An associated-information storage unit stores a name of associated information and a display position in association with each other. An example storage unit stores a semantic class, an example in a source language, and an example in a target language in association with each other. A dictionary storage unit stores the name of associated information and the semantic class in association with each other. An acquiring unit acquires the name of the associated information corresponding to the display position of the selected associated information from the associated-information storage unit, and acquires a semantic class corresponding to the acquired name of the associated information from the dictionary storage unit. A translation unit acquires an example in the target language corresponding to the acquired semantic class and a speech recognition result from the example storage unit, thereby translating the recognition result.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for translating input speech to synthesize and output the translated speech, thereby enabling communication by speech between people who use different languages as their native languages, and to a computer program product for executing the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has been high demand for implementation of a speech translation apparatus that supports communication between people who use different languages as their native languages. Such a speech translation apparatus basically uses a unit that recognizes speech, a unit that translates a character string obtained as a result of speech recognition, and a unit that synthesizes the character string obtained as a result of translation by speech, and can be constituted by sequentially executing a speech recognition process, a translation process, and a speech synthesis process.
A speech translation system that recognizes speech spoken by a user to output character information has been already put to practical use in a format of packaged software or the like. Further, a machine translation system using written words (text) as an input has already been put to practical use similarly in the format of package software or the like. A speech synthesis system has already been put to practical use, and by appropriately using the software, a speech translation apparatus can be realized.
In realizing speech translation, various speech recognition methods and machine translation methods can be used. Regardless of employing any method, improvements on accuracy of speech recognition and machine translation have been major issues.
For example, in example-based machine translation in which translation is performed by using bilingual corpus of source language and target language, all texts cannot be prepared as examples, and as the number of examples increases, texts to be searched relative to an input text increase. Therefore, there is a problem in that user's time and labor are required for selecting an appropriate text.
Further, because the contents of communication by the speech translation apparatus are diversified, to translate the contents by speech accurately, speech recognition, machine translation, and speech synthesis relative to large-scale vocabularies are required. As for words in categories of common nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, the numbers thereof are limited to some extent, and therefore these words can be registered in advance in a dictionary used for speech recognition, machine translation, and speech synthesis. However, proper nouns such as place names, person's names, cuisine names, store's names, and company names are created almost daily, and all proper nouns cannot be registered in the dictionary in general.
Thus, there are occasions, as experienced in overseas travel, in which a tourist himself needs to speak proper nouns such as place names and store's names in the country or area in the native language, due to no registration of appropriate words for translation in the dictionary. However, in the case of a tourist whose phonetic system is largely different from the language of the country he is traveling, it is difficult to accurately pronounce the words as the native language, and such a situation frequently occurs that the pronounced proper noun cannot be understood.
As the simplest solution to this problem, by using a mobile terminal having a display function of travel guide information and map information to point a specific part in the travel guide information or map information displayed on a display of the mobile terminal, the user can indicate a desired place.
However, the intention of the user cannot be sufficiently communicated only by indicating a place or a place name. For example, it cannot be communicated only by indicating certain facilities whether the user wishes to go to the facilities, or the user wishes to confirm how long it takes to go there, what kind of event they are having now, or how much it costs to go there.
Therefore, a method can be considered in which a display unit that displays the travel guide information and the map information, a unit that indicates a place name or a facility name from the presented information, and a speech translation unit are combined, and translated spoken sound of the user is output to communicate the user's intention.
As a technique involved with this method, such a technique has been proposed that a speech recognizing unit and a map display unit are included, to recognize a pointing operation performed by the user on a map simultaneously with speech recognition, and a semantic structure of a text in which a demonstrative pronoun included in the spoken text is replaced by position information of a specific map is output based on timewise relation between these (for example, see JP-A H09-114634 (KOKAI)).
However, according to the method disclosed in JP-A H09-114634 (KOKAI), the accuracy of speech recognition can be improved by analyzing semantic representation including the demonstrative pronoun, referring to the content instructed by the user. However, there is a problem in that the machine translation accuracy cannot be improved by using the instructed content.

Apparatus and method for translating input speech sentences in accordance with information obtained from a pointing device


A mobile belt support car for a conveyor system having an extensible conveyor belt which includes a troughing strand and a return strand. Each car of a mobile support structure includes a longitudinal frame having first and second opposite axial ends, first and second horizontally pivoting joints provided respectively at the first and second opposite axial ends of the longitudinal frame, a transverse beam fixedly connected to the longitudinal frame and having first and second opposite axial ends, first and second wheels supported respectively at the first and second opposite axial ends of the transverse beam, and a first idler frame assembly mounted on the longitudinal frame and including an upper cantilevered beam, a lower cantilevered beam, the first and second cantilevered beams extending towards the extensible conveyor belt, and upper rollers, mounted on the upper cantilevered beam, for supporting the troughing strand of the extensible conveyor belt.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to underground mining and, more specifically, to a mobile belt support structure for an extendable conveyor belt used in a continuous mining operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the use of extensible conveyors in mining, it is usual to employ some type of collapsible belt conveyor structure in the extensible reach portion of the conveyor which may be floor mounted on individual sliding bases or carried on a stand carrier.
Mining techniques have evolved over the past several years to require larger and larger amounts of conveyor belt extensibility in mining applications, such as, for example, mining of chevron panels, as shown in FIG. 14, in which floor mounted slidable structures 1, as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16, can be conveniently used in the conveyor entry extensible reach portion 2 of an extensible conveyor system 3 for advancing or retreating motions of the angle station 4. A second extensible reach portion 5 of the system 3 is used to enter panel wing rooms with the continuous mining machine 6, to which a trailing conveyor tail unit 7 is attached. At the opposite end of the system, a belt storage magazine 8 supplies additional belting as the system is extended, while a conveyor drive 9 provides a driving force for the belt. Additionally, a trunk conveyor 10 can be used to remove material conveyed by the extensible conveyor system.
The slidable structure 1 shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 each include slidable bases 11, vertical supports 12 and troughing strand rollers 13. While these are adequate for use in the first extensible reach 2, a series of A-frame structures 14 mounted on a stand carrier 15, as shown in FIG. 17, can be more conveniently used when entering and mining the panel wing rooms which are the second extensible reach portion 5 of the conveyor. The stand carrier 15 and A-frame structures 14 are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,878.
A continuous haulage system such as used in this type of mining may conveniently use two hundred feet of such slidable structure 1 in the conveyor entry portion and one thousand feet or more of such A-frame structures 14 on a stand carrier 15 in the wing portions of the panel layout. This total amount of extensibility has been uncommon previously in the mining industry.
One disadvantage of the slidable conveyor structure has been that the maximum telescopicity ratio, or ratio of extended length to collapsed length, has a practical limitation of about 20:1. Also, total frictional drag for advancing a group of such stands becomes progressively higher as more stands are used. Retreating of such stands becomes difficult when more than twenty are used in one group, since the flexibility of the connections between the stands makes the group more difficult to steer when being pushed by the tail pulley structure of the extensible conveyor.
Some of these disadvantages have been addressed by the design of the A-frame stand and stand carrier combination, in which a telescopicity ratio of up to 50:1 is possible in practical design configurations. Since the stands are carried rather than being pulled or pushed on the ground, many of the disadvantages of the slidable structure have been avoided such as to make practical the carrying of up to one thousand feet or more of collapsed conveyor structure.
The A-frame structure is not well suited to low seam applications, however, since it typically requires vertical heights of several feet to enable collapse of the structure. It is also relatively light in construction and, thereby, subject to damage if insufficient care is taken when retreating the stand carrier to collect the structure onto its carrying arms.
For these reasons, neither of the above-noted types of conveyor structure will be suitable for a new type of mining application known as "punch mining" or "highwall mining", in which a remotely operated and guided mining machine may be required to advance one thousand feet or more into a thin coal seam for example, from a highwall bench in an open pit mine or in a contour-mining situation.

