An object lens drive unit in which an undesired displacement or inclination of an object lens with respect to an optical disc is reduced. The position at which a lens holder for the object lens is supported by a pair of rod-shaped elastic support members in the focusing direction substantially coincides with the center of the tracking coil in the focusing direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an object lens drive unit for driving an object lens in an optical disc drive for focusing write/read light on a recording surface of an optical disc.
2. Background Art
Optical disc drives for writing or reading information on optical recording medium discs are capable of recording relatively large volumes of information on such discs. The disc media have large stiffness and are easy to handle. For these reasons, optical disc drives are widely used as an external recording unit for computers or as a device for recording video and audio data. In such optical disc drives, an object lens drive unit is used for driving an object lens, with which the write/read light is focused on the recording surface of an optical disc, in a focusing direction (in which the lens is moved toward or away from the optical disc surface), in a tracking direction (radial direction of the optical disc), in a radial tilt direction (in which the lens is tilted in the radial direction of the optical disc), and in a tangential tilt direction (in which the lens is tilted in a tangential direction to the optical disc). Patent Document 1, for example, discloses such object lens drive unit in a conventional optical disc drive.
As shown in FIG. 1 of Patent Document 1, for example, the conventional object lens drive unit is composed of a moving part including an object lens, support members for supporting the moving part, and a magnetic circuit consisting of a yoke and permanent magnets. The moving part is fitted with a focusing coil and a tracking coil. As a drive current flows through the focusing coil, it interacts with the magnetic flux from the permanent magnets, thereby generating an electromagnetic force. The electromagnetic force drives the moving part in the focusing direction. Similarly, as a drive current flows through the tracking coil, it interacts with the magnetic flux from the permanent magnets, thereby generating an electromagnetic force, with which the moving part is driven in the tracking direction. The moving part is also fitted with a radial tilt coil or a tangential tilt coil. As a drive current flows through the radial tilt coil, it interacts with the magnetic flux from the permanent magnets, thereby generating an electromagnetic force with which the moving part is driven in the radial tilt direction. Similarly, as a drive current flows through the tangential tilt coil, the current interacts with the magnetic flux from the permanent magnet, thereby generating an electromagnetic force with which the moving part is driven in the tangential tilt direction.
In this object lens drive unit, a plurality of support members, which are made of metal cores or the like, are disposed such that they form parallel links. One ends of the support members are fixed to the disposed moving part and the other ends thereof are fixed to a fixing portion. Further, a deformable substrate or the like is interposed on the fixing-portion side of the support members so as to reduce the stiffness of the support members in the axial direction thereof, so that the object lens can be driven in the tangential tilt direction.
Patent Document 1: JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-95133 A (pp. 14-25, and FIG. 1)


A saw mill has a head having at least one saw. The head is configured to travel on a track longitudinally to make alternating cuts between laterally spaced apart first and second work pieces. After traveling forward longitudinally to make a first cut of the first work piece at least one of the heads in the saw move laterally to then cut the second work piece on the return longitudinal trip.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for sawing logs into lumber. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for increasing the efficiency of a sawmill, particularly a portable or stationary saw mill by allowing the saw mill to process two work pieces during a single cycle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Converting logs into lumber is an operation typically performed by a saw mill. However, a saw mill is productive only when it is cutting wood. The known portable saw mills (circular blade and band saw blade) cut one log at a time, resulting in unavoidable and unproductive downtime while the log is being turned. This occurs multiple times for each log that is cut.
Most of the current band saw blade mills have narrow blades (<2 inches) with teeth on one side, limiting the cut to one direction, producing one board per cycle. This results in additional unproductive time while the head returns back to the original position, completing the cycle. A few of the current band saw mills have a wide blade (≈6 inches) that has teeth on both sides of the blade, allowing it to cut the same log in both directions producing two boards per cycle. This design dates back to the early 1900's as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 717,738. This improves its efficiency; however, due to its design, it is known that it cannot cut while the log is being turned and adjusted for the next cut.
The portable band saw mills that use a narrow blade cut on board per cycle while the wide double-cut blade cuts two boards per cycle.
A need still exists for a more efficient saw mill design.


An IC that includes a first memory controller, a second memory controller, and a first bonding circuit coupled to the first memory controller, where the first bonding circuit is a hard logic bonding circuit and is operable to coordinate memory control functions of the first memory controller and the second memory controller. In one implementation, the first memory controller is an N bits wide memory controller, the second memory controller is an M bits wide memory controller, and the first bonding circuit is operable to coordinate the memory control functions of the first memory controller and the second memory controller such that the first and second memory controllers together function as an N+M bits wide memory controller, where N and M are positive integers.

Conventional hard memory controllers (which may also herein be referred to as memory interfaces) are generally designed for controlling (or interfacing with) a memory of a particular data width. For example, a conventional hard memory controller may be designed to control a memory of 32 bits or 64 bits. As used herein a hard memory controller is constructed using hard logic that is not configurable for a function other than that of a memory controller. This contrasts with a soft logic memory controller which is configured/programmed to function as a memory controller, but can also be configured/programmed to serve other functions.
Some conventional hard memory controllers allow for using the memory controller for the maximum data width for which the memory controller is designed as well as some data width(s) smaller than the maximum data width. For example, some conventional memory controllers capable of controlling a 64 bits memory may also be used to control a 32 bits wide memory. This provides some flexibility. However, it does so at the expense of wasted hardware when the memory controller is used to control memory of a data width less than the maximum data width that the memory controller is capable of controlling. Thus, with conventional hard memory controller designs, supporting multiple memory data widths can be very expensive since each different memory data width must have hardware built which covers at least that data width.
Moreover, with conventional hard memory controller designs, supporting multiple memory data width combinations can be very expensive since hardware must be built which covers all the combinations. For example, supporting the combinations of (1) two 64 bits wide memories, (2) one 64 bits wide memory, and (3) four 32 bits wide memories would require (a) two 64 bits wide memory controllers and four 32 bits wide memory controllers, without the option of using a 64 bits wide memory controller as a 32 bits wide memory controller, or (b) two 64 bits wide memory controllers and two 32 bits wide memory controllers, with the option of using a 64 bits wide memory controller as a 32 bits wide memory controller. However, using the two 64 bits wide memory controllers and two 32 bits wide memory controllers to support four 32 bits wide memories amounts to wasting some of the resources of the 64 bits wide memory controllers. Also, it involves use of multiplexer(s) for selecting between using the 64 bits wide memory controllers as 64 bits wide memory controllers or 32 bits wide memory controllers.

Integrated circuit with bonding circuits for bonding memory controllers


Ceramics are made of preceramic paper or board structures in a particular shape previously represented in a paper structure, in which the preceramic papers or boards have a content of ceramic fillers between 30 and 95 wt-%, with the ceramic fillers having a particle size <30 μm. A method for manufacturing such ceramics and the use thereof are also provided.

This invention relates to a ceramics made of preceramic paper or board structures, a method of producing such ceramics and the use thereof.
In the art, porous ceramic articles are used for numerous applications, for instance heat-insulating structures, kiln furniture, porous burner substrates and fire protection structures. Another application is in the field of catalyst supports.
It is known already to dip articles of corrugated board or other paper structures into a slip of metallic or ceramic powders, whereby an external coating is effected (H. Sieber, T. Fey, D. Schwarze, M. Weidner and M. Kresch: "Herstellung von porösen Keramiken aus Papierstrukturen", in "Das Keramikjahrbuch 2002", editor: H. Reh, Göller Verlag, Baden-Baden/Germany, pp. 47-54 (2003)). The correspondingly dipped papers then are subjected to pyrolysis in inert gas and to a subsequent temperature treatment in air at 1400° C. With this procedure, high-temperature resistant, cellular ceramics of comparatively low weight are obtained already. It is a disadvantage of the prior art method that on the one hand the coating to be performed is comparatively expensive. Furthermore, coating with the reactive substances is not possible inside the paper structure. Moreover, coating only is possible with articles that can be dipped. However, this excludes any kind of hollow articles, into which the slip cannot penetrate. Furthermore, when coating fine structures, such as a fine flute in the corrugated board, a uniform coating of the surface by dipping into the slip no longer is ensured.

Ceramics made of preceramic paper or board structures, method of producing the same and use thereof


A speech recognition method includes use of synchronous or asynchronous audio and a video data to enhance speech recognition probabilities. A two stream factorial hidden Markov model is trained and used to identify speech. At least one stream is derived from audio data and a second stream is derived from mouth pattern data. Gestural or other suitable data streams can optionally be combined to reduce speech recognition error rates in noisy environments.

