In one embodiment, a decoloring apparatus has a heating member for image decoloring, and a shutter to prevent heat transmission from the heating member. The decoloring apparatus further has a contact/separation mechanism for the heating member, a driving mechanism for the shutter, and a controller. The controller controls the contact/separation mechanism, to make the heating member to be moved to the non-decoloring position, and then controls the driving mechanism, to make the shutter to be moved to the shielding position.

Conventionally, a decoloring apparatus which can decolor an image formed of decolorable coloring agent is known. Since a sheet in which a color of an image has been decolored by the decoloring apparatus is reusable, the consumption of sheets can be suppressed. The decoloring apparatus is mainly used in an office and so on. In order to effectively use the space of an office, miniaturization of the decoloring apparatus has been tried.
A decoloring apparatus has a sheet feeding unit, an image reading unit, a decoloring unit and a sheet discharge tray for reuse. Further, the decoloring apparatus has a first sheet conveying path from the sheet feeding unit toward the sheet discharge tray via the image reading unit, and a second sheet conveying path which branches from the first sheet conveying path at a branch point located at the downstream of the image reading unit and goes toward the decoloring unit. A sheet to be fed by the sheet feeding unit is conveyed to the image reading unit via the first sheet conveying path. The image reading unit reads an image formed on the sheet. The decoloring apparatus determines whether or not an image has been formed on the sheet, based on the reading result by the image reading unit. When it is determined that an image has not been formed on the sheet, the sheet is conveyed to the sheet discharge tray via the first sheet conveying path. On the other hand, when it is determined that an image has been formed on the sheet, the sheet is conveyed to the decoloring unit via the second sheet conveying path.
However, in a miniaturized decoloring apparatus, there may be a case in which a length of the sheet is longer than a distance from the image reading unit to the branch point, depending on a sheet to be dealt with. When the length of the sheet is longer, a leading edge of the sheet in the sheet conveying direction reaches the branch point, before the reading of an image of the whole of the sheet to be conveyed is finished. As described above, when it is determined that an image has been formed on the sheet, it is necessary that the sheet which has reached the branch point is conveyed to the decoloring unit via the second sheet conveying path, so as to perform the decoloring processing.
However, when an image formed on a sheet contains a confidential content, for example, the confidential content is decolored by the decoloring unit. Here, the decoloring unit heats the decolorable coloring agent at not less than a prescribed temperature, to make the color of the coloring agent colorless and transparent. But even if the coloring agent has been colorless and transparent, the coloring agent remains on the sheet while being fixed to the sheet. In other words, an image containing the confidential content comes to be formed of the coloring agent which has become transparent, on the sheet after the decoloring by the decoloring unit. The image formed of the coloring agent which has become transparent can be viewed, depending on the reflective condition of light.
Even if the image containing the confidential content has been formed on the sheet discharged after the decoloring processing, as described above, there is a possibility that a user cannot recognize the confidential content. Accordingly, the sheet formed with the image containing the confidential content is handed over to a third party, and thereby the confidential information is likely to leak to the third party. Accordingly, regarding a sheet formed with an image containing a confidential content, it is more ideal not to perform the decoloring processing to such a sheet.
However, when a length of a sheet is longer than the distance from the image reading unit to the branch point, as described above, the sheet formed with an image containing a confidential content might be conveyed to the decoloring unit. Accordingly, when the decoloring processing is performed to the sheet formed with an image containing a confidential content, the confidential information is likely to leak to a third party.


A superconducting cable cooling system, wherein coolant continually provides cooling to superconducting cable, comprising a plurality of nodes within a superconducting cable network and a plurality of legs of superconducting cable which interconnect each of the nodes of the superconducting cable network.

Electrical transmission through cables generates heat which reduces the efficiency of the electrical transmission, particularly over relatively long distances. This is especially the case when the electrical transmission cable is a superconducting cable.
Superconductivity is the phenomenon wherein certain metals, alloys and compounds, such as YBCO, REBCO and BSCCO, at very low temperatures lose electrical resistance so that they have infinite electrical conductivity. It is important in the use of superconducting cable to transmit electricity, that the cooling, i.e. refrigeration, provided to the superconducting cable not fall below a certain level lest the cable lose its ability to superconduct and the electrical transmission be compromised. While systems which can provide the requisite refrigeration to superconducting cable are known, such systems are costly, complicated and subject to breakdown. Moreover, known systems typically manifest an inefficient use of the coolant.


A wheeled bag assembly having an elongated wheeled bottom assembly made out of a rigid and moldable material with an upperside, an underside, first and second lateral sides, first and second ends defined, respectively, by first and second folds along said underside, said first fold extending away from said underside a first predetermined distance. Wheel members mounted to the lateral sides opposite to a supporting fold with cooperative dimensions to permit the bottom assembly to be at rest at a substantially parallel and spaced apart relationship with respect to a supporting surface. A bag member with flat bottom wall is mounted over the upperside and extends upwardly defining an internal compartment and an upper end opening. A user tilts the bag assembly and pulls it from handles mounted adjacent to the opening causing the wheels to roll and the assembly to easily move with its contents.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wheeled shopping bag, and more particularly, to a collapsible, lightweight, low cost disposable-wheeled shopping bag with characteristics that allow for compact stacking, easy deployment and quick opening, and strength.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several designs for wheeled shopping bags have been designed in the past. None of them, however, includes the convenience of being disposable while maintaining sufficient strength and being collapsible for compact stacking and storage as well as easily deployed by the user.
Applicant believes that the closest related reference corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 3,197,225 issued to Powell for a Collapsible Shopping Bag [hereinafter "Powell Bag"]. However, it differs from the present invention because, it relies on the use of hinges and supports made of sheet metal, fabric, or a combination thereof with the intent of being reused and does not rest on its roller system assembly when at rest due to the obtuse angle of attachment of the wheels. The present invention, on the other hand, is made of a disposable, lightweight material that sits on its roller system when at rest. Furthermore, the Powell Bag is height adjustable to accommodate shoppers of various heights and does not claim or demonstrate any stacking characteristics.
One of the disadvantages of the current designs is that they rely on a multiplicity of parts, such as hinges, fasteners, and reinforcing members, to achieve stability and collapsibility. These parts result in high material and manufacturing cost. As a consequence, these designs must accommodate long term personal reuse, and thus focus on collapsing to the smallest possible dimensions for personal carry. Another disadvantage is that many of theses designs will eliminate stability by reducing the number of wheels, resulting in lateral instability when not in use. Still another shortcoming of the current designs is that they are unsuitable for stacking due, among other factors, to lateral instability, protrusions of rigid supports, bulk, and lack of flat surfaces.
The present invention solves these problems by using simple corrugated cardboard parts and paper bags that can be glued and do not require hinges. Strength of that wheeled base is achieved through the use of multiple folds of the corrugated cardboard, utilizing triangular fold for rigidity. The triangular folds not only provide strength, but provide stability and a housing for the wheels. As a result of the design of the base, multiple units may be stacked stably in their collapsed states. The natural folding characteristics of paper bags achieve collapsibility.
Other patents describing the closest subject matter provide for a number of more or less complicated features that fail to solve the problem in an efficient and economical way. None of these patents suggest the novel features of the present invention.


An image producing apparatus including a control panel. When a school mode is selected, numeric or alphanumeric keys are pressed on a keypad so as to select one or a plurality of classes or grades. Numerical data concerning the number of students per class and grade are extracted, and are registered as the number of prints to be produced and sorted.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image producing apparatus such as a printing machine, a copying machine and a printer, and, more particularly, to control functions for such an image producing apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, more image producing apparatuses have been installed in educational institutions as well as in business firms. Some schools have operators dedicated to operating such image producing apparatuses. However, most copying or printing jobs are carried out by teachers.
A variety of documents are copied or printed in the school. For instance, contents of copied or printed papers may be different in each class (class newspapers), may be different in grades (e.g., examination papers), or may be the same throughout the school (e.g., PTA newspaper).
In order to copy or print the foregoing papers, it is necessary to know the number of students per class, the number of students per grade, and the total number of students in the school. For instance, in the case of copies or prints whose contents differ for every grade or whose contents are the same throughout the school, copied or printed sheets should be stacked for respective classes according to the number of students per class.
Thus, a table is usually shown in the vicinity of a copying or printing machine, which indicates the number of students per grade and per class in the shape of a matrix. Referring to the table, a teacher enters and registers the number of student data in the copying or printing machine, thereby producing a desired number of copies or prints. When obtaining the desired copies or prints, he or she inserts a slip sheet or the like in order to discriminate previous copies or prints from succeeding ones. Then, he or she starts producing new copies or prints.
Therefore, copying or printing may be usually performed with reduced efficiency. Further, the foregoing table is indispensable.
There has been an image producing apparatus which provides a class mode and a memory mode as well as an ordinary mode. The class mode is selected when producing a plurality of sets of copies or prints, each set having the same number of sheets. The memory mode can store a plurality of set numbers indicating different quantities of copies or prints to be produced. However, when the image producing apparatus is used in a school where respective classes are different from one another in the number of students, the class mode cannot be used. Further, since a number of teachers may operate the image producing apparatus one after another, it is troublesome to remember memory numbers in which respective classes are stored. In particular the class mode or memory mode is difficult and complicated to operate.


