An aqueous ink composition for ink jet printers, which gives reliable printing performance and yields printed images which have excellent print quality and which dry rapidly is disclosed. The ink compositions are suitable for printing on plain paper. The ink comprises water as the principal solvent, an anionic colorant, pectic acid, a base, and at least one of a penetrable solvent and/or a penetrability-imparting surfactant. The pectic acid is composed primarily of .alpha.-1,4 linked polygalacturonic acid having a degree of esterification not more than 5% where the degree of esterification is defined as the percentage of the total number of galacturonic acid units in the pectic acid which are esterified.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ink compositions suitable for ink jet printing.
2. Background Art
Ink jet printing is a non-impact printing process in which the printer produces droplets of ink in response to digital signals, such as those generated by a computer. The droplets of ink are deposited on a substrate such as paper or transparent films. Ink jet printers have found broad commercial acceptance due to their print quality, low cost, relatively quiet operation, and graphics capability. Thermal (bubble jet) and piezoelectric drop-on-demand printers have been especially successful in the marketplace and have found broad application as printers for personal computers in the office and the home.
Three major concerns dominate ink jet technology: (1) reliability, (2) print quality, and (3) drying rate. Typically, reliability is evaluated with respect to the following four criteria. The first is robustness with respect to continuous printing conditions such that the ink droplet weight does not change over time and good directionality is maintained. Good directionality means that the angular deviation of an ejected ink droplet from a nozzle is within about .+-.0.5.degree. from the normal to the plane of the nozzle. The second is robustness with respect to intermittent printing conditions such that the nozzles do not clog over the time interval in which printing is discontinued. The third is robustness with respect to long term storage of the ink within the print head such that printing behavior unchanged from the original printing behavior (ink droplet weight and good directionality) can be restored after applying a limited amount of suction to the nozzles. The fourth is chemical and physical stability of the ink towards storage at two temperature extremes and towards cycling between those two temperature extremes for an extended period of time.
Print quality is typically defined in terms of two general factors: color properties and non-color image characteristics. Color properties of the ink are measured by optical density and the color coordinates which determine the hue. Non-color characteristics which determine the definition of an image are resolution (drops per unit area), the area coverage per drop, edge acuity or sharpness, and the extent of peripheral defects such as satellites (stray droplets around the perimeter of a printed character) or feathering.
A great concern with ink jet printing is the level of print quality, as defined by edge acuity or sharpness of an image and minimal feathering, which can be obtained on "plain paper." The term "plain paper" refers to a broad set of commercial papers, especially those available for use in electrographic copying. Such commercial papers do not rely on a unique structure, composition, or narrow set of properties such that only an ink jet printer can make best use of the paper's properties. In recent years there has been increasing demand for ink jet printers which provide excellent print quality on plain paper.
The drying rate of the ink is an important factor in determining the throughput rate of the printer. In a sheet fed printer, the ink on a printed sheet must be dry before the succeeding sheet contacts it. If the ink is not dry, smearing will occur. Drying occurs by both evaporation and penetration. The drying rate can be increased by using a water miscible cosolvent, which has a higher vapor pressure than water, and, thus, will evaporate faster than water. This approach may be disadvantageous because the cosolvent will also evaporate more rapidly from the nozzles of the print head, resulting in clogging during periods of non-use. The preferred approach is to use a water miscible cosolvent which increases the rate of penetration of the ink into the paper. The use of penetrants such as diethylene glycol mono-n-butyl ether, which lower the interfacial energy between the ink and the paper, is well known in the art.
The three major concerns discussed above are often incompatible. For example, as noted above, increasing the drying rate by using a cosolvent which has a higher vapor pressure than water, will adversely affect the reliability of the ink. Similarly, the use of penetrants is known to adversely affect the print quality of the ink on plain papers. Accordingly, there exists a need for ink compositions which will give reliable printing performance, dry rapidly, and yield printed images which have excellent print quality on plain paper.
One general approach which has been used to obtain improved print quality on plain paper is to include in the ink a gel-forming polymer which will gel when it comes in contact with a gel-initiating species. The formation of a gel results in reduced spreading of the ink droplet on the surface of the paper. Reduced spreading of the ink droplet leads to better edge acuity and reduced feathering.
In one method using this concept, the gel-initiating species is dissolved in a clear, dye-free liquid and then printed on the paper prior to the printing of the inks which contain the gel-forming polymer. In another method using this concept, one color of ink contains the gel-initiating species and another color of ink contains the gel-forming species. Using this method, significant improvements in print quality are only obtained when the two inks are printed on top of each other or adjacent to each other. In the ideal method using this concept, a gel-forming polymer is used which is capable of forming a gel in the presence of gel-initiating species which are contained in the compositions of typical plain papers. Examples of prior art which use the gel-forming polymer and gel-initiating species concept are given below.
In Japan Laid-Open Patent Application 01-203,483, an ink composition containing a water soluble dye, a polyhydric alcohol derivative, and pectin in the amount of 0.01 to 2 wt. % is described. The claimed advantages of the ink compositions are rapid drying and printed images on plain paper having good print quality. Additionally, good reliability of the ink and lightfast and waterfast print images are claimed.
In Japan Laid-Open Patent Application 04-190947, an ink set is described in which a first liquid containing a water soluble resin having at least one carboxylic acid group, carboxylic acid anhydride, or a sulfonic acid group is applied to a substrate followed by a second aqueous ink composition which contains a dye, an alkali-soluble resin, and an alkali. The pH of the first liquid is between 1 and 7, while the pH of the second liquid is between 7 and 12. Pectinic acid (a synonym for pectin) is used in one example of the invention as the carboxylic acid group containing water soluble resin of the first liquid. As an example of an alkali-soluble resin for use in the aqueous ink composition, pectin is given. The claimed advantage of the ink set is printed images having good print quality. The pH of the alkali-soluble resin contained in the ink is lowered when it comes in contact with the acidic resin contained in the first liquid which is deposited on the substrate. Lowering of the pH of the alkali-soluble resin results in deposition of that resin and, thus, limited spreading of the dye. When contiguous blocks of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black inks are printed on top of the first liquid, neither color bleeding not uneven mixing were observed at the boundary areas between contiguously printed inks.
In Japan Laid Open Patent Application 04-233693, an ink jet recording process is described with a first ink having a pH in the range from 1 to 6, a second ink having a pH in the range from 4 to 8, a third ink having a pH in the range from 6 to 10, and a fourth ink having a pH in the range from 8 to 13. The first ink contains a water soluble resin having at least one carboxylic acid group, carboxylic acid anhydride, or a sulfonic acid group. The second ink contains a water soluble resin with the same functionalities as that of the first ink or an alkali-soluble resin. The third and fourth inks contain an alkali-soluble resin. Pectinic acid (a synonym for pectin) is used in one example of the invention as the carboxylic acid group containing water soluble resin of the first or second inks. As an example of an alkali-soluble resin for use in the second, third and fourth inks, pectin is given. The claimed advantage of the ink set is printed images having good print quality. With the pH's of the four inks differing as described above, mixing of any two inks results in at least partial deposition of the resins or an increase in at least one of the ink's viscosity. This resin deposition or increased ink viscosity results in limited spreading of the dye(s). When contiguous blocks of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black inks are printed, neither color bleeding not uneven mixing were observed at the boundary areas between contiguously printed inks.
In Japan Laid Open Patent Application 04-348639, an ink jet recording process is described with the yellow, magenta and cyan inks containing a water soluble resin having at least one carboxylic acid group, carboxylic acid anhydride, or a sulfonic acid group and the black ink containing an alkali-soluble resin. The pH's of the yellow, magenta and cyan inks are lower than that of the black ink. The reverse combination is also described. Pectinic acid (a synonym for pectin) is used in one example of the invention as the carboxylic acid group containing water soluble resin (yellow ink). As an example of an alkali-soluble resin, pectin is given. The claimed advantage of the ink set is printed images having good print quality. With the pH of the black ink differing from the pH's of the yellow, magenta and cyan inks as described above, mixing of the black ink with the yellow, magenta and cyan inks results in at least partial deposition of the resins or an increase in at least one of the ink's viscosity. This resin deposition or increased ink viscosity results in limited spreading of the dye(s). When black blocks are printed contiguous to blocks of yellow, magenta, cyan, neither color bleeding not uneven mixing were observed at the boundary areas between the contiguously printed inks.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,540, a method for controlling color bleed between adjacent multicolor regions on a print medium is described. A first composition containing a gel-forming species and a colorant is brought into contact on a region of the print medium with a second composition having a gel-initiating agent and a colorant. In an alternative embodiment of this invention, the print medium may be pretreated with either a gel-initiating or gel-forming species (with no colorant), followed by treatment with a gel-forming species or gel-initiating species (with colorant), respectively. Gel-forming species are selected from a group which includes pectin. Gel-initiating species are selected from a group which includes mineral acids, organic acids, trimethylammonium chloride and ions selected from the group consisting of calcium, magnesium, aluminum, and iron. The formation of the gel upon the print medium impedes the movement of the colorant(s) and, thus, results in improved print quality.
In United States Patent No. 5,112,339, inks for printing on plain paper which comprise a vehicle containing 5 to 20 wt. % of a glycol or glycol ether, 1 to 6 wt. % of a dye, and 0.1 to 1 wt. % of an alginate are described.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,803, ink jet inks which contain high molecular weight colloids, such as alginates, and amphoteric surfactants, and/or non-ionic surfactants are described. The high molecular weight colloids are selected from a group consisting of alginic acid, mannomuronic acid, carrageenan, guar gum, xanthan gum, dextran, chitin, chitosan, and carboxymethylcellulose. The presence of the high molecular weight colloid is claimed to improve the print quality.
All of the above examples represent significant advances in ink jet ink technology, especially with regard to improved print quality. However, there remains a need for ink compositions which can provide further improvements in print quality.

