The non-invasive biolipid concentration meter comprises: an irradiator (2) that emits light at a given intensity toward the inside of a living body from outside; a light intensity detector (3) that is disposed at a given distance from a position (21) irradiated with the light from the irradiator (2) and that determines the intensity of light emitted from the living body; a scattering coefficient calculator (4) that calculates the coefficient of light scattering within the living body on the basis of the light intensity determined with the light intensity detector (3); and a lipid concentration calculator (5) that calculates the lipid concentration in the living body on the basis of the coefficient of light scattering.

In recent years, public healthcare expenditures are rising, and hence reduction of healthcare expenditures is the government's and public's great concern. The doctor's fees for diseases due to lifestyle related diseases account for one-third of the public healthcare expenditures. Under such circumstances, reduction of public health care expenditures, improvement of health expectancy, and improvement of QOL (Quality of Life) are demanded, and to meet such demands, specific medical examinations have been implemented, and a concept of "very early stages of disease" has been widely spread.
In particular, it is known that metabolic syndrome, which is a subject of screening in specific medical examinations, develops diabetes, dyslipidemia, high blood pressure caused by insulin resistance due to accumulation of visceral fat obesity, and it is expected that early detection of metabolic syndrome will lead to prevention of disease progression and improvement of QOL, and further, reduction of public health care expenditures.
Insulin resistance is important for early detection of lifestyle related diseases as described above; however, the only way of specific medical examinations has been measurement of abdominal girth for estimation of the risk of insulin resistance.
In recent years, a close relationship between insulin resistance and postprandial hyperlipidemia has been revealed, and a possibility that postprandial hyperlipidemia is the cause of insulin resistance has been pointed out, and therefore, postprandial hyperlipidemia can be recognized to be a metabolic error of an origin of metabolic syndrome. As such, postprandial hyperlipidemia is attracting attention not only as a factor for detecting an initial stage of metabolic syndrome (very early stages of diseases), but also as a risk factor of arteriosclerosis. For example, it can be said that when the triglyceride concentration in a non-fasting state is high, the risk of developing coronary heart disease is high.
However, diagnosis of postprandial hyperlipidemia requires observation of variation in lipid concentration in blood during 6 to 10 hours after eating. That is, to measure the state of hyperlipidemia after eating, it is required to hold examinees for about 6 to 10 hours to collect blood multiple times, but such an operation can be implemented only in clinical research and cannot be practically implemented in clinical sites.
In addition, with increasing public health consciousness, specified functional foods that inhibit fat absorption and the like are coming into practical use, and consciousness of dietary ingestion of fat is rising. Although the people are conscious to blood lipid, there is no health management apparatus for easily measuring blood lipid at home. One reason for this is that blood collection itself is restricted by the Medical Practitioners' Act, and even if there is no such restriction, examination apparatuses are not available in the price range for ordinary families. Furthermore, there are problems such as disposal of waste liquid, and long analysis time.
Under such circumstances, the following techniques relating to a blood component measurement method have been proposed.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-251673 (PTL 1) discloses a technique relating to an apparatus that calculates the concentration of a measurement object by outputting and emitting light having a wavelength of a near-infrared region and an infrared region with an acoustic optical variable vibration filter to a living body, and by analyzing and computing an absorption spectrum obtained by receiving light that has transmitted through a measurement object or reflected by the measurement object. That is, the technique disclosed in PTL 1 is directed to calculate the amount of absorbed light and the like from the difference between the amount of emitted light and the amount of received light and the like by utilizing a phenomenon in which light is absorbed by blood component, to thereby calculate the blood component concentration from the results of the calculation.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-66280 (PTL 2) discloses a technique relating to a quantitative apparatus for analyzing glucose concentration including: a near-infrared light source; a detection means that detects near-infrared light; a guiding means that introduces near-infrared light emitted by the near-infrared light source to a biological tissue or bodily fluid and guides near-infrared light passing through or deffusely reflected by the biological tissue or the bodily fluid to the detection means; and a computing means that performs a regression analysis of the glucose concentration based on signals obtained by the detection means. The computing means carries out quantification using continuous spectrum signals obtained by continuously measuring wavelengths in at least three adjacent wavelength regions as defined below as explanatory variables, and the glucose concentration as a criterion variable; a first wavelength region is in a range of 1,550 to 1,650 nm to measure absorption derived from OH groups in a glucose molecule, a second wavelength region is in a range of 1,480 to 1,550 nm to measure absorption derived from NH groups in a biological component, and a third wavelength region is in a range of 1,650 to 1,880 nm to measure absorption derived from CH groups in the biological component, within the wavelength region from 1,480 to 1,880 nm in which harmonics of a first harmonic tone is observed, and in which the effect of water absorption is relatively small. That is, as with the technique disclosed in PTL 1, the technique disclosed in PTL 2 utilizes a phenomenon in which light is absorbed by the NH group, CH group and OH group of glucose to calculate the amount of absorbed light from the difference between the amount of emitted light and the amount of received light and the like, to thereby calculate the concentration of the blood component from the results of the calculation.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-168775 (PTL 3) discloses a technique relating to a rapid measuring method of a plasma component of a mammal by spectrum information in a visual and near-infrared region, which is characterized by measuring an absorbance in the visual and near-infrared region having a wavelength of 400-2,500 nm by using a near-infrared spectrophotometer relative to separated plasma in measuring the plasma component of the mammal, calculating a primary differential and a secondary differential of the absorbance, using the absorbance, and the primary differential and the secondary differential of the absorbance in the visual and near-infrared region as independent variables, selecting independent variables to the number of two to ten having high explanation power from among the independent variables, predicting triglyceride, inorganic phosphorus, potassium, lactate dehydrogenase and an albumin-globulin ratio in the plasma from the information on the independent variables having high explanation power, and realizing measurement based on the predicted values. That is, as with the techniques of PTL 1 and PTL 2, the technique of PTL 3 utilizes a phenomenon in which plasma absorbs visible light having wavelengths of 400-2500 nm and light of a near-infrared region to calculate the triglyceride concentration and the like in plasma from the difference between the amount of emitted light and the amount of received light and the like.

Non-invasive biolipid concentration meter, non-invasive biolipid metabolism measuring device, non-invasive method for measuring biolipid concentration, and non-invasive method for examining biolipid metabolism

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY


An arm assembly movable about a pivot includes means for holding a recording head slider on the arm assembly. The arm assembly includes an actuator arm supported at one end at the pivot, and a load beam connected to an end opposite to the one end of the actuator arm and extending to the slider. The load beam includes a load beam boss hole of a given diameter and the actuator arm Includes an actuator arm boss hole. The boss holes are superposed at a connection of the load beam and the actuator arm. The hub includes a fold of material into an outside surface of the hub. The hub extends through the boss holes to maintain the actuator arm and the load beam together. The hub is swaged (expanded) to fix the actuator arm to the load beam such that the fold in the outside surface of the boss grips the actuator arm boss hole. The presence of the fold increases the hub material's ability to achieve a high retention torque in the tension direction by acting as a lever during the swage operation, thrusting the material with greater force into the material of the arm boss hole.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to disk head assemblies for supporting read/write heads adjacent rotating disks in disk drives and more particularly, to a base plate for attaching a load beam assembly to a head actuator arm.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Disk drives typically include a stack of spaced apart, concentric magnetic storage disks mounted on a common shaft, and an actuator arm assembly encased within a housing. The actuator arm assembly, also called a head stack assembly (HSA), comprises a plurality of arms extending into spacing between the disks. Mounted on the distal end of each arm is a resilient suspension assembly to which is attached an air bearing slider, the combination of which is referred to as a head gimbal assembly (HGA). Included in the suspension assembly is a load beam, which is mounted at one end to the actuator arm by means of a base plate, and a flexure which is attached to the other end of the load beam and pivotally supports the slider on a gimbal that keeps the slider suspended in a horizontal plane on the disk surface regardless of any motion of the bad beam. The base plate has a flange and a hollow hub. The hub is passed through and extends beyond a hole in the load beam and the flange is welded to the load beam. The hub is then inserted into a boss hole in the actuator arm and the hub is swaged to provide a press fit within the actuator arm boss hole.
The load beam provides the resilient spring action that biases the slider toward the surface of a magnetic recording disk, while the flexure provides flexibility for the slider. A thin film or other magnetic transducer is deposited or otherwise attached at the rearward end of the slider to read or write on the magnetic disk.
A base plate is typically formed by flowing material into the hub region by extrusion from the flange region by a combination of forging and coining. With low hub, thin flange base plates there is often not enough material available in the flange material to flow during extrusion to fill the hub geometry, without decreasing the thickness of the hub.
An object of this invention is to provide a new method of manufacturing a base plate to connect a load beam to an actuator arm in a magnetic head assembly.

