A valve and a method for producing a valve, in particular for coolant circuits, having a valve seat (2) including a valve seating element (1) for a valve body (3) by stamping the pole shoe to form at least one sealing surface (8) to avoid the disadvantages of the prior art. This is achieved according to the invention by forming at least one sealing surface (8) to form a novel sealing element (1) utilizing a stamping element to form a stamped surface of the novel valve with a valve seating element.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a valve and a method for producing a valve having a valve seat with a valve seating element. More particularly the novel valve and method for producing the valve includes a stamped out valve seating surface.
(2) Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 C.F.R. 1.97 and 1.98
At present, a wide variety of valves are commercially available. For example, electromagnetic valves, in particular bistable valves, exist and can be used in various applications, for example in fluid circuits of domestic appliances such as refrigerators or for steam expansion for drinks machines, such as coffee machines for example, but also another areas such as in the area of analytics or measuring technology.
In most application areas, such as for instance the application area of domestic appliances, valves which are of a compact design are preferred that can also be produced and fitted with as little effort as possible. To satisfy these requirements, various developments have already become known (cf. DE 199 14 972 A1 or WO 03/071 176 A1).
Known valves have, inter alia, a valve seat, which are sealed by a valve body to ensure the function of the valve. For example in the case of ball valves, a spherical valve seat is accordingly required. For sealing the valve seat, an elastomer seal or the like may be used for example.
In addition, metallic seals may also be used in certain applications. The use of correspondingly metallic, spherical sealing seats requires very precise and uncontaminated production and fitting of the valve. Corresponding valve seats, in particular in the case of valves with armatures, are often hardened after turning on a lathe, producing a certain hardening distortion. In the case of some certain valves, the pole shoe comprising the valve seat may be covered with copper or the like after hardening, so that subsequent soldering of the pole shoe can be advantageously realized. Even with this copper coating, inaccuracies with respect to the form of the valve seat can occur, and may lead to the valve leaking during operation.
In addition, particles of dirt can contaminate the valve seat both during the production of the valve seat and during the fitting of the valve, which in turn can lead to the valve seat leaking during operation.
The object of the invention is to propose a valve and a method for producing a valve with which the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art are reduced or avoided.


A method and system for providing an inverse transform for an audio compression decoding algorithm in software precalculates a plurality of identified values; each of which is computationally intensive. The method and system then performs a pre-inverse transform complex multiply utilizing a first portion of the identified values and an array of input coefficients to provide a plurality of intermediate values. Thereafter, an inverse transform complex multiply and a post inverse transform multiply are combined to provide a combined complex multiply operation. The combined complex multiply operation uses a second portion of the identified values and the intermediate values provides the inverse transform. Accordingly, through the use of the present invention, the number of instructions for implementing the inverse transform can be substantially minimized. In the prior art, the method for performing the inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) in the AC-3 algorithm is extremely inefficient for software decoder implementations. Through the use of the present invention, the algorithm performance on a superscalar processor as measured by issued instructions is improved by a factor on the order of 43.

In order to more efficiently broadcast or record audio signals, it may be advantageous to reduce the amount of information required to represent the audio signals. Typically, this information may be stored as pulse code modulations (PCM) samples. In the case of digital audio signals, stored as PCM samples, the amount of digital information needed to accurately reproduce the original pulse code modulation (PCM) samples may be reduced by applying a digital compression algorithm, resulting in a digitally compressed representation of the original signal. (The term "compression" used in this context means the compression of the amount of digital information which must be stored or recorded.)
The goal of the digital compression algorithm is to produce a digital representation of an audio signal which, when decoded and reproduced, sounds the same as the original signal, while using a minimum of digital information (bit-rate) for the compressed (or encoded) representation. The ATSC digital television standard and the digital video disk (DVD) video standard call for audio compression using AC-3 which was developed by DOLBY LABORATORIES. AC-3, a standard digital compression technique, can encode from 1 to 5.1 channels of source audio from a PCM representation into a serial bit stream at data rates ranging from 32 kbps to 640 kbps. What is meant by 5.1 is five discrete channels plus the 0.1 channel which is a fractional bandwidth channel intended to convey only low frequency (subwoofer) signals.
A typical application of this algorithm is shown in FIG. 1. In this example, a 5.1 channel audio program is converted from a PCM representation requiring more than 5 Mbps (6 channels.times.48 kHz.times.18 bits=5.184 Mbps) into a 384 kbps serial bit stream by the AC-3 encoder 12. Transmission equipment 14 converts this bit stream to a radio frequency (RF) transmission which is directed to a transponder 16. The amount of bandwidth and power required by the transmission has been reduced by more than a factor of 13 by the AC-3 digital compression. The signal received from the satellite 15 is demodulated back into the 384 kbps serial bit stream by reception equipment 17, and decoded by the AC-3 decoder 18. The result is the original 5.1 channel audio program.
Digital compression of audio is useful wherever there is an economic benefit to be obtained by reducing the amount of digital information required to represent the audio. Typical applications are in satellite or terrestrial audio broadcasting, delivery of audio over metallic or optical cables, or storage of audio on magnetic, optical, semiconductor, or other storage media.
Referring to FIG. 2, the important features of the decoder are shown in block 20. The encoded bit stream is checked for errors and is deformatted to provide various types of data such as the encoded spectral envelope and the quantized mantissas. The bit allocation routine 22 is run and the results used to unpack and dequantize the mantissas. The spectral envelope is decoded via block 26 to produce the exponents. The exponents and mantissas are transformed back into the time domain via synthesis filter block 208 to produce the decoded PCM time samples.
Prior to transforming the audio signal from time to frequency domain, the encoder performs an analysis of the spectral and/or temporal nature of the input signal and selects the appropriate block length. This analysis occurs in the encoder only, and therefore can be upgraded and improved without altering the existing base of decoders. In this embodiment, a one bit code per channel per transform block is embedded in the bit stream which conveys length information. The decoder uses this information to deformat the bit stream, reconstruct the mantissa data, and apply the appropriate inverse transform equations. These inverse transform equations are computationally expensive and represent a significant portion of the operation on the bit stream.
A specification for the AC-3 algorithm, referred to as the ATSC specification A/52, is a published technical description of the AC-3 algorithm. The method for performing the inverse transform or inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) in the AC-3 algorithm is designed to work efficiently in hardware such as DSP devices, and is extremely inefficient for software decoder implementations. By strictly following the above-identified specification, the software implementation can require as much as 7,400,000 processor instructions per inverse transform. This large number of instructions requires a significant software overhead to complete. Accordingly, a method and system for significantly reducing the number of instructions for providing an inverse transform is desired.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and system for decoding compressed audio signals in a software implementation. More particularly, what is needed is a system and method for reducing the number of software instructions required for providing an inverse transform for bit stream decoding. The present invention addresses such a need.

System, method and computer readable medium of efficiently decoding an AC-3 bitstream by precalculating computationally expensive values to be used in the decoding algorithm


There is disclosed a cleat apparatus mountable on a track of a tractor or similar vehicle. In an embodiment, the apparatus comprises an elongate frame having a first mounting bracket at a first end of the elongate frame, the first mounting bracket adapted to latch onto a first side of a track, and a removable second mounting bracket adapted to mount to a second end of the elongate frame, and to latch onto a second side of the track. The cleat apparatus is secured in position by the mounting brackets to provide additional traction for the track in more extreme operating conditions, including snow and ice in winter. This may significantly extend the utility of tractors which otherwise may sit idle during winter months.

Various types of tractors for use in construction, trenching, landscaping, material handling, and farming often have tracks that are optimized for use on various types of soil, ground surfaces, and roads. While these tractors are suitable for use in work environments and on soil, ground surface and road types for which they were designed, they are not suitable for use in harsher environments, such as winter conditions with snow and ice, as the tracks may lack sufficient traction, particularly on uphill or downhill grades. Consequently, many tractors simply sit idle over the winter months.
What is needed is an improved design for providing traction which addresses at least some of the limitations and drawbacks in the prior art.


A method is provided for extracting scandium values from an ore feedstock. The method includes providing a feedstock of a copper ore which contains scandium values; extracting scandium values from the ore with a leaching solution, thereby obtaining a pregnant leachate; contacting the pregnant leachate with an ion exchange resin, thereby extracting scandium values from the pregnant leachate and forming a loaded extractant; stripping the scandium values from the loaded extractant with a stripping solution, thereby forming a loaded stripping solution; and precipitating the scandium values from the loaded stripping solution as a scandium-containing precipitate.