Aqueous ink composition for use in an ink jet printer


A microelectronic element package has one or more individual carrier units overlying a region or regions of the front or rear surface of the microelectronic element, leaving other regions of the microelectronic element surface uncovered. The carrier units can be made economically using only a small area of a dielectric film or other circuit panel material.

Semiconductor chips normally are formed as small, flat bodies having a generally planar front surface, a generally planar rear surface, and edges extending between these surfaces at the boundaries of the front and rear surfaces. The thickness of the chip between its front and rear surfaces generally is far smaller than the length and width of the chip, i.e., the dimensions of the front and rear surfaces in the planes of these surfaces. Typically, the chip has contacts exposed at its front surface.
Semiconductor chips commonly are provided in packages which protect the chip and facilitate handling and mounting of the chip to a larger circuit element such as a circuit board or other circuit panel. Certain types of chip packages include a rigid or flexible dielectric structure sometimes referred to as a "chip carrier" overlying the front or rear surface of the chip. The chip carrier has electrically conductive terminals. The contacts of the chip are electrically connected to the terminals. The terminals may be elongated posts projecting from the chip carrier, most commonly from the surface of the chip carrier facing away from the chip. Packages of this type are disclosed in U.S. Published Patent Applications 2005/0181544 A1, 2005/0181655 A1, and 2005/0173805, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein. In other packages, the terminals are in the form of flat pads. For example, certain embodiments shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,977, the disclosure of which is also incorporated by reference herein, include terminals of this type.
A packaged chip can be mounted to a circuit panel by bonding or otherwise connecting the terminals to the contact pads of the circuit panel. In some cases, the chip carrier is approximately the same size as the front or rear surface of the chip itself, and most or all of the terminals are disposed in a region of the circuit panel overlying the chip surface. In other cases, the chip carrier is larger than the chip so that the chip carrier projects outwardly beyond the edges of the chip. The terminals on the chip carrier may be larger than the contacts on the chip itself, and may be spaced at a larger spacing distance or "pitch" than the contacts of the chip. Moreover, the terminals may be arranged so that they can be more readily engaged by test equipment than the contacts of the chip itself. Also, the chip carrier provides mechanical protection for the chip during handling and mounting operations.
Certain chip packages are made with chip carriers having terminals in a region of the chip carrier projecting beyond the edges of the chip. Some of the terminals are exposed at the surface of the chip carrier facing away from the chip, and others are exposed at the opposite surface. Packages of this type can be used, for example, in a stacked module. In a stacked module, the packages are disposed one atop the other, so that the front surface of the chip in one package faces generally toward the rear surface of the chip in another package. The chip carriers extend between the adjacent chips in the stack of packages. The terminals on the various chip carriers are aligned with one another and joined to one another. Stacked arrangements of this type provide a compact mounting for multiple chips as, for example, semiconductor memory chips.
Despite considerable effort in the art devoted to development of chip packages heretofore, still further improvement would be desirable. In particular, it would be desirable to reduce the cost of the packaged chips.

Semiconductor chip packages and assemblies with chip carrier units


Provided is an exposing device capable of enhancing usage efficiency of light and preventing degradation of imaging property due to a misalignment with a photosensitive drum. The exposing device includes: a laser array including multiple lasers arranged in a predetermined direction; and an optical system guiding light emitted from the each of the multiple lasers to a photosensitive member and focusing the light on the photosensitive member, in which the optical system includes multiple phase modulation elements to decrease an added phase lag in proportion to distance from a center axis that is defined by a principal light beam emitted from the each of the multiple lasers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exposing device and an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an exposing device (printer head) to be used for an electrophotographic copier, printer, facsimile, and the like, and to an image forming apparatus including the exposing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, an image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic method has been known, which includes an exposing device (printer head) arranged above a circumferential surface of a photosensitive drum that is a member to be exposed with light. A light emitting element array of LEDs or the like is provided in the printer head.
FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a related art image forming apparatus 1000 disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-098289.
The image forming apparatus 1000 includes a photosensitive drum 1010 and a printer head (optical writing head) 1020 arranged facing the photosensitive drum 1010.
Light output from multiple LEDs (light source) 1030 arranged in the printer head 1020 is caused to pass through an erecting equal magnification imaging system such as a rod lens array and imaged on the photosensitive drum 1010, thus exposing the photosensitive drum 1010 with light.
The rod lens array includes a large number of lens elements 1040 arranged in an array and configured to perform the erecting equal magnification imaging so that the light output from the multiple LEDs 1030 is imaged on the photosensitive drum 1010.
In the optical writing head 1020 of the related art image forming apparatus 1000, the light source 1030 that does not have a spatial coherence, such as an LED, is used.
In general, a divergence angle of light emitted from a light source that does not have the spatial coherence is wide, and hence the light emitted from a single light source 1030 is input to multiple optical systems for forming a spot.
For this reason, in order to guide the light from the light source 1030 to the photosensitive drum 1010, the erecting equal magnification imaging system such as the rod lens array (lens elements 1040) has been used as an optical system. However, the light entering a gap of the rod lens array (lens elements 1040) is not guided to the photosensitive drum 1010, and hence the usage efficiency of the light is not sufficient.
Further, when the printer head 1020 and the photosensitive drum 1010 are arranged close to each other to increase the usage efficiency of the light, a focal depth of the erecting equal magnification imaging system becomes small, causing a problem in that imaging property of the erecting equal magnification imaging system is changed due to a misalignment caused by a vibration or the like of the photosensitive drum 1010.

Exposing device and image forming apparatus


A software-developing structured-data-file creating apparatus of the present disclosure includes a storage unit configured to store a specification list comprising specific values associated with a plurality of individual items indicative of specifications of a device and a location-path list comprising location paths associated with individual portions of the plurality of individual items. The software-developing structured-data-file creating apparatus also includes an input unit, configured to associate common portions of the location paths. The software-developing structured-data-file creating apparatus additionally includes a structured-data-file creating unit configured to create a data file comprising the common portions of the location paths in the location-path. The corresponding values in the specification list are added to the individual location paths.

When developing programs for a driver, a utility, etc. of an image forming apparatus, developers create data files for use in the programs. Generally, developers create the data files by editing similar old program data-files that already reference the specifications of the image forming apparatus.
However, creating data files in the above-referenced manner may be slow, and mistakes, such as a typographical errors and/or forgetting to incorporate some changes, may occur. Accordingly, this may cause the developer to re-edit the program-data-files, when—for example—finding such or similar mistakes during debugging, which can cause a delay in developing the program.

Software-developing structured-data-file creating apparatus and method capable of efficiently creating data file used in developing program for device


An information handling system is provided. The information handling system includes a plurality of storage subsystems a back-end switch connected to each storage subsystem to communicate information about each of the plurality; and a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) volume. Each storage subsystem includes a RAID engine, a storage drive; and a plurality of input ports and output ports. The RAID volume includes the storage drive on a first storage subsystem of the plurality and the storage drive on a second storage subsystem of the plurality. Methods for providing such a system are also disclosed.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure is related to information handling systems. In particular, embodiments disclosed herein are related to a smart interconnection system and method for heterogeneous, dynamic storage environments.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
The marketplace currently presents a number of different storage subsystems for use in storage environments. The different storage subsystems may each have a number of benefits and disadvantages in specific situations. Additionally, new storage technology is continually being developed. However, the differences between different varieties of subsystems may prevent the sharing of storage resources across different subsystems, thus increasing costs and effort in maintaining heterogeneous storage environments.

Systems and methods for smart storage interconnection in a heterogeneous storage environment


A folding collapsible frame assembly for an automatic folding umbrella, which includes a lower shaft, an upper shaft made to slide in the upper shaft, a collapse control spring, a lock ring moved to lock the collapse control spring in the compressed condition as the umbrella is opened, a stretch control spring controlled by a bottom spring on the handle of the umbrella to automatically push the umbrella into the open condition, a guide control mechanism controlled by a control bottom on the handle of the umbrella to release the lock ring from the collapse control spring for allowing the umbrella to be collapsed automatically.

