A mounting structure of an automobile stabilizer bar includes a support bracket fixed at one end thereof to a lateral surface of a crossmember. The other end of the support bracket protrudes out toward the side of a vehicle body. At least one bushing is coupled to a stabilizer bar and affixed onto the support bracket. A bushing bracket is formed in an arch shape for enclosing the periphery of the bushing. A stud bolt is attached at one end to each outer surface of the bushing bracket. The other end of the stud bolt penetrates each lateral surface of the support bracket. A pipe member into which the stud bolt penetrates is coupled to each lateral surface of the support bracket. A coupling nut is coupled to one end of the stud bolt after the stud bolt passes through the pipe member.

The stabilizer bar is generally coupled at both ends to suspension arms (lower arms) via stabilizer links. The stabilizer bar is also connected at two middle portions thereof to the vehicle body via a bushing and bushing bracket.
Preferably, the bushing and bushing bracket can be coupled to the vehicle body without any interference from the neighboring components, and the attaching and detaching process thereof can be easily accomplished.

Mounting structure of stabilizer bar in vehicle


The present disclosure relates to the estimation of a velocity of a first object using accelerometer signals, indicating an acceleration of the first object and/or a second object coupled to a first object. To this end, a characteristic frequency in the accelerometer signal spectrum may be determined, preferably by applying a parametric model or by performing a spectrum analysis, and used as a basis to estimate the velocity of the first object based on the determined characteristic frequency. The characteristic frequency may be determined by identifying the frequency having the maximum spectral amplitude or by identifying the fundamental frequency or a particular harmonic in the spectrum.

Motion of vehicles, objects, persons and anything that moves or can be moved (in the following collectively referred to as object, unless otherwise indicated) is characterized by a variety of variables, among which velocity or speed is of particular interest.
Known methods to estimate velocities may be grouped according to their underlying principles. Velocity estimation can be carried out using inertial signals (e.g. from accelerometers), measurements of the Doppler shift of GPS (Global Positioning System) signals and/or measurements by forward-looking radar sensors, similar to a radar gun.


An adjustable watch strap having a micro-adjustment system for providing micro adjustments to the circumferential length of the watch strap, in addition to existing standard adjustments. The micro adjustment system is integrated into a buckle (e.g., deployment buckle) and is configured to provide a plurality of microadjustments between standard adjustments or beyond a last or first standard adjustment.

1. Technical Field
The present principles generally relates to adjustable watch straps, more particularly, it relates to an adjustable watch strap having the capability of providing micro adjustments between standard adjustments.
2. Description of Related Art
Watches are popular accessories that traditionally provide the time of day and may provide additional data such as the date, a stop watch, etc. A watch strap which supports the watch preferably fits snugly enough on a user's wrist to resist rotation due to normal hand movements but without the strap being overly tight so as to provide excessive pressure and discomfort to the user.
Metal watch straps and non-metal watch straps are the two main types of watch straps known in the art. The non-metal watch straps may be fabricated out of materials such as leather, plastic or a variety of other materials. The adjustment of metal watch straps is accomplished by adding or removing links to the bracelet portion in order to change the circumferential length of the bracelet.
For non-metal watch straps, the straps typically have a fixed length and the circumferential length that the straps encircle the user's wrist is adjusted by securing the strap to a buckle at different holes on the strap. Tang buckles and deployment buckles are two main types of buckles that are used on non-metal straps in order to connect the straps and secure them on the user's wrist. Tang buckles secure the circumferential length of the strap by including a hook on the buckle which extends into a hole on a strap portion similar to the operation of a traditional belt. Deployment buckles for non-metal straps may also include a buckle head having a hook for extending through holes on a strap portion. However, deployment buckles also contain a plurality of metal strips which when opened, enlarge the circumference of the bracelet and allow for easy removal of the watch. The deployment buckle also protects the watch from being accidentally dropped upon removal because the straps remain connected to the buckle when the buckle is deployed.
A disadvantage of traditional deployment buckles is that the deployment buckle cannot be adjusted easily on the user's wrist once it is secured thereon. In order to adjust the circumferential length of the strap, the watch must be removed and the buckle must be fastened onto another hole on the strap. Sometimes the holes on traditional straps are spaced far apart and a user may not be able to obtain a proper fit with the provided holes. For example, the watch strap may initially not fit well with the provided holes on the watch strap. Alternatively, a watch strap that is initially fitted well on the user's wrist may become too loose or too tight based on environmental conditions or health conditions which affect the width of the user's wrist. In order to overcome this problem a user may have to add intermediary holes between two existing holes on the watch strap which is a difficult task and diminishes the attractiveness and structural integrity of the watch strap.
Watch straps have been made with numerous adjustment mechanisms in order to change the circumferential length of the strap around the user's wrist. However, all adjustable straps have adjustment increments, such as the standard spacing for the holes on a strap, which are unable to provide small or micro changes in the circumferential length of the strap between the provided hole adjustments in the band in order to provide an optimal fit for the user. Non-metal watch straps normally are adjustable by changing the hole that the strap is affixed to the buckle. However, the circumferential length of the watch strap cannot be adjusted solely at the buckle without changing the hole that the watch strap is secured to the buckle.
Accordingly, it is an aspect of the invention to provide a watch strap that provides microadjustments at the buckle in order to make small or micro adjustments to the circumferential length of the watch strap without changing the hole that the strap is affixed to the buckle.
It is another aspect of the invention to provide a watch strap having an adjustment mechanism which permits the user to easily adjust the circumferential length of the strap in small or micro increments without requiring special tools or skills.
It is a further aspect of the invention to provide a watch strap having an adjustment mechanism that is adjustable in small or micro increments and is cost effective to manufacture.
Yet a further aspect of the invention is an adjustable buckle mechanism that is configured to be incorporated into an existing buckle of a watch strap in order to allow the watch strap to be adjustable at the buckle in small or micro increments without changing the hole that the strap is affixed to the buckle.


An ultrasound adapter assembly includes a rectangular zero-insertion-force receptacle, such as the ITT Cannon.RTM. DL-series Zero Insertion Force ("DL-ZIF") receptacle, and a high-density micro-coaxial ("HDMC") connector plug interconnected by micro-coaxial conductors. The adapter assembly includes a frame for supporting the two connectors and a locking mechanism for use in semi-permanently attaching the adapter assembly to an ultrasound imaging system receptacle. The adapter assembly permits old-style ultrasound transducer assemblies having the rectangular zero-insertion-force plug to be used with newer ultrasound imaging systems using the newer HDMC interfacing system. In an alternative embodiment, the two connectors are electrically interconnected using flex-circuit. The HDMC connector plug is formed using a multi-layer printed wiring board having a high density array of electrical contact pads on one surface arranged for compatible mating with the newer system HDMC interfacing receptacle. Solder pads are placed on the opposed surface for solder attachment of the micro-coaxial cables and the alternative flex-circuit. A second multi-layer printed wiring board includes pre-tinned feedthroughs for solder connection to the Cannon DL-ZIF connector. An opposed surface of the second printed wiring board includes solder pads for attachment of the micro-coaxial cables and the alternative flex-circuit. In another alternative embodiment, the flex-circuit is attached at both ends to separate connectors forming an interconnection assembly, and both the second printed wiring board and the HDMC plug printed wiring board include mating connectors for attachment of the interconnecting flex-circuit assembly.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an adapter assembly for attaching an electrical plug of one type to electrical equipment having a receptacle of a different type, such as, for example, adapting a member of the ITT Cannon.RTM. DL-series Zero Insertion Force plug/receptacle family or its equivalent (e.g., the AMP.RTM. model M-ZIF-series plug/receptacle family), to a high-density micro-coaxial receptacle/plug for use in connecting peripheral devices to ultrasound imaging systems, or otherwise making connections within peripheral devices or imaging systems in medical ultrasound applications.


