A fuel system is provided for a combustion-powered tool having a self-contained internal combustion power source with a combustion chamber, and constructed and arranged for driving a drive blade to impact a fastener and drive it into a workpiece. The tool includes a housing having a main chamber enclosing the power source and having a first end adjacent a nosepiece wherein the fasteners are positioned prior to driving, and a second end opposite the first end and adjacent the combustion chamber. A fuel cell chamber is in communication with the main chamber and has a first chamber end corresponding to the first end of the main chamber and a second chamber end corresponding to the second end of the main chamber. A fuel metering valve is disposed in the fuel cell chamber at the first end so that a fuel cell having a fuel outlet end operationally inserted into the fuel cell chamber will engage the valve so that fuel is dispensed into the valve in a location closer to the first chamber end than to the second chamber end.

The present invention relates to improvements in portable combustion-powered tools, and particularly to a fuel injection system for such a tool.
Portable combustion-powered, or so-called IMPULSE brand tools for use in driving fasteners into workpieces are described in commonly assigned patents to Nikolich U.S. Pat. Re. No. 32,452, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,552,162, 4,483,473, 4,483,474, 4,403,722, and 5,263,439, all of which are incorporated by reference herein. Similar combustion-powered nail and staple driving tools are available commercially from ITW-Paslode of Lincolnshire, Ill. under the IMPULSE.RTM. brand.
Such tools incorporate a generally pistol-shaped tool housing enclosing a small internal combustion engine. The engine is powered by a canister of pressurized fuel gas, also called a fuel cell. A powerful, battery-powered electronic power distribution unit produces the spark for ignition, and a fan located in the combustion chamber provides for both an efficient combustion within the chamber, and facilitates scavenging, including the exhaust of combustion by-products. The engine includes a reciprocating piston with an elongate, rigid driver blade disposed within a cylinder body.
A valve sleeve is axially reciprocable about the cylinder and, through a linkage, moves to close the combustion chamber when a work contact element at the end of the linkage is pressed against a workpiece. This pressing action also triggers a fuel metering valve to introduce a specified volume of fuel into the closed combustion chamber.
Upon the pulling of a trigger switch, which causes the ignition of a charge of gas in the combustion chamber of the engine, the piston and driver blade are shot downward to impact a positioned fastener and drive it into the workpiece. The piston then returns to its original, or "ready" position through differential gas pressures within the cylinder. Fasteners are fed magazine-style into the nosepiece, where they are held in a properly positioned orientation for receiving the impact of the driver blade.
In some combustion-powered tools, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,439, the fuel metering valve is located in or near the cylinder head, and as such is affected by heat radiated from the combustion of gases. The combustion chamber and the cylinder body become relatively hot due to this radiated heat. These relatively high temperatures can cause the premature vaporization of the pressurized MAPP fuel at the point of metering the fuel into the combustion chamber. Thus, since vapor, rather than liquid fuel is being metered, fuel volume decreases in the combustion chamber, combustion efficiency suffers accordingly, and the tool will fail to fire. After about 200 rapid fire successive shots, vapor lock often resulted.
Further, combustion-powered tools of this type are designed for use in stressful construction environments, and are often dropped on the ground or have other objects dropped upon them. In addition, construction sites are typically dusty, and although IMPULSES.RTM. tools do not require as frequent cleaning as powder activated technology (PAT) tools, it still costs approximately $100 per cleaning, and the operator loses the use of the tool while it is being cleaned. Thus, another design factor of such tools is that the sensitive internal components, such as the fuel metering valve, be protected from shock to extend the cleaning interval.
Another drawback of conventional combustion tools is that the location of the fuel meteringvalve in the cylinderhead of the toolmakes it difficult to route the valve control leads.
Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide an improved combustion-powered tool wherein the fuel metering valve is isolated from the heat generated by the combustion chamber.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved combustion-powered tool wherein the fuel metering valve is protected from shock impact damage from both tool-generated cylinder impact forces and accidental handling damage.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved combustion-powered tool wherein incoming fuel is heated after passing through the metering valve and prior to its entry into the combustion chamber.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an improved combustion-powered tool wherein fuel is introduced into the combustion chamber in a location from where it can be evenly distributed and may efficiently impact the spark plug.

Fuel injection system for combustion-powered tool


A car washing device includes an assembly of brushes such as sponge brushes or other equivalents composed of bristles or cloth attached to the front side of a brush body. A hose joint is provided near the hand grip of the brush body for introducing clean water into the device and to supply the water to the brush assembly via at least one water outlet hole in the brush body. A car washer can wash the car with one hand using the device. A valve may be provided to control the flow rate of the water.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a car washing device and more particularly to a car washing device with an assembly of brushes attached to its front side. A hose joint is provided near the hand grip of the washing device to introduce clean water into the device and to supply water to the brush assembly via a water outlet hole, thereby enabling the car washer to wash the car with one hand.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When washing a car, most people generally rub the car with a washing brush made of sponge, vinyl, or cotton with one hand, and hold a water hose with the other hand to spray clean water on the car. Inevitably, a car washer washing the car in such a way will be soaked after finishing his/her work. Much of the water is wasted.

3F, No. 6, Lane 78, Yu-Shih Rd,Wu Ku Hsiang


Provided herein are a household appliance and a method for using a heat pump in a household appliance, which may include a household appliance for washing and drying goods. The household appliance may include a processing chamber for receiving goods to be washed and dried, and a heat pump having a warm side provided with a condenser and a cold side provided with an evaporator, wherein the condenser may be adapted to heat water to be used in the processing chamber and the evaporator may be adapted to cool a liquid in a heat reservoir for storing heat generated on the cold side of the heat pump during heating of the condenser. The condenser may be arranged in a water tank adapted to provide water to the processing chamber.

In a dishwasher, the heating of water to be used in the washing process and heating and drying of goods are energy consuming processes. A washer-dryer involves similar processing steps in which water is heated to perform washing of goods, i.e. clothes, and heating and condensation in the following drying step. Generally, the heating of goods and water in a household appliance for washing and drying goods is performed by for example an electric heater heating the water in the washing tub. For performing the drying phase a separate drying system is generally installed, for example by using a hot air source.
In order to save energy, it has been proposed to use a heat pump having a warm side which may be used for heating goods and water and a cold side which may be used for condensing water vapour in a drying phase. In this way a single unit, i.e. the heat pump may be used for two purposes.
In WO2008/053307A1 a dishwasher and a heat pump for dishwashing is described. The described dishwasher comprises a washing portion and a rinsing portion, both arranged in a tunnel. Thus, the dishwasher simultaneously performs a washing cycle in the washing portion and a rinsing and drying cycle in the rinsing portion. The heat pump is provided with a condenser for heating water to the washing portion of the dishwasher and an evaporator for cooling the outlet air from the rinsing portion of the dishwasher. In this way both the warm side and the cold side of the heat pump may be utilized.
However, in most dishwashers the heating of water and goods is earlier in time than the drying phase. Using a heat pump for heating the water in such an appliance has the drawback that the heat generated on the cold side during the water heating phase will not be used and therefore utilization of a heat pump in an energy efficient way for both purposes is not possible.
EP2206824A2 discloses a device comprising a barrel for processing washing goods, and a closed tank filled with liquid. A compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator extract heat from the tank, and supply the heat to the barrel. A sewer pipe discharges process water from the barrel, and a heat exchanger transfers heat from sewage in the fluid in the tank.
Further, in EP2193741A2 a dishwasher is disclosed comprising a heat pump used for heating water in a process area for washing and/or rinsing articles and for accumulating heat in a heat accumulator. A side of a heat coupling tank is joined at the process area and another side of the heat coupling tank is joined at the heat accumulator. A filling medium is provided for program controlled supplying and guiding coupling fluid in or from the heat coupling tank. In the filled state, the heat coupling tank may be used in a drying phase for establishing a cold area onto which water vapour may condense.
A drawback with the above arrangements is that the heating phase for the machine will be prolonged due to the lower effect of the heat pump compared to a conventional heating device. On the other hand, if the heating power of the heat pump is chosen to be the same as a conventional heater, i.e. about 2 kW, such a heat pump will have a size that will be difficult to fit into a domestic dishwasher or washing machine.
In view of the above it may be realized that there is a need for improvements in relation to efficient use of energy in household appliances involving both heating and drying phases.

Electrolux Home Products Corporation N.V.


