A palm-pressing text correction apparatus manufactured according to the shape of a user's hand includes a casing, an elastic container and a pressing element. The casing has a first opening and a second opening formed at both ends of the casing respectively, and the elastic container is mounted into the casing and provided for containing correction liquid, and a liquid output nozzle and a pressed end are disposed at both ends of the casing respectively. The liquid output nozzle is protruded out from the first opening, and the pressing element is coupled to the pressed end. The apparatus is held within the user's palm operating range, and an axial force acted onto the pressing element is produced by a pressing force while holding the apparatus to compress the elastic container to deform in an axial direction and output the correction liquid with an effort-saving effect.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of text correction tools and more particularly to a palm-pressing text correction apparatus held by a user's palm for its use, and a pressing force of holding the apparatus controls the quantity of an outputted correction liquid.
2. Description of the Related Art
Text is the greatest mankind's invention ever that allows human civilization to be developed rapidly. In the meantime, various different pens were invented for writing text, but writing a wrong text may cause misunderstanding, so that text correction apparatuses such as erasers, correction liquids and correction tapes are also well developed as pens advance.
The correction liquid is a white opaque pigment coated on a correction surface to cover the wrong text. After the correction liquid is dried, the correct text can be written on top of the dried correction liquid. At present, the correction liquids available in the market come with different using methods according to the different containers. For example, a container with a cap is provided for containing a correction liquid, and the cap has a brush formed thereon, and the cap is normally tighten to seal the container and prevent the correction liquid from being dried and keep the brush to be dipped in the correction liquid. When use, the cap is removed, and the brush is used to coat the correction liquid onto a correcting surface. However, there is a drawback that users have to put the brush into the container repeatedly and the container may be overturned easily.
To overcome the aforementioned drawback, a pen-shaped or can-shaped correction liquid is introduced to facilitate users to hold and use the text correction apparatus, and the correction liquid is contained in a pen-shaped container (U.S. D648798) or a flat polygonal can-shaped container (U.S. D456844) corresponding the shape of a user's hand, and a specially designed liquid output nozzle is installed at an open end of the can container. A pressure is produced when the can container is extruded or pressed, so that the can container produces a lateral deformation to output the correction liquid from the liquid output nozzle in order to coat the correction liquid onto a correcting surface for a text correction. Although the apparatus can be used continuously to improve the convenience of use, users have to apply a force downward to abut the liquid output nozzle against the correcting surface in an actual operation, and apply a lateral compression on the can container to produce a partial deformation for outputting the correction liquid. Since the force applying directions are different, the operation does not go smoothly. In addition, the can container has a relatively small deformation, so that the correction liquid may not be squeezed out easily, particularly in cold and humid countries.


An improved process for the mechanical separation of complex, intergrown ores containing mineral of at least one of lead or zinc comprises a differential flotation process followed by an agglomeration process. The improved separation process is useful for bulk separation of mixed, intergrown minerals or for separation of one mineral from another, e.g., separation of lead-containing mineral from zinc-containing mineral.

Most minerals occur in nature as mixtures with other minerals as well as valueless materials commonly referred to as gangue. To obtain mineral materials, from which metals can be recovered, it is necessary to separate the mineral materials of the ore material from each other as well as from the gangue. This separation becomes particularly difficult if the ore material is complex as to the mineral structure and the mineral particles are intergrown. Mineral separations are characterized conventionally in terms of "recovery" and "grade" or "product grade". Recovery is the quantity of metal contained in any particular separation product or concentrate expressed as a percentage, often a molar percentage, of that metal contained in the feed, and grade or product grade is the content of a particular mineral or metal in that separation product expressed in terms of the total mass of that product. The effectiveness of a separation is determined by both recovery and grade which must properly be considered together, since the recovery is often inversely proportional to the grade.
The ores which comprise the primary sources of lead and zinc contain these elements in the form of metal sulfides, particularly as galena (PbS) and sphalerite (ZnS). These minerals often occur in an ore in varying proportions and are typically found in association with copper sulfides such as chalcopyrite (CuFeS.sub.2) and pyrite (FeS.sub.2). The conventional method of separation these minerals is by flotation, in particular froth flotation. The ore material is ground, usually by wet grinding, to liberate particles of mineral materials from the gangue materials. The mineral particles are then conventionally conditioned by treatment with collectors, i.e., additives optionally employed with an activator, which are designed to make the desired mineral material particles more hydrophobic, or depressants, i.e., additives designed to make the gangue or other minerals more hydrophilic. The minerals are suspended in an aqueous liquid termed "pulp" and dispersed air is then introduced into the mineral pulp in a stirred tank. The hydrophobic particles become attached to the air bubbles and are carried upwards to be collected in the froth which overflows the tank into a collector. The hydrophilic materials termed "tailings" leave the tank at a location away from the froth discharge and are collected for further processing or are discarded.
For an ore containing lead and zinc as well as copper and iron (as pyrite), a typical sequence is copper flotation, lead flotation, zinc flotation and finally pyrite flotation. Although only a portion of this overall sequence is typically applied to any given ore, there are established separate flotation lines for each mineral and the process is termed differential flotation. Often however, particularly high degrees of separation are difficult to obtain by flotation and mixtures of minerals are floated together in bulk flotation. This bulk flotation is particularly useful when the ore is complex and the minerals are intergrown. The product of a bulk flotation, a primary flotation concentrate, must be further processed, often by further flotation, after cleaning operations to improve the mineral grade by rejection of materials undesirably included within the flotation froth by, for example, mechanical entrainment or intergrowths. In this latter case, regrinding of particles is often required prior to cleaning. The tailings of such cleaner flotation cells are generally recycled to some earlier point in the overall process if the metal content of the tailings is such that the tailings cannot be discarded.
The separation of minerals by flotation is not entirely satisfactory. If the minerals are intricately intergrown, very fine grinding is required to liberate the mineral particles and separation of the resulting fine particles becomes difficult because of similar surface properties. As a result, a number of regrinding and reprocessing steps are required to effect the desired separation. In certain situations, the presence of a third mineral causes a desired separation of two minerals to become more difficult. The presence of cuprous sulfide, for example, may activate any pyrite present and lead to difficulty in separating lead and zinc sulfides from that pyrite.
Alternatives to flotation have been proposed for the separation of ores including liquid-liquid extraction and agglomeration. In the case of complex lead and zinc ores, no acceptable extractive separation has been achieved. While bulk separation is possible, the results obtained are not generally better than those obtained through flotation.
Agglomeration methods involve pretreatment of the minerals by methods similar to the pretreatment employed in flotation processes. The ore is ground and slurried in a stirred tank to establish density differences. Various reagents including depressants, activators and collectors are used to condition the particles as reviewed by Bulatovic et al, "Complex Sulfides," proceedings of a Symposium by AIME, San Diego, Calif., 1985. Reagents used for spherical agglomeration are not necessarily the preferred reagents of a flotation process. The ore particles rendered hydrophobic are conventionally agglomerated with a hydrocarbon liquid under conditions of shear in one or more stages in agitated tanks. The various stages often provide for initial agglomeration and also for agglomerate growth. The agglomerates are then separated by conventional mechanical methods such as screening, hydroclassification, flotation or other physical separation procedures.
Spherical agglomeration of copper-lead-zinc-containing mixtures has been evaluated by House et al, Min. Eng., 2 (2), pp. 171-184 (1989). However, the materials separated were artificial mixtures of chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite and sand (quartz). Separation of such mixtures of these individual materials by agglomeration methods gave good results, but no evaluation of the method on complex, intergrown ores were disclosed. It was suggested, however, that agglomeration processes could be competitive with froth flotation for rough-ground mineral ores if further regrinding and agglomeration stages were used.
Spherical agglomeration separation does not, however, appear to be effective for intergrown particles in which one of the components is a relatively more hydrophobic mineral of relatively coarse particle size. Recovery is efficient only for any liberated material present. The coarse material could be reground, however, for further separation. It would be of advantage to have a simplified processing scheme for the separation of complex, intergrown ore material containing lead and zinc minerals which scheme reduces the number of steps including recycle steps required for separation of the minerals.