According to an embodiment of the present technology, an image display apparatus includes a light source; an image generation unit; and a projection optical system. The image generation unit generates image light by modulating a light beam emitted from the light source. The projection optical system includes a first lens group that is disposed on an optical axis of the generated image light and has a first refractive power, a second lens group that is disposed on the optical axis and has a second refractive power, a first movement mechanism that moves the first lens group, and a second movement mechanism that moves the second lens group corresponding to the first refractive power, the second refractive power, and the movement of the first lens group.

In the past, a projector has been widely known as a projection type image display apparatus that displays a projection image on a screen. Recently, there is a growing demand for a front projection type projector having an ultra-wide angle, which is capable of displaying a large screen even in the case where the projection space is small. By using this projector, it is possible to project a larger screen also in a limited space by projecting it obliquely and at a wide angle on a screen.
Meanwhile, in the case of using a projection type projector having an ultra-wide angle, the image position, the image size, and the like on the screen is often greatly changed by a slight change in the distance between the projector and the screen. Therefore, it is difficult to finely adjust the image position and the like when projecting an image.
In the projection type projector having an ultra-wide angle described in Patent Literature 1, a screen shift for moving the projection image to be projected on the screen can be performed by moving a part of optical components included in the projection optical system. By using this screen shift, fine adjustment of the image position and the like can be easily performed (paragraphs [0023] and [0024] of the specification of Patent Literature 1).

Image display apparatus and projection optical system


The following description relates to a composite for a harmful material-detecting sensor, which includes a dye having a color-change function by reaction with acid or base and a polymer material, a method for producing the composite for the harmful material-detecting sensor, and a low-cost film-type color change harmful material sensor, which includes the composite for the harmful material-detecting sensor so as to quickly detect a harmful material and can be carried by an individual.

As leakage of harmful materials in various industrial sites and during transportation causes important social issues further to loss of life, there has been necessity for a technology, which is capable of early detecting harmful materials. As equipment for detecting a harmful material, an expensive stationary sensor system has already been mounted and operated in most processes, and a portable device achieved through miniaturization of an analysis device has also been commercialized. However, these devices lack economic rationality so that they would not be supplied to and used by an individual operator. In order to avoid loss of life upon an accident of leakage of a harmful material, initial responsive measures are the most critical, and for rapid initial responsive measures, development of a detection system that can be supplied to individuals, especially, a sensor technology that enables recognition by an individual operator without requiring special measurement equipment is demanded. As this type of a detection kit, the color change badge system (Chameleon badge system) of Morphix Technology has been globally commercialized, and this product puts a reagent in a solution form causing a color change reaction in a pouch made of a material, through which a harmful gas can pass. The product exhibits difference in reaction time depending on materials to be detected, and for example, requires exposure time of at least 1 minute to 15 minutes in case of ammonia; and since the product is in the pouch form, there is limitation in miniaturization for reduction of a volume, and thus, the product is inappropriate in a size to carry and operate. In addition, with respect to other portable products, there is a product, which was developed by Drager in Germany and RAE systems in U.S.A. and manufactured to be in a tube form with a color change detection material, and this product is a type of a reagent and has a limit in that a harmful material should be concentrated and introduced into the tube.
Meanwhile, there have been attempts, although have not reached the commercial development stage yet, to detect multiple harmful materials at a time by printing a chemoresponsive dye or a fluorophore on a reverse phase silica gel plate, an acid free paper, a porous cellulose acetate, or a film of porous polyvinylidene difluoride through inkjet technology; however, since this method should conduct the detection by using digital imaging, rather than detection through eye observation, the product is not substantially considered an individual portable product.
Meanwhile, Korean Patent No. 10-0305660 describes a sulfur compound-based gas sensor, to which CuO is added by using a double ion beam method.

Color-change sensor using film for detecting harmful material

RESEARCH & BUSINESS FOUNDATION SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY


The present invention provides a multilayer wiring technology by which high adhesiveness and high insulation reliability between wirings are obtained, while maintaining effective low capacitance between wirings. A semiconductor device is characterized in that a first insulating film is an insulating film formed of at least one layer which contains a siloxane structure containing silicon, oxygen and carbon; the siloxane structure in the inner part of the first insulating film contains a larger number of carbon atoms than the number of silicon atoms; and a modified layer which containing a smaller number of carbon atoms and a larger number of oxygen atoms per unit volume than the inner part of the first insulating film is formed on at least one of an interface between the first insulating film and the metal and an interface between the first insulating film and a second insulating film.

In a silicon semiconductor integrated circuit (LSI), conventionally aluminum (Al) or an Al alloy has been widely used as an electroconductive material. As the tendency of a method for manufacturing finer LSI progresses, copper (Cu) has been used as an electroconductive material so as to decrease the resistance of a wire in wiring and enhance the reliability. This Cu easily diffuses into a silicon oxide film, so that an electroconductive barrier metal film for preventing the diffusion of Cu is used in the side face and the bottom face of Cu wiring, and an insulative barrier film is used in the top face of the Cu wiring.
By the way, as the tendency of refining LSI progresses recently, a wiring dimension has been further refined. Then, a problem has arisen that the capacitance between wirings increases, and an insulating film with a low dielectric constant is progressively introduced for an interlayer insulating film. This is because it is effective not only to refine the wiring but also lower the dielectric constant of the interlayer insulating film, and both methods are required in combination, in order to drive a semiconductor element using a multilayer wiring at a high speed and a low electric power.
In order to decrease the effective capacitance between the wirings in this way, it has been required to lower the dielectric constant of the interlayer insulating film (in this case, silicon oxide film (k=4.2)). Examples of this insulating film with a low dielectric constant include a HSQ (Hydrogen Silsesquioxane) film, CDO (Carbon doped oxide), and an organic film. These insulating films with a low dielectric constant are formed with a spin coating method, a vapor phase method or the like.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-309173 discloses a technology of forming a modified layer by subjecting an organosiloxane film to NF3 plasma treatment and enhancing the adhesiveness.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-24641 discloses a technology of forming a modified layer by subjecting an organosiloxane film to a reducing treatment and protecting the organosiloxane film.
National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2002-526916 discloses a technology of forming a porous insulating film by using a cyclic organosiloxane as a raw material.
Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-400683 discloses a technology of forming a porous insulating film by using a three-membered cyclic organosiloxane as a raw material.

Semiconductor device, method for manufacturing semiconductor device and apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor


According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of global bit lines, a plurality of word lines, a plurality of bit lines, a plurality of resistance change films, a plurality of semiconductor layers, a gate insulating film, and a plurality of gate electrodes. Spacing in the first direction between the plurality of semiconductor layers is larger than spacing in the second direction between the plurality of semiconductor layers. The plurality of gate electrodes is separated in the first direction.

