An electroplating apparatus, in accordance with the present invention, includes a plurality of chambers. A first chamber includes an anode therein. The first chamber has an opening for delivering an electrolytic solution containing metal ions onto a surface to be electroplated. The surface to be electroplated is preferably a cathode. A second chamber is formed adjacent to the first chamber and has a second opening in proximity of the first opening for removing electrolytic solution containing metal ions from the surface to be electroplated. The plurality of chambers are adapted for movement in a first direction along the surface to be electroplated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electroplating devices, and more particularly to a method for fabricating a thin film transistor array for a liquid crystal display with an electroplated gate or data metal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Displays, such as, liquid crystal displays, have found a wide range of uses in modern electronic equipment. With the improvement of viewing quality and the reduction of viewing angle limitations, liquid crystal displays have become more appealing for a plurality of new applications and well as more desirable for old applications. In many instances, liquid crystal displays are replacing cathode ray tube (CRT) displays. For example, liquid crystal displays are now being employed for computer monitors.
Liquid crystal displays, in many applications, provide desirable features, such as light weight, low profile and low power, to name a few. Due to increased usage of liquid crystal technology, there is a large driving force to reduce the costs of such displays. One way to reduce the costs of liquid crystal displays is to reduce the number of processing steps needed to fabricate these devices. For example, many liquid crystal display thin film transistor TFT arrays are fabricated in processes which include a plurality of masking steps. It would be advantageous to reduce the number of masking, deposition, and etching steps used to build these TFT arrays. The industry is currently moving to five mask processes, but it is desirable to reduce the number further to four mask steps.
Therefore, a need exists for a method for fabricating a TFT array in less than five masking steps. A further need exists for providing a display device produced by this method which includes an electroplated gate or data metal, since metal deposition by electroplating is lower cost then conventionally employed sputtering processes.
An electroplating apparatus, in accordance with the present invention, includes a plurality of chambers. A first chamber includes an anode therein. The first chamber has an opening for delivering an electrolytic solution containing metal ions onto a surface to be electroplated. The surface to be electroplated is preferably a cathode. A second chamber is formed adjacent to the first chamber and has a second opening in proximity of the first opening for removing electrolytic solution containing metal ions from the surface to be electroplated. The plurality of chambers are adapted for movement in a first direction along the surface to be electroplated.
In alternate embodiments, the plurality of chambers may include a rinse chamber including a supply of water for rinsing the surface, and/or a pretreatment chamber which leads the first chamber for pretreating and cleaning the surface to be electroplated. The surface to be electroplated preferably includes conductive lines, although other features may be plated as well. The conductive lines may extend longitudinally along the first direction. The conductive lines preferably connect to a common node. The apparatus may include a plurality of first chambers and a plurality of second chambers. The anode may include a consumable metal anode. The anode may include an inert metal and the electrolyte solution may include ions of a metal to be deposited. The first chamber may be surrounded by the second chamber, for example in a pipe within a pipe arrangement. The pipes may be of any shape, for example circular in cross-section, or rectangular in cross-section or combinations thereof. The second chamber may include a plurality of chamber which surround the first chamber.
A method for forming an electroplated metal on conductive layers, in accordance with the present invention, includes the steps of providing a substrate having elongated conductive structures formed thereon, providing an electroplating apparatus including a plurality of chambers, a first chamber including an anode therein, the first chamber including a first opening for delivering an electrolytic solution containing metal ions onto the conductive structures to be electroplated, the conductive structures being a cathode, and a second chamber formed adjacent to the first chamber and having a second opening in proximity of the first opening for removing electrolytic solution containing metal ions from the conductive structures to be electroplated and moving the plurality of chambers in a first direction along the conductive structures to be electroplated to electroplate the metal onto the conductive structures.
In other methods, the plurality of chambers may include a rinse chamber, and the method may further include the step of rinsing an electroplated surface of the conductive structures. The plurality of chambers may include a pretreatment chamber which leads the first chamber, and the method may further include the steps of pretreating and cleaning the conductive structures to be electroplated. The conductive structures may include gate of data lines for active devices. The conductive structures may extend longitudinally along the first direction. The conductive structures may connect to a common node during electroplating. The electroplating apparatus may include a plurality of first chambers and a plurality of second chambers, and the method may further include the step of incrementally electroplating the conductive structures with each of the plurality of first chambers.
In still other methods, the anode may include a consumable metal anode or the anode may include an inert metal and the electrolyte solution may include ions of a metal to be deposited. The step of providing an electroplating apparatus may include the step of providing the apparatus in which the first chamber is surrounded by the second chamber.
A method for fabricating an active array for a liquid crystal display device, in accordance with the present invention, includes the steps of forming addressing lines for the active array, providing an electroplating apparatus including a plurality of chambers, a first chamber including an anode therein, the first chamber including a first opening for delivering an electrolytic solution containing metal ions onto the addressing lines to be electroplated, the addressing lines being a cathode, and a second chamber formed adjacent to the first chamber and having a second opening in proximity of the first opening for removing electrolytic solution containing metal ions from the addressing lines to be electroplated, and moving the plurality of chambers in a first direction along the addressing lines to be electroplated to electroplate the metal onto the addressing lines.
The addressing lines may include indium tin oxide or indium zinc oxide. The addressing lines may extend longitudinally along the first direction. The addressing lines may connect to a common node during electroplating The methods may further include the steps of forming access devices for accessing pixel electrodes through the addressing lines and forming data lines for addressing the pixel electrodes. The addressing lines may be included in a top gate structure or a bottom gate structure. The method is preferably performed in only four masking steps. The method may further include the step of forming access devices for accessing pixel electrodes through gate lines, where the addressing lines are for addressing the pixel electrodes. The active array may include conductive structures isolated from the cathode such that electroplating is prevented on the conductive structures. The conductive structures may include pixel electrodes.

International Business Machines Corporation


A silicone rubber composition comprising (A) an alkenyl-containing organopolysiloxane, (B) a polycyclic aromatic compound having at least two phenyl groups, and (C) finely divided silica is easy to process and cures to silicone rubber having low hardness while retaining good physical properties.

Silicone rubbers have improved heat resistance, weather resistance, durability, releasability, and electrical properties and are formable or moldable to any desired shape. They have found a wide variety of uses as building materials, electric and electronic parts, automobile parts and business machines. Because the use of business machines is now expanding, silicone rubbers, partially because of their improved compression set, in addition to the above-mentioned properties, are now indispensable as roll materials for copying machines and printers.
Roll material require silicone rubbers of low hardness. Most often, low hardness silicone rubbers having a hardness as low as 40 or less in JIS A scale are employed. There is a demand for silicone rubber having a lower hardness. In general, low hardness silicone rubbers are obtained by reducing the vinyl group content of a predominant polymer component in a silicone rubber composition or reducing the content of silica filler therein. However, a certain limit exists when reducing the vinyl content. With too low a content of silica filler, compositions lose shape retention ability so that it becomes difficult to work or deal with the silicone rubber for processing or molding. Also they experience an extreme drop of physical properties such as tensile strength and tear strength. Conventional low hardness silicone rubber compositions are thus difficult to produce. Add Teflon powder to silicone rubber compositions to compensate for a reduction of the silica filler in order to secure shape retention is known although poor dispersion of Teflon powder is a problem.

Low hardness silicone rubber compositions


While monitor images continuously generated by a monitor scan are displayed, the parent image of a difference image may be updated at any particular point in time. Further, during the display, the image may be switched between a normal reconstructed image and a difference image, and the difference method applied to the presently displayed difference image may be changed. When the body of a to-be-examined subject has moved, or the inflow effect of breathing, blood, etc. has occurred, and therefore the parent image of the presently displayed difference image is considered to become inappropriate, the operator may input an instruction to update the parent image.