The present invention relates to umbrellas, and more specifically the present invention relates to a folding collapsible frame assembly for an automatic folding umbrella.
Various automatic umbrellas have been disclosed, and have appeared on the market. These automatic umbrellas are commonly complicated in structure and expensive to manufacture. Because of complicated structure, the assembly process is difficult to achieve, and the parts may be jammed during the operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,969, issued to the present invention, disclosed an automatic folding umbrella of which the shaft is consisted of several sections that slide one inside another and are controlled by a series of springs. The frame assembly of this structure of automatic folding umbrella is relatively heavy. Further, the springs may be tangled during the assembly process of the umbrella.

Folding collapsible frame assembly for an automatic folding umbrella

No. 1, Alley 9, Lane 250, Sec. 2, Cheng Gung Rd.


An analysis device having a liquid chromatograph prevents a plurality of streams from being unusable at the same time Whether a usable stream is 0 or not among streams 1, 2, and 3 is determined. In a case where none of the streams is usable, the control unit skips a sample introduction in the cycle; and where there is one usable stream in the cycle, the stream is used. In a case where there are multiple streams that are usable in the cycle, and there are multiple streams of which the remaining number of uses of a separation column is the minimum, the stream having the smallest stream number is used; and where there is one stream of which the remaining number of uses of a separation column is the minimum, the stream to which the separation column having the minimum remaining number of uses is connected and used.

A liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry device is a device obtained by combining a mass spectrometer as a detector for a liquid chromatograph. By combining separation for a chemical structure of a substance by the liquid chromatograph and separation for a mass of the substance by the mass spectrometer, each component can be qualitatively and quantitatively determined even in a case of similar substances. With this feature, for example, a target substance can be qualitatively and quantitatively determined even in a system which is metabolized in a body and in which many similar substances are mixed, such as a pharmaceutical in a biological sample, and application to a clinical examination field is expected.
When the liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry device is applied to the clinical examination field, there is a problem that the separation by the liquid chromatograph takes a relatively long time. For example, a biochemical automatic analysis device used in the clinical examination field is commercially available as a device capable of performing measurement of 1 sample at 3.6 seconds, that is, 1000 specimens per hour (Non-PTL 1).
The number of specimens that can be processed per hour is referred to as a throughput, and in the example of the biochemical automatic analysis device described above, the throughput is 1000 specimens/hour. On the other hand, a separation time of the liquid chromatograph is 240 seconds, for example, in a commercially available testosterone (male hormone) measurement kit. A throughput in a case of using this measurement kit is 15 specimens/hour. This is only 1.5% of the throughput of 1000 specimens/hour which is an example of the throughput of the biochemical automatic analysis device, which poses a technical problem in processing a specimen in a clinical laboratory.
Specifically, the technical problem described above is that the number of specimens which can be measured in the clinical laboratory within a certain period of time and is measured by the liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry device is limited, it takes a long time to report a result, and it is necessary to introduce more devices to process more specimens, which leads to a financial burden and an increase in a device installation space.
Therefore, in order to apply the liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry device to the clinical examination field, it is necessary to improve the throughput.
One method for improving the throughput includes a method in which a plurality of liquid chromatographs are provided in a single test apparatus, and eluates eluted from the plurality of liquid chromatographs are sequentially switched and measured by the mass spectrometer. A liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry device including such a configuration is called a multi-stream liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry device.
The mass spectrometry device (mass spectrometer) may measure only at a time period when a measurement target substance is contained in the eluates eluted from the liquid chromatographs. Therefore, for one measurement, a time to use the mass spectrometer is about several tens of seconds. Assuming that a time required for the measurement by the mass spectrometer is 36 seconds per measurement and a time required for separation by the liquid chromatograph is 144 seconds (36×4), if there are four liquid chromatograph devices, the mass spectrometer can sequentially process the eluate from each liquid chromatograph without any spare time, and a throughput of 100 specimens/hour can be obtained.
In the multi-stream liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry device, each liquid chromatograph is called a stream. The stream includes at least a liquid feeding pump and a separation column. A flow path switching valve is required to select one of the eluates from the plurality of streams and introduce the eluate into the mass spectrometer. A sample introducing device to the liquid chromatograph may be provided for each stream, or may be shared by the plurality of streams.
As a multi-stream liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry device, for example, PTL 1 discloses a configuration in which a plurality of separation columns are arranged in parallel, a separation column to be used is selected by switching a flow path from a mobile phase liquid feeding unit by a switching valve, and the separation column is connected to a single detector by a switching valve provided at a rear stage of the separation column.
An object of PTL 1 is to enable highly efficient and accurate search for a separation column and a mobile phase suitable for separation of a target component with such a configuration.
Further, PTL 2 discloses a method of continuously analyzing many samples by providing a plurality of separation columns via a switching valve, and when one separation column reaches an end of life, automatically switching to another separation column.

Analysis device having a liquid chromatograph and method for analyzing a liquid chromatograph


A method of controlling a brushless permanent magnet motor includes measuring a mains power supply voltage of the motor. The method includes determining whether the mains power supply voltage lies within a first range representative of a first country's mains power supply or a second range representative of a second country's mains power supply. The method includes advancing commutation of a winding of the motor relative to a zero-crossing of back EMF in the winding where the mains power supply voltage lies within the first range, and retarding commutation of the winding relative to a zero-crossing of back EMF in the winding where the mains power supply voltage lies within the second range.

Different countries have different mains power supply voltages, for example with the UK having a mains power supply voltage of 230V and the USA having a mains power supply voltage of 120V. It may be difficult to provide a brushless permanent magnet motor which is capable of operating in different countries in light of the different mains power supply voltages.

Method of controlling a brushless permanent magnet motor


A steering-wheel skeleton has a hub, spokes, and a rim made in one piece out of a single sheet-metal blank and provided with its final shape by separation and bending without machining. The hub is provided with a cone facing the vehicle. The spokes, which extend up and out, are provided with unthreaded bores, cutouts, or threaded bore for attaching an airbag module. A nut can, if necessary, be forced into one cutout. The hub can be reinforced by using two layers of the material.

The present invention concerns a steering-wheel skeleton with a hub, spokes, and a rim.
Steering-wheel skeletons of this type are usually composed of several parts fastened together by rivets, screws, soldering, welding or a combination thereof and then finished by extruding plastic around them or covering them with leather or a similar material. The skeleton constitutes the supporting structure and must be designed strong enough to support the forces exerted on the steering mechanism by the driver. An increasing number of extra functions must also be taken into account when designing such a skeleton. At least both a conveniently accessible mechanism for actuating the horn and an airbag for example must be accommodated in the steering wheel. More and more switches and buttons for various vehicle functions must also be mounted directly on the wheel where the driver can operate them without having to remove his hands from it.
Finally, the steering-wheel skeleton must be designed to ensure passive safety, meaning that it must not cause severe injuries in the event of an accident. For this reason, in particular, contemporary steering wheels are more or less bowl-shaped, with the outer rim toward the driver and the hub farther forward and with the spokes accordingly slanting inward and forward toward the hub.
It should be obvious from the foregoing that all these demands can best be satisfied with a composite steering wheel, allowing all the to some extent opposing requisites to be achieved simultaneously. It is on the other hand always attempted to make manufacture costs as reasonable as possible, which is of increasing significance to traditional automobile manufacturers due to the growth in international competition. There has accordingly been no lack of attempts to construct even such complicated steering wheels of as few parts as possible. Known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,359,911 for example is a steering-wheel skeleton with a central assembly comprising a hub and spokes stamped out of sheet metal and with a separate rim enclosed by and riveted to the ends of the spokes. The central assembly and the rim can be made of different materials, allowing the specific demands made of each part to be complied with independently. Still, the fastening method is comparatively complicated.
Known from German 3 719 658 A1 is a steering wheel made of sheet metal and comprising an outer sheet-metal bowl facing the driver and a force-transmitting sheet-metal bowl fastened behind it with space left between them that comprises the rim. No radial spokes as such are involved, and the overall assembly looks like a disk when viewed head-on. This approach is intended to save weight, simplify manufacture, and improve safety in that the rear bowl can deform and tightly encloses a volume of air up to specific flow cross-sections. The bowls are fastened together air tight along their circumferences, in the vicinity of the rim, that is.
This known steering wheel consists, apart from an insert in the hub, of only two components and is accordingly relatively simple to manufacture. It is, however, not ergonomically satisfactory because the fingers cannot fit very far around the rim. Furthermore, such additional components as switches, buttons, etc. would considerably compromise its tightness. Finally, the purpose of the air-filled interior can today be attained much more effectively with an integrated airbag. An airbag, however, could not be employed in such a wheel without sacrifice to its basic concept.
There is accordingly a need for a steering wheel of the type hereinbefore described that would be even less expensive to manufacture but would not be subject to any limitations in design with respect to the aforesaid demands while still allowing the accommodation of the aforesaid additional functions.


