The present invention aims to provide a luminescent display system capable of safely and easily displaying information at a predetermined luminance over a wide area, and a head-up display including the luminescent display system. Provided is a luminescent display system including: a luminescent resin film containing a thermoplastic resin and a luminescent material; and two or more light sources each configured to emit a light beam of excitation wavelength for the luminescent material, the luminescent resin film and two or more light sources being placed such that the light beams emitted from the light sources at least partly overlap on the luminescent resin film.

Laminated glass is less likely to scatter even when fractured by external impact and can be safely used. Due to this advantage, laminated glass has been widely used in, for example, front, side, and rear windshields of vehicles including automobiles and windowpanes of aircraft, buildings, or the like. A known example of laminated glass is a type of laminated glass including at least a pair of glass plates integrated through, for example, an interlayer film for a laminated glass which contains a liquid plasticizer and a polyvinyl acetal resin.
In recent years, there has been a growing demand for head-up displays (HUDs) which present meters showing vehicle driving data (e.g., driving speed information) within the driver's visual field in the front windshield of the vehicle.
Various types of HUDs have been developed. The most typical one is a HUD designed such that a display unit of the instrumental panel projects information (e.g. driving speed information) sent from the control unit onto the front windshield to enable the driver to view the information at a usual viewpoint, namely, within the driver's visual field in the front windshield.
An exemplary interlayer film for a laminated glass for a HUD is an interlayer film for a laminated glass having a wedge shape with a predetermined wedge angle proposed in Patent Literature 1. This interlayer film can solve a HUD's drawback that a meter image displayed on a laminated glass appears double.
Patent Literature 1 also discloses a laminated glass which is partially free from the HUD's drawback of double meter image phenomenon. Yet, not the entire face of the laminated glass is free from the double meter image phenomenon.
In response to this, the applicant of the present application discloses, in Patent Literature 2, an interlayer film for a laminated glass containing a binder resin and at least one luminescent material selected from the group consisting of luminescent particles, a luminescent pigment, and a luminescent dye. Luminescent materials become luminous under irradiation of light of specific wavelengths. When the interlayer film for a laminated glass containing such a luminescent material is irradiated with a light beam, the contained luminescent particles become luminous, so that images can be displayed.

Light-emitting display system and head-up display


The storage system includes a data storage controlling unit that stores a plurality of units of block data, generated by dividing storage target data, in a distributed manner in a plurality of storage devices, and performs duplicate storage elimination. The data storage controlling unit stores a plurality of continuous units of block data of the storage target data, generated by dividing the storage target data, in a particular storage device among the plurality of storage devices, stores, in the particular storage device, feature data based on the data content of the block data and storing position information representing the storing position in the particular storage device of the block data in association with each other as a storing position specifying table, and stores storage device identifying information for identifying the particular storage device and the feature data of the block data stored in the particular storage device in association with each other as a storage device specifying table.

Deduplication for secondary storage systems has recently seen a lot of attention in both research and commercial applications. Deduplication offers significant reductions in storage capacity requirements by identifying identical blocks in the data and storing only a single copy of such blocks. Previous results have shown that significant duplication exists in backup data. This is not surprising, given that subsequent backups of the same systems are usually very similar.
Deduplicating storage systems vary on a number of dimensions. Some systems only deduplicate identical files, while others split the files into smaller blocks and deduplicate those blocks. The present invention will focus on block-level deduplication, because backup applications typically aggregate individual files from the filesystem being backed up into large tar-like archives. Deduplication on the level of files would not give much space reduction.
The blocks can be of fixed or variable size, with variable sized blocks typically produced by content defined chunking. Using content-defined variable-sized blocks was shown to improve the deduplication efficiency significantly.
Most systems eliminate identical blocks, while some only require the blocks to be similar and store the differences efficiently. While this can improve deduplication effectiveness, it requires reading the previous blocks from disk, making it difficult to deliver high write throughput. The present invention will therefore focus on Identical block deduplication in this paper.
(Overview of Deduplicating Storage)
A backup storage system is typically presented with long data streams created by backup applications. These streams are typically archive files or virtual tape images. The data streams are divided into blocks, and a secure hash (e.g. SHA-1) is computed for each of the blocks. These hash values are then compared to hashes of blocks previously stored in the system. Since finding a hash collision for secure hash functions is extremely unlikely, blocks with the same hash value can be assumed to be identical (so called Compare by Hash). Therefore, if a block with the same hash is found, the block is considered a duplicate and it is not stored. The identifiers of all blocks comprising the data stream are stored and can be used to reconstruct the original data stream on read.

System and method for deduplication of distributed data


The invention provides methods and compositions for inhibiting binding of IgE to a high affinity receptor. The methods and compositions are useful in the treatment of allergic diseases and allergy symptoms in mammals.

Excessive production of Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is the hallmark of allergic response to allergens. IgE exerts its primary role through cross-linking of the high-affinity IgE receptor (FcεRI) on mast cells and basophils, resulting in degranulation with the release of histamines and other molecules that produce symptoms associated with allergy.
In contrast, another membrane protein on B lymphocytes (also expressed on macrophages and platelets), CD23 (Fc68 RII), the low-affinity receptor for IgE, plays an important role in decreasing IgE-associated allergic response through regulation of IgE production.
Therefore, therapeutic substances that inhibit binding of free IgE to high affinity receptors on mast cells and basophils can be useful to reduce allergic symptoms. It would also be advantageous if such substances also did not substantially interfere with IgE binding to the low affinity receptors on B lymphocytes so as not to increase IgE production.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and compositions for inhibiting binding of IgE to a high affinity receptor


A vehicle for transporting and delivering anhydrous ammonia. The vehicle includes a chassis and a large anhydrous ammonia tank. A mass flow sensor is provided on the chassis to accurately record transfer of anhydrous ammonia out of the tank. Accurate recording of anhydrous ammonia passing out of the tank allows the vehicle to dispense anhydrous ammonia to different customers from a single tank, and to deliver anhydrous ammonia in the field.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle for transporting and delivering anhydrous ammonia and, more particularly, to a transportation and delivery vehicle capable of accurately measuring anhydrous ammonia as it is being pumped.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well-known in the art to apply anhydrous ammonia to the soil to increase the nitrogen content thereof. For grasses such as corn, nitrogen application is required in many instances to achieve the full potential yield of the crop.
Anhydrous ammonia application systems typically include a high torque vehicle, such as a tractor, which pulls a tool bar or similar implement for cutting into the soil. Pulled behind the tool bar is a small trailer onto which is secured a small gas-tight tank. Hosing is routed forward from the tank to the tool bar and then to knives located on the tool bar. The knives are used to inject the anhydrous ammonia below the surface of the soil.
If the ambient temperature is sufficiently high, some of the anhydrous ammonia within the tank vaporizes and generates pressure within the tank. This pressure is used to force the vaporized anhydrous ammonia through the hoses to the knives. After the anhydrous ammonia has been injected into soil, the anhydrous ammonia is covered with additional soil to reduce the amount of anhydrous ammonia lost to the atmosphere.
Heretofore the amount of anhydrous ammonia delivered to the field has been monitored by weight. It is not possible to precisely gauge the weight of anhydrous ammonia needed in a particular field. Accordingly, numerous small tanks must be individually weighed and brought to the field. While this prior art technique has been used for many years to inject anhydrous ammonia into the soil, this technique has several drawbacks. One drawback is that due to the small capacity of these tanks, the pulling vehicle must stop frequently to have the empty tank replaced with a full tank.
Additionally, the prior art typically uses a pick-up truck, or similar vehicle, to pull the full tanks of anhydrous ammonia from a large stationary tank at a remote location to the applicator vehicle. This scenario often causes a potentially dangerous situation if a plurality of filled tanks are pulled behind a truck, or if the tank were to become detached from the truck during transit. The small capacity of the tanks also requires the pick-up to make numerous trips back and forth, thereby increasing the time on the road and the potential hazards naturally associated with pulling farm-style trailers on public highways.
An additional drawback associated with prior art systems is the inaccuracy in measuring the delivery of anhydrous ammonia. Because of this inaccuracy, anhydrous ammonia is typically delivered one whole tank at a time which has been previously weighed to estimate its contents. Heretofore, there has been no efficient way to accurately deliver less than a full tankload of anhydrous ammonia in the field.
The difficulties encountered hereinabove are sought to be eliminated by the present invention.


There is provided a System and method of wavefront compensation in a synthetic aperture imaging system. A return signal data representative of a signal reflected by a target area to be imaged is received. A compensation phase figure corresponding to a wavefront compensation to be applied is provided. The compensation phase figure is added or otherwise applied to the phase pattern of the return signal data in order to obtain a compensated phase pattern. An optical beam is spatially modulated according to the compensated phase pattern to produce a modulated optical beam such that the compensation phase figure produces a wavefront compensation on the optical beam. An image of the target area is optically generated using the modulated optical beam.