Commercial speech recognition systems that primarily use audio input are widely available, but often underutilized because of reliability concerns. Such conventional audio systems are adversely impacted by environmental noise, often requiring acoustically isolated rooms and consistent microphone positioning to reach even minimally acceptable error rates in common speech recognition tasks. The success of the currently available speech recognition systems is accordingly restricted to relatively controlled environments and well defined applications such as dictation or small to medium vocabulary voice-based control commands (hand free dialing, menu navigation, GUI screen control). These limitations have prevented the widespread acceptance of speech recognition systems in acoustically uncontrolled workplace or public sites.
In recent years, it has been shown that the use of visual information together with audio information significantly improve the performance of speech recognition in environments affected by acoustic noise. The use of visual features in conjunction with audio signals takes advantage of the bimodality of the speech (audio is correlated with lip position) and the fact that visual features are invariant to acoustic noise perturbation.
Various approaches to recovering and fusing audio and visual data in audiovisual speech recognition (AVSR) systems are known. One popular approach relies on mouth shape as a key visual data input. Unfortunately, accurate detection of lip contours is often very challenging in conditions of varying illumination or during facial rotations. Alternatively, computationally intensive approaches based on gray scale lip contours modeled through principal component analysis, linear discriminant analysis, two-dimensional DCT, and maximum likelihood transform have been employed to recover suitable visual data for processing.
Fusing the recovered visual data with the audio data is similarly open to various approaches, including feature fusion, model fusion, or decision fusion. In feature fusion, the combined audiovisual feature vectors are obtained by concatenation of the audio and visual features, followed by a dimensionality reduction transform. The resultant observation sequences are then modeled using a hidden Markov model (HMM) technique. In model fusion systems, multistream HMM using assumed state synchronous audio and video sequences is used, although difficulties attributable to lag between visual and audio features can interfere with accurate speech recognition. Decision fusion is a computationally intensive fusion technique that independently models the audio and the visual signals using two HMMs, combining the likelihood of each observation sequence based on the reliability of each modality.

Factorial hidden markov model for audiovisual speech recognition


A dual carburetor, designed to simplify passage constructions of the main fuel system and the low-speed fuel system and to improve the productivity, production cost, quick response and reliability in fuel supply, includes main fuel passages (14) and low-speed fuel passages (19) extending vertically from a central portion of a fuel chamber (6) to the height of and between two air suction passages (2). Main nozzles (18) are connected to upper end portions of the main fuel passages (14), and the low-speed fuel passages (19) are bent at its upper end in horizontal directions to reach low-speed ports. Air bleed passages (24, 26) for respective fuel passages (14, 19) are formed to extend from near inlets of air suction passages (2) in horizontal directions to communicate with the fuel passages (14, 19), respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a dual carburetor used for fuel supply or a two-cylinder engine and, more particularly, to a dual carburetor with compact-structured main fuel passages and low-speed fuel passages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Duel carburetors, in particular, duel side-flow carburetors with horizontally extending two parallel intake passages, are widely used in two-cylinder outboard engines or stationary engines because they need no particular consideration on appropriate distribution of a fuel upon being mounted in a two-cylinder engine.
In dual carburetors, in general, independent main fuel passages and low-speed fuel passages are provided for respective air suction passages, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,188,060, for example.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating, in particular, the construction of passages in a conventional dual carburetor of this type. Two air suction passages 53, 53 extend in parallel in horizontal directions above a float-type fuel chamber 51. Choke valves 54 are attached to a single choke valve rod 55 extending across two air suction passages 53, 53. Similarly, throttle valves 56 are attached to a single throttle valve rod 57 extending across two air passages 53, 53.
Main fuel passages 59, 59 for two air suction passages 53, 53 are located at opposite sides of a float 52 in the fuel chamber 51. These main fuel passages 59 are branched from a delivery passage 58 opening at the bottom of the fuel chamber 51, then extend substantially upwardly along opposite sides of the float 52. Each of the main fuel passages, 59, has a main jet 60, emulsion tube 61, and main nozzle 62. A main air bleed tube 63 for each main fuel passage 59 extends horizontally from near its inlet along the bottom, and then slopes down to the emulsion tube 61. A main air bleed jet 64 is provided at the inlet of each main air bleed passage 63.
Similarly, two low-speed fuel passages 65, 65 are provided for two air suction passages 53, 53. Each low-speed fuel passage 65 is branched from each main fuel passage 59 between the main jet 60 and the emulsion tube 61, first extends vertically outside each air suction passage 53 and then runs horizontally to near the throttle valve 56. Each low-speed fuel conduit 65 has a slow jet 66 and an emulsion tube 67 in its vertical portion, and a slow port 68, as a low-speed port, and an idle port 69 at the terminal end of its horizontal portion. A low-speed air bleed passage 71 is provided for each low-speed fuel passage 65. Each low-speed air bleed passage 71 extends from near the inlet of the air suction passage 53 first horizontally above it and then vertically outside it to the emulsion tube 67. A low-speed air bleed jet 72 is provided at the inlet of each low-speed air bleed passage 71.
As to the construction of passages for the main fuel systems including the main fuel passages 59 and the main air bleed passages 63 and the construction of passages for the low-speed fuel systems including the low-speed passages 65 and the low-speed air bleed passages 71, the main fuel passages 59 have a very simple construction, namely, they extends substantially straight from the bottom of the fuel chamber 51 along one side thereof.
However, the main air bleed passages 63, low-speed fuel passages 65 and low-speed air bleed passages 71 have portions extending horizontally, diagonally and vertically. Especially the low-speed fuel passages 65 and the low-speed air bleed passages 71 turn several times and form complex shapes as a whole. It is very difficult or, at least, troublesome to make these complex forms by drilling for respective turn or curve portions and to reliably seal a number of end apertures used for inserting a drill. These factors have heretofore disturbed improvements in production efficiency and production cost.


The present invention provides an activity-inhibitor for glutamic acid in the brain which comprises L-lysine or its derivatives. The present invention also provides an activity-inhibitor for glutamic acid in the brain which comprises L-arginine or its derivatives. The present invention further provides an activity-potentiator for glutamic acid in the brain which comprises glycine or its derivatives.

The highly developed motor and mental function of human beings are controlled by a complicated communication network of a large number of nerve cells (neurons).
In this neural network, activity of each neuron (electrical signal) is transmitted to the target neurons through the neurotransmitter (chemical signal) released to the terminal junctions of the neuron (synaptic cleft). The neurotransmitter is stored within vesicles (synaptic vesicles) present at the nerve terminal and when a depolarization occurs due to an electrical activity of the neuron, the calcium channel at presynaptic membrane is opened and the neurotransmitter is then released by an influx of extracellular calcium ion into the nerve terminal. The neurotransmitter diffuses into the synaptic cleft, reaches the receptor at postsynaptic membrane of the target neuron, and then opens its sodium channel to cause new electrical activity. Since the type of neurotransmitter to be released has already been determined at each synapse and the affinity of each neurotransmitter for its receptor has also been determined, a specific information is transmitted through the intrinsic pathway in the network.
As a type of the neurotransmitters, a great variety of substances are known such as amines, amino acids and neuropeptides. Recently, it has been pointed out that glutamic acid, belonging to amino acid-type neurotransmitter, plays an important role in memory and motor function. For example, reduction of a long-term potentiation (phenomenon wherein an electrical response of neurons for a temporal electrical stimulation after tetanic stimulation is maintained for a long term) in hippocampus and impairments of spatial memory were observed in the mice that lacks .epsilon.1 subunit of the glutamic acid receptor (NMDA receptor), and it is therefore suggested that glutamic acid is involved in neural plasticity and memory formation. (Nature, Jan. 12, 1994, p.151). Additionally, in the mice in which metabolic glutamic acid receptor-1 (mGluR1) had been deleted, abnormal motor activity and impairment of spatial memory were also observed although there was little anatomical and electrophysiological difference between this deficit and normal mice (Nature, Nov. 17, 1994, p.237).
Furthermore, the following evidences are reported, which support the influences of glutamic acid in the brain on memory and motor function.
(1) A large number of neurons which uses glutamic acid as a neurotransmitter (glutamatergic neurons) are located in hippocampus and cerebellum that is closely involved in learning and memory.
(2) A modulation of transmission efficacy at the synapse, which would be involved in fundamental mechanism of learning and memory, is plastically occurred in a synapse wherein glutamic acid is used as a neurotransmitter. That is, it is known that phenomenon such as long-term potentiation or long-term depression is occurred in a postsynaptic membrane followed by a temporal modulation of an input induced by glutamic acid.
(3) Rats with bilateral lesions of hippocampus or with intraventricular administration of an antagonist for glutamic acid receptor (NMDA receptor) to inhibit an activity of the glutamic acid in the brain, can not learn the position of a platform in the water in the spatial learning of Morris's water maze task (Nature, Feb. 27, 1986, p.774).
Reviewing these evidences, it is considered that a reduction of glutamic acid activity in the brain causes an impairment of the transmission due to reduced excitation in neurons and then causes symptom of memory impairment such as dementia. Alternatively, it is also considered that, when an excess activity of glutamic acid influences motor neurons, it causes motor disturbances such as epilepsy. Accordingly, it is expected that these diseases can be prevented or improved by potentiating the reduced transmission or inhibiting the excess activity, respectively.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide the activity-potentiator and activity-inhibitor for the glutamic acid in the brain.

Activity-inhibitor and activity-potentiator for glutamic acid in the brain

Japan Science and Technology Corporation


A method of forming a seal plate for sealing between two components of an assembly includes forming a plate element from a first material, the plate element including at least one seal groove receptive of a seal element and forming a seal element from a second material different from the first material by one or more additive manufacturing processes, the second material an elastomeric material of a selected durometer. The seal element is affixed to the plate element at the seal groove. A seal plate includes a plate element having one or more seal grooves receptive of a seal element, the plate element formed from a first material. A seal element is installed into the seal groove, the seal element formed from a second material different from the first material by one or more additive manufacturing processes, the second material an elastomeric material of a selected durometer.

