A building construction product with an electroconductive surface, the building construction product comprising a core with one or more surfaces covered by an electroconductive paper comprising carbon fibers, the electroconductive paper being attached to the one or more surfaces of the core. Methods and materials for producing the building construction products with an electroconductive surface and products and methods for shielding an area from electromagnetic waves.

In building construction, different types of panels are used to form interior walls, exterior walls, roofs, floors and ceilings. Often used in construction of interior walls, is a gypsum board faced with paper, commonly referred as a wallboard. Typically, wallboard (also referred to as drywall or gypsum panel) is made by preparing a slurry comprising calcined gypsum, water and other components. The gypsum slurry is then deposited between two sheets of paper. The gypsum slurry forms a gypsum core between two paper cover sheets after it sets. US Patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,197,952, 4,853,085, and 1,769,519 relate to gypsum wallboard and methods of making it. Other building constructions products include ceiling tiles, doors, fiberboards, floor tiles and many others.
Under some circumstances, it may be necessary to produce a construction product with an electroconductive surface or to retrofit a construction product with an electroconductive surface. Such products may be used as a shield from electromagnetic waves, such as for example, when radio waves and/or a wifi connection needs to be blocked.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,174 discloses an electromagnetic wave shielding building material which comprises a hydraulic inorganic material and carbon fibers of 0.6-3% by weight which is mixed with cement. U.S. Pat. No. 9,840,851 discloses building construction materials, including coatings and layers embedded in or encapsulated by a core, which provide sound attenuation or blockage. WO 99/62076 discloses composites comprising a thin electrically conductive cellulose layer, having the ability to shield electric and high frequency waves. U.S. Pat. No. 8,211,556 discloses a gypsum-based building material which comprises graphite and has the electromagnetic shielding capacity. U.S. Pat. No. 7,641,764 discloses a non-woven fabric for a gypsum board which comprises 20 to 60% by weight of a glass fiber and carbon fiber as a conductive fiber. U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,966 discloses a building absorber which provides a surface for absorbing incident electromagnetic signals of a selected frequency range. The panel absorber includes absorptive layers which are preferably carbon fibers, carbonyl iron powder, or a ferrite material positioned between a top surface and a bottom surface of the absorber.
However, there still exists the need in the field for construction products with an electroconductive surface for which the electroactivity may be controlled and adjusted on demand. There also exists the need for materials and methods with which a construction product can be retrofitted with an electroconductive surface.

Conductive paper for making electroactive surface in construction


A video controller in a graphic accelerators suitable for use in three dimensional graphics and texture mapping is disclosed. The controller includes an address generator for generating addresses for reading out texture data stored in the video memory and a mode register for generating a directional signal for prefetching the texture data. A prefetch controller is provided to produce an address for another texture data predicted to be used at the next time, based on the directional signal supplied from the mode register and the address of the address generator. Also provided are a memory controller for accessing the texture data corresponding to the address generated in the prefetch controller via the memory interface, and a buffer memory for storing the prefetched texture data outputted from the memory controller and the address of the prefetched texture data. Further, the prefetching method comprises the steps of determining whether the address generated at the address generator is identical with the one stored in the buffer memory; outputting the texture data stored in the buffer memory if said two addresses are identical and determining whether prefetching of the texture data is possible; addressing the texture data corresponding to the address provided by the address generator, if two addresses are not identical; prefetching a texture data predicted to be used next time in the video memory based on the directional signal supplied from the mode register and the address supplied from the address generator, if the prefetching is possible; and storing the prefetched texture data and its corresponding address into the buffer memory. The video controller of this invention considerably reduces the time required for accessing the video memory since prefetched texture data is read out in the internal buffer register without accessing the same in the outer video memory.

The graphic card or graphic board provided with personal computers functions as a hardware interface with a display device. Most of the modem graphic boards have graphic accelerators which provides the ability to quickly move data to video memory from other places in the computer. Furthermore, the recent trends in display circuitry designs have focused on minimizing the need to move large blocks of video data from one place to another. By constructing and manipulating the on-screen image with processor power that is directly to video memory, massive transfers of video data can be minimized. Because less data moves across the system bus, there is less of a handicap from bus overhead no matter whether the I/O bus or a local bus is used as the transfer channel. A typical graphic board is shown in FIG. 1 for the purpose of explanation. The graphic board 101 comprises a graphic accelerator 100, a clock generator 30, a video memory 40, a RAMDAC 50, and a BIOS ROM 60. A local bus, for example the PCI bus to connected to the graphic accelerator 100 and the BIOS ROM 60 of the graphic board. The video data processed in the graphic accelerator 100 is suppled with a display monitor 11 through the RAMDAC 50 that includes a color look-up table and a digital-to-analog converter.
Especially, the graphic accelerator 100 has been improved to contribute to three dimensional games or graphics. In order to implement the 3-D graphics, well known texture mapping techniques are widely used. In brief, the texture mapping allows the graphic accelerator to calculate the memory address of the desired 3-D image to read out the texture data stored in the video memory 40 and again write into the frame buffer.
During the texture mapping, the performance of the graphic board has a great influence on how fast the graphic accelerator reads out the desired texture data or image from the video memory. Thus, it is desirable that the time required for accessing the video memory be reduced as much as possible.

Apparatus and method for prefetching texture data in a video controller of graphic accelerators


Embodiments of the present disclosure describe a method and apparatus for a resealable package having an internal zipper seal. In one embodiment, the apparatus is a vertical form, fill, and seal machine that includes a former, a vertical sealer, and a zipper separation blade located between the former and the vertical sealer. The zipper separation blade further comprises a connector and a blade body that defines a zipper gap between an exterior surface of the former and the blade body.

Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to snack packages. More particularly the disclosure herein describes a resealable package with an internal zipper seal spanning substantially the entire width of the package. The disclosure also provides for a film usable for forming the package, methods of manufacture, and a corresponding apparatus for manufacturing the package.
Background
Snack items, such as chips and pretzels, are commonly stored in packages colloquially referred to as pillow pouches. Pillow pouches are aptly named packages that resemble pillows when filled with snack items and an inert gas, which forms a protective bubble limiting breakage and loss of desirable organoleptic properties. The two components of pillow pouches responsible for maintaining the protective bubble are the impermeable packaging film and the hermetic seals, at least one of which is a back seal located on the rear panel of the package, extending from an upper transverse seal to a lower transverse seal.
Pillow pouches are commonly formed using a vertical form, fill, and seal machine (VFFS). A continuous roll of film is fed into the VFFS, which transforms the film into a package, applies a set of hermetic seals that define an interior region, which may then be filled with food items before the package is completed, separated from an upstream bag, and prepared for distribution.
If the contents in the package cannot be finished in a single sitting, then the package is often resealed by folding down the opened end of the package and applying a clip that forms a temporary seal. However, this method is inconvenient because the bag clip is oftentimes not readily available and the package is secured at only a single point corresponding to the clip location, which may allow air to penetrate the interior region of the package, reducing the shelf-life of the package contents.

Method and apparatus for resealable package with internal zipper seal


In one embodiment, a computing device includes an outer housing having opposed sides, and a mounting feature provided on one of the opposed sides of the outer housing, the mounting feature being configured to secure the computing device to another object.

In certain situations it may be desirable to place a computing device out of harm's way or at least out of the way of the user. Due to smaller and lighter weight computer devices becoming available, it is now possible to mount computing devices to other objects so as to not become damaged or interfere with the user. However, adequate mounting systems must be provided to facilitate such mounting.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The present invention provides a simple single step process for the preparation of [2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)-4-quinolinyl]-2-pyridinylmethanone, comprising the step of condensing a halo-quinoline with an alpha-picolyl derivatives in the presence of a solvent, a base and a phase transfer catalyst at xe2x88x9210xc2x0 C. to +90xc2x0 C.