A method of reconstructing an image, where the input image data is preferably part I or part II compliant JPEG2000 coded data, or pixel data of the original image. The method selects (810) an output resolution R, and then determines a number of sub-passes to extract from each block code based on the selected resolution. The method then extracts (830) the determined sub-passes and the remaining sub-passes are discarded. The method then reconstructs 840 the image from the extracted sub-passes. The reconstructed image can be in the form of the selected resolution of the original image, or it can be in the form of compressed image data of the selected resolution of the original image.

The field of digital data compression and in particular digital image compression has attracted a great interest for some time.
The compression of images using a lossy format requires a number of decisions to be made. Firstly, the resolution at which the image is to be stored must be determined. This is usually driven by the application of the image and it is common to save using a number of different resolutions for different applications such as on-screen display, web publication, printing, previewing etc. Secondly there is a choice as to the quality or amount of loss that will be permitted. This choice directly affects the compression rate for the image and, so, is often application driven as well. Finally the progression order of the codestream may be important to the particular application. This order can affect how an image is progressively updated as it is transferred over a slow network connection such as the Internet.
A widely used standard for image compression is the "Joint Photographic Experts Group" or JPEG standard for image compression. A new image compression method herein after called JPEG2000 has recently been standardized by the ISO (ISO/IEC 15444-1:2000-Part I of JPEG2000). Part 11 of JPEG2000 is currently in the process of being standardized by the JPEG group and a draft standard has been published entitled "INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY—JPEG2000 IMAGE CODING SYSTEM: EXTENSIONS—JPEG2000 Part 11 Final Draft International Standard, Study Document Pre-Release B, 9 Mar. 2001". JPEG2000 (part 1) is an image compression standard that offers excellent compression and many features. One of the main features of JPEG2000 (part 1) is progressive transmission. JPEG2000 (part 1) supports a number of different progressive modes including progressive by quality and progressive by resolution. A JPEG2000 decoder can extract or receive a subset of the compressed image codestream, and use this to reconstruct a lower resolution or lower quality image.
The problem with older standards such as the previous JPEG standard was that these decisions concerning different resolutions had to be made at encode time. This meant that, often, many different versions of each image would need to be generated. One to serve as an original and numerous application specific versions. The JPEG2000 digital image compression standard improves on this situation by deferring these decisions to decode time. When using a JPEG2000 compressed image it is theoretically possible to store a single "original" and decode it differently for each application. For this reason, much is made of the potential applications of JPEG2000 in client server environments such as the Internet. In practice however, JPEG2000 does not in itself provide a solution to this problem, rather it is a tool which may be used in many different ways to achieve any given task.


The invention provides methods of diagnosing or determining a cause of an autoimmune encephalitis or an epilepsy in a subject and of diagnosing a tumor in a subject, comprising the step of testing a biological sample of the subject for an antibody to LGI1. This invention further provides methods of treating an autoimmune encephalitis or an epilepsy, comprising the steps of detecting an antibody to LGI1 and treating a tumor associated with the disease.

Limbic encephalitis is a serious neurological disease that causes inflammation in brain limbic system, including hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, and amygdale. Patients with limbic encephalitis often present with memory loss, seizures and/or confusion.
Encephalitis, including limbic encephalitis, fall into two main categories: infectious encephalitis—caused by direct invasion of the brain by an infectious agent, usually a virus and autoimmune encephalitis—caused by the persons own immune system reacting against itself.
Autoimmune limbic encephalitis can be either paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis (PLE) or non-paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis (NPLE). Until the mid-1990s, most cases of non-viral limbic encephalitis were considered to be paraneoplastic.
Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis (PLE) occurs in a small proportion of people with particular cancers. Most individuals with PLE will turn out to have a cancer in lung, thymus gland, breast or testis. In many cases, PLE can be diagnosed by testing for one of a group of paraneoplastic autoantibodies in blood. The condition may improve or at least stabilise if the cancer is detected and treated effectively.
NPLE has been attributed in many cases to specific antibodies in blood that target the potassium channel, called voltage-gated potassium channel (VGKC) antibody-associated encephalitis. This type of NPLE is believed to cause a reduction in the number of potassium channels, decreasing the control over neuronal synaptic transmission.
An accurate diagnosis of autoimmune encephalitis is particularly important because the disease is potentially treatable, using immunosuppressive drugs such as steroids. A cell based assay in which HEK293 cells transfected with autoantigen serve as a substrate for an unambiguous immunocytochemical assay for antibody detection in patients' serum or CSF is needed. Over the years, multiple attempts to develop an assay where cells transfected with Kv subunits of the VGKC have failed. Currently, VGKC antibody-associated encephalitis is diagnosed using immunoprecipitation techniques based on 125I-α-dendrotoxin-labeled VGKC (dendrotoxin binds to Kv1.1, Kv1.2 and Kv1.6). This test however, is neither accurate nor specific. Accordingly, there exists a need for improved methods of diagnosing and treating autoimmune encephalitis or epileptic seizures.

Methods for diagnosing and treating an LGI1 related autoimmune disease

THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA


A positioning fixture, or jig, adapted for use with conventional, off-the-shelf orthodontic appliance brackets and arch wires is shaped for optimum placement of the bracket on its associated tooth. Computer modeling of each tooth using digital scanning techniques allows each jig to be custom sized and shaped by CAD/CAM. The jig may be translucent for use with a light sensitive adhesive applied to the bracket to permit light curing of the adhesive. The jig may further be provided with one or more color-coded indicia such as for designating the arch and the particular tooth with which the jig is to be used. The jig may be further provided with elasticity to allow for deformation or failure of the jig to facilitate its removal and may also include an integral occlusal standoff extension to ensure proper in/out, or prominence, registration from the tooth's enamel surface as well as an alignment tab to ensure proper positioning of the jig on its associated tooth. The width of the jig may vary from the width of the appliance to the full width of the tooth itself, where the tooth lacks distinguishing anatomy. A set of jigs for a full set of teeth is packaged in a blister pack arrangement, with each jig attached to an associated removable brace for secure, fixed positioning within an individual upraised compartment of the blister pack. The jig may also span a gap between adjacent teeth for attaching an orthodontic bracket to one of the teeth where sufficient stabilization of the jig cannot be achieved by engaging the target tooth alone.

Orthodontic braces comprised of a plurality of brackets and an arch wire for applying the appropriate force to a patient's teeth are commonly used to move the teeth into a desired configuration or alignment. Each bracket is firmly attached to its associated tooth and serves as a handle on the tooth for the force-producing arch wire. Early approaches provided control of the magnitude and direction of the orthodontic forces by incorporating appropriate bends in the arch wire. Later approaches employed a "straight wire", where the force vector directions were transferred from the arch wire to the individual brackets. This is accomplished by incorporating an arch wire-receiving slot in each bracket so that the desired force is applied to each tooth in the arch by simply attaching a straight length of wire having a rectangular cross section into the slot of each bracket. In a typical straight wire system, the bracket force vectors for specific tooth types are determined so as to match population averages. There is no individual adaptability for the specific needs of an individual patient. The patient's individual pretreatment malocclusion, dental morphology, and facial parameters do not enter into the specific treatment employed. If the bracket is not correctly positioned on the tooth, the desired displacement and/or reorientation of the tooth will not be realized.
Later approaches have employed orthodontic appliance placement methods which take into consideration the individual parameters of the patient. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,419 discloses a method of forming an orthodontic brace involving calculations based upon measurements of the patient's teeth for determining the positions, angles and depths of the arch wire-engaging grooves in the individual brackets of the appliance. A similar approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,238 which employs a mechanical probe of determining the contours of a patient's teeth. U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,405 discloses a method for determining orthodontic bracket placement involving the generation of digital information defining the shape and location of the maloccluded tooth in the patient's jaw, from which digital information a mathematical model of the tooth and jaw is generated for calculating the correct placement position of a bracket on the tooth. U.S. Pat. No. 4,551,096 discloses an apparatus and method for treating malocclusion involving the use of a fixture which fits over a tooth on which a bracket is to be affixed, where the shape and dimensions of the fixture match the shape and contour of a portion of the associated tooth. All of the aforementioned approaches employ a standard fixture, or jig, for positioning of the bracket on its associated tooth. The use of an off-the-shelf jig limits the accuracy with which the bracket can be positioned on the tooth as well as the precision with which the tooth can be aligned in the desired position and orientation.
The present invention addresses the aforementioned limitations of the prior art by providing a custom-shaped positioning jig for attaching an orthodontic appliance bracket to a tooth in installing orthodontic braces. The shape and configuration of the inventive positioning jig is determined using CAD/CAM techniques and the jig is provided with various features which facilitate its use, as well as its installation on and removal from a patient's teeth.


The vehicle leveler includes a first portion which has a leading edge and a trailing edge, the trailing edge is disposed further from the driveway than the leading edge. The embodiment also includes a second portion which has a leading edge and a trailing edge, the leading edge of the second portion is attached to the trailing edge of the first portion and the leading edge of the second portion is disposed further from the driveway than the trailing edge of the second portion. The second portion also includes an extension portion. The vehicle leveler also includes opposing side portions which extend the length of and contact the second portion and extension portion, the opposing side portions have a top surface which forms a walkway.

