A removable swipe-imaging device and a method for identifying the device are disclosed. The removable swipe-imaging device is for limiting access to protected area to authorized individuals. The removable swipe-imaging device comprises a sensing pad with an integrated processor for processing sensed biometric image data; the processor comprising an encoding circuit for encoding the sensed biometric image data in response to a challenge received from a host processor, the encoded sensed image data for being transmitted to the host processor and decoded based on the challenge. The method for identifying the device comprises the steps of: providing a biometric sample to the sensor; capturing a biometric image indicative of the biometric sample for generating biometric image data; generating a challenge, the challenge stored in a storage medium in communication with a host processor; providing the generated challenge to the imaging sensor; encoding the biometric image data within the sensor in dependence upon the challenge; and, transmitting the encoded biometric image data to the host processor.

Computer security is fast becoming an important issue. With the proliferation of computers and computer networks into all aspects of business and daily life—financial, medical, education, government, and communications—the concern over secure file access is growing. Various approaches exist for securing access to buildings, computers, confined areas, and so forth.
It is well known to those skilled in the art that a security access system that provides substantially secure access and does not require a password or access code is a biometric identification system. Due to its inherent nature, biometric data has the advantage of always being available for user identification and verification. Fingerprint sensing and matching is a reliable technique for personal identification and/or verification.
Biometric-oriented personal identification techniques are becoming increasingly important in protecting personal property, as for example laptops or cellular phones, in preventing credit card and calling card fraud, in limiting access to security areas, computers and information, and in ensuring security for electronic commerce. Typically, a biometric identification system accepts unique biometric information from a user and identifies the individual by matching the information against information belonging to registered individuals of the system.
These techniques have the advantage that they move with the individual and are theoretically capable of great accuracy. Of all presently used biometric identification techniques, fingerprints are perhaps the most appealing. Fingerprints have been accepted for 75 years as a legal means for verifying identity "beyond all reasonable doubt", and acquiring a fingerprint requires little specific behavior by the user. Considerable research has gone into the task of extracting fingerprint features and performing database comparisons. Existing technology allows the relevant features of a fingerprint to be represented in a few hundred bytes of data, with recognition in less than 1 second, and with low false acceptance and false rejection rates of about 0.01%. The fingerprint is probably the most widely used and researched biometric identification technique. Furthermore, the computer hardware required for recording and comparing fingerprint data can be centralized and accessed through a telecommunications network thereby allowing costs to be amortized across many transactions. A variety of systems and methods are currently used to protect information and property from unauthorized access or interference.
Accurate and cost effective verification of personal identity is becoming increasingly important. However, all the methods proposed for electronic identification of individuals suffer a similar problem, which is to ensure that the token used is in the possession of its rightful owner.
An approach is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,408 to Pearson et al. who disclose a system wherein a security key is created from one or more biometric elements of a user. In the case of a fingerprint, a user presses a finger on a sensor pad, which inputs a representation of the fingerprint into a computer system. The representation of the fingerprint is used to construct an instance of a problem which has data derived from the fingerprint as its solution. The instance of the problem is associated with the identity of the user. A code or feature can be inserted into the instance of the problem in order to serve as proof that the instance of the problem was generated in a secure fashion by a secure system or that it is otherwise reliable and uncorrupted. Further, a cryptographic key can be generated from the user's fingerprint and used to encrypt information.
One problem associated with remote fingerprint sensors concerns transmission of information used for verification. Therefore, it is often desirable to store or transmit information in an encrypted format so that even if the information falls into the hands of an unauthorized user, it cannot be accessed without the cryptographic key. A limitation of such an approach regards the costs associated with a reconfiguration of the fingerprint sensors. For example, in the case of swipe imaging devices such reconfiguration infers incorporating a chip including a processor having encrypting capacities compatible with such a requirement, adding further silicon layer to the sensor, increasing wiring, and so forth. This represents an expensive and a massive operation to upgrade security on all existing sensor devices. Even while encryption allows sensitive information to be securely transmitted or stored in publicly accessible areas, a cryptographic key can be lost, stolen, or given away then unauthorized users may have access to the encrypted information, which renders the whole security system obsolete.
Whereas the fingerprint is unique and cannot be easily duplicated, such is not the case for the electronic representation of the fingerprint. Knowledgeable individuals with incentive to gain access to a system can record such an electronic representation for use at a later time. Further, the signal providing access may be recorded for later use thus circumventing a security system.
Therefore, in view of the above-mentioned and other limitations of the prior art, there is a need of a system for preventing playing back a fingerprint to fraudulently gain access to a protected area by being falsely authorized by a host processor. A non-expensive system is of course a major advantage of the present invention.

Removable swipe-imaging device and method for identifying same


A method and system for encoding a digital video signal using a plurality of parallel processors. A digital picture is received that is composed of one or more GOPs. The CPU then determines the number of GOPs that need to be encoded and divides them into groups. The number of GOPs in a group may equal the number of parallel processors in the multi-core platform available to encode. The CPU transfers in a single batch to the multi-core platform, a frame of equal rank from each GOP contained in the first group. The multi-core platform encodes the frames in parallel, rearranges the encoded byte stream chunk into normal display order sequence and stores the encoded byte stream. The process may repeat until all the GOPs in the first group have been encoded. Upon completion the multi-core platform outputs the encoded byte stream in normal display order sequence.

In order to efficiently store and transmit digital video signals, it is often desired to "compress" the signals. H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) is a video compression standard that achieves higher compression efficiency than most signal compression standards. The AVC standard provides good video quality at bit rates that are substantially lower than previous standards, such as MPEG-2, H.263, or MPEG-4 Part 2, without being impractical to implement. The AVC standard is also flexible enough to be applied to a wide variety of applications and work well on a very wide variety of networks and systems.
The coding efficiency gains of advanced video standards such as AVC come at the price of increased computational requirements. The demand for computing power also increases with the shift towards HD resolutions. As a result, current high-performance uniprocessor computer architectures are not capable of providing the performance required for real-time processing. One way to speed up the video encoding processes is to use a multi-core architecture. Moreover, another powerful solution is to exploit parallelism. AVC may be parallelized either by a task-level or data-level decomposition.
In order to exploit parallel processing power in video compression applications, conventional methods involve splitting a picture in a video sequence into "slices." Some video compression applications require a single-slice approach (one slice per picture). With the single-slice approach, there are many dependency issues in the syntax and semantics around the block boundary, especially in the AVC specification.
One method of parallel processing video compression on a multi-core system with the single-slice approach is to separate a picture horizontally into a top half and a bottom half, further separating the picture into Macroblocks (MBs). One thread in the processor processes the top half of the picture and another thread processes the bottom half. Both threads process the same picture. The bottom thread ignores dependency around the boundary and also handles conformance of syntax around the boundary. When the bottom thread processes the first lines in an MB of the picture, it selects an MB mode that is independent of mode used for its upper MB. However, this methodology may achieve lower efficiency of compression than the standard single-slice raster scan approach.
A multiple-slice approach has been proposed. However, multi-slice methods may suffer from many problems. For example, it may be difficult or impossible to validate the correctness of parallel-processing methodology incorporating multi-slices. In addition, the video quality decreases at the boundaries of slices. Video compression using horizontal multi-slice encoding may suffer workload imbalance if the complexity of video contents are different in different slices. Moreover, the result of individual slices of horizontal multi-slice encoding needs to be concatenated to form a single result. This is additional work that does not exist in single-slice encoding.
All of the processes discussed above divide a frame into slices for encoding. If a system could pass an entire frame, rather than a slice, to a multi-core encoder, it would greatly reduce the communication load between the central processor and encoder. Additionally, the communication load would be further reduced if the encoding process occurred in a single-command multiple-data fashion. Hence, there remains a need for an efficient implementation and scalable methodology for processing, in parallel, groups of pictures (GOPs) at the frame level where each frame is an encoding unit.

High performance AVC encoder on a multi-core platform


A method for, and a mobile terminal configured for, outputting an image together with a background sound are provided. The method for outputting an image in a mobile terminal comprises the steps of setting at least one image and a corresponding background sound, and detecting when a user selects an image for which the background sound was set and outputting the selected image and the corresponding background sound simultaneously. Since the background sound is played simultaneously with the display of the wallpaper, it can satisfy the user's demand for distinctiveness and expression of individuality.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for, and a mobile terminal configured for, outputting an image together with background sound.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, "mobile terminals" refer to handheld devices used for data transmissions or wireless communications. These devices comprise cellular phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Personal Communication Services (PCS) phones, International Mobile Telecommunication-2000 (IMT-2000) terminals and Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) terminals.
Mobile terminals have quickly attained worldwide popularity as a necessity for people of all ages. It is a current trend that mobile terminals are becoming smaller, sleeker and lighter to improve portability, as well as implementing various functions and services.
Mobile terminals have gone beyond merely being telephones and now integrate additional functions such as a short message service, memory function for storing and searching for telephone numbers, lock function, alarm/alert function, wallpaper setting, area code search, camera function, DMB and mobile game function. Mobile terminals with such additional functions have brought users greater convenience and benefit to their daily life.
Among the additional functions available, the wallpaper setting function enables mobile users to set any image stored in their mobile terminals, or any picture taken using a camera, as wallpaper for the mobile terminal. Users can directly select a desired image or picture and set it as wallpaper for the mobile phone.
Traditional wallpaper is merely displayed on the display window of a mobile terminal, without any background sound. Thus, users can become easily bored with such wallpaper.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method for, and a mobile terminal configured for, providing background sound suitable to a particular wallpaper, or a user's favorite sound or music, for output during display of the wallpaper to satisfy the user's demand for distinctiveness and expression of individuality.

