First and second separators include first and second metal plates. The first metal plate has first embossed protrusions protruding toward a membrane electrode assembly to form an oxygen-containing gas flow passage. The second metal plate has second embossed protrusions protruding toward another membrane electrode assembly to form a fuel gas flow passage. Further, the second metal plate has third small embossed protrusions protruding toward the first metal plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel cell including an electrolyte electrode assembly and a pair of separators. The electrolyte electrode assembly includes an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte interposed between the anode and the cathode. The electrolyte electrode assembly is interposed between the separators.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell employs a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) which comprises two electrodes (anode and cathode) and an electrolyte membrane interposed between the electrodes. The electrolyte membrane is a polymer ion exchange membrane (proton exchange membrane). Each of the electrodes comprises a catalyst and a porous carbon sheet. The membrane electrode assembly is interposed between separators (bipolar plates). The membrane electrode assembly and the separators make up a unit of the fuel cell (unit cell) for generating electricity. A plurality of unit cells are connected together to form a fuel cell stack.
In the fuel cell of the fuel cell stack, a fuel gas such as a hydrogen-containing gas is supplied to the anode. The catalyst of the anode induces a chemical reaction of the fuel gas to split the hydrogen molecule into hydrogen ions (protons) and electrons. The hydrogen ions move toward the cathode through the electrolyte, and the electrons flow through an external circuit to the cathode, creating a DC electric current. An oxygen-containing gas or air is supplied to the cathode. At the cathode, the hydrogen ions from the anode combine with the electrons and oxygen to produce water.
For example, as shown in FIG. 7, a fuel cell stack 10 is mounted on a base 1 such as a vehicle body of a vehicle. In the fuel cell stack 10, a plurality of unit cells (fuel cells 12) are connected together in series, and stacked horizontally (in a direction indicated by an arrow A) to form a stack body 13.
The unit cell 12 includes a membrane electrode assembly 20 and separators 22a, 22b. The membrane electrode assembly 20 includes an anode 14, and a cathode 16, and an electrolyte membrane 18 interposed between the anode 14 and the cathode 16. The membrane electrode assembly 20 is interposed between the separators 22a, 22b. Each of the separators 22a, 22b has a first reactant gas flow passage 24 on its surface facing the anode 14, and a second reactant gas flow passage 26 on its surface facing the cathode 16. A fuel gas such as a hydrogen-containing gas is supplied to or discharged from the anode 14 through the first reactant gas flow passage 24. An oxygen-containing gas such as air is supplied to or discharged from the cathode 16 through the second reactant gas flow passage 26.
Terminal plates 34a, 34b are electrically connected to the outermost unit cells 12 disposed at opposite ends of the stack body 13 in the stacking direction, respectively. Insulator plates 36a, 36b for prevention of electric leakage are stacked on the outside of the terminal plates 34a, 34b, respectively. End plates 38a, 38b are stacked on the outside of insulator plates 36a, 36b, respectively. Further, back up plates 40a, 40b are disposed outside the end plates 38a, 38b, respectively. The unit cells 12, the terminal plates 34a, 34b, the insulator plates 36a, 36b, end plates 38a, 38b, and back up plates 40a, 40b make up the fuel cell stack 10.
A plurality of spring members 42 such as belleville springs are interposed between the end plate 38a and the back up plate 40a for maintaining electrical connections between the adjacent unit cells 12.
In the peripheral area of the fuel cell stack 10, a plurality of through holes 44 are formed. The through holes 44 extend from the back up plate 40a to the other back up plate 40b. Tie rods 46 are inserted into the through holes 44, respectively. Nuts 48 are threaded over the tie rods 46 to tighten the back up plates 40a, 40b. Therefore, the stack body 13, the terminal plates 34a, 34b, and the end plates 38a, 38b are pressed together, and the belleville springs 42 are compressed.
The fuel cell stack 10 is mounted on the base 1 using brackets 50, 52. The brackets 50, 52 are connected to the end plate 38a, the back up plate 40b, respectively. The bracket 52 is fixed to the base 1 by a bolt 54. The bracket 50 is slidable on the base 1.
An arm 56 extends from a lower end of the bracket 50. An oblong groove 60 having a step 58 is formed in the arm 56. A bolt 62 is inserted in the oblong groove 60. The step 58 is pressed by a head of the bolt 52 with a suitable force. In this manner, the bracket 50 is slidably mounted on the base 1.
When the stack body 13 is thermally expanded in the stacking direction during the operation of the fuel cell stack 10, the belleville springs 42 are compressed to some extent corresponding to the amount of thermal expansion. When the operation of the fuel cell stack 10 is stopped, and the temperature of the fuel cell stack 10 is lowered, the stack body 13 is thermally contracted. Therefore, the belleville springs 42 are stretched. The thermal expansion or contraction of the stack body 13 causes the belleville springs 42 to be compressed or stretched. Therefore, the tightening force applied to the stack body 13 is maintained substantially.
The electrolyte membrane 18 absorbs and releases water produced in the electrochemical reaction. Further, the electrolyte membrane 18 absorbs and releases moisture in the fuel gas and the oxygen-containing gas. Therefore, the electrolyte membrane 18 swells and shrinks in the stacking direction of the stack body 13. Further, the membrane electrode assembly 20 wears out with thermal changes in the repeated use of the fuel cell stack 10. Therefore, the rigidity of the membrane electrode assembly 20 is reduced, and the size of the membrane electrode assembly 20 is reduced slightly. The size reduction also occurs in a sealing member (not shown) for supporting the membrane electrode assembly 20, and the separators 22a, 22b.
In the fuel cell stack 10, when the dimension of the components such as the electrolyte membrane 18, the sealing member, the separators 22a, 22b changes in the stacking direction, the belleville springs 42 are compressed or stretched correspondingly. Therefore, the stack body 13 is constantly pressed together under a desirable pressure.
In the fuel cell stack 10, when the dimension of the components such as the electrolyte membrane 18, the sealing member, the separators 22a, 22b changes in the stacking direction, the belleville springs 42 are compressed or stretched correspondingly. Therefore, the stack body 13 is constantly pressed together under a desirable pressure.
When the dimension of the components changes in the fuel cell unit 10, and the belleville springs 42 are compressed or stretched, the bracket 50 guided by the oblong groove 60 and the bolt 62 slides on the base 1 in the stacking direction.
In the fuel cell stack 10, the bracket 50 is slidably mounted on the base 1. Therefore, a relatively large space is needed for installing the fuel cell stack 10. Normally, the separators are made of carbon, and relatively thick to have a necessary strength. A plurality of the belleville springs 42 are interposed between the end plate 38 and the back up plate 40a. The fuel cell 10 has a relatively large dimension due to the belleville springs 42. Therefore, the overall fuel cell stack 10 is relatively large and heavy.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A two-piece clamping unit for attaching to a roof seam whereby a top piece contacts one side of the seam and a base piece contacts the opposite side thereof and the top and bottom pieces are threadingly secured.

Snow guard devices used to prevent the falling of snow from roofs are usually attached to the upward extending roof seams. The snow-stopping metal or plastic plates are generally affixed to the seams prior to snow season and are removed there from at the end of the season.
The snow guards are usually attached to the roof seams by brackets which employ threaded screws and the like which could possible damage the seams upon extended usage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,772 entitled "Mounting Device for Building Surfaces" describes attachment of such brackets to the roof seams by means of blunt-nosed screws which contact opposite sides of the seams.
Since some time is involved in fastening and removing the screws from a multitude of such brackets, it would be advantageous to fasten the snow guard device to the roof seams with a single fastener that is accessible from the top of the bracket, per se and which does come into contact with the seams.
Accordingly, one purpose of the instant invention is to provide a snow guard clamping unit that employs a fastener that attaches the unit to the roof seams without contacting the seams and which is accessible from top of the unit.


Aspects of the present disclosure relate to interactive search training. A training canvas comprises results associated with a search query. The training canvas may be used as part of a training session that occurs during normal use of a search platform. When the search platform is first used, the results may be provided based on an existing model. An irrelevant result may be removed from the training canvas, such that a replacement result is added in its place. Additionally, results may be reordered, thereby indicating a ranking with which results should be displayed. Such interactions with the training canvas may be used to generate training data, such that a new model is trained accordingly. Thus, interactions with the training canvas yield high-quality training data that is usable to generate a model having equal or greater performance than a model that was trained using an equivalent amount of implicit training data.

Identifying and ranking relevant search results from a datastore having a previously unknown or otherwise non-standard schema is challenging, as the datastore may use arbitrary properties. Without knowledge of which arbitrary properties are indicative of relevance, search results from the datastore for a given search query may not be ranked in a way that facilitates easy discovery of information or may comprise results that are not relevant to the search query.
It is with respect to these and other general considerations that embodiments have been described. Also, although relatively specific problems have been discussed, it should be understood that the embodiments should not be limited to solving the specific problems identified in the background.


A nonvolatile memory cell that is highly scalable includes a cell formed in a triple well. A pair of sources for a pair of cells on adjacent word lines each acts as the emitter of a lateral bipolar transistor. The lateral bipolar transistor of one cell operates as a charge injector for the other cell. The charge injector provides carriers for substrate hot carrier injection onto a floating gate.