A method and apparatus for spread spectrum distance and for spread spectrum velocity profile measurement is provided where the short pulse of traditional ultrasonic and radar level gauges is replaced by low peak power direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) modulated energy. An echo sequence subtraction process is provided that increases the signal to noise ratio of each echo sequence thus increasing the dynamic range of the system. In addition to providing a higher signal to noise ratio (SNR), better precision and accuracy in ranging Doppler applications and the ability to use lower peak power transmissions, the system is more immune to interference from the environment and allows for less expensive and less bulky ultrasonic transducers.

Ultrasonic measurement is commonly used in industrial bulk material level measurements and flow control. The bulk material may be in granular, powder or liquid form and is stored in tanks and moved through pipes or conduits during various processes.
One of the most common technologies in ultrasonic measurement is "monopulse time of flight reflectometry" ("MTFR") as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,266 to Woodward. Woodward discusses a system that produces a burst of ultrasound energy that is transmitted toward the surface of a material in a tank. The return echo is analyzed to provide information as to the distance to any reflecting targets. One drawback of the technique of Woodward is that the receiver required is so sensitive that it becomes saturated and insensitive to reflected energy immediately after transmission of the ultrasound burst. The result is that the receiver has a blind area extending 10 to 100 cm (or sometimes more depending on the particular device characteristics) along the axis of transmission. The sensor will not provide level measurement in this blind area. As a result of this limitation, the upper volume of the tanks is unavailable for use because the level of material in the tanks cannot be measured. Therefore, the practical storage volume of the tank is reduced by the inability of the receiver to measure the top of the tank. Another drawback is that since the time duration of the transmit pulse is short, and since the path losses for the return echo are usually large, the transmit pulse must be of high amplitude. A high amplitude pulse can only be generated by high power transmitter and amplifier which are relatively expensive.
Other methods are used in the prior art for measuring levels in tanks, including the use of radar frequency energy systems. The use of radar energy systems suffers from the same drawbacks as ultrasound systems. However, for radar frequency systems, an additional problem of timing arises. Since the speed of propagation for electromagnetic energy is much higher than for sound waves, it becomes difficult to capture reflected energy with sufficient precision to determine distances accurately. As a result, many radar frequency energy systems may not be used to determine the level in a tank due to the short distances involved. Another problem is that radar frequency systems are usually limited to conductive (i.e., metal) tanks. The reason is that leakage of radar energy from non-conductive tanks often exceeds allowable free space emissions for such energy. Still another problem with radar frequency energy systems is measuring levels of materials with low dielectric constants because they return only a very small echo. A small echo exacerbates the problems of requiring an initial high pulse energy and high system cost.
Another known ranging technique is "Time Domain Reflectometry" (TDR). In this technique a transmission line is placed in the tank and makes contact with the material to be measured. An electronic pulse is sent through the transmission line. The level of the material creates a slight impedance change in the transmission line thus reflecting a portion of the transmitted pulse. This technique suffers from problems in detecting materials with low dielectric constants. Many times materials with low dielectric constants do not reflect sufficient energy to be measurable, thus making the technique ineffective.
Other systems are known for measuring moving fluids in a pipe or conduit. These systems are known as Doppler flow meters. In a Doppler flow meter, a pulse of ultrasound energy is transmitted into a moving liquid medium. A portion of the pulse is reflected from suspended particles or bubbles in the moving fluid and picked up by a receiver. The receiver may be "range gated" in that it samples only a narrow time segment of the entire reflected energy, corresponding to a desired target range. The distance to and relative velocity of the suspended particles can be calculated from the Doppler shift of the reflected energy along with the range gate delay timing. By making a series of these measurements with different range gate timing delays, a profile of the liquid velocity may be generated. The profile, along with the depth of the liquid and the known cross sectional area of the flow conduit can be used to calculate the flow rate of the fluid. The flow rate is typically integrated over time to give the total volume of flow for some period of time. The major limitation of this type of system is that the range gate has a limited width in time, thus limiting the precision to which the returned frequency may be determined, and thus severely limiting the accuracy with which the flow may be calculated.
It is then a goal of the present invention to provide a direct sequence spread spectrum distance and velocity measurement system that increases dynamic range and reduces peak transmitted power.
It is another goal of the present invention to provide a direct sequence spread spectrum distance and velocity measurement system that minimizes the "blind area" and allows a more complete use of storage tank capacity.
It is another goal of the present invention to provide a direct sequence spread spectrum distance and velocity measurement system that will reduce radar energy escaping into the environment and can be applied in a non-conducting tank.
It is another goal of the present invention to provide a direct sequence spread spectrum distance and velocity measurement system that offers processing gain by reducing direct sequence spread spectrum side lobe interference through echo subtraction allowing detection and measurement of small echoes associated with low dielectric constant materials.
It is another goal of the present invention to provide a direct sequence spread spectrum distance and velocity measurement system that increases the precision of the Doppler based measurements by eliminating the limited time window of traditional systems by continuously examining the Doppler shifts at a given range from the sensor.

Method and apparatus for spread spectrum distance and velocity profile measurement


An image processing method of processing image data includes a color space conversion step of converting an input color signal of image data into an output color signal having cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) values; a black generation/under color removal step of converting the CMY values into cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) values by adding a black (K) value and decreasing the CMY values so that portions of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) recording liquids used to form the image data are replaced with a black (K) recording liquid; and a total amount control step of controlling amounts of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) recording liquids calculated from the CMYK values so that a total amount of the CMYK recording liquids per unit area on a recording medium does not exceed a predetermined total amount limit.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to an image processing method, a recorded matter, a storage medium, an image processing apparatus, an image forming method, an image forming apparatus, an image forming system, and an ink.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink jet recording apparatus is an image forming apparatus that uses one or more liquid drop spraying heads as recording heads. An ink jet recording apparatus is used, for example, as a printer, a facsimile, a copier, or a multifunction copier having functions of a printer, facsimile, and copier. An ink jet recording apparatus sprays drops of inks or recording liquids from its recording heads onto paper (not limited to a sheet of paper but also refers to any medium, such as an OHP sheet, on which an image can be formed using ink drops or liquid drops, and may also be called a recording medium, recording paper, recording sheet, recording material, medium, or the like), and thereby forms (records or prints) an image on the paper.
Since ink jet recording apparatuses as described above are available at low prices and produce high quality images when used with paper dedicated for ink jet recording apparatuses (ink jet paper), they have rapidly become widespread for personal use. Recently, however, ink jet recording apparatuses are also becoming popular as color recording apparatuses in offices where electrophotographic image forming apparatuses had been the mainstream.
In offices, plain paper is mainly used for printing with an ink jet recording apparatus. Although ink jet paper provides a very high image quality, it is not suitable for daily use because of its high cost.
For this reason, manufacturers are trying to improve fixation and drying characteristics of inks to improve the quality of images printed on plain paper.
Also, a technique called total amount control for limiting the maximum total amount of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) inks per unit area of paper has been devised to prevent overflow (beading) of ink on paper.
For example, patent document 1 discloses an image forming method including a step of controlling the total amount of ink caused to adhere onto paper. In the disclosed image forming method, a color is formed by causing drops of recording liquids of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) to adhere onto a recording medium at substantially the same position. When the total amount of multiple recording liquids for each pixel exceeds a predetermined limit, image data are processed so as to reduce the total amount of multiple recording liquids without changing the substantial proportion of C, M, and Y components in the image to be formed.
[Patent document 1] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2608262
Patent document 2 discloses an image processing apparatus including a total amount control unit for controlling the amounts of color materials. In the disclosed image processing apparatus, record control information for each color component is converted into the amount of color material used after halftone processing, the total amount of color materials for all color components is calculated based on the obtained amount of color material for each color component, and the amounts of color materials are controlled according to the calculated total amount of color materials.
[Patent document 2] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-009480
Meanwhile, although papers, such as photo paper, coated paper, and OHP sheets, dedicated for ink jet recording apparatuses are expensive, high-quality coated papers for commercial printing (commercial printing papers), such as gloss paper, are relatively inexpensive.
Using such high-quality commercial printing papers enables office users to print documents with an image quality as high as that provided by expensive ink jet papers. More specifically, using such high-quality commercial printing papers for printing with ink jet recording apparatuses makes it possible for office users to create presentation materials, promotional materials, and catalogs with an image quality higher than that provided by plain paper at low costs.
However, plain paper and a commercial printing paper, for example, gloss paper, have significantly different characteristics. On plain paper, liquid drops tend to spread and bleed. On the other hand, on gloss paper, liquid drops do not spread smoothly but clump together.
Therefore, when printing on a commercial printing paper with a conventional ink jet recording apparatus, because of fixation and drying characteristics of inks, ink drops may not adhere onto the paper properly and cause overflow of ink (beading). This problem is making it difficult to print on a commercial printing paper with an ink jet recording apparatus.
One way to solve the above problem is to use inks whose composition has been altered to improve the fixation and drying characteristics. However, using image data processed in the same manner as in the case of printing on plain paper may still cause problems such as overflow of ink (beading), banding, and tone reversal (especially in a part using a black ink) and thereby degrade the image quality.
Such problems may be solved to some extent by reducing the total amount of C, M, and Y inks per unit area when the total amount of C, M, and Y inks exceeds a predetermined limit, as disclosed in patent document 1.
However, when printing on a recording medium on which liquid drops do not spread smoothly but clump together, just controlling the total amount of ink per unit area may not be able to provide sufficient tone and color reproducibility in shaded areas of an image and therefore may not be able to provide a high image quality.