Exemplary embodiments pertain to the art of seals. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to seal plates configured and utilized as static seals between components.
Seal plates are used in a wide variety of applications including, for example, transmission manifolds, gearbox split lines, and other components which may or may not have a high production volume. A typical seal plate is made by machining a metal plate to include a seal groove or seal grooves. A seal element, for example, an elastomeric seal, is then overmolded and cured at the seal groove of the metal plate.
Overmolding of the seal element requires complex, expensive tooling to consistently produce the required seal. Such tooling, especially for components having a relatively low production volume or rate, can is some applications be significantly more expensive than the finished seal plate. In some applications, the tooling cost may be up to or more than 10 times the product cost.


Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for creating and executing extensible processes across multiple application components. A declarative feature is provided to allow partially ordered steps in an extensible process spanning multiple application components to be defined in a declarative format. A developer can define the minimum base steps in a first application component. Other application components can then provide additional partially ordered steps and/or actions to the extensible process. The declarative feature allows the partially ordered steps to have an associated step action. A sequencer is provided that assembles the partially ordered steps together from the multiple application components into a computational sequence having a total ordering. The sequencer executes the computational sequence in that total ordering upon receiving an execution request.

When writing software applications, developers typically write source code that specifies how the program should operate. Such source code typically specifies a predefined ordered sequence in which the computer should execute certain computational actions. These computational actions are typically implemented as a series of procedure calls to various methods or functions that perform certain operations. When an application is composed out of an unknown number of extensible application components, it is impossible for a programmer to write the exact series of procedure calls at the time when the source code is written. The reason this is impossible is because the exact list of available computational actions in the extensible application components and any ordering between them is unknown at the time of writing the source code.

Extensible action sequences coordinating independently created components


A secondary battery includes an electrode assembly having first and second electrodes and a separator, a pouch type case for receiving the electrode assembly, and a sheath for enclosing outer sides of the case. The sheath can prevent damage to the pouch in electronic devices to which the secondary battery is applicable as an inner pack type.

Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a secondary battery, and more particularly to a pouch type lithium secondary battery which has an electrode assembly received in a pouch.
Description of the Prior Art
Secondary batteries use a non-aqueous electrolyte because of the reactivity between lithium and water. The non-aqueous electrolyte may be a solid polymer containing lithium salts, or liquid in which lithium salts are dissociated from organic solvent.
The secondary batteries can be classified, according to the kind of electrolyte, into a lithium metal battery and a lithium ion battery which use a liquid electrolyte, and a lithium ion polymer battery using polymer solid electrolyte.
In complete solid type lithium ion polymer batteries, there is no problem of leakage of the organic electrolyte. In gel type lithium ion polymer batteries containing organic electrolyte, the leakage of the electrolyte also can be easily prevented in comparison with lithium ion batteries using liquid electrolyte. For example, the lithium ion polymer battery may use a pouch as a case for an electrode assembly, instead of a metal can.
The pouch is made of multi-layer film generally having a metal foil layer and a synthetic resin layer covering the metal foil layer. The pouch makes it possible to remarkably reduce the weight of the battery, in comparison to when the metal can is used as the case for the electrode assembly. In the multilayer pouch, the foil is generally made of an aluminum material. The polymer layer forming an inner layer of the pouch protects the metal foil from the electrolyte, and prevents an electric short-circuiting between anode and cathode, and electrode tabs.
In order to form a pouch type lithium secondary battery, first, an anode plate, a separator, and a cathode plate are sequentially stacked and then rolled so as to form is an electrode assembly. Next, the electrode assembly is disposed in a fitted pouch. Then, upper and lower pouch films are heated and fusion-welded at open edge of the pouch so as to seal the pouch, thereby forming the pouch type bare cell battery.
Such a bare cell battery may form an inner pack type battery. The inner pack type battery refers to a battery like a bare cell battery which is directly inserted into the body of an electronic device such as a digital camera or a digital camcorder requiring the secondary battery and which is then covered with a cover member forming an exterior surface of the electronic device. The inner pack type battery has an excellent merit of enduring exterior impact.
Specifically, elements or structure, such as a protection circuit module connected to the electrodes of the bare cell battery, or a positive temperature coefficient element, is mounted in the body of the electronic device.
Therefore, in the case of the inner pack type secondary battery in which a protection circuit module, a positive temperature coefficient element, etc. are mounted in a body of an electronic device, just the protection circuit module can be replaced with a new module when a protection circuit is damaged. Therefore, the inner pack type secondary battery has an improved yield and a less chance of being exposed to exterior impact, in comparison with the secondary battery integrated with the protection circuit module.
However, the conventional secondary battery where the electrode assembly is received in the soft pouch has a problem in that a soft pouch may be easily damaged during mounting of the secondary battery in the electronic device.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Sheath for enclosing a case of a secondary battery


A printed circuit for forming deflection coils used, for example, in a scanning electron microscope. The printed circuit permits some of scroll coil circuits to be connected with an external circuit with or without connecting them in series. There is also disclosed a printed circuit capable of forming deflection coils which are small in size but produce strong magnetic fields. A printed circuit according to the invention comprises a sheet on which the scroll coils and indicia are printed. When the sheet is wound into a cylinder, the scroll coils are arranged circumferentially.

It has been known that coils for controllably deflecting a charged-particle beam in an electron microscope or the like are fabricated by printing plural scroll coil circuits on a flexible insulating sheet. Techniques of this kind are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication Nos. 160947/1984 and 60563/1977.
Techniques for fabricating deflection coils by printing scroll coils with a conductive material on both sides of an insulating sheet and winding the sheet into a cylinder are disclosed in these Patent Publications.
The above-described prior-art techniques fail to take account of a case in which the number of printed scroll coils stacked on top of each other is increased to produce a strong deflecting magnetic field. Accordingly, with these prior-art techniques, it is difficult to construct small-sized coils capable of accurately developing a strong deflecting magnetic field in a desired direction, for the following reasons.
In order to fabricate coils for producing a strong magnetic field in a desired direction with high accuracy, using the aforementioned printed circuit, the following requirements (a) and (b) must be satisfied.
(a) In order to setup a strong magnetic field, it is necessary to stack a number of scroll coils printed on the printed circuit on top of each other. One conceivable method of arranging these printed scroll coils so as to stack them on top of each other is to wind the printed circuit into a cylinder in plural layers. Another conceivable method is to fold the printed scroll coils. Where the former lap-winding method is adopted, it is necessary to place the stacked scroll coils in position circumferentially accurately.
(b) In order to develop a strong magnetic field, it is necessary that the scroll coils be excited with greater currents.
However, where the above-described lap-winding method is utilized, if the printed circuit is wound in more layers in order that more scroll coils be stacked, then outer scroll coils are shifted circumferentially with respect to inner scroll coils. This causes a deviation of the direction of the produced magnetic field from the intended direction.
Where the number of printed scroll coils is increased, if these numerous scroll coils are connected in series, the resistance is increased, thus resulting in decreases in currents flowing through the scroll coils. Therefore, connecting too many scroll coils in series is undesirable. Accordingly, if a multiplicity of scroll coils are connected in parallel, each scroll coil needs a feeding external connector terminal and a connector lead that connects this coil to the external connector terminal. If the number of external connector terminals is increased, it is cumbersome to make a connection with an external circuit.


A dry etching process for manufacturing a trench structure of a semiconductor apparatus, including the steps of: step 1, providing a semiconductor substrate, wherein the semiconductor substrate is provided with a patterned photoresist layer and placed in a reaction chamber; step 2, introducing a first etching gas into the reaction chamber to perform a first etching process to form a trench, wherein the first etching gas includes sulfur hexafluoride, oxygen, helium, nitrogen trifluoride, and a first organic silicide; step 3, introducing a second etching gas into the reaction chamber to perform a second etching process to further etch the trench, wherein the second etching gas includes sulfur hexafluoride, oxygen, helium, and a second organic silicide; and step 4, introducing a third etching gas into the reaction chamber to perform a third etching process, wherein the third etching gas includes hydrobromic acid, oxygen, and helium.

The semiconductor industry is undergoing constant and vigorous development. Technological advances in semiconductor design and materials have led to smaller, more complex circuits for semiconductor apparatuses. Generally, the functional density of the semiconductor apparatus is increased and the size is smaller, as a result, the production efficiency can be improved and the cost can be reduced.
The function of a semiconductor apparatus is limited by the area of a semiconductor chip, and with the development of semiconductor technologies, more and more apparatuses employ three-dimensional stacking techniques to increase the density of components. However, the three-dimensional stacking technique complicates the process for manufacturing the semiconductor apparatus, makes it more difficult to keep the quality and stability of the process for manufacturing the semiconductor apparatus, and affects yield. For three-dimensional integrated circuit semiconductor chips, a high aspect ratio of a trench is required.
Typically, a deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) process developed by Bosch Corporation has been used to manufacture trenches. However, the conventional DRIE process still has the problem that a sidewall of the trench is quite rough, thereby affecting the electrical and mechanical properties of the semiconductor chip.
Therefore, it's desirable to strive for a corresponding development in the manufacturing process of semiconductor apparatuses to improve the quality and stability of the manufacturing process.

