Various methods for compensating a deflected linkage in a wastegate arrangement are provided. In one example, current is applied to an actuator to move a wastegate valve coupled through a linkage to the actuator for diverting gasses from a turbocharger. The position of the actuator is indicated, and a correction to said indicated actuator position is applied compensating for deflection of the linkage based at least on said applied current. Said applied current is adjusted when said corrected actuator position reaches a position corresponding to a desired valve position.

Some internal combustion engines utilize a compression device such as a turbocharger to increase engine torque/power output density. In one example, a turbocharger may include a compressor and a turbine connected by a drive shaft, where the turbine is coupled to an exhaust manifold side and the compressor is coupled to an intake manifold side of an engine. In this way, the exhaust-driven turbine supplies energy to the compressor to increase the pressure (e.g. boost, or boost pressure) in the intake manifold and to increase the flow of air into the engine. The boost may be controlled by adjusting the amount of gas reaching the turbine, for example with a wastegate. An actuator may be operatively coupled via a linkage to a wastegate valve and driven to position the wastegate valve to achieve the desired boost based on operating conditions. The actuator may be an electric actuator such as a motor with speed reduction gears, for example. A position sensor may provide feedback indicating the location of the wastegate valve relative to a valve seat. Depending on its location, the linkage may be subjected to significantly large forces, vibration, and temperatures.
In some approaches, a wastegate valve is located in a turbine housing with a wastegate arm extending outside the housing for controlling the wastegate. An actuator may be mounted a distance away from the turbine housing in order to avoid overheating the actuator. A linkage connects the actuator to the wastegate arm.
The inventors herein have recognized a problem with such approaches. In particular, linkages may deflect (e.g., bend) when subject to relatively high forces (e.g., actuator and/or exhaust forces). Linkage deflection may result in inaccurate wastegate valve positioning and thus inaccurate boost control.
Methods for compensating a deflected linkage in a wastegate arrangement are provided.
In one example, current is applied to an actuator to move a wastegate valve coupled through a linkage to the actuator for diverting gasses from a turbocharger. The position of the actuator is indicated, and a correction to said indicated actuator position is applied compensating for deflection of the linkage based at least on the applied current. The applied current is adjusted when the corrected actuator position reaches a position corresponding to a desired valve position.
In a more specific example, a correction for deflection of the linkage is retrieved from a stored data base created during previous test cycles and based on the applied current and temperature of the linkage.
In another aspect of the example, the correction was created using a test procedure comprising: increasing the applied current to move the valve to a fully closed position; after the valve is held in the closed position, further incrementing the applied current to cause deflection in the linkage, wherein a change in the indicated actuator position during the applied current incrementing step is stored as the correction for the deflection.
In still another example, the correction was created using a test procedure comprising: determining a fully closed position of the valve; when the valve is subsequently in an open position, issuing a closing command current to the actuator; inferring the actuator position based on the closing command current and the determined fully closed position; and creating the position correction based upon a difference between the inferred actuator position and the indicated actuator position.
In the examples described above, linkage deflection which would otherwise result in inaccurate wastegate valve positioning is compensated. Currents applied to an actuator may be controlled to move the actuator to a corrected position based on determined position corrections. Thus, the technical result is achieved by these actions.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.


A process for purifying a liquid from a dissolved solute includes the exposure of the liquid to a material absorbing the liquid in preference to the dissolved solute. The dissolved solute is adsorbed onto the material. Through exposure of the dissolved solute adsorbed on said material to output of an ionization source, solute release from the material occurs. Purification of the liquid to remove the dissolved solute occurs through the release of the liquid from said material separate from the release of the dissolved solute. A system for purifying a liquid from a dissolved solute includes a super absorbent polymer within a housing. A pH source is provided to released purified absorbed liquid portion A via a first outlet in the housing for collecting the released absorbed liquid portion A. An ionization source releases solute absorbed liquid portion B that is collected as a solute rich adsorbed liquid portion B.

Aqueous waste treatment is a costly multistage process involving aeration, filtration, precipitation, settling and other steps to provide effluent of sufficient quality to be released back into the environment. The sophisticated water treatment facilities associated with a modern sewage treatment plant or waste water treatment facility remain cost prohibitive and invariably geographically remote from large scale animal husbandry operations such as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Such large scale animal husbandry operations produce large volumes of manure that represent a serious environmental problem in terms of odor, methane sources, and fly breeding facilities and represent a source of ground water contamination. Additionally, concern is mounting that such manure lagoons also represent a serious source of hormones and antibiotics that contaminate the environment.
The purification of a liquid from a dissolved solute typically involves solvent stripping, chromatography or reverse osmosis membranes, yet the use of these techniques is limited by throughout and the cost of consumables.
While prior art attempts to dehydrate manure lagoons with the use of super absorbent polymer absorption and subsequent liquid release with a pH stimulus have proved successful in absorbing water and releasing the same subsequently have reduced problems associated with manure lagoons, problems still persist. U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,464 B2 is representative of the use of super absorbent polymers for moisture absorption associated with manure lagoons.
Thus, there exists a need for a system and process well suited for the separation of a liquid from a dissolved solute that is efficient to an extent such that a manure lagoon can be operated to manage health and environmental problems associated with such facilities.


A magnetic recording medium, the order of layers in which is the substrate, the soft underlayer, the seedlayer, the 1st RuCrx-containing interlayer, the 2nd RuCrx-containing interlayer and the magnetic recording layer with preferably a oxides or nitrides-containing magnetic layer comprising grains, is disclosed. High-chromium ruthenium-chromium alloy used as inter layers significantly enhances coercivity and SMNR preferably due to the improved lattice match between RuCr inter layers and CoPt-based magnetic recording layers, and the surface energy of RuCr layers contributes to the performance improvement with the high-chromium addition into Ru inter layers.

Magnetic disks and disk drives are conventionally employed for storing data in magnetizable form. Preferably, one or more disks are rotated on a central axis in combination with data transducing heads positioned in close proximity to the recording surfaces of the disks and moved generally radially with respect thereto. Data are written onto and read from a rapidly rotating recording disk by means of a magnetic head transducer assembly that flies closely over the surface of the disk. Preferably, each face of each disk will have its own independent head.
In a magnetic media, digital information (expressed as combinations of "0's" and "1's") is written on tiny magnetic bits (which themselves are made up of many even smaller grains). When a bit is being written, a magnetic field produced by the disc drive's head orients the bit's magnetization in a particular direction, corresponding to either a 0 or 1. The magnetism in the head in essence "flips" the magnetization in the bit between two stable orientations.
Magnetic thin-film media, wherein a fine grained polycrystalline magnetic alloy layer serves as the active recording medium layer, are generally classified as "longitudinal" or "perpendicular," depending on the orientation of the magnetization of the magnetic domains of the grains of the magnetic material. In longitudinal media (also often referred as "conventional" media), the magnetization in the bits is flipped between lying parallel and anti-parallel to the direction in which the head is moving relative to the disc. In perpendicular media, the magnetization of the disc, instead of lying in the disc's plane as it does in longitudinal recording, stands on end perpendicular to the plane of the disc. The bits are then represented as regions of upward or downward directed magnetization (corresponding to the 1's and 0's of the digital data).
FIG. 1 shows a disk recording medium and a cross section of a disc showing the difference between longitudinal and perpendicular recording. Even though FIG. 1 shows one side of the disk, magnetic recording layers are usually sputter deposited on both sides of the non-magnetic aluminum substrate of FIG. 1. Also, even though FIG. 1 shows an aluminum substrate, other embodiments include a substrate made of glass, glass-ceramic, aluminum/NiP, metal alloys, plastic/polymer material, ceramic, glass-polymer, composite materials or other non-magnetic materials.
Efforts are continually being made to increase the areal recording density, i.e., the bit density, or bits/unit area, and signal-to-medium noise ratio (SMNR) of the magnetic media. To continue pushing areal densities and increase overall storage capacity, the data bits must be made smaller and put closer together. However, there are limits to how small the bits may be made. If the bit becomes too small, the magnetic energy holding the bit in place may become so small that thermal energy may cause it to demagnetize over time. This phenomenon is known as superparamagnetism.
Perpendicular recording media are being developed for its capability of extending the areal density to a much higher level without the similar thermal stability limit that longitudinal media are facing. One of the major designs for perpendicular recording media utilizes reactive sputtering the magnetic layer in a gas mixture of oxygen and the popular inert gas Ar, to produce so called granular perpendicular media. The magnetic layer produced by this way has oxide mainly in grain boundaries, which effectively breaks down exchange coupling and results in better recording performance.
The tendency for neighboring magnetic dipoles in a material to line up parallel or antiparallel to each other is called exchange (or exchange coupling). Basically, exchange results from the overlap of orbiting electron on adjacent atoms. The atomic moment of an atom is proportional to the angular momentum of the atom. This angular momentum consists of orbital angular momentum due to the rotation of electrons in their orbits and spin angular momentum (called "spin" for short) which is due to the rotation of electrons about their own axes. If the spin angular momentum of two electrons on neighboring atoms is s1 and s2, then the energy of this pair of electrons, E, is given by E=−2J s1*s2, where J is a constant called the exchange integral. In ferromagnetic materials, J is positive and the moments of adjacent atoms point in the same direction. In antiferromagnetic materials, J is negative. In an antiferromagnetic material, the moments of adjacent atoms point in opposite directions.
Exchange is largely a nearest-neighbor phenomenon that occurs across distances typical of the distance between atoms in a solid (a few angstroms). If there is one atomic boundary layer of one material such as an oxide in grain boundaries, then that may be enough (though thicker boundary layer could also be used) to break down the exchange coupling between the grains separated by the boundary layer. Thus, granular media (i.e., media that grain and have amorphous material such as an oxide and/or voids between crystalline grains) with laminated film structures consisting of laminated soft magnetic layers, seed layers, such as Ag, Au, Cu etc., Ru-alloy inter layers, CoPt-based magnetic recording layers containing oxides, and carbon overcoats have been made and found promising for perpendicular magnetic recording application. However, it has been found that the media coercivity, Hc, and signal-to-media-noise ratio, SMNR, of the prior art perpendicular recording media need to be enhanced significantly for high-density recording applications. This invention relates to perpendicular recording media with enhanced properties for high-density recording.

