A balanced planar antenna having at least one mmWave resonant frequency includes a ground plane, first and second antenna elements, an arm that connects the second antenna element to the ground plane, a feed line connected to the first antenna element and for feeding a radio frequency signal to the first antenna element, and a balun that connects the first antenna element to the ground plane. The ground plane, first antenna element, second antenna element, arm, feed line and balun each are disposed on a substrate and are coplanar.

Communications standards such as 3G and 4G are currently in wide-spread use. It is expected that infrastructure to support 5G communications will soon be deployed. In order to take advantage of 5G, portable electronic devices such as mobile telephones will need to be configured with the appropriate communications components. These components include an antenna that has one or more resonant frequencies in the millimeter (mm) wave range, which extends from 10 GHz to 100 GHz. In many countries, it is thought that available 5G mmWave frequencies are at 28 GHz and 39 GHz. This spectrum is not continuous in frequency. Therefore, if a mobile device were to support operation at more than one mmWave frequency, the antenna would need to support the frequencies of interest. This type of antenna is sometimes referred to as a multimode antenna and could be a multiple band (multiband) antenna.
Also, since the wavelength is very small, performance may be enhanced by using multiple antennas in an array. An array antenna, under the correct phasing, offers potential antenna gain but also adds a challenge. The phasing narrows the antenna radiation into a beam that may be directed toward the base station. The antenna elements of the array should have a broad pattern, good polarization, low coupling and low ground currents. For dual band antennas at the proposed 28 GHz and 39 GHz frequencies, achieving these characteristics is a challenge.
At mmWave frequencies, conventional antennas may induce a strong surface wave in the chassis (housing) of the mobile device that distorts the radiation pattern emitted by the antenna element. This distortion can lead to poor operational performance and may prevent antenna array applications. This phenomenon occurs since the electrical size of the chassis in terms of wavelength is much larger than the wavelength of the emitted signal.
FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of a conventional mmWave antenna 10 that is subject to this phenomenon. The antenna 10 is a planar antenna that includes a ground plane 12 disposed on a substrate 14, such as a printed circuit board (PCB). The antenna includes a single antenna element 16 disposed on the substrate 14 adjacent an edge of the ground plane 12. The antenna element 16 is fed by a feed line 18 that is also disposed on the substrate 18. The feed line 18 and the antenna element 16 may be microstrip lines. A portion of the feed line 18 is located in a notch 20 formed in the ground plane 12 as illustrated. The feed line 18 connects to a component that supplies an RF signal at connection point 22 that is schematically represented by a triangular shaped item in FIG. 1. The component that supplies the RF signal may be an output of a power amplifier or an output of a tuning or impedance matching circuit. The component that supplies the RF signal may be located on another layer of the substrate 14 or on a separate substrate.
For a sense of scale of the ground plane 12 relative to the antenna element 16, FIG. 2 shows the entire ground plane 12, feed line 18 and antenna element 16. FIG. 2 also illustrates the surface currents induced during operation at 28 GHz. The surface currents propagate along the edge of the ground plane 12 at which the antenna element 16 is present. FIG. 3 shows a corresponding radiation pattern, which exhibits relatively strong side lobes that are not desirable in array applications.


A substrate-treating apparatus includes a process chamber including a space therein, a lower electrode which is in the space of the process chamber and supports the substrate, an upper electrode which faces the lower electrode in the process chamber, a high frequency supply line which includes a feed point which applies a high frequency power to the lower electrode, and a modulator which asymmetrically supplies a dielectric substance to a lower portion of the lower electrode with reference to a center portion of the lower electrode.

1. Field
The disclosure relates to a substrate-treating apparatus and a method of treating the substrate. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a substrate-treating apparatus for treating a substrate using plasma and a method of treating the substrate using the plasma.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a liquid crystal display, an organic light emitting diode, a solar cell and a semiconductor device are manufactured by various processes using plasma, such as a plasma etching process, a plasma chemical vapor deposition process, a sputtering process, etc. Display devices or methods of displaying an image may employ, for example, the liquid crystal display, the organic light emitting diode, the solar cell and/or the semiconductor device, which include a substrate.
A plasma treating apparatus includes an upper electrode installed inside a chamber and a lower electrode installed to face the upper electrode. When a high frequency electric power is applied to the lower electrode, the plasma is formed between the upper electrode and the lower electrode to treat a substrate loaded in the chamber.
However, an intensity of an electric field formed in the lower electrode is not uniform as the size of the substrate becomes large with increasing display device sizes. As a result, it is difficult to attain a high etching rate in an etching process, and a high uniformity of layers in deposition and sputtering processes.

Apparatus and method of treating substrate


Embodiments of the present invention allow for media erasure. Various embodiments allow for controlling an actuator based on feedback signal measurements and disk phase to seek a head across a surface of a disk systematically for an erasure operation. Also, in various embodiments, a substantially repeatable seek motion of a head across a stroke may be determined, and launch points at which the head is launched over a disk in the seek motion for erasing at least a portion of the disk are determined based on disk phase.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to erasing a storage medium and, in particular embodiments, to erasing a disk surface.
There are several methods utilized in the related art to achieve erasure of media. A bulk erase is a common, but inconvenient process. In a bulk erase, the media is removed from a drive and erased. The drive is then reassembled. This necessitates making mechanical changes to the drive.
Another method in the related art is a servo-track-writer erase. The servo-track-writer writes servo information, which includes identification information and burst patterns on a magnetic disk. The servo-track-writer writes this information onto the magnetic disk in part by pressing a pushpin against an actuator on which a magnetic head is mounted. This necessarily involves uncovering the hard disk drive and, thus, requires that the servo information write must be performed in a clean room. The servo-track-writer erase also involves utilizing the pushpin to control the write head of the drive, which again consequently requires the use of a clean room, along with the aforementioned inconvenience of making mechanical changes to the drive. Further, the use of a servo-track-writer involves an addition of machinery to the drive that is costly.
A third method in the related art is a random windshield wiper erase, which involves random motions of a voice coil motor with DC erase current. Because the motions are random, there is no guarantee that all of the media is erased; rather an amount of the media that is erased depends upon an ability to correct for errors; The major disadvantage of this method is head degradation associated with the write current at the head during a seek across a textured landing zone boundary. For ramp load/unload designs, the use of write current through the head when the head hits the ramp impacts an effectiveness and lifetime of the head. It is important to turn off the write current through the head as the head is hitting and moving up to the ramp. This is because there is a potential for head failure and thermal damage to the head if the head is writing without an air bearing between the head and the disk surface. Thus, there may be problems with using random motions for erase with ramp load/unload products.
A fourth method in the related art is an in-drive bulk DC erase. This method also necessitates mechanical changes to the drive.
Further, with regard to ex-situ multidisk writers, it could be advantageous to efficiently erase a disk without having to remove it from an ex-situ multidisk writer, particularly with writers that are able to do verification on the servo patterns that are written. For example, if a spindle of 10 to 15 disks were written, and a large number of those failed servo verification, it might be advantageous to erase each of the failed disks and be able to write them again without having to unload them to a bulk eraser.


