A railing with light emitting diodes includes a rod, a base unit secured to the bottom, a lid secured to the top, an illuminating device mounted in the rod, and a controller. The illuminating device is provided with a plurality of lighting units to illuminate as a warning light for passerby to avoid from collision and as a decorative light to beautify the environment.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a railing with light emitting diodes, more particularly, to a railing provided with lighting units having light emitting diodes for lighting and warning purposes.
2. Description of the Related Prior Art
Conventional Railings have been used widely in public area or at home for the purposes of safety and beautification. However, the railings do not have any lighting system. At nighttime, people may be trapped by the railings, and it exists potential danger to passerby.


A car for an elevator, which is movable in an elevator shaft, has a car roof projecting at least partly beyond a drive unit. Arranged on the car roof in the region of the side facing the drive unit is a balustrade which has a handrail interrupted centrally in a drive receiving region. The balustrade has in the drive receiving region a bar which is arranged to be offset downwardly and inwardly relative to the handrail.

For specific situations such as, for example, maintenance operations or inspections it is necessary for persons to stand on the elevator car roof. If the width of the gap between the car and the adjoining shaft wall is too large, protective devices for protection against falling down have to be installed on the car roof. For example, European Norm EN 81-1: 1998 contains instructions with detailed specifications for the design and dimensioning of the car roof and the necessary protective device.
An elevator without an engine room and with a drive unit projecting partly beyond the car has become known from EP 926 093 A1, in which specifications in the nature of EN 81-1: 1998 have been realized. A balustrade (railing) is arranged on the car roof to be offset inwardly to such an extent from the roof edge that it is arranged, apart from the overlap region or projected shadow, between drive and car roof. This arrangement of the balustrade has a negative influence on the space available for persons.


A sealing assembly configured to seal a rotating shaft of a turbo machine having a high pressure process gas, comprising a housing defining a bore configured to receive the rotating shaft and sealing assembly, wherein the housing is mounted to a casing of the turbo machine; a first sealing stage comprising a single dry gas seal and configured to blow down the high pressure process gas to a lower pressure; a labyrinth seal mounted longitudinally outward from the first sealing stage; and a second sealing stage mounted longitudinally outward from the labyrinth seal, wherein the second sealing stage comprises a tandem dry gas seal having a primary dry gas seal and a secondary dry gas seal axially spaced with an intermediate labyrinth seal.

In a typical turbo machine seal assembly, tandem dry gas seals consisting of a primary and a secondary gas seal, are often used to eliminate process gas leakage to the atmosphere. The tandem dry gas seal has pressure limits well below the turbo machine's ability. In high pressure applications, however, to operate properly the tandem gas seal must receive "blown-down" process gas (a low-pressure process gas that has been significantly reduced in pressure by a previous "blow down" seal). In conventional operations, a tooth or damper labyrinth seal is typically used as the blow down seal and configured to blow down high-pressure process gas to a level that the tandem gas seal can accept. Using a labyrinth seal, however, has demonstrated significant inefficiencies in the form of total flow and machinery power losses. Therefore, in high-pressure applications, there is a need for an alternative to the tooth or damper labyrinth seal used to blow down the high-pressure process. Instead, what is needed is a low-leakage sealing technology capable of handling higher delta pressures.


A computer implemented system and method generates a patient-specific model of patient response to stimulation on a neural element basis, receives user-input of target neuromodulation sites, and, based on the patient-specific model, determines which stimulation paradigm and settings, including stimulation sites, would result in the target neuromodulation, where the stimulation sites are not necessarily the same as the resulting neuromodulation sites. The system outputs a visual representation of the stimulation sites that would result in the target neuromodulation. The system monitors a system state and/or patient state and dynamically changes which stimulation program to implement based on the state.

Stimulation of anatomical regions of a patient is a clinical technique for the treatment of disorders. Such stimulation can include deep brain stimulation (DBS), spinal cord stimulation (SCS), Occipital NS therapy, Trigemenal NS therapy, peripheral field stimulation therapy, sacral root stimulation therapy, or other such therapies. For example, DBS may include electrical stimulation of the thalamus or basal ganglia and may be used to treat disorders such as movement disorders such as essential tremor, Parkinson's disease (PD), and dystonia, and other physiological disorders. DBS may also be useful for traumatic brain injury and stroke. DBS may also be useful for treating depression, obesity, epilepsy, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette's Syndrome, schizophrenia, and other indications.
A stimulation procedure, such as DBS, typically involves first obtaining preoperative images, e.g., of the patient's brain, such as by using a computed tomography (CT) scanner device, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device, or any other imaging modality. This sometimes involves first affixing to the patient's skull spherical or other fiducial markers that are visible on the images produced by the imaging modality. The fiducial markers help register the preoperative images to the actual physical position of the patient in the operating room during the later surgical procedure.
After the preoperative images are acquired by the imaging modality, they are then loaded onto an image-guided surgical (IGS) workstation, and, using the preoperative images displayed on the IGS workstation, a neurosurgeon can select a target region within the patient anatomy, e.g., within the brain, an entry point, e.g., on the patient's skull, and a desired trajectory between the entry point and the target region. The entry point and trajectory are typically carefully selected to avoid intersecting or otherwise damaging certain nearby critical structures or vasculature.
In the operating room, the physician marks the entry point on the patient's skull, drills a burr hole at that location, and affixes a trajectory guide device about the burr hole. The trajectory guide device includes a bore that can be aimed to obtain the desired trajectory to the target region. After aiming, the trajectory guide is locked to preserve the aimed trajectory toward the target region, and a microdrive introducer is then used to insert the surgical instrument along the trajectory toward the target region, e.g., of the brain. The surgical instrument may include, among other things, a recording electrode leadwire, for recording intrinsic electrical signals, e.g., of the brain; a stimulation electrode leadwire, for providing electrical energy to the target region, e.g., of the brain; or associated auxiliary guidewires or guide catheters for steering a primary instrument toward the target region, e.g., of the brain.
The stimulation electrode leadwire, which typically includes multiple closely-spaced electrically independent stimulation electrode contacts, is then introduced and positioned in close proximity to the tissue targeted for sitmulation, to deliver the therapeutic stimulation to the target region, e.g., of the brain. An implanted pulse generator (IPG) generates electric pulses to transmit signals via the leadwire. The leadwire can include cylindrically symmetrical electrodes, which, when operational, produce approximately the same electric values in all positions at a same distance from the electrode in any plain that cuts through the electrode perpendicular to the central longitudinal axis of the leadwire. Alternatively, the leadwire can include directional electrodes that produce different electrical values depending on the direction from the electrode. The stimulation electrode leadwire is then immobilized, such as by using an instrument immobilization device located at the burr hole entry, e.g., in the patient's skull, in order for the DBS therapy to be subsequently performed.
The target anatomical region can include tissue that exhibit high electrical conductivity. For given stimulation parameter settings, a respective subset of the neural elements are responsively activated. A stimulation parameter can include, for example, a current amplitude or voltage amplitude, which may be the same for all of the electrodes of the leadwire, or which may vary between different electrodes of the leadwire. The applied amplitude setting results in a corresponding current in the surrounding neural elements, and therefore a corresponding voltage distribution in the surrounding tissue.
After the immobilization of the stimulation electrode leadwire, the actual stimulation therapy is often not initiated until after a time period of about two-weeks to one month has elapsed. This is due primarily to the acute reaction of the brain tissue to the introduced electrode leadwire (e.g., the formation of adjacent scar tissue), and stabilization of the patient's disease symptoms. At that time, a particular one or more of the stimulation electrode contacts is selected for delivering the therapeutic stimulation, and other stimulation parameters are adjusted to achieve an acceptable level of therapeutic benefit. The IPGs offer a wide range of stimulation settings which can be independently or concurrently varied in order to correspondingly alter the size, shape, and location of the volume of tissue being therapeutically affected by the stimulation.
Systems and methods are provided that facilitate exploration of target regions of stimulation and stimulation therapies to determine which therapy regimen is best suited for a particular patient or group of patients.
A treating physician typically would like to tailor the stimulation parameters (such as which one or more of the stimulating electrode contacts to use, the stimulation pulse amplitude, e.g., current or voltage depending on the stimulator being used, the stimulation pulse width, and/or the stimulation frequency) for a particular patient to improve the effectiveness of the therapy. Parameter selections for the stimulation can be achieved, for example, via trial-and-error. However, the use of guiding visualization software provides for efficient stimulation parameter selection. See Frankemolle, A. et al., "Reversing cognitive-motor impairments in Parkinson's disease patients using a computational modelling approach to deep brain stimulation programming," Brain 133 (3): 746-761 (2010). Indeed, systems and methods are provided that provide visual aids of the electrode location in the tissue medium along with computational models of the volume of tissue influenced by the stimulation, thereby facilitating parameter selection. See, for example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/454,330, filed May 15, 2009, which published as U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2009/0287271 ("the '330 application"), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/454,312, filed May 15, 2009, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,326,433 ("the '312 application"), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/454,340, filed May 15, 2009, which published as U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2009/0287272 ("the '340 application"), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/454,343, filed May 15, 2009, which published as U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2009/0287273 ("the '343 application"), and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/454,314, filed May 15, 2009, which published as 2009/0287467 ("the '314 application"), the content of each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Those applications describe systems including equation-based models for generation of estimated volumes of activation (VOAs) based on input of stimulation parameters. The described systems and methods provide for estimation of stimulation volumes and display models of a patient anatomy and/or a stimulation leadwire, via which to graphically identify the estimated stimulation volumes and how they interact with various regions of the patient anatomy. If a physician selects a therapeutic stimulation parameter combination, the software displays a representation of the volume of surrounding tissue which is estimated to be activated by the system. See also S. Miocinovic et al., "Cicerone: stereotactic neurophysiological recording and deep brain stimulation electrode placement software system," Acta Neurochir. Suppl. 97(2): 561-567 (2007). FIG. 3 shows an example user interface, using which a user can input and/or modify stimulator settings in the left two panels, while the right panel shows a model of anatomical structures, an implanted leadwire, and an estimated VOA.
U.S. Prov. Pat. App. Ser. Nos. 61/521,583 ("the '583 application"), filed Aug. 9, 2011 and 61/690,270 ("the '270 application"), filed Jun. 22, 2012, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/507,962, filed Aug. 9, 2012, which published as U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2013/0116744 ("the '962 application"), each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, further describe generation of a VOA on a fiber specific basis.