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 11-238772, filed Aug. 25, 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus configured to use magnetic resonance (MR) to obtain a magnetic resonance image of a to-be-examined subject, and more particularly to a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus designed to perform a monitor scan for observing the flow of a contrast agent injected into a to-be-examiner subject, and perform an imaging scan for acquiring a photographic image when it is confirmed that the contrast agent has reached a diagnostic region in the subject.
In the field of magnetic resonance imaging apparatuses, several imaging methods suitable for particular diagnosis are proposed. Some MR contrast imaging methods use a function entitled xe2x80x9cVisual Prepxe2x80x9d. In MR contrast imaging methods using the Visual Prep function, a contrast agent is injected into a to-be-examined subject, and a monitor scan is executed. During the monitor scan, a plurality of monitor images are continuously generated and displayed on a monitor. The operator observes the flow of the contrast agent based on monitor images.
Upon confirming the arrival of the contrast agent at the desired diagnostic region, the operator inputs an instruction to execute an imaging scan. By the imaging scan, an MR contrast image to be used for diagnosis can be acquired at an appropriate point in time. A preparatory function that performs the monitor scan may be called a xe2x80x9cVisual Prepxe2x80x9d function.
The conventional technique using a Visual Prep function, however, is disadvantageous in that it cannot follow movement of the to-be-photographed subject (for example, movement of the human body), which occurs during the monitor scan. Specifically, in a conventional Visual Prep function, a mask image (a parent image) of the to-be-examined subject acquired at the initial stage, and a plurality of live images acquired at regular intervals are used. Each time a live image is acquired, the mask image and the live image are subjected to subtraction processing, and the resultant subtraction image is displayed on the monitor. Further, in a conventional Visual Prep function, the live image is updated at regular intervals, while the mask image is not updated but, instead, the initial mask image is used at all times. Therefore, when the to-be-examined subject moves, subtraction processing cannot be executed appropriately, resulting in an inappropriate monitor image.
Once the inappropriate monitor image is displayed, the operator cannot clearly observe the flow of contrast agent. This means that the operator may miss the desired timing for inputting an instruction to execute an imaging scan, and hence may fail to acquire a desired MR contrast image.
The present invention has been developed in light of the above, and aims to provide a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus which can more effectively display a monitor image showing the flow of contrast agent into a to-be-examined subject, thereby enabling the operator to determine appropriate timing for an imaging scan and hence more easily obtain a desired MR image.
According to the present invention there is provided an image display method employed in a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus that executes preparatory imaging, comprising the steps of: collecting a series of magnetic resonance images of a to-be-examined subject, which are to be used for preparatory imaging; determining at least one of the series of magnetic resonance images to be a parent image; creating a difference image between a latest one of the series of magnetic resonance images and the parent image; displaying the difference image on a monitor; updating the parent image in response to a first outside instruction by replacing the parent image with the latest image; displaying, on the monitor, the difference image based on the updated parent image; and collecting a photographic image in response to a second outside instruction.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.


A non-reciprocal circuit device comprising a first inductance element disposed between a first input/output port and a second input/output port, a second inductance element disposed between the second input/output port and a ground, a first capacitance element constituting a first parallel resonance circuit with the first inductance element, a second capacitance element constituting a second parallel resonance circuit with the second inductance element, a resistance element parallel-connected to the first parallel resonance circuit, and an impedance-adjusting means disposed between the first input/output port and the first inductance element.

Non-reciprocal circuit devices such as isolators, etc. are widely used in mobile communications equipment utilizing frequency bands from several hundreds of MHz to ten-odd GHz, such as cell phones and their bases, etc. An isolator is disposed between a power amplifier and an antenna, for instance, in a transmission part of mobile communications equipment, to prevent unnecessary signals from flowing back to the power amplifier and stabilize the impedance of the power amplifier on a load side. Accordingly, the isolator is required to have excellent insertion loss characteristics, reflection loss characteristics and isolation characteristics.
FIG. 27 shows a conventional isolator. This isolator comprises a microwave ferrite 38 made of a ferrimagnetic material, three central conductors 31, 32, 33 disposed on a main surface of the ferrite 38 such that they are crossing at an angle of 120° in a mutually insulated state, matching capacitors C1-C3 each connected to one end of each central conductor 31, 32, 33, and a terminal resistor Rt connected to a port (for instance, P3) of any one of the central conductors 31, 32, 33. The other end of each central conductor 31, 32, 33 is grounded. A DC magnetic field Hdc is applied from a permanent magnet (not shown) to the ferrite 38 in its axial direction. In this isolator, a high-frequency signal input through the port P1 is transmitted to a port P2, and reflected waves from the port 2 are absorbed by the terminal resistor Rt, and therefore not transmitted to the port P1. Thus, unnecessary reflected waves generated by the impedance variations of the antenna are prevented from flowing back to the power amplifier, etc.
Recently proposed is an isolator with a different equivalent circuit from that of the above isolator, which has excellent insertion loss and reflection loss characteristics (JP 2004-88743 A). This isolator having two central conductors is called "two-terminal-pair isolator." An equivalent circuit of its basic structure is shown in FIG. 24. This two-terminal-pair isolator comprises a first central electrode (first inductance element) L1 disposed between a first input/output port P1 and a second input/output port P2, a second central electrode (second inductance element) L2 disposed between the second input/output port P2 and a ground such that it is crossing the first central electrode L1 in an electrically insulated state, a first capacitance element C1 disposed between the first input/output port P1 and the second input/output port P2 for constituting a first parallel resonance circuit with the first central electrode L1, a resistance element R, and a second capacitance element C2 disposed between the second input/output port P2 and the ground for constituting a second parallel resonance circuit with the second central electrode L2.
A frequency at which isolation (reverse attenuation) is at maximum is set in the first parallel resonance circuit, and a frequency at which insertion loss is at minimum is set in the second parallel resonance circuit. When a high-frequency signal is transmitted from the first input/output port P1 to the second input/output port P2, the first parallel resonance circuit between the first input/output port P1 and the second input/output port P2 is not resonated, but the second parallel resonance circuit is resonated, resulting in small transmission loss (excellent insertion loss characteristics). Current flowing from the second input/output port P2 back to the first input/output port P1 is absorbed by the resistance element R between the first input/output port P1 and the second input/output port P2.
FIG. 25 shows a specific example of the structure of the two-terminal-pair isolator. The two-terminal-pair isolator 1 comprises casings (upper casing 4 and lower casing 8) made of a ferromagnetic metal such as soft iron, etc. for forming a magnetic circuit, a permanent magnet 9, a central conductor assembly 30 comprising a microwave ferrite 20 and central conductors 21, 22, and a laminate substrate 50, on which the central conductor assembly 30 is mounted.
The upper casing 4 for containing the permanent magnet 9 substantially has a box shape having an upper portion 4a and four side portions 4b, and the lower casing 8 has a U-shape having a bottom portion 8a and two side portions 8b, 8b. Each casing 4, 8 is plated with conductive metals such as Ag, Cu, etc.
The central conductor assembly 30 comprises a disk-shaped microwave ferrite 20, and first and second central conductors 21, 22 disposed on an upper surface of the microwave ferrite 20 such that they are perpendicularly crossing each other via an insulation layer (not shown), the first and second central conductors 21, 22 being electromagnetically coupled at a cross. The first and second central conductors 21, 22 are respectively constituted by two strip lines, and both end portions 21a, 21b, 22a, 22b of each line are separate from each other and extend onto a bottom surface of the microwave ferrite 20.
FIG. 26 shows the structure of the laminate substrate 50. The laminate substrate 50 comprises a sheet 46a having electrodes 51-54 connected to the ends of the central conductors 21, 22 on a rear surface, a dielectric sheet 41 having capacitor electrodes 55, 56 and a resistor 27 on a rear surface, a dielectric sheet 42 having a capacitor electrode 57 on a rear surface, a dielectric sheet 43 having a ground electrode 58 on a rear surface, and a dielectric sheet 45 having an input external electrode 14, an output external electrode 15 and ground external electrodes 16, etc.
The central-conductor-connecting electrode 51 corresponds to the first input/output port P1, the central-conductor-connecting electrode 52 corresponds to the third port P3, and the central-conductor-connecting electrodes 53, 54 correspond to the second input/output port P2 in the above equivalent circuit. One end 21a of the first central conductor 21 is connected to the input external electrode 14 via the first input/output port P1 (central-conductor-connecting electrode 51). The other end 21b of the first central conductor 21 is connected to the output external electrode 15 via the second input/output port P2 (central-conductor-connecting electrode 54). One end 22a of the second central conductor 22 is connected to the output external electrode 15 via the second input/output port P2 (central-conductor-connecting electrode 53). The other end 22b of the second central conductor 22 is connected to the ground external electrode 16 via the third port P3 (central-conductor-connecting electrode 52). The first capacitance element C1 (25) is connected between the first input/output port P1 and the second input/output port P2, to form the first parallel resonance circuit with the first central conductor L1 (21). The second capacitance element C2 (26) is connected between the second input/output port P2 and the third port P3, to form the second parallel resonance circuit with the second central conductor L2 (22).
To obtain a non-reciprocal circuit device having excellent electric characteristics, various factors providing inductance generated by lines connecting reactance elements, floating capacitance generated by interference between electrode patterns, etc., should be taken into consideration.
It is likely in the above two-terminal-pair isolator that unnecessary reactance components are connected to the first and second parallel resonance circuits. If that happens, the input impedance of the two-terminal-pair isolator is deviated from a desired level, resulting in impedance mismatching with other circuits connected to the two-terminal-pair isolator, and thus the deterioration of insertion loss characteristics and isolation characteristics.
Though the inductance and capacitance of the first and second parallel resonance circuits can be determined by taking unnecessary reactance components into consideration, simple changing of the width and gap, etc. of lines constituting the first and second central conductors 21, 22 would fail to obtain optimum matching conditions with external circuits. This is because the mutual coupling of the first and second central conductors 21, 22 changes the inductance of the first and second inductance elements L1, L2, resulting in difficulty in independently adjusting input impedance at the first and second input/output ports P2, P1. Particularly the deviation of input impedance at the first input/output port P1 should be prevented because it leads to increase in insertion loss.


A method for communicating over a WiFi channel. In some embodiments, the method includes determining, by a non-access point station, that a first skipping criterion is met; in response to determining that the first skipping criterion is met, skipping N1 target wait time service periods, N1 being a positive integer; after skipping N1 target wait time service periods, determining, by the non-access point station, whether a second skipping criterion is met; and in response to determining that the second skipping criterion is met, skipping N2 subsequent target wait time service periods, N2 being a positive integer greater than N1.