Image processing method, recorded matter, storage medium, image processing apparatus, image forming method, image forming apparatus, image forming system, and ink


In a light emitting device with a heat-release metallic part made of metal and a packaging ceramic part made of ceramics bonded to the metallic part via an adhesive, the adhesive is a hot melt that melts with heat at a melting temperature higher than a given temperature and has flexibility when it has been hardened and formed a bond, and the ceramic part has pores at least in a given bonding surface region so that the hot melt is impregnated into the pores.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting device such as a light emitting diode and a laser diode that has an excellent heat release capability, a method of manufacturing the light emitting device, and a lighting equipment using the same, in which the light emitting device is for example in the form of a light emitting diode provided with a high-electric power and high-optical power light emitting element.
2. Related Art
As an typical example of the light emitting device, it can be cited an electronic device such as a light emitting diode and a laser diode. Of them, the light emitting diode (hereinafter referred to an LED) is provided with a light emitting element that is powered so as to emit light. At the time of light emission, the light emitting element also generates heat, causing temperature rise of the LED.
An LED is recently used as a display device for an indicator of an electric appliance, a liquid crystal backlight of a mobile phone thanks to the development of a blue LED, a white LED and the like. Also, an LED is expected to be widely used for a lighting equipment such as an interior illumination, automobile lighting or traffic signal because of its high light emission efficiency and improved brightness. Thus, a demand for a high optical power LED is increased so as to make an LED applicable to such a lighting equipment. The application of the LED in a new field is accompanied with a problem to cause temperature rise of an LED due to increased power supply.
For the light emitting device such as a high electric power and high optical power LED as mentioned above, a ceramic material is sometimes used for a package part that is tolerable against such temperature rise.
A light emitting device with such a packaging ceramic part is provided with for example a metallic part made of metal for heat radiation that is mounted to the ceramic part, allowing heat from a semiconductor element such as a light emitting element to be instantly transferred to the metallic part by heat conduction and to be dispersed through the metallic part for heat release with high efficiency from the surface of the metallic part to a heat release section or part, thus preventing the semiconductor element from being heated over a given performance guarantee temperature.
For producing the light emitting device with the heat-release metallic part and the packaging ceramic part, both parts are generally bonded together via an adhesive. The bonding of these parts is conventionally made by a brazing technique using a brazing material such as silver (Ag), gold (Au), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) or cadmium (Cd), which is generally used as the adhesive for this purpose.
The light emitting device with the heat-release metallic part bonded to the packaging ceramic part by brazing may cause stress in these parts as the temperature rises, due to difference in coefficient of linear expansion therebetween, resulting in the likelihood of causing warping of these parts or break (crack) of the ceramic part. Hitherto, in order to avoid this problem, it is selected materials used for these ceramic part and metallic part to have approximate coefficients of linear expansion for bonding.
As the ceramic material, generally used are such as aluminum nitride (AlN) and aluminum oxide (Al2O3). As the metallic material, generally used are such as copper-tungsten composite (CuW), and copper-molybdenum composite (CuMo, CuMoCu). The followings are the coefficient of linear expansion of each material.
Ceramic MaterialAlN4.5 × 10−6Al2O36.7 × 10−6Metallic MaterialCuW6.5 × 10−6 (W-10:89W, 11Cu)CuMo7.0 × 10−6 (CM-15:85Mo, 15Cu)CuMoCu8.9 × 10−6 (CMC111)
wherein CuMoCu (CMC111) is made up of two Cu plates and an Mo plate held therebetween and bonded together with the layer ratio of Cu:Mo:Cu=1:1:1.
The metallic materials as described above, such as CuW, CuMo and CuMoCu respectively have thermal conductivities (specifically, CuW: 180 W/mk, CuMo: 160 W/mk, and CuMoCu: 232 W/mk), which are lower than other metallic materials having a relatively high thermal conductivity (typically, Cu: 393 W/mk). Therefore, while there is a demand for using a metallic material such as Cu having a relatively high thermal conductivity for a heat-release metallic part in a recent high-electric power and high-optical power light emitting device such as an LED used in a lighting equipment, a metallic material such as Cu, a coefficient of linear expansion of which is 17.0×10−6, is greatly different in coefficient of linear expansion from the ceramic material, which results in the likelihood of causing warping or break (crack) of the ceramic part due to stress caused as the temperature rises.
On the other hand, a high-electric power and high-optical power LED is required to meet the following demand. That is, in an LED, light emitted from the side (not main sides) of a light emitting element is hard to be utilized and therefore light is hard to be emitted with high efficiency. For example, where a ceramic part is used as a packaging part, light emitted from the side of the light emitting element is reflected on the ceramic part and then radiated to the outside, and this reflection leads to deteriorated efficiency in utilization of light. Where an LED is utilized in a lighting equipment or the like with a corrective lens or the like for correction of light, light emitted from the side of the light emitting element and then reflected on the ceramic part invites occurrence of inconsistent light correction. Conventionally, plural LEDs are provided to constitute plural light sources, thereby limiting the influence of this inconsistent light correction as much as possible. However, a recent high-electric power and high-optical power LED can be utilized as a single light source. Accordingly, a recent high-electric power and high-optical power LED is required to achieve effective and efficient utilization of light emitted from the side of the light emitting element while limiting inconsistent light correction.
In the conventional lighting equipment utilizing a light emitting device such as an LED, electrical connection and fixation with the light emitting device is made by soldering, or calking of a lead frame or the like. Accordingly, the lighting equipment utilizing the light emitting device, in which heat release to an external wiring substrate is made via a soldered portion or lead frame, achieves only a limited transfer of heat and hence insufficient heat release capability. Therefore, it is not possible to make a large electric current flow through the lighting equipment, thus making it impossible to achieve a high brightness lighting equipment.
Also, once a light emitting device is incorporated into the lighting equipment by soldering or calking with an external wiring substrate, it is difficult to remove only the light emitting device from the lighting equipment and repair the same.
Another disadvantage associated with the conventional lighting equipment, in which a conductive pattern provided on a main side of the light emitting device is partially soldered or calked with an external wiring substrate, is that the light emitting device is likely to be easily subjected to an adverse influence due to mechanical vibrations coming from the outside. That is, the calking of the conductive pattern of the light emitting device may easily cause variation in optical characteristics due to unintentional rolling or movement of the light emitting device in the lighting equipment, and the soldering of the light emitting device may easily cause defect in electrical connection with an external electrical circuit substrate.
It is a first object of the present invention to provide a light emitting device with a heat-release metallic part made of metal and a packaging ceramic part made of ceramics, which are bonded together with an adhesive, and a method of manufacturing the same, which are capable of preventing a problem due to the difference in coefficient of linear expansion between the metallic part and the ceramic part, such as a problem of causing stress as the temperature of the metallic part and the ceramic part rises, which leads to warping or break (crack) of the ceramic part, and therefore allowing a metallic material having a good thermal conductivity to be used, thus achieving a high-electric power and high-optical power device characteristic never achieved before.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a light emitting device with a heat-release metallic part made of metal and a packaging ceramic part made of ceramics, which are bonded together with an adhesive, which is capable of achieving effective and efficient utilization of light emitted from the side of the light emitting element while limiting inconsistent light correction, where the light emitting device is provided in the form of an LED with a light emitting element.
It is a third object of the present invention to provide a highly reliable lighting equipment thanks to improved heat release capability, allowing it to be used in place of a conventional lighting equipment such as a lamp and fluorescent lamp.

