A method of manufacturing a three dimensional reproduction of an article having recesses and relief sections by taking photographs of the article and digitalizing the information. The information is used to produce a volumetric body of the article and an anamorphosed image of the article containing color and texture data. The image is placed on a heat shrinkable material which is applied to the body in symbiotic relationship therewith so that the anamorphosed image becomes undistorted when shrink fitted to the body.

The invention relates to the technical field of the reproduction and manufacture of individuals, particularly in the form of busts and/or of statuettes.
It is known to produce statuettes, busts, cartoon figures and sculptures of various people who are to a greater or lesser extent known and/or famous in various environments, both sporting and cultural, political, etc. The shape of the face and the morphological volume of the person to be reproduced can be obtained from photographs or drawings or from the person himself. In general, the methods used, which are of an essentially small-scale manual nature, provide merely the xe2x80x9cspiritxe2x80x9d of the person and his characteristic features, but are in no way capable of producing a three-dimensional image corresponding exactly to the person in terms of both proportions and features.
In other words, the techniques of reproducing a person in three dimensions do not make it possible to reconstruct a perfectly true and authentic image of the person in the same way as a photograph is capable of doing where a reproduction in two dimensions is concerned. It is also apparent that most statuettes or busts of persons are of uniform color. When coloring is desired, it is necessary to resort to entirely manual methods which, at most, can never correspond to the texture and color of the skin.
The teaching of Patent EP-A-0244636 discloses a solution suitable for the manufacture of dolls or of similar articles. This document does not seek to achieve a photographic resemblance of an individual. In this prior art, the support receiving an image of the cut-off face is not subjected to an operation capable of allowing it to match perfectly the recessed and relief shapes of a morphometric volume.
Moreover, the prior document makes use of photographs and then of the numbering of these photographs in two independent operations in order to obtain a system for evaluating the gray levels. As will be mentioned in the rest of the description, according to the invention the impression is not transposed directly onto the support formed by the morphological volume, that is to say a volumetric body, but onto a virtual cylinder, the algorithms of which have taken into account the rheology of the material of the impression support.
In the document U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,305, the aim is to make a mask, not reproduce a support, and to provide an anamorphosed image of a previously stored photograph. Here too, in this prior patent, only the front face is produced, not the entire volume of an individual""s head.
The set object of the invention is to overcome these disadvantages simply, reliably, effectively and economically.
The problem which the invention proposes to solve is to produce, in particular, busts or statuettes of individuals, its aim being to provide a three-dimensional reproduction of these persons, whilst at the same time preserving the suitability of several parameters, specifically essentially:
the volume, which must have the greatest possible fidelity in its proportions and in its features;
the image, which must have the greatest possible photographic realism;
the color, which must be authentic;
the spirit, which must depict the character and temperament of the person.
In other words, the problem which the invention proposes to solve is to provide a three-dimensional reproduction of a person, particularly of his face, which corresponds to his photographic image, and to the level of volume, morphology, color, etc.
In order to solve such a problem, a method has been designed and developed for manufacturing and reproducing at least part of an individual or of an object, whereby:
a set of measurements is produced simultaneously, in order to obtain numerical data in the form of a 3D file, of a color texture of the 3D file and of 2D plane color photographs of the individual or of the object;
this data acquisition set is repeated over a plurality of predefined zones, so as to cover the 360xc2x0 of the individual (or of the object), in order to lay said data onto a modeled morphometric volume;
the image obtained is anamorphosed as a function of the physical transformation characteristics of the modeled volume;
the anamorphosed image is applied to a support made of shrinkable material;
the shrinkable support is shaped in order to obtain a sleeve;
a volumetric body corresponding to the digitized model of the individual is produced;
the sleeve is applied to the relevant part of the individual""s body;
the sleeve is subjected to an operation capable of allowing it to match perfectly the recessed and/or relief shapes of the volumetric body.
Bearing in mind the basic characteristics of the invention, the method may be described as follows.
With the aid of a scanner coupled to a CCD camera and a digital photographic instrument, a set of measurements is produced simultaneously, so as to obtain the following numerical data:
3D file
color texture of the 3D file
2D plane color photographs of the individual.
This numerical data acquisition set is repeated over a plurality of predefined zones, so as to cover the 360xc2x0 of the individual, in particular the head. Each digitized set represents one sector of the 360xc2x0 of the individual.
For processing the 3D numerical data, the fusion of the digitized 3D sectors is carried out, in order to obtain the virtual orbicular volume of the subject. The fusion of the 3D files gives rise to the fusion of the texture associated with said file.
For processing the 2D photographic numerical data by means of specific software, orbicular laying of the 2D photographic sectors onto the virtual 3D volume is carried out by the exact superposition of the photographs on the texture of this file.
A texture of photographic quality in terms of details and of colors of the individual is thus obtained.
For anamorphosis as such, specific software is used to reenter the characteristics of the support made of shrinkable material, which will subsequently be used for manufacturing the physical photographic skin, and also the technical parameters for its transformation, so that a virtual cylinder can be generated for the algorithms corresponding to the rheology of this material.
The cylinder is subsequently positioned virtually around the virtual individual (3D file with photographic texture).
Photographic projection onto the virtual support is then carried out.
The result of this is that the 3D data of the photographic texture are transposed in the form of anamorphosed 2D data onto the virtual cylinder, so as to obtain an anamorphosed virtual 360xc2x0 pan of the individual.
The virtual cylinder is developed in order to obtain the anamorphosed flat photographic image of the subject over 360xc2x0. This image corresponds to the digital impression file which will subsequently be used in order to produce the photographic impression on a support made of shrinkable material.
The physical production of the morphometric volume is obtained by any known means, using, for example, suitable software, in order to calculate, from the 3D digital file, the path of a tool which will control in four axes the production of an imprint of a mold on a machining center.
After the numerical data have been acquired and processed, the photographic skin is produced in the following way:
On the basis of the digital impression file, printing is carried out onto the support made of shrinkable material, for example in the form of a polymeric film.
The printed film is shaped in the form of a cylindrical sleeve corresponding to the virtual cylinder.
The shrinkable cylindrical sleeve is positioned accurately according to the physical and morphometric volume.
The shrinkage of the sleeve is carried out, the latter matching the recessed and/or relief shapes of the morphometric physical volume.
So that the film perfectly matches the morphometric volume, the so-called symbiosing operation is carried out, which involves shaping the film of the sleeve conformally to the volume and putting it into perfect symbiosis with the latter.

Method for making and reproducing at least part of an object or a person


A storage system includes a storage apparatus, a control apparatus, and a host apparatus. The storage apparatus includes a recording medium. The control apparatus includes a detection unit and a control unit. The detection unit detects whether a recording medium loaded in the storage apparatus is a stand-alone-only recording medium that is used in a stand-alone mode. When the recording medium is the stand-alone-only recording medium, the control unit registers a physical volume of the stand-alone-only recording medium as a logical volume and automatically switches the operation mode of the control apparatus to the stand-alone mode.

Real tape library apparatuses are storage apparatuses for reading and writing data on physical tapes. A typical tape library apparatus includes physical drives and physical tapes stored in slots. When data is read from or written in a physical tape, the tape library apparatus sets the physical tape from its slot on a physical drive. In addition, the real tape library apparatus includes a robot mechanism, which automatically exchanges physical tapes on a physical drive. Namely, the robot mechanism automatically mounts or unmounts a physical tape into or from a physical drive. Next, the real tape library apparatus performs data read and write processing through online processing on the basis of the operating system (OS) of a host.
Regarding such operations, a real tape library apparatus normally supports a stand-alone mode. In the stand-alone mode, an operator manually mounts a physical tape into a physical drive and uses a host console to control reading or writing of data offline, without involving the OS of the host. By switching the operation mode to this mode, the operator uses the real tape library apparatus in the same way as a stand-alone tape drive.
There is a conventional technique for receiving network services. According to this technique, each storage medium is provided with a service identifier that identifies a type of a network service. For example, when such a storage medium is mounted on an information processing terminal, the information processing terminal connects, via a communication link, to a host computer that corresponds to the service identifier of the storage medium. In this way, the operator of the information processing terminal receives a desired network service from the host computer.
In addition, there is a conventional technique about a product agent having information relating to a product. This technique uses a barcode printed on paper or a sheet as a medium transferred with a product.
See, for example, the following documents:
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 07-319810
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-40109
While real tape library apparatuses support the stand-alone as described above, virtual tape apparatuses do not conventionally support the stand-alone mode. Thus, since the operator needs to perform complex stand-alone setup operations on such a conventional virtual tape apparatus, setting errors easily occur.


A below-ground sensor interface amplifier is powered by no negative supply voltage, but the amplifier nevertheless senses an input voltage signal below ground potential. The amplifier outputs an output voltage signal that varies proportionately to the input voltage. For an input voltage beginning below ground potential and increasing past ground potential, the amplifier outputs an output voltage that remains between ground potential and a supply voltage. The output voltage increases proportionately to the increase of the input voltage. As the input voltage increases, a gate voltage on a first transistor begins to increase starting at the input voltage at which a second transistor is forced to turn on. The amplifier senses input voltages more than one threshold voltage below ground potential without using a below-ground supply voltage. The gain of the amplifier, as well as the lower limit and the size of the amplifier's voltage operating range are programmable.