Dry etching process for manufacturing trench structure of semiconductor apparatus

TAIWAN CARBON NANO TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION


A method of manufacturing a Fe-sheathed MgB2 wire includes the steps of:                I. Selecting a carbon steel tube with 0.1% to 0.3% carbon;                    a. Crimping a first end of the tube;            b. Selecting a Mg powder at least 99.8% pure, and sized for 325 mesh;            c. Selecting a B powder, at least 99.99% pure, and sized for 325 mesh;            d. Stoichiometrically mixing the Mg and B powders to form a mixture powder;            e. Milling the mixture powder by using high-energy ball mill for 0.5 to 6 hours and using stainless steel mixing balls and vial, wherein the mass ratio of ball to powder is 20:1, to form a milled powder;            f. Filling and packing the tube in an argon atmosphere with the milled powder to create a packing density of about 1.5 g/cm3;            g. Crimping the second end of the tube to create a powder-filled tube;            h. Rolling the powder-filled tube to create the Fe-sheathed MgB2 wire; and            i. Annealing the as-rolled wire at 600 to 900° C. for 0.5 to 3 hours at high purity argon environment to create superconducting wire.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of Fe-sheathed MgB2 superconducting wires and tapes, and methods of manufacturing them.
2. Description of the Related Art
The discovery of superconductivity at 39 K in basic intermetallic magnesium diboride by Nagamatsu et al. triggered a large volume of research on the basic physics of this material as well as its applied superconductivity. The absence of weak-links between microcrystals or grains of this material reported by Larbalestier et al. demonstrated its advantage over high-Tc oxide superconductors. Cryogen-free cooling in the temperature range of 20 to ˜30 K requires the development of MgB2 tapes and wires with superior transport currents under an external magnetic field. Currently, the powder-in-tube (PIT) method is widely used to fabricate MgB2 tapes and wires, where MgB2 powder or a mixture of Mg and B powders with the stoichiometric composition is packed into a metal tube. The powder-filled metal tube is then cold-worked (swaging, drawing, and rolling) into tape or wire. A heat treatment at 600˜1000° C. is usually applied to the cold-worked tape or wire to obtain superconductivity. The sheath material's toughness and chemical compatibility with MgB2 are crucial for fabricating long-length MgB2 tapes or wires with high critical current, which leaves Fe and Ni as the ideal candidates. Grasso et al. first reported high critical current density of 105 A/cm2 at 4.2 K on nickel-sheathed tapes without any heat treatment. High Jc of about 3×105 A/cm2 was acquired by extrapolating the Jc-B curves to zero field. Wang et al. and Horvat et al. investigated Fe-clad MgB2 tapes and wires in the temperature regime above 20 K, and obtained Jc of 104 A/cm2 at 30 K and 1 T. Komori et al. reported Jc of the MgB2 tape exceeding 105 A/cm2 at 4.2 K and 10 T. However, these impressive values were obtained on short samples with lengths of several centimeters. For large-scale applications, what is needed is long length MgB2 wires and tapes with superior transport properties. What is needed to accomplish this is a very small size powder, which will result in high packing density and better grain connectivity.
Some MgB2 solenoids with different sizes have been fabricated and tested. Soltanian et al. obtained a Jc of 1.33×105 A/cm2 at 4 K on a Cu-sheathed MgB2 solenoid with an OD of 10 mm and 5 turns manufactured by a wind-reaction in situ technique. They also tested several 10 mm OD and 100 turn Cu-sheathed MgB2 solenoids and acquired an Ic above 100 A at 4 K. Machi et al. achieved a Jc of 4.4×105 A/cm2 at 4.2 K on a Cu-sheathed MgB2 coil with 27 mm ID and 50 turns, while the Ic was greater than 200 A. However, the industry needs better methods to manufacture application components such as solenoids from wires and tapes.

Method of manufacturing Fe-sheathed MgB2 wires and solenoids


An approach is provided that receives an audio request from a request source while an information handling machine, such as a computer system, is in a muted state. The request source is compared with a list of one more un-mute sources stored in a memory. If the comparison reveals that the request source is included in the list of un-mute sources, then the audio request is audibly played.

The present disclosure provides an approach that un-mutes system sounds based upon the system event to which they are related. The present disclosure further provides a smooth increase of audio volume for such system events.
Users of personal computers and other devices with audio capabilities enjoy many benefits associated with a mute function. For example, the mute function provides the ability to lower or shut off volume promptly and/or with one touch of a button or similar command. A mute function also provides the capability to override audio in circumstances such as initial powering-on or waking of a device. However, the traditional mute function can also lead to difficulties or annoyances. For example, when a mute function is active (as it commonly is in the workplace environment or in the home setting when children are asleep), it can be annoying for the user to have to un-mute the device when, based on the user performing a certain action, the context indicates that the user most probably intends for the device's audio to be audible. This can occur, for example, during video teleconferences. Conversely, if the mute function is not active, the device may play unintended and/or disruptive audio upon the occurrence of certain events, such as power-on, wake, automated connection to certain web sites and the like.

Smart un-muting based on system event with smooth volume control


A substrate is obtained as follows. A structure is formed using a metal plate for a lead frame on which terminals and connection portions are formed; the terminals are exposed from either a front or back surface and the connection portions connect the terminals together. A resin is then used to make the structure hard. The height of a step in a central step portion is variable. The resin is one of PA6T, PPS, and LCP, all of which are resistant to heat. A step portion can be obtained which projects from a bottom surface of a circuit substrate. The circuit substrate is inexpensively obtained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a condenser microphone and a method for manufacturing a substrate used for the condenser microphone.
2. Description of the Related Art
A related art will be described below taking the case of what is called a back electret type electret condenser microphone (referred to as an ECM below). FIG. 1 shows a sectional configuration of an ECM in accordance with the related technique, which is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2003-153392. In FIG. 1, the contour of the ECM is formed by a cylindrical capsule 61. A sound wave passing opening 610 is formed in a front plate 61a of the capsule 61. The following are incorporated into the capsule 61 and arranged in the following order from an inner surface of the front plate 61a toward the rear of the capsule 61: a diaphragm 62, an insulating spacer 63, a rear pole 64, a ring-like rear pole holder 65 consisting of an insulating material, a conductive cylinder 66, and a circuit substrate 67. In this case, the diaphragm 62 comprises a dielectric film which consists of for example, polyphenylene sulfide (also referred to as PPS) and in which a metal film such as Ni or Al is formed, as a conductive layer, on a surface of the film located closer to the rear pole. A diaphragm ring 62a is fixed to the periphery of a front surface of the diaphragm 62 and is in contact with the front plate 61a. The rear pole 64 is placed behind the diaphragm 62 via the thickness of the insulating spacer 63 and supported by the ring-like rear pole holder 65, consisting of an insulating material. A conductive cylinder 66 is interposed between the rear pole 64 and the circuit substrate 67 to electrically connect the rear pole 64 to wiring formed on a top surface (front surface) of the circuit substrate 67. An electret layer 64a is formed on a front surface of the rear pole 64, that is, the surface of the rear pole 64 located opposite the diaphragm 62; the electret layer 64a is obtained by converting a dielectric layer such as FEP (Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene) into an electret. A circuit device 68 such as an FET (Field Effect Transistor) is mounted on a top surface of the circuit substrate 67. Solder bump electrodes 69a and 69b that are externally connected electrodes are projected from a bottom surface (rear surface) of the circuit substrate 67. For example, such a circuit as shown in FIG. 2 is formed on the circuit substrate 67. In FIG. 2, a gate of the FET is connected to the rear pole 64 through the conductive cylinder 66, shown in FIG. 1. A source of the FET is connected to the diaphragm 62 through the capsule 61, shown in FIG. 1. Two capacitors C are connected to between a source and a drain of the FET in parallel with each other; the part between the source and drain of the FET operates as an impedance converting section. The drain of the FET is connected to an output terminal 72 (in FIG. 1, the solder bump electrode 69b) through a through-hole (not shown in the drawings) formed in the circuit substrate 67. The drain of the FET then leads to a DC inhibiting capacitor Cp. The source of the FET is connected to a ground terminal 71 (in FIG. 1, the solder bump electrode 69a) through a through-hole (not shown in the drawings) formed in the circuit substrate 67. Further, the drain of the FET is connected to a reference power source through a resistance element R. In FIG. 1, a rear (back face-side) end of the capsule 61 is caulked to the rear surface of the circuit substrate 67 as a caulking portion 611. The caulking allows element parts housed in the capsule 61 to be fixed to one another. If a sound wave enters the capsule 61 through the sound wave passing opening 610, it vibrates the diaphragm 62 to change the capacitance between the diaphragm 62 and the rear pole 64. This converts the sound wave into an electric signal, which is output to the output terminal 72 (in FIG. 1, the solder bump electrode 69b).
To mount the above ECM on a mounting substrate (not shown in the drawings), the solder bump electrodes 69a and 69b are soldered to the corresponding electrodes on the mounting substrate. That is, the ECM placed on the entire mounting substrate is passed through a reflow bath and then heated. The heating melts the solder bump electrodes 69a and 69b to achieve soldering. In this case, as shown particularly in FIG. 1, the solder bump electrodes 69a and 69b are projected from the bottom surface of the circuit substrate 67, with the caulking portion 611 present on the bottom surface of the circuit substrate 67 at an end of the capsule 61. This configuration presents the problem described below. When the solder is heated and melted in the reflow bath, solder melting heat distorts the caulking portion 611. This may relax the caulking or cause the molten solder and fluxes to advance between the caulking portion 611 and the circuit substrate 67. This may make the electric connection between the rear pole 64 and the wiring on the circuit substrate 67 unstable; the conductive cylinder 66 is interposed between the rear pole 64 and the wiring. The electret layer 64a of the rear pole 64 may be degraded to reduce the voltage applied to between the diaphragm 62 and the rear pole 64. Further, the sensitivity of the ECM may decrease.
With the reflow type ECM for which soldering is carried out using a reflow bath, the measure described below is taken to prevent solder or fluxes from advancing between the caulking portion 611 and the circuit substrate 67. If the mounting substrate is directly soldered, solder paste is accumulated between the caulking portion 611 and the mounting substrate. The caulking portion 611 is thus separated from the mounting substrate before soldering. However, this measure is not reliable.
Another measure involves applying a second substrate to the bottom surface of the circuit substrate 67 to form such a step as projects beyond the thickness of the caulking portion 611. A solder bump electrode is then projected from the substrate. Then, the solder is connected to the mounting substrate in the reflow bath. This amounts to the application of the substrate to the circuit substrate 67 resulting in the formation of a step. The application of the substrate to the circuit substrate 67 requires alignment at a predetermined accuracy and the formation of a through-hole for electric connection followed by an attachment operation. However, these operations preclude inexpensive circuit substrate from being obtained. Further, even if a circuit substrate is obtained by using a router to carry out machining to form a step, disadvantageously the resulting circuit substrate is not inexpensive. That is, structures with steps are expensive.
Moreover, conventional circuit substrates are mostly pattern wired substrates. Fabrication of a pattern wired substrate requires production of conductor electrodes, glass, multilayer wiring, through-holes, and the like using various materials and various printing processes. Consequently, the fabrication process is complicated and expensive.