The present invention relates to an improved process for the preparation of [2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)-4-quinolinyl]-2-pyridinylmethanone, having structural formula 1, which is an important drug intermediate, more particularly for the preparation of the anti-malarial drug mefloquine having structural formula 2.
Malaria ranks third among the major infectious diseases after acute respiratory infections and tuberculosis. About 2.5 million deaths occur per year due to malaria, 90% occurring in Africa mostly caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Children under the age of 5 years are hit by malaria. Malaria kills one child every 12 seconds. Human environmental changes such as road building, mining, deforestation and new agricultural and irrigation projects have created new breeding sites and thus contribute to spread of malaria. Malaria has re-emerged in areas where it had been eradicated e.g. Koreas, Central Asian republics.
Wide spread prevalence of malaria and emergence of drug resistant Plasmodium falciparum have enhanced the importance of mefloquine as a highly effective anti-malarial agent.
Resistance of P. falciparum to chloroquine, one of oldest, cheapest and most commonly used drugs, was first detected in 1960. Resistance of sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine, the main alternative to chloroquine is wide spread in South-east Asia and South America. It is being recommended that combination of drugs should be used to slow down the development of drug resistance. Mefloquine has emerged as an important drug to be used in these combinations. An important intermediate in the preparation of mefloquine is methanone of formula (1).
In the prior art, the methanone (1) has been prepared through various routes, all of which suffer from one or more shortcomings as listed below:
Methanone was first prepared [Ohnmacht, C. J., Palei, A. R. and Lutz, R. E., J. Med. Chem. 14, p. 926, 1971] by the reaction of 2-pyridyl lithium (prepared in situ from 2-bromo pyridine and n-butyl lithium) with 2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)-quinoline-4-carboxylic acid. Apart from being expensive, the use of butyl lithium on large scale always poses the problems of fire and explosion hazards.
As a variant of this method, 2-pyridylmagnesium bromide was used for the synthesis instead of 2-pyridyl lithium [Hickmann, E., Oeser, H. -G. and Moebius, L. U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,215, 1982]. The organomagnesium complexes also have fire and explosion hazards associated with them.
An alternative to the method taught by Hickmann, E., Oeser, H. -G. and Moebius, L. U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,215 1982, 2,S-bis(trifluoromethyl)-quinoline-4-carboxylic acid has been replaced by 4-cyano-2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)-quinoline. Methanone of formula 1 was obtained in only moderate yields. [Nagesheswar Y. V. D., Meshram H. M., Prasad A. R., Hashim S. R. and Sattur P. B. R., Indian IN 170919 (1992)]. The method still uses an organometallic reagent which carries fire and explosion hazards on scaleup.
In another process, methanone of structural formula 1 has been obtained by the reaction of 4-lithio-2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)-quinoline [prepared in situ from 4-bromo-2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)-quinoline and n-butyl lithium] and 2-cyanopyridine, [Haenni, R. and Kuendig, W., Ger Offen. DE 3709891 (1987)]. The organo lithium intermediate obtained is hazardous.
As a modification of the route described heretofore [Haenni, R. and Kuendig, W., Ger Offen. DE 3709891 (1987)] 2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)-quinolinylmagnesium bromide [prepared in situ from 4-bromo/iodo-2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)-quinoline and magnesium] was utilized instead of the 4-lithio derivative. [Nagesheswar Y. V. D., Meshram H. M., Prasad A. R., Hashim S. R. and Sattur P. B. R., Indian IN 170918 (1992)]. The disadvantage of the method includes hazardous nature of organomagnesium intermediate and low yields.
In yet another process 4-bromo-2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)-quinoline of formula (6) on reaction with 2-pyridylacetonitrile (4) in presence of concentrated NaOH, DMF and tetra butylammonium chloride at an ambient temperature under nitrogen atmosphere furnished xcex1,2-pyridinyl-2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)-4-quinolineacetonitrile of formula (5). [Hickmann, E. and Oeser, H. -G. U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,130 (1984)]. In the second step, the acetonitrile of formula (5) is converted to methanone of formula (1) by oxidation with hydrogen peroxide in acetic acid. This method suffers from the following disadvantages (1) the first step is carried out in presence of a base and dimethylformamide, whereas second step of oxidation is carried out in acetic acid medium (2) dimethylformamide (DMF) is incompatible with hydrogen peroxide used in the oxidation step [Hickmann, E., Oeser, H. -G. U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,130 (1984)] this necessitating the isolation of intermediate acetonitrile of formula 5.
As a modification of prior art [Hickmann, E. and Oeser, H. -G. U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,130 (1984)] 4-chloro-2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)quinoline of formula 3, sodium hydride, dry toluene-dry DMF and 0xc2x0 C.-10xc2x0 C. temperature conditions were utilized instead of 4-bromide derivative concentrated NaOH, DMF and tetrabutylammonium chloride at room temperature conditions respectively [Solange A., Tetrahedron 47, 7609 (1991)]. Second step reagents were same as in prior art [Hickmann, E., and Oeser, H. -G. U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,130 (1984)]. This method suffers from the following disadvantages (1). The first step requires the use of inert and anhydrous conditions and the use of sodium hydride which can pose problems during scale up operations due to fire and explosion hazard. (2) In order to carry out second step, acetonitrile derivative (5) needs to be isolated.
Thus the prior art has no method whereby the intermediate methanone of formula (1) of the drug mefloquine of formula (2) can be prepared in a single pot and without the use of hazardous chemicals. There was a long felt need in the art to develop a process which is safe, economical and easy to follow.
The main object of the present invention is to provide a one pot, single step simple and economical process for the preparation of methanone of structural formula (1) from haloquinoline of the formula (3) and 2-pyridylacetonitrile of formula (4).
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a process for the preparation of methanone of formula (1) from an intermediate of formula (5) without the use of hazardous chemicals.
Still another object is to provide an improved process, which obviates the use of expensive anhydrous solvents or hazardous reagents in the preparation of methanone of formula 1.
Another object is to provide a process wherein the intermediate acetonitrile derivative of the formula (5) need not be isolated before oxidation.
Yet another object is to provide a process wherein the steps can be conveniently carried out sequentially in the same reaction vessel making it a one-pot process.
The invention provides a simple single step process for the preparation of [2,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)-4-quinolinyl]-2-pyridinylmethanone (I), comprising the step of condensing a halo-quinoline with an alpha-picolyl derivative in the presence of a solvent, a base and a phase transfer catalyst at xe2x88x9210xc2x0 C. to +90xc2x0 C. to obtain an intermediate acetonitrile derivative of formula (5), which is oxidised in situ to methanone derivative of formula (1).

One pot synthesis of [2,8-Bis (trifluoromethyl)-4-quinolinyl]-2-pyridinylmethanone, a mefloquine intermediate

National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research


To provide a process for coding the moving picture with higher speed and enhanced efficiency. The present invention provides a moving picture coding method for coding a moving picture of processing object through a predetermined process including a motion estimating process, determining whether or not the predetermined process (e.g., DCT process and quantization process) for a block of processing object can be omitted on the basis of the information regarding a difference between the block and a reference block of a frame to be referenced in coding (i.e., a frame to be referenced in making the motion vector detection), and a quantization parameter for use in a quantization process of the moving picture, performing the predetermined process if it is determined that the predetermined process can not be omitted, and omitting the predetermined process if it is determined that the predetermined process can be omitted and making a set defined value the result of the predetermined process for the block.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a moving picture coding method and apparatus for coding a moving picture and a moving picture coding program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the transmission and reception of the moving picture have been made through a network such as the Internet. When the moving picture is transmitted or received through the network, a process of compressing the moving picture is performed on the transmission side.
Of the processes on the transmission side, a quantization process comprises a process of dividing the DCT coefficients that are obtained by performing the DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) for the moving picture data. Therefore, the quantization process has a great processing load, and various methods for relieving the load of the quantization process have been conceived.
For example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-191334 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-116267, there was disclosed a method for relieving the processing load on the whole by skipping the division in the quantization process in predetermined instances.
In these methods, before the quantization process, a determination is made whether or not all the DCT coefficients contained in the block are zero in the quantization process, and if it is determined that they are all zero, the quantization process is skipped.
For example, supposing that "x" is the DCT coefficient to be quantized, "K" is the divisor based on the quantization parameter, and the arithmetical operation in the quantization is x/K, "y" obtained by the expression y=x/K, is determined as y=0 in a range −K<|x|<K, without making the division. In this case, the figures below the first place of decimals in the division result are discarded.

Moving picture coding method, moving picture coding apparatus, and moving picture coding program


A games table such as a billiards table (1) has an upper support pad (7) on each leg (3, 4) and a planar glass playing surface (9) supported on the support pads. Pockets (11) are formed around the periphery of the playing surface and cushions (13) are positioned around the periphery of the playing surface. The cushions are fastened to the playing surface. A transparent liquid or gel layer (42) is provided on the playing surface with a flexible transparent liquid impervious material (44) over the liquid gel to provide a rolling resistance and sound deadening on the surface of the table. A laminate (27) for use as a ball playing surface which provides rolling resistance is also provided.

Games tables of the type to which the present invention is directed include such types as billiard and snooker tables. Such tables have traditionally been made from a slate base and a covering of felt over the slate with the felt providing rolling resistance for a ball. Generally such games tables have heavy wooden frames to support the slate base and are extremely heavy. There is also little scope for a designer to devise innovative designs.
It is the object of this invention to provide a games table and a playing surface for a games table which is more innovative and modem in design and allows for flexibility for a designer. A further object is to provide an alternative playing surface material for an existing games table such as a billiards table.

Games table and playing surface for a games table


A new cultivar of Streptocarpus plant named ‘Roulette Azur’ that is characterized by a large quantity of white flowers with violet margins primarily on the lower three petals, short leaves and short pedicels.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Streptocarpus plant botanically known as Streptocarpus and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name 'Roulette Azur'.
'Roulette Azur' is a hybrid that originated from a crossing in the June of 2004 of the female or seed parent Streptocarpus cultivar named 'Roulette Cherry' and the male or pollen parent an unnamed proprietary Streptocarpus cultivar (not patented). The resulting seeds were subsequently planted and grown. The cultivar 'Roulette Azur' was selected by the inventor in April of 2005 as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross in Vaihingen/Enz, Germany.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar 'Roulette Azur' first occurred by leaf cuttings in July of 2005 in Vaihingen/Enz, Germany. Since that time, under careful observation, the unique characteristics of the new cultivar have been uniform, stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.


