A dispenser (1) including a reservoir (4), a pump (6) and an atomizing nozzle (17) has on the nozzle (17) a germ barrier (22) in the form of a valve that opens and closes dependent on pressure. A further germ barrier (23) with a filter (54) acting as a seal in the connecting area between reservoir (4) and pump (6) is provided in a venting channel (21). Both units (2, 3) of the device (1), which are actuated against each other, are prevented from being pulled apart by a snap device (50). Germ penetration into the entire dispenser (1) can be effectively prevented.

The invention relates to a medium dispenser. With it media can be distributed or dispensed through a medium outlet. In so doing, the medium can have its final contact with the dispenser at this medium outlet. Such dispensers particularly have a medium or fluid duct, which can be made up of separate ducts such as channels or the like. Contrary to significantly extended medium chambers they can form significantly narrower medium chambers. The other medium chambers can be provided to store the medium, as pressure chambers to generate delivery pressure or the like. They can be connected to a medium duct at their entrance and/or exit. These serve to fill or empty the medium chamber when actuating the dispenser.
Appropriately, the fluid duct is separate from the medium duct. In the event of pressure compensation of a medium chamber the flow can be counter to the medium flow. The fluid, like atmospheric air, flows into the medium chamber, in case the latter has come under low pressure as a result of emptying, temperature change or the like. This supply of the fluid can easily result in microbic contamination of the medium. It is therefore appropriate for such ventilation ducts to run solely via a sterilizing or germ filter or the like in order to make the air throughput germ-free.
Notwithstanding that, however, germs can also penetrate into the device in the area of the medium outlet, possibly into the medium chambers, along the medium duct. This leads to microbic contamination and therefore to the medium being spoilt as well as the dispenser becoming useless. That can be countered by closing means located in the vicinity of the medium outlet. When closed, they are capable of forming a germ barrier.
Consequently, the invention is based on the object of creating a dispenser or delivery device, with which the disadvantages of known designs and respectively of the use either of only a germ barrier at the medium outlet or a germ barrier in the fluid duct are avoided and which, in particular with a simple construction, has very safe combined functions of the barriers.
According to the invention, therefore, shutting blocks or germ barriers are provided as well for the outlet as for the fluid duct. If in order to actuate delivery of the medium the dispenser has two units which can be moved against each other one barrier is appropriately held or displaceably mounted on the one unit and the other barrier on the other unit. By actuating delivery both barriers perform reciprocal motions synchroneously with the actuation.
The medium outlet, particularly an atomizing nozzle, is appropriately formed by means of the outer end of a short nozzle channel. The inner end of which can directly adjoin a conical or similar extension. It appropriately forms the closing surface of the relevant barrier. The closing surface of a movable sealing member can adjoin this closing surface in a closed state. Both closing surfaces appropriately only adjoin each other in a line-shaped and respectively ring-shaped manner. Thus extremely small creepage paths for the germs are achieved. High closing and surface pressures respectively have to be achieved. Despite non-elastically flexible closing surfaces a very tight seal is guaranteed. The nozzle channel, which is bounded to one part and forms the medium outlet with its end, can--as with the sealing member--be extended only once or multiply upstream of the closing surface. Thus the sealing member can be slidingly guided over an axial path of its opening or closing motion directly in this nozzle channel. The faces that slide together, when in a closed position, can form an additional germ barrier. It directly connects upstream to the closing surfaces that abut together axially. It clears passage for the medium only after a first partial path of the opening stroke of the sealing member.
During the closing motion the sealing member, like a pump piston, ejects in a pulsed manner the medium out of the nozzle channel through the medium outlet. Thus the nozzle channel between the end of the sealing plunger and the medium outlet is completely emptied on account of the mass inertia of the medium. The residual medium present there is expelled into the open in an atomized state.
The germ barrier for the fluid duct could be designed in accordance with DE-OS 35 03 354, to which reference is made for inclusion in the application on hand due to further characteristics and effects. Appropriately, this germ barrier can also be designed in keeping with German patent application No. 196 10 457.2, to which detailed reference is made for the same reasons.
Both actuating units that are to be moved against each other are appropriately provided with a anti-pull-off device to further protect against germ penetration. It sufficiently prevents or hinders both units being pulled apart. It is advantageous that a safety member of this safety device is formed by a holder, such as a crimp ring, which envelopes another component or is attached to the latter. The safety device is displaced from the upstream end of this holder. The safety member can lie on the outer circumference of the holder or be effective at a distance from this outer circumference. It can be produced particularly easily if it is formed by bending deformation or by edge-rasing the end of the holder. This is made of a relatively soft, e.g. metallic, material. With the safety device a germ barrier in the joint between the acutating units, e.g. on a plunger ram, cannot be opened by mistake.
It is also advantageous if this holder bounds the fluid duct with its inner circumference. Thus the accompanying germ barrier can lie completely encapsulated within the holder. Fluid inlets can be bounded at a mutual axial distance by the holder. They can be located at one or both ends of the holder within a casing of the actuating unit which has the medium outlet.
With regard to the design of the dispenser or of the respective barrier or of the respective seal, reference is furthermore made to the following documents for inclusion of the characteristics and effects in the application on hand: DE-OS 33 15 334, DE-OS 41 10 302, DE-OS 41 10 304, DE-OS 44 03 755, DE-OS 44 41 263, German patent applications 196 06 701.4, 196 06 702.2, 196 06 703.0, 196 05 153.3 and DE-OS 44 17 488 and DE-OS 44 03 755.
Particularly good atomization as well as very effective emptying of the nozzle channel are achieved if the medium pump, for example a thrust piston pump, is again topped by a second pump stage, in particular a bellows pump. After leaving the medium pump, the medium is once more accelerated in it by contracting the pressure chamber. The pressure chambers of the medium pump and of the additional pump stage are contracted simultaneously. The jacket of the pressure chamber of the pump stage can form a return spring. For example, for the germ barrier or for the seal of the medium outlet. The pressure chamber of this pump stage or the associated end of the return spring can directly or in one part connect to a control plunger for the outlet closure. This results in a very compact construction. These components as well as the holding device for the return spring or the like can be located substantially completely within the outlet stud. Transverse surfaces, provided for actuating the dispenser by manual pressure, protrude over the outer circumference of the upstream end of this stud. The stud is suited for insertion into an opening of the body, such as a nostril.
Besides from the claims, also from the description and the drawings these and further characteristics will be aparent, whereby the individual characteristics, the protection of which is being claimed, can be realised singly or multiply in the form of subcombinations for one version of the invention and in other fields, and can portray versions that are advantageous and in themselves protectable.
The subdivision of the application into individual sections as well as intermediate headings does not restrict the statements made therein in their general validity.

Media dispenser having a vent with a microbic barrier


A surface treated copper foil which is well bonded to a resin and allows the resin to have excellent transparency after removal of the copper foil by etching, and a laminate using the same are provided. A surface treated copper foil having at least one surface with a skewness Rsk of −0.35 to 0.53, comprising an Sv defined by the following expression (1) of 3.5 or more based on a brightness curve:Sv=(ΔB×0.1)/(t1−t2)  (1);                wherein the brightness curve is obtained from an observation spot versus brightness graph, and the difference between the top average Bt and the bottom average Bb in the brightness curve extending from an edge of the mark to a portion without the mark is represented by ΔB (ΔB=Bt−Bb); and        wherein t1 represents a value pointing the position of the intersection closest to the linear mark among the intersections of the brightness curve and Bt in the observation spot versus brightness graph, and t2 represents a value pointing the position of the intersection closest to the linear mark among the intersections of the brightness curve and 0.1ΔB in the range from the intersections of the brightness curve and Bt to a depth of 0.1ΔB with Bt as reference.

A flexible printed wiring or circuit board (hereinafter referred to as FPC) is employed in a compact electronic apparatus such as a smart phone and a tablet PC due to the easiness of wiring and the lightness. Due to the recent improvement of functionality of electronic apparatuses, the signal transmission rate has been accelerated, so that impedance matching is an important factor even for an FPC. In order to achieve impedance matching for the increased signal capacity, a resin insulating layer (e.g., polyimide) as the base of an FPC has been thickened. In order to meet the demand for densification of wirings, multilayering of an FPC has been further developed. On the other hand, when an FPC is processed for bonding to a liquid crystal substrate and mounting an IC chip, alignment is performed with a positioning pattern which is visually recognized through a resin insulating layer remained after etching of the copper foil of a laminate composed of the copper foil and the resin insulating layer. The visibility of the resin insulating layer is therefore important.
A copper clad laminate composed of a laminate of a copper foil and a resin insulating layer may be manufactured from a rolled copper foil having a roughened plated surface. The rolled copper foil is usually manufactured from tough pitch copper (oxygen content: 100 to 500 ppm by weight) or oxygen-free copper (oxygen content: 10 ppm by weight or less) as a raw material ingot, which is hot rolled and then subjected to repeated cold rolling and annealing to a predetermined thickness.
Examples of the techniques include the followings. Patent Literature 1 discloses an invention of a copper clad laminate of a polyimide film and a low profile copper foil, which allows a film after etching of the copper foil to have a light transmittance of 40% or more at a wavelength of 600 nm, with a haze value (HAZE) of 30% or less and an adhesive strength of 500 N/m or more.
Patent Literature 2 discloses an invention of flexible printed wiring board for a chip on flexible (COF) having an insulating layer on which a conductive layer of electrolytic copper foil is laminated, allowing the insulating layer in an etched region after circuit formation by etching of the conductive layer to have a light transmittance of 50% or more. The electrolytic copper foil includes a rustproof layer of nickel-zinc alloy at the joint area bonded to the insulating layer. The joint area has a surface roughness (Rz) of 0.05 to 1.5 μm and a specular gloss of 250 or more at an incident angle of 60°.
Patent Literature 3 discloses an invention of a method for processing a copper foil for a printed circuit, including forming a cobalt-nickel alloy plated layer after surface roughening treatment of the copper foil surface by plating with a copper-cobalt-nickel alloy, and further forming a zinc-nickel alloy plated layer.