In Wi-Fi systems, target wake time (TWT) enables stations (STAs) to periodically schedule and manage their activities at specific intervals called service periods (SP). This reduces contention and may save power by letting non-access point (non-AP) STAs sleep outside of the SPs. However, in some systems, even if no there is no traffic, the non-AP STAs wake up at every SP and waste power by idle listening. This unproductive power consumption may be high when there is no traffic activity for long periods of time or when the SP durations are long.

System and method for dynamic adjustment of target wake time service period intervals


A location estimation method is provided. The method locates coordinates of a mobile station (MS) by referencing a plurality of base stations (BS). A geometric distribution of the BS is analyzed to provide a list of conditional equations. A virtual BS is allocated, having a virtual distance to the MS to provide a constraint equation. The MS location is derived from the conditional equations and the constraint equation.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to wireless location systems, and more particularly, to enhanced precision in location estimation of a mobile station under different environments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile location estimation is of considerable interest in wireless communications. A mobile station (MS) may locate itself by communicating with a plurality of geometrically distributed base stations (BS).
FIG. 1 shows a Time-of-Arrival (TOA) based location estimation with three base stations. For a lth BS, TOA tl is estimated as:
                                          t            l                    =                                                    r                l                            c                        =                                                                                ζ                    l                                    c                                +                                                      n                    l                                                                                l                                            =              1                                      ,        2        ,        …                                          ,        N                            (        1        )
Where c is the speed of light, rl represents the measured relative distance between the mobile station (MS) and lth BS, composed of actual distance ζl and TOA measurement noise nl. The actual distance ζl can be obtained according to the formula:ζl=√{square root over ((x−xl)2+(y−yl)2)}{square root over ((x−xl)2+(y−yl)2)}  (2)
Where the coordinates (x,y) represents the MS's location to be determined, and (xl,yl) is the location of lth BS.
In FIG. 1, with the measured distances rl used as radiuses, three circles BS1, BS2 and BS3 are correspondingly formed for each lth BS. Ideally, the measured distance rl meets the actual distance ζl, thus three circles intersect at the single point (x,y) where the MS is located. Due to None-Line of Sight (NLOS) measurement errors, however, the measured distance rl is always larger than the actual distance ζl, and a rough, or confined region defined by cross points A, B and C is respectively formed instead, thus, the MS is theoretically situated somewhere in the defined region. In X. Wang, Z Wang and B. O'Dea "A TOA-based location algorithm reducing the errors due to non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation" Published in IEEE Trans., vol. 52, January 2003, a two step least square (LS) algorithm is utilized to converge the estimated MS location (xe, ye) to the actual MS location (x,y). For gentle NLOS environments, the two-step LS algorithm is efficient and highly accurate. When the confined region ABC grows as the NLOS error increases, the accuracy of the two-step LS algorithm may significantly decrease, particularly for an MS located at the boundaries of arcs AB, BC and CA. Thus, an improved algorithm is desirable.


Configurable one-time authentication tokens are provided with improved resilience to attacks. A one-time authentication token is configured by providing a plurality of token features that may be selectively incorporated into the configurable one-time authentication token, wherein the plurality of token features comprise at least two of the features; obtaining a selection of at least a plurality of the token features: and configuring the one-time authentication token based on the selected token features, wherein the configuration must always enable forward security for the one-time authentication token and at least one additional selected token feature. A configurable one-time authentication token is provided that comprises a plurality of selectable token features that may be selectively incorporated into the configurable one-time authentication token, wherein the configurable one-time authentication token is always configured with the forward security and at least one additional token feature.

One-time authentication tokens are used to realize two-factor authentication according to which a traditional passcode-based user-authentication method (using a secret you know) is augmented with a one-time passcode that is produced by an authentication token (i.e., a secret produced by something you possess). The two factors collectively provide a stronger authentication method.
One-time authentication tokens typically produce a series of unpredictable one-time passcodes on a regular time basis, i.e., in specified time intervals often called epochs. Passcodes are unpredictable as they get produced in a pseudorandom manner using a secret state, often referred to as a seed, that is stored at the token and also shared with the server. Tokens can either be software or hardware based. Software tokens produce passcodes on-demand, whenever the token's application is launched in the host device, where a series of passcodes is generated for the epochs following the launching of the application. Hardware tokens typically produce passcodes on a permanent basis, one passcode per epoch, for the entire lifetime of their battery. Overall, such tokens produce a time-based series of unpredictable one-time passcodes by employing their seed to generate pseudorandom bits that are converted to passcodes.
The security of any one-time authentication token collapses if an attacker obtains access to the secret seed of the token. Using the seed, the attacker can clone the token and reconstruct the series of passcodes that the token will produce. Indeed, the attacker can use the token's seed to reproduce the pseudorandom numbers used for passcode generation, effectively breaking the unpredictability of the passcodes. In turn, the attacker can increase its chances for impersonating the corresponding user, by either performing a brute-force attack on the user's PIN or by launching a more sophisticated man-in-the-middle attack for harvesting the user's PIN.
Since the security of the token is based on a secret seed, the attacker will attempt to obtain this secret seed. There are three forms of attack that an attacker can employ to obtain access to the secret seed of the token of a target victim user. Under a server compromise attack, the attacker compromises the authentication server and obtains the secret seed of the tokens of one or more users. With a token tampering attack, the attacker compromises the token and obtains the secret seed of the token. Finally, with a seed capturing attack, the attacker obtains the secret seed of the token indirectly by attacking a storage or communication unit used to store or transfer the token's seed, or through side-channel attacks performed against the token or the server.
A need therefore exists for one-time authentication tokens that protect against the above types of attacks that attempt to obtain the secret seed of one or more tokens. A further need exists for configurable one-time authentication tokens.

Configurable one-time authentication tokens with improved resilience to attacks


A directional coupler for low frequencies that is small and can handle high power levels. The directional coupler includes a pair of circuit lines having an input port, an output port, a forward coupled port and a reverse coupled port. The circuit lines are located proximate to each other such that they are electromagnetically coupled. A low pass filter is connected to the forward coupled port. The low pass filter shifts the operating frequency of the directional coupler.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to directional couplers in general and more particularly to a directional coupler for low frequencies that has good power handling and a small package size.
2. Description of Related Art
Directional couplers are used in a variety of applications in the RF and microwave frequency range. FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a prior art directional coupler 20 including a pair of coupled circuit lines 22 and 24. Circuit lines 22 and 24 would typically be formed in a stripline configuration. The directional coupler 20 has four ports, an input port 25, an output port 26, a forward coupled port 27 and a reverse coupled port 28. An input signal or power applied to the input port 25 will go mainly to the output port 26. A portion of the input signal will be electromagnetically coupled to circuit line 24 and appear mostly at forward coupled port 27. A very small portion of the signal will go to the coupled reverse port 28.
The electrical signal coupled to the forward and reverse ports depends upon the coupled circuit line characteristic impedance and the coupling between the lines. Directivity is a measure of the bi-directional coupler differentiation.
Directional couplers using stripline configurations have been applied to higher frequency applications, typically above 600 MHz. The length of the coupled lines is typically set at one quarter of the wavelength at the center frequency. The directional coupler 20 of FIG. 1 is impractical for higher frequency applications. Directional couplers operating at lower frequencies are often faced with size and space constraints, which require the use of transformers to handle the power levels. The use of transformers add higher costs to the product and result in a larger overall package.
A current unmet need exists for a directional coupler that can operate at low frequencies, with minimal size and improved electrical performance.