Light emitting device, method of manufacturing the same and lighting equipment


A shielded pen needle assembly is provided in which the hub extends distally beyond an outer sleeve of the assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of injection devices having an automated shield for covering the needle after an injection, and specifically the invention is directed to a safety pen needle having an extended hub.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art teaches various safety shield systems adapted for use with a medication pen. Examples of passive shielding systems include those described in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2011/0288491 and 2011/0257603, which are incorporated by reference. Typically, the penetration depth of the needle in a shielded medication pen is defined by the distance from the needle tip to the distal end of an outer sleeve, which forms an outer periphery of the device. The inventor has explored a pen needle shield system in which the injection depth of the needle is defined without reference to the position of the outer sleeve.


This rotative assembly comprises a first element rotating with respect to a second element around a rotation axis, at least one bearing arranged between the first and second element, and at least one sealing element arranged between the first element and the second element. The sealing element is housed in a peripheral groove provided on the first element, and comprises at least one sealing lip resting on a surface of the second element. The first element comprises an extraction groove realized on a radial surface of the first element, and which forms an empty space below an internal surface of the sealing element and creates an axial access to said empty space from an axial end surface of the first element.

Rotative assemblies are equipped with several dynamic sealing elements also named <<DUSE>> seals, which have to be replaced when they are worn off. In order to dismount such sealing elements, some components, such as rolling bearings, must often be dismounted so that the sealing elements can be extracted and replaced by new ones.
In tunnel boring machines, oil pumping installations or marine applications, some rotative assemblies cannot be dismounted without heavy operations and tooling.
The aim of the invention is to provide a new rotative assembly in which the sealing elements can be replaced without complex and lengthy operations.
To this end, the invention concerns a rotative assembly comprising a first element rotating with respect to a second element around a rotation axis, at least one bearing arranged between the first and second element, and at least one sealing element arranged between the first element and the second element, the sealing element being housed in a peripheral groove provided on the first element, the sealing element comprising at least one sealing lip resting on a surface of the second element. The rotative assembly is characterized in that the first element comprises an extraction groove realized on a radial surface of the first element, and which forms an empty space below an internal surface of the sealing element and creates an axial access to said empty space from an axial end surface of the first element.
Thanks to the invention, the sealing element can be dismounted and extracted from the rotative assembly without dismounting any of the other components of the rotative assembly, such as bearings. Consequently, replacement of sealing elements takes less time and fewer operations than for rotative assemblies of the prior art.

Rotative assembly, method for dismounting a sealing element and extraction tool for dismounting a sealing element


An optical waveguide grating coupler for coupling light between a planar waveguide and an optical element such as an optical fiber. The optical waveguide grating coupler includes a grating comprising a plurality of elongate scattering elements. The optical waveguide grating coupler is preferably flared, and in various embodiments has hyperbolically shaped sidewalls. The elongate scattering elements are preferably curved, and in some embodiments, the scattering elements have elliptically curved shapes. Preferably, the elongated scattering elements have grating widths selected to accommodate the desired optical intensity distribution.

Light offers many advantages when used as a medium for propagating information, the foremost of which are increased speed and bandwidth. In comparison with electrical signals, signals transmitted optically can be switched and modulated faster and can include an even greater number of separate channels multiplexed together. For these, as well as other reasons, light wave transmission along optical fibers is widespread.
Light can be propagated through planar waveguide structures as well as optical fibers. Planar waveguide structures having a wide variety of functionalities are currently available and many new such devices and components will likely result from future research and development. These planar structures are advantageous because they can be compactly incorporated together in or on a planar platform, i.e. substrate, to form planar packages analogous to integrated circuits (ICs). These structures in general are referred to as integrated optics. Integrated optical "chips" comprise a substrate on which or in which various integrated optical components or devices are formed. Planar waveguides analogous to conductor traces in semiconductor electronic ICs that are mounted in or on the substrate are employed to guide light to various optical, electro-optical, and optoelectronic devices or components on the chip.
One type of planar waveguide is referred to as a slab waveguide. Light can propagate within a planar slab of relatively high index material that is surrounded by a lower index medium. The light is confined within this slab by total internal reflection. A plurality of independent optical signals can be transmitted through the slab by constructing "ribs," "ridges," or "strips" that extend along one side of the slab. The optical signals propagating within the slab are localized to different regions within the slab that are defined by the ribs or strips. The ribs, ridges and strips thus provide independent pathways for light to travel in or on the planar substrate. Optical components on integrated optical chips can be interconnected in this fashion.
In many applications, it is desirable that the optical signal being transmitted through the waveguide be optically coupled into or out of the integrated optical chip. These signals may, for example, be coupled to optical fibers that are oriented out of the plane, i.e., above or below, the planar waveguide structure. The optical fibers may have dimensions that are significantly larger than the dimensions of the waveguide, that is, the optical fiber may have a diameter larger than the width or height of the planar waveguide. The disparity in size introduces loss in coupling of the optical signal between the optical fiber and the planar waveguide. What is needed, therefore, are designs and methods for increasing coupling efficiency in and out of planar waveguide structures.


In a multiple virtual storage system and more particularly in an address control apparatus, there are provided two kinds of holding devices a designation holding device for holding a segment table designations in association with access registers and a translation buffer for holding translation pairs of the access register and segment table designation. With this arrangement, the segment table designation designating the virtual address space possessing an operand of an instruction can be supplied quickly and efficiently.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multiple virtual storage system, and more particularly to an address control apparatus for providing a segment table designation needed when a program being executed accesses a plurality of virtual address spaces concurrently, at high speed with good efficiency.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, in multiple virtual storage systems, a virtual address space possessing an instruction to be executed and the associated operand is determined according to segment and page tables located on a main storage, and each virtual address space is referred to by a pointer which is called a segment table designation (STD) positioning the segment table located on the main storage. This STD is prestored in a predetermined control register in a processor.
The technical concept that a program being executed performs concurrent accessing to a plurality of address spaces is exemplified by Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 140576/1981. According to this prior concept, access registers (ARs) related to general registers (GRs) are located in a processor, and the STD directly designating a virtual address space possessing an operand is stored in each of the ARs. Using the STD in the AR related to the GR to be used as a base register during the operand access, a virtual address space of the operand is designated so that a program being executed can access a plurality of address spaces concurrently.
This prior art merely discloses the ARs directly storing the STD but is totally silent about any address control system in which the content of an AR indirectly designates an STD.
Specifically, the STD which designates a virtual address space accessible from an instruction being executed is prepared on a main storage as a table by a system program. And a leading address of the table as well as an address in the table, which are given from the system program, are held in a control register (CR) and an AR, respectively. With the system in which the CR and AR designate the STD indirectly, the STD cannot be obtained until the contents of the CR and AR are added at every operand access whereupon reference must be made, with the resulting address, to the table on the main storage. As a consequence, its overhead would increase to lower the processing performance
The more complex the translating process before making reference to the table storing the STDs, the further the processing performance is lowered.

Multiple virtual storage system and address control apparatus having a designation table holding device and translation buffer


An image analysis system for automated reading of printed multi-character codes, for example on antibiotic susceptibility testing disks, makes use of an orientation means, for example an underline printed beneath the code, to bring the code or its image into canonical alignment with an optimum reading direction for the code. Automated reading of the codes on randomly-orientated AST disks is therefore possible.

