor growth, inhibit the progression or growth of atherosclerotic plaques, inhibit diabetic retinopathy, and inhibit pulmonary fibrosis.
Human insulin-like growth factor i (IGF-I), also termed somatomedin-C, is a growth hormone dependent growth factor that circulates in blood and is synthesized in many tissues. Growth factor IGF-I is useful as an additive to cell culture media to facilitate in vitro cell growth. Like other growth factors that circulate in plasma, such as EGF, the insulin-like growth factors are bound to a binding protein that forms a carrier protein-IGF-I complex and is believed to serve a transport function. Partially purified forms of this binding protein previously have been shown to inhibit the insulin-like actions of IGF-I. An acid stable binding subunit of this complex has been purified from blood, and its secretion can be stimulated by growth hormone.
Human insulin-like growth factor II is weakly or not at all growth hormone dependent and is synthesized in many tissues. Like IGF-I, it circulates bound to a binding protein that is believed to serve a transport function.
In contrast to the above growth factor binding proteins, extracellular fluids such as spinal, lymph, and amniotic fluids, and tissue extracts of brain, placenta, and pituitary contain forms of IGF binding protein that have different molecular weights and are not growth hormone dependent. They bind both IGF-I and IGF-II with affinities in the 10.sup.10 to 10.sup.9 M.sup.-1 range. An IGF binding protein has also been shown to be secreted by some cell types in culture including human fibroblasts and MDA-231 cells. Impure preparations of the protein from amniotic fluid and a similar protein that is secreted by rat liver cells, have been shown to inhibit the effects of IGF-I and IGF-II on fibroblast DNA synthesis and on sulfate incorporation into cartilage.
However, all of the prior human proteins were actually mixtures of more than one protein. For the first time, the present inventors have developed a method to separate these binding proteins. It has been found that the protein mixture from amniotic fluid actually contained at least two protein constituents. These protein constituents were found to have greatly different activity, one being capable of stimulating or enhancing the activity of IGF-I and IGF-II and one capable of inhibiting the growth factor activity of IGF-I and IGF-II. These two constitutent proteins, whose isolation to substantial purity is described herein for the first time, are referred to for the purposes of this application as IGF binding protein (stimulatory form) and IGF binding protein (inhibitory form), respectively. Experiments have indicated that the proteins may differ in the type of post-translational modifications, possibly disulfide bond arrangements. Such changes may lead to differences in degree of aggregation that may account for the observed differences in cell or matrix binding of the IGFBP and its biological activity.
In addition to the above amniotic fluid IGF binding proteins, an IGF binding protein has been isolated by the present inventors from human fibroblast conditioned media. This form of IGF binding protein potentiates the action of IGF like the stimulatory form from amniotic fluid. It cross-reacts with polyclonal antibodies to the IGF (stimulatory form) but may not be the same protein.
The purified IGF binding proteins (stimulatory form) have an estimated molecular weight between 32-38K daltons. These purified proteins, when adherent to cell surfaces, cause an increase in the amount of IGF that binds to the IGF receptor and to cell surfaces. Surprisingly, this increased amount of bound IGF results in a synergistic potentiation of the IGF activity.
The substantially purified IGF binding protein (inhibitory form) also has a molecular weight of 32-38 KD but does not adhere to cell surfaces and elutes later on DEAE-cellulose columns.
In the discussion which follows, reference to IGF-I binding protein or to IGF-II binding protein should be considered to refer to either or both species, unless the context indicates otherwise. Also, the abbreviation IGFBP may be used to refer to an IGF binding protein.