A genetically modified zebrafish embryo, comprising a HBNF cDNA or a NGF cDNA or a GDNF cDNA together with a cDNA encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) so as to induce neurite outgrowth during said zebrafish embryonic development, and a method of using such genetically modified zebrafish embryo to identify a therapeutic agent are disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel in vivo system that can be used to screen or test therapeutic agents for treating neurodegenerative illnesses. Specifically, the in vivo system of the present invention is established by using zebrafish embryos coupled with following the neurite outgrowth from green fluorescent protein (GFP)—labeled neurons during zebrafish development.
2. Description of the Related Art
The assessment of neurite-promoting activity of growth factors and neurotrophins in vitro is usually done by the laborious process of counting neuronal processes manually under a standard microscope or confocal microscopy. But more recently, automated methods have become available. Automated monitoring and quantification of neurite formation and outgrowth in multiple samples have greatly enhanced therapeutic investigations in neuroscience, particularly in drug screening and the drug discovery process in general (Simpson et al., 2001). However, these methods still offer relatively low throughput in terms of detection when compared with other higher-throughput screens, and they are limited to targeted screens or purely secondary screens.
In neuroscience research, many projects are focused on identifying drugs that affect the growth of neurites. The discovery and characterization of compounds and new chemical entities that promote or suppress neuritogenesis are of great importance in the search for therapies to treat neurodegenerative illnesses, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, as well as trauma that results in neuropathy and nerve injury, including stroke and spinal cord injuries (Makarovsky et al., 2003).
Heparin-binding Neurite-promoting Factor (HBNF)
Heparin-binding neurotrophic factor or neurite-promoting factor (HBNF) was first co-purified with bovine acidic fibroblast growth factor from brain tissues (Rauvala, 1989). It is a secretory heparin-binding protein with highly basic and cysteine-rich amino acid residues. In mammals, HBNF shares 50% identity with midkine (MK) and they constitute a new family of heparin-binding proteins (Kovesdi et al., 1990). HBNF and MK are not only functionally related proteins with similar promotion of neurite extension in PC12 cells (Kretschmer et al., 1991; Bohlen et al., 1991), but also structurally related proteins. They have two conserved cysteine residues, a highly conserved hinge region as well as two clusters of basic residues for heparin binding (Winkler et al., 2003). In addition to neurite outgrowth promotion, HBNF also has a variety of biological activities, such as stimulating cell growth, acting as an angiogenesis factor, and containing oncogenic activity. Therefore, it is also known as pleiotrophin (PTN) (Li et al., 1990) and heparin-binding growth-associated molecule (HB-GAM) (Merenmies et al., 1990).
Initially, the function of HBNF/PTN was found to promote neurite outgrowth from different cultured neuronal cell types, including primary embryonic cortical neurons (Hampton et al., 1992; Raulo et al., 1992), PC12 cells (Kuo et al., 1990) and neuroblastoma cells (Li et al., 1993). PC12 cells are derived from a transplantable rat pheochromocytoma with an important feature of responding to nerve growth factor (NGF) to differentiate into neuron-like cells. Upon exposure to NGF, PC12 cells cease proliferation and extend neuritis (Greene and Tischler, 1976). Without NGF, HBNF could induce weak but significant neurite extension in PC12 cells, when these cells were transfected with HBNF cDNA (Chang et al., 2004).
HBNF Receptor, syndecan-3, is a haparan sulfate proteoglycan
HBNF/PTN was first isolated as a heparin-binding protein with high affinity, suggesting that heparin or heparin-type carbohydrates may play important roles in the biological function of HBNF/PTN (Rauvala 1989). Indeed, further studies demonstrate that a transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan, N-syndecan (syndecan-3), acts as a receptor for HBNF/PTN (Raulo et al., 1994). Both the heparan sulfate side chains of N-syndecan and polyclonal anti-N-syndecan inhibit HBNF/PTN-induced neurite outgrowth in the cultured neurons. In addition to N-syndecan heparan sulphate, the low molecular weight heparin displays more potent inhibition of HBNF/PTN-induced neurite outgrowth in cultured neuronal cells (Kinnunen et al., 1996; Rauvala et al., 1997). As mentioned above, we modified the in vivo neurite outgrowth assay in zebrafish embryos to investigate the inhibitory effect of heparin or heparan sulfate on HBNF-induced neurite outgrowth by further injection of different dosage of heparin or heparan sulfate into zebrafish embryo at two- or four-cell stage. In agreement with previous report (Rauvala et al., 1997), heparin could inhibit HBNF-induced neurite outgrowth in zebrafish embryos (data not shown). Therefore, the modified assay system also can be used to compare the inhibitory or enhancing effect of HBNF/PTN-induced neurite outgrowth in vivo by heparin and its modified forms, N-syndecan-derived saccharides, and other glycosaminoglycans.
Compounds with Enhancing or Inhibitory Effect on NGF-induced Neurite Outgrowth in PC12 Cells
Scoparia dulcis L. (Scrophulariaceae) is a widespread tropical herbaceous medicinal plant, which has been used widely as a traditional folk medicine for its antipyretic and analgesic properties and for its use in treating bronchitis and gastric disorders in South America. Three new acetylated flavonoid glycosides, 5,6,4′-trihydroxyflavone 7-O-alpha-L-2,3-di-O-acetylrhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-beta-D-glucopyranoside (1), apigenin 7-O-alpha-L-3-O-acetylrhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-beta-D-glucopyranoside (2), and apigenin 7-O-alpha-L-2,3-di-O-acetylrhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-beta-D-glucopyranoside (3), were isolated from Scoparia dulcis together with the known compound eugenyl beta-D-glucopyranoside (4). Compounds 2 and 3 showed an enhancing activity of nerve growth factor-mediated neurite outgrowth in PC12D cells (Li et al., 2004).
Indocarbazostatins C (3) and D (4), new inhibitors of NGF-induced neurite outgrowth were isolated from culture broth of a mutant strain, Streptomyces sp. MUV-6-83 (Feng et al., 2004). The structural elucidation of 3 and 4 revealed that these inhibitors were methyl ester analogs of the corresponding ethyl ester compounds, indocarbazostatin (1) and indocarbazostatin B (2), respectively.
Zebrafish
Zebrafish is a good model organism for the study of vertebrate development (Penberthy et al., 2002; Rubinstein, 2003). The embryos develop outside the mother and are optically transparent, allowing direct observation of their embryonic development that takes only 48 hours for completion at 28° C. In my lab, we have cloned several zebrafish tissue-specific promoters including pancreatic-, neuron-, and muscle-specific promoters. Their tissue specificies of gene expression were confirmed by expression of GFP in zebrafish embryos. Therefore, these tissue-specific promoters could be used to drive GFP or RFP expression in zebrafish embryos. In general, it is common to investigate the function of known or novel genes by gain-of-function and loss-of-function in zebrafish. To achieve gain-of-function, genes of interest are driven by tissue-specific promoters and injected into one-cell zebrafish embryos (Gong et al., 2001). Alternatively, the expression constructs under the control of either ubiquitous or tissue-specific promoter were co-injected with tissue-specific promoter/GFP construct. On the other hand, to achieve loss-of-function, genes of interest are knockdowned by injection of morpholino antisense-oligomnucleotides (MAO) or coinjection of MAO with tissue-specific promoter/GFP construct (Nasevicius and Ekker, 2000; Urtishak et al., 2003). The suitable transgenic GFP/RFP zebrafishes also can be used to inject MAO or expression constructs, respectively.
Recently, many transgenic zebrafish with fluorescent organs for development of relevant models of human disease have been established (Shentu et al., 2003; Her et al., 2003; Her, et al., 2004). For example, transgenic lines of zebrafish with fluorescent blood vessels have been developed, which simplifies the process by which blood vessels are visualized (Lawson and Weinstein, 2002). This transgenic line was designed by driving expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) with the fli-1promoter. Embryos and larvae with fluorescent blood vessels can be used for angiogenesis assays. The VEGF-specific tyrosine kinase inhibitor SU-5416 (semaxanib; SUGEN Inc) and the more broadly active tyrosine kinase inhibitor, SU-6668 (SUGEN Inc) have been found to inhibit angiogenesis in transgenic fluorescent embryos (Parng et al., 2002).
Enhancement of Neurite Outgrowth in Zebrafish Embryo
So far, there is no suitable in vivo assay to assess the enhancement of neurite outgrowth by neurite-promoting factors. In our lab, we used zebrafish embryos to establish an in vivo system that can be used to study the enhancement of neurite outgrowth from GFP-labeled live neurons during zebrafish development (Chang et al., 2004). Zebrafish embryos could provide more additional factors than those in PC12 cells for extensive neurite outgrowth. In zebrafish, HuC gene has been shown to be a useful early marker for neurons and a 2.8 kb promoter region of this gene is sufficient to direct GFP expression in a neuron-specific pattern closely similar to endogenous HuC expression (Park et al., 2000). As shown in the following data, pHuC-GFP alone displayed GFP expression in trigerminal gaglion, axon as well as rohon beard (RB) or motor neurons without visible branched and long neurites. However, coinjection of pcDNA-HBNF-HA and pHuC-GFP resulted in significant enhancement of neurite outgrowth with extensive branched and long dendrites. For the first time, these data indicated that the expression of zebrafish HBNF could induce robust neurite outgrowth with wider and complicate branches from GFP-labeled neurons during zebrafish development.

In vivo assay for neurite outgrowth in zebrafish and its application in drug screening


A motor vehicle pump arrangement includes a pumping unit having engagement steps, and a mounting arrangement which mounts the pumping unit to a motor vehicle mounting structure which corresponds to the pumping unit. The mounting arrangement includes a vibration-decoupling body having a ring shape, and a clip retainer which is attached to the vibration-decoupling body. The vibration-decoupling body radially surrounds the pumping unit, supports the pumping unit, and is attachable to the motor vehicle mounting structure. The clip retainer axially retains the pumping unit. The clip retainer includes a retainer frame which extends in a transversal pumping unit plane and which is axially supported by the vibration-decoupling body, and retainer arms which axially project from the retainer frame. Each of the retainer arms engages a respective one of the corresponding engagement steps of the pumping unit so as to axially retain the pumping unit.