A resistance change memory with memory cells made of a resistance change material has been proposed in these years. The resistance change memory can be configured without using MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors) for memory cells. Thus, the resistance change memory is expected to be able to enhance integration beyond the conventional trend. Furthermore, the resistance change memory has a configuration facilitating three-dimensional stacking. Thus, the resistance change memory can be expected to achieve a higher degree of integration than conventional memories using the two-dimensional plane alone.
However, three-dimensional stacking needs a technique for ensuring the power of driving a selected cell using a small size switching element.

Semiconductor memory device and method for manufacturing same


There is provided an electric motor having a flat form factor. The electric motor has a rotor with a shaft attached thereto. The rotor further includes a plurality of teeth disposed thereon. The motor further includes a stator having an axial length. A plurality of teeth are disposed on the stator such that a gap is defined between the teeth of the stator and the teeth of the rotor. The motor further includes a plurality of copper windings disposed around each of the teeth of stator. Each of the windings has a length of end copper equal to about twice the axial length of the stator. In this regard, the end of the wire is greater than the width of the stator such that the form factor of the motor can be flattened.

1. Field of Invention
The present application generally relates to AC induction motors and more specifically to an AC induction motor having increased torque output by increasing the number of poles and increasing the gap between the stator and rotor.
2. Status of the Prior Art
The theory of motor operation can be developed based on the equivalency of electric-to-magnetic-to-mechanical energy exchange. The theory encompasses both the Lorentz Force Equation and the equation for attractive forces. The Lorentz Force Equation is usually invoked for evaluating AC machine performance while the equation for attractive forces evaluates reluctance motor analysis.
The universal law used to explain the operation of an electromotive machine is simply stated as the equivalence of the change in stored magnetic energy dEmagnetic with the change in mechanical shaft energy dEmechanical:dEmagnetic=dEmechanical  Eq. 1                where:        Emagnetic=magnetic energy stored inside the machine (co-energy); and        Emechanical=mechanical energy produced by the machine (shaft energy).
Magnetic energy exists within a magnetic field because the field requires energy for its formation in the first place. The magnetic field represents the exact amount of energy that was expended for its creation.
The most effective method of storing magnetic energy is with an electromagnetic device known as an inductor. The inductor consists of a coil of n turns surrounding an iron core serving as the magnetic circuit for conducting magnetic flux. The iron core presents low resistance or low reluctance R, to the flow of flux and therefore the core itself contains very little magnetic energy. Consequently, additional reluctance must be added to the magnetic circuit in the form of an air gap in order to increase the energy storage capacitor of the inductor. A relatively small air gap can raise the overall circuit reluctance R by more than ten times. Or in other words, the small gap typically contains over ten times the magnetic energy of the iron core which simply provides the flux conduit for channeling flux through the coil and concentrating flux at the gap.
Additionally, in order to increase the torque of an electric motor, the number of poles can be increased with the penalty of added weight to the motor for a given shape. Furthermore, the addition of poles also decreases the efficiency of the motor. For example, heat dissipation varies as the square of torque. Accordingly, by doubling the torque by adding additional poles, the heat increase will be four-fold.

AC induction motor having multiple poles and increased stator/rotor gap


A separator including a porous base and a coating layer on at least one surface of the porous base, the coating layer including (a) a carbon nanotube including an oxygen functional group and (b) a lithium ion conducting polymer, and a lithium-sulfur battery including the same. Such a separator may be capable of resolving problems caused by lithium polysulfide occurring in a lithium-sulfur battery.

As electronic goods, electronic devices, communication devices and the like have rapidly become smaller and lighter recently, and necessity of electric vehicles has highly emerged regarding environmental problems, demands for improving performance of secondary batteries used as a power source of these goods have greatly increased. Among these, lithium secondary batteries have received considerable attention as a high performance battery due to their high energy density and high standard electrode potential.
Particularly, lithium-sulfur (Li—S) batteries are a secondary battery using a sulfur series material having sulfur-sulfur (S—S) bonds as a positive electrode active material, and using lithium metal as a negative electrode active material. Sulfur, a main material of a positive electrode active material, has advantages of being very abundant in resources, having no toxicity and having a low atomic weight. In addition, a lithium-sulfur battery has theoretical discharge capacity of 1675 mAh/g-sulfur and theoretical energy density of 2,600 Wh/kg, which is very high compared to theoretical energy density of other battery systems (Ni-MH battery: 450 Wh/kg, Li—FeS battery: 480 Wh/kg, Li—MnO2 battery: 1,000 Wh/kg, Na—S battery: 800 Wh/kg) currently studied, and therefore, is a most promising battery among batteries that have been developed so far.
During a discharge reaction of a lithium-sulfur battery, an oxidation reaction of lithium occurs in a negative electrode (anode), and a reduction reaction of sulfur occurs in a positive electrode (cathode). The lithium-sulfur battery produces lithium polysulfide (Li2Sx, x=2 to 8) during discharge, and this is dissolved in an electrolyte and diffused to a negative electrode causing various side reactions, and also reduces capacity of sulfur participating in an electrochemical reaction. In addition, the lithium polysulfide causes a shuttle reaction during a charging process significantly reducing charge and discharge efficiency.
In order to resolve such problems, methods of adding an additive having a sulfur-adsorbing property have been proposed, however, a deterioration problem has occurred newly producing additional battery side reactions. In view of the above, methods of adding a metal chalcogenide, alumina or the like or coating the surface with oxycarbonate and the like have been proposed in order to delay an outflow of a positive electrode active material, that is, sulfur, however, such methods either have the sulfur lost during a treatment process or are complicated, and also limit the amount of sulfur, an active material, to introduce (that is, loading amount).
Accordingly, for commercialization of a lithium-sulfur battery, the problems of lithium polysulfide are a priority issue.

Separator and lithium-sulfur battery comprising the same


A system includes a computer including a processor. The processor is programmed to receive data mapping one or more predicted signal metrics for each of one or more types of wireless communications within a geographic area. Based on optimization targets, the processor is programmed to select, for a vehicle travelling along a planned path within the geographic area, a respective type of communications to be used respectively for each area along the planned path. The processor is further programmed to activate the selected type of communications when the vehicle is within the respective area.

Vehicles may be equipped for various types of wireless communications such as satellite, cellular, dedicated short range communications (DSRC), radio frequency (RF) and digital radio. Increasingly, in addition to using wireless communications for entertainment, vehicle operators rely on data from these wireless communications to track vehicle location, monitor traffic along a planned travel route, receive weather updates, etc. All types of wireless communication are not, however, available in all locations. For example, a signal from a cell tower may be lost as the vehicle moves through the shadow of a mountain. In some locations, only particular types of communications or no communications at all, may be available.


A household dishwasher includes a receiving compartment for receiving an item to be washed, a pump sump, and a heat pump assembly through which, during operation, a heat transfer medium flows. The heat pump assembly includes a plate condenser configured to enable a transfer of heat from the heat transfer medium to a washing liquor circulating in the household dishwasher. A spray assembly supplies washing liquor to the item to be washed. A first flow path extends from the pump sump to the spray assembly for conducting the washing liquor, and a second flow path extends from the pump sump to the plate condenser. Means are provided to prevent or hinder foreign matter that is swept along with the washing liquor from adhering to a washing-liquor-facing surface of the plate condenser, or to detach foreign matter adhering to the washing-liquor-facing surface from said surface.