Thin gage, rollable plastic vinyl floor mats can be provided with an abrasive and grit coating that will not deteriorate or degrade when the mats are rolled or otherwise substantially deformed. A special blend of epoxy adhesive and MEK is used to permanently bond the grit to the vinyl surface.

Perforated, flow-through rubber or plastic floor mats are useful for providing a safe, non-slip surface for people and other traffic moving in damp locations. This is accomplished by keeping the feet of the pedestrians above damp or particulate-rich, encumbered, or otherwise slippery floors. Liquid or particulate matter flows through perforations, formed by space between both upper and lower ribs, as depicted in the appended drawings. As a result the upper surface of the mat is kept relatively clear of liquid or particles.
Conventionally, the upper surface of the floor mat is constituted by a number of narrow, parallel, plastic or rubber strips, or ribs. Usually these are separated by a distance of approximately the width of an individual rubber strip, as depicted by the appended drawings. Often, such strips have anti-skid corrugations on their top surfaces to provide a high-friction walking surface, since smooth vinyl can become slippery under some conditions.
However, in many cases, the anti-skid structures on the top surfaces of the upper portion of the floor mat can create additional hazards. For example, the structures such as corrugations may hold loose particulate matter, rendering that mat's surface more slippery than that possible with a smooth upper surface. Also, it has been discovered through use that sometimes corrugated surfaces do not exhibit as much friction as that provided by smooth flat mats.
It is well known that some fluids can form a film on smooth, plastic mat surfaces, rendering them unacceptably dangerous. Consequently, some floor mat systems are designed so that upper surfaces are coated with an abrasive grit material that will not allow formation of a liquid slick on the mat's surface, and will provide additional traction because of the abrasive nature of the grit.
It is well known to apply a binder such as urethane and abrasive grains to an upper surface of the mat. Then the binder is cured to produce a coated, abrasive, non-slip product. Eventually, one or more coats are applied over the abrasive grains, and then cured, to help hold the abrasive grains, or grit to the mat surface.
A number of curing techniques are well known, and include heat or radiation curing. This is very common in the application of abrasive mineral particles, also known as grit, to polyvinyl chloride mating. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,293, incorporated herein by reference, the process for making the mat includes placing the mat in an oven for 30 minutes at 120° C. to partially cure the mat. Then the grit particles are applied covered with an overcoat, known as a sizing coating. The mat is then cured in an oven at 130° C. for four hours.
The various forms of heat and radiation curing are well known. A number of examples are found in the following patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,033,979; 4,345,545; 4,385,239; 4,457,766; 4,547,204; 4,588,419; 4,336,293; 4,196,243; and, U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,287. All of the aforementioned patents are incorporated herein by reference as constituting background material depicting conventional techniques for adhering grit to plastic surfaces.
Normally the industrial processes for producing such mats are long and complex, dealing with a number of intermediate steps, and the use of such additional elements as craft release paper, photosensitizer, or other complicating elements. All of this contributes added cost to the overall industrial process.
A major problem with all of the aforementioned techniques resides in the substantial processing times needed to attach the grit to the plastic surfaces. Most of the processes include heat treatment or radiation treatment, further adding time and expense to the manufacturing process on a final product that is meant to be inexpensive. To save time and expense in the processing, a number of alternatives have been proposed. Of particular interest is the use of urethane adhesive to hold the abrasive grit to a plastic mat surface.
Urethane adhesives work very well with plastic material, and are very easy to apply for purposes of adhering grit to the surface of a plastic structure. Because of the fast acting characteristics of urethane, multiple processes can be rapidly carried out as multiple coats of urethane and grit are added to the plastic surface. The result is excellent non-skid surface suitable for safety floor mating, or other related uses.
Unfortunately, there are limitations to the final product. The mats that are treated with urethane to hold this abrasive grit are vulnerable to loosening and loosing the grit under certain conditions. If the plastic mats are bent, rolled, otherwise distorted, the grit will be loosened and come away from the mat, creating a hazard in itself, and eventually leaving a bare plastic surface on the mat. The same problems are found with epoxy adhesives.
In order to prevent this from happening, it is accepted manufacturing technique to apply the grit held by epoxy or urethane adhesive to only relatively thick, inflexible mat sections. Normally, such mats are not meant to be moved, and are usually held in raised frameworks on a floor or other substrate. Examples of such holding arrangements and relatively thick mats are found in the following U.S. patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,740,380; 6,635,331; 6,531,203; 6,444,284; 6,440,525; 6,352,757; 6,319,584; 6,127,015; 6,068,908; 6,042,915; 5,882,764; and, U.S. Pat. No.5,985,538. All of the aforementioned patents are incorporated with herein by reference as depicting the conventional state of the floor mat art.
All of the aforementioned arrangements are meant to hold floor mat sections in a fixed, unmoving arrangement. These are generally very effective arrangements, but have certain drawbacks. For example, frameworks must be erected to hold the mat sections. This is often time consuming and awkward. It is also very difficult to remove the frames for cleaning or redistribution of the mat sections. In many cases, indentations or recesses are made in the floor or substrate in order to accommodate a relatively thick mat section. Mat sections must remain relatively rigid in order to avoid deformation and loss of the grit material. This means that the mat section must be relatively thick, and thus heavy. As a result, they are often difficult to remove for cleaning underneath them.
In many situations requiring floor mats, light, rollable floor mats are used because they can be easily adjusted, and easily removed for cleaning. Examples of light gage (approximately ¼ inch to ½ inch thick) mat systems are depicted in the following U.S. patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,578,324; 6,405,495; and, U.S. Pat. No.5,992,105. All of these are incorporated by reference as depicting the state of light gage plastic floor mats. These mats are light, easy to use and deploy, and can be rolled so that the floor underneath can be easily cleaned. Unfortunately, they also have a bit of limitation.
The plastic upper surfaces of these mats are constituted by a series of ribs or strips that have smooth upper surfaces. When grease or oil are allowed to collect, these surfaces can become slick and the mats may become somewhat slippery. Accordingly, such mats would benefit from the application of permanent grit upper surfaces. Unfortunately, rolling of the mats or other substantial deformation may cause conventional grit arrangements to come loose. Even heat-treated, polyvinyl chloride surfaces may not be capable of holding grit when rolled or otherwise substantially deformed.
Accordingly, there is a need for an arrangement to hold abrasive grit to the upper surface of a light, rollable floor mat without loosening or degrading the grit on the plastic matting material. Consequently, an improved floor mat would be produced by a process that is both simple, and time-efficient. Further, the process would not require substantial additional equipment or expertise.

Rollable floor mat with non-slip surface


Disclosed are non-aqueous carrier compositions capable of forming a gel structure, having a low molecular mass N-acyl glutamic acid diamide having a straight-chain alkyl group, a low molecular mass N-acyl glutamic acid diamide having a branched-chain alkyl group, at least one gel-promoting solvent, and at least one high molecular mass block copolymer having at least one hard segment and at least one soft segment, and at least one solvent capable of solubilizing the at least one hard segment and/or the at least one soft segment of the block copolymer, at least one oil-soluble polar modified polymer; and at least one solvent capable of solubilizing the at least one oil-soluble polar modified polymer, and optionally at least one active ingredient, wherein the composition has a hardness value ranging from about 30 to about 300 gf, a melting point of about 50° C. or higher, and does not require use of wax as a structuring agent. Methods of making and using the compositions are also disclosed.

Conventional structured compositions typically employ various types of waxes as structuring agents in order to form user-friendly products having good stability properties, particularly with respect to temperature stability and good pay-off. Payoff is a term used to describe both the amount of product applied onto a target substrate, as well as the way the product distributes onto the substrate. The problem with wax-based stick compositions is that they possess an undesirable waxy feel and inherently reduce the shine of any shine-imparting ingredients present in the stick composition.
Attempts have been made to formulate structured gel compositions in the absence of wax. For example, various types of polyamides have been commercialized as gellators/structuring agents in order to form solid compositions. Similarly, various glutamides, as well as various types of polyurethanes have also been employed in order to form solid, preferably clear, compositions. Such attempts, however, while successful at making solid compositions, possess numerous technical problems.
One of the technical problems involves the phenomenon known as "syneresis" whereby during storage of the solid compositions, particularly at slightly elevated temperatures, the surface of the solid composition develops distinct oil droplets which are not re-absorbed by the solid composition after its cooling to normal room temperature. Thus, the storage stability of such solid compositions leaves much to be desired.
Another technical problem relates to product pay-off. Some compositions having wax as structuring agents can have poor pay-off. Thus, in order to avoid such deposit issues, it is necessary that the product possess certain hardness/elasticity properties.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide non-aqueous, structured, gel-form carrier compositions capable of carrying various types of active ingredients that do not suffer from the aforementioned technical problems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Structured non-aqueous gel-form carrier composition