The production of scandium metal is hampered by the unavailability of naturally occurring deposits of concentrated scandium. Instead, scandium tends to occur as a trace element in ores containing other metal values. For this reason, scandium is commonly harvested from the processing of byproducts of other metal production or refining processes. Thus, for example, scandium has been extracted from the red muds resulting from bauxite processing, or from uranium tailings.
The production of scandium is further hampered by the significant challenges attendant to isolating the metal from other metals which commonly occur with it, both in natural mineral formations and in the tailings, sludges or byproducts from other metal recovery operations or industrial processes. In particular, scandium has chemical and physical properties which are similar to some other metals, such as thorium, zirconium and titanium. Consequently, many of the methods, systems and materials commonly used in the art to isolate metals do not yield pure samples of scandium in sufficiently high yields. This may be due, for example, to insufficient selectivity (with respect to scandium) of the chelating agents, binders or resins utilized to isolate scandium in these processes, or to problems in releasing scandium from these chelating agents, binders or resins after extraction has occurred. Unfortunately, since the concentration of scandium in most starting materials is relatively low to begin with, the use of low yield processes in isolating scandium from such materials is a significant cost multiplier, thus rendering the use of such processes commercially impractical.
Recently, significant advances in the art have been made in the extraction of scandium from nickel laterite ores. These methods are described in commonly assigned U.S. 2016/0153070 (Duyvesteyn), entitled "Systems And Methodologies For Direct Acid Leaching Of Scandium-Bearing Ores".

Extraction of scandium values from copper leach solutions

Scandium Intrenational Mining Corporation


A paper discharge base is applied with a sponge sheet as a damping plate of an impact wall. A protection sheet is pasted on a surface of the sponge sheet. When the damping plate is impacted by a print sheet, the impact force is transmitted from the protection sheet to the sponge sheet and is damped by the sponge sheet. Further, the sponge sheet is protected by the protection sheet and therefore, the sponge sheet is not destructed by the impact of the print sheet.

The present invention relates to a paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus such as a copying apparatus or a printing apparatus for retaining a print sheet discharged from a printing section of an image forming apparatus in a stacked state.
With high speed formation of an image forming apparatus such as a copying apparatus or a printing apparatus in recent years, a print sheet discharged from a printing section thereof is discharged at high speed toward a paper discharge base and is impacted to an impact wall of the paper discharge base with large momentum. In this case, when the impact wall is of a rigid structure, there is a drawback that a large impact sound is emitted in impacting the print sheet.
Hence, there is disclosed a paper discharge base for alleviating an impact sound of a print sheet in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 183553/1997. Such a paper discharge base is provided with a paper mounting floor and an impact wall. The main body of the impact wall is attached with an impact wall plate impacted by a print sheet via an elastic film. Therefore, according to the paper discharge base, impact force when a print sheet is impacted to the impact wall plate is damped by the elastic film and the impact sound is alleviated.
However, the impact wall plate impacted by a print sheet is made of foamed styrene or foamed polyvinyl chloride. Since the print sheet is directly impacted to the impact wall plate at high speed, there is a drawback that the impact wall plate is gradually impaired by the impact force after long hours of use.
Further, since the impact wall of the paper discharge base needs a mechanism of expanding the elastic film, there also is a drawback that the structure of the impact wall becomes complicated.
Further, depending on paper quality of a print sheet, when a print sheet is not impacted to an optimum position of the impact wall plate, the print sheet loaded on the paper mounting floor does not align neatly.
Further, the height of a print sheet impacted to the impact wall plate differs by paper quality (weight) of a print sheet. In case of a heavy print sheet, the height of impact is low and in case of a light print sheet, the height of impact becomes high.
Therefore according to the paper discharge base disclosed in the publication, a print sheet is not impacted to an optimum position of the impact wall plate depending on the paper quality of the print sheet owing to a difference in the height of impact caused by the paper quality (weight) of the print sheet as described above. Therefore, there is a drawback that the impact cannot be damped effectively.
The present invention has been carried out in order to resolve the above-described drawbacks of the conventional technology. It is an object thereof to effectively damp impact of a print sheet discharged from a printing section. Particularly, it is an object thereof to promote durability against impact of a print sheet.
Further, it is another object thereof to further promote strength of a surface of a damping member and damping operation of the damping member. Further, it is an object thereof to smoothly drop a print sheet along the surface of the damping member in accordance with property of the surface.
Further, it is another object thereof to excellently align a print sheet which is impacted to a damping member and drops.
It is still another object thereof to alleviate impact sound of a print sheet and spring back of the print sheet caused by impact.
Further, it is another object thereof to gradually reduce kinetic energy of a print sheet impacted to a surface of a damping member. Further, it is an object thereof to effectively prevent spring back of a print sheet caused by a damping member thereby.
It is still another object thereof to achieve further sound pacifying formation of an impact sound of a print sheet by a simple constitution. Further, it is an object thereof to further alleviate spring back of a print sheet caused by impact and excellently align a sheet.
Particularly, it is an object thereof to make a damping member further easy to escape in the direction of discharging a print sheet (space portion side) and drop a print sheet impacted to a damping member further in a constant direction along a surface of the damping member.
Further, it is another object thereof to dispose a damping member at a position capable of damping effectively an impact of a print sheet in correspondence with a paper quality of the print sheet.
It is still another object thereof to be capable of adjusting a position of the damping member such that the impact of the print sheet can effectively be damped in correspondence with the paper quality of the print sheet.
In order to achieve the above-described object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus including an impact wall 70 impacted by print sheet P discharged from a printing section,
a damping member 78 provided at an impact position of the impact wall 70, and
a paper mounting floor 72 loaded with the print sheet P which is impacted to the damping member 78 and drops,
wherein the damping member 78 is constituted by a sponge sheet 84 and a protection sheet 86 attached to a surface of the sponge sheet 84 impacted by the print sheet P.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the print sheet P is impacted to the damping member 78, the impact force is transmitted from the protection sheet 86 to the sponge sheet 84 and is damped by the sponge sheet 84. Further, the impact sound is alleviated. The sponge sheet 84 is protected by the protection sheet 86 and accordingly, durability against impact of the print sheet P is promoted.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the paper discharge base according to the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus of the first aspect, in which the protection sheet 86 of the damping member 78 is made of polyethylene terephthalate.
According to the second aspect, by applying a film made of polyethylene terephthalate having high strength, damping operation of the sponge sheet 84 is promoted by thinning the protection sheet 86 and the sponge sheet is protected sufficiently against the impact force of the print sheet P. Further, the film made of polyethylene terephthalate is provided with a property in which a surface thereof is smooth. Therefore, the print sheet P impacted to the protection sheet 86 is made to drop smoothly along the surface of the protection sheet 86.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus according to the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus of the first or the second aspect, further including regulating faces 80 projected from a portion of the damping member 78 on a lower side of an impact position thereof to a side of an apparatus main body 14 on both sides of the impact wall 70 formed on the lower side of the impact position at which the print sheet P is impacted to the damping member 78 for leading a front end edge portion of the dropping print sheet P to the lower side while being brought into sliding contact therewith.
According to the third aspect, the print sheet P impacted to the surface of the damping member 78 drops by its own weight. The print sheet drops slidingly in a state in which the front end edge portion is being brought into contact with the surface of the damping member 78. Further, when the print sheet P slidingly drops to a position of a lower end portion 78B of the damping member 78, both ends of the front end edge portion of the print sheet P are brought into sliding contact with the regulating faces 80. Further, the print sheet P is successively stacked on the paper mounting floor 72 in a state in which the front end edge portion is aligned and contained.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus according to the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus according to any one of the first through the third aspects, in which the damping member 78 includes a space portion 92 on a rear face side of the impact position of the print sheet P.
According to the four the aspect of the present invention, when the print sheet P is impacted to the damping member 78, by the impact force, the damping member 78 is elastically deformed to escape in a direction of discharging the print sheet P constituting a side of the space portion 92. Thereby, both of the impact sound of the print sheet P and spring back of the print sheet P caused by impact are alleviated.
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus according to the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus of the fourth aspect, in which the lower end portion 78B of the damping member 78 is provided in the direction of discharging the print sheet P relative to an upper end portion 78A of the damping member 78.
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, a surface of the damping member 78 is formed in a shape of a gradually curved face inclined in the direction of discharging the print sheet P gradually from the upper end portion 78A to the lower end portion 78B. The print sheet P impacted to the surface of the damping member 78 drops along the curved face of the damping plate 78 while being directed to the discharge direction along the curved surface of the damping plate 78, that is, while kinetic energy of the print sheet P is being gradually reduced and led to the regulating portions 80. The print sheet p is smoothly stacked onto the paper mounting floor 72 by preventing spring back caused by the damping plate 78.
According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the paper discharge base of am image forming apparatus according to the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus according to the fifth aspect, in which either one of the upper end portion 78A and the lower end portion 78B of the damping member 78 is fixed to a side of the impact wall 70 and the other thereof is held slidably in up and down directions relative to the side of the impact wall 70.
According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, in case the upper end portion 78A (lower end portion 78B) is fixed, when the print sheet P is impacted to the damping member 78, the damping member 78 is elastically deformed in the discharge direction and the lower end portion 78B (upper end portion 78A) is lifted (lowered). Thereby, the damping plate 78 becomes easy to escape in the direction of discharging the print sheet P constituting the side of the space portion 92. Further, the position of the lower end portion 78B (upper end portion 78A) of the damping plate 78 is held by a receive portion 88B and accordingly, the print sheet P impacted to the damping plate 78 drops in a constant direction along the surface of the damping member 78.
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus according to the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus of any one of the fourth through the sixth aspects, further including position adjusting means 94 provided at the impact wall 70 and capable of adjusting the position of the damping member 78 in the up and down directions.
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, the damping member 78 is freely disposed at a position of effectively damping impact of the print sheet P in correspondence with paper quality of the print sheet P.
According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus according to the paper discharge base of an image forming apparatus of the seventh aspect, in which the position adjusting means 94 includes a click mechanism for positioning the position of the damping member 78 in the up and down directions to a predetermined position.
According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, the damping member 78 is freely positioned to a position of effectively damping impact of the print sheet P in correspondence with a paper quality of the print sheet P having a predetermined paper quality.