A variable duct apparatus for a vehicle including first and second louvers to rotate around first and second axes to open and closed positions, the variable duct apparatus including: a link to connect first and second louvers; first and second stoppers disposed at the first and second louvers to control the first and second louvers at an open position; a motor to rotate the first louver; and a control device to perform an opening or closing operation for rotating the first louver to the open or closed position by supplying current to the electric motor until a lock current is detected. The control device includes an abnormality determining unit to determine that an operating state is abnormal when an operating angle of the first louver from a start of the opening or closing operation until detection of the lock current is out of a predetermined reference operating angle range.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a variable duct apparatus for a vehicle disposed at the front of the vehicle to adjust the amount of air to be introduced into the front of the vehicle.
2. Related Art
In general, the bumper and/or the front grille which are disposed at the front of a vehicle have an open air grille for introducing air into the front face of a radiator disposed at the front of the vehicle. The air introduced through the air grille cools coolant in the radiator.
During high speed running, running resistance increases as the amount of air introduced into the front of the vehicle through the open air grille of the bumper and/or the front grille increases, whereby fuel efficiency may be reduced. The engine may be excessively cooled in the winter or in a cold region or during continuous high speed running. In addition, the warm-up performance of the engine and the catalytic activity of an exhaust gas purifier device may be affected in the winter or in a cold region.
As a solution to these concerns, a variable duct apparatus has been proposed which is disposed between the bumper and the radiator to adjust the amount of air introduced into the front of the vehicle according to a vehicle speed and a temperature change of the engine coolant.
As an example of a variable duct apparatus, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2010-247819 discloses a shutter device. The shutter device in JP-A No. 2010-247819 includes multiple movable fins and an electric motor. The multiple movable fins are arranged at intervals in the vertical direction in an air flow passage formed of a case frame. The electric motor integrally rotates the movable fins around respective axes. The movable fins has a defined operational range which is between an open position and a closed position, the open position allowing air to be introduced into the front of the vehicle, the closed position causing the introduction of air to be blocked or reduced. From a side of the case frame, a prevention unit projects which prevents an operation that causes all the movable fins to exceed the defined operational range, by contact of a single movable fin.
The electric motor is energized for a predetermined time so as to rotate the movable fins from the open position to the closed position or from the closed position to the open position.
An operating time, which is from the start of energization of the electric motor until a lock current value is detected, is measured, the lock current being caused by prevention of a rotational operation of the movable fins, and an abnormal operation of the movable fins is determined based on whether or not the measured operating time is out of the reference time range.
For another example, JP-A No. 2012-25175 disclose a variable shutter device that includes multiple shutters and a slide link. The shutters are fixed to a shutter base and have plate vanes rotatably attached to multiple shafts. The slide link connects the plate vanes. The shutter base is provided with upper and lower stoppers which control the movement of the slide link at an open position and a closed position, respectively. In addition, a return spring is disposed between the upper part of the slide link and the shutter base in a stretched manner so as to urge the plate vanes in a blocking direction. The slide link is connected to an arm link which is rotated by the electric motor.
When power supply to the electric motor is stopped, the slide link is urged toward the open position by the return spring, so that the plate vanes are held in the open position, the open position causing the slide link to come into contact with the upper stopper. On the other hand, when the electric motor is rotated by power supply thereto, the slide link is moved to the closed position against the return spring by the arm link which rotates integrally with the electric motor, so that the plate vanes are rotated up to the closed position, the closed position causing the slide link to come into contact with the lower stopper.
A failure of the shutter is detected by detecting an induced voltage of the electric motor when the slide link is moved from the closed position to the open position by the return spring after power supply to the electric motor is stopped.
According to JP-A No. 2010-247819, abnormality of the movable fins is detected based on whether or not the operating time from the start of energization of the electric motor until detection of a lock current value is within a reference time range. The operating time is detected by contact of the prevention unit with one of the multiple interlocking movable fins. Thus, even if a movable fin other than the movable fin in contact with the prevention unit falls off, or a unit for interlocking the movable fins has a failure, the operation is normal may be erroneously determined to be normal. In addition, since the prevention unit, which projects from the case frame, receives a heavy load due to contact with the movable fins at the open position, rigidity for preventing deformation of the case frame is necessary, and thus the shape of the case frame is limited.
In JP-A No. 2012-25175, the plate vanes rotatably attached to the multiple shafts are connected to the slide link, and a failure of the shutter is detected by detecting an induced voltage of the electric motor which is caused by a movement of the slide link. Thus, even if an operation of the plate vanes has a failure, for example, a plate vane falls off, or a joint connecting the slide link and the plate vanes falls off, erroneous determination indicating that the operation may erroneously be determined to be normal.


A measurement method and a measurement device for performing a measurement with respect to a frequency-converting device under test and compensating for a shifting frequency are provided. The measurement method comprises the steps of applying an input signal to an input of the device under test, receiving an output signal from an output of the device under test, converting the output signal into a digitized signal comprising digital samples, estimating a received frequency with respect to the output signal on the basis of the digital samples, and comparing the received frequency to an expected frequency.

Generally, in times of an increasing number of applications employing a plurality of electrical circuits, especially frequency-converting circuitry typically comprising a local oscillator, there is a growing need of a measurement method and a measurement device especially for verifying correct functioning of said applications in a highly efficient and accurate manner, thereby especially taking into consideration that the frequency of the local oscillator is not entirely stable.
US 2009/0216468 A1 discloses a multimode network analyzer (VNA) and the method of using the same. The VNA includes a signal input port that receives a test signal from a device under test, an LO signal generator, a mixer, an IF filter and a processor. The LO signal generator generates a mixer LO signal from a mixer input test signal, the LO signal generator having first and second modes. The mixer LO signal is substantially a first periodic signal in the first mode and a second periodic signal having a plurality of harmonically related tones in the second mode. The mode that is currently operative is determined by a mixer control signal. The mixer is driven by the LO signal and has an output that is filtered by the IF filter to generate an IF signal. The processor analyzes the IF signal to determine a parameter characterizing the test signal and outputs that parameter. As it can be seen, due to the lack of a shifting frequency compensation, both said multimode network analyzer and the corresponding method can disadvantageously not ensure an efficient and accurate measurement.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a measurement method and a measurement device for performing a measurement with respect to a frequency-converting device under test and compensating for a shifting frequency, whereby said measurement can be performed in a highly efficient and accurate manner.

Measurement method and device with compensation for a shifting frequency


A silicon nitride sintered product for use in cutting tools and the like which has silicon nitride as a predominant phase, and comprises 0.1 to 1% by weight of Al as calculated on the basis of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, the total amount of sintering aid constituents other than Al being 6% by weight or less on the oxide basis, the content of the grain boundary glassy phase being 8% by volume or less. The silicon nitride sintered product preferably has a relative density of 99% or more.

Silicon nitride sintered products are ceramics which are extremely hard and exhibit excellent wear resistance as well as strength and toughness. Therefore, silicon nitride sintered products have been used in cutting tools and wear-resistant components.
In JP-A-1-157466 (1989) (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,756 a silicon nitride sintered product in which Mg, Zr, Al or the like is used as a sintering aid is proposed as a product having excellent wear resistance. This prior art teaching is based on the finding that Al and the like contribute to product densification by forming, together with Si , N and O, a liquid phase in the interstices between Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 grains during firing, and also bond Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 grains by glassification during cooling to avoid debonding of Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 grains during abrasion, thereby enhancing toughness. In some cases, a wear-resistant film may be formed on the surface of the base material of a cutting tool, giving it excellent strength and toughness so that the wear resistance is improved.
However, in these cutting tools, despite the wear-resistant components and the reciprocating components, still further alleviation of wear is required to prolong tool life, since the techniques described in JP-A-1-157466 do not satisfy such requirements. Although it was possible to obtain the sintered products which exhibit excellent defect resistance by improving the strength and toughness, there was previously no specific means for improving the wear resistance, since the relationship between wear resistance and mechanical properties was not known.

Silicon nitride sintered product excellent in wear resistance


A process and apparatus is disclosed for providing access to the interior of a vacuum deposition chamber in a vacuum deposition apparatus without exposing residues, such as chlorosilane residues, within the chamber to moisture and/or oxygen-containing gases. The process comprises first placing over the upper surface of the vacuum deposition apparatus an enclosure which has a bottom opening large enough to completely cover the top opening to the chamber, and which is capable of being filled with one or more non-reactive gases. One or more non-reactive gases are then flowed into the enclosure to purge moisture and/or oxygen-containing gases from the enclosure. After the enclosure has been mounted on the apparatus and purged by the flow of non-reactive gases therein, the vacuum deposition chamber may be opened, while continuing the flow of non-reactive gases into the enclosure. After servicing, the vacuum deposition chamber may be resealed, the flow of non-reactive gases shut off, and the enclosure then removed from the apparatus. In a preferred embodiment, the flow of non-reactive gases into the enclosure is positioned to flow down from the top of the enclosure at a right angle to openings in the sidewall of the enclosure provided for accessing the vacuum deposition chamber, to thereby provide a gas curtain of non-reactive gas flow across the openings to inhibit ingress of moisture and/or oxygen-containing gases, as well as particulate impurities, into the enclosure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process and apparatus for servicing apparatus used in the processing of semiconductor wafers. More particularly, this invention relates to a process and apparatus which is useful in the cleaning of a reactor chamber used for the deposition of epitaxial silicon on a silicon wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the deposition of an epitaxial layer of silicon on a silicon semiconductor wafer by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) in a vacuum deposition chamber, using chlorosilane gas, various chlorosilane polymer byproducts or residues form in the deposition chamber.
When the deposition chamber is subsequently opened to the atmosphere for servicing, moisture and/or oxygen-containing gases can enter the chamber and react with such chlorosilane polymeric residues to form chlorosiloxane polymers, which can result in the release of significant amounts of corrosive HCl gas and a powdery material which sometimes ignites.
Control, or preferably elimination, of such a reaction of moisture or oxygen with chlorosilane residues accumulated in a vacuum deposition chamber of semiconductor wafer processing apparatus is, therefore, important for safety, reliability, and particle defect reduction.
One previous approach to the solution of this problem has been to use exhaust systems to ventilate the area around the vacuum deposition chamber so that when the chamber was opened and exposed to moisture and/or oxygen-containing gases, the corrosive and inflammable gaseous byproducts, generated during such exposure, could be removed as they were formed.
While such an approach reduced at least some of the deleterious effects of such chlorosiloxane formation, it would be more desirable if the reaction itself of the chlorosilane with moisture and/or oxygen to form chlorosiloxane could be completely suppressed or eliminated.