Systems, methods, and visualization tools for stimulation and sensing of neural systems with system-level interaction models

Boston Scientific Neuromodulation Corporation


A device and method for searching for content, the device including: a display; a storage configured to store a plurality of contents; an inputter configured to receive a user answer to a question displayed on the display for searching for content stored in the storage; and a controller configured to determine, based on the plurality of contents, the question, output, through the display, the determined question, determine, based on the user answer to the output question, a criterion for searching for content, and output, through the display, a search result searched based on the criterion.

1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to providing a device and a content searching method using the same, and more particularly, to providing a device that searches for contents based on a user control and a content searching method using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent developments in electronic technologies have resulted in increased storage spaces that may be used by electronic devices, such as a portable phone, a camera, a personal computer (PC), etc., to store contents. Therefore, the number of contents stored in the electronic devices has gradually increased.
Users input search words into the electronic devices or search for contents one by one through mouse or touch controls. As a result, a large amount of time is taken to search for desired contents. In particular, this inconvenience increases with an increase in the number of contents.
Accordingly, a simpler method of easily searching for contents is required.

Device and content searching method using the same


A multilayer fabric includes a binding portion in which weft fiber layers stacked in a thickness-wise direction are all bound by warps and a non-binding portion including a slit where a fifth fiber layer and a seventh fiber layer, which are the weft fiber layers, are not bound by warps. The multilayer fabric includes an intersection formed at a boundary of the binding portion and the non-binding portion. The intersection is formed by intersecting the warps that are adjacent in a second direction.

A fiber-reinforced composite is widely used as a lightweight structural material. The fiber-reinforced composite includes a fiber structure serving as a reinforced base and includes a resin serving as a matrix. The fiber-reinforced composite is used as a structural material for airplanes, automobiles, buildings, and the like. For example, a tubular or hollow fiber-reinforced composite is used. Further, a multilayer fabric is used as a fiber structure of a fiber-reinforced composite.
A multilayer fabric is generally formed by stacking a plurality of fiber layers. That is, a weft fiber layer is formed by arranging a plurality of wefts in parallel to one another. A plurality of weft fiber layers are crimped by warps and bonded in a stacked state.
The multilayer fabric includes binding portions and non-binding portions. The non-binding portions are arranged in parts of the multilayer fabric in a warp direction and extend over the entire multilayer fabric in a weft direction. The non-binding portions include a separation part extending in the warp direction. The warps crimping the weft fiber layers do not bind the stacked weft fiber layers to form the separation part. The two ends of the separation part in the warp direction are defined by warps extending across the separation part in the stacking direction. A hollow or tubular multilayer fabric can be formed by widening and opening the separation part of the non-binding portion.
However, when opening the separation part, the warps defining the two ends of the separation part in the warp direction are pulled in the stacking direction. As a result, stress may concentrate on the warps and break the warps at the two ends of the separation part in the warp direction. Thus, in order to avoid tearing of the multilayer fabric in the warp direction, it is desirable that the strength be increased at the two ends of the separation part in the warp direction.
In patent document 1, the warp fiber layers that are adjacent in the stacking direction are not bound to form the separation part. Thus, the wefts that are adjacent in the stacking direction intersect at the ends of the separation part in the weft direction. Further, the ends of the separation part in the weft direction are reinforced by the adjacent weft intersection.
In a fiber structure described in patent document 1, the wefts that are adjacent in the stacking direction tend to be interfered with and damaged by one another at the intersections. In addition, the fiber density increases locally where the wefts intersect. This lowers the quality of the fabric.


User equipment for communicating with a base station includes a processing unit, wherein when transmitting a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) to the base station prior to establishment of a radio resource control (RRC) connection between the base station and the user equipment, the processing unit controls frequency hopping applied to the PUSCH and a demodulation reference signal; a reception unit for receiving from the base station information indicating that frequency hopping is applied to the PUSCH; and a transmission unit for transmitting the PUSCH and the demodulation reference signal to which frequency hopping is applied; wherein the demodulation reference signal for demodulating a single PUSCH is formed of one front-loaded demodulation reference signal and one additional demodulation reference signal, and when the duration in symbols of the PUSCH does not support one additional demodulation reference signal, the demodulation reference signal is formed of a front-loaded demodulation reference signal.

At the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), studies on a wireless communication method called 5G or New Radio (NR) (hereinafter, this wireless communication method will be referred to as "NR") have been underway in order to achieve a further increase in system capacity, a further increase in data transmission speed, and a further reduction in latency in a wireless segment. For NR, a variety of wireless techniques have been explored in order to meet a requirement of achieving a throughput of 10 Gbps or higher while reducing a latency in a wireless segment to be 1 ms or less.
In NR, in order to reduce processing time required for channel estimation and signal demodulation, it has been considered to arrange a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) on a frontward position in the time domain of a slot. A demodulation reference signal arranged on a frontward position is referred to as front-loaded DM-RS. Further, in NR, in addition to front-loaded DM-RS, DM-RS arranged on a rearward position in the time domain of a slot is referred to as additional DM-RS (e.g., see Non-patent Document 1)

User equipment and base station apparatus


An active part of an electrical machine has a carrier, a plurality of coils which are arranged on the carrier and which each include a plurality of sub-conductors and a winding head area, in which the coils project out of the carrier in a curved shape, respectively and are connected to one another. At least one of the plurality of coils has a coil arc in the winding head area, and the center line of the coil runs in one plane in the coil arc. The sub-conductors of one coil run parallel to the plane in the coil arc of the coil and themselves in each case form sub-conductor arcs. The vertices of the sub-conductor arcs of the coil form a line of inclination which runs at an angle to the plane.

The invention relates to an active part of an electrical machine with a carrier and with a plurality of coils, which are arranged on the carrier and which each comprise a plurality of sub-conductors. In addition, the active part has a winding head area, in which the coils project out of the carrier in an arced shape and are connected to one another. At least one of the plurality of coils has a coil arc in the winding head area, and the center line of the coil runs in one plane in the coil arc. The sub-conductors of one coil run parallel to the plane in the coil arc of the coil and themselves in each case form a sub-conductor arc.
Electrical machines such as motors, generators and transformers each have one or more active parts which are magnetically active. A motor, for example, has a stator and a rotor as active parts.
Coils may be inserted or enclosed in the stator and/or rotor of a motor or generator. The coils are then typically located in or on a laminated core. The coils usually project out of the front faces of cylindrical laminated cores and together form a winding head of the rotor or stator.
The winding head of electrical machines belongs to the magnetically inactive parts that do not contribute to torque formation. It is therefore desirable to keep the conductor length and the overhang of the winding head as low as possible, to avoid taking up space unnecessarily and to keep weight and losses to a minimum.
FIG. 1 shows, by way of example, a conventional winding head of a three-plane winding. This means that the (here) concentric coils 1, 2 and 3 are positioned one over the other on three levels or planes. The three coils project out of a laminated core 4. The coils 1, 2 and 3 are shown in a longitudinal section, in relation to the corresponding stator or rotor. The outer end of each coil in the winding head area 5 is shown here pointing vertically downward.
FIG. 2 shows a variant of a winding head. Here, too, the individual coils 1′, 2′ and 3′ emerge initially vertically from the front face 6 of the laminated core 4. The first coil 1′, as in the example shown in FIG. 1, is arced vertically downward. The end of the coil 1′ therefore runs parallel to the front face 6. The end of the second coil 2′, however, runs at a 45° angle to the front face 6. It therefore has a line of inclination 7 which is indicated by an arrow in FIG. 2. An inclined plane 8 is defined perpendicular to this line 7. The outer end of the coil 2′ runs parallel to this inclined plane 8. If the coils 1′, 2′ and 3′ are formed by sub-conductors, these sub-conductors lie one over the other perpendicular to the inclined plane 8.
The third coil 3′ runs, in this sectional view, in a straight line out of the front face 6 of the laminated core 4. The inclined plane of this coil 3′ therefore runs parallel to the front face 6. The inclined plane of the first coil 1′, however, is at a 90° angle to the front face 6.
A characteristic of the classic embodiment of the winding heads shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 is that they may be inclined at different angles and that all conductors and/or sub-conductors of the respective coil lie directly one over the other perpendicular to the respective inclined plane. The connections to be attached to the winding head make the winding protrude even further overall.

