Down-regulating autoimmune regulator (AIRE) function in B cells to produce antibodies is described. The antibodies can be class-switched, high affinity, and neutralizing, and have a high degree of somatic hypermutations, even in the framework region, as compared to antibodies produced in the absence of AIRE downregulation.

A healthy immune system harbors a properly diversified and selected repertoire of antibodies that is critical for effective immune defense and prevention of autoimmunity. B cells play a major role in this process by producing antigen-specific antibodies against pathogens and imparting immunological memory. For the successful generation of B cell immunity, naive B cell populations with membrane immunoglobulin receptors (B cell receptors, BCRs) recognizing specific antigens are selectively activated in specialized microenvironments called germinal centers (GCs) in secondary lymphatic organs such as the lymph nodes, tonsils, and spleen.
In the weeks following antigenic stimulation in the GC, the specific antibodies that are produced by B cells increase their affinity for the antigen in a gradual and stepwise manner, termed affinity maturation. Affinity maturation involves two interrelated processes: (1) somatic hypermutation (SHM) and (2) clonal selection.
During SHM, mutations are generated in the variable, antigen-binding coding sequences (known as complementarity-determining regions (CDR)) of immunoglobulin genes. The mutation rate is up to 1,000,000 times higher than in cell lines outside of the lymphoid system. The increased mutation rate results in 1-2 mutations per CDR. These mutations alter the binding specificity and binding affinities of the resultant antibodies that are produced.
During clonal selection, B cells that have undergone SHM must compete for growth limiting resources, including the availability of antigen. Follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) of the GCs present antigen to the B cells, and only the B cells expressing BCRs with the higher affinities for the antigen are selected to survive. Over several rounds of selection, the resultant secreted antibodies produced will have effectively increased affinities for the antigen.
Beyond SHM and clonal selection, GC B cells additionally go through class switch recombination (CSR) which is a process that irreversibly rearranges the immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chain constant region genes. Heavy chains are classified as mu, delta, gamma, alpha, or epsilon, and define the antibody's isotype as IgM, IgD, IgG, IgA, and IgE, respectively. IgG has several subclasses, including, IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4. IgA is similarly subdivided into subclasses including IgA1 and IgA2. Class switch recombination rearranges the immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chain constant region genes from IgM or IgD to IgG, IgA or IgE. Class switch recombination allows effector function to change while maintaining antigenic specificity. Examples of different effector functions include antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC); phagocytosis; down regulation of cell surface receptors (e.g. B cell receptors); and B cell activation.
Generation of such long-lived, high affinity class-switched antibodies with neutralization functions protects individuals from re-infection following a first exposure to an antigenic pathogen. This process underlies the success of most vaccines. Antibodies also play large roles in a variety of therapeutic, diagnostic, and research uses.

Methods for the production of therapeutic, diagnostic, or research antibodies


A storage system that functions as one or more logical volumes includes a control unit and a plurality of storage units connected to the control unit, wherein the control unit includes a memory that stores allocation status information that indicates status of allocation of the plurality of storage units to a logical volume; an access request responding unit that controls at least one storage unit among the plurality of storage units in response to a request for access to each logical volume from a host device; and a power saving controller that identifies an unused storage unit not allocated to any logical volume among the plurality of storage units on the basis of the allocation status information and performs power saving control on the identified unused storage unit.

There is a storage apparatus configured as illustrated in FIG. 1. A base device 110 in this storage apparatus is connected to the host via a fiber channel or the like and functions even alone (i.e., with no add-on devices 120 connected thereto) as a storage. The add-on devices 120 have a plurality of disk drives incorporated therein and are daisy-chained to the base device 110 to implement a large-capacity storage system.
The total storage capacity of this storage apparatus may be increased, therefore, by adding add-on devices 120. When installing this storage apparatus in a large-scale data center or the like, the maximum number of add-on devices 120 are sometimes incorporated in the storage apparatus such that add-on devices 120 does not have to be installed in the future.
In such a case, the add-on devices 120 that are incorporated in the storage apparatus for future extension of the storage capacity and are currently not used at all (referred to hereinafter as extra add-on devices 120) consume electric power. It is desirable, therefore, to reduce the power consumption by the extra add-on devices 120, but, in conventional storage apparatus, there is no way but to manually turn off the power switches of the add-on devices 120 to reduce the power consumption by the extra add-on devices 120.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 2008-90352 and 2008-276341 discuss the power consumption control for a storage apparatus (system).
Problems to be solved by the disclosed technology are to provide a storage system that automatically controls the power consumption by the extra storage units in the storage system and to provide a power consumption control method for the storage system to automatically control the power consumption by the extra storage units in the storage system.

Power consumption control on an identified unused storage unit


Methods for processing a metal pad of a chip and chip structures including a chip with a metal pad. A surface modification agent is applied to the metal pad on the chip. The surface modification agent is effective to increase the hydrophobicity of the metal pad and may involve silylation.

The invention relates generally to integrated circuit fabrication and, in particular, to chips with pads and methods for processing the pads of chips.
A chip or die includes integrated circuits formed by front-end-of-line processing of a wafer, a local interconnect layer formed by middle-end-of-line processing, and an interconnect structure comprising a stack of metallization levels formed by back-end-of line processing. Multiple chips can be fabricated on the same wafer. A topmost metallization level includes bond pads that provide electrical access points to the integrated circuits of the chip. During chip packaging, the bond pads on the chip are physically and electrically connected by solder bumps or wire bonds with matching pads on a substrate, such as a printed circuit board. These connections supply electrical pathways for transferring data signals to and from the integrated circuits to an external device, such as a computing system, and electrical pathways for powering the integrated circuits.
The individual integrated circuits of each semiconductor chip on a wafer may be tested to detect functional defects before die preparation and packaging. The bond pads may be used electrical access locations to the integrated circuits of the chip during testing. To avoid damaging the bond pads, the topmost metallization level may include probe pads that also provide electrical access locations to the integrated circuits, but that are not used during bonding.
The testing may be performed by automated test equipment, known as a wafer prober, and involved contact with some form of mechanical probe. Typically, mechanical probes are arranged on a probe card, which is attached to the wafer prober. The wafer may be lifted by the wafer prober until the bond pads or probe pads connected with one or more integrated circuits of a chip on the wafer make physical contact with the mechanical probes.
Improved chips with pads and methods for processing the pads of chips are needed.

Alleviation of the corrosion pitting of chip pads


A hinged access door is secured to an office panel frame to be removable for full access to the interior of a panel frame or movable about hinge axis to also provide access to the panel frame without removing the access door.

An office panelling system is disclosed in our earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,577 which is incorporated herein by reference. This system has individual office panels which are connected in an end to end manner or in an angled manner. Each office panel has an interior frame to which decorative or functional cover elements are secured to provide a finished surface to either side of the frame. Various horizontal channels are provided across the frame for securing of office accessories such as work surfaces, overhead bins and other accessory structures. This panelling system provides ready access to power at desk height. This is achieved by providing an access door at approximately desk height which access door can be hinged about top hinge axis exposing a compartment within the office panel frame. The face of electrical receptacles are provided in a horizontal member of the frame and electrical equipment and can be plugged into the receptacle. In addition, excess electrical cord is stored in the panel behind the access door. In this structure, the hinge access door is urged by gravity to a closed position with the access in contact with the sides of the frame.
There are other office panelling systems where the securement of a hinged access door is similar to the securement of other releasable elements applied to the frame. For example, some releasable elements are merely held by a spring clip type arrangement to the face of an office panel frame. These securement approaches can use a conventional plug and receptacle type arrangement or as shown in our earlier patent can use a hinge and spring clip type arrangement where the elements pivot about a lower surface of the element and engage spring clips at an upper surface of the element.
Originally office panel systems were designed to support a work surface at a predetermined height and the lower edge of the access door was positioned slightly above the level of the work surface. In this way, the hinging of the access door outwardly would expose the electrical plugs behind the access door. With increased computer technology variable height work surfaces were more common and the predetermined relationship of the work surface and the lower edge of the access door was not necessarily present. Workers have personal preferences with respect to work height which can be dependent on their physical size, and/or their preferences and it has also been found that changes in the work station during a day is also desirable. There are now many arrangements from relatively simple height adjustment arrangements to hydraulic height adjustment arrangements whereby the height of a work surface is easily changed.
In many cases a work surface is at the predetermined height and does have the required relationship allowing the access door to pivot outwardly missing the work surface and thus the access door works in its intended manner. However, in other circumstances the work surface is positioned to block the access door. Fortunately once a work station is set up access to the interior of the panel is less frequent.
The present invention in a preferred embodiment provides a structure which allows convenient access to the interior of the panel frames regardless of whether the work surface is at a height overlapping with the access door.


It is provided a computer-implemented method for creating a surface from a plurality of 3D curves. The method comprises providing a plurality of 3D curves, determining crossings between pairs of the curves, defining a base graph comprising nodes representing the crossings and arcs connecting pairs of nodes representing crossings that are neighbors, determining, from the graph, a mesh comprising vertices defined by a 3D position and edges connecting pairs of the vertices, and fitting the mesh with a surface. Such a method makes the creation of a surface from a plurality of 3D curves easier.