This invention relates generally to nonvolatile memories and particularly to electrically erasable nonvolatile memories.
Nonvolatile memory cells are advantageous since they retain recorded information even when the power to the memory is turned off. There are several different types of nonvolatile memories including erasable programmable read only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable and programmable read only memories (EEPROMs) and flash EEPROM memories. EPROMS are erasable through light exposure but are electrically programmable by channel hot electron injection onto a floating gate. Conventional EEPROMs have the same programming functionality, but instead of being light erasable they can be erased and programmed by electron tunneling facilitated by an on-chip electrical signal. Thus, information may be stored in these memories, retained when the power is off, and the memories may be erased for reprogramming, as necessary, using appropriate techniques. Flash EEPROMs may be block erased, typically giving them better read access times than regular EEPROMs.
Currently, flash memories have gained considerable popularity. For example, flash memories are often utilized to provide on-chip memory for microcontrollers, modems and SMART cards and the like where it is desirable to store codes that may need fast updating.
While flash memories and EEPROMs are closely related, in many instances, flash memories are preferred because their smaller cell size means that they can be made more economically. However, flash memories and EEPROMs often have very similar cell attributes.
Nonvolatile memory cells differ in certain respects from the transistors that are generally utilized in electronic components called logic devices, such as microcontrollers, that work with the memory cells. Logic devices are formed of transistors that use a single gate electrode. Nonvolatile memories usually include two gate electrodes, known as the control and floating gate electrodes, situated one adjacent to the other. Because of this structural difference, nonvolatile memories and logic devices may be made by different processes. This may contribute to a substantial increase in process complexity and manufacturing cost when the two components need to be placed together into the same chip.
Particularly with an EEPROM, the electrical programming of the cells normally requires substantial potentials to be applied to the cells. These potentials induce electron tunneling from an N+region onto the floating gate. Additional complexity may arise from the need to provide substantially larger voltages to memory cells than are needed for normal logic transistor operation.
While the industry has come to accept the need for separate process technologies for logic and nonvolatile memories and while those in the industry have also come to appreciate that significant currents are needed to program flash EEPROMs, there would be a substantial demand for a nonvolatile memory which was both electrically erasable and programmable without the need for special process technologies or for relatively higher programming voltages and higher currents.
Furthermore, with the conventional flash EEPROMs, the electrical programming of the cells normally requires high current to be applied to the cells. A very minute fraction of this electron current becomes injected from the drain depletion region onto the floating gate. This means that the injection efficiency of such devices is low (e.g., 1×10−6 to 1×10−9). The requirement of high current adds additional complexity because of the design of the high current pump operated at low voltage.


The present invention is generally directed to a tracking and visibility system of a kind that augments aspects of traditional tracking systems by implementing mechanisms for independently detecting and verifying the whereabouts of particular objects moving through a carrier's logistics network. These mechanisms are preferably implemented without having to alter the outward appearance or manner in which such objects would otherwise be shipped. At a high level, the present invention accomplishes this by providing a comprehensive tracking system that includes at least two levels of tracking, one of which involves physically associating a wireless device with an object to be tracked, the wireless device being configured to transmit a signal that can be used to independently detect and verify the location of the particular object as it moves through the carrier's logistics network.

The tracking of high value assets is an ongoing business problem for many companies. In particular, the tremendous volume of goods flowing through a transportation system on any given day creates a significant logistical challenge. As a result, tracking and visibility systems play an integral part in most transportation systems by allowing both customers and transportation personnel to track the flow of goods. However, despite the existence of many prior art systems, items flowing through a transportation system are, on occasion, still delivered to a location later than expected, misdelivered to an incorrect address, and even lost or stolen somewhere along the way. These and other such mishaps can be particularly troubling when the items being shipped are considered "high-value" items, based on either their relative importance to the shipper or on their raw economic value. Examples of high-value items can include shipments of diamonds, expensive jewelry, computer chips, cars or sensitive documents, to name just a few.
For the most part, item tracking services known in the art are passive in the sense that they are generally not designed to actively address the types of problems discussed above. In other words, most solutions in the past have been inhibited by their lack of active scanning and reporting of location for each particular item moving through the transportation network. This is due in part to the fact that many items are bundled or aggregated together with other items for efficiency of shipment. As a result, many items are not physically (i.e., actually) scanned at every transportation point, which they pass through. Instead, a "logical" scan of the item is performed, meaning that if the bundled or aggregated load arrives at (or departs from) a particular location, the bundled load is scanned and the tracking data for each particular item assumed to be within that bundle is updated accordingly. This occurs despite the fact that each particular item believed to be in the bundle may not actually be present.
Thus, for example, if an item is lost, stolen, behind schedule, or misdelivered to an incorrect address, such problems may go undetected until a shipper or consignee notices the problem and calls to report it. By then, however, a substantial amount of time may have been passed, during which transportation and security personnel could have been looking into the problem. As such, the likelihood of being able to diagnose and remedy the cause of any potential problems may have been reduced.
Furthermore, while it is sometimes possible to ship an item via special shipping channels that incorporate more stringent security measures, doing so may not always be desirable. Aside from the fact that shipping an item in such a way can be substantially more expensive, the added security measures can, in some cases, create a new set of problems by drawing unnecessary attention to the item. In other words, by shipping the item via special shipping channels, the shipper may in effect be identifying the item to would-be criminals as a high value item. Thus, in some cases it may actually be safer to at least provide the appearance that the item is being shipped via "standard" means so that the item blends in and, as such, does not stand out as an item of particular value in the various shipping yards, hub locations and other transport points through which the item is likely to pass.
Therefore, an unsatisfied need exists in the industry for improved tracking and visibility systems and methods that overcome the deficiencies in the prior art, some of which are discussed above.

Systems and methods for tracking items using wirelessly-enabled devices


There is provided a system, apparatus and methods for enhancing the illumination of structures of the eye using predetermined scan patterns of an illuminating light beam. The systems, apparatus and methods further provide for obtaining enhanced single images of multiple structures of the eye.

1. Field of the Invention
The present inventions relate to methods and systems for illuminating, obtaining images of, and determining the shape and position of structures within an eye, and in particular, the cornea, natural human crystalline lens and adjacent structures of the eye. More particularly, the present inventions relate to variably controlled scanning of laser light illumination of such structures, controlled and predetermined digital capture of the images of the illuminated structures with an accurately calibrated digital camera and the creation of enhanced digital composite images of the illuminated structures.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presbyopia most often presents as a near vision deficiency, the inability to read small print, especially in dim lighting after about 40-45 years of age. Presbyopia, or the loss of accommodative amplitude with age, relates to the eye's inability to change the shape of the natural crystalline lens, which allows a person to change focus between far and near, and occurs in essentially 100% of the population. Accommodative amplitude has been shown to decline with age steadily through the fifth decade of life.
Cataracts, or the condition when the natural crystalline lens becomes opaque and clouds vision, occurs in millions of people per year and are treated effectively with surgical techniques, such as ultrasonic phacoemulsification pioneered by Kelman 30 years ago. Although the techniques have been refined over the years, safety concerns from ocular trauma, especially to the corneal endothelium from the ultrasonic energy required to break up a hardened cataract, is undesirable; especially for those with a compromised corneal endothelium, such as those with Fuchs Dystrophy. Moreover, the use of lasers in the treatment of cataracts has a further issue. Cataracts scatter light, including laser light, and thus, can prevent a laser treatment beam from having the desired tissue effect. Moreover, the light scattering effect of cataracts and other opacifications can make optically determining the position and shape of the lens difficult.
The established treatment for cataracts is the removal of the opacified human crystalline lens and its replacement with an intraocular lens ("IOL"). In general, IOLs include a small plastic lens with plastic side struts, called haptics, to hold the lens in place within the capsular bag inside the eye. Exemplary types of IOLs include monofocal lenses, multifocal IOLs which provide the patient with multiple-focused vision at far and reading distance, and accommodative IOLs which provide the patient with visual accommodation. The flexible nature of many IOLs enables them to be rolled and/or folded up for insertion into the lens capsule.
The removal of the opacified natural crystalline lens and replacement with a lens replacement material, such as an IOL, presently employs a capsulorhexis and/or a capsulotomy procedure. A capsulorhexis generally includes of the removal of a part of the anterior lens capsule and the creation of a hole or opening in the lens capsule, which results, at least in part, from a tearing action. A capsulotomy generally includes of a cutting of the lens capsule, without or with minimum tearing of the lens capsule. Thus, to remove the opacified natural lens material, the lens capsule is opened. There are several known techniques for performing a capsulorhexis and a capsulotomy, including the use of a Fugo plasma blade.
Recently laser systems and methods for treating of cataracts, presbyopia, performing capsulotomies, and for the sectioning and removal of natural crystalline lens material have been developed and introduced. Examples of such innovative and novel systems and methods are found in commonly assigned published patent applications US 2007/0173794, US 2007/0173795, US 2007/0185475, US 2010/0004641, US 2010/0004643, US 2010/0022994, US 2010/002995, US 2010/0042079, WO 2007/084627, and WO 2007/084694, the entire disclosures of each of which are incorporated herein by reference. Further examples of such innovative and novel systems and methods are found in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/840,818, 12/831,859, 12/831,845, 12/831,783 and 12/842,870, the entire disclosures of each of which are incorporated herein by reference.
In the treatment of cataracts, presbyopia, conditions of the eye, and afflictions of the eye, and in particular, in using lasers for such treatments, the determination of the position (relative to other structures of the eye and/or relative to any treatment equipment, such as a laser), and the shape of the structures of the eye is essential to allow the precise application of laser energy to effect the treatment. In general, greater accuracy and precision in making such determinations is beneficial. Further, visual images of these structures for the treating physician to observe can be beneficial and can enhance the outcome of any procedures. Accordingly, as provided in detail in this specification, improvements in the illumination of structures of the eye are provided herein, which improvements give rise to improved determination of the position and shape of structures within the eye, as well as, enhanced images of those structures.