Conveyor system and method employing a mobile belt support structure


This invention is an apparatus for ophthalmic surgery comprising a laser source (52) that generates a laser beam (54); a scanner (56) comprising an input for said laser beam, and an output of a spatially scanned laser beam (54); controlling circuitry that drives said scanner (56) to remove tissue in a desired pattern on the eye (40); a microscope (58) for viewing said tissue removal; and a beam combiner (70) comprising a first input for a line of sight of said microscope (58) and second input for said spatially scanned beam (54).

Glaucoma is an optical neuropathy associated with increased intraocular pressure. The mechanism of the disease is not fully understood. However, the most effective therapy appears to be reducing the intraocular pressure, for example using medication or implants. Further damage to the optic nerve is thus prevented or reduced.
One procedure that has been suggested is non-penetrating trabeculectomy, in which a portion of the sclera overlying the Schlemm's canal is removed, allowing aqueous humor to leave the eye. It is desirable to remove only part of the thickness of the sclera, preventing penetration into the eye. However, this procedure is difficult to perform with a knife.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,641 to O'Donnell, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes using an excimer laser to ablate the sclera overlying the Schlemm's canal and the trabecular meshwork. The laser spot size and treatment area are not described. This patent states that when a sufficient amount of the corneoscleral bed is removed, aqueous humor comes through the remaining ultra-thin Schlemm's canal and trabecular meshwork and the energy of the laser is absorbed by the out-flowing humor, creating a self-regulating end point.
However, even though many years have passed since this patent was issued, the method taught in the patent has not found wide-spread use, in spite of a great need in the art of treating Glaucoma, a disease for which there is no completely satisfactory treatment.


To measure loaded weight in respective work statuses of a dump truck. The loaded weight of a dump truck 11 is calculated and stored at prescribed time intervals. It is judged whether or not the dump truck 11 has transferred to a transporting status (S31-S33), and if it has transferred to a transporting status (S31: YES, S32: YES, S33: YES), then the transported weight G1 at the end of loading and immediately before transition to the transporting status is calculated and stored (S34). The transported weight G2 during the period in which the truck is in the transporting status is also calculated and stored (S35). If the truck has transferred from the transporting status to an unloading status (S36: YES), then the transported weight G3 before unloading is calculated and stored (S37). A transported weight selected from these respective transported weights G1-G3 is read out and output to a display device, or the like (S38, S39). Thereby, it is possible to measure the transported weight at a previously established plurality of measurement timings.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a loaded weight measurement method and loaded weight measurement device for a dump truck.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method is known in the prior art (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 61-34425) in which the weight of cargo is measured by detecting the load applied respectively to the front wheels and the rear wheels of a dump truck and correcting these detected loads on the basis of the angle of inclination of the vehicle and the center of gravity of the vehicle.
According to the prior art technology described in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 61-34425, it is possible to determine the weight of a cargo simply by detecting the loads applied respectively to the front wheels and rear wheels. However, in this prior art technology, no consideration is given to the timing at which the loaded weight is measured, and hence the measurement timing is fixed.
A dump truck is used repeatedly to transport a cargo, such as sand, in a construction site or an excavation site, for example. The cargo loaded into the dump truck at the loading point is conveyed to a prescribed position by the dump truck, where it is then unloaded. When it has finished unloading, the dump truck returns to the loading point and is again loaded with cargo.
The dump truck repeats a work cycle of this kind. In order to ascertain the state of progress of the work or the operating efficiency of the dump truck, it is necessary to measure the weight of cargo transported by the dump truck (the transported weight) in each work cycle. In the present specification, the weight of the cargo transported by the dump truck is called the "transported weight", in order to distinguish it from the loaded weight, which is a momentary measurement value.
In order to ascertain the state of progress of the work accurately, it is desirable that the transported weight is measured under uniform conditions every day. Therefore, it is possible to measure the transported weight in a relatively stable fashion if measurement is made during transportation when the dump truck is traveling, rather than in other circumstances. Consequently, in the prior art, the transported weight is measured only during travel of the dump truck (during transportation of the cargo).
However, there is no guarantee that the state is always stable during transportation, and depending on the work site, there may be cases where the truck has to travel along very rough roads having an extremely uneven road surface. When a truck is traveling along rough roads of this kind, the vehicle body sways significantly, and it is difficult to measure the transported weight accurately.
In particular, articulated type dump trucks which have swingably coupled front and rear vehicle bodies are often used in sites having rough terrain, such as mines, and hence they are subject to severe swaying during travel. Therefore, cases may arise where the transported weight cannot be measured accurately during travel.

Loaded weight measurement method and loaded weight measurement device for dump truck


A substrate is treated by means of at least one pulse of a luminous flux of determined wavelength. The substrate comprises an embedded layer that absorbs the luminous flux independently of the temperature. The embedded layer is interleaved between a first treatment layer and a second treatment layer. The first treatment layer has a coefficient of absorption of luminous flux that is low at ambient temperature and rises as the temperature rises. The luminous flux may be applied in several places of a surface of the first layer to heat regions of the embedded layer and generate a propagating thermal front in the first layer opposite the heated regions of the embedded layer, which generate constraints within the second layer.

The process well known under the registered trade mark "SMARTCUT®" is a widely used transfer technique, which generally consists of implanting a dose of atomic or ionic species in a donor substrate, to create therein an embrittlement zone at a determined depth, delimiting a thin layer to be transferred, adhering the donor substrate on a support substrate or receiver substrate and prompting fracturing of the donor substrate at the level of the embrittlement zone, causing the detachment of the thin layer adhering to the receiver substrate.
Such a process is generally satisfactory, yet it does require high doses of atomic species, with inevitable repercussions on the overall cost of execution.
There is still a need, therefore, to employ another process for treating a piece or a substrate, which finally detaches thin layers or thick layers of a substrate, efficiently, cleanly and using a process that is easy to execute.
Also, the article "Laser heating of thick layers through the backwards, self-sustained propagation of a steep and steady state thermal front," by Monsieur Michel Bruel (2009), as well as French Patent Application Serial No. 07 57986, describe an at least local heating process of a plate comprising at least one layer to be heated and a sub-layer.
In these documents, the sub-layer has the particular feature of being absorbent vis-à-vis a luminous flux of predetermined wavelength, this absorption occurring independently of temperature conditions.
Also, the layer to be heated has, as such, the particular feature of having a coefficient of absorption of the luminous flux, which is low at ambient temperature and increases as this temperature rises.
If this layer to be heated is irradiated by means of the luminous radiation, the absorbent sub-layer can then be heated by passing through the layer to be heated, which is to some degree transparent to a light beam.
In this way, the interface, which separates the layer to be heated, and the sub-layer is heated and then heats the layers that are adjacent to it, which will, in turn, make them absorbent, such that the layers most distant from the absorbent layer will gradually become more and more absorbent.
This produces a "thermal front" that progresses quickly, very homogeneously and substantially adiabatically.
This technique, therefore, rapidly heats localized regions of a substrate to considerable depths, which would be heated improperly only if a thermal treatment was undertaken where the sole intervening mechanism would be thermal diffusion, and at the end of a particularly long heating period.
It was realized that it was possible to make use of such a technique to treat such a substrate so as to embrittle it. In some circumstances, this embrittlement could cause detachment of a layer of interest.
The thickness of such a layer, by way of non-limiting example as per the relevant application, can typically be in the range of 0.5-50 micrometers.