Surface treated copper foil and laminate using the same


Improved shelves are disclosed for shelving systems comprising one or more such improved shelves and support posts. Elongate elements along the underside of the shelves have post-receiving recesses to receive support posts along the underside of the shelf during storage and shipment. The improved shelves and shelving systems allow greater efficiency in packaging, shipping and storage.

The present invention relates to improved shelving systems and to shelves and posts for such shelving systems. More particularly, the invention relates to shelving systems configured for greater efficiency in packaging, shipping and storage.
There is a need for affordable shelving, such as shelving systems that provide good aesthetics, flexibility of use, and good functionality. Some shelving systems require significant assembly, which consumers may not want to or may not be able to undertake. Many consumers, for example, do not have tools or aptitude to assemble wall-mounted shelves.
Freestanding shelving systems are known in which rectangular shelving panels have four sockets integrally formed in the corners of the panels. Each successive panel is mounted above the one below by four support posts receivable into the sockets. Shelving of this type can be produced and shipped unassembled. It is often bulky, however, making packaging and shipping of such shelving systems more costly and difficult. A bulky packaged shelving system for shipment will take up more room on a shipping pallet and thereby reduce the number of shelving systems that can be shipped at a time.
It would be desirable to have shelving systems that are structurally robust and yet that can be packaged compactly for more efficient shipping and storage.


The invention relates to an apparatus for interfacing a peripheral device corresponding to the detection of interface, which comprises: a regulator, for regulating the working voltage of the circuit of the apparatus; an USB physical layer with switch controller, for detecting and determining whether the interface to which the peripheral device is connected is an USB interface and thus being capable of enabling an USB mode of the apparatus; at least four pull-high switch resistors; and an analog switch, capable issuing an analog signal while the apparatus is in the USB mode; wherein the PS2 mode of the apparatus is enabled while the USB physical layer with switch controller detects no USB interface being connected to the peripheral device, and the mode of the apparatus is controlled by the interaction of the on/off statuses of the four pull-high switch resistors.

On a conventional personal computer, a number of different interfaces are typically provided to enable data transfer and communication between the computer and external peripheral devices, such as a printer, a scanner, a keyboard, a pointing device (e.g., a mouse or trackball), a modem, etc. The typical personal computer includes a keyboard port (DIN or PS/2 style), two serial (RS-232) ports, a parallel port, a game port, and perhaps a PS/2 port for connecting a mouse or other pointing device. Recently, in order to improve the data transfer speed between peripheral devices and the computer interface, the USB interface has been developed and will soon be available on new computers.
As is always the case when any new technology becomes available that improves on what was previously available, an user who purchases a new computer including a USB port may want to use existing peripheral devices previously used with an older non-USB computer with the new computer, or vice versa, an user who purchases a new USB-enabled peripheral device might find it is difficult to couple the same on his old computer without USB interface.
It is noted that a conventional peripheral device is typically capable of supplying only one interface (such as a PS2 or USB interface) for communication with computers to which it is connected. Therefore, if the computer is provided with a PS2 interface, the keyboard or mouse must be configured to support communication with the computer according to a protocol defined by the PS2 interface. Similarly, if the computer is provided with the USB interface, the keyboard or mouse must be configured to communicate according to a protocol defined by the USB interface. Even when an older peripheral device is connected to a new computer by a built-in multi-purpose converter, it is usually that the older peripheral device interface still can not communication with the computer smoothly since it do not have the ability of dynamically detecting the type of interface to which the older peripheral device is connected and then converting signals accordingly.
It is known that most of the computers available today are equipped with both PS2 interface and USB interface, or one of the two, and since both PS2 and USB interfaces use four signal lines for transmitting signals and providing power, it is desire to have an apparatus capable of dynamically detecting the type of interface to which it is connected so as to enable a peripheral device comprising the apparatus to communicate with a computer either through an USB interface or a PS2interface, i.e. enable the peripheral device to communicate with the connected computer using USB protocol as it is connected thereto through an USB interface, or enable the peripheral device to communicate with the connected computer using PS2 protocol as it is connected thereto through a PS2 interface.

Method and apparatus for interfacing a peripheral device corresponding to the detection of interface


A driver circuit which drives a signal line includes a first output section for outputting a reference voltage potential to the signal line during a first period and a second output section for outputting one of a first information voltage potential and a second information voltage potential in accordance with an input signal during a second period.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driver circuit which drives a signal line, a receiver circuit which receives signals transmitted through a signal line, and a signal transmission circuit which includes the driver circuit and the receiver circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a semiconductor integrated circuit has a larger size and faster operating speed. Consequently, it is becoming necessary to drive a long distance signal line with high speed.
FIGS. 1A to 1C each illustrates a construction of a conventional signal transmission circuit. The signal transmission circuit includes a signal line 201, a driver circuit 202, and a receiver circuit 203.
The driver circuit 202 drives the signal line 201 in accordance with a signal input to the signal transmission circuit, and varies voltage potential of the signal line 201. When the variation of the voltage potential of the signal line 201 propagates the end of the potential of the signal line 201, the receiver circuit 203 outputs a signal in accordance with the potential voltage at the end of the signal line 201. When the line distance of the signal line 201 is long and load capacitance related to signal transmission is large, power consumption due to the charging/discharging of the load capacitance becomes large, and signal transmission speed becomes slow because additional time is required for charging/discharging the load capacitance.
In the signal transmission circuit illustrated in FIG. 1B, an input signal is transformed into a signal having a small amplitude by the driver circuit 202, and the signal having the small amplitude is transmitted through the signal line 201. The transmitted signal is recovered to the original amplitude by the receiver circuit 203.
In the signal transmission circuit illustrated in FIG. 1B, amplitude of a signal passing through the signal line 201 is smaller compared to the signal transmission circuit illustrated in FIG. 1A. Therefore, the signal transmission circuit illustrated in FIG. 1B consumes less power than the signal transmission circuit illustrated in FIG. 1A does.
However, because of the small amplitude of the transmitted signal, the signal transmission circuit illustrated in FIG. 1B has low noise resistance. Therefore, it is difficult to reduce the amplitude of the transmitted signal so as to obtain a sufficient power consumption reduction effect.
In the signal transmission circuit illustrated in FIG. 1C, complementary signals in accordance with an input signal are transmitted through a pair of signal lines 201 and 201'. The two signal lines 201 and 201' are disposed adjacent to each other or very close to each other. This makes the noises received by both the signal lines 201 and 201' almost the same, thereby maintaining the potential difference between the complementary signals. Thus, by transmitting the complementary signals using the pair of signal lines 201 and 201', the potential difference between the signal lines 201 and 201' can be transmitted from the driver circuit 202 to the receiver circuit 203 even though the amplitude driving the signal lines is small. This makes it possible to reduce the power consumption required for driving the signal lines.
However, the signal transmission circuit illustrated in FIG. 1C requires two signal lines for the transmission of one signal. This increases the layout area for the signal lines.
Table 1 lists the results of evaluating the signal transmission circuits illustrated in FIGS. 1A to 1C with respect to three aspects, i.e., for power consumption, layout area, and noise resistance. In Table 1, ".smallcircle." indicates that it is superior to other signal transmission circuits and "x" indicates that it is inferior to other signal transmission circuits.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Power consumption Layout area Noise resistance ______________________________________ Conventional (FIG. 1A) X .largecircle. .largecircle. Conventional (FIG. 1B) .largecircle. .largecircle. X Conventional (FIG. 1C) .largecircle. X .largecircle. Present invention .largecircle. .largecircle. .largecircle. ______________________________________
As shown in Table 1, a conventional signal transmission circuit cannot simultaneously realize the three characteristics; that is, low power consumption, small layout area, and high noise resistance.

Signal transmission driver circuit, receiver circuit, and method thereof for transmitting and receiving information based on multiple periods and/or a delay function

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A base for operative association with an operating mechanism sensitive to horizontal vibration, such as an ink jet printer, supports a horizontal document feeder plate and associated drive operative to advance documents in sequential fashion from a stack toward the operating mechanism. A drive linkage interconnects a rotatable drive shaft to the feeder plate to effect horizontal reciprocating movement thereof. A counterweight is associated with the drive so as to substantially offset or nullify horizontal inertia forces imparted to the base by the feeder plate whereby to minimize horizontal vibration of the base. In an embodiment utilized for intermittent feeding of documents to the operating mechanism, a balance arm and associated counterweight cooperate with the feeder plate to offset horizontal inertia forces imparted to the base, and also minimize start-up torque required to initiate reciprocating movement of the feeder plate after stoppage.