System and method of scan controlled illumination of structures within an eye


Provided are a method and device for rate matching in a wireless communication system. More specifically, provided is a method for rate matching by user equipment (UE), in new radio access technology (NR), under various circumstances. As an example, UE receives a configuration for the rate matching either UE-specifically or cell-specifically, and, if the configuration is received UE-specifically, the rate matching is performed only on unicast data, and, if the configuration is received cell-specifically, the rate matching is performed on broadcast data and the unicast data.

3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) long-term evolution (LTE) is a technology for enabling high-speed packet communications. Many schemes have been proposed for the LTE objective including those that aim to reduce user and provider costs, improve service quality, and expand and improve coverage and system capacity. The 3GPP LTE requires reduced cost per bit, increased service availability, flexible use of a frequency band, a simple structure, an open interface, and adequate power consumption of a terminal as an upper-level requirement.
As more communication devices require great communication capacity, a demand with respect to enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) communication is spotlighted. Further, there is a main issue that a plurality of devices and objects are connected so that large machine type communication (MTC) providing various services regardless of time and location to be considered as next generation communication. Further, ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC) considering service/user equipment (UE) sensitive to reliability and delay has been discussed. As described above, introduction of a next generation radio access technology considering eMBB, a large MTC, URLLC has been discussed. For convenience of the description, such new radio access technology may refer to a new radio access technology (NR). A wavelength is short in a millimeter wave (mmW) so that a plurality of antennas may be installed at the same area. For example, the wavelength is 1 cm at a 30 GHz band, total 100 antenna elements may be installed in a secondary arrangement form at 0.5λ, (wavelength) on a panel of 5×5 cm2. Accordingly, a plurality of antenna elements is used at the mmW band so that a beamforming gain is increased to increase coverage or a throughput.
In this case, if a transceiver is included to adjust transmission power and a phase by antenna element, an independent beamforming is possible by frequency resource. However, if transceivers are installed at 100 antenna elements, respectively, the effectiveness is deteriorated in a cost side. Accordingly, it is considered that a plurality of antenna elements are mapped to one transceiver and a direction of a beam are adjusted to an analog phase shifter. Such an analog beamforming scheme can create only one beam direction so that a frequency selective beamforming cannot be performed.
A hybrid beamforming having B transceivers having the number less than Q antenna elements in an intermediate form of digital beamforming and analog beamforming may be considered. In this case, although the number of direction of the beam capable of being simultaneously transmitted is changed according to a connection scheme of B transceivers and Q antenna elements, the number of direction of the beam is limited to less than B.
According to unique characteristics of NR, a structure of a physical channel and/or related characteristics of NR may be different from those of an existing LTE. For an efficient operation of the NR, various schemes may be suggested.