Method for potentiating and inhibiting insulin-like growth factor activity


The present invention discloses a MIMO wireless communication method functioning through a main wireless communication device and comprising: acquiring a transmission opportunity; issuing an distributed MIMO initiation frame including a transmission duration, a number Ns1 of transmission spatial stream(s), and a number Nr1 of reception spatial streams which an intended receiver is operable to process; receiving an initial portion which an attendant wireless communication device sends in response to the distributed MIMO initiation frame, or issuing the initial portion after reaching a time limit; and transmitting a distributed MIMO packet to the intended receiver while the attendant wireless communication device is allowed to transmit another distributed MIMO packet to the intended receiver or another intended receiver concurrently, wherein the sum of the number Ns1 and a number Ns2 of transmission spatial stream(s) of the attendant wireless communication device is equal to or less than the number Nr1.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication method and system, especially to a MIMO wireless communication method and system capable of improving data throughput.
2. Description of Related Art
In wireless communication, multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) is a technology to use multiple antennas at both of the transmission and reception ends for communication performance improvement. The MIMO technology can greatly increase the data throughput, and therefore some modern wireless communication standards such as IEEE 802.11n, Long Term Evolution (LTE), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), and etc. adopt MIMO as an important part to carry out communication. However, in consideration of the interference caused by multiple devices transmitting simultaneously, the communication standard using MIMO (e.g. IEEE 802.11n) also adopts a Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) protocol to verify the absence of other transmission before transmitting on a shared radio channel. Through CSMA, a transmitter can determine whether any other transmission is in progress by the feedback of a receiver, and thereby avoids a potential collision or interference. To determine the winner among a plurality of transmitters running after the same transmission opportunity, a contention-based protocol is adopted, which allows many transmitters of different users to use the same radio channel without pre-coordination. For example, a transmitter in compliance with IEEE 802.11n standard under such a contention-based protocol will use a backoff counter to count down, and earn the opportunity to transmit when the backoff counter reaches zero provided that the intended radio channel is clear in the meantime.
As the MIMO technology is widely deployed in wireless communication devices (e.g. those conforming to IEEE 802.11n standard) and the capability of these devices moves on, a potential waste of transmission resources is observed. In some circumstances, a receiver capable of resolving spatial streams from different transmitters at the same time is forced to rest some of its hardware or software resources due to the concern of interference and the limit of the present protocol. In other words, a current MIMO wireless communication system only allows one winner among a plurality of transmitters pursuing the same transmission opportunity to transmit at a time. If such the concern or limit could be eliminated, the data throughput of the MIMO system could be raised significantly.


An energy-efficient method for killing noxious biological organisms (bacteria, insects, etc.) in contaminated materials ranging from liquid, semi-liquid, and solid foods pharmaceuticals and hospital wastes comprises passing the contaminated material through an exposure chamber; screening, comminution, addition of fluid or foam, limited heating, or other pretreatment steps may be required. As it flows through the exposure chamber the contaminated material is subjected to a nonuniform, high-intensity electric field; in that chamber, excessive current flows, including arcing and current "streamers", are suppressed by limiting the current density. The amplitude of the applied current density and the electric field in the exposure chamber are controlled, in accordance with the conductivity and/or dielectric constant of the contaminated material, so that the electric field intensity is of the order of 3,000 volts/centimeter or more.