Method for servicing vacuum chamber using non-reactive gas-filled maintenance enclosure


A PIN device includes: a first doped layer, a second doped layer, and an intrinsic layer between the first doped layer and the second doped layer, where the second doped layer includes a body portion and an electric field isolating portion at least partially enclosing the body portion; and the electric field isolating portion is doped differently from the body portion.

A PIN device is a device with an un-doped intrinsic semiconductor region between a p-type semiconductor region and an n-type semiconductor region. The p-type and n-type regions are typically heavily doped because they are used for ohmic contacts.
The PIN device is the core electronic component of optical fingerprint recognition device and X-ray flat panel detector, and its photoelectric performance directly restricts the performance of the whole system.

Pin device and manufacturing method thereof, photosensitive device and display device


A fuel feed pump is provided that has a fuel flow-rate regulating valve, on the inlet side. The fuel flow-rate regulating valve includes a housing with a fuel inlet port and a fuel outlet port, a valve mechanism for controlling the flow rate of the fuel from the inlet port to the outlet port, and a regulating mechanism for regulating a backpressure to control the position of a needle valve of the valve mechanism in response to a system pressure, to thereby control the flow rate by controlling the fuel flow through an opening provided in a valve chamber. This arrangement makes it difficult for contamination to accumulate, and also enables a low-cost implementation.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a fuel feed pump for internal combustion engines.
2. Background Art
Various types of feed pump are used as fuel supply pumps of vehicles. Conventionally, such pumps use a configuration that allows the maximum flow rate to be changed in order to make the pumps adaptable to a broad range of specifications. Japanese Public Disclosure No. Hei 8-210210, for example, discloses a feed pump used as the supply pump in a common-rail type fuel-injection pump. In the case of the disclosure, a pressure valve is provided in the bypass passage to make it possible to control the amount of fuel being moved. In accordance with this configuration, during normal operation a large quantity of fuel is fed to a high-pressure pump and fuel movement is suppressed at non-injection times. This makes it possible to prevent a large amount of fuel being wastefully circulated between the fuel pump and the fuel tank.
However, this conventional technology uses a check valve that is opened/closed in response to pressure, making it possible for contamination to occur by foreign matter being drawn onto the valve seat during valve operation, so that when the value is open the flow rate tends to be altered by the contamination. For this reason, control of the flow rate has not been very precise. Another problem has been that of the noise and vibration produced by the seating impact each time the valve opens and closes.

Fuel feed pump for internal combustion engines


A tire pressure warning system has an air pressure detecting device 3, a low pressure warning display unit 5 and a fuel consumption deterioration warning display unit 4. The air pressure detecting device 3 detects an air pressure of each tire 2 of a vehicle. The low pressure warning display unit 5 warns an occupant of a reduced air pressure when an air pressure detected by the air pressure detecting device 3 is lower than a running inhibition tire pressure 11 set in advance. The fuel consumption deterioration warning display unit 4 warns the occupant of a deterioration in a fuel consumption when the air pressure is lower than a fuel consumption deteriorating tire pressure 12 which is set higher than the running inhibition tire pressure 11.

The present invention relates to a tire pressure warning system for warning an occupant of a vehicle that an air pressure is reduced, in the event that the air pressure of a tire of the vehicle is lower than a predetermined pressure value.
In recent years, in vehicles such as automobiles, the tire pressure warning systems have been widely used. The tire pressure warning systems monitor the air pressure of each tire and warn the occupant of a reduction in air pressure in the event that the air pressure drops remarkably. In the tire pressure warning systems, there are provided sensors for detecting a rotational speed of each wheel on which the tire is mounted, and the air pressure of each tire is calculated by comparing the rotational speeds of the respective wheels so detected according to running conditions of the vehicle.
Then, when the air pressure of at least one of the respective tires becomes lower than a running inhibition tire pressure that is set in advance, the occupant is warned of a reduced air pressure occurring in any one of the tires using an indicator installed in a passenger compartment, whereby the occupant can restore the reduced air pressure to its original pressure value before the normal running eis interfered.
The above tire pressure warning systems are disclosed, for example, in JP-A-10-512515.
Incidentally, it is known that the fuel consumption of the vehicle is largely affected by the air pressure of the tire as a rolling resistance of the vehicle increases, when the air pressure of the tire is reduced. With the aforesaid tire pressure warning system, however, the occupant is warned of only information regarding the running inhibition tire pressure that is required for the normal running of the vehicle. Namely, it will be more convenient if the occupant can be warned of not only an information regarding the normal running of the vehicle but also information regarding the fuel consumption of the vehicle.


To produce a two-part valve housing inexpensively it is proposed to produce from a sleeve-shaped blank (20) by internal high-pressure forming an intermediate product (10) which corresponds to the first housing part in a section lying on one side of a separating surface (T) and to the second housing part in a section lying on the other side of the separating surface (T). Connection sections (24, 32), adjacent to the separating surface, of the intermediate product (20) have different diameters so that cooperating threads by means of which the housing parts are screwed together can be produced on them.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process for producing a substantially tubular housing substantially closed on all sides, particularly a valve housing, which has at least two housing parts detachably connected together.
2. Description of Relevant Art
When manufacturing such housings, which have to be pressure-tight in the case of valve housings, the two housing parts are usually made separately from blanks, e.g. castings, which are then provided with the necessary connecting means by mechanical machining, in order to be able to connect the housing parts together in a pressure-medium-tight manner after the internal parts of the valve have been installed.
Although such housings meet high quality demands they are expensive to make. For valves produced in large quantities it would be desirable to be able to make the valve housing more cheaply without compromises as regards the security of the connection of the housing parts.

Process for producing a substantially tubular housing substantially closed on all sides


Physical characteristics of ATO fine particles capable of exhibiting such optical properties as a high visible light transmittance, a low solar radiation transmittance, and a low haze value when the ATO fine particles are formed on a transparent substrate or in the substrate are clarified, and the ATO fine particles having the physical characteristics thereof are manufactured. The ATO fine particles having such physical characteristics that a size of a crystallite constituting the ATO fine particles is 4 to 125 nm, and that a specific surface area of the fine particles of 5 to 110 m2/g can exhibit the above-described optical properties, and an example of a method for manufacturing thereof is to parallel-drop an antimony chloride alcoholic solution and an ammonium hydrogen carbonate aqueous solution in a tin chloride aqueous solution, thoroughly wash generated precipitates, dry and calcinate them in an atmosphere, thereby the ATO fine particles are manufactured.

Conventionally, as a method for removing and reducing a thermal ingredient from light of an external light source such as sunlight, a beam of a bulb, or the like, a film containing a material for reflecting an infrared ray which greatly contributes to a thermal effect is formed as a heat wave reflecting transparent substrate on a surface of a transparent substrate such as glass or the like, and the heat wave reflecting transparent substrate is used. A metal oxide such as FeOx, CoOx, CrOx, TiOx, and the like, or a metallic material containing a large amount of free electrons such as Ag, Au, Cu, Ni, Al, and the like is used as the aforementioned material.
However, the aforementioned material has such properties to reflect or absorb not only the infrared ray which greatly contributes to the thermal effect but also a visual light at the same time, and therefore, there is a problem about lowering a visible light transmittance. However, since the transparent substrate such as glass or the like used for a window material such as a building material, a vehicle, a telephone booth, or the like requires a high transmittance in a visible light region, a film thickness thereof needs to be extremely thin when the aforementioned material is used. Accordingly, when the aforementioned material is formed on the transparent substrate, generally, a film having a thickness of as thin as approximately 10 nm is formed by physical film-formation methods such as spray baking, a CVD method, a sputtering method, a vacuum deposition method, and the like.
However, these film formation-methods require a huge apparatus or a vacuum equipment, and there is a problem of productivity or area enlargement, and a disadvantage of high manufacturing costs of the film. Furthermore, when a sunlight shielding characteristic (a characteristic for shielding a light having a wavelength band of 300 to 2100 nm) of the aforementioned material becomes high, reflectivity of the visual light region tends to be high at the same time, resulting in disfigurement caused by a glaring appearance like a mirror.
In order to improve the aforementioned problems, a sunlight shielding solid which exhibits the high visible transmittance and a high sunlight shielding rate is required to be formed on the transparent substrate or in the substrate. Furthermore, properties such as little haze of the film or the like are required for the sunlight shielding solid used for, for example, the window material or the like in addition to the aforementioned optical characteristics and electrical characteristics. The haze of the film is evaluated by a numerical value called a haze value. The haze value is defined as a ratio of a diffuse transmission light to a total transmittance, and the sunlight shielding solid looks hazy to human eyes when the value is high. Accordingly, the window material or the like requiring for transparency is desired to have the low haze value of less than 1%.
Here, an antimony tin oxide (hereinafter abbreviated as ATO) is known as one of the materials having a visible light transmittance function and a sunlight shielding function. However, physical characteristics of the ATO which exhibits the excellent visible light transmittance function and sunlight shielding function have never been studied, and for example, each of the ATO described in Patent Document 1, Patent Document 2, Patent Document 3, and Patent Document 4 relates to conductivity.    (Patent Document 1) Japanese Patent No.2844011    (Patent Document 2) Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 11-278826    (Patent Document 3) Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 6-183708    (Patent Document 4) Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 5-246710
Here, the present invention clarifies the physical characteristics of the ATO capable of forming the sunlight shielding solid having such optical properties as the high visible light transmittance, a low solar radiation transmittance, and simultaneously the low haze value when the ATO is formed on the transparent substrate or incorporated in the substrate so as to be formed as a board shape, a sheet shape, a film shape or the like; furthermore, an object of the present invention is to provide ATO fine particles having the physical characteristics thereof, a disperse liquid for formation of a sunlight shielding solid which can form the sunlight shielding solid by a simple coating method or incorporating method, and the sunlight shielding solid containing the ATO which has the physical characteristics thereof.