A variety of truck levelers have been devised to adjust the height of different trailers to properly match the deck of the trailer to the height of the dock. By aligning the height of the trailer and the dock the loading and unloading of cargo is facilitated.
One such device is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,446 to Gould which discloses a reinforced platform pivotally mounted to the ground at one end and includes a support assembly having hydraulic cylinders. In operation the rear wheels of a truck trailer are backed onto the platform and then the non-mounted end of the platform is lifted by the hydraulic cylinders until the deck of the trailer is equal to the height of the dock.
A similar device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,792 to Cherry, et al. which also discloses a pivotally-mounted and hydraulically-raised platform. In addition to the disclosure of Gould, the device includes mounting the hydraulics inwardly from the non-mounted end of the platform and an aperture in the non-mounted end of the platform to accommodate a truck restraining device.
Another design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,043 to Leum, et al. which teaches a low-profile truck leveler. In this design a low-profile leveler is enabled through the use of a raised rear beam and two lateral beams that extend above the upper surface of the platform. In addition, a central beam adds further to the strength and rigidity of the leveler.
Vehicle levelers of the prior art typically have certain disadvantages. The majority of vehicle levelers have ramp surfaces which are not highly adjustable. This is a distinct disadvantage when vehicles are being loaded or unloaded with cargo. Levelers of the prior art are also not able to accommodate all types of vehicles. This is yet another disadvantage.
Some levelers of the prior art have certain shortcomings and disadvantages to which this device is drawn. Specifically, it would be advantageous to have a vehicle leveler which is highly adjustable and can elevate both the rear and front axles of a vehicle at the same time so as to minimize the slope of the internal floor of the vehicle and thereby allow safer loading and unloading of cargo. It would also be advantageous to have a vehicle leveler which has enhanced safety features such as an adjacent elevated walkway for vehicle operators.
In summary, there are problems and shortcomings in the prior art vehicle levelers and it is to these needs that this device is drawn.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Systems and techniques are described for allocating data store queues to virtual machines. A described technique includes allocating a respective queue to each of a plurality of threads, wherein the queue is configured to queue data requests from the respective thread and for a first data store, determining, for each of a plurality of threads, a respective maximum quantity of pending requests for the thread, wherein a quantity of pending requests sent from the respective queue to the first data store is equal to the maximum quantity of pending requests determined for the thread, determining, for each of the threads, a respective current quantity of operations per second, determining, for each of one or more first threads in the plurality of threads, a respective updated quantity of pending requests, and adjusting, for each first thread, the quantity of pending requests of the first thread sent to the first data store.

This document relates to allocating data request queues for virtual machines.
A virtual machine is a software-based abstraction of a physical computer system. In general, any computer program that can be executed on a physical computer system can be executed in a virtual machine using virtualization software. Virtualization software is software that is logically interposed and interfaces with a virtual machine and a physical computer system. Each virtual machine is configured to execute an operating system, referred to herein as a guest OS, and applications. A physical computer system, referred to herein as a host machine, can execute one or more virtual machines.
A virtual machine may have one or more virtual machine disks that store data for the virtual machine. The virtual machine disks may be included on multiple data stores, e.g., the same data store or different data stores, and each data store may include one or more disk arrays.

Virtual machine data store queue allocation


An uninterruptible rotational energy supply calibrated to provide constant rotational energy to electric generators and other apparatus in environments where fluctuations in kinetic energy are found. Such environments include the pause between the ebb and flow of the oceans' tides and waves as well as variations in the velocity of the oceans' currents. Wind-driven turbines may also be another beneficiary of this technology.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to energy capture systems, typically hydraulic turbines that capture the inconsistent kinetic energy found in the oceans' currents, tides, and waves, as well as wind turbines in need of a more regulated uninterrupted supply of rotational energy.
2. Prior Art
Previously energy capture systems that relied on inconstant sources of kinetic energy, such as wind turbines, had to make do. The only mechanism available to even out such inconstancies was found in self-winding watches. These mechanisms capture the kinetic energy of a swinging arm via a pendulum and store that energy in the watch's mainspring. The mainspring then releases the now potential energy as needed to drive the watch's arms.
The closest patent to this invention is U.S. Pat. No. 6,763,915 entitled "Mainspring Mechanism and Device Having the Same" by Nagao. Besides a form factor that is unsuitable for the environments mentioned above it also has a built-in brake which the present invention does not contain. This invention relies on an external rotary transmission means for regulating rotational energy.
3. Objects and Advantages
Accordingly, the objects and advantages of the invention are, the ability to store kinetic energy, and the ability to release it at a constant rate, for use in powering electric generators. This advantage is applicable to hydraulic and pneumatic turbine applications, providing an uninterruptible source of rotational energy.


A controller (101) designates the method of integrating viewpoint images. An image integrator (102) creates an integrated image by placing individual viewpoint images in appropriate positions. A 3D image control information creator (103) creates 3D image control information by formatting the placement mode of individual viewpoint images and various 3-dimensional image characteristics. An encoder (104) encodes integrated image data. A multiplexer (105) multiplexes the coded data and the 3D image control information and outputs them. A filename deciding unit (106) decides the name of a file when multiplexed data is recorded as a file. A storage directory deciding unit (107) decides the directory in which a file to be recorded is stored. A file creator (108) records a file with the decided filename under the decided storage directory. Thus, the distinction between 3-dimensional display image data and 2-dimensional image data can be clarified.

Conventionally, various methods have been proposed which display 3-dimensional images. There is a method called the "lenticular system" which is one of these. One example of a recording data format to be used in this lenticular system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Hei 11-41627 described below.
FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram showing one example of a data recording format of the lenticular system. A left-eye image 301 as shown in FIG. 13(a) and a right-eye image 302 as shown in FIG. 13(b) are each thinned to half with respect to the horizontal direction, forming and recording a frame of image 303 as shown in FIG. 13(c). The thus formed image that is composed of a plurality of images is called an integrated image. When reproduced, this integrated image 303 is rearranged in a format that corresponds to an associated display to perform stereoscopic display.
Since this integrated image can be handed as an ordinary 2-dimensional image, it is possible to compress the image using a predetermined compression technique, or store it in a predetermined file format. Upon this process, if a widespread compression technique and an existing file format are used, the integrated image can be recognized as an existing format file even in a conventional reproducing device having no 3-dimensional image displaying function and can be displayed as a 2-dimensional image. As the specific examples of compression methods and file formats, JPEG, BUMP, etc., can be given for still images while, for motion pictures, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MOTION JPEG, etc., can be given as the compression method and Quick Time, Real System, Windows (R) Media Video, etc., can be given as the file format.
From a viewpoint of performing display on conventional reproducing devices, when JPEG data is to be recorded, recording of data into files conforming to the Exif (Exchangeable image file format) and DCF (Design rule for Camera File system) standard, which is an image file format standard used for digital still cameras and related systems, makes it possible for the data to be reproduced on most digital still cameras. In this DCF standard, a file conforming to the DCF standard is called a DCT file and a directory for storing the DCF file is called a DCF directory; in order to establish strong compatibility between digital still cameras, the naming rules for DCF files and DCF directories are determined as follows.    (1) The name of a file is made of "filename", "." and "extension".    (2) A filename is made of 8 characters.    (3) The first four characters of a filename can use any combination of half-width uppercase alphabetic characters, numerals and ' ' (underbar).    (4) The last four characters of a filename forms a number between "0001" and "9999", and is called a file number.    (5) A file containing a primary image is added with an extension ".JPG".
The naming rules for DCF directories and the directory structure are as follows.    (1) A directory name is made of 8 characters.    (2) The first three characters of a directory name forms a number between "100" and "999", and is called a directory number.    (3) The last five characters of a directory name can be any combination of half-width uppercase alphabetic characters, numerals and ' '.    (4) DCF directories are formed under a directory titled as "DCIM" existing under the root directory.    (5) DCF files are stored under a DCF directory.
FIG. 14 shows an example of a directory structure conforming to the DCF standard.
When 3-dimensional image data is stored in an existing format, it is necessary to distinguish it from usual 2-dimensional image data as described above; one example of a method of distinction is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open 2000-201308 described below.
In this disclosure, it is possible to collect special files into a particular directory by enabling the user to select the directory of the files to be recorded when images are captured by an electronic still camera.
However, even though the user recorded special files into the particular directory, it is impossible for another user to decide whether the files are of 3-dimensional image data or 2-dimensional image data.
Further, there are various information required for 3-dimensional display, such as the number of viewpoints, the method of thinning and others, it is however impossible to know in what format the recorded data was recorded, hence there occurs problem that, if a third person obtains the data, the person is not able to know how the data should be processed to display it.
The present invention has been devised to solve the above problems, it is therefore an object to provide an image file creating apparatus which enables distinction of a recorded image file between that of 2-dimensional image data and that of 3-dimensional image data as well as to providing an image file reproducing apparatus for reproducing such data.