The present invention relates generally to a base for use with apparatus sensitive to horizontal vibration, and more particularly to a base that supports a generally horizontally reciprocating member and associated drive means normally operative to impart horizontal vibration to the base during operation, and includes novel means for substantially nullifying horizontal vibration forces imparted to the base by the reciprocating member.
It is a common practice in many types of apparatus and machines to connect an operating mechanism, such as a print head or the like, to a base so that the print head defines a work station at a desired height above the floor surface for convenient operation and operator comfort. The operating mechanism may be directly supported by the base, or may be freestanding but in operative association with the base. In those instances where the operating mechanism is sensitive to horizontal vibration, such as an ink jet printer mechanism, it is important that horizontal vibration of the base be minimized so as not to adversely interfere with proper printer operation. For example, ink jet printers project droplets of ink generally vertically downwardly onto a surface, such as a mailing envelope or other document, in a predetermined pattern to create a mailing address or other printed indicia. In commercial printing, the envelopes or other documents are generally fed in sequential one-at-a-time fashion along a horizontal path from a vertical stack of envelopes or documents to a position underlying the printer head by feeder means including a reciprocating shuttle or feeder plate. Drive means are cooperative with the shuttle plate to effect horizontal reciprocating movement thereof between a position operative to remove successive documents from the bottom of the stack and a position wherein the leading edge of each document enters a nip between feed rolls which advance the document onto transfer means for carrying the document to the printer head.
With apparatus or machines of the aforedescribed type, as the reciprocating shuttle plate reaches the end of each stroke, the momentum of the shuttle plate and the reaction force imparted to the base by reversal of the shuttle plate causes horizontal deflection of the base. This generally results in horizontal vibration of the printer head, if supported on the base, and thereby adversely effects proper operation of ink jet type printer mechanisms by significantly altering the print pattern. Proper operation of the ink jet printer mechanism is also adversely effected where the ink jet printer head is freestanding but overlies document transfer means supported on the base.
One solution to this problem is to make the base sufficiently heavy and rigid so that the forces imparted to the base by the reciprocating shuttle plate are resisted by the mere mass of the base, thus substantially nullifying horizontal vibration otherwise imparted to the printer head or to the document transfer means. This solution, however, is costly and results in a base substantially heavier than desired.


The invention provides a human insulin receptor tyrosine kinase substrate (IRS-p53h) and polynucleotides which identify and encode IRS-p53h. The invention also provides expression vectors, host cells, agonists, antibodies and antagonists. The invention also provides methods for treating disorders associated with expression of IRS-p53h.

Insulin controls blood glucose levels by stimulating glucose influx and metabolism in muscle and adipocytes and by inhibiting gluconeogenesis in the liver. Insulin also modifies the expression or the activity of a variety of enzymes and transport systems in nearly all cells.
Insulin action is mediated through the insulin receptor (IR), a transmembrane glycoprotein with protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) activity. Insulin binding triggers receptor autophosphorylation which activates PTK activity. The cellular response to insulin is mediated through tyrosine phosphorylation of cytosolic polypeptide substrates which act as second messengers in IR signal transduction. Once phosphorylated, the substrates bind to and activate various signal transduction proteins. The signal transduction proteins contain Src-homology-2 (SH2)-domains which bind phosphotyrosine-containing peptide motifs.
Several IR-PTK substrates have been described. The most extensively characterized substrate is the 185-kdal insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1). IRS-1 is found in a variety of insulin responsive cells and tissues. It exhibits no intrinsic enzyme activity but, once phosphorylated, binds to and activates SH2-containing signal transduction proteins including phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3'-kinase and GRB-2, a regulator of the Ras pathway (White, M. F. et al. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269:1-4). Mutations in the IRS-1 gene impairs insulin-stimulated signaling and may contribute to insulin resistance in normal and diabetic populations (Almind, K. et al. (1996) J. Clin. Invest. 97:2569-2575).
Two 60-kdal protein substrates of the IR-PTK have been identified. One associates with the GTPase activator of Ras (termed GAP) and the other associates with PI 3'-kinase (Yeh, T. et al. (1996) J. Biol. Chem 271:2921-2928). Two additional substrates for IR-PTK with molecular masses of 53 and 58 kdal were recently identified in rodents. These proteins, p53 and p58, are closely related and may arise from alternative splicing of mRNA or differential post-translational modifications. P53 and p58 do not associate with GAP or PI 3'-kinase and are immunologically distinct from the 60-kDa GAP-associated protein and the 60-kDa PI 3'-kinase-associated protein (Yeh, et al., supra).
Post-receptor defects in the insulin signaling pathway are a common feature of type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus (Stoffel M. et al. (1993) Diabetologia 36: 335-337). Other disorders or conditions associated with disturbances in insulin response include hyperglycemia, myotonic muscular dystrophy, acanthosis nigricans, retinopathy, nephropathy, atherosclerotic coronary and peripheral arterial disease, and peripheral and autonomic neuropathies.
The discovery of a new human insulin receptor tyrosine kinase substrate and the polynucleotides encoding it satisfies a need in the art by providing new compositions which are useful in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cancer, inflammation, and disorders associated with insulin response.

Insulin receptor tyrosine kinase substrate


An apparatus and method for substantially sealing an opening defined by a hydrocarbon well downhole component, wherein an interior portion of the downhole component is in fluid communication with a formation surrounding the hydrocarbon well. The apparatus includes a deformable plug adaptable to being injected into the wellbore upstream of the opening and carried through the wellbore in a fluid. The fluid carrying the deformable plug can flow through the opening and the deformable plug is sized and configured such that at least a portion of the deformable plug can deform to the contour of the opening and seat in the opening. The deformable plug is capable of swelling, hardening, or compressing such that the deformable plug forms a substantially sealed relationship with the hydrocarbon well downhole component such that the interior portion of the downhole component ceases to be in fluid communication with the formation surrounding the well.

Myriad wells have been drilled into earth strata for the extraction of oil, gas, and other material there from. Typically, hydrocarbon wells are constructed by setting a string of pipe, commonly referred to as casing, in the wellbore and filling the space (annulus) between the wellbore and outer surface of the casing with cement. Completing a well in this manner allows for the flow of fluid from the surrounding formation to the well to be limited to selected zones. In order to permit fluid flow between the formation and well, the operator of the well will identify the particular strata where fluid will be injected and/or from which the hydrocarbons will be collected, and then will perforate the casing and cement at the appropriate location. The perforations may be created by bullets or jet shots discharged from a conventional perforating gun at high pressure and can extend through the walls of the casing and the cemented area such that the selected strata, referred to as the production zone, is in fluid communication with the interior portion of the casing in the well. Alternatively, holes may be cut through the pipe and cement by hydro-jetting. Some well constructions do not place cement in the annular space and are referred to as un-cemented completions. Sections of the un-cemented annulus may be segregated with external casing packers. Perforations or sliding sleeve assemblies are used to communicate the selected strata with the interior portion of the casing in the well. In the case of sliding sleeve assemblies, the sleeves are shifted open exposing a port to gain access to the formation.
After completing the well, the production zone of the formation may be treated to increase the flow of hydrocarbons into the well. Typically, a well may be fractured in the event the formation in the production zone is characterized by low permeability. The well may be fractured by a conventional manner, one such example being hydraulic fracturing. To hydraulically fracture a well, a fluid such as water containing a particulate material such as sand is pumped down under high pressure from the surface into the casing and out through the perforations, jetted holes or ports into the production zone to break the formation creating fractures. The particulate material lodges in the fractures and serves to "prop" the fractures open, thus increasing the permeability of the production zone and further increasing fluid flow into the well when the well is put on production.
One conventional manner of improving the results of the fracturing procedure is to ensure that the treating fluid is injected into the production zone with a fairly even flow distribution in all directions. However, achieving an even distribution can be difficult, because the formations in the production zone may not be of equal stress. The treating fluid will preferentially flow to the areas of least resistance, i.e., the areas of lowest stress, and high stress areas will receive correspondingly reduced flow rates. This problem can become especially acute when the production zone is long or there are a large number of perforations.
One method used to address this flow imbalance problem is the redirection of the treating fluid toward higher stress zones by using ball sealers to temporarily block perforations that exist across lower stress zones. These ball sealers are typically spherical in shape and have a diameter that is larger than the average perforation size, and are pumped into the casing along with the treating fluid. The flow pattern of the fluid preferentially carries the ball sealers toward the casing perforations that have the highest flow rate of fluid passing into the production zone. The ball sealers seat upon the perforations receiving the majority of fluid flow and, once seated, are held there by the pressure differential across the perforations. If a substantial number of the high flow perforations are blocked by ball sealers seated against them, then fluid flow can be diverted to the perforations which had relatively low flow rates, which can fracture the formation, thus increasing the flow capacity of the production zone. A more even flow distribution may be achieved and, as a result, the increase in hydrocarbon recovery can be larger than it would be if the flow imbalance was not corrected.
As mentioned above, the ball sealers may be pumped into the casing and transported by the treating fluid. Typically, no additional treatment equipment is required other than a ball injector and, optionally, a ball catcher. Advantages of utilizing ball sealers to divert flow of the treating fluid include ease of use, positive shutoff, no involvement with the formation, and low risk of incurring damage to the well. Generally, ball sealers are designed to be chemically inert in the environment to which they are exposed; to effectively seal, yet not extrude into the perforations. The ball sealers can be released from the perforations when the pressure differential into the formation is relieved, fluid flow is commenced into the casing, or alternatively can be physically removed from the perforation by contact with a weighted bar or gauge ring run on a pipe string or wireline. Some ball sealers are designed to dissolve with time and temperature. Such ball sealers are termed "biodegradable ball sealers."
As the hydrocarbons flow into the well, the production zone depletes over time and it can be desirable to tap deposits that are trapped within the formation, either in existing production zones or new production zones. This can include fracturing the existing formation again, or optionally adding additional perforations and selectively treating the new perforations. However, treating a new production zone can be difficult without isolating the new untapped production zone from the existing production zone. Alternatively, there may be so many perforations and/or an exceedingly long perforated interval that the whole interval cannot be effectively contacted with a re-fracturing treatment. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, there are multiple conventional techniques available by which to isolate or seal the perforations associated with the existing production zone and thereby block communication with the wellbore.
One convention procedure utilizes pumping cement to seal the existing perforations, drilling out the cement from the casing, perforating and re-fracturing the well. However, the conventional procedures utilizing pumping cement to seal the existing perforations can be disadvantageous. The cement not only seals the casing but also can fill the fractures within the formation and can damage the near wellbore formation. Utilization of a workover rig to pump the cement and, optionally, drilling the cement out can be time consuming and expensive, thus undesirably reducing the efficiency by which the hydrocarbons can be obtained.
Another conventional procedure for sealing the perforations associated with the existing production zone and thereby blocking communication with the wellbore includes running a liner into the wellbore. This procedure involves hanging several hundred to several thousand feet of pipe (liner) inside the existing wellbore to cover the production zone and setting the liner in place. Optionally, an expandable liner may be inserted in the wellbore, wherein the liner expands to the inner diameter of the casing. However, the solution of adding a liner suffers from the problem of high cost for many feet of extra steel and has the additional complexity of hanging the liner in the hole, especially in lateral boreholes commonly found in horizontally developed shale plays. Additionally, the liner job also decreases the inside diameter of the wellbore, which can hinder future ability to work on the well.
As discussed above, conventional ball sealers may be injected into the wellbore to seal off perforations in the production zone. However, such ball sealers only temporarily seal off the perforations and typically the sealing relationship with the perforations is lost when the pressure differential across the perforations is lost due to the elimination of the treating fluid flow and/or the release of pressure. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the conventional ball sealers is limited by the flow rate of the treating fluid pumped into the wellbore. For example, in a typical lateral borehole, the flow rate of the treating fluid may be a maximum of one hundred barrels per minute. Such a flow rate may only result in a quarter to a little more than a third of the production zone sealed off in a lateral borehole as those typically drilled in horizontal shale plays.
In view of the above, it would be desirable to employ an inexpensive and time-efficient method to substantially seal off a production zone of a hydrocarbon well. It would further be desirable to substantially seal off a production zone utilizing a minimal amount of hardware and machinery, such that transport cost and time to the well site would be minimized. It would also be desirable to employ a method to substantially seal off a production zone utilizing fewer trained operators than traditionally needed in other conventional procedures. In addition, it would be desirable to employ a method to substantially seal off a production zone that does not damage and/or contaminate the surrounding formation. Furthermore, it would be desirable to employ a method of substantially and permanently sealing off a production zone in a horizontal wellbore in a horizontal shale play without damaging and/or contaminating the surrounding formation.