Antimony tin oxide fine particles for sunlight shielding, and disperse liquid for formation of sunlight shielding solid, sunlight shielding solid, and transparent substrate for sunlight shielding using thereof


A reversible thermosensitive recording material is made up of a substrate having a thermosensitive layer consisting essentially of a resin matrix and an organic low molecular substance dispersed in this resin matrix and is arranged to change its transparency reversibly depending upon the temperature. This thermosensitive layer further contains at least one additive.

a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reversible thermosensitive recording material for forming an image and erasing the same by utilizing reversible transparency changes of a thermosensitive layer dependant upon temperature.
b) Description of the Prior Art
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 154198/1980 (corresponding to Europian Laid-open Patent Application No. 14826) proposes a reversible thermosensitive recording material with a thermosensitive layer formed by dispersing an organic low molecular substance such as a higher fatty acid in a resin matrix such as a vinyl chloride type resin. The recording material of this sort forms an image and erases the same by utilizing reversible transparency changes of a thermosensitive layer. These recording materials are actually made transparent and opaque by heating. When in case the amount of said organic low molecular substance to said resin matrix is small, the opaque area (white area) of the recording material is low in concentration, while when the amount of the organic low molecular substance to the resin matrix is large, the opaque portion (white portion) is high in concentration but the transparency is low, whereby a sufficient contrast can never be obtained. Further, the temperature range between which the opaque portion is made transparent is narrow, namely about 2.degree.-4.degree. C. Due to this, when making the recording material, that is at least partly opaque, wholly transparent, or forming a colorless (transparent) image on a wholly opaque recording material, there can be observed such defects that temperature control is difficult and accordingly it is difficult to obtain a uniform transparent or opaque image.

Reversible thermosensitive recording materials


A hydraulic system (1) is provided comprising a supply port arrangement (P, T), a working port arrangement (A, B), and a booster section (7), said supply port arrangement having at least a supply port (P), said booster section (7) being arranged between said supply port arrangement (P, T) and said working port arrangement (A, B). The operational possibilities of such a hydraulic system should be extended. To this end said working port arrangement comprises at least two working ports (A, B), flow direction changing means (9) are provided changing a flow direction through said working port arrangement and inactivating means (16) are provided inactivating or activating said booster section (7) for each flow direction.

Such a system is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 7,686,596 B2.
The pressure source, e.g. a hydraulic pump, supplies hydraulic fluid under a predetermined pressure. A hydraulic consumer connected to the output can be operated by means of this predetermined hydraulic pressure.
In some applications the pressure supplied by the pressure source is not sufficient to operate the hydraulic consumer or the load connected to the output, so that a pressure booster is used to permanently amplify the pressure supplied by the pressure source. The pressure booster is a pressure intensifier increasing the pressure supplied to the output. An alternative to a pressure booster is a flow booster. A flow booster increases the fluid amount that is transported in the flow direction.


A method and apparatus for data driven editing of rib centerlines is disclosed. A user input location indicating an inaccuracy in a rib centerline extracted from a medical image volume is received. A local correction of the rib centerline is performed. A portion of the rib surrounding a current centerline point to be corrected is segmented based on image data of the medical image volume. A corrected centerline point for the current centerline point is generated based on the segmented portion of the rib. The centerline correction is then extended to subsequent points along the rib centerline.

The present invention relates to data driven editing of rib centerlines extracted from medical image data, and more particularly, to interactive data driven correction of inaccurate portions of rib centerlines to achieve better accuracy of rib centerline extraction and rib unfolding.
Locating rib metastases and fractures in chest CT scans typically involves reading hundreds of axial CT slices to visually track changes in rib cross-section area. Manual reading of CT scans is rather time consuming and rib anomalies are frequently missed in practice due to human error. Automatic extraction of rib anatomical centerlines can be used to enhance the visualization of an unfolded rib cage. Accordingly, accurate detection of rib centerlines is an important task that aids radiologists in finding metastases and fractures in an efficient manner. However, inaccurate detection can jeopardize the accuracy of a diagnosis, for example by causing the radiologist to miss a rib lesion. Since the automatic rib centerline extraction task cannot consistently provide 100% accuracy, an interactive correction system that allows a radiologist to correct rib centerlines when the automatic extraction does not provide satisfactory results is desirable.

System and method for data driven editing of rib unfolding


A set that includes a plurality of the lighting devices, each lighting device including a body having a light-emitting element, an attachment element for attaching the lighting device to a supporting body, and an independent power source for supplying power to the light-emitting element. The set also includes a wireless transmitting device configured to turn on and off the light-emitting elements of each one of the plurality of lighting devices. The wireless transmitting device may be integrated in one of the plurality of lighting devices. The wireless transmitting device may be disposed in a remote control unit that is separate from each one of the plurality of lighting devices.

Lighting devices are commonly used for decorative lighting, particularly for festive occasions. One such application is decorative lighting on a Christmas tree. Further applications are atmospheric lighting for celebrations or in the form of motif lighting for special holidays, semi-transparent decoration housings, for example, being slipped onto the lighting body so that they are illuminated from inside.
Lighting devices independent of an electrical network are known. For example, such lighting devices are described in German Patent No. 200 03 164 U1, German Patent No. 201 00 891 U1, German Patent No. 201 14 003 U1, German Patent No. 20 2004 000 124 U1, German Patent No. 200 20 560 A1, German Patent No. 41 13 442 A1, German Patent No. 198 14 231 A1, German Patent No. 102 06 418 A1 and German Patent No. 103 02 593 A1. Conventional household batteries or storage batteries, which are situated in the lighting body, are typically used as electrical energy storage/current source elements. Because of the weight of these electrical energy storage/current source elements, problems occur with respect to the stability of the lighting devices, particularly when attached to a supporting body, e.g. to a branch of a Christmas tree.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0081420 A1 describes a lighting device having a candle-shaped lighting part and a battery housing that is rigidly joined to the lighting part by a socket part. At the lower end of the lighting device, below the battery housing, an attachment element is provided for attaching the lighting device to a wall. The battery housing is integrated into the lighting base.
German Patent No. 69 16 389 U describes a lighting device having a hook-shaped holding device for hooking onto a limb of a Christmas tree, and having a battery chamber at the lower end of the lighting device. The lighting device is switched on and off by a built-in, mechanical switch.
Also, German Patent Nos. 89 00 563 U and 37 35 217 A describe lighting devices having a separate Christmas-tree glitter ball, on whose surface solar cells are provided for charging storage batteries located within the lighting body.
There is a need for a lighting device that exhibits improved stability when attached to a supporting body.
Also, there is a need for a lighting device set which can be operated simply and with little expenditure.

Electrical decoration lighting device and set of such devices

RCR GmbH & Co. KG Gesellschaft Fuer Produktentwicklung


An incident ray is emitted into a vacuum probe manufactured by a transparent material inside a cavity and is totally reflected according to the invention. Based on Fresnel's equation, when an angle of incidence is fixed, the phase difference between a s-polarized light and p-polarized light is a function of two refractive indexes on the both sides of an interface. Therefore, when the refractive index of gas inside the cavity varies with pressure therein, the phase difference between the s-polarized light and p-polarized light can be measured by a total-internal-reflection heterodyne interfermetry. Next, the refractive index of the vacuum cavity can be estimated based on the variation of the phase difference. Then, the pressure inside the cavity is obtained from the measured refractive index of the vacuum cavity cooperating a known pressure contrast list, so that vacuum degree inside the cavity is known.

