An apparatus for measuring intensity and/or range characteristics of an object(s), comprising: a signal source to emit modulation signals at a frequency(s); an illuminator to illuminate the object(s) by a first modulation signal; a sensor comprising a pixel(s), wherein the sensor creates a sampled correlated signal by sampling the correlation of a backscattered signal with a second modulation signal within the pixel; and a processor to determine range/intensity characteristics of component returns within the pixel(s) by comparing sampled correlated signals using measurements(s), wherein the measurement(s) comprise first and second modulation signals having a characteristic(s) selected from: (a) two or more different modulation frequencies, (b) a different modulation frequency(s) and an offset of the correlation waveform, and (c) another different modulation frequency(s) and one selected from: the zeroth spatial frequency of the signal returns versus range and an approximation of the zeroth spatial frequency of the signal returns versus range.

Range imaging systems based on indirect time-of-flight measurement techniques determine both distance and intensity simultaneously for every pixel in an image. Typically, a scene is illuminated with an intensity modulated light source and the reflected signal is sampled using a gain-modulated (or shuttered) imager. The frequencies used to drive the gain modulation (also called the high-speed shutter) and light source are frequently between 10 MHz and 100 MHz. These systems are capable of effectively measuring the size, shape and location of objects in a scene thereby enabling many applications in areas such as automotive safety and control, multimedia user interface, image segmentation and surface profiling, for example. The parallel nature of the range acquisition allows depth images to be acquired at video frame rates, yet systems can have the flexibility to operate in slower modes to achieve sub-millimeter depth resolution.
A typical Amplitude Modulated Continuous Wave ("AMCW") range imaging system employs, among other elements, a signal source, an illumination system, a sensor, and a processor. The signal source emits two signals, one of which modulates the scene illumination that is reflected by the object/s. The sensor detects the reflected light using the second signal and the processor then calculates the object's distance and/or intensity by analyzing the detected signal.
Methods for analyzing signal measurements are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,561,255 to Billmers et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,199 to Phillips et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,993 to Ball et al., all of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties. Also, see International Publication No. 2004/090568 to Donington, International Publication No. 2006/031130 to Carnegie et al., and International Publication No. 2009/051499 to Payne et al., all of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties. Methods and apparatuses for detecting and ameliorating signal interference are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,697,119 to Ikeno et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. A method of three dimensional imaging is disclosed in, for example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/819,602 (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0258708) to Meyers, et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Typical AMCW lidar systems suffer from a problem known as mixed pixels, multipath or crosstalk. Mixed pixels occur when a single range/intensity measurement is composed of multiple objects at more than one distance from the camera. Multiple objects result in multiple reflected signals, causing phase shifts and intensity changes in the measured backscattered signal and, consequently, erroneous range and intensity values.

Apparatus and method for measuring the distance and/or intensity characteristics of objects


An onboard monitor that ensures the accuracy of data representing the calculated position of an airplane during final approach to a runway. This airplane position assurance monitor is a software function that uses dissimilar sources of airplane position and runway data to ensure the accuracy of the respective data from those dissimilar sources. ILS data and GPS or GPS/Baro data are the dissimilar sources of airplane position data used by this function. This function will calculate the airplane's angular deviations from the runway centerline and from the glide slope with onboard equipment and then compare those angular deviations to the ILS angular deviation information.

The invention generally relates to systems and methods for validating the instrument landing system positioning information of an airplane conducting a precision approach to a runway.
An instrument landing system (ILS) is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during instrument meteorological conditions, such as low ceilings or reduced visibility due to fog, rain, or snow.
Instrument approach procedure charts (or approach plates) are published for each ILS approach, providing pilots with the needed information to fly an ILS approach during instrument flight rules operations, including the radio frequencies used by the ILS components and the minimum visibility requirements prescribed for the specific approach.
An ILS includes ground-based transmitters, located at runways, and airborne receivers. The ILS transmitters transmit signals, received by the receivers on the aircraft, which are utilized to align an aircraft's approach to a runway. Typically, an ILS consists of two portions, a localizer portion and a glide slope portion. The localizer portion is utilized to provide lateral guidance and includes a localizer transmitter located at the far end of the runway. The glide slope portion provides vertical guidance to a runway and includes a glide slope transmitter located at the approach end of the runway. Aircraft guidance is provided by the ILS receivers in the aircraft by performing a modulation depth comparison.
More specifically, a localizer (LOC) antenna array is normally located beyond the departure end of the runway and generally consists of several pairs of directional antennas. Two signals are transmitted at a carrier frequency. One is modulated at 90 Hz; the other at 150 Hz. These modulated signals are transmitted from separate but co-located antennas. Each antenna transmits a narrow beam, one slightly to the left of the runway centerline, the other to the right.
The localizer receiver on the aircraft measures the difference in the depth of modulation (DDM) of the 90 and 150 Hz modulated signals. For the localizer, the depth of modulation for each of the modulating frequencies is 20 percent. The difference between the two signals varies depending on the deviation of the approaching aircraft from the centerline. If there is a predominance of either modulated signal, the aircraft is off the centerline. In the cockpit, the needle on a horizontal situation or course deviation indicator will show that the aircraft needs to fly left or right to correct the error to fly down the center of the runway. If the DDM is zero, the aircraft is on the centerline of the localizer coinciding with the physical runway centerline.
A glide slope (GS) antenna array is sited to one side of the runway touchdown zone. The GS signal is transmitted on a carrier frequency using a technique similar to that of the localizer. The centerline of the glide slope signal is arranged to define a glide slope of approximately 3° above horizontal (ground level). The beam is 1.4° deep; 0.7° below the glideslope centerline and 0.7° above the glideslope centerline.
The localizer and glide slope both provide an angular deviation from a desired flight path. The angular deviation is the angle between the current flight path and the desired flight path.
The pilot controls the aircraft so that the indications on the course deviation indicator remain centered on the display. This ensures the aircraft is following the ILS centerline (i.e., it provides lateral guidance). Vertical guidance, shown on the instrument by the glideslope indicator, aids the pilot in reaching the runway at the proper touchdown point. Many aircraft possess the ability to route signals into the autopilot, allowing the approach to be flown automatically by the autopilot.
The output from the ILS receiver goes both to the display system (head-down display and head-up display, if installed) and can also go to the flight control computer. An aircraft landing procedure can be either "coupled," where the flight control computer directly flies the aircraft and the flight crew monitor the operation; or "uncoupled" (manual), where the flight crew fly the aircraft using the primary flight display and manually control the aircraft to minimize the deviation from flight path to the runway centerline.
There are three categories of ILS which support similarly named categories of operation.
Category I (CAT I)—A precision instrument approach and landing with a decision height not lower than 200 ft above touchdown zone elevation and with either a visibility not less than 2,625 ft or a runway visual range (RVR) not less than 1,804 ft.
Category II (CAT II)—A precision instrument approach and landing with a decision height lower than 200 ft above touchdown zone elevation but not lower than 100 ft, and a RVR not less than 984 ft for aircraft approach category A, B, C and not less than 1,148 ft for aircraft approach category D.
Category III (CAT III) is subdivided into three sections:
Category III A—A precision instrument approach and landing with: (a) a decision height lower than 100 ft above touchdown zone elevation, or no decision height (alert height); and (b) a RVR not less than 656 ft.
Category III B—A precision instrument approach and landing with: (a) a decision height lower than 50 ft above touchdown zone elevation, or no decision height (alert height); and (b) a RVR in the range 246-656 ft.
Category III C—A precision instrument approach and landing with no decision height and no RVR limitations.
Runway Visual Range (RVR) is a term used in aviation meteorology to define the distance over which a pilot of an aircraft on the centerline of the runway can see the runway surface markings delineating the runway or identifying its centre line.
RVR is used as one of the main criteria for minima on instrument approaches, as in most cases a pilot must obtain visual reference of the runway to land an aircraft. RVRs are transmitted by air traffic controllers to aircraft making approaches to allow pilots to assess whether it is prudent and legal to make an approach.
An ILS is required to shut down upon internal detection of a fault condition. With the increasing categories, ILS equipment is required to shut down faster, since higher categories require shorter response times. For example, a CAT I localizer must shutdown within 6 seconds of detecting a fault, but a CAT III localizer must shut down in less than 2 seconds.
When conducting an ILS approach, the airplane uses radio signals from the ILS system for guidance. The higher-class ILS systems have more protections and monitoring in place to ensure that radio signals are not interfered with and internal errors do not cause the guidance to fall out of required accuracy tolerances. This increases the cost of installing and maintaining the ILS systems and is one reason why there are relatively few CAT II and CAT III runways. ILS approaches currently account for the majority of precision approaches at runways around the world. Of these, only about 8% of all ILS systems support CAT II or CAT III operations.
There is a need for a system and method for increasing the positioning assurance of a Type I ILS system, so that the number of runways that support CAT II operations could be increased significantly.