Base-plate for magnetic head suspension in hard disk drive with material fold-over


A cast-on strap for use in connecting current collecting lugs in battery systems is disclosed. In the most preferred embodiment, the invention includes a caston strap formed of electrically conductive material, such as lead, having a first elongate portion in electrical contact with a line of spaced apart battery plate lugs. The connector strap includes a second portion lying in a plane which is perpendicular to that of the elongate portion so that the latter is laterally displaced. The preferred cast-on strap also includes an angularly extending portion between the elongate portion and the second portion. Increased current transfer efficiency is achieved using the strap of the present invention.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of lead-acid batteries, and more particularly, to a unique, high performance per unit weight cast-on strap. The strap permits design modifications in battery preparation, such as alteration in plate size, plate count and the potential for elimination of costly and heavy plates from battery plate stacks. More specifically, the present invention relates to the field of cast-on straps which have a low profile and which are highly efficient in transferring current to another caston strap in another cell of the battery.
2. Description of Prior Battery Systems
Lead-acid batteries typically comprise a series of thin, flat, generally rectangular grids for carrying a current through the battery. The grids also serve as a substrate for supporting electrochemically active materials or "paste" added thereto during manufacture to form battery plates. Paste typically comprises a mixture of lead oxide in a dilute acid solution, for example sulfuric acid. The paste composition is determined by power requirements, cost and the battery environment, as is generally known in the art.
It is also known that groupings of individual battery plates may be assembled, interleaved with separator material and electrically connected to form plate stacks. The latter are then assembled in a container to form a final battery. A typical example would be an automobile battery of the 12-volt variety, where six individual stacks are placed into a plastic container having six compartments. To permit current to flow throughout the battery, it is necessary to join the straps of one stack with the appropriate strap of an adjacent stack. Moreover, it is necessary to provide terminal electrodes which will extend through the cover to permit electrical contact with the vehicle's electrical system.
After the battery plates are fully assembled, they are formed, i.e. charged, and the battery is placed into service. An important characteristic of batteries is called "cold cranking power," i.e. the amount of power which can be generated per unit of time. Further reference will be made to cold cranking power in later sections of this specification.
The parent application describes in detail certain prior art relating to the construction of the grids themselves, including the use of screen-like patterns having a plurality of holes into which the porous chemical paste is applied, cured, etc. The parent application also describes the typical offset current collecting lugs extending from each plate, which lugs are eventually coupled by the cast-on straps to complete the electrical circuit. Most commonly, cast-on straps are formed by taking assembled battery plate stacks, inverting them, and dipping the lugs of the stack into molten lead contained within a mold. In the most common batteries in use at the time of the filing of this specification, cast-on straps have an upstanding end portion, as will be explained later and more fully when the drawings are described later herein. The upstanding portion of such cast-on straps have come to be known as the "tombstone" of the straps.
In the parent application, a considerable portion of the specification was devoted to a discussion of grid design which will not be repeated in this application. However, such discussion is expressly incorporated herein by this reference. Moreover, several patents showing cast-on straps or burned-on straps having designs different than the typical tombstone design are within the art and will be described here. For example, in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,605, issued Sep. 22, 1992, Dougherty describes a cast-on strap which is used with a novel dual lug battery plate design, the straps including a pair of spaced apart elongate portions extending in one plane and a laterally extending portion extending in a plane perpendicular to that of the elongate portions. The laterally extending portions, in the Dougherty patent, couple the two elongate portions joining rows of lugs of like polarity.
A different type of strap construction is described in U.K. Patent Application No. 2170348A, published Jul. 30, 1986. This application is entitled, "Storage Battery", and the subject matter thereof was invented by Shiga, et al. The strap of this patent is used with battery plates of conventional design, i.e. those having current collector lugs adjacent the corners of the plates, and the straps include a horizontal base portion and an "ear" portion extending from the horizontal base portion and facing a perforation hole in the wall between plate stacks. The design is for burned-on straps and is said to reduce the height of the conductor or the lugs of the negative or positive plates.
While it is apparent from the foregoing description that numerous plate and grid designs have been developed in the lead-acid battery art, problems still remain in the design and manufacture of such batteries. One of the most significant is the weight associated with this type of energy source. Commercial battery plates include lead alloy grid materials, combined with lead paste materials and the electrolyte. Any system which would reduce the battery weight, while maintaining the power required for a particular application, would be a significant advance in the art.
Further problems relate to the actual manufacture of the batteries, where the plates must be electrically coupled by the cast-on straps and where the straps must be welded to one another in adjacent cells to permit current to flow through the system. Ways in which such current transfer could be increased in efficiency would also represent significant advances.
Furthermore, it is always advantageous to seek ways to maximize the efficiency of the grid-strap current transfer and improvements in this area would also be important.
Any system which would combine solutions to the foregoing problems would represent a further very substantial advance in this technology.


An electrical supply safety socket that prevents power from a mains electrical supply to be accessible at the outlets of the socket unless an electrical appliance plug is properly engaged with the socket outlets and the appliance is turned on. The electrical supply safety socket is comprised of both a safety circuit and a safety socket which may act together to accomplish the above-described safety function. The safety circuit and the safety socket may also be used independently so as to provide similar safety functions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electrical supply sockets and, more particularly, to an electrical supply socket that is designed to promote safety by preventing electrical power to be supplied to an appliance unless an electrical plug of the appliance is properly engaged in the socket and the appliance is turned on. A main benefit of the present invention is that it is childproof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known to provide mains electrical supply safety sockets wherein the live and neutral outlets are covered with an insulating plate which is adapted to retract when the ground pin of a three pin plug is inserted into the ground outlet of the socket. It is generally arranged in such systems for the ground pin to be slightly longer than both the neutral and live pins in order to facilitate the operation of the safety mechanism.
The major drawback with such a system is that the insulating plate is liable to jam. If it jams in the closed position the socket is unusable, and if it jams in the open position the socket is usable but the safety device is inoperative. Furthermore, such a system is not childproof in that any object having a shape resembling a ground pin may be inserted into the ground outlet of the socket, thereby retracting the insulating plate and overriding the safety mechanism. Indeed, this approach is sometimes adopted in order to connect the supply leads from an electrical appliance directly to a mains electrical supply without first attaching a plug to the appliance, which is obviously highly unsatisfactory from a safety point of view.
Other inventive efforts have been made to promote safety with respect to mains electrical supply sockets. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,209 discloses such a safety promoting electrical socket. A brief description of this prior art device is now given. U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,209 (Mangone) discloses an electrical safety socket including normally open switches for connecting live and neutral feeders to their respective socket outlets. The switches close when substantially parallel live and neutral pins of an electric plug are inserted into their corresponding socket outlets simultaneously. In such an arrangement, the insertion of each plug pin is adapted to pull a respective lever located external to the plug housing and articulated to a corresponding one of the switches. Such an arrangement allows independent operation of the switches and, since the levers are accessible from outside the plug housing, they may easily be operated independently of a plug being inserted into the socket. Consequently, foreign objects may be introduced into either socket outlet and the corresponding switch may be manually closed so as to complete the connection. Although both of the above-mentioned prior art techniques provide some degree of safety with respect to preventing an accidental or an otherwise unintentional connection to a mains electrical supply, neither prevent such a connection from occurring by anything other than simple mechanical arrangements, which are often unreliable. Thus, it would be preferable that a similar technique be provided with at least the same degree of safety as the above-mentioned prior art techniques, but also increased reliability. Such a similar technique would be desirable since it is frequently becoming a requirement to include electrical safety features in the construction of new homes, office buildings, and the like. It is therefore desirable to provide such a similar technique and to overcome the shortcomings of the above-mentioned prior art techniques in this area.


A novel carbonyl reductase useful for producing alcohol, particularly derivatives of (S)-4-halo-3-hydroxybutyrate ester, is provided. A novel carbonyl reductase derived from Kluyveromyces aestuarii and the nucleic acid encoding the enzyme are provided. The carbonyl reductase has excellent reductase activity and stereoselectivity. The carbonyl reductase reduces ketone to produce alcohol. It can be particularly advantageous when used in industrial production of (S)-4-halo-3-hydroxybutyrate ester.

Asymmetric reduction methods using microorganisms such as baker's yeast to produce optically active (S)-4-halo-3-hydroxybutyrate ester (Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application No. (JP-A) Sho 61-146191, JP-A Hei 6-209782, and so on) have been known for some time. These production methods, however, have problems that must be solved for industrial applications because the optical purity and yield of the product are low due to more than one reductases existing in microbial cells. Optically active (S)-4-halo-3-hydroxybutyrate ester is utilized as a synthetic intermediate of drugs. It is thus important in the chemical industry to determine how to produce (synthesize or resolve) optically purified antipodes of the compound.
Enzymes capable of producing (S)-4-halo-3-hydroxybutyrate ester from 4-haloacetoacetate ester are described below, and methods for synthesizing (S)-4-halo-3-hydroxybutyrate ester using these enzymes have been reported.                3-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (JP-A Hei 1-277494)        Glycerol dehydrogenase (Tetrahedron Lett. 29, 2453-2454 (1988))        Alcohol dehydrogenase derived from Pseudomonas sp. PED (J. Org. Chem. 57, 1526-1532 (1992))        Reductases derived from baker's yeast (D-enzyme-1, D-enzyme-2, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 107, 2993-2994 (1985))        Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 derived from Sporobolomyces salmonicolor (Abstract of 391st Meeting of the Kansai Branch of the Japan Society of Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry, p37 (1995))        Ketopantothenate reductase derived from Candida macedoniensis (Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 294, 469-474 (1992))        Ethyl 4-chloroacetoacetate reductase derived from Geotrichum candidum (Enzyme Microb. Technol. 14, 731-738 (1992))        Carbonyl reductase derived from Candida magnoliae (WO98/35025)        Carbonyl reductase derived from Kluyveromyces lactis (JP-A Hei 11-187869)
Most of these enzymes are reductases that require reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) as a coenzyme. Thus, the method for synthesizing (S)-4-halo-3-hydroxybutyrate ester using these enzymes is industrially disadvantageous because it needs the addition and regeneration of expensive and chemically unstable NADPH.
3-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, glycerol dehydrogenase, and alcohol dehydrogenase derived from Pseudomonas sp. PED are oxidoreductases, which catalyze not only reduction reactions using reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) as an electron donor but also oxidation (dehydrogenation) reactions. The use of these enzymes cannot produce (S)-4-halo-3-hydroxybutyrate ester in a high yield because the equilibrium of the enzymatic reaction is likely to limit the reaction rate.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Carbonyl reductase, method for producing said enzyme, DNA encoding said enzyme, and method for producing alcohol using said enzyme