Inter layers for perpendicular recording media


Technologies are generally described for an audio playing scheme for digital billboard systems. In some examples, a method performed under control of a server may include receiving from an end device a control signal configured to indicate that the end device is located in a first predetermined area relative to a first digital billboard, identifying first video data currently displayed on the first digital billboard, determining first audio data corresponding to the first video data, and transmitting the first audio data to the end device based on the control signal.

Digital technologies have experienced phenomenal growth in the last few years. Advertisement has adopted such technologies. For example, a digital billboard on a street is a popular method for advertising. Advertisement on the digital billboard can be easily exposed to drivers in cars, passengers using public transportation, pedestrians, and so on.

Audio playing scheme for digital billboard system


A water recirculation system which derives energy from an available pressurized tap water supply to filter and return previously discharged water to a water discharge device. A system embodiment includes a shower head and a tap water powered pump for returning water discharged from the shower head to the pump for mixing with the supplied tap water for delivery to the shower head inlet.

Water shortages frequently occur in many parts of the United States and the rest of the world. As a consequence, considerable effort has been expended to develop low water utilization devices such as low flow shower heads, toilets, etc. Many municipalities in California, for example, encourage or mandate the use of toilets which use less than 2.0 gallons per flush and shower heads which discharge less than 3.0 gallons per minute. Various such devices are widely commercially available and are described in the literature. In general, although such devices perform adequately, they usually do not function as well as conventional full flow devices. For example, whereas conventional full flow shower heads typically discharge 3.0 to 8.0 gallons per minute, low flow shower heads which discharge less than 3.0 gallons per minute, are often perceived as being weak and only marginally satisfactory.
The present invention is directed to plumbing systems utilizing a pressurized tap water supply for enhancing water delivery, without consuming additional supply water, by recirculating a portion of the previously discharged water.
The concept of recirculating discharged shower water has been known for many years primarily for use, for example, in boats, trailers, motor homes, and the like; e.g.,
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor ______________________________________ 1,065,265 Nordmark 2,308,452 Ortyl 3,606,618 Veech 3,646,618 Johnson 4,224,700 Bloys 4,413,363 Troviano 4,828,709 Houser 4,893,364 Keeler ______________________________________
These systems typically use electric motor driven pumps for recirculating discharged shower water to a shower head. A portable shower stall system utilizing a water driven pump to transport water from a base to a sink/drain is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,992.

Tap water powered water recirculation system


A novel element is provided. A novel film formation method is provided. A novel element manufacturing method is provided. Furthermore, a film including graphene is formed at low cost and high yield. The element includes a first electrode and a second electrode located apart from the first electrode. The first electrode and the second electrode include graphene. The film including graphene is formed through a first step of forming a film including graphene oxide over a substrate, a second step of immersing the film including graphene oxide in an acidic solution, and a third step of reducing graphene oxide included in the film including graphene oxide. Furthermore, before graphene oxide included in the film including graphene oxide is reduced, the film including graphene oxide is selectively removed by a photolithography technique.

1. Field of the Invention
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a film, an element, a formation method of a film, or a manufacturing method of an element.
Note that one embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the above technical field. The technical field of one embodiment of the invention disclosed in this specification and the like relates to an object, a method, or a manufacturing method. In addition, one embodiment of the present invention relates to a process, a machine, manufacture, or a composition of matter. Specifically, examples of the technical field of one embodiment of the present invention disclosed in this specification and the like include a semiconductor device, a display device, a liquid crystal display device, a light-emitting device, a lighting device, a power storage device, a memory device, an input device, an input/output device, a method for driving any of them, and a method for manufacturing any of them.
2. Description of the Related Art
Graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that form a honeycomb-like hexagonal lattice structure. Strictly speaking, graphene is as defined above; however, in this specification, a carbon film consisting of a plurality of (2 to 100) such sheets stacked is also referred to as graphene.
Graphene is made by a variety of methods; the Hummers method is a simple method and has been used in many researches (see Patent Documents 1 and 2). In the Hummers method, graphite is oxidized with an oxidizer, first. Potassium permanganate is used as the oxidizer, and an acid such as a sulfuric acid is generally added together to promote an oxidation effect.
The oxidized graphite (graphite oxide) retains the layered structure, in which the interlayer distance is, however, larger than that of graphite; thus, the layered structure can be easily broken by ultrasonic treatment or the like, whereby oxidized graphene (graphene oxide) can be obtained. The resulting graphene oxide may have at least one sheet of carbon atoms.
When the graphene oxide is deposited on an appropriate object surface in the form of a thin film shape and reduced, an extremely thin carbon film (graphene) can be formed.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A data processing system receives a first user input comprising a search query. The data processing system displays in a search interface accessible across a plurality of computer application programs, a plurality of results matching the search query. The results are categorized into a plurality of categories and only a first subset of all results are displayed for each of the plurality of categories. The data processing system receives a second user input comprising a selection of one of the plurality of categories. In response to the second user input, the data processing system displays, in the search interface, a second subset of results, wherein the second subset is categorized into one or more subcategories of the selected category.

Modern data processing systems, such as general purpose computer systems, allow the users of such systems to create a variety of different types of data files. For example, a typical user of a data processing system may create text files with a word processing program or may create an image file with an image processing program. Numerous other types of files are capable of being created, modified, edited, or otherwise used by one or more users for a typical data processing system. The large number of the different types of files that can be created or modified can present a challenge to a typical user who is seeking to find a particular file which has been created.
Modern data processing systems often include a file management system which allows a user to place files in various directories or subdirectories (e.g. folders) and allows a user to give the file a name. Further, these file management systems often allow a user to find a file by searching for the file's name, or the date of creation, or the date of modification, or the type of file. An example of such a file management system is the Finder program which operates on Macintosh computers from Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Another example of a file management system program is the Windows Explorer program which operates on the Windows operating system from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. Both the Finder program and the Windows Explorer program include a find command which allows a user to search for files by various criteria including a file name or a date of creation or a date of modification or the type of file. However, this search capability searches through information which is the same for each file, regardless of the type of file. Thus, for example, the searchable data for a word processing file is the same as the searchable data for an image processing file, and this data typically includes the file name, the type of file, the date of creation, the date of last modification, the size of the file and certain other parameters which may be maintained for the file by the file management system. The file management system is an independent program that must be opened separately from other programs running in the data processing system. In existing systems, a user is typically not able to search for a file or program and narrow in on a desired result with a faceted search in a single interface without resorting to the separate file management system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A circuit for determining and evaluating a data signal with a disturbing direct voltage portion has a signal processor with which the direct voltage portion is determined and then subtracted from the signal. A non-linear control is provided that changes a time constant of the circuit in dependence on the signal curve.

The present invention relates to a circuit for determining and evaluating a data signal on which a direct voltage portion is superposed, with a signal input, a signal processing means that has a filter and that forwards a part of the signal, and an evaluation means that compares the original signal from the signal input with the part of the signal forwarded by the signal processing means, and that determines the data signal. The present invention also concerns a method for determining and evaluating a data signal.
Direct voltages are often superposed on a signal, caused by offset voltages, tolerances, etc. In order to enable optimal use of the operational range of the members of a signal chain, it is necessary to compensate for these direct voltages, e.g. by determination of the direct voltage portion and subsequent subtraction. Direct voltage portions, also called zero-frequency quantities, are typically determined by low-pass filtering. An example of the necessity of such a circuit is synchronization in a TDMA system (time division multiple access). By such a system is meant multiple access in the time-division multiplex method. A transmitter transmits, in what is called a preamble, an alternating signal comprising a direct voltage portion of zero. Due to the non-ideal characteristics in the transmission chain, additional direct voltage portions occur at the output of the receiver, which have to be compensated for in order to achieve an optimal transmission quality. Since in a normal data transmission direct voltage portions or particularly low-frequency portions are possible, the direct voltage portion must be determined and then stored within the preamble, which has no direct voltage portion.
An example of such a TDMA system in which these problems occur is the new European cordless telephone standard DECT (Digital European Cordless Telephone).
In a known circuit, the direct voltage portion is determined by low-pass filtering. A compromise is thereby made between speed and precision with respect to the filter cut-off frequency and the time constant, which is inversely proportional thereto. The switching point at which switching over takes place from filtering to storage is thereby particularly problematic, because the system is not synchronized. One can either switch to storage as early as possible, at the expense of precision, or wait for the transition from the preamble to the normal data. Given the use of conventional linear filters, the latter can also ensue only with limited precision, since the switchover can only be recognized after a significant delay. In this case, the formation of mean values also takes place over a part of the data, whose mean value however must not be zero. The later the recognition of the end of the preamble and the switchover to storage takes place, the more faulty the mean value determination will be. In a known solution approach, the delay is solved by forming the mean value, not of the current signal, but of a delayed signal. Simple RC elements are used for this. The jump response of such filters always has a monotone characteristic, i.e., after the end of the preamble the signal systematically drifts in one direction, thus causing considerable halting errors under some circumstances. This error becomes smaller with higher-order filters, but does not disappear completely.