A manipulator for supporting heavy as well as lighter test heads in a small footprint includes a body and an interface for supporting a test head from behind. The interface includes a first portion fixedly attached to the body and a second portion fixedly attached to the rear of the test head. The first and second portions of the interface are rotatably coupled together to allow rotation of the test head about its approximate center of mass. Although the weight of the test head is entirely borne from the rear, the test head can still be moved with relatively little applied force, thereby satisfying the requirements for compliant docking.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to precisely positioning heavy objects, and more particularly to precisely positioning a test head of an electronic automatic test system for docking the test head with a prober, handler, or other peripheral for testing electronic devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Manufacturers of semiconductor chips and assemblies use automatic test equipment ("ATE") to verify the performance of devices before the devices are shipped to customers. ATE systems typically include a "test head" and a "tester body." The test head houses portions of the test system that are preferably located as close as possible to the device under test, and connects to the tester body via one or more cables. For testing electronic devices, the test head connects or "docks" with a peripheral. The peripheral feeds a series of devices to the ATE system for testing, and the ATE system tests the devices.
Constraints affecting semiconductor test processes often make it impractical to move the peripheral to the test head. In most manufacturing facilities, therefore, the peripheral that feeds the chips remains stationary, and the test head is moved into position for docking with the peripheral.
A device called a "manipulator" is used to move the test head to the peripheral. As is known, a common type of manipulator is the fork-arm manipulator, an example of which is shown in FIG. 1. Here, a manipulator 100 holds a test head 112 from its sides via fork arms 114. The manipulator 100 raises and lowers the test head 112 on a linear stage 118, and rotates the test head about a twist axis upon a twist gear 120. A fork arm manipulator like the one shown in FIG. 1 is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,002, entitled, "Manipulator for Automatic Test Equipment with Active Compliance," which is assigned to Teradyne, Inc., of Boston, Mass., and is hereby incorporated by reference.
FIG. 2 shows another type of manipulator used for positioning a test head. Rather than using fork arms, the manipulator 200 of FIG. 2 supports a test head 210 internally. The test head 210 is mounted to a central stiffener 212, which is, in turn, mechanically coupled to the manipulator via a central blade (not shown), which extends approximately through the center of the test head. The manipulator 200 can raise and lower the test head 210 on linear bearings 224, and can rotate the test head in the twist direction via twist bearing 214. It can also swing the test head 210 via a swing bearing 222. A manipulator like the one shown in FIG. 2 is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/615292, entitled "AUTOMATIC TEST MANIPULATOR WITH SUPPORT INTERNAL TO TEST HEAD." This application is also assigned to Teradyne, Inc. and is hereby incorporated by reference.
Both types of manipulators generally include actuators such as motors (not shown) on their respective bearings and linear stages. The actuators move the test head to the peripheral, and orient the test head for docking. The test head is then docked with the peripheral by finely adjusting the position and orientation of the test head.
Manipulators commonly provide a range of "compliance" that allows a test head to be rotated about one or more axes as the test head and peripheral are being docked. The range is "compliant" because the test head literally complies with forces applied to the test head, which during docking tend to cause the mating surface of the test head to become coplanar with the mating surface of the peripheral.
In the fork arm manipulator of FIG. 1, the test head 112 can be made to nod compliantly in a "tumble" direction (NU and ND) by rotating the test head about pins 116. One pin 116 is provided within each fork arm on each side of the test head 112. The test head can also be made to turn compliantly in a "theta" direction (ΘL and ΘR), via the movement of mechanisms within each fork arm, which allow the pins 116 to move slightly back and forth along the length of each fork arm. Opposing movements of the pins 116 on opposite fork arms effects compliant theta rotation.
The test head 210 of FIG. 2 can compliantly rotate in theta, tumble, and twist via a spherical bearing (not shown) positioned approximately at the test head's center of mass. The spherical bearing has an inner race coupled to the central stiffener 212 and an outer race coupled, via the central blade, to the twist bearing 214.
Semiconductor manufacturers and semiconductor testing facilities place a high premium on minimizing the floor space that their ATE systems occupy. As semiconductor devices become more complex, however, the ATE systems used to test them tend to become larger, requiring more floor space. We have recognized that relatively small test heads (e.g., less than 200 kg) can be held effectively with fork arms that do not occupy much additional floor space. For larger test heads, however, fork arms are required to grow substantially in size, to the point where they occupy a significant percentage of the ATE's overall footprint.
The internally supporting manipulator, like the one shown in FIG. 2, tends to hold heavier test heads with less floor space than an equivalent fork arm manipulator would require. ATE systems now include test heads weighing over 1300 kg. For these larger test heads, internally supporting manipulators are generally the more space efficient alternative.
We have recognized that the centrally supporting manipulator places many constraints on the design of the test head that it supports. For instance, the test head generally must be provided in two portions 210a and 210b, which independently attach to the central stiffener 212. Electrical cables connecting the two portions must be passed either through the central stiffener or around it. Because the central stiffener and associated hardware occupy the center of the test head 210, this area is not available for other purposes, such as cooling and additional electronics.
What would be desirable is a manipulator that is more space efficient for heavy test heads than the fork-arm manipulator but does not impose the design constraints associated with the centrally supporting manipulator.

Rear-mounted gimbal for supporting test head


There are provided an apparatus and a method for compressing data, an apparatus and a method for analyzing data and a data management system, which are capable of compressing huge data and accurately reproducing the characteristics of the original data from the compressed data.

In recent years, the finite resources of the earth and excessive environmental burdens have lead to great need for new ways of maintaining machines that focus on resource circulation and reduction in environmental impact so that contemporary expendable society is converted to sustainable society.
Conventional machine maintenance employs corrective maintenance in which a machine is repaired after it breaks down, or uniform preventive maintenance which is performed at predetermined intervals. Corrective maintenance entails a great deal of time and cost for repair. Preventive maintenance generates unnecessary part and oil waste due to its uniformity and thereby imposes greater costs on customers. Further preventive maintenance is expensive because of the intensive labor required. There is a requirement for a departure from such conventional maintenance manners and for conversion to predictive maintenance in the future.
In predictive maintenance, the degree of soundness is diagnosed by understanding data of load and environment during operation, a database of past maintenance history, physical failure and others and further deterioration and remaining life are predicted in order to anticipate a defect on a machine at an early stage and to provide a safe operation environment.
Normally, in such a system employing predictive maintenance, sensors installed in an object machine detect an operation state of the machine, a data collector installed in the machine collects the raw data representing the operation state and sends the raw data to a computer in a management center (for example, a service department of a company in charge of maintenance of the machine) in real time or at predetermined intervals. Upon receipt of the raw data, the computer analyzes the raw data and diagnoses the soundness of the machine.
However, the amount of raw data collected by the data collector is huge and is sent from the machine to the management center through telecommunications, which may be unreliable and costly. One solution is compression of the raw data and sending of the compressed data to the management center. For example, the Patent Reference 1 discloses a method for compressing time-series operation signals obtained by sensors into histogram data or frequency distribution data. Further, the Patent Reference 2 discloses a method for modifying intervals to send an operation signal in accordance with a failure probability (a bathtub curve), and the Patent Reference 3 discloses a method for accumulating a frequency of detection per unit time in order to save memory capacity and judge the state of an object machine from the histogram.
Patent Reference 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-083848
Patent Reference 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-180502
Patent Reference 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 10-273920

Apparatus and method for compressing data, apparatus and method for analyzing data, and data management system

Abstract: The data compressing apparatus includes detection means for detecting a multiplicity of data sets, each including n parameter values that vary according to an operation of an object, where n is a natural number; and data compressing means for compressing the data sets by inputting the data sets into an n-dimensional space, arranging neurons smaller in number than the data sets in the n-dimensional space, carrying out unsupervised learning for a neural network on the neurons, and converting the data sets into a neuron model parameter characterizing a neuron model obtained by the unsupervised learning.