Image file creating apparatus and image file reproducing apparatus


Provided is a process of refining Boolean queries, the process including: obtaining a query; searching a corpus of documents based on the query; selecting narrowing terms that pertain to respective subsets of the responsive documents; selecting broadening terms related to the query; instructing the user's computing device to present a graphical user interface comprising: graphical representations of the narrowing terms; graphical representations of the broadening terms; and one or more user inputs by which the user refines the query by adding a selected narrowing term or a selected broadening term; obtaining a user selection of a broadening term or a narrowing term; forming a refined query based on the user selection; searching at least part of the corpus based on the refined query to identify refined responsive documents; and instructing the user's computing device to present an updated graphical user interface with information about the refined responsive documents.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to computational linguistics and, more specifically, to techniques for composing and refining Boolean queries on data sets related to computational linguistics.
2. Description of the Related Art
Often people wish to draw inferences based on information contained in, and distributed among, relatively large collections of documents, e.g., substantially more documents than they have time to read or the cognitive capacity to analyze. Certain types of inferences implicate relationships between those documents. For example, it may be useful to organize documents by the subject matter described in the documents, sentiments expressed in the documents, or topics addressed in the documents. In many cases, useful insights can be derived from such organization, for example, discovering taxonomies, ontologies, relationships, or trends that emerge from the analysis. Examples might include organizing restaurants based on restaurant reviews, organizing companies based on content in company websites, organizing current events or public figures based on new stories, and organizing movies based on dialogue.
One family of techniques for making such inferences is computational linguistic analysis of text, such as unstructured text, within the documents of a corpus, e.g., with natural language processing techniques, like those based on distributional semantics. Computers are often used to perform semantic similarity analyses within corpora to gauge document pair-wise similarity of the documents according to various metrics, or pair-wise measures of relationships between entities, topics, terms, or sentiments discussed in the documents, which may be crafted to yield results like those described above. Through the sophisticated use of computers, inferences that would otherwise be impractical are potentially attainable, even on relatively large collections of documents.
In many cases, the collections of documents are relatively large, for example, more than 100 documents, and in many cases more than 10,000 documents, making it difficult for users to effectively explore the results of analyses. One powerful tool for interrogating such a corpus, or an analysis of such a corpus, is a Boolean query.
Boolean queries are used in a variety of contexts, including to express queries for relational databases and queries for searching natural language in unstructured documents. This query format has the advantage of being relatively expressive and precise. Very complex queries can be expressed as combinations of query elements (like keywords or database field values or ranges) and Boolean operators (like "and," "or," and "not"). For these reasons, Boolean queries are often favored by developers of software systems.
Many users, however, struggle to properly formulate Boolean queries. Non-technical users are often not trained in formal logic and find Boolean queries to be nonintuitive and frustrating. Compounding this problem, typical use cases for Boolean queries involve iterative query formulation, by which a user submits a query, reviews the results, and then refines their query, in an iterative process until they reach the search results that they desire. Thus, to use this powerful technique, the user formulates multiple queries, adjusting the queries at the margin, a process that can be particularly nonintuitive for less sophisticated users.


An apparatus for processing wafer-shaped articles includes a rotary chuck adapted to hold a wafer shaped article thereon. The rotary chuck includes a peripheral series of pins configured to contact an edge region of a wafer-shaped article. Each of the pins projects upwardly from the rotary chuck, and each of the pins is individually secured to the rotary chuck by a respective connecting mechanism. Any selected one of the pins can be removed from the rotary chuck by disconnecting its corresponding connecting mechanism without removing any structure of the rotary chuck that surrounds any others of the pins.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to apparatus for liquid treatment of wafer-shaped articles.
2. Description of Related Art
Semiconductor wafers undergo a variety of wet processing stages during manufacture of integrated circuits. To accommodate such processes, a single wafer may be supported in relation to one or more treatment fluid nozzles by a chuck associated with a rotatable or non-rotatable carrier.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,903,717 and 5,513,668 describe such chucks wherein a plurality of pins assemblies arranged in a circular series contact a peripheral edge of the wafer. The contact surfaces of the pin assemblies are eccentric to the rotational axes of the pin assemblies, and can thus be driven in unison by a common ring gear between a radially inward use position and a radially outward loading and unloading position. Commonly-owned copending application U.S. 2010/0206481 describes a variation on such pin assemblies in which the contact surfaces of the pin assemblies support the weight of the wafer, and position the wafer at a fixed height above the upper plate of the chuck.
More recent versions of such chucks have included heating assemblies that are positioned above the upper plate of the chuck but below the level where a wafer is supported, an example of such a chuck being described in commonly-owned copending application U.S. 2013/0061873.
The repair and maintenance of such chucks is relatively complicated and time-consuming, because, in order to replace even one of the pin assemblies, the chuck has to be disassembled from its associated drive and elevating unit, removed from its associated process module, and dismantled to its individual components under clean room conditions. This operation is especially time-consuming in the case of chucks equipped with heating assemblies as identified above, because the entire lamp housing has to be removed before the chuck itself can be removed from its associated drive unit.

Method and apparatus for liquid treatment of wafer shaped articles


Embodiments are directed to maintaining coherence between web application versions, to maintaining proper versions between web application clients and servers and to determining whether to apply a web application update. In one scenario, a computer system receives a data request from a web application client for certain specified data. The data is indexed according to a web application schema, and the data request includes a web application client version identifier. The computer system determines that the requested data is not accessible using the web application schema, updates the web application schema to a current version of the web application schema and processes the received data request using the updated web application schema.

Computers have become highly integrated in the workforce, in the home, in mobile devices, and many other places. Computers can process massive amounts of information quickly and efficiently. Software applications designed to run on computer systems allow users to perform a wide variety of functions including business applications, schoolwork, entertainment and more. Software applications are often designed to perform specific tasks, such as word processor applications for drafting documents, or email programs for sending, receiving and organizing email.
In some cases, software applications that are primarily designed for synchronous communication with a server can be designed to allow offline functionality. For instance, a personal information management application that allows user access to email, contacts and calendar information, may be configured both for online access and offline access. In offline mode, a user makes changes to his or her email, contacts or calendar appointments and these changes are queued until the next time the user is online. This offline period may be relatively short (e.g. during a flight), or may be extensive. When the user brings the application back online, backend server code may have changed, introducing potential client/server version mismatches.


A viscous heater as an auxiliary heating source in a heating system for a vehicle having a water cooled internal combustion engine. The viscous heater has an inlet port 14 for the engine cooling water and an outlet 15 for the engine cooling water, which are connected to respective conduits in the engine cooling system by means of a coupling device. The coupling device include coupling pipes 50A and 50B which are connected to the respective conduits in the engine cooling system at respective directing angles to allow the coupling pipes 50A and 50B to be aligned with the respective conduits.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heating device for a vehicle wherein an auxiliary heating source is provided for heating recirculating water for heating a cabin of the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
The Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2-246823 discloses a viscous heater which is used as an auxiliary heating source for a heating device for a cabin of a vehicle. The viscous heater includes a front and rear housings which are in axial face-to-face contact and are connected by means of circumferentially spaced bolts which pass through the front and rear housings. Inside the housings, a heat generating chamber and a water jacket are formed so that the water jacket is located outside the heat generating chamber. Formed in the housing are an inlet port for introducing the recirculating water into the water jacket and an outlet port for removing the recirculated water into an outside heating circuit. A rotating shaft is rotatably supported by the front housing via a bearing and a rotor is fixedly connected to the rotating shaft so that the rotor is rotated in the heat generating chamber when the rotating shaft is rotated by a crankshaft of an internal combustion engine. The heat generating chamber is formed with an inner surface, which, at a small distance, faces an outer surface of the rotor. These faced surfaces are formed with labyrinth grooves, which are adjacent to each other. A viscous fluid is filled in the gap between the inner surface of the heat generating chamber and an outer surface of the rotor.
In the operation of the viscous heater in the above patent, an application of a rotating movement to the drive shaft causes the rotor to be rotated in the heat generating chamber, so that the viscous fluid in the gap between the inner surface of the heat generating chamber and the outer surface of the rotor is subjected to shearing, thereby generating a heat. Then, a heat exchange of the heat of the viscous fluid with respect to the recirculating water occurs, thereby causing the recirculating water to be heated, which is fed to the heating system for heating the cabin of the vehicle.
In the viscous heater of the prior art, the inlet and outlet ports for the recirculating water are connected to the outside conduits for an engine cooling water by using unions formed as tubular portions extending integrally and in parallel from the housing. However, the arrangement of the outside conduits as combined with a cooling water recirculating system is different between types of vehicles in which the heater is mounted. Furthermore, an arrangement of unions for connecting the heater with the outside heating conduit is also different between the types of the vehicle to which the viscous heater is mounted. As a result, in the structure of the viscous heater, where the unions are integrated with the housing, different types of housings are required in accordance with the types of the vehicle, resulting in an increase in production cost.

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyoda Jidoshokki Seisakusho


A ventilation device to be applied to items of clothing, which includes an assembly with through holes, which is composed of a band of material that is at least partially transparent and impermeable and is configured to be arranged externally. A layer is provided to be placed in view and is made of natural or synthetic fabric or natural or synthetic leather. At least one layer of adhesive polymeric material mutually joins the outer and the layer, between which it is sandwiched. A membrane which is impermeable to water and permeable to vapor, provided to be arranged internally, is sealed at least perimetrically to the assembly on the side of the layer to be placed in view.