1. Field of the invention
The invention relates to a pressure gauge, and in particular to a new optical vacuum pressure gauge.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, an optical technique is rarely used for a vacuum pressure gauge, but currently, a vacuum system has been combined with an optical system in some areas, such as in a semiconductor industry. When gas inside a vacuum cavity is being vented out, the pressure therein is gradually decreased and the refractive index of the gas is also decreased. If the variation of the refractive index of the gas inside the cavity is accurately measured, then the pressure can be estimated. A total-internal-reflection heterodyne interferometry has the advantages of common path structure, simple setup, easy operation and high precision. Since the total-internal-reflection heterodyne interferometry has a common optical path structure, it cannot be affected by the disturbance from the environment. Furthermore, since it is a phase analyzing approach, it cannot be influenced by the variation of the light intensity, either. As can be know from the above, this approach has characteristics of stability and precision. By use of this approach for measuring the variation of the refractive index of the gas inside the cavity, the required pressure (that is vacuum-degree) can be easily obtained.
The invention is used for measuring the phase of an interference signal, but not for measuring the amplitude or intensity thereof, so the precision of the analysis is higher and it cannot be affected by the variation of the light intensity. In general existing optical pressure gauges, such as the one disclosed in "Split-spectrum intensity-based optical fiber sensor for measurement of microdisplacement, strain, and pressure", Appl. Opt. 35, 2595-2601, (1996) by A. Wang, M. S. Miller, A. J. Plante, M. F. Gunther, K. A. Murphy, and R. O. Claus, deformation caused by pressure difference is mainly measured, wherein the deformation causes light deflection or the change of optical path difference. If the light deflection occurs, the intensity measured on a specific position is also varied. Therefore, the pressure difference can be obtained based on the relationship between the deformation and received intensity. However, since the measured intensity can be influenced by the intensity variation of a light source, a compensation method is needed for modification. In addition, due to limitation of deformation and elastic fatigue, the range of measured pressure is also limited. Furthermore, the pressure difference can also be obtained by measuring the variation of interference fringes based on the variation of the optical path difference. Nevertheless, most general interference approaches do not have common path structures. Therefore, coherence length of laser, disturbance from the environment and precision of analysis must be taken into account when those interference approaches are used for measuring the variation of deformation or refractive index, wherein the disturbance from environment is hard to be overcome.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A device joining a wireless network performs a scan and acquire procedure to discover the optimal node in the desired network. The joining device scans all desired channels for a predetermined amount of time. During the scan, the joining device builds a table of discovered networks ranked and truncated according to proximity. Additionally, the joining device curates the list to ensure that only the optimal node from each network is listed. The joining device then attempts to join networks according to the table of discovered networks.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to wireless networks and more specifically to systems, devices and methods for commissioning a wireless network.
2. Background Art
Control networks in homes are increasingly popular installations. A network of sensors and control devices distributed throughout a residential or commercial building may control and provide information for various elements of the building. For example, one or more control networks in a home may control and monitor lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), and audio-visual (AV) equipment.
Increasingly, these control networks comprise one or more personal area networks (PANs) organized as a wireless mesh network and in communication with other PANs and the control system. Generally, mesh networks allow each device to communicate with each other thereby providing multiple possible routes between nodes over which a packet can be routed. This is in contrast to traditional networks in which devices generally communicate through a master or a repeater. In mesh networks, each device is a node and may pass communications along to other devices. This increases both the reliability and range of the networks.
Communication protocols govern the operation of these wireless PANs by governing network formation, communication, interferences and other operational characteristics. For example, one such protocol is the Zigbee protocol from the Zigbee Alliance. Another wireless communication protocol is the infiNET EX protocol from Crestron Electronics, Inc. of Rockleigh, N.J. Based on ZigBee PRO technology, infiNET EX is an extremely reliable and affordable protocol that is employed by 2-way wireless wall box dimmers and switches, lamp dimmers and switches plus thermostats and keypads and other sensors and control devices.
Wireless mesh network devices in a Zigbee or infiNET network may be classified as a PAN coordinator, a full function device (FFD) or a reduced function device (RFD). The PAN coordinator is the device which is responsible for starting the formation of a network. There is only one PAN Coordinator in any network. The PAN coordinator chooses the PAN ID, the 16-bit value which is used to uniquely define a PAN.
An FFD is a device which can route communication packets as part of its normal operation. An FFD may also be called a "router". FFDs form the meshed network topology by establishing communications links to other devices (both FFDs and RFDs). FFDs can act as a sensor or actuator or other type of node.
An RFD is a device which cannot route communication packets. They are always associated with a single FFD and can only participate in the network as an end, or leaf, node.
Wireless mesh networks, such as Zigbee or infiNET networks are formed by an initialization process. Typically, many of configuration properties may be preconfigured prior to initialization. By preconfiguring these properties, an administrator may determine the size and shape of the network. For example, the maximum number of links from the PAN coordinator to the furthest device may influence the shape and size of the network. The maximum number of devices that may connect to a FFD may also determine the shape and size of the network. The PAN coordinator specifies the number of devices that may link to a FFD, as well as how many of these devices may be routers themselves.
The PAN coordinator is responsible for initializing the wireless network. First, the PAN coordinator chooses a suitable radio channel on which to operate.
Next, the PAN coordinator assigns a PAN ID to the network. The PAN ID can be pre-configured or alternatively can be chosen by detecting other networks operating in the same frequency channel and choosing a PAN ID that does not conflict with theirs. The PAN coordinator also assigns a network address to itself. Typically, this address is zero (0).
Once the PAN coordinator is finished configuring itself, it starts itself in PAN coordinator mode. It is then prepared to field queries from other devices wishing to join the network through a commissioning process. Other devices, both FFDs and RFDs, may join the network once the wireless network has been created by the PAN coordinator. The PAN coordinator has the capability to allow other nodes to join. Additionally, FFDs may also allow other nodes to join.
Devices join the network through a commissioning process. First, the new device (i.e. node) scans available channels to find a wireless network. The device then selects a discovered network by choosing a router or network coordinator on that network. Once this is done, the device sends a join message to the desired router or network coordinator, either an FFD on the network or the PAN coordinator.
Often a device will join the first network that it finds. This is less than optimal as the network may not be the desired network, may be an incompatible network. This may lead to a faulty communication link and a suboptimal network mesh.
The desired FFD or PAN coordinator will allow the new device to join the network if it is a permitted device, the FFD or PAN is currently in join mode, and if it has available address space for the new device. The desired FFD or PAN allows the new device to join by assigning it a network address.
There are detractions from the current commissioning process. As mentioned above, crude methods for scanning and joining networks leads to sub-optimal network, increased time to find the correct network and sub-optimal configuration of the network upon joining.
Scan results often arrive in random order with no correlation to distance or suitability. Often the join attempts are made simply in the order the networks are found or worse, one attempt is made with the first network found. Because there is no order of results, the first networks found could be located much further away (and therefore less likely to be correct) than nearby networks. The device may join the incorrect network. As the device attempts to join incorrect networks, the time necessary to join the correct network will increase.
Determining the correct network to attempt to join is important for saving time and aggravation to the installer. Therefore, there is a need for a better commissioning process which includes more robust measures to detect and select networks to join.

Commissioning of wireless devices in personal area networks


A method and a device for carrying out electronic transactions. A sender produces, under his own full control, a transaction message in a smart card (1) and provides the message with his digital signature in the card for subsequent output and transmission.

In recent years, the interest in electronic transactions has increased significantly, especially concurrently with the impact of the Internet. Security matters have been focused, and different systems and standards have been suggested to guarantee the security in connection with electronic transmission of transaction messages. A matter that has attracted a lot of interest is how to protect, for instance, credit card numbers transmitted via the Internet in connection with Internet shopping. What the systems and standards proposed have in common is that they are based either on the condition that sensitive information that may be misused, for instance a credit card number, is not to be transmitted via the communications network, or on the condition that such sensitive information is to be transmitted in encrypted form. In both alternatives, the relatively complicated administrative routines and system configurations etc. are focused, which, as will be appreciated, results in restrictions and obstacles to a more general use.