A method and system for preserving the integrity of a negotiation that includes providing an architecture which includes a center A, and a plurality of users B.sub.1, B.sub.2, . . . , B.sub.n. each user B.sub.i generates an input X.sub.i, which is input to the center A. The center A computes and publishes a function F(X.sub.1, X.sub.2, . . . , X.sub.n) based on the input messages it receives. Each user B.sub.i (1<=i<=n) communicates with the center A, exclusively. Center A publishes additional information which lets each of the users verify that F was computed correctly, and prevents a coalition of any one subset of the users from learning anything which cannot be computed just from the output of the function, F(X.sub.1, . . . ,X.sub.n), and from their own inputs, or information about the inputs of other users.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to cryptography and to secure distributed computation, and more particularly it relates to computerized auctions conducted using PCs and/or servers over a network, such as, the Internet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An exciting topic of cryptographic research is secure function evaluation [see e.g. REFERENCES 3, 7, the citations for which are given in detail at the end of the specification]. For any function F(x.sub.1, x.sub.2, . . . , x.sub.n), it is possible, in principle, to construct a protocol that allows a group of n parties, where party i has as its private input x.sub.i, to jointly evaluate F(x.sub.1, x.sub.2, . . . , x.sub.n). Following the protocol the parties learn F(x.sub.1, x.sub.2, . . . , x.sub.n) but no party i can learn about the inputs other than x.sub.i more than can be computed from x.sub.i and F(x.sub.1, x.sub.2, . . . , x.sub.n). The drawback of these protocols is that they are rather complex and require a lot of interaction between each of the parties. In the case of auctions this would require high interaction between the bidders, who have no motivation to interact with each other. The present invention, as will be described in greater detail in the following, provides a much simpler method in which all the parties communicate with just a single center. In the inventive method described hereinafter, the input of each of the parties becomes known to this center but otherwise, it is not known to any other party. The inventive method enables the center to prove that it preformed the computation correctly.
In the case of auctions, it is normally the case that the auctioneer is trusted by all parties to compute the result of the auction correctly. This might not be justified, since the auctioneer might benefit from an illegal modification of the result of the auction. (This is even true if the auctioneer is just a mediator that is selling items which are offered by third parties, since such auctioneers usually charge a commission which depends on the price with which the items are sold). It is sometimes the case that a trusted party (say an accountant) observes the operation of the auctioneer and testifies that it is trustworthy. However this party might be corrupted and cooperate with a corrupted auctioneer, it might also be the case that the trusted party cannot watch the auctioneer closely enough and the auctioneer can cheat without being detected. These problems are amplified in a computerized Internet setting.
The center that computes F can of course prove that it computed it correctly by publishing all the inputs. However this solution affects the privacy of the other parties, since their inputs become public. The inventive method overcomes this problem since it enables the center to prove that it computed F correctly without is leaking any information about the inputs.
There are suggestions in the art for distributing the operation of an auctioneer between many servers in a way which is secure as long as not too many of these servers operate maliciously. Franklin and Reiter [see REFERENCE 2] developed a distributed system for sealed-bid auctions with many auctioneer servers, which ensures the privacy of the bids until the time they are opened. This system further enables the bids to be backed by escrowing financial commitments of the bidders. Harakavy, Tygar, and Kikuchi [see REFERENCE 4] present systems for secure first price and second price sealed bid auctions, which preserve the privacy of the bids even after the winning bid is chosen (this variant was also briefly mentioned in REFERENCE 2). Both systems distribute the operation of the auctioneer between several servers and privacy is guaranteed as long as not too many of the servers collude (most of the protocols require that less than a third of the servers collude, and therefore, need a minimum of four servers). However, if enough auctioneer servers collude they are able to maliciously change the outcome of the auction and would not be detected. The requirement that auctioneer servers would not collude seems very hard to enforce since all these servers operate for the auctioneer which might have a motivation to cheat and increase its profits. Compared to these prior art solutions, the inventive method does not require to distributing the operation of the auctioneer among several non-colluding servers, and provides security even if the auctioneer is attempting to cheat.
Naor and Pinkas [see REFERENCE 6] present a different method that prevents even the center from learning information about the parties' inputs. That method requires the operation of an additional party—the Issuer. The Issuer generates a program that computes the function (or the auction) and sends it to the center. The center receives messages from the parties, which contain some information that is intended for the Issuer: After the center receives messages from all the parties it sends a message to the Issuer and receives a response which enables it to use the program to compute the output of F for the parties' inputs. The method ensures that neither the center nor the Issuer learn information about the inputs of the parties. In this sense it provides better privacy than the inventive method described herein. However, the inventive method presented here does not require the cooperation of any additional party (like the Issuer) for the computation of F. It enables the center to compute the function by itself and prove that it computed it correctly, and in this respect is an advantage.

Honesty preserving negotiation and computation


Simplified structure and arrangement for fixing an internal part to a vehicle body forming member in a single step during assembly of an automobile without use of a separate fixing member. This enhances efficient assembly of the internal part to the vehicle body forming member. An insert boss integrally provided on an internal part such as a shock absorbing member and having a deformable portion is inserted into an insert bore in a roof side rail as a vehicle body forming member while deforming the portion, to fix the shock absorbing member to the roof side rail.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for integrally mounting an internal part such as a shock absorbing member and the like to a vehicle body forming member in a vehicle body.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional common means for integrally mounting an internal part such as a garnish, a lining and the like provided to a body of a vehicle is to mount the internal part to the vehicle body forming member such as a panel, a pillar and the like using a fixing member such as a clip, a tapping machine screw or the like which is separate from the internal part. For example, a means for mounting an internal part to a pillar as a vehicle body forming member by using a machine screw is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.8-72642.
However, the following problems are encountered when using such conventional mounting means because the internal part is mounted to the vehicle body forming member by a fixing member separate from the internal part:
(1) The time for mounting the internal part to the vehicle body forming member is prolonged; PA1 (2) A plurality of separate fixing members are required, thereby bringing about an increase in the total weight; PA1 (3) A lot of time is required to separate the internal part and the fixing member and for this reason, disassembly and recycling are difficult; and PA1 (4) An increase in cost is experienced due to the large number of parts required and prolonged mounting time.

Structure for mounting of internal part for vehicle


An apparatus and related method for manufacturing a full-fashioned glove from similar or dissimilar polymeric material includes a controller that actuates various components in the apparatus, a thumb mold that forms a thumb portion from two layers of a first material and a hand mold which forms a plurality of fingers and a cuff from the first material and a second material. Both the thumb mold and hand mold have appropriate cavities with apertures therethrough wherein a vacuum source, actuated by the controller, draws the appropriate material toward the surface of the mold prior to closure thereof. Upon closure of the molds, a fusing element is energized by the controller and the materials are fused to one another to form the appropriate portion of the full-fashioned glove. After the glove is removed from the remaining materials, it can be employed in various types of manufacturing industries. By employing a vacuum within the molds a full fashioned glove is manufactured which presents improved sensitivity in the finger areas and which enhances the productivity of persons using the full-fashioned glove. In another embodiment, both the thumb mold and hand mold employ a male-female configuration wherein a male form pushes the appropriate materials into a female cavity so that a fully contoured shape is attained for the full-fashioned glove. The molds may include a cooling tube and the thermal form elements, which are both connected to the controller, to further assist the seam fusing process.

In manufacturing or other industries, workers may be required to handle caustic materials or other materials that irritate the skin. Some industries, such as in the manufacture of semiconductors, require that the workers wear complete body suits to prevent contamination of the manufacturing process. These workers also wear gloves made from the appropriate polymeric materials to protect their skin and the manufactured item.
Currently, gloves used in the manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries are made from polymeric materials by several methods. One method is to dip a glove form or mandrel in a dispersion of the polymeric material to form a thin film which is later removed from the form or mandrel. Another method is to sew precut patterns of polymeric material to one another. Still another method is to heat seal sheets of polymeric material to one another.
Although the aforementioned methods of manufacturing gloves achieve their stated purpose, each has limitations which reduce the effectiveness of the glove. It will be appreciated that the dipping method is limited to particular materials that can withstand the process of melting, reforming on the mandrel and removal from the mandrel. It is well known that this process is conducive to forming pinholes which permit the migration of caustic materials to the interior of the glove and contaminants to the exterior of the glove. Likewise, sewing precut patterns of the polymeric material create pinholes which cause the aforementioned problems. It is also well known that heat sealing polymeric sheets of material may produce unacceptably weak joints which are likely to tear during use. One attempt at overcoming these deficiencies is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,791, entitled "Manufacture of Gloves and the Like." This patent describes a thermobonding process which allows the use of micro-porous thermoplastic materials to manufacture gloves. Although this process overcomes some of the aforementioned limitations, there are still particular drawbacks associated therewith. In particular, a glove manufactured by the above process provides an uncomfortable and non-conforming fit. As seen in FIG. 2, a finger received within a glove manufactured by such a process provides large gaps on either side of the finger where the two sheets of material are bonded. This "slop" or loose fit provides an uncomfortable feeling to the person using the glove and contributes to a loss of dexterity and touch sensitivity when using the glove. Additionally, a glove manufactured by such a process presents an inefficient use of material.
Based upon the foregoing, it is evident that there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for manufacturing a full-fashioned glove that matches the contour and shape of a human hand. Furthermore, there is a need for such an apparatus and method that easily manufactures such a full-fashioned glove and that is adaptable for use with any type of polymeric material.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing a full-fashioned glove


An illumination device includes at least one light source and at least one optical component formed by a stack of at least two biconvex cylinder lenses, each lens having an optical axis perpendicular to a stacking direction of the optical component. The optical component is manufactured using a 3D printing process using fused deposition modeling.