An integrated circuit microcontroller can be used to generate the signals that power electric motors, such as alternating current (AC) induction motors. The drive signals are typically generated from a direct current (DC) power supply that is switched and alternately inverted. One switching technique used to generate the drive signals is called space-vector pulse width modulation (PWM). For example, in an electric motor with three induction coils each separated by 120 degrees, space-vector PWM governs the times and the durations at which six switches are opened and closed to produce the six pulsed signals for the inverter stage of the motor drive. Space-vector PWM is used not only to generate the drive currents, but also to control the electric motor. Space-vector control defines the PWM time intervals for each of the six sectors of the electric motor to control the rotation of the electric motor.
In order to perform space-vector control, however, the microcontroller should accurately determine the currents and voltages emitted from the inductive coils of the electric motor. As the drive currents into the coils increase and decrease, expanding and collapsing magnetic fields are created that in turn generate currents in addition to the drive currents. The sum of these currents can result in a voltage drop across a voltage sensor that falls below the ground potential of the DC power supply. Therefore, a voltage below ground potential should be measured in order accurately to determine the currents and voltages emitted from the inductive coils.
Various circuits have been used to sense voltage for space-vector control of AC induction motors. Some voltage sensing circuits require a negative voltage supply. But it is expensive to add to the circuit a second power supply that is below ground potential. Other voltage sensing circuits employ two differential pair of transistors. These sensing circuits typically sense negative voltages only down to one threshold voltage below ground potential. Moreover, sensor interface amplifiers employing two differential pair of transistors typically do not generate a linear amplification of input voltages at the low end of their response ranges.
A sensing circuit is sought that senses voltages more than one threshold voltage below ground potential and that does not use a below-ground power supply.


A teleconferencing system includes a plurality of teleconferencing servers, a plurality of teleconferencing terminals, and a specification server. The plurality of teleconferencing servers are configured to be connected to one another through a network. Each of the plurality of teleconferencing terminals are configured to conduct a teleconference by transmitting and receiving media data to and from one another. Each one of the plurality of teleconferencing terminals is configured to be connected to one of the plurality of teleconferencing servers. The specification server is configured to be connected to the plurality of teleconferencing servers and is configured to specify a recording server that is configured to record the media data.

The present disclosure relates to a teleconferencing system in which a teleconference is conducted through a network and to non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program that is used by the teleconferencing system.
A teleconferencing system that conducts a teleconference is known. In the teleconferencing system, teleconferencing terminals through which users' images and voices can be input and output are provided in a plurality of locations. The images and voices that are acquired by the individual teleconferencing terminals are relayed by a teleconferencing server. A teleconference is conducted by the combining and outputting of the images and voices by each of the teleconferencing terminals. For example, in a teleconferencing system, the teleconference is recorded by the teleconferencing server.

Teleconferencing system and non-transitory computer readable medium storing program


A bushing for positioning between a first component and a second component is disclosed. The bushing comprises a conical body that includes a first edge, a second edge, and at least one slot extending from the first edge toward the second edge. The slot or slots facilitate the flexing of the conical body. Methods for making a conical bushing are also disclosed.

Valves may be employed for controlling flow of pressurized hydraulic fluid to actuators in hydraulic systems. Some valves may be solenoid operated (e.g., operated in response to an electrical control signal). In a traditional solenoid operated valve, a spring and bearing may be disposed within a magnetic flux collector. An operating member (e.g., a rod or a pin) may be slidably disposed in the bearing, and the operating member may have an armature received thereover. Although in some designs, a flat flapper bearing or spider bearing may be disposed around the operating member; they do not typically allow great displacement. In some valves, an undesired phenomenon referred to as "magnetic side loading and latching" may occur in which the armature comes close to contact with the magnetic flux collector due to the needed tolerance and the resultant excessive clearance between the operating member and the bearing. When this magnetic side loading or latching occurs, the armature may move from side to side within the flux collector, as opposed to strictly up and down within the flux collector, which may impair operation of the valve.


A nested anti-resonant nodeless hollow core fiber (NANF) enables transmission of multi-kilowatt, continuous wave (CW) light beams operating in wavelengths between 1050 nm and 1100 nm provided by single mode lasers. Such a NANF has little loss over kilometer ranges, and can be employed in long distance subsurface applications, such as in the petroleum industry.

A nested anti-resonant nodeless hollow core fiber (NANF) is an optical fiber such that light is confined and guided within a hollow region of space defined using a glass structure. The hollow region can be a vacuum or filled with air. A light beam transmitted in the hollow region has only very weak interactions with the glass defining the optical fiber, and so the light beam can propagate with low loss. In some instances, a NANF can achieve transmission losses below 10% across multi-kilometer propagation. The physical principle for light confinement and guiding is optical anti-resonance, instead of total internal reflection.
As shown in FIG. 1, a NANF of the prior art, such as described in international application WO2015/185761, has a first tubular, cladding element 1 which defines an internal cladding surface 3. A plurality of second tubular elements 5 are also included which are arranged in a spaced symmetrical relation at the cladding surface 3 and together define a core 9 with a radius R from the center C of the NANF. A further plurality of third tubular elements 7 are each nested within a respective one of the second tubular elements 5. The nested ones of the second and third tubular elements 5, 7 provide nested tubular arrangements 11a-11f. In the prior art, the core radius R is typically less than 30 μm. Other parameters and dimensions of the NANF include a wall thickness t of each of the tubular elements 5, 7, a gap distance d between tubular elements 5, and a distance z between the portions of the tubular elements 5, 7 closest to the center C of the NANF.
NANFs of the prior art form a core surrounded with a negative curvature, such that nodes are pushed further away from an air-guided mode of the optical fiber. Such NANFs have been applied to optical data communications, low latency data transmission, radiation hardness, high power delivery, mid-IR gas spectroscopy, biomedical applications, and gyroscopes and temperature-insensitive fibers for delivery of precise frequency/time information.

Nested anti-resonant nodeless optical fiber and subsurface system using the same


An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a housing including a first surface and a second surface facing in an opposite direction of the first surface, a display exposed through the first surface of the housing and including a plurality of pixels, at least one illumination sensor disposed between the display and the second surface of the housing or disposed in the display, at least one processor electrically connected with the display and the at least one illumination sensor, and a memory electrically connected with the at least one processor, wherein the memory may store instructions configured to, upon execution by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to control to transmit to the display image data to be output through the plurality of pixels of the display, receive illumination-related data obtained by detecting light outside the first surface of the housing using the at least one illumination sensor, and change a brightness of at least a portion of the display based on at least a portion of the transmitted image data and the illumination-related data.

There are proposed methods for controlling the display of an electronic device on a wearable device, smartphone, video player, or other portable devices (hereinafter, collectively referred to as an electronic device). A proposed technique is to recognize the ambient light intensity for enhancing visibility and reducing current consumption by an electronic device having a display and controlling the brightness of images output through the display according to the recognized light intensity.
For example, an illumination sensor capable of recognizing light intensity may be exposed outside the electronic device or embedded in an upper portion of the display of the electronic device. In such case, in order to allow for use of the illumination sensor, the illumination sensor may be embedded to sense ambient light intensity, with a printed portion of the window opened at an upper portion of the active area of the display. The electronic device may create a database for brightness control according to light intensities detected by such method and automatically control the brightness of the display.
Electronic devices use a separate hole for the illumination sensor or red-green-blue (RGB) sensor at an upper, unprinted open portion of the display to embed the illumination sensor, and thus, their design may be limited upon manufacturing the electronic devices according to the related art.
Further, such electronic devices employ separate manufacturing processes or additional manufacturing processes for printing depending on whether a hole is needed upon manufacturing the electronic devices according to the related art.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Electronic device and method for controlling the same