Such a pump arrangement comprises a pumping unit, for example, an electric pumping unit, for circulating a fluid within a motor vehicle fluid circuit. The pump arrangement also comprises a mounting arrangement for mounting the pumping unit to a corresponding motor vehicle mounting structure. The mounting arrangement is provided with a vibration-decoupling body which is attachable to the motor vehicle mounting structure and which supports the pumping unit. The vibration-decoupling body is made of a relatively flexible material so that vibrations of the motor vehicle mounting structure, in particular caused by the engine of the motor vehicle, are not transferred into the pumping unit, or are only transferred into the pumping unit in a significantly suppressed manner. This minimizes the failure probability of the pumping unit and improves the lifetime of the pumping unit. The vibration decoupling body also avoids, or at least minimizes, a vibration transfer from the pumping unit via the mounting structure into a motor vehicle frame. This in particular minimizes the passenger compartment noise of the motor vehicle. The decoupling body is typically ring-shaped and radially surrounds as well as supports the pumping unit.
Such a pump arrangement is, for example, described in DE 10 2016 209 204 A1. The ring opening of the vibration-decoupling body is here press-fitted to a corresponding peripheral surface of a pumping unit housing so that the pumping unit is supported by the decoupling body in a force-locked manner. Since the decoupling body must be relatively flexible to provide an efficient vibrational decoupling, the force-locked connection can only support relatively limited axial forces. The pumping unit housing is therefore provided with radially protruding support protrusions which are in axial contact with the decoupling body to provide an additional form-locked axial support of the pumping unit at the decoupling body. The support protrusions are arranged on both axial sides of the decoupling body to provide a support in both axial directions. The decoupling body must, however, be mounted to the pumping unit during the assembly of the pumping unit housing and, in particular, cannot be mounted to a completely assembled pumping unit. The decoupling body mounting step must therefore be integrated into the pumping unit assembly process, which results in a complex assembly of the pump arrangement.
The prior art also describes mounting the decoupling body to a completely assembled pumping unit, wherein the decoupling body is fixed to the pumping unit by screw joints or by an adhesive bonding. However, these fixation methods require additional fixation elements and/or a complex mounting process to attach the decoupling body to the pumping unit. Screw joints between the pumping unit and the vibration-decoupling body can in particular also impair the vibrational-decoupling properties of the pump arrangement.

Motor vehicle pump arrangement and mounting arrangement for a motor vehicle pump arrangement


A female jack is provided that includes one or more terminals and a reception aperture configured to accept a male plug. The female jack also includes a first spring contact with a first mating curvature configured to contact the male plug and create electrical contact between the male plug and the female jack. The first spring contact also includes one or more flex joints.

Male plugs are used along with female jacks in a wide variety of applications in which information, such as audio information, is transmitted from one device to another. A male plug at the end of a conductive cable is typically accepted and secured in a female jack by one or more curved spring members which also act as electrical contacts. In applications where the plugs, female jacks and/or the electrical cords and equipment with which they are associated are moved during operation, a plug may be jostled away from the curved spring members of a female jack in which it is secured, resulting in a loss of signal transmitted between the male plug and the female jack.


A merchandising hanger has a planar surface adapted to receive printed indicia thereon and characterized by having a top and a base. The top of the planar surface is formed as a hook, cutout, or hole so as to allow the merchandising hanger to be suspended from a conventional merchandising rack. A tab extends from the base of the planar surface and includes a stud integral with the tab and a stud-receiving aperture in another portion of the tab. The aperture has a flange associated therewith. Intermediate between the stud and the aperture is a tab portion having a thickness less than the tab portion proximal to the planar surface. The relative thicknesses of tab portions and the interaction between the stud and complementary aperture afford a theft deterrent without compromising the merchandising function.

A merchandise hanger allows a retailer to efficiently display a suspended article while affording a customer an opportunity to handle the merchandise. The opportunity for a customer to come into physical contact with the merchandised article is especially beneficial in the context of portable electronic device accessories that must be compatible with a given device. Typically, a hanger is molded from synthetic plastic materials configured as a shallow profiled strip. Such plastic strips often integrate intermediate between the hanger portion and the merchandise engaging portion an identification display mounting card. While merchandising hangers are well suited to provide consumer interactivity, such hangers are particularly susceptible to theft and damage owing to the ease in which a stud is released from a securing aperture that together form the suspension loop for the merchandised article. Thus, there exists a need for a merchandising hanger that is resistant to tampering.


The present invention provides a folding type and portable wireless apparatus with a built-in antenna, particularly a portable wireless apparatus that reduces a local average SAR and improves performance of antenna.

A mobile phone has been commonly spread and particularly, a folding type mobile phone having a foldable mechanism in which an upper housing and a lower housing are coupled to each other through a hinge portion has been widely spread in recent years. Folding type mobile phone generally have two postures of an opened posture and a closed posture, and has two advantages of being capable of enlarging a display screen when they are used in the opened state (in the opened posture) and thus improving usability, and of being capable of being transformed to a compact profile when they are used in the closed state (in the closed posture) and thus providing a portable convenience.
Recently, users have had more interest in the local average SAR and have a tendency to select mobile phones with a low local average SAR, using the local average SAR as an index of selection. Therefore, it is preferable for mobile phones to have a low local average SAR. A method of reducing the local average SAR have been known in the art, in which an electrical conductive metal element with an end open is connected (grounded) to a gland adjacent to a power feeding point in an unbalance-typed power feeding antenna and the element is set in a length to resonate at a desired frequency. Further, the element is disposed opposite to the side with opening of the receiving part of the housing that contacts the human housing. According to this configuration, current flows from the power feeding point to the electrical conductive metal element, so that it is possible to reduce the current flowing to the side that contacts the human housing (see Patent Document 1).
Further, according to another method of separating a current of a power feeding point in the art, a shield case of an upper housing with a receiving part in a folding type mobile phone is used as an antenna element (antenna 1), power is supplied to the antenna element through a flexible cable from a gland substrate of a lower housing, and a rod antenna (antenna 2) is connected with a power feeding portion (see Patent Document 2).
Configurations in the related art are shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG. 4 shows a configuration with the housing open in the related art and FIG. 5 shows a configuration with the housing closed in the related art.
According to the examples in the related art shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, for example, according to Patent Document 1, an electrical conductive metal element with an end open is disposed adjacent to a hinge portion 103 that supports an upper housing 101 and a lower housing 102 of a folding type mobile phone 100 such that they are capable of opening/closing, and housing open/close detecting unit 104a, 104b that detects open/close of the bodies are provided. When it is detected that the bodies 101 and 102 are open, as shown in FIG. 4, a first matching circuit 106 connected with a first antenna 105 is connected to a wireless circuit 108 through an antenna switching circuit 107 and a second antenna 109 is connected to a gland pattern of a circuit board 111 through a switching circuit 110. Further, when it is detected that the bodies 101 and 102 are closed, as shown in FIG. 5, the second antenna 109 is connected to the wireless circuit 108 through a switching circuit 112 and an antenna switching circuit 113.
As described above, when the bodies 101 and 102 are opened, it is possible to reduce the local average SAR by separating the antenna current of the first antenna 105 to the second antenna 109. Further, resonant frequency of the second antenna 109 and the matching circuit 106 is constant at the transmitting frequency and the receiving frequency, regardless of the open/closed of the bodies 101 and 102.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-353719
Patent Document 2: JP-A-2002-335180

Abstract: A housing open/close detecting unit 6 detects open/close of bodies 1 and 2. When the bodies 1 and 2 are open, a first antenna 4 and a wireless circuit 24 are connected and resonant frequency of a second antenna 5 is adjusted into a first frequency bandwidth, and when the bodies 1 and 2 are closed, the resonant frequency of the second antenna 5 is adjusted into the first frequency bandwidth and a second frequency bandwidth and a wireless circuit 24 is connected. Therefore, when the bodies 1 and 2 are open, it is possible to reduce a local average SAR by separating an antenna current. Further, when the bodies 1 and 2 are closed, it is possible to obtain a high antenna gain.


A measurement mark on a substrate has a first section with first primary and first secondary lines. The first primary lines have a first width and are arranged at a first pitch and in alternating order with the first secondary lines. A second section comprises second primary and second secondary lines arranged in alternating order. The second primary lines have a second width that is different from the first width. The pitch of the primary lines and the distance between the primary and the secondary lines is the same in each case. The spectral response of both sections of the measurement mark is determined by an analyzer unit of a measurement apparatus, and a sign of a difference between target and actual widths of the lines is determined by comparing a first spectrum derived from the first section with a second spectrum derived from the second section.

In course of the fabrication of electronic devices, a substrate and layers disposed over the substrate are patterned using lithography techniques, wherein both in the substrate and in individual ones of the layers line-shaped and/or dot-shaped features may be formed. According to existing approaches in semiconductor production environments, spectrometrology methods (e.g., scatterometry or ellipsometry) process the spectral response of sections of a semiconductor wafer. Model-based fitting algorithms then, by varying the model parameters, fit the actual spectral responses with reference spectral responses calculated from a model of the respective sections in order to determine the parameters of the respective wafer sections, like the dimensions of the line-shaped or dot-shaped features in/on the substrate or in/on one of the layers.
With shrinking feature size, enhanced patterning techniques like pitch fragmentation and double exposure methods become of increasing interest, wherein, for example, the odd lines of a regular line arrangement including a plurality of parallel lines emerge from another process and may have another mean line width than the even lines of the same line arrangement. If further the material of the even lines is the same as that of the odd lines, then, though the spectral response does reflect the two mean line widths, the evaluation of the spectral response leaves open which of the lines are the narrow ones and which are the wide ones. Only after additional measurements like scanning electron microscopy, the measured line widths may be assigned to the correct type of lines (i.e., the even or the odd ones).
In light of the deficiencies of the above discussed approaches to determine feature dimensions like line widths, a need exists for improved methods and for suitable measurement marks for the determination of feature dimensions and/or for improved process control.