For many years, antibiotic susceptibility testing ("AST") has been used as a means for identifying part-particular groups or species of micro-organisms, or for identifying an antibiotic type or dose level most appropriate for dealing with a clinical infection. An internationally recognised standard procedure has been evolved using carrier devices, usually in the form of membrane disks, impregnated with known amounts of specific antibiotics. These disks are used in conjunction with Petri-dish plates containing a layer of growth medium, such as agar gel, to which material containing micro-organisms is applied. An arrangement of individual disks containing different amounts or types of antibiotics are placed on the gel surface at spaced intervals. Usually 6 or 8 disk are placed a circular array on the Petri-dish. The disks are normally of paper or other porous sheet material. The antibiotic diffuses out of each disk into the surrounding growth medium and establishes a radial concentration gradient around the disk. The relative susceptibility of the micro-organisms to the antibiotic is revealed by the diameter of the zone surrounding the disk within which growth of the micro organisms is inhibited. The detailed morphology of the zone can be indicative of the species or genus of micro-organism present. Visual interpretation of the results therefore requires considerable experience and skill, especially if adjacent zones of inhibition are large enough to overlap.
AST is applied on a very large scale worldwide, especially in clinical laboratories. In order to speed up and simplify the reading of such tests, various proposals have been made including the evaluation of the results using image analysis equipment, for example comprising a video camera linked to electronic information processing means such as a microprocessor. Reading systems of this type are available commercially. However, even with the equipment available today, there is still need for considerable skilled human input.
Because each culture plate will normally carry quite a number of disks each of which may be impregnated with a different amount of antibiotic, or indeed possibly an antibiotic different from that on other disks on the plate, it is absolutely essential that the identity of each disk is precisely determined. In accordance with a WHO-recommended standard, each disk bears a printed code which identifies the specific antibiotic on the disk and also its concentration. This code comprises a combination of letters and numerals which can be read easily by the human eye. The presently available "automated" imaging systems require that the operator reads the code on each disk by eye, and enters this information manually into the electronic processor, for example by means of a keyboard. Although optical character readers exist which can convert printed letters and numerals into electronic information, the printed characters must be aligned properly with the reading equipment if the optical character reader is to recognise the individual characters correctly. The disks used in AST are usually applied to the plates by means of mechanical applicators which release individual disks from an array of magazines, each holding a stack of identical disks. No attempt is made to control the orientation of the codes on the disks that drop from the applicator onto the plate surface. The disks are normally found on the plate with their printed codes orientated in a thoroughly random manner.

Image analysis systems and devices for use therewith


The invention relates to semiconductor devices for conversion of the ionizing radiation into an electrical signal enabling determination of the radiation level and absorbed dose of gamma, proton, electronic and alpha radiations being measured. The ionizing radiation sensor is a p-i-n structure fabricated by the planar technology. The sensor contains a high-resistance silicon substrate of n-type conductivity, on whose front side there are p-regions; layer from SiO2; aluminum metallization; and a passivating layer. P-region, located in the central part of the substrate and occupying the most surface area, forms the active region of the sensor. At least two p-regions in the form of circular elements are located in the inactive region on the perimeter of the substrate around the central p-region and ensure a decrease in the surface current value and smooth voltage drop from the active region to the device perimeter.

Semiconductor sensors based on p-i-n diodes have been widely adopted as particle counters and as particle energy measuring devices (spectrometers) with high resolution. Their operating principle is based on the fact that a charge induced in the counter's substance is collected on the electrodes when an ionizing particle is passing through the sensor (sensing element).
Important feature of semiconductor counters is their small size. It has strongly extended the possibilities for application of these detectors not only in the area of experimental physics but also in the engineering—in devices for process control and in medicine.
A p-i-n-diode silicon, low-noise detector by the planar technology (Kemmer J. Fabrication of low noise silicon radiation detectors by the planar process//Nuclear Instruments and Methods.—1980.-V.169.-P.499-502.) and its further development (patent for invention U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,592) is known in the state-of-the-art. These papers disclose the methods for manufacture of detectors by the planar technology for radiation detection, which have semiconductor p-n junctions. However, the disclosed embodiments of the planar semiconductor diodes are different.
A semiconductor detector for X-ray and low-energy gamma radiation detection (patent for invention of the Russian Federation No. 2248012, IPC: G01T1/24, H01L31/1 15), made of monocrystalline silicon and containing a flat signal p+-n junction, around which there are circular guard p+-n junctions with electrodes and a preamplifier, the electrode of the flat signal p+-n junction being connected to the preamplifier input, and the electrode of the inner circular guard p+-n junction being connected to zero potential bus of the preamplifier is the closest to the technical solution applied for.
The invention resolves a problem of improvement in the overall performance of the device by draining the stray current of the guard ring for improvement of the energy resolution and contrast range of the measured energy spectrum. However, the apparatus is intended for detection of the X-ray and low-energy gamma radiation only. For sensitivity enhancement and high rate of detection of the whole spectrum of the ionizing radiation (except for the neutron one), it is necessary to increase the volume of a semiconductor to boost the probability of hitting and dispersion, for example, a gamma-quantum in it and accordingly to increase the rate of counting the radiation flux particles.


Disclosed is a new variety of four-leaf clover named “Lucky Together”, and a method of breeding the same in large quantities. The method of breeding the new variety of four-leaf clover of the present invention comprises the steps of: (a) sterilizing a clover, (b) treating the clover with chemical agent in order to induce mutation and cell division of the clover, (c) roots-inducing of the mutated clover, (d) asexual propagation of the variety of clover, (e) comparing the features of the variety with those of wild-type clover, and (f) identifying a uniformity of the features of the variety. The four-leaf clover according to the present invention has strong nature, strong cold resistance and excellent disease resistance. Furthermore, the clover according to the present invention grows rapidly and well under intensive light, and can compete successfully with weeds. Therefore, the clover can be used not only for feed but also for improving the quality of soil. Thus, the variety of clover has higher commercial and ornamental values.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a variety of four-leaf clover and asexual propagation thereof.
2. Prior Art
There are more than 250 species of clovers. All are members of the pea family. The clovers are considered as being shamrocks, usually consisting of small round lobed leaves. The white clover (Trifolium repense L.) is actually native to the United States. It is a true perennial and has white flowers, and occasionally a four-leaf clover. Crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum) is an annual clover commonly planted in the medians of the highway. It also has rounded lobed leaves with deep red blooms. In general, the clovers are classified into the white clover and the red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) according to the color of flower thereof. The white clover typically has a short and straight root, a small stem and three leaves. The white clover can be cultivated using a part of creeping stem, which also can be asexually propagated from root node. The white clover is classified as generally having white-color flowers. Each of the leaves of the white clover is egg-shaped, and is not aesthetic.
Floral languages of four-leaf clover are known as "the luck", "the hope", "the love" and "the faith", so that numerous people wish to keep the four-leaf clovers, but it is not easy to find the natural four-leaf clovers. Thus, since the four-leaf clovers have not only scarcity value but also ornamental value, they are considered as having great commercial values. Thereby, the four-leaf clovers have been used in the preparation of various articles, for example, an accessory, public relations goods, a present, a press flower and a dry flower, in order to attract consumers. Therefore, there have been needs to develop a new type of four-leaf clover, which grows rapidly and can be acclimated to environment easily.
The conventional clovers, which are native in Korea, are occasionally four-leaf clovers. Those clovers typically have oval shaped green leaves and relatively short stems, while having an excellent ground covering ability. Since the occasional four-leaf clovers are resulted from natural mutation, it is difficult to produce the four-leaf clovers massively.
On the other hand, a clover having three leaves, which was introduced from foreign countries into Korea and which has been cultivated and has been used as feed, includes a commercially available red clover class, for example, TR 2000, Titus, Kenland and Atlas. However, the clovers of those races are not only hard to cultivate but also are difficult to make them acclimated to the environment of Korea. Therefore, there have been needs to develop a new variety of four-leaf clover that grows well and has a strong nature.

Variety of four-leaf clover and a method for breeding the same


This crane is configured by being provided with: a telescopic boom having an inside boom element and an outside boom element that overlap each other in an extendable and contractible manner; an extension/contraction actuator that displaces one boom element among the inside boom element and the outside boom element in the extending and contracting directions; at least one electric drive source provided in the extension/contraction actuator; a first coupling mechanism that operates on the basis of power from the electric drive source and that switches between the coupled state and the uncoupled state of the extension/contraction actuator and one of the boom elements; and a second coupling mechanism that operates on the basis of power from the electric drive source and that switches between the coupled state and the uncoupled state of the inside boom element and the outside boom element.