Active part of an electrical machine having inclined coils in the winding head area


Techniques are provided to generate a secure communication for use in a transaction. In some embodiments, a user device is provided a first set of encryption keys associated with one or more authorizing entities. The user device may, prior to or during a transaction, receive one or more second encryption keys related to a second party to the transaction. In some embodiments, the one or more second encryption keys may be provided to the user device via a local communication means. Once the user device has been provided with transaction details, it may generate a transaction request using the multiple encryption keys that it has been provided, such that portions of the message are encrypted using different encryption keys.

In cryptography, a secure channel is a way of transferring data that is resistant to eavesdropping and tampering; a secure channel may be created between two computers by establishing a shared secret between the two computers. Diffie-Hellman key agreement is a well-known method for establishing such a shared secret between two computers. In the Diffie-Hellman protocol, each of two computers maintains a public/private key pair. Each computer shares its public key with the other computer. Each computer then combines their private key with the public key received from the other computer to determine the shared secret. Due to the properties of the public/private key pairs, the shared secret derived by each of the computers will be identical.
Additionally, typical key agreements require a device to communicate over a network encryption details via a handshaking protocol. Such processes can be slow and constraining.
Such a secure communication occurs between two computers. But, existing techniques are not well suited for more complex communication scenarios.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems, individually and collectively.


There is provided a method for reducing the content of at least one water soluble volatile organic compound in a gas. The method comprises contacting the gas with an aqueous acidic oxidizing composition comprising H2O2 and a metal catalyst, and submitting the at least one water soluble volatile organic compound and the aqueous acidic oxidizing composition to an UV radiation.

It is nowadays a major concern to considerably reduce the emission of various pollutants in the environment. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as formaldehyde and methanol are some of the products that several industries must treat so as to avoid releasing them to the atmosphere. For example, gases containing such products may be generated in the wood or pulp and paper industries. These gases can be generated during the production of wood-based panel products such as oriented strand boards (OSB), or fibreboards such as low density fibreboards (LDF), medium density fibreboard (MDF) or high density fibreboards (HDF) and particle boards. In various other types of industries, such gases emissions containing VOCs are encountered. Such industries include foundries, smelters, petrochemical industries, sugar industries, dental care products industries, polymer industries automotive industries paint industries, glassware industries and mineral wool industries.
Among the technologies proposed so far there is RTO (Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer). However, it has been demonstrated that such a technology can be very costly to install in a plant, and high maintenance fees may be required to operate it. Moreover, such a technology can generate important amounts of smog precursors, which is undesirable from an environmental point of view. RTO relies on thermal oxidization to destroy these emissions. For example, in the wood-based panel industry, dryer or press gases are sent to the RTO where the VOCs (such as formaldehyde, methanol, ethanol, pinenes, limonenes, camphenes, ketones, etc.) are incinerated at very high temperatures of about 800° C. To increase the thermal efficiency of the system, ceramic beds are used to preheat the inlet air prior to combustion. This technology can be effective in the destruction of VOCs, CO and organic particulate. However, RTOs do generate some NOx (smog precursors) and green house gases (GHG) from the combustion of natural gas and other fossil fuels to generate the required temperatures. RTOs are fairly expensive to operate and require a source of fossil fuel. Moreover, inorganic particulate may cause bed fouling. RTOs operate at or close to the melting point of some of these inorganic particulate and once melted, these by-products can permanently adhere to the ceramic bed and cause premature bed failure. Occasional bed burn-out is required to clear the bed of organic particulate and reduce pressure drops. Additional inorganic particulate devices may be required upstream of the RTO.
Bio-filtration is sometimes used for the capture and destruction of particulates and VOCs. Some mesophilic micro-organisms can be well suited for the destruction of easily degradable VOCs. However, such a technology requires high installation costs and a large surface area. Furthermore, since mesophilic micro-organisms are used, there is a limitation in gas stream temperature which requires dilution with ambient air. This results in larger required area. Such a technology also requires very stable operating conditions.

Process for reducing the content of water soluble volatile organic compounds in a gas


Provided is a method and an apparatus for encoding CSI, a storage medium, and a processor, where the method includes: placing a first type of information bits of the CSI in a first type of position indexes of the position index set, and determining, from the indexes other than the first type of position indexes determined by the first type of information bits in the position index set, indexes of the second type of information bits of the CSI, indexes of the third type of information bits of the CSI, and indexes of the fourth type of information bits in the position index set; or placing the fourth type of information bits in the fourth type of position indexes of the position index set, and determining indexes of the first type of information bits, indexes of the second type of information bits, and indexes of the third type of information bits of the CSI in the position index set from indexes other than the fourth type of position indexes determined by the fourth type of information bits in the position index set. The present disclosure solves the problem that positions of various types of information in the CSI reporting cannot be reasonably mapped in the related art.

Polar codes encoding is employed for a control channel in 5G NR (New Radio). The encoding procedure of Polar codes is x=u*G, where u includes information bits and parity check bits, x is an encoded bit sequence, G is a generator matrix of the Polar codes, and a dimension of the generator matrix G is N*N, where N represents a power of 2. For Polar codes, reliabilities and BERs (Bit Error Ratio) of different input bit indexes (0˜N−1) are different, and to improve performance of the Polar codes, it is usually necessary to map a bit sequence of Polar codes input bits to indices with high reliability or a low BER.
In 5G NR (New Radio), a joint coding mechanism is employed for part of CSI (channel state information) reporting, that is, different information (for example, CRI (CSI-RS Resource Index), RI (rank indicator), PMI (Precoding Matrix Indicator) and CQI (Channel Quality Indicator)) is encoded together; however, lengths of the CSI information may be different in different situations. In order to reduce or avoid blind detection, the CSI information is padded to have a same length in different situations. In order to determine lengths of padding bits and contents of various types of information in different situations, or to improve overall performance of CSI reporting, it is necessary to reasonably map the various types of information in the CSI reporting. However, in the related art, a manner for reasonable mapping of various types of information in CSI reporting is not yet available.
With regard to the foregoing problem in the related art, there is no effective solution currently.

Channel state information encoding method and apparatus, storage medium and processor


The invention includes a method and apparatus for determining network growth information for a radio access network (RAN) and a wired network supporting communications of the RAN (denoted as a core network). The method includes obtaining RAN configuration information including RAN component configuration information and RAN component connectivity information, obtaining actual traffic information and forecast traffic information for the RAN, and determining RAN growth information by correlating the actual traffic information and the forecast traffic information with the RAN configuration information, the RAN growth information indicating whether at least one additional RAN component is necessary to support the actual and forecast traffic. The method may further include determining network growth information associated with the core network using core network configuration information and at least a portion of the RAN growth information.

Evolution by Wireless Network Operators (WNOs) from Second Generation (2G) to Third Generation (3G) wireless networks has produced an explosion in demand for services enabled by 3G wireless networks, while at the same time increasing network complexity. In order to prevent network under-provisioning resulting in quality-of-service (QoS) degradation, and network over-provisioning resulting in wasted capital, WNOs need to be able to accurately forecast network growth to ensure just-in-time capacity provisioning, as well as to ensure that the network remains optimized with respect to QoS. Unfortunately, existing methodologies for performing wireless network growth planning are inefficient and inaccurate, and, therefore, costly.
Existing wireless network growth planning methodologies tend to be manual and, thus, time consuming and error prone. Existing methodologies spread network growth analysis across engineering groups, thereby increasing risks of inconsistency due to different sets of localized rules used by different engineering groups, e.g., wireless engineers perform network capacity analysis for the radio access network while switch engineers perform network capacity analysis for the core switching network. Furthermore, existing methodologies are merely simplistic trending functions that use average values for similar network elements, failing to include network configuration information and cross-component utilization effects that account for network component interdependencies.

Method and apparatus for network growth planning in wireless networks


The present invention relates to a high efficiency three-level inverter apparatus containing both bipolar and field effect transistors. An embodiment of a modified control scheme is also presented whereby transistors are modulated differently for each quadrant of output voltage-current phase. This embodiment of a modified control scheme allows efficient switching of field effect transistors without additional freewheeling and series diodes.

PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) inverters are commonly used to convert DC power into AC power. Typical applications of these inverters include use in uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), fuel cells, photovoltaic panels, and wind turbines. Further, PWM inverters may be used to provide compensation for reactive loads, harmonic cancellation of supply grids, or as variable-speed drives for induction motors. The most commonly used inverters are two-level inverters and three-level inverters.
Two-level inverters produce a modulated output having two fixed voltage levels. While potentially low cost, there are some drawbacks associated with using two-level inverters. First, the voltage swing of the inverter transistors is equal to the full, applied DC rail voltage of the inverter. This voltage swing can cause significant switching loss in the inverter transistors. Stated differently, switching loss of an inverter transistor is proportional to the amplitude of the voltage swing. To compensate for these switching losses, a lower PWM frequency may be chosen. However, this frequency may be so low that it creates audible noise (<20 kHz) or excessive output ripple current. A further drawback of two-level inverters is that the voltage output is typically derived directly from the switching bridge and may have a very high content of high frequency harmonics. This may cause additional losses in the output filter when used in typical applications. A typical two-level inverter 100 having switching transistors 101 and 102 and an output LC filter is shown in FIG. 1.
Three-level inverters produce a modulated output consisting of three fixed voltage levels. For a given output voltage this results in a lower voltage swing across the transistors than in the two-level inverters discussed above. As a result, three-level inverters produce fewer high-frequency voltage harmonics (i.e. significant amounts of energy at frequencies that are multiples of the switching frequency), allowing one to use smaller and cheaper output filter chokes (i.e. the inductive element of the output filter used to isolate the output alternating current from the output of the inverter). The reduced voltage swing and switching losses characteristic of three-level inverters make these inverters generally more efficient than two-level inverters. However, three-level inverters are typically more complex and expensive than two-level inverters. A typical three-level inverter 200 is shown in FIG. 2. The inverter 200 includes switching transistors 201, 202, 203 and 204, includes coupling diodes 211 and 212, and also includes an output LC filter.
The most common switching elements used in inverter designs are field effect transistors (FET), such as metal oxide field effect transistors (MOSFET), bipolar transistors, such as insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) and bipolar junction transistors (BJT), and gate turn-off thyristors (GTO.) Traditionally, MOSFETs have been used for low DC voltage or low power inverter designs; IGBTs have been used in medium to high power or high voltage inverter designs; and GTOs have been used in very high power inverter designs.
To obtain low losses in an inverter, it is desirable to use transistors that have low switching losses and to use anti-parallel/freewheeling diodes (e.g. 311) across each transistor with good recovery behavior. MOSFETs are generally known to have very good switching performance, but the internal (anti-parallel) body-diode exhibits poor recovery behavior. Poor recovery behavior of freewheeling diodes will produce undesirable effects such as high peak currents and/or oscillations when rapidly commutated (turned off). To compensate, inverter designs using MOSFETs have traditionally required the addition of both series and freewheeling ultra-fast diodes. The addition of these diodes significantly increases the cost of the inverter design and adds conduction losses. For this reason, IGBTs have been a more practical choice for inverters operating above 100–200 VDC. IGBTs typically have poorer switching performance than MOSFETS, but require the addition of fewer diodes to provide rapid recovery behavior, since the internal series diode present in IGBTs allows the designer to add a single diode to the freewheeling path. The use of IGBTs can reduce the cost of an inverter design but may lower inverter efficiency at higher (non-audible) frequencies. FIG. 3, shows a prior art three-level inverter 300 built using IGBTs. The inverter 300 contains four IGBTs 301, 302, 303, and 304 in series, each coupled to additional diodes 311, 312, 313, and 314 placed anti-parallel in the flyback path to conduct reverse currents. Further diodes 315 and 316 provide paths to ground when the rail IGBTs 301 and 304 are turned off by the control signals 321 and 324. Control signals 321, 322, 323, and 324 control the states of the IGBTs 301, 302, 303, and 304 to regulate the output voltage 337 of the LC filter placed before the load. Another important aspect to inverter design is the ability to handle different types of loads: resistive loads, reactive loads, such as inductive or capacitive loads, and non-linear loads. The use of an inductive or a capacitive load with an inverter can result in phase shifts between the output voltage and the output current. The phase shift between current and voltage is often described using four distinct phase quadrants. FIG. 4 shows a graph 400 of a typical inverter output current waveform 401 and an output voltage waveform 402. A first quadrant 410 of the graph is characterized by both positive current and voltage values; a second quadrant 420 is characterized by positive current and negative voltage values; a third quadrant 430 is characterized by both negative current and voltage values; and a fourth quadrant 440 is characterized by positive voltage and negative current values. Both 2-and 3-level inverters are typically required to operate in all four quadrants of phase shown in the graph 400 to be practical for universal application with different types of loads. This requires the inverter to successfully operate with instantaneous output voltage and current having the same (first and third quadrant, 410 and 430) or opposite (second and fourth quadrants, 420 and 440) polarity.
As stated, a typical application for a three-level inverter is a DC-to-AC converter in a UPS to convert energy stored in a storage element, such as a battery, to AC power for loads requiring AC power. For a typical UPS application, the inverter may be used mainly to drive resistive or partly reactive (both capacitive and inductive) loads, and must also support non-linear loads. A typical UPS load will require no more than a 45-degree load current phase shift from load voltage. This corresponds to a power factor (i.e. the cosine of the phase angle between the voltage and current, providing a measure of load reaction) of approximately 0.7. Even with this low power factor, an inverter will still typically operate in the first and third quadrants for the majority of time.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A work station is provided having a work surface. The work surface comprises spaced apart bearers (42) which are spaced apart and parallel. The bearers (42) are interconnected by braces (43) and intermediate bearer fits between the parallel bearers (42). In some embodiments of the invention, the intermediate bearer carrier a mitre guide (143).

The invention relates to work stations and more particularly to a work station which functions as a guide for power tools.
A wide variety of power tools are suitable for residential or professional use. Many of these power tools such as routers, circular saws, jigsaws and sanders may either be operated by holding them in the hand or by mounting them to a work center of some description. Prior art work stations for holding a power tool are known.
The present invention seeks to provide a meaningful alternative to known work stations, which alternative is reliable, economical and versatile.
Accordingly, there is provided a work station having a base, the base comprising parallel tracks which are interconnected by a pair of rotating shafts. The shafts bear stub axles which are offset from the longitudinal axis of the shaft. The axles support a work surface. A carriage is adapted to slide within each of the tracks. A tool guide extends from one carriage to the other. The tool guide comprises a pair of parallel guide rails, each guide rail comprising an inverted xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped channel having an inwardly directed integral flange for supporting a tool.
In one embodiment of the invention, a xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped clip is suspended by each of the shafts, a portion of each clip extending below is respective shaft facilitating an engagement between the work station of the present invention and another clamping device.
In other embodiments of the invention the stub axles support a working surface, the working surface comprising a pair of rigid braces, a pair of parallel bearers extending between the braces, a gap separating the parallel bearers.
In another embodiment of the invention, a backstop is carried by one of the tracks, the backstop supported in the track by a plate, the plate wedged in the track by a thread fastener which bears on an interior surface of the track.
In another embodiment, a blade guard retainer is attached to the tool guide.

Farmborough Heights, New South Wales, 2526


An electronic assembly includes a circuit board that serves as both a mechanical attachment point and signal conduit for electronic components. The circuit board includes at least two modular card connector assemblies disposed on opposing surfaces of a mounting region of the circuit board. Pin sets of the modular card connector assemblies are connected together via corresponding through holes extending between the opposing surfaces in the mounting region. Further, pins of one or both the modular card connector assemblies may be connected to other electronic components disposed at the circuit board via lateral traces. One or both of the modular card connector assemblies can comprise a modular card socket to removably couple with a modular card. Alternatively, one or both of the modular card connector assemblies comprises a pin interface assembly that is integral to or otherwise fixedly attached to the modular card.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure generally relates to modular processing systems and more particularly relates to mounting and connecting modular cards using a circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Circuit boards, such as motherboards and other printed circuit boards (PCBs), frequently are used to connect various electronic components of a system, both mechanically via sockets or solder joint connections and electrically via the various conductive traces of the circuit board. This arrangement is particularly common in computing systems, in which one or more processors, memory modules, and various peripheral components, such as input/output devices and power-conditioning components, are laterally disposed at the same surface of a motherboard and interconnected via lateral PCB traces at one or more metal layers of the motherboard. This arrangement often requires a relatively-large floorplan area for the motherboard and a relatively high number of metal layers in the motherboard, and can introduce latency, inter-signal skew, and other timing issues due to the relatively long and unmatched lengths of the lateral traces interconnecting the components disposed on the surface of the motherboard.

Double-sided circuit board with opposing modular card connector assemblies


Devices and methods are disclosed that detect and/or prevent intraoperative full thickness penetration of anatomic walls and provide delineation of anatomic structures during surgery.

Pelvic reconstructive surgery often involves placing sutures into endopelvic fascia. These procedures can be performed abdominally or laparoscopically/robotically. For the purposes of this discussion, a laparoscopic approach will be described, but it should be understood that these principles may apply to abdominal and robotic surgery as well. Procedures that are used for reconstructive pelvic surgery include uterosacral ligament suspension, paravaginal repair, Burch colposuspension, sacrocolpopexy, and sacrocervicopexy. When performing these procedures, most surgeons prefer to avoid penetration of the vaginal lumen. This is especially true when mesh is used for reconstructive surgery. Suture penetration may increase the risk of mesh erosion. Some surgeons place a hand in the vagina in an attempt to avoid vaginal penetration. Other surgeons use vaginal probes, Lucite molds or end-to-end anastomotic (EEA) sizers placed in the vagina and suturing is performed over these devices. More recently, robotic surgery has been used in gynecologic reconstructive surgery, which deprives the surgeon of the tactile sensation that can be used to avoid vaginal penetration of suture material. In addition, the bladder and rectum are adjoining structures that may be injured during suturing in the endopelvic fascia. Most surgeons use vaginal probes that are essentially cylindrical, elongated solid devices with a rounded tip. Some probes, such as the vaginal probe from Apple Medical, and the EEA sizers, have a distal end with a defined diameter that is attached to a handle by a narrow rod.