It is known that people wear shoes and clothing mainly to protect themselves from weather and the cold.
Depending on the external temperature and on the environmental conditions, it is necessary to resort to various "layers" of clothing in order to adapt the body to the surrounding environment.
This protection system allows, in particular, to easily adapt the body to the thermal variations that can occur simply by adding or removing one or more layers of clothing.
The human body inherently has a series of "mechanisms" that allow it to adapt thermally to the surrounding environment.
In case of overheating, the body, in fact, reacts by increasing perspiration, which by evaporating ensures a natural lowering of the temperature of the body.
However, if the water vapor is unable to escape from the layers of clothing in which the human body is wrapped, humidity increases and the vapor condenses, returning to the liquid state of perspiration and thus wetting the clothes starting from the ones that constitute the first layer (underwear).
The only solution to this drawback is to replace as quickly as possible the wet item with a dry one, with the risk, however, of subjecting the body to sudden chilling.
A breathable item of clothing has recently been devised which is disclosed in Italian Patent Application PD99A000149 of Jul. 6, 1999 and in the corresponding WO 01/01803 A1 and comprises a protective outer enclosure with an internal layer that affects at least part of the extension of said outer enclosure and defines internally an interspace.
The inner layer has, at least at the regions of the human body where sweat forms most abundantly, holes for access to said interspace for the vapor produced by sweating.
The inner layer and the outer enclosure have, in the top regions of the item, holes for the evacuation of the vapor that is conveyed by a "stack effect" inside said interspace, combined with means that hold out water, impurities or other substances.
The means that hold out water is constituted by a membrane that is permeable to vapor and/or air, impermeable to water, arranged in the upper regions where the vapor exit holes are formed, and interposed between said outer enclosure and said inner layer.
As an alternative, the means that hold out the water is constituted by a ventilation element that is provided with means for fixing to the fabric of an item of clothing at an appropriately provided opening.
The ventilation element has, at the part to be arranged externally, an orientation that slopes from the center toward the peripheral region and a top opening.
An external protective dome, raised substantially from the ventilation element, is fixed perimetrically thereto and has, in a position other than the central one, at least one hole that is not aligned with the central opening.
Although said means that hold out water have been found to be functional, even in the other embodiments disclosed in Italian Patent Application PD99A000149 of Jul. 6, 1999 and in the corresponding WO 01/01803 A1, they have been found to have drawbacks, including difficulties in manufacture and/or production, but most of all their resulting or inherent color is hardly comparable to the color of the item, and this causes considerable problems in terms of visual impact, which is fundamental for marketability.
An equally important factor is high cost.

Clothing ventilation device allowing the human body to breathe, and method for producing the device


In a paper feed unit, a plurality of stacking plates are stacked in a box. The stacking plates can stack paper of different sizes and are stacked on each other. Paper stored on each stacking plate is taken out by a pickup roller, a paper feed roller, and a separation roller. These rollers can be moved to positions for taking out paper stored on the stacking plates. Taken-out paper is guided to a photosensitive drum through guide plates.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper feed unit and an image forming apparatus, e.g., an electronic copying machine or a laser printer, to which the paper feed unit is mounted.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic copying machine has a paper feed unit mounted on it. A conventional paper feed unit stores copying paper (to be referred to as paper hereinafter) of only one size. U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,844 discloses an electronic copying machine capable of copying on paper of a plurality of sizes, a plurality of paper feed cassettes corresponding in number to the paper sizes are mounted all at once, or are exchangeably mounted one at a time. Since a plurality of paper feed units are used, the cost is increased. The paper feed cassettes must be exchanged in accordance with the sizes of the paper to be used, requiring a cumbersome paper feed operation. An extra space is required to store paper feed cassettes which are not currently used. Furthermore, although paper sheets of different sizes are used at different frequencies, the conventional paper feed cassettes have the same size to store the same number of paper sheets in order to facilitate mounting of the cassettes to the electronic copying machine. Therefore, paper of a frequently used size must be replenished often.

Paper tray capable of simultaneously holding sheets of different sizes


A method for determining geolocation of a UAV near a power grid includes detecting, via a transceiver, a carrier signal transmitted from a first grid node to identify the node's fixed geolocation. A response signal may be transmitted from a second grid node in response to the carrier signal to identify a fixed geolocation of the second grid node, or the UAV may process the carrier signal. A processor determines time-of-flight of the carrier signal, e.g., using the response signal, and derives the UAV's geolocation using the time-of-flight. Determining time-of-flight may include referencing a lookup table indexed by time-of-arrival at the transceiver of the modulated carrier and response signals. A timestamp may indicate time-of-transmission of the carrier and response signals, respectively. Deriving geolocation may include subtracting time-of-transmission of the response signal from that of the carrier signal. A system includes the processor and transceiver.

Electrically-powered rotary or fixed-wing drones and other modern unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide exceptional maneuverability and stability, as well as extended dwell times and operating ranges. Collectively, these capabilities enable UAV-based inspection of difficult-to-reach power equipment, such as high-voltage transmission lines, transmission towers, transformers, and associated structure. For example, a UAV that is equipped with single-spectrum or multi-spectral cameras and/or band-specific point sensors may be used for locating existing or impending electrical arcing faults. In this manner, UAVs can facilitate inspection and repair of transmission lines and associated power equipment.
In order to determine its own geographical location ("geolocation") while in flight, a UAV platform typically relies on signal transmission from a navigation system, e.g., the Global Positioning System (GPS), an inertial measurement unit system (IMU), and/or an image recognition system. Of these example navigation systems, GPS tends to suffer from multi-path affects when used in proximity to metallic structures, which in turn is ubiquitous in modern transmission line infrastructure. GPS positional accuracy may be compromised by satellite losses due to horizon blockage, i.e., the "stadium effect", from electromagnetic interference, or from a loss of signal transmission from the orbiting constellation of GPS satellites. The level of geolocation accuracy typically available using image recognition systems tend to suffer from lighting changes caused, for example, by changing time of day and weather conditions, as well as from seasonal changes in foliage, snow cover, and precipitation. Inertial systems suffer from a phenomenon known as positional drift, which occurs on the order of minutes for compact inertial systems. A need therefore exists for reliable, fault-tolerant methods of UAV geolocation.

Method and system for determining a geographical location of an unmanned aerial vehicle flown in proximity to a power grid

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS REPRESENTED BY THE ADMINISTRATOR OF NASA


Provided is an electrochromic device including a first electrochromic layer, which includes a first nanostructure having first pores and first electrochromic molecules provided on the first nanostructure, on a first electrode, an electrolyte disposed on a top surface of the first electrochromic layer and extending to first recessed portions of the first electrochromic layer, and a second nanostructure disposed on the electrolyte. The first nanostructure may have the first recessed portions in a top surface thereof. The second nanostructure may have second pores therein and second recessed portions in a bottom surface thereof.

The present disclosure herein relates to electrochromic devices, and more particularly, to nanostructures of electrochromic devices.
An electrochromic device is a device in which its color changes due to an electrochemical reaction. In the electrochromic device, when a potential difference occurs due to external electrical stimulation, ions or electrons included in an electrolyte move in an electrochromic layer to cause a redox reaction. Due to the redox reaction of the electrochromic layer, the color of the electrochromic device changes. A cathodically coloring material denotes a material which is colored when a cathodic reaction occurs and is decolorized when an anodic reaction occurs. An anodically coloring material denotes a material which is colored when an anodic reaction occurs and is decolorized when a cathodic reaction occurs.
The electrochromic device exhibits a high contrast ratio and has been actively studied for various application areas, e.g., optical shutters, displays, smart windows, or electrochromic mirrors for automobiles, due to ease of control of transmittance, low driving voltage, bistability, and wide viewing angles.

Electrochromic devices and method of manufacturing the same

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE


A switch to haploid embryogenesis is controlled by the activity of histone deacetylases (HDACs). Blocking HDAC activity with HDAC inhibitors (HDACi), e.g. trichostatin A (TSA), in Brassica napus, B. rapa, B. oleracea, Arabidopsis thaliana and Capsicum annuum male gametophytes leads to a large increase in the proportion of cells that undergo embryogenic growth. In B. napus, treatment with one specific HDACi (SAHA) improves the conversion (i.e. germination) of these embryos into seedlings. Existing methods of culturing microspores of angiosperm plants following stress to produce haploid embryos, haploid plants and double haploid plants can be improved by adding HDACi to the culture medium. Advantageously, species hitherto recalcitrant to haploid embryogenesis via microspore culture are rendered useful when using HDACi. Haploid and double haploid plants are of industrial application in the plant breeding programmes.