Superconducting electromagnets suitable for use in the NMR tomography of human organs, and a method of making the same, are disclosed. Each of the disclosed electromagnets are constructed according to a structured coils methodology, where the desired field at locations within the volume of interest and, optionally, outside of the location of the coils is selected; the current magnitude and polarity for a plurality of coil elements locations are then optimized, by way of a computer program, to provide the desired field magnitude at the locations. The magnet construction results in a plurality of coils of varying current polarity, and of irregular shape and size, optimized to provide the uniform field. Magnets may be constructed according to the present invention which provide suitably highly uniform and high magnitude DC magnetic fields at volumes of interest which may be within or outside of the magnet bore, enabling the MRI of human organs without requiring whole body insertion of the patient into the magnet bore.

High magnetic field electromagnets have become important in various types of equipment over recent years. One important type of such equipment is medical imaging equipment, such as the type commonly referred to as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment. MRI equipment utilizes the mechanism of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to produce an image, and accordingly imaging systems operating according to this mechanism are also commonly referred to as NMR imaging systems.
As is well known in the field of MRI, a high DC magnetic field is generated to polarize the gyromagnetic atomic nuclei of interest (i.e., those atomic nuclei that have nonzero angular momentum, or nonzero magnetic moment) contained within the volume to be imaged in the subject. The magnitude of this DC magnetic field currently ranges from on the order of 0.15 Tesla to 2.0 Tesla: it is contemplated that larger fields, ranging as high as 4.0 to 6.0 Tesla, may be useful in the future, particularly to perform spectroscopy as well as tomography. The volume of the subject to be imaged (i.e., the volume of interest, or "VOI") is that volume which receives the high DC magnetic field, and within which the DC field is substantially uniform.
Imaging is accomplished in the VOI utilizing the mechanism of nuclear magnetic resonance in the gyromagnetic atomic nuclei contained therewithin. As such, in addition to the large field DC magnet, the MRI apparatus includes an oscillator coil to generate an oscillating magnetic field oriented at an angle relative to the DC field, and at a frequency matching the resonant frequency of the atoms of interest in the selected volume; frequencies of interest in modern MRI are in the radio frequency (RF) range. As the gyromagnetic nuclei in the defined volume will have a common resonant frequency different from atoms outside of the volume, modulation of a gradient magnetic field (produced by a gradient coil) allows sequential imaging of small volumes. The images from the small volumes are then used to form a composite image of the larger volume, such as the internal organ or region of interest. To produce the series of images, the MRI apparatus also includes a detecting coil in which a current can be induced by the nuclear magnetic dipoles in the volume being imaged.
In operation, as is well known, the magnetic dipole moments of those atoms in the volume which are both gyromagnetic and also resonant at the frequency of the oscillating field are rotated from their polarized orientation by the resonant RF oscillation by a known angle, for example 90.degree.. The RF excitation is then removed, and the induced current in the detecting coil is measured over time to determine a decay rate, which corresponds to the quantity of the atoms of interest in the volume being imaged. Incremental sequencing of the imaging process through the selected volume by modulations in the gradient field can provide a series of images of the subject that correspond to the composition of the subject. Conventional MRI has been successful in the imaging of soft tissues, such as internal organs and the like, which are transparent to X-rays.
It is well known in the art that the spatial resolution of MRI tomography improves as the strength of the available magnetic field increases. Conventional MRI equipment useful in diagnostic medical imaging requires high DC magnetic fields, such as 5 kgauss or greater.
Due to the large number of ampere-turns necessary to produce such high magnetic fields, conventional MRI systems now generally utilize superconducting wire in their DC coils. While the magnitude of the current carried in these coils is extremely high, the superconducting material and accompanying cryogenic systems required in such magnets are quite expensive, and also add significantly to the size and weight of the magnet in the MRI apparatus. In the extreme case, some conventional MRI magnets are sufficiently heavy (e.g., on the order of twenty tons) as to limit the installation of the MRI apparatus to a basement or ground floor laboratory. Addition of the necessary coils or iron required to shield the fringe magnetic field generated by such magnets further increases the size, weight and manufacturing costs of the MRI equipment.
By way of background, U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,628 (issued Nov. 8, 1988) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,772 (issued Apr. 18, 1989), both incorporated herein by this reference and commonly assigned with this application, describe superferric shielded superconducting magnets. These magnets described in these patents utilize passive shielding of ferromagnetic material, such as iron. The construction of the magnets described in these patents provide a highly efficient magnet, considering the magnetic field strength as a function of the current conducted in the superconducting loops, and with a highly uniform field in the magnet bore even at very strong magnetic fields such as on the order of 4 Tesla; the shielding is also very good in this magnet, with the 5 gauss line at 50 to 100 cm from the outer wall of the bore. The weight and size of the superferric shielded magnets described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,783,628 and 4,822,772 can be quite substantial, however, such as on the order of 35 to 130 tons.
Another example of a conventional superconducting magnet, but which relies substantially on active superconducting shielding loops is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,899. The magnet disclosed in this reference has a set of three driving coils surrounded by three shielding coils, with the current through the shielding coils adjusted to exactly cancel the dipole outside of the magnet. External ferromagnetic shielding is also located around the shielding coils to assist in further shielding. Examples of other prior magnets used in MRI are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,612,505, in which shielding is accomplished by way of magnetic soft iron rods, conducting coils, or both; U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,217, issued Apr. 30, 1992, describes yet another prior superconducting magnet utilizing a combination of active and passive shielding.
While actively shielded magnets greatly reduce the magnet weight relative to superferric shielded magnets, the weight of these magnets is still quite substantial, for example on the order of 20 tons. As a result, when used in medical equipment such as NMR stations, the "footprint" required for installation of the magnet and the weight-bearing capability of the floor of the room are both significant, whether the magnet is constructed of the superferric type, the actively shielded type, or a combination of the two. As a result, from the cost standpoint, it is desirable to reduce the physical size and weight of NMR equipment, to reduce the cost of the NMR laboratory.
In addition to the undesirably large footprint of conventional NMR magnets for medical MRI, a further disadvantage of conventional magnets is patient-related. It has been observed that many patients are uncomfortable when placed in magnets of such length, as the patient's entire body is generally disposed within the magnet during much of the imaging procedure. Indeed, conventional cylindrical NMR magnets have been referred to as "tunnel" magnets, suggestive of the sensation perceived by the human subject when placed inside for an imaging procedure. As an example of the importance of reducing this sensation, U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,185 discloses, relative to another cylindrical superconducting magnet design, that the sense of oppression on the part of the patient is reduced as the ratio of bore length to bore diameter is below 1.90. In addition, especially for patients who are seriously ill, it is essential that the magnet be able to receive the patient without requiring disconnecting life support or monitoring conduits from the patient, and while allowing medical personnel to access the patient during the procedure; conventional cylindrical magnets greatly limit such access.
Accordingly, it is highly desirable to provide NMR tomography equipment of the minimum size but with adequate field strength and uniformity. Toward this end, copending application Ser. No. 715,552, filed Jun. 14, 1991, entitled "A Compact Shielded Superconducting Electromagnet", incorporated herein by this reference and commonly assigned herewith, describes another cylindrical superconducting magnet which advantageously uses a combination of superferric shielding outside of the shielding coils. The magnet disclosed therein thus can be shorter in length while still providing high DC field in the bore and low fringe field away from the magnet.
Copending application Ser. No. 869,544, filed Apr. 15, 1992 in the name of Sergio Pissanetzky, and entitled "An Ultrashort Cylindrical Shielded Electromagnet For Magnetic Resonance Imaging", commonly assigned herewith, incorporated hereinabove by reference, and being the parent of this continuation-in-part application, discloses a short cylindrical superconducting magnet useful in NMR imaging equipment. This application further discloses an important methodology used to design the coils in the DC field generating magnet in such a manner as to optimize the strength and uniformity of the field in the volume of interest (VOI) while maintaining low fringe fields away from the bore. As will be described in further detail hereinbelow, this methodology also proves useful in the design of magnets of other shapes.
By way of further background, U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,591 discloses a superconducting magnet having a plurality of coaxial coils arranged asymmetrically along the axis, resulting in a volume of interest that is offset from the midplane of the magnet. The volume of interest in this magnet, while offset, remains deeply within a cylindrical bore, however, requiring whole body insertion of the patient for MRI procedures.
Another known type of conventional MRI magnet is of the Helmholtz coil type, including such a magnet which utilizes thermally insulated niobium/tin superconducting material. However, this magnet also requires the patient's whole body to be inserted between the Helmholtz coils.
By way of further background, U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,848, issued Sep. 17, 1991, discloses a magnet configuration suited for MRI in mammography. This magnet configuration is of rectangular shape, and includes permanent magnets (5, 6, 7, 8) for generating magnetic flux in two planes in the gap g within which the imaging is to take place. A shimming electromagnet (14) is disclosed as being placed behind the patient, for reducing front edge fringe field.
By way of further background, notched cylindrical coil systems for providing strong magnetic fields are known, as described in M. W. Garrett, "Thick Cylindrical Coil Systems for Strong Magnetic Fields with Field or Gradient Homogeneities of the 6th to 20th Order", J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 38, No 6 (1967), pp. 2563-86. As described in this reference at pages 2578-2583, expansion of ideal magnet elements to larger cross sections by modifying the geometry in an iterative fashion according to Lyle's Principle can be used to arrive at a magnet having a negative current polarity notch or cavity coil within the otherwise cylindrical positive coil; the notch may be at either the inner or the outer radial surface (see FIG. 2 of the reference), or even wholly within the positive coil.
In the method described in the above-cited Garrett article and also according to other conventional methods for designing cylindrical magnets, the designer relies on the property that the axial component of the magnetic field in the bore is a harmonic function within the volume of interest (VOI), which can be expanded into a series of spherical harmonics. The coefficients of this expansion may be expressed as axial derivatives of the axial magnetic field at the origin (center of the VOI). If one assumes that the current density in the cross-section of each magnet coil is constant, these axial derivatives may be calculated directly from coil geometry, without requiring integration of the Biot-Savart Law, allowing the geometry of the magnet to be adjusted so that the undesirable harmonics of the axial field in the VOI vanish. According to this generalized technique, computer-ready methods have been developed as have tabular design conditions (see the Garrett article cited above), facilitating the design of such magnets. This general method constrains the location of the VOI to a high degree, however, in order for the calculations to be readily performed; as such, this general method is practically applicable for a VOI centered at the midplane of the cylindrical magnet.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of fabricating an electromagnet for optimizing the field strength and uniformity in a selected volume of interest.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a method of fabricating a magnet which is applicable to magnets of various symmetry, including cylindrical and planar magnets.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a magnet constructed according to such a method.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a magnet which allows for optimization of the design for a volume of interest which is not necessarily centered within the magnet bore.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a method which allows the center of the volume of interest to be located outside of the magnet bore.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a superconducting magnet for use in NMR equipment which does not require insertion of the body of the patient into the magnet bore.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a magnet which is of sufficient field strength to enable in vivo NMR tomography of the internal organs of humans.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a magnet which is suitable for the image of specific organs, such as the brain, the female breast, and the like.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a magnet which makes the NMR tomography equipment substantially portable.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having reference to the following specification together with the drawings.