A flash EEPROM with sector erasure, carries out the erasure by applying a negative voltage to a selected word line through an N-channel MOS transistor. P-channel MOS transistors are respectively inserted between row decoder level shifters and each of their respective word lines to which they are respectively connected. The turning-on and -off of the respective word lines and first level shifters is controlled by the turning-on and -off of the associated P-channel MOS transistor. An erase voltage is applied to one end of the source/drain path of the respective N-channel MOS transistor of the selected cord line, the other end to the respective word lines. The turning-on and -off of the N-channel MOS transistor is synchronized with the turning-on and -off of the P-channel MOS transistor connected to the same word line. The P-channel MOS transistor is formed on an N well biased to, for example, 5 V and the N-channel MOS transistor is formed on a P well biased to, for example, the erase voltage. The P well is formed on the surface of the N well.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrically erasable and programmable ROM (referred to as an EEPROM hereinafter), and more particularly, to an EEPROM in which a negative voltage is applied to the control gate for erasure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional EEPROM is constituted of a peripheral circuit that includes memory cells arranged in matrix form along word lines and bit lines, a row decoder, and a column decoder. Level shifters are arranged between the row decoder and the word lines and between the column decoder and the bit lines, respectively. The write or read or erase operation for each selected memory cell is carried out as in the following. Namely, by virtue of a designation signal of write or read or erase and address signals, a row output and a column output from the row decoder and the column decoder are input to the respective level shifters, and a row signal having a voltage corresponding to the write or read or erase operation and a column signal having a voltage corresponding to the write or read or erase operation are output from the respective level shifters to a designated word line and a designated bit line.
The conventional EEPROM memory cell is constituted of a select transistor consisting of an N-channel MOS transistor and an N-channel MOS transistor having a stacked gate type structure (a laminated structure of a floating gate and a control gate). In order to avoid possible confusion as to the definition of write and erase operations, it will tentatively be defined here that the write operation is one in which electron injection to the floating gate takes place while the erase operation is one in which electron emission from the floating gate takes place, analogous to the case for an EEPROM. In such an EEPROM it is necessary to carry out the erase operation for every memory cell so that the length of the erase time will become of importance when an erase operation for a large number of memory cells is to be carried out. For such a reason, when the connection of the memory cells is of the NOR type, for example, there has been proposed the flash type EEPROM (abbreviated as a flash memory hereinafter) which has at least the function of erasing simultaneously and in a lump all the data written on the memory cells that belong to the same word line (in particular, erasure for each unit, with one row or a plurality of rows as a unit, is called sector erasure). Because of this, the flash memory has an advantage of reducing the cell size due to the reduction in the erasure time in comparison to the conventional EEPROM and the elimination of the necessity for the select transistors.
Such a flash memory is reported, for example, in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 1157-1162. According to the report, the memory cell is constituted of a first gate insulating film (thickness of about 10 nm) provided on the surface of a P-type silicon substrate, a floating gate consisting of N.sup.+ -type polycrystalline silicon provided on the gate insulating film, a second gate insulating film (thickness of about 25 nm) provided on the top face of the floating gate, a control gate provided on the gate insulating film, and an N.sup.+ -type source and drain provided on the surface of the silicon substrate in self-alignment with these gates.
The operation of a memory cell with the above-mentioned structure can generally be described as follows. For writing to the memory cell, voltages of 7 V, for example, to the drain, 0 V (ground potential) to the silicon substrate and the source, and 12 V, for example, to the control gate, are applied. Since the floating gate is not connected to an external power supply, its potential is uniquely determined by the ratio of the electrostatic capacities due to the first gate insulating film and the second gate insulating film, and the potentials of the control gate, the source, the drain, and the silicon substrate. Ordinarily, by setting the potential of the control gate to be comparable to the potential of the drain, the injected quantity of the hot electrons (electrons having energies that exceed the energy barrier height of the first gate insulating film) generated by the current that flows between the source and the drain to the floating gate is maximum, so that the aforementioned potential setting is prevalent. As a result, electrons are injected to the floating gate pushing down the potential of the floating gate even to a negative level, and shifts the threshold of the memory cell to the positive direction. Ordinarily, the threshold of the memory cell at this time is set to be about 7 V.
Focusing the attention on one memory cell, the erasure of the memory cell (that is, the erasure of a written data) is to draw the electrons that were injected to the floating gate as in the above from the floating gate. For this purpose, the following method is frequently adopted. That is, a voltage of 12 V, for example, is applied to the source, 0 V (ground potential) is applied to the silicon substrate and the control gate, and the drain is left in the open state. Although the potential of the floating gate is determined uniquely as mentioned above, the floating gate is at a negative potential in the state where the the memory cell is written, so that a potential difference corresponding to this component is added further and a fairly strong electric field (greater than 10 MV/cm at this time) is applied to the first gate insulating film between the source and the floating gate. Under such a strong electric field the Fowler-Nordheim current based on the quantum mechanical tunnel effect flows in the first gate insulating film. Utilizing this effect, electrons are drawn from the floating gate to the source, performing the erasure of the memory cell. For example, in a device of the NOR type, the sources of the memory cells connected to the same word line have a common potential so that when one memory cell is erased, at least the remaining memory cells belonging to the same word line will also be erased.
In the conventional flash memory, the erasure method that draws electrons to the source as described in the above has certain problems which deteriorate the reliability of the cell. At this time, a high voltage in the reverse direction of about 12 V with respect to the P-N junction of the source is applied to the source, which was found to create two problems. A first problem is the junction breakdown and a second problem is the generation of hot holes (holes having energies that exceed the energy barrier height of the first gate insulating film) and their injection into the floating gate which takes place prior to the occurrence of the junction breakdown.
To cope with these problems there have been proposed methods for drawing the electrons from the floating gate without applying a high reverse voltage to the source. According to a first method reported in IEDM Technical Digest, 1990, pp. 111-114, erasure is carried out by applying voltages of 5 V to the source and -12 V to the control gate while leaving the drain in the open state. In this method the voltage applied to the source is low so that the junction breakdown would not be generated. The key point of this method is to push out the electrons accumulated in the floating gate to the source side by the application of a negative voltage to the control gate. On the other hand, according to a second method as reported in IEDM Technical Digest, 1990, pp. 115-118, erasure is carried out by applying 0 V (ground potential) to the control gate and applying positive voltages to the source, the drain, and the silicon substrate. The write operation in this method is realized by applying 0 V (ground potential) to the source, the drain, and the silicon substrate, and applying a positive voltage to the control gate alone. The advantage of this method resides in the fact that the application of a high local electric field to the source can be avoided at the time of write or erase, thereby enhancing the reliability of the memory cell.
Both of the above-mentioned methods do have respective features in enhancing the reliability of the memory cell. Note that the contents of these reports place the emphasis on the memory cells, and make no reference to the peripheral circuits. However, when one considers these reports by including up to the peripheral circuits, the presence of different kinds of problem surfaces up. Thus, in the first method, it becomes necessary to pay attention to the constitution of the elements of the circuit that outputs the voltage of -12 V. For example, in an N-channel MOS transistor that constitutes a level shifter connected to the row decoder, a voltage in the forward direction is to be applied to the source or the drain of the transistor which causes a serious problem. Furthermore, a positive voltage is applied to the source, in this method, at the time of erasure, so that it is necessary to isolate the sources that belong to the adjacent word line in order to carry out the sector erasure, which causes an increase in the cell size. On the other hand, the second method has a drawback in that it is applicable to the NAND type EEPROM alone and is not applicable to the NOR type EEPROM.

