An ascending and descending device, or ladder, having a single central mast and a hand and two foot supports axially slidably engaging the mast. Each hand and foot support has a spring biased clutch normally preventing axial motion of its associated support along the mast, and a lever for releasing the hand or foot support to move along the mast. The hand support has weight bearing platforms, or grips, projecting to both sides of the mast. Each foot support projects to one side of the mast. The foot supports are tethered together to limit the distance by which they become separated when lowering one foot support. The mast has at its bottom end a base having folding legs. The mast selectively receives at its top end a pronged support for engaging the roof of a building and a chair to enable a person to remain seated above the ground. The chair has a safety tie for securing the chair to a tree.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ladders and climbing devices. More particularly, the invention comprises a climbing and descending device having a single central mast and two steps which slide upwardly and downwardly along the mast. Each step has a one-way clutch preventing sliding, so that the two steps may be alternately moved upwardly in a ratcheting scheme. The clutch can be released for enabling the steps to descend. The steps are tethered so that descent during one motion of each step is limited.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Alternatives for conventional ladders having right and left lateral rails and spaced apart rungs spanning the rails are known in the prior art. Included among these alternative ladders are those having a single central vertical pole and associated foot supports. These alternative ladders may serve a specific application or may be intended as more compact general purpose ladders. Among the principal applications of alternative ladders are their adaptability to irregular objects and terrain. For example, monopole ladders for climbing trees and geographic formations have been proposed in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,891, issued to Jivan Harbian on Nov. 24, 1981, describes a monopole climbing device wherein elements for supporting hands and feet are clutched to the pole. However, foot support elements and hand support elements are provided in unitary paired assemblies causing both feet to be supported at a common elevation along the pole. Similarly, both hands are supported at a second common elevation along the pole. No hand or foot support element is tethered to a second similar element in the manner of the present invention. Further, Harbian causes individual hand and foot support elements to encircle the pole in a non-rotatable manner, vertical sliding being opposed by a separate lever actuated brake. In the present invention, a single common spring biased mechanism prevents both vertical movement relative to the pole and also binds the foot support element to the pole.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,070, issued to Spirodon Mastrogiannis on Jan. 12, 1982, describes a monopole climbing device having separate foot supporting elements. Pivoting of each foot supporting element clutches the foot supporting element to the pole by frictionally engaging a guide cable extending along the pole. However, the clutching arrangement of Mastrogiannis is different from that of the present invention, and Mastrogiannis also lacks tethers tethering two foot supporting elements to one another for limiting separation or displacement between the two.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,403,750, issued to Jean Pomagalski on Oct. 1, 1968, describes a monopole lift essentially employing a cable and pulley supported seat. Although this device has a footrest, the two feet are supported by a unitary member. By contrast, the present invention has two independent foot supports which move alternately up and down the pole, the foot supports being tethered to limit separation or displacement from one another. Pomagalski's device lacks the one way clutch enabling ratcheting ascent of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,170, issued to William P. O'Donnell on Jan. 9, 1990, describes a portable monopole ladder having rungs extending laterally from a central pole. The rungs are employed in generally conventional fashion, there being no foot supports axially slidable along the central pole, nor tethers for tethering foot supports to one another.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.


A specimen processing system includes a plate for supporting a specimen system, wherein the specimen system includes a container and a specimen contained therein. The specimen processing system further includes a camera disposed above the plate and configured to generate images of the specimen system, a light source disposed beneath the plate for radiating light towards the plate, a light stop for blocking a portion of the light from reaching the specimen system to produce darkfield illumination of the specimen at the camera, and one or more processors electronically coupled to the camera and configured to track a position of the specimen within the specimen container during a specimen processing protocol based on the images.

Cryopreservation containers are used in the field of assisted reproductive technology (ART) to store and preserve living reproductive specimens (e.g., oocytes, embryos, and blastocysts). Cryopreservation refers to a process in which specimens are preserved over extended periods of time by cooling to sub-zero temperatures. For example, a cryopreservation container can house and support specimens undergoing vitrification, which is the rapid transition of a substance from a liquid phase to a solid phase (e.g., glass) without the formation of ice crystals within cells of the specimen. Typical protocols for vitrifying a reproductive specimen include exposing the specimen to multiple processing solutions according to a detailed vitrification protocol, subsequently transferring the specimen to a cryopreservation container, and then exposing the cryopreservation container, containing the specimen therein, to a low temperature cooling medium (e.g., liquid nitrogen) to cause the cells of the specimen to rapidly cool to a glass state before ice crystals can form within the cells. The cryopreservation container can be stored in the cooling medium until the specimen is ready to be used in reproductive procedures.

Specimen processing systems and related methods


Disclosed are a power consumption management method for electric devices, a manager and a management system. The power consumption management method may include: acquiring identification information of an electric device in a power-on state in a monitoring area (S101); collecting information of the monitoring area, and determining whether a user exists in the monitoring area or not according to a collection result (S102); when the user does not exist in the monitoring area, determining a type set to which the identification information belongs (S103); when determining that the identification information is comprised in a first type set, powering off the electric device (S104); and when determining that the identification information is comprised in a second type set, beginning timekeeping, and when a timekeeping duration reaches to a preset duration matched with the identification information, powering off the electric device (S105). Therefore, the energy waste due to the fact that a user forgets to turn off an electric device when leaving the monitoring area may be prevented.

At present, power distribution for various electric devices in a family is controlled manually. A state of a power switch of each electric device is controlled manually by a user for operation. When some electric device needs to be powered on, a power switch is turned on manually. When some electric device needs to be powered off, a power switch is turned off manually.
The device is controlled manually by the user to be powered on and powered off in daily life. Due to negligence of the user, a condition in which an electric device is forgotten to be powered off is occurred frequently, and thus the energy waste is caused.

Power consumption management method for electric devices, manager and management system

Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. of Zhuhai


A method and apparatus for decoding baseband OFDM signals include processing that begins by slicing each sub-carrier signal of the OFDM signal into a plurality of error terms. The particular number of error terms generated for each sub-carrier signal depends on the constellation size of the data being carried by each of the sub-carrier signals. The error terms for each sub-carrier signal corresponds to the nearest constellation point having a zero or one in the I or Q direction. The process continues by grouping individual error terms of the plurality of error terms for each sub-carrier signal to produce a plurality of error terms. The processing then continues by de-interleaving each of the plurality of error term groups to produce a corresponding plurality of de-interleaved error term groups. The processing then continues by interpreting the plurality of de-interleaved error term groups to produce a plurality of data values, each of the data values corresponds to data encoded within each of the sub-carrier signals.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wireless communication systems and more particularly to decoding data within such wireless communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Wireless communication systems are known to include a plurality of wireless communication devices that communicate over wireless communication channels, which are supported by wireless communication infrastructure equipment (e.g., base stations, access points, system controllers, wide area network interfaces, local area network interfaces, et cetera). Each wireless communication device, which may be a radio, cellular telephone, station coupled to a personal digital assistant, personal computer, laptop, et cetera, includes a radio transmitter and a radio receiver. The radio transmitter includes a baseband processor, one or more intermediate frequency stages, filters, and a power amplifier coupled to an antenna. The baseband processor encodes and/or modulates, in accordance with a wireless communication standard such as IEEE 802.11a, IEEE802.1b, Bluetooth, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), et cetera, to produce baseband signals. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the baseband signals with one or more local oscillations to produce a radio frequency signal. The filter filters the radio frequency signal to remove unwanted frequency components and the power amplifier amplifies the filtered radio frequency signal prior to transmission via the antenna.
A radio receiver is known to include a low noise amplifier, one or more intermediate frequency stages, filters and a receiver baseband processor. The low noise amplifier amplifies radio frequency (RF) signals received via an antenna and provides the amplified RF signals to the one or more intermediate frequency stages. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mixes the amplified RF signal with one or more local oscillations to produce a receive baseband signal. The receiver baseband processor, in accordance with a particular wireless communication standard, decodes and/or demodulates the baseband signals to recapture data therefrom.
An IEEE 802.11a compliant receiver baseband processor includes analog to digital converters (ADC), fast-fourier-transform module (FFT), frequency equalization module (FEQ), a slicing module, a de-interleaving module and a decoder. The analog to digital converters receive an analog representation of the baseband signal, which for an IEEE 802.11a compliant system includes 64 sub-carriers each of which is an individual sinusoid having a unique amplitude and phase offset to represent encoded data, and converts the analog baseband signals into digital baseband signals. The resulting digital baseband signals include 64 time domain digital signals, each of which is a digital signal representing a particular amplitude and a particular phase of the corresponding analog sub-carriers. The FFT module converts the time domain digital baseband signals into frequency domain baseband signals. For an IEEE802.11a compliant system, the fast-fourier-transform module converts each of the 64 time domain sinusoidal waveforms into 64 bins of I and Q components. The frequency equalization module is programmed to filter the noise injected by the radio frequency channel into the received RF signal.
The slicing module, which may be a soft slicing module or a hard slicing module, generates symbol estimation information for each bin of I and Q components. The de-interleaving module de-interleaves the symbol estimation information, which is subsequently routed to the decoder. The decoder converts the de-interleaved symbol estimation information into branch metrics and recaptures the encoded data from the branch metrics.
In such a receiver baseband processor, the slicing module is a critical component not only from an accuracy standpoint (e.g., errors in the estimation information produces errors in the resulting data), but also from an efficiency standpoint. As is known, a hard slicing module generates error values based on Hamming distance, which indicates the number of bits that are different between the estimated symbol (i.e., the received I and Q values) and the ideal symbols (i.e., the I and Q values for each constellation point of a binary phase shift keying (BPSK) system, quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) system, 16 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) system, or a 64 QAM system). Accordingly, the hard slicing module generates 4 error values for QPSK, 16 error values for 16 QAM, and 64 error values for 64 QAM modulation schemes. The decoder produces the branch metrics from the error terms using an exclusive OR function that is an increasingly iterative process as the number of error values increase.
A soft slicing module generates error terms based on a Euclidean distance, which is a physical measure of the error between the actual symbol value and each ideal symbol value. Like the hard slicing module, the soft slicing module generates 4 error terms for QPSK, 16 error terms for 16 QAM and 64 error terms for 64 QAM. As such, even though a soft slicing module generally provides a 3 dB signal-to-noise ratio improvement over a hard slicing module, it requires a significant amount of processing resources to produce the error values.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus that provides accurate and efficient baseband processing, especially slicing, within a radio receiver.