Condenser microphone and method for manufacturing substrate for the same


Disclosed are a light emitting diode (LED) inspection apparatus, which can determine whether an LED has a defect such as leakage current, without making physical contact with the LED being inspected, and an LED inspection method thereof. The LED inspection apparatus includes an ultraviolet emission unit emitting UV light to an LED, an image generation unit generating an image of the LED to which the UV light is emitted, and a control unit obtaining color or intensity information of the LED from the image of the LED and determining, based on the color information, whether the LED is defective.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting diode (LED) inspection apparatus and an LED inspection method using the same, and more particularly, to an LED inspection apparatus capable of determining whether an LED being inspected has a defect such as current leakage, without making physical contact with the LED, and an LED inspection method using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recent improvements in luminous efficiency of a light emitting diode (LED) has expanded application fields of the LED from signaling to a lighting unit, a backlight unit (BLU) for a mobile phone, a light source of a large display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) and the like. This is due to the small power consumption and the long life of the LED, compared to related art lighting devices such as bulbs and fluorescent lamps.
The LED is manufactured by processes: growing, on a substrate, semiconductor layers of different conductivity types and an active layer activating light emission between the semiconductor layers, and forming an electrode on each of the semiconductor layers. The LED manufactured in this manner undergoes an inspection of its performance such as light-emission efficiency. Among performances being inspected, the leakage current is considered a factor that affects the reliability of an LED product because of its influence on the LED in terms of stability, life and performance deterioration.
To detect the leakage current, a process for inspecting the LED performance on a chip level is inserted in an LED manufacturing process. The equipment used for this inspection is called a prober, which can measure characteristics after a voltage is applied to an LED in a state where an electrical contact has been made between a transparent electrode and a bonding pad. That is, the prober measures an operating current and a voltage of the LED to which the voltage is applied, thereby inspecting electrical characteristics of the LED.
In the prober, an LED to be inspected on a wafer or chip level is fixed on an XY motion stage that can be moved forward, backward, left and right. A microscope is placed above the LED, and a probe serves as an electrode that applies a current/voltage to the LED. When an applied voltage is increased, an operating current of an LED also increases. Therefore, the leakage current causes the operating current to exceed a predetermined value. Thus, determination of a defective LED can be made by comparison with a voltage/current curve of a reference LED.
However, the inspection needs to be performed after the probe serving as an electrode physically contacts an LED to be inspected. The physical contact may damage the LED. If multiple samples are inspected, moving, contacting and measuring need to be repeatedly performed, undesirably increasing the inspection time. Also, an XY motion stage with high precision needs to be used because each sample needs to be moved according to a probe location.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus that can inspect defects of LEDs with high efficiency, without degrading the performance of the LEDs.

LED inspection apparatus and LED inspection method using the same


A process for carrying out in a consecutive fashion different modes of chromatographic separation in a liquid chromatography column using a single separation medium is disclosed. Separation media for use in such multimodal separations are also disclosed.