Paper discharge base of image forming apparatus


The details of an apparatus and method are disclosed for processing a message which is missing a Ciphering Activation Time for DPCH when this is required, the message being one of a number of possible messages, namely a Radio Bearer Setup message, a Radio Bearer Reconfiguration message, a Radio Bearer Release message, a Transport Channel Reconfiguration message, a Physical Channel Reconfiguration message, a Cell Update Confirm message, a URA Update Confirm message and a UTRAN Mobility Information message.

1. Technical Field
This application relates to UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) in general, and to a method and apparatus for processing messages in a universal mobile telecommunications system in particular.
2. Description of the Related Art
UMTS is a third generation public land mobile telecommunication system. Various standardization bodies are known to publish and set standards for UMTS, each in their respective areas of competence. For instance, the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) has been known to publish and set standards for GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) based UMTS, and the 3GPP2 (Third Generation Partnership Project 2) has been known to publish and set standards for CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) based UMTS. Within the scope of a particular standardization body, specific partners publish and set standards in their respective areas.
Consider a wireless mobile device, generally referred to as user equipment (UE), that complies with the 3GPP specifications for the UMTS protocol. The 3GPP 25.331 specification, v.3.15.0, referred to herein as the 25.331 specification, addresses the subject of UMTS RRC (Radio Resource Control) protocol requirements between the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) and the UE.
The 25.331 specification describes generic processing of information elements (IEs) that are included in protocol messages. Section 188.8.131.52 describes the processing of the 'Ciphering Mode Info' IE and includes clauses that describe the IE 'Ciphering Activation Time for DPCH' that is an optional element with the 'Ciphering Mode Info' IE. This section of the specification is worded to ensure that the 'Ciphering Activation Time for DPCH' IE is present when the message being processed is a Security Mode Command message and there are Transparent Mode (TM) radio bearers in existence. Furthermore, section 22.214.171.124 of the 25.331 specification enforces behaviour on the UTRAN to state that it must include this IE in the Security Mode Command message when TM radio bearers exist.
Other messages exist that can include the 'Ciphering Mode Info' IE, in addition to the Security Mode Command message. The inventors have realised that conditions may exist in relation to these messages where the 'Ciphering Mode Activation Time for DPCH' IE would be required for the UE to exhibit logical behaviour, but no mechanism is specified for ensuring that it is available. These messages include the five reconfiguration messages specified in section 8.2.2, the Cell Update Confirm and URA Update Confirm messages described in section 8.3.1 and the UTRAN Mobility Information message specified in section 8.3.3 of the 25.331 specification.

Method and apparatus for processing messages in a universal mobile telecommunications system


An image processing apparatus 1 includes an image region dividing portion 105 configured to divide a shot image into a plurality of image regions so that an amount of change of an image quality is within a predetermined range when the shot image is blurred using a blur kernel depending on an object distance and an angle of view of the shot image, a blur kernel generating portion 106 configured to calculate the blur kernel for each image region divided by the image region dividing portion 105, and an image processing calculating portion 107 configured to generate a blur-added image by performing a convolution calculation for the shot image using the blur kernel calculated by the blur kernel generating portion 106.

Recently, a compact digital camera which has a large-size image sensor to obtain a good blur is proposed. However, when the size of the image sensor is large, it is difficult to reduce the size of the camera since an imaging optical system is also enlarged. Patent Literature 1 (PLT 1) discloses a camera that adds a blur by obtaining information of an object distance while taking an image of substantially a deep focus (an image of an in-focus state for all regions) and performing a predetermined image processing for a shot image. Non-Patent Literature 1 (NPL 1) discloses, with respect to a method of adding the blur, a method of using information of an imaging optical system to use an analytical function such as Gaussian or a thermal diffusion equation. Non-Patent Literature 2 (NPL2) discloses a configuration of performing a high-speed processing for such an image processing with hardware using an accelerator such as GPU.

Image processing apparatus, image pickup apparatus, image processing method, and image processing program


A system for communicating through the skin of a patient, the system including an internal communication device implanted inside the body of a patient and an external communication device. The external communication device includes an external transmitter which transmits a carrier signal into the body of the patient during communication from the internal communication device to the external communication device. The internal communication device includes an internal modulator which modulates the carrier signal with information by selectively reflecting the carrier signal or not reflecting the carrier signal. The external communication device demodulates the carrier signal by detecting when the carrier signal is reflected and when the carrier signal is not reflected through the skin of the patient. When the reflected carrier signal is detected, it is interpreted as data of a first state, and when the reelected carrier signal is not detected, it is interpreted as data of a second state. Accordingly, the internal communication device consumes relatively little power because the carrier signal used to carry the information is derived from the external communication device. Further, transfer of data is also very efficient because the period needed to modulate information of either the first state or the second state onto the carrier signal is the same. In one embodiment, the carrier signal operates in the ultrasound frequency range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasound communication system having an internal communication device imbedded in a confined exclosure and separated from an external communication device by a medium capable of transmitting ultrasonic frequency signals, and more particularly, to a communication system wherein data stored in the internal communication device is transferred to the external communication device by modulating an ultrasound carrier signal, transmitted by the external communication device, with the data by either reflecting the carrier signal or not reflecting the carrier signal, and recovering the data at the external communication device by detecting when the carrier signal is either reflected or not reflected through the medium.
2. Background Art
With recent advances in the field of microelectronics, it is now common to subdermally implant semiconductor chips and related circuitry into the body of a patient. The chips and circuitry are used to control a variety of bodily functions, and/or monitor anyone of a number of physiological attributes of a patient. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,391,190 entitled "Variation in Cardiac Chamber Volume or Pressure as a Controlling Parameter" issued to Pederson on Feb. 21, 1995, discloses the use of a cardiac pacemaker system that uses a subdermally implanted microprocessor to control the heart beat rate of the patient based on a heart and respiratory measurement. In yet another example, Carney in U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,040 entitled "Apparatus and Method for Determining A Plurality of Hemodynamic Variables From A Single Chronically Implanted Absolute Pressure Sensor", issued Nov. 29, 1994, discloses a telemetry system wherein circuitry subdermally implanted into a patient is used to transmit blood pressure measurements to a receiver external to the body.
One problem confronting bio-medical engineers developing transdermal communication devices is providing electrical power to the chronically implanted circuitry inside the body. The majority of implanted devices are powered using a battery. The power of the battery eventually drains, and needs to be replaced. The most common way to replace the battery is through surgery. Prior to the expiration of the battery, an operation is performed on the patient and either the battery is replaced, or a new device is implanted into the patient. Surgery, however, is usually a major ordeal for the patient, is costly, and is generally undesirable. Another way to provide power to an implanted device is through the use of a split transformer, where one coil of the transformer is located underneath the skin and the other coil is positioned outside the skin. The transformer is used to replenish power to an implanted power supply, such as a battery, when needed. See for example the above referenced Carney patent. The problem with transformers is that they require a coil to be implanted under the skin. The implanted coil also creates a widely dispersed alternating magnetic field which may interfere with other devices, such as pacemakers.
Another problem confronting bio-medical engineers is providing two-way communication through the skin of the patient. It is known to surgically implant wires through the skin of the patient. While this approach facilities two-way communication, it is generally undesirable. Chronically implanted wires piercing the skin tend to be uncomfortable for the patient, are unsanitary, and may cause infection. Radio telemetry is another known approach for communicating between an implanted device and an external device. With radio telemetry, data is transmitted either into or out of the body using radio waves. The problem with radio telemetry is that a transmitter/receiver is needed inside the body of the patient. These transmitter/receivers tend to be very sophisticated and expensive. Furthermore, the transmitter/receiver inside the body consumes a relatively large amount of power, particularly during broadcasting. In battery powered radio telemetry transdermal communication devices, the frequent broadcasting of data from the body to an external receiver tends to significantly reduce the life of the battery.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,259 entitled "Optical Transdermal Linking Method for Transmitting Power and Receiving an Internal Data Stream While Receiving a Second Data Stream,", issued to Davidson on Feb. 7, 1995, discloses an optical transdermal system. The system of Davidson provides an internal module implanted underneath the skin of a patient, and an external module. The internal module includes a photodetector, a preamplifier, a clock recovery circuitry for detecting an incoming optical signal, a laser diode and driver for transmitting an optical signal, and a photo-cell for providing power to the internal module. The external module includes one or more laser diodes for transmitting an optical signal to the internal module, and a photodetector for receiving an optical signal from the internal module. Davidson teaches two ways in which power can be provided to the internal module. One way is to provide the external module with an unmodulated laser diode which is dedicated for power transmission and a second laser diode dedicated for data transmission. Alternatively, a single laser diode can be used for both power transmission and data transmission. Regardless of the number of laser diodes used in the external module, the photo-cell of the internal module absorbs light transmitted through the skin of the patient by the laser diode of the external module. The light energy is then converted to electrical energy for powering the internal module.
A problem associated with the system of Davidson is that it requires the transmission of a relatively high power optical energy signal into the body to provide and replenish power to the internal module. The internal module also requires a photo-cell to convert the light energy into electrical energy. This process is generally inefficient, particularly through the skin and tissue of the patient. The internal module is also required to drive its own laser diode when transmitting data external to the body. Laser diodes consume a relatively large amount of power, which tends to drain the power of the photo-cell. Consequently, the Davidson device is less than ideal because the patient would be required to repeatedly replenish the photo-cell of the internal module.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,589 entitled "Biomedical Implant with High Speed, Low Power Two Way Telemetry", issued to Slocum on Feb. 18, 1986 discloses a transdermal communication system that relies on an external coil and an internal coil implanted under the skin of a patient. During data transmission from inside to outside of the body, the external coil generates a 64 KHz carrier signal. The impedance of the internal coil is then modulated using a switch. For example, in transmitting a binary zero, the carrier signal is modulated for two cycles. With a binary one, the carrier is modulated for six cycles. The modulated carrier signal is then re-radiated by the internal coil to the external coil. The re-radiated signal is then demodulated to recover the transmitted data by measuring the length of time in which the impedance of the internal coil is modulated by the switch. The problem with this arrangement is that modulation of the data, particularly a binary one, takes up to six cycles.
Accordingly, a transdermal communication system is needed wherein the energy required for communication between the internal and external communication devices is substantially provided by the external communication device and wherein the data transfer from the internal communication device to the external communication device is efficient.