Beam shaping and color mixing optics for LED luminaires typically consist of extruded or injection molded components and microstructured films. An example of a film, namely a lenticular film, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,705,175 B1. This lenticular film is formed by two films which have embossed lenticular patterns and which have been laminated together.
These optical components require a considerable investment in time and money (tooling costs in particular) to produce, and customization for better application performance is therefore rarely a feasible option. Conventional production technologies also have some limitations in their ability to produce certain types of complex optical components. For instance, integrating multiple materials into a single optical component is difficult using conventional production methods.
JP-A-2007008004 discloses a method for manufacturing an optical component. The method comprises the steps of selectively applying light to a photocurable resin liquid and forming a cured resin layer by repeating exposure while setting the projection area as a unit and laminating the cured resin layer successively to form a three-dimensional shape.

Lighting device having a 3D printed biconvex cylindrical lens array


In a method and a measuring device for metal detection with the use of a coil arrangement the spatially offset transmitting coils are controlled with pulse sequences of different pulse patterns. The receiving coils associated with the transmitting coils are scanned with respect to the received measuring signals with a scan pattern corresponding to the respective associated pulse pattern. It is therefore possible to control simultaneously all transmitting coils and to provide a spatial determination of a metal object located in a throughgoing region of a gate frame.

The present invention relates to a method of metal detection by means of a coil device having several, separately controllable regions, as well as to a measuring device for the metal detection.
For the purpose of monitoring safety in airports, gate frames are used which are provided with coil devices in the lateral parts of the frame for metal detection. When people pass through the gate frames, it is therefore possible to check whether the people are carrying metal objects with them. If a metal object is detected, the measuring device which is connected with the coil device of the gate frame releases an acoustic and/or visual signal.
In order not only to determine the presence of a metal object but also to provide a signal where the fixed metal object is located in the space enclosed by the gate frame, the coil device is provided with different, separately controllable regions. The transmitting coil and the receiving coil having different regions can be controlled or evaluated separately so that it can be determined in which spatial region a detected metal object is located. The control of the different transmitter coils in such a coil arrangement may be offset in time in order to enable a spatial association with respect to the received measuring signal. The timely offset control of the different transmitting coils has however the disadvantage that always only that spatial region inside the gate frame is monitored whose associated transmitting coil is directly controlled. If a person moves relatively fast through the gate frame a metal object which is carried with him can be not detected since it can move through a spatial region for the associated transmitting coil is not directly controlled. If for example in a certain space five metal detectors are used each provided with 20 coils, the pulse repeat rate of each coil is reduced by the factor 5.times.20=100 for an individual coil arrangement. The power/noise ratio is therefore worsened by the factor .sqroot.100=10.
A known measuring process with electronic object analysis is disclosed in the article "Ein neuartiges Metallsuchgerat nach dem Pulsverfahren fur grosse Gelande-flachen mit elektronischer Objektanalyse und -auswahl" in Fachzeitschrift Frequenz, 22 (1968) 10, pages 300-305.

Method of and measuring arrangement for metal detection with a coil device having several separately controllable regions


An image forming unit forms a plurality of measurement images based on a plurality of process conditions. A measurement unit measures the density of each of the plurality of measurement images. A determination unit uses a first determination mode or a second determination mode. In the first determination mode, a process condition is determined from a first measurement result higher than target density and a second measurement result lower than the target density, from among a plurality of measurement results. In the second determination mode, the process condition is determined from measurement results lower than the target density.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copier or a printer that uses an electrophotographic scheme, an electrostatic recording scheme, or the like, and a control method for the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus corrects, based on a result of measuring a measurement image, the density and gradation characteristics of an image formed by the image forming apparatus, to adjust the image quality to desired quality. This process is called calibration. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,788 proposes calibration in which a charging voltage or a developing voltage is controlled to correct maximum image density, and a gradation correction condition is changed to correct gradation characteristics.
In recent years, the market has demanded expansion of the color gamut of image forming apparatuses. The color gamut can be expanded by increasing the single-color maximum density of each of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. For example, to increase the maximum density of each of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, a measurement image of each of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black is formed, and a process condition for forming an image of the maximum density is determined based on a result of measuring the measurement image using a sensor. There is, however, the problem of the measurement result of the sensor being saturated in the case where the amount of toner (the amount of applied toner) attached to the measurement image exceeds a predetermined amount. In the case where the measurement result obtained by reading the measurement image is saturated, the measurement result no longer increases monotonically even when the amount of applied toner on a sheet is increased. In calibration, the relation between a measurement result obtained by reading a pattern image and a process condition (laser power, charging potential, developing potential, etc.) used when forming the pattern image needs to be determined accurately. A failure to accurately determine the relation between the amount of applied toner and the measurement result leads to lower calibration accuracy. A possible cause of the saturation of the measurement result is that, when the amount of pigment included in the toner is greater than or equal to a predetermined amount, light cannot pass through or reflect off the measurement image.

Method of determining process condition of image forming apparatus


A device for storing upon a wall support surface a quantity of toothbrushes and tube of toothpaste. The storage device is comprised of a toothbrush container or receptacle having a plurality of individual cavities located at a front sidewall thereof, each cavity housing an individual, removable toothbrush storage receptacle; an internal cavity that houses a removable toothbrush carrying case located therein, the toothbrush carrying case storing a plurality of toothbrushes; a container located at the top side of the toothbrush container for storing a tube of toothpaste; and rear panel to affix the storage apparatus to the wall of a bathroom at a convenient location thereon.

This version of the invention is concerned with the field of toothbrush and toothpaste storage devices. More specifically, this version of the invention is concerned with toothbrush and toothpaste storage devices that are comprised of a main container or receptacle having a plurality of individual receptacles and compartments for hygienic storage of toothbrushes and toothpaste and attachment means to affix said storage container or receptacle to the wall of a bathroom at a convenient location therein.

Combined toothbrush and toothpaste storage device


The provided scaffolds have heavy chains that are asymmetric in the various domains (e.g. CH2 and CH3) to accomplish selectivity between the various Fc receptors involved in modulating effector function, beyond those achievable with a natural homodimeric (symmetric) Fc molecule, and increased stability and purity of the resulting variant Fc heterodimers. These novel molecules comprise complexes of heterogeneous components designed to alter the natural way antibodies behave and that find use in therapeutics.

Bispecific therapeutics are antibody-based molecules that can simultaneously bind two separate and distinct targets or different epitopes of the same antigen. Bispecific antibodies are comprised of the immunoglobulin domain based entities and try to structurally and functionally mimic components of the antibody molecule. One use of bispecific antibodies has been to redirect cytotoxic immune effector cells for enhanced killing of tumor cells, such as by antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). In this context, one arm of the bispecific antibody binds an antigen on the tumor cell, and the other binds a determinant expressed on effector cells. By cross-linking tumor and effector cells, the bispecific antibody not only brings the effector cells within the proximity of the tumor cells but also simultaneously triggers their activation, leading to effective tumor cell-killing. Bispecific antibodies have also been used to enrich chemo- or radiotherapeutic agents in tumor tissues to minimize detrimental effects to normal tissue. In this setting, one arm of the bispecific antibody binds an antigen expressed on the cell targeted for destruction, and the other arm delivers a chemotherapeutic drug, radioisotope, or toxin. Going beyond bispecifics, there is a need for protein therapeutics to achieve their efficacies by targeting multiple modalities concurrently. Such complex and novel biological effects can be obtained with protein therapeutics by designing multi-target binding and multi-functional aspects into the protein.
A robust scaffold that provides a framework to fuse other functional war-heads or target protein binding domains in order to design these multifunctional and multi-target binding therapeutics is required. Ideally, the scaffold should not only provide the framework but also make available a number of other therapeutically relevant and valuable features to the designed therapeutic. A major obstacle in the general development of antibody-based bispecific and multifunctional therapeutics has been the difficulty of producing materials of sufficient quality and quantity for both preclinical and clinical studies. There remains a need in the art for polypeptide constructs that comprise single variable domains as the protein binding domains that are linked to a variant Fc region, said variant Fc comprising CH3 domains, which have been modified to select for heterodimers with an increased stability and purity.