Many plant cells have the inherent ability to regenerate a complete organism from single cells or tissues, a process referred to as totipotency. During sexual reproduction, cellular totipotency is restricted to the zygote, which is formed in the seed from fusion of the egg and sperm cells upon fertilisation. Sustained division of the zygote generates the embryo, which contains the basic body plan of the adult plant. Establishment of groups of pluripotent stem cells in the stem cell niche of the embryonic shoot and root apical meristems ensures the continuous post-embryonic growth and development of new lateral organs that is characteristic for plant development (see Bennett, T., and Scheres, B. (2010) Curr. Top. Dev. Biol. 91: 67-102 and Besnard, F., et al. (2011) Cell. Mol. Life Sci, 68: 2885-2906).
Embryo development also occurs in the absence of egg cell fertilisation during apomixis, a type of asexual seed development. Totipotency in apomictic plants is restricted to the gametophytic and sporophytic cells that normally contribute to the development of the seed and its precursors, including the unfertilised egg cell and surrounding sporophytic tissues (see Bicknell, R. A., and Koltunow, A. M. (2004) Plant Cell 16: S228-S245).
The totipotency of plant cells reaches its highest expression in tissue culture. The ability of a cell to undergo embryogenesis in vitro is both an inherent and an acquired characteristic that requires the right combination of explant and culture environment. A wide variety of cells have the potential to develop into embryos, including haploid gametophytic cells, such as the cells of pollen and embryo sacs (see Forster, B. P., et al. (2007) Trends Plant Sci, 12: 368-375 and Segui-Simarro, J. M. (2010) Bot. Rev. 76: 377-404), as well as somatic cells derived from all three tissue layers of the plant (Gaj, M. D. (2004) Plant Growth Regul, 43: 27-47 or Rose, R., et al. (2010) "Developmental biology of somatic embryogenesis" in: Plant Developmental Biology-Biotechnological Perspectives, P. E-C and D. MR, eds (Berlin Heidelberg: Springer), pp. 3-26).
The treatments used to induce embryogenesis are diverse and range from application of exogenous growth regulators to abiotic stress. Under the appropriate conditions; the explant resumes cell division and produces histodifferentiated embryos, either directly from the explant or indirectly from callus. The morphological and cellular changes that occur during in vitro embryogenesis have been described in some species (Raghavan, V. (2004) Am. J. Bot. 91: 1743-1756; Seguí-Simarro, J. M., and Nuez, F. (2008) Physiol. Plant. 134: 1-12), but there is still very little known about the initial steps involved in the acquisition and expression of totipotency in individual cells, and many of the assumed diagnostic features of cultured embryogenic cells are being revised in the light of live imaging studies (Daghma, D., et al. (2012) J. Exp. Bot. 63: 6017-6021; Tang; X.; et al. (2013) J. Exp. Bot. 64: 215-228.
Molecular screens have been performed to identify the changes that occur during in vitro embryogenesis, however the range of species, explants and culture conditions that have been used, combined with low percentage of cells that form embryos, has made it difficult to develop a unified concept of the totipotent plant cell.
In Arabidopsis, dynamic regulation of gene expression at the chromatin level has been shown to play a major role in translating the developmental and environmental signals that regulate plant cell totipotency in planta (Zhang, H., & ©gas, J. (2009) Mol. Plant 2: 610-627.
The basic structural and functional unit of chromatin is the nucleosome, which comprises DNA wrapped around a histone octamer, and associated linker histones. Nucleosomes can represent a physical barrier to DNA for non-histone proteins due to the strong interaction between the positively charged histones and negatively charged DNA. Transcription requires physical binding of transcription factors to open DNA; thus, controlling the compaction and accessibility of loci through nucleosomes offers a dynamic means to control gene expression. Dynamic changes in chromatin structure and gene transcription are mediated primarily by the interwoven processes of chromatin remodelling and histone modification. Chromatin remodelling proteins use the energy from ATP hydrolysis to remove or reposition nucleosomes, while histone modifying enzymes chemically modify lysines and other amino acids on the exposed N-terminal tails of histones to change their charge and interaction with DNA and other proteins.
In plants, a number of conserved chromatin modifying proteins ensure the successful transition from embryo development to post-embryonic growth by repressing pathways controlling embryo cell proliferation and identity during germination. Loss-of-function mutants of these proteins ectopically express embryo identity genes and produce somatic embryos from seedlings. These chromatin modifying proteins include members of the Arabidopsis SWI/SNF and CHD class of chromatin-remodelling ATPases (Ogas, J., et al. (1999) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96: 13839-13844), members of the Polycomb Group (PcG) Repressive Complex 1 (PRC1) and 2 (PRC2), which deposit repressive marks on histones, respectively, histone 2A lysine 119 (H2AK119) ubiquitination and histone 3 lysine 27 (H3K27) trimethylation (see Chanvivattana, Y., et al. (2004) Development 131: 5263-5276; Schubert, D., et al. (2005) Curr. Opin. Plant Biol, 8: 553-561; Makarevich, G., et al. (2006) EMBO Rep. 7: 947-952; Chen, Z., et al. (2009) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106: 7257-7262; Bratzel, F., et al, (2010) Curr. Biol. 20: 1853-1859; Bouyer, D., et al. (2011) PLoS Genet. 7: e1002014; Tang, X., et al. (2012) J. Exp. Bot. 63: 1391-1404). The large number of proteins that play a role in this process, combined with the potential cross-talk between different chromatin modifying proteins (Zhang, H., et al. (2012) Plant Physiol. 159: 418-432) ensures a multi-level dynamic control over cell totipotency.
Changes in chromatin organisation and modification are often associated with in vitro plant regeneration (Miguel, C., & Marum, L. (2011) J. Exp. Bot. 62: 3713-3725, but there are few examples where chromatin level changes are known to play a direct role in this process (He, C., et al. (2012) PLoS Genet. 8: e1002911).
Haploid embryogenesis was initially described almost 50 years ago in Datura stramonium (Guha, S., & Maheshwari, S. (1964) Nature 204: 497. The ability of haploid embryos to convert spontaneously or after treatment with chromosome doubling agents to doubled-haploid plants is widely exploited as a means to generate homozygous plants in a single generation, and has numerous breeding and trait discovery applications (Touraev, A., et al. (1997) Trends Plant Sci. 2: 297-302; Forster et al. (2007) supra). Haploid embryo production from cultured immature male gametophytes is a widely used plant breeding and propagation technique.
The haploid multicellular male gametophyte of plants, the pollen grain, is a terminally differentiated structure whose function ends at fertilization. Unlike mature gametophyte, the immature gametophyte retains its capacity for totipotent growth when cultured in vitro. When cultured in vitro an immature gametophyte can be induced to form haploid embryos. This way of forming haploid embryos was described nearly 50 years ago, but one that is poorly understood at the mechanistic level.
Haploid embryo development (also referred to as microspore embryogenesis, pollen embryogenesis or androgenesis) is induced by exposing anthers or isolated gametophytes to abiotic or chemical stress during in vitro culture (see Touraev, A., et al (1997) Trends Plant Sci. 2: 297-302. These stress treatments induce sustained division of the gametophyte leading to the formation of a histodifferentiated haploid embryo.
Brassica napes is one of the most well studied models for microspore embryogenesis (see Ousters, J. B. M., et al, (2001) Current trends in the embryology of angiosperms. In: Androgenesis in Brassica, a model system to study the initiation of plant embryogenesis, S. S. Bhojwani and W. Y. Soh, eds (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers), pp. 451-470). A heat-stress treatment is used to induce microspore embryogenesis in this and other Brassica species. Only a small percentage of the heat-stressed immature male gametophytes will develop into differentiated embryos, although the number of sporophytically-dividing cells may be initially much higher.
Microspore-derived embryogenesis is a unique process in which haploid, immature pollen (microspores) are induced by one or more stress treatments to form embryos in culture. These microspore-derived embryos (MDEs) can be germinated and converted to homozygous doubled haploid (DH) plants by chromosome doubling agents and/or through spontaneous doubling. DH production is a major tool in plant breeding and trait discovery programs as it allows homozygous lines to be produced in a single generation. This quick route to homozygosity not only drastically reduces the breeding period, but also unmasks traits controlled by recessive alleles. DHs are widely used in crop improvement as parents for F1 hybrid seed production, to facilitate backcross conversion, for mutation breeding, and to generate immortal populations for molecular mapping studies.
The morphological and cellular changes that occur during the induction and development of haploid embryos have been well described, however there is still very little known about the mechanisms underlying this process. Molecular screens have been performed to identify the changes that occur during the induction and growth of haploid embryos, however no specific genes or signalling pathways have been unequivocally identified as causal factors.
Many years of cell biological studies in model species such as tobacco, barley and Brassica, have laid a solid foundation for understanding the cellular events that accompany haploid embryogenesis, yet the mechanism underlying this change in developmental pathways is not known (see Mercedes S. et al., (2013) Plant Reprod. 26: 181-196).
Li, W-Z. et al, (2001) In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol.-Plant 37: 605-608 describes the effects of DNA hypomethylating drugs azacytidine and ethionine on androgenesis in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.).
Furuta, K., et al. (2011) Plant Cell Physiol. 52: 618-628 is entitled "The CKH2/PKL chromatin remodelling factor negatively regulates cytokinin responses in Arabidopsis calli." Subject of this scientific work were two isolated mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana, ckh1 (cytokine hypersensitive 1) and ckh2. These mutants are cytokine hypersensitive and produce rapidly growing (diploid) green calli in response to lower levels of cytokines. The authors were looking for a mechanism behind the cytokinin-inducible callus greening. Trichostatin A (TSA) was found able to partially replace the growth regulator cytokinin in callus formation from hypocotyl segments, which usually requires auxin and cytokinin. The starting material and calli tested were all diploid. Such diploid calli are organized, rooty and organogenic.
Acetylation and deacetylation of the lysine residue in histone proteins are often involved in the reversible modulation of chromatin structure in eukaryotes and can mediate the positive-negative regulation of transcription. Histone acetyltransferase catalyzes histone acetylation. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) catalyzes histone deacetylation. Hitherto, a number of disparate and yet putative functions for HDACs in plants have been suggested in the scientific literature.
For example, Tanaka M, et al. (2008) Plant Physiol. 146: 149-61 reports on effects of HDAC inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) on seed germination in Arabidopsis. Normally, Arabidopsis seeds show radicle emergence with cotyledon expansion and greening within about 7 days after sowing. In contrast, following treatment with TSA, most Arabidopsis seeds show radicle emergence, but no cotyledon expansion or greening. This is also associated with expression of embryo-specific factors and the formation of embryo-like structures. A TSA concentration-dependent post-germination growth arrest was observed, as well as formation of embryo-like structures after germination. The authors suggest a role for HDAC following germination in the repression of existing embryonic properties in Arabidopsis, but without indication as to any mechanism.
Although DH production is widely exploited, there are often one or more bottlenecks that need to be overcome before an efficient DH production system can be established for a specific crop or genotype. One major bottleneck is a low level of haploid embryo induction. Entire species are often recalcitrant, and even responsive species show a strong genotypic component for DH production. In non-responsive genotypes, the microspores either fail to divide or arrest early in their development. A second bottleneck is the low rate of embryo germination and conversion to plantlets, a phenomenon that has been attributed to poor meristem development.
Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) have a long history and have been used in psychiatry and neurology as mood stabilizers and anti-epileptics. More recently they are being investigated further in relation to possible treatments for inflammatory diseases and cancers.