A method and an apparatus for predictively coding a contour of a video signal. An error between the current contour and the previous contour is obtained through the comparison therebetween. If the obtained error is greater than or equal to a predetermined reference value, the current contour is coded. However, in the case where the obtained error is smaller than the predetermined reference value, only a signal indicative of the reconstruction of the current contour using the previous contour is transmitted to a decoder. Therefore, the transmission of unnecessary information is prevented to enhance the compression coding efficiency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a method and an apparatus for predictively coding a contour of a video signal, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for comparing a contour (referred to hereinafter as current contour) of the current object image with a contour (referred to hereinafter as previous contour) of the previous object image to obtain a difference therebetween and coding the current contour only when the obtained difference exceeds a predetermined reference value. For example, the present invention is applicable to a shape information coding method of the moving picture experts group-4 (referred to hereinafter as MPEG-4) which is an international standard on moving pictures and audio coding, and other image coding methods considering shape information.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, ISO/IEC/WG11 has considered a method of coding an object with arbitrary shape information, differently from MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 performing frame-unit coding.
Here, a given video is divided into a background image and an object image, and a rectangle including the divided background image and object image is defined as a video object plane (referred to hereinafter as VOP). In MPEG-4, in the case where object regions including desired objects or areas are present in images, they are divided into VOPs and the divided VOPs are coded individually.
Such a VOP has the advantage of freely synthesizing or disintegrating a natural image or an artificial image as the unit of object image. As a result, the VOP is a fundamental factor in processing an object image in fields such as computer graphics, multimedia, etc.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a conventional verification model encoder 10, firstly established by ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 MPEG96/N1172 JANUARY. As shown in this drawing, the encoder 10 comprises a VOP formation unit 11, VOP coders 12A, 12B, . . . , 12N and a multiplexer 13.
The VOP formation unit 11 is adapted to input an image sequence to be transmitted or stored, divide the inputted image sequence into object images and form VOPs corresponding respectively to the divided object images.
FIG. 2 is a view illustrating a conventional VOP with shape information, which is partitioned into macro blocks. As shown in this drawing, the VOP contains an object image of "cat". Here, a horizontal size of the VOP is defined as a VOP width and a vertical size thereof is defined as a VOP height. The left top corner of the VOP is defined as a grid start point, and the VOP is partitioned into M.times.N macro blocks, each of which includes M pixels on the X-axis and N pixels on the Y-axis. For example, the VOP may be partitioned into 16.times.16 macro blocks, each of which includes 16 pixels on the X-axis and 16 pixels on the Y-axis.
Noticeably, in the case where macro blocks at the rightmost and bottom portions of the VOP do not include M pixels on the X-axis and N pixels on the Y-axis, respectively, the VOP is enlarged in size in such a manner that the X and Y-axis pixels of each of the macro blocks can be M and N in number, respectively.
Both M and N are set to an even number so that a texture coder can perform sub block-unit coding, as will be mentioned later.
Conventionally, in coding a moving picture in the unit of object, shape information are transmitted together with motion information beginning with that having the highest priority, for the prediction of motion compensation. At this time, different motion information must be applied to adjacent pixels on the object boundary.
Several approaches to representing such an area boundary have been proposed in fields such as computer graphics, character recognition, object synthesis, etc. For example, such approaches may be chain coding, polygon approximation and spline approximation. However, such approaches do not consider transmission. In this connection, it is difficult to transmit coded shape information of a motion region of each frame because of a high transmission rate.
A contour predictive coding method has been suggested to solve the above problem. A high redundancy is present between shape information of a motion region of the same object in successive images. On the basis of such a characteristic, the contour predictive coding method is adapted to perform motion compensation prediction of a contour and transmit the predicted error to reduce a shape information transmission amount. Shape information of a motion region of the same object on successive frames are very analogous in form and position. As a result, the current shape information can be predicted on the basis of the previous shape information. Further, motion information of a moving object is estimated and motion compensation prediction is performed with respect to shape information according to the estimated motion information. In the case where the motion region extraction and motion information estimation are ideally accurate, the transmission of shape information is not necessary.
However, in the above-mentioned contour predictive coding method, the shape information becomes more important as the transmission rate becomes lower. In this connection, an efficient coding method is required to significantly reduce shape information to obtain a higher coding gain than that of a block-unit coding method requiring no transmission of shape information.
In order to solve the problem with the above-mentioned contour predictive coding method, there have been proposed thresholding operation and contour approximation, which are disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/478,558, filed in the name of Hyundai Electronics Industrious Co, Ltd. The thresholding operation and contour approximation will hereinafter be described briefly.
FIG. 5 is a schematic view illustrating shape information of the previous and current frames and FIG. 6 is a schematic view illustrating a variation when the current frame in FIG. 5 is motion-compensated along a motion region of the previous frame in FIG. 5. Nine isolated error areas appear as shown in FIG. 6. The thresholding operation and contour approximation are performed with respect to each of the predictive error areas. A contour of a predictive error area decided on transmission is transmitted according to a characteristic of the corresponding area. At this time, the contour is transmitted approximately rather than accurately for the reduction of shape information. Therefore, information having no effect on the human's eyesight, or information having no effect on the subjective picture quality is not transmitted to make coding at a low transmission rate possible.
FIGS. 7A to 7C are schematic views illustrating polygon and spline approximations. A contour of a predictive error area decided on transmission is first approximated to a polygon. At this time, the number of vertices of the contour is determined according to the polygon approximation level and a spline is obtained along the vertices.
FIGS. 8A to 8C are schematic views illustrating approximation using a predictive contour. First, an error of the predictive contour is obtained for the approximation of a transmission contour of an error area resulting from motion information estimation, not motion region extraction. Then, the transmission contour is drawn on the frame according to the obtained error. In this case, the spline approximation is not necessary.
On the other hand, a contour approximation method, proposed in HOETTER thesis, is to approximate all contours of a motion region, perform motion compensation prediction of vertices used in the approximation and transmit the resultant error. However, such contour approximation method has a disadvantage in that all the contours are always approximated although all of them are not coded.

Method and apparatus for predictively coding contour of video signal

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.


This invention relates to reducing the amount of thiols (mercaptans) in petroleum streams, specifically, mercaptans above the five carbon molecular weight range.

This invention relates to the removal of thiols (mercaptans) from petroleum streams. Specifically, mercaptans of the five-carbon molecular weight range and above can be removed from petroleum streams. Removal of light thiols (less than C5 molecular weight), an enhancement to base assisted extractive processes such as extractive Merox(copyright), may also be improved.
To prepare fuels, which satisfy regulatory sulfur limits, it is necessary to process the fuels to remove various sulfur species. For example, long chain mercaptans are not native to crude, but are produced during the hydrotreatment of olefin-containing petroleum streams to remove sulfur species such as thiophenes. The byproduct, hydrogen sulfide, from the hydrodesulfurization process reacts with olefins present in the feeds to produce longer chain, higher molecular weight mercaptans. Normally, short chain (less than C5) mercaptans are easily and cheaply removed from such streams by base assisted extractive processes such as extractive Merox(copyright). However, due to the insolubility of the longer chain mercaptans in caustic, the normal extractive process is less effective. In the extractive process, the thiols are extracted from the petroleum stream into an aqueous caustic solution in the absence of air. The aqueous and petroleum streams are then separated. Once isolated from the petroleum stream, the extracted mercaptans in the aqueous stream are then catalytically oxidized with air and converted to disulfides. These disulfides are separated from the aqueous stream and disposed of into a waste stream. The limitation to this process is the solubility of the thiol in aqueous caustic. Thiols with chain lengths beyond five carbons are too oleophilic to be extracted into the aqueous phase and therefore cannot be fully removed by this process.
A large body of art exists in the patent literature describing additives used in conjunction with aqueous base to overcome the limitation due to the insolubility of long-chain mercaptans. All of these additives are added in substantial quantities ( greater than 10 wt % of aqueous phase) in order to modify the xe2x80x9csolvent powerxe2x80x9d of the caustic solution. In more modem terminology, these additives alter the solvent parameters of the aqueous caustic. The additive""s impact on solvent properties are proportional to the quantity added and therefore substantial quantities of additive are required to produce the substantive change required. In the literature these are commonly referred to as xe2x80x9csolubilizing agentsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9csolutizers.xe2x80x9d For example U.S. Pat. No. 2,059,075 describes the addition of xe2x80x9csubstantialxe2x80x9d amount of quaternary ammonium hydroxide to aqueous caustic to enhance mercaptan extraction. Other agents such as propyleneglycol (U.S. Pat. No. 2,183,801), butyleneglycols (U.S. Pat. No. 2,152,166), triethyleneglycol (U.S. Pat. No. 2,212,105) have been cited. In the ethyleneglycol family of additives, species containing greater than six carbons were noted as being xe2x80x9cunsuitablexe2x80x9d. Typically the preferred range of use for these solubilizers is from 25-75 wt % relative to the aqueous caustic. The use of such large quantities of expensive reagents and attendant problems of separation from extracted petroleum, undesirable decomposition and byproducts at operating conditions, etc, in using such large quantities, have precluded their widespread use in commercial practice.
One of these classes of additives, quaternary ammonium halides, has been found to be effective in low concentration for a sweetening process when used in conjunction with oxygen, oxidation catalyst and alkali metal hydroxide (U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,493). Subsequent patents (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,156,641 4,206,079, 4,290,913 and 4,337,147) disclose the use of quaternary ammonium hydroxides in conjunction with a mercaptan oxidizing catalyst as components of solid oxidation catalyst composites to be used in the presence of oxygen for sweetening applications.
Another approach to reducing the sulfur content of petroleum streams has been to conduct bulk solvent extraction on the stream, such as is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,792,332. This approach leads to losses of 20% of the original feed volume, which is unacceptable in many cases.
Other mercaptan removal or destruction processes are available, however, they remove sulfurs at the cost of saturating olefins, thereby decreasing the octane of the fuel being produced. For example, non-selective high-pressure catalytic hydrodesulfurization can be used to hydrogenate all olefins and ultimately reduce mercaptans but at a very high-octane loss.
Thus, what is needed in the art is a process for removing mercaptans, especially xe2x89xa7C5+ mercaptans, while maintaining octane.
The instant process describes a method for removal of mercaptans from petroleum streams comprising the steps of:
(a) extracting said petroleum stream, in the substantial absence of oxygen, with an aqueous medium comprising an aqueous base and a catalytically effective amount of a phase transfer catalyst or an aqueous solution of a catalytically effective amount of a basic phase transfer catalyst to remove said mercaptans from said petroleum stream;
(b) Separating and recovering an aqueous stream containing mercaptide anions and a petroleum stream having a reduced amount of mercaptans, and wherein when said phase transfer catalyst is a quaternary ammonium hydroxide, said quaternary ammonium cation has the formula:
where q=1/w+1/x+1/y+1/z and wherein qxe2x89xa71.0 and wherein, Cw, Cx, Cy, and Cz represent alkyl radicals with carbon chain lengths of w, x, y and z carbon atoms respectively.
The process may also comprise steps of:
(c) subjecting said aqueous stream to oxidation to convert mercaptide anions contained therein to disulfides;
(d) separating said disulfides and recovering an aqueous stream having disulfides removed therefrom;
(e) recycling said aqueous stream to said step (a) wherein said aqueous stream contains said base and said phase transfer catalyst or said basic phase transfer catalyst of said step (a).