Stable heterodimeric antibody design with mutations in the Fc domain


A slidable constant velocity universal joint holds an elastic member (coil spring) in a stable attitude even if an associated shaft makes an oscillating motion, thereby achieving an improvement in terms of stability in torque transmission. The slidable constant velocity universal joint includes an outer joint member connected to a power transmission member, and an inner joint member connected to an end portion of a shaft, with torque transmission being possible between the outer joint member and the inner joint member while allowing angular displacement and axial displacement. At a forward end of the shaft, there is provided an elastic member for elastically urging the outer joint member toward the power transmission member, and, between the elastic member and the forward end of the shaft, there is interposed a bearing member for guiding the forward end of the shaft while in contact therewith.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a slidable constant velocity universal joint for use in a power transmission system for automobiles, various industrial machines or the like and, more specifically, to a slidable constant velocity universal joint which is capable of transmitting rotary motion at constant velocity even when driving and driven shafts to be joined together are at an angle (operating angle) with respect to each other and which allows a relative axial movement between driving and driven shafts.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 5, for example, in the power transmission system of a conventional vehicle such as an agricultural tractor, two power transmission shafts 120 and 130 and both ends of a propeller shaft 150 arranged between them are operationally connected with each other via cross joints 100a and 100b, respectively (see, for example, JP05-178105A and JP2003-300422A). The mounting structure for the cross joints and the power transmission shafts will be described with reference to FIG. 5; in the case of one cross joint 100a (the one on the left-hand side as seen in the drawing), a cylindrical portion 101a with a female spline groove formed therein is fitted onto a spline shaft 121 of the mating power transmission shaft 120 with a male spline groove formed therein, with a bolt 105 being engaged with a recess 122 formed in the outer periphery of the spline shaft 121.
In the case of the other cross joint 100b (the one on the right-hand side as seen in the drawing), a cylindrical portion 101b with a female spline groove formed therein is fitted onto a spline shaft 131 of the mating power transmission shaft 130 with a male spline groove formed therein. That is, the right-hand cross joint 100b is axially slidable with respect to the power transmission shaft 130, whereby, even if the relative position between the two power transmission shafts is changed due to engine vibration or the like, it is possible to absorb any glitch at each connecting portion due to the relative positional deviation. As a result, the fit-engagement between the members is properly maintained, and rotational torque is transmitted in a satisfactory manner.
However, in the conventional example shown in FIG. 5, the right-hand cross joint 100b is fit-engaged with the spline shaft 131 so as to be slidable, so that wear occurs at the fit-engagement portion. Further, the left-hand cross joint 100a has to be fixed to the power transmission shaft 120 by the bolt 105, and the mounting operation involved is problematic.
To solve the above-mentioned problems, a slidable constant velocity universal joint in which, as shown in FIG. 6, coil springs 201 are provided between the ends of a shaft 200 and receiving members 205 arranged inside outer rings 202 has been proposed (see Patent Application No. JP 2008-115943 A). Due to the use of the coil springs 201, the distance between the slidable constant velocity universal joints at both ends is variable, whereby the slidable constant velocity universal joints can be easily mounted to two power transmission members 203 spaced apart from each other by a predetermined interval.
In the slidable constant velocity universal joint shown in FIG. 6, when the shaft 200 assumes an operating angle, cap members 204 provided at the forward ends of the coil springs 201 slide on the receiving members 205 arranged inside the outer rings 202. That is, the coil springs 201 are also inclined in conformity with the shaft 200, so that if the sliding motion of the cap members 204 relative to the receiving members 205 is not effected smoothly, the coil springs 201 may be bent, making it impossible to maintain a stable attitude. This may lead to deterioration in stability in torque transmission.

Slidable constant velocity universal joint


Transmitting devices and transmission methods are provided. The transmitting device includes a touch panel, a touch link module, a processing module and a transceiver module. The touch link module establishes a touch link with a receiving device through the touch panel. The processing module determines an instruction according to the link duration of the transmitting device and the receiving device after the touch link has been established. The transceiver module transmits the instruction to the receiving device.

Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to data transmission, and more particularly, to data transmission through touch link technology.
Description of the Related Art
Near Field Communication (NFC) is a contactless technology for identification and interconnection. Near Field Communication allows users to exchange the information, access contacts and services by using the near field magnetic communication (such as the near field magnetic communication of 13.56 MHz) between the mobile devices, consumer electronics, PCs, or smart electronic devices.
Due to the maturity of the market, a mobile phone with NFC can either support a mobile payment function or serve as a point of sale (POS) device. However, a proximity card reader or a like element must be added to the handheld device due to the NFC being operated by sending and receiving a signal, and that will make the size of the handheld device larger, and the layout and the elements of the handheld device might be limited.
A touch-and-connect (touch link or touch connection) technology for touch panel devices which use an existing panel and driver IC for communication was developed recently, and has been described in US 2011/0304583, US 2013/0147760, CN 102916729A. The touch panel device includes a touch sensor. At least part of the touch sensor includes at least part of the touch panel of the touch panel device. The touch panel can be a touch panel without a display function, such as a touch pad, or with a display function, such as a touch screen. The touch sensor includes driving electrodes and sensing electrodes set on the substrate of the touch panel for forming the capacitance structure. At least one of the driving electrodes and the sensing electrodes is used as a sending electrode, and at least one is used as a receiving electrode. Thus, the signal can be sent and received by the existing electrodes and driver IC of the touch panel device, thereby achieving touch transmission based on an electric field without additional proximity card readers or like elements, reducing the size and cost of the touch panel device.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the touch transmission between a first touch panel device and a second touch panel device in accordance with the related art. As shown in FIG. 1, there are near fields 103a and 103b between the first touch panel device 101 and the second touch panel device 102. It should be noted that the first touch panel device 101 and the second touch panel device 102 are enabled to send and receive the signal. The first touch panel device 101 sends the signal to the second touch panel device 102 through a communication medium which is an electric field pointed to the second touch panel device 102 (the near field 103a as shown in FIG. 1). The second touch panel device 102 sends the signal to the first touch panel device 101 through a communication medium which is an electric field pointed to the first touch panel device 101 (the near field 103b as shown in FIG. 1). The X channel and the Y channel shown in FIG. 1 are used as the sending electrodes and the receiving electrodes set on the substrate for forming the capacitance structure.
FIG. 2 is a logic chart for achieving the touch transmission system between the first touch panel device and the second touch panel device in accordance with the related art. The first touch panel device includes a signal sending system 201, and the second touch panel device includes a signal receiving system 202, also shown in FIG. 2. The signal sending system 201 includes a touch transmission request signal generation unit 211, a communication connection establishing unit 212 and a first communication unit 213. The touch transmission request signal generation unit 211 is used to generate a request signal for touch transmission to the second touch panel device 102 through the sending electrode. The communication connection establishing unit 212 establishes a communication connection with the second touch panel device 102 after the receiving electrodes receive a response signal from the second touch panel device 102. The first communication unit 213 sends the communication information or the data to the second touch panel device 102 through the sending electrodes after the communication connection is established.
The signal receiving system 202 includes a touch transmission request response unit 221, a communication connection establishing unit 222 and a second communication unit 223. The touch transmission request response unit 221 responds with an acknowledge signal to the first touch panel device 101 through the sending electrodes after the receiving electrodes receive a touch transmission request signal sent from the first touch panel device 101. The communication connection establishing unit 222 establishes the communication connection with the first touch panel device 101 after the touch transmission request response unit 221 responds with the acknowledge signal to the first touch panel device 101. The second communication unit 223 receives the communication information or the data sent from the first touch panel device 101 through the receiving electrodes after the communication connection is established.
FIG. 3 is a schematic illustrating the transmission and reception of the signal by the electrodes of the touch panel of the related art. As shown in FIG. 3, the touch sensor (not shown) includes the sending electrodes 311, 321 and the receiving electrodes 312, 322 disposed on the substrate of the touch panel (such as the first touch panel 301 or the second touch panel 302) for forming the capacitance structure. The sending electrodes 311, 321 are used to send the signal, and the receiving electrodes 312, 322 are used to receive the signal.
FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the touch connection method in accordance with the related art. First, in step S401, the touch transmission request signal generation unit 211 generates a touch connection request signal, and sends it to the second touch panel device 102 through the sending electrodes. Then the receiving electrodes receive the acknowledge signal from the second touch panel device 102 (step S402). After that, the communication connection establishing unit 212 establishes the communication connection with the second touch panel device 102 (step S403). Finally, the method goes to step S404, and the first communication unit 213 sends the communication information or the data to the second touch panel device 102 through the sending electrodes.
Traditionally, the transmitting device may transmit different instructions to the receiving device according to the user's operation. Therefore, how to improve the user experience with a more convenient and efficient method to transmit different instructions is worthy of discussion.


A computer implemented method for a mail tracking service provider to manage mail tracking identification codes for customers. A master list is maintained of identification codes that have been provided to customers. A customer sends a request for a block of identification codes to use with their mailing. The service generates a block of identification codes, referring to the master list to determine identification codes that are not already being used. The generated block is sent to the customer. The service updates the master list to identify the customer and the block sent. The mailer sends mailing job data back to the tracking service. The job data identifies which codes from the block have been placed on mail to be delivered. The service gathers data about the delivery of the mail from the carrier service, and the tracking data is consolidated and provided in a report to the customer.