Mobile terminal and method for outputting image


An apparatus for providing a multi-mode interface between a baseband receiver and radio frequency (RF) circuitry. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the apparatus includes a first differential-to-single-ended converter, a second differential-to-single-ended converter and an analog-to-digital converter. The first differential-to-single-ended converter receives an incoming differential current pair to be converted into a first single-ended voltage signal. The second differential-to-single-ended converter receives an incoming differential voltage pair to be converted into a second single-ended voltage signal. Further, the analog-to-digital converter selectively receives an incoming single-ended voltage signal, the first single-ended voltage signal, or the second single-ended voltage signal to be converted into a digital signal to be further processed by the baseband processor. Note that the incoming single-ended voltage signal, as well as the incoming differential voltage and current signal pairs together form the multi-mode interface to the RF circuitry.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to wireless communications. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus for providing a multi-mode interface between a baseband integrated circuit and a radio frequency integrated circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, a baseband integrated circuit (IC) may only be connected with a radio frequency (RF) IC through a fixed interface. As illustrated in FIG. 1A, RF circuitry 120 has an interface to transmit and receive single-ended voltage signals to and from baseband circuitry 110. The baseband circuitry 110 provides a corresponding interface to transmit a single-ended voltage signal 130 to the RF circuitry 120, and to receive a single-ended voltage signal 131 from the RF circuitry 120. Referring to FIG. 1B, RF circuitry 122 has an interface to transmit and receive differential voltage signals to and from baseband circuitry 112. To work with the RF circuitry 122, the baseband circuitry 112 provides a corresponding interface to transfer differential voltage signal pairs 132 and 133 with the RF circuitry 122. Turning now to FIG. 1C, baseband circuitry 114 provides an interface to transmit a pair of differential current signals 134 to RF circuitry 124, and to receive a pair of differential current signals 135 from the RF circuitry 124. Hence, the RF circuitry 124 must have a corresponding interface to receive and transmit differential current signals.
However, a conventional baseband IC with a fixed interface, which, as described above, will lack freedom in the choice of an appropriate RF IC. The conventional baseband IC also suffers from difficulty in replacing an existing RF IC with other types. Therefore, what is needed is a baseband IC, especially, a baseband receiver incorporating a multi-mode interface to flexibly connect a wide variety of types of RF circuitry, unencumbered by the limitations associated with the prior art.

Apparatus for providing a multi-mode interface between a baseband receiver and radio frequency circuitry


A three-way catalyst (20) having an oxygen storage function and an exhaust purification catalyst (22) are arranged in the exhaust passage of an internal combustion engine. During medium-load operation of the engine the degree of lean of the air-fuel ratio in the combustion chamber (5) is increased so as to increase the oxygen storage amount of the three-way catalyst (20) to the maximum oxygen storage amount, and the air-fuel ratio in the combustion chamber (5) even after the oxygen storage amount of the three-way catalyst (20) has reached the maximum oxygen, storage amount is maintained at lean, after which the air-fuel ratio is returned to rich, and at this time, as the amount of poisoning of a noble metal catalyst when the air-fuel ratio in the combustion chamber (5) is rich increases, the amount of time for which the air-fuel ratio in the combustion chamber (5) is maintained at lean is increased.

Known in the art is an internal combustion engine which arranges, in an engine exhaust passage, a three-way catalyst, arranges, downstream or the three-way catalyst in the engine exhaust passage, an NOx storage catalyst which stores NOx in exhaust gas when the air-fuel ratio of the inflowing exhaust gas is lean and releases the stored NOx when the air-fuel ratio of the inflowing exhaust gas is made rich, and which switches an engine operating mode in accordance with an engine operating state to either of a lean air-fuel ratio operating mode where the fuel is burned under a lean air-fuel ratio and a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio operating mode where the fuel is burned under a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio (for example, see PTL 1).
In such an internal combustion engine, burning fuel under a lean air-fuel ratio enables a smaller fuel consumption compared with the case of burning fuel under the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio. Therefore, in such an internal combustion engine, usually the fuel is burned under a lean air-fuel ratio in as broad an operating region as possible. However, if burning fuel under a lean air-fuel ratio when the engine load becomes high, the temperature of the NOx storage catalyst rises and as a result the NOx storage ability of the NOx storage catalyst falls, so the NOx purification rate falls. Therefore, in such an internal combustion engine, to prevent the NOx purification rate from falling, when the engine load becomes higher, the operating mode is shifted from the lean air-fuel ratio operating mode to the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio operating mode.

Exhaust purification system of spark ignition type internal combustion engine


An image-pickup apparatus provided with an auto-focus capability. A first unit is configured to input a first trigger signal to initiate a distance measuring operation. A second unit is configured to input a second trigger signal to initiate a photographing operation. A setting unit is configured to set a substrate bias voltage applied to an imaging device included in the image-pickup apparatus. The setting unit is configured to set the substrate bias voltage one of during and after an auto-focus operation when the second trigger signal is input before expiration of a predetermined period of time after inputting the first trigger signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image-pickup apparatus, method and computer readable recording medium.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Electric digital camera technology has recently become increasingly popular. In this form of technology, an image is normally imaged by a CCD array. Subsequently, the images are stored on the camera in storage media such as a semiconductor memory array. At a later stage, the images are downloaded from the CCD device to a computer or other similar device, in which they are subjected to subsequent manipulation and printing in the course of requirements.
In a digital camera the preparation for photographing images (or capturing images) has previously been initiated from the time of inputting a release signal as an instruction signal for the photographing.
There included during preparatory process are several steps such as setting a bias voltage applied to a CCD device and preparing for outputting a voice output, some of which take a relatively long time before suitably stabilized as to become fully operative. This may result in a prolonged release time lag in proportion to the time length of the preparatory waiting period.
Such a difficulty can be obviated for example by applying a bias voltage applied to CCD substrate prior to photographing so that the time lag is eliminated.
This method, however, may result in a drawback of degrading image qualities from the so-called "blooming effect" which is caused by electric charges spilled out to surrounding pixels in CCD device when a high-luminance object is present in the field of view to be photographed.
In another case when voice output means is put always on, the time lag can also be reduced. This may cause, however, a further drawback of the increase in power consumption caused by continuous turning on of the circuit, which also affects battery life.
In regard to the application of voltage to a CCD device, a circuit has previously disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-177774 for changing promptly the bias voltage applied to the CCD device. Even by the method described in that application, however, the change of bias voltage generally takes a relatively long time.
Therefore, when the steps of changing the bias voltage are implemented following the photographing, the release time lag is prolonged in proportion to the time corresponding to the waiting period needed for stabilizing the bias circuit voltage.
In contrast to the '774 application, the present invention discloses a method of reducing the release time lag by initiating bias voltage setting steps under predetermined conditions prior to the photographing, which will be descried below.
In addition, although another circuit has been disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 05-103273 for promptly changing CCD bias voltages, the method in accordance with the present invention is also different from this application '273.
It is therefore desirable to provide methods of obviating previous difficulties noted earlier.
Difficulties have persisted such as unduly prolonged release time lag in proportion to time required for the setting of CCD bias voltage or for preparing suitable voice output process, the degradation of image qualities, which is caused by the above-mentioned blooming effect when a high-luminance object is present in the field of view to be photographed, and the increase in power consumption during preparatory steps of voice output.

Image capture apparatus which sets a substrate bias voltage of an image sensor


A bushing for a drill template, the bushing has a head portion for receipt of a drill motor. The head portion has a top surface and a bottom surface with at least one pin protruding from the bottom surface of the head portion. The pin fits within a secondary opening in a template to help retain the bushing in place. A body portion extends from the bottom surface of the head portion. The body portion has an outer surface with a portion of it threaded. The body portion extends through a primary drill hole in the template. A fastening nut having inner threads mates with the outer threads on the body portion to lock the bushing to the template. A bore extends through the head portion and the body portion for receipt of a drill bit.

Templates are used in many industries to provide an easy method for repetitive activities. For example, a template can be used to repetitively locate the position of holes that need to be drilled in a surface. The template is formed to fit over the surface in a particular position and has holes preformed in the template that will automatically locate the position where holes need to be drilled. A drill bit can then be positioned in the holes in the template to drill the holes at the desired locations in the surface. The template removes the need to measure all the desired locations of the holes in the surface. Once the template is positioned on the surface, the location of the holes in the underlying surface is automatically determined.
To prevent unnecessary wear of the template, bushings have been used. The bushings are configured to mount within the holes in the template and accept a drill bit. The bushings are normally made of metal and have an outside diameter generally equal to or slightly greater than the diameter of the template hole. The bushings prevent the drill bit from contacting the template. As will be appreciated, if the drill bit contacted the template, the hole would be distorted and the template would not be acceptable for further use.
The problem with known bushings is that they can spin within the template openings, push through the template, or be removed from the template when the drill bit is removed. Any of these have the potential for damaging the template and preventing its additional use. Even if the template is not damaged, the time involved in re-installing the bushings is undesirable.
This has been found to be a big problem in industrial applications, particularly for example in the aerospace industry. Large templates with numerous guide holes are used to drill holes in for example wing parts. With numerous guide holes having numerous bushings, any single bushing can push through, rotate, etc. This will result in down time to repair that bushing, or if the failure is severe enough to repair the template. Since there are a large number of bushings that can potentially fail, any number could fail at different times, requiring repeated repairs and long cumulative downtimes.
What is needed is a bushing that is fixed within the template and does not rotate, spin, pull through or push through.