Electrical detection of anatomic wall penetration and delineation of anatomic structures during surgery


A support arm for use in a respiratory circuit is provided. The support arm includes a plurality of arm segments that are movably connected with one another such that the arm segments are adjustable with respect to another. At least one inflatable bladder is provided. The bladder is operably disposed at a point of connection between at least two of the arm segments. The arm segments are locked into position with respect to one another upon inflation of the bladder. The arm segments are released and positionable with respect to one another upon deflation of the bladder. Also, a respiratory support member is attached to one of the arm segments. The respiratory support member is configured for engaging the respiratory circuit to support the respiratory circuit.

Ailments that affect the respiratory system can occur in people of any age group. These ailments can range anywhere from a temporary condition that requires minor treatment to a permanent disability that requires constant respiratory treatment.
Treatment of respiratory ailments may involve the use of various components configured in a respiratory circuit. For example, endotracheal intubation tubes are used primarily for the provision of an artificial airway in a patient's respiratory system for the passage of gasses and objects to and from the patient. Endotracheal tubes are typically rigid or semi-rigid cylindrical tubing that may extend from outside of the patient into the patient's lungs. Surgical instruments are then passed through this tubing into the patient's respiratory system in order to perform various medical procedures.
It may be the case that a patient's respiratory system is so severely impaired that a patient requires some or total assistance in breathing. Ventilators are commonly used to provide artificial respiration to patients in such circumstances. Ventilators are typically connected to a manifold of the breathing circuit to provide for artificial respiration of the patient. Ventilators may be configured so as to completely control the breathing of a patient, or configured such that the ventilator responds only when a patient has labored breathing to a predetermined extent.
Since a respiratory circuit has components located both on the inside and outside of a patient, the support and stability of a respiratory circuit is important in maintaining an optimal level of performance of the respiratory circuit and related components. It is sometimes the case that the tubing of a ventilator or even the tubing of a respiratory circuit is not rigid and needs to be supported. Also, it is often the case that a patient must be moved during the normal course of treatment, necessitating a change in position of the respiratory circuit. Additionally, even rigid or semi-rigid tubing in a respiratory circuit may need to be supported in order to provide for proper positioning of the tubing in relation to a patient or to provide for optimum patient comfort. In these circumstances, a support arm is sometimes used in order to support components of the respiratory circuit.
Typically, support arms have been located on a ventilator unit and extended therefrom in order to support tubing of the respiratory circuit. These support arms are typically provided with several joints that allow the support arm to enjoy a full range of motion. The tubing of the respiratory circuit is attached to one end of the support arm. This attachment may be a sliding support or a static connection. A caregiver may then manipulate the support arm such that the tubing is properly positioned. Support arms are typically provided with adjustment screws located at the various points of movement. A caregiver may manually tighten these adjustment screws in order to lock the support arm in the desired location. It is therefore the case that support arms typically require the caregiver to manually tighten and loosen from between two and four adjustment screws in order to properly manipulate and lock the support arm in the desired position. This adjustment requires the use of two hands by a caregiver.
The present invention is an improvement upon support arms that are used in supporting a respiratory circuit.


A novel method is proposed for concurrently producing a metallic copper powder and a valuable chloride of a metal other than copper, e.g., manganese, zinc, cobalt, nickel and tin, from a depleted aqueous etching solution containing copper (II) chloride as discharged from the etching process in the manufacture of copper-foiled printed circuit boards. The inventive method also contributes to solve the problem for the disposal of such a waste solution without causing the troubles in connection with environmental pollution. The inventive method comprises the steps of: treating the waste solution with an active carbon so as to remove organic impurities; admixing the solution with a powder, granules or flakes of the above mentioned metal so as to precipitate the copper value in the metallic form, instead, giving an aqueous solution of the chloride of the added metal; and separating the copper metal powder and the chloride solution.

The present invention relates to a method for concurrently producing a copper powder and a chloride of a metal other than copper. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for concurrently producing a copper powder and a chloride of a metal other than copper such as manganese, zinc, cobalt, nickel and tin from an aqueous waste solution containing copper (II) chloride dissolved therein.
Along with the rapid progress of electronic industry in recent years, production of electronic instruments is expanding year by year while these electronic instruments are mostly assembled by arranging various kinds of electronic devices on a printed circuit board and building them into a circuit by connecting through the circuit pattern thus to construct an electronic working unit. Those printed circuit boards, hereinafter referred to as PCBs, are manufactured mostly by a process involving the step of pattern-wise etching of a copper foil adhesively bonded to the surface of an insulating substrate plate. The etching solution used for this purpose is an aqueous solution of copper (II) chloride acidified with hydrochloric acid while the depleted etching solution after use, having a specific gravity of about 1.25 and a pH value of 1 or below, usually contains, per liter of the solution, copper value in an amount of about 121 g as copper element and the overall chlorine value in an amount of about 241 g, of which about 106 g are as the chlorine ions of the hydrochloric acid, the remainder being as the counteranions of the copper (II) cations.
Such a strongly acidic waste solution containing a substantial amount of copper (II) chloride produced in a great volume in proportion to the production of PCBs of course cannot be discarded or disposed as a waste material not only from the standpoint of economy to justify recovery of at least the copper value but also from the standpoint of environmental pollution when a large volume of such a waste solution is released to public water systems. Accordingly, several methods have been proposed and practically undertaken for the recovery of copper value from such a waste solution including following three methods.
The first of the three methods is a substitution method in which the copper ions are replaced and fixed as a meal by the addition of a powder of iron as proposed in Japanese Patent Kokai 60-34501 and 63-33584 and a powder of aluminum as proposed in Japanese Patent Publication 63-14883. Namely, the copper ions are replaced with the ions of iron or aluminum and precipitated in the form of a powder which is recovered and purified to be utilized as metallic copper. The aqueous solution of iron chloride formed by the ion-substitution reaction above mentioned can be used partly as an etching solution or mostly as an inorganic floccurant in water treatment while the aqueous solution containing aluminum ions is utilized as a starting material for the manufacture of aluminum polychloride also useful as a flocculant.
The second of the three methods is a so-called neutralization method in which the waste solution is neutralized by the addition of sodium hydroxide so that the copper value is precipitated in the form of copper (II) hydroxide which is collected and subjected to a heating and dehydration treatment to be converted into copper (II) oxide. Alternatively, the copper (II) ions in the waste solution are first reduced with a copper powder into copper (I) ions followed by the neutralization with sodium hydroxide so as to be converted into copper (I) hydroxide which is collected and dehydrated into copper (I) oxide. Copper (II) oxide is utilizable as an ingredient in various kinds of ceramic materials including ferrites and the copper (I) oxide is used as a fouling-preventive pigment in ship-bottom paints.
The third of the three methods is an electrolytic method as proposed in Japanese Patent Kokai 60-128271, according to which, for example, the waste solution as such is electrolyzed by using an anion-exchange membrane to produce metallic copper and chlorine gas.
The above described three methods for the disposal of the waste solution containing a copper value each have a problem or limitation as an industrial method. For example, the substitution method has a problem in respect of the limited demand for the iron chloride or aluminum chloride produced as a by-product of the method. While these by-product chlorides have an application as a floccurant in water treatment or disposal of municipal sewage or industrial waste water, these inorganic flocculants in water treatment are under continuous replacement in recent years with flocculants based on an organic polymer so that no further increase can be expected in the demand for these inorganic flocculants, much less, to balance the rapidly increasing production of the waste solution in parallel with the increase in the production of PCBs. Accordingly, a serious problem of environmental pollution is foreseen if the only method relied on for the disposal of the waste solution is this substitution method. The neutralization method to produce oxides of copper is inherently not practicable in a large scale due to the problem in the disposal of the salt-containing waste solution produced in large volumes. Further, the electrolytic method is hardly feasible as an economical industrial process because of the quite large consumption of electric power.

Method for concurrent production of copper powder and a metal chloride


The invention relates to an aqueous coating composition which comprises a mixture of polyvinylpyrrolidone, a surfactant and optionally an adhesion-promoting polymer. This mixture is suitable for inline coating of biaxially oriented polyester films. The thus obtained films feature a characteristic hydrophilic surface which prevents the fogging of the films with water droplets.