Process for treating a substrate using a luminous flux of determined wavelength, and corresponding substrate


It is an object of the present invention to provide a fixing apparatus with which the movement of heat to the fixing belt during warm-up is suppressed, and the time it takes for the heating roller temperature to rise can be shortened, by reducing the contact surface area between the fixing belt and the heating roller, and an image formation apparatus that makes use of this fixing apparatus, and a toner used therein. A separation member provided on the inside of the fixing belt forms a pair with a tension roller, and a switching device for switching the positions thereof switches the positions when a set temperature is detected by temperature sensing device installed on the heating roller, so that the contact surface area of the fixing belt on the heating roller is different during warm-up and during fixing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image formation apparatus such as a copier, fax machine, or printer, and more particularly relates to a fixing apparatus that melts and solidifies toner on a recording medium such as recording paper or OHP film.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the fixing step with this type of image formation apparatus, a toner image on a recording medium that has been transferred from a photosensitive member (latent image support) is fixed on a recording medium, and this is an essential step in which, for example, toner is put in a molten state by heating and pressing, and the toner is made to permeate and fuse to transfer paper, a resin sheet, or another such recording medium in this molten state. Fixing methods include contact fixing methods in which the members on the heat source side are in direct contact with the toner (what is being fixed), and non-contact methods which involve atmospheric heating by ultraviolet rays or inductive heating. Typical contact fixing methods are heat roller fixing methods and belt fixing methods. With the fixing apparatus used in all of these contact methods, a nip is formed at a location where there is contact with the roller and/or belt, the recording medium is conveyed so as to be heated and pressed in this nip, and this fixes the toner to the recording medium. The heating and pressing are accomplished by bringing the toner into direct contact with a heated belt or a fixing roller equipped with an internal heat source such as a halogen lamp or a nichrome wire, thereby fixing the toner. With this fixing apparatus, the heat source is managed by a temperature sensor provided to the roller or belt surface so that the surface is kept at a specific temperature, and this stabilizes the amount of heat supplied to the sheet passing through the nip.
There has been demand in recent years for lower energy consumption and shorter standby times. However, if the temperature during standby is lowered, it takes longer for warm-up, which is how long it takes for the fixing apparatus to rise to the temperature at which fixing is possible, and this lowers fixing efficiency. Consequently, in an effort to reduce the thermal capacity of a fixing apparatus, fixing belts have come to be used rather than a fixing roller. Switching to a fixing belt speeds up the rise in temperature of the fixing apparatus, which shortens the warm-up time and helps conserve energy. With a fixing apparatus equipped with a fixing belt, the heating roller is warmed by heat generated from a heater or the like, and this heat is transmitted to the belt, which supplies heat to the nip where the unfixed toner image is fixed.
When a thin heating roller is used in order to speed up the warm-up process, heat moves to the belt and ends up being radiated while the heating roller is in the course of reaching its set temperature, and this makes it take longer for the heating roller to reach its set temperature.
In view of this, with the prior art disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H6-148856, this movement of heat is curbed by loosening the temperature of the belt on the heating roller. When the tension is loosened, though, a few seconds are lost when the tension is reapplied, so despite the effort to minimize the excess radiation of heat, time is spent reapplying tension, so at present there is little merit to accelerating the warm-up process.
Technologies relating to the present invention are (also) disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications 2001-20966 and 2002-251089.

Fixing apparatus and image formation apparatus using same


The present disclosure discloses a DC-DC converter and a DC-DC converter system thereof. The DC-DC converter includes: a power conversion circuit; and a current detection circuit for detecting current flowing into or flowing out of the power conversion circuit, which includes: an inductor coupled to the power conversion circuit; a detection module including an induction winding and an impedance component electrically connected in series, the detection module and the inductor being connected in parallel; and an output module coupled to two ends of the impedance component for generating a current detection signal reflecting the current flowing into or flowing out of the power conversion circuit.

In the power supply system, the current detection technology is widely applied to achieve the functions such as current control, current protection, parallel current sharing and current monitoring, so it is very important to obtain a precise current detection result. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a current detection circuit in the related art. As shown in FIG. 1, the current detection circuit 12 includes an output inductor L, a sampling resistor R and a differential amplifier 122. The output inductor L and the sampling resistor R are respectively coupled to a positive pole 13 and a negative pole 14 of the power conversion circuit 11, and the power conversion circuit 11 also has an input voltage Vin and an output voltage VO. Input terminals of the differential amplifier 122 are connected in parallel to two ends of the resistor R so as to amplify a current signal at the two ends of the sampling resistor R to obtain a current detection signal. In particular, through measuring the voltage at the two ends of the sampling resistor R and using the formula I=V/R, the magnitude of the current signal at the two ends of the sampling resistor R can be obtained, and thus the magnitude of the current detection signal may be obtained.
Due to sampling current by a sampling resistor with high precise, in the above method, the sampled values are relatively stable since the resistor having low temperature coefficient can be selected to avoid the effects of the temperature drift. However, this method has the following deficiencies: the loss of the sampling resistor is large when the current flowing through the sampling resistor is relatively large, and the heat dissipation and the occupied volume should also be considered during the design process of the circuit.
FIG. 2 is a schematic circuit diagram of another DC-DC converter in the related art. As shown in FIG. 2, the current detection circuit 12 includes an output inductor 121, a sampling resistor R, a sampling capacitor C and a differential amplifier 122. The output inductor 121 includes an inductor L and an equivalent series resistor R1 of the inductor. A sampling resistor R and a sampling capacitor C are connected in series, and then connected to the output inductor 121 in parallel. Input terminals of the differential amplifier 122 are connected in parallel to two ends of the capacitor C. The output inductor 121, the sampling resistor R and the sampling capacitor C are connected to an output side of the power conversion circuit 11, and the power conversion circuit 11 also has an input voltage Vin (the input terminals are marked as 13 and 14, respectively) and an output voltage VO.
As shown in FIG. 2, if the current flowing through the inductor L is iL, the current flowing through the capacitor C is iC, the voltage at two ends of the inductor L is vL and the voltage on the capacitor C is vC, the following equation (1) is obtained: vL+iLR1=vC+iCR. The following equation (2) is obtained by averaging the equation (1) in one switching cycle: VL+ILR1=VC+ICR. In the equation (2), VL is an average value of the voltage on the inductor in one switching cycle, and obviously VL=0; VO is an average value of the output voltage; IL is an average value of the current of the inductor and equal to a load current IO; iC is an average value of the charging and discharging current of the capacitor in one switching cycle, and obviously IC=0; and R1 is an ESR (equivalent series resistance) of the inductor.
Thus, the equation (2) may be transformed into an equation (3): ILR1=VC. That is, the following equation (4) is obtained: IL=IO=VC/R1.
Therefore, it is enough for detecting the magnitude of the load current and the current of the inductor to detect the magnitude of the voltage on the capacitor. Such method may sample the current conveniently, easily and without loss.
However, this method also has the following defects: in the current detection circuit, relatively large capacitor and resistor are needed to filter the pulses flowing through the inductor L, and thus the time constant τ=R×C of the RC loop increases, the charging and discharging time becomes longer, so that it is impossible to respond to the variation of the current on the inductor L rapidly.
The above information disclosed in the part of Background is only used to enhance the understanding to the background of the present disclosure, and thus may include the information which is not the related art known by the person skilled in the art.

DC-DC converter and DC-DC converter system thereof


A grip aid device for improving writing skills utilizes specific ergonomic and feedback mechanisms to promote an advantageous writing instrument grip and improve intrinsic hand musculature. The grip aid device includes strategically positioned pressure-based buttons, wherein each button interacts with a user's specific finger. The grip aid device features an incentive-based program that encourages the user to properly align their fingers to an approved grasp pattern, wherein simultaneously pressing the buttons causes the writing implement to emerge and become useable.