An image sensing apparatus and method utilizing an image sensor, an auto white balance adjustment section, a change point detection section, and an electronic mark data generation section. The image sensor senses an image of an object and outputs an image signal corresponding to the image of the object. The auto white balance adjustment section automatically adjusts white balance of the image signal corresponding to a change of the image signal. The change point detection section detects a change point of the white balance corresponding to at least an adjustment value of the white balance while the image sensor is sensing the image of the object. The electronic mark data generation section generates electronic mark data for adjusted white balance based on time information of the change point detected by the change point detection section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image sensing apparatus, an image sensing method, an image sensing program, a recording apparatus, a recording method, and a recording program that allow both image signals of objects shot by a video camera and operation information thereof to be recorded.
2. Description of the Background Art
Image signals of objects shot by a video camera are recorded to a recording medium such as a video tape, a disc shaped recording medium, or a semiconductor memory. Thereafter, when necessary, the recorded image signals are edited and used. In brief, the editing operation is performed such that while the user is watching images reproduced as image signals from the recording medium, he or she extracts desired cuts and marks a start point, referred to as an in-point, and an end point, referred to as an out-point, each of the extracted cuts. Corresponding to the marked in-points and out-points, the user connects a plurality of cuts in his or her desired manner and records the connected images to for example another recording medium. As a result, so-called complete package images that are final images are obtained.
The user may need to extract his or her desired cuts, while he or she is watching images. Thus, to create perfect package images, the user may need to extract one or several cuts from many images. Thus, the user may have to reproduce many images, spending a long time.
To solve such a problem, a system that extracts feature points from images, searches images for the feature points, and extracts desired cuts has been proposed. As feature points, change points of operation states of the video camera can be used. When operation states of the video camera, for example diaphragm, zoom, focus, white balance, amplifier gain, and shutter speed have changed, the object or the shooting environment likely changed or the user likely intentionally operated the video camera. Thus, these change points can be used as feature points of images.
In particular, it is thought that a change point of an auto tracking white balance (ATW) that causes a white balance control to automatically follow a surrounding color temperature corresponds to a large change of a shooting environment such as a shooting location change from outdoor to indoor (or from indoor to outdoor), from room to room (e.g., from a room with an incandescent lamp to a room with a fluorescent lamp). Thus, change points of the auto tracking white balance are very effective to extract cuts.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 9-198849 describes a structure of a video camera that obtains changes of its operation states when it shoots objects and records the obtained changes as camera operation information together with image signals to a recording medium. According to JP 9-198849, when the user shoots objects, the video camera obtains camera operation information and records the information together with image signals to a recording medium frame by frame. When the user edits images, he or she searches for them corresponding to the camera operation information frame by frame. With the structure described in JP 9-198849, the user can quickly search his or her desired scenes corresponding to the camera operation states.

Image sensing apparatus and method generating electronic mark data based on white balance detections


Bleaching a particulate calcium carbonate aqueous slurry with a reductive bleaching agent such as formamidine sulfinic acid increases the viscosity of the slurry. Combining the slurry with a metal material such as strontium hydroxide reduces any increase in viscosity of the bleached calcium carbonate slurry. Addition of the reductive bleaching agent and/or the metal material takes place prior to, during or after the manufacture of the slurry or the bleaching step. Metal materials in one embodiment include those that form substantially water insoluble precipitates of the reductive bleaching reaction products.

Producers of paper, paper coatings, plastic compositions, and non aqueous surface coatings such as paints and film laminates use mineral materials such as calcium carbonate as property enhancing pigments or fillers in these products.
The appearance of paper, plastic compositions, and surface coatings, such as the whiteness and brightness of the product is significant, especially in the finer grades of printing and writing papers, plastics employed in consumer goods, and decorative surface coatings. The majority of these products require a calcium carbonate having the highest degree of whiteness and brightness.
Manufacturers of particulate calcium carbonates used in these applications supply calcium carbonate as a high solids slurry, e.g., a high solids ground calcium carbonate (GCC) slurry, which they bleach with FAS or sodium hydrosulfite, both FAS and sodium hydrosulfite, and the equivalents thereof, referred to hereafter as reductive bleaching agents. They have found, however, bleaching high solids GCC slurries with reductive bleaching agents raises the Brookfield viscosity, with the slurry thickening much faster than normal. The thickening of the slurry is severe enough to make it difficult, if not impossible to empty tank trucks or tank rail cars by gravity discharge when the bleached carbonate stands for more than about eight to about ten hours. This problem becomes more pronounced with more finely ground high solids GCC slurries bleached with reductive bleaching agents.
The present invention comprises the discovery that ions in solution resulting from the breakdown products of the reductive bleaching agents cause this thickening. These ions include ions of sulfur acids, sulfites, bisulfites, sulfates, and the like. Urea, another breakdown product of FAS bleaching, does not appear to cause this thickening since it does not ionize. These acidic anions also lower the pH of the high solids GCC slurries, which paper manufacturers try to avoid since this can adversely affect the properties (coating color) of the mixture of calcium carbonate and reductive bleaching agent used to coat paper.
It would therefore be an advantage to negate the effects of the sulfur acid ions such as sulfite, bisulfite, water soluble sulfate ions, and the like in the process, and make reductive bleaching a viable process for the treatment of high solids GCC slurries.

Stabilization of the viscosity of formamidine sulfinic acid bleached calcium carbonate slurries


The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a linear LED light source, comprising: providing a tubular glass envelope that is open at its proximal end and its distal end; inserting a light source mount assembly comprising one or more LED units into the tubular glass envelope; forming a distal hermetic seal at the distal end such that a distal opening remains at the distal end; forming a proximal hermetic seal at the proximal end such that a proximal opening remains at the proximal end; filling the tubular glass envelope with a gas filling; and sealing the distal and proximal openings to obtain a sealed lamp envelope; wherein a flow of coolant gas through the tubular glass envelope is maintained during the formation of the proximal hermetic seal and/or distal hermetic seal if the light source mount assembly is inserted before the formation of the respective hermetic seal.

In LED filament light sources, light is generated by means of LED filaments—multi-LED structures that resemble the filament of an incandescent light bulb. LED filaments consist of multiple LEDs connected in series on a transparent substrate, allowing the light emitted by the LEDs to disperse evenly and uniformly. Commonly, a coating of yellow phosphor in a resin binder material converts the blue light generated by the LEDs into white light. An example for a LED filament light source is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,400,051 B2.
LED filament lamps are conventionally filled with a thermally conductive gas. The reason is that LED filaments are omnidirectional light sources, and they therefore cannot be attached to a conventional heat sink (for instance a metallic or thermally conductive polymer substrate) owing to the opaque nature of such heat sinks. This would block the radiation of light in one direction and render the concept of the omnidirectional LED filament useless. LED filaments are therefore cooled by optically transparent means, for instance the gases mentioned above.
Both hydrogen and helium are characterised by their high thermal conductivity, due in part to their exceptionally small atomic diameter (or molecular diameter in case of hydrogen), and these gases will diffuse through many transparent materials traditionally used for LED lamp envelopes—for instance translucent plastics, along with quartz and many hard glasses, etc. However the permeability through ordinary soft glasses is sufficiently slow that such gases can be contained within envelopes made of these materials sufficiently long to attain a useful lamp lifetime. It has therefore been established that the best gas-cooled LED filament lamps are constructed using soft-glass envelopes filled with a heat conductive gas of low atomic mass.
Also of concern is the quality of the glass-to-metal seals in which electrical current-carrying conductors are brought through the glass envelope. Typical adhesive materials are also porous to the light gases, therefore a hermetic seal must be formed directly from the glass envelope to a metallic conductor having a suitably matched coefficient of thermal expansion to obtain a gas-tight seal, according to the techniques long established in the manufacture of electric lamps and associated glass vacuum devices. An example for such a seal is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,498,908. The formation of such seals calls for the fusion of the glass at high temperatures, which may be deleterious to the LED filaments in close proximity owing to the use of polymeric and other thermally unstable materials in their construction.
In order to avoid such damage to LED filaments (or other thermally sensitive elements), the elements in question are arranged inside the glass envelope with a certain distance from the seal formation regions, so that the high temperatures occurring in the seal formation region during the seal formation process do not compromise the integrity of these elements. This leads to the formation of a non light-emitting dead zone in the vicinity of the seal formation region.
It is thus desirable that the light emission should extend much closer to regions of the lamp that are sealed during the manufacturing process. This need is particularly prominent for linear LED light sources which have a glass envelope of essentially cylindrical shape and a plurality of LED units that are arranged along the longitudinal axis of the glass envelope. Such linear LED light sources are now commonly employed to replace fluorescent tube type light sources. Here, the ends of the glass envelope are usually sealed in the manufacturing process. Owing to the incineration and destruction of the LEDs when they are brought closer to a seal formation region of the glass tube, the production of double-ended LED filament tube lamps has proven particularly difficult.
In light of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a linear LED light source with improved radiation characteristics, particularly a linear LED light source in which the light-emitting source extends over substantially the entire length of the product.