The art of liquid column chromatography is an old and well known means for separating a material from a sample. Depending upon the sample and materials to be separated therefrom, one of a variety of modes of liquid column chromatography is used to effect the separation. Such chromatographic modes include size exclusion (SEC), ion-exchange, reversed phase, normal phase, hydrophobic interaction, hydrophilic interaction, affinity, donor-acceptor, ion-pair and chiral separation chromatography.
Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) generally comprises the differential elution of solutes from a bed of a porous chromatographic medium, caused by different degrees of steric exclusion of the solute molecules from the pore volume in pores with smaller size than is the size of the molecule to be eluted. The smaller the molecule, the more pores (the higher pore volume) of the porous separation medium (column packing) is available for their penetration. SEC is used in the separation of macromolecules according to their actual size defined by their hydrodynamic volume. Ideally, there is no interaction of any kind between the solute molecules and the chromatographic separation medium in SEC as the separation is driven by entropic changes.
In contrast to SEC, all other modes of liquid chromatography are based on an interaction between the compounds to be separated dissolved in a mobile phase and the stationary phase, i.e. the solid column packing which is why these modes are called interactive. The driving force of the separation is the difference in enthalpy of interactions of different compounds.
Classical column liquid adsorption chromatography, also referred to as normal or direct phase chromatography, is performed on a hydrophilic adsorbent such as silica and alumina with non-polar to moderately polar solvents. Normal phase chromatography has many drawbacks and the frequency of its use is declining.
Reversed phase chromatography (RPC) has been the most important branch of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) since the early 1970s. The system for RPC consists of nonpolar (hydrophobic) stationary phase and a polar mobile phase. The primary interaction responsible for retention is essentially a solvent effect similar to the hydrophobic effect. Specifically, it is a noncovalent association of nonpolar moieties in aqueous media. As the interactions depend on the type of molecules, they are the driving force for the separation. The typical mobile phases used in RPC are aqueous solutions of displacement agents, such as acetonitrile or 1-propanol. Elution with a mobile phase having constant composition (isocractic elution) is typically used in separations in low molecular weight compounds, while large molecules, like proteins, are eluted with a mobile phase in which the concentration of the displacement agent increases gradually (gradient elution).
Hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) is an important separation mode for purification and separation of biomolecules. In this mode, hydrophobic ligands are chemically attached to hydrophilic matrix and a distinct interaction is obtained between biomolecules, such as proteins, and the stationary phase surface in the presence of high concentration of antichaotropic salt aqueous solution at neutral pH. Elution is achieved by diminishing the hydrophobic interaction by a descending salt gradient.
Hydrophilic interaction works in a similar manner as RPC except that the porous separation medium contains hydrophilic groups instead of hydrophobic groups.
Ion-exchange, in a broad sense, is the reversible interchange of ions of like charge between a solution and a solid, insoluble material in contact with it, the ion exchanger. All ion exchanges are reversible, but the equilibria for different ions under particular conditions vary widely, and it is these variations that make ion-exchange chromatography possible. The ion exchange is controlled by electrostatic interaction between the ions being exchanged, the mobile ions in a solution, and the fixed ions either acidic groups (carboxyl, sulfonate) or basic groups (tertiary and quaternary amines).
Ion chromatography is a separation of ionic species, typically low molecular weight anions or cations, on a column packed with a low capacity ion exchanger with detection by electrical conductivity. The ions to be separated are retained in the column according to the strength of their interaction with attached ion-exchange groups in very dilute eluent.
Ion-exchange chromatography is often used for separation of proteins and other large charged biopolymer molecules. The proteins are absorbed into the separation medium at the beginning of the separation process in a mobile phase buffer with low ionic strength. The elution of individual components of the separated mixture is achieved with an increasing salt concentration gradient in the mobile phase.
An alternative to ion-exchange chromatography for analysis of organic anions, like those of alkaloids, peptides, or surfactants, is ion-pair chromatography. The anions combine with a cationic surfactant, such as cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, to form hydrophobic complexes which are separated in a standard reversed phase chromatography.
Ligand-exchange chromatography depends on the exchange of electron-donor ligand around a central metal ion loaded in a special cation exchanger. The metal ion does not move while the ligand(s) coordinated to it is exchanged according to its complex building ability. The most exciting application of ion-exchange PG,6 chromatography is the separation of optical isomers of amino acids. The chiral resolving ligand, such as L-proline, is attached to the stationary phase and a copper complex is made. The D-form of the amino acid binds more tightly to the solid phase while the L-form is eluted already with water and very good separation is achieved.
Separation of chiral molecules based on enantioselective adsorption may also be achieved upon another mechanism other than ligand exchange. The chiral recognition and the retention is controlled by hydrogen binding, .pi.--.pi. interaction. The separation medium plays a very important role in chiral separation chromatography and it has to be perfectly designed to contain at least three points of interaction between chiral separation phase and analyte molecule, at least two of which should be attractive.
The application of the donor-acceptor complex formation results in the donor-acceptor complex chromatography (DACC). A donor or an acceptor is chemically bonded to the surface of an insoluble porous matrix and separates solutes possessing acceptor or donor properties, respectively. Typical electron acceptor phases contain attached dinitroanilinoalkyl groups while the typical electron donor phase is featured by pentamethylphenyl or phenanthryl groups. The mobile phase is nonpolar but, surprisingly, the media work in the polar mobile phase as well. The major application area of DAAC is separation of unsaturated organic compounds, chlorinated aromatic coumpounds, amino acids, on one hand, and polynitro-substituted aromatic compounds and similar derivatives, on the other. DAAC approach is also useful for the separation of enantiomers.
Affinity chromatography incorporates a large family of adsorption chromatography methods, all of which utilize more or less specific interaction between biological molecules in solution and covalently attached ligand molecules on a solid phase. In addition to classical biospecific affinity chromatography, the methods are charge-transfer affinity chromatography (similar to DACC), immobilized metal affinity chromatography (similar to ligand exchange chromatography), dye ligand affinity chromatography, immunoaffinity chromatography (immunosorption), and covalent chromatography (chemisorption). The names specify usually the immobilized ligand or type of interaction. The higher the specificity of the solute-sorbent interaction, the closer the separation process amounts to "fishing out" the particular biological molecule, and the further the process is from the typical chromatographic separation. The most specific immunoaffinity chromatography based on interaction with an immobilized antibody results in the capture of one single antigen dissolved in the mobile phase without requiring the separation of all other components of the sample. After saturation of the column capacity with the soluble antigen, the adsorbed column is washed free of any contaminant compounds and the antigen is displaced from the solid phase of the separation medium. The separation may be repeated again after re-equilibration of the column.
Each of these chromatographic modes is particularly useful for separations of specific groups of compounds. The separation media are specially designed for a particular chromatographic mode and usually do not work in another mode adequately.
The problem with such specific separation techniques is that often a liquid sample contains a variety of molecules which require different modes of separation. This, however, is not easily accomplished because different modes of separations usually require different separation media to effect the separation of different molecules. This requires the use of multiple columns and multiple separation media to accomplish the desired separations.
It may be possible to use combinations of different separation media in different columns for multimodal separations. An example of this multiple column bimodal separation was described recently by Wheatley J. B., J. Chromatogr., 603 (1992) 273. The bimodal separation of small molecules in one column packed with one separation medium and based on sequential multimodal elution was described by Little E. L., Jeansonne M. S., Foley J. P.; Anal Chem., 63, 1991, 33. They combined ion-exchange and reversed phase chromatography for the separation of a complex sample containing two groups of compounds: charged and non-polar. The use of two different gradients, i.e. a pH gradient and a methanol gradient, resulted in the separation of the charged molecules first, followed by the separation of the neutral molecules after switching to the second mobile phase. This approach makes use of imperfect surface functionalization of porous silica beads which contained C.sub.1, C.sub.8 or C.sub.18 groups together with the original acidic surface silanol groups. Similarly, the DIONEX OmniPack PAX-500 column is packed with non-porous poly[styrene-divinylbenzene] beads coated on the bead surface with attached ion-exchange latex particles (as described by the DIONEX booklet). Here again, the coating of the bead surface is imperfect and it is the non-covered hydrophobic areas of the original non-porous beads that are used for separation in the second mode. This approach excludes combinations not involving the reversed phase mode (the original ST-DVB surface remains non-polar even after attachment of latex particles) as well as any size exclusion separation.
These prior bimodal separations fail when used with a large number of biological samples where biopolymers, like proteins or nucleic acids, are present along with small molecules, such as drugs, metabolites, pollutants, exo- and endotoxins, etc. Since sample pretreatment, like solvent extraction, solid phase extraction or ultrafiltration, is time-consuming and tedious, new stationary phases have been developed which prevent contact between the groups used for separation in the reversed phase or ion-exchange chromatography. Media that have very small pores preventing large molecules from penetration into the bead (total exclusion), are mostly used. Clogging of the column by proteins stuck on the bead surface is inhibited by providing the surface with hydrophilic groups. This approach was reviewed recently (Pinkerton T. C., J. Chromatogr., 544, (1991) 13; Haginaka J., Trends Anal Chem., 10, (1991) 17). It may be called pseudomultimodal as one of the modes is actually not a chromatography but a simple filtration-like separation (total exclusion of all molecules exceeding a size limit). The separation of individual components of the excluded part of the sample, however, requires an additional column. Moreover, such bimodal separation as disclosed by Foley et al and Dionex are not generally useful but rather are applicable solely to the specific modes of separation disclosed.
It would be a substantial advantage to develop a process which could use different combinations of the various modes of chromatographic separation depending upon the molecules to be separated without changing the separation medium within the column or using different columns. Such a process would be more economical and time efficient.

Multimodal chromatographic separation media and process for using same


The present invention relates to a cable collector (1; 101; 201; 301) for collecting and managing a cable (8), for connecting an audio device (20) to user equipment, by means of a connection plug (9) fixed to one end of the cable. The cable collector comprises: a) a main body (2; 102; 202; 302) having a first end portion (3; 103; 203; 303) to which the connection plug (9) is intended to be attached, protruding from a surface (3A) thereof; b) a second end portion (4; 104; 204; 304) having a through passage (7; 107; 207; 307) with inner dimensions smaller than a largest outer diameter (D1) of the connection plug, enabling secure retaining of the latter therein in an active cable collecting state; c) a foldable middle portion (5; 105; 205; 305) joining the two end portions; and d) a cable passage (6) formed within the first and second end portions as well as the middle portion of the main body, said passage being adapted to at least partially accommodate a portion of a cable nearest to the connection plug. The present invention also relates to a cable and cable collector unit.

It is quite common for audio devices, such as headphones, to use a cable for wired connection to user equipment, such as mobile phone, mp3 player, computer or radio. An annoying problem occurring in association with such audio devices having a cable for transmitting and/or receiving audio signals is that the cable often becomes twisted and tangled. This does especially occur when the audio device cable is disconnected from the user equipment and is stowed away in a bag or even a pocket. Apart from being annoying such tangling of the audio cables may eventually lead to the lead wires of the cable becoming disconnected or rupturing.
Presently available cable organizing devices serving to gather cable loops include separate textile bands using hook and loop fasteners or plastic bands having latches at one end portion and a complimentary aperture at the other end. The bands are stretched/wound around wire loops and one end thereof is then fixed to an outer surface of the band with the hook and loop fastener or is brought into latching engagement with the aperture. It is also known to use separate specially designed collector devices to simply wind the cable loosely around a body of the device. In all of these cases the collector devices are separate parts that often become lost or misplaced.