Apparatus and method for sealing a portion of a component disposed in a wellbore


A method is provided for image-processing an image dataset acquired from a patient by a medical imaging apparatus, (e.g., an X-ray apparatus), wherein the image dataset includes image values associated with image points, and depicts an acquisition region of the patient containing at least one object, (e.g., a medical device), to be enhanced, which is represented by image values within an image-value interval. The method includes determining a non-linearly high-pass filtered enhancement dataset, which is confined to an image portion containing image values lying in the image-value interval. The method also includes determining a result dataset by adding to the image dataset the enhancement dataset weighted by a weighting value. The method further includes outputting the result dataset.

Medical imaging, for instance X-ray imaging, although increasingly other modalities as well, (e.g., magnetic resonance imaging), is also used to facilitate assessment of the progress and/or success of surgical interventions, in particular minimally invasive interventions, on a patient. In such pre-operative, intra-operative, inter-operative, and/or post-operative imaging, it is necessary, for example, to assess to what extent a medical device, in particular an implant and/or an instrument, is correctly positioned in order to achieve the desired medical effect and/or to obtain the desired diagnostic information.
An example of such a surgical intervention, specifically a minimally invasive intervention, is placing a stent in a blood vessel of a patient. During or after placement of the stent, the practitioner performing the placement provides that the position of the stent is correct. This is made more difficult in particular if the stent is located close to other medical devices, for instance metal coils, and/or is surrounded by strongly attenuating anatomical structures, (e.g., bones). Thus, medical image datasets of an acquisition region of a patient, in which certain objects, (e.g., medical devices), are meant to be assessed, may be difficult to interpret when other anatomical structures and/or medical aids are located in the vicinity.

Image-processing of image datasets of patients


Rubber-containing graft copolymer particles excellent in powder properties are prepared by a process comprising mixing, with 100 parts by weight (as solid content) of rubber-containing graft copolymer (A) in a state of slurry, 0.1 to 10 parts by weight of a rigid non-elastic multi-stage polymer (B), in a state of slurry, consisting of 30 to 80% by weight of a (co)polymer component comprising 40 to 100% by weight of methyl methacrylate and 0 to 60% by weight of one or more other monomers copolymerizable therewith being polymerized at least in the first stage and 5 to 70% by weight of a (co)polymer component comprising 70 to 100% by weight of methyl methacrylate and 0 to 30% by weight of one or more other monomers copolymerizable therewith being polymerized in the final stage, the total amount of the (co)polymer components in the respective stages being 100% by weight and the content of polymeric units derived from an acrylic ester in the multi-stage polymer (B) being from 5 to 30% by weight.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of rubber-containing graft copolymer particles having excellent powder properties, to thus improve the impact resistance of rigid resins such as polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, polymethyl methacrylate and acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer, or resins known as "engineering plastics", such as polycarbonate, PET, PBT, and polyacetal.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known to blend a rubber-containing graft copolymer with rigid resins such as polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, polymethyl methacrylate and acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer, or resins called "engineering plastics" such as polycarbonate, PET, PBT, and polyacetal, to thereby improve the impact resistance of these resins. The rubber-containing graft copolymer is obtained usually as powder particles, generally by coagulating a latex prepared by emulsion polymerization with an acid, a salt or the like, and then dehydrating and drying the thus-coagulated latex.
Nevertheless, these powder particles are likely to give rise to serious problems in that caused blocking occurs during the storage thereof, and a transportation line is clogged with these particles, and so on. Further, when the rubber content of the rubber-containing graft copolymer increased, to thereby improve the impact resistance of the resin to be blended with this copolymer, the above problems become more serious, and this is inconvenient.
Accordingly, with the recent automation of a measurement and an oversizing of transportation lines, an improvement of the powder properties such as blocking resistance and powder fluidity is urgently required, and thus various processes for the improvement of the powder properties of a rubber-containing graft copolymer particles have been examined. There are known, e.g., a process in which finely powdered silica, sodium carbonate, calcium carbonate, titanium dioxide, various metallic soaps or the like is added to the powder particles of a rubber-containing graft copolymer, and a process in which a lubricant is added to such powder particles, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 64-2644. These processes, however, are accompanied by serious problems in that the improvement of the powder properties is insufficient, or in that even if such an improvement is observed, the imparting of an impact resistance to a rubber-containing graft copolymer is lowered, and the transparency, processability and thermal stability of the powder become poor, and so on. On the other hand, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 58-48584 (and corresponding British Patent Publication No. 2,044,779), discloses a process in which a graft copolymer with a low rubber content, for an improvement of the powder properties, is mixed with a graft copolymer with a high rubber content, as a slurry. According to this process, the improvement of the powder properties of a graft copolymer with a high rubber content is still insufficient, although the copolymer for improving the powder properties does not adversely affect the physical properties of the graft copolymer with a high rubber content to be used. Further, the above-described Japanese Examined Patent Publication 58-48584, discloses, as Comparative Example 3, an example where an impact resisting improving agent obtained by mixing, with a rubber-containing graft copolymer, as a slurry, a rigid non-elastic double-stage polymer free from rubber component obtained by polymerizing a mixture of styrene and methyl methacrylate at the first stage and polymerizing methyl methacrylate at the second stage, is blended with a polyvinyl chloride resin. Also, an example is given wherein, in a mixture obtained by mixing the double-stage polymer with such a composition as a slurry, when the obtained modified rubber-containing graft copolymer is blended with a polyvinyl chloride resin, many fish eyes are produced, or the impact resistance of the resin is lowered, and it is stated that the effect of the rubber-containing graft copolymer of improving the properties of the resin to be blended with said copolymer is still insufficient. In addition, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 61-57341 (and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,553) or Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 58-1742 (and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,131), discloses that a rigid non-elastic polymer in a state of slurry is mixed with a rubber-containing graft copolymer, but the rigid non-elastic polymers proposed in these publications are considered to be those prepared a one-stage polymerization process, from the total descriptions of these publications. As long as such a polymer is used, sometimes problems arise, similar to those described in Comparative Example 3 of the above-cited Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 58-48584, in that, when the modified rubber-containing graft copolymer is blended with a polyvinyl chloride, fish eyes are produced and that the impact resistance of the resin is lowered.
As described above, a process has not been found whereby the powder properties can be practically sufficiently improved without producing fish eyes and without lowering the impact resistance, transparency, processability or thermal stability of the resin, when a rubber-containing graft copolymer is blended as an impact resistance improving agent with the resin to be mixed with the copolymer.