Patent Literature 1 discloses a movable crane including a telescopic boom in which a plurality of boom elements overlap each other in a nested manner (also referred to as a telescopic manner) and a hydraulic extension/contraction cylinder that extends and contracts the telescopic boom.
The telescopic boom includes a boom coupling pin that couples the boom elements which overlap each other in an adjacent manner. A boom element that is released from coupling by the boom coupling pin (hereinafter, referred to as a displaceable boom element) can be displaced with respect to another boom element in a longitudinal direction (also referred to as an extending and contracting direction).
The extension/contraction cylinder includes a rod member and a cylinder member. Such an extension/contraction cylinder couples the displaceable boom element to the cylinder member via a cylinder coupling pin. In this state, when the cylinder member is displaced in the extending and contracting direction, the displaceable boom element is displaced together with the cylinder member, so that the telescopic boom is extended and contracted.


A process is provided for polishing a composite comprised of an insulating layer, a metal and titanium in which the composite is polished in a standard polishing machine using an aqueous slurry comprising submicron abrasive particles, an iodate, and a peroxide. Another process is provided in which peroxide is added to the aqueous slurry only when a titanium or titanium nitride layer is being polished. Further the invention also comprises the addition of a base to the slurry stream exiting the polishing machine to bring the pH of the used slurry to about 7 or higher.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to processes for the chemical-mechanical polishing of substrates, especially those comprising an insulator, a metal and titanium. More especially it relates to the polishing of substrates comprising silicon dioxide, tungsten, and titanium.
2. Description of Related Art
The chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) of metals is common in the manufacture of semiconductor wafers. Vias are etched in silicon wafers and the wafer surface is then coated with the metal to fill the vias. This surface is then planarized by CMP to provide a perfectly flat surface for further processing of the wafer. Often the metal of choice for the circuit structure thus formed is tungsten. As shown in FIG. 1, often titanium 22 is coated onto the insulating base of silicon oxide 21 to provide a barrier to diffusion of tungsten 24 into the insulating layer and then a layer titanium nitride 23 is used to promote adhesion of tungsten 24 to the structure. Ideally, this structure is planarized to expose the insulating base before proceeding with subsequent steps in the manufacture of the integrated circuit. Rutten et al. ("Pattern Density Effects in Tungsten CMP", Jun. 27-29, 1995 VMIC Conference, ISMIC--104/95/0491) discusses the problems encountered when planarizing a structure in which tungsten, titanium and titanium nitride are used. Ideally, the titanium and titanium nitride layers should be removed at a rate comparable to the rate for tungsten removal.
In order to efficiently remove a metal layer, the surface of the metal is oxidized and the oxide is then removed by CMP. An iodate, such as potassium iodate has become a common oxidant for use in tungsten planarization. It has replaced the earlier use of hydrogen peroxide, H.sub.2 O.sub.2, as the oxidant because although H.sub.2 O.sub.2 provides a high removal rate for both tungsten and titanium, the removal from the center portion of tungsten in a via may be so great that dishing occurs as shown in FIG. 1b. Also, a void created in the metal layer during deposition may be exposed as shown in FIG. 1c creating a "keyhole" in the metal structure. This is particularly undesirable.
Also, in the planarization of the metal and titanium layers the rate of removal of the insulating layer, silicon dioxide, should be as low as possible. Often compounds which suppress the rate of removal of silica are included in the polishing slurries. Such compounds are described by Brancaleoni et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,391,258 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,606.

Method for polishing a composite comprising an insulator, a metal, and titanium


The present teachings generally include a method of controlling a relay. The method generally includes momentarily initiating a pull-in pulse when an input signal indicates a first state. A sense resistor controller is activated based on the pull-in pulse. A current flow is controlled to bypass a sense resistor and flow to the relay based on the activation of the sense resistor controller. The relay is controlled based on the current flow.

Coils in mechanical relays generate heat. When a relay is activated, the relay needs large current to pull in the armature. Once the armature is pulled in, only a small current is needed to hold the armature in place.
Relay manufacturers design relays such that they can operate under various operating scenarios. It is known that coil resistance increases with temperature. Instead of taking into account the actual temperature, current supplied to operate the armature of the relay is operated at above normal requirements to ensure operation at all temperatures. In some cases, during normal operating conditions current supplied to operate the armature can be more than double the requirement (i.e., to accommodate for high ambient air temperatures). The excess energy is then dissipated as heat. This excess heat generated by the relay coil can cause thermal problems for other electrical components. For example, power distribution center modules (PDCs) for a vehicle can include more than twenty relays. The twenty relays can provide enough heat to affect the operation of other electrical components within the vehicle.

Constant current relay driver with controlled sense resistor


An exemplary apparatus can be provided to determine information regarding a sample(s), which can include, for example an arrangement(s) composed of, at least partially, a particular material in a predetermined area thereof, and including a light facilitating device that can be configured to provide or receive a light radiation(s) to or from the sample(s). The particular material can have a characteristic which can facilitate a sufficient amount of X-ray radiation to pass therethrough so as to generate an X-ray image(s). An X-ray absorption of the material can be at most about 10 times that of a ¼″ acrylic plate. The light facilitating device can include a light transmitting configuration which can provide the light radiation(s) to the sample.

Breast cancer is still the most common cancer in women worldwide, as well as the primary cause of cancer-related mortality. (See e.g., Reference 1). Advances in mammographic screening, together with new treatment options, have resulted in a shift to earlier stages at initial diagnosis, and a reduction in breast cancer mortality. (See e.g., References 2 and 3). Nevertheless, according to the American Cancer Society, of the approximately over 230,000 women that will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in 2014, over 15% of them will die from the disease.
While some tumors can still be discovered by palpation, the majority of breast cancer diagnoses is made with X-ray mammography (see e.g., Reference 4), which can offer greater than 80% sensitivity. (See e.g., References 5 and 6). Still, over 20% of women with breast cancer have had a negative mammogram in the preceding year (see e.g., References 7 and 8), and the specificity can be as low as 20% (e.g., up to an 80% false positive rate). (See e.g., References 9 and 10). Furthermore, the use of mammography has significant difficulties in women with dense breasts (see e.g., Reference 11) and in distinguishing malignant from benign tumors. Therefore, there is a need to detect cancers that may be missed by mammography, and to improve specificity to reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies.
Improved sensitivity and specificity in breast cancer imaging can likely come from multimodal approaches combining structural and functional imaging technologies. Combining low-resolution functional imaging with high-resolution structural imaging in a spatially/temporally co-registered manner can provide a beneficial strategy: for example, utilizing the high-resolution structure images as a prior, the functional imaging modality could yield improved image quality and reduced artifacts (see e.g., References 13 and 15) to deliver more accurate representation of the functional status of tissue. At the same time, certain existing limitations of the structural imaging modalities can be overcome, or reduced, by adding complementary physiological information from the functional imaging modality. Co-registration of the two modalities can also facilitate interpretation of images and the extrapolation of findings from one modality to the other, as well as acceptance by the radiology community of new technologies. (See e.g., Reference 16).
Diffuse optical tomography ("DOT") is an emerging technique that has evolved from transillumination and diaphanography. (See e.g., Reference 18). Facilitated by a preferable low-absorption window of tissue chromophores—e.g., oxy/deoxy-hemoglobin, water and lipids—in the near-infrared ("NIR") range, modern photon detectors can capture NIR signals even after the light has propagated through many centimeters of human tissue, thus providing researchers with a valuable vehicle to probe tissue physiology and metabolism noninvasively. Using certain computer-assisted reconstruction techniques, the researchers can use optical measurements collected from an array of surface sources and detectors to recover tomographic images of deep tissue chromophore maps.
Thus, it may be beneficial to provide exemplary optical fiber probe arrangement for use with X-ray mammography, which can overcome at least some of the deficiencies described herein above.

Optical fiber probe arrangement for use with X-ray mammography


In one embodiment, in response to a list of a plurality of fingerprints representing data chunks to be replicated from a source storage system to a target storage system over a network, one of the fingerprints is selected as a representative fingerprint that matches selection criteria. The source storage system generates a fingerprint representation for each of the fingerprints that is smaller than the corresponding fingerprint. The representative fingerprint and the fingerprint representations are transmitted to the target storage system over the network, without transmitting all full fingerprints of the data chunks, to allow the target storage system identifying which of the data chunks are missing. In response to information received from the target storage system indicating one or more data chunks that are missing at the target storage system, the missing data chunks are then transmitted to the target storage system.