Mercaptan removal from petroleum streams (Law950)

ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company


A tubular structure having a transverse magnetic field that varies in eit the longitudinal direction or the lateral direction. In one embodiment, a permanent magnet tubular structure has a working magnetic field space that is partially bounded by pole pieces that reduce the height of the working magnetic field space. A laterally varying magnetic field is formed within the tubular structure. In another embodiment, a permanent magnet tubular structure is comprised of sections made of a permanent magnetic material, each section having a different remanence. The adjacent sections, having different remanence, form a linear array resulting in a longitudinally varying magnetic field gradient within the working space. The present invention has many practical applications such as in magnetic resonance imaging.

Tubular magnetic devices are used in many applications for influencing the travel of a charged particle. Permanent magnetic structures have many advantages over large solenoids and bulky power supplies in creating a magnetic field. Permanent magnet tubular devices have been used to create magnetic fields in such applications as traveling wave tubes, klystrons, wigglers, and twisters. An example of the use of a permanent magnet structure for producing a magnetic field in a hollow cylinder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,778 entitled "Adjustable Twister" issuing to Herbert A. Leupold, the present inventor, on Feb. 19, 1991.
In many applications, such as those in medicine and in particular magnetic resonance imaging techniques, there is an ever increasing need for permanent magnet structures having specialized magnetic fields. While the prior art magnetic structures have provided magnetic fields suitable for their intended purpose, there is a need for other types of magnetic fields that are not readily achievable with known permanent magnet structures.

Tubular structure having transverse magnetic field with gradient

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


In a clamp, a holding portion provided with an opening for inserting a long object (for example, a pipe) such as the pipe and the like, and holding the long object (for example, the pipe); a main body portion disposed leaving a certain space on an outer circumferential face of the holding portion; and a fixed portion fixing to an attached member (for example, a panel) such as the panel and the like, are connected. In the clamp, the fixed portion is fixed to the attached member (for example, the panel), so that the long object (for example, the pipe) is attached to the attached member (for example, the panel). A vibration-absorption portion for reducing a transmission of a vibration provides support between the holding portion and the main body portion. The holding portion, the main body portion, and the vibration-absorption portion are made from the same resin material.

Conventionally, there is known a clamp provided with a grip portion, holding the long object such as the pipe and the like, in one end portion of a circular flange; and a fixed portion, fixing to the attached member such as the panel and the like, in the other end portion of the flange (see paragraphs [0016] and [0017], and FIG. 1 of Patent Document 1).
Between the aforementioned conventional flange and grip portion, there are provided two pieces of curved arms, and by the curved arms, the transmission of the vibration is damped (see paragraph [0018], FIG. 1, FIG. 7, and FIG. 8 of the Patent Document 1).


Chimeric proteins comprising an N-terminal domain derived from an N-terminal nucleotide binding domain of TDP-43 and a C-terminal domain derived from a splicing repressor are described. These proteins may be administered to a subject to treat or prevent disease manifesting TDP-43 proteinopathy such as inclusion body myocytosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

It is well established that ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal adult onset motor neuron disease characterized by selective loss of upper and lower motor neurons, and FTD, a common form of dementia characterized by a progressive deterioration in behavior, personality and/or language, share a common disease spectrum. Transactivation response element DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43, TARDBP), is a heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) thought to provide the neuropathological link to establish such a disease spectrum. In sporadic ALS (˜95%) and FTD-TDP (˜45% of all FTD), TDP-43 clears from the nucleus and forms large ubiquitinated, cytoplasmic inclusions, termed TDP-43 proteinopathy. Missense mutations in TDP-43 are also linked to familial ALS, strongly supporting the idea that TDP-43 proteinopathy is central to the pathogenesis of sporadic disease. Moreover, numerous genetic mutations associated with familial ALS-FTD—VCP, GRN, OPTN, ATXN2, SQSTM1, UBQLN2, PFN1 and especially C9ORF72—result in TDP-43 proteinopathy, suggesting a convergent mechanism of neurodegeneration. Although it is hypothesized that nuclear clearing of TDP-43 reflects a loss-of-function, exactly how this RNA-binding protein contributes to neurodegeneration in ALS-FTD has remained elusive. Identified as an essential gene, Tdp-43 is also required for aspects of neuronal physiology in mice, fruit flies and zebrafish, supporting the notion that nuclear clearance of TDP-43 could underlie neurodegeneration in ALS-FTD. Interestingly, the level of TDP-43 protein is exquisitely maintained in the cell through an autoregulatory mechanism by which TDP-43 binds to the 3′UTR of its own mRNA. Collectively, this body of work underscores the importance of TDP-43 for normal cellular function and supports the notion that TDP-43 dysregulation could be a common final pathway in ALS-FTD. Thus, understanding the biological role of TDP-43 is critical for clarifying the pathogenesis of ALS-FTD and other human diseases that exhibit TDP-43 proteinopathy.
TDP-43's consensus binding motif has been identified as the 'UG' dinucleotide repeat. Using a high-throughput sequencing approach combined with cross-linking immunoprecipitation (HITS-CLIP), direct targets of TDP-43 were identified. Notably, TDP-43 was shown to regulate alternative splicing of a subset of conserved exons by binding to 'UG' rich domains within proximal intronic regions. However, the vast majority of TDP-43 was inexplicably mapped to repetitive elements deep within distal introns, locations where TDP-43 had no clear function. After analyzing the transcriptome of Tdp-43 knockout cells with high-depth RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), the present invention demonstrates that Tdp-43 binds to distal introns to suppress the splicing of cryptic exons, thereby maintaining the integrity of its target mRNAs. Sequence analysis of these cryptic exon sites reveals the presence of adjacent 'UG' dinucleotide rich domains, supporting the notion that these exons are direct targets of Tdp-43. Importantly, these cryptic exons are not conserved, often introduce premature stop codons and are generally disruptive. Moreover, we show that cell death associated with deletion of Tdp-43 is reversed when these non-conserved cryptic exons are suppressed. Finally, we demonstrate that this novel splicing mechanism is conserved in humans and that TDP-43 proteinopathy correlates with the presence of cryptic exons in brains of ALS-FTD. The present invention revealed a physiological function of TDP-43 that is critical for cell survival and strongly support the view that TDP-43 loss-of-function occurs in ALS-FTD. We therefore propose that suppression of TDP-43 associated cryptic exons is a promising therapeutic strategy for attenuating human diseases that exhibit TDP-43 proteinopathy.


A method of providing a mop with surface scrubbing capability, that includes providing a surface scrubbing attachment device, and attaching the device to the mop for scrubbing presentation to the surface.

This invention relates generally to surface scrubbing and mopping, and more particularly to provision of an attachment easily connectable to a mop, to facilitate surface scrubbing.
There is need for improvements in surface scrubbing and mopping whereby the two operations are enabled by one hand manipulable apparatus, such as an elongated mop handle. In particular there is need for an attachment that carries surface scrubbing elements, and which can easily and rapidly be connected to a mop, and preferably to mops of different configurations at the locations of mop connections to handles.


The invention relates to a method, device (MS, BTS, GSN) and telecommunication network for avoiding collisions in time divided two-way radio communication, in which messages are transmitted in a first communication direction in a first time slot and in a second opposite communication direction in a second time slot. In the method, device (MS, BTS, GSN) and telecommunication network according to the invention the first time slot in the first direction of communication is detected and, based upon the detection, such a time slot is selected for the second time slot which will not overlap the first time slot.