Circuit for determining and evaluating a data signal on which a direct voltage portion is superposed


A developing apparatus includes a developing sleeve, a regulating member configured to regulate a developer, and first and second chambers forming a circulation route of the developer. A magnet is fixed in the developing sleeve and includes a first magnetic pole, a second magnetic pole having the same polarity as the first magnetic pole, and a third magnetic pole having a different polarity from the second magnetic pole. The second magnetic pole is arranged upstream of an intersection at which a vertical line passing through a rotation center of a first conveying member in the first chamber arranged below the rotation center of the developing sleeve intersects with a lower surface of the developing sleeve.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developing apparatus to be used in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a laser beam printer using an electrostatic recording process or an electrophotographic process, and configured to develop an electrostatic image formed on an image bearing member with developer including toner and carrier.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, in image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, an electrostatic latent image formed on a photosensitive drum serving as an image bearing member is developed into a visible image by a developing apparatus.
The developing apparatus is configured to supply toner to the photosensitive drum so as to visualize the latent image as a toner image. A developing apparatus using single-component developer including magnetic toner as developer has been employed, and a developing apparatus using two-component developer obtained by mixing non-magnetic toner and magnetic carrier together has also been employed in many cases. Development of the latent image with the two-component developer is excellent in stability of a toner charge amount, and hence color images can be formed with excellent color tone. For this reason, the two-component developer is suited to use in a color-image forming apparatus.
The developing apparatus includes a regulating blade configured to regulate an amount of developer to be coated onto a developing sleeve serving as a developer carrying member of the developing apparatus. Examples of such a developing apparatus include a developing apparatus of a so-called upper regulation type in which the regulating blade is positioned above the developing sleeve. In this case, there is often employed such a configuration that the developing sleeve is rotated from top to bottom at a facing portion between the developing sleeve and the photosensitive drum.
In addition, there has been proposed a developing apparatus of a so-called lower regulation type in which the regulating blade is positioned below the developing sleeve. In this case, there is often employed such a configuration that the developing sleeve is rotated from bottom to top at the facing portion between the developing sleeve and the photosensitive drum.
In a case where the developing apparatus of the above-mentioned upper regulation type is employed for the photosensitive drum to be rotated from top to bottom at the facing portion between the photosensitive drum and the developing sleeve, the developing sleeve and the photosensitive drum are rotated in the same direction at the facing portion. Thus, such a blank area phenomenon may occur that toner does not adhere to a boundary part between a halftone image portion and a solid image portion. On the other hand, in a case where the developing apparatus of the lower regulation type is employed, the developing sleeve and the photosensitive drum are rotated in directions reverse to each other at the facing portion. Thus, there is an advantage in that the blank area phenomenon does not occur. For this reason, in a case where the blank area phenomenon is conspicuous, such as a case where carrier having relatively high resistance is used, the developing apparatus of the lower regulation type is frequently employed.
Further, the developing apparatus of the above-mentioned lower regulation type is frequently employed, for example, in a case where an intermediate transfer belt is arranged above the photosensitive drum. Specifically, the developing apparatus of the above-mentioned lower regulation type is employed so that the developing sleeve and the photosensitive drum are rotated in the same direction at the facing portion in a case where the photosensitive drum is rotated from bottom to top at the facing portion between the photosensitive drum and the developing sleeve.
The developing apparatus of the above-mentioned lower regulation type is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-143231. FIG. 5 illustrates this developing apparatus.
In a developing apparatus 102 of the above-mentioned lower regulation type, a developing sleeve 120 is provided in a rotatable manner at an opening portion of a developing container 110 containing two-component developer. The developing sleeve 120 is arranged so as to face a photosensitive drum 28, and a cylindrical magnet 121 is arranged in an unrotatable manner at the inside of the developing sleeve 120. At a facing portion between the developing sleeve 120 and the photosensitive drum 28, the developing sleeve 120 is configured to be rotated in a direction reverse to that of the photosensitive drum 28 to be rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow so that the developer attracted and held on a surface of the developing sleeve 120 is conveyed to a developing portion facing the photosensitive drum 28. The magnet 121 has a developing magnetic pole N1 on the side of the photosensitive drum 28. The magnet 121 also has a first conveying magnetic pole S3, a second conveying magnetic pole N2, a stripping magnetic pole S2, and a scooping magnetic pole S1, which serves as a repulsive magnetic pole cooperatively with the stripping magnetic pole S2. Those magnetic poles are formed along a rotation direction of the developing sleeve 120 in an order from the developing magnetic pole N1.
The developer contained in the developing container 110 is carried onto the developing sleeve 120 by an action of the scooping magnetic pole S1 at a position (scooping position) Q on the surface of the developing sleeve 120, which corresponds to the scooping magnetic pole S1 of the magnet 121. The developer carried on the developing sleeve 120 is regulated in layer thickness by a developing blade 122, and then reaches the developing portion. At the developing portion, a magnetic brush is formed by an action of the developing magnetic pole N1 so that the latent image on the photosensitive drum 28 is developed.
The developer on the developing sleeve 120, which is reduced in toner density as a result of the development, is returned into the developing container 110 by being held on the developing sleeve 120 by actions of the first conveying magnetic pole S3 and the second conveying magnetic pole N2. Then, at another position (developer falling position) D on the surface of the developing sleeve 120, at which a magnetic flux density between the stripping magnetic pole S2 and the scooping magnetic pole S1 is low, the developer on the developing sleeve 120 is released to fall. At the scooping position Q, the developing sleeve 120, from which the developer is released, is re-supplied with the developer as described above.
At a position below the developing sleeve 120 inside the developing container 110, a developing chamber 113 including a first agitating-and-conveying member 123 is arranged, and an agitating chamber 114 including a second agitating-and-conveying member 124 is also arranged through intermediation of a partition wall 140. The first agitating-and-conveying member 123 and the second agitating-and-conveying member 124 are each a screw type member, and generally include a helical screw blade 128.
The developer on the developing sleeve 120, which is reduced in toner density, is released to fall onto the first agitating-and-conveying member 123 inside the developing chamber 113. This developer is agitated by the first agitating-and-conveying member 123, and then re-supplied onto the developing sleeve 120 by an action of the scooping magnetic pole S1 of the magnet 121.
At this time, after the developer on the developing sleeve 120, which is reduced in toner density as a result of the development, is released from the developing sleeve 120, the developer may be re-supplied onto the developing sleeve 120 without being sufficiently agitated by the first agitating-and-conveying member 123. In this case, the latent image on the photosensitive drum 28 is developed with the toner which is reduced in toner density. For this reason, image density becomes uneven, resulting in adverse effects such as uneven shading.
As a countermeasure, normally, as illustrated in FIG. 5, in order that the developer released from the developing sleeve 120, which is reduced in toner density, be reliably subjected to an agitating action by the first agitating-and-conveying member 123, the first agitating-and-conveying member 123 and the developing sleeve 120 are rotated in directions reverse to each other at a facing portion therebetween. Further, the developing sleeve 120 is arranged in a manner that a position vertically below the position (scooping position) Q on the surface of the developing sleeve 120, which corresponds to the scooping magnetic pole S1 of the magnet 121, is closer to the developing blade 122 with respect to an axis of the first agitating-and-conveying member 123.
As a configuration for preventing the uneven shading which may be caused by the developer released from the developing sleeve and re-supplied to the developing sleeve without being sufficiently agitated, there has been proposed a developing apparatus of a separate function type as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-42737. The developing apparatus according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-42737 is an example of a combination of the developing apparatus of the above-mentioned lower regulation type and the separate function type. FIG. 6 illustrates this configuration.
A developing apparatus 31 of the separate function type refers to a developing apparatus of a developer circulation type, in which developer is supplied onto a developing sleeve 3 from a developing chamber 11 including a first agitating-and-conveying member 13, and after the development, the developer is collected into an agitating chamber 12 including a second agitating-and-conveying member 14 without being returned into the developing chamber 11. By employing the separate function type, the developer that is reduced in toner density as a result of the development is prevented from being re-supplied to the developing sleeve 3 without being sufficiently agitated. As a result, the problems such as the above-mentioned uneven shading can be prevented.
However, the developing apparatus 31 of the separate function type as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-42737 has a problem in that a surface of the developer cannot be evenly spread. The problem is caused due to the collection of the developer from the developing sleeve 3 into the agitating chamber 12. Normally, in a configuration for circulating developer in a looped manner between the developing chamber and the agitating chamber, the developer flows only in one direction. Thus, an even amount of the developer can be relatively easily distributed by appropriately designing developing screws. However, in the configuration of the developing apparatus 31 of the separate function type, the developer on the developing sleeve 3 is transported along a longitudinal direction of the agitating chamber 12. Thus, in the developing chamber 11, the developer decreases in amount toward a downstream side in a conveying direction along with supply to the developing sleeve 3. On the other hand, in the agitating chamber 12, the developer increases in amount toward the downstream side in the conveying direction. Thus, the even amount of the developer is difficult to distribute in a longitudinal direction of a developing container 2.
In this way, in the developing apparatus of the separate function type, the developer is liable to stagnate on the downstream side in the agitating chamber and the upstream side in the developing chamber. Thus, the surface of the developer contained in the developing chamber becomes lower from the upstream side toward the downstream side. As a result, an amount of the developer to be supplied to the developing sleeve on the downstream side in the developing chamber decreases. In particular, in the developing apparatus of the lower regulation type, in which the blade configured to regulate a coating amount of the developing sleeve is positioned below the developing sleeve, depending on a position of the scooping magnetic pole S1 of the magnet arranged at the inside of the developing sleeve, coating failure may be caused by influence of the lowered surface of the developer.