A food treating apparatus and method wherein a reducing DC electric current is provided by a DC electric circuit, the food treating apparatus including a vessel and a handle, and wherein at least part of the electric circuit is integral with the handle and is operative to provide electrons to food in the vessel. Further, the added electrons inhibit and/or reduce the formation of acrylamides in the food prepared in the food treating apparatus.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,646 to Simic-Glavaski et al. (hereinafter Simic-Glavaski), which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses that the ingestion of externally generated oxidative products such as food cooked by a thermal process may be carcinogenic or promoters for cardiovascular problems. When food is cooked by a thermal process it may tend to have a carcinogenic effect due to the depletion of electrons in the food. It is known that the food is depleted of electrons during a cooking process due to thermal excitation and oxidation.
Additionally, the adventitious formation of the potential cancer-causing agent acrylamide in a variety of foods during cooking has raised much concern. Acrylamide is a chemical used in the manufacture of plastics. Additionally, acrylamide may cause nerve damage.
Acrylamide forms in certain foods cooked at temperatures at or above 120° C. For example, acrylamide, develops in potato chips, french fries, bread and processed cereals cooked at or above 120° C. Levels of acrylamide in certain starch-based foods, such as potato chips, french fries, cookies, cereals and bread, are above the recommended levels in the World Health Organization's Guidelines Values for Drinking Water Quality.
Deep fried french fries, such as those cooked at fast-food establishments, showed the highest levels of acrylamide among the foods tested by the Center for Science in the Pubic Interest (CSPI). For example, large orders of french fries tested by the CSPI contained an amount of acrylamide between about 39 to about 82 micrograms. Further, the amount of acrylamide in a large order of fast-food french fries is at least 300 times more than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows in a glass of water.
Other foods tested by CSPI include one-ounce portions of Pringles potato chips which contained about 25 micrograms. Corn-based Fritos and Tositos contained half that amount or less. Regular and Honey Nut Cheerios contained between about 6 or 7 micrograms of acrylamide.
One possible way acrylamide forms in potatoes and cereals is by the Maillard reaction as reported recently in Nature (see, for example, D. S. Mottram, B. L. Wedzicha and A. T. Dodson, Nature, Volume 419, 3 Oct. 2002, www.nature.com/nature, page 448 and R. H. Stadler, I. Blank, N. Varga, F. Robert, J. Hau, P. A. Guy, M. Robert and S. Riediker, Nature, Volume 419, 3 Oct. 2002, page 449). Products of the Maillard reaction are responsible for flavor and color generated during cooking.
An important associated reaction is the degradation of amino acids to form aldehydes. Asparagine, a major amino acid component (940 mg kg−1, representing 40% of the total amino acid content in potatoes), reacts with glucose at temperatures above 120° C. to form significant quantities of acrylamide. For example, a reaction between an equimolar mixture of asparagine and glucose at 185° C. in a phosphate buffer produces about 221 milligrams of acrylamide per mol of amino acid. The same reaction without any solution (dry mixture) produces about 25 milligrams of acrylamide per mol of amino acid.
The reaction kinetics show a strong dependence on temperature. Peak acrylamide formation for an equimolar mixture of asparagine and glucose in a phosphate buffer is observed at 170° C. About 420 milligrams per mol of amino acid is produced. At 150° C. and 185° C., the amount of acrylamide is in a range of about 220 milligrams.
While temperature and the presence of a buffer solution are important reaction parameters, time is also important.
Thus, aldehydes and aminoketones may act as precursors in the acrylamide formation. Therefore, reduction or elimination of these precursors will inhibit and/or reduce the formation of acrylamide in food.
Simic-Glavaski discloses by adding electrons to food that is in a cooking vessel or in contact with a grill carcinogenic effect or promoters for cardiovascular problems can be reduced. Simic-Glavaski discloses a cooking apparatus and a method of supplying electrons (reducing electrons) to food that is contained in the vessel or that is in contact with the grill.
In an embodiment disclosed by Simic-Glavaski, respective electrodes are placed in a cooking medium, such as oil, water or the like, and electric potential and electric current are provided thereby to food. It would be desirable to integrate the electron source into a food treating apparatus, such as a cooking apparatus such as a pot, a grill, a fryer (shallow, deep or any other type) or the like. In the embodiment disclosed by Simic-Glavaski, the electrons are provided from a relatively localized source. It would be advantageous to increase the area over which the electrons are provided in the food treating apparatus. By increasing the area over which the electrons are supplied, more electrons are provided over a larger portion of the food product.
Therefore, there is a strong need in the art to improve the distribution of electrons into a food product in a food cooking, cooling, storing or the like apparatus and process. There also is a need to enhance the countering of the carcinogenic effect that occurs during a food treating process, such as, for example, cooking, cooling, storing, serving, etc. Further, there is a need to inhibit and/or reduce the formation of harmful substances, e.g., acrylamide, during the food treating process.
As used herein the term "food treating" is broadly understood to mean cooking, cooling, storing, serving, or the like, as are further described below.

Electron source for food treating apparatus and method


A binding device for snowboard according to the invention includes: a base member mounted on a snowboard; a rotor member provided rotatably on the base member and having attaching means for attaching a binding device and fixing means for fixing a shoe on the top face thereof; a holding member mounted on the top face of the base member, for holding the rotor member rotatably; and restoring means provided between the base member or the holding member and the rotor member, for restoring the rotated rotor member to a reference position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a binding device for snowboard, and more particularly, to a binding device for snowboard, which is constructed to be rotable with respect to a snowboard.
2. Description of the Related Art
A binding device is used for fixing shoes to a snowboard. The binding device comprises a holder portion 62 for holding a shoe and a mounting plate 63 for mounting the holder portion 62 to a snowboard SB as shown in FIG. 15. The mounting plate 63 is fitted to a fitting hole 62a provided in the holder portion 62 and fixed to the snowboard SB by tightening plural screws 61 to screw holes provided in the snowboard SB.
Although not shown, a tooth arrangement is provided on the periphery of the fitting hole 62a in the holder portion 62a, and the same tooth arrangement is provided on the periphery of the mounting plate 63. By engaging both the tooth arrangements freely, the angle of the holder portion 62 relative to the snowboard SB, that is, the angle of the binding device 60 can be adjusted as indicated by arrows in the figure.
However, in such a binding device 60, although the angle of the holder portion 62 can be adjusted when it is attached, the angle thereof cannot be adjusted during use of the snowboard SB because the holder portion 62 is fixed to the snowboard SB with the screws 61.
Thus, the motion of the binding device 60, in other words, the motion of the foot is limited upon snowboarding and its snowboarding way is also restricted. If the foot is fixed upon snowboarding, a burden is applied to the knee, ankle or the like, so that, particularly, when a snowboarder falls down, the bone of his or her knee or ankle may be broken.
To solve such a problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-24496 has proposed a setting device for a snowboard binding, which allows a binding device to rotate with respect to a snowboard SB during snowboarding.
The setting device 70 includes a base member 71 in which screw holes 71a for mounting to the snowboard and screw portions 71b for fixing a press-fit plate 74 are formed, as shown in FIG. 16. The base member 71 is fixed to a predetermined position of the snowboard with the screw holes 71a and screws (not shown) The base member 71 accommodates a bearing 72, and a rotating member 73 is mounted on the top of the bearing 72. The press-fit plate 74 covers the top of the rotation member 73 and holds the rotating member 73 rotatably.
The press-fit plate 74 has a through hole 74a and a cutout portion 74b through which a binding mounting portion 73c of the rotating member 73 is to be inserted. By mounting the press-fit plate 74 over the top of the rotating member 73, the binding mounting portion 73 and a projecting portion 75b of the rotating member 73 pass through the press-fit plate 74, so that the press-fit plate 74 makes a pressure contact with a jaw portion 73b of the rotating member 73.
The press-fit plate 74 which keeps a pressure contact with the jaw portion 73b of the rotating member 73 is fixed to the base member 71 by inserting the screw portions 71b of the base member 71 through screw holes in the press-fit plate and tightening nuts 74c.
A screw hole is formed in the projecting portion 75b of the rotating member 73, and when a screw 75a is tightened from above, the screw 75a makes a pressure contact with the top face of the press-fit plate 74. Consequently, if a predetermined rotation force is applied to the rotating member 73, the rotating member 73 rotates with respect to the base member 71. Reference numerals 73a in FIG. 16 denote a screw hole for attaching the binding (not shown).
In the setting device for the snowboard binding, the angle of the binding can be changed freely because the rotating member 73 is constructed to be rotatable. Thus, a user can ride on/off a ski lift with the binding attached to the snowboard or move smoothly on a place without any slope, and during snowboarding, the binding (rotating member 73) can rotate with respect to the snowboard, so that user can enjoy free snowboarding.
However, in the above-mentioned setting device 70, once the binding (rotating member 73) rotates with respect to the snowboard, the user cannot help relying on his or her experiences or sense to return the binding (rotating member 73) to a reference position at an initial period of snowboarding. For the reason, this setting device is difficult to handle for a beginner or child because he or she cannot find out the reference position easily. Further, no means for restricting the rotation of the binding (rotating member 73) with respect to the snowboard is provided. For this reason, the binding (rotating member 73) is rotated more than necessary at the time of snowboarding, which provides a problem that the setting device cannot be handled easily.
Further, there is a danger that if the binding (rotating member 73) is rotated more than necessary due to an impact by fall-down or the like, an excessive load is applied to the joint of the knee, ankle or the like, thereby inducing an injury.