A number of systems and programs are offered on the market for the design, the engineering and the manufacturing of objects. CAD is an acronym for Computer-Aided Design, e.g. it relates to software solutions for designing an object. CAE is an acronym for Computer-Aided Engineering, e.g. it relates to software solutions for simulating the physical behavior of a future product. CAM is an acronym for Computer-Aided Manufacturing, e.g. it relates to software solutions for defining manufacturing processes and operations. In such systems, the graphical user interface (GUI) plays an important role as regards the efficiency of the technique. These techniques may be embedded within Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems. PLM refers to a business strategy that helps companies to share product data, apply common processes, and leverage corporate knowledge for the development of products from conception to the end of their life, across the concept of extended enterprise.
The PLM solutions provided by Dassault Systemes (under the trademarks CATIA, ENOVIA and DELMIA) provide an Engineering Hub, which organizes product engineering knowledge, a Manufacturing Hub, which manages manufacturing engineering knowledge, and an Enterprise Hub which enables enterprise integrations and connections into both the Engineering and Manufacturing Hubs. All together the system delivers an open object model linking products, processes, resources to enable dynamic, knowledge-based product creation and decision support that drives optimized product definition, manufacturing preparation, production and service.
Some of these systems allow creating a surface from a plurality of 3D curves, which falls in the general category of geometric modeling and more precisely surface design. An introductory publication is: "Geometric Modeling", 3rd Edition, by Michael E. Mortenson, Industrial Press, May, 2006. Of particular interest are composite surfaces (a quilt of one or many surfaces), of any type, in particular quilts of curved surfaces, triangle-mesh surfaces (composed of flat facets), or subdivision surfaces.
A B-Rep (Boundary Representation) is a mathematical model that shall be mentioned here because it groups all the above mentioned surfaces into a single concept. A B-Rep aggregates one or more functions fi(s, t)→(x, y, z) with domain in R2 and range in R3, and logical information as to how these individual pieces are "sewn" together. The sewing can be such that the surfaces are "trimmed" which means that the R2 domain of each function is not used in its entirety. How best to generate such a patchwork of surfaces from sets of curves is a traditional problem in geometric modeling. In the special case of triangle mesh, each individual surface element is a flat facet, in other words a plane. A widely known definition of a B-Rep is STEP AP203. This is the standard that CATIA V5 and CATIA V6 apply when exporting a CATPart as a .stp file. B-Reps can be open, in which case they do not enclose a volume, or closed, in which case they describe the frontier of a volume and as such may represent a solid object. In the STEP AP203, they are referred to by the keywords OPEN_SHELL and CLOSED_SHELL respectively. The term B-Rep may however be used in a wider sense than the AP203 norm. In AP203, the case of the open B-Rep is just called an open shell, with the term B-Rep (in keyword "ADVANCED_BREP_SHAPE_REPRESENTATION") being reserved to the closed shell case. A B-Rep that does not enclose a volume is often referred to as a surface (in the singular form), even when composed of many sub-functions. This is especially the case when the junctions between the sub-pieces are smooth, masking to the user the composite nature of the object. Engineers or stylists frequently speak of the composite shapes generated as a single surface.
To facilitate construction of 3D models, in particular free-form shapes, some CAD systems provide diverse methods for generating a B-Rep (or portion thereof) from a set of lower dimensional inputs. These inputs might be a set of points at regular intervals, a set of points and tangent planes, a profile and an extrusion direction, a combination of sweep profiles and sweep rails, a set of curves to interpolate. In the case of sets of curves, these are generally required to be perfectly intersecting or to be sequenced. For example, the NET surface of CATIA V5/6 creates surfaces from a grid of intersecting curves.
A variety of functions that map from R2 into R3 can be used to form a B-Rep. These can go from simple planes (as in a triangle mesh) to very high order polynomials, and including also canonic surfaces such as the cylinder. It is also possible to make use of a Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surface integrated e.g. to CATIA, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,595,799 and 7,400,323. In these systems, the Subdivision Surface is first converted to a triangle mesh, for real-time visualization, and then converted to B-Spline surfaces for definitive high-quality result.
Also worth mentioning is Computer-Aided Curve Sketching. Creation of surfaces from curves is best used in a context where curves can be created quickly and easily. Curve sketching is a rich field of research in computer graphics. The publication entitled "ILoveSketch: As-natural-as-possible sketching system for creating 3D curve models," ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology 2008, Monterey, Calif., USA, Oct. 19-22, 2008, and the publication entitled "EverybodyLovesSketch: 3D Sketching for a Broader Audience," Seok-Hyung Bae, Ravin Balakrishnan, and Karan Singh, Proceedings of ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology 2009 (Victoria, BC, Canada, Oct. 4-7, 2009, pp. 59-68, present curve sketching. These two publications deal with networks of curves that define a shape, but do not propose to dress the shape with a surface, because of the difficulty of this operation.
One problem of the existing solutions for creating a surface from a plurality of 3D curves is the little flexibility given to the artist or engineer in shape definition. Existing solutions do not allow unconstrained design actions. Typically, they do not satisfy a highly creative artist user who is (rightly) impatient with any inflexibility of the computer system when putting new ideas down to the drawing board. They do not allow for trial and error and very interactive modification of the shape. They are not usable by any person involved in the product design, but just by the product design artists. A system which is usable by any person involved in the product design would be helpful because all might exchange ideas, and are thus subject to the same constraint of instant creation as the artist.
Methods in prior art that construct surfaces from curves fall into two categories: sweep/loft type methods, and net surfaces (net as in network).
Sweep/loft methods require the separation of curves into different categories; typically one curve will be the guide, and the others will be sectional shapes, or maybe the sectional shapes will be given and no guide. In all of these cases, the inputs must be carefully organized and the resulting surface is not truly free-form but rather a flowing shape that is oriented in a given direction (from one section to the next, or along the guide curve). Sweeping and lofting are very useful, and used intensively in CAD systems, but it is not applicable to truly free-form sketching of 3D shapes, because it requires a detailed view of the shape that is to be obtained, and thus does not support an open ended, trial and error type approach.
Network surfaces (net for short) are a family of techniques of which the best known is the Coons surface. A good discussion of the Coons surface can be found in the article "Discrete Coons Patches" Farin & Hansford, Computer Aided Geometric Design 16 (1999) 691-700. Many other types of net surfaces exist, including the CATIA net surface mentioned above, or the method described in a publication that addresses how to fit subdivision surfaces to curves ("Interpolating Nets of Curves by Smooth Subdivision Surfaces", Levin, Siggraph 99), which is based on defining a particular subdivision scheme that converges to the curves. Net surfaces all have in common that they interpolate a network of curves. Because the surface goes through the curves, the curves must intersect each other, forming a grid with closed loops. This is a showstopper condition for most artistic work, since it is practically impossible to sketch freely in 3D a set of curves such that they touch each other.
Also worth mentioning is a reference for fitting, which is the publication entitled "fitting subdivision surfaces", by Litke, Levin and Schroder, Siggraph 2001. The method described in this paper works on a general target (all points have target locations they should attain).
Within this context, there is still a need for an improved solution for creating a surface from a plurality of 3D curves.

Creating a surface from a plurality of 3D curves


The invention concerns a process for the preparation of hydrogen peroxide by the anthraquinone cyclic process. The process includes a regeneration stage in which working solution is regenerated by being brought into contact with an aqueous solution containing an alkyl anthrahydroquinone and/or an alkyl tetrahydroanthrahydroquinone in deprotonated form. The working solution regenerated in the regeneration stage is returned to the cyclic process.