Method and device for allocating resources in wireless communication system


A hollow waveguide has a metal-clad pipe having an inside metal layer and an outside metal layer, and a hollow region formed inside of the metal-clad pipe. The metal-clad pipe is formed by pressure-bonding metal pipes each of which is made of a metal material different from each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light transmitting medium in an infrared wavelength band and, in particular, to a hollow waveguide suitable for optical energy transmission of high power in the infrared wavelength band and a method of manufacturing the hollow waveguide.
Also, the present invention relates to a light transmitting medium in an ultraviolet wavelength band and, in particular, to a hollow waveguide suitable for optical energy transmission of high power in the ultraviolet wavelength band and a method of manufacturing the hollow waveguide.
2. Description of the Related Art
(1) Optical Waveguide for Transmitting Infrared Light
Infrared light having a wavelength of 2 μm or more is utilized in various fields such as medicine, industrial working, measurement, analysis, and chemistry. In particular, each of an Er-YAG laser having a wavelength band of 2.94 μm, a CO laser having a wavelength band of 5 μm, and a CO2 laser having a wavelength band of 10.6 μm has high excitation efficiency and can develop high power and has large absorption also for water, and hence is utilized as a light source for medical laser equipment and for industrial processing.
A conventional silica-based optical fiber used for communications produces a large loss of transmission for laser light having a wavelength of 2 μm or more because infrared absorption caused by molecular vibration is large. For this reason, the usual silica-based optical fiber cannot be used as a waveguide for transmitting this infrared laser light. Hence, there have been actively made developments of a new type optical waveguide which can be applied even to an infrared wavelength band of wide application area.
A hollow waveguide provided with a dielectric layer transparent in the wavelength band of light to be transmitted has been developed as an optical waveguide for transmitting infrared light having a wavelength of 2 μm or more and has been proved to have excellent transmission characteristics.
FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a conventional hollow waveguide 4. The hollow waveguide 4 is constructed of a glass capillary 41, a metal layer 42 formed on the inside wall of the glass capillary 41, a dielectric layer 43 formed on the metal layer 42, and a hollow region 44 formed as a core inside the dielectric layer 43. The glass capillary 41 is a base material for holding the mechanical strength of the hollow waveguide 4. The dielectric layer 43 is transparent in the wavelength band of light to be propagated and usually has a thickness of submicron or less and has a thickness set at an optimum value according to the wavelength of light to be propagated. The metal layer 42 has large optical absorption in the wavelength band of light propagating through the hollow waveguide 4, and hence optical energy does not penetrate deeply into the metal layer 42. Therefore, it is essential only that the thickness of the metal layer 42 in contact with the dielectric layer 43 is a skin depth or more. Light propagating through the hollow waveguide 4 is repeatedly reflected by the boundary between the hollow region 44 and the dielectric layer 43 and the boundary between the dielectric layer 43 and the metal layer 42, thereby being propagated.
Specifically, there is disclosed a hollow waveguide having the metal layer 42 made of silver on the inside wall of the glass capillary 41 by plating and the dielectric layer 43 formed on the metal layer 42 by thermosetting a solution of the precursor of polyimide or a solution having an olefin polymer dissolved therein (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 8-234026 and 2002-71973).
Even if the metal layer 42 is formed on the glass capillary 41 having an extremely smooth surface by plating, the surface roughness of the metal layer 42 becomes larger as the thickness of the metal layer 42 becomes larger. The metal layer 42 having a thickness of several hundred angstroms functions optically to a sufficient degree. Hence, the metal layer 42 is formed in as thin a thickness as possible so as to prevent its surface from losing a mirror-smooth state.
An organic material constructing the dielectric layer 43 such as polyimide and olefin polymer has an infrared absorption peak wavelength specific to the material. However, because the dielectric layer 43 is formed in a sufficiently thin thickness, propagating light in an infrared range except for this infrared absorption peak wavelength is hardly attenuated in the dielectric layer 43. For this reason, the dielectric layer 43 can be assumed to be a transparent material through which the propagating light reaches the metal layer 42. In particular, specific organic materials such as polyimide and olefin polymer do not have a large infrared absorption peak in the oscillation wavelength band of the Er-YAG laser, the CO laser, and the CO2 laser, so that the hollow waveguide 4 can transmit practically important infrared laser light with low transmission loss. Moreover, since the metal layer 42 is formed in a very thin thickness by plating to keep the inside wall of the hollow waveguide smooth, the hollow waveguide 4 can transmit not only infrared laser light but also visible light as guide light.
In addition to the hollow waveguide 4 having the dielectric layer 43 made of the organic material as described above, a hollow waveguide having a dielectric layer formed by chemically altering a part of a metal layer is also developed. For example, there has been known a hollow waveguide in which a silver iodide layer produced by iodinating a part of a metal layer, which is made of silver on the inside wall of a glass capillary by plating, functions as a transparent dielectric layer. The silver iodide is an inorganic substance which is transparent in the infrared wavelength band and does not have an infrared absorption peak specific to the substance like a polymer substance. Thus, the silver iodide can transmit light in the infrared wavelength range with low transmission loss.
In addition to the above-described glass capillary, a resin tube made of fluorine resin or the like having excellent flexibility is proposed as a base material for providing the hollow waveguide with the mechanical strength. Further, for a laser probe mounted at the tip of a long optical transmission line and uses not specially requiring flexibility, there is proposed a base material made by polishing the inside surface of a stainless pipe or the like which is mechanically stronger than the glass capillary. Still further, there is proposed a hollow waveguide in which a pipe itself made of precious metal such as silver is used as a base material so as to save a step of forming a silver layer by plating and has its inside surface polished to a mirror-smooth state to form a dielectric layer.
(2) Optical Waveguide for Transmitting Ultraviolet Light
On the other hand, ultraviolet light having a wavelength of 250 nm or less is utilized in various fields such as medicine, industrial processing, measurement, analysis, and chemistry. In particular, a KrF laser having a wavelength of 248 nm, an ArF laser having a wavelength band of 193 nm, an excimer laser such as an F2 laser having a wavelength band of 157 nm, or a Q switch YAG harmonic laser can produce high power and is important as a light source or semiconductor photolithography equipment, fluorescence analysis, medical equipment, and industrial processing.
A conventional silica-based optical fiber used for communications can transmit light having a wavelength of approximately 200 nm or more with low transmission loss. Moreover, recently, a solid-type silica-based optical fiber has been improved particularly for the purpose of transmitting ultraviolet light.
Absorption in an ultraviolet band is an absorption band caused by electron transition and absorption spectrum characteristic is substantially affected by impurities and structural defects contained in the silica-based optical fiber. Silica-based optical fibers widely used at present have been purified to such an extent that absorption by metallic impurities can be neglected. Hence, transmittance in the ultraviolet band of the silica-based optical fiber is determined by structural defects in silica glass that depend on the manufacturing conditions.
Fine structural defects depend on the manufacturing conditions: for example, oxygen depletion type defects and oxygen excess type defects are caused by an oxidizing/reducing atmosphere when the fiber is manufactured. In a method of manufacturing an optical fiber in which soot-like silica particles are dehydrated in a halogen atmosphere and then are heat-treated to be altered to transparent glass, oxygen depletion type defects are caused to decrease transmittance in the ultraviolet band. Because the content of an OH group is varied by the dehydration treatment, the transmittance in the ultraviolet band depends on the OH group.
In silica glass anhydride subjected to the dehydration treatment, an absorption band caused by Si—Si oxygen depletion type defects is observed at wavelengths of 245 nm and 163 nm. Further, in silica glass made by sintering soot in a reducing atmosphere, an absorption band is observed at a wavelength of 240 nm.
In contrast to this, silica glass made by sintering soot in a He gas atmosphere contains a high concentration of the OH group and does not have an outstanding absorption band observed in a wavelength range from 200 nm to 400 nm. As described above, the transmittance of the silica-based optical fiber for the purpose of transmitting ultraviolet light depends on the content of the OH group.
On the other hand, apart from the solid-type silica-based optical fiber like this, there is proposed, for the purpose of transmitting ultraviolet light, a hollow waveguide made by depositing aluminum on the inside of a hollow glass capillary by a metal organic chemical vapor deposition method (MOCVD) (Optical Alliance, July, 1999, pp. 20-22). The advantage of the hollow waveguide can endure higher energy density than the silica-based optical fiber. The maximum transmission energy density of the solid-type silica-based optical fiber is approximately 50 mJ/cm2, whereas the hollow waveguide can transmit a beam having a transmission energy density of 2 J/cm2 or more. Further, even in the case of the silica-based optical fiber improved for the ultraviolet light, the wavelength of 193 nm of the ArF laser is the shortest limit and it is difficult to transmit light in the vacuum ultraviolet band of shorter wavelength. In contrast to this, the hollow waveguide having an aluminum thin film deposited thereon can transmit light having as short a wavelength as approximately 130 nm and can transmit also the F2 laser having a wavelength of 157 nm.
(1) Problems of Hollow Waveguide for Transmitting Infrared Light
However, the conventional hollow waveguide for transmitting infrared light has the following problems. That is, the hollow waveguide 4 using the glass capillary 41 has flexibility but has a possibility of being suddenly broken when it is held in a small bending radius for a long time. Further, the hollow waveguide 4 has a possibility of being broken when it is inserted into the human body or used in use environment where impact or external force is applied thereto, which is not so desirable.
A hollow waveguide using a resin tube made of fluorine resin or the like as a base material has a lower possibility of being broken than a hollow waveguide using a glass capillary but is irregularly varied in a sectional shape and in the bending shape of the whole transmission line by impact or external force, thereby being easily varied in transmission characteristics. Further, in the resin tube, as compared with the glass capillary, the surface of the inside wall is rough and is hard to improve by polishing or etching to such an extent that is achieved in the glass capillary. For this reason, transmission loss is increased in the case of transmitting light having short wavelengths such as visible light.
Moreover, the entire loss of light propagating in the hollow waveguide is converted to heat, and hence the hollow waveguide using a glass capillary or a resin tube having small thermal conductivity as a base material might cause local heating.
In the hollow waveguide formed of the glass capillary, the silver layer formed on the inside wall of the glass capillary, and the dielectric layer made of silver iodide formed by iodinating the inside wall of the silver layer, the silver layer needs to be formed in a thickness larger than an optically contributable thickness so as to avoid the silver layer to be iodinated from being lost. As a result, the surface of the inside wall of the hollow waveguide having silver iodide applied thereto is degraded in the roughness to damage the mirror-smooth state of the silver layer, which is disadvantageous specially for the transmission of light having short wavelengths such as visible light.
When a hollow waveguide is used for use not requiring flexibility, a metal pipe can be advantageously used as the base material of the hollow waveguide in that the metal pipe has large mechanical strength and high thermal conductivity. However, a conventional hollow waveguide, which uses a stainless pipe having its inside surface polished to a mirror-smooth state as a base material and has a silver layer formed on the inside wall of the stainless pipe by plating, loses the smoothness of the surface of the inside wall by plating and hence is remarkably inferior in smoothness to the hollow waveguide formed by plating the glass capillary with silver.
FIG. 6 shows a wavelength-loss characteristic when white light is propagated through a metal hollow waveguide, which is formed of a stainless pipe hating its inside wall polished to a mirror-smooth state and a silver layer formed by plating the inside wall of the stainless pipe with silver. FIG. 7 shows a wavelength-loss characteristic when white light is propagated through a metal hollow waveguide, which is formed of a glass capillary and a silver layer formed by plating the inside wall of the glass capillary with silver. Each of the metal hollow waveguides has a length of 40 cm and an inside diameter of 0.7 mm and the same thickness of the silver layer formed by plating.
As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the loss of the metal hollow waveguide formed of the stainless pipe is considerably larger than the loss of the metal hollow waveguide formed of the glass capillary. In particular, as the wavelength becomes shorter, the loss becomes larger. It is thought that this is because the inside surface of the stainless pipe is not polished to the same degree of smoothness equal as in the case of the glass capillary or that this is because even if the stainless pipe and the glass capillary are equal to each other in the degree of smoothness, the surface roughness of the silver layer is different between the stainless pipe and the glass capillary because of difference in the base material, that is, the smoothness of the base material cannot be held on the surface of the silver layer. With this characteristic, the hollow waveguide formed of the stainless pipe having its inside surface polished to a mirror-smooth state and the silver layer formed by plating the polished inside surface of the pipe with silver is inferior in transmission loss to the hollow waveguide formed of the glass capillary and the silver layer formed by plating the glass capillary with silver.
Further, the hollow waveguide formed of the glass capillary has problems of being lower in resistance to external force, easily causing local heating because of using glass having low thermal conductivity as the base material, and silver plating being easily peeled off.
Still further, a hollow waveguide is also studied in which in place of the hollow waveguide including a stainless pipe having its inside surface polished and a silver layer formed by plating the polished inside surface with silver, a silver pipe itself has its inside surface polished to eliminate a step of plating the inside surface with metal to keep the surface roughness of the inside wall of the pipe. In this hollow waveguide, the whole base material is silver and hence cost is very much increased. It is known that not only silver but also gold and copper are suitable as such a metal material of a hollow waveguide that is optically contributable to transmitting a laser light in an infrared wavelength band with low loss. It is difficult in practical use in terms of cost to form the base material of the hollow waveguide of gold. Further, silver and copper are remarkably discolored by oxidation or sulfuration, and therefore, it is not preferable that the base material of the hollow waveguide is made of these materials and exposed to outside environment. Still further, the hollow waveguide using any one of these materials as the base material is easily plastically deformed even by small bending and hence is remarkably degraded in transmission characteristics particularly in use environment where the hollow waveguide is repeatedly bent.
(2) Problems of Hollow Waveguide for Transmitting Ultraviolet Light
A conventional hollow waveguide for transmitting ultraviolet light has the following problems.
That is, when a pulse of ultraviolet light is entered into a silica optical fiber commonly used, even if an initial transmittance is excellent, the transmission characteristic is degraded as time elapses during the irradiation of light (Appl. Opt. 27, 1988, p. 3124).
As described above, there have been developed also silica optical fibers for transmitting ultraviolet light that can transmit even ultraviolet light with stability by adjusting the concentration of the OH group. However, such silica optical fibers yet have problems in transmitting the ArF laser and the KrF laser having wide application fields. Further, the silica optical fibers can not stably transmit the F2 laser having a short wavelength and a high-power pulse laser for a long time.
On the other hand, an aluminum hollow waveguide is more promising in the transmission of ultraviolet laser of 190 nm or less in wavelength or of high power intensity than the silica optical fiber. However, in the above-described hollow waveguide having an aluminum thin film deposited inside the silica glass capillary by the MOCVD method, the aluminum thin film does not have a sufficiently strong adhesion force and hence is easily peeled off. In particular, in the case of transmitting the ultraviolet light by the hollow waveguide, the hollow space is commonly evacuated to a vacuum or filled with rare gas so as to prevent oxygen in the air from being altered to ozone absorbing the ultraviolet light to increase transmission loss. For this reason, there is a possibility that when the aluminum thin film deposited inside does not have a sufficiently strong adhesion force, the aluminum thin film might be peeled off when the gas is sucked or introduced.
Further, to deposit the aluminum thin film inside the silica glass capillary, an expensive MOCVD apparatus is required.
Still further, the hollow waveguide using the glass capillary like this is low in resistance to the external force and hence might be broken by impact or bending.