Ultrasound transdermal communication system and method


Method and system for providing an optimized shopping list for grocery items based on preferences such as geographical market, retail grocery brand, dietary requirement of the shopper. Shoppers may retrieve, and update a stored list or generate a new list at a regular time interval, taking the advantage of time-dependent movement of the price.

The Internet is by far the largest, most extensive publicly available network of interconnected computer networks. The Internet has become an extremely popular source of virtually all kinds of information. Increasingly sophisticated computers, software, and networking technology have made Internet access relatively straightforward for end users.
As a result, on-line shopping is increasing. On-line shopping continues to evolve from a means of providing an easy way of accessing information on the Internet to a virtual marketplace. With the growth of on-line commerce, price comparison has become a dominant theme for making an informed purchasing decision for on-line shoppers. A simple form of comparison shopping would be sequential visiting the web site of various vendors and comparing prices, clearly a time consuming and laborious task for the shopper.
The on-line shopping has also penetrated the grocery industry, although the grocery shopping is characterized by many factors, for example, the freshness of the produce, the delivery cost, which are unique to the on-line shopping. In addition, the grocery industry is also facing the challenge of decreasing customer loyalty. The proliferation of flyers (also called preprints, inserts) in the daily newspapers is evidence of the consumers' desire for grocery deals. Proactive consumers, often called the prosumers, will plan their grocery shopping trips based on the deals advertised in the weekend grocery flyers. Therefore, the grocery industry continues to spend considerable resource producing these flyers on a weekly basis.
There are several existing comparison shopping web sites that identifies a best price for a single item, for example:
http://froogle.google.com
http://www.shopzilla.com
These sites, however, cannot automatically provide the best price for a list of heterogeneous items. They are essentially search engines that allow a shopper to enter a key word. In response to the shopper's query, the search engines return a set of corresponding web-based matches listing the vendors, or vendors' web sites that offer the desired items. The technology is based on a web crawler systematically accessing web pages by sequentially following hypertext links from page to page. The crawler indexes the pages for use by the search engines from information about a web page as provided by its address or Universal Resource Locator (URL), metadata, and other criteria found within the page. The crawler is run periodically to update previously stored data and to append information about newly created web pages. The information compiled by the crawler is stored in a metadata repository or database. The search engines search this repository to identify matches for the shopper-defined search rather than attempt to find matches in real time.
On the other hand, at the on-line shopping site of a retailer, for example at
http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.bestbuy.ca/home.asp
while a shopper can prepare a list of items for purchase, the price provided at these sites is the selling price for the product at that on-line shopping site and price comparison feature is only possible by sequentially visiting different sites. However, sequential comparison shopping can be inaccurate in that an individual shopper may not cover all the web sites offering the desired items, potentially leading to missed shopping opportunities such as lowest price, better quality or service and so forth.
Similarly, most major grocery store chains maintain an on-line presence, many of which also offer the ability to prepare a shopping list:
http://www.loeb.ca/
http://www.heb.com/welcome/index.jsp
Both grocery stores and third-party sites also post the weekly flyers
http://www.loblaws.ca/this_weeks_flyer.html
http://www.flyertimes.com/
Those sites, however, do not provide price comparison.
A known method describes steps of letting an online comparison shopping site create a purchase order for purchasing all items on a list. However, the method of finding a solution is limited to a dichotomic situation: either an optimal solution is found or it is not found, and if it is not found then the user is notified of failure. It also does not address any other variables which could be correlated to the price under consideration. Moreover, the method does not utilize more than one variable concurrently to reach an optimized solution.
There is, therefore, a need to provide a method and system that provides shoppers an optimized shopping list based on more than one variable which directly affect the shopper.

System and method for providing optimized shopping list


Disclosed are topical compositions which provide good coverage of skin imperfections, e.g., pores and uneven skin tone, while retaining a natural skin appearance. The compositions contain a charged particulate material dispersed throughout a thickened, hydrophilic carrier. The charged particulate material allows the compositions to have a Coverage Efficiency Ratio of greater than about 20.