Flash electrically erasable and programmable ROM


Methods and systems are disclosed for relating additional spatial information associated with one volume data set of an anatomical structure with another volume data set of the anatomical structure where the spatial information is not available. A unique spatial characteristic of the volume data set is identified, such as an image moment of inertia, and an arbitrary reference frame is assigned to the volume data set and correlated with the unique spatial characteristic. The additional spatial information is also correlated with the arbitrary reference frame. The additional spatial information is then correlated to a second volume data set of the anatomical structure by registering the first and second volume data sets based on the unique spatial characteristic. The methods and systems allow registration of different volume data sets of the same anatomical structure and transfer of the additional spatial information without establishing a local reference frame based on predefined landmarks.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for registering anatomical image data sets and relating anatomical information between anatomical image data sets.
2. Description of the Background of the Invention
There exist various techniques in computer assisted surgical procedures to register patient related data across different modalities and/or different time frames. Such patient related data can include, for example, anatomical information or image data obtained using a variety of imaging techniques or modalities, such as ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging ("MRI"), computed tomography ("CT"), single photon emission computed tomography, positron emission tomography, etc. One technique to register patient related data across different modalities is a "point to point" or "paired point" matching technique, wherein landmarks or fiducials that can be identified across different modalities are used to determine a transformation matrix and establish a spatial relationship between the different modalities. In one example, landmarks or fiducials are placed on a patient prior to an image scan, for example, an MRI or CT scan, and such landmarks or fiducials are identified in the image scan and on the patient during a surgical procedure to establish the registration between the patient and patient related data from the image scan.
In another technique, surface registration is used, wherein multiple surface points of a structure or region of interest are used to establish a registration surface. The surface points are identified independently in different modalities often using different techniques. In one embodiment, the surface registration technique is used in ear-nose-throat surgery where a face of a patient is used as a registration surface. For example, a CT or MRI scan of the face of the patient is obtained and the surface of the skin is identified in the scan and then matched to digitized points on the face of the patient during surgery. Such digitized points can either be collected directly with a digitization device, such as a pointer, or indirectly via a registration mask.
The above registration techniques generally serve only to register patient related data from one modality to a different modality. Most commonly, the registration techniques register pre-operative image data of a patient to the anatomy of the patient during surgery for localization purposes of surgical instruments used to perform the surgery.
In some types of procedures, such as procedures related to musculo-skeletal ailments, biomechanical and functional information of joints play an important role in determining the extent or cause of a disease. Such information is generally captured through a motion analysis. In one example of a motion analysis, fiducials are placed on the skin of a body part to be analyzed. A navigation system tracks the fiducials as the body part is moved and the movement of the fiducials is analyzed to establish a biomechanical model of the body part. An obvious downside of this technology is that the fiducials do not directly relate to the underlying bony structures and that shifts in skin or soft tissue occurs during motion. Such shifts can contribute to relatively large motion artifacts and inaccuracies in the results of the motion analysis and the established biomechanical model.
A technique that overcomes soft tissue shift is the direct implantation of fiducials, such as small tantalum beads, onto the bones of the subject, wherein the fiducials are tracked using stereo-radiography techniques during movement of the body part of the patient. Some of the obvious disadvantages of this technique are that a surgical procedure is required for bead implantation and that the motion analysis utilizes ionizing energy.
Further, during a surgical procedure, a motion analysis may not adequately capture functional information of the joints if the motion of the limb is passive. For example, when a surgeon moves the limbs of a patient, or if the patient is anesthetized and lying on an operating room table, no voluntary muscular forces are active to counter the effects of gravity on the body masses.
As surgical procedures around musculo-skeletal ailments start to shift away from pure static standing considerations to a more functional assessment of the joints and towards early intervention, the ability to capture joint related functional information and easily relate such information to the planning and execution of surgical procedures becomes increasingly important.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Methods for determining surgical margins using an imaging device are described that use multiple cameras to image a biological sample on a turntable bathed in white light or fluorescing due to a systemically administered dye. Fluorescence farther away from an excitation light source can be compensated upon determining a 3-D position of portions of the sample. The turntable is turned and tilted in order to take enough images to prepare an animation of the sample. In a graphical user interface, the animation can be stopped, zoomed, and tilted per a user's gesture, touch, tablet-tilting, or other commands. The image manipulation can be with touch gestures entered using a sterilizable or disposable touch pen.

A primary purpose of cancer surgery and surgical pathology is to remove tumor tissues. Complete removal of tumors and all tumor tissue is important. If a tumor is not completely removed, then a second surgery may be required. This produces unneeded patient anxiety and risk, delays the start of second stage therapies, and incurs additional financial costs.
In order to completely remove all tumor tissue, surgeons and pathologists work together during surgery to assess tumor margins such that no malignant cells remain in the wound bed. Tumor margins are the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor, more specifically, the distance between the tumor tissue and the edge of the surrounding tissue removed along with the tumor. Ideally, the margins are selected so that the risk of leaving tumor tissue within the patient is low.
Intraoperative pathology consultation guides the cancer surgeon during surgery to assess if the tumor and margin have not been completely excised. Current surgical pathology consultation relies on palpation, visualization, and anatomical features to select sampling areas for frozen section analysis, which is often limited to 20-30 minutes. Intraoperative pathology consultation starts with gross examination of the excised tissues to choose areas for sampling. This is followed by dissection, embedding, frozen sectioning, and staining of 5-μm slice sections of the excised tissue.
The limited surgical consultation timeframe allows only a small portion of the resected tissue to be interpreted by the pathologist. This time crunch can result in sampling errors which negatively impact the patient outcome.
There exists a need in the art for better intraoperative tumor tissue analysis.

Method of determining surgical margins using fluorescence biopsy specimen imager


A cleat assembly having a base plate for receiving the cleat of the assembly. The base plate has a body portion for receiving the shank of the cleat and a pair of slots for receiving a pin carried by the shank. A single "W" shaped spring engages one of the ends of the pin and is operative to alternately hold the cleat in its exposed operative position or in its depressed inoperative position.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to boat cleats in general and more particular to a cleat which has an exposed operative position and a depressed inoperative position wherein it is flush and is not an obstruction.
2. State of the Prior Art
There are many different types retractable cleats, but none of them are as strong and durable as the cleat of this invention nor are vertically moveable and have a single spring which both keeps the cleat in its exposed operative position and also serves to hold the cleat in its depressed inoperative position.


A unipolar charge monitoring device for use in characterizing semiconductor fabrication equipment and processes includes a semiconductor substrate of one conductivity type, a source region and a drain region formed in first and second spaced surface regions of opposite conductivity type in the substrate with a channel region between the source region and the drain region, a control gate spaced from and in alignment with the channel region, a floating gate between and spaced from said control gate and the channel region, a charge collection electrode above and electrically connected to the control electrode, and a diode connecting the charge collection electrode to the substrate whereby the charge collection electrode collects charge of only one potential. In one embodiment, the unipolar charge monitoring device further includes a conductive electrode spaced from the charge collecting electrode and ohmically connected to the substrate for monitoring surface charge dissipation. In other embodiments, the unipolar charge monitoring device floating gate is separated from the source region by a tunnel oxide, and a metal layer is spaced from the charge collection electrode and overlapping a portion of the charge collection electrode whereby the unipolar charge monitoring device monitors above-the-wafer charge conduction.

This invention relates generally to semiconductor product fabrication processes, and more particularly the invention relates to devices and methods for monitoring deleterious effects in semiconductor wafers due to charge induced damage during fabrication of integrated circuits and semiconductor devices.
It is known that semiconductor processes such as ion implantation, plasma etching, and other charged beam processing may cause damage in semiconductor wafers and the devices and circuits fabrication therein. To assess the damage-generating tendency of such processes, and to determine safe integrated circuit layout guidelines, the semiconductor industry has used polysilicon capacitors with varying gate oxide-field oxide ratios, edge-area ratios, and the like to statistically assess the manner and extent to which these parameters influence the degree of damage, and to develop or select more benign process options. However, due to the indirect nature of this monitoring procedure which relies on compiling frequency of oxide breakdown voltage or charge to breakdown statistics, the results have frequently been inconclusive and confusing.
More recently, the Center for Integrated Systems at Stanford University has developed a monitor for use during plasma etching and high current arsenic implants, as described by Lukaszek et al., "CHARM, a New Wafer Surface Charge Monitor," Tech Con '90, San Jose. The charge monitor device uses electrically erasable PROM transistors as shown in FIG. 1 whose control gates are connected to aluminum charge collection electrodes located on thick oxide. Electrostatic charge deposited on the collection electrodes gives rise to a potential proportional to the amount of deposited charge and the collection electrode to substrate oxide thickness. This potential programs the EEPROM memory transistors by altering their threshold voltages in proportion to the potential on the charge collection electrodes. Therefore, the monitor is a polarity-sensitive peak voltage detector with memory. Its threshold voltage shift versus control gate potential, shown in curve A of FIG. 2, is determined during wafer probe by repeated application of external voltages to the charge collection electrodes.
Two undesirable characteristics may be observed in curve A: as manufactured, the EEPROM transistor does not respond to applied voltages between -10 volts and +10 volts, and the threshold voltage shift saturates for applied voltages lower than -25 volts or greater than +30 volts. The absence of response between -10 and +10 volts indicates that the applied potential is insufficient to cause electron tunneling through the thin tunnel oxide, while the saturation is due to reverse tunneling across the tunnel oxide when the floating gate potential is sufficiently low (or high) and the external programming voltage is removed. The lack of response between -10 volts and +10 volts can be circumvented by preprogramming the monitor transistors to their saturated threshold voltage state, where the transistors will respond to the slightest potential of the opposite polarity, as indicated in curves (b) and (c) of FIG. 2. Thus, the entire range of surface potential between -25 volts and +30 volts can be monitored by this device.
Early experimental results with this device indicate that the wafer charging during high current arsenic implants was best modeled by a voltage source whose polarity was negative. However, these bipolar, fast response charge monitoring devices leave unresolved the possibility of earlier occurrence of possibly detrimental positive transients whose signature was erased by subsequent negative transients. The use of unspecialized EEPROM to monitor charging effects during high current ion implants and plasma etching is inappropriate due to their bipolar sensitivity and convolved electrostatic and UV effects. Further, the structures described above appear to be inappropriate due to their bipolar response and excessively high sensitivity.
Ideally, a monitor is needed which gives a direct measure of the driving force behind the damage.
The present invention is directed to an improved charge monitoring device which overcomes limitations of the earlier EEPROM charge monitoring devices.