Process for the preparation of rubber-containing graft copolymer particles


A method and system for providing security to Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) operations in a home network environment based on ownership rights where a request is received from a Control Point (CP) to perform an UPnP action associated with an UPnP resource. It is determined whether the CP holds an ownership right to perform the UPnP action based on ownership data associated with the UPnP resource. Accordingly, the CP is authorized to execute the UPnP action on the UPnP resource or an error message is returned to the CP based on the ownership of the UPnP resource.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) home network system, and more particularly to a method and system for providing security for UPnP operations in a home network environment based on ownership rights.
2. Description of the Related Art
Universal plug and play (UPnP) is a set of computer network protocols promulgated by the UPnP forum. The goals of UPnP are to allow access to connect seamlessly and to simplify implementation of networks (e.g., data sharing, communications, and entertainment) within homes and corporate environments. These goals are achieved by defining and publishing UPnP device control protocols built upon open, Internet-based communication standards.
The UPnP technology can cater to a wide range of devices in a home network. The UPnP provides discovery, control and event related mechanisms. Discovery is enabled using a Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) protocol. Event mechanisms follow the General Event Notification Architecture (GENA) protocol. Using these technologies, UPnP makes availability and unavailability of the UPnP devices on the fly to the other devices in the UPnP home network.
UPnP architecture allows peer-to-peer networking of Personal Computers (PCs), networked appliances, and wireless devices. It is distributed, open architecture based on established standards such as Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and eXtended Mark-up Language (XML). The UPnP architecture supports zero configuration networking. For example, an UPnP compatible device from any vendor can dynamically join a network, obtain an IP address, announce its name, convey its capabilities upon request, and learn about the presence and capabilities about other devices. On the other hand, the UPnP devices can leave the UPnP home network automatically without leaving any unwanted state information on the network.
The foundation for UPnP networking is Internet Protocol (IP) addressing. Each UPnP device includes a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) client which searches for a DHCP server when the UPnP device is first connected to the UPnP network. If no DHCP server is available, the UPnP device assigns itself an address. If during the DHCP transaction, the UPnP device obtains a domain name, for example, through a Domain Name System (DNS) server or via DNS forwarding, the UPnP device uses that name in subsequent network operations, otherwise the UPnP device uses its IP address.
UPnP defines device protection service as a generic security solution which can be used by all services defined in the UPnP. A device protection service defines concept of roles. All control points or control devices are assigned different roles, namely public, basic and admin for performing UPnP actions. Different DCPs and Vendors are free to extend these set of roles. However, the device protection service defines access control based only on actions and not on resources. In other words, the current device protection service fail to provide access control based on resources like Deployment Unit (DU), Execution Unit (EU) and Diagnostic tests (e.g., Ping, Traceroute, etc.).
Therefore, there exist a need to provide access control to different control points for performing an UPnP action (e.g., install action, uninstall action, start action, stop action, ping action and so on) based on ownership information associated with resources on which the UPnP action is invoked. That is, access control decisions are taken based on which control point is the owner of a resource.

Method and system for providing security for universal plug and play operations in a home network environment based on ownership rights


The invention relates to image sensors, and more particularly to matrix sensors having active pixels in CMOS technology. According to the invention, a method for imaging a scene with a very short integration time, by using a standard image sensor comprising a matrix of pixels, comprising photodiodes, and charge storage nodes, is provided. Two images of the same scene are produced under identical light conditions, one of the images corresponding to integration of charges during a first time interval with a duration Tint and the other image corresponding to a second time interval with a duration T′int longer than Tint, and a difference between these two images is established, representing an image integrated during a time interval T′int−Tint. The light may be provided by a light pulse (IMP). This method may be used for observing points in a scene that lie at a well-determined distance, the brevity of the integration time allowing good precision of the observation distance.

Current technology makes it possible to produce sensors in which the integration duration of the electric charges generated by light in the pixels can vary between a few hundreds of nanoseconds and twenty milliseconds (or more if a reduction of the rate of the images to less than 50 images per second is accepted). It is difficult to reduce the integration duration below 100 or 200 nanoseconds; the reason is that the sequencing of the operation of a sensor is established by synchronous logic circuits; it would not be possible to reduce the durations of the synchronous signals below about one hundred nanoseconds securely.
There could, however, be a need to take images with an even shorter integration duration. This may be the case, for example, if the intention is to use the sensor, by combining it with a pulsed light source, in order to measure distances or to take an image of a scene at a given distance. This measurement or control of the distance of the observed scene is based on knowledge of the time of flight of the light between the source and the sensor after reflection from a point in the scene being observed. It therefore relies at least partly on good synchronization between the moment when a light pulse is sent and the moment when the charges generated by the return of this light pulse onto the sensor are integrated. The precision of the measurement or of the control of the distance may depend in particular on the integration duration of the charges generated by the light pulse. Typically, a duration of 100 nanoseconds corresponds to a distance of 30 meters travelled by the light, but there may be a desire to benefit from a shorter integration duration in order to improve the precision of the measurement or of the distance control.

Image-sensing method having a very short integration time


A method of allocating upstream bandwidth in a passive optical access network includes associating a first timer to a first upstream traffic flow and associating a second timer to a second upstream traffic flow. During a given frame period, if the first timer is at its expiration value and the second timer is not at its expiration value, then a first portion of the upstream bandwidth is allocated to the first upstream traffic flow. If a second portion of the upstream bandwidth is left, at least part of that second portion is allocated to the second upstream traffic flow before the second timer expires. If the first and second timers have not expired, then at least part of the upstream bandwidth is allocated to at least one of the first and second upstream traffic flows.