Consumers have used cosmetic products to care for their skin since the dawn of civilization. These products have ranged from simple, commonly-available materials such as honey and plant extracts to, in recent years, hi-tech synthetic ingredients in a wide variety and array of product forms.
Numerous compounds have been described in the art as being useful for regulating skin condition, including regulating fine lines, wrinkles and other forms of uneven or rough surface texture associated with aged or photodamaged skin. However, many materials require multiple applications over an extended period to provide such appearance benefits. It would be advantageous to provide a topical composition which provides a more immediate improvement in the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, pores and other forms of undesirable skin surface texture.
One approach has been to incorporate particulate materials, such as TiO.sub.2, into skin care compositions. For example, emulsions may contain TiO2 as an opacifying agent to provide a white appearance to the emulsion. Commercial sunscreening compositions may employ such particulates to impart a sunscreening effect. Several publications have also disclosed the use of TiO.sub.2 in skin care compositions. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,559 and patent application Nos. DE 245815, WO 94/09756 and JP 08188723. In addition, R. Emmert has stated the desire to use optical means to formulate products that give the consumer an immediate, visual improvement (Dr. Ralf Emmert, Quantification of the Soft-Focus Effect, Cosmetics & Toiletries, Vol. III, July 1996, pp. 57-61). Emmert discloses that one can mechanically fill in skin lines with a reflective substance such as TiO.sub.2. However, Emmert teaches that such reflective materials result in an undesirable mask-like appearance, and that one should therefore use a material that diffuses light yet is sufficiently transparent to avoid the mask-like appearance.
Known topical compositions containing reflective materials such as TiO.sub.2, generally either do not provide coverage sufficient to reduce the appearance of skin imperfections, or tend to result in unacceptable skin whitening or other unnatural appearance when applied to the skin. It has also now been found that materials which primarily diffuse light, rather than reflect light, do not provide good coverage of skin imperfections when used in amounts which are aesthetically acceptable to consumers. More particularly, when used at relatively high concentrations to provide coverage, these materials suffer from unacceptable skin whitening.
Additionally, reflective particulate materials, such as TiO.sub.2, tend to feel dry and add to the negative perception that the composition is not being absorbed into the skin and/or that the composition is not providing a skin conditioning benefit. As a result, relatively high concentrations contribute to amplify these negative qualities. It has also been found that reflective particulate materials tend to agglomerate, e.g., cluster together. When these materials agglomerate greater amounts of particulate materials are required to provide sufficient coverage, which also adds to the negative perceptions. Thus, it would be desirable to realize aesthetically acceptable degrees of skin coverage even though relatively low concentrations of TiO.sub.2 are used.
In addition, it is desirable for cosmetic compositions to have good aesthetics during application onto the skin and while on the skin. Good aesthetics means that the composition (i) is light and nongreasy, (ii) has a smooth, silky feel upon the skin, (iii) spreads easily, and (iv) absorbs quickly. These desirable aesthetics are often achieved by incorporating thickening agents into a composition. However, it is known that particulate materials, such as metal oxides, are often not compatible with many thickening agents, such as carboxylic acid polymers, and skin care actives.
The present invention overcomes the problems discussed hereinbefore (e.g., unacceptable skin whitening, aesthetics, and formulation compatibility issues) by employing charged, surface-treated, reflective particulate materials which are dispersed in a thickened hydrophilic carrier. Surface treated particulates are known in the cosmetic industry, however, their use heretofore has been typically limited to non-aqueous phases and anhydrous-based products such as lipsticks, powders, mascaras, and to heavy, oil-based emulsions. It has been found in the present invention that charged, surface treated reflective particulates (i) are compatible with polymeric thickeners, such as carboxylic acid polymers, (ii) can provide acceptable degrees of skin coverage at relatively low concentrations, and (iii) can be formulated into compositions having excellent aesthetics. Such compositions are especially suitable for providing an immediate visual improvement in skin appearance when topically applied.
In light of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide topical compositions suitable for imparting an immediate visual improvement in skin appearance.
It is another object of the present invention to provide topical compositions containing a reflective particulate material, e.g., TiO.sub.2, which provides desirable coverage of skin imperfections such as pores and uneven skin tone, while maintaining a natural skin appearance (e.g., without unacceptable skin whitening).
It is another object of the present invention to provide topical compositions which provide especially effective skin coverage while using relatively small amounts of reflective particulate material.
It is yet another object of the present invention is to provide such topical compositions which are additionally useful for regulating skin appearance and/or condition, especially regulating textural or tonal discontinuities in skin (e.g., pores and uneven skin color).
Another object of the present invention is to provide topical composition that utilize reflective particulate materials which are compatible with other composition components such as, actives and polymeric thickeners.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide methods of improving skin appearance and/or condition by topical application of the skin care compositions described herein.

Skin care compositions and method of improving skin appearance


A messaging system configured for recommending messages is provided. The messaging system machine trains a prediction model associated with a user based on past review and response times for past messages. During runtime, the messaging system generates a predicted user action time for each new message based on the prediction model and tags each new message with a corresponding predicted user action time. Based on an amount of available time, the predicted user action time for each new message, and importance for each new message, the messaging system determines a recommended set of new messages that the user should read and respond to during the available time, whereby a sum of the predicted user action time of the recommended set of new messages is equal to or less than the available time. The recommended set of new messages are visually distinguished for the user.

Typically, messaging systems (e.g., e-mail systems, chatting systems) present a user with messages in a chronological order. For example, messages are presented in a descending order based on time of receipt. Usually the only indication that a message may be important is if a sender has indicated that the message should be marked as important (e.g., selected a high priority indicator). This may result in the user being overwhelmed with email and not being able to properly manage their messages or conversations (e.g., based on available time or context).

Context and time prediction based message recommendation system


The present invention provides a new packaging form of a semiconductor diode, which is fabricated by using low-temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) technology. The fabrication method is low-cost and the resulting chip form semiconductor diode has good hermeticity and high reliability. The fabrication method includes the steps of: (a) providing a ceramic green tape having a through hole for positioning a diode die; (b) positioning a diode die in the through hole; (c) sandwiching the diode die between two ceramic green tapes having printed conductive layers facing the electrode surfaces of the diode die; (d) laminating the ceramic tapes into a compact such that the conductive layers connect to the electrodes of the diode die; (e) firing the laminated parts to form a monolithic sintered body; and (f) forming end terminals, and solder-plating the end terminals to finish a ceramic chip of the semiconductor diode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to package fabrication technology. More particularly, the present invention provides a new packaging form of a semiconductor diode, which is fabricated by using low-temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) technology. The resultant chip form semiconductor diode has improved hermeticity and reliability, and the fabrication method is also simple and low-cost.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Regular semiconductor diode packaging methods can be classified into three types; namely, the metal or ceramic container package, the plastic molding package, and the spin-coating glass package. According to the metal or ceramic container package, a diode die is placed into the cavity of a metal or ceramic container; then, the two opposite electrode surfaces of the diode die are connected to conductive elements by soft soldering or hard brazing. This method does not achieve a compact assembly, and the resulting package is poor in hermeticity and reliability. According to the plastic molding package, the diode die is connected to the conductive elements first, and then encapsulated with plastics. A compact packaging assembly can be obtained by the plastic molding package; however, because the inner conductor cannot be processed at high temperatures, ceramics cannot be used to replace the sealing plastics to guarantee a better hermeticity. Thus, the hermeticity problem is still a concern. As to the spin-coating glass package, refractory metals such as molybdenum or tungsten are used for connection with the diode die. The diode die is connected to the electrode element made of molybdenum or tungsten to form a sub-assembly, and the sub-assembly is spin-coated by a slurry of glass powder and then fired at a high temperature to form a good hermitic packaging. However, the use of molybdenum or tungsten increases the processing complexity, and the resulting diode component, moreover, is of bead form, limiting its usage.
The trend for increasing the volume efficiency, and reliability of electrical components requires the development of the chip form semiconductor diode. The core technology for fabricating chip form diodes includes:
(1) the thin-film method--coating, photo-lithography, and etching; and PA1 (2) the thick-film method--tape casting, screen-printing, and laminating. PA1 (a) providing a ceramic green tape having a through hole for positioning a diode die; PA1 (b) positioning a diode die in the through hole; PA1 (c) sandwiching the diode die between two ceramic green tapes having printed conductive layers facing the electrode surfaces of the diode die; PA1 (d) laminating the ceramic tapes into a compact such that the conductive layers connect to the electrodes of the diode die; PA1 (e) firing the laminated parts to form a monolithic sintered body; and PA1 (f) forming end terminals, and solder-plating the end terminals to finish a ceramic chip of the semiconductor diode.
The thin-film process is largely used for the fabrication of diode dies, while the thick-film process is largely for packaging. The present invention relates to a packaging process using low-temperature cofired technology. This technology can effectively reduce the processing complexity and at the same time increase the hermeticity and reliability.
A process for manufacturing resin-molded semiconductor devices is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,603. In the process, a semiconductor pellet is brazed to a pair of axial leads to form a sub-assembly, and then an epoxy resin is deposited on the sub-assembly and hardened. This packaging using plastic molding cannot resist high temperatures and its hermeticity is not sufficient. A similar process for fabricating semiconductor devices is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,139, in which aluminum metalization layers are applied to the top and bottom of a semiconductor die and are used for a high temperature brazing of contact members to the die.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,098 discloses a method of manufacturing an encapsulated semiconductor device with a can type housing. In this method, a semiconductor die is inserted into a prefabricated plastic can, followed by filling the can with curable plastic compounds.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,535 discloses a die attachment method using nonconductive adhesive for use in high density interconnected assemblies. The method affixes integrated circuit chips to a substrate by using a thermoplastic polyimide adhesive instead of conductive materials. The method is very effective for reducing package sizes, but it restricts the flexibility of the circuit design.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,216 discloses a small outline integrated circuit package, in which epoxy resins are used for postmolding. This package has a low profile that allows it to be used in thin profile, high density electronic assemblies. However, the hermeticity and reliability are still not comparable to that of ceramic packaging.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,550,086 describes a fabrication method of ceramic chip form semiconductor diode. According to the method, a diode die is attached to a plate-like ceramic body element having external electrodes, and encapsulated by applying glass paste thereto. After the external electrodes and the electrodes of the diode die are connected by a conductive layer, they are covered by an over glaze to finish the package.

Method of making a semiconductor diode from laminated ceramic tape


A connector assembly for connecting a first pair of wires associated with a DC power source to a second pair of wires associated with a DC powered device. The connector assembly includes a run portion having insulation piercing contacts for electrically engaging the first pair of wires. A tap portion of the connector assembly may also include insulation piercing contacts for electrically engaging the second pair of wires. The run portion and the tap portion may be provided in separate housing assemblies that are releasably engageable or may be provided in an integrated housing assembly.