The packaging industry has a high demand for transparent biaxially oriented polyester films. When fresh, easily perishable foodstuffs are packaged with polyester film, the result can be, particularly in the case of chilled products, undesired fogging of the film and thus deterioration of the transparency when moisture condenses out of the packaged products onto the film in the form of drops, usually of different size. The transparency of the film is distinctly worsened by the condensate. The reduction of the transparency of the film can be prevented by a hydrophilic coating, also known as an antifog coating.
Another sector in which hydrophilization of the film is required is that of medical applications. In the case of diagnosis rods made of polyester film, the applied liquid, for example blood, has to be distributed rapidly and uniformly over the surface. This can be achieved with a hydrophilic coating.
Antifog properties of plastics surfaces can be realized by means of two different technologies. Firstly, the addition of an additive into the polymer is conceivable; secondly, an antifog coating can be applied to the film. The addition of an additive into the polymer is possible in the case of polyolefin articles, in particular films (for example WO2002/074535). The antifog action on the film surface is based on the migration of the additive, usually an amphiphilic molecule, to the surface, so that the polar ends of the molecules form the actual antifog layer. A transfer of this principle to a polyester film is not possible, owing to the high polarity of the polyester.
Also known are coatings based on hydrophilic water-soluble polymers. However, a problem in this context is the ease with which the coating is washed out, which can be prevented by additives which lead to crosslinking of the polymer. Surfactants are also used for antifog coatings, since they lower the surface tension of the water. However, these known coatings are applied to an existing film surface, i.e. the production of the substrate and the coating are effected in two steps. It would be desirable to apply such coatings to the polyester films actually within the production process thereof (in what is known as the inline process); however, such coatings are to date not known.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,073 discloses a transparent antifog coating. The composition comprises a) polyvinylpyrrolidone, polydimethylacrylamide or a polyvinylpyrrolidone copolymer with an α-olefin, b) a polyisocyanate prepolymer, c) a surfactant and d) an organic solvent. The disadvantage of this invention is the use of an organic solvent, especially when the coating step is to be incorporated into the film production (inline). In addition, the use of an isocyanate in foodstuff packaging is controversial, since carcinogenic primary amines can form.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,475 describes a hydrophilic composition which comprises polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyvinyl alcohol and, as a crosslinker, melamine, a mineral acid or a strong organic acid. In addition, the coating solution may comprise additives such as chain extenders, foam regulators or surfactants. The solids content of the coating is from 5 to 50%. The crosslinking to hard clear layers requires temperatures of at least 75° C.; in the examples, temperatures between 130 and 150° C. are used. This makes these coatings unsuitable for inline application to polyester films, since the components crosslink as early as in the course of drying or in the course of stretching, and the coating thus starts to tear and therefore can lead to tears in the film. The fact that the crosslinked coatings are described as hard also suggests that they are unsuitable for use on flexible substrates.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a hydrophilic coating composition which can be applied inline during the production of biaxially oriented polyester films, i.e. before the second stretching step. The thus obtained coated polyester films should have good antifog effect, high washout resistance and high hydrophilicity.
According to the invention, the object is achieved by the provision of an aqueous coating composition which, in addition to water, comprises the following components:
a) polyvinylpyrrolidone,
b) a surfactant and optionally
c) a polymer which improves the binding of the polyvinylpyrrolidone to the polyester surface.
The total concentration of all components a) to c) in water is preferably in the range from 1 to 8% by weight. Unless stated otherwise, all amounts specified are percentages by weight.
The polyvinylpyrrolidone is used preferably with a molecular weight (Mw) between 20 and 2500 kdaltons, more preferably between 40 and 1500 kdaltons. The proportion of the polyvinylpyrrolidone in the coating solution is from 0.3 to 4.0% by weight, preferably from 0.5 to 3.5% by weight. When polyvinylpyrrolidone having lower molecular weights is used, the washout resistance of the coating becomes poorer; at higher molecular weights, the coating solution becomes too viscous.
Surfactants refer to molecules which consist of a hydrophobic and a hydrophilic part; they are referred to as amphiphilic.
The surfactant mentioned in the above-described coating composition is used in a concentration of from 0.1 to 2.5% by weight, preferably from 0.3 to 2.0% by weight, and is preferably an ionic, more preferably an anionic surfactant, and is more preferably selected from the group of the alkylsulfates, alkylbenzenesulfates, alkyl ether sulfates or sulfosuccinic esters.
The polymers which improve the binding of the polyvinylpyrrolidone to the polyester surface are used preferably in the form of an aqueous solution or dispersion. The concentration in the finished coating solution is from 0.3 to 4.0% by weight, preferably from 0.5 to 3.5% by weight. Suitable polymers of this type are acrylates, as described, for example, in WO94/13476, hydrophilic polyesters (5-Na-sulfoisophthalic acid-containing PET/IPA polyester, as described, for example, in EP-A-0144878, U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,885 or EP-A-0296620; dendritic polyesters having alcohol or acid end groups), polyurethanes, butadiene copolymers with acrylonitrile or methyl methacrylate, methacrylic acid or esters thereof.
The acrylates preferably comprise an ester of methacrylic zacid, in particular an alkyl ester whose alkyl group contains up to ten carbon atoms, for example the methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, isopropyl, n-butyl, isobutyl, tertiary butyl, hexyl, 2-ethyhexyl, heptyl and n-octyl group. Acrylic copolymers which are derived from a lower alkyl acrylate (C1 to C4), in particular ethyl acrylate, together with a lower alkyl methacrylate give rise to particularly good adhesion to the polyester film. In addition, preference is given to using suitable comonomers, for example N-methylolacrylamide, N-methylolmethacrylamide and the corresponding ethers; carboxyl-containing monomers, for example crotonic acid, itaconic acid, maleic acid or acrylic acid; anhydrides, for example maleic anhydride or itaconic anhydride; hydroxyl-containing monomers, for example allyl alcohol and hydroxyethyl or hydroxypropyl acrylate or methacrylate, and amides, for example acrylamide, methacrylamide or maleamide. Such acrylate copolymers give rise to particularly good adhesion between the polyester film and the polyvinylpyrrolidone.
Optionally, the coating may comprise antiblocking agents. Customary antiblocking agents are inorganic and/or organic particles, for example calcium carbonate, amorphous silica, talc, magnesium carbonate, barium carbonate, calcium sulfate, barium sulfate, lithium phosphate, calcium phosphate, magnesium phosphate, alumina, lithium fluoride, titanium dioxide, kaolin or crosslinked polystyrene or acrylate particles. Preference is given to porous SiO2 such as amorphous silica, since this promotes the distribution of water over the surface of the film.
The coating composition thus contains preferably only water and components a) and b), or a), b) and c), and also optionally antiblocking agents. "Contains" means here that the composition comprises to an extent of at least 90% by weight, preferably at least 95% by weight and more preferably at least 99% by weight, of the aforementioned substances.
After the inline coating, the coating comprises of the dried residue (drying product) of the coating composition, which then likewise preferably contains only of the drying product of components a) and b), or a), b) and c), and also optionally antiblocking agents.
The inventive coating may be used in order to coat biaxially oriented polyester film inline, i.e. the coating is applied during the film production process before the longitudinal and/or transverse stretching. In order to achieve good wetting of the polyester film with the aqueous solution, the surface is preferably initially corona-treated. The coating can be applied with a common suitable process, such as with a slot coater or a spray process. Particular preference is given to applying the coating by means of the reverse gravure-roll coating process, in which the coating can be applied extremely homogeneously with application weights between 1.0 and 3.0 g/m2. Preference is likewise given to application by the Meyer Rod process, with which larger coating thicknesses can be achieved. The coating on the finished film has a thickness of from 5 to 500 nm, preferably from 30 to 200 nm.
The coating components can react with one another during the drying and orientation of the polyester film and particularly in the subsequent heat treatment, which can extend up to 240° C. The reaction product affords, especially on a biaxially oriented polyester film, good antifog effect, high washout resistance and high hydrophilicity.
The polyester film to which the coating is applied can have a single-layer structure, a two-layer structure comprised of a base layer (B) and an outer layer (A), or a three-layer structure comprised of a base layer (B) and two outer layers (A) and (A′ or C).
The total thickness of the polyester film is typically in the range from 5 to 500 μm, preferably from 10 to 350 μm.
The polyester film may be transparent, white, opaque, glossy or matt. These different optical properties are achieved, for example, by the addition of different amounts of additives such as calcium carbonate, amorphous silica or titanium dioxide. These additives may be present both in the base layer and in any outer layers present.
In addition, the polyester film may be sealable and peelable. This is commonly achieved by use of polyesters with low glass transition temperature or of other sealable polymers in at least one outer layer.
The polyester film is comprised mainly of thermoplastic polyester. Such polyesters are specified in the "Handbook of Thermoplastic Polyesters, Ed. S. Fakirov, Wiley-VCH, 2002". Examples are polyesters comprised of ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid (=polyethylene terephthalate, PET), of ethylene glycol and naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxylic acid (=polyethylene 2,6-naphthalate, PEN) and of 1,4-bishydroxymethylcyclohexane and terephthalic acid (=poly(1,4-cyclohexanedimethylene terephthalate), PCD).
The production process for polyester films is described, for example, in the "Handbook of Thermoplastic Polyesters, Ed. S. Fakirov, Wiley-VCH, 2002" or in the chapter "Polyesters, Films" in the "Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, Vol. 12, John Wiley & Sons, 1988". In the preferred extrusion process for producing the film, the molten polymer material is extruded, optionally with the additives, through a slot die and quenched on a chill roll as a substantially amorphous prefilm. This film is subsequently reheated and oriented in at least one direction, either in machine direction (MD) or in transverse direction (TD), but preferably in longitudinal and transverse direction or in transverse and longitudinal direction, or in longitudinal, in transverse and once again in longitudinal direction and/or transverse direction. The film temperatures in the stretching process are generally from 10 to 60° C. above the glass transition temperature Tg of the polyester used; the stretching ratio of the longitudinal stretching is typically from 2.0 to 6.0, in particular from 3.0 to 4.5, that of the transverse stretching is from 2.0 to 5.0, in particular from 3.0 to 4.5, and that of the optionally performed second longitudinal and transverse stretching from 1.1 to 5.0. The longitudinal stretching may also be carried out simultaneously with the transverse stretching (simultaneous stretching) or in any conceivable sequence. This is followed by heat-setting of the film at oven temperatures of from 180 to 260° C., in particular from 220 to 250° C. Subsequently, the film is cooled and wound up.
The table which follows once again summarizes the most important inventive properties of the coating:
TABLEInventiveCoating componentsrangePreferredUnitPolyvinylpyrrolidone,0.3 to 4.00.5 to 3.5% by wt.proportionPolyvinylpyrrolidone, Mw20 to 250040 to 1500kdaltonsSurfactant, proportion0.1 to 2.50.3 to 2.0% by wt.Optional polymer,0.3 to 4.00.5 to 3.5% by wt.proportionThickness of the5 to 50030 to 200nmcoating
In order to test the effectiveness of the coatings, polyester films were coated and these were characterized by the following test methods.
The surface tension of the films is so high (>70 mN/m) that it cannot be measured by the contact angle method, since the water drop is very flat.
Determination of the Antifog Action
The antifog properties of the polyester films were determined as follows:
In a laboratory climate-controlled at 23° C. and 50% relative atmospheric moisture, film specimens were welded to a meal tray (length approx. 17 cm, width approx. 12 cm, height approx. 3 cm) made of amorphous polyethylene terephthalate, which contained approx. 50 ml of water.
The trays were stored in a refrigerator controlled at 4° C. and were taken out for assessment after 10 min, 30 min, 4 h, 8 h and 24 h. The condensate formation on cooling of the air at 23° C. to refrigerator temperature was tested. A film equipped with an effective antifog composition is transparent even after condensate formation, since the condensate, for example, forms a coherent, transparent film. Without effective antifog composition, the formation of a fine droplet mist on the film surface leads to reduced transparency of the film; in the most unfavorable case, the contents of the tray are no longer visible.
A further investigation method is what is known as the hot fog test. For this test, a 250 ml beaker which contains 50 ml of water and over which is stretched the film to be tested is placed in a water bath heated to 70° C. (ambient temperature 23° C.). The assessment is the same as described above. In addition, this test can be used to test the long-term antifog action and the washout stability of the film, since the vapor condenses constantly on the film and runs off or drips off again. Readily soluble substances are thus washed out and the antifog action declines.
Measurement of Transparency and Opacity
The measurement on the coated polyester films is effected on the Hazegard Hazemeter XL-211 from BYK Gardner based on ASTM-D 1033-77 for transparency and on ASTM-D 1003-61 for opacity.
The invention will be illustrated in detail below with reference to examples.