Measurement method for determining dimensions of features resulting from enhanced patterning methods


A system using GPS navigation signals to aid in distance determination on a golf course includes a cart-based unit, a hand-held distance determining unit that can be interconnected with the cart-based unit, and a central base station. The central base station includes an RF transceiver for wireless communications and a controller. The hand-held distance determining unit includes a GPS receiver, a display, memory for storing golf course location data, and a controller. The cart-based unit includes an RF transceiver, a display, and a connector cradle into which the hand-held unit can be inserted in order to share information with the cart-based unit. With the hybrid system of the invention, the benefits of the fill features, large display screen and rich functionality of a cart-mounted GPS-based distance determining system are provided along with the benefits of a small, inexpensive, portable hand-held unit that a golfer can use away from the golf cart, such as in xe2x80x9ccart path onlyxe2x80x9d situations. The system provides improved accuracy either through use of differential GPS techniques or through use of WAAS satellite GPS correction signals. The invention also provides a method of determining distances on a golf course including the steps of inserting a hand-held distance determining unit in a connector cradle in a cart-based unit and relaying information between the hand-held unit and the cart-based unit. The method further includes the step of transmitting GPS correction data from a central base station to golfers on the golf course.

The present invention relates to systems for determining distances on golf courses, and more particularly to systems that determine golf course distances using Global Positioning System navigation signals.
The popularity of the game of golf has increased significantly over the past few decades, and the sport is now a major leisure time activity. Hitting a good golf shot (and thus achieving a good golf score) requires that the golfer know with some accuracy the distance the golfer needs to hit the golf ball. Off the tee, for example, the distance required in order to clear a fairway bunker or a water hazard is often a concern. When approaching the green, the distance to the pin or the distance to the front or back of the green must be known in order to enable proper club selection. In summary, then, golfers need to know where their ball lies relative to various points of interest on the golf course, including the pin, the front or back of the green, sand traps, trees, creeks, lakes, and other points of interest.
Various methods for determining the distance to golf course points of interest have been developed. These methods include techniques as simple as walking off the distance between the ball and the point of interest, referring to rough distance markers along the fairway (such as sprinkler heads or 150-yard-markers) and guessing based on vision. While these simple techniques have served golfers for centuries, other more technologically advanced systems have more recently been devised. More advanced systems include the use of binoculars with built-in laser range-finding devices and the use of electronic point identifier units. With the binocular-laser systems, the binoculars include a distance unit that enables a golfer to locate an object. When activated, the distance unit on the binoculars sends a laser signal to the object and the distance between the golfer and the object can be determined by evaluating the laser reflection. With the point identifier units, a stationary electronic unit may be placed on a point of interest, such as a flag pole, and when the golfer directs a point identifier unit towards the pin, the unit transmits a signal to the stationary electronic unit and determines the distance between the point identifier unit and the golfer unit. While each of these systems can be used to determine the distance to a golf pin or other point of interest, these systems have disadvantages. To overcome some of these disadvantages, range finders based on Global Positioning System (xe2x80x9cGPSxe2x80x9d) receivers have been developed.
The United States Department of Defense developed and maintains a constellation of earth-orbiting satellites known as the Global Positioning System to provide radionavigation aids to commercial and military users. The satellite constellation consists of 24 satellites configured in six orbital planes. Radio transmissions from the satellites are referenced to very accurate atomic frequency standards aboard the satellites, which are, in turn synchronized with a system-wide GPS system time base. The system provides accurate, continuous, worldwide, three-dimensional position and velocity information to users with appropriate receiving equipment. A number of standard GPS receivers have been developed for use in aircraft, boats, automobiles and other vehicles, and positioning receivers that use the GPS system have been widely deployed around the world.
The GPS satellites broadcast a pseudo-random-noise code (xe2x80x9cPRN codexe2x80x9d) and navigation data modulated on two carrier frequencies via a spread-spectrum technique called Code Division Multiple Access (xe2x80x9cCDMAxe2x80x9d). All satellites transmit signals with the same two frequencies, but each satellite uses a PRN code that is relatively orthogonal, and hence uncorrelated, with respect to the CDMA codes used by other satellites in the constellation. Navigation data transmitted by each satellite allows receivers to determine the location of the transmitting satellite at the time of transmission, while the PRN code allows receivers to determine which satellite transmitted the signal. The transit time of each signal, and hence the satellite-to-receiver range and the position of the receiver, can be determined once the signals from multiple satellites have been distinguished.
GPS provides service enabling positioning accuracy of about 100 meters to any user worldwide. However, U.S military users can access the GPS xe2x80x9cprecisionxe2x80x9d service that provides considerably more accuracy if they have keys to an encrypted dithering of the satellite clock. In addition, all users can use xe2x80x9cdifferentialxe2x80x9d techniques to obtain far greater position accuracy, such as by removing correlated errors between two or more receivers when the location of one receiver is very precisely known beforehand.
The most common method of calculating position using the GPS satellites is to measure the receiver""s distance (or xe2x80x9crangexe2x80x9d) from at least four GPS satellites in known locations, and to triangulate the receiver""s position therefrom. The range from the receiver to each satellite is measured indirectly by measuring the time for the radio signal transmitted by each satellite to travel through space to the receiver.
This time measurement is made through the use of the PRN code generated by each satellite and transmitted at a precisely determined interval of GPS time that is common to all the satellites Standard GPS receivers are equipped to generate internally an exact duplicate of the unique code transmitted by each satellite. The receiver xe2x80x9ctracksxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9clocks onxe2x80x9dto a particular satellite by matching or correlating the internally generated code assigned to a particular satellite to the code received as part of the signal transmitted by that satellite. Since some amount of time is required for the coded signal to travel at the speed of light from the satellite to the receiver, the receiver must delay the generation of the internally generated code in order to match the internally generated code to, the code being received. By measuring the amount of time by which the internally generated code must be delayed in order to match the coded signal received from the satellite, the receiver is indirectly measuring the time required for the signal to travel from the satellite to the receiver. Multiplying the time required to travel from the satellite to the receiver by the speed at which the radio signal is traveling (the speed of light), the user can determine the xe2x80x9crangexe2x80x9d or distance to the satellite.
A GPS receiver at a known (i.e., surveyed) location can be used to provide correlated error corrections which can then be transmitted to other nearby receivers to enable more accurate position determination. These receivers use these error corrections in combination with their GPS-derived apparent position data to produce a more accurate differential GPS (DGPS) position correction. DGPS techniques are frequently implemented to achieve a higher degree of accuracy than possible with absolute (single receiver) measurements. When both the base station units and mobile units are within a few miles of each other, DGPS can remove common-mode errors that affect absolute single receiver measurements. These common-mode errors include selective availability (SA) and bias errors, such as satellite clock errors, ephemeris data errors and tropospheric delay effects. DGPS does not correct errors due to multi-path or noise detected at the receiver.
In a typical DGPS-based golf range-finding system, the location of a golfer or mobile unit associated with the golfer may be determined using a standard GPS receiver. Many of these range-finding systems include a fixed, central base station at the golf course clubhouse and numerous mobile units that are either mounted on golf carts or carried by the golfer. Mobile units typically include both a GPS receiver for position determination and a radio communications transceiver for communicating with the central base station. The mobile units typically store a database of records that include the locations of various points of interest on the golf course. The base station unit calculates its GPS position from the signals and compares the calculated position signal to the known fixed location of the base station to compute a differential position correction. These differential position corrections are transmitted to the mobile units to enable the mobile units to correct for correlated positioning errors and to thereby determine a more accurate position estimate than would otherwise be possible with an uncorrected GPS position reading.
While using GPS- and DGPS-based golf ranging systems to provide position estimates to conventional mobile distance units operated by golfers is useful, pin changes and the associated updates must be completed before the golfer begins the round so that the mobile unit can be updated with the correct positions. Because the pin positions on a golf course are routinely changed in the morning after some golfers begin to play, the mobile units operated by the golfers may not have the most recent pin positions information. In other GPS mobile distance systems for golf courses, the pin positions are determined by basing distance calculations on a pre-determined daily pin area position. With the day of week identified, the distance to the pin position area for the day of the week can be determined. However, these estimates may not be as accurate as a golfer would like. Furthermore, although DGPS systems are accurate, some golfers, particularly expert golfers, prefer that the system yield a better margin of error than these systems typically provide.
In order to provide a more accurate GPS-based position determining system for critical aircraft traffic control and automated landing systems, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is developing the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). The WAAS improves the accuracy capability of a GPS-based positioning system in much the same way that a ground-based DGPS system does. WAAS is based on a network of approximately 25 ground reference stations that covers a very large service area in North America Signals from GPS satellites are received by wide area ground reference stations (WRSs). Each of these precisely surveyed reference stations receives GPS signals and determines a correction signal required to correct for errors in the GPS-derived position at that point These WRSs are linked to form the U.S. WAAS network. Each WRS in the network relays the data to the wide area master station (WMS) where correction information is computed. The WMS calculates correction algorithms and assesses the integrity of the system. A correction message is prepared and uplinked to a geostationary communications satellite The WAAS correction message is then broadcast by the geostationary satellite at the same frequency that the GPS satellites transmit the GPS navigation code. (1575.42 MHz) to WAAS-equipped receivers onboard aircraft or on the ground that are within the broadcast coverage area of the WAAS. Because the WAAS signal is broadcast at the GPS navigation signal frequency, standard GPS receivers can be easily modified to receive and decode the WAAS correction message and to thereby enable more accurate position determination than is possible using GPS alone. It is expected that in the near future many GPS receivers will be equipped with built-in WAAS capability.
Conventional GPS-based golf range-finding systems suffer from a number of practical limitations, unfortunately. Golf courses increasingly require that golfers refrain from driving their golf carts into the fairway and that the carts instead remain on the asphalt or concrete xe2x80x9ccart pathsxe2x80x9d that extend from tee to green on one side of a typical golf hole. Such xe2x80x9ccart path onlyxe2x80x9d rules help maintain the quality of the turf in the fairway, particularly after a rain when the ground is soft. GPS-based range-finding systems that are mounted in the cart are thus of little use if the cart cannot be driven to the golfer""s ball. Portable GPS-based range-finders that can be carried by the golfer to the ball have been developed to solve the xe2x80x9ccart path onlyxe2x80x9d problem and to service golfers who walk the course rather than ride in a cart. In order to take advantage of real-time DGPS or WAAS position correction systems, communications links to a central base station, and the availability of large display screens for displaying course detail and other rich information, however, these portable units typically must include an RF transceiver, significant battery storage, and a large display screen in addition to a GPS receiver and distance determination capability and are thus large, heavy and more expensive.
Unfortunately, conventional GPS-based golf range-finding systems thus require a performance and cost trade-off. If the system is cart-mounted, full features, a large display screen, and rich functionality can be provided, but the system is not useful in xe2x80x9ccart path onlyxe2x80x9dsituations or when the golfer otherwise leaves the golf cart. If, on the other hand, a portable unit is desired, features and functionality must conventionally be sacrificed in order to minimize size, weight, power consumption, and cost.
A GPS-based position determining system for use on a golf course is provided that combines the benefits of the full features, large display screen, and rich functionality that are available with a cart-mounted GPS-based system and the benefits of the portability, small size, low power consumption, and low cost of a hand-held unit. The hand-held unit can be interconnected with a cart-based unit when it is inserted into a connector cradle in the cart-based unit, and the two units can thereby exchange GPS correction signals, WAAS correction data, location and distance information, paging information, and other information. The performance and cost trade-offs by which conventional systems for GPS-based golf course position determination are constrained are thus avoided.