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging systems are widely used in aerial and space reconnaissance. Usually, an aircraft or a spacecraft is provided with a SAR imaging system which transmits radar pulses and collects radar echoes corresponding to the radar pulses reflected by a target area to be imaged.
Due to the large amount of data generated by a SAR system, optical solutions have been developed for processing the SAR raw data. For example, an image from the SAR raw data can be generated by optical signal processing using a spatial light modulator. However, wavefront aberrations may occur in the SAR optical signal processing system due to variations of optical parameters due for example to manufacturing tolerances, misalignment of optical components, temperature changes, vibrations and degradations caused by launch and in-flight conditions. Parameter variations in the SAR imaging system, such as an altitude change or a change in the atmosphere for example, may also result in wavefront aberrations. In some optical SAR signal processing systems, the position of optical components may be varied in order to compensate for such parameters variations. However, the requirement for moving the optical components reduces the sturdiness and viability for the optical SAR raw signal processing system.
Therefore there is a need for a method and a system for compensating for a parameter variation in a SAR imaging system.

Wavefront compensation in optical synthetic aperture imaging processors


A method of measuring pH of aqueous liquid with little or no buffer present uses an electrochemical pH sensor which comprises a plurality of electrodes with a redox active organic compound attached to an electrode and having at least one functional group convertible electrochemically between reduced and oxidized forms with transfer of at least one proton between the compound and surrounding aqueous phase, wherein the compound has at least one substituent group which promotes hydrogen bonding at a said functional group and thereby increases the reaction rate of proton transfer. The substituent group may form an internal hydrogen bond with a redox-convertible group or may enhance polarity to promote electrostatic interaction with water molecules and reduce activation energy. Such an electrochemical sensor may be used for pH measurement in computer controlled equipment for processing an aqueous liquid.

There are numerous circumstances in which it is desirable to detect, measure or monitor a constituent of a fluid. One of the commonest requirements is to determine hydrogen ion concentration (generally expressed on the logarithmic pH scale) in aqueous fluids which may for example be a water supply, a composition in the course of production or an effluent. The determination of the pH of a solution is one of the most common analytical measurements and can be regarded as the most critical parameter in water chemistry. Merely by way of example, pH measurement is important in the pharmaceutical industry, the food and beverage industry, the treatment and management of water and waste, chemical and biological research, hydrocarbon production and water supply monitoring. Nearly all water samples will have their pH tested at some stage during their handling as many chemical processes are dependent on pH.
It may also be desired to measure pH of a fluid downhole in a wellbore. The concentrations of some chemical species, such as H+ and H2S may change significantly while tripping to the surface. The change occurs mainly due to a difference in temperature and pressure between downhole and surface environment. In case of samples taken downhole, this change may also happen due to degassing of a sample (seal failure), mineral precipitation in a sampling bottle, and chemical reaction with the sampling chamber. The value of pH is among the parameters for corrosion and scale assessment. Consequently it is of considerable importance to determine pH downhole.
One approach to pH measurements, both at the Earth's surface and downhole, employs a solid-state probe utilising redox chemistries at the surface of an electrode. Some redox active compounds (sometimes referred to as redox active species) display a redox potential which is dependent on hydrogen ion concentration in the electrolyte. By monitoring this redox potential electrochemically, pH can be determined. Voltammetry has been used as a desirable and convenient electrochemical method for monitoring the oxidation and reduction of a redox active species and it is known to immobilise the redox active species on or in proximity to an electrode.
Prior literature in this field has included WO2005/066618 which disclosed a sensor in which two different pH sensitive molecular redox systems and a pH insensitive ferrocene reference were attached to the same substrate. One pH sensitive redox system was anthraquinone (AQ) and the second was either phenanthrenequinone (PAQ) or alternatively was N,N′-diphenyl-p-phenylenediamine (DPPD). WO2007/034131 disclosed a sensor with two redox systems incorporated into a copolymer. WO2010/001082 disclosed a sensor in which two different pH sensitive molecular redox systems were incorporated into a single small molecule which was immobilized on an electrode. WO2010/111531 described a pH metering device using a working electrode in which a material which is sensitive to hydrogen ions (the analyte) was chemically coupled to carbon and immobilised on the working electrode.
An issue with electrochemical sensors (particularly those involving detection mechanisms involving proton transfer) is the ability to make electrochemical measurements without a buffer and/or similar species that can facilitate proton transfer reactions. Measurements can be particularly difficult, and error prone, in low ionic strength media, without pH buffering species and/or other species facilitating proton transfers. Measuring the pH of rainwater, and natural waters with very low mineralization, is noted as being particularly difficult.
Merely by way of example, in water industries, such as the management of reservoirs and waste management, the samples being tested or the reservoirs being monitored may not include a buffer solution or the like. Even in non-water industries, there may be occasions when the samples being tested or the fluid being monitored have low amounts of "natural buffers".
A pH sensor is often tested and calibrated using buffer solutions which have stable values of pH. The concentration of buffer in such a solution may be 0.1 molar or more. It has been discovered that electrochemical sensors utilising an immobilized redox compound can give good results when used in a buffered aqueous solution, and yet fail to do so when used in an unbuffered solution. A number of authors have appreciated this and it has been proposed that the electrochemistry of quinones in unbuffered, near neutral solution differs from that observed in buffered or strongly acid solution. See for example Quan et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. Vol. 129, pages 12847 to 12856 (2007). Quan et al. argue that a different mechanism becomes operative in aqueous solution when proton concentration becomes low. Batchelor-McAuley et al., J. Phys. Chem. C Vol. 115, pages 714-718 (2011) attribute the different behaviour in unbuffered solution to depletion of H+ ion concentration in the vicinity of the electrode resulting in a significant local change in pH adjacent to the electrode and thus an erroneous determination of pH within the bulk solution. In unpublished work we have tried to overcome this by use of a rotating electrode to change the mass transport regime in the vicinity of the electrode, but without appreciable success.


Dialkyl carbonates can be prepared by the reaction of carbon monoxide with alkyl nitrites in a continuous gas phase reaction, using a platinum metal catalyst on an amorphous alumosilicate having a content of 30-80 atom% Al, based on the sum of Al and Si, as a support, which catalyst may optionally comprise additional material of a compound of antimony, bismuth, aluminium, copper, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, tin, iron, cobalt, nickel or a mixture of a plurality of these, and hydrogen halide being added in the course of the reaction intermittently or continuously. In this reaction, the dialkyl carbonates are formed with almost quantitative selectivity; the corresponding dialkyl oxalates cannot be detected in most cases.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of dialkyl carbonates by the reaction of carbon monoxide (CO) with alkyl nitrites in the presence of a catalyst from the group of the platinum metal halogenides on a support of amorphous alumosilicate, which may contain additional compounds of further elements.
Dialkyl carbonates are of general chemical significance. For example, diethyl carbonate is an excellent solvent in the medium boiling point range. Furthermore, the dialkyl carbonates are excellent carbonylation and acylation reagents. Finally, they are very important in the preparation of other carbonates, of urethanes and of ureas.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known preparations of dialkyl carbonates involve the reactions of phosgene or of alkyl chloroformates with alcohols. However, there is an increasing interest in replacing the use of the toxic phosgene or of the intermediate products derived therefrom, such as the chloroformic esters, by other processes. In addition to attempts to obtain dialkyl carbonates by reacting CO with lower alcohols, processes of particular importance are those in which CO is reacted in the gas phase with alkyl nitrite on a platinum metal catalyst. In reactions of this type, in addition to the desired dialkyl carbonate, dialkyl oxalate is always detected.
Thus, EP 425 197 discloses a process which, according to its preferred embodiment, leads to dialkyl carbonates of methanol or ethanol from CO and methyl or ethyl nitrite in the gas phase on a PdCl.sub.2 catalyst on activated carbon. The selectivities in obtaining the desired lower dialkyl carbonates, according to said EP 425 197, Table 1, reach levels of up to 94%; however, lower dialkyl oxalates and CO.sub.2 are always observed as by-products. Moreover, when this work was repeated, the high selectivities quoted could not be reproduced satisfactorily. The catalysts of said EP 425 197 contain additions of chlorides of base metals; a considerable addition of hydrogen chloride, namely an amount of 1 to 50 mol%, based on the platinum metal in the catalyst, is added to the system, or part of the catalyst has to be withdrawn from the reactor and subjected to a treatment with hydrogen chloride.
In the Journal for Catalytic Research (China), Vol. 10 (1), (1989) pp. 75-78, too, the support used for a PdCl.sub.2 -containing catalyst comprises charcoal, producing dimethyl carbonate from CO and methyl nitrite, but in each case dimethyl oxalate is also produced.
A Pd/charcoal catalyst is also mentioned in Chin. Sci. Bull. 34 (1989), 875-76 for the preparation of dimethyl carbonate from CO and methyl nitrite.
This preference for a charcoal support is not surprising, since it is reported in Platinum Metals Review 34 (1990), 178-180, referring to older literature, that in the reaction of a lower alkyl nitrite with CO on a Pd catalyst, depending on the support, different main products are obtained; according to this article, a charcoal support predominantly yields the dialkyl carbonates, while an oxidic support such as, for example, an Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 support primarily yields dialkyl oxalates.