A recording apparatus includes a medium support section that has a supply section supplying a continuous-shaped recording medium, a medium path through which the recording medium supplied on the supply section passes, and a transportation mechanism that transports the recording medium; and a recording section that performs recording on the recording medium passing through the medium path. A hole that is formed in a side wall having a light shielding property and capable of visually recognizing the inside of the medium path on the upstream side from the transportation mechanism in a transportation direction through the inside of the medium support section is provided in the medium support section.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus.
2. Related Art
In a recording apparatus such as a large-sized ink jet printer, recording is performed by transporting a rolled paper (a recording medium) that is mounted on a rolled paper holder from a supply port (a supply section) to a recording section through a medium path. Further, there is also a recording apparatus including an automatic paper feeding mechanism that automatically transports a leading end section of a rolled paper inserted into a supply port to a recording section by holding the leading end section between a pair of paper feeding rollers. In a paper feeding motor configuring the paper feeding mechanism, since light is emitted from an encoder or the like, the paper feeding mechanism and the like are provided inside an internal housing to suppress visual reorganization of the light that is emitted from the paper feeding mechanism and the like. The medium path of the recording apparatus is narrow because the paper feeding mechanism and the like are provided. Generally, when using a new rolled paper, it is necessary for a user to perform work for supplying the rolled paper to the paper feeding mechanism by inserting the leading end section of the rolled paper into a narrow supply port that is inside the apparatus by hands.
Moreover, a sheet recording apparatus disclosed in JP-A-5-58475 includes a plurality of stages of paper feeding cassettes storing a plurality of cut sheets, and a part of each paper feeding cassette on a drawing-out side is transparently formed.
When setting the rolled paper, it is preferable that the position of the leading end section of the rolled paper be visually recognized immediately before the pair of paper feeding rollers. However, in a case where a narrow medium path through which the rolled paper passes is located behind the paper feeding mechanism and the like as viewed by the user, it is impossible to visually recognize the position of the leading end section of the rolled paper that is inserted into the supply port and is inside the medium path. Since the rolled paper is not correctly transported when the leading end section of the rolled paper inserted into the medium path is deviated obliquely beyond an allowable range, work for inserting the leading end section of the rolled paper so as not to deviate by exceeding the allowable range thereof is troublesome.
The sheet recording apparatus disclosed in JP-A-5-58475 is technology that feeds the cut sheets stored in the paper feeding cassettes and since it is impossible to visually recognize the inside of the medium path in the vicinity of the paper feeding mechanism, it is not technology that solves the problem described above.
Moreover, the problems described above are not limited to the ink jet printer and are similarly present in various recording apparatuses.


A public key cryptographic method based on groups of braids. The method employs a secret key defined by a representative s of a given braid S in a braid group G, a public key defined by a representative v of the braid T(S) converted from the braid S by an operator T, and an operation of verifying the equality of two braids, i.e. the equivalence of representatives of the two braids.

In the field of public key cryptography, each user holds a pair of keys for a given use, the pair of keys comprising a secret key and an associated public key. In the case of a pair of keys dedicated to confidentiality, for example, the public key is used to encrypt the data and the secret key is used to decrypt it, i.e. to recover the data in clear. In contrast, in the case of a pair of keys dedicated to authentication, the secret key is used to calculate authentication values and the public key is used to verify the authentication values. Other uses are also possible, such as digital signatures and exchanging keys.
Public key cryptography is very useful in that, unlike secret key cryptography, it does not require the parties to share the same secret to set up secure communication. However, this advantage in terms of security goes hand in hand with a disadvantage in terms of performance, since public key cryptography methods (also known as public key schemes) are often a hundred or a thousand times slower than secret key cryptography methods (also known as secret key schemes). Finding fast execution public key cryptography methods that can be used in the environments with limited resources referred to above, such as microprocessor cards, is a very considerable challenge.
Most existing public key schemes rely on the difficulty of mathematical problems from the field of arithmetic or number theory. Thus the security of the RSA (Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) encryption and electronic signature scheme relies on the difficulty of the problem of factoring integers: given a large integer (i.e. one of more than 1000 bits) equal to the product of two or more prime factors of comparable size, there is no effective method of recovering the prime factors.
Other public key schemes, such as the electronic signature scheme described in French Patent No. 2 716 058, rely for their security on the difficulty of the discrete logarithm problem. All these schemes have the common feature of using basic operations in the form of operations on integers, such as modular multiplication: ab (modulo n), modular division: a/b (modulo n), or modular exponentiation: ab (modulo n), where a and b are integers.
The fact that most existing public key schemes rely on arithmetic has at least two drawbacks.
The first drawback is that, if the integers concerned have a length of a few hundred bits, the existence of efficient algorithms for solving the factoring problem and the discrete logarithm problem implies using very long integers (in particular very long keys), meaning 1000 bits or more at present. This leads to storage problems and especially to very long calculation times. Moreover, as the efficiency of these algorithms is increasing fairly rapidly as time passes, key lengths must be increased accordingly.
The second disadvantage is that it is risky to base the security of most secure applications on the difficulty of only two mathematical problems. This is especially true in that the two problems are similar, and it is entirely likely that the discovery of an efficient algorithm for solving one of them will be accompanied by the discovery of an efficient algorithm for solving the other.
This is why, for around the past fifteen years, much effort has been devoted to constructing public key cryptographic schemes that rely on problems other than those mentioned above and/or on mathematical objects other than integers. In particular, it has been proposed to replace operations on integers with operations on the points of so-called elliptical curves. The motivation for this is that the discrete logarithm problem seems even more difficult to solve in the case of elliptical curves, which reduce the lengths of keys without compromising the security of the schemes concerned.
However, using elliptical curves is only a partial solution to the two problems referred to hereinabove. This is because, even if elliptical curves are mathematical objects differing from and more complex than sets of integers, they remain relatively close thereto, in the sense that the theory that describes them is closely related to number theory. One tangible effect of this similarity is that the calculations to be applied to elliptical curves reduce to a succession of operations on integers similar to those defined above, even if the integers are smaller. A consequence of this is that calculation times remain too long.
For cryptographic purposes, it therefore remains necessary to use mathematical objects that are very different from those of number theory and the like, firstly to provide back-up solutions in the event of the discovery of efficient algorithms for solving the problems on which the above theories rely and, secondly, to provide solutions that are extremely efficient in terms of performance and in particular in terms of calculation time.
Attempts have been made in this direction. One of them (see K. H. Ko, S. J. Lee, J. H. Cheon, J. W. Han, J. Kang, and C. Park, New Public-Key Cryptosystem Using Braid Groups, Advances in Cryptology, LNCS 1880, pp. 166-183, Springer Verlag, August 2000) consists in using mathematical objects known as braid groups.
In the mathematical sense, a braid is a conceptualization and a generalization of the braid concept in the geometrical sense and in the ordinary use of the term. For more details on the theory of braids see the article by P. Dehornoy, L'art de tresser [The art of braiding], published in Pour la Science, pp. 68-75, of a special issue in 1997 entitled La science des noeuds [The science of knots].
The set of braids with n strands constitutes a group G, which has an internal composition law called a product which associates two braids X and Y with a braid XY resulting from the operation of attaching the braid Y under the braid X. As a general rule, the product of braids is not commutative. Moreover, with any braid with n strands there may be uniquely associated a permutation of the set {1, 2, . . . , n}. A braid whose permutation is the identity permutation (which sends any integer from 1 to n to itself) is said to be pure.
The group G of braids with n strands has a neutral element E, represented by n unbraided strands, such that, for any braid X, the products EX and XE are both equal to X. Moreover, any braid X has an inverse X−1 such that the products XX−1 and X−1X are both equal to E.
The braids with n strands of the group G may be coded in various ways known as representations. To code a braid in a given representation, it is associated with one or more representatives. If X is a braid, x is a representative of X in the underlying representation. In the usual representations, such as those used by the present invention, if a braid X and a braid Y have respective representatives x and y, then there exists a simple operation on x and y whose result xy is a representative of the braid XY, and likewise there exists a simple operation on x whose result x−1 is a representative of the braid X−1.
The most widespread, so-called standard representation is based on the fact that any braid may be broken down into a product of (n−1) individual braids, each of which is denoted by a letter of an alphabet, and their inverses. Lowercase letters are used for the representatives of the individual braids. For example, in the case of braids with four strands, the three individual braids are denoted A, B and C, with the result that any braid X of the group may be expressed in a non-unique manner as a function of the braids A, B, C and their inverses A−1, B−1, C−1. For example, the braids ABA and BAB are equal. Now aba and bab are equivalent braid representatives, i.e. they represent the same braid. Similarly, the braid B is equal to the braid BBB−1, with the result that the representatives b and bbb−1 are equivalent.
Other representations of the group G, referred to as alternative representations, may be employed. Thus a braid with n strands may be coded as a product of simple or canonic braids represented by permutations of {1, 2, . . . , n} and their inverses. There is also a representation of G known as the Birman-Ko-Lee representation, in which coding again uses permutations or certain tables of n numbers or from 1 to n, and another representation, known as the Dynnikov representation, in which coding is effected by means of integers. Once again a braid may have a plurality of representatives and representatives of the same braid are said to be equivalent.
In the standard representation, in which a braid is coded by words, the notation "˜" means "equivalent to". The notation "u˜v", in which u is a representative of the braid U and v is a representative of the braid V, means that the braids U and V are equal. The following relations of equivalence provide an exact way to determine if two words represent the same braid:                aa−1˜a−1a˜e,        ac˜ca if a and c are non-consecutive letters,        aba˜bab if a and b are consecutive letters.        The above-mentioned public key cryptography method using braids is dedicated exclusively to the confidentiality of data that is encrypted before transmission and then decrypted by the recipient.