Structured coil electromagnets for magnetic resonance imaging and method for fabricating the same


A method and device for accommodating, by self adjustment, for part interface variations. A self adjusting fixture for accommodating for part interface variation includes a part support member having a first self adjusting member engagement element. The self adjusting fixture also includes a pedestal having a second self adjusting member engagement element engaged with the first self adjusting member engagement element to permit axial deflection of the part support member relative to the pedestal.

This invention relates generally to manufacturing fixtures and more particularly to a method and device for accommodating variations from acceptable tolerances in the manufacture or configuration of parts to be joined by ultrasonic welding.
Ultrasonic welding joins parts by applying mechanical energy from a high frequency vibration source at a joint formed between two parts. Generation of ultrasonic energy includes the conversion of high frequency electrical energy by an electromechanical converter or transducer to a mechanical vibration. Mechanical vibrations are amplified by an amplitude transformer and applied to a workpiece by means of an ultrasonic xe2x80x9chornxe2x80x9d. The mechanical vibration is produced at a frequency typically in the range of 20,000 (20 kHz) to 40,000 (40 kHz) cycles per second. The high frequency vibration is ordinarily accompanied by a compressive force generated by the horn between the mechanically vibrated part and the relatively stationary part.
During the ultrasonic welding process, the relatively stationary part is typically positioned in a fixture, often referred to as an anvil or nest. The fixture is most often configured to support and conform at least in part to a configuration of the relatively stationary part thereby providing a means to capture the part and eliminate lateral motion during the welding process. Fixtures therefore tend to be part specific. Additionally, the fixture is commonly attached rigidly to a work surface and positioned relative to the ultrasonic horn so as to accommodate positioning of the parts and performance of the welding process.
The vibrated part is mechanically vibrated and compressed against the relatively stationary part joining the parts at an interface. The ultrasonic welding process is capable of breaking down films and oxides creating a coalescence between the parts at the site of the weld. A superior joint may be achieved without the use of filler materials, fluxes, adhesives, epoxies or mechanical connectors.
One parameter deemed critical to the ultrasonic welding process is the fit at the interface between parts. Process parameters often specify acceptable tolerances for fit at the interface between parts to be joined. Due to the part specific nature of the fixture, the rigid attachment of the fixture in the process environment and the process critical relationship of fit and interface between parts to be joined, the ultrasonic welding process may be unforgiving where parts are manufactured even slightly out of tolerance.
There may be advantage in providing a self adjusting fixture for use in an ultrasonic welding process. The self adjusting fixture may accommodate for variations from acceptable tolerances in the manufacture of parts.
The present invention is directed to a method and device for permitting, by self adjustment, part interface variations. By permitting part interface variations it is meant accommodating variations in the fit at the interface between parts to be joined using an ultrasonic welding process. Variations in the fit at the interface may be caused by variations in the manufacture or configuration of the parts to be joined, or variations in the manufacturing process itself wherein the parts are fit together in preparation for the ultrasonic welding process. In many applications, particularly in those instances where hermetically sealed welds are required, adjustment to fit at the interface of the parts to be joined may result in a desirable improvement.
In one embodiment, the self adjusting fixture for accommodating part interface variation includes a part support member including a first self adjusting member engagement element. The self adjusting fixture also includes a pedestal having a second self adjusting member engagement element engageable with the first self adjusting member engagement element. The self adjusting members permit axial deflection of the nest relative to the pedestal about a primary axis.
In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the self adjusting fixture is configured as an anvil having a nest including a hemispherical socket formed in an underside of the nest. The anvil also includes a pedestal mountable to a base member. The pedestal includes a hemispherical distal end which is sized for insertion within the socket of the nest to permit axial deflection of the nest relative to the pedestal. Preferably, the compressive force exerted during the welding process should lie co-axially to the primary axis and therefore to the axis of axial deflection of the nest relative to the pedestal.
In one preferred embodiment of the invention, axial deflection of the nest relative to the pedestal is limited by a deflection limiting element. The deflection limiting element may include a physical feature of the nest which interacts with a physical feature of the base or the pedestal to limit axial deflection of the nest relative to the pedestal.. The deflection limiting element may include a flat circular element disposed about the pedestal that restricts angular deflection of the nest in three hundred and sixty degrees. Alternately, axial deflection of the nest relative to the pedestal may be limited by a corresponding fit between a shaft of the pedestal and a segment of a wall of the first engagement element.
Rotation of the nest about the axis of deflection relative to the pedestal is limited by a rotation limiting element. The rotation limiting element may include a physical feature of the nest which interacts with a physical feature of the base or the pedestal to limit rotation of the nest about the axis of deflection. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, a pin extends from the nest along an axis substantially perpendicular to the first axis. The pin is captured by a pair of fingers extending from a base member. In the event that rotation of the nest is initiated, such rotation is limited by the pair of fingers.
A method for self adjustment for part interface variations includes the steps of supporting a relatively stationary part including a first interface element on a support member including a self adjusting member first engagement element and a pedestal including a self adjusting member second engagement element axially engaged to the self adjusting member first engagement element, the support member axially deflectable about a first axis, fitting a vibrated part including a second interface element to the first interface element of the relatively stationary part and applying a compressive force between the relatively stationary part and the vibrated part substantially along the first axis for axially deflecting the relatively stationary part with respect to the vibrated part to achieve improved fit between the first interface element and the second interface element.


Disclosed is a liquid crystal panel for 3D display, a driving method and a pixel optimization method thereof. The liquid crystal panel includes a display panel and an FPR film attached to a surface of the display panel. The FPR film is divided into first areas and second areas, the first areas and the second areas being arranged alternately in a direction parallel to lines of the sub-pixel units of the display panel, and each covering two lines of sub-pixel units. The liquid crystal panel can reduce the production cost of the 3D display device and improve the resolution.