Most of the present mobile communication systems offer data and speech services based upon circuit switched technology. In the circuit switched technology the communication connection is maintained during the whole connection although no information is transferred at times. This unnecessarily reserves transfer resources also shared by many other users whereby maintaining a circuit switched connection to one subscriber unnecessarily reserves transfer resources of the other users. Another disadvantage in the circuit switched technology is the burstlike characteristic of the data services. Packet switched information transfer is known for making channel utilization more effective.
As well as the fixed networks shall, the future mobile communication network shall be able to relay both circuit switched and packet switched transfer, e.g. ISDN-transfer (Integrated Services Digital Network) and ATM transfer (Asynchronous Transfer Mode). A protocol based on PRMA (Packet Reservation Multiple Access) for relaying packet switched information is known in mobile communication networks. It is also called "Packet Radio". The PRMA is a technology for multiplexing packet formatted digital speech or data into a time divided carrier wave. In other words, PRMA uses in a radio channel Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) in which transmission and reception take place time divided at predetermined times. The PRMA protocol has been developed for utilizing the discontinuity of voice transfer to support more speech users than the speech channels of a time divided carrier wave provide for. In this case a channel is allocated to a mobile station, e.g. a speech channel when speech is produced and when speech ends the channel is released so that a mobile station does not unnecessarily reserve capacity but the channel is free for use for other purposes, e.g. for transmissions of other mobile stations in the cell. The PRMA protocol is used in cellular mobile communication systems for communication between a mobile station and a base station. The communication link from a mobile station to a base station is referred to as uplink and the communication link from a base station to a mobile station is referred to as downlink.
The known mobile communication systems based upon Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) utilize usually either TDD (Time Division Duplex) or FDD (Frequency Division Duplex). In a system utilizing the TDD both uplink and downlink transfers are effected usually at the same frequency with time division, that is at different times. The transfer of information is effected in the time slot of a so called TDMA frame, meaning that a mobile station is transmitting in the uplink in e.g. one time slot and the base station is transmitting in the downlink in another time slot. In several communication systems based upon circuit switching e.g. time division is realized by allocating a certain time slot of a frame to a certain mobile station for both uplink and downlink communication and by delaying the uplink frame e.g. by a few time slots compared with the downlink frame, resulting in the same time slots in the uplink frame and the downlink frame not overlapping each other. In this kind of system uplink and downlink communication are dependent on each other, meaning that time slots for a mobile station are allocated in pairs for uplink and downlink, in other words always simultaneously both the transmission and the reception slot. Thus it can be ensured that no collisions occur between uplink and downlink transmissions. On the other hand this kind of procedure is inefficient utilization of resources. If, in addition to this, allocating or reserving of time slots for a certain mobile station is symmetric, it means that a mobile station transmits and receives in equally many time slots in the uplink and in the downlink.
On the other hand, systems are known, such as the system based upon the PRMA protocol and the GSM GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) which is described in more detail later, in which the uplink and downlink transmissions are independent of each other, meaning that a mobile station is allocated separately a transmission time slot for uplink communication and separately a reception time slot for downlink communication, completely independent of each other.
In a system utilizing the above mentioned Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) the uplink and downlink transfers are effected at different frequencies. In a system of this kind transmission and reception can take place simultaneously. On the other hand, there are systems, such as GSM, which utilize both time division and frequency division, meaning that even if transmission and reception take place at different frequencies they do not occur simultaneously.
A problem in the systems, the uplink and downlink transmissions of which are independent of each other, are collisions, meaning that the uplink and downlink transmissions overlap. In systems utilizing independent uplink and downlink transmissions the base station does not know which mobile station is transmitting in the uplink simultaneously when the base station should transmit a packet in the downlink. This kind of a situation is presented in FIG. 1 in which downlink and uplink transmissions are independent of each other and in the figure in the center TDMA frame the uplink and downlink have simultaneous communication to and from the same mobile station, resulting in a collision and at least one of the transmissions is lost. For example, in the above described packet radio system which utilizes uplink and downlink transmissions independent of each other, the packets are formed at moments almost impossible to predict. Likewise, the packets sent by the base station may arrive to the mobile station completely unpredictably. In this case the uplink and downlink transmissions can collide resulting in the loss of data to at least one direction. Collisions may occur between different data flows or between the packets of the same connection, if e.g. a mobile station acknowledges the previous transmission, whereby the acknowledgement in the uplink and the next transmission in the downlink may collide. There is a method for avoiding this kind of collisions, in which a mobile station after each of its transmissions waits for the acknowledgement from the base station before its next transmission. However, it is possible that during the next uplink transmission of the mobile station there is a simultaneous transmission from the base station to the mobile station in the downlink. Another alternative to avoid collisions would be to equip a mobile station with two transceivers. However, this is not desirable because of cost and size. A base station is normally equipped with several transceivers ant that is not a problem, but the real problem lies with mobile stations equipped with one transceiver, which, because of the solution used, cannot send and receive completely simultaneously and are thus incapable of a full-duplex connection.

Method, device and communication network for avoiding collisions in radio communication


A capacitor can prevent a problem of step coverage in semiconductor device, caused by a thickness of an insulator film and an upper metal film included a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor, between the MIM capacitor region and its circumferential region. A capacitor in a semiconductor device includes a first metal film provided with a recess having a predetermined depth over a semiconductor substrate. An insulator film and a second metal film may be formed in the recess with a thickness corresponding to a depth of the recess. The insulator and second metal films are disconnected from an inner lateral side of the recess. A dielectric film including a plurality of plugs is in contact with the first and second metal films and the insulator film. A plurality of metal electrodes is in contact with the plugs over the dielectric film.

Example FIGS. 1A to 1D are cross sectional views explaining a related method of manufacturing a MIM (metal-insulator-metal) capacitor of a semiconductor device. As shown in example FIG. 1A, a lower metal film (lower capacitor electrode) 11, an insulator film 12 and an upper metal film (upper capacitor electrode) 13 are sequentially formed over a semiconductor substrate 1. Then, as shown in example FIG. 1B, a photoresist material is coated onto the upper metal film (upper capacitor electrode) 13, and the coated photoresist material is patterned so as to form a first photoresist pattern 14.
By performing an etching process using the first photoresist pattern 14 as a mask, the upper metal film 13 and the insulator film 12 are etched selectively. Through the selective etching process, an upper metal film pattern (upper capacitor electrode) 13a and an insulator film pattern 12a are formed, thereby completing an MIM (metal-insulator-metal) capacitor.
As shown in example FIG. 1C, etching and cleaning steps are performed to remove the first photoresist pattern 14. After that, a dielectric film 16 is formed over an entire surface of the semiconductor substrate 1 including the upper metal film pattern 13a. To form contact holes 18 in the dielectric film 16, a photoresist material is coated and patterned, thereby forming a second photoresist pattern 17. Through an etching process using the second photoresist pattern 17 as a mask, the dielectric film 16 is etched selectively, thereby forming the contact holes 18 to open predetermined portions of the lower metal film 11 and the upper metal film 13a.
After removing the second photoresist pattern 17 by etching and cleaning, as shown in example FIG. 1D, a conductive film is deposited over the dielectric film pattern 16 so that the contact holes 18 are filled by the conductive film. Plugs 19, formed by the conductive film, are in contact with the lower metal film 11 and the upper metal film pattern 13a. After that, a metal film is deposited over the dielectric film pattern 16. The deposited metal film is patterned to thereby form metal electrodes 20 which contact the plugs 19. A nitride film is deposited over the metal electrodes 20 and selectively patterned, thereby forming a nitride film pattern 21 with openings for the metal electrodes 20.
The semiconductor device manufactured by the aforementioned method may have a problem of step coverage between an MIM capacitor region and its circumferential region. The problem may occur when depositing the dielectric film 16, due to the thickness of the insulator film 12a and the upper metal film (upper capacitor electrode) 13a included in the MIM capacitor. Due to the step coverage between the MIM capacitor region and its circumferential region, a DOF (Depth of Focus) margin becomes insufficient, creating a problem of an imprecise pattern. Also, an entirely uneven surface of a wafer causes a limitation in flatness achievable in a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process.

Semiconductor capacitor and manufacturing method


A cigar cooler is disclosed that includes a housing having an upper surface with a pair of open channels each sized to receive a cigar. The housing includes an open central region for receiving a cooling medium such as ice or a frozen gel. During use, the cigar is placed in an open channel between inhalations to reduce the temperature of the cigar.

It has been known to cool cigars prior to lighting them up. However, such pre-cooling is not advisable because it causes the cigar to lose flavor, texture and softness. Such pre-cooling may even crack the cigar wrapper.
The subject invention relates to cooling a cigar during the process of smoking the cigar. Cigars get hot when they are smoked. Even a cigar that has been pre-cooled will get hot very quickly, particularly cigars with large diameters. There is an interest in keeping the temperature of the cigar at about 70 degrees Fahrenheit while smoking the cigar. Keeping the cigar cool maintains the flavors and leads to a more pleasurable experience.