Public key cryptographic method based on braid groups


The present invention provides novel compositions and methods useful in cancer therapy for inhibiting the multidrug resistance phenotype, which often thwarts long-term chemotherapeutic regimens. The novel compositions of matter comprise oligonucleotides targeted to the human MDR1 and MRP genes, which inhibit expression of these genes, thereby rendering tumors and other forms of cancer more susceptible to the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapeutic agents. Oligonucleotides are also provided that inhibit the multidrug resistance phenotype by exerting an aptameric effect.

The multidrug resistance phenotype is dependent upon the expression of molecular pumps that are capable of expelling chemotherapeutic agents from their site of action in cancer cells. These molecular pumps include, for example, the P-glycoprotein (hereinafter: P-gp) pump, and the multidrug resistance-associated protein (hereinafter: MRP) pump, which are encoded by the MDR1 and MRP genes, respectively.
The discussion set forth below illustrates the problems faced by clinical investigators seeking to improve cancer treatments. A number of references have been included to describe the general state of the art. Inclusion of these references is not an admission that such references represent prior art with respect to the present invention.
Multidrug resistance (hereinafter "MDR") is largely dependent on the expression of one or the other or both of two different genes. These genes encode transmembrane energy-dependent molecular "pumps" that expel a wide variety of anticancer agents from their site of action in tumors (Grant et al., Cancer Res. 54: 357-361, 1994; Riordan and Ling, Pharmacol. Ther. 28: 51-75, 1985). The normal functions of these molecular pumps is not well defined, but both are expressed by hematopoietic cells and P-gp has been shown to have a causal role in immunofunctioning (Gupta et al., J. Clin. Immunol. 12: 451-458, 1992). The MRP is a molecular pump initially found to be involved in multidrug resistance in lung cancer, and then later found to be expressed in other cancer types, while P-gp is a molecular pump long known to be involved in producing multidrug resistance in many tumor types (Chin et al., Adv. Cancer Res. 60: 157-180, 1993; Cole et al., Science 258: 1650-1654, 1992; Grant et al., Cancer Res. 54: 357-361, 1994; Krishnamachary and Center, Cancer Res. 53: 3658-3661, 1993; Zaman et al., Cancer Res. 53: 1747-1750, 1993).
Clinical studies in which P-gp inhibitors were administered prior to chemotherapy showed that such competitive inhibitors could increase the response of the tumors to the anticancer agents without causing an equivalent increase in toxicity to normal tissues (Marie et al., Leukemia 7: 821-824, 1993; Miller et al., J. Clin. Oncol. 9: 17-24, 1991; Pastan and Gottesman, Annu. Rev. Med. 42: 277-286, 1991; Raderer and Scheithauer, Cancer 72: 3553-3563, 1993; Sonneveld et al., Lancet 340: 255-259, 1992). Oligos designed to block the expression of MRP or P-gp have several features which should make them more clinically effective than any of the existing competitive inhibitors of P-gp or to any comparable inhibitors for MRP.
First, most chemical inhibitors used clinically to combat multidrug resistance have serious side effects unrelated to their ability to inhibit P-gp. In contrast, the phosphorothioate oligo, OL(1)p53, has been found to be essentially devoid of any toxicity when administered to patients (Bayever et al., Antisense Res. Dev. 2: 109-110, 1992; Antisense Res. Dev., in press, 1994). Similarly, this and other phosphorothioates have been shown to be nontoxic to a variety of animal species, even when given at high doses (Cornish et al., Pharmacol. Com. 3: 239-247, 1993; Crooke, Ann. Rev. Pharm. Toxicol. 32: 329-376, 1992; Iversen, Anti-Cancer Drug Design 6: 531-538, 1991). These findings show that at least some types of oligo have no acute toxicity per se when given systemically to animals or patients.
Second, some oligos, including phosphorothioates, have been shown often to have an RNAse-H dependent mechanism of action (Crooke, Ann. Rev. Pharm. Toxicol. 32: 329-376, 1992). RNAse-H enzyme activity is often expressed in clonogenic cells, while little or no activity is found in differentiated (non-proliferative) cells (Papaphilis et al., Anticancer Res. 10: 1201-1212, 1990; Crooke, Ann. Rev. Pharm. Toxicol. 32: 329-376, 1992). Because of this, blocking MRP or P-gp synthesis with oligos (as opposed to blocking their function by competitive inhibitors) should be relatively more effective in proliferating than in non-proliferating cells. Most normal cells that express P-gp or MRP are non-proliferating. For example, gastrointestinal crypt cells (stem cells) do not express P-gp, whereas the endstage (non-proliferating) luminal cells do (Chin et al., Adv. Cancer Res. 60: 157-180, 1993). Furthermore, once MRP or P-gp synthesis is blocked, the remaining membrane-associated drug-efflux pump of the parent cell would then be divided between the two daughter cells, reducing the effective amount of the molecular pump in the proliferating tumor cell population by one-half for each population doubling.
In addition, several recent papers report that ODNs not only are capable of blocking the expression of particular genes in vitro, but also are able to produce this effect in vivo. Some groups have successfully inhibited HIV gene expression (including tax) in human cells in xenogeneic transplant models (Kitajima et al., J. Biol. Chem. 267:25881-25888, 1992). Others have targeted genes in cancer cells, including c-myc, c-Ha-ras, NF-kB, c-myb, c-kit and bcr-abl. In each of these instances involving the administration of ODNs to treat animals with xenogeneic human cancers, the transplanted malignant cells were found to regress (Agrawal et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 86:7790-7794, 1989; Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 88:7595-7599, 1991; Biro et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 90:654-658, 1993; Gray et al., Cancer Res. 53:577-580, 1993; Higgins et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 90:9901-9905, 1993; Ratajczak et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 89:11823-11827, 1992; Wickstrom et al., Cancer Res. 52:6741-6745, 1992).
Furthermore, the Food and Drug Administration has approved several phosphorothioate antisense oligonucleotides for systemic administration to patients and for ex vivo treatment of hematopoietic stem cell grafts. These approvals include the now-completed OL(1)p53 phase I clinical trials (both systemic and ex vivo administered) which targeted transcripts of the p53 gene in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (Bayever et al., Antisense Res. Develop. 2: 109-110, 1992; Karp and Broder, Cancer Res. 54: 653-665, 1994). Thus, antisense oligonucleotides have the pharmacologic properties necessary for use as drugs.
There are six reports claiming reduced drug resistance in cultured cell lines following treatment with oligos targeting MDR-1 mRNA. Three of these (Vasanthakumar & Ahmed, Cancer Com. 1: 225-232, 1989; Rivoltini et al., Int. J. Cancer 46: 727-732, 1990; Efferth & Volm, Oncology 50:303-308, 1993) are totally unconvincing because they used oligos directed against mouse MDR-1 to treat human cells; in the corresponding human MDR-1 sequence, the longest matching nucleotide sequence was only 6 bases long. The paper by Thierry et al. (Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 190: 952-960, 1993) reports no oligo with a sequence which matches the human MDR-1 gene, but this problem is apparently due to typing errors (personal communication from A. Thierry). Thierry's 15-mer that gave 95% inhibition of MDR-1 expression did so only when encapsulated in liposomes; this was associated with a 4-fold increase in sensitivity of the tumor cells to doxorubicin (Thierry et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 190: 952-960, 1993); when administered without liposomes, inhibition of MDR1 expression was 40% of control values. Furthermore, the calculated melting temperature for Thierry's 15-mer is less than 28.degree. C., suggesting that at body temperature the amount of oligo bound is very low.
The most compelling papers in this group are by Jaroszewski et al. (Cancer Comm. 2: 287-294, 1990) and Corrias and Tonini (Anticancer Res. 12: 1431-1438, 1992). Both teams found inhibition with only one out of five oligos. Jaroszewski et al. (Cancer Comm. 2: 287-294, 1990) describe one phosphorothioate (which is being designated "Cohen(1)mdr" herein) that gave 25% reduction in P-gp expression at 15 .mu.M and 33% reduction at 30 .mu.M when incubated with MCF-7/ADR breast cancer cells for 5 days. This reduction in P-gp expression was associated with a small increase in the doxorubicin sensitivity of the cells (20% increase in cell death when 10 .mu.M of the oligo was used. Corrias & Tonini (Anticancer Res. 12: 1431-1438, 1992) report a phosphodiester oligo that gave only a slight reduction in P-gp (data not shown herein) at 30 .mu.M when incubated with doxorubicin-resistant colon adenocarcinoma cells for 36 hours. The reduction in P-gp expression was associated with a significant increase in the in vitro sensitivity of the cells to the cytotoxic effects of doxorubicin (80% and 53% dose reductions in IC.sub.50, respectively; the IC.sub.50 being the inhibitory concentration of a chemotherapeutic agent (e.g., doxorubicin) which causes a 50% inhibition in cellular proliferation).
It is, therefore, a principal object of the present invention to provide MDR-oligos or MRP-oligos that target the genes encoding P-gp or MRP, respectively, or their RNA transcripts, in order to specifically and effectively sensitize clonogenic multidrug-resistant tumor cells to chemotherapeutic agents. It is another object of the present invention to provide oligos which will sensitize tumor cells much more efficiently than they do normal cells which express these same molecular pumps. As the foregoing discussion highlights, oligonucleotides effective for these purposes heretofore have been unavailable.
There is growing evidence that certain protein kinases, such as protein kinase A (PKA), and protein kinase C (PKC) in particular, are involved in the activation of the forms of drug resistance which depend on the expression of molecules producing multidrug resistance, such as, for example, P-glycoprotein, MRP, pi-class glutathione S-transferase, gamma-glutamylcysteine (Gekeler et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 205: 119, 1995; Grunicke et al., Ann. Hematol. 69 (Suppl 1): S1-6, 1994; Gupta et al., Cancer Lett. 76: 139, 1994), or the transmembrane pump capable of expelling glutathione conjugates from their site of action in cells (such as the GS-X pump (Ishikawa et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269: 29085, 1994).
These second-messenger pathways typically appear to be more active in drug resistant cancer cells compared to their drug sensitive counterparts. These pathways promote the expression of various drug resistance phenotypes by causing the up-regulation of a very small number of specific transcriptional regulators, including AP-1, that presumably control the activation of molecules involved in producing drug resistance in cancer cells (Grunicke et al., Ann. Hematol. 69(Suppl 1): S1-6, 1994). For example, activation of the ras oncogene in malignant cells is one of the ways that PKC and, in turn, multidrug resistance, can be up-regulated in tumor cells. Hence, the realization that what has been considered to be multiple discrete mechanisms for drug resistance share common activation pathways opens a new set of possibilities for broad spectrum therapeutic interventions.
Thus, if inhibitors of these second messenger pathways could be found, they should be of use for treating a wider variety of multidrug resistance phenotypes in cancer than agents designed to inhibit the function or expression of a single molecular species involved in drug resistance (Grunicke et al., Ann. Hematol. 69(Suppl 1): S1-6, 1994; Christen et al., Cancer Metastasis Rev. 13: 175, 1994). In addition, inhibitors of particular PKC isoenzymes, or of PKA, or molecular regulators up- or down-stream of these enzymes, should find a variety of other applications where these protein kinases are known to play an important role, including the treatment of viral infections, AIDS, Alzheimer's Disease, and conditions where immunosuppression is important such as in autoimmune diseases, transplantation-related reactions and inflammatory reactions.
Stein et al. (Biochemistry 32: 4855, 1993) discovered that both a 15-mer phosphodiester homopolymer of thymidine and a 28-mer phosphorothioate homopolymer of cytidine could inhibit the B1 isoenzyme of PKC, with the result that pinocytosis and cellular uptake of macromolecules was inhibited. For the 28-mer phosphorothioate, the IC.sub.50 for directly inhibiting purified PKC-.beta.1 activity was 1 .mu.M; complete suppression required nearly 40 .mu.M.
Conrad et al (J. Biol. Chem. 269: 32051, 1994) have shown that certain RNA aptamers can inhibit the .beta.II isoenzyme of PKC. These RNA aptamers were selected from a pool of RNA molecules that contained a 120-nucleotide randomized region. PKC-.beta.I is an alternatively-spliced variant of PKC-.beta.II.
Schuttze et al (J. Mol. Biol. 235: 1532, 1994) have analyzed in detail the three-dimensional solution structure of the thrombin-binding DNA aptamer d(GGTTGGTGTGGTTGG). This aptamer binds to thrombin and inhibits its activity in the chain of reactions that lead to blood clotting. The authors conclude that "knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of this thrombin aptamer may be relevant for the design of improved thrombin-inhibiting anti-coagulants with similar structural motifs."
Using the human KM12L4a colon cancer cell line, Gravitt et al. (Biochem. Pharmacol. 48: 375, 1994) discovered that the agent thymeleatoxin (which stimulates the phorbol ester-responsive PKC isoenzymes -.alpha., -.beta.I, -.beta.II and -gamma) induces multidrug resistance. Since this cell line expresses only the PKC-.alpha. isoenzyme, it is clear that PKC-.alpha. lies in a second messenger pathway that can up-regulate multidrug resistance.
Fan et al (Anticancer Res. 12: 661, 1992) presented data showing that the expression of rat brain PKC-.beta.I confers a multidrug resistance phenotype on rat fibroblasts.
Thus, it is another object of the present invention to provide oligonucleotides that inhibit various MDR phenotypes in cancer cells by exerting an aptameric effect.