A coating system of a liquid to a sheet material. The system includes a tank 1, a feed pump 4, a feed control valve 8 including a liquid drawing or sucking back mechanism, and a slit die 9 for applying the liquid to the sheet, which are connected with each other by means of a first, second and a third feed conduits 3, 5 and 7. A first return conduit 11 with a return control valve 10 and a second return conduit 12 are provided between the feed pump 4 and the feed control valve 8 for returning the liquid to the tank 1. Electromagneticvalves 15 and 17 operated by a control apparatus 22 are provided for switching instantaneously the conduits between the feed control valve and the return control valve 10.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for coating a liquid, such as a synthetic resin liquid or a paint on an object to be coated.
2. Description of Related Art
During production of a lithium iron battery, an electrode material, such as graphite, coke or carbon fibers is coated at a predetermined spacing onto a continuous metal foil such as an aluminum foil or copper foil. Furthermore, there are many occasions where a coating of a liquid such as a synthetic resin liquid or paint on a surface of a continuous sheet such as a film of a synthetic resin or a sheet of a paper is required. During an execution of these coating process, a length of the material to be coated is conveyed in a horizontal or a vertical direction by means of a roller member.
Furthermore, when a liquid such as a synthetic resin liquid or a paint is coated onto a surface of a cut length of an object to be coated, such as glass plate or wafer, the cut length of the object to be subjected to coating is conveyed horizontally by means of a belt conveyor or a roller conveyor.
When an object of a continuous length is to be subjected to coating, a slit die apparatus having a slit shaped outlet for the liquid extending along the width of the object to be coated is arranged at a location in front of a back up roller. A bath of the coating liquid is connected to a liquid delivery pipe, so that the liquid from the bath is fed to the slit die via a three way valve. The three way valve is also connected to are turn pipe, which allows excess liquid to be recirculated to the liquid bath.
In the operation the above mentioned coating system, a pump for generating a forced flow of the liquid is always operated, so that the liquid is always forced out. The three way switching valve is switched between an opened position where the liquid is discharged to the slit die and a closed position, where the discharge of the liquid is prevented.
The above system, where a discharge and stoppage of the liquid is done by switching of the three port switching valve between the opened position and the closed position, is defective in that the switching to the closed position to cause the liquid to be returned to the liquid reservoir does not instantly cause the feed of the liquid to be stopped, which results in an occurrence of a so-called a "post drop", which can cause a starting edge portion or finishing edge portion of the coating to be unsharp. Furthermore, when the liquid reservoir chamber is at atmospheric pressure, switching of the three way valve to a position where the liquid is returned to the reservoir causes the pressure to drop at the liquid feed pipe. Thus, after a subsequent switching of the three way valve to a position where the liquid is fed to the feed pipe, a stable discharge of the liquid from the slit die can not be obtained until the pressure of the liquid at the feed pipe is increased to a predetermined value, thereby causing the quality of the coating to be insufficient or poor.


Technologies are generally described for managing data migration between databases. In some examples, a data migration management system may include a data migration management unit configured to manage a migration of data stored in a first database to a second database, a game management unit configured to design a game for the migration of at least some of the data managed by the data migration management unit and to provide the designed game to a player, and a player management unit configured to manage participation of the player for the game designed by the game management unit.

Data migration is a process of transferring data between databases. Such a process is required when organizations change, upgrade, or even merge their computer systems.
When migrating data stored in a source database to a destination database, it is necessary to extract the data from the source database, modify the extracted data in accordance with a nature or system format of the destination database, and load the modified data onto the destination database.


An electromagnetic objective lens driving apparatus of an optical disc data recording and reproducing apparatus, includes a magnetic circuit which forms an electromagnetic driving circuit with focusing and tracking coils provided on an objective lens holder. The focusing coils and tracking coils comprise magnetic material that can be attracted by a magnetic force.

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc data recording and reproducing apparatus which optically writes data onto or reads data from an optical disc. More precisely, the invention relates to a driving apparatus which electromagnetically drives an objective lens thereof.
2. Description of related Art
In a known optical disc apparatus, such as an opto-magnetic disc apparatus, an objective lens is held on a carriage which is movable in a radial direction (i.e., tracking direction) of the optical disc to be movable in the tracking direction and the focusing direction through an elastic member. To drive the objective lens in the tracking direction and the focusing direction, tracking and focusing coils are provided on a lens holder, which holds the objective lens, and a magnetic circuit which constitutes electromagnetic driving circuits together with the tracking and focusing coils is provided on the carriage. The focusing and tracking coils are supplied with predetermined directions and intensities of electric current to drive the objective lens holder so as to accurately converge the laser beams onto the recording track of the optical disc.
In such an electromagnetic objective lens driving apparatus, it is necessary to make the carriage and lens holder as light as possible to quickly access a designated track and to perform precise focusing and tracking operations. Therefore making the carriage and the lens holder small and light has been a theme in recent years. On the other hand, a thrust power of the electromagnetic driving apparatus is effected by an effective length of coils which is the thrust source, and a magnetic flux density which effects the coils. Thus, when a movable portion and the magnetic circuits are made small and light, characteristic fluctuation occurs in a driving operation of the objective lens by the electromagnetic driving circuits because of the decrease of linearity of the magnetic flux density which effects the electromagnetic drive specifically, the movable portion, especially a form of the objective lens holder is not stable, so that it is difficult to perform precise focusing and tracking operations. To solve this problem, it is necessary to increase the magnetic flux density so as to improve the electromagnetic driving circuit.
FIG. 16 shows an example of an electromagnetic driving circuit. The magnetic circuit is formed by a magnetic yoke 2 which is substantially U shaped, with a permanent magnet 1 which is provided on one end of the inner surface of the yoke 2 in which a line of magnetic induction is designated ".PHI.". A coil 3 of which a cross section is shown is provided at a predetermined position in gap 4 in the magnetic circuit, and produces the thrust in directions of arrows A and B by supplying electric current thereto in the forward direction or the reverse direction vertical relative to the drawing surface. In the area in the vicinity of the gap 4, there is leakage of the magnetic flux 5 which does not effect the driving operation of the coil 3. To achieve highly efficient driving operation in such electromagnetic driving circuits mentioned above, it is necessary to converge the magnetic flux in the area of the gap 4, especially in the area of the efficient portion of the coil 3. For example, one characteristic of the magnetic flux is that it tends to converge a highly permeable magnetic member. So, if a length of the gap 4 between the permanent magnet 1 and the yoke 2 is reduced, the magnetic flux density of the area of the gap 4 is increased compared with the area in the vicinity of the gap 4. However, when the length of the gap 4 is reduced by more than a predetermined length, it causes the cross section of coil 3 to be compressed. Namely, the thrust thereof becomes weakened because the effective length of the coil 3 decreases, or electric consumption is increased because of the increase of the resistance of the coil 3. Hence, reducing the length of the gap 4 is not preferable in view of improving the electromagnetic driving circuit.
In addition to that, to control an inclination of an optical axis of the objective lens which is driven at a high acceleration speed, the objective lens holder is elastically and movably supported in the focusing direction and the tracking direction on the carriage. In this elastic supporting mechanism, a damping member made of rubber is generally provided to supply damping resistance. However, in these elements, there have been problems such as imbalance of the resistance and deterioration of damping efficiency caused by temperature (temperature dependency). These cause the instability of the driving operation of the objective lens holder.
Apparatuses have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,811 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,340 (disclosed by the same assignee of the present application) secure a high dynamic range, in the supporting mechanism for the objective lens which can be easily moved by a small driving force (low compliance), wherein the objective lens holder moving in a downward direction by the weight thereof can be prevented without supplying electric current to float the objective lens holder when the objective lens is not in a driving operation. These apparatuses are characterized by using an MID process (i.e., Molded Interconnection Device: which directly forms a printed circuit on a plastic injection molded product) to directly print an electric supplying circuit on a component which is made of the plastic injection molded product, with a magnetic force of the focusing and/or tracking permanent magnetos of the lens holder which is the component made by injection molding, to contain a magnetic material into an electric supplying printed circuit in a position where floating force (lifting force) is supplied to the objective lens holder. In this construction, when the objective lens holder is not in the driving operation, the weight of the objective lens holder can be at least partially and magnetically supported by the magnetic force of the permanent magnets on the carriage without supplying the electric current thereto, so that by supplying the magnetic force to the objective lens holder effectively to obtain the floating force in the area where the fluctuation of magnetic floating force is not easily effected, the magnetic circuit and the movable portion can be made small and light while maintaining the advantages in the above apparatuses.
In a positioning sensor which detects a position of the objective lens (especially in the tracking direction), since a photo sensor is generally utilized to detect a deviation of the objective lens from its neutral position based on light reflected by a reflecting surface which is provided on the objective lens holder, instability of the driving form of the object lens holder and the deviation from its neutral position hinders the accuracy in detecting the position of the objective lens.

Electromagnetic objective lens driving apparatus of optical data recording and reproducing apparatus


A hydrogen cooled generator having an axis and a plurality of phases comprises a main casing section enclosing a stator with windings; a casing end section; at least one end winding disposed in the casing end section; a toroidal duct formed on at least one of the casing end section and the main casing section having a bottom wall and two side walls, wherein at least one of the bottom wall and the two side walls shares a wall of the casing end section so as to form a common wall; and at least one bushing penetrating the common wall and inclined towards the axis of the generator, the at least one bushing having a first end connected to the at least one end winding and a second end terminating in the toroidal duct.

In a common generator arrangement current is conveyed from winding ends to phase rings contained in a gas-cooled casing and then further connected to bushings used to convey the current through the casing wall. To convert the frequency of the generators multiple phases to grid frequency the bushings are further connected to semiconductor arrangements forming a separate frequency adaptation unit.
It is desirable to minimise the overall axial length of the generator and so the bushings are arranged so as to extend radially outward through the casing. The result is however a radially space inefficient design that requires complex bus ducts extending yet further outwards from the casing before being routed to a common point for connection to the frequency adaptation unit.
A partial solution to this problem, described in EP0707372, involves locating at least a part the frequency adaptation unit within the end casing so as to significantly decrease the number of required bushings thereby providing a more radially space efficient design. The arrangement is however disadvantaged in that the available space in the casing is limited and so access is poor making it difficult to check and replace components. When the generator is hydrogen cooled, further access limitations are imposed exacerbating this disadvantage. While the frequency adaptation parts in the casing can be cooled in conjunction with other generator components, in the case of hydrogen-cooled generators it is desirable to separately cool these parts, with for example deionized water, due to the amount of heat generated by the parts. However to do this inside a hydrogen-filled casing adds complexity and cost. Yet further, should the parts of the frequency adaptation unit fail e.g. by short-circuiting, they may explode. If this should occur inside the casing significant machine damage can occur.