Process for the preparation of dialkyl carbonates


An annealing mold and fiber retaining device includes a fiber holding plate having fiber channels and an annealing insert. Retainers are provided for attachment to the plate to retain fibers in the channels. After annealing, the annealing insert is replaced by a packaging insert. The fiber holding plate is mounted between a support plate and a cover plate. The mounted plates include a coextensive current conductor port and the plates are mounted in a housing which includes vibration mounts for isolating the plates from vibration within the housing.

This invention relates generally to holding and supporting articles being heated in an annealing oven, and more particularly to a form or holder which retains a coiled optical fiber during an annealing process, and is subsequently incorporated into a coil assembly for a Faraday-effect magnetic field sensor.
Previously, a holder was provided for annealing fiber optic coils which included a silica cylinder or ring on a silica substrate such as a flat plate. The fiber was wound around the cylindrical wall of the ring. The ring and substrate included a hole to allow passage of a conductor whereby the ring and substrate were retained with the fiber coil and incorporated into a Faraday-effect sensor package. The plate included one or more channels sandblasted or ground therein to retain the fiber ends during annealing, or included other surface structures for supporting the fiber ends. The substrate functioned as another ring which supported the first ring in a vertical position, allowing the fiber ends to hang downward during annealing.
Alternatively, the holder was in the form of a coiled tube also formed of silica. The fiber coil was annealed in the tube, and the coil and tube retained together as a subassembly. Alternatively, the tube served to protect the coil. The tube could have a sufficiently high pitch to space adjacent loops in the coil far enough apart to allow placement of the subassembly around an endless current carrying conductor. Additional quartz tubes could be used to protect the ends of the fiber coil, which were spliced to polarizing (Pz) or polarization maintaining (Pm) fibers, and to align the ends of the coiled silica tube. Means were also provided to ensure that the ends of the fiber coil were rotationally aligned at the proper angle to the Pz or Pm fibers.
Although previous packaging methods have used helical quartz tubing or flat silica plates with channels as the annealing mold and holder for the sensing fiber, the helical quartz tube allowed the fiber to move out-of-plane causing vibration sensitivity and allowing for small twisting of the fiber thus significantly affecting performance. Efforts to alleviate this problem have been cumbersome and largely ineffective. Moreover, the use of a helical coil introduced a change in the polarization state of light along the sensing fiber due to a phenomenon called Berry's Phase. This phenomenon produced a rotation in the polarization state (with high variability from coil to coil) and necessitated on-line measurement of the polarization state at the output of the sensing fiber, thereby increasing the complexity of the process. A flat coil, i.e. substantially no helix angle, removes this problem. The flat silica plate with channels was costly to manufacture and limited the design flexibility. Both of these previous methods required external packaging elements to hold the polarizing fibers. In addition, the method of orienting the polarizing fibers and splicing the annealed fibers for the helical tube approach was cumbersome.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method for retaining optical coils during an annealing process and during use of the coils in an assembly for a Faraday-effect magnetic field sensor. It is also highly desirable to protect the fibers from external forces as due to handling, vibration and impact.


An improved multiparameter lighting fixture is provided comprising a base, a yoke, a lamp housing, and a communication port for receiving address and command signals. The lamp housing may be comprised of a lamp, a light valve, and a lens. The lamp, the light valve and the lens may cooperate to project, for example, an ownership image, a fixture identifier image, a time identifier image, a show identifier image, a content identifier image, or an effects identifier image. The lamp, the light valve and the lens may cooperate to produce a first image on a projection surface and a second image may be created from the first image by applying an interactive effect to the first image in response to an image captured by a camera.

The embodiments of the present invention generally relate to lighting systems that are digitally controlled and to the lighting fixtures used therein, in particular multiparameter lighting fixtures having one or more image projection lighting parameters.
Lighting systems are typically formed by interconnecting, via a communications system, a plurality of lighting fixtures and providing for operator control of the plurality of lighting fixtures from a central controller. Such lighting systems may contain multiparameter light fixtures, which illustratively are lighting fixtures having two or more individually remotely adjustable parameters such as focus, color, image, position, or other light characteristics. Multiparameter light fixtures are widely used in the lighting industry because they facilitate significant reductions in overall lighting system size and permit dynamic changes to the final lighting effect. Applications and events in which multiparameter light fixtures are used to great advantage include showrooms, television lighting, stage lighting, architectural lighting, live concerts, and theme parks. Illustrative multi-parameter lighting devices are described in the product brochure entitled "The High End Systems Product Line 2001" and are available from High End Systems, Inc. of Austin, Tex.
A variety of different types of multiparameter lighting fixtures are available. One type of advanced multiparameter lighting fixture, which is called an image projection lighting device ("IPLD"), uses a light valve to project images onto a stage or other projection surface. A light valve, which is also known as an image gate, is a device, such as a digital micro-mirror ("DMD") or a liquid crystal display ("LCD"), that forms the image that is to be projected.
United States patent application titled "Method, apparatus and system for image projection lighting", inventor Richard S. Belliveau, publication no. 20020093296, Ser. No. 10/090,926, filed on Mar. 4, 2002, incorporated by reference herein, describes prior art IPLDs with cameras and communication systems that allow camera content, such as in the form of digital data, to be transferred between IPLDs.
IPLDs of the prior art use light from a projection lamp that is sent though a light valve and focused by an output lens to project images on a stage. The light cast upon the stage by the IPLD is then imaged by the camera. U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,093 to Perry titled "Method and device for creating the facsimile of an image", incorporated herein by reference describes a camera that may be an infrared camera for use with a described lighting device that uses liquid crystal light valves to project an image. "Accordingly the camera and light are mounted together for articulation about x, y, and z axes as is illustrated in FIG. 1" (Perry, U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,093, col. 4, line 59).
The prior art patent to Perry, U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,093 makes use of a camera to distinguish objects in the camera's field from other objects. The distinguished object as imaged by the camera is then illuminated by the projected light passing through the light valves so as to only illuminate the distinguished object. The objects may be provided with an infrared emitter or reflector which interacts with a receiver or camera. Perry relies on the light produced from the projection lamp and the light valves to provide the illumination to the scene where the camera images or separate emitters or reflectors are provided with the objects on the stage.
United States patent application titled "METHOD AND APPARTUS FOR CONTROLLING IMAGES WITH IMAGE PROJECTION LIGHTING DEVICES", inventor Richard S. Belliveau, Ser. No. 10/206,162, filed on Jul. 26, 2002, incorporated by reference herein, describes control systems for IPLDs and IPLDs with cameras and more specifically the control of images in a lighting system that includes multiparameter lights having an image projection lighting parameter.
United States patent application titled "Image Projection Lighting Devices with Visible and Infrared Imaging", inventor Richard S. Belliveau, Ser. No. 10/290,660 filed on Nov. 8, 2002, incorporated by reference herein, describes IPLDs that contain cameras that can capture both visible and infrared images.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,933 to Hewlett titled Electronically Controlled Stage Lighting System describes a memory that automatically maintains a registry of parts which are changed, and important system events, such as lamp life, over temperatures, and other things. The supervisor maintains a registry of the various events with a real time clock. The information in the registry can be updated to a tech port as a parameter every 15 seconds or commanded to be displayed by the lamp itself. A lamp display command causes the messages in the registry to be converted to fonts and used to control the DMD to display the text as a shaped light output. This allows detecting the contents of the registry without a dedicated display terminal using the existing digital light altering device as a display mechanism.
Control of the IPLDs is affected by an operator using a central controller that may be located several hundred feet away from the projection surface. In a given application, there may be hundreds of IPLDs used to illuminate the projection surface, with each IPLD having many parameters that may be adjusted to create a scene. During the creation of a scene the operator of the central controller may adjust the many parameters of each of the plurality of IPLDs. For each new scene created the process is repeated. A typical show may be formed of hundreds of scenes. The work of adjusting or programming the parameters to the desired values for the many IPLDs to create a scene can take quite some time. Many times the scenes are created by the operator during a rehearsal and the time for programming the many IPLDs has limitations. When the operator of the central controller is looking at the projection surface that is projected upon by many IPLDs it can be difficult to determine which IPLD on the projection surface as related to a specific fixture number displayed at the central controller.
The term "content" refers to various types of works such as videos, graphics, and stills that are projected by an IPLD as an image or images. A plurality of IPLDs may each be projecting different images as determined by the content on the projection surface. The content used to form an image that each IPLD projects on the projection surface is selected by an operator of a central controller. The central controller provides a visual list on a display monitor of each fixture number of the plurality of IPLDs and a content identifier of the content that is being projected. When the operator is looking at the projection surface the operator can see the different images of the content being projected but can not determine what the content identifier is until associating the fixture number with the content identifier on the visual list on the central controller.
The IPLDs used on a show are usually provided to the show as rental equipment. The IPLDs are quite complex and relatively expensive devices. For some shows several different lighting companies may rent the IPLDs to the show. The IPLDs are often transported to and from the shows by truck. Expensive lighting instruments are occasionally stolen from a show or in some instances an entire truck may be stolen. The lighting company that is the victim of theft may report the stolen lighting instrument serial numbers to a law enforcement agency. Unfortunately many of the stolen lighting instruments end up many miles away and are possibly sold to other lighting companies who have no idea that they are purchasing stolen merchandise. The need exists to increase the awareness of ownership of an IPLD that has been stolen by anyone attempting to purchase the stolen product.
If for each IPLD each of the parameters of pan, tilt, selectable content, image rotate, zoom, focus and color adjustment needed to be adjusted this would be very time consuming for the operator of the central controller. If during one scene the content that creates the images projected on the projection surface by the plurality of IPLDs can be animated such as a movie, the scene can remain longer before boredom occurs to the audience viewing the show and fewer scenes may be required for the programming of the show. One way of increasing the audience's involvement during a show is by allowing the performer to interact with the show itself. This can be done by sensors that monitor a performer and allow certain aspects of the show to change with the actions of the performer based on sensor input. The MidiDancer manufactured by Troika Ranch of Brooklyn N.Y. is a device worn by a dancer that provides sensor monitoring of the dancers movement. The MidiDancer uses sensors to measure the flexion of up to eight joints on the dancer's body and then transmits the position of each of those joints to a computer off stage. Once interpreted by software running on the computer, the information can be used to control a variety of computer-controllable media including digital video or audio files, theatrical lighting, robotic set pieces or any number of other computer controllable devices. Palindrome Performance of Nurnberg Germany has developed a software program using a personal computer that tracks a performer's movement on a stage. The personal computer then can be connected to various types of devices that interact with the movement of a performer. There is a need to produce an image projection lighting device that can produce interactive images that maintain the audience's attention greater than the video and still images of the prior art.