An interlocking chain type forward and backward actuating device is provided that does not increase workload involved in assembling the device, adjusting the rotation phase, and servicing and maintaining the device. The device is capable of smoothly actuating a driven body by advancing and retracting the body, and of preventing any pulsation or the like of the meshing chain. The interlocking chain type forward and backward actuating device includes chain-guide grooves formed so as to equalize an interlocked-state pin-to-pin distance (D1) between a pair of connecting pins that face each other in a chain interlocking imaginary plane (S) and a rigid-state pin-to-pin distance (D2) between a pair of connecting pins.

Conventionally, as a drive unit, an interlocking chain type lifting apparatus has been known that moves a workpiece such as a heavy material by using a pair of lifting interlocking chains interlocked with each other and integrally moved vertically (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).
The pair of lifting interlocking chains used in this conventional interlocking chain type lifting apparatus is designed to be driven by a pair of lifting sprockets, which are arranged to face the pair of lifting interlocking chains, respectively.

Advancing/retracting actuation device with meshing chain


A polluted soil remediation apparatus comprising a treatment tank in which pollutants degradable with light irradiation in the presence of chlorine is extracted as a gas containing the pollutants from polluted soil and a mixture of the gas containing the pollutants and chlorine-containing air is irradiated with light to degrade the pollutants, wherein the apparatus comprises a unit for aspirating the gas containing the pollutants from the polluted soil, a chlorine-containing air generation unit for generating the chlorine-containing gas, a mixing unit for mixing the gas containing the pollutants extracted by the aspiration unit and the chorine-containing air generated by the chlorine-containing gas generation unit to form a mixed gas, the treatment tank comprising a treatment region where the mixed gas is introduced and a light irradiation unit for irradiating the treatment region with light to degrade the pollutants contained in the mixed gas, and an exhaust unit for exhausting the degradation-treated gas from the treatment region of the treatment tank.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for remedying polluted soil material and polluted soil and an efficient method of remedying polluted soil material and polluted soil using the same. The present invention relates to a polluted gas-purifying apparatus and a method of purifying the same, too.
2. Related Background Art
Recently, as measures to solve environmental pollution problems, various attempts have been made to remove pollutants from soil polluted with organic substances or the like to remedy soil, and for example, a method in which pollutants in soil are aspirated using a vacuum pump and treated with activated carbon, bioremediation utilizing degradation activities of microorganisms, a method for decomposing a pollutant by irradiating the soil with UV have been proposed.
The vacuum aspiration method cannot always be said an efficient method, since pollutants are removed by adsorption to activated carbon which has insufficient efficiency, it is difficult to treat materials having a large water content, and retreatment of used activated carbon that has adsorbed pollutants is a problem.
As for the bioremediation, the expression of degradation activities and the proliferation process of microorganisms are not always stable and degradation process management is sometimes relatively difficult. Thus, the bioremediation has rarely been in the actual use to cope with soil pollution, especially with organic chlorinated compounds.
An apparatus for degrading a pollutant by means of light is known, which is a photodegradation apparatus utilizing a phenomenon that ultraviolet of UV-B, C degrades some kinds of pollutants. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 09-299753 and 10-180040 disclose such apparatus.

Polluted soil remediation apparatus and pollutant degrading apparatus


An optical sensor according to one or more embodiments is an optical sensor including an optical member including a plurality of focusing units, each focusing unit focusing light from a subject, and a plurality of image capturing devices, each image capturing device including a plurality of light-receiving elements, each image capturing device being provided corresponding to one of the focusing units, and each image capturing device configured to receive light focused by the corresponding focusing unit and form a captured image of the subject. The light-receiving elements, of the plurality of light-receiving elements, that are to be used to form the captured image are set for each of the image capturing devices.

JP 2011-077764A proposes an image processing apparatus in which an optical sensor using a microlens array and a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements obtains an image and a characteristic region in which a characteristic subject appears is extracted from the obtained image through machine learning that takes the image as input data. This image processing apparatus includes a model database holding image information of a plurality of types of models, which are more accurate than a multidimensional image, for a predetermined characteristic subject. As such, the image processing apparatus can obtain a highly-accurate multidimensional image by extracting the image information of a model corresponding to the characteristic region from the model database and generating composite image information for the characteristic region.
JP 2016-184956A proposes an image processing apparatus in which an optical sensor using a microlens array and a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements obtains an image, and the obtained image is divided into a first division region for obtaining distance information and a second division region for generating a refocus image on the basis of the distance information. According to this image processing apparatus, an image in which a wide range is in focus can be displayed during live-view driving while at the same time reducing the burden of processing for restructuring.

Optical sensor, learning apparatus, and image processing system for selection and setting light-receving elements


A multi-laser flow-cytometry system provides for inter-location emissions crosstalk cancellation, through either pulse subtraction or gating, to avoid false triggering based on shadow (pre- and post-) pulses that occur when red-excited red emissions are detected by a photodetector arranged to detect blue-excited red emissions. This overcomes a problem of undercounting of counting beads that led to misdeterminations of cell counts when blue-excited red fluorescence detections were used as a trigger. The approach also provides for more accurate quantitative data regarding fluorochrome emissions amplitudes.

The present invention relates to analytical instruments and, more particularly, to flow particle analysis such as used in cytometry. A major objective of the present invention is to reduce false triggering in multi-laser flow cytometry systems.
A typical single-laser flow cytometry system includes a flow subsystem for flowing a particle stream along a flow path, a blue laser illumination source for illuminating a location along the flow path, several photodetectors for detecting light modulations (e.g., due to emissions, absorption, and scattering) at the illuminated flow path location, analog pulse-processing circuitry for processing the photodetector outputs, a digitizer, and a digital data processor (computer) for analyzing digitized detector data to characterize the particle stream.
The photodetectors can include a detector for forward-scattered light, a detector for side-scattered light, a green fluorescence detector, a yellow fluorescence detector, and a red fluorescence detector. The scatter detectors can be used to detect the presence and indicate the size of a particle at the illuminated location. The fluorescence detectors can be used to distinguish three fluorochromes: a blue-excited green fluorochrome (e.g., FITC), a blue-excited yellow fluorochrome (e.g., RPE), and a blue-excited red fluorochrome (e.g., PerCP).
Attempts to provide for four-way fluorochrome distinctions using a single-laser system have proved difficult due to ambiguities caused by overlap of emissions spectra. Improved four-way fluorochrome distinction has been achieved using dual-laser systems. A typical dual-laser system adds a red laser illumination source to illuminate a second location along the flow path. The additional laser allows a red-excited (and not blue-excited) red fluorochrome (e.g., APC) to be distinguished from a blue-excited (and not red-excited) red fluorochrome (e.g., PerCP). Each of these red fluorochromes are readily distinguished from the blue-excited green fluorochrome and the blue-excited yellow fluorochrome. Research and development is ongoing on extending the multi-laser approach to provide for greater than four-way fluorochrome distinctions.
The photodetector outputs not only serve as the sources of data to be analyzed, but also determine what portions of the data are to be analyzed. To this end, one or a combination of photodetector outputs can be used to derive a trigger signal that activates processing, including digitization. In the absence of a trigger signal, signals from the photodetector outputs are gated. Peak and hold circuits and subsequent digitizers are examples of analog components that can require recovery time after processing a signal. Therefore, limiting amplification of uninteresting signals can help ensure appropriate processing of interesting data. Furthermore, gating limits the amount of data that must be digitized, processed and stored.
In general, a trigger determines a window of time within which interesting data is expected and, therefore, data processing is activated. Often, a trigger is initiated when a scatter detector output crosses a threshold--indicating with a high level of certainty that a particle is in the flow-path location corresponding to the detector. The fluorescent particle detector outputs can then be amplified, digitized, and processed to identify any fluorochromes in the particle--so that the particle (which may be inherently fluorescent or tagged with one or more fluorescent markers) can be characterized.
Accurate triggering is important. A false negative, i.e., no trigger when a particle (or alternative indicator of interesting data) is present, causes a loss of valuable data. A false positive, a trigger when no particle or alternative indicator of interesting data is present, burdens the analog and digital processing systems. Furthermore, many flow analyzers fail to process new events while processing data relating to the supposed event associated with a trigger. During this "dead time", interesting events can avoid detection, causing a loss of interesting data. Thus, both false positives and false negatives can cause a loss of data required for an accurate analysis. It should be noted that the data loss is often systematic in that certain types of interesting events are more likely to be discarded than others. Thus false triggering can bias the analysis.
In a single-laser system, processing dead time after a trigger can be on the order of the time it takes a particle to traverse the laser beam where it intersects the flow path; this may be a couple of microseconds. In a dual-laser system, the processing dead time can be on the order of the transit time a particle takes in moving from the upstream detection location to the downstream detection location; this may be seven to twenty-five microseconds. More generally, in a multi-laser system, the dead time is on the order of the transit time between the first and last detection locations. Thus, the penalty in lost interesting data for false positive triggers in a dual- or other multi-laser system can be substantial.
Processing dead time in a multi-laser system can be reduced by minimizing the separation of the illumination locations. The cost of this solution is increased interlocation emissions crosstalk between illumination locations. In other words, light emitted or scattered at a first illumination location can leak to a second location so that it is detected by photodetectors arranged to detect light at the second location. In particular, red-excited red fluorescence can be detected by a detector arranged to detect blue-excited red fluorescence. This can lead to a false indication of a blue-excited red fluorochrome when there is no such material at the location illuminated by the blue laser. The converse false indication of a red-excited red fluorochrome at the flow-path location illuminated by the blue laser can also occur.
In the case a particle stimulates fluorescent emission at a location upstream of the location indicated by the detection circuitry, the false indication is referred to as a "pre-pulse". In the case a particle stimulates fluorescent emission at a location downstream of the location indicated by the detection circuitry, the false indication is referred to as a "post-pulse". Herein, the term "shadow pulse" is used to encompass both pre-pulses and post-pulses.
In general, a shadow pulse associated with a trigger signal is outside of the trigger window. For example, in a dual-laser system that triggers on the upstream illumination location, the output of a detector for the downstream illumination location is not processed until the triggering particle has had time to reach the downstream location. The pre-pulse generated concurrently with the trigger is ignored.
However, a trigger particle might fail to trigger if it passes the upstream trigger location during a dead time. If it causes a strong modulation of light when it reaches the downstream illumination location, the resulting post-pulse could result in a trigger. Since the downstream photodetector output would be ignored, there would be no indication that the trigger was false. Hence, a penalty in processing activity and dead time would ensue with no offsetting acquisition of useful data. In fact, there would be a false indication of a non-fluorescent particle; such "selective elimination" would distort the determination of the sample composition.
Evaluating the lymphocyte content of a blood sample is an example of an application in which a shadow pulse could induce a false trigger. The blood sample can be lysed and unwashed, so that sample is filled with uninteresting particles, i.e., debris. The debris particles can be so numerous relative to the white cells of interest that particle presence is not a sufficiently selective criterion for triggering. In fact, the debris can be sufficiently dense that scattering detections are practically continuous, rendering the scatter detectors essentially useless for such a sample.
Accordingly, it is appropriate to tag white cells with a fluorochrome that can be used as a trigger. From a sample preparation standpoint, it can be most convenient to tag white blood cells with blue-excited red fluorochrome, e.g., PerCP, which thus becomes the triggering fluorochrome. Other fluorochrome tags are attached to specific respective lymphocytes.
Fluorochrome detections tend to be much weaker than scatter detections; as a result, trigger thresholds for fluorochrome triggering must be set near the noise floor for the respective fluorochrome detector. A (e.g., blue-excited-red indication) shadow pulse at the trigger location, resulting from a (e.g., red-excited red) fluorochrome at the non-trigger location, can be sufficient to cross the trigger threshold at the location.
The options appear to be to accept the false triggering, to avoid samples where such false triggering is likely to arise, or to develop a scheme to minimize such false triggering where it is otherwise likely to arise. Clearly, the last option is the most attractive.