Multi phase generator with frequency adaptation unit


A multi-frequency laser system comprises a master oscillator to generate a master beam and an arm splitter to split the master beam into a first beam and a second beam. The first beam is provided to a primary mode arm for generation of a primary mode beam and the second beam is provided to a sideband mode arm for generation of a sideband mode beam. The sideband beam arm comprises a modulator to modulate the second beam to generate a beam comprising sidebands; a filter to select a particular sideband mode from the beam comprising sidebands; an amplifier cavity to amplify the particular sideband mode and suppress other residual modes; and an acousto-optical modulator to shift the frequency of each mode of an amplified selected sideband beam to generate a sideband mode beam. The primary and sideband mode beams are provided in a coordinated manner to enact a quantum gate.

In various atomic systems, it is important to be able to deliver laser beams to the system at particular frequencies and/or groups of laser beams having particular frequency separations and/or phase relationships to the atomic system. For example, trapped ion quantum computing uses laser beams to complete various functions within the trapped ion quantum computer. For example, the logic gates of the quantum computer may be implemented using laser beams. Such applications require that the lasers are delivered to the ion trap precisely and accurately in terms of position, frequency, and phase.

Bichromatic laser for quantum computing applications


A carrying bag, particularly a backpack, comprises a receiving container for receiving objects to be taken along, and a carrying device connected to the receiving container. The carrying device is decoupled in its movements from the receiving container by the provision of string lines which can be displaced in the direction marked by the arrows.

The present invention relates to a carrying bag, particularly a backpack. Particularly if worn during sports activities, carrying bags such as backpacks have the disadvantage that, e.g. during movements of the wearer's shoulders, also the backpack itself or a storage bin of the backpack where objects have been stashed away for safekeeping, is moved along. Thereby, the wearing comfort, especially in case of sports activities such as mountain biking or climbing, is considerably affected.
Known from DE 201 11 889 is a backpack comprising a carrying device in the form of two shoulder straps, with each shoulder strap including a partial region of increased elasticity. By the provision of such elastic regions, it is to be accomplished that the backpack can be worn by different persons without the need to adapt the wearing system to the respective person. Further, in this manner, the backpack is given resiliency, thus effecting a resilient transmission of forces. However, in spite of the provision of the elastic partial regions, larger and faster movements as occurring e.g. during mountain biking or climbing, are transmitted to the backpack so that the backpack will move along and the wearing comfort will still remain considerably affected.
It is an object of the invention to improve the wearing comfort of carrying bags, particularly of backpacks.
According to the invention, the above object is achieved by the features of claims 1 and 14, respectively.

RTI Sports Vertrieb von Sportartkeln, GmbH


A nonvolatile memory device may include a stair-shaped structure including a first interlayer dielectric layer and a memory cell repeatedly stacked. The nonvolatile memory device may include an etch stop layer and a second interlayer dielectric layer formed over the stair-shaped structure. The nonvolatile memory device may include an isolation layer passing through the stair-shaped structure, the etch stop layer, and the second interlayer dielectric layer. The nonvolatile memory device may include protective layer interposed between the isolation layer and the etch stop layer, and the protective layer interposed between the isolation layer and the second interlayer dielectric layer. The nonvolatile memory device may include contact plugs coupled to each memory cell, respectively, by passing through the second interlayer dielectric layer and the etch stop layer.

1. Technical Field
Various examples of embodiments may relate to a semiconductor fabricating technology, and more particularly, to a vertical channel type nonvolatile memory device and a fabricating method thereof.
2. Related Art
A memory device may be classified into either a volatile memory device or a nonvolatile memory device according to whether data is retained when power to the device is interrupted. The volatile memory device is a memory device in which data is lost when power is off or is interrupted to the device, and includes a DRAM, a SRAM and the like. The nonvolatile memory device is a memory device in which stored data is retained although power is off or is interrupted to the device, and includes a flash memory device and the like.
Recently, the degree of integration of a flat type nonvolatile memory device is not sufficient. To improve the degree of integration for a memory device there has been proposed a vertical channel type nonvolatile memory device in which strings are arranged vertically from a substrate. The vertical channel type nonvolatile memory device has a structure in which a lower selection transistor, a plurality of conductive layers, and an upper selection transistor are sequentially stacked on the substrate. This structure improves the degree of integration of a memory device through the strings arranged vertically from the substrate.

Nonvolatile memory device and method for fabricating the same


Thermal interface materials are disclosed that include or are based on thermally reversible gels, such as thermally reversible gelled fluids, oil gels and solvent gel resins. In an exemplary embodiment, a thermal interface material includes at least one thermally conductive filler in a thermally reversible gel.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Electrical components, such as semiconductors, integrated circuit packages, transistors, etc., typically have pre-designed temperatures at which the electrical components optimally operate. Ideally, the pre-designed temperatures approximate the temperature of the surrounding air. But the operation of electrical components generates heat. If the heat is not removed, the electrical components may then operate at temperatures significantly higher than their normal or desirable operating temperature. Such excessive temperatures may adversely affect the operating characteristics of the electrical components and the operation of the associated device.
To avoid or at least reduce the adverse operating characteristics from the heat generation, the heat should be removed, for example, by conducting the heat from the operating electrical component to a heat sink. The heat sink may then be cooled by conventional convection and/or radiation techniques. During conduction, the heat may pass from the operating electrical component to the heat sink either by direct surface contact between the electrical component and heat sink and/or by contact of the electrical component and heat sink surfaces through an intermediate medium or thermal interface material. The thermal interface material may be used to fill the gap between thermal transfer surfaces, in order to increase thermal transfer efficiency as compared to having the gap filled with air, which is a relatively poor thermal conductor. Most especially in the cases of phase changes and thermal greases, a significant gap is not required and the purpose of the thermal interface material may be just to fill in the surface irregularities between contacting surfaces. In some devices, an electrical insulator may also be placed between the electronic component and the heat sink, in many cases this is the thermal interface material itself.

Thermal interface materials including thermally reversible gels


A coating that inhibits stain formation in floor covering. The coating includes a copper amine complex, preferably a copper morpholine complex, and is advantageously applied to an underlayment upon which a floor covering is adhered. Coated panels and floor assemblies that include the coating are also described.