In the anthraquinone cyclic process for the preparation of hydrogen peroxide, one or more alkyl anthraquinones and/or alkyl tetrahydroanthraquinones are used as the reactants, to form hydrogen peroxide in a cyclic process. Reactants are used in the form of a "working solution" comprising one or more water-immiscible solvents.
In the first stage working solution is hydrogenated with hydrogen or a hydrogen-containing gas in the presence of a catalyst. This results in the quinones present being at least partially converted into the hydroquinone form. In a second stage, the working solution is reacted with an oxygen-containing gas, e.g. air, to cause the hydroquinones to form hydrogen peroxide accompanied by the reformation of quinones. In the third stage, the hydrogen peroxide dissolved in the working solution is extracted with water to form an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution. Finally, the extracted, oxidized working solution (which, in practical terms no longer contains any hydrogen peroxide), is returned to the first, hydrogenation, stage.
During the cyclic process described above, small amounts of by-products are produced from the reactants, preventing them from continuing to form hydrogen peroxide. In the case of working solutions containing alkyl tetrahydroanthraquinones, for example, alkyl tetrahydroanthraquinone epoxides are formed as by-products. In order to minimize the loss of reactant due to by-product formation, the anthraquinone cyclic process may be performed with an additional regeneration stage in which all or part of the by-products are converted back into active reactants.
There have been a number of reports discussing various aspects of the regeneration step. For example, it is known that regeneration of the working solution can be achieved by treatment with alkalizing solids such as: Al2O3 and MgO (U.S. Pat. No. 2,739,875), CaO and Ca(OH)2 (GB 838,939), sodium aluminum silicates (U.S. Pat. No. 3,055,838), and alkali-treated solids (FR 1 305 640). DE 12 73 499 disclosed that regeneration with a basic solid is more effective with a hydrogenated working solution than with an oxidized working solution.
All regeneration processes which utilize a solid regenerant have the disadvantage that acid degradation products contained in the working solution cause the activity of the regenerant to decrease within a short period of time. As a result used regenerant must be replaced with fresh regenerant at frequent intervals and disposed of in a procedure that is both cumbersome and expensive.
It is known from DE-A 11 38 743 that an oxidized and extracted working solution can be regenerated by treatment with oxygen or another oxidizing agent, such as H2O2, in the presence of an aqueous solution of a base.
DE-A 12 03 237 describes how oxidized and extracted working solution can also be regenerated in the absence of an oxidizing agent by treatment with an alkali hydroxide or aqueous lye. This reference indicates that the recycle solution should be treated after full oxidation to prevent dissolution of the hydroquinones in the aqueous phase.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,901,491 describes how the hydroquinones in a hydrogenated working solution are extracted from it in full with sodium hydroxide solution. By oxidizing the aqueous extract with air, the extracted hydroquinones can be converted back into the quinones, which then separate out or can be extracted with a solvent. The working solution extracted with sodium hydroxide solution may be distilled to recover solvents.
FR 1,342,577 describes the regeneration of working solution with a highly alkaline dithionite solution. The reactants contained in the working solution are extracted almost completely from the organic phase with this solution. After phase separation, the organic phase is recovered by distillation. The aqueous phase obtained during the treatment is oxidized, e.g., by passing air through it, thereby causing the reactants to separate out in the form of quinones. The treatment has a regenerative effect since, after treatment, the quantity of quinones obtained is greater than that in the working solution originally used. A disadvantage of the process, however, is that it consumes large amounts of dithionite and requires an additional distillation stage.

Process for the preparation of hydrogen peroxide by the anthraquinone cyclic process


An endoscope tube having at least one image inversion system consisting of two rod lenses, in which the first rod ends, pointing to an intermediate image plane, have a marginal cylinder, which is mounted in the endoscope tube, in which the second rod ends, which lie symmetrical to an aperture plane, have a diameter that is smaller than the inner diameter of the endoscope tube, so that the end surfaces associated with the first rod lenses are convex in configuration, the end surfaces associated with the second rod ends can be cemented together with a lens element, and a distance holder that defines the aperture area is inserted between the two rod lenses, is characterized in that the rod diameter in each case continually decreases from the marginal cylinder toward the second rod end.

A system of this type is disclosed in DE 38 39 364 C2. Each of the rod lenses has on its first rod end a marginal cylinder whose diameter is adjusted to the inner diameter of the endoscope tube. The marginal cylinder has a length of about two-thirds the total length of the rod lens and serves to store the rod lens in the endoscope tube. The second rod end likewise includes a marginal cylinder whose diameter, however, is smaller than the inner diameter of the endoscope tube. The sudden transition from a thicker to a thinner rod lens part increases the danger of breakage at this spot during processing and during insertion of the endoscope tube.
The end surface of the thicker marginal cylinder is convex. At the end surface of the thinner marginal cylinder, a corrective lens is cemented. The convex end surfaces point to an intermediate image plane. The corrective lenses enclose a lens aperture.
It is known in the prior art that rod lenses in the area of cemented surfaces, when the endoscope tube is subject to bending, are exposed to increased danger of breakage. Reducing the rod diameter in this area is intended to avoid any impact from the bending in the cemented area. For configuring the aperture area, however, it is necessary that a distance holder should be inserted between the two rod lenses. This distance holder takes the form of a small tube, which on the one hand is contiguous to the endoscope tube and on the other hand is supported on the corrective lenses in the axial direction. During the exertion of bending pressure of the endoscope tube, it therefore is unavoidable that radially varying axial pressures are exerted on the cemented corrective lenses by the small distancing tube. These pressures can lead to damaging of the cemented surface or of the end surface and thus to a decline in the optical imaging quality.
Bending pressure on the endoscope tube also acts directly on the relatively long, thicker marginal cylinder and can result in breaking of the rod lens.
It is therefore the object of the invention to configure the rod lenses in such a way that their fragility when positioned in an endoscope tube is minimized and to provide a distance holder adapted thereto.

Endoscope tube with image inversion system


An axle positioning structure includes a sleeve, a shaft, and an elastomer. The sleeve includes a bottom and an inner wall. The bottom and the inner wall form a receiving space. The shaft is rotatably coupled to the sleeve. The first end of the shaft goes through the hole of the bottom, and the second end of the shaft is disposed within the receiving space. The elastomer is connected to the second end of the shaft for holding the sleeve by stretching onto the inner wall of the sleeve, so that the shaft is positioned after rotating a determined angle relative to the sleeve.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an axle structure, and more particularly to an axle positioning structure employed in lightweight devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital cameras offer considerable advantages over conventional film-type cameras in that the digital image data may be stored, processed, and/or reproduced with ease. The relative ease of handling and processing the digital image data produced by digital cameras allows users to readily look and examine the outcome of digital images.
With the advanced development of 3 C (consuming electronics product, computer and communication) industries, the current manufactures tend to install a built-in digital camera in various portable devices such as notebook computers, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and so on. Take the portable device with a flip cover device (hereinafter referred to as a clam-shaped device) as the example, a built-in digital camera is mainly installed in the rotating axle pivotally connecting the cover and the main body of the clam-shaped device, or otherwise the built-in digital camera is installed in the forward part of the cover. FIGS. 1A to 1C are lateral views showing a clam-shaped device equipped with a built-in digital camera. The clam-shaped device includes a cover 110, a main body 120 and a rotating -axle 130. The rotating axle 130 connects the cover 110 and the main body 120, so that the cover 110 can pivotally rotate relative to the main body 120 to allow the clam-shaped device to be opened or closed. A digital camera 100 is rotatably coupled to the forward part of the cover 110 through an axle 104 so that the lens 102 of the digital camera 100 can change the angle of view to enlarge the field of vision by rotating the axle 104.
In the beginning, before the digital camera 100 rotates with respect to the cover 110, the rotating angle is zero degree, as shown in FIG. 1A. FIG. 1B appears the digital camera 100 rotating 90 degrees with respect to the cover 110. The digital camera 100 rotates the ultimate rotating angle is 180 degree with respect to the cover 110, as shown in FIG. 1C. Users can rotate the lens 102 of the digital camera 100 with adjustable 0–180 degrees by rotating the axle 104 to capture the shot.
Conventionally, in order to allow the axle 104 to have a positioning function, a small-scale hinge mechanism is employed so that the digital camera 100 can be fixed after rotating a determined angle between 0–180 degrees. However, it is not necessary to use the small-scale hinge mechanism here due to the light weight of the digital camera 100 so that the torsion required for the digital camera 100 is less than that the small-scale hinge mechanism offers. Besides, the outer diameter of the axle 104 can be allowed within 4 mm. Moreover, considering the higher production cost and the lower manufacture yield rate, it is not applicable when the hinge mechanism is employed in being the axle 104 of a clam-shaped device such as the digital camera 100.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a conventional axle. The axle 104 includes a sleeve 200 and a shaft 210; the shaft 210 is rotatably coupled to the sleeve 200. The bottom 202 and the inner wall 204 of the sleeve 200 form a receiving space 206, and the bottom 202 of the sleeve 200 has a hole 208. The first end of the shaft 210 goes through the hole 208 and then is fixed to the digital camera 100. The second end of the shaft 210 is disposed within the receiving space 206 of the sleeve 200. Besides, the shaft 210 has a stopper 212 protruding from the second end of the shaft 210 for stopping the shaft 210 from axially moving so as to prevent the shaft 210 from slipping out of the receiving space 206 through the hole 208.
In FIG. 2, the shaft 210 can be positioned by a design analogous to wedging the shaft 210 into the sleeve 200. However, the coupling portion of the shaft 210 and the sleeve 200 is suffered a lot of wear and tear after repeatedly rotating. The analogous wedging design consequently becomes loosening so that the digital camera 100 cannot be positioned at a determined angle to meet users' needs.