Method and apparatus for decoding baseband orthogonal frequency division multiplex signals


Oxidation process can include: introducing small droplets of liquid reaction mixture having oxidizable reactant, catalyst, and solvent into a reaction zone containing oxygen and diluent gas; and oxidizing the reactant with the oxygen at a suitable reaction temperature and a suitable reaction pressure to produce an oxidized product. The liquid reaction mixture can have an aromatic feedstock having an oxidizable substituent as the oxidizable reactant. The oxidized product can include an aromatic compound having at least one carboxylic acid. For example, the aromatic feedstock can include a benzene ring having at least one oxidizable alkyl substituent, furan hetero-ring having at least one oxidizable alkyl substituent, a naphthalene poly-ring having at least one oxidizable alkyl substituent, derivatives thereof, and mixtures thereof.

Oxidation processes are common in industrial processes for preparing various types of substances. Selectivity towards and purity of the desired product, inherent safety and minimization of waste & environmental emissions are constant challenges that industrial oxidation processes face. As such, improvements in oxidation processes and the reaction systems that conduct the oxidation are continually being sought.
The catalytic liquid-phase oxidation of para-xylene to terephthalic acid (hereafter, TPA) with Co/Mn/Br based catalyst, known as the Mid-Century Process, was developed in the 1950s. In 1965, a hydrogenation step to purify TPA was added to help remove 4-carboxybenzaldehyde from the reaction product through conversion to water-soluble para-methylbenzyl alcohol and crystallization.
Another related reaction scheme produces crude TPA at relatively mild oxidation conditions with a metals/bromide catalyst system. The production of isophthalic or TPA from the corresponding xylenes has also been proposed using acetaldehyde as a promoter for the reaction. Since this process does not use bromine as a catalyst promoter, less exotic reactor materials are suitable. Another known process is characterized by the simultaneous oxidation of para-xylene and methyl para-toluate at mild temperature and comparatively low pressure without acetic acid solvent.
However, all of these processes share a common shortcoming—an inadequate or non-optimal O2 mass transfer rate in the liquid phase. The mass transfer is accomplished in a stirred liquid phase reactor, wherein the air is vigorously bubbled through the liquid phase. The crude TPA solid produced via this process is separated and further purified in a subsequent stage to reduce the 4-carboxybenzaldehyde content. Further, roughly 5% of the acetic acid entering the liquid phase reactor is also oxidized (e.g., burned) in this process. Therefore, there still remains a need in the art to have an improved process that provides increased O2 mass transfer rate for the production of TPA and other oxidation reactions similar to the ones discussed above.


Nanowire articles and methods of making the same are disclosed. A conductive article includes a plurality of inter-contacting nanowire segments that define a plurality of conductive pathways along the article. The nanowire segments may be semiconducting nanowires, metallic nanowires, nanotubes, single walled carbon nanotubes, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, or nanowires entangled with nanotubes. The various segments may have different lengths and may include segments having a length shorter than the length of the article. A strapping material may be positioned to contact a portion of the plurality of nanowire segments. The strapping material may be patterned to create the shape of a frame with an opening that exposes an area of the nanowire fabric. Such a strapping layer may also be used for making electrical contact to the nanowire fabric especially for electrical stitching to lower the overall resistance of the fabric.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to the patterning of nanoscopic materials, films, fabrics, layers, and articles and in particular to the patterning of nanowires, nanotubes, nanoclusters and mixtures of nanotubes and nanowires.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Nanowires are used for electronic conductors and semiconductors as well as for light emitters, sensors, including bio sensors, etc.
There are numerous methods of creating nanowires and there are many materials from which nanowires can be made, including, but not limited to: semiconductors such as silicon and metals as described below. Nanowires of silicon can be created by deposition of a silicon oxide film through the openings of a patterned resist film, reactive ion etching (RIE), removal of the oxide and etching of the silicon, see e.g., Namatsu, H., et al., "Fabrication of thickness-controlled silicon nanowires and their characteristics," J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 13 (6), 1995. Silicon nanowires can be fabricated by AFM to realize lithography patterns on Si surfaces after an etching step (Legrand, B., et al., "Silicon nanowires with sub 10 nm lateral dimensions: From atomic force microscope lithography based fabrication to electrical measurements," J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 20(3)). Iron magnetic nanowire arrays can be created by using a shadow mask for an iron evaporator and depositing iron, see Tulchinsky, D. A., et al., "Fabrication and domain imaging of iron magnetic nanowire arrays," J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 16(3), 1998. Silver silicate nanowire arrays can be created by direct current electrodeposition into nanochannels, see e.g., Peng, X. S., et al., "Electrochemical fabrication of ordered Ag2S nanowire arrays," Materials Research Bulletin 37, 2002, 1369-1375. Li, C. P., et al. report gold-wrapped silicon nanowires with ohmic contacts, see "Silicon Nanowires Wrapped with Au Film," J. Phys Chem. B 2002, 106, 6980-6984. Cu—Co, Co—Ag and Fe—Ag nanowires can be fabricated by electrodeposition as reported by Wang, Y. W., et al., "Fabrication of Ordered Ferromagnetic Alloy Nanowire Arrays and their Magnetic Property dependence on Annealing Temperature," J. Phys/Chem. B 2002, 106, 2502-2507. Nickel and bismuth nanowires can be fabricated by electrodeposition, see Yin, A. J., et al., "Fabrication of highly ordered metallic nanowire arrays by electrodeposition," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 79, No. 7, 2001. Nanowires of gallium arsenide can be fabricated in arrays via chemical vapor deposition in nanochannels of anodic alumina plates, see Zhang, J., et al., "Fabrication and photoluminescence of ordered GaN nanowire arrays," Journal of Chemical Physics, 115 (3), 5714-5717, 2001. Such nanowire arrays can be utilized for their photoluminescence properties. Titanium oxide nanowires can be used for photoluminescence as well, see e.g., Lei, Y., et al., "Fabrication, characterization, and photoluminescence properties of highly ordered TiO2 nanowire arrays," J. Mater. Res., Vol. 16 No. 4, 1138-1144, 2001. TiO2 nanowire arrays can be fabricated by anodic oxidative hydrolysis, see Lei, Y., et al., "Fabrication, characterization and Raman study of TiO2 nanowire arrays prepared by anodic oxidative hydrolysis of TiCl3," Chemical Physics Letters 338 (2001) 231-236. Zinc oxide nanowires arrays can be patterned in a one step electro-chemical deposition technique based on an ordered nonporous alumina membrane. See Zheng et al., "Fabrication and optical properties of large-scale uniform zinc oxide nanowire arrays by one-step electrochemical deposition technique," Chemical Physics Letters 363 (2002) 123-128. Silicon carbide nanowires can be fabricated using catalysts. See Deng et al., "Synthesis of silicon carbide nanowires in a catalyst-assisted process," Chem. Phys. Letters 356 (2002) 511-514.
Nanowires can be useful as other than electronic conductors, e.g., nanowires can be used for their phononic effects, see Ciraci, S., et al., "Quantum effects in electrical and thermal transport through nanowires," J. Phys. Condens. Matter 13 (2001) R537-R568.
Nanowires can be formed into arrays for thermometry, see Pekola, J. P., et al., "Thermometry by Arrays of Tunnel Junctions," Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 2903.
Investigators have created nanowires out of thin, contiguous films via lithography, i.e., they have taken contiguous films and removed much of the material, leaving only very thin strips, i.e., nanoscale wires. The material from which the wires were created sat upon a sacrificial layer above a substrate and then the sacrificial material is underetched to leave suspended nanowire. See Pescini, L., et al., "Suspending highly doped silicon-on-insulator wires for applications in nanomechanics," Nanotechnology 10 (1999) 418-420.
The use of nanowire technology in sensors allows for speedier operation and radiation hardness, while maintaining compatibility with standard silicon processing and the intrinsic sensitivity to their environment creates an increasing industrial demand.
Other uses of nanowire devices include as a resonator probed by a net work analyzer and capacitance coupling (see Blick, R. H., et al., "Nanostructured silicon for studying fundamental aspects of nanomechanics," J. Phys. Condens. Matter 14 (2002) R905-R945), polymer cantilevers, mechanical oscillators for signal transduction, filtering and mixing, nanoscale actuators, suspended nanowire bridges, Coulomb blockade thermometers, etc. (see Pekola, J. P., et al., "Thermometry by arrays of tunnel junctions," Phys Rev. Lett.).
Current technology does not allow for facile fabrication of large scale nanoscopic nanowire devices; there is therefore a need in the art for a method of creating structures of patterned nanowire fabrics.