Linear LED light source and manufacturing method

Flowil International Lighting (Holding) B.V.


The subject invention relates a method for the production of monoclonal antibodies. The method utilizes an immunized germfree animal. The invention also provides methods for the use of such monoclonal antibodies, and polyclonal antibodies derived from an immunized germfree animal, for in vitro and in vivo clinical diagnostics and therapeutics. Also, the subject invention provides a fibrin-specific monoclonal antibody.

Kohler and Milstein are generally credited with having devised the techniques that successfully resulted in the formation of the first monoclonal antibody-producing hybridomas (G. Kohler and C. Milstein, 1975, Nature 256, 495-497; 1976, Eur. J., Immunol. 6, 511-519). By fusing antibody-forming cells (spleen B-lymphocytes) with myeloma cells (malignant cells of bone marrow primary tumors) they created a hybrid cell line, arising from a single fused cell hybrid (called a hybridoma or clone). The hybridoma had inherited certain characteristics of both the lymphocytes and the myeloma cell lines. Like the lymphocytes, the hybridoma secreted a single type of immunoglobulin; moreover, like the myeloma cells, the hybridoma had the potential for indefinite cell division. The combination of these two features offered distinct advantages over conventional antisera.
Antisera derived from vaccinated animals are variable mixtures of polyclonal antibodies which never can be reproduced identically. Monoclonal antibodies are highly specific immunoglobulins of a single type. The single type of immunoglobulins secreted by a hybridoma is specific to one and only one antigenic determinant, or epitope, on the antigen, a complex molecule having a multiplicity of antigenic determinants. For instance, if the antigen is a protein, an antigenic determinant may be one of the many peptide sequences (generally 6-7 amino acids in length; M. Z. Atassi, 1980, Molec. Cell. Biochem. 32, 21-43) within the entire protein molecule. Hence, monoclonal antibodies raised against a single antigen may be distinct from each other depending on the determinant that induced their formation; but for any given hybridoma, all of the antibodies it produces are identical. Furthermore, the hybridoma cell line is easily propagated in vitro or in vivo, and yields monoclonal antibodies in extremely high concentration.
A monoclonal antibody can be utilized as a probe to detect its antigen. Thus, monoclonal antibodies have been used in in vitro diagnostics, for example, radioimmunoassays and enzyme-linked immunoassays (ELISA), and in in vivo diagnostics, e.g. in vivo imaging with a radiolabeled monoclonal antibody. Also, a monoclonal antibody can be utilized as a vehicle for drug delivery to such antibodies' antigen.
However, before a monoclonal antibody can be utilized for such purpose, it is essential that the monoclonal antibody be capable of binding to the antigen of interest; i.e., the target antigen. This procedure is carried out by screening the hybridomas that are formed to determine which hybridomas, if any, produce a monoclonal antibody that is capable of binding to the target antigen. This screening procedure can be very tedious in that numerous, for example, perhaps several thousand, monoclonal antibodies may have to be screened before a hybridoma that produces an antibody that is capable of binding the target antigen is identified. Accordingly, there is the need for a method for the production of monoclonal antibodies that increases the likelihood that the hybridoma will produce an antibody to the target antigen.

Methods for treating a fibrin encapsulated tumor using a fibrin specific monoclonal antibody and compositions used therein


A new plant variety of Chrysanthemum producing red flowers.

The present invention is directed to a new and distinct variety of chrysanthemum botanically classified as Dendranthema grandiflora. The varietal denomination of the new chrysanthemum is `Enzo`.
The female parent of the new variety is the variety known as `Stroika` and the male parent is a undistributed, unnamed, unpatented and undistributed seedling identified as AH9-88. The new variety has been asexually reproduced by vegetative cuttings in Ventura County, Calif. and the distinguishing characteristics are retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction.


An arrowhead for use in the sport of archery hunting, which has a sharpened blade, pivotally mounted within a slot in the body of the arrowhead. The blade is held in a temporarily stationary position, centered within the slot, by a rubber o-ring, until such time as the arrowhead begins to penetrate the animal. Upon penetration the rubber o-ring slides rearward onto the arrow shaft, thus allowing the blade to pivot to either side of the arrowhead body. This design allows for decreased resistance when the blade strikes a hard surface within the body of the animal, thus the arrowhead achieves greater penetration into the body of the animal, causing a longer cut and therefore increased bleeding. This will result in a quicker and more humane kill.

In the sport of archery hunting, one of the main concerns is how much penetration the arrowhead achieves upon striking the target. Since an arrowhead kills by causing bleeding, good penetration in the body of the animal being shot is of prime importance. In fact, full penetration of the arrowhead through the body of the animal is preferred.
When an arrowhead with a fixed blade design strikes a hard surface, such as bone or cartilage, within the body of the animal, the amount of penetration the arrowhead achieves is greatly diminished. This is due to the increased resistance caused by the fixed blade of the arrowhead pressing against a hard surface area, such as bone, within the body of the animal. On the other hand, if the blade of the arrowhead is allowed to move, or pivot, upon striking a hard surface, the amount of resistance the arrowhead encounters is greatly reduced, thus resulting in greater penetration of the arrowhead into the body of the animal.
Therefore, as far as the sport of archery is concerned, it is desirable to have an arrowhead with a moveable, or pivoting, blade design, in order to achieve a greater amount of penetration into the body of the animal, thereby creating a cut of greater length, thus creating a greater amount of bleeding.


A "closed-loop" moisture control system for use in vibratory mass finishing systems. A substantially constant amount of a grinding and/or polishing slurry is maintained in a finishing reservoir of the vibratory mass finishing system by controlling the amount of such fluid flowing from a supply reservoir into the finishing reservoir, and/or the amount of such fluid flowing from the finishing reservoir into a collection reservoir. In operation, a total weight of the supply reservoir and its contents, and of the collection reservoir and its contents is monitored and, in the event there is an increase in the total weight, a control means increases the amount of polishing fluid flowing from the supply reservoir into the finishing reservoir, and/or decreases the amount of polishing fluid flowing from the finishing reservoir into the collection reservoir. Conversely, in the event there is a decrease in the total weight, the control means decreases the amount of polishing fluid flowing from the supply reservoir into the finishing reservoir, and/or increases the amount of polishing fluid flowing from the finishing reservoir into the collection reservoir.

Articles of different kinds are often ground and/or polished by vibrating them in the presence of a grinding and/or polishing material (referred to generically as polishing material). Customarily, a quantity of articles to be polished and a quantity of polishing material are held within a vibratory chamber (or container) of a vibrating device; and the vibrating device applies controlled vibration to the articles and the polishing material so as to provide rapid relative movement between the articles and the polishing material. As a result, the polishing material impacts upon the articles being finished and provides grinding and/or polishing of the articles depending on the polishing material used, i.e., grit size or abrasiveness.
The material used in the grinding and/or polishing applications referred to herein can consist of two grinding and/or polishing components. First, a particulate grinding/or polishing media (referred to generically as polishing media) is used which remains in the vibratory chamber and generally consists of an abrasive or burnishing agent. The polishing media has a relatively large size, e.g., 0.025 in. or larger, and may consist of one or more materials commonly known in the art such as are available from Washington Mills, in Massachusetts and Florida. Second, a liquid grinding and/or polishing fluid or slurry (referred to generically as polishing fluid or slurry) is used which circulates through the chamber; it includes a grinding and/or polishing agent (referred to generically as polishing agent) mixed with water or an oil. The grinding and/or polishing agent is generally a powder, e.g., measured in microns and may include one or more materials such as A1.sub.2 O.sub.3 or SiC available from suppliers such as Norton Abrasives, K.C. Abrasives in Kansas City and Microgrit. Thus, depending on the particular application, the polishing material may include either grinding agents or polishing agents along with the media.
A polishing slurry tends to provide a pronounced cutting, abrading or grinding action when the polishing slurry is newly introduced into a container of the vibrating device; however, after a period of time, the polishing slurry tends to provide less efficient cutting action. Thus, vibrating devices have been developed wherein fresh polishing slurry is continuously or periodically introduced into the container of the vibrating device, and spent polishing slurry (or discharge slurry) is simultaneously removed from the container.
Dwyer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,411,248, shows a vibrating device wherein an admixture of water and grinding and/or polishing agent is introduced into the container of the vibrating device on a substantially continuous basis, and wherein spent grinding and/or polishing agent is similarly cleaned away on a substantially continuous basis.
An alternative approach is shown by Roberts, U.S. Pat. No. 3,353,796. However, steel burnishing balls or beads, used as the polishing media, are retained in a work tub and are not introduced or drained away during the polishing process.
Problematically however, neither Dwyer et al. nor Roberts show a means for responding to changing conditions in the container or work tub, i.e., Dwyer et al. and Roberts show only "open-loop" control systems. For example, various factors such as polishing slurry viscosity and the amount of material worn away from the articles being polished can affect the outflow of polishing slurry from the container or work tub. Similarly, factors such as water pressure can affect the amount of polishing slurry flowing into the container or work tub. Thus, when one or more of these factors causes a change in the inflow (or outflow) of polishing slurry or fluid into the container, without a corresponding change in the outflow (or inflow) from the container, the level of liquid in the container will increase or decease correspondingly. Disadvantageously, if this phenomenon continues, which it is likely to do over an extended period, and corrective steps are not taken by a human attendant, the container will either overflow or contain a less than adequate level of polishing slurry to effectively grind or polish the articles. In either case the desired grinding or polishing process ceases to occur.
Note that there is an optimum amount of polishing slurry that will cause the desired grinding or polishing interaction between the polishing media, polishing agent and the articles. If the polishing fluid level is high or low, the desired interaction will not occur and damage to the articles to be ground and/or polished can occur. The amount of polishing slurry that is the optimum amount of polishing slurry will depend on the particular articles to be polished and the type of polishing slurry and/or polishing media used.
One application in which vibratory polishing and grinding systems are used is in the grinding and polishing of carbon or carbon coated heart valve orifice rings or leaflets. Typically, such heart valve parts are formed using a pyrolytic carbon coating device such as that shown by U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,012 to Brooks, incorporated herein by reference. After being formed, the parts are ready for grinding and polishing to remove excess carbon deposits. Vibratory grinding and polishing systems can effectively be used to perform these grinding and polishing functions. As with other vibratory polishing and grinding applications, the most effective results are achieved when fresh polishing slurry is continuously added to the container and spent polishing slurry (containing pyrocarbon fines) is continuously removed from the container during a grinding or polishing cycle or run. However, because the heart valve parts may contain many small interior surfaces, the grinding or polishing must be done over a period of time, e.g., between six and twenty hours, to allow small-sized polishing media (on the order of thousandths of an inch in diameter) to adequately grind or polish small inside corners of the parts. If systems such as those taught by Dwyer et al. and Roberts were used for heart valve grinding and polishing operations, close attendance would be needed.
Another problem encountered in attempting to control the amount of admixture in the container of a vibratory polishing and grinding system is the intense vibrations (on the order of 2700 to 6000 rpm) to which the container, and any control or measurement means in mechanical contact therewith, are subjected during a typical grinding or polishing run. Such vibrations can cause mechanical damage to and premature failure of most control or measurement means known in the art. Furthermore, even if such vibrations do not cause the failure of control or measurement means, they are likely to cause inaccurate responses by the control or measurement means. Disadvantageously, whenever the control or measurements means are damaged, fail or produce inaccurate results, there is a significant possibility that overfilling or underfilling of the container will occur.
Therefore, improvements in the control of such systems are desired.