Charge monitoring device for use in semiconductor wafer fabrication for unipolar operation and charge monitoring

Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A container/dispenser for used plastic shopping bags which comprises a walled vessel having an open top and an open bottom to which is secured a converging lower section formed of flexible walls with an internal friction surface terminating in a small opening through which the inserted bags may be withdrawn one at a time when compressed in the vessel by a handled lid pressed into the vessel.

In recent years, various types of stores, including particularly grocery stores, have been packing articles purchased by their customers in strong, tissue-like plastic sacks which are removed by check-out or packing clerks from several different types of racks, such as those illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,454,166, issued to M. V. Dinges on Jul. 8, 1969, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,378, issued to Baxley et al. on Jun. 30, 1987. The quantity of these sacks which may be dispensed by a single chain grocery store is tremendous. A single customer purchasing food for a family may easily come home with six to ten of these sacks while making a grocery shopping trip only once a week. After the purchased items are removed from the sacks, the wife or other householder who has made the purchases is then confronted with the problem of what to do with the empty sacks. Prior to 1988, and even since that time, countless grocery store purchasers have either crumpled up the sacks and disposed of them in trash containers, or stuffed them in a drawer or closet shelf for possible future re-use. After a while, the drawer may become packed with these bags and, should one be needed for reuse, when an effort is made to retrieve a single bag from the drawer, usually several bags will be found loosely connected and come out together so that it is then necessary to push the unwanted bags back in the overcrowded drawer.
Some attention was given to what to do about the accumulation of such plastic shopping sacks by the patentee of Patent No. 5,042,687, which issued Aug. 27, 1991, to The Bag-Saver International, Inc. of Ontario, Canada, as assignee of Thomas McKinley. While the shopping bag dispenser described and claimed in this last mentioned patent has been directed to attacking the problem of what to do with loose and untidy plastic bags and their reuse, the dispenser shown in that patent requires vertical slots, preferably above the horizontal dispensing slot in order to enable the sacks to be dispensed. In addition, because the horizontal dispensing slot is located above the floor of the container, it is believed that not infrequently, more than one sack may exit the horizontal slot when an effort is made to retrieve bags through the horizontal slot. In addition, it appears that the device of the McKinley patent contemplates the insertion of one's finger into the horizontal slot in order to remove the sacks from the container. It should also be noted that no particular means is suggested in the McKinley patent for compressing the bags in the container so that they may be easily dispensed, and that means are provided to effect a ratcheting of the bags which tends to prevent the bags from moving back upwardly after they may have been pushed downwardly by a hand or some object.

Container/dispenser for used plastic sacks


High-density rack unit systems and methods are described for telecommunication and data communication systems that utilize novel airflow mechanisms thereby enabling modularity and high-density in small-form factor units. The high-density rack unit systems and methods offer novel airflow mechanisms via right-angle backplane connectors to enable more airflow in a rack unit as well as novel field replaceable fans in these high-density rack units. Further, the high-density rack unit systems and methods include a baffle structure to keep power-supply-related airflow separate from the airflow over other components in the 1U or 2U rack unit. In this manner, the high-density rack unit systems and methods enable system vendors and network operators to realize significant density improvements.

Telecommunication, data communication, high-performance computing, and the like systems are typically deployed in physical hardware shelves that are rack mounted in racks or frames. For example, typical racks or frames are either 19 or 23 inches in practice. A rack unit (abbreviated as U or RU) is a unit of measure describing the height of equipment intended for mounting in a rack or frame. For example, 1U piece of equipment would take up one rack unit of space in height; a 2U would take up two rack units of space in height, etc. As technology improves and network/computing power increases, the drive is towards smaller and smaller deployments with more functionality and performance. For example, one type of rack configuration is known as a "pizza box" form factor. This is a common design for computers, networking devices, etc. This rack configuration is typically wide and flat, such as 1U or 2U high, thus resembling pizza boxes. Of note, the pizza box form factor is typically an integrated device without modularity. Further, the pizza box form factor or other small RU configurations are constrained by size and cooling constraints. That is, as density increases along with functionality, smaller-sized hardware experiences significant heating issues. There exists a need to accommodate higher-density, smaller-sized hardware via unique cooling mechanisms.
Referring to FIG. 1, in a conventional embodiment, a schematic diagram illustrates a conventional rack unit 10. The conventional rack unit 10 can be a 1U or 2U rack unit, a pizza box form factor, etc. The conventional rack unit 10 generally includes six sides including a top side 12, a bottom side 14, a front side 16, a back side 18, a left side 20, and a right side 22. In a rack-mounted configuration, the left and right sides 20, 22 can be attached in some manner to a rack. The conventional rack unit 10 includes a backplane 24 that is located at or near the back side 18. In this manner, electronics, optics, and other circuitry, hardware, logic, etc. is located within the conventional rack unit 10 and physically connected to the backplane 24. The backplane 24 is parallel to the front and back sides 16, 18. Disadvantageously, air flow through the conventional rack unit 10 is limited due to the vertical backplane 24 which blocks air flow through the conventional rack unit 100. Thus, as the density increases, air flow becomes problematic as the backplane 24 inhibits air flow through the conventional rack unit 10. Accordingly, density suffers and it is difficult to add more functionality in the conventional rack unit 10. Of note, similar problems occur in conventional systems with vertical midplanes instead of the backplane 24. As described herein, the backplane 24, midplanes, etc. are all generally interslot interconnects, and other types of interslot interconnects are also contemplated in addition to the backplane 24, midplanes, etc.
Additional constraints in conventional systems include:
1) Additional density of ports on faceplates on the front side 16 leads to either greater quantity of traces on the backplane 24 and greater quantity of pins on the connectors soldered to the backplane 24, hence bloating the size of the backplane 24 due to routing of traces or of larger connectors;
2) With respect to drastically increasing the quantity of layers in the backplane's 24 printed circuit board (PCB), this is difficult because cost increases super-linearly faster than the increase in quantity of layers;
3) With respect to drastically increasing the bandwidth of each trace in the backplane 24 and pin in each backplane-connector, this is difficult because cost may be prohibitive and/or beyond the current state of the art of Gb/s per bidirectional serializer-deserializer (SerDes) lane; and
4) With respect to drastically shrinking the size of the connectors on the backplane 24, this is difficult because the already rather high Gb/s per bidirectional SerDes lane needs some form of dielectric to eliminate crosstalk and other negative analog effects. If anything, the next generation of higher-bandwidth (-per-pin) connectors are becoming less-dense, not more-dense, to accommodate this additional dielectric material, whether it be plastic or air or other substance. Hence, the challenges tend to worsen over time, not improve.


An image forming method comprising developing a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material which comprises a support having thereon at least one light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer: wherein the silver halide photographic light-sensitive material contains at least one kind of hydrazine derivative represented by general formula (NB) in at least one layer of the silver halide emulsion layer(s) and other hydrophilic colloidal layers: EQU A--(B).sub.m (NB). and wherein the development is conducted by using a developing solution having a pH of from not less than 8.5 to less than 11.0, which developing solution does not substantially contain a dihydroxybenzene developing agent, but contains a developing agent represented by general formula (1): ##STR1## The symbols used in the above formulas are defined in the specification.