Proper handwriting techniques are invaluable for students and adults alike. An advantageous writing instrument grip/grasp provides an ergonomic writing style that produces legible handwriting at a satisfactory writing speed. A grip/grasp is generally defined according to the finger or palm contact with a writing instrument and the movement of the writing instrument. [Schwellnus, H. et al., Effect of Pencil Grasp on the Speed and Legibility of Handwriting in Children, The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2012, Vol. 66, No. 6].
Writing grasps are traditionally separated into two categories, immature grasps and mature grasps. The preferred mature grasp produces movement of a writing instrument through invoking the intrinsic muscles within a hand. In contrast, an immature grasp utilizes the extrinsic muscles of the arm and forces the fingers to remain stationary. [Schwellnus et al.]. The mature grasp classification is generally composed of four grasp patterns, including; dynamic tripod ("DT"); dynamic lateral tripod ("LT"); dynamic quadrupod ("DQ"); and dynamic lateral quadrupod ("LQ"). [Schwellnus et al.].
In operation and as illustrated by Schwellnus et al., the DT grasp involves the thumb, index and middle fingers functioning as a tripod. The LT grasp involves movement of the writing instrument by the index and middle fingers and passive involvement of the thumb, which contacts the lateral aspect of the index finger and often crosses over the writing instrument. The DQ grasp is similar to the DT grasp, but involves three fingers and the thumb. Lastly, the LQ grasp is similar to the LT grasp, except four fingers contact the writing instrument and movement of the writing instrument is accomplished by the index, middle and ring fingers.
Traditionally, writing difficulties result from incorrect or immature writing instrument grip, weakness of the intrinsic hand musculature and/or difficulty processing feedback of the grip and its effect on writing performance. Efforts to improve penmanship and encourage a tripod grasp have been attempted and are discussed below.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,128,484, 7,371,026, and 7,794,163 provide devices for attachment to a writing instrument to encourage a tripod grasp. However, since the writing instrument will function regardless of whether the user employs a tripod grasp, there is a risk that the user will employ an incorrect, less strenuous grip despite the presence of the disclosed attachment. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,662,423 and 8,156,610 are writing assist devices that encourage less use of the intrinsic musculature in order to make writing easier. Utilization of these devices is likely to encourage improper grip and may even hinder the development of critical hand musculature, e.g., if used improperly or too frequently. U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,553 provides a device aimed at encouraging proper pressure between the writing instrument and writing surface, but fails to address grip-related issues and/or behavior.
Based on the foregoing, a need exists for a device/system that enhances grip behaviors associated with writing instruments. These and other inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement are addressed and/or overcome by the assemblies, systems and methods of the present disclosure.


A circuit breaker includes: a live line between a live supply connecting terminal and a live load connecting terminal; a neutral line between a neutral supply connecting terminal and a neutral load connecting terminal; a processing unit; a mechanical switch located in the live line, which mechanical switch is controllable by the processing unit; a trigger for interrupting the live line and/or the neutral line; and an auxiliary line connecting the neutral line with the live line between the mechanical switch and the live load connecting terminal, the auxiliary line including serially a current limiting resistor and a control switch controllable by the processing unit. The processing unit controls the control switch and to open and close at least the mechanical switch for a removal of oxidation layers of mechanical contacts of at least the mechanical switch by controlled arcing.

Circuit breakers usually comprise a mechanical switch to interrupt an electrical circuit. A possible problem is that the mechanical contacts of an opened mechanical switch will be covered by oxidation layers over the time. Such oxidation layers can cause problems by increasing the contact resistance of the mechanical switch. This can cause a loss of signal or overheating of the contacts. Usually those oxidation layers are frequently removed by simply switching on the circuit breaker. In this case usually an arcing between the mechanical contacts of the mechanical switch occurs, which will remove the oxidation layers.
However, if the circuit breaker is switched on while no load is connected, or the current is too small to cause sufficient arcing, the removal of the oxidation layers will not happen.
A disadvantage of the known circuit breakers is, therefore, that under certain circumstances oxidation layers on the mechanical contacts are not removed. The use of high quality gold or silver plated contacts could prevent this problem, but these high quality contacts would make the circuit breakers very expensive.


A sensor for measuring living body information includes a light guide member for guiding a first light; a light extracting member, disposed adjacent to the light guide member, for outputting the first light guided by the light guide member to an exterior of the light guide member through contact with the light guide member; and a light coupling member, disposed adjacent to the light guide member, for coupling a second light to the light guide member through contact with the light guide member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a sensor for detecting a user's physiologic information, and in particular, to a compact sensor for measuring the physiologic data, such as a pulse rate.
2. Description of the Related Art
The pulse rate is a numerical value based on which the stress, the state of exercise, the quantity of exercise, etc. can be measured. Conventionally, an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor has been deployed to measure the pulse rate by detecting ECG signals using multipolar electrodes. In addition, a photosensor, by irradiating a light on a skin surface of a living body using a light emitting diode (LED), detects a light output from the skin surface within the living body using a photodiode (PD).
Recently, intensive research efforts are being concentrated on small devices equipped with a sensor for measuring a user's physical information. However, since the above-stated ECG sensor and photosensor require a dedicated space for their installation, they can be hardly applied to the small devices.
Therefore, there is a need a compact sensor for measuring living body information that can be readily incorporated and utilized in small devices such as an earphone.

Sensor for measuring living body information and earphone having the same


An electronic component includes a laminated capacitor and a substrate-type terminal on which the laminated capacitor is mounted, with an viscoelastic resin located in a space between the laminated capacitor and the substrate-type terminal. The substrate-type terminal includes a substrate body, component connecting electrodes to mount the laminated capacitor are located on a component mounting surface of the substrate body, and external connecting electrodes to be connected to a circuit board are located on a substrate mounting surface of the substrate body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic component including a laminated capacitor, and a substrate-type terminal having the laminated capacitor mounted thereon and mounted on a circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, chip components, and small laminated capacitors in particular, are frequently used on a circuit board of a mobile terminal such as a mobile telephone having an increasingly reduced thickness. A laminated capacitor includes a ceramic laminated body in a rectangular parallelepiped shape serving as a capacitor and including internal electrodes, and external electrodes formed on opposite end surfaces of the ceramic laminated body opposite to each other in a longitudinal direction thereof.
Generally, the laminated capacitor is electrically and physically connected to a circuit board by placing the external electrodes directly on mounting lands of the circuit board, and joining the mounting lands and the external electrodes with a joining material such as solder.
In such a laminated capacitor, small mechanical distortion occurs upon application of voltage. When this distortion is transmitted to the circuit board, audible sound, or as is commonly referred to as acoustic noise, may occur in the circuit board. To address this issue, the laminated capacitor is sometimes mounted on the circuit board with a substrate-type terminal interposed therebetween (see e.g., Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-134430 or Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2012-204572).
The substrate-type terminal is a substrate including an upper electrode joined to the external electrodes of the laminated capacitor, a lower electrode joined to the mounting lands of the circuit board, and a connection conductor connecting the upper and lower electrodes together.
In the configuration disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-134430, a lower electrode and an upper electrode on an interposer substrate serving as the substrate-type terminal are arranged in directions intersecting with each other. As such, external electrodes on a laminated capacitor and mounted electrodes on a circuit board are arranged in directions intersecting with each other, resulting in difficulty in transmitting the distortion in the laminated capacitor to the circuit board. By adopting this configuration, therefore, the occurrence of acoustic noise in the circuit board can be suppressed.
A land pattern of a circuit board required to mount an interposer substrate having such a configuration on the circuit board is different in shape than a land pattern of a circuit board required to mount a laminated capacitor without an interposer substrate on the circuit board. This means that the land pattern needs to be altered, which is difficult to achieve in current circuit boards of which high-density mounting is required. Accordingly, the use of an interposer substrate having the above configuration results in difficulty in reducing the sizes of the circuit board and the like, thus contributing to increased costs.
In the configuration disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2012-204572, an interposer substrate is provided with grooves extending to positions overlapping with the laminated capacitor when viewed in a direction perpendicular to an upper surface of the laminated capacitor. Thus, even if a lower electrode and an upper electrode on the interposer substrate are arranged in the same direction, the occurrence of acoustic noise in the circuit board can be suppressed. This configuration is also applicable to current circuit boards of which high-density mounting is required, without the need to alter the land pattern as described above.
However, since the recent increase in capacity of the laminated capacitor tends to increase the distortion in the laminated capacitor, the occurrence of acoustic noise in the circuit board is not sufficiently suppressed even if this configuration is adopted.