An access network is a telecommunication network allowing to connect one or more end users to a core network, which can be either a circuit-switched network or a packet-switched network.
More particularly, an optical access network is an access network implemented through optical fibers and either active optical devices (amplifiers, regenerators, switches, etc.) or passive optical devices (couplers, splitters, etc.).
A particularly advantageous type of optical access network is the so-called "passive optical network", or briefly PON. A PON comprises an optical distribution network which is mainly built up of passive optical components forming a tree structure.
The root of such an optical distribution network is connected to an optical line termination, which interfaces the PON with the core network. Further, each leaf of the tree structure is connected to a network termination, which is typically located at the customer premises (e.g. cabinet, building, home), and which interfaces the PON with one or more end users.
Different types of PONs are known in the art, such as ATM PONs, Broadband PONs, Ethernet PONs and Gigabit-capable PONs (or, briefly, GPONs). Each type of PON is adapted to carry different kinds of traffic at different speeds. For instance, a GPON allows to transport different kinds of traffic such as ATM traffic, Ethernet traffic, TDM traffic, etc., at speeds up to 2.5 Gb/s.
In a PON, traffic may be transmitted either in downstream direction (i.e. from the optical line termination to the network terminations) or in upstream direction (i.e. from a network termination to the optical line termination).
Downstream traffic is typically transmitted as a flow of downstream frames generated by the optical line termination. Each downstream frame typically has a header and a payload, which payload comprises bytes of the downstream traffic. Each downstream frame is received by all the network terminations of the PON. Each network termination processes the downstream frame header, thus determining whether the downstream frame comprises bytes of downstream traffic addressed to it. In the negative, the network termination discards the downstream frame. In the affirmative, the network termination forwards the bytes to the end user(s) connected to it.
Upstream traffic generated by each network termination is transmitted according to the known time division multiple access technique.
More particularly, a network termination typically is in charge of transmitting on a PON different upstream traffic flows. Such different upstream traffic flows may be for instance generated by different end users, or by a single end user enjoying different services (e.g. telephone service, video-on-demand service, Internet, etc.) supported by the PON. Typically, each upstream traffic flow traveling in a PON has an identifier. For instance, in a GPON each upstream traffic flow is associated to a Transmission Container (T-CONT), identified by a so-called Alloc-ID, which comprises a sequence of 12 bits.
Typically, the optical line termination of a PON allocates to each upstream traffic flow a respective upstream transmission time, during which bytes of the upstream traffic flow can be transmitted in the PON. For avoiding collisions, upstream transmission times of different upstream traffic flows do not overlap. For instance, in a GPON, the optical line termination allocates to each Alloc-ID a respective upstream transmission time. Further, in a GPON the optical line termination inserts in the header of each downstream frame a field which is termed Upstream Bandwidth Map. The Upstream Bandwidth Map comprises, for each Alloc-ID, a respective sub-field which is termed "grant". Each grant typically comprises the Alloc-ID, an upstream transmission start time and an upstream transmission stop time. Upon reception of a downstream frame, each network termination processes the Upstream Bandwidth Map comprised in the downstream frame header, and it reads grants relative to Alloc-IDs identifying upstream traffic flows which the network termination is in charge of transmitting.
In the following description and in the claims, the expression "allocating upstream bandwidth" will designate an operation of allocating a respective upstream transmission time to each upstream traffic flow traveling in a PON.
Allocation of upstream bandwidth may be either static or dynamic. In case of static allocation, each upstream traffic flow always has allocated a same upstream transmission time, independently of traffic conditions in the PON. On the contrary, in case of dynamic allocation, upstream transmission times allocated to each upstream traffic flow may vary as a function of traffic conditions in the PON. The Recommendation ITU-T G.983.4, November 2001, paragraph 1.2.3, proposes to provide the optical line termination of a BPON with a logic adapted to perform dynamic allocation of the upstream bandwidth to different Alloc-IDs.
To this purpose, the ITU-T G.983.4, November 2001, paragraph 1.4 divides the total upstream bandwidth in four different parts, which are termed: fixed bandwidth, assured bandwidth, non-assured bandwidth and best effort bandwidth. Each part of upstream bandwidth is associated to upstream traffic flows according to a different criterion.
More particularly, the fixed bandwidth is entirely reserved and cyclically allocated in order to achieve a low cell transfer delay. Therefore, if a traffic flow is provisioned with fixed bandwidth and has no cells to send, idle cells will be sent upstream from the network termination to the optical line termination. Assured bandwidth is bandwidth that is always available to the network termination if the traffic buffer is expected to have cells to transmit. If the traffic flow does not have cells to transmit, the assured bandwidth may be allocated to other traffic flows. Non-assured bandwidth is a high priority variation of additional bandwidth that is assigned to traffic flows with assured bandwidth. Finally, best effort bandwidth is bandwidth that a traffic flow may be able to use if no higher-priority traffic consumes the bandwidth; there is no assurance or guarantee that the bandwidth will be available.
Each upstream traffic flow may have upstream bandwidth allocated according to at least one of the above cited criteria. More particularly, the ITU-T G.983.4, November 2001, paragraph 188.8.131.52.2 defines four different types of "transmission container" to which an upstream traffic flow may belong. Upstream traffic flows belonging to a first type of transmission container (T-CONT1) may have only fixed bandwidth allocated. Upstream traffic flows belonging to a second type of transmission container (T-CONT2) may have only assured bandwidth allocated. Upstream traffic flows belonging to a third type of transmission container (T-CONT3) may have both assured bandwidth and non-assured bandwidth allocated. Finally, upstream traffic flows belonging to a fourth type of transmission container (T-CONT4) may have only best effort bandwidth allocated.
Further, the ITU-T G.983.4, November 2001, paragraph 1.2.4 discloses that, for dynamically allocating upstream bandwidth to Alloc-IDs, each network termination of a BPON may send to the optical line termination the status of its buffers. The OLT reassigns the bandwidth according to these reports.
In GPONs, each network termination may send a DBRu (Dynamic Bandwidth Report upstream) relative to an Alloc-ID, indicating the number of bytes of that Alloc-ID which are waiting to be transmitted in a queue at the network termination.
The ITU-T G.984.3 (paragraphs 3.20, 5.3, 7.7, 8.2.5, 8.4.2) proposes that dynamic allocation of upstream bandwidth in GPONs could be advantageously performed by taking into account both transmission containers and Dynamic Bandwidth Report upstream of the various Alloc-IDs. However, the ITU-T G.984.3 (paragraphs 3.20, 5.3, 7.7, 8.2.5, 8.4.2) does not propose any algorithm for implementing dynamic allocation of upstream bandwidth based on transmission containers and Dynamic Bandwidth Report upstream.
The paper "A GPON MAC controller adapting to varying number of active users, traffic volume and QoS" of J. D. Angelopoulos et al., International Conference on Computer, Communications and Control Technologies 2003, Orlando Fla., Jul. 31, Aug. 1-2, 2003, describes a method for dynamically allocating upstream bandwidth to Alloc-IDs in a GPON network. In particular, the allocation is decided as a function of the QoS parameters (negotiated at flow activation phase) and the temporal properties of this flow. The QoS parameters are passed to a MAC controller of the optical line termination, which keeps them in a bandwidth allocation parameter matrix. On the other hand, the temporal traffic properties are reflected in buffer length variations that are announced to the MAC controller through special report messages. Hence, the MAC controller maintains a matrix reflecting the buffer fill levels. The dynamically changing bandwidth distribution is calculated by the MAC FPGA. In particular, a guaranteed part of the bandwidth is assigned to flows of T-CONT1, T-CONT2 and T-CONT3, implying that they are allocated a fixed number of bytes with a minimum frequency. One timer per traffic flow is implemented and decreased by one every frame. Each time that a timer expires, the corresponding flow has to be assigned the contracted number of bytes, kept in the bandwidth allocation parameter matrix. Then, the surplus bandwidth allocation mechanism is triggered, leading to assignment of bandwidth to flows of T-CONT3 and T-CONT4. Both the guaranteed and the surplus bandwidth assignment require using timers.

Dynamic bandwidth allocation in a passive optical access network


This variable gain amplifier is provided with an operational amplifier. The non-inversion input terminal of the operational amplifier is connected to a reference potential. A feedback resistor is connected between the output terminal and inversion input terminal of the operational amplifier. An input resistor is inserted between the inversion input terminal of the operational amplifier and the input terminal of the variable gain amplifier circuit. An adjustment resistor is connected between the inversion input terminal of the operational amplifier and the reference potential. The resistance value of the adjustment resistor is controlled in such a way as to maintain constant against the resistance value change a combined resistance value in its parallel connection with the input resistor when changing the resistance value of the input resistor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the amplification technology of electric signals, and more particularly to the technology of an amplifier circuit whose gain can be varied.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is explained. FIG. 1 is one example of a variable gain amplifier circuit whose gain can be changed.
In FIG. 1, the non-inversion input terminal of an operational amplifier OP1 is connected to the ground (reference potential, virtual earth) of the circuit. A feedback resistor R0 is connected between the output terminal and inversion terminal of the operational amplifier.
An input resistor R1 is connected between the input terminal IN of this variable gain amplifier circuit and the inversion input terminal of the operational amplifier OP1. The resistance value of this input resistor R1 can be changed.
An amplifier circuit with a configuration such as that shown in FIG. 1 is a typical inversion amplifier circuit. It is widely known that the gain G of the inversion amplifier circuit is as follows (here, no inversion of a signal is considered):G=V0/V1=R0/R1In this case, when changing the value of the input resistor R1, the gain of the circuit varies. FIG. 2 is a graph showing the change of the frequency and phase characteristics of the circuit shown in FIG. 1 when changing its gain thusly.
As seen from FIG. 2, when reducing the gain of the circuit shown in FIG. 1 by increasing the value of the input resistor R1, the phase characteristic also varies and frequency at which a phase slews shifts towards the higher frequency side. This is because the amount of feedback from the output of the operational amplifier OP1 to the inversion input terminal is changed by increasing the value of the resistor R1. Such a phase characteristic change can cause distortion in the waveform of a signal amplified by the circuit.
In the circuit shown in FIG. 1, the amount of feedback from the operational amplifier OP1 to the inversion input terminal is as follows:V0×R1/(R1+R0)
Concerning the present invention, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. H8-116224 discloses a technology for reducing gain error that is due to the conduction resistor for a gain changing-over switch and reducing the total resistance value of resistors used for creating gain change by making the ratio between the input resistor and the conduction resistor for a dummy switch that is connected to it in series and is in the normal conduction state almost the same as the ratio between a gain setting resistor, which is a feedback resistor, and the conduction resistor for a gain changing-over switch in the inversion or non-inversion amplifier that uses an operational amplifier.

Variable gain amplifier circuit and filter circuit


An oxide dispersion-strengthened (ODS) iron-based alloy powder and a characterization method thereof are provided. The alloy powder comprises a matrix and strengthening phases. The strengthening phases include at least two types of strengthening phase particles with different sizes, wherein a volume of the particles with a particle size of less than or equal to 50 nm accounts for 85-95% of a total volume of all the strengthening phase particles. The matrix is a Fe—Cr—W—Ti alloy. The characterization method of the ODS iron-based alloy powder comprises separating the strengthening phases from the powder matrix through electrolysis, and analyzing and characterizing the strengthening phases using an electron microscope.