The invention relates to a household dishwasher having a receiving compartment for receiving items to be washed, a pump sump, a heat pump assembly through which, during operation, a heat transfer medium flows, wherein the heat pump assembly comprises inter alia a condenser in the form of a plate condenser which is used to transfer heat from the heat transfer medium to a washing liquor circulating in the household dishwasher, and at least one spray assembly which can be used to supply the items to be washed with washing liquor, wherein the household dishwasher has a first flow path for the washing liquor, said path extending from the pump sump to the spray assembly, and wherein the household dishwasher has in particular a second flow path extending from the pump sump to the plate condenser.
Also described is a method for operating a household dishwasher having a receiving compartment for receiving items to be washed, a pump sump and a heat pump assembly through which, during operation, a heat transfer medium flows, wherein the heat pump assembly comprises inter alia a condenser in the form of a plate condenser which is used, during operation of the heat pump assembly, to transfer heat from the heat transfer medium to a washing liquor circulating in the household dishwasher, and at least one spray assembly which is used to supply the items to be washed with washing liquor during a washing program.
Household dishwashers are known in the prior art and serve in principle to clean and then dry soiled items to be washed, such as dishes or cutlery. During one or more cleaning steps of a washing program, washing liquor or washing fluid (in particular water or water with detergent and/or rinse aid) is supplied to the items to be washed in order to detach foreign matter from the items to be washed. For drying the items to be washed, corresponding household dishwashers have a drying system for the cleaned items to be washed, in which air takes up the water adhering to the cleaned items to be washed and thereby dries the items to be washed. The moist air is then conducted to the outside or guided past a cold surface in order to condense water vapor.
The household dishwasher according to the present invention further has a heat pump assembly as described below. The heat pump assembly comprises in principle a heat exchanger acting as an evaporator for evaporating a heat transfer medium and a compressor for compressing the evaporated heat transfer medium. With the aid of the compressor, the gaseous heat transfer medium introduced into the compressor during operation of the heat pump assembly is compressed, wherein it is heated.
The heat pump assembly further comprises a heat exchanger acting as a condenser, in which the gaseous heat transfer medium which has been heated is condensed again and in the process gives off heat, which can be used for example to heat the washing liquor or washing fluid present in the household dishwasher. The condensed heat transfer medium is then depressurized with the aid of an expansion element (usually a thrush valve or a capillary tube) and finally returns to the evaporator, where by absorbing heat it transitions once again to the gaseous state in order then to be guided once again to the compressor.
The heat exchanger acting as an evaporator can be present for example as a pipe coil or also as a heat exchanger embodied to be flat (known as a plate heat exchanger). In each case, an inlet and an outlet for the heat transfer medium are present. The latter also applies to the heat exchanger acting as an evaporator, wherein this is embodied as a plate heat exchanger in accordance with the present invention, in the following as a plate condenser.
Plate condensers generally comprise several in particular largely flat or embossed plates made from metal or a thermally conductive plastic, arranged in parallel with one another. The plates are each connected to one another via connecting portions and thus form flow channels or a cavity for the washing liquor and the heat transfer medium, wherein both media are guided separately from one other through the plates. The heat exchange between the media finally takes place by means of heat conduction via the individual plates. Preferably a cavity between a first plate and an adjacent second plate arranged at a distance therefrom, which cavity is provided for the flow-through of washing liquor to be heated, alternates with a cavity between the second plate and a third plate arranged at a distance therefrom, which cavity is provided for the flow-through of the heat transfer medium. The plates can preferably be stacked in a straight line one behind the other or one above the other. Alternatively, the plates of a plate condenser which are stacked one above the other or one behind the other can be arranged in a spiral shape, in particular wound, so that a spiral condenser is provided.
The heat exchanger which serves as a condenser therefore has a washing liquor inlet and a washing liquor outlet, so that the washing liquor to be heated can be guided across the surfaces of the plate condenser that face the washing liquor.
A problem in the known plate condensers is that the washing liquor generally carries with it foreign matter originating from the items to be washed. This foreign matter can adhere to the said surfaces of the plate condenser or to the said connecting portions. This results in a reduced heat transfer between washing liquor and heat transfer medium, so that the degree of efficiency of the plate condenser and thus of the heat pump assembly is reduced.

Means for preventing the clogging of a plate condenser of a domestic dishwasher


In an image heating apparatus including heat generating members arranged along a longitudinal direction of a belt, when an image heating operation is performed on a recording material having a width which is smaller than a maximum width of the recording material usable in the image heating apparatus, the heat generating member positioned within an area corresponding to a non passing portion of the recording material is actuated together with the heat generating member positioned within an area corresponding to a non passing portion of the recording material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image heating apparatus for heating a toner image on a sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
An apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-152807 uses a thermal head as a heating source of a fixing apparatus (an image heating apparatus). More specifically, the thermal head includes a number of heat generating elements which are arranged side by side along a longitudinal direction of a fixing member (a heat rotatable member). The thermal head turns on the heating elements in an area (a sheet passing portion) where a recording material (a sheet) passes through and turns off the heating elements in an area (a non sheet passing portion) where the recording material does not pass through. Thus, when such a heating mechanism is employed, in a case where image formation is performed on a recording material having a small width size, no electrical power needs to be supplied to the heating elements corresponding to the non sheet passing portion.
However, when image formation is performed on a recording material having a small width size (i.e., a small size recording material) and then the image formation is continuously performed on a recording material which is wider than the previous one (i.e., a large size recording material), there is a possibility that a temperature of the fixing member in an area which was the non sheet passing portion at the time of the image formation on the small size recording material is too low if compared with a temperature of an area which was the sheet passing portion.
Therefore, it is necessary to optimize temperature distribution in the longitudinal direction of the fixing member in a period from when the image formation on the small size recording material is finished to when the image formation on the large size recording material is started. In other words, in this case, a preparatory operation needs to be performed for selectively heating an area which was the non sheet passing portion of the fixing member.
Therefore, during the preparatory operation, the image formation on the large size recording material cannot be started.

Image heating apparatus for heating toner image on sheet


A solid-state element device having: a solid-state element having a pad electrode smaller than a contact electrode, the solid-state element being flip-mounted; a power receiving/supplying portion for receiving/supplying a power, the power receiving/supplying portion being bonded to the solid-state element such that an element mounting surface thereof is nearly flush with a mounting surface of the solid-state element; and an inorganic sealing portion for sealing the solid-state element formed of an inorganic sealing material and a thermal expansion coefficient equal to that of the power receiving/supplying portion. The inorganic sealing portion defines an air layer between the solid-state element and the power receiving/supplying portion.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a solid-state element device comprising a solid-state element sealed by a glass material and, in particular, to a solid-state element device that can prevent the separation of its electrode due to a thermal stress, and can offer good light extraction efficiency and excellent freedom in forming the electrode.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a light emitting device is known in which a light emitting diode element (herein called "LED element") is flip chip-mounted on a substrate or a lead.
Recently, the light emitting device using the LED element as a light source is excellent in environment compatibility and safety, and therefore, its demand has increased. Especially, a high-brightness and large-output type light emitting device is desired as a substitute for use of a white illumination. However, since the heat generation of the LED element increases as the output increases, the emission efficiency lowers to limit the improvement of brightness.
In order to prevent a reduction in reliability due to the heat generation of the LED element, JP-A-2003-218403 discloses a composite light emitting element that an Au bump electrode disposed on the LED element has a size of 30% or more the plane cross section area of the LED element and the LED element is mounted on a submount element.
The composite light emitting element disclosed in JP-A-2003-218403 can improve the heat radiation property by increasing the area of the bump electrode to the plane cross section area of the LED element, so that the brightness can be enhanced according to its increased current.
However, the composite light emitting element disclosed in JP-A-2003-218403 has the problem that, since the Au bump electrode has the increased area and it has a larger thermal expansion coefficient than the LED element or contact electrode, the separation of the LED element may occur when conducting a high-temperature processing such as glass sealing. Thus, the reliability must lower. Further, since current distribution to its light emitting layer is thereby rendered nonuniform, its emission pattern cannot be uniformed. Further, since light emitted from the LED element can be reflected on the bump electrode or submount element, its metal reflection absorption loss will increase to limit the improvement of light extraction efficiency. Further, since the separation occurs at a portion with a large current density, its fed current must be reduced.