Individuals and companies that send mail are often interested in tracking delivery of mail as it passes through the delivery system. In addition to providing assurance that mail is reaching its destination, tracking is useful for determining whether the timing of the mail is meeting the sender's business needs. For example, someone sending a bill may want the mail to be delivered in time for the recipient to receive it and pay before the due date. Marketing messages may be timed to coincide with a sale or a special event.
Delivery services, like the United States Postal Service (USPS), offer tracking services to meet these interests in tracking. Typically, a special barcode is placed on the mail item. As the mail is transported through the delivery system, barcode scanners are used to scan the codes on the mail and identify each individual piece and its location within the USPS processing facilities. Data related to the processing and delivery of the mail pieces can then be sent back to an originator associated with a particular code.
Use of USPS mail tracking services requires that an account with the USPS be arranged in advance, and a mailer must subscribe to the tracking service. Tracking codes and mailer identification codes are assigned to subscribers, and subscribers are required to inform the USPS when mail to be tracked is being inducted into the delivery system.
Rather than dealing directly with the USPS, some mailers find it desirable to obtain tracking capabilities through a third party tracking service, such as those provided at the website www.trackmymail.com. The tracking service takes responsibility for interacting with the USPS in fulfilling the requirements to assign tracking numbers to mail pieces and to initiate tracking for particular mail pieces. Also, such third party services will process the raw, and difficult to interpret, USPS tracking data, and prepare a report for mailers that is more user friendly. Third party services achieve economies of scale by handling tracking codes for many different customers. Such services may be particularly attractive to mailers who only have an occasional need for tracking their mail, and who can benefit from the tracking services' quick access to tracking capabilities.

Method for managing intelligent mail tracking codes for multiple mailers


A spacer for elevating occlusion position is composed of a plastic material which can be deformed by occlusion pressure; and a plurality of ball members having a predetermined diameter. The ball member is made of a material which cannot be deformed by subjecting occlusion pressure, and the ball member is embedded in the plastic material so as to be in a plane.

The present invention relates to a space which is located between upper and lower molars and enables to keep a predetermined space, for adjusting occlusion, and a mouthpiece which are mounted on teeth located in an upper or a lower jaw by using a spacer.
When a denture or a mouthpiece available for athletic sports is produced, in many cases a wax plate having a thickness of 3 to 4 mm (which is called a bite wax) has hitherto been used. The bite wax is bitten in a state, wherein the bite wax is softened by heating, by a patient or the like so that a dell is formed on both sides thereof. Thereby, a mutual relationship of the upper and the lower jaw in such a state that the elevation of several mm as to the occlusion is obtained. On the other hand, a gnathic model, which is made from gypsum, of patients and the like is formed. Thereafter, the model is inserted into an articulator in such a manner that the bite wax is interposed between the upper and the lower molar parts in the model. Thereby, the mutual relationship, wherein the elevation having a predetermined space is performed, is reproduced. Thereby, producing the denture or the mouthpiece is performed.
When the elevation of the position of occlusion is performed by using the bite wax as mentioned hereinbefore, the space of the elevation varies in accordance with occlusion pressure (high pressure or low pressure). For this reason, considerable maturity is required even for a dentist in order to obtain a predetermined value of elevation. As is often the case, the value of elevation is still thinner or thicker than the desired value of elevation. Then, it is quite often that the patient bites off the bite wax.
With respect to the mouthpiece which is put on sale (or available), a player (or athlete) buys the bite wax in a shop, and thereafter soaks it in a hot water. Thereby, the bite wax is softened. Then, the mouthpiece is shaped by biting between the upper and the lower molars, and pressure is applied to the mouthpiece from tongue-side and cheek-side. However, in the above case, it is very difficult to obtain an optimum value, which is set beforehand, of the elevation of the position of occlusion. It depends upon a temperature of the hot water and soaking time that material of the mouthpiece softens. Further, there is a difference between individuals in the occlusion pressure. For this reason, it often happens that the space of elevation is thicker or thinner than the standard value and the above-mentioned problems arise.
As this kind of the mouthpiece, the mouthpiece made of a thermoplastic resin which is softened at a temperature being not more than 100.degree. C. having such a construction as to be inserted by the core member such as a weaving cloth is known (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 60672/1990).
Further, the above Japanese Publication discloses a mouthpiece wherein softened resin is prevented from dropping down by the core member when the mouthpiece is heated. The above Japanese Publication does not disclose such a technique that the position of occlusion is elevated with a certain space between the upper and the lower molar by means of the core member. Actually, weaving cloth or woven fabric is so thin that the elevation of the position of occlusion cannot be performed by several mm. Then, if the weaving cloth and the like is made to be thick so as to have a thickness of several mm, restoring force against deformation is so big as to be ignored since elastic modulus of the weaving cloth is higher than that of the above thermoplastic resin. As a result, the mouthpiece is in danger of deforming before the mouthpiece is cured by cooling after shaping.
The object of the present invention is to delete the above problems and to provide a spacer and a mouthpiece, wherein an elevation of position of occlusion with having a predetermined space between the upper and the lower molars, can be easily and accurately performed by even a person who is not mature.

Spacer and mouthpiece for adjusting occulsion


The present invention provides a method and apparatus for training a prosody statistic model and prosody parsing, a method and system for text to speech synthesis. Said method for training a prosody statistic model with a raw corpus that includes a plurality of sentences with punctuation, comprising: transforming said plurality of sentences in said raw corpus into a plurality of token sequences respectively; counting a frequency for each adjacent token pair occurring in said plurality of token sequences and frequencies of punctuation that represents a pause occurring at associated positions of said each token pair; calculating pause probabilities at said associated positions of said each token pair; and constructing said prosody statistic model based on said token pairs and said pause probabilities at associated positions thereof. With the present invention a prosody statistic model can be trained from a raw corpus without manually prosody parsing tags. And the prosody statistic model can be used in the prosody parsing and further voice synthesis.

The goal of a system for text to speech synthesis (TTS) is to make a computer speak out natural voice as a man does. When a man is reading a sentence naturally, apart from some of the punctuations (e.g. period, comma, etc.) as inherent pause indications, there will be some pause at locations without punctuation. Thus, in order to achieve synthesis voice with higher quality, the voice synthesis system should have the ability to automatically decide which locations without punctuation also needs to pause, which needs to perform prosody parsing on the text as a front-end process to help to improve the quality of voice synthesis.
There is proposed a rule-learning based method for predicting Chinese prosody structure in "Rule-learning based prosodic structure prediction", ZHAO Sheng, et al, Journal of Chinese Information Processing, Vol. 16, No. 5, 2002.9, PP. 30-37. The method extracts linguistic features and two-level prosodic structure tags from a manually prosodic labeled corpus, establishes an example database, and then automatically induces rules for prosodic phrase prediction from the example by using rule-learning algorithms.
However, in the foregoing method, a large amount of corpus that has been prosody parsed in advance is needed, whereas performing prosody parsing on a corpus is an arduous work and it is hard to control its quality.

Method and apparatus for training a prosody statistic model and prosody parsing, method and system for text to speech synthesis


Herein it is shown that hemoproteins (e.g., Ascaris hemoglobin, myoglobin, flavohemoglobins) have NO-consuming and deoxygenase activities. The invention provides a method of reducing the concentration of oxygen and/or nitric oxide in a mammal. The method of the invention comprises administering a therapeutically effective amount of a hemoprotein having NO-activated deoxygenase activity or an enzymatically active fragment thereof to a mammal. The method can be used to treat a mammal having pathologically proliferating cells, such as a tumor. In one embodiment, the hemoprotein is administered to reduce the oxygen concentration of a tumor. In another embodiment, the hemoprotein is administered together with a cytotoxic agent to treat a mammal having a tumor. The invention also provides a method of enzymatically generating toxic reactive oxygen species in a mammal for therapeutic purposes. The method comprises administering a therapeutically effective amount of a hemoprotein to a mammal. The invention also provides a composition comprising a hemoprotein having deoxygenase activity or an enzymatically active fragment thereof and a physiologically acceptable carrier. In one embodiment, the composition further comprises a cytotoxic agent and/or a reducing agent. The invention further provides a method of treating a mammal infected with Ascaris sp., comprising administering to said mammal a therapeutically effective amount of an inhibitor of NO synthase. The NO-consuming activity of a hemoprotein (e.g., a flavohemoglobin) can be used in a treatment where constriction of blood vessels is desirable, or where it is otherwise desirable to reduce NO concentration, as in inflammation.

Hemoproteins are a group of proteins which contain a heme prosthetic group. They include cytochromes and hemoglobins. These proteins play a critical role in the bioenergetics of aerobic metabolism in mammals, and individuals with mutations or deficiencies in these proteins can have deficiencies in oxygen delivery (e.g., sickle cell anemia) and electron transport (e.g., Leigh syndrome) which are associated with high rates of mortality. Indeed, the importance of balanced oxygen delivery and consumption to ensure normal metabolism (e.g., oxidative phosphorylation) and avoid oxidative stress is well established.
In certain circumstances it can be desirable to modulate (i.e., increase or decrease) the quantity of oxygen in a mammal, either systemically or locally (e.g., in an organ or portion thereof, tissue, cells). For example, appropriate modulation of oxygen levels can be therapeutically beneficial for individuals with anemia or oxidative stress, or in individuals to be treated by local oxygen starvation at the site of a tumor. Thus, a need exists for methods to modulate the concentration of oxygen in a mammal.
When macrophages are activated by bacteria, bacterial products, T lymphocyte-derived cytokines, and antigens, they respond by converting arginine into NO via nitric oxide synthase. Blocking the synthetic pathway of NO production has been demonstrated to alleviate immunologically mediated joint destruction that occurs in animal models of arthritis, as well as in glomerulonephritis (McCartney-Francis, N. et al., J. Exp. Med. 178:749–754 (1993); Weinberg, J. B. et al., J. Exp. Med. 179:651–660 (1994)). NO is also thought to play a role in other inflammatory conditions such as colitis, iritis and hemodynamic shock. In addition, tumor cells secrete NO to regulate blood flow. Thus, methods of therapy to reduce the concentration of NO are desirable to alleviate these conditions.