Hollow waveguide and method of manufacturing the same


Provided is a method for producing a silica aerogel blanket and an apparatus for producing the same, which are capable of easily controlling the physical properties of a silica aerogel blanket by separately injecting silica sol and a gelation catalyst to control gelation time, improving aerogel pore structure to be uniform and improving thermal insulation performance by sufficiently and uniformly impregnating the silica sol and the gelation catalyst into a blanket, reducing the loss of silica sol and gelation catalyst by allowing the silica sol and the gelation catalyst to pass on an ascending slope before gelation to remove any excessive silica sol and gelation catalyst exceeding an appropriate impregnation amount, and providing a silica aerogel blanket having less process trouble, and less dust.

Aerogel is a superporous, high specific surface area (500 m2/g) material having a porosity of about 90-99.9% and a pore size in the range of 1-100 nm, and is a material excellent in ultra-light weight, super thermal insulation, ultra-low dielectric, and the like. Accordingly, research on the development of aerogel materials as well as research on the practical use thereof as transparent insulation materials, environmentally friendly high temperature insulation materials, ultra-low dielectric thin films for highly integrated devices, catalysts and catalyst carriers, electrodes for super-capacitors, and electrode materials for seawater desalination have been actively studied.
The biggest advantage of aerogel is that aerogel has a super-insulation exhibiting a thermal conductivity of 0.03 W/mK or less, which is lower than that of an organic insulation material such as conventional Styrofoam, and that fire vulnerability and the occurrence of harmful gases in case of fire which are fatal weaknesses of the organic insulation material can be solved.
In a typical method for producing a silica aerogel-containing blanket, a solution obtained by mixing a silica precursor sol and a gelation catalyst in a gel casting process is impregnated into a fiber to produce a silica aerogel-containing blanket. Therefore, there are disadvantages in that when the silica precursor sol and the gelation catalyst are mixed, a sol-gel chemical reaction immediately starts and the viscosity of the mixed solution is increased allowing particles to form before sufficient impregnation into the fiber is achieved, so that it is difficult to control the gelation rate, and the gelled aerogel is damaged or lost during a process, so that the insulation performance of a final product is deteriorated.
In addition, when the precursor sol and the gelation catalyst are injected onto a moving element as in a Roll-to-Roll process, the precursor sol and the gelation catalyst are not sufficiently impregnated into a fibrous blanket located on the moving element, allowing uneven impregnation to occur on the surface of the blanket, thereby deteriorating the insulation performance thereof. When an injection amount of the precursor sol and the gelation catalyst is increased in order to prevent such a problem, the amount that can be impregnated into the fibrous blanket is exceeded, and the precursor sol and gelation catalyst exceeding the impregnation amount may overflow from the moving element, resulting in process loss. Furthermore, a solid, such as powder, is formed due to a subsequent gelation of the overflown mixture, which causes a problem of acting as a process trouble factor for a mechanically operating processing device.
Therefore, the inventors of the present invention have developed the present invention after conducting studies in order to solve such typical problems.

Method for producing silica aerogel blanket and apparatus for producing same


A foldable bicycle handlebar includes a fixing base having two holes on a hinge surface, two handlebar grips each having a joint with a hinge hole, an upper fastener fixed to the joints, two shafts passing through holes of the upper fastener, and a slider fixed to the hinge surface. At least one tenon is on a recess that is on a side of each handlebar grip. The hinge holes, and the two holes of the fixing base, and a gap is between the two joints. The slider has an inner surface, a protrusion is extended outwardly from the inner surface to the gap, and a mortise is formed on the inner surface, so that the tenon is inserted into or removed from the mortise. Whether the handlebar grips are unfolded for use or folded for storage, safety and reliability of the foldable bicycle handlebar are ensured.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a foldable bicycle handlebar; more particularly, the invention relates to a quickly and conveniently foldable bicycle handlebar that can be secured and is not unintentionally loosened no matter whether the foldable bicycle handlebar is unfolded or folded, so as to satisfy the safety requirements.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional foldable bicycle handlebar, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,637,288 invented by the inventor of the invention described herein, is a handlebar that can be folded in half along a central folding line. The conventional handlebar is fixed by applying a pressing force, which is rather unreliable. If the pressing force is not sufficient, the handlebar may be loosened or released during the ride.
In addition, Taiwan utility model patent no. M434717 and Taiwan utility model patent no. M427336 respectively disclose a foldable positioning structure of a foldable bicycle handlebar. Here, a folding mechanism is configured on a stem of the handlebar, and transverse space can be effectively saved. However, the folding mechanism in a folding state cannot be fixed and may swing, and the large moment easily causes damages to the folding mechanism. After a long ride, the handlebar may be loosened to a greater extent, which may significantly compromise the comfort and the safety of a rider during the ride.


Reclosable zipper arrangements for bags such as thermoplastic bags are described. The reclosable zipper arrangements are configured to advantageously provide a clicking sensory indicator, in the form of a tactile and/or audible indication of sealing, as zipper closure occurs. Package arrangements using the closure arrangements are described. Also, methods of assembly and use are described.

Reclosable closure or seal arrangements for pouches such as thermoplastic bags are well known. They are sometimes referenced as zipper closures or zipper locks. Many are operated by hand or finger pressure pressing a first side or member of an elongate plastic zipper closure arrangement against an opposite second side member of the plastic zipper closure arrangement. Often it is desirable to provide such arrangements in which there is a clicking sensory (audible and/or touch) indication of locking (or sealing) engagement between two zipper side members during closure.
In many applications, the closure arrangements are reclosable thermoplastic bags and each side of the closure arrangement is configured with two elongate locking zipper sections (or double elongate closure) adjacent one another in the bag. The two elongate locking zipper sections may be configured identical to one another, but often are provided structurally different from one another. For example, one may be configured to provide for the clicking sensory (audible and/or touch) locking or sealing indicator, while the other is configured to provides a strong closure lock and seal. Also, sometimes the two zipper sections are configured inverted relative to one another, with respect to direction of male member and female member projection.
In arrangements that use a double elongate closure arrangement, typically the two are sufficiently adjacent one another so as to be conveniently operable by a user upon a single finger width pressure during actuation.
In general, it is desirable to provide closure arrangements and resulting bags in manners that are convenient for assembly and use and which provide unambiguous indication of secure closure. Improvements have been sought.

Closure arrangements for recloseable pouches; recloseable pouches; and, methods


System comprising a central processing unit and a dedicated unit. Said dedicated unit receives a communication protection module which controls a sequence controlling module containing a state machine and a cycle counter, a timing module activated by said sequence controlling module and a software protection module also activatable by said sequence controlling module.

The present invention relates to the renting ot computerized means (software and/or hardware) in accordance with a schedule which depends on the actual use of this facility.
This schedule can be compiled on the basis of various measures such as the period for which a piece of software is made available, the duration of use of this piece of software, the number of transactions made or dossiers created, the number and quality (difficulty or rarity) of calculations, the number and quality of files consulted, especially, and more generally of any computing or remote-computing service made available to a user, and the operation of which is enabled at least in part by the said software.
A fair number of proposals have already been made for providing protection for the supplier (or designer) of a piece of software, especially: EP-A-0,430,734; IEICE transactions, vol. E 73, No. 7, July 1990, JP, pp 1133-1146; EP-A-0,265,183.
Thus, the concept is known of a computerized device, of the type including:
an operational facility, comprising at least one central processing unit, together with memory means allowing it to load an operating system and to implement at least one piece of software on the basis of this operating system, and together with at least one connection interface which can be accessed through a function of the operating system, and PA1 a dedicated unit including a removable memory medium reader, such as a smart-card reader, connected to the central processing unit by the said connection interface of the latter, PA1 while the software includes specific calls to the dedicated unit, for the purposes of conditioning the conduct of the execution of the said software, depending on the state of certain data contained in the removable memory medium. PA1 a communication security module capable of disabling the response to a communication command originating from the central processing unit, depending on first conditions involving the expression of the communication command, and information contained in the card, and PA1 at least one responsive module capable of recognizing such a communication command and of according it a favourable response, in the said particular form, only if second conditions pertaining to the arguments of the said command and to information contained in the card are complied with.
This is done in EP-A-0 430 734, with the intention of the software sending results to the smart card which it will have to be able to retrieve therefrom subsequently, failing which the software cannot be fully executed.
These known solutions are not entirely satisfactory from the security standpoint, it being observed that a perfect security system is inconceivable.