Assemblies for tapping into electrical wires are generally known. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,159,035 describes a connector assembly for penetrating the insulation and establishing an electrical connection with insulated electrical wires or conductors, thereby eliminating the need to strip the insulation away from the insulated wires. U.S. Pat. No. 3,594,703 describes an electrical tapoff connector having an insulation-piercing screw means which, when tightened onto an insulated line cable, pierces the insulation of the cable and mechanically and electrically engages the conductor thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,449 describes a snap-on light socket having sharply pointed portions which function to pierce the insulation of a wire to effect an electrical connection. U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,709 describes an assembly for electrically and mechanically connecting one or more flexible conductive members with one or more insulated wires using one or more insulation piercing terminals.
While such assemblies generally work for their intended purpose, a need exists for an improved assembly, particular one which may be used in connection with low voltage DC power systems.

Connector assembly for establishing an electrical connection with wires


A modular rail and post fence system which may be fabricated, assembled, and installed without fasteners, adhesives or welding. The fence system includes a plurality of rail assemblies with each rail assembly formed from a pair of panels. Each panel has a pair of sidewalls joined together at an angle to form an angled edge wherein the pair of panels are joined together to form a rail assembly. A plurality of elongated posts are also provided. Each elongated post has at least one longitudinal recess. At least one pair of notches in the pair of longitudinal recesses is provided whereby the angled edges of each rail assembly are received in one pair of notches of the elongated posts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a modular rail and post fence system that may be constructed and assembled without any fasteners, adhesives or soldering. In particular, the present invention is directed to both a decorative and structural modular rail and post fence system wherein a small number of post components may be chosen to form a wide variety of post configurations. The modular rail and post fence system may be roll formed from conventional flat metal pieces, may be shipped in component parts for storage and may be distributed and shipped to locations in the field for assembly.
2. Prior Art
Various types of rail fencing systems have been proposed in the past. In a typical system, a plurality of posts and a plurality of rails are manufactured and then shipped to distribution or sales points. The individual components are then shipped to the installation location where the posts are installed and the rails are attached to the posts by fasteners. Decreasing the costs associated with shipping and storage is desirable.
In an effort to provide modular fence systems and to ease installation, various types of connection mechanisms have been proposed in the past.
Arnd (U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,602) discloses a pair of tubular shaped pieces 1 and 2 having a square cross section which are joined together. Connecting member 3 with a flexible projection 4 joins the tubular pieces together.
Murdock (U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,938) discloses a fence system with tubular rails 36. Connectors 41 extending from fence post 12 are received in the open ends of rails 36.
Jenkins (U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,067) discloses a display case with rail horizontal member 24 which is pinned to post frame member 14 by a hook member 60 received in open end 62 of rail 24.
Bisch (U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,564) in FIGS. 17 through 19, discloses a metal fence with a rail 204 which is held to a frame by elastic, spring-like pin 210.
Wittig et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,042,296) discloses a variety of panel fasteners. FIG. 11 discloses a fastener 500 with legs 513a and b to lock an adjoining panel. Ends 530a and b include caroming surfaces 580a and b and locking surfaces 582a and b.
Walmsley (U.S. Pat. No. 6,631,887) in FIG. 6, discloses a rail 66 with side edges turned inward.
A number of proposals in the past have suggested eliminating conventional fasteners to secure rails to posts, for example, Schall et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,166). Banks (U.S. Pat. No. 236,755) discloses a metal tubular fence system wherein the rails are assembled without fasteners although the fence posts must be soldered together. There, nevertheless, remains a need to produce a rail and post fence system that eliminates the need for any fasteners, either in manufacturing or assembling.
There have also been known snap lock joint connections for metal panels, such as button punch or Pittsburgh lock connections.
It would also be desirable to be able to store and to ship the rails and posts and components thereof in nested fashion to reduce shipping space and shipping costs.
Accordingly, it is a principal object and purpose of the present invention to provide a modular rail and post fence system which may be constructed, assembled, and installed without use of any fasteners, any adhesives or any soldering.
It is a further object and purpose of the present invention to provide a modular rail and post fence system wherein the individual components may be roll formed from flat sheets of metal.
It is a further object and purpose of the present invention to provide posts formed of a pair of panels or components so that a small number of post panels or components may be selectively chosen to form a wide variety of post configurations.
It is a further object and purpose to provide a modular rail and post fence system with hollow post and rails that may be filled with initially liquid material that cures to a solid to form a structural fence system.
It is a further object and purpose to provide a decorative modular rail and post fence system that may be simply converted to a structural fence system.
It is a further object and purpose of the present invention to provide a modular rail and post fence system wherein the individual components may be nested together for savings on shipping, transportation and storage.
It is a further object and purpose to provide a modular rail and post fence system with adaptors between rail and post components to accommodate uneven ground conditions.

Process for producing a rail and post fence system


A method for manufacturing a massage wear-resistant treadmill deck and a finished product thereof are provided. The method includes step 1: providing a mold, the mold having a plurality of cavities thereon, a wear-resistant material being injected into the cavities of the mold; step 2: placing a deck in the mold so that the wear-resistant material is bonded to a surface of the deck to form a plurality of massage protrusions on the deck; and step 3: demoulding the deck from the mold, the surface of the deck being formed with the massage protrusions to form the massage wear-resistant treadmill deck. A wear-resistant layer having the massage protrusions is first formed in the mold, and then the deck is placed into the mold to bond with the wear-resistant layer to form the massage wear-resistant treadmill deck. The manufacturing cost is reduced and the manufacturing mobility is improved.

A conventional treadmill comprises a treadmill belt, a wear-resistant deck, and a running deck, and so on. The wear-resistant deck is made by weaving or knitting or through of a petrochemical material to form a bundle or a roll of wear-resistant belt. The aforementioned wear-resistant belt is cut in accordance with the size of the running deck to form the wear-resistant deck structure. The wear-resistant belt may have different shapes, such as a flat shape, a curved shape or having massage particles. Then, the wear-resistant deck is mounted on the running deck, and finally the treadmill belt is mounted on the wear-resistant deck. The wear-resistant deck having massage particles provides a massage effect when the user runs on the treadmill.
The existing manufacturing method has the following shortcomings:
(1) The qualification rate of the massage particles manufactured by the existing method is low. The existing wear-resistant deck having a massage function is first cut according the size of the running deck and then sent to a processing machine for pressurization, so that the wear-resistant deck is formed with a plurality of massage particles. During the manufacturing process of the above-mentioned structure, in order to form the massage particles on the surface of the wear-resistant deck by stamping, the wear-resistant deck may break because the entire wear-resistant deck is made of a wear-resistant material.
(2) Cost waste: Manufacturers need to order quite a number of wear-resistant belts. These wear-resistant belts are made of wear-resistant materials, which have a high cost and occupy a space. Hoarding the wear-resistant belts also creates problems with the manufacturers cash flow.
Accordingly, the inventor of the present invention has devoted himself based on his many years of practical experiences to solve these problems.

Method for manufacturing massage wear-resistant treadmill deck and finished product thereof


A gait analysis system, which includes a neural network with a recurrent neural network layer and a fully connected layer, that receives sensor data indicative of an individual's gait and outputs an assessment regarding the individual's health. The neural network is trained using training data indicative of abnormal gaits and normal gaits. To analyze the training data and the sensor data, the recurrent neural network layer parses each piece of data into a series of windows and analyzes each window in series to generate a context vector characterizing each window and the previously analyzed windows. The fully connected layer, having been trained to differentiate between normal gaits and abnormal gaits based on context vectors characterizing the training data, is used to generate a final assessment characterizing the user gate as normal or abnormal using one or more of the context vectors characterizing the sensor data.