Image projection lighting device displays and interactive images


Apparatus for cleaning residual toner from a biased transfer roll (BTR) in an electrophotographic apparatus using a metal or polymeric blade. The cleaning apparatus includes, a cleaner housing mounted adjacent to the BTR, the housing comprising a cleaner sump to which the cleaning blade is rigidly mounted and positioned in interference with the BTR such that its beam deflection provides the force required to clean the surface of the BTR. The cleaning apparatus which is used for removal of residual toner particles from the hard, smooth surface of the BTR is low cost, efficient and significantly smaller than current BTR cleaning devices.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrophotographic reproducing apparatus, and more particularly to a cleaning device for removing residual toner particles from the surface of a biased transfer roll (BTR).
2. Description of Related Art
Typical cleaning methods in electrophotographic applications such as xerography have included wiping with a fur brush or web and the like, a method using magnetism or a magnetic brush, a method using an air flow and/or combination of at least several of the above.
For example, a BTR cleaning apparatus 2 known in the art is depicted in FIG. 1 and includes a cleaner housing 43 with upstream and downstream air inlets 40. To be effective, such a brush cleaner must balance the air flows from the two sides of the housing 43. This is typically done by controlling the cleaner housing 43 spacing to the BTR 20, the spacing between the brush 3 and the cleaner housing inner wall 35 and/or by adding interferences 39 between the brush 3 and the cleaner housing inner wall 35 near an air inlet 40 to create a pressure situation which will effect the air flow (air flow direction indicated at arrow 11). A flicker bar 37 is provided to help knock the toner particles free of the brush 3 fibers. Thus, the brush 3 removes toner from the BTR 20 and the airflow detones the brush fibers.
The main disadvantages of the prior art device discussed above include large size, insufficient component life, BTR surface abrasion and high unit manufacturing costs.
Notably, cleaning devices employing a metal or polymeric blade to clean residual toner from the surface of a BTR have not been forthcoming in the art, due to concern that the metal blade in particular, might damage the BTR surface. Unfortunately, polymeric blade cleaning suffers from certain deficiencies as well, primarily resulting from the frictional sealing contact which must be maintained between the blade and the surface to be cleaned. Modern high volume BTR's, however, are made of hard and smooth materials, less susceptible to blade damage, as will be discussed below. Importantly, BTR's with hard and smooth surfaces are essential for use with the cleaning apparatus described herein.
Conversely, blades have been used to clean toner retentive imaging surfaces, such as photoreceptors in electrophotographic devices, for some time. For instance, the use of lubricated metal cleaning blades for cleaning a charge retentive or photoreceptor surface is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,560, to Lindblad et al. Also, Xerox Disclosure Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, April 1976, page 79, "Impregnated Poromeric Material Cleaning Blade", by P. Spencer and D. Fisher, suggests that a poromeric structure, such as a composite of polyester fibers bound together in polyurethane, may be impregnated with a lubricant, while Xerox Disclosure Journal, Vol. II, No. 5, September/October 1977, page 107, "Lubricantless Doctor Blade for Cleaning Electrostatographic Imaging Surfaces", by S. Strella, suggests to add a thin metal or plastic shim to the cleaning edge of an elastomeric blade to reduce blade wear and tuck unders, while enhancing blade cleaning performance.
Thus, it is important, for purposes of this invention, to clearly describe the general BTR function in the electrophotographic apparatus. Paper, to which the image is to be transferred, is fed into a nip formed by the BTR and the imaging surface, or photoreceptor. The BTR is rotated at the same speed and in the same direction as the photoreceptor so that no relative motion between the paper and the untransferred toner image occurs. A commonly used BTR consists of an aluminum core with a slightly conductive urethane rubber coating. A high bias is applied to the BTR core which creates an electric field at the paper thereby causing the charged toner particles to transfer from the photoreceptor surface to the paper. The advantage of using the BTR over corona transfer method is that the pressure created in the BTR nip flattens out any ripples or other perturbations in the paper which create gaps between the paper and the photoreceptor. Gaps increase the strength of the field needed to transfer toner to the paper and cause imperfections in the resulting copies. The same gaps can be caused by large particles, such as carrier beads or toner agglomerates from the developer housing. These create "tent" deletions which appear as white circles around the large particles. BTR's can improve the appearance of copies by greatly decreasing the diameter of the "tent" deletions.
Additionally, and perhaps most notably with respect to this invention, there is a need to clean the BTR surface because paper fibers from the backside of copy sheets can be attracted to the BTR and toner which occurs on the photoreceptor surface between the copy regions will also transfer to the BTR. This toner consists of low lever "background" toner, toner developed as a control patch used in maintaining the proper toner concentration and development field in the developer housing, and/or toner which accumulates on the lapped seam of the photoreceptor belt. If these materials are not cleaned from the BTR surface, they may retransfer to the back of copy sheets, appearing as spots and smudges, and if duplexed copies are being run, the spots and smudges will appear on both sides of the copies.


A multiport radio frequency (RF) switch circuit is disclosed. The switch circuit includes a first transistor that is connected to a first port, a common antenna port, and a first enable line. The first transistor is selectively activatable in response to a first enable signal applied to the first enable line. There is also a second transistor connected to a second port, the common antenna port, and a second enable line. The second transistor is selectively activatable in response to a second enable signal applied to the second enable line. A first inductor connected to the first port and the second port compensates for parasitic capacitance between the first port and the second port from an inactive one of the transistors.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to radio frequency (RF) devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to RF multi-port switches.
2. Related Art
Complex, multi-function electronic devices are comprised of many interconnected modules and components, each of which serves a dedicated purpose. As a general example, wireless communication devices may be comprised of a transmit chain and a receive chain, with the antenna and the transceiver circuit being a part of both the transmit chain and receive chain. The transmit chain may additionally include a power amplifier for increasing the output power of the generated RF signal from the transceiver, while the receive chain may include a low noise amplifier for boosting the weak received signal so that information can be accurately and reliably extracted therefrom.
The low noise amplifier and the power amplifier may together comprise a front end module or front end circuit, which also includes an RF switch circuit that selectively interconnects the power amplifier and the low noise amplifier to the antenna. The connection to the antenna is switched between the receive chain circuitry, i.e., the low noise amplifier and the receiver, and the transmit chain circuitry, i.e., the power amplifier and the transmitter. In time domain duplex communications systems where a single antenna is used for both transmission and reception, this switching between the receive chain and the transmit chain occurs rapidly many times throughout a typical communications session. Besides RF communications systems, switches and switch circuits find application in many other contexts.
The RF switches and the amplifier circuits of the front end module are manufactured as an integrated circuit. In high-power applications such as GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) handsets, WLAN (wireless local area networking) client interface devices and infrastructure devices, the integrated circuits are typically manufactured with a GaAs (gallium arsenide) semiconductor substrate. The SOI (silicon-on-insulator) process has also found use in RF switch circuit applications, though spurious emissions due to the necessity of charge pumps can adversely affect receive chain sensitivity in many communication systems. Good insertion loss and isolation are possible with both GaAs and SOI processes, but manufacturing costs tend to be higher in comparison to more conventional semiconductor technologies such as the CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) process. There have been several attempts to implement RF switches on the CMOS process, but only low power devices have been realized thus far. This is, in part, due to the parasitic capacitance of transistors and low substrate resistance of bulk semiconductor wafers used in the CMOS process. Accordingly, high isolation and linearity at large signal levels have been difficult to achieve.
An RF switch has several performance parameters, including insertion loss, isolation, return loss, and linearity. Insertion loss refers to the power lost in the RF switch, and is expressed in dB. It is defined by Pout−Pin (dB), where Pin is the input power applied to the RF switch, and Pout is the power at the output port of the RF switch. Isolation refers to the measure of signal attenuation, expressed in dB, between the active signal port and the inactive signal port. Additionally, return loss refers to the measure of input and/or output matching conditions, and is expressed in dB. Linearity, or power handling capability, is the capability of the RF switch to minimize distortion at high power output levels and is expressed in dBm. It is typically represented by the 1 dB compression point (P1 dB), or the point at which insertion loss is degraded by 1 dB.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved RF multi-port switches, whether single pole-double throw, single pole-triple throw, dual port-dual throw, or any other switch type. Furthermore, there is a need in the art for RF multi-port switches that can be implemented on CMOS substrates or any other semiconductor technology while minimizing insertion loss, return loss, and spurious emissions, and maximizing isolation and linearity even at low control and bias voltages.