With the development of 3D display technology, the 3D display device has gradually become a general requirement and configuration. As a universal implementation mode of 3D, users of an FPR (Film-type Patterned Retarder) liquid crystal display device have put forward higher requirements for 3D applications, and so developers are committed to producing display products with high definition and low cost to occupy the market.
High definition and low cost are a pair of contradictory factors because in the prior art, with the increase in the resolution of a 3D display device, the process of the FPR film becomes more and more difficult, which will inevitably lead to an increased production cost. The present disclosure provides a solution to the above technical problem.

Liquid crystal panel for 3D display, driving method and pixel optimization method thereof

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


A method of affixing a cranial burr hole cover comprising an elongated internal bracing member, a locking external cover member joined by one or more connecting members, and a locking mechanism, whereby the interior bracing member is tilted and one end is inserted through the burr hole and under the skull. The internal bracing member is then moved laterally relative to the burr hole to allow the opposite end of the internal bracing member to clear the opposite edge of the burr hole. The internal bracing member is then centered beneath the burr hole. The external cover member is now moved distally toward the skull to cover the burr hole. The locking mechanism secures the cover in place on the skull and the connecting members extending from the cover member are cut flush with the cover member.

This application relates generally to the field of cranial burr hole covers, and more particularly relates to such covers structured in the nature of clamps wherein a member positioned interiorly on the skull and a member positioned exteriorly on the skull are locked together to cover the burr hole.
In cranial surgery it is often necessary to cut burr holes through the skull to directly access a portion of the brain or to provide an access means for the insertion of saws or other cutting implements in order to remove a larger section of the skull, often referred to as a flap. In order to secure the flap to the skull once the flap is replaced, it is known to provide craniotomy pins, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,620 to Bremer. The pins comprise a large external head possessing lateral dimensions greater than the width of the gap between the flap and skull, a post or shaft member sized to be able to reside within the gap, and an internal locking member. The internal locking member is generally rectangular in shape and is sized to have a longitudinal dimension greater than the width of the gap and a lateral dimension smaller than the width of the gap. With this configuration, the longitudinal dimension of the internal locking member of the craniotomy pin is aligned with the gap such that the internal locking member can be pushed into the gap. The pin is then rotated so that the longitudinal dimension is now perpendicular to the gap, the ends of the internal locking member precluding removal of the pin without rotation of the pin. The craniotomy pin of this configuration is not designed for use in covering the burr holes disposed at the ends or midportion of the gaps, since the longitudinal dimension of the internal locking member would need to greater than the diameter of the burr hole, which is several times greater than the width of the gap. This would make rotation of the pin difficult and possibly cause damage to the underlying tissue. The craniotomy pin of this configuration is not suitable in any way for covering isolated burr holes where no flap has been removed and replaced, since there is no gap for insertion and then rotation of the internal locking member. Furthermore, the fixed separation distance between the external head and the internal locking member does not allow adjustment of the clamping pressure, i.e., movement of the external head toward the internal locking member.
It is known to provide clamping covers, i.e., adjustable covers that can be tightened onto the skull or bone flap, for the both gaps and burr holes, wherein the covers comprise a disk-shaped internal member and a disk-shaped external member held together by a connecting member provided with a locking mechanism, such as a ratchet system or screw threading. For use with burr holes, the diameter of the internal and external disk-shaped members must be greater than the diameter of the burr hole. This structure is suitable for use in circumstances where a flap portion of the skull has been removed between burr holes, since the internal disk-shaped members can be laterally positioned on the interior side of the skull prior to replacement of the skull. However, such covers cannot be utilized to cover an isolated burr hole, since the required size for the internal disk-shaped member prevents it from being inserted directly through the burr hole. An example of such a clamping cover is sold under the brand CRANIAL LOOP by KLS Martin Group.
Other cranial burr hole covers suitably structured to cover an isolated burr hole are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,663 to Hair and in U.S. Pat. No. 8,241,342 to Kirschman. The Hair device utilizes a plurality of leg-like connecting members extending from the external cover, with each connecting member terminating in an outwardly extending foot-like structure. In the neutral position the leg-like connecting members bend inward and can be inserted into the burr hole. A threaded spreading post is then driven into an axial opening to drive the foot-like structures radially outward to be positioned on the inside of the skull. This device is not depth-adjustable, as the distance between the foot-like members and the external cover is fixed. The structure of the device also requires excessive time to place each burr hole cover.
The Kirschman device comprises a pair of generally parallel connecting members extending through a disk-shaped cover member. Each connecting member has an outwardly extending tab member. The connecting members are flexed together to reduce the radial extension of the tab members for insertion through the burr hole. Once inserted the proper distance, the tab members are pressed outward to position them on the inside of the skull. The connecting members are provided with a ratchet surface that cooperates with slots in the external cover, such that the cover member can be pressed downward onto the skull to secure the device to the skull and cover the isolated burr hole. The portions of the connecting members extending above the external cover are then removed. Because the tab members are structured to flex inwardly, proper placement of the device requires the surgeon to maintain the spread of the tabs after insertion using an instrument or a finger while simultaneously lowering the external cover into the clamped and secured position.
It is an object of this invention to provide an adjustable cranial burr hole cover suitable for use with single, isolated burr holes, and a method of covering an isolated burr hole using this cover, wherein the problems inherent known burr hole covers are overcome.


In an image display system for viewing, by a user in a first space, an image of a second space remote from the first space, image data indicating an image acquired by an imaging device placed in the second space is received from the imaging device. A partial image of the image indicated by the received image data is displayed on a display screen in the first space, the partial image having a display size corresponding to the size of the display screen. At least one of the position, the facial direction, the visual line, or the facial position of the user in the first space is detected by a detector. When a detection result of the detector changes while the partial image is being displayed, it is determined which partial image of the image indicated by the image data is to be displayed on the display screen.

It has been already known that a communication technique is utilized to have a dialogue (a conversation) while persons at remote locations are viewing their images each other via displays for image displaying. In recent years, the technique (in a precise sense, the technique of switching a displayed image) of changing the displayed image in association with a communicator's visual line or facial direction has been developed. Since the displayed image changes in association with movement of a communicator as described above, realistic sensation in the dialogue using the communication technique can be enhanced.
An example will be described in detail. According to JP 2012-190230 A, an in-camera of a communication terminal (e.g., a mobile phone or a smartphone) owned by a communicator oneself is used to analyze, e.g., the visual line direction of the communicator. After analysis, an image (a video) corresponding to the visual line direction is generated, and is displayed on a display of the communication terminal owned by the communicator. Thus, when the visual line direction changes with respect to the image displayed on the display, the displayed image can be switched corresponding to the changed visual line direction.
However, in the technique described in JP 2012-190230 A, the angle of viewing a display target object or a display target person on a partner side is merely switched in association with the change in the visual line direction of the communicator. That is, in the technique described in JP 2012-190230 A, even when the visual line direction of the communicator changes, the display target object itself or the display target person oneself does not change.
On the other hand, according to JP 2005-286442 A, when a communicator's position, visual line, or facial direction changes, a camera configured to acquire a partner-side image performs zooming/panning/tilting operation. Thus, when the communicator's position, visual line, or facial direction changes accordingly, a camera imaging direction or angular field is switched according to such a change. A displayed image after switching includes an object or a person next to a person displayed before switching. Since a display target object (a display target person) is, as described above, switched according to the change in the communicator's visual line or facial direction, a communicator obtains the visual effect of providing a feeling as if the communicator is in the same space as that of a dialogue partner.
The above-described visual effect is preferably realized by a simpler configuration. On the other hand, in JP 2005-286442 A, an additional device for camera driving is required as the configuration for obtaining the above-described visual effect. For this reason, when an attempt is made to obtain the above-described visual effect in the configuration described in JP 2005-286442 A, a cost of a system for such a configuration might increase, and the configuration might be complicated.

Image display system and image display method


An apparatus for manufacturing an electric cable comprises a flexible belt on which a plurality of longitudinal projections are formed, a motor to move the flexible belt at the same speed as a cable core covered with an insulating layer, and a forming unit including a plurality of rolls to form a conductive tape having a wavy pattern around the cable core. The conductive tape is formed around the cable core by a radial directional force applied by the rolls via the projections to the flexible belt, when the cable core and the conductive tape are passed through the forming rolls together with the flexible belt. Consequently, the conductive tape is able to be formed around the insulating layer of the cable core while maintaining the shape of the wavy pattern.

Recently, compact electric devices have been required in which a cable employed therein should have high flexibility. Therefore, a conductive tape having a wavy, corrugated and/or embossed pattern (defined a "wavy pattern"0 hereinafter) has been utilized for a shielding layer of an electric cable or an outer conductor of a coaxial cable.
In a conventional apparatus for manufacturing an electric cable, a cable core is inserted into a forming die with a conductive tape, and the cable core is drawn from the die together with the conductive tape, so that the conductive tape is formed around the cable core. In such an apparatus, the conductive tape is advanced by a guide belt independently of the cable core to relief the conductive tape from tension, so that the conductive tape is prevented from losing a wavy pattern formed thereon.
According to the conventional apparatus, however, there is a disadvantage in that tension of the conductive tape in the longitudinal direction thereof is not avoided sufficiently, because a difference in an advancing speed between the cable core and the guide belt occurs due to by friction between the guide belt and the inner surface of the die. Then, the conductive tape is twisted and pressured in the radial direction, so that the wavy pattern of the conductive tape is crushed. Therefore, the manufactured cable did not have good electrical and mechanical characteristics.