Protected software rental using smart cards


A fabricating method for a flat panel display device having a thin film pattern over a substrate is disclosed. The fabricating method includes depositing a hydrophilic resin over a substrate and patterning the hydrophilic resin to form hydrophilic resin patterns over areas outside where thin film patterns are to be formed over the substrate. The fabricating method also includes depositing a hydrophobic nano powder thin film material over the substrate and between the hydrophilic resin patterns and removing the hydrophilic resin patterns to form hydrophobic nano powder thin film patterns over the substrate. Moreover, the fabricating method includes treating the hydrophobic nano powder thin film patterns to form the thin film pattern.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fabricating method for a flat panel display device, and more particularly to a fabricating method for a flat panel display device that is adapted to reduce its manufacturing cost.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device controls the light transmittance of liquid crystal in accordance with a video signal, thereby displaying a picture. For this, the liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel where liquid crystal cells are arranged in a matrix shape, and a drive circuit for driving the liquid crystal display panel.
The liquid crystal display device is divided into two main classes in accordance with the direction of the electric field which drives the liquid crystal: a twisted nematic (TN) mode where a vertical electric field is used and an in-plane switch (IPS) mode where a horizontal electric field is used.
The TN mode is a mode in which the liquid crystal is driven by a vertical electric field between a pixel electrode and a common electrode respectively arranged on the lower and upper substrates. The TN mode device has an advantage in that its aperture ratio is relatively high but a disadvantage in that its viewing angle is relatively narrow. On the other hand, the IPS mode is a mode in which the liquid crystal is driven by a horizontal electric field between the pixel electrode and the common electrode arranged in parallel on the lower substrate. The IPS mode device has an advantage in that its viewing angle is relatively wide but a disadvantage in that its aperture ratio is relatively low.
FIG. 1 is a sectional diagram representing a TN mode liquid crystal display panel of the related art. In FIG. 1, the liquid crystal display panel includes an upper array substrate having black matrix 54, a color filter 56, a common electrode 68, and an upper alignment film 58 which are sequentially formed on an upper substrate 52. The panel also includes a lower array substrate having a thin film transistor (hereinafter, referred to as a "TFT"), a pixel electrode 66 and a lower alignment film 88 which are formed on a lower substrate 82. Liquid crystal 16 is injected into an inner space between the upper array substrate and the lower array substrate.
In the upper array substrate, the black matrix 54 defines a cell area where a color filter 56 is to be formed. The black matrix 54 prevents light leakage and absorbs external light to increase contrast. The color filter 56 is formed in the cell area which is defined by the black matrix 54. The color filter 56 is formed in R, G and B to realize a color picture of the liquid crystal display panel. A common voltage is supplied to the common electrode 68 to control the movement of the liquid crystal 16. In contrast to the TN mode in which the common electrode 68 is formed on the upper substrate 52 and the vertical electric field is used, in the IPS mode, the horizontal electric field is used, and the common electrode 68 is formed in the lower array substrate.
In the lower array substrate, the TFT includes a gate electrode 59 formed on the lower substrate 82 along with a gate line (not shown); semiconductor layers 64, 97 overlapping the gate electrode 59 with a gate insulating film 94 separating the semiconductor layers 64, 97 from the gate electrode 59; and source and drain electrodes 90, 92 formed over the semiconductor layers 64, 97 and spaced apart from each other. A data line (not shown) is formed along with the source/drain electrodes 90, 92. The TFT supplies a pixel signal from the data line to a pixel electrode 66 line in response to a scan signal from the gate line.
The pixel electrode 66 is formed over a passivation film 100 and is in contact with a drain electrode 92 of the TFT through a contact hole. The pixel electrode 66 is formed of a transparent conductive material with high light transmittance. The upper and lower alignment films 58, 88 for liquid crystal alignment are formed by a rubbing process after spreading an alignment material, such as polyimide, over the upper and lower substrates, respectively.
Thin film patterns, including the gate electrode 59, of the liquid crystal display panel are patterned by a photolithography process using a mask. FIGS. 2A to 2D are sectional diagrams representing the steps of forming a gate electrode using a photolithography process.
In FIG. 2A, a gate metal 59a and a photo-resist material 60 are deposited on a lower substrate 82 by a deposition method such as sputtering. A mask 61 with apertures aligned for each area where the gate electrode 59 is to be formed is placed on the photo-resist material 60. An exposure and development process is performed to form a photo-resist pattern 60a shown in FIG. 2B. An etching process is then performed to pattern the gate metal 59, as shown in FIG. 2C. Finally, as shown in FIG. 2D, the gate electrode 59 is completed with a stripping process to strip out the photo-resist pattern 60a.
The photolithography process of the related art using the mask includes at least a photo-resist spreading process, a mask aligning process, an exposure and development process and an etching process. Thus, the related art process is complicated. Also, a substantial amount of photo-resist material and developing solution may be wasted during the process for developing the photo-resist pattern. Moreover, expensive equipment is used in the exposure process of the related art photolithography process.

Fabricating method for flat panel display device


An imaging apparatus (20) includes an interface (50) and a processor (30). The interface is configured to receive a sequence of images of an object (38) acquired at respective acquisition times, the object is labeled with fluorescent emitters. The images depict intensity fluctuations of emitters on an acquisition grid, and the intensity fluctuations being uncorrelated among the emitters and during an overall time over which the images in the sequence are acquired. The a processor is configured to calculate a temporal correlation function of the intensity fluctuations over the sequence of images, and to estimate locations of the emitters on a super-resolution grid having a higher resolution than the acquisition grid, by applying to the temporal correlation function a recovery process in which the locations on the super-resolution grid are assumed to be sparse or compressible in a predefined domain. The recovery process includes a sparse-recovery process or a regularized process.

Fluorescence imaging is based on detecting light emitted from photo-activated fluorophores pre-attached to features of interest within the imaged specimen. In response to illuminating the specimen, the fluorophores are randomly activated to emit light at a narrow range of wavelengths. The emitted light is captured by a light-sensitive detector that produces an image of the labeled features.
The ability to distinguish between closely spaced fluorophores is limited by the diffraction of light, known as Abbe's diffraction limit. An imaging system is typically characterized by a Point Spread Function (PSF) that causes point emitters such as fluorescence molecules to appear blurred and overlapping in the image.
Several fluorescence imaging techniques that enable imaging beyond the diffraction limit are known in the art. For example, the Photo-Activated Localization Microscopy (PALM) and Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM) methods are based on capturing multiple low-resolution images, and applying to the captured images super-localization methods, in which individual fluorophores are identified and localized accurately.
PALM is described, for example, by Betzig et al. in "Imaging intracellular fluorescent proteins at nanometer resolution," Science, volume 313, issue 5793, 2006, pages 1642-1645. STORM is described, for example, by Rust et al. in "Sub-diffraction-limit imaging by stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM)," Nature Methods, volume 3, number 10, 2006, pages 793-795.
Another approach, known as the Super-Resolution Optical Fluctuation (SOFI) method, has been proposed by Dertinger et al., in "Fast, background-free, 3D super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (SOFI)," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, volume 106, number 52, 2009, pages 22287-22292. Compared to PALM and STORM, the acquisition time in SOFI is significantly shorter, but the achievable spatial resolution is limited.
A high-resolution imaging method based on processing individual frames referred to as FALCON, is described, for example, by Min et al. in "FALCON: fast and unbiased reconstruction of high-density super-resolution microscopy data," Scientific Reports, volume 4, 2014, article number 4577, 2014.

Sparsity-based super-resolution correlation microscopy

TECHNION RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION LTD.


Disclosed is a double-sided grating waveguide biosensor. The double-sided grating waveguide biosensor is used to sense the properties of a sample solution. The double-sided grating waveguide biosensor comprises a sequential stack of a plastic grating having a grating part, a waveguide layer having a double-sided grating structure, and a channel chip. Furthermore, the sample solution is guided into the channel chip; the light beam is coupled into the waveguide layer via the double-sided grating structure, propagates in the waveguide layer, and penetrates outward. The double-sided waveguide biosensor detects the properties of the sample solution via a variation of a light beam intensity of the outgoing light beam.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a biosensor, and particularly, a double-sided grating waveguide biosensor with a double-sided grating structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the biomedical sensing industry pays more and more attention to the accuracy and convenience when conducting a specific detection, while optical biosensors are exactly able to meet these requirements. Due to the fact that the development of optical waveguide devices gradually becomes more mature, people begin to utilize optical waveguide devices in detecting. Conventionally, an optical waveguide biosensor is either equipped with a prism or a grating as the coupling device to couple in a light beam into the waveguide layer. The detecting purpose is achieved by measuring the variations of the angle and the wavelength of the light beam source. However, measuring the variations of the angle and the wavelength of the light beam requires complex measurement instruments.
Additionally, manufacturing of grating biosensors are rather difficult, because grating is not easy to produce. Currently, the conventional manufacturing methods of grating biosensors are imprinting, ion erosion, or the holographic technique. However, these methods are too complex to mass-produce. Besides, the grating biosensors manufactured by these three methods are all single-sided.