A stent for reinforcing a damaged wall in a body passage such as a vascular passage. The stent takes the form of a sheet of metal foil wound tightly around a spool in a multiple layer roll and held in a contracted state by a sheath sleeved around the roll. The spool is inserted into the body passage until the stent is adjacent to the area of the damaged wall. The spool and stent are then advanced while the sheath is held stationary. This pushes the stent out the end of the sheath and releases the stent such that the roll unwinds and expands against the damaged vessel wall.

Tubular prostheses commonly known as stents have been used to reinforce and strengthen damaged blood vessels and other body passages. For example, the blood vessels can collapse, dilate, become partially occluded or otherwise damaged by disease or other causes. The presence of an aneurysm or stricture in the blood vessel often requires implantation of a stent to strengthen the vascular wall in the area of the damage. Other passages in the body can also sometimes benefit from stent implantation, including the esophagus, the trachea, the gastro intestinal tract, the bile duct, the ureter and the urethra.
The benefits of self-expanding stents have been recognized. A self-expanding stent is held in a contracted state until it has been positioned properly, typically with the aid of an instrument such as a catheter. After the stent has been placed properly in the damaged blood vessel, it is allowed to expand against the damaged vessel wall in order to reinforce the damaged area. Examples of self-expanding stents are disclosed in Burton et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,026,377 and 5,078,720, Hillstead U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,085, Wiktor U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,458 and Gianturco U.S. Pat. No. 5,041,126. The Wicktor and Gianturco stents are in the form of coiled or looped wires that are unable to contact the entirety of the weakened vessel wall. The same is true of the Hillstead stent which takes the form of a multiple loop wire structure. The stents disclosed in the two Burton patents are braided structures that are likewise incapable of contacting the entirety of the damaged vessel wall. All of the stents and particularly their placement means are complicated to construct, and the stents are difficult to place precisely in the damaged vessel.

Stent construction of rolled configuration

Ultrasonic Sensing and Monitoring Systems, Inc.


A receiver system equipped with a first and second reception units for receiving a satellite radio broadcasting prevents a reception unit switching operations by using signal selection data that provides satellite availability for respective operation areas. The satellite radio broadcasting reception quality in each of the respective operation areas is improved because of the reduced chance of dropout or the like in the broadcasted contents of the satellite radio broadcasting received by the receiver system.

In recent years, a satellite information service such as Global Positioning System or the like is widely available. In terms of utilization of the satellite information service, how a receiver can determine the positions of the satellites effortlessly is a key factor. Japanese patent application JP-A-2004-184121 discloses a process for determining the satellite position, that is, mask information is utilized to screen available satellites for speedy satellite selection.
As a variety of the satellite information service, satellite radio broadcasting is now gaining popularity. The satellite radio broadcasting broadcasts a radio signal from a geostationary satellite that receives a source signal from a ground station. The satellite radio broadcasting provides radio programs such as music programs, traffic information programs and the like for a coverage that extends to a much greater area in comparison to the conventional ground broadcasting such as FM broadcasting or the like.
The satellite radio broadcasting usually uses the geostationary satellites for broadcasting the radio signal, thereby providing for a user a relatively high readiness in terms of position determination in comparison to the positioning of GPS satellites. However, a satellite radio receiver suffers from a signal reception problem because the radio signal from the geostationary satellite is easily interrupted by a nearby building, an expressway on an elevated track or the like due to its straightness of propagation. In other words, continuation of service provision for the receiver in various conditions is a problem to be solved.
In an attempt for an increased coverage and improved quality in terms of the service provision without interruption, the satellite radio broadcasting broadcasts the same program from the ground station of the FM broadcasting as a supplemental service provision scheme. That is, when the receiver receiving the satellite radio broadcasting comes behind the nearby building or under the raised expressway track, the receiver prevents the interruption of the service provision of the satellite radio program by alternatively tuning to the FM broadcasting from the ground station.
In the above-described supplemental service provision scheme, the receiver of the satellite broadcasting still encounters a reception problem due to the time difference between the digital signal decryption for the satellite radio broadcasting signal and the analog signal decryption for the FM broadcasting. Further, the radio signal from the geostationary satellite transmits a far greater distance before being received by the receiver in comparison to the FM broadcasting. Therefore, even when the same program is sent out from a studio for broadcasting from both of the geostationary satellite and the ground station, the radio signal from the satellite and the radio signal from the FM station reach the receiver at respectively different times. As a result, the radio program may be interrupted even when the receiver switches from the satellite radio broadcasting to the FM broadcasting in order to avoid the reception problem. Furthermore, the reception switching time of the receiver may also contribute to an increase of the interruption time. Frequent switching of the broadcasting channel between the satellite and the ground station may further complicated the reception problem.

Receiver system and method for receiving broadcasting


Disclosed is a nursing machine that includes a wearable working head and a urine detection circuit. The urine detection circuit includes at least two first urine sensors and at least two second urine sensors that are arranged on the working head. In response to more than one first urine sensor each outputting a liquid detected signal or in response to more than one second urine sensor each outputting the liquid detected signal, the urine detection circuit is configured to output a urine signal. In response to only one first urine sensor or only one second urine sensor outputting the liquid detected signal or in response to only one first urine sensor and only one second urine sensor each outputting the liquid detected signal, the urine detection circuit doesn't output the urine signal.

With the improvement of people's living standards, bedridden patients who are unable to take care of themselves with urination and defecation due to e.g. cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are increasing year by year, which brings great pressure on families and society. Because the patients cannot take care of themselves with defecation, they need the assistance of accompanying staff. The uncertainty of a patient's defecation times increases the workload of the accompanying staff, and also causes great pain and burden to the patient's physiology, especially his/her mental state. Therefore, medical institutions and patients' families often use a dedicated toilet nursing machine to automatically clean human excreta and also clean and dry the patients' lower bodies by a nursing machine main unit and a wearable working head. A liquid such as a small amount of water left or condensed in the working head may easily inadvertently trigger a urine disposing program, which not only causes frequent initiation of suction and cleaning operations of the nursing machine and a waste of resources, but also affects the psychology and normal rest of the patient.

Nursing machine and wearable working head thereof

SUZHOU ALTON ELECTRICAL & MECHANICAL INDUSTRY CO., LTD.