The present invention discloses a system and a method for reducing plasma induced communication disruption utilizing electrophilic injectant and sharp reentry vehicle nose shaping. Injecting electrophilic gas into plasma accomplishes reduction of plasma induced communication disruption by removing free electrons in the plasma which causes the communication disruption. For reentry vehicles, a multi-section sharp nose also reduces plasma effect during reentry. By combining electrophilic gas injection and a multi-section sharp nose shaping, the present invention reduces and further eliminates plasma induced communication blackout, such as GPS communication blackout, for a reentry vehicle during reentry. As a result, the present invention improves targeting accuracy for a GPS-guided reentry vehicle by reducing plasma induced GPS blackout during the critical reentry phase.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a system and a method for reducing plasma induced communication disruption, and in particular to a system and a method for reducing plasma induced communication disruption utilizing electrophilic injectant and sharp reentry vehicle nose shaping.
2. Description of the Related Art
Blazing fiery descent of space-borne objects into Earth atmosphere is a well known phenomenon. To avoid damage or destruction during the fiery reentry phase, reentry vehicles are usually equipped with heat-shields known as the thermal protection system (TPS). With a TPS shield, it is the outer layer of TPS, rather than the structure of the reentry vehicle, that is subject to the intense heat and pressures during reentry. However, the thermal protection system itself is not indestructible. For instance, the outer layer of TPS ablates away under the extreme heat and pressures of reentry phase. As the TPS chars and partly burns away, a layer of plasma is created around the reentry vehicle from the ablation process.
Plasma is a state of matter in which molecules or atoms are broken down to free electrons and positively charged ions—atoms with electrons stripped away—under extreme heat. The TPS ablation releases certain easily ionizable trace elements in the TPS—mainly the low ionization potential alkali metals such as Na, K, and Ca—into a thin layer of flow around the reentry vehicle. A significant portion of these atoms ionize when they are subject to the high temperatures that exist in the thin boundary layer of flow around the reentry vehicle. Equal numbers of singly ionized positive ions (Na+, Ca+, and K+) and free electrons (e−) are generated, and an overall charge balance is maintained. Although these trace elements are usually present only at very low levels in the TPS material, on the order of tens of parts per million, they make a large contribution to the free electron concentration in the vehicle boundary layer.
Another source of plasma is from ionization of the air molecules, primarily in the region of the nose tip shock wave. In this region just at the front of the vehicle, the bow shock wave is at right angles to the flow and produces much higher temperatures than exist in the flow along the sides of the vehicle. Immediately behind this right-angle shock wave, the air is highly dissociated and partially ionized to a mixture of N, O, NO, N2, O2, NO+, and e− molecules and ions. The most easily ionizable air derived specie is NO, making creation of NO+ the principle source of "clean air" ionization free electrons. While not present in ambient air in significant amounts, NO is formed rapidly when the air is dissociated by the high temperatures at the nose tip. The relatively intense plasma formed at the nose tip flows back along the vehicle sides and eventually around the back into the wake, thinning as it goes and mixing with the boundary layer flow with its alkali metal produced ions. Hence, there are two major plasma contributors, one from the nose tip bow shock and the other from the ablating TPS layer with its alkali trace elements.
One result of plasma formation around a reentry vehicle is communication disruption during reentry. The free electrons racing around in the plasma interfere with the electromagnetic waves used for radio communication (the RF signals), resulting in communication disruption. The communication blackouts of space capsules or space shuttles that occur during their reentry into Earth atmosphere are caused by this plasma effect.
The plasma effect also adversely affects the targeting accuracy of reentry vehicles of the ICBM systems. One method of assuring the accuracy of the missiles is to guide the reentry vehicles utilizing the GPS system. However, the same plasma effect disrupts the vehicles' communication with the GPS satellites, causing so-called GPS blackouts during reentry. Because the reentry vehicles cannot be guided by GPS during the critical reentry phase, the targeting accuracy is negatively affected by the plasma induced communication disruption.
The technology for reducing or suppressing plasma effect, thus, would provide numerous benefits, including making space flights safer and making missiles more accurate. It can be seen, then, there is a need in the field for a system and a method for reducing plasma induced communication disruption during reentry.

System and method for reducing plasma induced communication disruption utilizing electrophilic injectant and sharp reentry vehicle nose shaping


There is provided an a wear strip assembly for use in a waste water treatment facility comprising an anchor plate secured to the bottom of a tank and a wear strip disposed around the anchor plate having a c-shaped cross section. The wear strip may be slid onto the anchor plate. There is also provided a waste water treatment system employing the wear strip assembly. There is further provided a stop plate for use in the wear strip assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to sludge collectors for removing sludge from rectangular settling tanks and more particularly to a wear strip assembly for supporting a flight for use in sludge collection.
2. Description of Related Art
Sludge collectors are commonly used in waste water treatment plants to scrape settled sludge from the bottom of the settling tank and also to skim floating waste off the surface of the waste water. These sludge collectors typically include a number of sludge flights which are usually elongated members that extend the width of the tank. The ends of the flights are connected to drive chains which carry flights in a circuit lengthwise along the bottom of the tank and back over the surface of the water to perform the scraping and skimming functions.
Rectangular settling tanks used in waste water treatment facilities typically include field installed steel T-rails having floor wear bars disposed on the T-rails for supporting the flight when collecting sludge. The T-rails may be spliced together with separate steel plate splice bars and may be secured to the concrete floors of the settling tank by the use of standard hardware. Alternatively, the floors of the settling tank may be poured without T-rails and the wear bars may be directly mounted to the concrete floors.
Because wear bars are often formed of non-metallic material, such as UHMW polyethylene, nylon, or polyurethane, they have a different coefficient of linear expansion than the concrete floors or steel T-rails to which they may be mounted and special design considerations must be made. Wide variances in the ambient temperature within the concrete basins during installation or variances in water temperature when in final operation are common and therefore the wear bars may become loose, buckled, or otherwise out of line. Consequently, the flights may become jammed and may result in breakage of the chain supporting the flights.
Further, because wear bars are typically secured to the T-rail or concrete floor by screws or bolts, a portion of the wear bar surface is lessened due to the presence of these fasteners. Moreover, a multitude of fasteners may be needed to secure the wear bars to the concrete floors or T-rails, adding to the overall cost and field labor required. It is therefore desirable to have a wear bar that may be secured to the bottom of a settling tank without the use of screws or bolts so that the total wear bar surface may be utilized and the installation is less costly, easier to install and easier to replace when necessary.

Wear strip assembly for use in a waste water treatment facility


An IC card connector wherein an elastic piece is provided on a base of a housing, extending cantilevered in the direction of IC card insertion and using the free end portion thereof as a click projection. The IC card drives the click projection immediately before complete insertion to produce a feel of a click, thus completing the insertion of the IC card, so that the user inserting the IC card into a card slot of the housing will be able to definitely know proper card insertion by the feel of click and vibration.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an IC card connector to be used for inputting a signal to, and outputting a signal from, an IC card inserted, and more particularly, to an IC card connector which requires accurate positioning in relation to a contact of the connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
The IC card is a card within which an integrated circuit having microprocessing and memory functions is embedded. External equipment, for instance a personal computer, a digital camera, etc., which performs information processing by use of such an IC card as a medium, is provided with an IC card connector provided with a plurality of terminals corresponding to contacts arranged on the bottom surface of the IC card.
The IC card connector is used with an IC card inserted into a card slot. After the completion of insertion of the IC card into the card slot, the IC card is held in the state that each contact is in contact with each terminal of the connector, so that signals can be inputted and outputted. That is, as shown in FIG. 14A, when the IC card 1 is inserted fully into the card slot 2a of the connector 2, each contact la disposed on the bottom surface of the IC card 1 contacts each terminal 3 of the connector 2 with a contact portion 3a protruded into the card slot 2a. Therefore, if the IC card 1 inserted in the card slot 2a is not in a specific loading position, the contact 1a of the IC card 1 is not in contact with the corresponding terminal 3 as shown in FIG. 14B. In this case, proper input and output of signals can not be performed.
The IC card connector generally incorporates a detection switch which detects whether or not the insertion of the IC card into the card slot is completed. The detection switch is designed to be actuated by the IC card immediately before the completion of card insertion to thereby turn on and off the contact section. Therefore, the detection switch will not operate when incompletely inserted as shown in FIG. 14B for example. It is, therefore, possible to prevent, by the use of this detection switch, a malfunction resulting from defective contact between the contact of the IC card and the connector terminal and impairment of electronic components likely to occur in the case they contact to each other at an undesirable position.
The IC card connector usually incorporates a detection switch for detecting the completion of insertion of the IC card as described above. The IC card, however, is not provided with a means by which the user inserting the IC card into the IC card connector can definitely feel that the IC card has been properly inserted. The user can see the completion of IC card insertion when the IC card inserted has come into contact at the forward end with the innermost part in the card slot of the connector and can not be pushed further inward. To the user, IC card insertion, if a little incomplete, makes no big difference from proper insertion; therefore the user is likely to make the mistake that the IC card is fully inserted notwithstanding the IC card is held partway in the connector.
If the IC card is held in the connector in an incompletely inserted state due to the user's mistake, the detection switch will not operate, so that no malfunction of the detection switch will occur and the electronic components will not be impaired. In this case, however, no signal is inputted and outputted, and user is apt to mistake this state of the switch as a trouble. Particularly, when an IC card which requires correct positioning after complete insertion in relation to the connector is used, the detection switch tends to operate immediately before the completion of IC card insertion. If, in this case, the user mistakes that the IC card has been properly inserted, the equipment using the IC card will fail to work properly or the electronic components will be impaired.