In recent years, photographic materials having good original reproducibility and processing systems which can reduce processing waste liquid have been desired in order to cope with the diversity and complexity of printed matter and from increasing awareness of the environment in the field of photomechanical processes.
In order to improve the reproduction of continuous-gradational halftone dot images or line images, image formation systems exhibiting ultrahigh-contrast (particularly, .gamma. is 10 or more) photographic characteristics are needed.
As methods for obtaining high-contrast photographic characteristics, lithographic development systems utilizing the so-called "infectious development effect" have been used for long. However, they have the problem that the developing solutions are unstable and hard to be used. On the other hand, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,166,742, 4,168,977, 4,221,857, 4,224,401, 4,243,739, 4,269,922, 4,272,606, 4,311,781, 4,332,878, 4,618,574, 4,634,661, 4,618,836 and 5,650,746 disclose systems for processing hydrazine derivative-containing silver halide photographic materials of the surface latent image type with a stable MQ or PQ developing solution having a pH of 11.0 to 12.3 to obtain ultrahigh-contrast negative images having a .gamma. value exceeding 10.
According these methods, ultrahigh-contrast and high-sensitive photographic characteristics can be obtained, and sulfites can be added in high concentration to the developing solutions. Therefore, the stability against air oxidation of the developing solutions is markedly improved, compared with the conventional lithographic developing solutions.
In the above-mentioned methods, the sulfite preservatives of high concentration make it possible to enhance the stability of the developing solutions. In order to obtain ultrahigh-contrast photographic images, however, it is necessary to use developing solutions having a relatively high pH value. Accordingly, the developing solutions are easily air oxidized, which requires that the developing solutions are replenished in large amounts. Then, attempts to realize systems for forming ultrahigh-contrast photographic images utilizing hydrazine derivatives with a developing solution of lower pH have been made.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,269,929 (corresponding to JP-A-61-267759 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application")), U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,452 (corresponding to JP-A-60-179734), U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,104,769 and 4,798,780, JP-A-1-179939, JP-A-1-179940, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,998,604 and 4,994,365 and JP-A-8-272023 disclose methods of using high-active hydrazine nucleating agents and nucleating accelerators for obtaining ultrahigh-contrast images by using a stable developing solution having a pH of less than 11.0. It is also disclosed that silver halide emulsions which has a high silver chloride content and which is chemically sensitized have high nucleating activity.
Further, hydrazine nucleating agents each having at least two hydrazine groups in a molecule are disclosed in JP-A-4-16938, JP-A-5-197091, JP-A-5-127287, JP-A-5-142688 and JP-A-6-148777.
In the methods known in the art, however, when one meter square of the silver halide photographic material is processed, the replenishing rate of the developing solution is required to be about from 150 ml to 450 ml. In these days when concern about environmental problems has been increased, a demand for waste liquid reduction is further increased, and an improvement in processing stability, particularly in the dependency of photographic sensitivity on the pH of the developing solution which comes into question in the hydrazine nucleating system has been strongly desired.
Further, there is also a problem such that when the high-active hydrazine nucleating agent as described above is used, sand-like fog called black peppers are readily caused in undeveloped areas.
On the other hand, a need for photographic materials for scanner output has bee growing year by year, and it has been desired to satisfy both requirements for good definition (on/off) of edge portions of images and for reduced processing unevenness (density unevenness remarkably observed in case where the output is performed for wide area at uniform dot percent). That is, there has been the dilemma that the definition of edge portions of images can be improved by enlargement of the images by nucleating infectious development, but such a photographic material with enlarged images tends to cause the processing unevenness.
With respect to photographic materials for daylight dot to dot work, there is a problem that nucleating development is quite hard to take place because of a reduction in sensitivity of the emulsion used in the system. Accordingly, the development of a technique to make the contrast higher even using a low-pH developing solution has been desired.
Hydrazine nucleating agents each having two or more hydrazide groups in a molecule are disclosed in JP-A-4-16938, JP-A-5-197091, JP-A-5-127287, JP-A-5-142688 and JP-A-6-148777. However, the above described problems are not solved yet.

Method of developing a hydrazine-containing light-sensitive material to form an image


A space-saving electrical contact assembly for a hearing instrument faceplate can be fashioned by physically conforming the configuration of individual contacts to the battery and the battery door in the faceplate. By providing each contact of the assembly with an interconnected terminal, the wiring of the assembly is reduced.

As shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,118,540; 5,799,095; and 6,088,465; incorporated by reference herein, a hearing instrument may be provided with electrical contacts in the faceplate to facilitate programming and adjustment. For in-the-ear hearing instruments, internal space, i.e, within the instrument, is at a premium and the contacts necessarily occupy some portion of this space. To fit properly and comfortably within the user's ear, the size of the instrument must be kept as small as possible.

Electrical contact arrangement for hearing instruments


Disclosed are potent immuno-DASH inhibitors and their use in the treatment of cell proliferative diseases.

Mammalian post-proline cleaving enzymes form a sub-family of serine proteases called the dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-4 and/or structural homologs ("DASH" enzymes). DASH comprise DPP4, DPP2, DPP8, DPP9, fibroblast activation protein (FAP) and prolyl endopeptidase. The DPPs selectively cleave after proline or alanine residues when either is located as the penultimate residue at the N-terminus of peptides. It has been proposed that conserved prolines act as regulatory elements in biologically active peptides, for which post-proline cleaving proteases in the DASH sub-family provide checkpoints. The mature forms of several chemokines frequently possess N-terminally penultimate proline or alanine, suggesting that their biological activity might be regulated by DPP activity. This has been shown to be the case for the chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1 in vivo, and more recently, for GM-CSF, G-CSF, IL-3, and erythropoietin, in the homeostatic regulation of hematopoiesis.
DPP4 (EC 22.214.171.124) is a validated drug target for human type II diabetes, and the use of small molecule inhibitors of DPP4 represents a nearly ten billon US dollar class of drugs. However, during the identification and development of DPP4 inhibitors for treating diabetes, many research groups pointed to the lack of selectivity toward the related enzymes DPP8 and DPP9 as a possible source of drug-induced toxicity in compounds those groups were testing. For instance, Merck reported that in rats at all doses, DPP8/9 specific inhibitors produced profound toxicity, including alopecia, thrombocytopenia, anemia, enlarged spleen, multiple histological pathologies, and mortality. Lankas et al. Diabetes 2005; 54: 2988-2994. Likewise, it was reported that DPP8/9 specific inhibitors were found to produce mortality in both wild type and DPP4 deficient mice, which was the basis in the prior art for suggesting that observed toxicity in early DPP4 inhibitor candidates was not due to DPP4 inhibition, but rather "off-target" inhibition of DPP9 and DPP9. From the body of work relating to DPP4 inhibitors came the general notion that inhibition of DPP8/9 was associated with profound toxicities in preclinical species, and that selective inhibition of DPP4 was required for an acceptable safety and tolerability profile for this class of antihyperglycemic agents.
It has previously been reported preclinically that pharmacological inhibition of the enzymatic activity of DPP4 and/or other DASH enzymes with dipeptide boronic acids can mediate tumor regression in an immune-mediated manner. In the clinic a DASH inhibitor PT-100 (Talabostat) achieved some partial and complete responses but has since been discontinued due to dose-limiting toxicity. See Eager et al. Clin Oncol 2009; 21:464-472; and Eager et al. BMC Cancer. 2009; 9:263. A second generation pan-inhibitor of DASH, ARI-4175, has been reported to induce significant immune-dependent anti-tumor activity against established rhabdomyosarcoma preclinically. Duncan B, et al. Journal of Immunotherapy. 2013; 36:400-411 and Donahue et al. Vaccine 2014; 32:3223-3231.
However, continuing concern over the body of literature suggesting that inhibition of DPP8 and DPP9 results in severe toxicity, improvements to therapeutic index achieved with ARI-4175 relative to PT-100 have not resulted in subsequent development of I-DASH inhibitors as antitumor agents. Indeed, in 2015 and 2016, other groups have continued to publish articles referring to a need to avoid DPP8 and DPP9 inhibition as a challenge for drug selectivity to avoid unwanted side effects (see, for example Lim et al. Korean J Intern Med October 2015; 30: 759-770 "its high selectivity ensures targeted action on DPP4 and avoids unwanted secondary effects or potential toxicities resulting from cross-inhibition of other DPP peptides, such as DPP8 or DPP9"). And recently, a paper published suggesting that Sitagliptin, a highly selective DPP4 inhibitor relative to inhibition of DPP8 and DPP9 (at least 3 orders of magnitude greater potency for DPP4 inhibition than for DPP8 or DPP9), could be used in a triple combination with PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors to cause regression of tumors, further teaching away from a desirability of inhibiting DPP8 and DPP9. Barreira da Silva "Dipeptidylpeptidase 4 inhibition enhances lymphocyte trafficking, improving both naturally occurring tumor immunity and immunotherapy", Nature Immunology, 2015; 16:791-792. Those authors speculated that inhibition of DPP4 increased the serum halflife of CXCL10, which enhanced lymphocyte trafficking to tumors. However, the effects reported by those authors were under circumstances in which sitagliptin was being administered at a supra-pharmaceutical dose (mice were fed chow containing 1.1% sitagliptin), with drug administration beginning prior to animals being injected with tumor.
The present invention is based on the finding that potent DPP8/DPP9 inhibitors, which are also multimediator inhibitors of DPP4, can be used alone or combination with other agents to treat tumors, and when tumor regression is achieved, the consequences also include induction of immunological memory selectively for the tumor. Moreover, improving the potency of these inhibitors with respect to inhibition of DPP8 and DPP9 in whole cells (i.e., appropriate enzymatic inhibitory potency and cell permeability to reach intracellular DPP8 and DPP9), particularly with respect to macrophage, resulted in improved therapeutic index—suggesting that at least some of the toxicity observed with PT-100 and with other DPP4 inhibitors was likely resulting from off target effects of the drug rather than due to DPP8 or DPP9 inhibition.