A mobile scaffold (10) having bi-axially rotatable casters (22–28) and including brake assemblies (30 and 32) associated with the casters (22–28) is disclosed. The inventive brake assemblies (30,32) enable an elevated worker to selectively control the mobility of the scaffold (10) and each broadly includes shiftable brake stop subassemblies (74 and 76), a brake housing (72) adjustably connected to a respective scaffold frame (12,14) and shiftably connected to the brake stop subassemblies (74,76), and an actuator (78) adjustably connected to the housing (72) and configured to shift the brake stop subassemblies (74,76) into and out of braking positions. When in the braking position, the brake stop subassemblies (74,76) prevent the respective casters (22–28) from rotating about both axes. The actuator includes cables (180,182) for interconnecting brake stop subassembly and the handle in one embodiment and a plunger (308,406) in other embodiments. Preferred alternative embodiments are disclosed that include pivotal linkage subassemblies (328,430) for intercommunicating the plunger and the brake stops.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to mobile scaffolding. More specifically, the present invention concerns a mobile scaffolding brake that can be activated from the support platform and when activated generally prevents both rolling and swivelling of the caster wheel. The inventive brake provides a secure restraint of the scaffolding and enables a worker supported on the scaffolding platform to selectively prevent unsafe and inadvertent motion of the scaffolding while the worker is supported thereon.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
It is known in the art to utilize scaffolding to provide an elevated work platform to elevate a worker above a floor or ground surface to complete a task (e.g., painting, drywall finishing, etc.). The scaffolding utilized to provide the elevated work platform is often mobile scaffolding that can be quickly and easily moved from one working position to the next. For example, it is known in the art to support a scaffolding frame with one or more casters that enable the assembled scaffolding to be rolled along the floor or ground surface between working positions. However, it is desirable to prevent the scaffolding from moving when one or more workers are supported thereon.
It is known in the art to provide a scaffolding caster with a brake for selectively preventing the scaffolding from moving. These prior art caster brakes utilize a brake stop that engages the caster wheel and thereby prevents rolling rotation of the wheel. These prior art caster brakes typically include a two-piece housing, with the wheel supported by one of the housing pieces and the brake stop supported by the other. The housing pieces are pivotal relative to one another so that the wheel can be pivoted into contact with the brake stop. One of the housing pieces serves as a foot-activated handle for selectively causing the wheel to be pivoted into engagement with the brake stop. In this manner, the weight of the scaffolding supported by the caster works to maintain the locking engagement between the wheel and the stop.
These prior art caster brakes are problematic and have several undesirable limitations. Several of these problems have been described in Applicants' copending Application for U.S. patent Ser. No. 10/271,634, entitled MOBILE SCAFFOLDING BRAKE, filed Oct. 15, 2002 (hereinafter "the '634 Application"), which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. In addition to the problems identified in the '634 Application, the prior art caster brakes enable the scaffolding an undesirable range of motion when the brakes are activated. For example, when the prior art caster brakes are activated, the caster wheels are still enabled to pivotally rotate—i.e., to "swivel"—relative to the scaffolding frame. Swiveling of the caster wheels is problematic as the caster wheels can re-orient in the direction of an applied force, such as when a third party on the ground inadvertently bumps into the scaffolding, which undesirably allows the scaffold to move in the force direction. This problem is compounded by the common occurrence of only one of the caster wheels having the brake activated, therefore allowing the scaffolding to swing, for example, to pivot around the swiveling, single brake-activated caster wheel. In this regard, the prior art caster brakes are problematic in that each of the four brakes must be separately and manually activated. Such a requirement is undesirable to workers with limited time to complete a job, particularly where the consequences of not activating more than one caster brake could be severe.


A machine for road work, the machine can comprise: a frame; a rotor coupled to the frame and configured for rotational movement relative thereto; a milling system actuator configured to raise and lower the rotor to selectively disengage and engage with a surface of a working area; a first position sensor configured to sense a first position of a left side of the rotor relative to the surface; a second position sensor configured to sense a second position of a right side of the rotor relative to the surface; and a controller configured to, in response to signals received from the first position sensor and the second position senor, determine at least a cross-sectional area of the rotor that is engaging the surface.

Rotary mixers can be used to recycle old or degraded pavement for reuse on the surfaces. Cold planer machines can be used to remove old or degraded pavement from surfaces such as roadways and parking lots. The surfaces in such working areas can extend over various terrains including surfaces that have grades (slopes) from the horizontal. As such, these machines can include systems for adjusting the vertical height of the machine and a rotary cutting tool attached thereto in order to, for example, control the cutting depth during milling operations.
Chinese Patent Application No. 105544365, entitled "Milling Machine Watering Amount Control Method And Milling" and U.S. Pat. No. 9,121,146, entitled "Determining Milled Volume or Milled Area of a Milled Surface" disclose construction machines for roadwork that have control systems.

Construction machine with control system configured to calculate various outputs


A poly(nitrogen/amine) derivative of a natural wax of formula I, and ophthalmic compositions and contact lens care solutions that contain the poly(nitrogen/amine) derivative of a natural wax of formula I. The invention is also directed to a method of treating a patient with dry eyes, the method comprising instructing a patient to administer one or more eye drops of the ophthalmic composition that includes a poly(nitrogen/amine) derivative of a natural wax of formula I.

During normal use, contact lenses become soiled or contaminated with a wide variety of compounds that can degrade lens performance. For example, a contact lens will become soiled with biological materials such as proteins or lipids that are present in the tear fluid and which adhere to the lens surface. Also, by handling of the contact lens, sebum (skin oil) or cosmetics or other materials can soil the contact lens. These biological and external contaminants can affect visual acuity and patient comfort during use and at the end of the day. Accordingly, it is important to remove any debris from the lens surface for continued comfortable use with a lens care cleaning and disinfecting solution that contains one or more cleaning components. It can also be important that a lens care cleaning and disinfecting solution provide a contact lens consumer with some level of ocular comfort or hydration, particularly, consumers diagnosed with keratoconjunctivitis sicca, a condition often referred to as dry eye syndrome.
Dry eye is a common ophthalmological disorder affecting millions of people. A patient with dry eye may experience burning, a feeling of dryness, and persistent irritation. In severe cases, dry eye can seriously impair a person's vision. Also, as people age the lacrimal glands in the eye may produce less tears, resulting in eyes that become dry, inflamed, itchy, and gritty. More than 50% of total patients visiting ophthalmic clinics report dry eye syndromes. The elderly, particularly 70 to 80% of post-menopausal women suffer from ocular discomfort due to dry eye. Although it appears that dry eye may result from a variety of unrelated pathogenic causes, all presentations of the condition share a common feature, namely the breakdown of the precorneal tear film that results in dehydration of the exposed outer ocular surface and hence the symptoms described.
A number of approaches exist for the treatment of dry eye. One common approach has been to supplement the ocular tear film using artificial tears instilled throughout the day. Examples of the tear substitute approach include the use of buffered, isotonic saline solutions and aqueous solutions containing water-soluble polymers that render the solutions more viscous and thus less easily shed by the washing action of tear fluid. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,927 to Gressel et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,607 to Glonek et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,409,205 to Shively.
Natural waxes are often found as trace components of triglyceride oils or can be extracted from certain botanical and animal sources. Sunflower and corn oils contain natural waxes, while jojoba, carnauba and candelillia are examples of waxes found naturally in a more pure form. Beeswax and lanolin are examples of natural waxes of insect and animal origin. These example waxes range from the liquid, unsaturated jojoba oil to the almost completely saturated sunflower wax. In order to control or modify various properties of natural oils and waxes such as water solubility, one can form alkoxylated derivatives. For example, by controlling the number of ethylene oxide (ETO) and/or propylene oxide (PO) units that one can attach to the hydroxyl function of the natural waxes various properties such as solubility and melting point can be modified. Generally, it has been found that the natural oils and waxes become more water soluble as the level of alkoxylation increases. Compounds that are ethoxylated, as well as propoxylated, become more water and alcohol soluble.
Lanolin also called Adeps Lanae, wool wax or wool grease, is a yellow waxy substance secreted by the sebaceous glands of sheep. Lanolin is also frequently, but incorrectly, referred to as wool wat even though it well known that lanolin is essentially devoid of glycerides and is in fact a wax, not a fat. Like many natural products, lanolin has a complex and variable composition. For example, a typical high purity grade of lanolin is composed predominantly of long chain waxy esters (ca. 97% by weight) the remainder being lanolin alcohols, lanolin acids and lanolin hydrocarbons. Lanolin's role in nature is to protect wool and skin against the ravages of climate and the environment—it also seems to play a role in integument hygiene. It is therefore not surprising that lanolin and its many derivatives are used extensively in products designed for the protection, treatment and beautification of human skin.
Poly(ethoxylate) lanolin or PEG lanolin is a commercially available. PEG lanolin is derived from lanolin by a chemical process that adds ethoxylate linkages to the hydroxyl functionality of lanolin. PEG lanolin is a flaky wax at room temperature with a slight yellow to amber color. PEG75 lanolin has polymer chains with a mean length of 75 ethylene oxide units, and the resulting compound has a weight average molecular weight (MW) of about 3500 dalton with a lanolin ester core and a polyethylene oxide chain. PEG75 lanolin is a water-soluble derivative of lanolin as a result of ethoxylation. The surrounding polyether chain allows water molecules to assemble around the non-polar and otherwise virtually water insoluble lanolin ester core. The resulting aqueous solutions are clear with a feint yellow color that increases with concentration, non-ionic and compatible with most physiological electrolytes, e.g. sodium chloride.
Jojoba is a shrub native to the Sonoran and Mojave deserts of Arizona, California, and Mexico. Jojoba is grown commercially for its oil, a liquid wax ester, expressed from the seed. The oil is rare in that it is an extremely long (C36-C46) straight-chain wax ester and not a triglyceride, making jojoba and its derivative jojoba esters more similar to human sebum and whale oil than to traditional vegetable oils. Jojoba oil is easily refined to be odorless, colorless and oxidatively stable, and is often used in cosmetics as a moisturizer and as a carrier oil for specialty fragrances. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 20050202097 describes a formulation for treatment of the symptoms of dry eye that includes natural jojoba wax, or components thereof, and is said to relieve ocular irritation and discomfort associated with dry eye.
Poly(ethoxylate) jojoba or PEG jojoba is available as a commercial source of an alkoxylated jojoba. Like PEG lanolin, PEG jojoba is derived from jojoba oil by a chemical process that adds ethoxylate linkages to the hydroxyl functionality of the oil. PEG jojoba is a flaky, off-white wax at room temperature. PEG150 jojoba has polymer chains with a mean length of 150 ethylene oxide units. PEG jojoba is a completely water-soluble derivative of jojoba oil as a result of ethoxylation.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/571,465 filed Oct. 1, 2009 relates to contact lens care solutions with a cationic antimicrobial component, and a low molecular weight cationic or nitrogen/amine-based oligomer. The number average molecular weight of the cationic or nitrogen/amine-based oligomer is in the range of 500 daltons to 15,000 daltons, and is believed to compete with the cationic antimicrobial component for the pores or surface sites of contact lens materials. The result is a contact lens care solution with improved biocidal efficacy over time and improved comfort to the patient.