Patterned nanowire articles on a substrate and methods of making the same


A scanning illuminating device includes an emission center from which radiation is emitted in an illuminating sector. A cylindrical ring is centered on the source and is rotatably movable about a first axis. The ring includes a plurality of slits regularly distributed about its axis of rotation and having the same angular amplitude α. A cylinder portion is centered on the source and is rotatably movable about a second axis crossing the first axis at the center and forming a nonzero angle therewith. The cylinder portion includes a slit having an angular amplitude β. A first device control of the rotation of the ring, defining an elementary angular step as such that an integer N1 other than 1 meets the condition α=N1·αα. A second device controls the rotation of the ring portion defining an angular step ββ such that an integer N2 other than 1 meets the condition β=N2·ββ.

Imaging consists in illuminating an object using a source of radiation, often of high energy, and of forming an image on the basis of the radiation that is back-scattered (especially in the case of objects opaque to the radiation) or transmitted. The radiation considered here is for example radiation that penetrates the material, typically X-rays, or even "gamma" rays, but may also be what is referred to as THz radiation, that is to say radiation of which the frequency, of the order of the terahertz, situates it between the infrared and the microwave domain. These concepts of illumination or imaging do not in any way imply that the radiation is in the visible domain (generally it is the opposite case); the term irradiation is sometimes used, in the case of certain penetrating radiation.
There are two broad families of imaging devices according to the illumination configuration used:                Imaging devices with "imager", in which the source fully and uniformly illuminates the object; the detection of the back-scattered radiation is carried out by a pixelated imager of large format associated with an image forming system of greater or lesser complexity,        "Scanning" devices in which the source illuminates part (in practice a small zone) of the object at a given time and performs scanning in order to cover the whole of that object during a scanning cycle. Collimation is generally placed in front of the source in order to reduce the angular amplitude of the illumination beam at each instant and thus the illuminated zone. The back-scattered radiation (and/or the transmitted radiation) is collected by one or more one-dimensional detectors synchronized with the scanning by the source.
There are a wide variety of imaging devices with imager.
There are thus imaging devices with a virtual imager (reconstitution by scanning of the field of view of a detector, in practice one-dimensional, which is strongly collimated, and of which movement is provided using Cartesian or polar coordinates), and imaging devices with a matrix imager (this matrix imager is formed from a matrix of strongly collimated one-dimensional detectors). Developed before the appearance of large detection matrices, they are still used in in vitro scintigraphy and for the examination of small laboratory animals. These devices lack spatial resolution given the size of the unit detector and the collimation used to form the image.
Imaging devices with imager were then developed thanks to the appearance of pixelated imagers; a particularly simple version is the pinhole imager, that is to say it employs a hole of small size formed in a screen interposed between the illuminated object and the detector. The spatial resolution increases when the size of the hole reduces such that the main drawback of this type of imager is that an increase in spatial resolution implies a reduction in the quantity of radiation transmitted by the pinhole; this leads either to very long exposure times, or to images of poor signal-to-noise ratio.
To improve the signal-to-noise ratio, it is possible to use the technique of penumbra imaging, in which the pinhole is replaced by an aperture of greater size (in the shape of a disk, or in a ring, for example). The quantity of radiation received by the detector is higher but the image is blurred and must be deconvoluted by mathematical processing using the knowledge of the aperture shape and of the detection geometry to determine the deconvolution kernel.
A second way to get around the limitations of the pinhole principle is the coded aperture technique, consisting of having multiple pinholes within the same screen, also called a mask; the quantity of radiation reaching the detector increases with the number of apertures. A reconstruction operation must then be carried out to reconstitute the image of the object. The distribution of the pinholes within a given mask must satisfy a certain number of rules to facilitate that reconstruction of the image and minimize the contribution of the noise.
The principle of the method has been described by: E. Fenimore and T. M. Cannon "Coded aperture imaging with uniformly redundant arrays", Applied Optics, Vol. 17, No. 3, p. 337-347, Jan. 2, 1978; several patents disclose devices implementing this coded aperture technique:                U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,633 (Fenimore et al) published in 1983,        PCT Pub. No. WO 97/45755 published in 1997,        PCT Pub. No. WO 02/13517 published in 2002,        PCT Pub. No. WO 02/056055 published in 2002,        U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2004/218714 published in 2004 and        PCT Pub. No. WO 2007/091038 published in 2007,
The main limitations of the coded aperture devices are their high cost since the large-size masks are costly to produce while the associated imagers must have dimensions at least equal to those of the mask. Their spatial resolution is not adjustable since it is linked, in particular, to the size of the holes in the mask and to the detection geometry.
An original device, described in PCT Pub. No. WO 2007/015784, consists of using X-ray focusing optics of very particular form enabling the radiation scattered by the object to be focused onto an imager of small size; however, the X-focusing optics do not operate for all radiation energies and its efficiency is rather low.
The other category of imagers, referred to as "scanning" imagers, also comprises several variants.
Thus, the simplest version consists of illuminating the object with a radiation beam (typically X-rays) of very small diameter (the term "pencil beam" is sometimes used) and of scanning the entire object by virtue of a mechanical system; the dimension of the radiation beam and the scanning step size determine the spatial resolution; such scanning is typically carried out by means of an annular ring movable around its center, pierced with collimation passages, the source of radiation being fixed, situated at the center of this annular wall; this ring may be of greater or lesser thickness depending on whether it is a wall pierced with holes or a disc holed in its center, in which radial channels are formed; this ring is sometimes called a chopper wheel. The rotation of this ring causes scanning of the beam perpendicularly to the rotational axis of the ring; the other movement ensuring the scanning of the object is conventionally provided by a movement of the object parallel to the rotational axis of the ring. A detector is placed beside the source; it records a series of signals which are then provided in matrix form to constitute the back-scattered image of the object.
Such a configuration, and examples of application are in particular described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,683, and PCT pub. Nos. WO 00/33060, WO 01/94984, WO 2004/043740 or WO 2006/102274.
According to a variant, the pencil beam results from the interception of a fan beam which is intercepted by a wheel of which the axis is parallel to the plane of the beam and which comprises radial slits; such a configuration and examples of application are in particular described in U.S. patents Re 28 544, U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,545, U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,247, U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,581, U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,234 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,472.
Instead of providing scanning by movement of a pencil beam in two transverse directions, it is also possible to generate a fan beam which is passed through by the object to observe, as is for example described in PCT pub. No. WO 98/20366. It is to be noted that the reconstruction of an image based on such scanning may involve coding similar to that indicated above in connection with the imaging devices with imager.
Variants implement both types of aforementioned scanning devices (by a pencil beam and by a fan beam), as is proposed by the PCT pub. Nos. WO 99/39189 and WO 2008/021807.
The devices described above serve in practice for the inspection of parcels, baggage, even freight trucks or people.
The drawback of this scanning configuration is in practice to use only a very small part of the radiation emitted by the source since the spatial resolution improves the finer the illumination beam; the source must therefore be of high intensity and the detection surface of large size if acquisition times of reasonable length are desired.
An increase in the quantity of radiation used may be obtained by increasing the number of beams; this may be provided by the coding of a localized source with absorbent masks comprising holes; it is then necessary to reconstruct the image by matrix inversion techniques. A simple version (with a plurality of pencil beams simultaneously formed by means of a chopper wheel, combined with movement of the object) is described in PCT pub. No. WO 01/94894. To obtain a good result, in particular when the scanning is provided in two transverse directions, the collimation holes forming the beams must satisfy disposition rules; the best-known principle consists of projecting masks and their opposites constituting the elements of a Hadamard matrix; this imaging method requires little computation power (it is a simple matrix multiplication) but its practical implementation is very complex. Typically, for an image of size N×N, it is necessary to project 2·N2 masks. The resolution of the final image depends on the size of the smallest projected pattern; the more it is sought to have details in that image, the higher the number of masks to project has to be; mechanically these masks must be produced and positioned with high precision; such a system is extremely complex and costly (see PCT pub. No. WO 2008/127385 published in 2008).
Another approach consists of performing coding in relation to an area source, with a pinhole to project the pattern onto the object. In the same way as previously, it is necessary to have a succession of different patterns to acquire the data then reconstruct the back-scattered image (cf. U.S. Pat. No. 6,950,495 published in 2005).
These coding devices are extremely complex since a source of large area must be produced with zones (pixel) that can be modulated individually for emission; furthermore, the emitted intensity must be sufficiently high to enable the projection of the patterns via a pinhole, which considerably attenuates the signal; as previously, the resolution depends on the size of the smallest projected pattern.
Thus, the known solutions implement scanning illuminating devices which are generally voluminous and complex from the mechanical point of view, particularly as the scanning in two perpendicular directions in practice requires movement of the object relative to the radiation source. Furthermore, these scanning illuminating devices in practice enable a high spatial resolution to be obtained only provided a beam of small dimensions only is applied to the object.