IC card connector with click projection for insert control


An image sensor and a method for fabricating the same are disclosed, to improve a contact quality between a contact plug and a source diffusion layer. The image sensor includes a photodiode in an active area of a semiconductor substrate, for receiving incident external light and generating optical charges; a transistor having an impurity diffusion layer electrically connected with the photodiode, for transferring/discharging the optical charges generated by the photodiode to a signal processing circuit; an impurity implantation layer having impurity selectively implanted thereto, for selectively covering the impurity diffusion layer; an insulating interlayer above the semiconductor substrate to cover the photodiode, the transistor, and the impurity implantation layer; an open hole penetrating the insulating interlayer, for selectively opening the impurity diffusion layer; and a contact plug for filling the open hole, and electrically connecting the impurity diffusion layer and a metal line provided above the insulating interlayer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image sensor, and more particularly, to an image sensor and a method for fabricating the same, to improve a contact quality between a contact plug and a source diffusion layer by forming an impurity implantation layer, having an impurity selectively implanted thereto, on the source diffusion layer, thereby realizing an optimal image quality in the completed image sensor.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In recent, as a rapid development of electrical and electronic technologies, various electronic equipments using an image sensor technology, for example, a video camera, a digital camera, a personal computer having a small-sized camera, a mobile phone having a small-sized camera, etc. have been widely studied and researched, and used.
Conventionally, the image sensor is used of a charge coupled device (hereinafter, referred to as a "CCD"). However, the CCD has the disadvantageous characteristics of requirements for a high driving voltage and an additional supporting circuit, and of a high fabrication cost, whereby the CCD is a decreasing trend in use.
Recently, a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (hereinafter, referred to as a "CMOS") image sensor has great attentions as a substitute for the CCD. The CMOS image sensor is fabricated in a CMOS circuit technology. That is, unlike the related art CCD, the CMOS image sensor has the advantageous characteristics such as a low driving voltage, no requirement for an additional supporting circuit, and a low fabrication cost.
As shown in FIG. 1, the related art CMOS image sensor is formed on an active area of a semiconductor substrate 1 defined by a device isolation layer 3, wherein the CMOS image sensor is comprised of a photodiode 2 for receiving the light from the external and generating optical charges, and a transistor 10 for transferring/discharging the optical charges generated by the photodiode 2 to a signal processing circuit.
In this case, for example, the photodiode 2 is comprised of an N-type impurity diffusion layer 2a and a P-type impurity diffusion layer 2b. The transistor 10 is comprised of a gate insulating layer pattern 11, a gate electrode pattern 12, a spacer 13, source/diffusion layers 16/15, and a salicide layer 17.
At this time, a metal line 25 is formed above the semiconductor substrate 1, to transfer an external electric signal to the transfer 10. Also, an insulating interlayer 26 is formed between the metal line 25 and the semiconductor substrate 1, wherein the insulating interlayer 26 insulates the metal line 25 from the semiconductor substrate 1. In this case, the metal line 25 forms an electric signal connection with the transistor 10 by a contact plug 24 of filling an open hole H.
At this time, for example, the insulating interlayer 26 is comprised of a boron-phosphorous silicate glass layer (hereinafter, referred to as a "BPSG layer") 22 and an Ozone Tetra Ethyl Ortho Silicate layer (hereinafter, referred to as a "TEOS layer") 23. In this case, a barrier layer 21 is additionally formed in the interface between the semiconductor substrate 1 and the insulating interlayer 26, to protect the semiconductor substrate 1 from the process stress for formation of the insulating interlayer 26, and to enhance a contact quality between the semiconductor substrate 1 and the insulating interlayer 26.
In the CMOS image sensor according to the related art, the source diffusion layer 16 of the transistor 10, being electrically connected with the photodiode 2, functions as a main node of transferring the optical charges generated in the photodiode 2 to the external, for example, an outlead circuit. Accordingly, the process for enhancing the electric contact quality between the contact plug 24 and the source diffusion layer 16 is very important for improvement of image quality in the CMOS image sensor.
However, the related art CMOS image sensor has difficulties in improving the electric contact quality between the contact plug 24 and the source diffusion layer 16.
For example, since the open hole H functions as a main channel of the contact plug 24, the open hole is formed in a large size, to increase a contact area between the contact plug 24 and the source diffusion layer 16, thereby improving the contact quality between the contact plug 24 and the source diffusion layer 16. Under the substantial fabrication process, it is very difficult to maintain a constant thickness of the insulating interlayer 26, and to form the uniform open hole H in the insulating interlayer 26 from an upper side to a lower side. As a result, it has the limitation to the increase of the contact area between the contact plug 24 and the source diffusion layer 16, thereby causing the deterioration of the contact quality between the contact plug 24 and the source diffusion layer 16.
Also, in case of the related art CMOS image sensor, it is possible to increase the impurity concentration of the source diffusion layer 16 by increasing the amount of impurity implanted to the source diffusion layer 16, thereby inducing the improvement of the contact quality between the contact plug 24 and the source diffusion layer 16. In this case, since an impact is undesirably applied to the surface of the semiconductor substrate 1 by highly implanting the impurity, so that the completed source diffusion layer 16 undesirably has a current leakage. Thus, it has the limitation to the increase in amount of impurity implanted to the source diffusion layer 16, thereby causing the deterioration of the electric contact quality between the contact plug 24 and the source diffusion layer 16.
Like the aforementioned gate electrode pattern 12 and the drain diffusion layer 15, the salicide layer 17 may be additionally formed on the surface of the source diffusion layer 16, to realize the contact quality between the contact plug 24 and the source diffusion layer 16. In this case, as an undesirable impact is applied to the photodiode 2 of the semiconductor substrate 1 due to the formation of the salicide layer 17, whereby the performance of the completed photodiode 2 is largely lowered. In this respect, it is impossible to improve the contact quality between the contact plug 24 and the source diffusion layer 16 only by forming the salicide layer on the source diffusion layer 16 without the additional process.

Image sensor and method for fabricating the same


A p53 degradation inducing molecule which can induce degradation of p53 proteins or p53 composites, and a pharmaceutical composition containing said p53 degradation inducing molecule are provided. This p53 degradation inducing molecule is a conjugate of a p53 affinity molecule which has affinity for p53 proteins or p53 composites, and a proteolysis induction tag which has affinity for protease and which does not inhibit proteolysis of proteins by protease.

A p53 protein is a protein related to cellular senescence, the stop of the cell cycle, the induction of apoptosis, and the like, and is activated in response to, for example, stress (active oxygen, radiation, and the like) that causes DNA damage.
Conventionally, it is known that in neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, or in ischemic disorders such as cerebral stroke, the expression of the p53 protein is accentuated to induce neuronal cell death. Furthermore, it is known that accentuated expression of the p53 protein promotes the development of cardiac dysfunction by, for example, reducing angiogenesis in the heart. Furthermore, it is known that accentuated expression of the p53 protein decreases the ability to secrete insulin and promotes the onset of diabetes by, for example, reducing mitochondrial function in pancreatic β cells. In addition, in preparation of pluripotent stem cells (for example, iPS cells (induced Pluripotent Stem Cells)) to be used in regenerative medicine, it is known to be necessary to suppress the expression of the p53 gene. Therefore, in treatment of various diseases and in regenerative medicine, methodologies for reducing the amount (expression) of the p53 protein have been considered.
It is thought that activation of the p53 protein elicits suppression of the proliferation of cancerous cells and elicits induction of apoptosis to inhibit cancer. However, in human cancers, the p53 protein is mutated at a proportion of 50% or more, it is known that functions such as suppression of proliferation of cancer cells and induction of apoptosis are reduced. Therefore, in cancer treatment, methodologies for reducing the amount (expression) of the mutant-type p53 protein have been considered.
As a technique for controlling the amount of a target protein at the RNA level, known is the RNAi (RNA interference) technique in which mRNA of the target protein is degraded with siRNA (small interfering RNA).
Furthermore, as a technique for controlling the amount of a target protein at the protein level, known is a technique using a complex of a molecule that binds to the target protein and a molecule that binds to a ubiquitin ligase (E3) (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 2, and non-Patent Documents 1 to 3). This technique binds a target protein to a ubiquitin ligase via the complex and specifically ubiquitinates the target protein, leading to degradation by a proteasome. The complex may be referred to as SNIPER (Specific and Nongenetic IAP-dependent Protein ERaser), PROTAC (PROteolysis TArgeting Chimera), etc.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. H2013-056837    Patent Document 2: U.S. Pat. No. 7,208,157, Specification    Non-Patent Document 1: Itoh, Y. et al., "Development of target protein-selective degradation inducer for protein knockdown.", Bioorg. Med. Chem., 2011, 19, 3229-3241    Non-Patent Document 2: Demizu, Y. et al., "Design and synthesis of estrogen receptor degradation inducer based on a protein knockdown strategy.", Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 2012, 15, 1793-1796    Non-Patent Document 3: Hines, J. et al., "Posttranslational protein knockdown coupled to receptor tyrosine kinase activation with phosphoPROTACs.", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 2013, 110(22), 8942-8947

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

P53 degradation inducing molecule and pharmaceutical composition


A spice grinder includes a first component (12) that can be secured to the neck of a spice container, and a second component (14) that is mounted on the first component (12) for rotation with respect thereto. The first and second components (12,14) including grinding teeth (24,58) between which spice corns are ground when the second component (14) is rotated on the first component (12). Passageways are provided between the first and second components through which spice ground by the teeth emerges from the grinding gap between the teeth, and a movable shutter (16) is provided for varying the degree to which the corns are ground by varying the sizes of the passageways.