Multi-illumination-source flow particle analyzer with inter-location emissions crosstalk cancelation


A Flare Strut System including a plurality of strut pairs, each forming an assembly for transferring force between wall and a roof continuity element. Each assembly is comprised of two elongated strut elements, or load transfer members, each including a longitudinal rotation and adjustment member at one end thereof, a first end connector assembly for facilitating connection of one end of the strut element to a wall, and a second end connector assembly for facilitating attachment of the other end of the strut element to a continuity element connection assembly, the latter assembly being adapted to combine with a corresponding connection assembly and sandwich the continuity element therebetween. Each strut element is adapted to angularly intersect both the engaged wall and the continuity element at acute angles which are determined by the particular buildings design.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices used to interconnect and transfer forces between structural members such as the walls of a building and its roof framing system, and more particularly, to a strut system for providing direct, simplified and cost effective seismic connections that can articulate in three planes while transferring both tension and compression forces from the walls of new and existing concrete, concrete xe2x80x9ctilt-upxe2x80x9d and concrete block buildings to their diaphragm continuity elements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Tilt-up buildings generally consist of those types of structures that are constructed with precast concrete wall panels that are precast horizontally on the ground, cured, and then tilted up into place. Concrete block walls are similar in character, but are built up block by block. Other concrete walls are typically cast in place.
The timber roof framing systems of older concrete, concrete tilt-up and concrete block buildings (hereinafter referred to generally as xe2x80x9cconcrete buildingsxe2x80x9d) that were built between the early to mid 1960""s were generally constructed with longspan timber roof trusses and timber roof joists. The timber trusses in these buildings were typically oriented to span the short direction of the building. Spacing between these trusses generally varies between 16 and 24 feet. The roof joists generally consist of 2xc3x978""s, 2xc3x9710""s, or 2xc3x9712""s spaced at 24xe2x80x3 o.c., and span between the timber trusses. At the perimeter of the building the roof joists span between the timber trusses and the walls, where they are typically framed onto a timber ledger that is bolted to the wall. Roof sheathing for these buildings typically consists of xe2x85x9cxe2x80x3 or xc2xdxe2x80x3 plywood.
After the mid 1960""s, the roof timber framing systems of most concrete as well as other types of buildings were generally constructed with glulam beams, instead of longspan timber trusses, and used a xe2x80x9cpanelizedxe2x80x9d roof framing system instead of roof joists. These modifications to the roof framing systems were typically made for economic reasons.
A xe2x80x9cpanelizedxe2x80x9d roof framing system consists of timber purlins, timber sub-purlins (also known as stiffeners), and roof sheathing. The roof sheathing typically consists of 4xe2x80x2xc3x978xe2x80x2 sheets of xe2x85x9cxe2x80x3 or xc2xdxe2x80x3 plywood, and spans between the sub-purlins. These sub-purlins are generally 2xc3x974""s or 2xc3x976""s, and span between the purlins. The purlins typically consist of 4xc3x9712""s or 4xc3x9714""s and span between the glulam beams (or in some cases longspan timber trusses). The plywood sheathing is typically oriented with it""s long dimension parallel to the sub-purlins, or perpendicular to the purlins. The sub-purlins are generally spaced 24xe2x80x3 apart. The purlins are typically spaced 8 feet apart to accommodate the length of the plywood sheathing. The glulam beams are typically spaced 20 to 24 feet apart. Sections of the panelized roof are typically fabricated on the ground and raised into place with a crane or forklift.
In buildings with timber framed roof diaphragms, the major roof framing elements, such as beams, girders, and trusses, are used as diaphragm continuity elements to form a plurality of spaced continuity lines that extend across the length and width of a building, i.e., a diaphragm continuity system. The purpose of a diaphragm continuity system is to provide a discrete structural system that provides for the transfer of seismic, wind, or other forces from the walls of a building into the roof diaphragm, and eventually to the structural elements intended to resist such forces. Forces from the walls are typically transferred to the diaphragm continuity elements through a sub-diaphragm. A sub-diaphragm is generally taken to be a localized area of the roof diaphragm that spans between diaphragm continuity elements and extends into the diaphragm a certain distance. This distance is dependent on the shear capacity of the sub-diaphragm and the forces that are to be transferred through the sub-diaphragm.
In areas subject to high seismicity, the connection between the walls of most older concrete buildings and their timber roof framing system is inadequate per the currently established seismic design standards for such buildings. Generally, this connection consists of only the nailing between the roof sheathing and the timber ledger that is bolted to the wall. This type of connection relies on a mechanism that subjects the ledgers to xe2x80x9ccross grain bendingxe2x80x9d, a mechanism that is highly vulnerable to failure. The deficiencies associated with this type of connection were responsible for numerous failures and collapses of concrete buildings during the 1971 San Fernando Earthquake. As a result, this type of connection has been specifically disallowed since the 1973 Edition of the Uniform Building Code. It is generally recommended that concrete buildings with such deficiencies be retrofitted with new connections per the currently established seismic design standards and/or recommendations for such buildings.
In some buildings constructed prior to the 1973 Edition of the uniform Building Code, and in most constructed afterwards, the walls of concrete, concrete tilt-up, and concrete block buildings are attached to the roof diaphragm, or sub-diaphragms, with discrete walls ties. Such wall ties generally consists of timber blocks or struts that are interconnected with metal straps, rods, holddown type connection devices, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,404, or a combination thereof, and are only designed to resist tension forces, or may consist of the recently developed wall tie system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,719. These xe2x80x9cconventionalxe2x80x9d wall tie systems generally consist of many individual components that can take a significant amount of time to install, especially when the roof diaphragm is sloped (as is generally required for drainage, sometimes significantly) and the walls are not orthogonal to the diaphragm continuity elements. In many buildings, particularly older buildings with unblocked joisted non-panelized roof diaphragms, the sub-diaphragm shear capacity may be very limited, and require that those wall tie systems that rely on sub-diaphragms be extended from the wall into the roof diaphragm a significant distance in order to increase the depth of the sub-diaphragm, and hence reduce the sub-diaphragm shear stresses to within acceptable limits. Such conventional wall tie systems can be very costly.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a simplified and cost effective seismic connection mechanism for transferring both tension and compression forces from the walls of buildings to their diaphragm continuity elements.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a seismic connection of the type described for connecting the walls of concrete buildings to diaphragm continuity elements consisting of the major roof framing elements such as beams, girders and trusses.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a seismic connection of the type described which is capable of transferring both tension and compression forces from building walls into the overall roof diaphragm through the beams, girders and/or trusses thereof.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a seismic connection of the type described that eliminates dependence on the sub-diaphragm as a means of preserving wall to diaphragm integrity.
Briefly, a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes either a single or a plurality of strut pairs, each forming an assembly for transferring force between a wall and a roof diaphragm continuity element. Each assembly is comprised of two elongated strut elements, or load transfer members, each including a member at one end that allows longitudinal adjustment and rotation thereof, a first end connector assembly for facilitating connection of one end of the strut element to a wall, and a second end connector assembly for facilitating attachment of the other end of the strut element to a diaphragm continuity element connection assembly, the latter assembly being adapted to combine with a corresponding connection assembly and sandwich the continuity element therebetween. Each strut element is adapted to angularly intersect both the engaged wall and the diaphragm continuity element at angles which are determined by the particular buildings design.
An important advantage of the present invention is that it provides a reliable load transfer mechanism for use in structurally attaching the walls of new or existing tilt-up, concrete or concrete block wall buildings to their major roof framing elements.
Another advantage of the present invention is that it provides a simplified connection mechanism that can be used to connect walls and roof framing elements intersecting each other at any angle, either horizontally, vertically or both.
A further advantage is that it includes relatively lightweight components that can be manually installed without the use of heavy lifts, jacks, etc.