Scanning illuminating device, imaging device comprising same and method of implementation

COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES


Disclosed is a cloud-based resource and information tracking system for medical patients and healthcare providers. The cloud-based software system integrates all or many sources of patient medical and health information, updates the information in near real-time, and makes the data available to member(s) of the patient's healthcare team securely.

The healthcare IT (information technology) marketplace is currently dominated by IT systems that are relatively inefficient and lack state-of-the-art technology. The lack of efficient, sophisticated IT systems and services that address the rapid changes in the healthcare industry is a serious impediment to reducing service costs and improving the quality of healthcare.
These problems are further exacerbated by modern governmental policies and regulations, where governments continue to reduce and limit compensation for critical services and patients. Governments now also expect healthcare providers to offer ongoing preventive care, especially for chronic conditions, even when the patient is not actively under a physician's care. While many single-point solutions exist, their isolation from other systems and limited scope reduces their effectiveness in providing satisfactory solutions to critical problems. Additionally, since no single healthcare IT service provider offers a cost effective, comprehensive solution that addresses all the needs of healthcare providers and patients, each caregiver organization must piece together a "custom" solution on their own.
Consequently, there is a significant need for a universally accessible, fully integrated, intelligent solution that helps improve the quality of care while improving efficiency.

Method and system to implement medical information tracking system and medication dispenser


An endoscope has a shaft having a distal end, the distal end terminates in an endoscope head having at least one light inlet and at least one channel for passing a flushing medium, the endoscope head having a body, a segment of the body being able to be detached from the body, the segment having a deflecting element arranged at a distance in front of a mouth of the at least one channel for passing the flushing medium, the deflecting element serves for guiding the flushing medium emerging the channel towards the light inlet, the segment being received captively and in a defined position on the body and being secured thereon by means of a holder.

The invention relates to an endoscope, in particular a flexible video endoscope, having a shaft which, at its distal end, terminates in an endoscope head having at least one light inlet and at least one channel for passage of a flushing medium, and with a deflecting element which is arranged at a distance in front of a mouth of the channel in order to deflect the emerging flushing medium to the light inlet.
An endoscope of this kind is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,087, for example.
Endoscopes of this kind are used in particular for viewing hollow organs within the body. With flexible endoscopes, it is possible, for example, to examine the trachea, the oesophagus, the stomach or the intestine.
At the distal end, a light inlet is provided through which the light of the image to be observed is introduced and then conveyed to the proximal end. In rigid endoscopes, this is done using a rod lens system; in modern flexible endoscopes, a light-sensitive chip, arranged in the distal endoscope head, converts the incoming light signals into an electrical signal and conveys this to the proximal head section. There, the electrical signal is converted again into an image signal and, for example, displayed on a monitor.
In practical application, it has now been found that the light inlet or image inlet becomes soiled and that it is necessary to clear it of contaminating material.
For this purpose, it has been proposed to provide a channel running through the shaft of the endoscope for the passage of a flushing medium, for example a gaseous or a liquid medium. Since this channel by necessity has to run alongside the optics channel, suitable measures have to be taken to deflect the flushing medium sideward and guide it across the light inlet in order to clean the latter. Numerous construction proposals have now been made for how this jet of flushing medium can be deflected.
In the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,087, this is achieved by a cap being fitted, in most cases screwed, onto the distal end of the endoscope head, with a deflecting element projecting radially inwards from the inner side of said cap.
In this case, the deflecting element is configured such that it comes to lie at a slight distance in front of the mouth of the channel from which the flushing medium emerges. The emerging flushing medium then hits the deflecting element, is diverted sideward by the latter from the axial direction to a radial direction, and the jet of flushing medium is guided across the light inlet in order to flush or blow it clear.
Certain disadvantages of this construction have been found in practical application.
The inner cavity of the cap proved to be a kind of dirt trap and tends to cause more soiling of the light inlet than is the case in an endoscope without such a cap.
To clean a flushing channel, for example by a cleaning brush being guided through it in the axial direction, the cap has to be taken off, since otherwise the brush would strike against the deflecting element. Bearing in mind that endoscopes have a diameter in the range of a few millimeters, it is evident that the components involved here are relatively small and sensitive.
A further disadvantage is that the fitted closure cap finally has to be positioned very exactly with respect to the deflecting element to ensure that the desired deflection result can be achieved.
It is customary for several channels to be routed through the shaft of an endoscope, that is to say not just the channel for the optics and a flushing channel, but in most cases also one or more channels for guiding the illumination light, and often also an instrument channel for guiding an instrument through the shaft.
To allow the light inlet to be flushed clear or blown clear in the desired manner, the deflecting element then has to come to lie in a very specific position over the mouth of the flushing channel so that the jet is in fact guided across the light inlet and not across the instrument channel. At the same time, the deflecting element has to be so small that it does not impede the entry of light into the light inlet and does not screen off the illumination light or even block the instrument channel. That is to say, the deflecting element projects from an inner circumferential face of the cap within a relatively small area.
If the cap is now screwed on too little or too far, the deflecting element does not come to lie in its exactly predetermined position, and the desired flushing result is not achieved.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,695 an endoscope of the above mentioned kind is known having a closing cap comprising the deflecting element as an integral part for deflecting the emerging flushing medium laterally towards the light inlet. Contrary to the above mentioned construction with a cap which can be screwed on, the cap is contoured in a manner that it can be placed only in a particular orientation on the distal end of the endoscope. For it, both the distal end of the endoscope head and the cap are provided with respective complementary projections and recesses respectively for assuring a correct positioning of the cap together with the deflecting element.
The disadvantage of that construction is that both the distal end of the endoscope head and the corresponding face of the cap are designed very complicated. This needs an expensive machining of these parts. Further, the numerous recesses and undercuts provide bacteria niches and therefore need very deep cleaning and sterilization processes.
It is an object of the present invention to provide simple construction measures that guarantee an exact positioning of the deflecting element so that it is possible to achieve an exactly oriented jet of flushing medium even after several dismantling, cleaning and assembling procedures.

Endoscope with a deflecting element for flushing media


The present invention relates to a clamp mechanism which prevents a tip body from being greatly cut out by a fitting hole to secure strength of a tip without complicating the shape of a head portion of a clamp member or a fitting hole of a tip body. There is provided a clamp mechanism of a tip for pressing the tip, in which a fitting hole is formed through a tip body, by the use of a clamp member having a shaft portion inserted into the fitting hole and a head portion with an outer diameter equal to or larger than that of the shaft portion and thus clamping the tip to a tip fitting seat. In the clamp member, a section, which is perpendicular to the central axis line, of the back surface of the head portion has a circle shape centered at the central axis line. In the tip body of the tip, the head portion of the clamp member can pass through the fitting hole, and a contact portion with which a part of the back surface of the head portion comes in contact at the time of advancing the clamp member is formed in an opening of the fitting hole.

In such a kind of clamp mechanisms, it is generally known to press all or a part of an opening of a fitting hole with a head portion and to clamp a tip, by setting the outer diameter of a shaft portion of a clamp member to be smaller than the inner diameter of the fitting hole formed in a tip body, setting the outer diameter of the head portion formed at an end of the shaft portion to be larger than that, forming a screw portion inserted into a tip fitting seat of a tool body at the other end of the shaft portion, positioning the tip body onto the tip fitting seat, and then inserting the clamp member into the fitting hole from the screw portion. However, in the traditional clamp mechanism, since the clamp member should be also detached from the tool body when the tip is detached, the detachment work is troublesome and the detached clamp member may be lost.
In Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 1973-12675 ("JP '675"), PCT Japanese Translation Patent Publication No. 2002-512891 ("JP '891"), and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0165362 ("US '362"), there have been suggested clamp mechanisms in which a head portion of a clamp member, disposed in a tool body and can advance and retreat, has a section with a non-circular cross section. The section has a protrusion protruded from the outer circumference of a shaft portion, such as a petal shape, a triangular shape, or a cross shape, but not a circular shape, in which a concave portion through which the protrusion can pass and a convex portion which engages with the protrusion are alternately formed in the circumferential direction on the inner circumference of an opening of a fitting hole. In such clamp mechanisms, at the time of detaching a tip, the clamp member is protruded, and the tip is pulled out by rotating a tip body or a clamp member so as to position the protrusion and the concave portion with respect to each other. On the other hand, at the time of clamping the tip, the head portion is allowed to pass through the fitting hole in a state where the protrusion and the concave portion are positioned with respect to each other, the tip body or the clamp member is rotated so as to position the protrusion and the convex portion with respect to each other, and then the convex portion is pressed and clamped by the protrusion by inserting the clamp member so as to advance the clamp member toward a tip fitting seat.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1999-19808 ("JP '808"), there has been suggested a clamp mechanism in which a clamp hole portion, through which a shaft portion of a clamp member having a screw portion can pass but a head portion cannot pass, is formed in a tip body; a passing hole, through which the head portion can pass, is formed on at least one side of an opening of the clamp hole; the shaft portion can pass between the clamp hole and the passing hole; the tip body is fitted to the tip fitting seat by allowing the head portion to pass through the passing hole at the time of fitting a tip in a state where a clamp member inserted into the tip fitting seat is not completely detached therefrom but is loosened; the tip body is brought into contact with the wall surface of the tip fitting seat so as to position the tip body and to allow the shaft portion to pass through the clamp hole by allowing the tip body to slide; and then the opening of the clamp hole is pressed with the head portion to clamp the tip by inserting the clamp member in a screw manner.