A timed erasure mechanism can be used with portable computer-readable media to ensure automatic erasure of secure information, minimizing the security risks in using such media to store and transport passwords, codes, keys and similar private setup information. The portable computer-readable media can comprise volatile memory and a timed erasure mechanism in the form of a power supply and discharging circuitry that discharges the power supply after a predetermined amount of time. Alternatively, the portable computer-readable media can comprise nonvolatile memory and a timed erasure mechanism in the form of a digital time and erasure algorithms that are initiated after a predetermined amount of time. Furthermore, such portable computer-readable media can comprise a container that bears unique physical properties that can alert users to the volatile nature of the media.

Because of the ever increasing threat of malicious code and individuals who seek to profit from stolen computing resources or information, computing environments are becoming more secure, and, simultaneously, more difficult for average users to set up and access. For example, many modern home networks rely on wireless communication technology, eliminating the need to physically connect each of the computing devices. However, such wireless networks cannot physically limit their reach to ensure that only the intended beneficiaries have access. As a result, a user who wishes to set up a wireless home network faces a daunting task of selecting from among a variety of security mechanisms, many of which require various security keys and passwords, and then ensuring that every device that is to be granted access to this network shares these keys, passwords and mechanisms. Furthermore, to provide a sufficient level of protection, the keys and passwords are often many characters in length, such that, even if the user did not have to memorize them, merely entering them in via manual entry requires a significant amount of time and effort on the part of the user. Should the user make even one error, the key or password will be rejected, and access to the network will be denied.
Even for networks that have been professionally installed, such as corporate wireless networks, each individual user is still required to perfectly enter security information and insure that the security information is not inadvertently changed or deleted. Should the user wish to use another computing device, or should the user accidentally change or delete their security information, the user will be forced to obtain new security information, and then enter it. As a result, many corporations are forced to provide support staff whose task is to ensure that each intended user can properly access the corporation's wireless network.
Furthermore, emerging standards, such as the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) standard, are merging computer networks with more common household appliances, such as audio and video equipment. Consequently, users can be forced to troubleshoot complex security mechanisms even to perform tasks as simple as connecting one audio or video device to another. For example, to enable a UPnP control point, such as a receiver or television to operate a UPnP device, such as a DVD player or video recorder, the user may be forced to properly identify a security code or the like associated with the DVD player or video recorder, and then correctly enter that code when prompted by the receiver or television. Often, the security code is imprinted on the DVD player or video recorder, requiring the user to either physically move the unit until it is in close proximity to the receiver or television, so that the user can read and enter the code, or the user is forced to transcribe, or memorize, the code before entering it into the receiver or television.
To aid users when setting up or accessing wireless networks, installing new UPnP devices, and performing like tasks, automated computer-executable instructions in the form of "wizard" programs have been developed. Such wizards guide the user through a series of steps via simple and understandable commands. Additionally, to avoid burdening the user with various security mechanisms, keys, codes, passwords, and the like, the wizards can be programmed to store and retrieve such information from computer-readable media that the user can transport from one device to another. For example, in setting up a wireless network, a wizard on one computing device can guide the user through the necessary steps, and can even select random passwords and keys of sufficient length, and can then prompt the user to insert portable computer-readable media onto which the wizard can store all of the relevant information. A subsequent wizard at another computing device, wireless access point, or wireless peripheral, can, after the user has transferred the portable computer-readable media to that device, automatically read the information stored thereupon and can automatically configure the device to operate with the user's wireless network. Similarly, simple wizards on UPnP-compliant equipment can simply record the unit's security code so that the user can connect a UPnP device in one room with a UPnP control point in another room by simply transferring the security code via the portable computer-readable media, saving the user the trouble of finding the printed security code, transcribing it, and then entering it properly.
Unfortunately, the most ubiquitous forms of portable computer-readable media, including so called USB "thumb drives", Compact Flash (CF) cards, Secure Digital (SD) cards, and the like are often used for a variety of purposes and store a variety of information. For example, CF and SD cards are traditionally the native computer-readable medium used by digital cameras and, as such, often contain many photographs. Similarly, USB drives are often used to temporarily store and transport commonly used computer-readable files, such as word processing documents and spreadsheets. Because such portable computer-readable media are used for a variety of tasks, there exists a significant risk that any security codes, keys, passwords, or similar information that has been stored on them could be compromised. For example, USB drives, because of their small size and their frequent use, can be lost or misplaced. Similarly, synchronization programs may inadvertently copy all of the data off of CF and SD cards when all the user intended was to provide a friend or family member with the latest photographs.
Therefore, what is needed is specialized portable computer-readable media that can leverage existing manufacturing techniques and standards, and yet be reserved strictly for use in transporting security information, such as codes, keys, passwords and the like, or other data that may be used by automated wizard software to enable users to conveniently set up and access computing and household devices in a secure manner.

Portable secure media with timed erasure


An embroidering machine includes a base, an embroidery needle moved reciprocally along a path, an embroidery frame on which a work piece to be embroidered is held, a movable frame provided indirectly or directly on the base and mounting thereon the embroidery frame, the movable frame being driven to transverses the path of the reciprocal movement of the embroidery needle, a wireless affixed to the embroidery frame, the wireless tag storing therein frame information relating to the embroidery frame which is to be selected depending on the work piece to be embroidered, and a receiving device for reading the frame information stored in the wireless tag, the receiving device being provided on the base in immovable manner.

A known embroidering machine generally judges whether embroidery fits into an embroidery frame used in the embroidering machine by comparing data related to a shape or a size of each frame with embroidery data. In these circumstances, a related issue is the method for obtaining frame data.
A known embroidering machine is described in JP 2848870B which includes a movable frame and an embroidery frame. The movable frame is movable within a plane surface and the embroidery frame for holding cloth is detachably assemblable to the movable plate. A bar code, which is storing information indicating an embroidery frame type, is fixed to the embroidery frame, and a bar code reader is provided on the movable frame.
With the structure of the known embroidering machine, various embroidery frames can be used in response to an item or, a part to be embroidered. Frames having different shapes such as a flat frame and a cap frame are attached to movable frames having different shapes. Accordingly, when the bar code reader is provided on the movable frame, the bar code reader should be provided on each one of various movable frames respectively. In such circumstances, the question of cost is invariably arises. Further, a contacting portion for transmitting a signal should respectively be provided on the movable frame and the embroidering machine body.
A need thus exists for an embroidering machine configured to obtain information related to the embroidery frame at a low cost and to simplify a path that transmits the information.


A servo system for writing servo information on a recording medium of a hard disk drive and for determining head position based on the servo information with a tracking accuracy, the servo system including a first magnetic head and a servo writer. The servo writer is configured to write the servo information on the recording medium by forming, using the first magnetic head, a first servo pattern comprising a servo burst pattern on a segment of a first track of a first layer of the recording medium; and by forming a second servo pattern comprising addressing information on a segment of a second track of a second layer of the recording medium. The second track is arranged half a width of the first track from the first track to increase the tracking accuracy of the servo system.