Polyester film with hydrophilic coating, process for its production and its use


A speaker assembly comprising an elongated unitary member having a first end and a second end. The elongated member is formed into a generally box-shaped configuration having an open top, an open bottom and an internal box cavity. The first and second ends of the elongated member are separately positioned within the internal box cavity to form first and second internal sidewalls, respectively. First and second internal sidewalls define a sound path therebetween which is in communication with the internal box volume and an external portion of the elongated member. A first speaker is disposed in the first internal sidewall and a second speaker is disposed in the second internal sidewall, with first and second speakers facing directly into the sound path. A top panel is mounted on the elongated member over the open top and a bottom panel is mounted on the elongated member under the open bottom. In use, first and second speakers produce directly radiated and resonantly radiated sound waves which propagate out from the speaker assembly through the sound path.

The present invention relates generally to speakers and, more particularly, is directed to ported speakers.
Speakers, or loudspeakers, are well known and are commonly used in a wide variety of applications, such as in home theater stereo systems.
Speakers typically comprise a hollowed out cabinet, or box, which is commonly manufactured of plywood, particle board or medium-density fiberboard. Various electrical components, such as a crossover, an L-pad and a terminal cup, are disposed within the cabinet and are electrically connected to an amplifier for the stereo system. One or more speaker units, such as tweeters and woofers, are positioned and sealed within associated holes formed into the surface of the cabinet. The speaker units are electrically connected to the electrical components of the speaker and vibrate in response to electrical inputs to produce sound.
Speaker cabinets are often manufactured using the following technique. An elongated strip of vinyl-laminated particle board having a first end and a second end is cut at predetermined locations. The elongated strip is then folded at the cut portions and the first and second ends are sealed together to form a four-sided, box-shaped configuration having an open top, an open bottom and an internal box cavity. A rectangular top panel and a rectangular bottom panel are permanently mounted on opposite sides of the elongated strip to enclose the internal box cavity.
One drawback of speaker cabinets manufactured in the manner noted above is that the final closure point of the first end of the elongated strip to the second end has often been found to be inadequately sealed. As a result, regions of the cabinet may vibrate which, in turn, produces noise, which is undesirable. In order to eliminate the vibratory noise, the inadequately sealed portion of the cabinet must be resealed air tight. This resealing process is typically a time-consuming and costly procedure.
In the art of speaker design, engineers are constantly striving to maximize speaker acoustical performance while, at the same time, minimize overall speaker size. In particular, it is a common object in the art to improve the range and quality of low frequency, or bass, sounds without greatly increasing the overall size of the speaker.
In order to produce stronger and deeper bass frequencies without increasing overall speaker size, it is well known in the art to provide a port in the cabinet of the speaker. A port is generally an open duct which includes a sound path that communicates the internal box volume of the cabinet with an external portion of the cabinet. Ported speakers, also commonly referred to as bass-reflex, vented, or phase-inverted speakers, have a resonant frequency which is defined by the air spring of the internal box volume of the cabinet and the air mass in the sound path of the port. At frequencies higher than the resonant frequency, the sound passing through the sound path is inverted and the sound emitted from the driver is in-phase. The two sounds are in-phase added to one another to increase sound pressure. As a result of the in-phase addition, the low frequency characteristics of the output sound pressure are expanded.
The frequency characteristics of ported speakers are directly attributable to the cross-sectional area of the sound path of the port, the length of the neck of the port and the internal box volume of the cabinet. By balancing the dimensions of the port and cabinet of the speaker, the acoustical performance of the speaker can be maximized without significantly increasing the overall size of the speaker, which is desirable.
Although ported speakers are well-known and commonly used in the art, they nonetheless experience noticeable drawbacks.
As a first drawback, the implementation of a port into the cabinet of a speaker requires additional steps in manufacturing, which thereby increases the total cost of the speaker.
As a second drawback, it has been found that an open duct resonance, wind noise, turbulence, or the like often occurs at the port. Specifically, a port of considerably narrow cross-section causes air which passes therethrough to move at a high speed. The high speed of the air passing through the port, in turn, collides against the edge portion of the port at the portion where the air flow passing through the port cannot become uniform, e.g., the small diameter portion or openings at two ends of the open duct port, thus causing wind noise or turbulence.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,422 to K. Furukawa, there is disclosed an acoustic apparatus comprising a Helmholtz resonator which has a cavity and an open duct port for causing the cavity to communicate with an external region thereof and a vibrator which is arranged in the resonator to drive the resonator. In a first aspect, the open duct port comprises an air permeable member having a proper acoustic and resistance and a viscoelastic member having no air permeability so that noise caused by an open duct resonance, wind noise, turbulence or the like is prevented. In a second aspect, a viscoelastic member is disposed at the mounting portion between the open duct port and a cabinet defining the cavity so that transmission to the cabinet of derivative vibration caused at the open duct port is prevented. In a third aspect, the portion, opposite to the open duct port, of an ornament grille attached to the front surface of the acoustic apparatus is given a larger air permeability than other portions of the grille so that wind noise when the grille is attached before the open duct port is prevented. Thus, noise generated when the resonator is driven is prevented or eliminated and distortion characteristics of the apparatus are improved.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,626 to C. H. Kim et al, there is disclosed a speaker system with an anion generator and a television set using the speaker system. The speaker system includes an anion generator provided within a speaker box. Sound pressure is used to help spread the generated anions outside the speaker box. An antistatic agent may optionally be provided on one or more surfaces of the speaker box to prevent static charge build-up within the speaker box.


A transfer robot includes an arm unit having a hand capable of holding one of transferred objects, a base unit mounted to an installation frame and horizontally rotatably supporting the arm unit, an attachment member for attaching the base unit to the installation frame, and an elevation mechanism arranged within the base unit and provided with an elevation member linked to the arm unit. The elevation mechanism is configured to move the arm unit up and down within an arm-unit up/down movement range defined above the base unit by moving the elevation member up and down along a vertical shaft. The base unit is fixed to the installation frame in a state that a portion of the base unit extending by a specified height from a bottom wall of the base unit to the attachment member is embedded in the base receiving recess of the installation frame.