A method for producing a solar cell including the steps of forming a p-type microcrystalline silicon oxide layer on a glass substrate using a PECVD method and raw gases comprising Silane gas, Diborane gas, Hydrogen gas and Carbon Dioxide gas. The method may employ a frequency of between about 13.56-60 MHz. The PECVD method may be performed at a power density of between about 10-40 mW/cm2 and a pressure of between about 0.5-2 Torr, and with a ratio of Carbon Dioxide to Silane of between about 0.10-0.24; a ratio of Diborane to Silane of 0.10 or less, and a ratio of Silane to Hydrogen of 0.01 or less. A tandem solar cell structure may be formed by forming top and bottom layers by the method described above, and placing the top layer over the bottom layer.

The present invention relates to solar cells and, more particularly, to thin film solar cells and methods for making the same.
Thin film solar cells are relatively inexpensive to produce and, thus, are widely utilized. Due to its low production cost, the energy efficiency of thin film solar cells can be continuously developed and improved. One objective in developing cell efficiency involves making a p-type window layer electrically conductive, while providing the film with low resistivity, good light transmission in every wavelength and low light absorption coefficient. At present, the most widely used thin film is p-type amorphous silicon carbide(p-type a-SiC) fabricated using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process, which uses Silane gas (SiH4), Diborane gas (B2H6), Methane gas (CH4) and/or Hydrogen gas (H2).
Cell efficiency may be improved by developing a thin film solar cell having a lower electrical resistance. Low electrical resistance of the film, leads to low resistance of solar cell and better electrical conductivity from the solar cell to the substrate materials. In addition, the thin film solar cell should include a good window layer having a low light absorption coefficient. In the past, p-type microcrystalline silicon carbide thin film was produced, utilizing an electron cyclotron resonance-chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) process using high electromagnetic frequency of 2.4 GHz. By this method, p-type amorphous silicon carbide thin film has also been formed. The resulting thin film has a good window layer. However, in the production of films having a large area, this process may result in poor uniformity of the p-type layer. Accordingly, production of effective and efficient large scale solar cells for commercial use may be difficult.
The problem of forming p-type amorphous silicon carbide thin film over a large area has led to the development and proposal of producing p-type microcrystalline silicon oxide (p-type μc-SiO) thin film through PECVD method using a radio frequency of 13.56 MHz. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,881 to Sichanugrist et al. Later, amorphous silicon thin film solar cell was applied on substrate materials, such as stainless steel. Despite these developments, p-type microcrystalline silicon oxide thin film may be formed on certain substrate materials of large size, such as stainless steel, but have not yet be formed on glass substrate. Up to now, p-type amorphous silicon oxide thin film has been used in the production of solar cell on glass substrate.
Accordingly, a need remains for a p-type microcrystalline silicon oxide thin film solar cell on glass having a high efficiency and low production cost.

Thin film solar cell and its fabrication process

National Science and Technology Dev. Agency


An RFID verifier includes a transmit signal strength indicator (TSSI) and a receive signal strength indicator (RSSI). Using the TSSI, the RFID verifier may determine the amount of power an interrogated RFID tag is illuminated with. Similarly, using the RSSI, the RFID verifier may determine the amount of power returned to the RFID verifier by the RFID tag. By processing the returned power and the illuminating power with a transfer function, the RFID verifier may provide an absolute indicia of quality for the interrogated RFID tag.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems represent the next step in automatic identification techniques started by the familiar bar code schemes. Whereas bar code systems require line-of-sight (LOS) contact between a scanner and the bar code being identified, RFID techniques do not require LOS contact. This is a critical distinction because bar code systems often need manual intervention to ensure LOS contact between a bar code label and the bar code scanner. In sharp contrast, RFID systems eliminate the need for manual alignment between an RFID tag and an RFID reader or interrogator, thereby keeping labor costs at a minimum. In addition, bar code labels can become soiled in transit, rendering them unreadable. Because RFID tags are read using RF transmissions instead of optical transmissions, such soiling need not render RFID tags unreadable. Moreover, RFID tags may be written to in write-once or write-many fashions whereas once a bar code label has been printed further modifications are impossible. These advantages of RFID systems have resulted in the rapid growth of this technology despite the higher costs of RFID tags as compared to a printed bar code label.
Although RFID systems have certain advantages over bar coding schemes, they share many concerns as well. For example, bar code scanners can merely read a bar code label; they cannot provide a measure of quality. Because a marginal bar code may be readable by one scanner but not another, users have no way of reliably detecting the marginal bar codes using conventional bar code scanners. Thus, bar code verifiers have been used to measure bar code quality metrics such as contrast, average bar deviation, and related quality indicia. Marginal bar code labels may thus be identified by bar code verifiers, thereby assuring users that their products may be reliably identified. The same concern for quality applies to RFID tags as well. However, the backscatter modulation commonly used to read information from passive RFID tags complicates the RFID verification process. In backscatter modulation, the interrogating RF beam itself provides the power for the RFID tag to respond. One verification metric would thus be how well a given RFID tag absorbed RF energy and retransmitted the energy to the RFID reader. But RF energy is absorbed by many objects in an RFID tag's environment. A conventional RFID reader has no way of determining whether a tag has absorbed RF energy or whether the absorption occurred due to environmental effects. Instead, a conventional RFID reader can merely determine the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the backscattered signal from a passive RFID tag. A marginal RFID tag may be malfunctioning but illuminated with enough RF energy that the backscattered signal provided a sufficient SNR so that the RFID tag's signal may be decoded correctly. This same marginal RFID tag may be unreadable in less pristine RF environments. If an RFID tag could be verified to a known standard, such marginal RFID tags could be detected and replaced.
The need to verify RFID tags to a known standard is exacerbated by other RFID system properties. For example, RFID tags are not what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) whereas a bar code label is. In other words, it doesn't matter what type of article a bar code label is affixed to because readability of the label is not affected, for example, by the article's color. However, the readability of an RFID tag may be strongly affected by the environment in which it is located. Thus, it is not possible to create a golden standard without knowledge of an RFID tag's context or environment. Moreover, because RFID tags can be physically or electrically damaged in transit, RFID systems are complicated by the need to find a safe position for the RFID tag. The juggling of RFID tag placement with RF absorption from the tag's environment can be a formidable task. Finally, the programmability of RFID tags requires that the fidelity of the RF link between an RFID reader and the RFID tag being interrogated must be relatively flawless. Accordingly, there is a need in the art to provide an RFID verifier that can more accurately verify operation of RFID tags using context-sensitive quality standards.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

RFID verifier system with grade classification


The present invention discloses a multi-functional adjustable mouse tray that mounts on the arm of a chair to provide a comfortably accessible work surface to support and use a computer mouse and other devices. The adjustable tray is easily mounted to either arm of a chair and provides width, length, rotation and storage adjustments. The adjustable tray includes a platform and is pivotally connected to an armchair attachment body. The armchair attachment body includes an armchair stop pivotally connected to the platform, parallel guides that are adjustably attached to the armchair stop, and at least one compression element for securing the parallel guides against the chair arm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of computer accessories. More particularly, the present invention provides an adjustable tray that may be easily mounted to the arm of a chair to provide a flat working surface to support a computer mouse and other accessories, devices and objects.
2. Background Information
Computers are operated through the use of peripheral systems and devices such as the keyboard and the mouse. These devices enable a user to interact with a computer to input information, make decisions, and carry out various other functions. Direct physical contact with, and therefore close proximity to, these devices are essential to their operation.
However, in most circumstances a computer user works at a desk and leans forward or sideways from a comfortable sitting position to reach a keyboard or mouse on a desk or other flat surface. Reaching for the keyboard or the mouse in this way makes it very difficult to maintain proper posture and operate the computer comfortably. Use of a computer mouse on a desktop stresses the back, shoulder and the wrist. For wrist stress and carpal tunnel syndrome, numerous products, such as ergonomically shaped mice and wrist supports, attempt to address the symptoms of this stress without addressing the awkward positioning that often causes strain. Additionally, persons with debilitating injuries may find that reaching to a desk to use a keyboard and mouse is difficult or painful.
The physical stresses resulting from the awkward positioning and use of a mouse on a desk top may be remedied by mounting an adjustable platform to the left or right arm of a chair in order to facilitate the operation of a mouse or other input device as a natural extension of a person's arm from a comfortable seated position. An adjustable platform that can be quickly and efficiently mounted to the arm of a chair may facilitate comfortable use of a computer keyboard on a person's lap without reaching for the mouse, or use of the keyboard on the platform itself, further correcting the hunched forward position of many computer users.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.