Oxide dispersion-strengthened (ODS) alloy powder is the raw material for preparing ODS alloy, and its microstructure, especially the size distribution, morphology, and crystal structure of strengthening phases plays a crucial effect on performance of ODS alloys. ODS alloy powder with a homogeneous microstructure, oxide dispersion distribution, multi-scale and multi-structure is a key to prepare the high-performance ODS alloy.
Rieken, et al. [J. R. Rieken, et al. Journal of nuclear materials 2012, 428(1-3): 65-75] used mixed Ar-O2 gas to prepare ODS alloy powder by reactive gas atomization, and found that a Cr-containing oxidation layer of about 50 nm was formed on the powder surface but no oxide strengthen phases were formed in the matrix of alloy powder. Based on internal oxidation method, Xu et al. [Xu Yanlong et al., Materials Science and Engineering of Powder Metallurgy, 2015, 20(3):431-437] prepared MgO dispersion-strengthened iron-based alloy, but only obtained the single MgO strengthening phase with particle size larger than 1 μm, and maximum tensile strength of the alloy is 342 MPa at room temperature. Dousti et al. [Behnoush Dousti, et al. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2013, 577(2): 409-416] reported that elemental metal Fe, Cr, W, and Ti powder and Y2O3 powder were mixed and mechanical alloyed, and results show that the metal elements are difficult to be homogeneous dispersed, and the Y2O3 particles were coarse, and no new oxide strengthening phase was formed. Totally, alloy powders prepared through various ways such as reaction gas atomization, internal oxidation and mechanical alloying have the same problems in which the oxides are coarse and inhomogeneous distributed. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain the alloy powder with oxide dispersion distribution in the powder matrix, which results in that the properties of the alloy prepared by hot forming are difficult to meet the requirements of engineering application.
Traditionally, optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were able to characterize the microstructure of alloy powder in micron-scale. However, those equipment are unable to characterize the nano-scaled strengthening phase such as oxides particles. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) is suitable for characterizing the submicron-scaled and nano-scaled oxide particles in alloy powder. However, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has a extremely high requirements for the TEM samples, and because ferromagnetic alloy powder will seriously pollute and damage the electron microscope, it is difficult to directly characterize the ferromagnetic alloys or alloy powder by TEM/HRTEM. Therefore, preparing TEM/HRTEM samples of ferromagnetic alloy powder and characterizing its nano-scaled phase structure become the key problem to investigate microstructure of the ferromagnetic alloy powder.
Aiming at the above problems, the present disclosure provides an ODS iron-based alloy powder and a characterization method thereof. The prepared powder is homogeneous in microstructure, where the oxide strengthening phases have multi-scale and multi-structures and homogeneous dispersed in the matrix and are characterized by TEM. The present disclosure proposes a sample preparation method for TEM/HRTEM characterization related to those nano-scale oxide phases. The tensile properties of ODS iron-based alloy prepared using this powder reaches 1600 MPa or above. Currently, no relevant research result has been publicly reported in this field.
The key technical problems encountered during the development of the present disclosure are as follows:
(1) Proposals for Design Idea of Multi-Scale and Multi-Types Oxide Dispersion-Strengthening Phases
Oxide dispersion-strengthened (ODS) alloy powder is the raw material for preparing high-performance ODS alloy, and its microstructure, especially the size, morphology and crystalline structure of oxides strengthening phase plays a crucial effect on performance of ODS alloys prepared by powder forming.
During the development of the present disclosure, a variety of solutions have been designed:
Atomized oxygen-containing iron-based alloy powder: a kind of oxygen supersaturated solid solution, the oxygen content and the distribution uniformity of the powder are difficult to control, which results in that the mechanical properties of the alloy prepared by this powder are poor.
Surface-oxidized atomized iron-based alloy powder: Oxides in the alloy prepared by this powder are coarse and inhomogeneous distributed, resulting in poor mechanical properties of the alloy prepared by surface-oxidized atomized iron-based alloy powder.
Oxide dispersion-strengthened iron-based alloy powder prepared by mechanical alloying of atomized iron-based alloy powder and Fe2O3 powder: The oxides in the ODS alloy prepared by this powder were formed by the replacement reaction between alloying elements and Fe2O3, which results in Fe2O3 remained and inhomogeneous distribution of oxides. This leads to a poor oxidation resistance of the prepared alloy.
Nano-oxide dispersed alloy powder has been designed according to the existing oxide dispersion strengthening theory and technical idea of ODS iron-based alloy preparation: Alloy powder with homogeneous distribution of nano-scale Y2O3 of was prepared by mechanical alloying of rare earth oxide powder, especially Y2O3 powder, and atomized pre-alloyed iron-based powder. The alloy prepared by this powder has good tensile properties at room temperature, and high strength at 550° C., but the strength performance of the alloy decreases rapidly at the temperature exceeding 600° C.
Based on the alloy strengthening theory and the deformation theory, the ODS alloy design idea of using nano-scale and submicron-scale strengthening phases to strengthen the alloy matrix and grain boundary is proposed for the first time. It is proposed for the first time to use high energy ball milling to introduce high-density defects into Y2O3, and result to amorphization while Y2O3 powder was nano-sized, and various phases containing oxygen (including Y—Ti—O, Y—Cr—O and Y—W—O) are formed, which provides conditions for obtaining more stable complex oxides. Then, various complex oxide strengthening phases are formed in alloy matrix, which can effectively improve the high-temperature mechanical properties of ODS alloy.
(2) Preparation of Alloy Powder with Multi-Scale Oxide Strengthening Phases
During the development of the present disclosure, the methods for introducing oxide strengthening phases into alloy powder matrix include: using oxide to participate in reaction, preparing oxygen-containing powder atomized by oxygen-containing gas, and forming oxide strengthening phase by pre-oxidization of the alloy powder surface followed by replacement reaction. However, all these methods are difficult to obtain the required oxide strengthening phases effectively, and it is difficult to control the microstructure, content, size and distribution of the strengthening phases. In addition, the high temperature properties of the alloy prepared by such methods are poor.
Finally, the present disclosure uses Y2O3 as a strengthening phase raw material to prepare the powder containing homogeneous dispersed multi-scale strengthening oxides by mechanical alloying using milling balls with six diameters.
(3) Preparation of Alloy Powder Containing Homogeneous-Distributed Multi-Scale and Multi-Structure Oxides Strengthening Phases
During the development of the present disclosure, milling ball with one single diameter was used for mechanical alloying, and only fine Y2O3 was obtained in as-milled alloy powder. The present disclosure designs the compatibility between milling balls with various diameters and the ball-to-powder ratio, to obtain high-density defects while Y2O3 powder was nano-sized, and Y2O3 undergoes structural transformation and amorphization during mechanical milling. Finally, crystalline Y2O3 and amorphous Y2O3 and Y—Ti—O, C—Cr—O, and Y—W—O is obtained, and the alloy powder containing multi-scale and multi-structure strengthening oxide phases is obtained. The key of the above preparation is to control the structure of Y2O3, especially to obtain amorphous Y2O3 phase.
(4) The present disclosure is also encountered with the problem that strengthening phases are very difficult to characterize by a transmission electron microscope (TEM) or a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). As a result, the structure and proportion of oxide strengthening phases with size of 50 nm and below cannot be accurately characterized. Hence, it is impossible to know and/or investigate the influence of the structure and proportion of oxide strengthening phases with size of 50 nm and below on the performance of alloy powder and alloy products prepared by this alloy powder forming. To solve this problem, the present disclosure develops a corresponding characterization method for the first time.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Oxide dispersion-strengthened iron-based alloy powder and characterization method thereof


A daughter card is provided with an insertion portion, including a row of contact pads on each side of an edge prepared for insertion into the slot of card edge connector, and a contact structure extending from one or both sides of the card. Contact terminals of the contact structure extend parallel to the insertion portion of the card, being electrically connected to circuits within the card. On a mother board, a connector is provided with a first slot for removably receiving the insertion portion of the daughter card, and with one or two slots for removably receiving the contact terminals. The mother board and the daughter card include essential circuits, which are connected through the contact pads, and non-essential circuits, which are connected through the contact terminals. The daughter card may be plugged into a standard type of card edge connector, having only a single, central card-receiving slot, with the contact terminals extending outside the outer surfaces of the connector. A standard type of daughter card, with contact pads on an insertion portion but without the contact terminals extending outward from the card, can be plugged into the first slot of the connector.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to interconnection systems providing an increased number of circuits by means of multiple rows of contacts, where it is desirable to maintain compatibility with components having fewer interconnect circuits.
2. Cross-Reference to Related Applications
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,096,435 and 5,197,887, and copending application Ser. No. 07/990,812 describe high density edge card connection apparatus which includes a connector configured to receive a portion of a daughter card in a central slot, and a daughter card having two rows of contact pads adjacent to an insertion edge, on each side of the card. The connector has two rows of contact springs on each side of the central slot, extending into the central slot to contact the associated rows of contact pads on an inserted daughter card, supported in position by an insulative housing, and extending outward therefrom to be soldered to various circuits in a mother board.
These applications describe solutions for the problems associated with increasing the density of an interconnection system having a single row of contact pads on each side of the daughter card and a single row of contact springs on each side of the central slot of the connector, wherein the increase in density is made by adding a second row of contact pads on each side of the card and a second row of contact springs on each side of the central slot in the connector, and wherein it is necessary to maintain interchangeability between both cards and connectors of the new and old types. This concept is applied where forethought about an eventual need to increase the density of the interconnection in this way has not occurred; daughter cards of the old type have various conductive surfaces in the space where the new rows of contacts must be placed. To allow the use of such old types of cards in the new connectors, means must be provided to prevent contact between the new, additional rows of contact springs and the adjacent surfaces of such a card as it is inserted into the connector.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,887, interposing means are provided to hold these contact springs out of contact with the card in this situation. In a first embodiment, such interposing means consist of insulative camming surfaces slid into place over this space in the card before the card is inserted into the connector. In a second embodiment, such interposing means consists of an interposer pivotably mounted in the connector at each side of the central slot, to be rotated into a position holding the new, additional rows of contact springs out of electrical contact with the card whenever an old type of daughter card is inserted.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,435 and copending application Ser. No. 07/990,812, the new rods of contact spring are formed so that they hold themselves out of contact with an inserted daughter card. The insertion of a card of the new type causes the sliding of an actuator which moves these springs into contact with the card.


Method and blade monitoring system for monitoring bending moment of a wind turbine blade. The method comprises obtaining a first sensor set signal indicative of a first bending moment at a first sensor position different from the tip end along the longitudinal axis of the wind turbine blade, and estimating a bending moment at a first estimation position along the longitudinal axis based on the first sensor set signal, wherein the first sensor position is different from the first estimation position along the longitudinal axis. The blade monitoring system comprises a processing unit and an interface connected to the processing unit, the processing unit being configured for performing the method.

Wind turbine manufacturers are constantly making efforts to improve the efficiency of their wind turbines in order to maximise the annual energy production. Further, the wind turbine manufacturers are interested in prolonging the lifetime of their wind turbine models, since it takes a long time and a lot of resources to develop a new wind turbine model. Systems for monitoring operating parameters of a wind turbine and its components such as the wind turbine blades have become an area of increased attention in order to optimize performance and prolonging the lifetime of different components.
Accordingly, there is a need for a wind turbine blade, methods and apparatus enabling accurate and efficient monitoring of one or more operating parameters of a wind turbine or wind turbine blade. An area of particular interest may be monitoring the loads and stresses applied on a wind turbine blade during operation of a wind turbine.