This invention relates to liquid formulations that can be applied to the surface of a wood-based flooring panel and dried to form a coated product that is suitable for use as a substrate for decorative floor covering. The coating on the panel dramatically inhibits the staining action that occurs when a decorative vinyl floor covering is installed directly over a wooden substrate. The coating system described inhibits the staining action that occurs when oriented strandboard (OSB) underlayment is used in conjunction with vinyl floor sheathing, while simultaneously providing a substrate surface that has exceptional compatibility with the adhesives and patching materials that are commonly used during the process of installing vinyl floor coverings. The coating formulations are stable and resistant to phase separation and settling over storage periods in excess of two months, and they can be used in high-volume commercial coating operations in compliance with current U.S. environmental regulations.
Decorative vinyl floor coverings are commonly installed in residential dwellings in North America. Manufacturers of vinyl floor coverings include Armstrong World Industries (Lancaster, Pa.), Mannington (Salem, N.J.), Congoleum Corporation (Mercerville, N.J.), and Tarkett Incorporated (Whitehall, Pa.). Contemporary floor covering materials are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,694. Although there are a number of elaborate vinyl floor covering construction designs, most are comprised of a three-layered structure. The bottom layer generally consists of a plasticized polymeric film, felt or paper. The middle layer is the decorative portion and it often consists of polyvinyl chloride along with plasticizing agents, dyes and/or pigments, stabilizers and/or other components. In many cases this decorative layer has a cellular structure, which is achieved by decomposing a blowing agent, most commonly azodicarbonamide, during the manufacturing process. In some cases a colored design is gravure-printed on the topside of the middle layer. A discontinuous pattern of foam inhibitor can also be deposited on the topside of the middle layer in order to yield a highly textured floor covering. The upper layer is known as the xe2x80x9cwear layerxe2x80x9d and it often consists of a plasticized polyvinyl chloride or polyurethane film.
Most types of vinyl floor covering are thin and very conformable. Thus, they must be installed directly over a smooth, flat substrate. Residential sub-floors consisting of xc2xexe2x80x3 OSB or plywood sub-floor panels mounted over 2xe2x80x3xc3x9710xe2x80x3 joists are frequently abused during the home building process, and have surfaces which are often too rough and irregular to be used as a vinyl floor covering substrate. It is common practice to install a thin, smooth panel, known as an xe2x80x9cunderlayment panelxe2x80x9d, over the rough sub-floor just prior to installation of the vinyl floor covering. FIG. 1 shows a representative floor construction (10) in which a layer of vinyl floor covering (20) is adhered to a layer of underlayment panels (30), which are stapled or nailed to xc2xexe2x80x3 thick sub-floor panels (40), which span and are nailed to 2xe2x80x3xc3x9710xe2x80x3 supporting joists (50). Typical underlayment panels are sanded and comprised of plywood, particleboard, oriented strand board (OSB), or cement/fiber board. Plywood underlayments that are commonly used in North America include those derived from lauan veneer and manufactured in Indonesia and Malaysia. A plywood underlayment, known as MULTIPLY, is composed of aspen veneer and is manufactured by MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. (Vancouver, BC). Another plywood underlayment, known as TECHPLY, is composed of Russian birch veneer and is distributed in North America by the Plywood and Doors Mfrs. Corporation (Union, N.J.). A sanded xe2x85x9cxe2x80x3 thick fiberboard, known as FIBERFLOR, is manufactured by MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. (Vancouver, BC). A coated xc2xcxe2x80x3 thick OSB underlayment panel known as THE INSTALLER""S EDGE is manufactured and sold by the Weyerhaeuser Co. (Tacoma, Wash.). A xe2x85x9cxe2x80x3 thick cement/fiber board, known as FIBERBOND, is sold as underlayment by the Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (Portland, Oreg.).
All of these commercial underlayment panels have structural properties that are sufficient for an underlayment application. The panels must also have a smooth, flat, dimensionally stable, hard surface for the duration of their use in a floor system. The typical installation practice includes fastening the underlayment panels to the sub-floor by use of staples or nails; patching the seams; removing any debris from the surface of the panels; and adhering the vinyl floor covering to the underlayment by use of aqueous latex adhesives. Thus, the panels should have a solid, uniform color and appearance in order to aid in the visualization of fastener placement and surface debris when cleaning the panels. The panels must not corrode or degrade metallic fasteners. The panels must be fully compatible with conventional patching compounds and adhesives that are used during the floor covering installation process. The panels must not stain or otherwise adversely interact with the vinyl floor covering that is placed directly on top of them. Underlayment panel attributes that are particularly important and relevant to this invention include 1) compatibility with the commonly used aqueous latex adhesives and patching compounds and 2) an ability to resist staining vinyl floor coverings.
Compatibility with aqueous latex adhesives. The surface of the installed, underlayment must be receptive and functionally compatible with a large number of water-based adhesives that are used to attach the vinyl floor covering to the underlayment. Most of the adhesives are primarily comprised of aqueous acrylic or styrene-butadiene lattices, which are designed to absorb into the underlayment. Thus, the underlayment must have a surface, which will allow some penetration of a water-based adhesive.
One type of vinyl floor covering, known as xe2x80x9cfully-adheredxe2x80x9d, requires the application of adhesive across the entire underlayment surface. In this case the adhesive must be spread by use of a trowel with repeated stroking actions. Applied adhesive on one part of a floor must remain in a liquid state for a period of time sufficient for the installer to spread the adhesive across the entire floor. Thus, the adhesive must interact with the underlayment panels in a manner that results in a sufficiently long xe2x80x9copen-timexe2x80x9d. Interactions between the adhesive and the underlayment surface must not cause the adhesive to prematurely solidify. Simultaneously, bond strength must develop between the vinyl floor covering and the underlayment panel within a reasonably short time period after the vinyl floor covering has been placed in intimate contact with the adhesive on top of the underlayment. This bond strength must increase to a level that secures the vinyl floor covering to the underlayment subsequent to installation. Therefore, interactions between the applied adhesive and the underlayment surface must not impede or interfere with bond strength development.
A second type of vinyl floor covering, known as xe2x80x9cperimeter-attachedxe2x80x9d, requires application of an adhesive only at the perimeter of the floor. The perimeter-attached vinyl floor covering is laid onto the floor and positioned into the applied adhesive. In this application it is important that a strong bond quickly develop between the vinyl floor covering and the underlayment along the perimeter of the floor. Immediately after installation a volatile component in the vinyl floor covering will begin to evaporate and the floor covering will simultaneously shrink. As shrinkage occurs a strong shear stress is developed along the perimeter bond. It is vital that the bond strength along the perimeter of the floor-to-vinyl interface be sufficiently high to prevent delamination during this shrinking process.
Ability to bond with aqueous patching compounds. Patching compounds are often applied along the seams between the underlayment panels. Most patching compounds are prepared by mixing either Portland cement or gypsum with either water or an acrylic latex. Examples of commercial patching compounds that are utilized with underlayment panels and vinyl floor covering are MAPEI PLANI/PATCH from Mapei Inc. (Montreal, PQ, Canada), S-184 from Armstrong World Industries (Lancaster, Pa.) and DEPENDABLE SKIMCOAT from the Dependable Chemical Company, Incorporated (Rocky River, Ohio). It is important that these patching compounds bond to the underlayment. In general this requires that the water-based, patching compound be capable of penetrating or absorbing into the underlayment.
Ability to resist fastener corrosion. Underlayment panels are generally installed directly over structural subfloor panels and are fastened to the subfloor by use of metallic nails or staples. These metallic fasteners must not be corroded by the underlayment panel.
Ability to resist staining vinyl floor covering. Most underlayment panels for vinyl floor covering are comprised of wood laminates or composites. Wood is known to contain an array of extractives. Under conditions of elevated temperatures and high humidity some of these extractives appear to be able to migrate out of the wood and absorb into the vinyl floor covering where they can cause a stain. Underlayment composed of aspen wood appears to be particularly prone to staining vinyl floor covering. OSB underlayment, which contains aspen bark or wood isolated from the cambium layer of an aspen log is most prone to staining. Woods isolated from pine, maple, black poplar, cottonwood, walnut, hickory, elm and other species also contain extractives that are capable of staining vinyl floor coverings. Homeowners cannot remove this type of stain. Resolution generally requires replacement of the vinyl floor covering.
Some vinyl floor coverings are very susceptible to stain formation, while others are quite resistant to xe2x80x9cbottom-upxe2x80x9d staining even when they are placed in contact with an aspen substrate in an environment of high temperature and high relative humidity. In general we have found that thin, perimeter-attached type vinyl floor coverings are more prone to develop stains from contact with floor underlayment than are fully-adhered vinyl floor coverings. Also the stains observed in perimeter-attached vinyl floor covering tend to develop more rapidly and they are more intense than stains that develop in most fully-adhered vinyl floor coverings. Additionally, we have found that vinyl floor coverings with cellular decorative layers have a greater propensity to stain than do vinyl floor coverings with no cellular layer. It is suspected that plasticizing agents in the vinyl floor covering help to facilitate the transfer of extractives into the vinyl. It is further suspected that residual azodicarbonamide or its decomposition products in the cellular layer of the vinyl floor covering reacts with some wood extractives to form intensely dark products, which manifest themselves as stains.
Potential solutions to the staining problem. The vinyl floor covering manufacturers are aware of the xe2x80x9cbottom-upxe2x80x9d staining problem and they have diligently searched for a practical, cost-effective solution. The aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,694 assigned to Tarkett describes a vinyl floor covering in which a barrier layer of plastisol and water glass are incorporated into a layer that is positioned on the bottom side of the vinyl floor covering or somewhere between the bottom side and the decorative layer. This xe2x80x9cbarrierxe2x80x9d layer reportedly prevents wooden underlayments from causing a top-side stain in the vinyl floor covering. The inventors suggest that organic stainants from the underlying floor are unable to migrate or diffuse through the barrier layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,294, assigned to Mannington, describes a vinyl floor covering in which a barrier layer consisting of a polyurethane or a polyamide is preferably positioned between the backing layer and the middle layer of the vinyl floor covering.
The inventions described is U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,308,694 and 5,891,294 appear to be too expensive to practice and these technologies have not been implemented by Tarkett, Mannington, or any of the other floor covering manufacturers.
It should also be noted that there are complications associated with applying these vinyl stain-blocking technologies to wooden underlayment products. For instance, when water glass is applied to a wooden underlayment as a coating, it forms a surface, which is not compatible with many of the conventional adhesives that are used to secure the vinyl floor sheathing during the installation process. More specifically, many latex adhesives will prematurely solidify or coagulate when applied to the water-glass coating. In fact, application of many alkaline coating systems to wooden underlayment panels generally makes the surface of the coated panel incompatible with at least some of the conventional adhesives that are used to secure the vinyl. Thus, water-glass is not suitable for use as a stain-blocking coating on a wood-based underlayment panel.
Several years ago it became known that placement of a continuous sheet of aluminum foil between a wooden substrate and the vinyl floor covering completely prevented the wood from staining the floor covering. Unfortunately, the water-based adhesives and patching compounds that are used to attach the vinyl floor covering to the wooden underlayment will not bond to the aluminum. Furthermore, the aluminum foil is expensive and susceptible to small tears or punctures. Wood extractives are capable of diffusing into the vinyl floor covering at locations in the aluminum barrier where it has been torn or perforated. Consequently, neither the vinyl floor covering manufacturers nor the underlayment manufacturers have incorporated aluminum foil barriers into their products to prevent the staining problem. Additionally, installers generally do not to position a layer of aluminum foil between the underlayment and the vinyl floor covering.
There are a number of Portland cement patching compounds that are effective stain-blocking materials when they are applied to the wooden underlayment as a top surface coating at a spread rate of about 16 wet g/ft2 or greater. Examples of such patching compounds are the previously mentioned MAPEI PLANI/PATCH by Mapei Inc. (Montreal, PQ, Canada) and ARDEX FEATHER-FINISH CEMENT produced by Ardex, Inc. (Coraopolis, Pa.). A small number of installers will apply the patching compound over the entire underlayment surface prior to vinyl floor covering installment in order to prevent the wood from staining the floor covering. Unfortunately, this practice is labor intensive and is not widely utilized. Although a Portland cement can be manufactured that could be mixed with water or an aqueous latex and then applied to the wooden underlayment by use of a roll-coating machine, the limited pot-life and high viscosity of the cement mixture makes the roll-coating machine very susceptible to fouling when the operation is conducted on a continuous, long-term basis. Also, it should be noted that the Portland cement based patching materials are highly alkaline in nature. After a 1-2 week equilibration period the cement coating becomes incompatible with a number of the conventional adhesives used to secure the vinyl to the underlayment. Thus, a Portland cement based coating appears not to be a suitable material for preparing a factory-coated underlayment panel.
Formulations that have been designed for use as primer coats over redwood, cedar or pine boards do not appear to be suitable for use as a coating over a wood-based floor underlayment panel. Such formulations are designed to be applied directly onto solid wood articles that have high concentrations of tannin, tocopherol or other intensely colored extractives. The primer formulations contain stain-blocking components, which will selectively react with and immobilize the colored extractives in the wood. Subsequent to application and drying of the primer coat, the board can be coated without discoloring the paint by transfer of the colored extractives into the paint. Although some of these xe2x80x9cpaint primersxe2x80x9d do have some ability to prevent OSB underlayment from staining vinyl floor sheathing, they generally yield a coated surface that is not compatible with many of the adhesives and patching compounds that are used in the floor installation process. Thus, the stain-blocking technologies that have been developed for paint primers are not generally suitable for application to a floor underlayment panel that is used in conjunction with vinyl floor sheathing.
One example of a paint primer formulation is that described by Thomassen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,644. The formulation described in this patent preferably contains a soluble zinc ammonium complex, which prevents wood extractives from staining freshly applied paint. Unfortunately, stain-blocking compounds for underlayment based on water-soluble salts are notorious for coagulating water-based vinyl adhesives immediately upon application to the underlayment.
Another example of a paint primer formulation is that described by Gilman et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,900,620 and 4,021,398. The formulation described in these patents preferably contains an aluminum hydroxychloride complex, which reportedly prevents wood extractives from staining freshly applied paint. OSB underlayment panels coated with aqueous solutions of aluminum hydroxychloride demonstrate gross incompatibility with many aqueous adhesives that are used to secure vinyl floor coverings. Aluminum hydroxychloride has little or no stain-blocking efficacy when applied to OSB panels that are used as underlayment panels for vinyl floor covering.
Yet another example of a paint primer formulation is that described by Meyer et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,516. The formulation described in this patent preferably contains magnesium hydroxide at a 1-10% level, which prevents wood extractives from staining freshly applied paint. Unfortunately, formulations that contain magnesium hydroxide at a loading level of 1-10% do not yield effective stain-blocking coatings at spread rates of 15 g/ft2 or less, which is a level that can be reasonably achieved in a commercial operation. Formulations with magnesium hydroxide concentrations of 25-30% solidify in less than one day of storage, which makes them difficult to utilize in a commercial coating operation. Stable formulations based on U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,516 are limited to magnesium hydroxide concentrations of 50% or less. Unfortunately, stain-blocking formulations that contain only 5% magnesium hydroxide must be applied at spread rates of approximately 50 g/ft2 on OSB panels in order to prevent vinyl discoloration. Such a high spread rate is not commercially feasible. An additional complication with the magnesium hydroxide-based coatings relates to the fact that aqueous suspensions of magnesium hydroxide are alkaline. Wooden panels treated with these suspensions and equilibrated for at least 1 week are incompatible with a number of the water-based adhesives that are used to secure vinyl floor sheathing.
A further example of a paint primer formulation is that described by Van Rheenen et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,863. The formulation described in this patent contains a latex with amine functionality, which prevents wood extractives from staining freshly applied paint. Application of non-complexed amines to OSB panels does not prevent the discoloration that generally occurs when the OSB is placed in contact with vinyl floor coverings.
As previously noted, the paint primer formulations were designed for an application pertaining to the wood/paint interface, which is distinctly different than that of a stain-blocker for the interface between vinyl floor sheathing and wooden OSB underlayment.
In one aspect, the present invention allows for the convenient conversion of wooden underlayment panels, especially OSB panels, that are prone to staining vinyl floor covering into coated panels that will not stain vinyl floor covering. Furthermore, this is accomplished without adversely impacting the compatibility of the underlayment panel with aqueous latex adhesives, patching compounds, metallic fasteners or vinyl floor coverings. In another aspect, a treatment process is provided that utilizes safe, single-component, liquid formulations that are stable under typical storage conditions (5-40xc2x0 C.) for at least 6-8 weeks and have Theological properties that are appropriate for commercial roll-coating and curtain-coating equipment.
Wooden underlayment panels that are prone to staining vinyl floor sheathing under conditions of elevated temperatures and high relative humidity are sequentially coated with two distinct formulations. The first formulation is applied directly on top of the virgin underlayment panel to form a coat. The formulation includes an aqueous dispersion of a copper/amine complex. Typically, this first coating is dried on the panel to form a basal (or bottom) layer (or stratum) and a second coating formulation is applied on top of the basal layer. The second formulation is predominantly comprised of water, calcium carbonate and an inert, non-ionic latex or other binder material. The applied second formulation is then dried on top of the basal layer to form a supra (or top) layer (or stratum). The coated panel is highly resistant to staining vinyl floor coverings and it is fully compatible with commonly used aqueous latex adhesives, patching compounds, metallic fasteners and vinyl floor coverings.