A first apparatus at a first base station changes directivity of a first antenna connected in a direction of a cell of a second base station adjacent to the first base station, where directivity of some antennas of a second apparatus at the second base station is changed to a cell of the first base station and some radio resources are assigned to wireless communication with the first apparatus. The first apparatus receives a signal of a first frequency from the second apparatus via the first antenna, converts the received signal into a signal of a second frequency, demodulates the signal of the second frequency, corrects a delay of the demodulated signal caused by propagation of a radio wave and frequency conversion, and modulates the corrected signal to a signal of a third frequency which is transmitted to a cell of the first base station via a second antenna.

In related art, there is a known technique of transferring an outgoing call from a base station that received the outgoing call generated at a mobile telephone to another base station that can be connected to a base station control device (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-50359, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein). There is also a known technique that one base station can reestablish communication through a second base station via a relay station connected to the second base station when the first base station is disconnected from the network (for example, refer to Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2011-519530, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein). There is also a known technique of radiating radio waves further than a normal radio wave radiation range by changing the tilt angle of an antenna of a base station (for example, refer to Japanese Laid open Patent Publication No. 2011-101328, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein).
There is also a known technique of regulating a coverage of an antenna by adjusting a tilt angle of the antenna of a base station of a handover source (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2011-250216, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein). There is also a known technique of transmitting data from one radio terminal to another radio terminal by conducting communication between base stations (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-114904, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein). There is also a known technique of adjusting the tilt angle of an antenna of a base station when a state in a service area changes due to installation or removal of another base station (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-36487).

Apparatus and method for providing a relayed wireless communication path between cells


An improved, simplified spindle motor design for use in a disc drive is provided, which utilizes a two-piece shaft and provides a central connector in the bottom section of the shaft which can be easily connected through the base to a power source for the motor. The improved spindle motor has a stator and motor connector which can be easily assembled into the spindle motor before the bearings and other elements are installed so that the cleaning and soldering of the stator and motor connector can be efficiently achieved. Further, the spindle and motor connector design incorporates an effective electrical grounding path between the stator and the central shaft of the spindle motor.

Winchester disc drives are being used in computers to store increasingly large amounts of information the typical Winchester disc drive is a system with a limited number of mechanical parts, including a spindle motor which mounts one or more discs for constant speed rotation, and an actuator carrying a transducer at one end and a voice coil motor at the other and operable in response to commands to the voice coil motor to position the transducer over a selected track to read and write data.
As one of the most expensive elements of a disc drive, as well as being one of the largest and most mechanically complex, many design efforts are intended to minimize the cost and ease of assembly of the spindle motor. This particular invention is especially directed to improving a spindle motor design which incorporates a central connector which extends through the bottom of the shaft and into and through the base of the disc drive, so that external connections can easily be made from below the motor to provide energizing current to the disc drive spindle motor. It is apparent that it is essential to provide a reliable connector from a source of external power to the stator of the spindle motor so that the motor can be reliably energized. A related problem posed by stator motors with such a central connector is how to provide an effective electrical grounding path between the stator and the shaft, without resorting to an unduly complex motor assembly.

Spindle motor with two-piece shaft and connector


A heat dissipation device includes a base, a plurality of first fins, a plate, a plurality of second fins and two heat pipes. Each heat pipe includes a heat-receiving portion sandwiched between the base and the first fins, a heat-exchange portion sandwiched between the plate and the first fins, a connecting portion connecting the heat-receiving portion and the heat-exchange portion, a heat-discharging portion extending through the plate and inserted into the second fins. At least one of the heat pipes defines two different planes which intercross at the heat-exchange portion of the at least one of the heat pipes.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to a heat dissipation device, and more particularly to a heat dissipation device for cooling a heat-generating electronic device, having uniquely configured heat pipes to enhance heat dissipation capability thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
It is widely acknowledged that heat is produced during operation of electronic devices such as central processing units (CPUs). The heat produced must be quickly removed to ensure the CPUs to work normally. Typically, a heat sink is provided to remove heat from the CPU. More and more electronic components are integrated on the CPU, which makes the CPU hotter and hotter during operation. The conventional heat sink, which is made of a simple slotted metal block attached on the CPU, is no longer a satisfactory means for dissipating heat from the CPU.
Phase change equipments, such as heat pipes are developed to assist heat management of the heat-generating electronic device. Generally, a heat dissipation device with heat pipe comprises a base to absorb heat from the electronic device, a plurality of fins extending from the base and two heat pipes. Each heat pipe comprises an evaporator engaging with the base and a condenser engaging with the fins. During operation of the heat dissipation device, the base absorbs the heat from the electronic device. One part of the heat is directly transferred to bottom portions of the fins. The other part of the heat is transferred to top portions of the fins via the heat pipes.
However, the conventional heat dissipation device with heat pipe has the following disadvantage. First, the heat pipes cannot optimally utilized either when they are extended parallel to each other or when they are extended in a nonparallel manner. For the former, two neighboring evaporators of the heat pipes are separated from each other a distance equal to that between two neighboring condensers of the heat pipes. The evaporators of the heat pipes may be separated from each other a distance which is too far from each other to enable the evaporators to sufficiently absorb the heat of the heat-generating electronic device, which is mainly accumulated at a central portion of the base. On the other hand, the condensers of the heat pipes may be separated from each other a distance which is too close to enable the condensers to evenly distribute the heat transferred from the evaporators to the top portions of the fins. For the latter, although the above problem can be resolved, a width of the fins must be increased significantly in order to accommodate the condensers of the heat pipes. The increase of the width of the fins is quite disadvantageous in view of a compact design of the heat dissipation device for transportation, storage and installation. Summarily, the conventional heat dissipation device with heat pipes cannot simultaneously meet the requirements that the evaporators focus at the central portion of the base of the heat dissipation device to efficiently remove the heat from the base, and that the condensers can evenly distribute the heat to the fins without increasing the width of the fins.