Method and device for performing electronic transactions


A method is provided for evaluating identity of an object, the method including: converting feature information representing the object to a plurality of mathematically defined components; grouping the components into multiple modalities; producing respective first prediction information for each respective modality wherein the respective prediction information for each respective modality is based upon respective components grouped into that respective modality; and producing second prediction information based upon the respective first prediction information produced for the multiple respective modalities.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to classification of objects based upon information from multiple information sources and more particularly, to modal identification and classification fusion.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many real-world objects such as biometric and video may be represented by features from multiple modalities. For example, traditionally, videos are represented by features embedded in the tracks of visual, audio and caption text. Also, for example, biometric data may be collected from multiple sources including face, fingerprint, voice and DNA to identify a person. These features are extracted and then fused in a complementary way for understanding the semantics of a target object.
Unfortunately, there have been shortcomings with prior approaches to modality identification. A first approach to modality identification uses only one dimension, and does not require the fusion step. A second approach to modality identification treats each information source as one modality, and does require a fusion step.
The first approach to modality identification which uses only one dimension may suffer the "curse of dimensionality". Goh et al., Svm binary classifier ensembles for multi-class image classification, ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM), 2001, used the raw color and texture features to form a high-dimensional feature vector for each image. Recently, statistical methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) have been widely used in the Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Signal Processing communities to denoise data and to identify independent information sources. See M. L. Cascia, et al., Combining textual and visual cues for content-based image retrieval on the world wide web, IEEE Workshop on Content-based Access of Image and Video Libraries, 1998; L. Hansen, et al., On independent component analysis for multimedia signals, Multimedia Image and VideoProcessing, CRC Press, 2000; T. Kolenda, et al., Independent component analysis for understanding multimedia content, In Proc. of IEEE Workshop on Neural Networks for Signal Processing, 2002; A. Vinokourov, et al., Learning the semantics of multimedia content with application to web image retrieval and classification, In Proceedings of Fourth International Symposium on Independent Component Analysis and Blind Source Separation, 2003; and T. Westerveld, Image retrieval: Content versus context. Content-Based Multimedia Information Access, RIAO, 2000. In the multimedia community, it has been observed that audio and visual data of a video stream exhibit some statistical regularity, and that regularity can be explored for joint processing. See J. Hershey et al., Using audio-visual synchrony to locate sounds, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 12, MIT Press, Cambridge Mass., 2001; and F. J. W. III, et al., Learning joint statistical models for audio-visual fusion and segregation, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 13, MIT Press, Cambridge Mass., 2000. Smaragdis et al, Audio/visual independent components, International Symposium on Indepdendent Component Analysis and Blind Source Separation, 2003, proposed to operate on a fused set of audio/visual features and to look for combined subspace components amenable to interpretation. Vinokourov et al., Inferring a semantic representation of text via cross-language correlation analysis, In Advances of Neural Information Processing, 2002, found a common latent/semantic space from multi-language documents using independent component analysis for cross-language document retrieval. A shortcoming of these prior teachings is that the curse of dimensionality arises, causing ineffective feature-to-semantics mapping and inefficient indexing See Y. Rui, et al., Image retrieval: Past, present, and future, International Symposium on Multimedia Information Processing, 1997. This phenomenon has been termed the dimensionality curse because it can severely hamper the effectiveness of data analysis. See R. Bellman, Adaptive control processes, Princeton, 1961.
The second approach to modality identification, which treats each information source as one modality, may suffer from inaccuracies due to inter-dependencies between sources. This second approach treats the features as m modalities, with di features in the ith modality (i=1, . . . , m). Much work in image and video retrieval analysis employs this approach. For example, the QBIC system supported image queries based on combining distances from the color and texture modalities. See M. Flickner et al., Query by image and video content: the qbic system, 1997. Velivelli et al., Detection of documentary scene changes by audio-visual fusion, In proceedings of International conference on Image and video retrieval, 2003, separated video features into audio and visual modalities. Adams et al., Ibm research tree-2002 video retrieval system, also regarded each media track (visual, audio, textual, etc.) as one modality. For each modality, these works trained a separate classification model, and then used the weighted-sum rule to fuse a class-prediction decision. This modality-decomposition method can alleviate the "curse of dimensionality." However, since media sources are treated separately, the inter-dependencies between sources may be left unexplored.
There also have been shortcomings with fusion of classification data for different modalities. Given that D modalities have been obtained, there is a need to for D classifiers, one to interpret data for each modality. The challenge is to fuse the D classifiers to provide an overall classification. The fusion challenge is enhanced because D modalities typically are not entirely independent of each other. For example, PCA and ICA often cannot perfectly identify independent components for at least two reasons. First, well-known ICA algorithms (e.g., fixed-point algorithm, Infomax, kernel canonical analysis, and kernel independent analysis) generally require a good estimate of the number of independent components k to find them effectively. Second, ICA typically performs a best attempt under some error-minimization criteria to find k independent components. Nevertheless, the resulting components, as shown still may exhibit inter-dependencies.
Various fusion strategies for multimodal information have been presented including product combination, weighted-sum, voting, and min-max aggregation. Among them, product combination and weighted-sum appear to be the most popular fusion methods. Unfortunately, there are significant problems with each of these approaches to fusion.
The product-combination rule is an optimal fusion model from the Bayesian perspective, assuming that D modalities are independent of each other, and that posterior probability can be accurately estimated for each modality. Unfortunately, however, the D modalities likely will not be truly independent and, we posterior probability ordinarily cannot be estimated with high accuracy. The work of D. M. Tax et al., Combining multiple classifiers by averaging or by multiplying, Journal of the Pattern Recognition, 33, 2000, concluded that the product-combination rule works well only when the posterior probability of individual classifiers can be accurately estimated.
The weighted-sum strategy is more tolerant to noise because sum does not magnify noise as severely as product. Unfortunately, however, weighted-sum is a linear model, not equipped to explore the inter-dependencies between modalities. Recently, Yan and Hauptmann R., The combination limit in multimedia retrieval. ACM Multimedia, 2003, presented a theoretical framework for bounding the average precision of a linear combination function in video retrieval. The framework concluded that the linear combination functions have limitations, and suggested that non-linearity and cross-media relationships should be introduced to achieve better performance.
Thus, there has been a need for improvements to modality identification and for improvements in classification fusion. The present invention meets these needs.

Multimodal high-dimensional data fusion for classification and identification


An interface unit for interfacing a computer device and a telecommunications terminal device such, for example, as a telephone, with a data network capable of carrying data associated with each type of device. The interface unit is powered independently from the computer device and includes both the processing and memory resources needed to interact with the network and an interface for establishing a link to the telecommunications terminal.

I. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to communications networks and, more particularly, to a system and method for establishing a reliable communications link between a personal computer or workstation and such networks.
II. Description of the Related Art
Network interface cards (NIC) are widely used for connecting computer devices to a data network to facilitate the exchange of data therebetween. Most data networks provide for bi-directional data transmission wherein data is transmitted in an upstream direction from a computer to the network where the data is received by a receiving device also connected to the network, and in a downstream direction wherein data is received from the network by a destination device, e.g. a personal computer or the like. As is widely known, such networks require that the data signals carried thereby adhere to a specific data format or protocol recognized by the network. Thus, existing NICs convert upstream computer data to the appropriate protocol for the network before the data is transmitted. Likewise, conversion of the downstream data from the network protocol to a format recognized by the destination computer device is performed by the NIC.
Most computers provide I/O ports for controlling various peripherals. While such peripherals typically include printers, they may also include non-computer or telecommunications terminal devices, such as analog or digital telephones, videophones, facsimile machines, answering machines, computer data and/or fax modems, and adjunct devices such as caller-ID, which communicate with like devices on a telephone communications network that is separate from the computer data network. In addition, internet "telephones" now exist in the form of software that allows a user to speak into a handset, for example, which is connected to a sound card in a CPU of a computer for transmission of the spoken data on or over the data network or internet. While such a configuration allows the internet telephone to transmit data through the computer data network, the dependency of such devices on the CPU creates several drawbacks. For example, if the CPU is engaged in other operations or calculations during the use of the internet telephone, the perceived quality of the telephone call may decrease. During use of the internet telephone, conversely, fewer processing resources of the CPU are made available to other applications.
As will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art, interruptions in the operation of the computer or workstation are inevitable. These may result, for example, from power disruptions, software operating system faults (i.e. "hanging") or hardware failures such as, for example, hard drive failures or memory errors, system resets and reboots initiated by the user. Where the network connection to the telephonic device depends upon the processing and power resources of the personal computer or workstation, any of the aforementioned interruptions will disrupt the flow of data between the telecommunications terminal and the computer network.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a network interface card or adjunct module which can reliably allow at least one telecommunications terminal to interact, via a single connection, with a common network that carries both computer data and telecommunications traffic.

Modified network interface unit with terminal device access


Compositions and methods of preparing carboranes and metallacarboranes, which can be used as a new type of electrochemically active label for biological compounds, are disclosed. Nucleic acid derivatives labelled with carborane or metallacarborane can be detected by electrochemical methods and can find several practical applications, such as materials for nanoconstruction, in DNA array technology or for the construction of biosensors, especially electrochemical biosensors. Other applications can include use as modified primers in amplification of RNA and DNA, antisense drugs, boron carriers for BNCT, radiopharmaceuticals bearing a range of isotopes useful in different types of radiotherapy, molecular probes, elements of biosensors, materials for nanotechnology and others.