Non-uniformity of a cell gap of a liquid crystal panel is suppressed from affecting display adversely. Concentric interference fringes are unavoidably formed in a liquid crystal cell in which liquid crystal is sealed and the cell gap is maintained by a sealing member without using scattered spacers. Then, peripheral driving circuits are provided in regions where the interference fringes exist and a pixel matrix circuit is disposed in a region where no interference fringe exists. It is then possible to suppress the cell gap from affecting the display by determining the circuit configuration by parameterizing the interference fringes as described above.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention disclosed in the present specification relates to a liquid crystal panel which can display images favorably and to equipments using such liquid crystal panel.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been known an active matrix type liquid crystal display having a structure in which an active matrix circuit, a circuit for driving the active matrix circuit (referred to as a peripheral driving circuit) and other peripheral circuits (various circuits required for a liquid crystal panel) are integrated on one and the same substrate by TFTs. This structure is called a peripheral driving circuit integrated type liquid crystal display.
This structure is characterized in that:
(1) the whole construction may be simplified and miniaturized;
(2) its fabrication process may be simplified; and
(3) it is advantageous in lowering power consumption.
Because it is required to reduce the size of the liquid crystal panel used in portable information processing terminals, a projector type liquid crystal display and the like, it is very useful to integrate the peripheral driving circuit to that end.
According to the finding of the inventors et. al., the existence of spacers which decide a thickness of a liquid crystal layer causes a problem in miniaturizing the liquid crystal panel.
For instance, because the size of a pixel is around 30 to 40 μm square or less in a small liquid crystal panel which is used for a projector and the like and whose size across corners is less than 2 inches, its display is influenced by the shadow of the spacers which exist within the unit pixel and whose diameter is several μm.
In order to solve such a problem, it is conceivable to arrange so as to maintain a cell gap (which is defined as corresponding to the thickness of the liquid crystal layer) by a sealing member (sealant) disposed so as to surround a pixel region (pixel matrix region), without using the spacers.
FIG. 2A schematically shows a transmission type liquid crystal panel which has been made in trial to observe a cell gap and whose screen size across corners is 1.4 inches. Because this liquid crystal panel is a prototype, no active matrix circuit nor peripheral driving circuit are formed.
In FIG. 2A, one denoted by the reference numeral 21 is a sealing member and liquid crystal is filled on the inside thereof. This liquid crystal panel is arranged such that the cell gap is maintained by a material called filler contained within the sealing member 21 and having a predetermined size.
No spacer for maintaining the cell gap is used in this liquid crystal panel. That is, no means for maintaining the cell gap is provided except of the region where the sealing member is provided.
A liquid crystal injection port 24 is closed by ultraviolet hardening resin or the like after injecting the liquid crystal. The reference numeral 23 denotes a glass substrate composing the liquid crystal panel. The figure shows a state in which two glass substrates overlap each other (the liquid crystal is maintained between these two glass substrates).
Because no spacer exists in the pixel region (inside of the sealing member 21 in this case) in this arrangement, no spacer affects the image quality.
However, when monochromic light is irradiated to the liquid crystal panel shown in FIG. 2A, concentric interference fringes 25 are observed from the region where the sealing member is provided to the center of the liquid crystal panel as shown in FIG. 2B.
The interference fringes 25 indicate that the interval of the cell gap is not uniform. That is, it indicates that the cell gap is narrow at the center part of the liquid crystal panel.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram wherein this state is stressed extremely. FIG. 3 shows a state in which liquid crystal 22 is interposed and maintained between a pair of substrates 201 and 202 by the sealing member 21. It also shows that a cell gap d is small at the center part 203 of the liquid crystal panel.
The interference fringes shown in FIG. 2B appear at part 204 where the positional variation of the cell gap is large. No interference fringe appears at the center part 203 of the liquid crystal cell because the cell gap barely varies there.
The interference fringes as shown in FIG. 2B is caused by interference of light reflected from the surface of the substrates composing the liquid crystal cell.
The principle of causing the interference fringes will be explained with reference to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 shows a state in which a pair of glass substrates 41 and 42 face each other while keeping the gap (corresponds to the cell gap) thereof inconstant.
When monochromic light 43 is input in such a state, light reflected by the back face of one glass substrate 41 interferes with light reflected on the surface of the other glass substrate 42 (although there exists other interferences, it is considered as such in order to simplify the discussion).
If the cell gap d is constant, i.e. if d1=d2=d3, no bright and dark stripe pattern appears because the state of the interference is the same at any part.
However, when the gap d is different depending on locations, the bright and dark conditions differ depending on the locations, causing a stripe pattern in accordance to the state of changes of the gap d.
The stripe pattern is assumed to be caused when there is a difference of about λ/2 in the difference of the cell gap at each location.
When a cell gap at a first bright part is d1 and a cell gap at a neighboring second bright part is d2, a difference of an optical path length at those two locations is 2(d2−d1) considering that the light reciprocates in the cell gap.
The first and second bright conditions hold when there is a difference of about a wavelength λ of the incident light 43 between the two optical path lengths.
Accordingly, an expression λ=2(d2−d1) holds. That is, the difference (d2−d1) of the cell gap of the two bright parts is about λ/2.
Because the wavelength λ of the incident light 43 is around 500 to 550 nm (0.5 to 0.55 μm) in general, the difference of the cell gaps is estimated to be around 0.25 μm.
Actually, because the state of reflection of light on the surface of glass is not so simple (it is complicated when an insulating film, a conductive film or the like is formed on the surface of the glass substrate) and wavelength of light within a liquid crystal material turns out to be λ/n by refractive index n of the liquid crystal material when the liquid crystal material is filled therebetween, the above-mentioned difference of the cell gaps will be smaller than the estimated value.
In any case, the stripe pattern is observed when the cell gap varies in the order of about several tenth of visual light.
Generally, the cell gap of the liquid crystal panel is set around at 1 to 5 μm. This value is decided depending on operation modes or a liquid crystal material to be used.
However, when the cell gap of the liquid crystal panel deviates by 10% or more from the preset value, transmittancy of light transmitting through the liquid crystal changes by around 20% or more of the preset value.
Accordingly, when the liquid crystal panel wherein the interference fringes as shown in FIG. 2B are observed is fabricated by setting the cell gap at 3 μm and the whole of the inside of the sealing member is used as a display screen, a difference of cell gap in the order of μm is produced between the peripheral part and the center part of the screen.
This means that the state of display might differ remarkably at the peripheral part and the center part of the screen (in fact, a screen display whose image quality differs in the shape of donuts is observed).
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention disclosed in the present specification to solve the above-mentioned problem of non-uniformity of the cell gap in the liquid crystal panel.

Liquid crystal panel and equipment comprising said liquid crystal panel

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


An apparatus for mounting a radially expandable intraluminal stent or stented graft onto a delivery catheter. The apparatus comprises a hollow housing defining an interior chamber and a fluid port which communicates with the interior chamber. Disposed within the interior chamber of the housing is a collapsible, resilient tubular sleeve which is sized to receive a portion of the delivery catheter having the stent or stented graft positioned thereupon. The sleeve includes an open end which communicates with the exterior of the housing. The pressurization of the interior chamber of the housing via the fluid port facilitates the uniform radial compression of the sleeve, with the depressurization of the housing via the fluid port causing the sleeve to resiliently return to an uncompressed state.

The term "stent" is generally used to describe endoprothstetic medical devices which are implanted in anatomical passageways (e.g., blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary tract, endocrine ducts, etc. . . .) of the body for the purpose of maintaining the patency or state of dilation of the passageway, reinforcing the passageway, or anchoring a tubular graft or other object within the passageway.
Typically, such stents are implanted in blood vessels to maintain dilation and patency of an occluded region of blood vessel, or to bridge a weakened or aneurysmic region of blood vessel. On the other hand, some typical non-vascular applications of such stents are for the treatment of constrictions or injuries to the gastrointestinal tract (e.g., esophagus), ducts of the biliary tree (e.g., common bile duct) or anatomical passageways of the genitourinary tract (e.g., ureter, urethra fallopian tube, etc.).
Transluminally implantable stents are initially disposed in a compact configuration of relatively small diameter, and are initially mounted upon or within a delivery catheter to facilitate insertion and transluminal advancement of the stent into the desired anatomical passageway. Thereafter, such stents are radially expanded to a larger "operative" diameter which is equal to or slightly larger than the diameter of the anatomical passageway in which the stent is to be implanted. When radially expanded to such operative diameter, the stent will typically become released or separated from the delivery catheter and anchored or frictionally engaged to the surrounding wall of the anatomical passageway.
Some stents have a pliable, continuous tubular covering, in which case they are typically referred to as a "stented graft" or "stent-graft".
In general, stents and stented grafts fall into two major categories--a) self-expanding and b) pressure-expandable. Those of the self-expanding variety may be formed of resilient or shape memory material (e.g., spring steel or nitinol.TM.) which is capable of self-expanding from its first (radially compact) diameter to its second (operative) diameter without the exertion of outwardly-directed force against the stent or stented graft. Examples of such self-expanding stents and stented grafts are set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,655,771 (Wallsten, et al); 4,954,126 (Wallsten); 5,061,275 (Wallsten, et al); 4,580,568 (Gianturco); 4,830,003 (Wolf, et al); 5,035,706 (Gianturco, et al); 5,330,400 (Song) and 5,354,308 (Simon, et al) and Foreign Patent Publication Nos. WO94/12136; WO92/06734 and EPA183372. Those of the pressure-expandable (i.e., "passive expandable") variety may be formed of plastically deformable material (e.g., stainless steel) which is initially formed in its first (radially compact) diameter and remains stable in such first diameter until such time outwardly directed pressure is exerted upon the stent or stented graft to cause radial expansion and resultant plastic deformation of the stent or stented graft, to its second (operative) diameter. Examples of such pressure-expandable stents and stented grafts are set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,135,536 (Hillstead); 5,161,547 (Tower); 5,292,331 (Boneau); 5,304,200 (Spaulding); 4,733,665 (Palmaz); 5,282,823 (Schwartz, et al); 4,776,337 (Palmaz); and 5,403,341 (Solar) and Foreign Patent Publication Nos. EPA480667; and WO95/08966.
In many applications, careful positioning and sound anchoring of the stent or stented graft is critical to the successful treatment of the underlying medical problem. In this regard, the delivery catheter which is utilized to insert and position the stent or stented graft may be an important aspect of the overall system. Various types of delivery catheters for stents and stented grafts have been previously known, including those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,665,918 (Garza, et al); 4,733,665 (Palmaz); 4,739,762 (Palmaz); 4,762,125 (Leiman, et al); ,776,337 (Palmaz); 4,838,269 (Robinson, et al); 4,994,071 (MacGregor); 5,037,427 (Harada, et al); 5,089,005 (Harada); 5,102,417 (Palmaz); 5,108,416 (Ryan, et al); 5,141,498 (Christian); 5,181,920 (Mueller, et al); 5,195,984 (Schatz); 5,201,901 (Harada, et al); 5,269,763 (Boehmer, et al); 5,275,622 (Lazarus, et al); 5,290,295 (Querals, et al); 5,306,294 (Winston, et al); 5,318,588 (Horzewski, et al); 5,344,426 (Lau, et al); 5,350,363 (Goode, et al); 5,360,401 (Turnland); 5,391,172 (Williams, et al); 5,397,345 (Lazarus); 5,405,380 (Gianotti, et al); 5,443,452 (Hart, et al); 5,453,090 (Martinez, et al); 5,456,284 (Ryan, et al); and 5,456,694 (Marin, et al) and Foreign Patent Publication Nos. EP-0308-815-A2; EP-0335-341-A1; EP-364-787-A; EP-0442-657-A2; EP-482976-A; EP-0505-686-A1; EP-0611-556-A1; EP-0638-290-A1; WO94/15549; WO95/01761; GB2196-857-A; DE3042-229; and DE3737-121-A.
As previously indicated, many types of stents or stented grafts are currently used in relation to the treatment of various disorders. Perhaps the most common use of radially expandable stents and stented grafts is in relation to the treatment of narrowed or constricted blood vessels. For these applications, pressure expandable stents are typically employed, with the delivery of the stent to the desired treatment site being facilitated through the use of a delivery catheter including an inflatable balloon which is used to facilitate the radial expansion of the stent positioned thereupon to its final, operative diameter.
When using pressure expandable stents or stented grafts on a delivery catheter including an inflatable balloon, the stent or stented graft must be manually mounted to the balloon of the delivery catheter by the physician prior to the initiation of the treatment. Such mounting is typically accomplished by the physician manually squeezing or compressing the stent or stented graft onto the balloon of the delivery catheter. It is also known in the prior art for delivery catheters to be provided wherein the stent or stented graft is pre-mounted thereto. In this respect, the stent or stented graft is mounted to the delivery catheter by the manufacturer, and sold as a combined unit.
Though the above-described mounting procedure is often used, a major drawback associated therewith is that often times the stent or stented graft is not uniformly compressed onto the balloon of the delivery catheter. Indeed, the hand crimping of the stent or stented graft onto the balloon of the delivery catheter usually results in uneven crimping. Such non-uniform or uneven crimping of the stent or stented graft onto the balloon in turn results in non-uniform or uneven re-expansion of the stent or stented graft when radially expanded by the inflation of the balloon. If re-expanded in a non-uniform manner, the stent or stented graft, though being in contact with the luminal surface of a particular anatomical passageway, will not necessarily exert even pressure thereagainst, which is undesirable due to the increased risk of the stent or stented graft dislodging from its operative position within the treatment site. Additionally, such non-uniform crimping may cause problems during the advancement of the delivery catheter through the anatomical passageway to the desired treatment site. Such problems include those portions of the stent or stented graft which are not compressed against the balloon of the delivery catheter inadvertently contacting and damaging the lining of the luminal surface of the anatomical passageway.
In view of the foregoing, it is highly desirable to facilitate the uniform crimping or compression of the stent or stented graft over the balloon of the delivery catheter. The present invention addresses this need by providing an apparatus and method which, through the use of hydraulics, facilitates the uniform radial compression of the stent or stented graft about a portion of the delivery catheter. The present invention is used primarily in relation to pressure expandable stents or stented grafts which are mounted to the balloon of a delivery catheter. However, the present invention may also be used in relation to self-expanding stents or stented grafts including a latching mechanism which engages when the stent or stented graft is radially compressed.