Spice grinders are fitted to glass bottles or other containers which contain spices such as peppercorns that are to be ground immediately prior to use.
A spice grinder normally comprises a first component which has threading or other formations which enable it to be fitted to the container. The first component has a bore the surface of which is serrated, the serrations forming grinding teeth.
Within the first component there is a second, rotatable component. The outer surface of the rotatable component has teeth which lie radially inwardly of the teeth on the first component. The two sets of teeth define a grinding gap.
To enable the degree to which the spice is ground to be adjusted, the bore can be tapered and the second component can be conical. By displacing the components axially with respect to one another, the width of the grinding gap can be adjusted.
The object of the present invention is to provide a spice grinder which has an improved structure for enabling the degree to which the spice is ground to be adjusted.


A method of predicting patient deterioration includes receiving an electronic health record data set of the patient, determining a risk score corresponding to the patient by analyzing the electronic health record data set of the patient using a trained machine learning model, determining a threshold value using an online/reinforcement learning model, comparing the risk score to the threshold value, and when the risk score exceeds the threshold value, generating an alarm. A non-transitory computer readable medium includes program instructions that when executed, cause the computer to receive a list of patients, display selectable patient information corresponding to each of the list of patients according to an ordering established by a feature importance algorithm, receive a selection, retrieve vital sign information corresponding to the selection, and display the vital sign information.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Identifying patient deterioration on general hospital wards is a challenge for clinicians. Early detection of patient deterioration has been found to lead to a 3.5 times reduced mortality risk, five-day reduction in length of hospital stay, and over $13,000 in reduced costs per patient/episode. Past attempts to quantify patient risk include rule-based scores such as the Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) and the Rothman Index. Recently, statistical learning systems such as Electronic Cardiac Arrest Risk Triage (eCART) have been developed to address this need. However, these rule-based scoring and statistical learning systems result in too many false alarms, and do not reliably predict patient deterioration. Furthermore, existing systems do not leverage the power of nonlinear models to make automatically explicable predictions. As such, clinicians may not want to use the existing approaches to make clinical decisions due to lack of confidence.

Predicting intensive care transfers and other unforeseen events using machine learning

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN


Methods of triggering a test and measurement instrument having a plurality of inputs include the step of generating a trigger signal in response to every occurrence of any one of a plurality of specified trigger events. A first specified trigger event occurs in at least a first one of the inputs and a second specified trigger event occurs in at least a second one of the plurality of inputs. A specified trigger event may include at least one selected input from the plurality of inputs and a selected activity type. Some methods include configuring each of a plurality of event activity detectors to produce a pulse in a logic signal in response to every occurrence of one of the specified trigger events. The plurality of logic signals are combined in a logical OR circuit to generate the trigger signal. Trigger circuits configured according to these methods are also disclosed.

A test and measurement instrument, such as an oscilloscope, generally uses a trigger to mark a specific point in time in an input signal, and to cause the instrument's acquisition system to acquire the input signal data, thereby defining the specific portion of the input signal that will be stored in the instrument's memory. The trigger serves to synchronize the horizontal sweep of the instrument, allowing the instrument to show a stable depiction of the input signal on a display. The instrument may trigger on the same input signal that is shown on screen, or it may trigger on a different trigger source, such as another input signal, an external trigger signal, or even the line voltage signal. Conventional test and measurement instruments are capable of triggering on a wide variety of conditions that may be present in a trigger source signal. For example, all modern oscilloscopes include an edge trigger mode, which generates a trigger when the trigger source signal experiences an edge transition.
Many modern test and measurement instruments also include a logic trigger mode. The logic trigger mode is especially useful for verifying or troubleshooting the operation of digital logic. In the logic trigger mode, the instrument triggers on a logical combination (e.g. NOT, AND, OR, NAND, NOR) of Boolean words in input signals. For example, in an oscilloscope with two input channels (e.g. CH1, CH2), the oscilloscope in logic trigger mode may be set to trigger when, according to Boolean logic, CH1 is logically HI, OR when CH2 is logically HI. The specific voltage levels used by the instrument to determine when an input signal is logically HI or LO are generally selectable in the instrument. Most instruments contain preset levels corresponding to particular logic families (e.g. TTL, ECL, CMOS).
The behavior of the conventional logic trigger circuit just described, particularly the logical OR trigger mode, is correct according to Boolean logic, but is nevertheless limited in what types of input signal transitions it can recognize, and is unsatisfactory for some test and measurement instrument users. Embodiments of the present invention address these and other limitations of the prior art.


A crush box includes a tubular body having a polygonal section and disposed between an end portion of a bumper beam and a vehicle body in such a posture that an axial direction of the tubular body generally coincides with a longitudinal direction of a vehicle, in which the tubular body has an outer side wall and an inner side wall that is located inward of the outer side wall in a vehicle-width direction, and both the outer side wall and the inner side wall are inclined outward in the vehicle-width direction, in a direction from the vehicle body toward the bumper beam, and in which the tubular body is crushed into a bellows shape to absorb impact energy as a compressive load is applied to the tubular body from the bumper beam in the axial direction of the tubular body, wherein an angle of inclination of the outer side wall is greater than an angle of inclination of the inner side wall.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a crush box, and more specifically to a technique for preventing a crush box from being displaced to tilt laterally at the time of a short overlap offset collision.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed a crush box (a) that includes a tubular body having a polygonal section and disposed between an end portion of a bumper beam and a vehicle body in such a posture that the axial direction of the tubular body generally coincides with the longitudinal direction of a vehicle, (b) in which the tubular body has an outer side wall and an inner side wall that is located inward of the outer side wall in the vehicle-width direction, and both the outer side wall and the inner side wall are inclined outward in the vehicle-width direction (i.e., the distance between a line extending in the vehicle longitudinal direction and each of the outer side wall and the inner side wall increases in a direction from the vehicle body toward the bumper beam), and (c) in which the tubular body is crushed into a bellows shape to absorb impact energy as a compressive load is applied to the tubular body from the bumper beam in the axial direction of the tubular body. A crush box described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-76476 (JP 2010-76476 A) is an example of the above-described crush box. According to JP 2010-76476 A, a tubular body of the crush box is inclined outward in the vehicle-width direction, and thus the crush box is restrained from being displaced to tilt inward in the vehicle-width direction.
However, in the event of an offset collision, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 5, even the crush box inclined outward in the vehicle-width direction is likely to be displaced to tilt laterally and thus the impact energy absorption performance of the crush box may be lowered. For example, in the case of a short overlap collision between a collision barrier and a bumper beam, that is, a collision with a short (small) overlap between the collision barrier and the bumper beam, as illustrated in a section of a conventional crush box in FIG. 9, an end portion of the bumper beam, which is located outward of the crush box in the vehicle-width direction, undergoes bending deformation and the crush box itself is displaced to tilt inward in the vehicle-width direction from its root (its end portion on the vehicle body side), so that the crush box is not crushed into a bellows shape. As a result, the impact energy absorption performance is significantly lowered. FIG. 9 illustrates the conventional crush box that is disposed so as to extend substantially parallel to the vehicle longitudinal direction as illustrated in FIG. 15. However, even in the case where a crush box inclined outward in the vehicle-width direction as described in JP 2010-76476 A is adopted, a similar problem may occur depending on an angle of inclination of the crush box. If the angle of inclination of the crush box is increased, occurrence of the above-described problem may be reduced but the crush box is more likely to be displaced to tilt outward in the vehicle-width direction. Therefore, it is difficult to select the angle of inclination at which the crush box is displaced to tilt neither inward nor outward in the vehicle-width direction in the event of a short overlap collision.


This invention relate to a production method of a photosensitive member having an organic photosensitive layer and a surface protective layer in this order on an electrically conductive substrate comprising;. a first step of forming the organic photosensitive layer on the electrically conductive substrate, PA1 a second step of eliminating an outermost surface portion of the organic photosensitive layer, and PA1 a third step of forming the surface protective layer under vacuum conditions on the organic photosensitive layer.