Coating for inhibiting stain formation in floor covering


There is provided a semiconductor circuit including three or more nodes at least including one input node and one output node, plural paths which are connected between the three or more nodes and whose signal propagation directions between the nodes are regulated, a signal propagation time regulator for regulating a signal propagation time of each of the paths, an input unit for inputting a predetermined input signal to the input node, and a detector for detecting a time required for the input signal to propagate through the paths and arrive at the output node.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor circuit, and particularly relates to a semiconductor circuit for detecting a signal propagation time.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 2A shows a normal vector matching algorithm. In matching, how much an input pattern INP is similar to a template pattern TEM is detected. For example, the vertical axis of each of the input pattern, INP and the template pattern TEM shows a voice data value, and the horizontal axis thereof shows a time. In this normal vector matching, a difference DIF between the input pattern INP and the template pattern TEM is found with respect to each of corresponding horizontal axis values. The difference DIF is represented by an absolute value of a difference between both the patterns. It can be said that the smaller the difference DIF, the more similar the input pattern INP and the template pattern TEM are to each other.
On this occasion, in the input pattern INP, the number of data often increases or decreases somewhat with respect to the horizontal axis. In other words, data on some time axis is missing or data is inserted in some cases. Also in this case, a human being judges the degree of similarity by whether or not overall patterns of the input pattern INP and the template pattern TEM are similar to each other.
In this normal vector matching, however, if the number of data in the input pattern INP increases or decreases by even only one with respect to the horizontal axis, a correspondence between the horizontal axes of both the patterns cannot be obtained, and consequently the degree of similarity between both the patterns extremely reduces. Hence, an algorithm in FIG. 2B is devised.
FIG. 2B shows a DP (dynamic programming) matching algorithm. In DP matching, when the input pattern INP and the template pattern TEM are compared, a comparison is made without a correspondence between the horizontal axes being strictly regulated. Namely, the input pattern INP and the template pattern TEM are compared in a state where they are made movable in a horizontal axis direction. Consequently, the difference DIF between both the patterns reduces. In other words, even in the case where the difference DIF increases in the normal vector matching in FIG. 2A, the difference DIF reduces in the DP matching in FIG. 2B, which enables proper matching.
In DP matching, the input pattern INP and the template pattern TEM are compared in the state where the horizontal axes thereof are made movable, whereby there exist numerous comparison combinations. The difference DIF between the most similar combination among the comparison combinations is found. To realize this, many combinations need to be compared, which requires enormous processing time.