The treatment of food, waste, drugs and medical products to inactivate noxious biological organisms is currently being done by thermal, chemical and ionizing radiation processes. For example, the use of chlorine to treat water creates chlorine-related chemicals which may be carcinogenic and which often causes eye irritations in swimming pools. The use of heat to sterilize or pasteurize food often changes the taste and flavor. Similarly, in the case of nuclear radiation, the effects of ionizing radiation are such that it changes the chemical composition and thereby the taste of the treated food. Medfly Infestation in oranges or in other fruit is also a problem, currently dealt with by the use of toxic gases.
The use of electric fields to destroy noxious biological organisms is a possible alternative. The principal benefit, if properly applied, would be the ridding of the material of the noxious organisms, while at the same time not significantly raising the temperature, incurring by-products of ionizing radiation, or causing the development of new chemicals of unknown effects.
Early investigators considered the use of radio frequency (1 MHz to 600 MHz) or microwave frequency (1 GHz to 10 GHz) electric fields to provide non-thermal electric field destruction of noxious organisms. However, past efforts employing these frequencies have not caught on. This is due, in part, to inappropriate equipment designs or poor biological science, or a combination of both. Where science has been rigorously adhered to, little or no disinfection or sterilization by radio frequency (RF) or microwave frequency has been observed. Part of the problem is that most of the research in these frequency regions has been done on the basis of available equipment, and not on the basis of a first principal which exploits "an undisputed kill mechanism". Furthermore, almost all test procedures and protocols which claim significant positive effects often resulted in considerable localized heating, thereby confusing thermal effects with the purely athermal electromagnetic effects.
For example, many attempts have been made to use electromagnetic energy, principally in the microwave or radio frequency range, to effect pasteurization, disinfection, or sterilization. A good summary of this past work appears in a book by Robert V. Decareau entitled "Microwaves in the Food Processing Industry", published by Academic Press, 1985. In this summary the conclusion is that the use of shortwave band or higher frequencies for the abovementioned purposes either does not occur or is not sufficiently reliable for food processing or other disinfection purposes.
Apart from the radio frequency and microwave regime, the bactericidal and possibly insecticidal effects of electric currents have been investigated by simply passing direct current or low frequency alternating current through the host product. Other applications considered the passage of low frequency current to create ohmic heating throughout the volume of the medium under treatment. Other methods have employed the use of high voltage arc discharges to create hydraulic shock waves.
Recently, and quite apart from the use of electric fields to rid host material of noxious biological organisms, several separate lines of investigation have clearly demonstrated non-thermal or "sure-kill" electric field effects. These studies are identified in the disclosure statement accompanying this application.
As such, the known "undisputed kill mechanisms" generally involve the application of a sufficiently large amplitude unipolar electric field intensity over an appropriate duration to biological organisms (such as bacteria) to irreversibly rupture cell wall membranes in the organisms. Experimental data demonstrates that this can be done by application of electric field intensities in the order of at least a few thousand to ten thousand volts per centimeter for the duration of at least 0.2 microseconds and preferably longer. Such enormous field intensities are very difficult to generate and apply by conventional equipment without arc-over or electrical breakdown. If not optimized, high power consumption could well result in temperature increases in the material being treated.
Thus, the "sure kill mechanism" depends on the application of a unipolar pulse of sufficient duration and amplitude to cause breakdown of the cell membranes. Such unipolar pulses are needed to cause a charge to build up across the membranes and when maintained at a sufficient amplitude, about 3000 v/cm or greater, and adequate duration, in the order of 0.2 microseconds and greater, will eventually cause the membrane to rupture or otherwise be disabled.
One investigation, for example, was a study to discover ways in which to improve the treatment of electrical burns experienced by power-line workers. In this study it was reported that two phenomena take place during electrical shock (assuming that fibrillation does not occur). These phenomena are cell degradation by the Joule heating and, second, by non-thermal cell-wall rupture effects of strong electric fields. In a study by Diane C. Gaylot ("Physical Mechanism of Cellular Injury in Electrical Trauma", Dr. of Philosophy dissertation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September of 1989), she demonstrated that cell membrane disruption by electrical stress occurs and can lead to irreversible effects and ultimate destruction of the cells. She presents this as over a dozen references regarding the effects of intense electric fields which lead to irreversible breakdown of the cell.
Other investigators have used, as a standard laboratory technique, brief and yet intense electrical pulses that produce cell fusion or change genetic material. A review of this work with extensive references is given by Ulrich Zimmerman in "Electrical Breakdown Electropermeabilization and Electrofusion", Rev. Physiol. Blochem. Pharmacol., 105:176-256. A variety of electrode configurations are employed with the principal objective to effect reversible breakdown for cell fusion and genetic research.
Recently, in Dunn U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,695,472 and 4,838,154, methods and apparatus are described which utilize the membrane rupture effect to aid in the preservation of food products, particularly liquid food products such as milk, fruit juices and fluidized eggs. While apparatus such as described by Dunn is suitable for treating liquid foodstuffs in limited volumes, the method and apparatus is not suitable for the treatment of large volumes of material contaminated by noxious biological organisms because it may require unduly large amounts of energy, thereby rendering the process uneconomical. Furthermore, the electric field applicators described by Dunn are far from optimum and are prone to electrical breakdown, caused by the false assumption by Dunn that a uniform electric field represents the optimum way to present electrical breakdown. In the processes described by Dunn, uniform electric fields are created by parallel plates. However, during the application of very high intense electric fields to materials between the plates, some type of heterogeneity such as a gas bubble may occur which will create a region of excess electric field intensity or microplasma which rapidly propagates, via electron avalanching plasma effects, from one plate to the other, thereby causing a highly conducting plasma-like streamer which shorts out the two plates and the effect of the electric field, thereby negating the treatment process. As will be shown later, the use of such parallel plates to create uniform electric fields actually tends to defeat the purpose of the system and can lead to system instability unless the material being treated is ideally homogeneous.