Dash inhibitors, and uses related thereto


A method of determining the stopping position of an internal combustion engine infers the angular position of the engine""s crankshaft by analyzing the periodic waveform of an output signal produced by a crankshaft position sensor. When the engine is turned off and begins to slow to a stop, an inference routine is commenced in which the ratio of the amplitude of the signal to the time of successive half periods of the waveform is calculated. The amplitude-to-time ratio is used in secondary ratio calculations to obtain ratio values that are then compared to a preselected constant. The result of the ratio value-to-constant comparison reveals whether the crankshaft is continuing to turn in the same direction, or has stopped and reversed its direction. A xe2x80x9cbookkeepingxe2x80x9d record of the current crankshaft angle is incremented or decremented by a predetermined value each time the ratios are calculated until the engine had stopped. Without the present invention method, the changes in engine rotational direction cannot be detected and simply monitoring the raw signal would give unreliable stopping position information because of the missed reversal(s).

This invention generally relates to methods for determining the position of moveable internal components such as a crankshaft, in an internal combustion engine, and deals more particularly with a method for determining the stopping position of the crankshaft relative to the timing cycle of the engine""s cylinders (hereafter referred to as xe2x80x9cengine stopping positionxe2x80x9d).
In order to control ignition timing, fuel injection and other functions in an internal combustion engine, it is necessary to determine the angular displacement of the engine""s crankshaft with each stroke. In many cases, it is also necessary to determine the angular position of the engine""s camshaft, particularly where variable cam timing systems are employed to vary the timing between a camshaft and the crankshaft. In order to achieve smooth engine startup without misfires following engine shutdown, it is necessary to know the final angular position of the crankshaft relative to the engine""s firing sequence and cylinder cycle timing. When the ignition is shut off and the engine comes to a stop, the measured final crankshaft position and final cycle state (e.g. compression stroke) of the engine""s cylinders is stored in the memory of a power train control module or similar controller, which then uses this information during engine startup to synchronize the fuel injection with the engine cylinder cycle timing.
In order to accurately synchronize the fuel injection for the needed start, it is necessary to determine the rotational position of the engine. Camshaft position information is needed in order to know which part of the four stroke cycle the engine is on. Sensors typically used to sense camshaft angle position such as variable reluctance sensors do not provide accurate information at low engine speed, e.g. speed below 250 crank RPM""s. Consequently, ambiguity may exist in the information that is recorded to indicate the final stopping position of the engine. Attempts have been made to resolve such ambiguities through estimates based on sensor data but these techniques do not assure that the recorded engine stopping position data is accurate.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a method of determining the stopping position of an engine which can detect the engine""s final stopping position consistently and accurately. There also exists a need to associate the data indicating the final stopping position of the engine with information indicating which part of a four stroke cycle the engine is on, using conventional sensors for determining the rotational positions of the camshaft and crankshaft.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for accurately determining the final stopping position of an internal combustion engine by interpreting information contained in a periodically varying crankshaft position signal whose amplitude and frequency vary as a function of the speed and rotational position of the crankshaft.
In accordance with the primary object of the invention, in a preferred embodiment, the method comprises generating a periodic crankshaft position signal having an amplitude and frequency that vary as a function of the speed and rotational position of said crankshaft; for each half period of said signal, obtaining the ratio of the amplitude of said signal to the time interval of the corresponding half period; generating a set of secondary ratios to obtain a set of ratio values; successively comparing the calculated ratio values with a preselected constant value, the results of the comparisons indicating slow down and continued rotation in the same direction or stoppage and reversal of the rotational direction of said crankshaft; and, updating a record indicating the current rotational position of said crankshaft based on the results of the comparison.
An advantage of the present method is that by using position information generated by conventional sensors and performing calculations involving the position data, a record can be generated of the engine position which can distinguish between the engine slowing down and continuing on in the same direction or slowing down and reversing rotational direction. An added advantage of the invention is that the method may be employed with crankshaft position sensors that rely on a missing tooth on a crankshaft sprocket commonly employed as a reference mark for determining angular crankshaft position.

Method of determining the stopping position of an internal combustion engine


A shoe can be tied using only one hand if provided with a tying aid in the form of a generally T-shaped unit comprising a leg having two laterally extending ears. The leg is secured between rows of eyelets on the opposed flaps of the shoe by one or more of the lengths of lace extending across the gap between the flaps. The lengths of shoelace that would otherwise be tied in a bow are instead wrapped around the ears of the tying aid in alternating fashion, preferably twice around each ear, in a manner similar to the manner in which a mooring line is secured to the cleat of a boat.

A conventional shoe utilizing a shoelace, has rows of eyelets on opposed flaps overlying a tongue. The shoelace is threaded back and forth from one row of eyelets to the other. When the end portions of the shoelace, protruding through the endmost eyelets remote from the toe of the shoe, are pulled, the flaps are drawn toward each other by tension in the portions of the shoelace bridging the gap between the flaps. The end portions are then tied, typically by forming an overhand knot and a bow. Usually the bow is one that can be released simply by pulling on one of the ends of the shoelace. A more secure bow can be formed by forming two loops in the sections of lace extending from the overhand knot and tying the two loops in another overhand knot. Various other shoelace tying techniques are known.
With the exception of some very skilled magicians most people need two hands to tie a satisfactory shoelace knot. This means that individuals who have lost the use of one hand through injury, because of a stroke, or as a result of some other cause, cannot tie shoes by themselves. Young children also lack the manual dexterity to tie their own shoes, even with two hands.


System and methods are provided. In one embodiment, a system includes a master device comprising a first serial peripheral interface (SPI) port having only a first four wires. The system further includes a slave device comprising a second SPI port having only a second four wires. The system additionally includes a galvanic isolation barrier communicatively coupling the first four wires to the second four wires. The master device is configured to use the first four wires to transmit a plurality of signals representative of a reset and of a first communications mode. The first communications mode is used to transfer data between the master device and the slave device.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to the interfacing or linking of systems, and more specifically, to the linking of master and slave devices.
Certain systems, such as data acquisition systems, may provide for the use of multiple devices. For example, a slave device may be communicatively coupled to a master device, such as a controller, through a linking system. The master device may send certain commands to one or more of the slave devices through the linking system. Responses from the one or more slave devices may then be provided to the master device through the linking system. It would be beneficial to improve the linking system or interface between the master and slave devices.

Systems and methods for improved linking of master and slave devices


A compressor blade vibration reduction mechanism for a high-speed radial impeller for minimizing fatigue failures from various excitation sources. The vibration reduction mechanism includes a plurality of loose-fitting lashing pins coupling each impeller blade to an adjacent impeller blade. Each lashing pin extends through a first aperture in a blade located adjacent to the blade tip and through a second aperture of an adjacent blade. The second aperture of each blade is located a greater distance from the leading edge of the blade than the first aperture. The second aperture is located in an area of the blade having lower vibration during operation than the blade location where the first aperture is located.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to bladed turbomachinery and more specifically to a vibration reduction mechanism for a high-speed radial impeller to reduce or eliminate fatigue failures resulting from various excitation sources.
2. Background Information
Radial impeller blades are subjected to alternating forces from various sources including, for example, surge forces, stall forces, harmonic resonance, the presence of inlet vanes and valves, turbulence within the system and the like. The response for each vibratory mode of the blades is a function of the strength of the excitation force, the material properties of the blade and the vibration damping characteristics of the blade.
Vibration of the blades is a frequent cause of blade failure due to the creation of bending stresses in the blades. When these bending stresses exceed the maximum allowable values of the blade material, a crack will often develop. As such a crack enlarges under continued stress, a point is reached where the entire blade fractures and a substantial portion of the blade is loose within the machine. Machines of this type often operate at very high rotary speeds wherein a broken blade part can create substantial damage to the machinery.
In addressing this problem, the prior art has lashed impeller blades together to damp the vibration of the blades. Prior art lashings have taken several forms. For example, all of the blades have been lashed together by a single ring of material successively secured to each blade. This type of lashing is not always feasible due partly to the enlargement of the blade diameter during rotation of the impeller which imposes bending or hoop stress on the lashing member and self-imposed stresses resulting in a failure in the lashing member.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,131,461 to Miller discloses a lashing construction for damping blade vibrations in axial flow turbomachinery wherein each blade is lashed to its adjacent blades by a pair of solid pins extending between and connected to the two adjacent blades. In axial flow turbomachinery, such as illustrated in the Miller patent, due to the cantilevered, tapered blade construction the vibration across the tip of the blade is substantially the same. The difficulties with the axial impeller lashing system disclosed in the Miller patent include the fact that the system does not consider the vibration amplitude of the relative blade connecting positions. The Miller patent lashing system locates the connecting positions of each blade to an adjacent blade at points where the vibration of each blade can be equal and in phase and thus not able to provide frictional damping limiting effectiveness of the system.
The object of the present invention is to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art.