Method and apparatus for determining loads of a wind turbine blade


A voltage corresponding to desired image data is applied to a ferroelectric liquid crystal having a spontaneous polarization at a predetermined cycle to rewrite the displayed image (period A), and then, all voltages applied to the ferroelectric liquid crystal are removed (timing C) to retain the displayed image before the removal (period B). A gate selection period (voltage application period to the ferroelectric liquid crystal) t2 before stopping the voltage application is set longer than a gate selection period (voltage application period to the ferroelectric liquid crystal) t1 in the normal display. Increasing the voltage application period to the ferroelectric liquid crystal provides a sufficient response of the liquid crystal during the gate selection period, thereby realizing high memory ability.

Along with the recent development of so-called information-oriented society, electronic apparatuses, such as personal computers and PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), have been widely used. With the spread of such electronic apparatuses, portable apparatuses that can be used in offices as well as outdoors have been used, and there are demands for small-size and light-weight of these apparatuses. Liquid crystal display devices are widely used as one of the means to satisfy such demands. Liquid crystal display devices not only achieve small size and light weight, but also include an indispensable technique in an attempt to achieve low power consumption in portable electronic apparatuses that are driven by batteries.
The liquid crystal display devices are mainly classified into the reflection type and the transmission type. In the reflection type liquid crystal display devices, light rays incident from the front face of a liquid crystal panel are reflected by the rear face of the liquid crystal panel, and an image is visualized by the reflected light, whereas in the transmission type liquid crystal display devices, the image is visualized by the transmitted light from a light source (backlight) placed on the rear face of the liquid crystal panel. Since the reflection type liquid crystal display devices have poor visibility because the reflected light amount varies depending upon environmental conditions, transmission type color liquid crystal display devices using color filters are generally used as display devices of personal computers for displaying multi-color or full-color images.
As the color liquid crystal display devices, TN (Twisted Nematic) type using switching elements such as a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) are widely used. Although the TFT-driven TN type liquid crystal display devices have better display quality, compared to STN (Super Twisted Nematic) type liquid crystal display devices, they require a backlight with high brightness to achieve high screen brightness because the light transmittance of the liquid crystal panel is only several percent or so at present. For this reason, a lot of power is consumed by the backlight. Moreover, since a color display is achieved using color filters, a single pixel needs to be composed of three sub-pixels, and there are problems that it is difficult to provide a high-resolution display, and the purity of the displayed colors is not sufficient.
In order to solve such problems, the present inventors developed field-sequential type liquid crystal display devices, (see, for example, T. Yoshihara, et. al., ILCC 98, P1-074, 1998; T. Yoshihara, et. al., AM-LCD '99 Digest of Technical Papers, p. 185, 1999; and T. Yoshihara, et. al., SID '00 Digest of Technical Papers, p. 1176, 2000, and the like). Such field-sequential type liquid crystal display devices do not require sub-pixels, and therefore, displays with higher resolution can be easily realized compared to color-filter type liquid crystal display devices. Moreover, since a field-sequential type liquid crystal display device can use the color of light emitted by the light source as it is for display without using a color filter, the displayed color has excellent purity. Furthermore, since the light utilization efficiency is high, a field-sequential type liquid crystal display device has the advantage of low power consumption. However, in order to realize a field-sequential type liquid crystal display device, high-speed responsiveness (2 ms or less) of liquid crystal is essential.
In order to provide a field-sequential type liquid crystal display device with significant advantages as mentioned above or increase the speed of response of a color-filter type liquid crystal display device, the present inventors are conducting research and development on the driving of liquid crystals such as a ferroelectric liquid crystal having spontaneous polarization, which may achieve 100 to 1000 times faster response compared to a prior art, by a switching element such as a TFT (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-119189/1999, and the like). In the ferroelectric liquid crystal, the long-axis direction of the liquid crystal molecules tilts with the application of voltage. A liquid crystal panel sandwiching the ferroelectric liquid crystal therein is sandwiched by two polarization plates whose polarization axes are orthogonal to each other, and the intensity of the transmitted light is changed using birefringence caused by the change in the long-axis direction of the liquid crystal molecules.
As described above, the field-sequential type liquid crystal display device has higher light utilization efficiency and can reduce power consumption compared to the color-filter type liquid crystal display device. However, a further reduction in power consumption is required for portable apparatuses that are driven by batteries. Similarly, color-filter type liquid crystal display devices are required to reduce power consumption.
The following description will explain the display function, particularly a memory display function of a liquid crystal display device using a ferroelectric liquid crystal having a spontaneous polarization or the like. Such a liquid crystal display device has a normal display function that rewrites the displayed image at a predetermined cycle by applying a voltage to the liquid crystal, and a memory display function that stops the application of voltage to the liquid crystal and retains the image displayed before stopping the application of voltage. In the memory display function, after removing all voltages applied to the liquid crystal by switching elements such as TFT, the display state just before the removal of applied voltage is substantially retained, and therefore it is possible to display the image without applying a voltage to the liquid crystal material, thereby being capable of significantly reducing power consumption. Thus, such a liquid crystal display device is applicable to portable apparatuses, and has a significant effect of reducing power consumption, especially on portable apparatuses that often display still images.
The memory function of the ferroelectric liquid crystal having a spontaneous polarization is described below. A voltage is applied to a liquid crystal panel, and then the voltage is removed by stopping the application of voltage. The light transmittance during the application of voltage and the light transmittance at 60 seconds after the removal of the voltage are measured while changing the value of the applied voltage, and one example of the measurement results is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows the measurement results by plotting the applied voltage (V) on the abscissa and the light transmittance (%) on the ordinate, wherein O-O represents the light transmittance during the application of voltage, and Δ-Δ represents the light transmittance at 60 seconds after the removal of the voltage. The corresponding applied voltage-light transmittance characteristics does not change even after the removal of applied voltage, and thus it can be understood that even when the voltage applied to the liquid crystal panel is removed, the light transmittance corresponding to the display state when the voltage is applied is maintained. Moreover, a black image (light transmittance: substantially 0%, applied voltage: substantially 0 V) shows no change during the application of voltage and the absence of applied voltage, and the display state is retained.
For the liquid crystal panel, a change in the light transmittance after removal of voltage is measured with time, and the measurement results are shown in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2(a), a 5V, 100 μs pulse wave voltage is applied to the liquid crystal panel, and the light transmittance is measured with time. FIG. 2(b) shows the measured light transmittance by plotting the time (ms) on the abscissa and the light transmittance (arbitrary unit) on the ordinate. It can be understood that the light transmittance increases abruptly at the moment the voltage is applied and then attenuates gradually, but the attenuation is not seen 100 ms after the removal of voltage and the liquid crystal panel maintains a certain light transmittance.
It can be understood from the above description that the ferroelectric liquid crystal has the memory function, and even when the applied voltage is removed, the liquid crystal molecules maintain the previous state without moving from the stable position before the removal of the applied voltage to the other stable position. Thus, in a liquid crystal display device using a ferroelectric liquid crystal having such a memory function, when a voltage corresponding to the display information for one screen is applied once, a certain display corresponding to the applied voltage can be maintained without continuing the application of voltage, until a voltage corresponding to the display information for the next screen is applied. Consequently, it is possible to retain the display without applying the voltage, thereby enabling a reduction in power consumption.


A photosensitive recording medium cartridge comprising a cartridge body, an opening, and a shutter, the cartridge body receiving a disc type photosensitive recording medium therein so that the photosensitive recording medium can rotate, the opening being provided in the cartridge body for exposing the photosensitive recording medium to an outside, the shutter being attached to the cartridge body so that the shutter can move between a close position for closing the opening and an open position for opening the opening, wherein: the shutter includes a bent portion which is formed in an outer circumferential end portion of the shutter so as to be bent toward the cartridge body side; and the cartridge body includes a protrusion portion which is formed in a position corresponding to the outer circumferential end portion.

A holographic recording medium on which data are recorded holographically has been invented (e.g. see JP-A-2004-029476). The holographic recording medium is a photosensitive recording medium in which holographic recording layers each made of photosensitive material are provided on a disc-shaped support. Data are multiplexedly recorded as interference fringes of laser light, so that a larger data recording capacity than that of a DVD which is a recording medium heretofore widespread can be obtained. Exposure of the holographic recording layers to light or deposition of dust on the holographic recording layers exerts a bad influence on the performance of the holographic recording medium. For this reason, the holographic recording medium is dealt with in the condition that the holographic recording medium is stored in a cartridge having a light-shielding function and a dustproof function (e.g. see JP-A-2003-317422 (corresponding to US 2003/0198177 A1)).
In the invention described in JP-A-2004-029476, the holographic recording medium is stored in a cartridge similar to the cartridge of a DVD-RAM. The cartridge is made of a material low in transmittance of light rays in a wavelength range exerting influence on the holographic recording layers. On the other hand, in the invention described in JP-A-2003-317422 (corresponding to US 2003/0198177 A1), a cartridge is made of a material capable of blocking light with a color sensitive to the holographic recording layers, and a sponge-like light-shield material is stuck to a mating portion of a movable portion for exposing the holographic recording medium to the outside.

Photosensitive recording medium cartridge