Therapeutic oligonucleotides targeting the human MDR1 and MRP genes

The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska


The present invention relates to a sealing system for a pump configured to pressurize a volatile liquid, such as liquid ammonia. The sealing system (2) includes a stuffing box (35) forming a barrier chamber (30) and a pump-side seal chamber (43), a mechanical seal (20) arranged in the barrier chamber (30), and a barrier-gas supply system (32) for supplying a barrier gas into the barrier chamber (30). The barrier gas has a pressure higher than a pressure of the volatile liquid in the pump-side seal chamber (43). The pump-side seal chamber (43) is located between an impeller (7) of the pump (1) and the mechanical seal (20). The barrier-gas supply system (32) includes a pressure control valve (50) configured to maintain a constant difference between pressure in the barrier chamber (30) and pressure in the pump-side seal chamber (43).

A volatile liquid composed of volatile substance, such as ammonia, ethylene, or propylene, vaporizes under atmospheric pressure and diffuses into the surrounding atmosphere. Therefore, a pump for pressurizing the volatile liquid is required to prevent leakage of the volatile liquid. Thus, the pump includes a mechanical seal to prevent the leakage of the volatile liquid. In addition, a gas sealing system is coupled to the pump. This gas sealing system is configured to supply a high-pressure barrier gas to an outer peripheral side of the mechanical seal in order to prevent leakage of the volatile liquid through sealing surfaces which are contact surfaces of a rotating-side seal ring and a stationary-side seal ring of the mechanical seal.
The mechanical seal is arranged in a barrier chamber, and the high-pressure barrier gas is introduced into the barrier chamber. The barrier gas flows into an inner peripheral side of the mechanical seal through a minute gap between the sealing surfaces of the rotating-side seal ring and the stationary-side seal ring. The volatile liquid in the pump flows along a rotating shaft of the pump to reach the mechanical seal, while the flow of the barrier gas formed in the gap between the sealing surfaces prevents the volatile liquid from entering the barrier chamber. In this manner, the combination of the mechanical seal and the barrier-gas sealing system can prevent the leakage of the volatile liquid into the surrounding atmosphere.