Turbomachine radial impeller vibration constraining and damping mechanism


A compact and power saving imaging-element unit of handshake compensation type is provided. The imaging-element unit comprises an imaging-element board with an imaging element that performs photoelectric conversion of incident light formed or located thereon; a relay board that is disposed between the imaging element and an external control board, and that receives signals between the imaging-element board and the external control board; and a package with at least the imaging-element board and the relay board contained therein; wherein a slider mechanism is disposed between the imaging-element board and the relay board for moving the imaging-element board to compensate handshake of an imaging device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging device, and more particularly to an imaging-element unit that is capable of compensating handshake of the imaging device when taking images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Currently, active handshake compensation technology that makes it possible to obtain clear and sharp images has been put into practical use. This shakiness-compensation technology are basically classified into three types: a type of moving a part of an imaging optical system; another type of moving the entire imaging optical system; and a further type of moving an imaging element.
A technique has been disclosed, for example, in Japanese patent Publication No. 2006-133740 as the type of moving the imaging element in which the imaging element is mounted on a board inside a housing by way of balls, and shakiness is compensated for by moving the board inside the housing.
However, the handshake compensation device disclosed in Japanese patent Publication No. 2006-133740 uses a flexible printed circuit board for exchanging signals between the imaging element and the outside control board. Therefore, when moving the imaging element in the imaging plane in order to compensate handshake, the flexible printed circuit board must also be moved.
In order to move the imaging element in the imaging plane against the repulsion force that occurs due to the flexure of the flexible printed circuit board, a large driving force is needed, which becomes an obstacle to compactness and saving of electric power of the imaging device.


A valve apparatus for an inflatable article, wherein the inflatable article includes a main body and a moveable portion. The valve includes a valve body and a baffle. The valve body includes first and second chambers and first, second and third openings. The baffle is moveable between first and second positions. The first chamber includes the first and second openings, while the first opening forms a first fluid communication between the main body and the first chamber. The second chamber includes the second and third openings, while the third opening forms a second fluid communication between the second chamber and an ambient atmosphere. When in the first position, the baffle seals the first opening and when in the second position, the baffle seals the third opening.

In the field of inflatable displays, animation is desirable to add movement and interest to the display. Heretofore, movement has been limited to only a few mechanisms. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,311,580 and 7,758,400 disclose imparting a spinning motion within an inflatable device, such as the spinning of flakes within a globe, by using an air jet stream essentially leaked out of the internal air pressure within the inflatable device. Another known example of movement includes using an electric motor device, separate from the inflation motor, to physically move or shake the inflated article. Yet another example of movement includes using an electric motor to open and close a valve allowing the internal pressure within the inflated article to inflate/deflate a bellows. In these devices, the inflated bellows affects the desired movement.
Although animated displays are quite prevalent in the marketplace, the current designs may be expensive, complex and prone to failure due to the added circuits, electric motors, etc. As can be derived from the variety of devices and methods directed to inflatable display animation, many means have been contemplated to accomplish the desired end, i.e., visually pleasing, lifelike inflatable displays. Heretofore, tradeoffs between cost, complexity and performance were required. Thus, there is a long-felt need for an efficient apparatus for both the inflation of an inflatable display, as well as animated movement of the same.

Apparatus for affecting motion in an inflatable display


Systems and methods include directing limited frequencies of microwave signals toward target molecules, driving a motion of the target molecules to impact molecular recognition. In one implementation, a microwave spectra associated with the rotational modes of a target molecule is obtained. From peaks in the spectra, a mode of molecular movement is identified and a microwave signal profile is generated for driving a motion of binding portions of the molecule associated with the identified mode. Microwave signals are generated based on the signal profile for output by antennas. For example, the microwave signals can be can be used to impede the binding of quorum sensing molecules by receptors of P. aeruginosa. In one implementation, the antennas can be placed in a catheter for placement in a patient. In another implementation, the antennas can be placed in a sleeve or other device for use adjacent to the skin of a patient.

The mechanism behind microwave spectroscopy is rooted in quantum mechanics, but can be understood from a classical perspective. For a molecule to exhibit a microwave spectrum it must have one or more dipole moments. In the presence of an electromagnetic wave the dipoles will be driven, resulting in the rotation of the molecule. The ubiquitous microwave oven is a kitchen appliance based on this principle. The electromagnetic field generated by the magnetron in the microwave oven induces the rotation of the H2O molecules in the food and this rotation results in a transfer of heat to the region surrounding each H2O molecule.
Microwave spectroscopy has been used as a means of identifying molecular content of far away planets. For example, the microwave spectra emitted by the molecules in the gaseous clouds of Jupiter are measured via radio telescopes on earth. The collected spectra are then analyzed and compared with the spectra of molecules measured in laboratories. Recently, there has been considerable work in identifying the microwave spectra of biologically relevant molecules such as DNA.
Another developing technological field is quorum sensing. As an evolutionary predecessor to the endocrine system, microbes communicate with one another by sending out small molecules. When these molecules are received by the other microbes in the community they trigger gene expression. For example, for a colony of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria, the 3-oxo-C12 AHL ("C12") molecule signals that a bio-film should be constructed, in essence, a protective dome over the colony that can block chemical treatment.
So-called quorum-quenching mechanisms are currently being explored so as to minimize bio-film formation by microbes such as P. aeruginosa. Conventional approaches have been limited to antibodies which bind up the C12 molecules or drugs which are intended to do the same. However, these conventional treatments are unable to pass through an established bio-film. Moreover, drug treatments can have deleterious side effects and undesirable systemic impact.

Systems and methods for microwave jamming of molecular recognition


A communication terminal accepts a communication start request for starting communication with a counterpart terminal indicated by counterpart information, through one of a first acceptance unit and a second acceptance unit. The communication terminal stores the counterpart information of the counterpart terminal in a first memory as log data, when the communication start request is accepted through the first acceptance unit, and prevents the counterpart information of the counterpart terminal from being stored in the first memory as log data, when the communication start request is accepted through the second acceptance unit.

Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to managing counterpart terminals for a communication terminal.
Description of the Related Art
Communication systems that perform communication via a communication network such as the Internet or a dedicated line have become popular in recent years due to a demand for reducing business trip costs and time. To start communication in the communication system, the user at the communication terminal enters counterpart information, such as a phone number or an address of the counterpart terminal. The counterpart information, which is entered by the user, is usually stored as a log in a memory at the communication terminal, to allow the user to call the counterpart information from the next time.