A home automation (HA) system may include HA operation devices within a user living area and an HA hub device to provide communications for the HA operation devices. The HA system may also include at least one controller configured to store historical operational data for each of the HA operation devices based upon a user within the user living area, and use machine learning to determine a predicted operational pattern of at least one of the HA operation devices based upon the stored historical operational data. The at least one controller may also be configured to monitor operation of the HA operation devices and determine therefrom an HA operation device deviation from the predicted operational pattern, and generate a notification based upon the determined HA operation device deviation.

There are a number of home automation systems and approaches that seek to permit automated control of electrical devices in a house. The popularity of home automation has been increasing due to the greater availability of smartphones and tablets. As noted in "The Problem With Home Automation's Internet Of Things (IoT)", and article appearing in Forbes dated Sep. 26, 2013, home automation was typically for wealthy consumers with an expensive system to control lights, home theater, security, air conditioning, and home audio. This market has expanded with many do it yourself (DIY) products now available, and, although the products are useful, they may be difficult to aggregate. In other words, as explained in the article, difficulties could arise if a consumer bought a Nest thermostat, Kwikset door lock, Phillips Hue lighting device, Lutron light switch, Sonos audio system, and Belkin wireless plugs. The consumer would need to have multiple applications each requiring time to setup, learn, and use. Additionally, the article states that there is no easy way to make devices work together, such as if the consumer wanted to trigger one event using one device based on another event from another device.
Multiple communication protocols may also be problematic. In particular, different devices may operate using different communication protocols, for example, Wifi, Zigbee, Zwave, Insteon, Itron, RadioRA2, and others. This may create additional difficulties for home automation.
One approach to address these shortcomings is for the consumer, which may include a user and/or enterprise, to use a service and device aggregator that provides one application and a consolidated wireless adapter unit. The user would contract with such a provider for multiple years. Unfortunately, as noted in the article, the consumer may not benefit from the most advanced hardware and software.
Another approach, as noted in the Forbes article, is to provide a single application that attempts to consolidate disparate applications and consolidate wireless adaptors, for example, using each of the different communications protocols. Still further improvements to the operation and integration of devices may be desirable.

Home automation system determining deviated operation device pattern and related methods


An energy transfer module coupled to a thermal solar module includes a body having a first end member, a second end member, and four side members configured to enclose a first spatial region within a vicinity of the first end member and a second spatial region within a vicinity of the second end member. The first spatial region is in communication with the second spatial region. The module further includes one or more inlet openings provided at the first end member for inputting fluid flow from the thermal solar module. The module also includes an air filter disposed within the first spatial region to remove one or more impurities from the fluid flow. Additionally, the module includes a fan disposed between the first spatial region and the second spatial region to draw the fluid flow through the air filter. The fan is coupled to a drive motor. The module further includes a heat exchanger disposed in the first spatial region and an outlet provided on the second end member. Furthermore, the module includes an electrical source coupled to the fan. The electrical source is configured to power the drive motor to draw fluid flow through the heat exchanger.

The present invention relates to an energy transfer technique. More particularly, the present invention provides a module and system for delivering solar panel generated thermal energy to a home in the form of home heating and/or hot water supply. Merely, by way of example, the present invention has been applied to demonstrate performance of an energy transfer module coupled with an air plenum structure associated with a solar array on the roof, but it would be recognized that the invention has a much broader range of applications.
Over the past centuries, the world population of human beings has exploded. Along with the population, demand for resources has also grown explosively. Such resources include raw materials such as wood, iron, and copper and energy, such as fossil fuels, including coal and oil. Industrial countries world wide project more increases in oil consumption for transportation and heating purposes, especially from developing nations such as China and India. Obviously, our daily lives depend, for the most part, upon oil or other fossil fuels, which are being depleted and becoming increasingly scarce.
Along with the depletion of our fossil fuel resources, our planet has experienced a global warming phenomena, known as "global warming," which was brought to our foremost attention by Al Gore, who is the former Vice President of the United States of America. Global warming is known as an increase in the average temperature of the Earth's air near its surface, which is projected to continue to increase at a rapid pace. Warming is believed to be caused by greenhouse gases, which are derived, in part, from use of fossil fuels. The increase in temperature is expected to cause extreme weather conditions and a drastic size reduction of the polar ice caps, which in turn will lead to higher sea levels and an increase in the rate of warming. Ultimately, other effects include mass species extinctions, and possibly other uncertainties that may be detrimental to human beings.
Much if not all of the useful energy found on the Earth comes from our sun. Generally all common plant life on the Earth achieves life using photosynthesis processes from sun light. Fossil fuels such as oil were also developed from biological materials derived from energy associated with the sun. For most living beings on the Earth, sunlight has been essential. Likewise, the sun has been our most important energy source and fuel for modern day solar energy. Solar energy possesses many characteristics that are very desirable! Solar energy is renewable, clean, abundant, and often readily available.
As an example, solar panels have been developed to convert sunlight into energy. As merely an example, solar thermal panels often convert electromagnetic radiation from the sun into thermal energy for heating homes, running certain industrial processes, or driving high grade turbines to generate electricity. As another example, solar photovoltaic panels convert sunlight directly into electricity for a variety of applications. Solar panels are generally composed of an array of solar cells, which are interconnected to each other. The cells are often arranged in series and/or parallel groups of cells in series. Accordingly, solar panels have great potential to benefit our nation, security, and human users. They can even diversify our energy requirements and reduce the world's dependence on oil and other potentially detrimental sources of energy.
Although solar panels have been used successful for certain applications, there are still certain limitations. Typical solar panels are just used to convert sunlight into electricity while let all thermal energy generated (passively) wasted. To some degrees, the extra thermal energy (under the solar panels) may cause performance degradation of the PV cells and cause high roof temperature. Depending upon the geographic regions, the drawbacks mentioned above may contribute to be part of a big hurdle for installing relative costly solar panels to compete with the direct purchase of electricity from public power companies. These and other limitations are described throughout the present specification, and may be described in more detail below.
From the above, it is seen that an improved technique of effectively utilizing the thermal energy generated by the solar panels for a building is highly desired.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Energy transfer module utilizing thermal power generated by solar panels


Disclosed are RNA targeting compounds, methods for using the subject RNA targeting compounds to treat myotonic dystrophy and other diseases are also disclosed.