Poly(nitrogen/amine) derivatives of a natural wax and ophthalmic compositions


The present invention relates to a distillation apparatus and, more particularly, to a distillation apparatus for recovering a high purity product through fractionation of volatile components from a material to be distilled, by using thermal energy and centrifugal force. The distillation apparatus can recover a high purity product from the material to be distilled without significant damage by reducing a pressure drop according to driving of the apparatus and thereby minimizing the temperature difference in the apparatus.

A stripping column is an apparatus for vaporizing volatile components from a distillation target material in a liquid state using gas (gas or steam) via a distillation column having multiple stages to collect a high purity product therefrom.
In this case, the stripping column needs high-temperature thermal energy in order to collect a high purity product from a distillation target material, and thus there is a problem in that it is difficult to classify and collect a high purity product from foodstuffs, a high molecular substance, or the like, which is vulnerable to heat.
A spinning cone column (SSC) uses mechanical energy of centrifugal force in addition to thermal energy, the cited reference of which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1995-022646.
The SSC collects a high purity product from a distillation target material using mechanical energy which is centrifugal force through a distillation target material introduced from an upper portion and gas (steam) introduced from a lower portion, and thus it is possible to collect a high purity product at a low temperature compared with a stripping column due to a short contact time between the distillation target material and thermal energy.
In this case, the SSC has large pressure drop to cause a temperature difference between upper and lower portions of a body of the SSC, and in this regard, as the number of layers in a body formed by a rotary cone and a fixed cone is increased, a relative temperature difference is further increased.
That is, a range of a temperature condition for driving the SSC is widened, and thus there is a problem in that there is a limit in an operation for constantly collecting a high purity product from a distillation target material.


A nonvolatile ferroelectric memory device having a power control function improves a sensing margin by stably controlling a power applied to a cell capacitor. The sensing margin of a cell can be improved by controlling an operation voltage of the cell depending on an external supply voltage VEXT and applying a power voltage VCC obtained by dropping an external power voltage to adjacent circuits. Additionally, the reliability of a capacitor at a high voltage can be improved by employing a ferroelectric capcitor for stabilizing power to obtain capacitance of high capacity with a small area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a nonvolatile ferroelectric memory device, and more specifically, to a technology of stably controlling a power source applied to a cell capacitor, thereby improving a sensing margin.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a ferroelectric random access memory (hereinafter, referred to as 'FeRAM') has attracted considerable attention as next generation memory device because it has a data processing speed as fast as a Dynamic Random Access Memory DRAM and conserves data even after the power is turned off.
The FeRAM having structures similar to the DRAM includes the capacitors made of a ferroelectric substance, so that it utilizes the characteristic of a high residual polarization of the ferroelectric substance in which data is not deleted even after an electric field is eliminated.
The technical contents on the above FeRAM are disclosed in the Korean Patent Application No. 2002-85533 by the same inventor of the present invention. Therefore, the basic structure and the operation on the FeRAM are not described herein.
Meanwhile, as the pattern size of a semiconductor memory device becomes smaller, an operation voltage of a CMOS device is reduced at the same ratio. When the operation voltage of the CMOS device drops, the power consumption of the semiconductor memory device is also reduced.
In general, a capacitor included in the conventional FeRAM cell corresponds to a device which requires a relatively higher voltage. As a result, when the FeRAM cell is operated, a power voltage VCC is pumped to rise to an external power voltage VEXT level.
However, since the external power voltage VEXT having a high voltage level is also applied to adjacent circuits which do not require the high voltage except a cell capacitor, the power consumption of the semiconductor memory device increases. In addition, the area of the whole system board also increases because an additional power supply circuit for controlling power of the memory cell is included in the outside of a chip.