Doevenspeck, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,265,605, shows a basic configuration which is less likely to develop streamers except in one region. This configuration consists of a short carbon rod coaxially located in a longer hollow metallic or carbon cylinder. However, excessively large electric field intensities are created in the region near the edges or exposed end of the solid cylinder or electrode in the treatment region, thereby forming microplasmas which can initiate streamers or arc-overs. Furthermore, Doevenspeck does not address any type of optimization procedures and does not specify pulse widths or other parameters which lead to optimum and economical operation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,221, Geren describes sterilization apparatus designed for killing organisms in place within the host by means of successive, relatively long duration, high current density pulses of electricity of alternate polarity. The pulses are passed through the host and contaminating organisms for a period of a few seconds. The current is conveyed to the host from electrodes immersed, with the host, in a weak electrolyte. Geren proposes to use a pulse duration of 200 microseconds to 5 milliseconds, of successive alternate polarity with a current range of 50 milliamperes to 5 amperes per square centimeter, at a pulse rate between 100 and 1,000 times per second. In this instance, 200 microsecond pulses, repeated 200 times per second, are too long and too energy consuming in most practical situations involving high conductivity materials. Furthermore, the 5 amperes per square centimeter current density may not be sufficient to achieve the required sure kill electric field intensity at room temperatures. Methods to optimize the conductivity values for the "weak electrolyte" are not presented.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,095,359, Heller proposes employing a frequency from 1 to 250 megacycles at voltages of up to 100 kilovolts with pulse widths ranging from 1 microsecond to 10 milliseconds at pulse repetition rates of 30 to 10,000 pulses per second. He also proposes exposing the microorganisms in a medium such as water, which is isolated from the electrodes via a thick sheet of dielectric material, such as plastic. However, the use of such plastic isolators, even though very thin, increases the source voltage requirements to impractical levels. Furthermore, Heller proposes to use sinusoidal waveforms which reverse the polarity, thereby reversing the charge distribution and negating the charge buildup across the membranes.
L. I. Markitanova, as reported in the Journal of Applied Chemistry of the U.S.S.R., Volume 59 (11)/pg 2, 1986, reports on the destruction of bacteria in treated waste waters by the application of direct current voltages across the cells. The voltage applied was of the order of 200 volts per centimeter and the dwell time was of the order of 25 seconds. Although bacteria were reported destroyed, this approach could result in a substantial temperature rise as well as inefficient use of electrical energy, especially for low resistivity liquids, as well as electrode erosion.
Thus, one of the keys to success in the application of the "sure kill mechanism" is to use either very high intensity unipolar pulses or sinusoidal waveforms of very low frequency, such that an electrical charge can build up and can be maintained and sustained over a sufficient period of time, thereby causing rupture of the membrane. A second key is to use pulses of the smallest possible duration to minimize energy consumption. The third and most important key is the use of an exposure system which is essentially immune to electrical breakdown effects.
To overcome the foregoing difficulties, this invention describes a method wherein the power consumption can be optimized by reducing the pulse width. Such a reduction is realized at the expense of increasing the amplitude of the applied pulses. However, such a pulse-width energy reduction process can be continued until the "sure kill" energy consumption requirements of the pulse abruptly increase. Such an increase occurs at approximately one microsecond, depending on the type of biological organism or entity to be destroyed. The requirement for increased field intensity leads to a second requirements that the field exciter must be highly immune to the generation of streamers or sparke discharges. As opposed to parallel plates, which create a uniform field, it can be demonstrated that a nonuniform field is more appropriate, a field distribution which inherently suppresses the development of short circuits or streamers. The optimum arrangement requires that the current density in the medium being treated be controlled, rather than the field intensity, and that the optimum electric field distribution is nonuniform rather than uniform. Also, the charge densities or Current densities on the electrodes or in the material being treated should not vary abruptly or vary greatly; those densities should not change significantly even though the dielectric properties of the media being treated may change, either locally or generally.
The above is analogous to supplying electric energy from either a constant voltage source or a constant current source to a resistive load whose resistance decreases with temperature as the load resistor heats up. If a constant voltage is applied to such a load, the tendency is for the load current to increase progressively, thereby increasing the dissipation of heat because, as the resistance of the load progressively decreases, the power dissipated increases as the product of the applied voltage and current. If the heat liberated in the load resistor is not rapidly removed, thermal runaway can occur, which leads to the destruction of the load resistor. On the other hand, if the load resistor is energized by a constant current source, any decrease in the load resistance due to temperature increase results in a lower dissipation because the power dissipation is proportional to the product of the resistance times the square of the current. Similarly, in the case of the controlled current density method, any decrease in the resistivity in any local volume of the material being treated due to a heterogeneity results in both reduced power dissipation and reduced electric field intensity. The local electric field intensity is controlled by the product of the current density (which is largely constant) and the resistivity (which decreases upon the onset of a streamer or arc) . Thus, a controlled or constant current density applicator tends to snuff out incipient arcs at the outset. On the other hand, a uniform electric field applicator tends to induce a runaway streamer or arc, since the dissipated power progressively increases once an incipient arc is formed.
To treat solid material, it is necessary to encase the host material, particularly if it is all solid, by immersing it in a dielectric of similar value, such as in water or foam or some other type of fluid medium. If the material being treated is a relatively good or low loss dielectric, equipment to recover the energy stored in the applied field is also a necessary requirement to achieve optimum efficiency. Post-treatment techniques may also be needed, either to recycle the thermal energy in the treated material (if pre-heated) or to recycle various types of encasing dielectrics such as deionized water or conducting foam. Means to sense the electrical properties of the fluid media are necessary in order to apply the proper current densities.