Hydraulic method and apparatus for uniform radial compression and catheter mounting of radially expandable intraluminal stents and stented grafts


To provide a cellular system for enhancing precision of judgement by rendering the number of code words to be judgement candidates at a base station as small as possible and thus improving the efficiency of using the code words.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cellular system and a base station specification method in cellular communication, and in particular, to the cellular system and the base station specification method wherein a mobile station specifies transmitting base stations from the base stations during soft handover in cellular communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a cellular system using the Direct Sequence-Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA), a plurality of channels use the same frequency band so that radio waves of other channels become interference, and an increase in the interference deteriorates reception quality of a desired wave, which results in disconnection of a link and so on. Accordingly, the number of links, that is, a link capacity while maintaining required reception quality depends on an amount of the interference.
In an uplink, a signal transmitted by the mobile station located far from a base station has a higher attenuation factor of the power than a signal transmitted by the mobile station located close to the desired station, and so performing transmission by the same power causes a near-far problem wherein the interference wave becomes larger than the desired wave, resulting in a difficulty in communication. Accordingly, in the uplink, a transmit power control, which controls transmit powers of the mobile stations so as to render equal received powers of the signals from the mobile stations received at the base station, is required as an essential technology.
On the other hand, in a downlink, while such a near-far problem does not arise, the transmit power control is performed at the base station, to reduce the interference with the other channels, to the extent that the transmit power is the minimum required for maintaining the reception quality at the mobile stations as required quality. The transmit power control is a closed-loop type control. In the control, measured reception quality is compared to predetermined target quality, so that a Transmit Power Control (TPC) signal for giving an instruction to reduce the transmit power is transmitted if higher than the target quality, and TPC signal for giving an instruction to increase the transmit power is transmitted if lower than the target quality.
In addition, the technology called soft handover is usually used in the cellular system using the CDMA. This is the technology wherein, in the case where the mobile station approaches the vicinity of a cell boundary and a difference in propagation loss between the signal received from the base station in communication and the signal received from an adjacent base station is within a predetermined threshold, they are simultaneously connected so as to perform the transmission from a plurality of base stations. Thus, it is possible to improve the reception quality by a diversity effect due to the transmission from the plurality of base stations in the vicinity of the cell boundary where the propagation loss is significant and the reception quality is apt to deteriorate, and furthermore, it is possible to perform smooth handover with no hit because the link is set up, before disconnecting the link with the base station in communication, with the base station that is a next connection candidate.
In the downlink, however, there is a problem that the interference increases and the link capacity decreases during the soft handover since the plurality of base stations perform the transmission. To solve such a problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-69416 describes the technology for limiting the base stations for performing the transmission out of the base stations during the soft handover to reduce the interference of the downlink.
In this journal, the base stations transmit pilot signals at a predetermined power, and the mobile station measures the reception quality of the pilot signals transmitted by the base stations having the links set up, so that the base stations of high reception quality is determined as transmitting base stations and any station other than the transmitting base station stops at least some of the transmission.
A base station control unit for controlling the base stations having the links set up determines base station identifiers of the plurality of base stations for having the links set up respectively when the mobile station starts the soft handover. Moreover, the above base station identifiers are base station unique information for identifying individual base stations. In the base station control unit, code words representing combinations of the base station identifiers are defined, and the base stations and the mobile station have such information.
The mobile station transmits the code word representing the combination of the base station identifiers of the base stations determined as the transmitting base stations to the base stations having the links set up. The base station having the link set up judges which defined code words the received code word is, and judges from a table indicating correspondence between the code words and the base station identifiers whether the base station identifier of the base station is included.
Consequently, the base station judges itself to be the transmitting base station, in the case where the base station identifier of the station is included. Then, the base station performs the transmission by the downlink. On the other hand, in the case where the base station identifier of the base station is not included, the station stops the transmission. Thus, it is possible to have the transmission performed only by the base stations of little propagation loss, so that the interference with the downlink decreases and the link capacity is expected to increase.
However, there are the cases where the base stations having the links set up wrongly receive the signals depending on a state of a propagation path. In the case where, in the base station specified as the transmitting base station, an error arises in the received code word and it is not decoded as a correct code word in spite of using error correction or the like and it is mistakenly determined as a different code word, it is thinkable that the base station judges itself to be a non-transmitting base station and stops the transmission. In such as case, the above described base station stops the transmission throughout an update period of the transmitting base station, the reception quality of the down link deteriorates. In particular, in the case where only one transmitting base station is specified, when the transmitting base station judges wrongly itself to be the non-transmitting base station, the reception quality of the downlink deteriorates remarkably since all the base stations stop the transmission.
To reduce such wrong reception of the code word in the base stations, redundancy should be enhanced by rendering a distance between the codes among the code words as large as possible. In the case where the number of bits of the code word to be transmitted on the uplink is limited, however, the more code words to be judgement candidates there are, the smaller the distance between the codes becomes. The necessary code words increase in proportion to the number of defined base station identifiers. While the base stations have information on the defined code words corresponding to all the combinations of the base station identifiers in advance, all the base station identifiers may not necessarily be used in reality. Accordingly, the base stations make a judgement by using all the defined code words as subjects of the judgement candidates, even though there are the code words with no possibility to be transmitted by the mobile station. Consequently, there is a problem of increasing wrong judgements.
In addition, the probability is high that two or three base stations have the links set up, and so it is less likely that more base stations simultaneously have the links set up. In the case of defining the code words corresponding to the combinations of the transmitting base stations of such a low probability of occurrence, there is also a problem that efficiency of using the code words is very poor since the probability of wrong judgement becomes higher due to the increased number of the code words in spite of a very low frequency of use.

Cellular system and base station specification method in CDMA mode

Abstract: A base station control unit notifies the base station of the maximum number of the base stations on which a mobile station may set up links to allow the base station to limit the code word judgement candidates that may be received. Accordingly, it is possible to increase the distance between the codes among the code words to be the judgement candidates, consequently allowing the base station to reduce judgement errors of the code word.


A multi-purpose lockout device having a shackle for securing to a hasp to prevent unauthorized use of a machine or the like and also includes a pair of cable receiving openings for securely engaging ends of a cable that has been passed through a device such as a valve to prevent its use.

A variety of lockout devices are known in the art for locking to a hasp of an article to prevent unauthorized use of a machine or other article. Many of these lockout devices utilize a shackle for engagement with the hasp and a plurality of padlock-accepting holes to prevent removal of the lockout from the hasp in order to allow multiple users to prevent unauthorized use of the device. Additionally, prior art devices are known which use a clamping assembly to engage both ends of a looped cable that is used to prevent unauthorized use of other devices such as gate valves. None of the prior art lockout devices combine the ability of having a shackle lockout mechanism for use with hasps as well as a cable securing lockout mechanism for use with gate valves and the like.