Heat dissipation device having heat pipe


An apparatus including an LED excitation source and module useful for full plate imaging fluorescence instruments as well as methods for calibrating such instruments. The apparatus may include a light source operative to provide simultaneous illumination of a first wavelength selected to a plurality of samples to excite the fluorescent emission of light of a second wavelength by said plurality of samples wherein the light source is an LED array; and an optical sensor, responsive to light at said second wavelength.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns an LED excitation source and module useful for full plate imaging fluorescence instruments as well as methods for calibrating such instruments.
2. Description of Related Art
Spectroscopy involves the study of matter using electromagnetic radiation. Spectroscopic measurements can be separated into three broad categories: absorbance, scattering/reflectance, and emission. Absorbance assays involve relating to the amount of incident light that is absorbed by a sample to the type and number of molecules in the sample. Absorbance assays are a powerful method for determining the presence and concentration of an analyte in a sample. Most commonly, absorbance is measured indirectly by studying the portion of incident light that emerges from the sample. Scattering assays are similar to absorbance in that the measurement is based on the amount of incident light that emerges or is transmitted from the sample. However, in the case of scattering, the signal increases with the number of interactions, whereas, in the case of absorbance, the signal is inversely proportional to the interactions. Emission assays look at electromagnetic emissions from a sample other than the incident light. In each case, the measurements may be broad spectrum or frequency specific depending on the particular assay. Most commonly, emission assays involve the measurement of luminescence. The techniques of absorbance, scattering/reflectance, and luminescence are described in detail in the following patent applications, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes: WIPO Publication No. WO 00/06991, published Feb. 10, 2000; and corresponding U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/765,869, filed Jan. 19, 2001.
Luminescence is a preferred assay technique due to its specificity and sensitivity, among others. Luminescence is the emission of light from excited electronic states of atoms or molecules. Luminescence generally refers to all kinds of light emission, except incandescence, and may include photoluminescence, chemiluminescence, and electrochemiluminescence, among others. In photoluminescence, which includes fluorescence and phosphorescence, the excited electronic state is created by the absorption of electromagnetic radiation. In chemiluminescence, which includes bioluminescence, the excited electronic state is created by a transfer of chemical energy. In electrochemiluminescence, the excited electronic state is created by an electrochemical process.
Luminescence assays are assays that use luminescence emissions from luminescent analytes to study the properties and environment of the analyte, as well as binding reactions and enzymatic activities involving the analyte, among others. In these assays, the analyte itself may be the focus of the assay, or the analyte may simply act as a reporter that provides information about another material or target substance that is the true focus of the assay. Recently, luminescence assays have been used in high throughput procedures to screen pharmaceutical drug candidate libraries for drug activity and to identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
Luminescence assays may involve detection and interpretation of one or more properties of the luminescence or associated luminescence process. These properties may include intensity, excitation and/or emission spectrum, polarization, lifetime, and energy transfer, among others. These properties also may include time-independent (steady-state) and/or time-dependent (time-resolved) properties of the luminescence. Representative luminescence assays include fluorescence intensity (FLINT), fluorescence polarization (FP), fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), fluorescence lifetime (FLT), total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF), fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET), among others.
Luminescence assays have been conducted using various light sources, including arc lamps and lasers. Unfortunately, these light sources suffer from a number of shortcomings. The gas used in arc lamps typically is under high pressure, so that explosion is always a danger, and the associated power supplies may produce transients that can damage other electronic components of the system. The lifetime of arc lamps may be short, so that the lamps must be changed frequently. Moreover, typical arc lamps (including flash arc lamps) suffer from intensity instability, with short term noise of several percent, which is much worse than good lasers such as laser diodes and diode pumped solid-state lasers, with short-term noise of typically less than 0.5%. In addition, lamps have a slow and steady long-term decay of intensity, whereas lasers normally exhibit a constant intensity up until catastrophic failure. The spectral output of some arc lamps and most lasers is very limited, so that desired excitation wavelengths may not be available. For example, two commonly used light sources, the mercury arc lamp and the argon-ion laser, produce significant visible light only at two wavelengths below about 550 nm. Moreover, the procedure for switching or tuning between these wavelengths can be so cumbersome and impractical that some experimentalists have resorted to the expensive alternative of incorporating multiple lasers into their instrumental setups. Significantly, an ability to use and switch between various excitation wavelengths would permit use of a wider variety of dyes, which in turn would facilitate the development of new luminescence assays, including new high throughput cell-based luminescence assays.
Luminescence assays also have been conducted using various detection schemes. These schemes may require alignment of a sample and portions of an optical relay structure (such as an optics head) for directing light to and from the sample. This alignment typically is accomplished by physically moving the sample relative to the optical relay structure and/or by physically moving the optical relay structure relative to the sample. This movement may be followed by a waiting period before measurement to allow vibrations to subside. Time spent during alignment and subsequent waiting periods is downtime because it is time during which data cannot be collected from the sample. This downtime is especially significant in high-throughput screening, where tens or hundreds of thousands of samples must be aligned with an optical relay structure to conduct a particular study.
In principle, reading simultaneously from a plurality of samples or from a larger area of a single sample can reduce the number of alignment steps and thus the amount of downtime in these assays. Indeed, instrumentation has been developed that directs light from an arc lamp or from a continuous wave laser tuned to a single fixed wave length to multiple wells of a microplate using a mechanical (e.g., rotating polygon or galvanometric) scanner and/or a wide-field illuminator. However, reading with the scanner is slow, because samples are analyzed well by well, and reading with the widefield imager reduces intensities, because excitation light is distributed to areas between or outside the samples. Reduced intensities may decrease signal-to-noise ratios, decreasing reliability, especially with less intense nonlaser light sources. Prior art instrument systems also may be limited because it may be difficult to change the emission filter to correspond to a change in excitation wavelength. This is especially true with simultaneous reading because filters for simultaneous reading may need to be quite large to filter emission light passing from large-area samples, such as microplates, to large-area imaging devices, such as charge-coupled devices (CCDs), charge injection device (CID) arrays, videcon tubes, photomultiplier tube arrays, position sensitive photomultiplier tubes, and the like. Significantly, it is desirable to increase the number of measurements made in a given time period. Increased data collection rates together with faster analysis would give more specific and quantitative information regarding the speed and strength of cellular responses to potential drug candidates.
Typical fluorescence imaging microplate readers use lamps and continuous wave argon-ion laser as excitation sources. In laser excitation systems, the intense collimated energy of the beam is expanded via a concave mirror and piano-convex cylindrical lens and rastered across the microplate hundreds of times per second with a faceted rotating drum scanner. Prior art fluorescence imaging instruments that use a laser excitation source are disclosed, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,215, in published U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0223910 A1, in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2002/0109100 A1, and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/738,438, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by this reference.
An advantage of the laser system is high energy output and very narrowband excitation. Disadvantages of the laser systems include (1) its large size (over 5′ long), (2) great weight; (3) its complexity (required several hours set-up and alignment by a skilled technician); (4) its cost (˜$25,000); (5) significant ongoing service requirements and infrastructure requirements (cooling water and 208V); and (5) limited wavelength range (typically 488 nm and 514 nm for an argon ion laser).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Instrument excitation source and calibration method


The invention is directed to a combination of a telescopically extendable frame with a laundry bag assembly, adaptable to be mounted in closet receptacles of various articles of furniture. The combination comprises a telescopically extendable frame incorporating front and back support bars and a laundry bag assembly including one or more laundry bags interengaged with the front and back support bars and hanging below them. The one or more laundry bags can be translatable with respect to the front and back support bars. The front and back support bars are so spaced apart as to permit the laundry bag assembly to be located between and suspended from them. The telescopically extendable frame comprises left and right slides of ball bearing drawer type slides.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to household storage of laundry bags. More specifically, it relates to a combination of a telescopically extendable frame with a laundry bag assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, laundry bags have been used to store soiled and dirty clothing until it is washed and dried. This clothing, which needs laundering, generally falls into the following categories: clothes (garments), bedclothes such as sheets and pillow cases, and those items used in personal cleanliness, such as towels and washcloths. The items to be laundered are not always immediately laundered, and need to be stored until the laundering thereof. In addition, while all of the items to be laundered are made of fabric, there are different kinds of fabric and, for maximum life of laundered items and optimum quality of laundering; they require different pre-established laundering cycles.
Different combinations of laundry bags with various types of stands have been made and used. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,342 granted on Oct. 19, 1999 to Steffine for a "MULTIPURPOSE LAUNDRY CART" describes a cart provided with a frame that supports laundry bags therein. The frame is provided with a top having an upwardly open mouth and a bottom having caster wheels for mobility of the frame. Three laundry bags are suspended in the frame from the mouth. As can be learned from the disclosure and can be seen in the drawings, no means for an easy detachment of the laundry bags from the frame is provided and no means for grasping and carrying the laundry bags is used.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,705 granted on Dec. 25, 1990 to Bovitz for a "LAUNDRY BAGS AND FRAME APPARATUS" discloses a demountable frame apparatus having front and back support rails thereon and a plurality of laundry bags, each having an open top, closed bottom and continuous sidewalls. The sidewalls have support loops adjacent the open mouth. Two rods support each laundry bag, with a rod going through each support loop. The rods engage upon the support rails and can slide along the length of the latter. The main disadvantage of the structure of this apparatus resides in the fact that it is stationary and therefore cumbersome in a household environment. There are known also a "ROLLING CHROME 3 BAG LAUNDRY HAMPER BIN", incorporating a rigid frame cart on casters, and a "FOLDING CHROME LAUNDRY BIN WITH A CANVAS BAG" that includes a scissor type folding structure, both sold by RILLO HOME. In addition, a "NEW HAILO LAUNDRY SORTER HAMPER 3 BAGS WITH QUICK GRAB" is sold by HAILO.