This patent discloses a method and apparatus for improving workflow for a radiologist. Specifically, this patent improves the current manual scrolling such as at a constant rate of 0.2 seconds per image slice by establishing triggering events which cause a precise timing system to exactly determine the appropriate amount of time to spend on each image. For example, viewing of homogeneous regions where there is good contrast between a lesion and background will serve as a triggering event for rapid scrolling. In contrast, viewing of heterogeneous and complex regions or regions where the target is similar in gray scale to the background will serve as a triggering event for slow scrolling.

There is considerable pressure on radiologists to review a large quantity of medical images within tight time constraints. A typical case might have 500 axial, 500 sagittal and 500 coronal slices for a total of 1,500 slices to be viewed for each case. A radiologist must rapidly scroll through these images using a computer mouse with a wheel button. The radiologist may use a one finger or two finger technique. To meet the time constraints the radiologist might only be able to spend 0.25 seconds per slice.


The invention concerns a stylus for producing a high-voltage, sinusoidal signal for an electrostatic digitizing pad. The high voltage is obtained by applying a sine wave to one lead of the primary of a transformer, and applying the inverse of the sine wave to the other lead of the primary. The secondary of the transformer produces the high voltage, which is developed into a signal which is applied to the digitizing pad.

FIG. 1 is a highly simplified view of a digitizing pad 3 and its associated stylus 6. There are four current-to-voltage amplifiers (labeled I-to-V), one at each comer. The stylus 6, when activated, produces a signal 9, as indicated in FIG. 2. This signal induces currents I1-I4, which are detected by the I-to.sub.-- V amplifiers.
The I-to-V amplifiers each produce a voltage indicative of the size its respective current. Processing circuitry, known in the art, receives the voltage signals, and computes the position of the stylus signal 6, based on the voltage signals.
The currents I1-I4 are induced because the stylus 6 acts as one plate of a capacitor. The digitizing pad (which bears a resistive surface of a material such as indium tin oxide) acts as the other plate. As FIG. 3 indicates, when negative charge is applied to the tip 2 of the stylus 6, a positive charge is induced on the surface of the pad 6. Currents I1-I4 supply this positive charge.
Conversely, as in FIG. 4, a positive charge on the tip 2 of the stylus 6 induces a negative charge on the pad. The currents I1-I4 supply this negative charge.
The relative magnitudes of the currents depend on the position of the stylus. When the stylus is located as shown in FIG. 5, current I1 is the largest, current 14 is next largest, and currents I2 and I3 are nearly the same.
When the stylus is located as shown in FIG. 6, current I4 is the largest, current I1 is next, and so on. The differences in current magnitudes cause differences in the voltages produced by the I-to-V amplifiers of FIG. 2.

High voltage stylus for portable computers


A switching device having a frame, in which an actuator adapted to rotate a main shaft of the switching device and rotatable around an axis of rotation, the actuator having a 0 position, an I position and a first dead point between the 0 position and the I position, the I position being located by a given angle (α6) in a first direction relative to the 0 position. The actuator also has a testing position, the testing position being located by a predetermined angle (β6) in a second direction relative to the 0 position, the second direction being opposite relative to the first direction.

The invention relates to a switching device according to the preamble of the independent claim.
Switching devices are instruments employed for opening and closing an electric circuit. The switching device comprises at least one pole and a control device adapted to open and close said pole. Switching devices include switches and switch-fuses, for example.
Switching devices have a 0 position, wherein the poles of the switching device are open, and an I position, wherein the poles of the switching device are closed. The positions of the poles of the switching device are changed by rotating the main shaft of the switching device. For rotating the main shaft, switching devices are provided with an actuator having a 0 position and an I position, which correspond to the 0 position and I position of the switching device.
Some switching devices also have a testing position, wherein the poles of the switching device are open, but the position of the auxiliary contacts corresponds to the I position of the switching device.
The problem in known switching devices is to accomplish the testing position. In some known switching devices, separate lever mechanisms are used to accomplish the testing position, but such an assembly is complex.


A refrigerator is provided. The refrigerator may include a main body having a first storage compartment and a second storage compartment, a first door rotatably coupled to the main body to open and close the first storage compartment, a second door slidably coupled to the main body to open and close the second storage compartment, a receptacle received in the second storage compartment and coupled to the second door to move together with the second door, and a camera installed at the main body to take a picture of an interior of the receptacle. A controller may combine a plurality of pictures taken by the camera as the second door is moved, and may correct the images into an image showing the interior of the receptacle.

1. Field
This relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly to a refrigerator which may provide information related to items stored therein.
2. Background
A refrigerator may supply cold air generated via driving of a refrigeration cycle to store items in a low temperature state. Refrigerators may provide other functions, in addition to the simple function of storing items in a low temperature state.
For example, a refrigerator may receive and store items in a storage chamber closed by a door, which requires that the door be opened to check the contents of the refrigerator.


A method for TDM data transport is disclosed. Configure a TDM logical port in the transmitting and receiving side respectively, and create a relationship between the TDM logical port of the transmitting side and that of the receiving side. When transmitting the TDM data, map original TDM data to a package data format via the TDM logical port. Encapsulate the acquired package data and a CID into a MAC data package according to the predetermined encapsulation information. Then send the data package to the receiving side via a shared transmission channel. The receiving side MAC layer obtains the de-encapsulation information and the receiving side TDM logical port identifier according to the CID of the received data package, de-encapsulates the data package, maps the acquired data to the corresponding receiving side TDM logical port to implement high efficiency TDM data transport.

With the rapid development of the network communications technology, new technologies, typically as the packet switching, continuously emerge and develop. The conception, architecture and operating mode of conventional telecommunication networks are dramatically changing. Compared with the conventional circuit switching, due to the incomparable advantages of low cost and high-bandwidth, the packet switching technology can support not only the data traffics, but also TDM voice, data, Asynchronous Transfer Mode/Internet Protocol (ATM/IP) and images. Further, it can perform the conventional circuit switching function, such as Voice over IP (VOIP) technology, etc. Moreover, with the continuous enhancement of the quality of transmitting voice of the packet switching network, the mixture of voice traffics and data traffics, i.e. the mixture of conventional TDM-based circuit switching networks and packet switching-based packet switching data networks has become one tendency of the future network development.
The method of packet switching-based TDM data transport in the relevant art includes the steps of: simultaneously setting up a TDM data interface and a general package data interface in a packet switching device, processing the received TDM data by using the same way as the general package data being processed, i.e. performing a layer-to-layer encapsulation on the received TDM data flow by using the mode defined in the existing protocols. The detailed encapsulated protocol layers are shown in FIG. 1, including a series of protocols with different formats such as Ethernet/ATM protocol, IP protocol, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Real-Time Protocol (RTP) and Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP). Encapsulated by above method, the format of the TDM traffic data may be converted to the data package format. The received data package is converged and bore in the corresponding protocol data unit for transport.
However, as the above solution is mainly proposed to solve the problem of the packet-based TDM data transport in the whole network, i.e. to solve problems such as the layer2 switching of TDM data, the network routing, the data classification on the transport layer, the real-time, etc., multilayer encapsulation is needed to be performed on the TDM data flow in accordance with the existing network protocols. With respect to the connection with shared transmission media, the problems of the port switching, the layer2 switching, and the network routing are absent. Thus the layer3 routing protocol and the real-time protocol are not needed to support the connection. Hence, if the described solution is adopted in such a case, many problems will be brought to the data transport. As the TDM data flow is encapsulated to multilayer and each layer of which is appended an encapsulating header with determined bytes, for example, as a result of which, the ratio of the data payload in the whole data package may be very low, thereby decreasing the effective bandwidth utilization and the transport efficiency. Taken the 802.16 protocol of wireless access network as an example, the Ethernet protocol is used to encapsulate the 2nd layer while the IPv4 is used to encapsulate the 3rd layer. The conventional TDM voice bandwidth is 64 Kbps, thus if one TDM data frame is sent per 20 ms, 160 bytes of TDM data is sent per 20 ms. The encapsulation of each TDM data frame is shown in FIG. 2, and the encapsulation method includes: adding an RTP header of 12 bytes to the data payload in an RTP packing, adding a (user datagram protocol) UDP header of 8 bytes in a UDP packing, adding an IPv4 header of 20 bytes in an IPv4 packing, adding a MAC header of 12 bytes in an Ethernet frame packing and adding a generic MAC header of 6 bytes when forming a 802.16 (protocol data unit) PDU. Furthermore, a check-tail of 4 bytes is appended to the above Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) 32 and FCS32 of the 2nd layer and the 3rd layer, respectively. The overall headers, tails and other information except for the data payload are up to 66 bytes. Thus the ratio of the data payload in the whole PDU, i.e. the effective bandwidth utilization, is only
            160              160        +        66              ×    100        %    ≈      70        %
In addition, as the solution needs to determine the adapted header format for the TDM data in each layer by table look-up and needs to perform the corresponding header adaptation, multiple times of table look-up and header edition operation are needed. The gateway devices or the corresponding processing modules are further needed and thus increasing the processing load of devices.