Communication terminal, communication management system, communication system, and recording medium


A speed measuring apparatus for a conveyor line may include a lighting unit mounted to one side of the conveyor line with a bracket, a coupling module coupled to an upper side of the lighting unit, the coupling module having coupling portions formed on both sides of an upper side thereof, respectively, a camera having a lens unit mounted between the coupling portions to face downward for taking a picture of an image of the object on the conveyor line under operation, a lens rotation device having a motor mounted to end portions of, and between, the coupling portions for selective positioning of a magnifying lens matched to the lens unit of the camera as the motor may be driven, and a controller for controlling operation of the lens rotation device and comparing images taken by the camera at different times to determine a speed of the object.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a speed measuring device for a conveyor line. More particularly, the present invention relates to a speed measuring device for a conveyor line, which is simple to mount, and enables accurate measurement of a speed of a conveyor line without an error.
Description of Related Art
In general, in the related art, a bar code recognizing method is used for determining a position of a vehicle.
That is, if the vehicle enters a particular process, a bar code reader mounted to an entrance thereof reads the bar code attached to the vehicle, to determine that the vehicle enters the process.
However, the method only enables to know a process the vehicle passes presently merely, but is difficult to determine an accurate position of the vehicle in the process.
In order to improve this, it is required to make real time measurement of the speed of the conveyor line and combine the speed with bar code reading information.
Entry of the vehicle to the process line is determined at a time point the bar code reader reads the bar code of the vehicle, and, thereafter, a detailed position of the vehicle is determined by using the speed of the conveyor line and time information collected in real time.
For this, accurate recognition of the speed of the conveyor is important.
A related art speed measuring method is reception of speed information at an encoder mounted to a motor which drives the conveyor.
However, the method has a drawback of requiring a large sized construction work for installation of the motor under the conveyor line, and also has a drawback of poor accuracy of the position information if slip takes place between the motor and a cart in the conveyor which is configured in a friction system.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.

Speed measuring device for conveyor line


In various embodiments, a High Definition (HD) camera may be controlled by one or more motors in a base of the HD camera. Cables and other components may be used to manipulate the HD camera lens through the side arms of the HD camera. Putting the motors in the base may reduce the size of the outer case of the HD camera and add stability. In some embodiments, images from the HD camera may be converted into a serialized stream and transported over a cable from the HD camera. Other components may also be used to increase the functionality of the HD camera.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cameras and, more specifically, to video cameras.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video conference calling may allow participants to see other participants in the call using video connections (e.g., between cameras/monitors). Video conferencing systems may use cameras to capture images of conference participants at one site to transmit and display to conference participants at another site. Some conference systems may place the camera on top of the video monitor that is displaying the other participants. Because the participants in the conference will probably be facing the video monitor, the placement of the camera on top of the video monitor may allow conference participants to speak during the conference without needing to face a different direction to have their video captured. Because cameras in video conference systems may be placed on top of video monitors in the video conference system, the size of the camera used may be limited. For example, high definition (HD) cameras provide high definition images, but they may be too large and too difficult to control for a video conferencing system. It may not be possible to place a HD camera on top of a display monitor as part of a conference system.
Traditionally, a tilt motor on the HD camera may be used in a rotating head of the HD camera structure and coupled to a lens/sensor assembly on the HD camera. A panning mechanism on the HD camera may need to overcome inertia of not only the lens/sensor assembly, but also the inertia of the tilt motor and linkage in the rotating head of the HD camera. In addition, traditional HD cameras may use thick cables to send analog signals (which may be susceptible to noise).

High definition pan tilt zoom camera with embedded microphones and thin cable for data and power


The present invention provides methods for universally detecting citrus viroids in plant material such as germplasm. In particular embodiments, the invention enables the determination of citrus viroid infection and plant resistance. Accordingly, the present method provides methods for improved universal detection of any citrus viroid.

Citrus is susceptible to numerous disease caused by plant pathogens. Seven distinct viroid species representing four genera of the Pospiviroidae family have been identified: Citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd, genus Pospiviroid), Hop stunt viroid (HSVd, genus Hostuviroid), Citrus bark cracking viroid (CBCVd, genus Cocadviroid), and Citrus bent leaf viroid (CBLVd, genus As), Citrus dwarfing viroid (CDVd), Citrus viroid V (CVd-V) and Citrus viroid VI (CVd-VI).
Viroids are nonencapsidated, small circular, single-stranded RNAs that replicate autonomously when inoculated in their host plants. Most citrus viroids are widespread, usually occurring as complex mixtures that co-infect the same plant. Citrus viroids can elicit diseases in sensitive hosts such as exocortis and cachexia or affect tree size and crop (see, e.g., Semancik et al., J. Gen. Virol., 69:3059-3068 (1988); Semancik and Weathers, Virology, 46:456-466 (1972); and Verniere et al., Plant Dis., 88:1189-1197 (2004)).
Economic loss due to these diseases can be severe and is of particular concern in states such as California and Florida, which produce most of the United States' supply of citrus fruits. To prevent the spread of citrus disease, federal and state agencies have adopted registration programs that routinely performs time-consuming and costly pathogen tests to evaluate host resistance and viroid accumulation in plants and germplasm. Pathogen-infected germplasms must undergo treatment or removal from the certified registration programs regardless of the pathogen species, strain or isolate. Since agencies regularly screen thousands of samples, there remains an unmet need for an efficient and reliable method for the universal detection of all citrus viroid.
Currently, the most popular or standard molecular citrus viroid detection method is the conventional reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Several RT-PCR protocols are available today for the detection of citrus viroids (Bernard, L. and Duran-Vila, N., Mol. Cell. Probes, 20:105-113 (2006); Ito et al., J. Virol. Methods, 106: 23.5-239 (2002)). However, in principal, the conventional RT-PCR requires seven different protocols with seven different sets of viroid specific primers for the detection of all known citrus viroids. In addition, methods such as gel electrophoresis are needed to visualize the results.
Nucleic acid-detection methods (e.g., microarray, real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR)) have been used for real time detection of viral and bacterial pathogens (see, e.g., Aldea et al., J. Clin. Microbiol., 40:1060-2; Nadkarni et al., Microbiology, 148:257-66 (2002); Young et al., J. Virol. Methods, 103:27-39 (2002); Trottier et al., J. Virol. Methods, 103:89-99 (2002)). Real-time PCR technology allows for accurate quantitation of gene expression and gene expression patterns in multiple samples over a large dynamic range. The technology is used to analyze and indirectly quantitate mRNA expression levels by measuring the amount of amplified cDNA, rather than the amount of RNA in a sample. Real-time quantitative PCR is dependent on reverse transcription and PCR amplification, whereby a fluorescent signal incorporated into double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) is detected in each amplification cycle.
The present invention provides a method for the universal detection of all known citrus viroids using a multiplex of RT-qPCR assays. The present invention provides a universal, accurate, efficient, cost-effective, and quick method of detecting any citrus viroid pathogen. The method can be easily adapted for high throughput screenings.

Molecular method for universal detection of citrus viroids

The Regents of the University of California


An installation nut includes a body, an upper cover, at least two threaded blocks, and a transmission member. The upper cover is fixedly connected to the body. An inner wall of each of the at least two threaded blocks includes an internal thread, and an outer wall of each of the at least two threaded blocks includes a first inclined surface and a first straight surface. The transmission member is movably disposed between the body and the upper cover. A top surface of the transmission member includes one or more transmission blocks configured to extend out of the upper cover. A lower end of the transmission member includes at least one second straight surface configured to couple with the first straight surfaces and at least one second inclined surface configured to couple with the first inclined surfaces.

At present, existing kitchen faucets are usually installed near the wall and are limited by a shape of a stainless steel sink. A space for locking the existing kitchen faucets under a countertop is very small, and most of the existing kitchen faucets and a sink to which the existing kitchen faucets are coupled are fixed by a screw-in connector. With respect to current locking operations of a threaded nut and a threaded rod, the threaded nut is configured to be rotated from a lower end of the threaded rod. A thickness of the countertop defines an effective length of the threaded rod, which determines the effective length of the threaded nut when it is to be screwed to the threaded rod. The space under the countertop is very small, and therefore an operation space for screwing the threaded nut to the threaded rod is limited. A screwing operation of the threaded nut is therefore time consuming and laborious.
In view of the present situation, quick assembly-disassembly threaded nuts are manufactured. For example, an energy-saving and easy-to-install device applied to the faucet of a kitchen is disclosed in the Chinese patent publication number CN108560647A. Although the quick assembly-disassembly threaded nuts are configured to achieve fast assembly-disassembly, an upper casing and a threaded block of the threaded nut are contacted by a first inclined surface and at least one second inclined surface of the threaded nut. If the upper casing is slightly retracted during an assembly process, the threaded block will move outward, and a clamping force will be lost between the threaded block and a pipe joint of the threaded rod, so the assembly is unreliable or prone to failure. A guide post of the upper casing is further provided with a second inclined surface which extends outward from a side of a through hole and extends downward. Such a second inclined surface does not form a full circle, and is similar to a cantilever structure. When subjected to a force, a bending deformation is easily caused, resulting in the threaded block moving outward, and the clamping force is lost between the threaded block and a pipe joint, so the installation is unreliable or prone to failure.