Double-sided grating waveguide biosensor


The disclosure relates to organic electroluminescent elements, compounds for use in the elements, and devices using the elements, which include a compound represented by the following General Formula (1):

Since organic electroluminescent elements (which may hereinafter also be referred to as "elements" or "organic EL elements") are capable of high-luminance light emitting using low voltage driving, they have been actively researched and developed. The organic electroluminescent elements have a pair of electrodes and an organic layer between the pair of electrodes, and utilize, for light emitting, energy of the exciton generated as a result of recombination of the electron injected from the cathode and the hole injected from the anode in the organic layer. The organic electroluminescent elements can provide elements having diverse light emitting wavelengths, and since they have a high response speed and are relatively thin and light-weight, it is expected that they can be employed in a wide range of applications. Among these, it is important to develop an organic electroluminescent element having high color purity and luminous efficiency in light of the applications in full-color displays and the like, and the outcomes have been reported of various research and development studies up to now.
Compounds having a pyrene ring skeleton are known as excellent blue fluorescent material, and represent an example of the material of such organic electroluminescent elements. Among such compounds, many 1,6-substituted pyrenes are known as examples of light emitting materials (see, for example, JP-A-2006-298793, JP-A-2004-204238, and KR10-2011-0057008).
JP-A-2006-298793 describes pyrene compounds having diphenylamino group-substituted phenyl groups across the pyrene ring on the long axis (positions 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8) of the pyrene ring. It is disclosed in the Examples of this publication that a high emission-luminance, high heat-resistance, and long-life organic EL element having excellent high-temperature preservability could be produced when a pyrene compound having diphenylamino group-substituted phenyl groups at positions 1 and 6 of the pyrene ring was used as the dopant of a light emitting layer.
JP-A-2004-204238 describes pyrene compounds having substituted amino groups such as diphenylamino groups across the ring on the long axis (positions 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8). It is disclosed in the Examples of this publication that an organic EL element having excellent blue color purity and luminous efficiency could be produced when a pyrene compound having diphenylamino groups at positions 1 and 6 of the pyrene ring was used as the dopant of a light emitting layer.
KR10-2011-0057008 describes pyrene compounds, similar to those described in JP-A-2004-204238, having substituted amino groups such as diphenylamino groups across the ring on the long axis (positions 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8).
On the other hand, there are not many known examples of pyrene compounds substituted at positions 4 and 9 or positions 4 and 10. For example, JP-A-2009-283899 describes pyrene compounds having 2-phenylnaphthalene and other aryl groups or heteroaryl groups across the ring on the short axis (positions 4, 5, 9, and 10). However, the only example in which the pyrene compounds are used in the Examples of this publication is one in which a compound having a 2-phenylnaphtyl group at pyrene position 4 and a terphenyl group at position 9 is used as a host material of a light emitting layer in combination with a green-emitting material. Further, JP-A-2009-283899 merely describes host materials having a 2-phenylnaphthalene structure as being desirable, and does not describe preferred specific light emitting material structures or preferred specific substitution positions.
Under these circumstances, the present inventors studied the pyrene compounds described in the foregoing publications by using these compounds as light emitting materials of organic electroluminescent elements, and found that the pyrene compounds described in JP-A-2006-298793 and JP-A-2004-204238 had longer wavelengths, and were unable to realize high blue color purity in an organic electroluminescent element.
It was also found that the pyrene compounds described in KR10-2011-0057008, and the compounds described in JP-A-2009-283899 did not have sufficient performance (including luminous efficiency) as light emitting material, and had poor chromaticity.

Organic electroluminescent element, compound for use in the element, and light emitting device, display device, and illumination device using the element

Abstract: where R1 to R3 and R6 to R8 each independently represents a hydrogen atom, which may be a deuterium atom, or a substituent with a Hammett substituent constant σp value of −0.15 or more, R5, R9 and R10 each independently represents a hydrogen atom or a substituent, L1 represents a divalent linking group, DG1 represents a donor group, and n1 represents 1 or 2, and where R1 to R3, R5 to R10, L1, and DG1 are not bound to each other to form a ring.


A device and method for automatically controlling transmission power of a CDMA site, by automatically controlling high frequency power of the CDMA site. The circuit for automatically controlling transmission power of a site in a CDMA mobile communication system, including: at least, one digital processing unit for encoding data on a transmission channel; a transmitter for converting, filtering and amplifying a signal output from the digital processor; a power amplifier for amplifying transmission data to propagate the amplified data in the air; a variable attenuator interposed between the transmitter and the power amplifier, for varying data output from the transmitter to be transmitted to the power amplifier; a power measurer for measuring the transmission power from the power amplifier; a detector for comparing a calculated value of the transmission power with a measurement value of the transmission power to obtain an error power therefrom; a power controller for comparing an absolute value of the error power with a predetermined permissible variation, to control the variable attenuator in association with the comparison result; and a coupler for coupling the power amplifier to the power measurer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a code division multiple access (hereinafter, referred to as "CDMA") mobile communication system, and more particularly to a device and method for automatically, precisely controlling transmission power of a CDMA site.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a CDMA mobile communication system, communication capability for a frequency resource is determined by noise distributions between whole cells which use the same frequency band. Therefore, in order to optimize the communication capability for the whole cells, the high frequency output transmitted from the cells must be controlled appropriately. Thus, it is necessary to control the high frequency transmission power precisely; controlling the high frequency transmission power is, however, difficult due to the differences between the features of analog circuit and digital transmission circuit of a transmitter in a CDMA site.
A conventional CDMA mobile communication system has a transmission circuit consisting of inconsistent analog and high frequency circuits. Therefore, in the CDMA system which requires for a precise transmission power, the transmission power is controlled by measuring the transmission power and adjusting gains of variable circuits according thereto. To the end, variable gain sections of the circuit boards are precisely adjusted at the manufacturing process, or the high frequency circuit and analog circuit are manually adjusted upon measuring the whole transmission power when setting up the sites. Such conventional method requires expert technical knowledge and lot of time for controlling the transmission power precisely.

Device and method for automatically controlling transmission power


An adjustable mounting system for holding a device in a particular position. The system comprises support apparatus having a base member for coupling the system to a rigid support structure. The system also comprises an expandable arm having adjustment apparatus for adjusting the length of the expandable arm anywhere between fully extended and fully shortened positions. The expandable arm has first and second ends. The first end of the expandable arm comprises mounting apparatus for mounting the arm to the support apparatus. The second end of the expandable arm comprises securing apparatus for securing the device to be held in a particular position proximate the second end of the expandable arm. The present system also comprises lockable positioning apparatus coupled between the first end of the expandable arm and the support apparatus for positioning and locking the arm so that the device can be held proximate the first end of the arm anywhere within first and second hemispheres. The first hemisphere is defined by the length of the expandable arm when the arm is fully extended, and the second hemisphere is defined by the length of the expandable arm when the arm is fully shortened.

The present invention is an adjustable mounting system for holding a device in a particular position. The present invention was developed to facilitate the needs of physically-handicapped individuals who often need to have activating switches put in varying particular locations for access by the individuals in varying circumstances and from varying parts of their bodies. Since these individuals often have severely restricted ability to move their hands or other parts of their bodies in order to make contact with an activating switch, a system which is highly versatile and which permits the positioning of switches or other devices was needed. However, in addition to serving the needs of individuals who are handicapped or who otherwise have limited abilities to come into contact with devices that may be held by the present system, the system is also widely useful for many other holding applications, for example, for holding a camera in virtually any position desired.