A sensor device may include a base layer, and an ASIC element disposed on the base layer. The ASIC element may include a plurality of electrical contact points. The sensor device may include a MEMS element. The MEMS element may include a plurality of through-silicon vias. The sensor device may include a plurality of conductive contact elements. Each conductive contact element may be disposed between, and electrically coupling, a respective through-silicon via and a respective electrical contact point. The sensor device may include a protective layer disposed between the ASIC element and the MEMS element. The protective layer may be composed of material(s) having a physical property defined to permit the protective layer to mitigate stress forces directed from the ASIC element to the MEMS element, to prevent corrosion, and/or to prevent leakage current between electrical connections due to pollution and/or humidity.

Pressure sensor systems, such as those employed in a vehicle, including pressure sensor packages. A pressure sensor package typically includes an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) configured to detect a pressure of a target media (e.g., one or more gases, liquids, and/or the like) in an environment of the pressure sensor package.


Disclosed is a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material comprising;. a support having a first side and a second side which is opposite to said first side; PA0 a silver halide emulsion layer provided on said first side: and PA0 a recording medium provided on said second side, wherein said recording medium comprising a magnetic layer having a magnetic powder and a first binder, and a conductive layer which contains a conductive particle and a second binder, PA0 said conductive particle being essentially consisting of one of crystalline metal oxide selected from the group consisting of ZnO, TiO.sub.2, SnO.sub.2, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, In.sub.2 O.sub.3 and SiO.sub.2, and a complex oxide thereof.. A silver halide photographic light sensitive material according to this invention is capable of magnetic recording, high in light transmitting property, and excellent in antistatic property and film feeding property.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,196 and International Patent Publication No. 90/04254 disclose a roll of photographic film having, on the backside of the film, a magnetic layer containing a magnetic substance for magnetic recording, as well as a photographic camera having a built-in magnetic head. This advanced technique makes possible to improve the quality of prints and the efficiency of printing work by allowing the magnetic layer to input or output information to identify the light-sensitive material and the manufacturer thereof, information on the photographing conditions, information on the printing conditions and information on the additional printing.
In general, a magnetic layer is poor in antistatic property and feeding property because it has no conductivity by itself and possesses a high coefficient of friction. In order to solve such problems, a fatty acid or a fatty acid ester, and/or an antistatic agent, is added to an ordinary magnetic tape. As the antistatic agent, carbon black is usually used in a manner to add a large amount of it in a magnetic layer or to coat a layer comprised of it on the backside of a magnetic layer.
For a photographic film having a magnetic layer on the backside, however, carbon black cannot be used as a tool to prevent static electrification and lower the coefficient of friction, because positive and negative silver halide photographic light-sensitive films require an excellent light transmitting property from their uses.

Silver halide photographic light-sensitive material capable of magnetic-recording


There is provided an image forming apparatus that can reduce the burden placed on the user by avoiding input errors and a complicated input operation when making settings for a color/black-and-white mixing operation and can perform a proper recovery even when a sheet determined to be abnormal is included in other sheets. Images are formed on sheets by an MFP 104 in accordance with an image forming job. The sheets on which the images have been formed are conveyed to a stacker tray 1207 detachably attached to the MFP 104. Information relating to the image forming job for the sheets conveyed to the stacker tray 1207 is written into a storage device 1202 provided in the stacker tray 1207.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an image forming system, a recovery processing method, a program for implementing the method, and a storage medium storing the program, and in particular to an image forming apparatus that performs image formation on a sheet, an image forming system in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses are connected on a network, a recovery processing method that is executed by an image forming apparatus, a program for implementing the method, and a storage medium storing the program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a system where a color image forming apparatus (color copy apparatus) and a black-and-white image forming apparatus (black and white copy apparatus) are connected to a network, when the images of a plurality of originals that contain both color originals and black-and-white originals are copied and printed out, users have been able to obtain a print result in which both color image pages and black-and-white image pages are mixed by having the images of all of the plurality of originals printed out by the color copy apparatus.
On the other hand, image formation processing by a color copy apparatus takes longer and is more costly than image formation processing by a black-and-white copy apparatus, so that there are demands for having the black-and-white originals in a plurality of originals in which both color originals and black-and-white originals are mixed printed out by a black-and-white copy apparatus. To meet such demands, when the images of a plurality of originals in which both color originals and black-and-white originals are mixed are copied and printed out, it is conceivable to have the black-and-white originals printed out by the black-and-white copy apparatus and the color originals printed out by the color copy apparatus.
In this case, in order to combine the recording sheets that have been printed by the black-and-white copy apparatus and the recording sheets that have been printed by the color copy apparatus into a single bundle like the original plurality of originals, the user has had to insert the recording sheets outputted by one of the copy apparatuses into the recording sheets outputted by the other copy apparatus by hand in order to arrange the originals in the page order.
This means that when the user wishes to collect a plurality of printed sheets together into a single document, part of the task cannot be performed by computer and the user has had to spread out the printed sheets on a desk and perform the task by hand, which has been very inefficient.
To improve this, the following conventional method has been proposed. A stacker tray (storage means) for temporarily storing color output sheets that have been outputted from a color MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) and an insert tray (refeeding means) for inserting color output sheets into black-and-white output sheets outputted from a black-and-white MFP when performing a color/black-and-white mixing are formed of a single common construction (hereinafter such common construction will be referred to as "the stacker tray"). Color output sheets that have been printed by the color MFP, whose output speed is lower than that of the black-and-white MFP, are stacked and stored in the stacker tray, and the stacker tray is attached to an insert apparatus (inserter) of the black-and-white MFP, so that the color output sheets are refed to perform mixing control.
However, there is the following problem with the above conventional method. When a color/black-and-white mixing is performed by an image forming apparatus, it has been necessary to set various kinds of information for the color/black-and-white mixing, that is, information such as a job number, a printer used for mixing the color and black-and-white originals, a paper size, a number of output copies, a stacked state of recording sheets, and a material (type of recording sheet), using an operating part or the like. Based on these settings, it has been necessary to then download information for the color originals from a server that is connected to a network and/or read data out from a storage means inside the image forming apparatus, to form color images, and to then perform a color/black-and-white mixing operation for the color images and the black-and-white images. This can cause occurrence of copying errors due to incorrect settings inputted by the user and a troublesome operation due to complex settings so that a large burden is placed upon the user. In particular, when a plurality of black-and-white/color image forming apparatuses are connected via a network, if the stacker tray is not connected to the inserter (i.e., if the stacker tray is incorrectly attached), this can lead to a large number of miscopied originals and significant downtime.
Also, in recent years an image forming system has been desired, which can perform not only color/black and white mixing jobs of large quantity lots but also color/black and white mixing jobs of small quantity lots using a large capacity stacker tray. However, to perform color/black and white mixing processing using a single stacker tray in a short time period, it is necessary to carry out color print processing for a plurality of jobs until the stack tray becomes full. In this case, a job for which color print processing has been already completed has to wait for further processing until color print processing becomes completed for all the other jobs and the stacker tray becomes full, thus making it impossible to efficiently perform color/black and white mixing jobs of small quantity lots. For this reason, there are demands for a construction that a plurality of compact size stacker trays are attached to an inserter, so that after completion of one job using one stacker tray, the next job can be quickly carried out using another stacker tray, whereby jobs of small quantity lots can be performed with improved productivity.
In this case, it is necessary to manage and make selective use of a plurality of stacker trays so as to properly set the stacker trays onto a desired refeeding cassette of an inserter of a desired image forming apparatus. As a result, there is an increase in the frequency of miscopied originals due to the erroneous input settings and improper attachment of the stacker trays mentioned above, which further increases the burden placed on users. In the case where a plurality of users share the same image forming apparatuses and inserters, the frequency of miscopied originals due to erroneous input settings and improper attachment of the stacker trays increases yet further, which makes the copying operation much more troublesome and leads to yet more downtime.