Apparatus for manufacturing an electric cable


Disclosed are compact optical interferometer array, miniature optical interferometer array, and miniature optical interferometer. The interferometer arrays contain a spatial phase modulator array and a detector array. They are used for conducting multiple measurements. The miniature interferometer has only one component—a spatial phase modulator. Without passing through any focus lens, beam portions coming out of the modulator spread and merge together by themselves. Size of the miniature interferometer can reach subwavelength or even nanoscale. The interferometer array and miniature interferometer find applications in miniature spectrometer, color filter, display, adjustable subwavelength grating, etc.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to optical interferometer, and particularly to optical interferometer array and miniature optical interferometer.
2. Description of Prior Art
Optical interferometer is an indispensable measurement tool in many fields. It is desirable for an interferometer to make different measurements. It is also desirable to have a small-size interferometer, which is useful for integration with other systems.
Usually, optical interference is created by splitting a beam into two parts either through amplitude division or wavefront division and then recombining the two parts. Amplitude-division may be realized by a beamsplitter and wavefront-division by a spatial phase object. An interferometer using amplitude division tends to have a larger footprint than one using wavefront division, since beams produced by amplitude division are transmitted along optical paths which are separate and head for different directions in most cases, while beams by wavefront division can have side-by-side optical paths, occupying less space.
A traditional interferometer, by amplitude division or wavefront division, is a fixed system and only good for measurement of one type. For different measurements, a tunable interferometer may be used. But a tunable interferometer is often complex and bulky. The other method involves combining a group of discrete interferometers. The interferometers each receive part of a beam respectively. This setup, however, is hardly compact.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an interferometer array, which conducts different measurements and has a compact structure.
One application of interferometer array is of spectrometer. A spectrometer is an optical instrument which measures spectral characteristics of a beam, which in turn reveals physical, chemical, or biochemical information of a sample under test. A compact spectrometer mainly contains two components: a diffraction grating and a detector array. The diffraction grating splits the beam into multiple sub-beams, where each sub-beam corresponds to a specific wavelength. The detector array is arranged such that one detector measures intensity of one sub-beam, or one wavelength. But the detector array has to be placed at a distance far enough from the grating; otherwise, neighboring sub-beams may not separate adequately, which affects resolving resolution. Therefore, current spectrometer has a limit to reduce its dimension.
In order to construct a compact interferometer array, size of individual interferometer should be small. Besides, a small interferometer as a sensor itself is convenient to integrate with a system or other sensors. For such a purpose, as discussed in the above, interferometer using wavefront division is preferred. Currently, two components are needed to build an interferometer by wavefront division: a spatial phase object for creating beam portions having different phase retardation and a focus lens for combining the beam portions to generate interference. In addition, a focus lens has a focal length, which means beam portions are combined at a distance from the lens, or focusing process takes certain space. So the present interferometer dimension is limited by two components and the beam-focusing process.
Therefore, there exists a need for a small-size interferometer which breaks the current limitation on dimension. An interferometer with a small dimension, such as subwavelength-sized or even nano-sized, may lead to other applications besides a compact or miniature interferometer array.


A method and computer program product for simulating a pan coating process estimates at least one of tablet coating uniformity or coated tablet weight uniformity for tablets within a tablet bed of a pan. The simulation includes obtaining a plurality of parameters associated with the pan coating process, selecting tablet paths for each cycle of a simulation tablet in the tablet bed, determining a coating amounts for the tablet based on selected tablet paths, determining cycle times for the tablet, and summing the determined coating amounts and cycle times for the tablet. The simulation is repeated for each of a defined number of simulation tablets representing the tablets within the tablet bed to determine tablet coating uniformity and/or coated tablet weight uniformity for the tablets. Tablet paths and/or cycle times are determined randomly, e.g., in accordance with a Monte Carlo method.

Pan coating processes are routinely used to apply coating to tablets. Typically, a batch of tablets is loaded into a drum (referred to herein as a pan) and a liquid solution, dispersion, or suspension containing coating material (referred to herein as coating solution) is applied to the tablets as the pan rotates in order to coat the tablets. In the pharmaceutical industry, the pan is typically perforated and, thus, the pan is commonly referred to as a perforated pan. The coating uniformity of the tablets is based on a number of variables such as the design of the pan, pan rotation speed, baffle design within the pan, number of tablets, tablet size, tablet shape, and atomization and distribution of the coating solution. Coating uniformity among the tablets being coated is a fundamental goal of the coating process. Due to the complexity of atomization and distribution of the coating solution, tablet circulation patterns, and processing variables associated with the coating process, it is difficult to accurately predict coating uniformity.
Uniformity of coating from tablet-to-tablet (referred to herein as "coating uniformity") is desirable in coating processes and is essential for drug layering (i.e., coating active pharmaceutical ingredients onto tablets). Coating uniformity for a pan coating process may be examined experimentally using test batches of tablets. In this approach, a test batch of tablets is loaded into the pan of a pan coating apparatus. The test batch is then coated for a predetermined period of time. Coated tablets within the test batch are sampled at various times to determine if the level of coating uniformity among the sampled tablets is acceptable. If the level of coating uniformity is unacceptable, the process is repeated using another test batch of tablets. All test batches are typically discarded.
Typically, tablets and coating solutions that will be used during production are also used during testing. The tablets often include expensive pharmaceutical drugs. In addition, the coating solution may include expensive pharmaceutical drugs as well. Accordingly, discarding test batches including these drugs is expensive.
Additionally, the test batches (which may be manufactured in actual production equipment or pilot/lab-scale equipment) typically include fewer tablets than a production batch of tablets being coated for market distribution. Therefore, the results obtained from the test batches are extrapolated to predict coating uniformity for the number of tablets in the production batches. Existing techniques for extrapolating test batch data to predict coating uniformity for production batches are imprecise, which leads to discrepancies between the predicted coating uniformity and the actual coating uniformity of the production batches. If the discrepancy is too great for a particular production batch, that batch is discarded and the pan coating process is modified. The pan coating process may need several modifications to obtain an acceptable production batch of tablets.
The use of production tablets and coating solutions during testing and the amount of time required for testing and modifying the pan coating process for production contribute to the total costs associated with the production of coated tablets. Additionally, the amount of time required for testing delays entry of the production tablets into the market place, where each day of delay potentially results in a large amount of lost revenue. There is an ever present desire to reduce costs associated with the production of coated tablets and to reduce the amount of time needed to introduce production tablets to the market place. Accordingly, methods and computer program products for determining coating uniformity that are not subject to these limitations are needed. The present invention addresses this need among others.

Pan coating simulation for determining tablet coating uniformity

Particle Coating Technology Solutions, Inc.