At least one orifice is added to an AC ionizer with nozzles and ionizing electrodes that are used to remove static charge. The orifice is placed in a location where electrostatic forces are weak and where gas ions can be easily extracted from the ionizer. Ionizer effectiveness is enhanced by recovering gas ions that are normally trapped between the nozzles and under a portion of the ionizer from which the nozzles project. Without the orifice properly positioned, the trapped gas ions are lost by recombination or grounding. With the orifice positioned in an area of weak electrostatic forces, more gas ions are available for discharging the charged object. The combined air consumption of nozzles plus at least one orifice is the same or less than nozzles alone would consume for a given discharge time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an alternating current (AC) ionizer that removes or minimizes static charge from a charged object selected for static charge removal. More particularly, the present invention relates to an AC ionizer that uses at least one flowing gas to enhance the static neutralization of the charged object.
2. Description of Related Art
It is generally known that AC ionizers, sometimes referred to as "AC static neutralizers", remove static charge by ionizing gas molecules, and delivering these ionized gas molecules, named gas ions, to a charged object. These gas ions are typically created by applying a high voltage to ionizing electrodes, by releasing nuclear sub-atomic particles, or by ionizing photon radiation. The location in which these gas ions are created is referred to as an ionizing source. Positive gas ions neutralize negative static charges, and negative gas ions neutralize positive static charges.
Delivering gas ions to a charged object is a factor in the static charge removal effectiveness of an AC ionizer because only the gas ions that reach the charged object produce useful charge removal, hereinafter "useful gas ions". Static charge removal is also sometimes referred to as "static charge neutralization". There are at least two mechanisms responsible for gas ion loss: recombination and grounding. Both recombination and grounding losses are more probable when gas ions are held to the ionizer by strong electrostatic forces.
One approach for reducing the effects of recombination and grounding includes using at least one nozzle with flowing air or gas with an AC ionizer, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,807,044. Recombination is minimized because the flowing gas exiting a nozzle dilutes the gas ions before the positive ions and negative ions are mixed. Upon mixing, the lower gas ion density results in a lower recombination rate. In addition, the flowing gas from the nozzle propels the gas ions toward a charged object targeted for neutralization, which reduces the transport time and conserves the ions. Additionally, a nozzle can be oriented to direct generated gas ions toward the charged object, reducing the number of gas ions lost from grounding. Finally, some air nozzle geometries protect the ionizing electrodes from impurities in the environment.
For example, one type of AC ionizer places an ionizing electrode inside a nozzle. High purity air, nitrogen, or other non-reactive gas flows through each nozzle and along the ionizing electrode. This combination of nozzle and flowing gas partially protects the ionizing electrode from impurities in the environment, which reduces the cleaning frequency of ionizing electrodes, reducing the cost of maintenance and ownership. Moreover, ion balance is maximized because less buildup occurs on the ionizing electrode tips.
Although combining nozzles with an AC ionizer enhances the neutralization efficiency of the AC ionizer, nozzles alone miss the opportunity for even better AC ionizer performance. Consequently, a need exists for enhancing the performance of an AC static neutralizer that employs at least one nozzle.


A system and method provide digital online surveys and testing using interactive multi-media content with an option to enable and disable Human Interaction Proof (HIP) capabilities. The system uses random interactivity with multi-media content as HIP validation and subsequently make the user take a test or online survey. The system associates successful completion of tests to rewards. The rewards are awarded by publishers or stakeholders wanting to conduct the survey or test or by third party affiliates that are part of the exchange connecting the content provider and the advertiser wishing to conduct the test, with the option to enable and disable HIP capabilities. The system segments such tests and surveys across demographics. The system captures analytics as part of HIP along with testing and survey results. Such combined analytics have demographics as different dimensions. The system uses haptic technology for HIP and to complete the test or survey.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to the field of digital surveys and testing methods. More specifically, this invention relates to creating and implementing scalable and effective surveys and testing methods, each with human interaction proof (HIP) capabilities.
2. Description of the Related Art
CAPTCHAs
The growth of Internet usage across different interfaces and devices has led to widespread adoption across many demographics. The number of websites is ever increasing and more financial transactions take place on the Internet. Websites are widely used to provide users with a convenient way to order products, e.g. tickets, to access personal account information, to open new email accounts, to add content to existing content such as comments on blogs, to upload multi-media content on websites, or to access other services. These systems are not only convenient to website owners as well as to their users, but they also reduce overall costs.
Unfortunately, such websites and associated systems may also provide a loophole through which hackers may obtain access to such websites or associated systems. For example, such hackers may access personal or other restricted data, disrupt services, poison existing content with irrelevant information declining the value of existing content, consume all the resources of the website for malicious activities, and distribute worms or spam. Such undesirable activity is commonly accomplished through the use of automated bots, scripts, and other malicious computer programs.
The presence and activities of such undesirable computer programs have led to the development of Human Interaction Proof (HIP) technology. HIP capabilities include challenges designed to be solved by humans. For example, typically HIP challenges may be easier for humans to solve, but difficult enough to make the cost of developing or processing a malicious bot or script to break it, uneconomical and challenging.
One widely used form of HIP technology is a Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA). For purposes of understanding herein, CAPTCHA technology is a challenge-response process or system that attempts to ensure the response is from a human being. CAPTCHA usage has been found to help isolate human traffic from malicious bot or script traffic.
As well, it has been found that CAPTCHAs are fast becoming pervasive and useful across the Internet as sites move towards supporting collaborative, user-generated content, making the need for distinguishing genuine, human users from bots and scripts, as well as maintaining user privacy more critical.
Online, Digital Tests and Surveys
Online surveys have been a great resource for understanding consumer behavior, product pricing, product placement, market acceptance, etc. Some of such surveys are sent to private groups through e-mail or other type of digital messaging services. As well, some such surveys are being provisioned in large scale. For example, high traffic websites may host surveys to attract large amounts of attention.
Some current problems with such online surveys are that the surveys may be too long and may inadvertently attract less user attention than intended. As well, typically, users are not very engaged with survey challenges. Further, with current digital survey techniques, survey owners or presenters do not have options available for obtaining attention from users from different demographic and geographical sources. Further, trusting survey results may be quite challenging due to the presence and activities of the numerous Internet bots that attack such surveys, thereby disturbing or contaminating survey results.
Presently, online, digital testing may be deployed using similar approaches as described above. For example, one of the interesting types of testing is referred to as AB testing. For purposes of understanding herein, AB testing a type of testing that is used for comparing two items with the objective of help in decision-making. AB testing has been found to be very important in many areas such as branding, banner ads, marketing messages, promotion messages, launching new products, etc. AB testing also may be about randomly showing users participating in any user workflow on a particular website versions of a digital media content being tested, such as for example company logos, ads, models in ads, e.g. which model looks good in a particular costume to be on the cover of a major magazine, webpages, marketing analytics, ringtones, landing pages of websites, etc.

System and method for creating and implementing scalable and effective surveys and testing methods with human interaction proof (HIP) capabilities


A system and method for determining the attitude of a platform is provided. The method includes: (a) Searching and scanning for one or more GPS satellite(s) to determine initial platform position; wherein a single directionally steered antenna scans for the GPS/GNSS satellite; (b) pointing and scanning the antenna to GPS/GNSS satellite to determine a first angular measurement of a direction of a GPS/GNSS signal; (c) measuring carrier to noise ratio of the GPS/GNSS satellite; (d) dithering the single directionally steered antenna to obtain an angular measurement relative to an antenna pattern bore-sight reference; (e) repeating steps (b)-(d) to determine a second angular measurement of the direction of a second GPS signal; (f) determining the attitude error of the platform using the first and second angular measurements; (g) updating the platform position and attitude.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to attitude determination systems, and more particularly, to an attitude determination method and system using a single directionally steered antenna and Global Navigation Satellite Systems to determine the attitude of a platform vehicle.
2. Background of the Invention
An attitude determination system is used to estimate the attitude of a platform vehicle, such as a satellite, an aircraft or a ground vehicle. Typically, the attitude determination system references a platform vehicle coordinate system relative to a known reference object in space, such as the earth, the sun satellites, stars or planets, to determine the orientation of the platform relative to a second coordinate system in which in the direction to the object is known (e.g., antenna boresight). The object's known location could be in either inertial or moving reference frame coordinates. To estimate the platform's attitude in the inertial frame, the reference object location or direction in the inertial frame is used.
Conventional methods for estimating the attitude of a platform vehicle have drawbacks. One such method uses an optical payload pointing system that utilizes stars as inertial references. This method is undesirable because optical systems are expensive and require processing to generate the attitude.
Another method utilizes a Global Positioning System (GPS)/Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver system and electro-optical sensors to make angular direction measurements to the GPS/GNSS satellites in order to provide 3-axis attitude estimates. This method is undesirable because optical systems are expensive and require processing to generate the attitude.
Yet another method utilizes phase difference information of a separated multi-patch antenna system. By measuring differential phase between two antennas, the platform vehicle attitude can be estimated. This method requires several multi-patch antennas and large antenna baselines for high precision making the system bulky and heavy. This method also suffers with cycle ambiguity resolution issues where the number of wavelengths between a given pair of antennas needs to be correctly resolved first before the attitude determination processing can start.
In view of the above, what is needed is a cost-effective attitude determination system to determine the attitude of a platform vehicle.

Method and system for attitude determination of a platform using global navigation satellite system and a steered antenna