A method of extracting at least one pitch from every frame of a speech signal, which includes the steps of generating a number of residual signals revealing high and low points of the speech signal within a frame, and taking one of those residual signals which satisfies a predetermined condition among the generated residual signals, as the pitch. In the step of generating the residual signals, the speech is filtered using a FIR-STREAK filter which is a combination of the finite impulse response (FIR) filter and a STREAK filter, and the filtration result is output as the residual signal. In the step of generating the pitch, only the residual signal whose amplitude is over a predetermined value, and the residual signal whose temporal interval is within a predetermined period of time is generated as the pitch.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for extracting a speech pitch during processes, such as encoding and synthesizing speech processes. More specifically, it relates to a pitch extracting method which is efficient in extracting the pitch of sequential speech.
2. Description of the Related Art
As demand for a communication terminal rapidly increases with the development of scientific techniques, the typical communication line cannot handle the capacity needed to support such a communication terminal. To solve this problem, methods have been provided for encoding speech at a bit rate below 8 kilobits/second (kbit/s). When processing speech according to those encoding methods, however, a problem of tone quality deterioration occurs. Many investigators are doing wide-ranging studies for the purpose of improving tone quality while processing speech with a low bit rate.
In order to improve tone quality, psychological properties such as musical interval, sound volume, and timbre must be improved. At the same time, physical properties corresponding to the psychological properties, such as pitch, amplitude, and waveform structure, must be reproduced close to the corresponding properties in the original sound. The pitch is called a "fundamental frequency" or "pitch frequency" in a frequency domain, and is called a "pitch interval" or a "pitch" in a spatial domain. Pitch is an indispensable parameter in judging a speaker's gender and distinguishing between a voiced sound and a voiceless sound of uttered speech, especially, when encoding speech in a low bit rate.
At present, three major methods are available for extracting the pitch, namely, a spatial extracting method, a method of extracting in the frequency domain, and a method of extracting in the spatial domain and the frequency domain. An autocorrelation method is representative of the spatial extracting method, the Cepstrum method is representative of a method for extracting in the frequency domain, and an average magnitude difference function (AMDF) method and a method in which a linear prediction coding (LPC) and AMDF are combined are representative methods for extracting in the spatial domain and frequency domain.
In the above conventional methods, a speech waveform is reproduced by applying a voiced sound to every interval of a pitch which is repeatedly reconstructed when processing speech after being extracted from a frame of speech data, where a frame of speech data corresponds to scores of milliseconds of the speech data. In real sequential speech, however, vocal chord or sound properties are changed when a phoneme varies, and the pitch interval is delicately altered by interference even in a frame of scores of milliseconds of the speech data. In the case where neighboring phonemes influence each other, so that speech waveforms which have different frequencies exist together in one frame of sequential speech, an error occurs in extracting the pitch. For example, an error in extracting the pitch occurs at the beginning or end of speech, a transition of the original sound, a frame in which mute and voiced sound exist together, or a frame in which a voiceless consonant and a voiced sound exist together. As described above, the conventional methods are vulnerable to sequential speech problems.

Pitch extracting method for a speech processing unit


The present disclosure describes a serial control channel processor. In some aspects, a time-based instruction corresponding to a command is executed and a signaling event based on the time-based instruction is generated at a communication port. In other aspects a signal containing data is received at a communication port and a time-based instruction is executed to read data of the received signal.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Inkjet and laser print devices are prevalent in many home and office environments. Print devices employing inkjet or laser technology allow users to produce a wide range of printed media, from black and white documents to color photographs, conveniently and quickly on-site. Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are typically employed in inkjet or laser printing devices to keep costs low while providing users with a diverse set of printing features. ASICs can be employed for printing devices using any one of a number of marking technologies, so the general term printing device will be used in further descriptions.
A system-level ASIC of a printing device is typically configured to interface with a specific set of analog ASICs and other support chips, which work in concert to perform various print functions. Analog ASICs and/or support chips made by different manufactures use different interfaces, or communication protocols, which are hard-coded into the system-level ASIC's limited memory. Hard-coding limits the number of analog ASICs and/or support chips with which the system-level ASIC can communicate with, as the hard-coded communication interfaces are not flexible enough to implement different or new communication protocols. As product life cycles for printing devices are short, significant time and resources are consumed hard-coding system-level ASICs that can only be implemented in a limited set of products.

Serial control channel processor for executing time-based instructions


An apparatus includes a circuit card assembly; and a nozzle for depositing material on the circuit card assembly, the nozzle and circuit card assembly capable of being angled relative to one another. In operation, the apparatus performs a process including positioning a circuit card assembly and a nozzle for the nozzle to deposit a material on the circuit card assembly; and angling the nozzle and the circuit card assembly relative to one another to facilitate the deposition.

The technique disclosed herein pertains to the deposition of materials on circuit card assemblies.
This section of this document introduces various aspects of the art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention described and/or claimed below. It provides background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. As the section's title implies, this is a discussion of "related" art. That such art is related in no way implies that it is also "prior" art. The related art may or may not be prior art. The discussion in this section of this document is to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Present deposition of materials on a circuit card assembly ("CCA") are by using large nozzles that do not have the capability of coating at multiple angles and deposit materials close to the interface areas.
The present invention is directed to resolving, or at least reducing, one or all of the problems mentioned above.

Material deposition on circuit card assemblies


A coupling device for coupling reinforcing bars used in structural concrete comprising an elongate tubular body for receiving bar end portions, a plurality of engagers being adjustably positioned through the elongate tubular body, the coupling device being characterized in that the plurality of engagers are configured with a plurality of different end portions being configured for a different engaging of the reinforcing bars.

There exists within the art, apparatus and method for coupling reinforcing bars used in structural concrete, such coupling commonly involving the use of a tubular steel coupling body or sleeve configured to receive end portions of the reinforcing bars. Typically, the bars are held in place within the coupling body using a number of engagers, these being for example, bolts or screws which engage into the reinforcing bars thereby wedging the bars against an inner surface of the tubular body providing the couple.
Typical coupling devices found in the art generally comprise engagers having pointed end portions to achieve an engaging into the reinforcing bars and not an engaging onto an outer surface of the bars thereby providing established contact between coupling device and reinforcing bars in an attempt to provide a strong couple. Through the provision of engagers being bolts or screws configured with pointed end portions the coupled reinforcing bars are both wedged firmly against an inner surface of the tubular body in addition to providing resistance to a laterally applied loading force, or tensile force. In particular, EP 0554972, GB 2220241, U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,878, U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,980, U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,282 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,902 all disclose a coupling device comprising a plurality of engagers, each engager comprising a pointed or conical end portion configured for bar penetration. A typical coupling device as disclosed within these documents and found in the art is detailed in FIG. 1 herein. FIG. 1 herein illustrates a side elevation view of a bar coupling device 100 as disclosed in the art comprising an elongate tubular body 102, a plurality of engagers 103, at least one gripping surface 104 and an inner surface 105. As is common in the art, coupling device 100 is configured to receive reinforcing bars, in particular their end portions, 101 via elongate tubular body 102. Engagers 103 are then adjustably positioned through tubular body 102 thereby engaging into bars 101 which in turn provides a wedging of reinforcing bars 101 against internal surface 105 at for example a specific gripping surface 104.
An alternative approach for the provision of coupling reinforcing bars is disclosed in GB 2127512. This document discloses a coupling device comprising an elongate tubular body configured to receive bar end portions, the bars being engaged by a plurality of engagers, in the form of bolts configured with flat end portions for engaging onto an outer surface of the bars. A consequence of reduced interaction and contact between the coupling device and reinforcing bars, via the non-penetrating engagers, is a requirement for additional contact between coupling device and reinforcing bar so as to provide an adequate coupling strength. This is provided for in GB 2127512 in the form of a settable material as detailed with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 therein. The settable material is introduced between the coupling device and the reinforcing bars whereby upon setting, coupling of the reinforcing bars is achieved.
The requirement for a settable material within the coupling device, to be introduced in situ, introduces numerous disadvantages. In particular, settable materials found in the art comprise low fire resistance introducing, in turn, safety concerns. Cementitious grout has been employed to overcome the problem of using low fire resistance material, however this in turn creates additional problems. As a result of the grout having high viscosity, air pockets or voids within the coupling region are observed resulting in a weak joint. The present invention described herein is directed, in general, although not exclusively, to a coupling device being operable without the requirement of a settable material, relying instead on the nature and construction of the coupling device to provide a strong couple. To this type of device we now turn.
With reference to the prior art coupling device of FIG. 1 herein; in response to a laterally applied loading force to the reinforcing bars 101, this loading force is transferred from bars 101 to the coupling device in gradually reducing magnitude from outer most regions 106 progressively through to inner most regions 107. Accordingly, the region of the bars 101 under the greatest stress, following the applied loading force, corresponds to the position of the outer most engager 108 as, in this region, a maximum transfer of loading force from bar 101 to coupling device 100 is observed. The amount of loading force transfer then progressively decreases towards the inner most regions of the coupling device 107, as detailed with reference to FIG. 1 herein.
Accordingly, the inventors have realized various disadvantages associated with prior art coupling devices involving a plurality of engagers configured to engage into the reinforcing bars thereby performing a wedging action. In particular, following a maximum loading force applied to the reinforcing bars 101 it is common to observe bar breakage 109 at a region of the bars 101 having reduced cross-sectional surface area in addition to maximum load transfer from bar to coupling device. Due to the degree of penetration of the engagers into the reinforcing bars, the ability of prior art coupling devices to transfer load from bar to coupler body up to and including the ultimate tensile strength of the reinforcing bars is reduced as a result of the reduced cross-sectional area of the bars at various points along the bars within the coupler body. Commonly, at and including the ultimate tensile strength of the bars, at least one bar breaks in a region within the coupler device therefore providing a weak joint between reinforcing bars. Consequently, the region of coupling of reinforcing bars using coupling devices found in the art, reduces the maximum loading force tolerance of the bars used in structural concrete. The coupling providing a weak point within any reinforced structure as a result of both the reduced cross-sectional area of the bars and a large initial load transfer from bar to coupling device. Moreover, bar breakage within the region of the coupler body even at nominal ultimate tensile strength of the bar is considered by some regulatory authorities as failure of the coupler.
What is required therefore is a coupling device configured for providing a strong couple between reinforcing bars up to and including the ultimate tensile strength of the reinforcing bars.
Accordingly, the inventors strive to provide a coupling device which will not represent a weak point within the reinforced structure providing instead a bar coupled region having an equal or higher loading force tolerance to that found at an uncoupled region along the length of the bars.