In conventional hard disks having a rotating magnetic medium, there is only one magnetic layer to record data. As such, the servo pattern information is recorded in servo wedges. This way of storing servo information is also known as embedded servo. FIG. 1 is a schematic 100 showing the arrangement of servo pattern information 102 along a track on the magnetic layer. Servo information 102 is interspersed with data information 104.
The position of the read/write head is demodulated from the servo wedges. Thus, the sampling frequency of the servo control system is thus limited by the number of servo wedges in one revolution, and the rotating speed of disk. To improve the servo performance, such as tracking accuracy for high track density drive, a higher sampling rate is needed, which in turn requires more servo wedges to be placed in the magnetic layer. However, this will cause less data sector to be available for recording the user data. This is undesirable.

Method and apparatus for writing servo information on a recording medium


A thermal transfer recording medium 1 according to the present invention is to obtain a reliable printed matter with no space between picture information and a protective film thereof and has a melting type transfer portion 161 including a melting type primer layer 181 whose main component is styrene vinyl acetate copolymer and a melting type ink layer 171. Since styrene vinyl acetate copolymer softens or melts by heating to lose mechanical strength thereof, the melting type transfer portion 161 is transferred with ease from a base sheet 11 by heating to form a printing layer 47. On the surface of the printing layer 47, a residual resin 49 formed of material of the melting type primer layer 181 is exposed; however, since styrene vinyl acetate copolymer sticks well to a thermoplastic resin existing on the surface portion of a protective portion 251, there is no space generated between the protective portion 251 and the printing layer 47.

As shown in a schematic cross-sectional view of FIG. 7, a conventional thermal transfer recording medium 101 used for a thermal transfer printer includes a base sheet 111 and an ink layer 116 disposed on the base sheet 111.
A primer layer 115, whose main component is wax, is disposed between the ink layer 116 and the base sheet 111, and the ink layer 116 is fixed to the base sheet 111 with the primer layer 115 in between.
To execute printing using the thermal transfer recording medium 101, a heating head is pressed to a surface of the thermal transfer recording medium 101 that is the opposite side to the ink layer 116 and the surface of the ink layer 116 is brought in firm contact with a recording sheet.
The heating head is made to conduct electricity and the thermal transfer recording medium 101 is heated by means of thermal conductivity. With this, a heated part of the primer layer 115 is got soft or melts.
When the thermal transfer recording medium 101 and the recording sheet are shifted relatively to the heating head, the ink layer 116 adheres to the recording sheet at a part where the thermal transfer recording medium 101 is separated from the heating head.
In the above state of the thermal transfer recording medium 101 separated from the recording sheet, cohesive failure is caused in the melted primer layer 115, and the above-described heated part of the ink layer 116 is transferred to the recording sheet. In this manner, information on a picture such as characters, figures, etc. is formed on the recording sheet by the collection of transferred ink, and the intended printing is executed.
On the other hand, in order to enhance a preservation property and lustrous property there is a case in which a protective portion formed of transparent resin, namely a protective film, is laminated on the surface of a recording sheet where picture information has been formed, namely on the printing surface.
However, the above-described primer layer 115 having a cohesive failure may stick on the surface of the above-described transferred ink; and since the wax constituting this primer layer 115 and the protective film do not bond together due to lack of sufficient adhesiveness thereof, the protective film and the ink do not stick to each other, so that there may be caused a lift between the protective film and the printing surface to deteriorate the reliability of the protecting function thereof.

Thermal transfer recording medium and photographic print

Sony Chemical & Information Device Corporation


Recording areas in an optical disc having a plurality of recording layers allocated so each recording layer includes a data area for recording data, a connection area in which a predetermined pattern of data for indicating that no data area is recorded therein, and a remaining area, wherein a size and location of the data area of each recording layer is determined according to an amount of user data to be recorded. The connection area and the remaining area are allocated next to the data area of each recording layer in a direction from the inner circumference to the outer circumference of the disc. Accordingly, a recording time is reducible, and exclusive areas for recording information except user data can be additionally allocated to outer circumference areas of the optical disc or the sizes of the exclusive areas can be increased, increasing recording medium efficiency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc, and more particularly, to a method of allocating areas in an optical disc, a data recording and/or reproducing apparatus adopting the same, and an optical disc therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, optical discs are classified into compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs) according to a recording capacity. Kinds of optical discs, on which data can be recorded, erased from and reproduced from, include 650 MB CD-R, 650 MB CD-RW, 4.7 GB DVD+R/RW, 4.7 GB DVD-RAM, and DVD-R/RW optical discs. Kinds of read-only optical discs include 650 MB CD and 4.7 GB DVD-ROM discs. Furthermore, a next generation DVD having a recording capacity of over 15 GB is under development.
In a case of a conventional recordable DVD, there are only 4.7 GB single layer discs. However, in a case of a DVD-ROM, there are already 8.5 GB dual layer discs. In order to backup these 8.5 GB discs, an 8.5 GB recordable DVD is required. However, in this case, since a recording time basically doubles, it can be a disadvantage for a user. A method of improving the recording speed would be desirable. However, since improvement of disc technology must precede such an improved method, a method of effectively recording data at a conventional speed is required to immediately introduce the 8.5 GB recordable DVD to the market.
FIG. 1A illustrates a structure of a conventional rewritable optical disc. FIG. 1B illustrates a structure of a conventional read-only optical disc. A structure of a lead-out area of the rewritable optical disc shown in FIG. 1A is almost the same as a structure of a lead-in area. In particular, the lead-in area of the rewritable optical disc shown in FIG. 1A includes a test area used to determine an optimal recording power.
FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate structures of dual recording layer discs on which data is recorded in a disc-at-once mode. The disc-at-once mode is a recording mode in which data is recorded on a disc at once (i.e., in a single recording session) and a predetermined pattern of data is recorded on an empty data area, in which data is not recorded, so as not to record additional data on the disc even if the empty data area remains. In general, the disc-at-once mode is used to produce backups of bulk data by recording the bulk data on write-once discs.
On a dual recording layer optical disc 10 shown in FIG. 2A, data is recorded in an opposite track pass (OTP) direction, and on an optical disc 20 shown in FIG. 2B, data is recorded in a parallel track pass (PTP) direction.
Referring to FIG. 2A, when data is recorded on the dual recording layer optical disc 10 in the disc-at-once mode in the OTP direction according to conventional technology, user data is recorded in a data area 12 of a recording layer L1 from which layer the data is firstly reproduced, and remaining user data is recorded in a data area 15 of a recording layer L2. Areas 13 and 14 located outside an outer boundary 19 of the data areas 12 and 15 are fully occupied with a predetermined pattern of data for indicating no data areas. The predetermined pattern of data, for example, is data having a lead-out attribute. An area occupied with the predetermined pattern of data for indicating the no data area is commonly called a connection area to discriminate from a lead-in area 11 and a lead-out area 17.
An empty area 16, in which the user data is not recorded, of an entire data area of the recording layer L2 becomes the connection area by being occupied with the predetermined pattern of data for indicating the no data area.
The optical disc 20 shown in FIG. 2B includes a lead-in area 21, a data area 22 of a recording layer L1, a lead-out area 24, a data area 25 of a recording layer L2, and connection areas 23 and 26 of the recording layers L1 and L2.
Recording methods illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B are applicable to read-only discs and rewritable discs in the same way.
In the methods of recording data on an optical disc in the disc-at-once mode according to the conventional technology described above, an additional data recording time is required to record the predetermined pattern of data having the lead-out attribute in the area on which the user data is not recorded. Furthermore, since the areas outside the data areas are not used at all, optical discs are not efficiently used.