Image forming apparatus, image forming system, recovery processing method, program, and storage medium


A weight training device for providing substantially uniform resistance throughout the range of motion of each of a variety of weight lifting exercises. Upstanding front and rear stanchions are attached to front and rear portions of a base, respectively. In a first embodiment, the front stanchion is rigidly attached to the base, the rear stanchion is pivotally attached to the base, and a lever arm assembly is pivotally attached to the front stanchion and includes a dolly cage attached to the rear stanchion that forces the rear stanchion to pivot toward and away from the front stanchion as the assembly is pivoted in a vertical plane by a weight trainee against the resistance of weight suspended from the assembly. In a second embodiment, the front stanchion is mounted for reciprocal, vertical motion on a rod attached to the base. A plurality of weight plates are disposed below the front stanchion in vertical, stacked relation, any or all of which can be suspended from the front stanchion by insertion of a stack pin through any one of the plates and into an aperture in a stack pin rod suspended from the front stanchion. A lever arm assembly has a front portion pivotally attached to the front stanchion and a rear portion pivotally attached to the rear, pivoting stanchion, such that when a trainee pivots the assembly in a vertical plane against the resistance of the weights, the rear stanchion pivots toward the front stanchion.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to body exercising apparatus and more particularly to weight exercise machines that provide a substantially uniform resistance throughout the range of motion of each of several different kinds of weight lifting exercises.
2. Background Art
Weight lifting exercises have long proven effective for muscle and general body building. For a weight trainee who is a trained athlete or who has otherwise acquired adequate strength and muscle conditioning, bar bells and dumbbells can be used in performing bench presses, leg squats, biceps curls, triceps extensions and other weight training exercises. Bar bells and dumbbells, however, can inadvertently fall or be dropped, possibly resulting in bodily injury or property damage; and, the danger of their falling or being dropped is higher when used by new and unconditioned weight trainees. A variety of weight training devices that substantially eliminate that danger while at the same time simulating the lifting of a barbell or dumbbells have been disclosed, of which the following references are exemplary: U.S. Pat. No. 458,382 to Zander; U.S. Pat. No. 2,93,509 to Zinkin; U.S. Pat. No. 4,093,213 to Coker et al.; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,211,403 and 4,226,414 to Coffaro et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,462 to Calderone; U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,616 to Polidi; U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,216 to Mauriello; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,361,481 B1 to Koenig. These and similar weight training devices of the prior art provide a body-engaging means attached to a first end of a pivot arm or lever, means for pivoting the lever, and weight resistance means attached to a second, opposite end of the lever, with the result that, as a weight trainee moves the body-engaging means through the range of motion of a selected weight lifting exercise, the degree of resistance the trainee experiences varies through the range of motion of the exercise, and generally not in any optimal way. This problem was addressed by Mahnke in U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,970, who disclosed a weight type exercising device wherein the effective length of the lever arm is changed during the range of motion of a weight lifting exercise so as to continuously vary the resistance through the range of motion in a way considered by Mahnke to be closer to optimal. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,558, Koenig disclosed a weight lifting device, specialized for squatting and heel raising exercises wherein the body-engaging means was a pair of padded shoulder bars mounted to a first end of a pivot arm, weight suspending means being affixed to an intermediate portion of the pivot arm, and the pivoting arm rose up and down a pivotable mast. The effective length of the pivot arm was thereby varied such that the resistance experienced by the weight trainee at the bottom of a squat was minimized and the resistance increased as the trainee moved the body-engaging means upward and rose to a standing position. This variation in experienced resistance was considered desirable by Koenig because the effective leg strength of the trainee is least at the bottom of a leg squat.
The exercise devices of Mahnke and of Koenig do not satisfactorily solve the problem presented, however. Many weight lifting devotees, especially those who engage in competitive weight lifting competitions, prefer to experience uniform resistance throughout the range of motion of each weight lifting exercise because that best simulates what is experienced when one is actually lifting barbells and dumbbells. Moreover, the devices of Mahnke and Koenig can only be used for a relatively few kinds of weight lifting exercises; they are not suitable, for example, for triceps extensions or arm curls. What is particularly desired, and what Mahnke and Koenig have failed to provide, is a single weight exercise device that is designed to train every body part and upon which as many as forty weight lifting exercises can be performed, and through which device a weight lifting trainee experiences substantially uniform resistance throughout the range of motion of each exercise.


Embodiments of the invention provide methods for effecting a desired business solution. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a plurality of aspects of a business are analyzed. Each aspect corresponds to an element of a particular domain of a set of domains wherein the plurality of aspects corresponds to elements from at least two domains. A modification of each element that will result in a desired outcome in regard to the corresponding aspect is determined. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the business solution development process identifies and provides exit criteria pertaining to each stage of the business solution development process. For one embodiment of the invention a set of metrics are defined and tracked to measure the effectiveness of the business solution.

A CRM solution, also referred to as a "front office" solution, is an integrated combination of software, process redesign and organization changes applied across an enterprise to enable companies to optimally manage aspects of customer relationships. The purpose of the CRM solution is to provide reliable processes and procedures for interacting with customers. The CRM software application attempts to integrate and automate the various customer-serving processes within a company and typically involves automated processes, personal information gathering and processing, and self-service. A complete CRM solution also addresses the organizational elements of a company that support, motivate and help to manage employees who deal with customers.
A CRM solution typically addresses the general areas of a business including customer service, marketing information, and sales force management. The customer service aspects of the CRM solution automates some service requests, complaints, product returns, and information requests. The marketing aspect of the CRM solution helps companies track current and prospective customers, and automates the marketing campaign development, deployment and analysis functions. The sales force management aspect of the CRM solution automates some of the company's sales and sales force management functions and tracks sales staff performance as well as customer preferences, buying habits, and demographics.
Typically, a CRM solution encompasses all or most of the following technical functionality. CRM applications generally implement centralized data storage (e.g., a central database) so that all relevant customer interaction information can be easily stored and accessed. Most CRM solutions are scalable so that they can be implemented on a desired scale and reliably expanded as needed. CRM solutions usually implement multiple communication channels to provide the ability to communicate with and between customers and organizations employing over a variety of communications media. CRM solutions typically address the issue of workflow and provide the ability to automatically route work through the system to different people based on their roles within the company or other specified criteria.
CRM solutions can improve customer service and customer relations. For example, CRM solutions can improve customer service and customer relations by facilitating communication in a variety of ways including providing product information, product use information, and technical assistance on web sites for greater accessibility. CRM solutions can be used to identify and address customer complaints or potential problems, obtain customer feedback, and track customer interests, as well as to schedule customer interaction such as sales presentation or product maintenance and repair. Moreover, CRM solutions can be integrated into other cross-functional systems and thereby provide accounting and production information to customers or customer-facing employees when needed.
When any of these technology driven improvements in customer service, noted above, contribute to long-term customer satisfaction, they can ensure repeat purchases, improve customer relationships, increase customer loyalty, decrease customer turnover, decrease marketing costs (associated with customer acquisition), and increase sales revenue, thereby increasing profit margins.
As an example, a CRM solution may be applied to a company call center. A call center is a centralized office of a company that responds to customer communications. A call center typically includes a number of work stations that include digital processing systems (DPSs), telephones, and other communication or data storage devices. Many call centers use CRM software to store all of their customers' details. When a customer calls, the system can be used to retrieve and store information relevant to the customer. By serving the customer quickly and efficiently, and also by keeping all information pertaining to a customer in one place, a company realizes cost savings, improves customer satisfaction, and also encourages repeat purchases from current customers.
CRM solutions can also be used to allow customers to perform their own service via a variety of communication channels. For example, a customer may be able to check their account on-line, without interaction with company personnel, thereby saving time and associated costs.
The process through which CRM solutions are currently developed has serious disadvantages. A serious drawback in the way CRM solutions are currently developed is that the CRM solution developer, typically knows very little about the business for which the CRM solution is being developed. The developer merely offers various software alternatives in an attempt to meet the company's technical needs. Another disadvantage of current CRM solution development processes is that CRM solution developers employ a two-part process addressing the technological aspects of the CRM solution.
The first part of the development process involves defining the technological requirements and determining suitable technology to address those requirements. Typically the technology employed is selected from whatever known CRM solution developers have to offer, as is, or with modification. The second part of the development process involves creating and deploying the determined technology. The disadvantage with this approach is that no consideration is given to the current organizational or process effectiveness of the company as they relate to the proposed technology changes. This is especially disadvantageous in that technological deficiencies are rarely the sole or even major point of failure of CRM solutions. Therefore, adding technological improvements may only serve to increase costs without providing a corresponding benefit. For example, consider a company that currently out-sources its marketing functions to a vendor that provides all of its data gathering, data cleansing and data storage needs, as well as creating and deploying marketing programs. If the company decides to take the marketing function in-house, a typical CRM solution would be to design and install marketing software. Such an approach will not address the personnel and process issues that have to be addressed before cost savings can be realized.
Still another disadvantage of current CRM solution development processes is that typical conventional CRM solutions do not identify and track measurements of success (metrics). There is, therefore, no way to confirm that the CRM solution has accomplished the business goals of the company.