Replication is a critical feature for disaster recovery appliances. There are numerous configurations where data are transmitted across the network for disaster recovery purposes: pairs of office protecting each other, satellite offices transmitting to headquarters, and satellite offices transmitting to relay stations that consolidate and then transmit to one or more national data centers. Communication may occur over low bandwidth links because customers are located in inhospitable locations such as offshore or in forests. The goal for disaster recovery purposes is to improve data compression during replication so more data can be protected within a backup window.
The challenge is to transfer all of the logical data (e.g., all files within the retention period) while reducing the transmission as much as possible. Storage appliances achieve high compression by transferring metadata that can reconstruct all of the files based on strong fingerprints of data chunks followed by the unique data chunks. Since there is often a large amount of redundancy within backup data sets, even within modified files, 10× or greater compression can be achieved by only sending unique data chunks. A data chunk or simply chunk is a partition of data used in the deduplication process. Prior to storing a file in a storage, the file is segmented using a chunking algorithm into multiple chunks and only the non-duplicate chunks are stored. A fingerprint of a chunk is used to represent or identify a chunk. A fingerprint of a chunk is generated by hashing content of chunk using a hash function such as SHA-1 or MD5.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional method of data replication over a network. Referring to FIG. 1, typically, a source storage system transmits to a target storage system a list of fingerprints presenting data chunks for replication. A fingerprint may be generated by hashing at least a portion of content of a data chunk. The target storage system then determines which of the data chunks that have been stored locally based on the fingerprints. The target storage system then replies with a list of one or more fingerprints representing one or more data chunks that are not stored locally. The source storage system then transmits the missing data chunks to the target storage accordingly. As the deduplication rate improves, the amount of data chunks transmitted over the network can be reduced. However, a significant amount of fingerprints (also referred to as metadata) may still be transmitted over the network. Fingerprints become a larger percentage of the data transmitted over the network.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Metadata optimization for network replication using representative of metadata batch


Methods, devices and systems for monitoring behaviors of a mobile computing device include observing in a non-master processing core a portion of a mobile device behavior that is relevant to the non-master processing core, generating a behavior signature that describes the observed portion of the mobile device behavior, and sending the generated behavior signature to a master processing core. The master processing core combines two or more behavior signatures received from the non-master processing cores to generate a global behavior vector, which may be used by an analyzer module to determine whether a distributed software application is not benign.

Cellular and wireless communication technologies have seen explosive growth over the past several years. This growth has been fueled by better communications, hardware, larger networks, and more reliable protocols. Wireless service providers are now able to offer their customers an ever-expanding array of features and services, and provide users with unprecedented levels of access to information, resources, and communications. To keep pace with these service enhancements, mobile electronic devices (e.g., cellular phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) have become more powerful and complex than ever, and now commonly include multiple processors, system-on-chips (SoCs), and other resources that allow mobile device users to execute complex and power intensive software applications (e.g., video streaming, video processing, etc.) on their mobile devices. This complexity has created new opportunities for malicious software, software conflicts, hardware faults, and other similar errors or phenomena to negatively impact a mobile device's long-term and continued performance and power utilization levels. Accordingly, new and improved solutions for identifying and correcting conditions and/or mobile device behaviors that may negatively impact the mobile device's long term and continued performance and power utilization levels will be beneficial to consumers.

Adaptive observation of behavioral features on a heterogeneous platform


An edge wheel for supporting and rotating a disk-shaped substrate includes a wheel body having a peripheral groove configured to support an edge of a substrate and at least one radial channel extending into said wheel body from said peripheral groove. An edge wheel dryer and a method for processing a disk-shaped substrate are also described.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally an edge wheel for a substrate used in wafer cleaning and other operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Silicon wafers and other substrate materials used in integrated circuit manufacturing must be planarized and polished to meet stringent surface flatness requirements. One common technique for planarizaiton is known as chemical-mechanical planarization/polishing or CMP. CMP is essentially mechanical polishing in which the slurry used is also an etchant for the surface to be polished. After CMP processing, contaminated substrates are cleaned. In one step of cleaning, the surfaces of the substrate are brushed while a cleaning fluid is applied. To dry the substrate, it is supported by a plurality of edge wheels at the edges of the wafer and spun. Other methods of drying in which the wafer is supported by edge wheels are feasible as well. The spinning causes most of the fluid to fly off the substrate. However, due to surface tension, some fluid tends to remain at the edges. In addition, a meniscus can form at the interface of the edge wheels and the substrate. And finally, some liquid may remain on the edge wheel and re-wet the substrate as it spins around.
It is possible to remove some fluid by applying a suction at the edge of the wafer or at the edge of the wheel, but heretofore, there has been no way of effectively removing fluid at the interface of the edge wheel and the substrate.


A scanning module includes a main body and a sensor module. The sensor module includes a circuit board, a sensing element, an image sensor adjustable mechanism and four adjustable rods. By means of the image sensor adjustable mechanism and these four adjustable rods, the positions of the sensing element can be controlled in seven degrees of freedom.

Image scanners are commonly used in offices or homes for scanning for example documents, photographs or films. The scanned images can be converted into an electronic file so as to be stored in a computer or directly printed.
An image scanner principally comprises an optical scanning module and an electronic signal processing circuit. The scanning module comprises a light source, an image sensor such as a charge coupled device (CCD), a lens, and a reflective mirror. The light emitted from the light source is projected onto an object to be scanned. The light reflected from the scanned object is focused by the lens and then received by the CCD. According to the intensity of the received light, the CCD produces electronic signals of images.
As known, a precise focusing adjustment between the CCD and the lens is required during the scanning operation. If the focusing adjustment is improper, the quality of the scanned image is not satisfactory. Therefore, it is important to precisely, quickly and conveniently adjust the position of the CCD relative to the lens during the process of fabricating the scanning module.
Conventionally, in the process of fabricating a scanner with low resolution, the position of the CCD relative to the lens is manually adjusted to achieve orientation by an experienced worker in a production line. This process, however, is not applied to fabricate the scanner with high resolution.
One mechanism for adjusting the position of the CCD relative to the lens is described in Taiwanese Patent Gazette No. 407826, entitled "Adjustable fixing device of a CCD plate." Such a mechanism can adjust the CCD plate in four degrees of freedom. In addition, Taiwanese Patent Gazette No. 407826 also discloses another mechanism for adjusting the CCD plate in five degrees of freedom.
As known from the above discussion, those skilled in the art keep on researching other mechanisms for adjusting the CCD in more degrees of freedom in order to meet the requirement of the scanner with high resolution.


Disclosed herein are a filament lamp for heating a disk-shaped workpiece in such a way that the filament lamp rotates relative to the workpiece and radiates light thereonto. Further, the present invention provides a structure that enables the filament lamps to uniformly heat the workpiece even with respect to the radial direction of the workpiece. For this, the filament lamp includes an arc-shaped emitting part which extends in a circumferential direction of the relative rotation, and an auxiliary emitting part which is disposed inside a circle extending along the arc-shaped emitting part and extends from the arc-shaped emitting part in a direction crossing the circle. In addition, the present invention is configured such that areas of the workpiece that correspond to spaces between the arc-shaped emitting parts of the adjacent filament lamps pass just below the corresponding auxiliary emitting parts.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to filament lamps for heating disk-shaped workpieces and, more particularly, to a filament lamp for heating a semiconductor wafer in such a way that the filament lamp and the semiconductor wafer rotate relative to each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known to those skilled in the art, filament lamps are widely used as heating sources for heat treatment such as annealing, oxidation, diffusion when forming a film such as an oxide film, a metal film or a semiconductor film on a substrate, e.g. a semiconductor wafer, or the like.
A heating apparatus using such a heating source is generally configured such that the heating source heats a workpiece when the workpiece is rotating. This technique was disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-086985 (Prior Art Document 1).
However, the conventional heating apparatus uses a linear tubular lamp, which may easily cause nonuniformity in light radiation between a central portion and a perimeter portion of a workpiece. FIG. 9 shows this nonuniformity phenomenon. When a linear tubular lamp 20 radiates light onto a workpiece W that is rotating, a light radiation rate is different between a central portion A and a perimeter portion B of the workpiece W. As a result, the central portion A of the workpiece W is heated to a high temperature, while the perimeter portion B thereof is heated to a lower temperature. As such, if the overall area of the workpiece W is not uniformly heated, it is impossible to reliably and uniformly process the workpiece. This causes a defective product.
In an effort to overcome the above problem, a heating source having a plurality of annular lamps which face a rotating workpiece was proposed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1999-176389 (Prior Art Document 2). The structure of this heating source is illustrated in FIG. 10. Referring to FIG. 10, the annular lamps 30, 31, 32 and 33 are concentrically arranged. The annular lamps 30, 31, 32 and 33 are individually controlled to uniformly heat the overall area of a workpiece.
However, as shown in FIG. 11, even though the annular lamps that are concentrically arranged on the same plane radiate light onto the workpiece, because areas of the workpiece that correspond to spaces between the lamps do not pass just below the lamps, radiation is applied to these areas with less intensity than it is to those of areas of the workpiece that are disposed just below the lamps. As a result, heating temperature with respect to the radial direction of the workpiece becomes non-uniform.
Furthermore, this conventional technique requires the several annular lamps to be arranged on the same plane, thus making the electrical wiring for the lamps very complex.