Moisture control in vibratory mass finishing systems


A specimen retrieval apparatus includes an elongated tubular member defining a lumen therethrough and having an end effector disposed at a distal end thereof. The end effector includes a shaft defining a longitudinal axis, the shaft including a lumen extending therethrough. The lumen of the shaft communicates with the lumen of the elongated tubular member. A suction member is disposed at a distal end of the shaft in communication with the lumen of the shaft. The suction member is configured to retain a tissue specimen thereon. A sleeve is disposed about the shaft and is movable with respect to the shaft from a proximal to a distal position. A specimen retrieval bag is coupled to the sleeve. The bag is deployable from an undeployed position wherein the bag is disposed about the sleeve to an extended position wherein the bag is deployed over the tissue specimen.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a specimen retrieval apparatus, and more particularly, to a specimen retrieval apparatus for use in minimally invasive surgical procedures.
2. Background of Related Art
In minimally invasive surgical procedures operations are carried out within the body by using elongated instruments inserted through small entrance openings in the body. The initial opening in the body tissue to allow passage of instruments to the interior of the body may be a natural passageway of the body, or it can be created by a tissue piercing instrument such as a trocar, or created by a small incision into which a cannula is inserted.
Because the tubes, instrumentation, and any required punctures or incisions are relatively small, the surgery is less invasive as compared to conventional surgical procedures in which the surgeon is required to cut open large areas of body tissue. Therefore, minimally invasive surgery minimizes trauma to the patient and reduces patient recovery time and hospital costs.
Minimally invasive procedures may be used for partial or total removal of body tissue or organs from the interior of the body, e.g. nephrectomy, cholecystectomy, lobectomy and other procedures including thoracic, laparoscopic and endoscopic procedures. During such procedures, it is common that a cyst, tumor, or other affected tissue or organ needs to be removed via the access opening in the skin, or through a cannula. Various types of entrapment devices have been disclosed to facilitate this procedure. In many procedures where cancerous tumors are removed, removal of the specimen in an enclosed environment is highly desirable to prevent seeding of cancer cells.
In minimally invasive thoracic surgery, access to the thoracic cavity is limited as well as maneuverability within the cavity as the access port is placed between the confined space between a patient's ribs. Such procedures, commonly referred to as video assisted thorascopic surgery (VATS), aim to reduce patient recovery time by accessing the thoracic cavity through the natural intercostal space without spreading the ribs as in open procedures. This restricted access can sometimes cause problems when removing large specimens. Moreover, in such procedures, e.g. thorascopic wedge resection and lobectomy, it is often necessary to remove a portion of the lung and retrieve it relatively intact for pathology. It is also important that the specimen be sufficiently contained to prevent seeding of cancer cells during manipulation and removal.
In designing such specimen retrieval instrumentation, a balance must be struck between the need to provide a retrieval apparatus with a strong enough containment bag to prevent tearing or rupture while providing sufficient rigidity to enable manipulation and removal. Another balance which needs to be achieved is to provide sufficient maneuverability while reducing tissue trauma, e.g. damaging lung tissue, during manipulation and removal. Additionally, the instrumentation on one hand should be able to be inserted through a small access incision or port while on the other hand able to accommodate a wide range of patient sizes and be able to easily remove large specimens and minimize risk of seeding.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a specimen retrieval device for minimally invasive surgical procedures with increased maneuverability and which minimizes trauma to surrounding tissue and which successfully achieves the balance of competing factors enumerated above.


An asynchronous flag generator for generating an asynchronous flag having a minimum defined active pulse length. The asynchronous flag generator comprises an arbitrary length flag generator for generating an arbitrary length status flag signal from at least two asynchronous signals, one being a set flag signal and the other being a clear flag signal. A minimum pulse generator for generating a minimum pulse having a predefined pulse length upon initiation of the set flag signal. Combinational logic combines the arbitrary length status flag with the minimum pulse to generate an asynchronous status flag with a defined minimum active pulse length.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of semiconductor integrated circuits, and more specifically, to an apparatus for generating an asynchronous status flag which has a defined minimum pulse width.
2. Prior Art
Flags are provided in a number of integrated circuits. Flags signal the present condition of a circuit. For example, in a microprocessor flags are used to signal when errors occur, or when the microprocessor is busy. In FIFO (first in, first out) memory devices an "EMPTY flag" is used to signal when the device is empty or not empty. A "FULL flag" is used to signal when the device is full of data or not full of data.
In a FIFO, an empty flag (EF), for example, is derived from two asynchronous signals, a clock read signal (CKR) and the clock write signal (CKW). As shown in FIG. 1, assume that a FIFO presently contains one word, a read signal (CKR) would read out the only word contained in the FIFO and cause the FIFO to go empty. The rising edge of the read clock signal (CKR) causes the empty flag (EF) to go low to signal a true empty condition (EF is an active low signal). The empty flag (EF) signal remains low (true) until new data is written into the FIFO. When a write clock signal (CKW) is generated to write new data into memory, the EF signal goes high indicating that the FIFO is no longer empty.
The EF status flag is referred to as an "asynchronous flag" because it is derived from two independent signals. That is, CKR and CKW are asynchronous signals, they have no predetermined or fixed time relationship to one another. (The CKR signal is generated by a system component which reads data out of the FIFO at one rate, while the CKW signal is generated by a different component which writes data into the FIFO at a second independent rate.) The CKR signal causes the falling edge of the EF signal and the CKW signal causes the rising edge of the EF signal. The active pulse length of the EF signal is defined by the time lapse between the CKR signal and the CKW signal.
As shown in FIG. 2, as the time lapse between the CKR signal and the CKW signal is decreased so is the active pulse length of the EF signal. If the time delay between the CKR signal and the CKW signal is decreased even further, as shown in FIG. 3, the active pulse length of the EF signal can become "miniscule". Such a small pulse length can cause several problems for sequential logic circuits located downstream of the asynchronous status flag generator. (Downstream circuits are circuits which use the asynchronous signal, i.e. the consumer of the signal.) For example, in some cases the EF signal is used as data in downstream circuits. Such "miniscule" pulse lengths can violate data set-up and hold times. In other cases, the EF signal is used as a dock to drive downstream circuits. Here, the small signals can violate minimum clock pulse length requirements for the circuits. Such "miniscule" pulses can cause downstream sequential logic circuits to go into metastable conditions.
Metastable conditions are highly undesirable and can cause severe reliability problems in circuits. Presently, a substantial amount of additional circuitry and expense must be added to a circuit which receives asynchronous flags in order to protect against such small pulses. That is, additional circuitry and engineering must be provided to protect circuits imputing asynchronous flags from "miniscule" pulses which can cause the circuits to go into metastable conditions.
Thus, what is needed is an apparatus which generates an asynchronous status flag without generating "miniscule" pulses and their undesirable effects.