Methods and systems to effect comprehensive customer relationship management solutions


Some embodiments of the present technology involve methods, devices, and systems for determining an orientation of a surgical tool during ophthalmic surgery. An example method includes performing an optical imaging scan in the surgical site, using a scan pattern that intersects the surgical tool and generating a scan image from the optical imaging scan. The example method further comprises analyzing the scan image to determine a location in the scan image corresponding to where the surgical tool intersected the optical imaging scan, and determining an orientation of the surgical tool, based on the determined location.

Surgical tools, such as surgical imaging probes, surgical forceps, surgical scissors, surgical vitrectomy probes, and the like, may be inserted into an eye during an ophthalmic surgery to perform various surgeries in the eye. Typically, a distal portion of a surgical tool is inserted into the eye during the ophthalmic surgery. Thus, the area of the eye surrounding the distal tip of the surgical tool is a region of interest to a surgeon. To achieve guided surgical interventions, such as intra-operative Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) for Internal Limited Membrane (ILM) peeling, automatic tool tip tracking is used to efficiently close a feedback loop to allow the OCT engine to locate the scanning target area. Further, to provide real time feedback during surgery, useful surgical data may be overlaid to the surgeon's current area of interest. When a surgeon moves the distal portion of the surgical tool inserted into the eye, the area of interest may shift accordingly. Thus, automatic tool tracking may be used to locate the area of interest to adjust the surgical data overlay so the surgeon may visualize it without looking away from the current area of interest.
There are three conventional techniques for general object tracking. A first technique is motion-based object tracking. Motion-based object tracking may be used for automated surveillance. Motion-based object tracking may use image processing algorithms, such as background subtraction, frame difference, and optical flow, to track an object. Nevertheless, motion-based object tracking algorithm requires a quasi-stationary background, and may not be suitable for tool tracking in an ophthalmic surgery in which background may vary constantly.
A second technique for general object tracking is region-based object tracking. Region-based object tracking may be used for tracking simple objects. In region-based object tracking, an object template is preselected offline or during a first frame. For the subsequent frames, the template is searched across the whole field of view and the location with the greatest similarity to the template is identified as the object. Region-based object tracking is sensitive to object pose variations and local illumination changes, however, and may not be suitable for tool tracking in an ophthalmic surgery, in which illumination and orientation of the tool vary greatly.
A third technique for general object tracking is feature-based object tracking. Feature-based object tracking may extract and search for unique features of an object, such as contour, edge, shape, color, corner/interest point and the like, across the entire field of view for object detection. In a feature-based tracking algorithm, a high contrast feature, which is not sensitive to environmental and object pose changes and is unique to the object, is required. Since most surgical tools do not intrinsically possess high-contrast features, feature based object tracking may not provide suitable results.
In a vitreo-retinal surgery, illumination conditions may be challenging for tool tracking. An endo illuminator may be inserted into the eye for illumination. Because the endo illuminator may move during a surgery, the illumination condition may vary greatly from image frame to image frame and the images of the fundus area being illuminated may change greatly over time. Motion-based and region-based object tracking techniques may be difficult to implement under inconsistent illumination conditions. Further, with a single illuminator illuminating from one side, shadow artifacts and specular reflection from the surgical tool may increase complexity for tool tracking. Moreover, in order to capture a fundus image through a video camera, a beam path of an imaging light from the eye may pass through multiple optical elements and media, such as eye vitreous body, an aged crystalline lens, eye cornea, and Binocular Indirect Ophthalmomicroscope (BIOM) lenses. These optical elements in the beam path of imaging light may further degrade the image quality and reduce contrast. Thus, it may be difficult to extract an intrinsic feature of various surgical tools to achieve real time tool tracking.
The present disclosure is directed to devices, systems, and methods for the automatic tracking of surgical tools, which address one or more disadvantages of the prior art.

Systems and methods for tracking the orientation of surgical tools


Cancer treatment using TTFields (Tumor Treating Fields) can be customized to each individual subject by obtaining cancer cells from the subject, determining an electrical characteristic (e.g., dielectrophoretic forces, cell membrane capacitance, etc.) of the cancer cells, determining a frequency for the TTFields based on the determined electrical characteristic, and treating the cancer by applying TTFields to the subject at the determined frequency. In addition, cancer treatment can be planned for each individual subject by obtaining cancer cells from the subject, determining an electrical characteristic of the cancer cells, predicting whether TTFields would be effective to treat the cancer based on the determined electrical characteristic, and treating the subject by applying TTFields if the prediction indicates that TTFields would be effective.

Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) are an effective anti-neoplastic treatment modality delivered via application of low intensity (e.g., 1-5 V/cm), intermediate frequency (e.g., 100-300 kHz), alternating electric fields. TTFields therapy has received FDA approval for treating Glioblastoma Multiforme brain tumors and appears to be very promising for many other types of tumors. TTFields therapy is delivered using a wearable and portable device (Optune™). The delivery system includes four adhesive, non-invasive, insulated "transducer arrays", an electric field generator, rechargeable batteries, and a carrying case. The transducer arrays are applied to the skin in the vicinity of the tumor and are connected to the field generator.
In the preclinical setting, TTFields can be applied in vitro using the Inovitro™ system by means of perpendicular pairs of electrodes insulated by a high dielectric constant ceramic. Inovitro™ (TTFields lab bench system) is comprised of a TTFields generator and base plate containing 8 ceramic dishes per plate.

Determining a frequency for TTFields treatment based on an electrical characteristic of targeted cancer cells


A flash memory device that can be erased and programmed electrically, the flash memory device includes an array of transistor memory cell units each has N-doped source and drain regions formed in the device substrate. An N-doped buried channel is formed in the device substrate located between the source and drain regions. A P-doped floating gate is further formed substantially above the buried channel, and a control gate is formed on top of the floating gate. The different doping pattern in the buried channel and the floating gate establishes an increased programming bias voltage for the flash device when operating in its programming mode so that programming speed of the device is faster than conventional. The device can also be fabricated in smaller dimensions with improved reliability.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the structure of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs), and in particular to the structure of a flash memory. More particularly, this invention relates to the structural configuration of a flash memory having a buried channel that is capable of improved programming speed.
2. Description of Related Art
Refer to FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawing. Memory cell unit of a conventional flash memory capable of electrical erasure of the memory content thereof is illustrated schematically in the cross-sectional view. An N-channel transistor for the memory cell of the flash device has its N.sup.+ (such as N.sup.+ polysilicon) gate electrode 130 floating substantially to constitute a surface channel device. The P-type substrate 100 (such as a P.sup.- substrate) has the source region 120 formed as an N-doped region (N.sup.+), and the drain region 110 formed as another N-doped region (N.sup.+) for the cell transistor. An N-type control gate 140 (such as N.sup.+ polysilicon) is formed atop the floating gate 130.
Due to the fact that complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistors are being widely used in very-large scale integration (VLSI) devices, P-type MOS transistor has become an increasingly important device. However, when designing P-type MOS devices, the doping pattern in the polysilicon gate of the device greatly influences the operating characteristics of the fabricated device.
Thus, in the conventional fabrication technique based on the N-type polysilicon gate, N-type MOS field-effect transistors, hereafter generally referred to as nMOSFET, and pMOSFET are both required to be fabricated by impurity implantation into the P channel of the device so that lower threshold voltage can be used in these VLSI devices. Such implantation fabrication procedures turn pMOSFET into a buried-channel device.
Refer to FIG. 2 of the drawing. A conventional buried-channel pMOSFET 200 has the cross-sectional view illustrating the structural configuration thereof. The buried-channel pMOSFET 200 has an N-doped polysilicon gate 200a formed atop the P-type layer 200b that is used as the implanted and buried P channel.
The structural configuration of the buried-channel pMOSFET similar to the one depicted in FIG. 2 is fabricated in accordance with the structure of the invention to construct the memory cell unit of an electrically erasable and programmable flash memory device.

Flash memory with improved programming speed


A method for installing software includes receiving configuration information at a server and installing a server software module on the server. The method further includes transmitting a client software module associated with the server software module to a plurality of clients and initiating, from the server, installation of the client software module on the plurality of clients. Additionally, the method includes configuring the client based, at least in part, on the configuration information received by the server.