Nucleosides and nucleotides, components of nucleic acids, and oligonucleotides (short stretches of nucleic acids) find broad application among others, in biology, medicine and nanotechnology (Agrawal, 1996; Cotter, 1996; Crooke, 1995; Ells, 1996; Jefferies and De ClercQ, 1995; Keller and Manak, 1993; Niemeyer, 1997; Seeman et al, 1998; Wiedbrauk and Farkas, 1995).
Due to the different requirements dependent upon specific applications of oligonucleotides and their components, natural nucleosides, nucleotides and oligonucleotides are modified in order to obtain molecules with designed and needed properties. Essentially all parts of the nucleoside, nucleotide and oligonucleotide can be modified, namely the sugar residue, nucleic base and phosphate group (Agrawal, 1993; Micklefield, 2001; Shabarova and Bogdanov, 1994; Sanghvi and Cook, 1994; Uhlmann, E., Peyman, A., 1990).
One of the modifications is based on the use of boron clusters such as carboranes, as the modifying entity. The carborane group can be attached to the nucleoside unit directly or through a linker. Most nucleosides modified with a carborane group belong to a pyrimidine nucleoside family. (Lesnikowski i Schinazi, 1995; Tjarks, W., 2000).
Three types of carboranyl group (—C2B10H12) containing DNA-oligonucleotides have been described so far: 1) (o-carboran-1-yl)methylphosphonate-oligonucleotides (CBMP-oligonucleotides), consisting of a carborane cage within an internucleotide linkage (Lesnikowski and Schinazi, 1993; Lesnikowski et al, 1997; Lesnikowski, 2003), 2) 5-(o-carboran-1-yl)-2′-deoxyuridine-oligonucleotides (CDU-oligonucleotides) containing a carborane cage attached to a nucleobase (Fulcrand-El Kattan et al, 1994; Lesnikowski et al, 1996; Lesnikowski, 2003), and 3) 2′-O-(o-carboran-1-yl)methyl-oligonucleotides (2′-CBM-oligonucleotides) with a carborane cage linked to a sugar residue at 2′ position (Olejniczak et al, 2002; Olejniczak and Lesnikowski, 2002; Lesnikowski, 2003). Other types of modified nucleosides, nucleotides and oligonucleotides are derivatives of these compounds consisting of metal complexes (Bigey et al., 1997; Dervan et al., 1988; Dougan et al., 1997; Dubey et al., 2000; Hurley and Tor, 1998; Ossipov et al, 2001; Strobel et al, 1988; Yu et al, 2000). Nucleoside conjugates containing metal complexes with ligands other than a carborane cage or nucleosides containing a carborane cage without a metal ion have been described. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,766 discloses nucleosides and oligonucleotides containing boron clusters. Application of these derivatives as boron carriers for BNCT of tumors, antisense biotherapeutics and molecular probes in medical diagnostics are proposed.
Application WO 2002053571 describes new derivatives of polycyclic hydrocarbons and naphthalene imides type of ferrocene and methods of their synthesis, their intercalating properties, method for their electrochemical detection and several examples of practical applications. The disclosed compounds are easy for synthesis and purification, and are efficient intercalators towards double stranded DNA and RNA. However, as an electrochemical label it binds to a nucleic acid molecule through weak intercalating interactions, substantially limiting the practical utility of the proposed compounds.
The subject of JP 2001064298 is the preparation of oligonucleotide/ferrocene conjugates and their application for electrochemical detection of DNA. Disclosed is a method for synthesis of conductively or electrochemically active oligonucleotides. Oligonucleotides are transformed into an organic solvent soluble form via ion pair formation with suitable lipids and are treated with a type of ferrocene monocarboxylic acid N-hydroxy succinimide ester compound. Though, in the invention described above, the method for the synthesis of oligonucleotide conjugates containing a metal ion is limited to the incorporation into the oligonucleotide molecule iron only.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,796 the method and compounds for treating urogenital tumors, and particular, cancer of the prostate, bladder, and kidney with BCNT, are disclosed. Preferred boron carriers include 5-carboranyl-2′-deoxyuridine (CDU) and 5-o-carboranyl-1-(2-deoxy-2-fluoro-b-D-arabinofuranosyl)uracil (CFAU). Nucleosides and oligonucleotides bearing an —O-[(carboran-1-yl)alkyl]phosphate, S-[(carboran-1-yl)alkyl]phosphorothioate, or Se-[(carboran-1-yl)alkyl]phosphoroselenoate in place of the (carboran-1-yl)phosphonate moiety can be used.
Oligonucleotides of specific gene sequences that include one or more 3′,5′-linking-(carboran-1-yl)phosphonate moieties can also be used in antisense therapy in the selective modification of gene expression. The therapy is accomplished by administering the boron-containing compound by any appropriate route, including by intravenous injection, oral delivery or by catheter or other direct means, in such a manner that the compound accumulates in the target tumor. After desired accumulation of the compound in the tumor, the site is irradiated with an effective amount of low energy neutrons.
In the application JP 2002080491 preparation of electrophilic boron-containing nucleotide analogs and their intermediates is disclosed. Described nucleotide anlogues of general structure (HO)2BX[P(O)(O—)O]nNu (1; Nu=nucleoside residue; X=CF2, CH2; n=2, 3) are prepared by difluoromethylation of HP(O)(OR1)2 (R1=alkyl), reaction with (R2O)3B (R2=lower alkyl), deprotection, protection with 1,2-diols, coupling with nucleotides, and deprotection.
Application U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,302 is focused on boronated nucleoside, nucleotide and oligonucleotide compounds, compositions and methods for using the same. A novel class of pharmaceutically active boronated nucleosides are provided. The nucleosides are boronated at a nitrogen of the purine or pyrimidine ring or analogues thereof. Also provided are phosphate esters of these nucleosides and oligomers thereof. Methods of making and use of the boronated nucleosides are also disclosed. Both of the above applications provide method for the synthesis of some boron containing nucleoside derivatives, but does not allow incorporation of more than one boron atom per modification and does not permit incorporation into a modified molecule other than boron metals.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,679 discloses carboranyl uridines and their use in BNCT. The invention relates to novel boron-containing nucleosides and amino acids which can utilize the enzymatic systems in tumor cells for incorporating such boron-containing structures into nucleic acids and proteins. Subsequent use of boron neutron capture therapy provides a method for treatment of tumor cells. The subject of U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,849 is 2′ and 3′ carboranyl uridines and their diethyl ether adducts. Disclosed is also a process for preparing carboranyl uridine nucleoside compounds and their diethyl ether adducts which exhibit a tenfold increase in boron content over prior art boron containing nucleoside compounds. Said carboranyl uridine nucleoside compounds exhibit enhanced lipophilicity and hydrophilic properties adequate to enable solvation in aqueous media for subsequent incorporation of said compounds in methods for boron neutron capture therapy in mammalian tumor cells. In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,598 new sensitizing agents for use in boron neutron capture therapy are proposed. In spite that the compound proposed in the last three applications contain tenfold more boron atoms than described earlier derivatives consisting boric acid residue, the compounds still contain twofold less than proposed in the present invention. It should be also pointed out that any of the methods proposed so far do not allow incorporation into designed biomolecule such as nucleoside, nucleic acid or other broad spectrum of different metal ions.
Nucleic acid hybridization technology essentially began with the work of Hall and Spiegelman (Hall and Spiegelman, 1961). Originally, the probe and target were hybridized in a solution and the hybrids were isolated by equilibrium-density gradient centrifugation. This procedure was slow, labor-intensive and inaccurate. Substantial progress has been achieved due to the development of the first solid phase hybridization method (Denhardt, 1966). Extensive studies during next 20 years yielded new, automated techniques for hybridization technology. The advancement was possible mainly due to improved attachment methods of DNA/RNA or DNA-oligonucleotide probes to solid support and better methods of their labeling and detection (Keller and Manak, 1993). The most frequently used labels were radioactive isotopes such as 32P, 3H, 14C and 35S, fluorescent compounds and dyes absorbing visible light, and the most often used test format was the ELISA type immunoenzymatic assay. Comparison of selected methods are shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1Comparison of sensitivity of selected methods used for DNA detection.EnzymeLabelMethod of detectionSensitivityAlkaline4-nitrophenylColorimetric5fmolphosphateAlkalineNBT/BCIPColorimetric0.5fmolphosphateHorse-radisho-PhenylenediamineColorimetric0.1fmolperoxidaseHorse-radishLuminolColorimetric1.0fmolperoxidaseHorse-radishENH/LUMChemiluminescence0.05fmolperoxidase—32PScintillation0.05fmol—FluorosceinFluorimetry500fmol—Texas redFluorimetry100fmol—RodamineFluorimetry100fmol—IsoluminolChemiluminescence100fmolmetal ionsVoltammetry1fmolbaUrdea M S., Warner B D., Running J A., Stempien M., Clyne J., Horn T., Nucl. Acids Res., 16, 4937 (1988);bIhara T., Maruo Y., Takenaka S., Takagi M., Nucl. Acids Res., 24, 4273 (1996).
At the present stage of development of labeling and detection of oligonucleotide probes, and application of such nucleic acids hybridization technology in research and medical diagnostics, plays an important role in DNA chip technology and its application in genomics (Hoheisel, 1997; Anthony et al., 2001; Lipshutz et al., 1995).
Labelling of DNA-oligonucleotide probes with electrochemical labels and their application in electrochemical detection of nucleic acids was developed only recently. Earlier attempts at electrochemical detection of nucleic acids were based on detection of natural, unlabeled nucleic acid molecules (Wang et al., 1997; Steel et al., 1998; Singhal and Kuhr, 1997). Electrochemical detection of natural nucleic acids is however nonspecific and characterized by high background. Because chemical similarities and similar nucleoside composition of oligonucleotide probes with different base sequences, selective detection of these probes without labelling is very difficult or impossible. In addition, detection of unlabeled oligonucleotide probes is hindered by the electrochemical activity of water. The ferrocene is one of a very few electrochemical labels proposed for labelling of oligonucleotide probes (Ihara et al., 1996; Ihara et al., 1997). In this case however, the label is limited to iron and its redox characteristics.