According to one embodiment, the invention provides a system for receiving position data from GPS satellites and for determining distances to a plurality of selected points of interest on a golf course. The system includes a central base station unit that comprises a base station RF transceiver adapted to communicate via a wireless communications link and a base station controller adapted to control the base station RF transceiver. The system further includes a hand-held unit that comprises a hand-held unit GPS receiver adapted to receive and process navigation signals from GPS satellites and to thereby provide GPS-derived hand-held unit location data, a hand-held unit display for displaying graphics, distance information, location information, and other information to users of the system, a hand-held unit memory for storing a plurality of stored location data, and a hand-held unit controller adapted to control the hand-held unit GPS receiver, the hand-held unit display, and the hand-held unit memory. According to the invention, the hand-held unit is still further adapted to calculate a distance between the hand-held unit and a point of interest on the golf course by comparing the hand-held unit location information with the stored location data for the selected point of interest. The system still further includes a cart-based unit that comprises a cart-based unit battery, a cart-based unit RF transceiver to communicate with the base station RF transceiver via the wireless communications link, and a cart-based unit display for displaying graphics, distance information, location information, and other information to users of the system. The cart-based unit further comprises a connector cradle for holding the hand-held unit. The connector cradle includes a battery connector adapted to electrically connect the cart-based unit battery to the connector cradle, a hand-held unit connector adapted to electrically interconnect the cart-based unit and the hand-held unit when the hand-held unit is received in the connector cradle, and a DC power connector for providing energy from the cart-based unit battery through the connector cradle to the hand-held unit. The cart-based unit still further comprises a cart-based unit controller adapted to control the cart-based unit RF transceiver, the cart-based unit display, and communications between the cart-based unit and the hand-held unit via the connector cradle. According to this embodiment, the cart-based unit is adapted to receive the hand-held unit location information via the connector cradle, the hand-held unit is adapted to electrically interconnect the hand-held unit to the cart-based unit via the connector cradle for providing the hand-held unit location information to the cart-based unit, and the base station controller is adapted to manage communication between the central base station unit and the cart-based unit.
According to one embodiment of the invention that uses differential GPS technology, the base station unit further comprises a base station GPS receiver and a base station processor adapted to generate a GPS correction signal that is a function of the difference between a known base station location and the GPS-derived base station location. In this system, the cart-based unit is preferably adapted to receive the GPS correction signal transmitted from the base station unit via the cart-based unit RF transceiver and to provide the GPS correction signal to the hand-held unit via the connector cradle. The hand-held unit preferably generates hand-held unit location information from a combination of the GPS-derived hand-held unit location data and the GPS correction signal.
According to another embodiment of the invention that uses WAAS satellite correction signals to compensate for GPS system inaccuracies, the base station unit further comprises a base station WAAS receiver adapted to receive a WAAS correction signal and a base station processor adapted to determine WAAS correction data from the WAAS correction signal. In this system, the cart-based unit is preferably adapted to receive the WAAS correction data from the base station unit via the cart-based unit RF transceiver and to provide the WAAS correction data to the hand-held unit via the connector cradle. The hand-held unit preferably generates hand-held unit location information from a combination of the GPS-derived hand-held unit location data and the WAAS correction data. In still another embodiment that uses WAAS satellite correction signals, the hand-held unit GPS receiver is adapted to receive WAAS correction signals and the hand-held unit is adapted to generate hand-held unit location information from a combination of the GPS-derived hand-held unit location data and the WAAS correction data.
According to another advantageous embodiment, the invention provides a hand-held distant determining unit for use in a system based on differential GPS technology for determining distances to a plurality of user selected points of interest on a golf course. In this embodiment, the hand-held distance determining unit includes a hand-held unit GPS receiver adapted to receive and process navigation signals from GPS satellites and to thereby provide GPS-derived hand-held unit location data, a hand-held unit display for displaying graphics, distance information, location information, and other information to a user of the system, a hand-held unit memory for storing a plurality of stored location data for the respective ones of the points of interest on the golf course, and a hand-held unit controller adapted to control the hand-held unit GPS receiver, the hand-held unit display, and the hand-held unit memory. According to this embodiment, the hand-held unit controller is adapted to generate hand-held distance determining unit location information from a combination of the GPS-derived hand-held unit location data and the GPS correction signal. The hand-held unit is adapted to calculate a distance between the hand-held distance determining unit and a selected one of the points of interest on the golf course by comparing the hand-held distance determining unit location information with the stored location data for that respective point of interest, and the hand-held distance determining unit is further adapted to electrically interconnect the hand-held distance determining unit to the cart-based unit via the connector cradle for providing the hand-held distance determining unit location information to the cart-based unit and for receiving the GPS correction signal from the cart-based unit. In one advantageous embodiment, the hand-held unit is adapted to receive a paging message and other information from the central base station through a hand-held unit RF transceiver.
According to yet another advantageous embodiment, the invention provides a hand-held distance determining unit for use in a system based on WAAS correction signal technology for determining distances to a plurality of user selected points of interest on a golf course. In this embodiment, the hand-held distance determining unit includes a hand-held unit GPS receiver adapted to receive and process navigation signals from GPS satellites and to thereby provide GPS-derived hand-held unit location data, a hand-held unit display for displaying graphics, distance information, location information, and other information to a user of the system, a hand-held unit memory for storing a plurality of stored location data for the respective ones of the points of interest on the golf course, and a hand-held unit controller adapted to control the hand-held unit GPS receiver, the hand-held unit display, and the hand-held unit memory. According to this embodiment, the hand-held unit controller is adapted to generate hand-held distance determining unit location information from a combination of the GPS-derived hand-held unit location data and WAAS correction data. The hand-held unit is adapted to calculate a distance between the hand-held distance determining unit and a selected one of the points of interest on the golf course by comparing the hand-held distance determining unit location information with the stored location data for that respective point of interest, and the hand-held distance determining unit is further adapted to electrically interconnect the hand-held distance determining unit to the cart-based unit via the connector cradle for providing the hand-held distance determining unit location information to the cart-based unit and for receiving the GPS correction signal from the cart-based unit. In one advantageous embodiment, the hand-held unit is adapted to electrically interconnect the hand-held distance determining unit to the cart-based unit via the connector cradle for receiving information from the cart-based unit, the cart-based unit being adapted to receive the information from the central base station unit via the cart-based unit RF transceiver and to provide the information to the hand-held unit via the connector cradle.
According to another advantageous embodiment, a hand-held distance determining unit for use in a system for determining distances to a plurality of user selected points of interest on a golf course is provided. According to this embodiment, the hand-held distance determining unit includes a hand-held unit GPS receiver adapted to receive and process navigation signals from GPS satellites and to thereby provide GPS-derived hand-held unit location data, the hand-held unit GPS receiver being further adapted to receive and process a WAAS correction signal and to generate a WAAS correction data, a hand-held unit display for displaying graphics, distance information, location information, and other information to a user of the system, a hand-held unit memory for storing a plurality of stored location data for the respective ones of the points of interest on the golf course, and a hand-held unit controller adapted to control the hand-held unit GPS receiver, the hand-held unit display, and the hand-held unit memory. According to the invention, the hand-held unit controller is adapted to generate hand-held distance determining unit location information from a combination of the GPS-derived hand-held unit location data and the WAAS correction data, and the hand-held unit is adapted to calculate a distance between the hand-held distance determining unit and a selected one of the points of interest on the golf course by comparing the hand-held distance determining unit location information with the stored location data for that respective point of interest.
A method of determining distances to a plurality of selected points of interest on a golf course using GPS satellite position signals is also provided that is based on differential GPS techniques. According to this embodiment, the method includes the steps of determining an absolute location of a central base station relative to a fixed coordinate system, receiving at the base station a first set of navigation signals from the GPS satellites, determining a GPS-derived base station location relative to the fixed coordinate system from the first set of navigation signals, calculating a GPS correction signal that is a function of the difference between the absolute location of the central base station and the GPS-derived base station location, transmitting the GPS correction signal to a cart-based unit, inserting in the cart-based unit a hand-held unit having a hand-held unit display into a connector cradle that provides an electrical interconnection between the cart-based unit and the hand-held unit, relaying the GPS correction signal from the cart-based unit to the hand-held unit, storing a plurality of stored location data associated with the selected points of interest on the golf course, receiving in the hand-held unit a second set of navigation signals from the GPS satellites, determining a GPS-derived hand-held unit location relative to the fixed coordinate system from the second set of navigation signals, calculating a corrected hand-held unit location relative to the fixed coordinate system from a combination of the GPS-derived hand-held unit location and the GPS correction signal, determining a distance data between the hand-held unit and a first point of interest on the golf course by comparing the corrected hand-held unit location with the stored location data associated with the first point of interest, and displaying the distance data. on the hand-held unit display In one embodiment, the method further includes the steps of relaying the distance data from the hand-held unit to the cart-based unit through the connector cradle and displaying the distance data on a cart-based unit display.
A method of determining distances to a plurality of selected points of interest on a golf course using GPS satellite position signals is also provided that is based on transmitting WAAS correction signals from a central base station. According to this embodiment, the method includes the. steps of receiving at a central base station a WAAS correction signal from a WAAS broadcaster, calculating a WAAS correction data from the WAAS correction signal transmitting the WAAS correction data to a cart-based unit, inserting a hand-held unit having a hand-held unit display into a connector cradle in the cart-based unit that provides an electrical interconnection between the cart-based unit and the hand-held unit, relaying the WAAS correction data from the cart-based unit to the hand-held unit, storing a plurality of stored location data associated with the selected points of interest on the golf course, receiving in the hand-held unit a set of navigation signals from the GPS satellites, determining a GPS-derived hand-held unit location relative to a fixed coordinate system from the set of navigation signals, Calculating a corrected hand-held unit location relative to the fixed coordinate system from a combination of the GPS-derived hand-held unit location and the WAAS correction data, determining a distance data between the hand-held unit and a first point of interest on the golf course by comparing the corrected hand-held unit location with the stored location data associated with the first point of interest, and displaying the distance data on the hand-held unit display.
A method of determining distances to a plurality of selected points of interest on a golf course using GPS satellite position signals is also provided that is based on receiving WAAS satellite correction signals directly at a hand-held unit. According to this embodiment, the method includes the steps of receiving a WAAS correction signal from a WAAS broadcaster, calculating a WAAS correction data from the WAAS correction signal, storing a plurality of stored location data associated with the selected points of interest on the golf course, receiving a set of navigation signals from the GPS satellites, determining a GPS-derived hand-held unit location relative to a fixed coordinate system from the set of navigation signals, calculating a corrected hand-held unit location relative to the fixed coordinate system from a combination of the GPS-derived hand-held unit location and the WAAS correction data, determining a distance data between the hand-held unit and a first point of interest on the golf course by comparing the corrected hand-held unit location with the stored location data associated with the first point of interest, and displaying the distance data on the hand-held unit display.
The system and method of the present invention thus advantageously combine the benefits of a cart-mounted GPS-based system and method for distance determination with the benefits of a portable, small, low power, low cost GPS-based hand-held unit. The hybrid system features a hand-held unit that can be interconnected with a cart-based unit when it is inserted into a connector cradle in the cart-based unit, and the two units can thereby exchange GPS correction signals, WAAS correction data, location and distance information, paging information, and/or other information. The performance and cost trade-offs by which conventional systems for GPS-based golf course position determination are typically constrained are thus avoided.