Many modern computer systems are designed to provide a wide variety of functionalities to a distributed collection of users. In many cases, computer systems are designed to support a flexible set of services that can be expanded by installing additional software applications. Because many computing systems are tasked with providing a wide variety of complex services to users, installation and configuration of the necessary applications can be a time-consuming process. Additionally, manual installation and configuration of the applications can often lead to user-induced errors. Moreover, for distributed systems in which functionality is provided jointly by clients and servers, coordinating the installation and configuration of software applications can be even more difficult and time-consuming.

System and method for installing software


A tiled array of hybrid assemblies and a method of forming such an array enables the assemblies to be placed close together. Each assembly comprises first and second dies, with the second die mounted on and interconnected with the first die. Each vertical edge of a second die which is to be located adjacent to a vertical edge of another second die in the tiled array is etched such that the etched edge is aligned with a vertical edge of the first die. Indium bumps are deposited on a baseplate where the hybrid assemblies are to be mounted, and the assemblies are mounted onto respective indium bumps using a hybridizing machine, enabling the assemblies to be placed close together, preferably ≦10 μm. The first and second dies may be, for example. a detector and a readout IC, or an array of LEDs and a read-in IC.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to tiled arrays of hybrid assemblies, and more particularly to methods of forming such arrays with very small gaps between assemblies.
Description of the Related Art
Many applications require that an array of hybrid assemblies be tiled on a common baseplate. For example, an imaging device may require a tiled array of hybrid assemblies, each of which includes a detector chip and a readout integrated circuit (ROIC).
In some applications, such as an imaging device, it is preferred or essential that the hybrid assemblies in the array be located close to each other—within 10 μm in some cases. Achieving this can be difficult. For example, one or more dies making up a hybrid assembly may need to be sawed, but this can result in rough sidewalls that limit how closely together the assemblies can be located. Another constraint is that the edge of the saw cut cannot be too close to active devices due to the damage the sawing produces, further limiting how closely-spaced active devices on adjacent assemblies can be. In addition, if the hybrid assemblies are conventionally affixed to the baseplate with epoxy, locating the assemblies too closely together can result in epoxy squirting out of the gaps between the assemblies.
A tiled array of hybrid assemblies may also give rise to thermal issues. For example, adjacent dies having different thermal expansion coefficients may result in stress that degrades the performance of one or both of the dies. One way in which this is addressed is shown in FIG. 1. Here, a detector die 1 is interconnected with an ROIC die 2 via a layer of indium bumps and epoxy 3. To help equalize the thermal expansion coefficients between dies 1 and 2, the dies may be affixed to a metal layer 4 with an epoxy layer 5, which is in turn affixed to a silicon layer 6 with an epoxy layer 7, which is then affixed to a baseplate 8 with an epoxy layer 9. However, this approach requires a costly and complex fabrication process, with the multiple epoxy layers located between die 2 and baseplate 8 degrading thermal performance.

Tiled hybrid array and method of forming


The present invention synthesizes a series of selenolo[3,2-c]pyrazole and selenolo[2,3-c]pyrazole derivatives, and discovers their anticancer activity.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,378,532 B2 discloses novel fused pyrazolyl compounds, and the use thereof in inhibiting cancer cell growth, details of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The inventors of the present application continue their efforts in searching derivatives of the novel fused pyrazolyl compounds disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,378,532 B2, which possess pharmaceutically useful properties.

Selenolopyrazole derivatives and use thereof as anticancer agents


A method of processing finely divided reactive particulates (RParticulate) and forming a product comprising: providing a composite material comprising finely divided reactive particulates (RParticulate) dispersed in a protective matrix; at least partially exposing the finely divided reactive particulates (RParticulate); and forming the product.

International Publication No. WO 2006/042360 provides a method for producing titanium by reaction of titanium tetrachloride with magnesium in a reactor, which may comprise a fluidised bed. The temperature in the reactor is above the melting point of magnesium, but below the melting point of magnesium chloride. The method produces particles comprising titanium which are removed from the reactor and processed in order to recover titanium particles generally having a particle size of greater than 500 μm.
The applicant has identified methods for producing composite materials suitable for use in the present invention. The composite material may be formed from at least one metal compound, the reaction being conducted under an excess of oxidant in the reactor during processing. The composite material will generally be in finely divided form and the method, generally, does not place significant weight on the exclusion of by-products in the composite material. The methods for the production of these composite materials are described in detail in a co-pending Australian provisional patent application with the title "METHOD FOR THE PRODUCTION OF A COMPOSITE MATERIAL USING EXCESS OXIDANT", filed on the same date as the present application. The contents of the co-pending application are incorporated herein in their entirety.
The recovery of product from the composite materials of the aforementioned provisional patent application is described in detail in a co-pending international patent application with the title "METHOD FOR RECOVERY OF METAL-CONTAINING MATERIAL FROM A COMPOSITE MATERIAL", filed on the same date as the present application. The content of the co-pending application is incorporated herein in their entirety.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practice.

Methods using high surface area per volume reactive particulate


When reserved mail fails to be transmitted, an error message is promptly displayed in a partial field of a display unit for a predetermined period of time. A user operates a specific key in the predetermined period of time, thereby allowing the user to return to a screen for editing the failed mail. The user can promptly take an appropriate action on the failed reserved mail.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for transmitting reserved mail and information terminal devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for allowing reserved mail to be promptly edited when the reserved mail fails to be delivered and to an information terminal device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information terminal devices adapted to transmit and receive messages and documents over communication networks have become widespread. There have been proposed various techniques to improve the usability for users to address the difficulty when mail transmitted from information terminal devices fails to be delivered for some reason.
In one technique, when mail fails to be delivered, an error message and the failed mail are presented to a user, and, in order to edit and re-transmit the failed mail, the user selects desired mail by comparing an ID included in the mail returned due to an address error with an ID of the transmitted mail, and edits the selected mail. This technique is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-316144.
Another technique, called a mail reservation feature, is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-333256. In this technique, mail created in an out-of-service area, such as a subway train, is automatically transmitted when the mail enters an in-service area.
In the information terminal devices of the related art, when mail fails to be delivered, a transmission error message and the failed mail are presented to the users. The users are therefore informed of non-delivery of the transmitted mail.
However, there is no disclosure of a technique for, in a case where some other application is active, promptly notifying the users of a transmission error while the application is still active. Thus, a problem occurs in that it is difficult for users to promptly take an appropriate action of modifying the mail text, re-entering an address, or the like when some other application is running.
Another problem is that since the transmission error message and the failed mail are presented to users, it is difficult for the users who are engaged in some other task in the foreground to continue the ongoing task, thereby interrupting it.

Method for transmitting reserved mail and information terminal device


Described embodiments provide systems and methods for performing multi-stream routing. A device may determine that a server is capable of handling multi-stream protocol connections. The device may identify packets communicated between the client and the server via a first interface for a first connection between a client and the server. The device may estimate, based on the packets, a link quality for each second interface for communicating with the server. The device may identify a policy to apply to the packets. The device may select one of the second interfaces for communicating packets between the client and the server based on a configuration mapping, the link quality, and the policy. The configuration mapping may specify which second interface is to be selected using a mapping of the link quality and the policy. The device may establish a second connection between the client and the server using the selected interface.

Certain Internet applications may involve parsing packets to route such packets from a start point to an exit point through a network. When the destination of the packets is changed from the initially designated exit point, the old connection may be terminated and a new connection may be established to carry out the routing of the packets. The resetting of the connection may lead to interruptions in communication between the start point and the exit point.

Leveraging multi-stream transport protocol capabilities for routing


A memory performs a sequence of ECS operations to read a codeword, detect and correct any errors, and write the corrected codeword back to the memory array. An ECS circuit counts errors which are detected, and sets a value of one or more ECS registers in a mode register if the count exceeds a threshold filter at the end of the ECS cycle. The memory also includes a forced ECS readout circuit, which responsive to a command, for example from a controller, sets the value(s) in the ECS register(s).

This disclosure relates generally to semiconductor devices, such as semiconductor memory devices. The semiconductor memory device may include a number of memory cells which are used to store information. The stored information may be encoded as binary data, and each memory cell may store a single bit of the information. Information may decay or change in the memory cells due to a variety of different errors, which may lead to one or more bits of incorrect information (e.g., bits with different states that the bit which was originally written) being read out from the memory device.
There may be many applications where it is useful to ensure a high fidelity of information read out from the memory. Memory devices may include error correction circuits, which may be used to determine if the information read out of the memory cells contains any errors compared to the data written into the memory cells, and may correct discovered errors. The memory device may periodically use the error correction circuits to repair errors in information stored within the memory array by scanning every memory cell of the memory array. The device may present information about the number of errors which were corrected after scanning every memory cell. However, this process may be time consuming and dependent on locating a certain number of errors. It may be useful to be able to generate such information in a controlled fashion.

Apparatuses, systems, and methods for forced error check and scrub readouts