Energy-efficient electromagnetic elimination of noxious biological organisms


An expandable structure carried at the end of a catheter tube assembly can be contracted and/or wrapped to present a reduced profile during deployment and/or removal from a targeted tissue site.

The deployment of expandable structures, sometimes generically called "balloons," into cancellous bone is known. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,969,888 and 5,108,404 disclose apparatus and methods using expandable structures to compact cancellous bone for the fixation of fractures or other osteoporotic and non-osteoporotic conditions of human and animal bones.
In these and other clinical indications, it is desirable to use tissue insertion and deployment tools that are small, so that access to the targeted tissue site can be achieved using minimally invasive procedures. Still, it is also desirable to deploy structures that, in use within the targeted tissue site, are capable of assuming enlarged, durable shapes, so that cortical bone can be displaced in a desired manner and/or large cavities can be created in cancellous bone without over-expansion, puncture, and/or abrasion of the structure.
There is a need to meet the demand for small insertion tools without conflicting with the objective to deploy large expandable structures.

Expandable structures for deployment in interior body regions


An winding apparatus, particularly for winding a film condensor element material. The apparatus includes a plate jig having a winding axis, with the plate jig rotating as a pressing roller presses the film onto the plate jig. The pressing roller is mounted for rotation about a rotating axis with a spring disposed between the pressing roller and rotating axis, and with the pressing roller rotating in the same direction as the direction of rotation of the plate jig. As the plate jig rotates, the pressing roller travels along the plate jig to press the film condensor element thereon.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for winding a film condensor element material. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for winding a film condensor element material around a plate jig in the manufacture of a film condensor element.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, the film condensor element has been manufactured by winding an element material around the periphery of disc-like jig, after metalizing the side surface thereof, removing it from the jig by cutting any one place thereof to obtain a web-like mother material of an element, cutting the mother material to an appropriate size and connecting a lead wire to the both metallized side surfaces thereof.
The element so obtained is trapezoid in cross-section owing to the difference of length in outer and inner circumferences. In order to avoid the formation of such a trapezoid, it has been proposed to wind the material around a plate jig, but it is more inefficient in comparison with the case of using a disc jig.

Apparatus for winding a film condensor element material


Systems and methods for stream processing message data relating to a web service application are described. One system has an input pipe for receiving multiple interrelated session based messages according to an order with which they originate. A processor processes an accumulation of the messages upon reaching a trigger point related to grammar characterizing the messages.