Method for time division multiplexing data transport


An apparatus and methods are provided to realize an input waveform using wavelet processing and reconstruction via separated antenna array systems having different beam paths and different frequency components which can include phased array transmitters to recreate the input waveform in medical applications. One aspect of the invention can include a wavelet function used for the examples shown herein which includes a first and second moments of a statistical function, i.e. the mean and variance used with an inverse wavelet to create rectangular pulses that lend themselves to use in the invention herein. Other embodiments of the invention can use other input waveform separation functions paired with signal separation and recombination at a focus point. A selected function can be matched to its application associated with avoidance of sending the input waveform along a single beam path, a desired a focus point, and separation of an input signal.

The present invention relates to an apparatus designed to produce focused energy, where a waveform needs to be produced, that is difficult to produce using conventional techniques or if the waveform needs to be produced at a specific location in space. Different portions of the signal can be produced from antennas in physically different locations, all focused to the desired location thereby recreating the original waveform at the desired location. Medical applications include providing a less harmful individual waveform through particular biological structures such as organs (e.g., eyes) which have sensitivity to transmitted energy such as radio frequency energy. Also, an embodiment of the invention permits generating different portions of an input signal along different signal paths so as to avoid specific biological structures such as using directional antennas which generates a complex and/or higher energy combined signal at a focal point e.g., a tumor. One or more directional antennas can be positioned and oriented along specific paths based on characteristics of biological structures along potential beam paths. An embodiment of the invention can also include systems which determine alternative configurations such as beam paths as well as adjustments or substitutions of beam path, waveforms, energy levels, or portions of transmitted signals based on decision engines which could include expert systems for evaluating different configurations of the invention with respect to a set of variables that are predetermined as well as input either manually or as a result of automation such as pattern recognition systems from an initial scan that correlates scan results with patterns associated with biological structures e.g., heart, eyes, lungs, tumors, etc. Variables and decision engines can include, for example, look up tables comprising data associated with organic or biological structures, harm arising to such structures from particular combinations or configurations of an embodiment of the invention, e.g., transmitters, waveforms, energy or intensity, type of emission (e.g., RF or ultrasonic), beam paths, focal points, types of effects desired (e.g., destruction or alteration of a type of biological structure e.g., tumor from application of an embodiment of the invention e.g., combination of signal portions at the focal point).
One exemplary aspect of the invention permits use of an arbitrary signal for communication, interrogative, identification, disruption, jamming, deception, etc. that can be created at a specific location such as in the path of an oncoming threat, at a receiving antenna, or at another specified location. An exemplary system can produce individual signals that are used to create such an arbitrary signal, which can come from different source locations or from a single wide band source. In communications, if a complete signal is created at a transmitting antenna then broadcast to a receiving antenna, the complete signal can be intercepted anywhere in between the transmitting and receiving antennas. With this technique, portions of the desired signal can be created using different transmitting antennas and all focused to a point at or near the receiving antenna where the desired complete signal is combined and created from the different signals originating from the different antennas along different propagation paths. One aspect of the invention can create a signal, which is being protected from interception by virtue of the fact that it does not exist in a complete form, anywhere between the transmitting and receiving antenna. The desired signal only exists at or near the receiving antenna. Another aspect of the invention permits use of a deceptive target, which can be generated in front of an oncoming threat to guide it away, such as unauthorized users who are seeking to intercept data at a department store (e.g., hand-held bar code scanner with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth transceiver) or Wi-Fi enabled site such as at a coffee house or wireless internet cafe.
Aspects of this invention have wide applications in communications, electronic systems, medical, entertainment, and security. An embodiment of the invention has a capability of creating a variety of arbitrary signals using acoustics, radio-frequency (RF), laser, ultrasonics, electrical, or any other medium to which signal processing techniques can be utilized. This arbitrary signal can be created at a specified point or at a source.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of the illustrative embodiment exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.

Medical apparatus and methods including an array system for segmenting signals and generating a complex waveform at a focal point using recombination of segmented signals

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A writing instrument is disclosed having a barrel defining an internal passage including an ink reservoir. A venting mechanism is positioned at least partially within the internal passage of the barrel adjacent an anterior end portion thereof. The venting mechanism includes an elongated body defining an axial bore therethrough in communication with the ink reservoir, and a plurality of spaced apart fins peripherally surrounding the elongated body and defining a plurality of annular channels between the fins. Each of the fins defines a groove thereon to interconnect the annular channels. The writing instrument further includes a point support member supporting a writing point and positioned adjacent an anterior end portion of the venting mechanism and defining an axial bore aligned with the axial bore of the venting mechanism. A first ink supply rod is disposed within the axial bore of the venting mechanism and has a posterior end portion in communication with the ink reservoir to convey ink from the ink reservoir to an anterior portion of the venting mechanism. A second supply rod conveys ink from a posterior end portion disposed within the bore in the venting mechanism and contacting the first supply rod to an anterior end portion disposed within the bore of the point support member, to the writing point. A circuitous air path is provided to vent the ink reservoir at the posterior end portion to the writing tip portion.

1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a writing instrument, and more particularly to a fillerless writing instrument having a venting mechanism.
2. Background of Related Art
Baffle or fin-type venting mechanisms are common to writing instruments. These mechanisms are typically used in fillerless-type writing instruments to prevent ink leakage at varying ambient temperatures. Typically, filler-type writing instruments incorporate a porous filler material for containing the ink supply, whereas fillerless writing instruments incorporate an ink reservoir in combination with an ink transport system to carry the ink from the reservoir to the writing point.
Fillerless writing instruments exhibit several advantages over filler-type writing instruments. These advantages include an improved ink flow over the life of the writing instrument, and a greater utilization of the ink charge. For example, in filler-type writing instruments, often a substantial portion of the ink charge can be wasted as a result of the ink retention properties of the filler material. With fillerless writing instruments, most of the ink is usable and control of the usage is significantly better than with filler-type instruments.
There have been numerous attempts to manufacture a fillerless writing instrument. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,692 to Inaba discloses a writing pen having a flow-regulator having a labyrinth groove in its circumference interposed between a writing tip and an ink reservoir in a pen barrel in which an ink supply rod is inserted into the bore of the flow-regulator to guide ink to the writing tip. A body includes a labyrinth groove defined by a plurality of fins. A second ink supply rod made of porous material has a larger diameter than the first ink supply rod and guides ink to a third ink supply rod to thereby guide ink to the writing tip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,707 to Anderka discloses a writing instrument having a single ink supply rod. This arrangement has several inherent disadvantages. For example, for an average sized writing instrument, the supply rod would necessarily be of significant length in order to feed ink directly from the ink reservoir to the writing point. To deliver ink to the writing point in specific amounts over such a great distance involves a loss of control and therefore may result in overfeeding or underfeeding the writing point with ink.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,408 to Mutschler discloses a writing instrument having an ink supply system having a flow controlling member, and an ink feeding member. The flow controlling member supplies ink from the reservoir to the ink feeding member. The ink feeding member supplies ink to the writing point. The flow controlling member has an effective flow section smaller than the flow section in the feeding member. Mutschler discloses a feed bar for venting ink having a spiral groove extending from the ink reservoir to an open orifice adjacent the point. However, the uniform nature of the groove does not provide structure to reduce the probability of excess ink entering the groove from flowing to the point.
The present invention relates to a writing instrument which avoids the above described disadvantages by providing first and second ink supply rods to provide a predetermined and consistent flow of ink as may be required. The writing instrument also incorporates structure to vent the ink supply to prevent the ink from leaking from the point of the writing instrument while enhancing the transport of ink with relative precision.


Floor sweeping compound of the type conventionally containing sawdust, sand, and petroleum oil is modified by substituting, for the petroleum oil, inexpensive acid oils (or their salts) obtained as byproducts during the process of refining plant-derived oil, thereby rendering the compound both biodegradable and less expensive.

Floor sweeping compositions are notoriously old, having been in existence for perhaps a century. Typical compositions have been made up of sand or other inorganic particulate material, sawdust, and some type of oil; the sand provides weight that keeps the composition from blowing away, while the sawdust absorbs the oil, which enable it to collect the dust from the floor. Numerous oils have been suggested, e.g., "suitable non-drying vegetable oil or animal fat, such as olive-oil or lard, rosin, and pine-tar" (U.S. Pat. No. 788,042), "oils or fats, both animal and vegetable, as well as mineral oils" (U.S. Pat. No. 678,981), "kerosene or any other product of petroleum or, in fact, any non-volatile oil" (U.S. Pat. No. 803,632), "sassafras oil" (U.S. Pat. No. 884,558), and "cedar oil" (U.S. Pat. No. 1,758,735). In some instances the oil-absorbed sawdust has been partially replaced with "oil meal, linseed, cottonseed, or both" (U.S. Pat. No. 873,913) or "corn meal" (U.S. Pat. No. 858,413). By far the most common oil, however has been petroleum oil, which is not only expensive but also barred from disposal in many landfill sites. Vegetable oils, which hydrolyze readily and are much more biodegradable than petroleum oils, would be acceptable in landfill sites, but tend to be even more expensive than petroleum oil. All vegetable oils consist essentially of triesters of glycerol and various fatty acids, many having a high degree of unsaturation and tending to become rancid upon standing.


Disclosed are diagnostic methods for screening a patient for sclerotic disease. One diagnostic method includes obtaining a biological sample from the patient; obtaining a substantially pure CP140 polypeptide fragment; contacting the sample with the CP140 polypeptide; and detecting patient autoantibody:CP140 complexes as an indication of the presence of sclerotic disease in the patient. Other methods of screening patients for scleroderma are also described.