Human gait is controlled by a complex set of interactions between multiple organ systems. Keeping balance while standing on two feet with relatively small surface area requires very complex and delicate interactions between the musculoskeletal system on the one hand and the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and the central nervous system (CNS) on the other. This task becomes even more complicated considering that, while walking, the whole body stands only on one foot while the other foot is lifted and has to be put back on the ground in synchrony with the other foot. Mechanically, this process requires proper muscle tone and strength, proper bone and joint function, and very fast communications between these end organs and the CNS.
The organ systems involved in coordinating this complex task include muscles with specialized microscopic organelles, including golgi tendon organs that sense tension in the tendons and spindles that sense the speed of muscle stretch. This sensory information is transferred, along with the proprioceptive data carried through the PNS, to different parts of the CNS for a real-time analysis and correction to keep the body in a stable position while moving at different speeds and directions. Keeping the body in a stable position requires the integrity of the PNS to transfer the peripheral input to the CNS where complex back-and-forth interactions between the thalamus, basal ganglia, the sensory-motor cortex, and the cerebellum provides a real-time guidance back to the musculoskeletal system.
Any deterioration in the structures involved in this process may result in gait abnormality. As a result, gait abnormalities may present in many different ways. For example, patients with Parkinson's disease or parkinsonism (a set of similar neurodegenerative disorders) are increasingly at risk of falling because a variety of mechanisms involved in walking are affected. Patients with Parkinson's disease or parkinsonism can experience freezing of the upper body during a walk, causing them to be thrown forward and, given their slowed postural reflexes, causing many to fall. To compensate, patients with Parkinson's disease or parkinsonism develop rapid, small, shuffling steps and a tendency to run (festination). As the disease progresses, movements are further impaired leading to stiffness and episodic immobility known as "freezing of gait." Peripheral neuropathy can interfere with signal transduction (in particular deep positional sensation carried by thick myelinated nerves) to the CNS. Therefore, patients with severe peripheral neuropathy may not feel their position in space fast enough to correct their position and fall during walking. Patients with certain muscle disorders (such as muscular dystrophy) may lack sufficient strength in the pelvic girdle muscles and may turn her or his pelvis to drag the patient's foot forward (called "waddling gait") to compensate. Patients with cerebellar disorders (e.g., stroke, tumor, and degenerative disorders) typically develop wide-based gait to keep balance. Even an individual's mood—and, by extension, depressive illnesses—may affect an individual's gait. Clinically depressed patients have been found to have demonstrated a smaller push-off force in the posterior and downward directions.
Injuries to the body can also affect an individual's gait. Anyone who has suffered a fall, pulled a hamstring, or injured a leg muscle will often notice a difference in their gait. Additionally, head trauma that will eventually lead to a concussion may also affect an individual's gait before the concussion is developed.
Because certain diseases affect an individual's gait, gait analysis may then be used to identify and assess those diseases. In fact, because certain diseases may be detectable by analyzing an individual's gait before those diseases are detectable by other means, gait analysis may provide an effective diagnostic tool that provides early and effective identification of diseases. Certain injuries, such as head trauma that will eventually cause a concussion, may also be detectable by analyzing an individual's gait before the concussion develops and is detectable by other means. Additionally, because a progressive disease's effect on an individual's gait may vary at different stages of the progressive disease, analysis of the individual's gait may be used to assess the progress of the progressive disease. Conversely, because an individual's gait may progress towards normal as the individual recovers, the analysis of the individual's gait may be used to assess the progress of the individual's recovery.
As described above, there is a need for systems that detect and assess diseases and injuries by analyzing gait measurements. Prior art methods exist for identifying diseases by analyzing gait patterns. However, those existing gait analysis methods determine a patient's gait characteristics (e.g., strike distance, foot lift, foot pressure, etc.) over a number of steps and identify abnormal gait characteristics by analyzing the average gait characteristics from the entire data set collected from the patient. However, degeneration of a patient's gait is a gradual progression that results in only a portion of the gait suffering from abnormalities. Freezing of gait, for example, is episodic and occurs at random intervals. Therefore, gait degeneration may not be detectable by analyzing an entire data set of a patient's gait characteristics as done by prior art gait analysis methods.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system that identifies abnormal gait measurements (including gradual, episodic, and/or random abnormalities) and detects and assesses diseases and injuries by analyzing those gait measurements.

Assessing diseases by analyzing gait measurements


A core locking device has members (25) for locking the device (17) to a winding core of a roll to be wound on a two-drum winder, advantageously to a core. The device (17) is placed on a slide arranged in connection with the two-drum winder, and moves, as winding progresses, with the center of the roll being formed along the slide. The device (17) has an actuator (20) to produce a counterforce for the force caused by the mass of the core locking device (17) in the changed position of the core locking device (17).

The invention relates to core locking devices.
In the prior art, slitter-winders are known in which two-drum winders are used for winding component rolls after slitting a web. In the prior art there are known variable geometry two-drum winders in which one or both of the winding drums/sets of drums supporting the roll are movable. In such variable geometry slitter-winders, the horizontal location of the center of the roll that is building up is dependent on the relative position of the winding drums/sets of drums and on the diameter of the roll. In winders, rolls are wound around cores. Longitudinal successive cores are locked in place to form a core line by means of a core locking device placed at both ends. In the prior art, a core locking device is known which is placed on a slide arranged in connection with a winder so as to be movable when the diameter of the roll increases as its center is displaced. Thus, the position of the core locking device changes during operation. The position of the core locking device that moves upwards on the slide also changes when the pivoting angle changes while in the variable geometry winder one or both drums move as winding progresses. When the core locking device pivots, the pivoted core locking device causes a force in the center of the roll, which force is dependent on the pivoting angle and on the mass of the device. This may cause problems during winding because the magnitude of the force cannot be affected.
In addition, in the prior art two-drum winders, mechanical guides, which limit the utilization of space, have been used for set change for guiding the core locking device to a correct position according to core size.
One problem with winding is also the so-called bouncing phenomenon in which a roll/rolls start bouncing in the winder.


It is an object to provide a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device including a liquid crystal layer which exhibits a stable blue phase. The following steps are performed: a first step of forming a thermosetting first sealant so as to form a frame over a first substrate; a second step of forming a photocurable and thermosetting second sealant on an outer side than the first sealant over the first substrate; a third step of dropping a liquid crystal material which exhibits a blue phase at a given temperature on an inner side than the first sealant; a fourth step of attaching a second substrate to the first substrate in a reduced-pressure atmosphere; a fifth step of performing polymer stabilization treatment on the liquid crystal material; and a sixth step of curing the first sealant through heat treatment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device and a method for manufacturing the liquid crystal display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, display devices (flat panel display) which are very thin and lightweight as compared to cathode-ray tube display devices have developed. The flat panel displays include liquid crystal display devices which have liquid crystal elements, electro-luminescent (EL) display devices which have self-light emitting elements such as EL elements, plasma displays, and the like, and they are in competition in the market.
Although each kind of flat panel display has good points and bad points as of now, the liquid crystal display devices are inferior to the other flat panel displays in the response time of an element (the speed of switching the display). Various techniques for overcoming the disadvantage in the response time have been proposed so far. A conventional liquid crystal element which employs a driving method of a liquid crystal called a twisted nematic (TN) mode has a response time of approximately 10 milliseconds, whereas a liquid crystal element which employs an optical compensated birefringence (OCB) mode or a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) mode has realized an improved response time of approximately 1 millisecond (see Patent Document 1, for example).
Another technique which attracts as much attention as such a driving method of a liquid crystal uses a state called a blue phase for a liquid crystal display element. The blue phase is a liquid crystal phase which appears between a chiral nematic phase having a relatively short spiral pitch and an isotropic phase, and has a feature of an extremely short response time. The liquid crystal display element using a liquid crystal layer which exhibits the blue phase does not need to have an orientation film and can widen a viewing angle and thus is expected to be put into practical use. However, the blue phase is exhibited in a small temperature range of 1° C. to 3° C. between a cholesteric phase and an isotropic phase. Thus, there is a problem in that the temperature of the element needs to be controlled precisely.
In order to solve this problem, it is proposed that the temperature range of the blue phase be widened by polymer stabilization treatment (see Patent Document 2, for example). The polymer stabilization treatment is performed in such a manner that a photocurable resin is mixed into a liquid crystal material and light irradiation is performed at a temperature at which the blue phase is exhibited.

Method for manufacturing liquid crystal display device

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A swing motion control system for an earth-moving machine may include a closed loop hydraulic circuit including a hydrostatic swing pump fluidly coupled to at least one hydraulic swing motor configured to control a swing mechanism of the earth-moving machine, a pressure control device configured to control the pressure of fluid supplied to the hydrostatic swing pump for control of the pressure output by the pump, and a controller. The controller may be configured to monitor and process signals received from sensors and operator input, wherein the signals received from the sensors are indicative of machine position and pose, and inertia mass of swing components and a payload being moved by the swing mechanism of the machine, and control at least one of an offset amount for desired pump displacement by the hydrostatic swing pump or an offset amount for pump output pressure from the hydrostatic swing pump based on at least one of an amount of slope on which the machine is operating or the inertia mass of the swing components and payload.