RNA forms complex tertiary structures that impart diverse functions [1, 2]. For example, RNA catalyzes reactions [3], regulates gene expression [4, 5], encodes protein, and plays other essential roles in biology. Therefore, RNA is an interesting and important target for developing drugs or probes of function [6, 7]. It is a vastly under-utilized target, however, mainly because of the limited information available on RNA ligand interactions that could facilitate rational design.
One advantage of using RNA as a drug target is that secondary structure information, which includes the motifs that comprise an RNA, can be easily obtained from sequence by free energy minimization [8, 9] or phylogenic comparison [10]. RNA tertiary structures are composites of the secondary structural motifs and the long-range contacts that form between them. Furthermore, RNA motifs can have similar properties both as isolated systems and as parts of larger RNAs. For example, aminoglycoside antibiotics affect the structure of the bacterial rRNA A-site similarly when they bind the entire ribosome or an oligonucleotide mimic of the bacterial rRNA A-site [11-16]. Studies on the binding of aminoglycosides and streptamine dimers to RNA hairpins [17-20] have facilitated the development of compounds to combat multidrug resistance by causing plasmid incompatibility [19, 20]. These results show that the identification of RNA motifs that bind small molecules can be useful for targeting the larger RNAs that contain them.
However, since RNA can adopt diverse structures, internal and hairpin loops for example, an understanding of how to target RNA with small molecules and other ligands has been elusive.
Illustrative methods to study and identify RNA ligand interactions include systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment ("SELEX") [21, 22], structure-activity relationships ("SAR") by mass spectrometry ("MS") [23-26] and NMR [27], and chemical microarrays [28-30]. These methods probe RNA space (SELEX) or chemical space (SAR by MS and NMR and chemical microarrays) separately. However, these methods do not permit a systematic study of RNA-ligand interactions.
More recently, a method for systematically identifying RNA-ligand interactions has been developed. The method is described in, for example, Disney et al., "Using Selection to Identify and Chemical Microarray to Study the RNA Internal Loops Recognized by 6-N-Acylated Kanamycin A," ChemBioChem, 8:649-656 (2007); Childs-Disney et al., "A Small Molecule Microarray Platform to Select RNA Internal Loop-Ligand Interactions.," ACS Chem. Biol., 2(11):745-754 (2007) (and in the associated Supporting Information (available on the internet at http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/acbcct/suppinfo/cb700174r/cb700174r-File003.pdf)); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/998,466 of Disney et al., filed Nov. 29, 2007; and PCT Patent Application No. PCT/US07/024,546 of Disney et al., filed Nov. 29, 2007, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
While aforementioned methods identify RNA-ligand interactions, there continues to be a need for compounds and associated methods and materials that exploit such RNA-ligand interactions, and the present invention is directed, in part, to addressing this need.

RNA targeting compounds and methods for making and using same

The Research Foundation for The State University of New York


A color correction method is provided for an electronic printing system that results in a color print that is made as close as possible to what an operator actually observes on a monitor screen (What you see is what you get). The printing system includes a computer, a color printer, and a color monitor.. A calibration is automatically performed by the system's computer through the use of calibration software, a series of test patterns stored in the computer memory, a monitor calibrating device, and a scanner equipped with color trichromatic measurement capabilities.

The present invention relates to an automatic method of color correction for an electronic printing system and, more particularly, to a method of calibrating a color printer and a color monitor so that the appearance of a color print generated by the electronic color printing system closely approximates the appearance of the color image on the monitor screen at the time of printing.
Various color correction methods are known in the prior art for matching a scanned color original document to a printed color output. Representative disclosures are found in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.
4,929,978 (Kanamori et al.) discloses a method wherein a color scanner scans an original color image to obtain successive input color values, each value expressed in tricolor color space. A color correction table memory is responsive to one of the input color values for producing corrected data comprising corresponding output color values. A color printer responsive to the output color values reproduces the original color image as an output color image.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,919 (Schreiber)--FIG. 1 shows the basic system for scanning an original color document and analyzing it to obtain color patch input data values. A color correction system is used to modify the color image on a monitor and color print so that they look like the original scanned document.
There are several techniques known in the art for matching a color video display to a color print. U.S. Pat. No. 4,670,780 (McManus et al.) describes a method of matching hardcopy colors to video display color using a series of color transforming algorithms to effect the color matching. U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,032 (McManus et al.) discloses a method for reproducing colorimetric parameters of a color sample for reproducing the color of the sample on a video monitor screen. A color filter assembly and an associated sensor are used to generate signals indicative of the colorimetric parameters of the illuminated color sample. A computer transforms the signals into a form suitable for driving a video monitor to reproduce the color sample on the monitor screen. Also disclosed is a partially automated system for calibrating the intensity response of CRT monitor phosphor sets to each of a plurality of electron gun control levels utilizing the color filter assembly and associated sensor.
For some electronic color printing systems, it is more important that the color print produced by the color printer matches the color image displayed on the color monitor. This mode of operation is sometimes referred to as "What you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG). One example would be a system where a color image is created or present in computer software, and therefore does not exist as an original color document which must be scanned and inputted to the computer. Another situation would be a mixed, computer-created image consisting of stored color signals merged with inputted signals from a scanned document, or inputted digital color signals from a scanned color photograph. In these situations the operator composes the image on the video screen by manipulating the electronic images, varying the colors on the screen, using readily available software, and performing other editing functions such as cropping, air brushing, merging, etc. When he is satisfied with the image on the screen, the present invention describes a technique for producing a color print that matches as close as possible what is displayed on the screen. Thus, the color print is matched to the video display.
The present invention is directed towards a novel calibration process in which an input scanner is used to calibrate the printer, (although other suitable colorimetric measuring devices can also be used) and a monitor calibration device is used to calibrate the monitor. For the printer calibration, a number of test pattern patches are printed, under control of calibration software in a computer, which span the entire color gamut which the printer is capable of printing. The printed test patterns are scanned by an input scanner (or other suitable colorimetric measuring device), adapted to simulate the CIE tristimulus functions. The computer software analyzes the scanned readings and tristimulus values [Xp, Yp, Zp] are established for each patch. These coefficients [Xp, Yp, Zp] are associated with the corresponding [C, M, Y, K] print signals which were used to print that patch.
The monitor is calibrated by means of an arrangement including three photodiodes, each with an associated color filter, to simulate the tristimulus response. A lens may or may not be used. This calibration technique includes ambient room lighting conditions and therefore views the monitor screen in a close approximation to how the monitor image would appear to an operator. Under control of the monitor calibration software, the colors of the entire monitor screen are sequentially changed, bringing up all possible color values that the computer is capable of generating and displaying. Each color reading is displayed with specific values [Bm, Gm, Rm] assigned to the blue, green, and red electron guns in the monitor. The trichromatic coefficients [Xm, Ym, Zm] for each monitor color are read by the monitor calibration device. These coefficients [Xm, Ym, Zm] are associated with the corresponding electron gun codes [Bm, Gm, Rm]. The calibration process, described in greater detail below, results in a mapping of the color monitor electron gun generation codes [Bm, Gm, Rm] to the color actually measured by the calibrating device [Xm, Ym, Zm], which is a close approximation to what the operator's eye would see on the screen.
In operation, following printer and monitor calibration, the software limits the operator's choice of colors to fall within the range of which the printer is capable of creating.
Thus, the present invention is generally directed towards a method for calibrating a color printer and a color monitor so that a computer generated print code [C, M, Y, K] is sent to the printer which causes a print to be made which has the same tristimulus values [Xp, Yp, Zp] as the color that appears on the monitor [Xm, Ym, Zm]. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for calibrating a color printing system which includes a color monitor, color printer, and source of digital color signals including the steps of:
storing in a controller memory, a predetermined number of sets of C, M, Y, K print codes, each set associated with a specific color value to be printed,
applying said print code sequentially to a color printer for producing color output prints carrying color patches, each patch corresponding to a specific C, M, Y, K print code applied to said printer,
measuring each said color patch under a particular set of spectral illumination conditions and establishing tristimulus values Xp, Yp, Zp, for each measured color patch,
correlating each measured Xp, Yp, Zp value with the associated C, M, Y, K print code, and storing each correlation in a memory lookup table,
storing in said controller memory, a predetermined number of sets of coded digital signals Bm, Gm, Rm, representative of all possible colors capable of being created on a particular color CRT monitor,
applying said coded digital signals sequentially to the associated electron gun of said color CRT monitor, each coded digital signal set creating a color image with a specific Bm, Gm, Rm, tristimulus value,
measuring each said color image in an environment which closely approximates the actual viewing condition of an operator observing the color image at a specific distance from the monitor, each measurement establishing a set of tristimulus values, Xm, Ym, Zm, and
correlating each Xm, Ym, Zm set with the associated applied Bm, Gm, Rm gun code signals, and storing each said correlation in said memory lookup table whereby upon selection by an operator of a print operation to print a specific color image displayed on the monitor, a print code C, M, Y, K is generated which is correlated with the stored monitor gun code that produced that particular color image on the screen resulting in an output print that has the same tristimulus values as the color image on the screen.