Semiconductor circuit for detecting a signal propagation time


A lighting apparatus and projection display apparatus using the same are disclosed. The present invention includes a plurality of light sources emitting lights, respectively, each transmitting at least one of a light emitted from a different light source and a light having transmitted through the different light source and a light guiding unit sending the lights emitted from the light sources and the light transmitted through the light sources in one direction. Accordingly, the lighting apparatus can minimize the etendue to provide sufficient intensity of light despite a plurality of the light sources. By eliminating the necessity for the color separating/synthesizing unit using the lighting apparatus or by eliminating the necessity for the integrator using the lighting apparatus having the long reflecting member, the projection display system can be implemented with a simple configuration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lighting apparatus, and more particularly, to a lighting apparatus and projection display apparatus using the same. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for minimizing etendue.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a lighting apparatus can be used for a projection engine for example. An optical system of a projection engine is mainly divided into an illumination system and a projection system. A major performance of the illumination system is how efficiently the light emitted from a light source can be condensed to an imager.
If a light source is a point light source, it is theoretically able to collect all light emitted from a light source. Yet, the point light source substantially does not exist. And, all kinds of light sources have their own surfaces or volumes, respectively. Hence, theoretical limitation is put on light-condensing efficiency. Specifically, a light source used for a projection engine is an ultra high-pressure discharge lamp such as an arc lamp. Light is emitted from the arc lamp using a discharge occurring between electrodes. And, such a light source as the arc lamp is not the point light source but a light source having a length of an arc gap.
As a light source gets closer to a point light source (i.e., as an arc gap gets smaller), light-condensing efficiency becomes higher. Yet, since the arc gap is associated with an expected life span of a lamp, it is difficult to reduce the arc gap. Currently, an arc gap provided by an advanced lamp manufacturer is about 1 mmm.
Thus, since a light source has constant volume or length, theoretical light-condensing efficiency is limited by etendue. And, the etendue is defined by Formula 1.∫∫cos θdAdΩ  [Formula 1]
In this case, 'dA' indicates a unit area of a light source, 'dΩ' indicates a unit solid angle of a light source, and 'θ' indicates an angle between a normal direction and a solid angle center of a light source.
As can be seen from Formula 1, etendue is a value associated with an area and a solid angle. A light source having a small etendue, i.e., a light source closer to a point light source can condense light to have a small area and a small solid angle using a lens or mirror. In this case, the etendue can be defined by Formula 2.E=πA sin2(θ1/2)=πA/4(F/#)2  [Formula 2]
In this case, 'A' indicates an area of a light source or imager, 'θ1/2' indicates ½ of an angle at which the outermost of an entrance pupil of projection lens is shown at the imager and 'F/#' indicates a rate of a focus distance over a diameter of the entrance pupil.
In the side of manufacture cost, a projection engine becomes advantageous in having a smaller imager and a greater F/#. Hence, an illumination system should illuminate a small area with a big F/#, i.e., a smaller solid angle. Yet, since etendue of a light source is limited, it is unable to condense light on a small area, which is demanded by a projection system, by a small solid angle. Hence, it is unable to reduce etendue even by any kind of optical systems employing Lagrange Invariant in case that a light source has a wide area and that a projected light has a big angle for radiation. This is the limitation of the light-condensing efficiency restricted by the etendue of light source. And, a real system cannot overcome the theoretical efficiency.
Moreover, etendue of a light-receiving part that is illuminated can be calculated. In a projection engine, etendue of a MD (micro display) panel can be calculated. Namely, the etendue of the light-receiving part is determined by an area of the light-receiving part and F/# that is used. Yet, if etendue of a light source is greater than that of the light-receiving part, the light-receiving part is unable to accept rays amounting to the corresponding etendue difference. Thus, the etendue of the light source and the etendue of the light-receiving part put limitation on efficiency of a lighting apparatus. Hence, illumination designers seriously take the etendue into consideration in designing lighting apparatuses.
Meanwhile, to solve the aforesaid problems caused by the difficulty in reducing the arc lamp size associated with the expected life span of the lamp used as a light source, an LED (light emitting diode) is studied to use for a light source of a projection engine (U.S. Pat. No. 6,224,216). The LED has an expected life-span longer than that of the arc lamp, a reduced size, a lightened weight, a fast response speed, a low-voltage drive, a wide color-expression range, etc.
Since the LED fails in providing a sufficient light output as a single device so far, several LEDs are needed to secure the necessary light output.
However, the LED has its etendue as well. So, in case of using several LEDs to secure the light output, the etendue of the entire light sources is raised.

Lighting apparatus and projection display apparatus using the same


A new cultivar of Verbena named ‘KLEVP08381’ particularly characterized by a large red inflorescence, a semi-trailing growth habit, and high resistance to powdery mildew, is disclosed.

The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of Verbena, botanically known as Verbena hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name 'KLEVP08381'. 'KLEVP08381' was discovered as a seedling resulting from a cross conducted in Spring 2006 in New South Wales, Cobbitty, Australia between the proprietary female Verbena parent, '00.055.20' (unpatented) and the proprietary male Verbena parent, '00.051.36' (unpatented). A single plant selection was subsequently chosen for further evaluation and for asexual propagation.
The new cultivar was first propagated in Fall 2006 by vegetative cuttings in Stuttgart, Germany and has been asexually reproduced repeatedly by vegetative cuttings over four generations. 'KLEVP08381' has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive asexual propagations.
Plant Breeder's Rights for this cultivar were applied for in Canada on Apr. 8, 2008 and in Switzerland on Aug. 15, 2008. 'KLEVP08381' has not been made publicly available more than one year prior to filing of this application.


A broadband network system configured to transfer user datagram protocol with value-added (UDPVA) packet from to a broadband interface unit (BIntU) transceiver. The broadband network system may comprise a data distribution center and the BIntU transceiver. The BIntU transceiver is configured to generate the UDPVA packet. The BIntU transceiver includes an encoder/decoder (codec) configured to alternatively code or decode UDP frame information and a digital signal processor (DSP) portion. The DSP portion is coupled to the codec. In one aspect, the DSP portion includes a stack that temporarily stores the UDPVA packet within the stack. In one aspect, the UDPVA packet is in a form to be transmitted directly to a network destination address device. In another aspect, the UDPVA packet is available to delivery to a network destination address or storage located on a local area network or a wide area network. In certain aspects, the BIntU transceiver is configured to transmit the UDPVA packet to the data distribution center.

Network usage, network technologies, and the number of broadband applications involving networks have been growing at an explosive rate in recent years. The use of such applications as multimedia and teleconferencing involving networks is similarly expanding. Multimedia and teleconferencing applications typically include the transfer of a large bandwidth of video, audio, and perhaps other data types between the source of the transmission and a transceiver located at each one of the end users. Video transfer, audio transfer, and possibly other types of data transfer over networks involve the use of considerable bandwidth. One challenge for network designers and service providers is thus providing sufficient high bandwidth to its end user transceivers for high-bandwidth applications. Another challenge is to maximize the utilization of the bandwidth of existing network infrastructures by maximizing the efficiency of protocols that transfer data between locations.
The Internet has become the medium for the distribution for a variety of multimedia and teleconferencing communications. The Internet has enabled the emergence of such communications and information technology devices as personal computers, laptop computers, Internet phones, and handheld computer devices. These communication and information technology devices have been utilized for the distribution of data among users in either a local area network environment or a wide area network environment. The demands resulting from the convergence of telecommunications, computing, and video distribution technologies also drive technology development.
Transceivers, in addition to its other tasks, append packet header information using a computer processor to packets to be transmitted over the network. The processing time required for the computer processor to route the packet is included in the time required by the transceiver to transmit the data. Therefore, the processing time of the computer processor associated with the end user transceivers contributes to the latency of the transceivers of the network system in transferring data. This increased transceiver latency reduces the data transfer rate between the end user transceivers. Additionally, irregular packet transmission through the computer processor may result in jitter at other end users.
Data distribution centers control and monitor the transmission of such data as audio and video to (or between) end user transceivers. Data distribution centers allot a fixed bandwidth for service, regardless of the application. Even if the application is, for example, a high bandwidth teleconferencing application that requires considerable bandwidth, then the bandwidth allotted to the application is similar to a lower bandwidth application.
Both connection-oriented and connectionless-oriented protocols transfer data (e.g., packets) in different embodiments of communication systems. The user datagram protocol (UDP), for example, is a connectionless transport layer protocol commonly used to transmit packetized data over the Internet. UDP is considered a connectionless protocol since no connection is established between the data source and the end user transceivers; as such packets transmitted between the same data source and the same end users for the same call may follow different paths. Additionally, UDP may provide the packets to the receiver in a different order from which the packets were transmitted. UDP is considered a relatively light protocol since little header information (data) is appended to the packet. Using such a connectionless, best-effort protocol as UDP to transfer data such as audio or video on a broadcast network is somewhat unreliable since an end user transmitter cannot guarantee that an end user receiver will receive the packets. UDP is thus a best-effort protocol that does not guarantee packet transmission or a quality of service (QOS) to its end user transceivers. UDP does not require the use of a time-stamp.
However, providing a more reliable connection-oriented protocol (e.g., one that indicates at the transmitting transceiver that the receiving transceiver received a certain packet) is not effective for retransmitting video or audio applications since the replacement packet would be stale as a result of the round-trip latency necessary to request, and provide, the replacement packet. A stale packet cannot be integrated in an ongoing audio/video program because the stale packet does not accurately reflect the current digital state.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a broadband network system for transferring video/audio data in which the data provided by an end user transmitting transceiver is transmitted directly to the network node (and then to the end user receiving transceiver) without the packet being processed by a computer processor. Passing data through the computer processor associated with the transmitting transceiver necessitates additional processing and header information-appending time. In one aspect, it would be desired to provide a connection-oriented communications protocol that provides a bandwidth selected for any application that guarantees to an end user transmitter a session having a prescribed QOS. The QOS would ensure that the end user receiving transceiver has received and continues to receive transmitted packets. In another aspect, it would be desired to provide security between the transceiver and the data distribution center to ensure that a person communicating from any transmitting transceiver or any receiving transceiver is actually the intended party.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Broadband network system configured to transport audio or video at the transport layer, and associated method