Machines such as, for example, dozers, motor graders, wheel loaders, wheel tractor scrapers, and other types of heavy equipment are used to perform a variety of tasks. Effective control of the machines requires accurate and responsive sensor reading to perform calculations providing information in near real time to the machine control or operator. Autonomously and semi-autonomously controlled machines are capable of operating with little or no human input by relying on information received from various machine systems. For example, based on machine movement input, terrain input, and/or machine operational input, a machine can be controlled to remotely and/or automatically complete a programmed task. By receiving appropriate feedback from each of the different machine systems and sensors during performance of the task, continuous adjustments to machine operation can be made that help to ensure precision and safety in completion of the task. In order to do so, however, the information provided by the different machine systems and sensors should be accurate and reliable. The position, velocity, and distance traveled by the machine, and positions, movements, and orientations of different parts or components of the machine are parameters whose accuracy may be important for control of the machine and its operations. In machines such as excavators including swing components such as a boom, stick, and implement or work tool, an open loop swing system may be provided to control the swinging movement of the components from a digging or loading position to a dumping position, or from the dumping position back to the digging or loading position. When the machine is located on a slope, for example, the components such as the boom, stick, and implement may drift from a position commanded by an operator as a result of the effects of gravity on the components. A conventional solution to this drift problem may include the use of low leakage hydraulic control valves to attempt to hydraulically lock the swing components and prevent them from drifting when the machine is on a slope.
Conventional machines typically utilize a navigation or positioning system to determine various operating parameters such as position, velocity, pitch rate, yaw rate, and roll rate for the machine. The position and orientation of the machine is referred to as the "pose" of the machine. The machine "state" includes the pose of the machine as well as various additional operating parameters that can be used to model the kinematics and dynamics of the machine, such as parameters characterizing the various links, joints, tools, hydraulics, and power systems of the machine. Some conventional machines utilize a combination of one or more of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data, a Distance Measurement Indicator (DMI) or odometer measurement data, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) data, etc. to determine these parameters. Some machines utilize RADAR sensors, SONAR sensors, LIDAR sensors, IR and non-IR cameras, and other similar sensors to help guide the machines safely and efficiently along different kinds of terrain. Conventional machines have attempted to fuse these different types of data to determine the position of a land-based vehicle.
An exemplary system that may be utilized to determine the position of a machine is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0033645 ("the '645 publication") to Levinson et al. that published on Feb. 7, 2008. The system of the '645 publication utilizes location data from sensors such as Global Positioning System (GPS), as well as scene data from a LIDAR (light detection and ranging) device to determine a location or position of the machine. Specifically, the data is used to create a high-resolution map of the terrain and the position of the machine is localized with respect to the map.
Although the system of the '645 publication may be useful in determining the overall position of the machine, the system may not provide accurate estimates for the position of the machine or components of the machine while dead-reckoning (i.e., during periods of time when GPS signals are unavailable). Moreover, the system of the '645 publication may not provide accurate position information when GPS signals are unreliable or erroneous due to multipath errors, position jumps, etc. because the system of the '645 publication does not check for the accuracy of the GPS signal. Finally, the system of the '645 publication does not provide a means to monitor and controllably maintain the position of swing components of the machine when the machine is operating on a slope.
The system and method of the present disclosure provides for accurate determination of the position of a machine and components of the machine, as well as including the use of a dedicated hydrostatic pump supplying fluid to a hydraulic motor in a closed loop system to maintain the position of the swing components of the machine relative to an undercarriage of the machine when the machine is operating on a slope. A swing motion control system for an earth-moving machine according to various exemplary embodiments of this disclosure may include a closed loop swing motion control system including a hydrostatic swing pump fluidly coupled to at least one hydraulic swing motor configured to control a swing mechanism of the earth-moving machine.

Hystat swing motion actuation, monitoring, and control system


An explosive attachment device for mechanical connection of components, internally provided with an explosive charge, the detonation shock effect of which is strong enough for rupturing a connection forming part of the attachment device for a rapid disconnection, whereby the attachment device incorporates an attachment screw (2) and an explosive attachment element (4-14) which comprises a cylinder (4), a cover (5), and a piston (6) mounted in the cylinder (4), a space between the piston (6) and the bottom of the cylinder (4) is provided with a circular row of small holes (14), the piston (6) is provided with a rod (7) that the attachment screw (2) is mounted to, in the space between the piston and the cover (5) is arranged the explosive charge (9) with a firing device (10,11,12,13) having a delay mechanism, whereby the blasting pressure is converted to a pulling stress, which acts upon the attachment screw (2) to be pulled off without the other parts splintering.

The present invention refers to a new type of explosive attachment device, which is suitable for being used for mounting of different mechanical components, thus that the joint if needed can be severed immediately by means of detonation In such a manner that the very detonation will not be a risk of accidents for human beings or animals.
The explosive bolt described above is appropriate for being used for such connections, which have to be openable rapidly due to an emergency situation. A large field of such use is for Instance for mounting of vehicle doors and the new device is particularly useful for this purpose. Nowadays door hinge systems both for passenger cars and for lorries are constructed so, without exception, that it at a somewhat more violent collision is an evident risk, that vehicle doors get stuck, as a heavy demolition of the car body will compress doors as well as door openings. The axes of the hinges might also loose their parallelism and door locks can be damaged, and all this taken together can make opening of the car doors more difficult or even impossible after a violent collision, which in turn can cause dangerous situations of different degrees for passengers. Outer circumstances can also worsen accidental situations. Such an example is when a car turns over and possible obstacles at the ground such as rocks, ditches, different types of large objects, etcetera, can prevent the car doors from being opened. Furthermore it is also usual that passengers loose consciousness and it is then even more difficult for the rescue team to help them to come out of the vehicle.
The explosive charge In an explosive attachment device must be strong enough for causing the desired effect to separate the connected components, but this also leads to undesired side effects. If the device is constructed so, that it will be blasted completely to pieces, it is easy that there as a result is dangerous metal splinters, and also small volumes of appropriate explosive, which is commonly used in such circumstances, cause considerable force at the detonation, which can result in that the metal splinters will have a high velocity, which therefore have a large possibility of penetrating through the typical thin sheet metal structures, which are common in car bodies and therefore the passengers are subjected to danger. The chock effect of the detonation is also undesired and means a risk e.g. for impaired hearing to the passengers. Furthermore the handling of the explosive components must be considered In connection to storing and transport and also at the time of production of the cars, and in case of a possible unintended detonation, the risk for personal injuries must be minimized.
There are a number of known proposals for explosive attachment devices In form of different versions of explosive bolts, which principally could be used for assembly of car door hinges in order to reduce the problems described above In connection to accidents. Such proposals are disclosed for Instance In: U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,230, U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,496, U.S. Pat. No. 2,653,504, U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,017, U.S. Pat. No. 1,400,401 and DE 2203470. These proposals are anyhow intended to be used primarily within space travel technology and for military use and for both these fields of use there are basically other conditions than for cars and for that reason the known solutions are not suited for mounting of car doors. In space travel persons are not directly subjected to detonations of explosive bolts with metal splinters, which is the case in cars. Within the military field, explosive bolts are e.g. used in mines and missiles and the like and the situation is quite the opposite, as any splinter may even be desirable.
It can furthermore be established that in the proposals mentioned above, the detonation takes place substantially immediately after Initiation, without any time delay at all, and this is an impossible situation in respect of mounting of car doors with aid of explosive bolts. At a violent collision the cars are often making a passage through the air with tumbling motion and it Is evident, that a loosening of the doors at a too early stage, could be nearly a catastrophe. The car must come to a stop and its position must be stabilized before it Is time for the doors to be separated by detonation of any type of door hinge attachment.


For a row crop header, a row divider having a variable-height ear saver feature. The row divider comprises a point, a cover, and a partition. The point has a trailing edge vertically moveable relative to the cover. The partition fills a resultant gap between the point and the cover, forming a variable-height ear saver feature. A crankshaft functions to articulate the trailing edge relative to the cover, and to move the partition vertically with the trailing edge. A support functions to support the point at a midpoint. A guide constrains the partition within the gap.

An agricultural combine is a large machine used to harvest a variety of crops from a field. During a harvesting operation, a header at the front of the combine cuts ripened crop from the field. A feederhouse supporting the header transfers the crop material into the combine. Threshing and separating assemblies within the combine remove grain from the crop material and transfer the clean grain to a grain tank for temporary holding. Crop material other than grain exits from the rear of the combine. An unloading auger transfers the clean grain from the grain tank to a truck or grain cart for transport, or to another receiving bin for holding.
Row crop and corn headers are header types commonly used when harvesting crops planted in rows such as soybeans and corn. These header types have row dividers that extend forward from the header to divide crop rows and guide crop material into header row units that cut the crop. When harvesting corn with a corn header, the row dividers may be equipped with a feature called an ear saver to prevent corn ears from falling over the front the header during the harvesting operation. Traditionally, the ear saver was either a removal component attaching the row divider, or a permanent, non-removable design feature of the row unit.
In standing corn, it is desirable to have a relatively tall ear saver to substantially prevent corn ears from falling overboard while harvesting. However, in down corn conditions, a relatively tall ear saver creates a slope on the row divider that is too steep for the crop to easily slide over and into the row units. For an ear saver that is a permanent, non-removable design feature of the row divider, maximizing ear saver height for one condition compromises ear saver performance for the other condition. Alternatively, removable ear savers often get lost, may come off in the machine and cause damage, and are time consuming to install and remove with changing crop conditions.

Row divider having a variable-height ear saver