1. Field of the Invention
An embodiment disclosed herein relates to a transfer robot and a substrate processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, a transfer robot arranged within a housing called an EFEM (Equipment Front End Module) is known as one example of horizontal articulated transfer robots for transferring a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or a liquid crystal panel (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-103755).
The EFEM is a module provided at the front surface side of the semiconductor processing apparatus. In a locally cleaned atmosphere, the EFEM can deliver a substrate between a substrate supplying unit and a substrate processing unit through the use of a transfer robot.
In general, the transfer robot includes an arm unit having a hand capable of holding a transferred object, a base unit for horizontally rotatably supporting the arm unit and an elevation mechanism for moving the arm unit up and down by raising or lowering the elevation member connected to the arm unit along a vertical shaft arranged within the base unit.

Transfer robot and substrate processing apparatus


Provided is a magnetic field detection device capable of detecting with a higher accuracy. A magnetic field detection device 1 includes a first magnetic sensor unit 1000a, a second magnetic sensor unit 1000b, a third magnetic sensor unit 1000c and a fourth magnetic sensor unit 1000d. The first and the second magnetic sensor units are disposed side by side so that a sensitive axis directions of the first and the second magnetic sensor units are oriented in a first direction, and the third and the fourth magnetic sensor units are disposed side by side so that the sensitive axis directions of the third and the fourth magnetic sensor units are oriented in a second direction. The first and the second magnetic sensor units are disposed between planes each including a center of gravity of each of the third and the fourth magnetic sensor units and defining the second direction as a normal direction, and the third and the fourth magnetic sensor units are disposed between planes each including a center of gravity of each of the first and the second magnetic sensor units and defining the first direction as a normal direction.

Examples of devices for measuring a magnetic field of a body such as a heart or a brain include a biomagnetism measuring device that uses a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) sensor. The 2-dimensional magnetic information such as a magnetocardiography and a magnetoencephalography can be obtained by arranging a lot of SQUID sensors for measuring the biomagnetism.
In recent years, a magnetic sensor that can detect an infinitesimally small magnetic field of about tens of pT such as biomagnetism and operates at room temperature has been studied. Examples of magnetic sensors capable of detecting subtle magnetic field include an MR sensor, for example.
A spin valve MR magnetic sensor of MR sensor has a structure in which non-magnetic material is sandwiched between ferromagnetic materials (ferromagnetic material/non-magnetic material/ferromagnetic material). The spin valve MR magnetic sensor generally has a spin valve structure comprising a pinned layer in which magnetization of one of the ferromagnetic material layer is pinned with an antiferromagnetic material layer and a free layer in which magnetization of another ferromagnetic material layer can be rotated freely according to the external magnetic field. When an input magnetic field is applied from the outside, a relative angle between the magnetization of the pinned layer and the magnetization of the free layer is changed, and as a result the current flowing in an intermediate layer, which is a non-magnetic material, is changed. Thus a spin valve MR magnetic sensor can detect the input magnetic field.
A spin valve MR magnetic sensor is known to exhibit a large magnetoresistance (MR) with an infinitesimally small magnetic field, and is mainly used for a hard disc magnetic head and the like. Further, a spin valve MR magnetic sensor is also known to have a high sensitivity compared to a magnetic sensor that uses hall effects (hall element), that is, to be able to detect an infinitesimally small magnetic field.
A closed-loop method is generally known as a magnetic field detection method and is mainly used for a current sensor with core. In the closed-loop method, a feedback current that corresponds to a voltage change of a magnetic sensor generated when an input magnetic field is applied from the outside is fed to a coil, and a canceling magnetic field in the opposite direction of the input magnetic field is applied to an MR sensor with the same strength as the input magnetic field. Thus, ideally, the magnetic field applied to the MR sensor is always constant. In this case, since the feedback current value is proportional to the input magnetic field, the input magnetic field value can be calculated by reading out the feedback current value.
An MR sensor can be operated by a closed-loop method by combining an MR sensor, a coil configured to generate a canceling magnetic field and an electric circuit configured to generate a feedback current. Operation of an MR sensor in closed loop allows a measurable magnetic field range to be dependent on a coil shape design, and as a result the measuring magnetic field range can be designed easily. A compact weak magnetic detection sensor operating at room temperature can be realized by operating an MR sensor in closed loop. When MR sensors are disposed in an array, since each sensor is small, a magnetic field can be detected with a fine space resolution and a fine magnetic field resolution. Thus, this technology finds suitable applications in detecting biomagnetism such as a heart magnetic field and a brain magnetic field and damage and corrosion of metals.


The present invention relates to a method for producing a DNA chip, which comprises the steps of: (a) cloning a probe, where a linker is coupled to one or both ends of an oligonucleotide to be integrated on a slide, into a vector; (b) transforming host cells with the vector; (c) culturing the transformed host cells, to recover the probe where the linker is coupled to one or both ends of the oligonucleotides; and (d) integrating the recovered double-helical probes on a slide. Also, the present invention relates to a DNA chip for HPV diagnosis produced by the method, and a method for diagnosing the presence or genotype of HPV using the DNA chip.

Generally, the production of DNA chips comprises the steps of producing a probe, and integrating the produced probe on a slide. Methods for producing the probe are classified into two categories according to the base sequence length of the probe. Namely, if the probe is an oligonucleotide consisted of 15-25 bases, it is preferably produced by a chemical synthesis method using a synthetic group, etc., but if it is a DNA consisted of more than 100 bases, it is preferably synthesized by PCR amplification. However, the former has a shortcoming that a probe should be produced each time a DNA chip is produced, and the latter has a shortcoming that primers should vary depending on the sequence of a probe.
The present invention aims to provide a producing method of DNA chips, capable of overcoming such prior problems, and to produce DNA chips for the diagnosis of HPV (human papilloma virus) causing cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer refers to cancer that occurs at the uterine cervix. Cervical cancer is the most frequent gynecologic cancer in Korean women (about 6,000 new patients are diagnosed as cervical cancer annually), and is a disease requiring special care. It most frequently occurs in women in their late 40's, but recently, its attack in young age groups shows a tendency of an increase. If it has developed, it can be difficult to cure completely, but if it is diagnosed early, it can be completely cured by the modern medicine. Also, it is known that cervical precancer lesions occur before progression to cervical cancer, and thus, it is important to diagnose cervical cancer at the early stage.
Although the cause of the development of cervical cancer is not yet completely explored, but HPV is being noticed as the most important cause factor. Some of HPV infections are progressed to cervical cancer via precursor lesions such as high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), Carcinoma in situ (CIS), and this process is known to occur over a significant period of time. Thus, the detection of HPV infection with PAP smear, colposcopy, or cervicography, etc., which is known for early diagnosis method of uterine cancer will greatly help early diagnosis of cervical cancer.
Methods for detecting HPV infection and genotype can be broadly divided into an in situ detection method for HPV DNA, and a method using HPV DNA amplification. Examples of the in situ detection method for HPV DNA include liquid hybridization (hybrid capture by digene diagnostics, Silver Spring, Md.), Southern blot and dot blot using HPV type-specific probes, and filter in situ hybridization (FISH).
Examples of the method using HPV DNA amplification include type-specific PCR, and general primer PCR. The genotypes of HPV DNA amplified with a general primer set can be detected by various methods, including dot blot hybridization, microtiter plate hybridization and line probe assay. The line probe assay is a method for detecting about 20 genotypes using oligonucleotide probes immobilized on a nitrocellulose membrane, but has several problems in view of probe sensitivity and data analysis.
Furthermore, a commercial hybrid capture kit can detect HPV DNA without PCR by easily isolating HPV DNA from a clinical sample. However, this kit makes it possible to only determine whether the corresponding HPV DNA belongs to high-risk group or to low-risk group, and it is impossible for this kit to determine an accurate genotype. Thus, there is a problem in that noteworthy HPV genotypes (HPV 16 and 18) among the high-risk groups, i.e., genotypes having a very high correlation with the generation of cancer, cannot be distinguished from other high-risk groups (medium risk groups). Moreover, due to the use of RNA probes, this method has other problems in that stability is low and contamination possibility cannot be excluded.
In addition, there is another method for detecting HPV DNA, in which a chip on which about 50 bp single-stranded oligonucleotide derived from various HPV genotypes is integrated is brought into contact with a fluorescence-labeled DNA sample containing a base sequence specific to HPV genotypes, and then, HPV infections are determined depending on whether HPV DNA hybridization occurs or not. However, this method has a shortcoming that a process after preparing a chip is complicated as compared to a method using a DNA chip on which double-stranded DNA is integrated. Another shortcoming is that it is not easy for the DNA sample to access to the probe on the chip depending on the coating uniformity of a glass slide surface, so that the signal intensity after hybridization has no consistency.
In an attempt to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, the present inventors constructed a DNA chip by cloning a probe comprising a linker coupled to both ends of about 60 bp target oligonucleotide, into a vector and culturing host cells transformed with the vector, to recover the probe, and integrating the recovered double-helical probe on a substrate. Then, the inventors have found that such a DNA chip showed good signal intensity after hybridization, thereby completing the present invention.

Method for preparing a DNA chip and use thereof