A method for controlling a wheel drive system of a hybrid electric vehicle when starting a power source. The hybrid electric vehicle includes first and second power sources, a motor, and a power transfer unit adapted to drive a vehicle wheel. The method includes determining whether the first power source is to be started, determining whether a level of torque requested by a vehicle operator is greater than a threshold value, maintaining a current gear ratio if the threshold value is exceeded, and providing a target level of torque to the power transfer unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the control of a hybrid electric vehicle, and more particularly to a method for controlling a wheel drive system of a hybrid electric vehicle.
2. Background Art
Previously, hybrid electric vehicles employed control strategies that restricted "shift-up" actions of an automatic transmission to reduce shifting shocks that occurred as power source output decreased. An example of such a control strategy is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,045. However, these hybrid vehicle control strategies did not address the problems associated with executing a transmission downshift to a lower gear ratio while simultaneously starting a drive power source, such as an engine of the hybrid electric vehicle.


In the case of a paraffin waxing device for a travelling yarn, a rotating paraffin body is weighted in axial direction against a stopping face. The stopping face lies against the front surface of the paraffin body, over which the travelling yarn is guided. During the waxing process, undesired rubbing off of paraffin particles can soil the feed material or the machine elements. According to the invention, the stopping face is rolled on the rotating front surface. The rubbing-off of paraffin particles, in particular in the area of the stopping face, is hereby avoided.

The present invention relates to a device for paraffin waxing a travelling yarn, comprising a rotating paraffin body which is weighted in axial direction against a stopping face, which stopping face lies against a front surface of the paraffin body over which the travelling yarn is guided.
A paraffin waxing device is known from German published patent application 40 10 469 A1, in the case of which a rotating paraffin body with a front surface is pressed against the front ends of three pin-like spacer supports. These spacer supports are fixed, stationary, to a base plate, and their front surfaces serve as stopping faces for the axially loaded paraffin body. In particular because of the sliding of the paraffin body on the spacer supports, paraffin particles are rubbed off at the front ends. These particles can soil the feed material or the machine elements.
It is an object of the present invention, in the case of a paraffin waxing device, to avoid the rubbing-off of paraffin particles as far as possible.
The object has been achieved in accordance with the present invention in that the stopping face can be rolled on the rotating front surface.
As a result of the arrangement and construction of the stopping face according to the present invention, it is avoided that the paraffin body slides on the stopping face. Thus, paraffin particles are not, or not in any great amount, rubbed off in the area of the stopping face. Rather, paraffin is released where it should be released, namely on the travel of the yarn on the front surface of the paraffin body. The paraffin released by the relative movement between the paraffin body and the yarn remains on the yarn and eases its further processing.
The undesirable sliding of the paraffin body on the stopping face is avoided in that the stopping surface does not remain still in relation to the paraffin body, but rather moves with it. The stopping face can be moved with the rotating front surface in various ways. It is, for example, possible to arrange the stopping face in such a way that it is guided by the front surface of the paraffin body. The stopping face can hereby be arranged at the surface of a movably supported roller body. When the roller body moves, the stopping face rolls on the rotating front surface of the paraffin body. The stopping face is formed by the respective adjacent-lying point of the surface of the roller body during the rolling movement. Various types of bodies, with which a rolling movement on the front surface of the paraffin body is possible, can be used as a roller body.
In an advantageous development, the stopping face is arranged at the circumferential side of at least one rotatable roller or disc.
The roller or disc is supported in such a way that its circumferential side is disposed against the front surface of the paraffin body and by means thereof is set to rotate, whereby it rolls on the front surface.
In another advantageous embodiment, the stopping face is arranged at the front side of at least one rotatable disc. It is hereby possible to curve the change-over area from front side to circumferential side, and to arrange the disc in such a way that the above mentioned curved area rolls on the front surface of the paraffin body. The stopping face lies then in the change-over area from front side to circumferential side of the disc, whereby the rolling movements are similar to those when a rotatable roller is used. In another advantageous embodiment the stopping face is arranged to the surface of at least one rotatable ball.
In an advantageous embodiment the stopping surface is supported in such a way that it can be swivelled away from the paraffin body. Here, the roller body, on whose surface the stopping face is arranged, is supported by a holder which is in turn pivotably arranged.
In a further embodiment, the paraffin body and/or the stopping surface are vibration-damped. When in operation, vibrations, which arise inside the paraffin waxing device or which are transferred from outside to the paraffin waxing device, can cause paraffin particles to come off. This transmission of vibrations can occur for example when the paraffin waxing device is arranged to the frame of a machine which comprises a winding device, in particular a winder machine or a spinning machine. By means of a vibration damper, such vibrations or knocks could be weakened to such a degree that paraffin particles would not come off.
It is advantageously possible to make the stopping face from vibration-damping material.
It is further advantageously possible, to secure the stopping face by means of a holder which comprises vibration-damping means. It is, for example, thus possible to use an intermediary part made of vibration-damping material. The intermediary part could be arranged between a stable element of the holder and a stable machine element to which the holder is secured.
The vibration damper can be advantageously so formed that the paraffin body is secured by means of a holder which comprises vibration damping means. An intermediary part, made of vibration damping material, can also be used here, which can be arranged, for example, between a stable element of the holder and a stable machine element to which the holder is secured.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description thereof when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Device for paraffin waxing a running yarn


An inexpensive large-capacity paper hopper capable of energizing a paper feed table with a constant lift force irrespective of the quantity of paper sheets remaining thereon, thereby performing stable paper feeding. To achieve such a paper hopper, a paper hopper, wherein a paper feed table is lifted or lowered being kept in a horizontal condition and paper sheets stacked on the paper feed table are sequentially sent out from the top sheet for feeding, is arranged such that the paper feed table is so suspended by a wire suspending device as to be lifted or lowered in a horizontal condition, and an elastic tensile force of extension coil springs included in a lift force exerting device is so exerted to the paper feed table that the direction in which the restoring displacement of the extension coil springs takes place becomes coincident with the direction of lifting the paper feed table.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper hopper for feeding paper sheets to a device such as an electrophotographic device, and more particularly to a paper hopper in which a paper feed table can be lifted and lowered being kept in a horizontal condition and paper sheets stacked on the paper feed table are sequentially sent out from the top sheet for feeding.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, there has been a growing demand for large-capacity paper hoppers for feeding paper sheets to a device such as an electrophotographic device, as the speed of the printing process in printers including electrophotographic devices has been remarkably increased. However, a paper hopper of the cassette type that is installed by inserting in such a device, is limited in capacity by the size of the device to which it is applied, and therefore, it has become very common to employ a paper hopper of the separation type that is installed together with and separately from the device.
There are disclosed prior paper hoppers of the separation type in the following publications.
(1) Japanese Patent Publication Laid-Open No. 60-40340 (1985)
An endless wire rope is provided at each of the opposite sides of the paper feed table. Each endless wire rope is extended in figure-of-eight fashion such that parts of the wire rope form vertical portions parallel to the ascending/descending plane of the paper feed table. The paper feed table is then fixedly attached to and suspended by the vertical portions of each wire rope in a horizontal condition so that the paper feed table can be lifted or lowered being kept in a horizontal condition by synchronously driving the endless wire ropes at the same speed and in the same direction. By means of a driving motor, the endless wire ropes are accordingly driven with the same torque in synchronization with each other, whereby a lift force is exerted to the paper feed table.
(2) Japanese Patent Publication Laid-Open No. 3-36124 (1991)
Each of the opposite sides of the paper feed table is provided with a front lift arm for lifting the front edge of the paper feed table and a rear lift arm for lifting the rear edge of the paper feed table. The front and rear lift arms are coupled to each other by a gear so as to freely pivot on their fulcrums. By allowing the front lift arms disposed at the opposite sides to pivot synchronously and the rear lift arms to pivot synchronously through the gear, the paper feed table can be lifted or lowered being kept in a horizontal condition. An extension coil spring is then provided for exerting an elastic tensile force to one of the front lift arms so that the arm pivots on its fulcrum to lift the paper feed table. Thus, a lift force is exerted to the paper feed table.