Apparatus for generating an asynchronous status flag with defined minimum pulse


An opening and closing apparatus is provided with a foreign material detecting sensor, a position detecting apparatus and a control circuit apparatus. The foreign material detecting sensor has a sensor electrode, and is arranged in a front end of a door panel. The foreign material detecting sensor outputs an electrostatic capacity detection signal corresponding to a change of an electrostatic capacity between the sensor electrode and a foreign material coming close to the electrode. The position detecting apparatus outputs a position detection signal corresponding to a position of the door panel. The control circuit apparatus compares a change amount of the electrostatic capacity detected on the basis of the electrostatic capacity detection signal with a threshold value so as to judge, on the basis of a result of comparison, whether or not a foreign material exists between the door panel and a vehicle body. The control circuit apparatus changes the threshold value on the basis of the position detection signal, in the case of detecting, on the basis of the position detection signal, that the door panel is arranged at the first door position, during a closing motion of the door panel.

The present invention relates to an opening and closing apparatus.
Conventionally, there has been a vehicle provided with an opening and closing apparatus structured such as to slide a door panel along the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle by a driving force of a motor so as to open and close a door of the vehicle. The opening and closing apparatus is provided with a detecting sensor for detecting an existence of a foreign material between the door panel under a closing motion and a vehicle body.
For example, a detecting sensor described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-257788 is provided with a sensor electrode for detecting a foreign material between a door panel and a vehicle body on the basis of a change of an electrostatic capacity. The sensor electrode is arranged in a front end of the door panel. Further, if a foreign material exists between the door panel and the vehicle body during the closing motion of the door panel, the electrostatic capacity in the sensor electrode is changed, and the change of the electrostatic capacity is output as a signal voltage to a control apparatus. The control apparatus compares an input voltage signal with a predetermined threshold value. In the case that the signal voltage is over the predetermined threshold value, the control apparatus determines that a foreign material exists between the door panel and the vehicle body, and moves the door panel to a full-open position on the basis of the driving force of the motor. As mentioned above, the detecting sensor described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-257788 detects a foreign material existing between the door panel and the vehicle body in a non-contact manner.
If the door panel during the closing motion comes close to a full-close position, a front end of the door panel comes close to a front door and a center pillar (a B pillar). Since the front end of the door panel comes close to the front door and the center pillar, whereby the electrostatic capacity in the sensor electrode is changed, there is a risk that the signal voltage gets over the predetermined threshold value and the existence of a foreign material is erroneously detected. Accordingly, in the detecting sensor described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-257788, if the door panel is arranged at a position spaced at a predetermined distance to the full-close position of the door panel, a control apparatus cancels a function of detecting a foreign material in the non-contact manner, whereby an erroneous detection of the existence of a foreign material is prevented. Further, when the door panel slides in a range from the position spaced at the predetermined distance to the full-close position of the door panel to the full-close position, the detecting sensor detects the contact between the door panel and a foreign material, thereby detecting a foreign material between the door panel and the vehicle body.
However, in the case that the function of detecting a foreign material between the door panel and the vehicle body in the non-contact manner is cancelled, when the door panel slides in the range from the position spaced at the predetermined distance to the full-close position of the door panel to the full-close position, a foreign material existing between the door panel and the vehicle body is detected first at a time when the door panel is brought into contact with a foreign material. Accordingly, there is a risk that a foreign material is wedged between the vehicle body and the door panel and a great load is applied to the foreign material, while the door panel is stopped or is moved toward the full-open position after the door panel is brought into contact with the foreign material. Therefore, it is desirable that a foreign material existing between the door panel and the vehicle body be detected in the non-contact manner as much as possible. In other words, it is desirable to widen the range in which a foreign material existing between the door panel and the vehicle body is detected in the non-contact manner, within the moving range of the door panel.
Further, since the shapes of the front door and the center pillar vary in correspondence to vehicle types, a degree of the change of the electrostatic capacity in the sensor electrode at a time when the front end of the door panel comes close to the front door and the center pillar is different in correspondence to the vehicle type. Accordingly, in order to widen the range for detecting a foreign material existing between the door panel and the vehicle body in the non-contact manner, it is desirable to execute the erroneous detection prevention of the existence of a foreign material caused when the front end of the door panel comes close to the front door and the center pillar, in correspondence to the vehicle type.


A table saw has a movable cutting tool for cutting a workpiece in a cutting region. The table saw includes a detection system to detect one or more conditions between a person and the cutting tool and a retraction system associated with the detection system. The retraction system retracts the cutting tool away from the cutting region independently of the motor and disengages the cutting tool from driving rotation with the motor upon detection of the one or more conditions by the detection system.

Table saws are a type of woodworking machinery used to cut workpieces of wood, plastic, and other materials. Table saws include a flat surface or table with a circular saw blade extending up through a slot in the table. A user slides a workpiece on the table against and past the blade while the blade is spinning to cut the workpiece. It is desirable to provide a system to retract the blade in response to detection of one or more conditions.

Table saw with cutting tool retraction system

Techtronic Power Tools Technology Limited


A method for acidizing subterranean formations may include providing a treatment fluid comprising an aqueous carrier fluid, an acid, and a chelating agent comprising N-(phosphonomethyl)iminodiacetic acid, the treatment fluid having a pH at or below that at which carboxylic or phosphonic acid groups of the N-(phosphonomethyl)iminodiacetic acid are protonated and the chelating agent is ineffective for complexing a metal ion; introducing the treatment fluid into a wellbore penetrating a subterranean formation comprising a carbonate mineral; reacting the acid with the carbonate mineral in the presence of the chelating agent, such that the acid at least partially spends as the pH of the treatment fluid rises; and complexing a metal ion with the chelating agent once the pH of the treatment fluid rises above a pKa value for one or more of the carboxylic or phosphonic acid groups of the N-(phosphonomethyl)iminodiacetic acid.

The present disclosure generally relates to acidizing subterranean formations, and, more specifically, to methods for acidizing subterranean formations in the presence of a chelating agent that is initially ineffective at complexing a metal ion.
Treatment fluids can be used in a variety of subterranean treatment operations. Such treatment operations can include, without limitation, drilling operations, stimulation operations, production operations, remediation operations, sand control treatments, and the like. As used herein, the terms "treat," "treatment," "treating," and grammatical equivalents thereof refer to any subterranean operation that uses a fluid in conjunction with achieving a desired function and/or for a desired purpose. Use of these terms does not imply any particular action by the treatment fluid or a component thereof, unless otherwise specified herein. More specific examples of illustrative treatment operations can include drilling operations, fracturing operations, gravel packing operations, acidizing operations, scale dissolution and removal operations, sand control operations, consolidation operations, and the like.
Acidizing operations may be performed to stimulate a subterranean formation to increase production of a hydrocarbon resource therefrom. Introduction of the acidizing fluid to the subterranean formation may take place at matrix flow rates above or below the fracture gradient of the matrix. During a matrix acidizing operation, an acid-soluble material in the subterranean formation is dissolved by one or more acids to expand flow pathways in the subterranean formation, to create new flow pathways in the subterranean formation, to remove acid-soluble precipitation damage in the subterranean formation, and/or to increase flow to/from the matrix. The acid-soluble material may be part of the native formation matrix. Illustrative acid-soluble materials native to the formation matrix that may be dissolved by an acid include, but are not limited to, carbonates, silicates, and aluminosilicates. Other substances can also be dissolved during the course of performing an acidizing operation, and the foregoing substances should not be considered to limit the scope of substances that may undergo acidization.
Carbonate formations contain minerals that comprise a carbonate anion (e.g., calcite (calcium carbonate) and dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate)). When acidizing a carbonate or dolomite formation, the acidity of the treatment fluid is usually sufficient to solubilize the matrix to a carbonate anion and leaching the metal ion (Ca2+, Mg2+) into the treatment fluid. The carbonate anion will further decompose to the carbon dioxide and water. Both mineral acids (e.g., hydrochloric acid) and organic acids (e.g., acetic and formic acids) can be used in carbonate formations, often with similar degrees of success to achieve this dissolution profile.
Siliceous formations include minerals such as, for example, zeolites, clays, and feldspars. As used herein, the term "siliceous" refers to a substance having the characteristics of silica, including silicates and/or aluminosilicates. Dissolution of siliceous materials through acidization is thought to be considerably different than acidizing carbonate materials because many acids that effectively acidize carbonate materials have little effect on siliceous materials. In contrast, hydrofluoric acid, another mineral acid, can react very readily with siliceous materials to promote their dissolution.
In addition to siliceous materials, many types of siliceous formations can also contain varying amounts of carbonate materials. Most sandstone formations, for example, contain about 40% to about 98% sand quartz particles (i.e., silicas), bonded together by various amounts of cementing materials, which may be siliceous in nature (e.g., aluminosilicates or other silicates) or non-siliceous in nature (e.g., carbonates, such as calcite).
In some instances, it can be desirable to remove carbonate materials from a siliceous formation prior to acidizing the siliceous material therein. A leading reason to remove a carbonate material separately from a siliceous material is that calcium ions liberated from the carbonate material can react readily with fluoride ions of hydrofluoric acid to form highly insoluble calcium fluoride that reduce flow through the matrix.
Precipitation of formation cations due to acidizing carbonate can also be problematic. Although most carbonate mineral cations can be dissolved with strong acid treatment fluids, dissolution of the formation matrix spends the acid. As the pH of the treatment fluid rises, cations can precipitate and damage the formation.
The precipitates formed during matrix acidizing, whether from siliceous or carbonate portions of the formation, may reduce the increased permeability achieved during acidizing, which may reduce the hydrocarbon production capacity of the formation.