This invention relates to a production method of a photosensitive member having a surface protective layer.
Organic photosensitive members are well known. The organic photosensitive member is excellent in sensitivity and chargeability, and costs low for its production.
However, the organic photosensitive members have problems. For example, the surface of organic photosensitive layer is soft. The organic photosensitive member is worn, liable to be injured, and comes to form image-defects and white lines when repeatedly used. The reduction of thickness of the photosensitive member also causes the fall-off of surface potential.
Therefore, a surface protective layer is generally formed on the photosensitive layer in order to overcome the above mentioned problems.
It is desirable that the surface protective layer is formed immediately after the photosensitive layer is formed. But, a number of photosensitive layers are once formed on electrically conductive substrates because of simplification of production and from the view points of a production equipments. And then, surface protective layers, such as amorphous carbon layers or the like, are formed on the photosensitive layers. In general, the photosensitive layers are kept for a few days-a few months until the surface protective layers are formed (this keeping period is referred to as "stock time in process").
The surface of an organic photosensitive layer is oxidized with time by oxygen in the air. When a surface protective layer, such as an amorphous carbon layer, is formed on the organic photosensitive layer, the surface of which is oxidized, the surface protective layer separates off because the adhesivity of the protective layer to the oxidized layer is poor. After only one day passed from the preparation of an organic photosensitive layer, the surface of the organic photosensitive layer is already oxidized to such degree that the surface protective layer is liable to separate off.
By the way, photosensitive members having surface-protective thin layers deposited under vacuum conditions have been known well. But, there is no reference that discloses that a photosensitive layer should be surface-treated in order to secure adhesivity before a thin layer is deposited under vacuum conditions on the photosensitive layer kept for a long time.

Production method of photosensitive member by eliminating outermost surface portion of photosensitive layer


A method and a fiber-treatment system dry wet or damp fibers. A fiber mat (13) including wet or damp fibers is formed on a treatment band (31) which is moved in a conveying direction (x). An air flow (36, 36a) composed of heated drying air is generated in the fiber dryer (30). The heated drying air is guided in an upward direction through the treatment band and the fibers contained in the fibre mat (13, 14) are loosened and dried. Linters (16) possibly produced by any moving fibers are captured by a filter band (32) arranged above the treatment band, which is also moved in the conveying direction (x). At the outlet of the fiber dryer, the fibers are detached from a support (17) formed on the filter band, in particular when guiding the detached fibers back towards the dried fibers guided to the treatment band (31, 31c).

Viscose fibers impose special requirements on a drying process because they tend to undergo compaction and mutual adhesion in the wet state, on the one hand, and because they tend to generate fly (also known as fiber fly or airborne fiber) in the half-dry or dry state, on the other hand.
The "drying of fibers" is defined within the framework of the present disclosure as the drying of fibers that are arranged in an essentially tangled or free form in a mixture with a liquid. Because of the absence of a macrostructure, there are no or only minimal bonds between the individual fibers. The fibers may especially be textile fibers that are dried subsequent to a production or washing process.
The fiber drying technique discussed within the framework of the present disclosure should consequently be distinguished from drying techniques for fibrous webs, nonwovens, fabrics and similar textiles.
Prior-art fiber drying plants, for example, those according to DE 1 729 264 A, use a heated air stream for drying the fibers, which is directed from the top downwards through a quantity of fibers. Such an air stream holds the fibers to be dried reliably on an air-permeable support, so that fly is essentially avoided or its quantity is limited. However, the downwardly directed air stream leads to various drawbacks. On the one hand, the damp fibers are compressed towards the support by the relative overpressure above the fibers and are thus compacted. The effective surface of the fibers that can be utilized for the drying decreases due to the compaction, so that the drying capacity is impaired. The fibers are optionally opened in the prior-art dryers between separate drying operations, for which special devices are necessary. On the other hand, the permeability to air of the fibers to be dried is reduced by the downwardly directed air stream and by the compression, so that layers located in the vicinity of the support are dried only slowly. Inhomogeneous distributions of zones with high and low permeability to air may also develop, which is likewise disadvantageous for the result of the drying.
Furthermore, fiber drying plants in which the fibers are clamped between a lower conveyor belt and a cover belt during the drying process are known as well. The fibers are compressed between the belts and are not consequently loosened sufficiently. The fibers are likewise not dried optimally as a result.
A blowing device, which generates an air stream directed upwardly from the bottom in order to separate an at least partially strengthened fiber product from a belt, is known from EP 2 087 159 B1. No fly is generated because of the at least partial strengthening.
WO 2016/008968 A2 discloses a thermobonding oven, in which an air stream directed from bottom to top is sent through a fibrous web, which contains at least a certain percentage of thermoplastic fibers. The fibers in the fibrous web have a macrostructure, which binds the fibers at least partially and prevents fly. Additional bonding points are produced between the fibers by the at least local melting of the thermoplastic fibers.


The present invention relates to an inflatable floatable unit (2) comprising an inflatable flotation layer (21) comprising a plurality of inflatable floatation tubes (211); an inflatable structural layer comprising an inflatable outer tube defining a circumferential barrier, the inflatable structural layer being arranged substantially above the inflatable flotation layer; and a flooring element (23) provided between the inflatable flotation layer (21) and the inflatable structural tube layer (22), thereby defining a bottom of the inflatable floatable unit, wherein the inflatable structural layer further comprises a plurality of inflatable seating elements extending in a longitudinal direction in a protected area (224) enclosed by the inflatable outer tube element, and the inflatable floatable unit comprises a gangway element (24) extending in a direction transversal to the longitudinal direction of the inflatable seating elements, thereby defining a gangway.

Evacuation systems are a vital part of ships and other structures operating at, on or in water. In passenger ships, the evacuation systems are designed for a large number of passengers and occupy a great amount of space on board. Generally speaking, evacuation systems occupy space that could be utilised for passengers. Present evacuation systems often utilise a combination of rescue boats or tender boats and inflatable life rafts arranged around the ship, occupying a lot of space.
As many passengers, especially on board cruise ships, demand an external cabin with a view, a problem has arisen with evacuation system primarily mounted on the outside of the ship as these often block the view. A need for reducing the space occupied by evacuation systems has therefore arisen, especially a need for an evacuation system maximising the number of cabins with a sea view.
At the same time, the size of rescue boats or life rafts is constantly increasing to match the growing sizes of ships. When a large number of passengers have to be evacuated into one life raft, speed is a crucial factor. The evacuation process will always be subject to bottlenecks and the resulting accumulation of passengers at certain positions. It is therefore important that a certain flow in the evacuation process is achieved, and that different types on passengers can move relatively easily through the system to the correct seating position in the raft.
Further, the organisation and positioning of passengers in the rafts have become an important issue with the growing raft size. Traditionally, passengers have just been seated on the bottom of the rafts in an unstructured manner. However, a large number of passengers seated in an unstructured manner may occupy much more space than intended.


A method and at least one subscriber station utilizes a software package in combination with at least one terminal adapter which links ISDN circuit-switched channels, such as "B", "H0", "H10", "H11" and the like, into a single logical connection and synchronizes the linked channels in an ISDN system. The station allows a subscriber to dynamically select various bandwidths (i.e. different channels) for data transfer, such as text or graphics. The software package and, preferably, multiple terminal adapters, reside on a personal computer and also permits simultaneous messaging and voice functions between several such subscriber stations. Any number of logical channels can be managed. ISDN data is segmented based on the channel's respective data rates and thereafter simultaneously sent on the channels of the logical connection. ISDN data is consequently transferred at a rate greater than the rate available on any single ISDN channel.

It is desirable to achieve high speed data transfer over circuit-switched channels at a rate above the rate available on any one circuit-switched channel. Although the capability currently exists, solutions have been costly.
An existing hardware solution is illustrated in FIG. 1. This method requires one or more external terminal adapters, a multiplexer, cabling, and a sync board for a PC. The system's cost is directly proportional to the available bandwidth.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,271, issued to Artom, discloses a combined telephone and data-transfer system. The system makes use of common data network and data retrieval units to effect transmission of data on subscriber lines at frequencies outside the voice band. The data is divided into groups which are preceded by an address code.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,168, issued to Gudaitis et al., discloses a high speed data transfer method and apparatus. The apparatus includes a bus master controller which sequences through source and destination addresses at a rate greater than the connected units' ability to transfer data, thereby enhancing the speed of data transmission. The high speed data bus includes separate data transfer and master control bus portions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,409, issued to Dickson, discloses a high speed interconnect unit for a digital data processing system. The interconnect unit includes a bus for transferring both control and user information between the unit and an external device. A simplified protocol accommodates "stalls" between the communicating devices during transfer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,703, issued to Black et al., discloses an ISDN module having a time division multiplexed (TDM) switching network. Facility interface cards connect subscribers to the TDM network and provide for two-wire and four-wire subscriber connections, T1 line connections and three port conferencing arrangements. Subsystems are connected by an Ethernet LAN, allowing the system to provide both Primary Rate and Basic Rate Interfaces to subscribers.
U.S. Statutory Invention H586, issued to Kun, discloses an ISDN D-Channel handler. The ISDN network utilizes TDM and the handler, in an exchange termination (ET) collects and distributes D-channel data to various subscriber lines. A translator accesses the data and passes supervisory and signalling information contained therein to a central processor in the ET. This information is then formatted according to the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Communication (CCITT) standard and transmitted to the intended subscriber on the appropriate D-channel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,216, issued to Yunoki, discloses a method for the management of logical channels for ISDN packet service between and ISDN and subscribers. The method allocates a logical channel group number (LCGN) in the ISDN in advance for each piece of data terminal equipment in a subscriber station. The terminal equipments notifies the ISDN of the LCGN, enabling the ISDN to offer communication service without separate management of the each piece of data terminal equipment at each subscriber site.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,574, issued to Terada et al., discloses a data transmission apparatus having cascaded data processing modules for daisy chain data transferring. The apparatus utilizes a plurality of data processing modules, each functional as a computer. Required sequence setting of the input/output ports of each module is performed by a port sequencer. The daisy chain transfer of the selective, load distribution and collective data transfers is combined between the data processing modules, thereby resulting in a high speed and efficient data transmission.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,734, issued to Bechtolsheim, discloses a high speed bus with a virtual memory data transfer and rerun cycle capability. A virtual memory scheme allows high speed data transfer, minimizing the number of lines required to implement the bus. The idle time of a particular device is also minimized.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,723, issued to Lin, discloses an ISDN basic rate interface (BRI) arranged for quad voice operation. The ISDN BR is interposed between a switch and a plurality of voice or data terminals, thereby enabling at least three voice terminals (or a data terminal and two voice terminals) to operate simultaneously through the B-channels of the BRI to the switch. To allow for the service, voice samples are digitized by a code converter.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,891, issued to Fujiwara et al., discloses an ISDN system having a subscriber line multiplexer with means for reducing the load on an ISDN switch by establishing different data links through D-channels on the subscriber line. The multiplexer comprises subscriber interfaces connected to digital subscriber lines (DSLs) and statistically multiplexes a plurality of signals for Link Access Procedure on D-channels (LAPDs) to form an additional data link between each subscriber interface and the ISDN switch, thereby reducing the load on the ISDN switch.