Sealing system, and pump system including the sealing system


The invention concerns a method for locating, in a digital image, a circle centre comprising the following steps: a) predefining a set of potential radii of the circle; b) dimensioning (303) two accumulators to a dimension in the form of a column matrix not larger than the size of the image in x-axis and a line matrix not larger than the size of the image in y-axis; c) sequentially, for each pixel image of the image: (i) selecting successively each potential radius; (ii) evaluating the position of the potential center of a circle of the selected radius and whereof the pixel concerned is on the periphery; and (iii) incrementing accumulators at the x-axis and the y axis of the potential center; and d) selecting (304) as coordinates of the located centre, the x-axis and the y-axis corresponding to the maximum of accumulators.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the localization, in a digitized image, of a ring-shaped surface included between two substantially concentric geometric shapes of generally circular shape. More specifically, the present invention relates to the detecting of a ring extending between two circles of different radiuses, the circle having the smaller radius being strictly included in the circle of greater radius.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
An example of application of the present invention is the localization of the iris of an eye in a digitized image. Indeed, an eye may be characterized as being an assembly of substantially concentric elliptic geometric shapes: the eyebrows define a contour that is followed by eyelashes, which surround the eye ground, which includes a substantially circular iris containing a substantially circular pupil. In such an approximately concentric pattern, the position of the centers and radiuses of the two circular patterns of the pupil and of the iris is desired to be extracted, to extract from the image the ring forming the iris. For clarity, it is considered in the following description that the limits of the pupil and of the iris are perfect circles.
FIG. 1 illustrates, in a flowchart, an example of a known method for localizing an iris of an eye. FIGS. 2A to 2C illustrate the digital image which is the object of the method at different steps of the implementation thereof.
Such a method starts with a step 101 (ACQUIRING EYE IMAGE) in which a digital image of an eye is acquired. The eye is digitized so that the obtained image is full size (scale 1:1). Such an image may be obtained by any biometry terminal enabling capturing an eye image. For example, the acquisition is performed by a CCD digital camera of a 580×760-pixel image, in black and white by infrared illumination, the eye being placed at a few centimeters only of the camera.
Localizing an iris in such an image then consists of localizing the center and the radius of the pupil as well as the center and the radius of the iris. Indeed, although the pupil is strictly included in the iris, its is generally slightly off-centered with respect thereto.
A known method for determining the centers of the pupil and of the iris and their radiuses is based on the following observation. In infrared illumination, on the one hand, the iris contrasts on the white of the eye. On the other hand, the contour of the pupil contrasts with respect to the peripheral iris. This contrast translates on the digital image as very different levels of grey on either side of the limit between the iris and the cornea, on the one hand, and of the limit between the iris and the pupil, on the other hand. The gradient, in terms of levels of grey, of the points located on the iris or pupil contour is then very high. Generally, the contrast between the pupil and the iris is greater than the contrast between the iris and the cornea.
Localizing the iris consists of successively considering each point in the image as the possible center and of measuring the gradients of the points located on arcs of a circle centered on the considered possible center. The radiuses of these arcs of a circle vary within a range of possible radiuses of a pupil or of an iris at the considered digitization scale. For a 580×760-pixel image at scale 1:1, the pupil diameter is considered to range between 30 and 100 pixels, and the iris diameter is considered to range between 100 and 180 pixels. The center of the pupil or of the iris then is the point for which, in the radius range corresponding to the pupil, respectively, to the iris, the gradient variation is the most significant. The gradient variation calculations are performed by means of integro-differential operators.
To reduce the amount of calculation and the processing time, the integro-differential operators are applied, at step 102 (LOCATING IRIS) which follows acquisition 101, to successive grids of points representing possible centers. The successive grids have decreasing dimensions and pitches. Thus, in a first iteration 103 (i=0, s=s0), it is for example chosen to apply on the digitized image illustrated in FIG. 2A a first grid of dimensions close to those of the image and of a relatively large first pitch s0, for example, s0=25 pixels, that is, including a possible center every 25 pixels in both directions. Further, the centers of the iris and of the pupil being confounded or slightly off-centered, the center and contour of the sole pupil are first localized by applying the operators on arcs of a circle having diameters varying from 30 to 100 pixels.
At the next iteration i=1, the grid pitch is reduced to refine the center determination. This pitch reduction goes along with a reduction of the grid dimensions and a centering thereof in the region of highest gradient variations. As illustrated in FIG. 2B, it is considered, for example, that for second iteration i=1, pitch s1 is 10 pixels. If the number of points in the grid is constant, its size reduction is automatic with the pitch reduction.
Again, the integro-differential operators are applied for each point in the grid and the existence of a center or of a region in which, for several points, the gradient variation (levels of grey) is the strongest is detected.
For each iteration i and each corresponding pitch si, the process is thus repeated by applying in a block 104 (INTEGRO-DIFFERENTIAL OPERATOR) the integro-differential operators on grids of decreasing pitch si and of more and more reduced dimensions.
After each passing through block 104, a possible center and radius are obtained for the pupil at block 105 (CENTER & RADIUS), which are included in the grid of smaller pitch at the next iteration.
It is controlled at the following step 106 (i=V? si=SV?) whether a precision criterion is achieved. This criterion is defined by a number V of iterations or a pitch Sv of the grid for which the obtained center and radius are considered as being localized in a sufficiently accurate manner.
If not (N), a new grid of reduced dimensions and of smaller pitch, centered on the region for which the strongest gradient variation has been observed at the preceding iteration is redefined at step 107 (NEW GRID, i=i+1, si=si+1).
Generally, the process carries on until a maximum accuracy, that is, a grid having a pitch of one pixel, is reached, as illustrated in FIG. 2C. Such an accuracy enables exact determination of center CP and radius RP of the pupil.
Once precision test 106 is positive (Y), the iris is localized at the next step 108 (IRIS) by applying again a grid of possible centers to determine with the integro-differential operators the iris radius RI and, should the case arise, discriminate its center CI from center CP of the pupil with a maximum reliability. The operators are here applied on arcs of a circle having diameters ranging from 100 to 180. Since the circles are approximately concentric, it is not necessary to start again from a grid having the maximum pitch. A reduced number of iterations (or even a single iteration) may be used by centering on the center of the pupil a grid sized according to the maximum (physiologically) possible interval between the two centers. Such a center localization and radius determination of a second circle after localizing a first circle is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,560, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The iris surface, that is, the ring-shaped surface between the pupillary circle of center CP and of radius RP and the iridian circle of center CI and of radius RI, is then determined with a maximum accuracy.
The surface thus obtained may be submitted to any appropriate digital processing. In the considered example of an iris, it generally is an iridian recognition method based on the matching 109 (MATCHING) of features extracted from the obtained surface, for example, in one of the ways described in above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,560 or in above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,596, or in international patent application WO 00/62239, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Generally, the method described in relation with FIGS. 1 and 2 enables localizing at least one circle by exact determination of its radius and of the position of its center.
A major disadvantage of such a method is the successive repetition of the same operations on grids of decreasing size and pitch. This imposes a great amount of calculation. Further, for a given point, for example, point A of FIG. 2A close to the searched centers, the calculations are repeated a great number of times. Accordingly, such a method has a slow implementation.
Further, the various gradient variation comparison operations and the corresponding calculations impose a relatively complex and bulky software structure. Further, at each iteration, for each possible center, the obtained data must be stored to be compared to those obtained for the other possible centers, to determine the region(s) of strongest gradient variation. This is necessary to recenter the next grid at step 107. Such a method thus requires using a significant memory surface.
In a completely different field, to recognize the presence of a face in a digitized image, a method for determining the presence of a cornea or of an iris has been provided to identify the presence of an eye and calculate a spacing between two eyes. This method consists of searching concentric geometric shapes by means of a Hough transform such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,069,654. which is incorporated herein by reference. Such a method consists of considering, for the involved geometric shape (here, a circle), each pixel of the digitized image as being at the periphery of a circle of a given perimeter (radius), and of approximately localizing the center of this circle. For each possible diameter of the searched circuit, an accumulator of same dimensions as the image is associated with the digitized image. Each accumulator memorizes, for a given radius, the number of times when a given point of the digitized image is determined as being the possible center of the searched circle. This is performed by incrementing, for each radius, an initially null weight assigned, in the accumulator linked to this radius, to the position of the possible center in the image.
The searched center and radius are then obtained by determining, for each considered radius, the point having the greatest weight and, for the different considered radiuses, that for which the possible center has the maximum weight with respect to the other possible centers determined by the first determination. Such a method is described, for example, in article "Detection of eye locations in unconstrained visual images" by R. Kothari and J. L. Mitchell, published in Proc. ICIP'96, III pp. 519-523 (1996), or in article "Eye spacing measurement for facial recognition" by M. Nixon, published in SPIE Proc., 575, pp. 279-285 (1985), both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Such a method has the disadvantage of being also long to execute. Further, for each pixel in the image, it imposes using a bulky memory, since, for each possible radius, an array having a number of lines and columns equal to the number of lines and columns of the digitized image must be memorized.


An iron type golf club head having a peripheral weight and a rear cavity provided with a back-bar mass offset from the center of percussion and integrally formed with the peripheral weight adjacent the top ridge and bottom of the club head.

The present invention relates to iron type golf club heads and in particular to a cavity back iron type golf club head with a single back bar weight mass configuration, or a set of such iron type golf club heads.
The majority of peripheral weighted iron type golf club heads are formed with a rear cavity and a peripheral mass distributed around the outer rear edge of the club head at at least the heel, toe and sole portions to more evenly distribute the mass for the purpose of providing a more efficient energy transfer of force to a golf ball being struck off of the center of percussion. These type of club heads represent a significant advance in the state of the art. Other advances in weight distribution have been developed as evidenced by my own U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,172, the patent to Winquist 3,814,437, the patent to Johnstone 3,059,926, the patent to Lamina 4,715,601, and the patent to Cosby 3,858,886 among others. These patents generally stand for the proposition that a mere distribution of weight around the outer periphery does not impart maximum transfer of force to a golf ball struck in and around the center of percussion. The aforementioned patents represent various golf club head structures which made up the state of the weight distribution art in golf club heads.
The present invention uses a selective placement of a single back bar weight mass offset from the center of percussion within the cavity on the rear face of the club head to effectively alter the performance of each club. The invention preferably includes a set of iron type golf club heads having such a single back bar weight, with the position of the back bar weight being varied to provide the most optimum effect for each club head. For example, the single back bar weight may be gradually moved forward from proximate the center of gravity toward the toe portion for middle to long irons (low lofted irons). Conversely, the single back bar weight may be moved back from proximate the center of gravity to the heel portion for the shorter (higher lofted) irons. In each case, the respective club heads will produce a better feeling club which enhances the golfer's ability to obtain more meaningful distance and accuracy for all the irons in a set. The shape of the back-bar weight can be varied to maximize the performance of the club for particular situations or golf swings. The unique weight placement and design of the single back bar weight permits a golfer to obtain the best results from his swing and style and execute various golf swing techniques such as drawing or fading a golf ball, when desired. The various shapes, sizes and locations of the single back bar weights within the back cavity may be altered to produce a set of high performance golf club heads which meet the specific needs of a golfer and thus correct problems encountered in the golf swing of the golfer.
The present invention contemplates a variety of single bar back weight placements as well as a variety of shapes and sizes. In a preferred embodiment, a single bar back weight extends from the peripheral mass adjacent the sole to the peripheral mass adjacent the top ridge within the back cavity. The addition and unique location of the single back bar to a club head significantly alters the center of gravity of an iron type golf club head. The various embodiments contemplated by the present invention permit moving the center of gravity upward toward the top ridge, downward toward the sole, forward toward the toe and backward toward the heel. It is contemplated that the preferred embodiment of the single back bar weight mass may be generally rectangular in shape and either a vertical or sloped configuration. In alternative embodiments, the single back bar may be curved, angled or formed of a variety of geometric shapes. The single back bar weight may be of various widths and sizes and may also incorporate an integral tertiary mass to more precisely concentrate the mass of the club and/or define the exact location of the center of gravity in a particular golf club head.
Among the objects of the present invention are an improved iron type golf club head design or set of iron type golf club heads which maximize energy transferred through a golf ball being struck while maintaining improved control, feel, accuracy and distance. Another object is to provide a golf club head which minimizes variances in a golf ball's flight if the ball is hit off center. Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved set of conventional perimeter weighted golf club heads wherein the center of gravity of the heads may be precisely located from a position toward the toe for the longer irons to a position toward the heel for the shorter irons. Yet another object is to provide iron type golf club heads, and sets of such golf club heads, that are designed to correct particular shortcomings of certain golfers, such as the tendency to hit the ball with the club head open, closed, fat or thin.
These and other objects will become apparent with reference to the following specification and drawings.