The present invention involves a molded seamless vehicle interior panel having a seamless airbag door for concealing an airbag. The panel includes a retainer portion and a door portion circumscribed by the retainer portion. The retainer portion is disposed adjacent the airbag of the vehicle and has an opening to define a void over the airbag. The retainer portion has an appearance finish of an aesthetic look. The door portion disposed within the void integrally circumscribed by the retainer portion to define the seamless airbag door through which the airbag may deploy. The door portion has an appearance finish compatible to the appearance of the retainer portion such that no seam is visible. The door portion is molded together with the retainer portion and formed of a material different than the material of the retainer portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle seamless interior panels for concealing and deploying an airbag.
2. Background Art
Airbags are widely known throughout the vehicle industry. Currently, a number of designs exist in which airbags are configured for deployment in vehicle compartments. Deployment of airbags through interior panels of a vehicle is also widely known. An airbag for an occupant in a passenger compartment of a vehicle is typically designed to deploy through a front interior panel of the vehicle. Typically, a hinged portion or a door portion of an interior panel allows an airbag to deploy therethrough during an impact of the vehicle, providing support and cushion to the occupant.
However, designers of interior panels and airbags have been challenged with providing effective deployment of an airbag while providing a pleasing aesthetic appearance on an interior panel through which the airbag may deploy. Designers of interior panels have also been challenged to provide such interior panels in a cost effective manner. An interior panel may generally have a retainer portion and a door portion through which an airbag may deploy. In several designs, the retainer portion circumscribes the door portion which comprises a substantial portion of the panel. In these designs, the interior panel has a visible seam having low resistence to normal or shear stress to allow deployment of an airbag therethrough. This seam clearly distinguishes the door portion from the retainer portion of the panel. Manufacturers of interior panels have met the challenge with limited success in providing an interior panel as described above with a non-visible seam.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cost effective interior panel as described above having a non-visible seam, and a method of manufacturing such a panel.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seamless interior panel for concealing an airbag. The panel comprises a first panel portion and a second panel portion. The first panel portion is adapted to lay sufficiently adjacent to the airbag to form a door through which the airbag may deploy. The first panel portion has an appearance finish. The second panel portion integrally circumscribes the first panel portion to form a retainer of the panel. The second panel portion has an appearance finish compatible to the appearance finish of the first panel portion such that no seam is visible. The first panel portion is molded together with the second panel portion. The first panel portion is formed of a material different than the material of the second panel portion.
In another embodiment of the present invention a vehicle door panel has a seamless airbag door for deploying an airbag. The panel comprises a retainer portion and a door portion. The retainer portion is disposed adjacent the airbag and has an opening to define a void over the airbag. The retainer portion has an appearance finish. The door portion is disposed within the void integrally circumscribed by the retainer portion to define the seamless airbag door through which the airbag deploys. The door portion has an appearance finish compatible to the appearance finish of the retainer portion such that no seam is visible. The door portion is molded together with the retainer portion and is formed of a material different than the material of the retainer portion.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of making a vehicle seamless panel for concealing an airbag. The method includes providing a first mold member and a second mold member having a first portion and a second portion. The first mold member and the first portion cooperates to define a first closed mold cavity configured to form a retainer portion of the panel to be disposed adjacent the airbag. The retainer portion has an opening to define a void over the airbag. The first mold member and the second portion cooperates to define a second closed mold cavity configured to hold the molded retainer portion and to form a door portion of the panel to be disposed within the void. The door portion is integrally circumscribed by the retainer portion. The method further includes moving the first portion into contact with the first mold member to cooperate with the first mold member to form the first closed mold cavity and injecting a first material into the first closed mold cavity to form the retainer portion of the panel. The method further includes moving the second portion into contact with the first mold member to cooperate with the first mold member to form the second closed mold cavity and injecting a second material into the second closed mold cavity to form the door portion of the panel.
It is an object of the present invention to provide another method of making a vehicle seamless panel for concealing an airbag. The method provides a first mold member and a second mold member wherein the second mold member has a movable part operative to selectively vary the configuration of a mold cavity formed by the first and second mold member when the part is moved between first and second position. The first mold member cooperates with the second mold member with the movable part in the first position to define a first closed mold cavity configured to form a retainer portion of the panel to be disposed adjacent the airbag. The retainer portion has an opening to define a void over the airbag. The first mold member cooperates with the second mold member when the part is placed in the second position to define a second closed mold cavity configured to hold the molded retainer portion and to form a door portion of the panel to be disposed within the opening integrally circumscribed by the retainer portion. The method further comprises placing the part of the second mold member in the first position to cooperate with the first mold member to provide the first closed mold cavity and injecting the first material into the first closed mold cavity to form the retainer portion of the panel. The method further includes moving the part of the second mold member to the second position to cooperate with the first mold member to provide the second mold cavity and injecting a second material into the second closed mold cavity to form the door portion of the panel.
The above objects and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention are readily apparent from the following detailed description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Molded seamless vehicle interior panel for concealing an airbag


An apparatus is disclosed for activating a thermostat for an air conditioning or heating system. The apparatus comprises a control circuit and a controllable switch connected to activate and deactivate the thermostat controlling the air conditioning or heating system. A timing circuit provides a first timing period in which the thermostat is deactivated in addition to providing a second timing period to activate the thermostat. The control also includes a circuit for deactivating the thermostat for a period of time in the event the compressor terminates operation for any reason. An optional occupancy sensor increases the time of deactivation of the thermostat during periods of non-use of the area being air conditioned or heated. The foregoing abstract is merely a resume of one general application, is not a complete discussion of all principles of operation or applications, and is not to be construed as a limitation on the scope of the claimed subject matter.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to air conditioning and/or heating and more particularly to a control circuit for cooperation with a thermostat of an air conditioning or heating system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of apparati have been devised in the prior art in an attempt to deactivate a thermostat of an air conditioning or heating system for a period of time in order to reduce the operational cost. Various types of mechanical timers have been incorporated to enable the thermostat to operate for a first period of time and to deactivate the thermostat for a second period of time. Electronic circuits have also been devised to accomplish the same or similar task. Unfortunately, these devices were not synchronized with the operation or status of the thermostat and accordingly the compressor could be subjected to rapid starting and stopping creating excessive pressures within the compressor. Many air conditioning experts hesitate to recommend mechanical cycles due to the possibilities of the excessive pressures created within the compressor due to the rapid starting and stopping of the compressor.
In an attempt to overcome this hazard, others in the prior art have developed circuits which prohibit operation of the compressor for a given period of time after the compressor has terminated operation.
Others in the prior art have developed line voltage sensors for terminating operation of the compressor upon a reduction of line voltage. Unfortunately, the aforementioned contributions of the prior art have never been consolidated into a simple and inexpensive unit. Most of the prior art units were overly complex and unreliable and accordingly did not find widespread use in the art.
Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art devices and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the air conditioning and heating art.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for activating a thermostat for an air conditioning or heating system comprising a timer circuit for deactivating the thermostat during a first timing period and for activating the thermostat during a second timing period thereby enabling the thermostat to power the air conditioning or heating system.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for activating a thermostat for an air conditioning or heating system for deactivating the compressor or heater when the source voltage is reduced below a preselected minimum power level.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for activating a thermostat for an air conditioning or heating system wherein the apparatus automatically disconnects from a conventional thermostat system in the unlikely event that the apparatus malfunctions.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for activating a thermostat for an air conditioning or heating system for terminating operation of the compressor in the event of loss of one phase of a plural phase power source.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for activating a thermostat for an air conditioning or heating system utilizing a presence sensor for determining the presence or activity within the area being air conditioned or heated to accordingly vary the operation time of the air conditioning or heating system.
The foegoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description describing the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Controller for an air conditioning or heating system


The present invention is directed to novel compositions and their use in the treatment of inflammatory responses. Specifically, the invention is directed to novel synthetic oligosaccharide constructs and their use to block lymphocyte binding to correspondent oligosaccharides on the endothelial surface, and thus reduce or otherwise ameliorate an undesired inflammatory response. The invention is further directed to the use of such constructs in other disease states characterized by selectin binding, such as bacterial infections and metastatic cancers.