Method for matching color prints to color images on a monitor screen


A sport or game goal visual aid system includes a visible light assembly that provide a pair of angular visible light coverages next to the goal post (only outside of the goal opening) or a visible light mesh/grid only over the goal opening.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a sport or game goal visual aid system which includes a visible light assembly that provides a pair of angular visible light coverages next to the goal post (only outside of the goal opening) or a visible light mesh/grid only over the goal opening. More particularly, the present invention relates to a sport or game goal visual aid system having a sport or game goal with a frame defining a goal opening, and at least one pair of visible light emitters mounted on two opposite sides of the frame for providing two angular visible light beams outside of the opening or a visual light mesh/grid covering the opening.
2. Description of Related Arts
The world-wide football playing population has been growing with an enormous amateur and college football system of leagues and coaching. There are about 1,200 players under contract in the NFL. A football goal post includes two vertical posts connected by a horizontal cross bar to define a generally U-shaped goal area. The U-shaped structure is supported by a goose neck to the ground. The dimensions of a football goal post are specifically defined by the rules of the particular football league for which the goal post will be used. For example, the official football posts for high school teams are made of 4½″ OD round steel support with 5′ set back, and the crossbar is 3½″ OD round steel and uprights are 2″ OD steel. The posts are designed to prevent support from turning.
There have been many improvements to the physical shapes and/or functions of a goal post. U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,917 shows a goal post with adjustable components. U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,976 shows a modified goal post. U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,904 shows a football goal post and net display apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. D308,555 shows a mini goal post. U.S. Pat. No. D304,059 shows a pyramid ball goal post. U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,988 shows a football goal post with an explosive-type souvenir projector. U.S. Pat. No. D250,283 shows a goal post structure, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,981,501 shows a retractable goal post. However, these improvements do not help the audience better perceive the occurrence of scoring events, such as touchdowns, extra points, and the two-point conversions.
Currently, the audience rely upon human eyes and cameras on site to capture the moment when the ball passes through the U-shaped goal area. There is a need for an assisting mechanism to better perceive the occurrence of scoring events.
Many sensors have been used in place of human eyes for detecting moving objects. U.S. Pat. No. 6,294,910 shows a digital position sensor for sensing the position of a moving target, such as a vehicle, a robot, or a machine tool, rather than for sensing a ball passing a goal post. A digital sensor of this type can be mounted in the bearings of an automobile steering column in order to check the path of the vehicle, or in systems for checking or controlling the position of a robot or of a machine tool, for example.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,579,190 shows a swinging speed measuring sensor which outputs a trigger signal for opening/closing the shutter to the CCD camera when the swinging speed measuring sensor detects the passage of a golf club rather than the golf ball. Upon receipt of the trigger signal, the multi-shutter opens and closes successively. Synchronously with the opening/closing of the multi-shutter, the strobes emit flashlight sequentially. In this manner, a plurality of images of a golf ball driven by the golf club are photographed in a one-image frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,916 shows an optical ball sensor for detecting a rolling pinball on an inclined surface, rather than a ball passing over an open field and through a goal post.
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20030181268 provides an electronic sound effect assembly via a sensor on a sports goal net, rather than on the goal hoop/post. In addition, the sound effect assembly is activated to generate audible sounds, preferably that of a cheering crowd.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,117 shows a visual aid for football spectators that includes red and green lights on poles associated with a particular game object, which are selectively energized by a remote control by a referee or official scorer to indicate the success or failure to achieve the particular game object. The lights are manually or selectively turned on/off, rather than always turned on. In addition, the lights only show whether a scoring attempt was successful, but do not illuminate the goal post or show the passing position of the ball.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,947 shows a signaling apparatus attached to the hockey net so as to energize a light siren when a playing piece passes through the goal opening and impacts the net. However, the light only indicates whether a scoring attempt was successful, but does not illuminate the goal post or show the passing position of the playing piece.
Currently, a more exciting visualization system for sports scored by a goal post, such as football, basketball, etc. is needed in assisting the audience to better perceive the occurrence of scoring events and to attract more people to the sports.

Sport or game goal post visual aid system and method for using the same


A system and method for modulating synchronous CDMA (S-CDMA) signals in antenna array wireless system. By taking advantage of the symmetric property of Walsh code words utilized in S-CDMA perform modulation of signals intended for a plurality of users. The system includes a Fast Hadamard Transform (FHT) Processor that realizes baseband operations including spreading and digital combining in one step. In addition to significant reduction in computations and storage over prior methods, the invention also provides substantial advantages in hardware implementation. While the exemplary embodiment is described in the context of antenna array CDMA systems, the disclosed techniques have general applications in CDMA systems with arbitrary symbol values.

The present invention relates to code-division-multiple-access (CDMA) communications, and more particularly to a method for fast modulation using the Fast Hadamard Transform in a synchronous CDMA antenna array wireless system.
In PCS and other wireless communication systems, a central base station communicates with a plurality of remote terminals. Frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) and Time-division multiple access (TDMA) are the traditional multiple access schemes to provide simultaneous services to a number of terminals. The basic idea behind FDMA and TDMA techniques is to slice the available resource into multiple frequency or time slots, respectively, so that multiple terminals can be accommodated without causing interference.
Contrasting these schemes which separate signals in frequency or time domains, Code-division multiple access (CDMA) allows multiple users to share a common frequency and time channel by using coded modulation. In addition to bandwidth efficiency and interference immunity, CDMA has shown real promise in wireless applications for its adaptability to dynamic traffic patterns in a mobile environment. Because of these intrinsic advantages, CDMA is seen as the generic next-generation signal access strategy for wireless communications.
In CDMA communications, the message information is modulated by a pseudo noise (PN) sequence or spreading code. Synchronous CDMA (S-CDMA) communications systems provide for synchronous transmission and reception by all users. S-CDMA thus allows the use of orthogonal code words which possess inherent mutual interference resistance. In contrast, asynchronous CDMA systems do not provide for synchronous transmission and thus cannot use orthogonal code words. Thus S-CDMA systems offer high capacity relative to asynchronous CDMA systems with the same spreading gain. An ideal application of S-CDMA scheme is one-point to multi-point (point-to-multipoint) communications, e.g., from a base station to a plurality of remote terminals, where signals transmitted to different terminals are perfectly synchronized.
When an antenna array is employed at the base station, spatial diversity of a wireless system can be exploited to enhance system performance. Among the advantages inherent to an antenna array S-CDMA system are large capacity and range, strong resistance against multipath fading and interference, superior traffic adaptability, and highly flexible hand-off capabilities. There have been a significant number of patents in the area of antenna array applications for wireless communications including V. Graziano, "Antenna Array for a Cellular RF Communications System," U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,740, 13/1977.
In addition to the spreading and combining processes well-known in the current art of CDMA, modulation in an antenna array CDMA system also involves transmission beamforming. Transmission beamforming involves determining the transfer function of the transmission path of a respective terminal, referred to as a spatial signature estimate. The spatial signature estimate is then used to determine transmission beamforming coefficients that are used for transmission to the terminal. The transmission beamforming coefficients represent different weighting values corresponding to each of the antennas in the antenna array. Each transmission beamforming coefficient is multiplied with a user's modulated PN sequence, and the respective results are provided to the respective antennas in the array.
In summary, modulation in an antenna array CDMA system can achieved by (i) spreading individual message symbols into chip sequences with pre-assigned orthogonal code words (the Walsh Codes); (ii) weighting (beamforming) each chip sequence with a transmission beamforming vector to produce a multichannel chip sequence; and (iii) mixing all multichannel chip sequences to generate transmission multichannel chip sequences for pulse shaping and RF upconversion. The order of (i) and (ii) may be switched without affecting the final results.
Demodulation in a smart antenna CDMA system can be realized using the computationally efficient Fast Hadamard Transform (FHT). In contrast to demodulation, modulation in S-CDMA, especially antenna array S-CDMA, is a more involved process. The spreading and mixing, all at the chip level, are particularly computationally demanding. Please refer to E. Zehavi, "Method and Apparatus for Bifurcating Signal Transmission over In-phase and Quadrature Phase Spread Spectrum Communication Channels", U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,728, 5/1995, for more details on chip-level S-CDMA modulation. The modulation process is further complicated because of beamforming, which allows each beamformed chip signal to take an arbitrary value instead of from a finite alphabet.
A system for cell-site CDMA modulation is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,300,474, entitled "System and Method for Generating Signal Waveforms in a CDMA Cellular Telephone System". The techniques disclosed therein utilize multiple modulators and D/A converters, each corresponding to one user, and an analog combiner to realize baseband modulation. While this implementation alleviates the computational load of the digital portion of the system, this method introduces undue hardware and clearly increases the system cost and complexity. In a standard software radio design where even dedicated tasks are exported to the digital processor section, it is desirable to perform the modulation using general DSPs rather than customized baseband processors. However, the large volume of data involved due to multiuser, multichannel spreading imposes an extreme challenge to DSP implementation.
An effective way to reduce the required computations in modulation is by using look-up tables (LUTs), i.e., constructing a table whose elements are the ready-to-transmit signals corresponding to all possible symbol combinations. The idea is to centralize the computational load using dedicated DSPs within a certain period so that during actual transmission, signal modulation is reduced to fetching pre-calculated values from the LUT storage. This straightforward approach to reducing complexity requires, however, an extremely large amount of storage in present applications, and a correspondingly large computation time in the construction of the look-up tables.
In addition, as mentioned above, in a smart antenna system the modulation process is further complicated because of beamforming, which allows each beamformed chip signal to take an arbitrary value instead of from a finite alphabet. In other words, the beamforming vector values can take on any value, and thus the beamformed or weighted chip sequences can also take on any value. Since the resultant beamformed or weighted chip sequences can take on any value, look-up tables cannot be used for modulation in a smart antenna system.
Therefore, prior art systems which perform the aforementioned modulation tasks generally introduce undesirable hardware or computational complexity. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for fast modulation of CDMA signals in an antenna array system.

Method and apparatus for fast modulation in synchronous CDMA communications