Methods and systems for acidizing subterranean formations


For forming a group or rows of nozzles in a substrate of an ink-jet head, firstly, a laser irradiation source and a masking material in which a plurality of holes arranged in two rows are formed, are arranged on an upper side of a position at which one group of rows of nozzles of the substrate is formed. Next, an ultraviolet laser is irradiated from an upper side of the masking material, and a laser which has passed through the masking material is irradiated on the substrate. Two rows of nozzles are formed in a portion of the substrate at which the ultraviolet laser is irradiated. Accordingly, by irradiation of the laser once, it is possible to form a plurality of nozzles arranged in a row.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing a liquid-droplet jetting apparatus which jets a liquid droplet from a nozzle, and a method of producing a nozzle plate which constructs the liquid-droplet jetting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an ink-jet head which jets an ink from a nozzle, there is an ink-jet head in which a plurality of nozzles is arranged to form a plurality of nozzle rows each extending in a predetermined direction. For example, in an ink-jet printer head (ink-jet head) described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-251811 (FIGS. 11 and 12), a plurality of nozzles are arranged, in a nozzle plate made of a synthetic resin material, in one direction to form two nozzle rows, and the two nozzle rows are arranged closely. Further, these nozzles are formed by laser machining (processing) by a laser such as an excimer laser, a YAG (YttriumAluminumGarnet) laser, and a carbon dioxide gas laser.

Method of producing nozzle plate and method of producing liquid-droplet jetting apparatus


A shield apparatus for use with a powered vegetation trimmer of the type including a trimmer head assembly having an output shaft and a cutting mechanism rotatable with the output shaft. The shield apparatus is mounted coaxially about the output shaft between the cutting mechanism and a head portion of the head assembly. The shield includes first and second outer walls coaxially disposed about the axis of rotation of the output shaft. The first outer wall circumscribes at least a portion of the cutting element to define a distal annular gap. The second outer wall circumscribes at least a portion of the head portion of the head assembly to define a proximal annular gap. The shield isolates the output shaft from the area surrounding the cutting mechanism so as to prevent vegetative matter from contacting the output shaft, or at least minimize such contact.

Many powered trimmers of various designs have been developed and commercialized for use by an operator in cutting or trimming vegetation such as grass, weeds, and brush. In a typical configuration, an example of which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,898 to Hartwig, the powered trimmer includes a motor powered by electricity or a combustive fuel such as gasoline or a gasoline/oil mixture. The motor typically provides rotational driving power to a cutting mechanism that includes one or more cutting cords of nylon or metal or a set of cutting blades. The motor and cutting mechanism are mounted to an elongate boom that is held by the operator during use of the trimmer. Typically, the trimmer is balanced by mounting the motor and cutting mechanism at opposite ends of the boom. This configuration requires that a drive shaft be disposed within the length of the boom to interconnect the rotating output component of the motor with the rotating cutting mechanism. To enable the operator to comfortably wield the trimmer in an upright standing or walking position, the cutting mechanism is often situated at an angle in relation to the motor and/or the boom. Accordingly, a angled gear case or trimmer head is commonly interposed between the boom and the cutting mechanism, with the drive shaft of the boom connected to one end of the gearing of the gear case and the cutting mechanism connected to an output shaft extending from the gear case.
During operation of a typical trimmer such as described hereinabove, as the cutting mechanism rotates, its cords or blades cut through the targeted vegetation and throw clippings outwardly. Moreover, the cutting mechanism often encounters objects such as rocks, pieces of wood, and other debris, which can also be thrown by the cutting mechanism. To protect the operator of the trimmer from injury inflicted by clippings and objects thrown by the cutting mechanism, it is common for trimmers to include a shroud or guard mounted to the gear case or boom so as to shield the operator from the thrown objects. Most clippings guards are positioned only in the frontal area between the cutting mechanism and the operator, as disclosed in aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,898. Other clippings guards are designed to completely surround a portion of the cutting mechanism as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,278 to Faher, or to surround the entire cutting mechanism as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,788 to Webster.
It can be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that while guard structures have thus been provided to protect the operator of the trimmer from clippings and other matter cut or thrown by the cutting mechanism, trimmers have in the past failed to provide any guarding means for preventing clippings from contacting the output shaft of the gear case or trimmer head. It is well-known that clippings, and even blades of grass that have yet to be cut, have a strong tendency to wrap around the exposed portions of this output shaft as the output shaft rotates, or otherwise to become bound to or contact the output shaft. Such contact between vegetative matter and the output shaft can have a number of deleterious effects. For example, the bound vegetative matter can impede rotation of the output shaft, causing damage or premature wear of the gearing and motor provided with the trimmer. Moreover, an accumulation of vegetative matter on the output shaft can interfere with the performance of the cutting mechanism in uniformly cutting targeted areas of vegetation and effectively clearing clippings from the immediate vicinity of the cutting elements, especially in the case of nylon cords. Additionally, the binding of vegetative matter increases the frequency of maintenance required for the trimmer, such as cleaning, as well as the time required to perform maintenance.
In view of the foregoing, it would therefore be advantageous to provide a power trimmer with a shield apparatus for preventing or at least minimizing contact between vegetative matter and the output shaft of such trimmer.


A method for reconstructing a computed tomographic (CT) image of an object is provided. The method includes initializing a CT imaging system in a step-and-shoot mode, scanning an object to generate a plurality of adjacent axial scans, wherein the distance between the adjacent axial scans is approximately equal to a projected detector height at the detector iso-center, and reconstructing an image of the object using the adjacent axial scans.

This invention relates to tomographic imaging, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for cone-tilted parallel sampling and reconstruction.
In at least one known CT imaging system configuration, an x-ray source projects a fan-shaped beam which is collimated to lie within an X-Y plane of a Cartesian coordinate system and generally referred to as an xe2x80x9cimaging planexe2x80x9d. The x-ray beam passes through an object being imaged, such as a patient. The beam, after being attenuated by the object, impinges upon an array of radiation detectors. The intensity of the attenuated beam radiation received at the detector array is dependent upon the attenuation of an x-ray beam by the object. Each detector element of the array produces a separate electrical signal that is a measurement of the beam attenuation at the detector location. The attenuation measurements from all the detectors are acquired separately to produce a transmission profile.
In known third generation CT systems, the x-ray source and the detector array are rotated with a gantry within the imaging plane and around the object to be imaged so that the angle at which the x-ray beam intersects the object constantly changes. A group of x-ray attenuation measurements, i.e., projection data, from the detector array at one gantry angle is referred to as a xe2x80x9cviewxe2x80x9d. A xe2x80x9cscanxe2x80x9d of the object comprises a set of views made at different gantry angles, or view angles, during one revolution of the x-ray source and detector.
In an axial scan, the projection data is processed to construct an image that corresponds to a two-dimensional slice taken through the object. One method for reconstructing an image from a set of projection data is referred to in the art as the filtered back projection technique. This process converts the attenuation measurements from a scan into integers called xe2x80x9cCT numbersxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cHounsfield unitsxe2x80x9d, which are used to control the brightness of a corresponding pixel on a cathode ray tube display.
With the introduction of multi-slice CT imaging systems, research activities on multi-slice helical reconstruction have become the focus of many studies. Some known CT imaging systems address the issue of incomplete data sampling by using various approximation methods. These methods have been shown to be quite successful in producing clinically acceptable image quality even at fairly high helical pitches although little attention has been paid, however, in the area of reconstruction algorithms for the step-and-shoot (axial) mode CT imaging system.
For example, in some CT imaging systems, as the number of slices, and z coverage, increase, each projection view can cover a significant portion of an anatomical organ. As a result, the relative importance of the step-and-shoot or axial mode increases. For a 32-slice CT imaging system with a detector cell aperture of 0.625 mm, with a z-coverage of 20 mm, a cardiac scan can be completed in 6 axial scans. With a gantry speed of 0.5s per rotation, the entire heart can be covered in a single breath-hold. If a multi-sector reconstruction approach is utilized to improve temporal resolution and to freeze cardiac motion, the scan protocol is simpler as compared to the helical mode since the patient table moves to the next location only when sufficient data has been collected. In this approach, prospective gating of the x-ray with EKG signals can be easily achieved.
With the increased number of detector rows and increased z-coverage, cone beam artifact related issues become more important. For moderate cone angle, the Feldkamp (FDK) reconstruction algorithm has been shown to be sufficient. The FDK algorithm utilizes a three-dimensional backprojection to accurately backproject the filtered projections along the actual x-ray path, instead of the two-dimensional backprojection that approximates a ray path by a line that is parallel to the reconstructed image. Although the FDK algorithm has been shown to be sufficient for moderate cone angles, the FDK algorithm reduces the z-coverage of the scan.
In one embodiment, a method for reconstructing a computed tomographic (CT) image of an object is provided. The method includes initializing a CT imaging system in a step-and-shoot mode, scanning an object to generate a plurality of adjacent axial scans, wherein the distance between the adjacent axial scans is approximately equal to a projected detector height at the detector iso-center, and reconstructing an image of the object using the adjacent axial scans.
In another embodiment, a method for reconstructing a computed tomographic (CT) image of an object is provided. The method includes initializing a CT imaging system in a step-and-shoot mode, performing at least one axial scan to generate a plurality of projection samples, rebinning the projection samples to a set of tilted parallel geometry samples, and reconstructing an image of the object using the rebinned projection samples.
In a further embodiment, a computed tomographic (CT) imaging system for reconstructing an image of an object is provided. The imaging system includes a detector array, at least one radiation source, and a computer coupled to the detector array and the radiation source. The computer is configured to initialize a CT imaging system in a step-and-shoot mode, scan an object to generate a plurality of adjacent axial scans, wherein the distance between the adjacent axial scans is approximately equal to a projected detector height at the detector iso-center, and reconstruct an image of the object using the adjacent axial scans.
In a still further embodiment, a computer readable medium encoded with a program executable by a computer for reconstructing an image of an object is provided. The program is configured to instruct the computer to initialize a CT imaging system in a step-and-shoot mode, scan an object to generate a plurality of adjacent axial scans, wherein the distance between the adjacent axial scans is approximately equal to a projected detector height at the detector iso-center, and reconstruct an image of the object using the adjacent axial scans.