A chemical composition including a fluorescent polymer and a receptor that is specific for both a target biological agent and a chemical moiety including (a) a recognition element, (b) a tethering element, and (c) a property-altering element is disclosed. Both the fluorescent polymer and the receptor are co-located on a support. When the chemical moiety is bound to the receptor, the property-altering element is sufficiently close to the fluorescent polymer to alter the fluorescence emitted by the polymer. When an analyte sample is introduced, the target biological agent, if present, binds to the receptor, thereby displacing the chemical moiety from the receptor, resulting in an increase of detected fluorescence. Assays for detecting the presence of a target biological agent are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluorescent biosensor that functions by a novel Quencher-Tether-Ligand (QTL) mechanism. In particular, the present invention relates to improving the polymer-QTL approach by co-locating the fluorescent polymer (or polymer ensemble, including self-assembled polymers) and a receptor for the QTL bioconjugate and target analyte on the same solid support.
2. Discussion of the Background
The polymer-QTL (Quencher-Tether-Ligand) approach is a single-step, instantaneous, homogeneous assay where the amplification step is intrinsic to the fluorescent polymer. The polymer-QTL approach provides a system for effective sensing of biological agents by observing fluorescence changes. The key scientific basis is the amplification of quenching of fluorescence that can be obtained with certain charged conjugated polymers and small molecule quenchers. In addition, the process is uniquely simple because there are no reagents.
In the "biosensor" mode, the QTL approach functions by having a fluorescent polymer quenched by a specially constructed "quencher-tether-ligand" (QTL) unit as shown in the diagram set forth in FIG. 1. Addition of an analyte containing a biological receptor specific to the ligand is expected to remove the QTL conjugate from the polymer which results in a "turning on" of the polymer fluorescence. A fluorescent polyelectrolyte-based superquenching assay has been shown to offer several advantages over conventional small molecule based fluorescence assays. For example, conjugated polyelectrolytes, dye-pendant polyelectrolytes, etc. can "harvest" light effectively both by absorption and by superquenching (1–5). The enhanced absorbing power of the polymers is indicated by the observation that even sub nanomolar solutions of some of these materials are visibly colored. The fluorescence of these polymers can be detected at even lower concentrations. Superquenching occurs in the presence of small molecules capable of serving as electron transfer or energy transfer quenchers to the polymer or one of its repeat units.
The "Stern-Volmer" quenching constants (KSV) for these polymers have been shown to be as high as 108–109 M−1, and it is anticipated that values as high as 1011 M−1 may be attainable (6). Such high values for KSV toward quenchers oppositely charged to the polyelectrolyte are initiated by strong nonspecific binding between the quencher and the polyelectrolyte. Subsequent amplified quenching occurs due to a combination of excitonic delocalization and energy migration to the "trapsite" where the quencher is in close proximity with the polymer.
It has also been shown that enhanced superquenching may be obtained when the polymers are adsorbed onto charged supports including surfaces, polymer microspheres, and inorganic nanoparticles (7,8). Superquenching has also been observed in the same supported formats for monomers or small oligomers self-assembled into "virtual" polymers. Polymer (and "virtual" polymer) superquenching has been adapted to biosensing by constructing QTL conjugates containing a potential superquenching component (Q) tethered (T) to a bioreceptor (L) or ligand for a specific biomolecule (1).
A fluorescence based assay is realized when the QTL conjugate is used to quench the polymer either in solution or in supported formats at solution-solid or solution-particle interfaces (1,7,8). For example, fluorescent polyelectrolytes, including conjugated and J-aggregate polymers, can be used for sensitive biodetection and bioassays in solution formats. The basis of this detection is the combination of the "superquenching" sensitivity of these molecules to quenchers of opposite or neutral charges with the synthesis of a quencher-recognition conjugate (e.g., a QTL molecule). In the original formulation, the QTL conjugate quenches the polymer ensemble by nonspecific binding. Addition of a target bioagent capable of binding with the L component of the QTL conjugate results in a removal of the QTL conjugate from the polymer and a turning on of the polymer fluorescence.
A fluorescence turn off (or modulation) assay has also been developed based on polymer superquenching (5). In this case, the target molecule is a bioagent L, or L′, corresponding to the L component of the QTL conjugate, and the receptor is a biomolecule that strongly associates with L, L′ or the QTL conjugate. One example is a direct competition assay in which L (or L′) in unknown amount is allowed to compete with the QTL conjugate for the binding sites of a measured amount of the receptor. The polymer fluorescence is quenched by non-bound QTL to an extent depending on the amount of L (or L′) present. In another example, the QTL conjugate is preassociated with the receptor; when all of the QTL conjugates are associated with the receptor sites, no quenching is observed. Addition of L (or L′) to the sample results in the release of the QTL conjugate with concomitant quenching of the polymer fluorescence.
All of the above assay formats depend on nonspecific quenching of the polymer fluorescence by association of the QTL conjugate with the polymer. A complication with these assays is the competing nonspecific interactions of other components of the assay sample with either the polymer, the QTL conjugate, or both, which result in a modulation of the quenching. In the present invention, modifications of the polymer superquenching allow the construction of improved assays which overcome these effects and provide for a more versatile and robust sensor.

Fluorescent polymer superquenching-based bioassays


A method for packaging an acoustic wave device (10) without contaminating an active area (12) disposed on a face (14) thereof, including steps of: providing a substrate with a top (30) having conductive pads (18), bonding stud bumps (20) to a periphery (22) of the face (14) of the acoustic wave device, disposing a dam (26) onto the top (30) of the substrate and inside of the location of the conductive pads (18), aligning and connecting the stud bumps (20) to the conductive pads (18) on the top of the substrate to form electrically conductive interconnections between the acoustic wave device (10) and the substrate (16), flowing an underfill material (28) at the periphery (22) of the acoustic wave device and around the interconnections such that the underfill material (28) stops at a boundary (32) defined by the dam (26), and curing the underfill material (28) to mechanically reinforce and protectively encapsulate the interconnections.

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are frequently used in commercial and other applications as RF and IF filters to provide frequency selectivity and other electronic functions. A SAW device depends upon acoustic wave generation. In some cases these acoustic waves are localized to the surface of the substrate. The substrates are piezoelectric materials. Because the acoustic waves in a SAW device often propagate along or very near the surface, SAW devices are generally very sensitive to surface conditions. This sensitivity is not of a chemical or electronic charge nature as it is, for example, in the case of semiconductors, but is of a mechanical nature. For example, foreign material in contact with the surface of a SAW device can change the elastic and inertial properties of the surface thereby altering the attenuation and propagation of acoustic waves moving along on the surface.
Present day SAW devices are typically packaged in hermetic enclosures because of this surface sensitivity. Low cost packaging techniques which are, for example, widely used in connection with semiconductor devices and integrated circuits are not generally used in connection with SAW devices. For example, simple transfer molding of plastic enclosures has not been practicable. In transfer molding, a plastic material in a heated and molten state is forced through channels in a mold to surround the active device die, under pressure, to create a plastic enclosure. This process destroys SAW device performance if it directly coats the surface of the SAW with mold compound.
Nearly all current SAW devices depend upon the use of hermetic packaging techniques for environmental protection because of this problem. Ceramic or metal enclosures with solder or welded seal construction are common. Hermetic packaging is generally costly in terms of both the piece parts required and in the encapsulation processing. As the technology for fabricating SAW die themselves has improved, the packaging costs have become an increasingly larger share of the total manufacturing costs.
Accordingly, there continues to be a need for improved means and methods for encapsulating SAW devices, especially those which permit one to employ low cost plastic encapsulation techniques.
It is an advantage of the present invention, that SAW devices can be encapsulated in plastic using conventional injection or transfer molding techniques in a manner that preserves the desirable electrical characteristics of the encapsulated SAW device.

Surface acoustic wave device package and method


A surveillance information recording system comprises a recording device loaded with a recording medium for recording video information concerning the object or place to be monitored, and a dummy device which can eject a recording medium in a manner similar to that in which a recording medium is ejected from an ordinary recording device. The recording device is located in an inconspicuous place, or concealed. The dummy device is located in a relatively conspicuous place. An intruder will mistakenly believe that if he carries out an ejecting operation on the dummy device and takes away the ejected recording medium, no evidence against him will be left behind. As an alternative, two loading sections may be provided in a single recording device, the recording of information being carried out in one of the loading sections, and the recording medium in the other loading section being ejected responsive to an ejecting operation.

The present invention relates to an information recording system for the purpose of surveillance in the field of security, and particularly to a countermeasure against burglary of recording media on which information has been recorded.
A surveillance information recording device, e.g., a VTR (video tape recorder) provided for security, records information from one or more TV cameras that pick up images of places requiring surveillance. The recorded information, e.g., image information, is utilized for identifying the intruder in the event of a burglary or the like.
However, in such a surveillance information recording device, the intruder may remove the recording medium, e.g. a magnetic tape, on which information about him has been recorded before making his escape. If the recording medium is removed, the necessary information is not left, and the intended function of the recording device is not accomplished.

Surveillance system having an operable recording device and a dummy recording device