Combination of telescopically extendable frame with a laundry bag assembly


A power generating fishing reel and remote control lure system includes a reel assembly coupled to a fishing rod having a spool rotatably movable to reel in/out fishing line. The reel assembly includes an electrical generator configured to generate current. A crank handle is operatively coupled to the spool and to the generator and configured to actuate the spool and generator, respectively. A rechargeable battery is electrically connected to the generator and configured to store current generated by the generator. The system includes a lure assembly remote from the reel assembly having a battery, a motor and a receiver configured to receive a signal and to energize the motor accordingly. The reel assembly includes a lure input device and transmitter configured to transfer a user input signal to the lure assembly. The system includes an emergency assembly having lights, sensors, and alarms related to safety, current generation, and recharging.

The present invention relates generally to fishing equipment and, more particularly, to a system having a fishing reel that generates electrical current as a hand crank handle of the reel assembly is actuated, having a remote control fishing lure, and having safety tools including sensors, alarms, and charging components.
During the course of fishing with a fishing lure and rod and reel, a fishing lure can move only in the direction that it is pulled by the fishing line to the reel. This limits the ability for the lure to travel along a path in a different direction of the person fishing. Further, fishing rods and reels typically do not have a means to produce electrical power for electronic devices such as I-phones, cameras, radios, and the like. This is a real problem for people who enjoy extended stays camping and fishing and have no means to recharge their electronic devices while away from traditional power sources. In addition, safety is another issue of concern for the extended stay fisherman or woman both from wildlife threats and human threats.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system that includes a reel assembly that generates electrical current as the hand crank handle of the reel assembly is actuated, a lure assembly having motors controlled by remote control, and a safety tool assembly having components for sensing danger and sounding an alarm.

Power generating fishing reel and remote control lure system


ELF3 gene compositions associated with cancer are provided, including ELF3 mRNA intron retention, a novel ELF3 5′ untranslated region, and a novel Alu, Alukwd. Methods and kits using primers or probes to detect the presence of these ELF3 gene compositions are also provided. Methods for determining whether a cell comprises a virus are also provided.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to methods and compositions useful for determining whether a patient has cancer or is at risk for cancer. More specifically, the invention relates to ELF3 gene compositions that are associated with cancer, particularly breast cancer, and methods using those compositions in cancer diagnosis.
(2) Description of the Related Art
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The diagnosis of breast cancer requires great skill by pathologists to properly classify biopsies into current pathological groupings. The proper interpretation of pathological findings has great consequences to patients as it can determine the choice of treatment for primary cancer. However, there remains confusion about the relationship between different forms of breast cancer. For example, there is uncertainty as to how invasive lobular cancer is different from invasive duct carcinoma. It is also not known whether all forms of invasive duct carcinoma are the same.
In spite of burgeoning molecular genetic technology and widespread human genome sequence information, no unique genetic marker has been found for the most common forms of breast cancer. The BRCA I and II genes have been useful in identifying patients at risk for familial forms of breast and ovarian cancer, but only a small percentage of most breast cancers occur in patients with the BRCA abnormalities. BRCA genes can be tested from DNA isolated from peripheral blood but this technology is not offered routinely to most women with breast cancer. Gene chip technology allows scientists to look for overexpression or underexpression of otherwise normal genes. Studies with gene chips are beginning to reveal various patterns of gene expression in breast cancer cells that do not occur with normal cells. However, gene chip technology is complex and expensive and is currently performed on actual biopsy tissue, which is not always available.
Another genetic marker, the ELF3 gene, is overly expressed in intraductal carcinoma (also called ductal carcinoma in situ [DCIS]). The ELF3 protein belongs to the Ets family of transcription factors, which contain a helix-loop-helix motif that is required to bind in the major groove of DNA sequences centered over a conserved core GGAA/T motif, and which is important for HER2/neu function (Chang et al., 1997; Oettgen et al., 1997a; Tymms et al., 1997; Andreoli et al., 1997; Choi et al., 1998; Chang et al., 1999; Oettgen et al., 1999; Oettgen et al., 1997b).
The ELF3 gene, which has also been called ESE-1, ERT, jen, and ESX, is a member of the subfamily of ELF (E74-like-factor) genes. The human ELF3 gene contains 9 exons and 8 introns (Chang et al., 1999; Oettgen et al., 1999), is located on chromosome 1q32.1-32.2 (Oettgen et al., 1997a; Tymms et al., 1997), and its transcribed RNA product is ˜5.8 kb. It is thought to be expressed only in epithelial cells (Chang et al., 1997; Tymms et al., 1997; Brembeck et al., 2000) and its expression is induced during epidermal differentiation. The epithelial-specific expression pattern of ELF3 is unique among members of the Ets family, and to date very few epithelial-specific transcription factors have been identified. Its DNA-binding domain, conserved among all Ets family members, is located in exons 8 and 9 (Oettgen et al., 1999).
As a transcriptional regulatory gene, ELF3 overexpression or alteration may play a role in carcinogenesis. ELF3 mRNA is overexpressed in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) (Id.) in which there is a high incidence of HER2-neu amplification and overexpression (Barnes et al., 1992). Excess chromosome 1 is common in breast cancer (as well as lung and prostate cancer), and ELF3 may be similarly amplified.
Currently, it is believed that DCIS is the precursor lesion of invasive duct carcinoma (Rosen, 2001a). DCIS apparently arises from the terminal duct-lobular unit where the cell of origin is believed to be a terminal ductal epithelial cell (Rosen, 2001a, Wellings, 1975). Many different forms of DCIS exist including comedo, cribiform, micropapillary and solid type (Rosen, 2001a). Diagnoses of these forms of DCIS have been increasing in part because mammography has played an increasingly major role in detecting these often non-palpable tumors. As many as 43% of tumors detected mammographically have been DCIS (Andersson, 1984; Sigfusson et al., 1983; Tabar et al., 1984; Verbeek et al., 1984; Fonseca et al., 1997). Invasive duct carcinoma is believed to occur when the ductal carcinoma cells breech the myoepithelial basement membrane and invade into the stroma. Invasive duct carcinoma is often found in conjunction with a DCIS lesion (Rosen, 2001a).
DCIS is generally distinctly different from lobular carcinoma which can also form both in situ-like lesions (lobular carcinoma in situ) and invasive lesions (invasive lobular carcinoma). Lobular carcinoma in situ arises from the lobular cell itself (Rosen, 2001b). Most authorities do not consider lobular carcinoma in situ as a neoplastic lesion but as an indicator of increased cellular activity. This increased cellular activity is associated with an increased risk of other forms of breast cancer notably DCIS and invasive duct carcinoma as well as invasive lobular carcinoma. Some authorities feel, however, that lobular carcinoma in situ is the precursor lesion of invasive lobular carcinoma. Lobular carcinoma in situ lesions are inconspicuous and non-palpable, are often multicentric, can form signet ring-like cells and are associated with a distinctive type of infiltration (Rosen, 2001a). Mucin can be seen in an intracytoplasmic location in these cells. C-adherins are absent from these lesions. The cellular origin of these lesions is presumed to be the lobular cell.
Currently there is no genetic marker present that distinguishes lesions of terminal duct origin from those of lobular origin. In biopsy material from neoplastic breast lesions, these different cancers can be distinguished using some stains of mucin, cytokeratin and C-adherin, but there is no useful genetic marker that distinguishes these different cancers.
There is thus a need for new genetic markers to identify breast cancer, particularly DCIS. The present invention provides such markers.