Nonvolatile ferroelectric memory device having power control function


A bit collation method is disclosed which requires a substantially fewer number of clock cycles than the prior art method in separating the bits in a source of bytes and collating them by bit position. A static look-up table is used to spread out the bits in a byte being collated. The look-up table enables simultaneous collation of all bits in a byte using only five clock cycles.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a method for collating bits from a source of bytes. More particularly, it is directed to an efficient method of collating bit subchannels from a buffer holding a number of bytes or a stream of bytes or other sources of bytes.
2. Description of Related Art
In communication systems, it is often the case that upon transmission of data, for example a stream of bytes, the data loses its byte boundaries such that the receiver receives the stream of bytes in some randomly rotated order. In such cases, the data must be reoriented by the receiver before it may be used. The process of reorienting the data typically involves searches by the receiver for a predesignated bit-pattern in the stream of bytes received.
Often times the search for the predesignated bit-pattern requires examination of the bits in the stream of bytes that share a common bit position in their respective bytes. For example, in the area of video signal processing, frame structures containing information such as audio and video data, are transmitted over transmission channels. In accordance with the ITU-T Recommendation H.221, the information to be transmitted is arranged in a frame structure, a typical example of which is shown in FIG. 1 as frame structure 10. As shown in FIG. 1, the frame structure 10 is made up of a stack of 80 bytes of data, each byte consisting of 8 bits. Each column of bits in the frame structure 10 is referred to as a subchannel 20. These subchannels are grouped into what is referred to as a "channel". Each channel contains a specific type of data, and each may have a different number of subchannels. For example, the frame in FIG. 1 comprises three channels, an audio channel 30, a video channel 40 and the service channel 50. The audio channel 30 carries audio data and comprising two subchannels. The video channel 40 carries video data and comprises five subchannels at top of the frame and six subchannels at bottom of the frame. The service channel 50 comprises a segment of one subchannel, and its function is described below.
The ITU-T Recommendation H.221 specifies that a particular frame bit-pattern must occupy the service channel 50. Among other functions, this pattern allows the system receiving the stream of bytes to locate the start of the frame structure and to discover by how many bit positions the bytes have been rotated in the communications channel.
The frame structures are transmitted over the ISDN communication channels continuously in a stream of bytes. As mentioned earlier, during the transmission, the byte boundaries are often lost such that the receiver receives a randomly rotated stream of bytes. FIG. 2 is an example of a rotated frame 100 received by the receiver, wherein the audio channel 30 and video channel 40 are rotated with respect to frame 10 in FIG. 1. Also, note that the service channel 50 is located in between the audio and video channels in frame 100. The receiver then uses the service channel 50 to reorient frame 100 in order to reconstruct frame structure 10. However, the receiver needs to first determine in which subchannel of frame 100 is the service channel 50 located.
In order to locate the service channel 50 in frame 100, an algorithm is typically used which separates and collates by bit position each byte in the stream of bytes received. The algorithm needs to collate the bits in each subchannel in a separate bit-group, and then compare each bit-group against the predesignated bit-pattern. A typical programming routine written in C-language, for collating bits in such manner, is shown in FIG. 3. The programming routine of FIG. 3 will be discussed in conjunction with the drawing of FIG. 4.
FIG. 4 shows a source of n bytes to be collated. FIG. 4 can for example depict the case wherein a series of n bytes forming one or more frame structures, similar to that shown in FIG. 1, are consecutively received and are stacked in the order received. Each byte is shown to consist of 8 bits, wherein the eight bit positions in each byte are designated as bit position 0 through bit position 7 starting with the least significant bit position. The stack of n bytes in FIG. 4 forms 8 bit-columns (subchannels), in one of which the predesignated bit-pattern is located. Hereinafter, each of the eight bit-columns in FIG. 4 will be referred to as a subchannel corresponding to one of the eight bit positions 0-7.
The program routine of FIG. 3 makes use of: i) an 8-bit "Byte" register in which a byte retrieved from the source of bytes in FIG. 4 is held; ii) an 8-bit "Bit" register used to prepare a bit for collation; and iii) eight "Accum" registers, in each of which one of the eight subchannels is collated. The length of each Accum register is dictated by the number of bits in the bit-pattern being sought, i.e., if the bit-pattern being sought is 10 bits in length, each of the eight Accum registers would need to be at least 10 bits in length.
The program code lines 1-31 in FIG. 3 collate eight bits of a byte retrieved from the source of bytes in FIG. 4. Therefore, if for example a total of 10 bytes were to be collated, code lines 1-31 need to be repeated 10 times, once for each byte.
Code line 1 of the program in FIG. 3 retrieves the next byte to be collated from the source of bytes in FIG. 4, placing that byte in the Byte register. Each of the subsequent group of programming code lines 2-4, 5-8, 9-12, . . . , 25-28, and 29-31 collate one bit position of the byte retrieved, starting with the least significant bit position (LSB) and ending with the most significant bit position (MSB), respectively.
Code lines 2-4 collate the least significant bit position (bit position 0) of the Byte register into the Accum register 0. Code line 2 performs a masking step wherein all the bit positions of the Byte register, other than bit position 0, are cleared. This masking operation is carried out by logically and non-destructively ANDing the contents of the Byte register with the binary value 00000001. The result is then placed in the Bit register.
Code line 3 shifts the contents of the Accum register 0 by 1 bit position to the left, thereby opening up the least significant bit position of the Accum register 0. Also, this shift operation preserves the previously collated bits if any.
Code line 4 places the bit value in the bit position 0 of the byte retrieved in the least significant bit position of the Accum register 0. This operation is carried out by logically ORing the contents of the Accum register 0 with that of the Bit register.
Code lines 5-8 collate bit position 1 of the Byte register into the Accum register 1 in a similar manner to the collation routine of code lines 2-4. However, collation of bit position 1 requires an additional shift operation in comparison with the collation routine of code lines 2-4. Since the masking operation clears all but the least significant bit position of the Bit register, it is necessary to shift the bit to be collated to the least significant bit position of the Byte register prior to placing the contents of the Byte register in the Bit register. This shift operation, shown in code line 5 of FIG. 3, is non-destructive, i.e., in collating bit position 2, the bit value in bit position 2 needs to be shifted two bit positions to the right. Upon completion of the operation of code line 4, bit position 1 of the retrieved byte is collated into the Accum register 1.
All subsequent collation routines are similar to the collation routine of code lines 5-8, except for the collation of the most significant bit position (bit position 7). The collation routine of code lines 29-31 collate bit position 7. As apparent from code lines 29-31, no masking operation is required in collating this bit position because, shifting the bit value in bit position 7 seven bit positions to the right, clears all bit positions other than the least significant bit position (the shifted bit position 7).
Therefore, upon completion of the operation in code line 31, each of the 8 bits in the retrieved byte are collated in one of the eight Accum registers. Repeating code lines 1-31 the requisite number of times will result in collation of the bits in each of the subchannels in FIG. 4 in one of the eight Accum registers, i.e., each of the eight subchannels corresponding to one of the eight bit positions 0-7 in FIG. 4, would be accumulated in the corresponding one of the eight Accum registers 0-7.
A "compare" operation, not shown in FIG. 3, may be carried out after collation of either one byte or a number of bytes. The comparison operation performed after collation of one byte, helps determine whether the bits in the byte collated are part of the predesignated bit-pattern; or alternatively after collation of the requisite number of bytes, the compare operation helps determine which of the 8 Accum registers, if any, contain the predesignated bit-pattern.
Each program code line in FIG. 3 requires one clock cycle to carry out the corresponding operation. Accordingly, a total of 31 clock cycles are required to complete the collation of one byte. As mentioned earlier, the number of times that steps 1-31 need to be repeated depends on the length of the predesignated bit-pattern, i.e., if the predesignated bit-pattern is 10 bits long, the collation routine of steps 1-31 need to be repeated 10 times, thereby requiring a total of 310 clock cycles. As can be seen, as the number of bytes to be collated increases, the number of clock cycles required increase dramatically. Therefore, the collation time can become prohibitive.


A reinforcing structure of an electrical receptacle connector includes an insulation housing, a terminal group, and a reinforcing sheet. The insulation housing includes a substrate and a tongue portion extending to one side of the substrate. The tongue portion includes a top surface, a bottom surface, and a front side surface between the top surface and the bottom surface. The terminal group is provided on the bottom surface, and includes a power supply terminal and a grounding terminal. A contact wall is formed between the power supply terminal and the front side surface, and the reinforcing sheet is provided on the top surface. The reinforcing sheet includes a front baffle and a recessed portion, the front baffle is fixed on the front side surface, and the recessed portion inwardly curves to be formed on the front baffle and corresponds to the contact wall.

A commonly used electrical connector interface is a universal serial bus (Universal Serial Bus, USB). In order to be smaller and portable, a micro USB electrical connector is developed, which is usually equipped with a connection hole and a corresponding transmission line for various portable electronic apparatuses such as a smart mobile communications device and a digital camera.
The existing micro USB electrical receptacle connector has an insulation housing and a tongue piece structure in the front of the insulation housing, and the connector is usually connected to an electrical plug connector by the tongue piece structure and multiple terminals located above tongue piece structure the. The tongue piece structure needs to be reinforced so as to avoid the tongue piece from fracturing and improve the service life.
The micro USB electrical receptacle connector provided on the existing electronic product has a reinforcing metal sheet for covering the tongue piece, so as to reinforce the structure. However, after the electrical plug connector is plugged into the electrical receptacle connector multiple times, the conductive terminal provided on the electrical plug connector constantly rubs the front end of the tongue piece of the electrical receptacle connector, so that the front end of the tongue piece gradually becomes thinner. As a result, the conductive terminals of the electrical plug connector contact the reinforcing metal sheet, causing a short circuit of the electronic product. Therefore, the related manufactories need to find a solution and solve the problem of the conventional structure.

Reinforcing structure of electrical receptacle connector


In a method and apparatus for converting a synchronizing signal received from a controller for controlling a TV camera into a new synchronizing signal, a single frame synchronizing pulse for every two field pulses is generated on the basis of at least a vertical drive signal of the synchronizing signal received from the controller. The new synchronizing pulse which has a level higher than the white level and lower than the black level of a composite video signal generated by the TV camera is injected into a video transmission line connected to the TV camera for synchronizing the latter on the basis of the injected synchronizing pulse.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for receiving a synchronizing signal from means for controlling a television camera and converting the received synchronizing signal into a new synchronizing signal.
2. Description of the Prior Act
In a television monitoring system, as one of information transmission systems, at least one television monitor is switchably connected to a plurality of television cameras through a plurality of transmission lines. Therefore, the picture image from the television camera selected by the switching operation appears on the television monitor.
In such an information transmission system, it is necessary to synchronize the horizontal scanning and/or the vertical scanning of a plurality of television cameras in order to prevent the picture image on the monitor from being disturbed during and immediately after the selection and switching operation from one television camera to another.
As one of known devices for synchronizing a plurality of television cameras, there is an apparatus for transmitting synchronizing signals (which will be hereinafter referred to as a reference synchronizing signal) from control means, such as a controller, to the television cameras, and synchronizing the horizontal and vertical scannings of the television cameras with the transmitted reference synchronizing signals.
As the reference synchronizing signal in such a synchronizing apparatus, use is made of a vertical drive signal, a combination of the vertical drive signal and a horizontal drive signal, a vertical synchronizing signal, a composite synchronizing signal including the vertical synchronizing signal and a horizontal synchronizing signal, or a frame synchronizing signal having a level higher that the white level of a composite video signal and generated within the period of time corresponding to the vertical blanking interval in the composite video signal.
Since the reference synchronizing signals to be used are different, the reference synchronizing signal transmission methods are different, the apparatuses of this kind are respectively constructed different systems, depending on the reference synchronizing signals to be used, and are available in markets. Therefore, the instruments to be used are not interchangeable.

Method and apparatus for converting synchronizing signal for television cameras