The invention relates to cell biology, autoimmune disorders, and diagnosis of scleroderma.
Scleroderma, or systemic sclerosis, is characterized by deposition of fibrous connective tissue in the skin, and often in many other organ systems. It may be accompanied by vascular lesions, especially in the skin, lungs, and kidneys. The course of this disease is variable, but it is usually slowly progressive. Scleroderma may be limited in scope and compatible with a normal life span. Systemic involvement, however, can be fatal.
Scleroderma is classified as diffuse or limited, on the basis of the extent of skin and internal organ involvement. The diffuse form is characterized by thickening and fibrosis of skin over the proximal extremities and trunk. The heart, lungs, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract below the esophagus are often involved. Limited scleroderma is characterized by cutaneous involvement of the hands and face. Visceral involvement occurs less commonly. The limited form has a better prognosis than the diffuse form, except when pulmonary hypertension is present.
Antinuclear antibodies are found in over 95 percent of patients with scleroderma. Specific antinuclear antibodies have been shown to be directed to topoisomerase I, centromere proteins, RNA polymerases, or nucleolar components. Different antibodies are associated with particular clinical patterns of scleroderma. For example, antibodies to topoisomerase I (Scl-70) and to RNA polymerases (usually RNA polymerase III) are seen in patients with diffuse scleroderma. Antibodies to nuclear ribonucleoprotein (nRNP) are associated with diffuse and limited scleroderma. Certain anticentromere antibodies are associated with limited scleroderma or the CREST syndrome; however, the particular centromere antigen or antigens have not been identified.
Patients with scleroderma show autoreactivity against centrosomes (Tuffanelli, et al., Arch. Dermatol., 119:560-566, 1983). Centrosomes are essential structures that are highly conserved, from plants to mammals, and are important for various cellular processes. Centrosomes play a crucial role in cell division and its regulation. Centrosomes organize the mitotic spindle for separating chromosomes during cell division, thus ensuring genetic fidelity. In most cells, the centrosome includes a pair of centrioles that lie at the center of a dense, partially filamentous matrix, the pericentriolar material (PCM). The microtubule cytoskeleton is anchored to the centrosome or some other form of microtubule organizing center (MTOC), which is thought to serve as a site of microtubule nucleation.
Little is known about how centrosomes perform their cellular functions or the molecular components that are involved. A limited number of proteins and antigens associated with centrosomes have been described. For reviews, see Kuriyama, "Monoclonal Antibodies to MTOC-antigens," The Centrosome, p. 131-165 (Kalnins (ed.) Academic Press, Inc. San Diego 1992); Kalt et al., Trends in Cell Biol., 3:118-128, 1993).

Diagnostic methods for screening patients for scleroderma


Use of a multicast address in a LAN, where the LAN does not support an adequate multicast address space, is implemented. An apparatus is provided for delivering a multicast address to a station on a local area network, where the local area network does not support the multicast address. The frame is transmitted onto the local area network, where the frame has: a predetermined field containing a reference to the multicast address; an indicator, the indicator capable of being interpreted by a receiving station to mean that the multicast address may be recovered from the frame by parsing the frame; and an applications program may be executed in response to the multicast address. Also, the apparatus may have a receiving station capable of receiving the frame, and an applications program may be executed in the receiving station in response to the multicast address.

Local area networks, LANs, have been designed with many different addressing schemes. For example, the Ethernet LAN design, IEEE 802.3 standard, has 47 bits designated for multicast addresses for a total of approximately 140 trillion addresses.
In contrast, implementations of the token ring IEEE 802.5 standard provide only approximately 24 to approximately 31 separate addresses for multicast addresses, and these addresses are provided in the functional addressing defined by the IEEE 802.5 standard. The IEEE 802.5 standard provides 6 bytes, or 48 bytes, for functional addressing, but chips implementing the standard first require a few of the bits to be set to a defined value, referred to as the Functional Address Indicator, and also require that only one bit of the remaining bits be set to "1", and the others be set to "0". The bits having the defined value give an indication that the rest of the bits indicate a "functional address", and the "rest of the bits" is only approximately 24 to 31 bits depending upon the implementation, and only one of these bits can be set.
It is a common practice to develop applications programs to run in a station on a LAN, and to address the the applications program by use of a multicast address in the DA field of the MAC header. When the station detects a frame having a predetermined multicast address in the DA field of the MAC header, the applications program is caused to execute.
A difficulty with applications programs designed to execute, upon receipt by the station of a frame having having a predetermined multicast address, is that in a local area network such as the IEEE 802.5 token ring there are enough multicast addresses. Only approximately 31 multicast addresses are available in the IEEE 802.5 token ring LAN, and these are known as "functional addresses".
A solution to the mapping of multicast addresses onto functional addresses of LANs having inadequate multicast address capability has been suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,938, issued to D. B. Sheehy on Jun. 12, 1990. In the Sheehy patent a translation table is used to directly map the multicast addresses of the first LAN onto the multicast addresses of the second LAN.
However, there still remains the problem of using applications developed for some LANs such as IEEE 803.3 Ethernet, having approximately 140 trillion multicast addresses, on and other LANs such as the token ring IEEE 802.5 standard LAN, having only approximately 24 to 31 multicast addresses in their functional address space. Accordingly, many applications developed for the Ethernet 803.3 LAN or the ANSI/IEEE FDDI token ring LAN cannot be used in a station on an IEEE 802.5 token ring LAN.

Multicast address in a local area network where the local area network has inadequate multicast addressing capability


There is now provided a roll for hot rolling comprising 70-95 weight %, preferably 85-94 weight %, WC in a binder phase consisting of only cobalt or alternatively a Co--Ni--Cr alloy containing 20-35 weight % Ni and up to 10 weight % Cr, possibly with small additions of molybdenum. The WC grains are rounded with an average grain size between 3-10 .mu.m, preferably 4-8 .mu.m. The maximum grain size should not exceed 2 times the average grain size and no more than 2% of the grains be less than half of the average grain size.

The present invention relates to cemented carbide rolls for hot rolling of steel wire and rod. These rolls are made from cemented carbide grades containing WC and a binder phase of either Co or an alloy of Co+Ni or Co+Ni+Cr.
One of the main advantages of using cemented carbide for rolls for hot rolling compared to rolls made of cast iron, steel or high speed steel, is the lower surface temperature of the cemented carbide roll as a result of the excellent heat conductivity of cemented carbide. This delays the initiation of thermal cracks and decreases the abrasive wear in the passform which is the groove shaped part of the roll which comes in contact with the hot stock. It will also reduce the fatigue from the thermal cycling of the roll. Altogether, cemented carbide rolls often have a passform life 10-20 times that of rolls made of other materials. This has lead to a widespread use of cemented carbide rolls for hot rolling of wire, bar and profiles.
The thermal conductivity of cemented carbide is inversely proportional to the content of binder phase. This is due to the higher thermal conductivity of tungsten carbide compared to the binder phase. When the binder phase content is increased, more heat transportation takes place in the binder phase due to reduced carbide/carbide interface area.
When choosing a composition for certain hot roll applications, it is often a balancing of the need for a tough material withstanding the mechanical stress with the need to minimize the binder phase content to get a material with as high heat conductivity as possible to withstand the formation of thermal cracks and thermal fatigue and to get as long passform life as possible without increasing the risk of cracking due to mechanical overload.
The high mechanical stress with a lot of blows from the cold ends of the hot stock being fed into the roll and high separating forces, has lead to the use of cemented carbide grades with hardness values ranging from 600 to 1250 HV.sub.3 and cobalt contents from 10% to 30% by weight. In order to maintain such low hardness values, it has been necessary to use as coarse grained grades as possible, to be able to reduce the binder phase content without increasing the hardness and thus reducing the toughness of the material.
Cemented carbide is made by powder metallurgical methods comprising wet milling a powder mixture containing powders forming the hard constituents and binder phase, drying the milled mixture to a powder with good flow properties, pressing the dried powder to bodies of desired shape and finally sintering.
The intensive milling operation is performed in mills of different sizes using cemented carbide milling bodies. Milling is considered necessary in order to obtain a uniform distribution of the binder phase in the milled mixture. It is believed that the intensive milling creates a reactivity of the mixture which further promotes the formation of a dense structure during sintering. The milling time is in the order of several hours up to days.
The microstructure after sintering of a material manufactured from a milled powder is characterized by sharp angular WC grains with a rather wide WC grain size distribution, often with relatively large grains, which is a result of dissolution of fine grains, recrystallization and grain growth during the sintering cycle.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,505,902 and 5,529,804, methods of making cemented carbide are disclosed according to which the milling is essentially excluded. Instead, in order to obtain a uniform distribution of the binder phase in the powder mixture, the hard constituent grains are precoated with the binder phase, the mixture is further mixed with a pressing agent, pressed and sintered. In the first mentioned patent, the coating is made by a SOL-GEL method and in the second, a polyol is used. When using these methods, it is possible to maintain the same grain size and shape as before sintering due to the absence of grain growth during sintering.

Roll for hot rolling with increased resistance to thermal cracking and wear