Method for maintaining channels and a subscriber station for use in an ISDN system


The present invention relates to an operation arrangement, particularly to an operation arrangement for a twist vehicle having a sliding slot located on an end portion of an driving frame, a pivot shaft located opposite to the sliding slot, a sliding shaft with one end sliding freely along the sliding slot and another end being connected to a rocking arm, a steering shaft being connected directly and perpendicularly to the rocking arm and operated by a steering wheel. As a result, the steering wheel for the twist vehicle can be extended backwardly towards the rear portion of the operating wheels, close to the user""s operation position. This arrangement can improve ease of operation by moving the steering wheel towards the user and also maintain better stability by extending the length of the wheelbase and effectively causing the center of gravity to be shifted toward the idle wheel axle.

The present invention relates to a twist vehicle, and more particularly to an operation arrangement for a twist vehicle that is stable and balanced while in operation and also easy and comfortable to operate.
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
Because twist cars are usually designed as toys for children, the dimensions of the twist car are usually relatively small. Furthermore, since the steering wheel of a twist car is positioned parallel to the ground, the operator must lean her entire body forward in order for the operator to operate the steering wheel. At the same time, the operator""s feet can only rest on the footrest that is located on either side of the driving shaft. As a result, the operator""s knees will often touch the operator""s elbows and thus interfere with the operator""s twisting of the steering wheel. In addition, when the operator leans forward to operate the twist car, her center of gravity usually shifts towards the front of the driving frame, causing the twist car to flip or roll over. Thus, the present invention specifically moves the steering, wheel back towards the operator""s arms and extends the wheelbase of the twist car, thereby promoting stability, ease of use, and maintaining comfortable operating position.
The main object of the present invention is to provide an operation arrangement for a twist vehicle, and more particularly, a twist vehicle with a steering wheel that is closer to operator""s seating position. Common twist vehicles comprise a triangular driving frame that is located behind two driving wheels. The triangular driving frame is connected to and operated manually through a handle bar. When an operator swings the handle bar from left to right, a resulting forward force is generated by the driving wheels"" circular motion. But because the triangular driving frame must be operated through the handle bar, as a result, the operator has to operate the twist vehicle within the limited chassis space. The operator must lean forward towards the handle bar that is commonly located in front of the vehicle. Furthermore, the two driving wheels are further extended back towards the idle wheels by the triangular driving frame resulting in a very short wheelbase. The net effect of the common twist vehicle is that the center gravity is too often shifted towards the front of the vehicle and as the operator uses the vehicle, the vehicle has a tendency to tip and flip over. Thus, through this invention, the steering wheel can be shifted backward and the triangular driving frame can be operated through a rocking, arm linkage to move the driving, frame. The wheelbase is also further lengthened as the driving frame is moved forward and, thus effectively keeping the center of gravity within the wheelbase and at a safe position.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a linkage arrangement for connecting a sliding shaft to the rocking arm and the rocking arm to a steering shaft and the steering shaft to a steering wheel so that the steering wheel can be tilted at an angle. As a result, the operation can be done at a more natural position and thereby increasing the easiness of operation.

Operation arrangement for a twist vehicle

6 Fl. No. 67, Lane 27, Alley 372, Sec. 5, Chung Hsu East Road


Audio processing for a headworn device can include obtaining ear geometry of a user. A frequency response or transfer function can be determined, based on the ear geometry of the user and a model of the headworn device, where the frequency response or transfer function characterizes an effect of a path between a speaker of the headworn device and an ear canal entrance of the user on sound. An equalization filter profile can be generated based on the based on the frequency response or transfer function. The equalization filter profile can be applied to an audio signal, and the audio signal can be used to drive the speaker of the headworn device.

Equalization filters can be used to increase or attenuate levels of different frequencies in an audio signal. The audio signal can be used to drive speakers of a headworn speaker device. Headworn speaker devices, such as headphone set, can be worn over-ear, on-ear, or in-ear. Some headworn speaker devices are extra-aural, for example, 'smart' glasses with an attached speaker system (e.g., located on the temples or temple tips of the eyeglasses).

Personalized headphone EQ based on headphone properties and user geometry


The present invention relates to a negative dielectric anisotropic liquid crystal composition, a liquid crystal display element, and a liquid crystal display. The negative dielectric anisotropic liquid crystal composition of the present invention comprises a first component composed of one or more compounds represented by formula I and a second component composed of one or more polymerizable compounds: The negative dielectric anisotropic liquid crystal composition disclosed by the present invention has a low rotary viscosity, a fast response speed and a good stability, and is very suitable for manufacturing liquid crystal display elements, particularly suitable for PS (polymer-stabilized) or PSA (polymer-stabilized alignment)-type liquid crystal displays.

Thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs) have undergone a long period of basic research, and after realising large-scale production and commercialisation, thin film transistor liquid crystal displays have become mainstream products in LCD applications due to the advantages of light weight, being environmentally friendly, high performance, etc., thereof: the application of TFT-LCD can be seen everywhere whether in small-sized mobile phone screens, large-sized notebook PCs or monitors or in large-sized liquid crystal televisions (LCD-TV).
Early commercial TFT-LCD products basically relate to using a TN display mode, and the largest problem thereof is a narrow viewing angle. With the increase in product size, especially in applications in the TV field, an IPS display mode and a VA display mode, which feature a wide view angle, have been sequentially developed and applied; in particular, on the basis of the improvement of the VA display mode, many big companies have successively made a breakthrough in the development thereof, which mainly depends on the advantages of a wide view angle, a high contrast, no need for rubbing alignment, etc., of the VA mode itself furthermore, the contrast of the VA mode display is less dependent on the optical anisotropy (Δn) of a liquid crystal, the thickness of a liquid crystal cell (d) and the wavelength (X) of an incident light, which will inevitably make the VA mode become a very promising display technique.
Liquid crystal media used for active matrix addressing modes such as a VA mode themselves are not perfect, for example, they have the disadvantages of an afterimage level significantly worse than that of positive dielectric anisotropy display element, a relatively slow response time, a relatively high drive voltage, etc. At this point, some new types of VA display techniques have quietly emerged: for example, a PSVA technique realises a wide viewing angle display mode similar to that of MVA/PVA, and also simplifies a CF process, such that the aperture ratio is increased while lowering the CF cost; furthermore, a higher brightness is obtained, thereby obtaining a higher contrast. In addition, since the liquid crystal of the entire panel has a pre-tilt angle, there is no domino delay phenomenon, a faster response time can also be obtained while maintaining the same drive voltage, and the after image level will also not be affected; however, due to Fine Slit densely distributed electrodes in pixels, if the electrode width cannot be evenly distributed, the problem of uneven display can easily occur. For example, in a UVVA technique, on the basis of keeping the advantages of the PSVA technique, since there is no Slit structure on the TFT side, the problem of display unevenness caused by uneven pixel electrode width is also improved. Although display devices are constantly evolving, it is still necessary to make a constant effort to study new liquid crystal compositions, such that liquid crystal compositions and their properties in the case of application to display devices, especially response speed, as well as improvement of various display defects, continue to move forward.

Negative dielectric anisotropic liquid crystal composition, liquid crystal display element and liquid crystal display

SHIJIAZHUANG CHENGSHI YONGHUA DISPLAY MATERIAL CO., LTD.