A new and distinct cultivar of Verbena plant named ‘Suntapipa’, characterized by its outwardly spreading to trailing plant habit; vigorous growth habit; freely branching habit; freely flowering habit; and intense violet-colored flowers that are held above and beyond the foliage.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Verbena, botanically known as Verbena hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Suntapipa'.
The new Verbena is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventors in Shiga, Japan. The objective of the breeding program is to create new Verbena cultivars with large inflorescences and attractive flower coloration.
The new Verbena originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventors in March, 1999 in Shiga, Japan of a proprietary seedling selection of Verbena hybrida identified as code number T86-99-2, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary seedling selection of Verbena hybrida identified as code number T85-99-2, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Verbena was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Shiga, Japan.
Asexual reproduction of the new Verbena by terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in Shiga, Japan since October, 2001 has shown that the unique features of this new Verbena are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


A method and apparatus for MRI imaging capable of reducing the time between end of measurement and completion of image reconstruction by performing part of image reconstruction calculation in parallel with measurement of magnetic resonance signals, which particularly performs image reconstruction calculation up to (N-1) dimensions of N-dimensional image reconstruction calculation in parallel with measurement of signals and performs the image reconstruction calculation for the remaining one-dimensional direction after the measurement has been finished. When calculation for the last one dimension is performed, the (N-1)-dimensional images for which image reconstruction has been completed are successively displayed, and the image reconstruction calculation for the remaining one-dimensional direction is carried out not by FFT but by discrete Fourier transform, or such that the order of signal measurement is made in the bit reversed order for the order of phase encoding quantity, and thereby, a further portion of the image reconstruction calculation is carried out in parallel with the signal measurement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computerized tomography system utilizing the nuclear magnetic resonance phenomenon and more particularly to a method and apparatus for magnetic resonance imaging which, in collecting three-dimensional or higher dimensional information by imaging, is capable of shortening the imaging time by effectively performing the process for image reconstruction calculation and enabling the operator to detect in the early stage an abnormality occurring in the course of the imaging due to unexpected movement of the person under inspection or trouble in the apparatus, so that the operability of the apparatus is enhanced.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In magnetic resonance imaging (hereinafter to be referred to as MRI), there have been known methods capable of simultaneously collecting not only two-dimensional tomographic image but also spatial three-dimensional information and further three-dimensional information including chemical shift information or higher dimensional information. As to the method for collecting spatial three-dimensional information, there has been made disclosure, for example, in a literature entitled "Clinical Application of Hexahedron 3-D Fourier Transform" published in Japanese Journal of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Vol. 6, Supplement 2, page 120 (September, 1986), or a literature entitled "Study for 3-D FFT Method and Displaying Method" published in Japanese Journal of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, page 140 (September, 1987). A further example of three-dimensional imaging for spatial two-dimensional information plus chemical shift information, taken as one dimension, is disclosed in a literature entitled "0.1 Tesla SIDAC .sup.1 H-chemical Shift Imaging" published in Japanese Journal of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, page 104 (March 1987). By combining these methods, it is of course possible to perform imaging to simultaneously collect four-dimensional or higher dimensional information.
A method is also known, imaging a periodically moving portion such as the heart, as to put the apparatus into synchronism with an electrocardiograph or the like and perform a plurality of excitations during each period of a heartbeat and thereby take images at each timing. An example of this method, is discussed in a literature entitled "Time-Resolved Magnetic Resonance Angiography" published in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Vol. 6, pp. 275-286, (1988). According to this method, a plurality of N-dimensional images in a time series are obtained and dynamic imaging is made possible.
In the above described prior arts, both the measurement data of the magnetic resonance signals and calculation amount for reconstructing the N-dimensional image from the data become very large. Hence, to reduce the measurement time of the magnetic resonance signals, various methods are proposed as so-called fast imaging methods. However, there has been no consideration given to the problem that it takes time for processing image reconstructing calculation, and hence, a long waiting time is required after the signal measurement has been finished until the image is obtained. Further, when there occurs unexpected abnormality in the course of measurement of signals, such as deterioration in the picture quality due to movement of the person under inspection or trouble in the apparatus itself, the operator expands considerable time before he finds the trouble. As the result, there have been problems of time wasted for repeating the imaging and therefore the operability of the apparatus is diminished.

Multi-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging method and apparatus for same


A resist underlayer composition includes a solvent and an organosilane condensation polymerization product, the organosilane condensation polymerization product including about 40 to about 80 mol % of a structural unit represented by the following Chemical Formula 1,

1. Field
Embodiments relate to a resist underlayer composition and a process of producing an integrated circuit device using the same.
2. Background
Generally, a lithography process should minimize reflection between a resist layer and a substrate in order to increase resolution of the lithography process. For this reason, an anti-reflective coating (ARC) material may be used between the resist layer and the substrate to increase resolution. However, the anti-reflective coating material may have a basic composition that is similar to the resist material, and thus an etchant of the anti-reflective coating material may exhibit a poor etch selectivity relative to the resist layer. Therefore, an additional lithography process may be required in the subsequent etching process. However, a general resist material may not have sufficient etching resistance against the subsequent etching process.

Resist underlayer composition and process of producing integrated circuit devices using the same


A camper trailer or caravan (10) includes a chassis (12) adapted to be attached to, and towed behind a motor vehicle (11). A housing (21) is mounted on the chassis (12) and defines a main chamber including a peripheral wall. The chassis (12) is short in length and about the same width as the towing vehicle (11) with the wheels (19) located adjacent the rear end of the chassis (12), and the housing (21) is adapted be opened such that panels (41) folded inside the housing when in the closed configuration are adapted to form annex chambers (42, 43) when in the open configuration when the camper trailer (10) is being used for camping and the like. A sleeping chamber (23) associated with the main chamber extends outside the peripheral walls of said camper trailer when required. Preferably there is a kitchen chamber and a bedding chamber within the housing of the camper trailer.

Camping holidays using towed caravans are very popular activities and camper trailers can provide easy towable yet comfortable accommodation in remote areas inaccessible to normal road vehicles and trailers. Such camper trailer/caravans have been disclosed in earlier US Patent Application Publication Nos. 2005/0225166 A1 and 2006/00660071 A1.
Even though many camper trailers are suitable for most remote inaccessible off road areas, it has been found that maneuverability and tight cornering could be improved by providing a trailer with a departure angle where there is a short distance between the wheels and towing hitch, such that it is able to negotiate bumps and dips.
The genesis of the present invention is the desire to provide a camper trailer with dimensions suitable for crossing particularly tough terrain whilst providing comforts known in existing camper trailers.