Electrochemical detection of nucleic acids is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,391,558 B1 patent dated May 21, 2002. An electrochemical detection system which specifically detects selected nucleic acid segments is described. The system utilizes biological probes such as nucleic acid or peptide nucleic acid probes which are complementary and specifically hybridize with selected nucleic acid segments in order to generate a measurable current when an amperometric potential is applied. The electrochemical signal can be quantified. In the above invention electrochemical detection of only unlabeled nucleic acids using only an amperometric method is proposed.
Nucleic acid detection methods and apparatus, and vessels for detecting nucleic acid are the subject of US 20020064795 A1 patent application dated May 30, 2002. A nucleic acid detection application is disclosed that includes a nucleic acid immobilized electrode constituted by immobilizing a nucleic acid probe to a conductor, a plurality of vessels for bringing the nucleic acid probe into contact with a subject substance, a counter electrode disposed on a bottom surface or a inside surface of the vessel, and an electric circuit for applying a voltage between the nucleic acid immobilized electrode and the counter electrode. A nucleic acid is detected by inserting the nucleic acid immobilized electrode into each vessel containing the subject substance, and using the counter electrode disposed on the bottom surface or inside surface of the vessel to electrically control the reaction.
Quantitative detection of nucleic acids by differential hybridization using electrochemical labelling of samples is described in JP 2002000299 A2 application dated Feb. 8, 2002. A method for quantitative detection of nucleic acids by differential hybridization using immobilized oligonucleotide probes complementary to nucleic acid samples labelled with conductive material, is disclosed. An electric potential is applied and current is measured by differential pulse voltammograms. DNA or PNA (peptide nucleic acid) can be used as probes. Detection of ferrocene labelled oligonucleotides (20mer of adenine, A20) using thymine 20mer probe modified with mercapto hexyl group, or PNA thymine 10 mer modified with 1,2-bis(vinylsulfonyl acetamide) ethane, is described. Hybridization-based gene detection method using intercalator and electrochemical detection of immobilized probe is described in application WO2002/057488 dated Jan. 21, 2002. The gene detection method according to the above invention is characterized in that an intercalator is introduced into the double strand, and the double strand is electrochemically detected. According to the present method, a probe and a sample gene are hybridized in a uniform solution or in a solution in the vicinity of an electrode surface, an intercalator is introduced thereinto for labeling, the probe is then immobilized on the electrode, and the amount of immobilized probe and the amount of double strand are separately detected at the same time, making it possible to accurately detect the amount in which the double strand is produced per unit amount of immobilized probe. An advantage of the present method is that reactions can be conducted with higher efficiency because the hybridization and intercalation are carried out in a solution without immobilizing the probe on the electrode.
Electrochemical detection of nucleic acid hybridization is a subject of U.S. Pat. No. 6,361,951. A method of detecting a nucleic acid (e.g., DNA, RNA) that contains at least one preselected base (e.g., adenine, guanine, 6-mercaptoguanine, 8-oxo-guanine, and 8-oxo-adenine) comprises (a) reacting the nucleic acid with a transition metal complex capable of oxidizing the preselected base in an oxidation-reduction reaction; (b) detecting the oxidation-reduction reaction; and (c) determining the presence or absence of the nucleic acid from the detected oxidation-reduction reaction at the preselected base. The method may be used in a variety of applications, including DNA sequencing, diagnostic assays, and quantitative analysis.
The requirement of the presence of one or more preselected nucleic bases in the detected DNA or RNA is a significant disadvantage of the above method. If the nucleic bases are present in the probe in nature (e.g adenine, guanine) the specificity of the detection is decreased, if they are incorporated into nucleic acids artificially—the additional procedure is required, making the process of detection more complicated. The range of the redox potentials is also limited due to the preselection of nucleic bases, making detection of several probes in the same mixture impossible.
Determination of sequence variations in nucleic acids by electrochemical detection of hybrids using probes labelled with redox groups is described in application WO 2001/007665 A2. The present invention is directed to methods and compounds for the use of self-assembled monolayers to electronically detect nucleic acids, particularly alterations such as nucleotide substitutions (mismatches) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The method uses arrays of probes immobilized in self-assembling monolayers on an electrode surface. Probes and target sequences are labelled with redox groups and hybridization of the probe results in a change in redox potential. Preparation of chips with probes immobilized via disulfide bridges to thiolated DNA is demonstrated and the effects of variables, such as hybridization temperature, are studied. Methods of using competimers, perfectly matching probes that will replace weak or unstable hybrids, to improve the specificity of the hybridization are described.
Electrodes coated with metal complex-containing film and its use for electrochemical detection of nucleic acid bases is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,346 B1. A modified electrode prepared by electropolymerizing a film on the conductive working surface, of an electrode is disclosed. The coated electrode is used for electrochemical detection of nucleic acid bases. The electrode is modified by reductive electropolymerization of a thin film of poly[Ru(vbpy)32+] or poly[Ru(vbpy)32+/vba] (vbpy=4-vinyl-4′ methyl-2,2′-bipyridine and vba=p-vinylbenzoic acid) and the electrode is used for the electrochemical detection of aq. GMP, poly[G], and surface-immobilized single-stranded DNA probes. A DNA probe is attached covalently to the carboxylate group via a carbodiimide reaction followed by amidation of an amino-linked single-stranded DNA. In the presence of these guanine containing moieties, a dramatic enhancement in the oxidative current for the Ru3+/2+ couple (present in the polymeric thin film) due to the catalytic oxidation of guanine is observed. This invention shows example some metal complexes for detection of DNA proves their practical importance.
Electrochemical detection of the hybridization process of a probe and target nucleic with the application of the catalyst of the redox reaction attached to electrode surface is described in the application WO 2001/021635 A2. In the disclosed method DNA- or PNA-oligonucleotide probe containing catalyst of the redox reaction attached to the one end is linked to the electrode surface from the opposite side. Signal is generated as a result of hybridization of the target nucleic acid to the probe and formation of the double stranded structure allowing flow of the electric current from the electrode to the catalyst on the opposite end and initiation of the redox reaction. In this format hybridization processes can be detected using voltametric, amperometric, potentiometric or conductometric methods. Electrochemical detection of the nucleic acid hybridization process with the application of the probes coupled with electrochemical label is a subject of the application WO 2000/031101 A 1. This method can be successfully adapted for the application of electrochemical labelling of a subject of the present invention.
Methods for detecting/quantitating sample nucleic acid fragment by scanning electrochemical microscopy are described in application JP 2001013103 A2 dated Jan. 19, 2001. A highly sensitive method is provided for detecting/quantitating a sample nucleic acid fragment complementary to DNA or PNA (peptide nucleic acid) fragment immobilized on the surface by scanning electrochemical microscopy using DNA or PNA analyzing element. The sample nucleic acid is contacted with the DNA or PNA analyzing element in the presence of a hybrid DNA (or PNA)-binding electrochemical active molecule (e.g, ferrocene-modified intercalate). Then, the sample nucleic acid fragment complementary to the DNA or PNA fragment immobilized on the analyzing element as well as the electrochemical active molecule are bound to the analyzing element. The complementary sample nucleic acid fragment is detected/quantitated by measuring the electric current generated in the electrochemical active molecule-binding region on the analyzing element surface upon applying an electric potential to the analyzing element surface by a scanning electrochemical microscope. This method can be successfully adapted for the application of electrochemical labelling of a subject of the present invention.
An electrochemical method for detecting DNA using DNA sensor and intercalator is described in application JP 2000125865 A2 dated May 9, 2000. The DNA sensor comprises more than two electrodes equipped with the response terminals for output. On the surface of the electrodes, DNA probes possessing the base sequences differing from each other are immobilized. On this DNA sensor, the sample DNA dissociated into single chains are bound with the probe DNA in the presence of the electrochemical activity-embedded-type intercalator, or the intercalator is bound with the DNA hybrid formed beforehand. A DNA gene is detected by measuring the current generated through the intercalator trapped into DNA hybrid. The above method is similar to several methods mentioned earlier utilizing electrochemically labeled intercalating molecule. As a label for the intercalator molecule the electrochemical labels being a subject of the present invention can be also applied. The aim of the present invention is providing new and versatile electrochemical label, a boron cluster, in the form of a metal complex, typically metallacarborane and modified nucleosides or their derivatives comprising thereof. Application of the metallacarborane group is especially desirable because it is characterized by unusually high boron contents, and it can accommodate in its structure a broad variety of other elements, specifically metals, their ions and isotopes. This increases substantially the potential of the proposed new class of molecules beyond their use as electrochemical labels and expand the range of their practical applications. The aims have been unexpectedly achieved in the present invention.

Nucleoside derivative, modified oligonucleotide, method for their synthesis and applications thereof