Selectin Mediated Cell Adhesion
The migration of white blood cells from the blood to regions of pathogenic exposure in the body is called the inflammatory cascade. Cell adhesion events allow for specific binding of a leukocyte to the endothelium of the vessel that is adjacent to the inflammatory insult; such adhesion events counteract the high vascular shear forces and high blood flow rates that tend to keep the leukocyte circulating, and help guide the leukocyte to the required site.
Four families of vascular adhesion molecules are involved in the migration of leukocytes during the inflammatory response: (1) the integrin family, (2) the counterreceptors of the integrin family, the immunoglobulin superfamily, (3) the selectin family, and (4) the counterreceptors of the selectin family, specialized carbohydrates displayed by the sialomucin adhesion family.
Selectins are also known as "lectin cell adhesion molecules" (LEC-CAMs). Selectins are classified into three groups: L-selectin (LECAM-1, LAM-1, gp.sup.90.sub..sup.MEL , Leu-8, TQ-1, CD62L and DREG) is expressed on various leukocytes, and is constitutively expressed on lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils, and eosinophils. E-selectin (LECAM-2, CD62E and ELAM-1) is expressed on endothelium activated by inflammatory mediators. P-selectin (GMP-140, PADGEM, LECAM-3 and CD62P) is stored in alpha granules of platelets and Weibel-Palade bodies of endothelial cells and is also expressed on endothelium activated by inflammatory stimuli. All members of the selectin family appear to mediate cell adhesion through the recognition of carbohydrates.
The current concept of leukocyte extravasation is based on the consecutive action of several adhesion molecules located on the surface of leukocytes and the endothelium. Lymphocyte extravasation is initiated by the interaction of members of the selectin family and their oligosaccharide-containing counterreceptors. For a review of the current knowledge on lymphocyte adhesion, see e.g., Springer, T. A., Annu. Rev. Physiol. 57:827-872 (1995).
All selectins bind to sialyl Lewis x (NeuNAc.alpha.2-3Gal.beta.1-4(Fuc.alpha.1-3)GlcNAc) (sLe.sup.x or sLex) and sialyl Lewis a (NeuNAc.alpha.2-3Gal.beta.1-3(Fuc.alpha.1-4)GlcNAc) (sLe.sup.a or sLea) as well as related carbohydrate sequences (Bertozzi, C., Chemistry and Biology, 2:703-708 (1995)). L-selectin-dependent recognition precedes normal lymphocyte extravasation into peripheral lymph nodes (Gallatin, W. M. et al., Nature 303:30-34 (1983)) and into sites of inflammation (Ley, K. et al., Blood 77:2553-2555 (1991)), both of which are impaired in L-selectin deficient mice (Arbones, M. L. et al., Immunity 1:247-260 (1994)).
Several glycoproteins have been shown to act as counterreceptors for L-selectin. A common denominator for the cloned ligands GlyCAM-1, CD34, MAdCAM-1 and PSGL-1 (Baumhueter, S. et al., Science, 262:436-438 (1993); Briskin, M. J. et al., Nature, 363:461-464 (1993); Lasky, L. A. et al., Cell 69:927-938 (1992); Walcheck, B. et al., J. Clinical Investigation 98:1081-1087 (1996)), is the mucin type protein core rich of 0-linked glycan decorations which are crucial for the selectin recognition. The glycosylation of GlyCAM-1 and PSGL-1 has been characterized in greater detail, among other saccharides these proteins have been shown to carry sulfated sLex and sLexLexLex epitopes, respectively (Hemmerich, S. et al., J. Biol. Chem. 270:12035-12047 (1995); Wilkins, P. P. et al., J. Biol. Chem. 271:18732-18742 (1996)).
High endothelial cells in peripheral lymph nodes express sialyl Lewis a and sialyl Lewis x (sLea and sLex) epitopes (Paavonen and Renkonen, Am. J. Pathol. 141:1259-1264(1992); Munro, J. M. et al., Am. J. Pathol. 141:1397-1408 (1992); Sawada, M. et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 193:337-347 (1993)) which are parts ofthe L-selectin counterreceptor. The endothelial cells in several other locations are sLea and sLex negative, but inflammatory stimuli can induce previously negative endothelium to express these oligosaccharide structures de novo (Turunen, J. et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 24:1130-1136 (1994)). It has been shown that cultured endothelial cells possess the machinery to generate at least sLex, since they have several functional .alpha.2,3 sialyl- and .alpha.1,3 fucosyltransferases, enzymes involved in generating sLex from (poly)lactosamines (Majuri, M. et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 24:3205-3210 (1994)).
A number of studies have proposed that selectins are involved in a wide variety of acute and chronic inflammatory conditions in many tissues.
Being essential to the early phases of leukocyte extravasation cascade, the interactions of selectins and their sLex-containing counterreceptors offer an attractive site for anti-inflammatory interventions (Ley, K. and Tedder, T., J. Immunol. 155:525-528 (1995); Springer, T. A., Annu Rev. Physiol 57:827-872 (1995); Tedder, T., et al, FASEB Journal 9:866-73 (1995)). Monovalent sLex glycans have been shown to inhibit L-selectin mediated lymphocyte binding in vitro (Turunen, J. et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 24:1130-1136 (1994)), and they also inhibit PMN extravasation in animal models of acute inflammation and reperfusion injury (Lefer, D. J. et al., Circulation 90:2390-401 (1994)).
Polylactosamines carrying single epitopes of sLexLex- and sLexLexLex-type appear to be recognized by E- and P-selectins with higher affinity than analogous oligosaccharides bearing single sLex-units (Patel, T. P. et al., Biochemistry 33:14815-24 (1994); Stroud, M. R. et al., Biochemistry 35:770-778 (1996); Wilkins, P. P. et al., J. Biol. Chem. 271:18732-18742 (1996)).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,670 to Venot et al. discloses a method for the enzymatic synthesis of an .alpha.-sialylated oligosaccharide glycoside using sialyltransferase, a CMP-sialic acid analogue as the sialic acid donor and an oligosaccharide glycoside acceptor molecule, having a .beta.Gal(1-3).beta.GlcNAc or .beta.Gal(1-4).beta.GlcNAc disaccharide on the nonreducing terminus.
International Patent Publication No. WO 95/03059 (Gaeta et al.) discloses a synthetic saccharide that contains two glycosidically linked sLex moieties, that are useful in blocking cellular adhesion, especially by inhibiting E-selectin binding. These sLex containing oligosaccharides are synthesized on a galactose backbone.
International Patent Publication No. WO 97/12892 (Renkonen, O. and Renkonen, R.) discloses synthetic multivalent sLex containing polylactosamines and their use to block lymphocyte binding to correspondent oligosaccharides on the endothelial surface.

Synthetic divalent sLex containing polylactosamines and methods for use


S-(3-methyl-2-butenyl)cysteine ##STR1## or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. The compound is an expectorant and can be applied in the form of capsules or dragees, solutions, syrups or suppositories.

The present invention relates to a new thioprenyl compound with pharmacological activity, a process for its preparation and pharmaceutical compositions containing it.
The use of drugs acting on the respiratory system mucus is important in therapeutical medicine due to the wide range of afflictions (respiratory air passage infections, respiratory decompensation stages, tumorous growths, allergic reactions, changes in the autonomous nervous system, etc.) in all of which the respiratory tract fluid is altered, this constituting a danger or substantial discomfort to the patient. Within the pharmacological groups related to the tracheo-bronchial mucus are: bronchosecretogogues, expectorants and mucolytics.
The aim of these products is "bronchial-draining". Their main defect, except in case of Bromhexine ("Bisolvon") and S-carboxymethylcysteine, is that they act only by direct aerosolization or instillation in the bronchial system. The toxicity of the vehicles used in aerosol sprays, as in the case of N-acetylcysteine and its derivatives, is subject to the question (see the editorial "Are aerosol sprays hazardous?" Am. Rev.Resp. Dis., 112, 485 (1975)), whether they are not harmful to the bronchial tree; on the other hand, correct administration is not simple and free of risk nor a practice that can be performed outside specialized centers.
The outstanding result in this field is the systemic actuation of Bromhexine ("Bisolvon"), which is well adsorbed when orally administered and has practically no side effects, although its action is not always clear. It has even been argued (J. H. M. Langlans, Lancet, 1, 448 (1970) concluding the report of the "Research Committee of the British Thoracic and Tuberculosis Association" (Br. J. Dis. Chest, 67, 49 (1973)) that Bromhexine cannot be recommended in routine treatment of bronchitis.
Another compound also acting orally is S-Carboxymethylcysteine, of which, however, doses over one (1) gram per day are needed.


An article of ammunition with propulsion mechanism, incorporating a fin-stabilized projectile, the propulsion mechanism, a casing for a propellant, and a propellent charge, and wherein the propulsion mechanism includes an empty volume or open void intermediate front and rear guidance segments thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an article of ammunition with propulsion mechanism, incorporating a fin-stabilized projectile, the propulsion mechanism, a casing for a propellant, and a propellent charge, and wherein the propulsion mechanism includes an empty volume or open void intermediate guidance segments thereof.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
For an extremely lengthy fin-stabilized projectile, such as is disclosed in German Patent No. 28 36 963 C2, the empty volume or void in a propulsion mechanism; in essence, that is the space which is present between the forward and rearward guidance segment, consists of approximately 2 to 3 dm.sup.3. In order to be able to increase the power of this fin-stabilized projectile, among other conditions, the empty volume or void is filled with a powder propellant.
Furthermore, also known in the art is a compacted propellent charge, as described in the disclosure of German Patent No. 33 32 224 A1. This measure also serves to enhance the power of the ammunition.
When the density of the charge for an article of ammunition pursuant to German Patent No. 28 36 963 C2 is increased in comparison with an ordinarily poured propellant, in conformance with the disclosure of German Patent No. 33 32 224 A1, there is then encountered the danger of an excessively high pressure build-up in the shell or cartridge chamber during firing, with the consequence of imparting damage to the breech closure of the weapon.


An information processing apparatus obtains information of an operation input made on a first client device from that the first client device, and generates a first rendering command for a first screen to be provided to the first client device based on information of the operation input. The apparatus also obtains change information, for changing a display state of a rendering object, from a second client device, and generates a second rendering command for a second screen by changing the first rendering command based on the change information.

The video game industry has seen considerable evolution, from the introduction of stand-alone arcade games, to home-based computer games, to the emergence of games made for specialized consoles. Democratization of the Internet then enabled the next major development, namely "cloud gaming". In a cloud gaming system, a player can utilize an ordinary Internet-enabled appliance such as a smartphone or tablet to connect to a video game server over the Internet. The video game server starts a session for the player, and may do so for multiple players. The video game server renders images and generates audio for the player based on player actions (e.g., moves, selections) and other attributes of the game. Encoded video and audio is delivered to the player's device over the Internet, and is reproduced as visible images and audible sounds. In this way, players from anywhere in the world can play a video game without the use of specialized video game consoles, software or graphics processing hardware.
In cases where screens generated by rendering processing on a server side are provided to a player's device in this way, after the generated screens are encoded as moving images, the moving images are transmitted in a streaming format as with a general moving image viewing site. In other words, it is possible to simultaneously transmit a moving image generated in accordance with operation input from a player's device to a number of devices as with a moving image viewing site. Because, with such a configuration, one player is able to provide another user with game screens played on the device of the player, the other user is able to view (spectate) the state of play of the player on his or her own device, for example.
Recently, demand has been growing for so called "play-by-play" moving images where screens of a game that one player plays on an offline home use game console, for example, are recorded while being interpreted, and distributed by a moving image viewing site, or the like. Regarding systems for performing rendering of game screens on a server side, and for generating corresponding coded moving image data, such as those for cloud gaming, a spectating function as described above can be considered to satisfy demands of a user and a player because not only able to distribute moving image data simply, but it is able to distribute the playing of the game by the player around the same time.
However, in cases where screens obtained by rendering graphics, not limited to game screens, for one device on a server side are provided to the device and to another device in this way, there is the possibility that a user of another device will not be in a desired display state. For example, for a GUI in a screen, a user performing operation is able to change to a suitable layout, color, or the like, but on a device only receiving the screens, and performing display, the user was not able to change the layout, the color, or the like.

Information processing apparatus, rendering apparatus, method and program