Hybrid system and method for golf course distance determination using GPS navigation signals


A switchable valve for a sample injector includes a first valve member and a second valve member that can moved with respect to the other. The first valve member includes a plurality of ports, the second valve member includes a plurality of fluid paths. The plurality of ports include eight circumferential ports distributed along a circumference and one central port arranged at a central position of the first valve member. The plurality of fluid paths include three arcuate fluid paths so as to be couplable with at least two of the circumferential ports and one straight fluid path extending between the central position and a circumferential position so as to be couplable with the central port and one of the circumferential ports.

The present invention relates to switchable valves, particularly for sample injectors, more particularly for a high performance liquid chromatography application.
In high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC, see for instance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPLC), a liquid has to be provided usually at a very controlled flow rate (e.g. in the range of microliters to milliliters per minute) and at high pressure (typically 20-100 MPa, 200-1000 bar, and beyond up to currently 200 MPa, 2000 bar) at which compressibility of the liquid becomes noticeable. For liquid separation in an HPLC system, a mobile phase comprising a sample fluid with compounds to be separated is driven through a stationary phase (such as a chromatographic column), thus separating different compounds of the sample fluid.
Valves are commonly used in HPLC applications, for instance injection valves for introducing a liquid sample into a high pressure flowing stream of liquid, purge valves for positive displacement pumps, flow path switching valves, etc. Such valves used in HPLC applications are often multi-position rotary valves. Examples of multi-position rotary valves are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,528 A (two-position valves) or US 2003/0098076 A1 (multi-function rotary valves or random-access, dual, three-way, rotary switching valves).
Shear valves, which can be used in multi-way embodiments, are usually formed by a housing and a body defining a stepped cavity in which the rotor or seal is positioned. The housing contains at least two shear seal valve members positioned to be aligned with ports in the rotor (body) to establish communication between the shear seal means. Shear valves are usually provided as rotary valves (such as the aforementioned rotary valves) or translational valves (often also called sliding valves), such as disclosed in EP 0321774 A2.
A multi-way switching valve provides a means for selectively routing a fluid input flow to the valve to one of more alternate output flows from the valve. A rotary valve is of the type wherein fluid flow is directed by rotating a valve rotor element to discrete angular positions relative to a stationary valve stator element. A dual rotary valve provides two valves in one valve body, both simultaneously operated by the positioning of the valve rotor. Rotary switching valves are commonly used, for example, in HPLC and other analytical methods to selectively direct a flow stream of one or more fluids along alternate paths to an analytical device or containment vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,123 discloses a sample inject valve system, which enables a modified sample injection valve to perform many functions that are required to inject a sample into a chromatographic column, to minimize the amount of laboratory table space previously occupied by equipment and to organize and minimize the number of tubular fluid connections. The modified valve includes a stator with twelve passages lying on a circle centered on a rotor axis and a rotor with four channels for connecting selected passages. The stator passages are spaced 30° apart to lie at the twelve positions of a clock face. Each rotor channel has channel ends spaced by 30° and with the ends of different but adjacent channels spaced apart by 60°. Not only are the usual column, pump, sample loop ends, and metering syringe connected to stator passages, but a rinse syringe, rinse reservoir, waste syringe and a rinse nozzle are connected to other stator passages. The rotor has a radially-extending channel part with its outer end lying halfway between first and second channel and with its inner end lying at the rotor axis and connecting to a stator passage part that extends along the axis, to couple the pump to a third passage at all rotor positions.
In modern sample injectors, many functions need to be supported by a switchable valve. Conventional switchable valves may be inappropriate for such multi-function applications.

Single injection valve for HPLC combining sample introduction, wash cycles and diagnosis