Web services have become a significant aspect of modern networking. Web services have widespread utility in conducting modern network based commercial transactions and other business functions, which have proliferated with rapid, recent development in fields relating to computing, networking, communications and others. In such fields, web services allow two remote applications that are networked with the network to communicate with each other and exchange information.
The requestor/response model and the one way message model represent typical modern web service paradigms. The requestor/response model functions with a mechanism wherein a requester sends out a request message and gets back a response message from a responder. The one way model functions with a mechanism wherein a sender sends out a message with no provision required for awaiting a response.
In the familiar requestor/response model, a requester sends a request message to the service provider, and then receives its response message. These web services functions are performed using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and Web Service Definition Language (WSDL). SOAP represents how the requester above communicates with the service provider.
UDDI allows a global lookup base for locating services and represents the index service of the exemplary server above. Thus the requestor accesses information relating to the service being sought. The services are described in the UDDI with WSDL, which maps to the information in the server. Web services transaction and other information may comprise data in Extensible Markup Language (XML).
A more recently emerging (e.g., currently still maturing) rather sophisticated web services model uses techniques sometimes referred to as "orchestration" and/or "choreography" to effectuate a complex message exchange process. For instance, a central coordinator is typical in such schemes to send and receive messages. The central coordinator functions to determine a path and route the message through the network to an appropriate endpoint (e.g., destination) according to certain pre-defined flow logic with which it is programmed.
Messages sent according to this model route through the central coordinator as a single point of control, which determines for example when the message should be routed to a next step, routed along a subsequent hop, etc. For applications requiring fast real-time response, this single point of control however has the potential to become a bottleneck for its message traffic. Bottlenecking at the central coordinator in this model can have significant impact on web services related parameters such as overall throughput and response time.
In contrast to the central coordinator based model, one conventional approach uses a web services intermediary. The web services intermediary tries to intercept messages along their transport path, perform some processing thereon and forward the message on towards its final (e.g., designated) destination. This architecture is typically used for effective insertion of message processing logic along the message path.
This processing logic however typically relates to control in the intermediary itself (e.g., proxies, gateways), which are very localized and optimized for the networked entity to which they belong and may thus lack a more global view, e.g., of other intermediaries involved in a request/response, etc. Moreover, the lack of a central coordinator or similar central control point can complicate tracing a message's routing path and/or debugging the corresponding message processing logic.
Thus, the available conventional web services approaches can demand a tradeoff between manageability and efficiency. Conventional web services and XML environments thus do not function (e.g., lack adequate mechanisms) to simultaneously handle a message stream with both high efficiency, e.g., without potential bottlenecking in a single control point, and the high manageability available with centralized flow control.
For instance, the centralized control characteristic of the conventional orchestration approach promotes manageability, but can devolve in some circumstances into a traffic bottleneck that impacts efficiency. The conventional intermediary approach, on the other hand, allows each gatekeeper (e.g., gateway, proxy) to make trafficking decisions locally. However, there may be issues that can complicate tracking, e.g., why a certain traffic decision is made, which can impact manageability.
Moreover, the architectures characterizing these conventional web services are not designed to optimize stream processing of messages wherein message processing need to happen before the full message is received. "Stream processing capability" is very important for providing high throughput of large messages or continuous data.
The conventional web services architecture may thus not optimally support streaming. In the traditional request/response model, a service provider is essentially constrained to responding to the original service requester, resulting in a lot of roundtrips when multiple service providers are involved. Conventional web services are essentially stateless, because services are constrained from specifying the sequence of messages it expects. Stream processing is a challenge to conventional web services, because a service therein is constrained to getting a message essentially in its entirety before beginning processing related thereto.

Method and system for stream processing web services


An image processing apparatus and method for enhancing quality of image data are provided. The image processing apparatus includes an encoder which encodes source image data and outputs compressed image data, a first representative transform coefficient calculator which calculates a first representative transform coefficient by transforming the source image data into frequency characteristics; a decoder which decodes the compressed image data and outputting decoded image data, a second representative transform coefficient calculator which calculates a second representative transform coefficient by transforming the decoded image data into frequency characteristics, and a quality enhancer which enhances the quality of the decoded image data by using the first representative transform coefficient and the second representative transform coefficient.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to an image processing apparatus and a method for enhancing the quality of an image by cancelling noises which accompany compressive transmission of image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Because image data is more voluminous than text data, image data may undergo significant problems with respect to insufficient memory space, a calculation speed of a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and a speed of data transmission. As one approach to solve these problems, techniques for compressing image data have emerged, and through image data compression, a memory space may be efficiently used, and to provide excellent effects may also be obtained in terms of a CPU calculation speed and a data transmission speed. There are standards for compression techniques, such as Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) for still images, Moving Picture Experts Group for audio, and H.261 for dynamic images.
Most image data is processed into digital signals and compression techniques for digital image data are based on transform coding using Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) for removing redundancy which mainly occurs in a space, and for moving images, which are based on prediction coding using motion compensation of objects between screens, as well as DCT.

Image processing apparatus and method for enhancing the quality of an image