Iron type golf club head with improved weight configuration


A privacy curtain assembly includes a main curtain portion. The main curtain portion includes a first side, a second side, and oppositely disposed leading edges located between the first and second sides. The privacy curtain assembly also includes at least one cleanable, wipable panel that is permanently affixed to one of the leading edges of the main curtain portion. The at least one panel is configured to be cleaned while permanently affixed to the main curtain portion.

Hanging curtains are often used to divide larger hospital rooms into individual patient area or cubicles. They are useful in providing a patient with his or her own private cubicle when other patients are in the room or in higher traffic settings in a hospital or other healthcare facility, such as an emergency room or post-operative recovery room. Often, the cubicle curtains are attached by hooks or other means that are slidably mounted to curtain tracks attached to the ceiling of the hospital room or other healthcare facility. The slidable mounting makes it convenient for the curtains to be moved back and forth between an open and closed position so that a health care professional, visitor, or the patient may enter and exit the cubicle with ease.
Typically, hospital cubicle curtains are made from cloth or a cloth-like material. Due to the fibrous nature of this type of material, the cubicle curtains often become a haven for bacteria and microbial growth. Bacteria and germs are transmitted to and from the cubicle curtains through the air or by physical contact, often by the hands of a health care provider who did not have an opportunity to wash his or her hands after examining the patient and before exiting the cubicle. Many curtains are treated with anti-microbial chemicals to reduce bacterial transmission. These treatments have some effect on airborne transmission but are considerably less effective on contact transmission, which occurs on the edges of the curtain every time someone opens and closes the curtain by its edges.

Privacy curtain assembly with cleanable panels

THE FEINSTEIN INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH


The disclosure relates to a method of decoding implemented by a decoding device, comprising: obtaining a value of a reference line index for a current block; constructing a most probable mode, MPM, list for the current block; obtaining a value of intra-prediction mode index for the current block; when the value of the reference line index is not equal to 0, obtaining an intra prediction mode of the current block according to the MPM list for the current block and the value of the intra-prediction mode index for the current block, wherein the value of the intra-prediction mode index indicates a position that corresponds to the intra prediction mode of the current block among angular intra-prediction modes in the MPM list. The disclosure also relates to a coding apparatus and a non-transitory machine-readable medium.

Digital video communication and storage applications are implemented by a wide range of digital devices, e.g., digital cameras, cellular radio telephones, laptops, broadcasting systems, video teleconferencing systems, etc. One of the most important and challenging tasks of these applications is video compression. The task of video compression is complex and is constrained by two contradicting parameters: compression efficiency and computational complexity. Video coding standards, such as ITU-T H.264/AVC or ITU-T H.265/HEVC, provide a good tradeoff between these parameters. For that reason, support of video coding standards is a mandatory requirement for almost any video compression application.
Normally, video coding standards are based on partitioning of a source picture into picture blocks. Processing of these blocks depend on their size, spatial position and a coding mode specified by an encoder. Coding modes can be classified into two groups according to the type of prediction: intra- and inter-prediction modes. Intra-prediction modes use pixels of the same picture (also referred to as frame or image) to generate reference samples to calculate the prediction values for the pixels of the block being reconstructed.
Intra-prediction is also referred to as spatial prediction. Inter-prediction modes are designed for temporal prediction and uses reference samples of previous or next pictures to predict pixels of the block of the current picture. After a prediction stage, transform coding is performed for a prediction error that is the difference between an original signal and its prediction. Then, the transform coefficients and side information are encoded using an entropy coder (e.g., CABAC for AVC/H.264 and HEVC/H.265). The recently adopted ITU-T H.265/HEVC standard (ISO/IEC 23008-2:2013, "Information technology—High efficiency coding and media delivery in heterogeneous environments—Part 2: High efficiency video coding", November 2013) declares a set of video coding tools that provide a reasonable tradeoff between coding efficiency and computational complexity.
An overview on the ITU-T H.265/HEVC standard has been given by Gary J. Sullivan, "Overview of the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) Standard", in IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Vol. 22, No. 12, December 2012, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Similar to the ITU-T H.264/AVC video coding standard, the HEVC/H.265 video coding standard provides for a division of the source picture into picture blocks, in the form of so-called coding units (CUs). The term "picture block" in this disclosure is used as a synonym for coding unit or coding block. Each of the CUs can be further split into either smaller CUs or prediction units (PUs). A PU can be intra- or inter-predicted according to the type of processing applied for the pixels of PU. In case of inter-prediction, a PU represents an area of pixels that is processed by motion compensation, using a motion vector specified for a PU. For intra prediction, the adjacent pixels of neighbor blocks are used as reference samples to predict a current block. A PU specifies a prediction mode that is selected from the set of intra-prediction modes for all the transform units (TUs) contained in this PU. A TU can have different sizes (e.g., 4×4, 8×8, 16×16 and 32×32 pixels) and can be processed in different ways. Fora TU, transform coding is performed, i.e. the prediction error is transformed with a discrete cosine transform or a discrete sine transform (in the HEVC/H.265 standard, it is applied to intra-coded blocks) and quantized. Hence, reconstructed pixels contain quantization noise (it can become apparent, for examples, as blockiness between units, ringing artifacts along with sharp edges, etc.) that in-loop filters such as Deblocking Filter (DBF), Sample Adaptive Offset (SAO) and Adaptive Loop Filter (ALF) try to suppress.
In the H.264/AVC standard, four intra-prediction modes are available for 16×16 blocks for a luma color component. According to the HEVC/H.265 standard, 35 intra prediction modes are available and include a planar mode (the intra-prediction mode index is 0), a DC mode (the intra-prediction mode index is 1), and 33 directional or angular modes (the intra-prediction mode index ranges from 2 to 34).
As of version 1.0 of the JEM software, the set of directional intra-prediction modes has been extended to 65 modes (almost doubled) by decreasing the step angle between the neighboring directional intra-prediction modes by a factor of 2. This increase to 67 intra-prediction modes in total would result in a significant signaling overhead and, thus, reduced coding efficiency since the intra-prediction mode for predicting a picture block is derived at the encoder and needs to be signaled to the decoder. Thus, in order to reduce the signaling overhead, the following intra prediction mode coding scheme has been suggested based on a most probable mode (MPM) list (or set) containing 6 of the 67 intra prediction modes or containing 3 of the 67 intra prediction modes.
Thus, there is a need for improved devices and methods for video coding, which allow increasing the coding efficiency for intra prediction.

Devices and methods for image and video coding


Systems, apparatus and methods for estimating gravity and/or scale in a mobile device are presented. A difference between an image-based pose and an inertia-based pose is using to update the estimations of gravity and/or scale. The image-based pose is computed from two poses and is scaled with the estimation of scale prior to the difference. The inertia-based pose is computed from accelerometer measurements, which are adjusted by the estimation for gravity.

I. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates generally to systems, apparatus and methods in the field of scale and/or gravity estimation, and more particularly to estimating scale and/or gravity by comparing an inertia-based pose formed from an earlier estimate of gravity with an image-based pose formed from an earlier estimate of scale.
II. Background
Some systems user computer vision algorithms on images for augmented reality (AR) applications and to determine an estimate of scale. The estimate of scale is multiplied by a pose to determine how far away an object is from a camera. Other systems use inertial sensors to determine movement (e.g., via dead reckoning) by determining an estimate of gravity. Accelerometer measurements are adjusted by the estimate of gravity to determine linear acceleration. A means is needed to coordinate determination of both scale and gravity for systems with both a camera and inertial sensors.

Adaptive scale and/or gravity estimation