Methods and apparatus for cone-tilted parallel sampling and reconstruction

GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC


A method for managing main memory including DRAM and NVRAM in a computer depending on the operation state of the computer is provided. The method includes: (a) upon start of the computer, loading a program and the like into the DRAM, and loading predetermined read-only data and the like into the NVRAM; (b) in a state transition from a normal operation to a suspend state, moving data in the DRAM to the NVRAM; (c) in a state transition from the suspend state to the normal operation, reading data from the NVRAM for program execution; (d) in the case where a data write to the NVRAM occurs, stopping the data write, and moving data in a data area of the NVRAM subjected to the data write, to the DRAM; and (e) performing the data write to the DRAM to which the data has been moved.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a memory management method, and particularly relates to a method for managing main memory including DRAM and NVRAM in a computer depending on the operation state of the computer.
Background Art
Nonvolatile memory (hereafter referred to as "NVRAM") is currently in active research and development. The use of NVRAM is expected to achieve a memory system with higher integration, lower power, and lower cost in the future. This gives rise to the proposal to use DRAM and NVRAM in main storage memory in a computer.
However, NVRAM has drawbacks such as longer write times, higher write power consumption, a larger unit of writing, and lower write endurance than DRAM. These drawbacks need to be compensated for in order to use NVRAM as main storage memory, but sufficient improvements for actual use have not been made.
Under the circumstances, NVRAM is at best merely utilized for a data backup of main storage memory in actual use.

International Business Machines Corporation


A plastic molded gear capable of reducing teeth knocking noises due to backlash during engagement. A protruding portion 5 for eliminating backlash is formed so as to protrude from both end portions in facewidth directions on one tooth flank 6 of each tooth 2, and the protruding portion 5 is not formed on the other tooth flank 12 of the tooth 2. If the protruding portion 5 is elastically deformed so as to absorb backlash, the protruding portion 5 has the same plane as that of the one tooth flank 6, and the other tooth flank 12 of the tooth 2 serves as a main power transmission surface. With this construction, the protruding portion 5 elastically contacts the tooth flank of a companion gear engaged with the plastic molded gear, so that the elastic deformation of the protruding portion 5 absorbs rotational energy of the companion gear during intermittent rotation. Thus, when gears engaged with each other collide with each other, it is possible to absorb shocks, so that it is possible to reduce teeth knocking noises.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plastic molded gear, a gear train using the plastic molded gear, and an intermittent rotation transmission device, such as a paper feeding mechanism for an ink jet printer, which uses the plastic molded gear.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In comparison with metal gears, plastic molded gears are light and low noise gears, and can be used without any lubricants since they have self-lubricating properties. In addition, the mass-productivity of plastic molded gears is higher than that of metal gears, so that the production costs for plastic molded gears can be lower than those of metal gears. For that reason, in recent years, plastic molded gears are widely used for gear trains for ink jet printers, and gear trains for automotive power transmission parts and precision instruments.
Of such plastic molded gears, in plastic molded gears used for intermittent rotation transmission devices for transmitting power while frequently repeating rotation and stopping, one of teeth meshing with each other during stopping and starting collides with the other tooth, so that there are discrepancies that teeth knocking noises are produced.
Therefore, there are proposed various plastic molded gears which are devised so as to prevent teeth knocking noises during power transmission.
As a first conventional example, a gear 50 shown in FIGS. 20A and 20B has fillet portions 52, which are formed on both tooth flanks on one end side in facewidth directions of each tooth 51 and which are designed to contact a companion gear meshing with the gear 50 to be deformed to absorb shocks when the gear 50 meshes with the companion gear (see Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 55-100745).
As a second conventional example, a gear 53 shown in FIGS. 21A and 21B has slits 56, each of which is formed on the side of a tooth flank 55 meshing with a companion gear 54 so as to extend along the tooth flank 55 and so as to pass through each tooth in facewidth directions, and each of which allows the tooth flank 55 meshing with the companion gear 54 to be elastically deformed to absorb shocks when the tooth flank 55 meshes with the companion gear 54 (see Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 58-127246).
As a third conventional example, a gear 57 shown in FIG. 22 has through holes 60, each of which passes through each tooth 58 in facewidth directions, and each of which allows the whole tooth 58 to be easily elastically deformed to absorb shocks when the gear 57 meshes with a companion gear (see Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 55-98849).
As a fourth conventional example, a gear 61 shown in FIG. 23 has slits 63, each of which is formed in each tooth 62 so as to extend in facewidth directions over the entire facewidth and so as to extend from a tooth crest 64 to pass through a bottom land 65, and each of which allows the tooth 62 to be easily elastically deformed to shocks when the gear 61 meshes with a companion gear (see Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 55-98850).
As a fifth conventional example, a gear 66 shown in FIG. 24 has visco-elastic bodies 70, each of which protrudes from both tooth flanks 68 of each tooth 67 in a central portion in facewidth directions, and each of which is designed to contact a tooth flank of a companion gear to absorb shocks when the gear 66 meshes with the companion gear (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-221322).
As a sixth conventional example, a gear 71 shown in FIG. 25 and proposed by the inventor of the present application has cavity portions 73, which are formed in both end portions in facewidth directions of each tooth 72, and elastically deformable expanded protruding portions 74 which are formed on both end portions in facewidth directions of each tooth 72 by the difference in shrinkage after injection molding between both end portions having the cavity portions 73 in facewidth directions and other portions. The expanded protruding portions 74 are designed to be elastically deformed to absorb shocks when the gear 71 meshes with a companion gear (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-90412).
However, in the first conventional example, the fillet portions 52 are formed on only one end side in facewidth directions, and thin walled portions and cavity portions capable of absorbing deformation of the fillet portions 52 are not formed. Therefore, the surface pressure applied on the fillet portions 52 is too large, so that the fillet portions 52 are early worn. Thus, there is the possibility that, when the gear meshes with a companion gear, it is not possible to obtain shock absorbing effects for a long period of time, so that it is not possible to stably obtain teeth knocking noise absorbing effects for a long period of time.
In the second conventional example, since the tooth flank 55 meshing with a companion gear during power transmission is elastically deformed over the whole region in facewidth directions, the amount of elastic deformation varies in accordance with load during power transmission, so that the angle of rotation per tooth is easy to vary. Therefore, it is difficult for the gear 53 to be used for a gear train for precisely transmitting rotation.
In the third and fourth conventional examples, since the whole teeth 58 and 62 are easily deformed, the amount of elastic deformation of the teeth 58 and 62 varies in accordance with load during power transmission similar to the second conventional example, so that the angle of rotation per tooth is easy to vary. Therefore, it is difficult for the gears 57 and 61 to be used for a gear train for precisely transmitting rotation.
In the fifth conventional example, although the visco-elastic bodies 70 protruding from the tooth flanks 68 are compressed to be deformed by load during power transmission, the amount of deformation thereof varies in accordance with the load during power transmission. Therefore, similar to the second through fourth conventional examples, it is difficult for the gear 66 to be used for a gear train for precisely transmitting rotation.
In the sixth conventional example, if the expanded protruding portions 74 are elastically deformed, the tooth flank 75 except for the expanded protruding portions 74 contacts the tooth flank of a companion gear to transmit power. Therefore, it is possible to more precisely transmit rotation than the gear in the second through fifth conventional examples. In addition, since the expanded protruding portions 74 are formed on both end portions in facewidth directions, it is possible to decrease the surface pressure when the gear 71 meshes with the companion gear, and it is difficult to cause the early wearing of the teeth 72 unlike the first conventional example. However, since the expanded protruding portions 74 are formed on the basis of the difference in shrinkage after injection molding, the amount of expanded protrusion is small, so that it is not possible to cause the expanded protruding portions 74 to protrude from the tooth flanks 75 to such an extent that it is possible to sufficiently absorb backlash.

Plastic molded gear, and intermittent rotation transmission device and gear train using same