A method and apparatus including means for delivery of at least one high speed composite stream of polymer fibers and secondary material. The method and apparatus also includes a movable collection device which intersects in the composite stream of polymer fibers and secondary material and at least one non-contact deflector to redirect at least a portion of the composite stream.

Disposable absorbent articles are used for a variety of applications including disposable diapers, training pants, disposable swim pants, adult incontinence garments, feminine hygiene products, wound dressings, nursing pads, bed pads, wipes, bibs, wound dressings, surgical capes or drapes, and the like. Such disposable absorbent products are generally suited to absorb many substances such as water and body exudates such as urine, menses, blood, and the like.
Some disposable absorbent articles include absorbent structures formed from densified cellulose intermixed with superabsorbent particles. Other absorbent structures are formed from high integrity absorbent structures containing high concentrations of superabsorbent particles entangled or otherwise commingled with long thermoplastic fibers and/or cellulosic fibers (composite nonwoven structures) to improve fit, comfort, and/or performance. These composite nonwoven structures may be expensive due to the addition of thermoplastic fibers. Additionally, these composite nonwoven structures may not be conducive to shaping using conventions methods such as die cutting because of the difficulties in utilizing the portions removed. Conventional methods, such as vacuum forming have not been suitable for forming shaped absorbent structures.
Therefore, there exists a need for apparatus and methods to shape high speed composite streams to form composite nonwoven structures utilizing minimal contact.

Method and apparatus to shape a composite structure without contact


Disclosed is a device for producing embroidery pattern stitch data, wherein a pattern or patterns may be entered or selected from a memory (3) and the like and optionally positioned. It is discriminated if the selected pattern or patterns may be wholly received in a predetermined stitch area. If the selected pattern or patterns may not be wholly received in the stitch area and partly extend beyond the stitch area, print data may be produced for printing the selected pattern or patterns, and simultaneously for printing reference marks defining the positions and angles of the patterns relative to the work holding frame for holding the work to be stitched.

The invention relates to an embroidery stitching data producing device and a sewing machine.
In the recent years, there have been popularized the apparatus which is mechanically operated to stitch embroidery patterns and the sewing machine having a function for stitching embroidery patterns.
In stitching embroidery patterns with mechanical operations, the stitching area is limited with the movability of the mechanical parts constituting the embroidery stitching apparatus. Namely the embroidery pattern may be stitched only in the area where the work or cloth to be embroidered can be moved. Therefore in order to stitch an embroidery pattern which may extend beyond the limited stitching area due to the size and the position of the pattern to be stitched at, it is required to repeatedly change the position of the cloth and subsequently continue stitching until the pattern is completed.
Such a limited stitching area is particularly problematical in connection with a sewing machine which may be operated to stitch embroidery patterns. More particularly, since the sewing machine has a standard standing upright from the base, the stitching area is considerably limited and the size of the work holding frame is accordingly limited, and therefore the size of the embroidery pattern to be formed is accordingly limited.
In order to stitch such embroidery pattern with the sewing machine, it is required to reset the work to the work holding frame (by sliding the frame) many times by use of the template of the pattern usually prepared by the maker so as to continue the stitching of the embroidery pattern until the pattern is completed without the discrepancies of stitches. Further the user has been restricted to stitching only the embroidery patterns predetermined by the maker.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to eliminate the defects and disadvantages of the prior art as mentioned above.

Embroidery stitch data producing device and sewing machine


A parallel kinematically redundant device includes a base body portion and a movable portion. The movable portion includes first, second, and third joints. A first actuator is coupled to the first joint of the movable portion and to the base body portion. A second actuator is coupled in parallel with the first actuator between the second joint of the movable portion and the base body portion. A linking member is rotationally coupled to the third joint of the movable portion to provide an output for the first and second actuators. A housing is coupled to the base body portion and fits onto a user. A prosthetic joint device includes a base portion and a movable portion. An actuator is rotationally coupled to the movable portion and base portion. A compliant element is coupled in parallel with the actuator between the movable portion and base portion.

Prosthetic and orthotic devices help restore mobility to people who lack able-bodied motion or gait. Prosthetic devices are intended to replace the function or appearance of a missing limb and can return mobility to the wearer or user. Orthotic devices are intended to support or supplement an existing limb, by assisting with movement, reducing weight-bearing loads on the body, reducing pain, and controlling or restricting movement. Prosthetic and orthotic devices are available to replace or support various portions of the body. Lower limb prosthetic devices include, for example, the prosthetic foot, the foot-ankle prosthesis, the prosthetic knee joint, and the prosthetic hip joint. Lower limb orthotic devices include, for example, the foot orthoses, the ankle-foot orthoses, the knee-ankle-foot orthoses, and the knee orthoses. People who require a lower limb prosthesis or orthosis often expend more metabolic power to walk or move at the same speed as able-bodied individuals. One goal of lower limb prosthetic and orthotic devices is to help the user achieve a normal gait while reducing energy expended by the user.
Prosthetic and orthotic devices can be divided into two groups, passive devices and active devices. Passive lower limb prosthetics generally rely on compliant members, such as springs, to store and release energy. A spring is able to return only as much energy as is put into the spring. Thus, the energy that is released by a spring in a passive device is limited to the energy that is put in by the user. For example, a spring-based passive foot prosthetic provides about half of the peak power required for gait. The user of a passive device must expend additional energy through other muscles and joints to maintain a normal walking gait. Therefore, passive prosthetic and orthotic designs are limited in capacity to help users reduce metabolic energy expenditure while achieving a normal walking gait and performing other activities.
Active devices differ from passive devices in that active devices use a motor to supply power to the device and to control the device. Current active device designs are inefficient, either requiring relatively large motors, which are heavy and undesirable for wearable devices, or providing low peak power output, which is insufficient for many activities. Control systems for active devices are limited in capability to control active devices. Active prosthetics are typically restricted to a single degree of freedom, which reduces the motion available to the device. Further, active prosthetics are limited to low power activities, because the power necessary for high power activities is unattainable in a small portable system. One goal of active device designs is to increase efficiency of the active components and to build a lighter weight device.
Prosthetic devices are typically designed for a specific activity, such as walking. The majority of active compliant devices utilize a traditional rigid structure. The traditional rigid structure typically includes links powered by actuators such as electric motors or hydraulics. One strategy employs an architecture having a joint which is powered by a compliant member, such as a spring, and an active member, such as a motor driven screw, arranged in series. An activity-specific design strategy and traditional rigid structures may be suited for one specific activity, but the designs are limited in application and are not efficient beyond the intended activity. For example, devices designed for walking perform poorly for running, navigating uneven terrain, walking up and down inclines or stairs, or simply balancing while standing. Carrying heavy loads or transitioning from walking to running remains a challenge for users. Current active devices are ineffective for activities requiring both high velocities under low load and low velocities under high load. Another goal of prosthetic device designs is to perform more similarly to a human muscle during a variety of activities.

Robotic device and method of using a parallel mechanism