Method of allocating areas in optical disc, data recording and/or reproducing apparatus adopting the same, and optical disc therefor


The present invention provides a method for compressing image data. The method first detects a pattern in a first subset of the image data, where the second subset being collocated to a second subset. If no pattern is detected, then a text mode context model is selected. If a pattern is detected, then the period of the pattern is detected and a pattern mode context model is selected. The pattern mode context model has a width directly related to the period of the pattern detected. An arithmetic compressor compresses the second subset using the selected context model.

Data compression systems are known in the prior art that encode a stream of digital data signals into compressed digital code signals and decode the compressed digital code signals back into the original data. Data compression refers to any process that attempts to convert data in a given format into an alternative format requiring less space than the original. The objective of data compression systems is to effect a savings in the amount of storage required to hold or the amount of time required to transmit a given body of digital information.
To be of practical utility, a general purpose digital data compression system should satisfy certain criteria. The system should have reciprocity. In order for a data compression system to possess the property of reciprocity it must be possible to re-expand or decode the compressed data back into its original form without any alteration or loss of information. The decoded and original data must be identical and indistinguishable with respect to each other. The property of reciprocity is synonymous to that of strict noiselessness used in information theory. Some applications do not require strict adherence to the property of reciprocity. One such application in particular is when dealing with graphical data. Because the human eye is not that sensitive to noise, some alteration or loss of information during the compression de-compression process is acceptable.
The system should provide sufficient performance with respect to the data rates provided by and accepted by the devices with which the data compression and de-compression systems are communicating. The rate at which data can be compressed is determined by the input data processing rate into the compression system, typically in millions of bytes per second (megabytes/sec). Sufficient performance is necessary to maintain the data rates achieved in present day disk, tape and communication systems which rates typically exceed one megabyte/sec. Thus, the data compression and decompression system must have enough data bandwidth so as to not adversely affect the overall system. The performance of data compression and decompression systems is typically limited by the computations necessary to compress and de-compress and the speed of the system components such as, random access memory (RAM), and the like, utilized to store statistical data and guide the compression and de-compression process. Performance for a compression device is characterized by the number of processor cycles required per input character under the compressor. The fewer the number of cycles, the higher the performance.
Another important criteria in the design of data compression and de-compression systems is compression effectiveness, which is characterized by the compression ratio. The compression ratio is the ratio of data size in uncompressed form divided by the size in compressed form. In order for data to be compressible, the data must contain redundancy. Compression effectiveness is determined by how effectively the compression procedure uses the redundancy in the input data. In typical computer stored data, redundancy occurs both in the nonuniform usage of individual symbology, example digits, bytes, or characters, and in frequent recurrence of symbol sequences, such as common words, blank record fields and the like.
General purpose data compression procedures are also known in the prior art, three relevant procedures being the Huffman method, the Tunstall method and the Lempel-Ziv method. The Huffman method is widely known and used, reference thereto in article of D. A. Huffman entitled "A Method For Construction Of Minimum Redundancy Codes", Proceedings IRE, 40, 10 pages 1098-1100 (September 1952). Reference to the Tunstall algorithm may be found in Doctoral thesis of B. P. Tunstall entitled "Synthesis of Noiseless Compression Codes", Georgia Institute of Technology (September 1967). Reference may be had to the Lempel-Ziv procedure in a paper authored by J. Ziv and A. Lempel entitled "A Universal Algorithm For Sequential Data Compression", IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IT-23, 3, pages 337-343 (May, 1977).
One of the first general purpose data compression procedures developed is the Huffman method. Briefly described, the Huffman procedure maps full length segments of symbols into variable length words. The Huffman data compression procedure suffers from two limitations. Firstly, the Huffman procedure operates under the constraint that the input data to be compressed be parsed into fixed length segments of symbols. Although the Huffman procedure provides the best compression ratio that can be obtained under these constraints, when the constraint is relaxed it is possible to obtain significantly better compression ratios by utilizing other procedures. Secondly, Huffman coding requires full knowledge of the statistical characteristic of the source data. The Huffman procedure operates under the assumption that the probability with which each fixed length input segment occurs is known. This requirement of the Huffman procedure can in practice, be satisfied by the use of an adaptive version of the procedure which accumulates the necessary statistics during processing of the data. This, however, is cumbersome, and requires considerable working memory space and performs sub-optimally during adaptation.
The Tunstall algorithm, which maps variable length segments of symbols into fixed length binary words, is complimentary to the Huffman procedure with the fixed length constraints now applied to the output segments instead of the input segments. Like the Huffman procedure, the Tunstall procedure requires a foreknowledge of the source data probabilities. Again this foreknowledge requirement can be satisfied to some degree by utilizing an adaptive version which accumulates the statistics during processing of the data.
The Lempel-Ziv procedure maps variable length segments of the symbols into variable length binary words. It is asymptotically optimal when there are no constraints on the input or output segments. In this procedure the input data string is parsed into adaptively grown segments, each segment consisting of an exact copy of an earlier portion of the input string suffixed by one new symbol from the input data. The copy which is to be made is the longest possible and is not constrained to coincide with any earlier parsed segment. The code word which replaces the segment in the output contains information consisting of a pointer to where the earlier copied portion begins, the length of the copy, and the new symbol.
It would appear that Huffman or Shannon-Fano coding is the perfect means of compressing data. However, this is not the case. As mentioned above, these coding methods are optimal when and only when the symbol probabilities are integral powers of 1/2, which is usually not the case.
The technique of arithmetic coding does not have this restriction: It achieves the same effect as treating the message as one single unit (a technique which would, for Huffman coding, require enumeration of every single possible message), and thus attains the theoretical entropy bound to compression efficiency for any source.
In arithmetic coding, one decision after another is encoded to define successfully smaller, lesser included intervals along a number line. Additional information on arithmetic coding can be found in "An Introduction To Arithmetic Encoding"; by G. G. Langdon, Jr., IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 28, n. Mar. 2, 1984, 135-149; and "Arithmetic Compression Code Control Parameters Approximation"; by D. R. Helman, G. G. Langdon, Jr., and J. J. Rissanen, Vol. 23, n. Apr. 11, 1981, 5112-5114 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,297, "Arithmetic Coding Encoder And Decoder System", Langdon, Jr. et al. all incorporated herein by reference.
As noted in the above articles, arithmetic coding provides that each decision has a plurality of possible exclusive outcomes "or events". Each outcome or event is represented in data by a symbol. In the imaging environment, for example, each decision may correspond to whether or not a given pixel is black. The decision outcome being represented by a Y (or YES) symbol if the pixel is black or an N (or NO) symbol if the pixel is not black. Thus, a plurality of decisions may then be represented by a sequence of symbols, e.g., YNNY . . .
In accordance with prior arithmetic coding teachings, a probability line has a current interval defined thereon. The first current interval is 0 to 1. The current interval is divided into segments in which segment corresponds to one possible outcome for the next decision. Where there are only two possible outcomes for each decision, the current interval is divided into two segments. The length of each segment is based on its respective associated probability. The respective probabilities may remain fixed or may adapt as decision data is entered.
It is the correlating of large segments to symbols which occur with greater frequency that leads to the compression effect. In the former cited article ("An Introduction To Arithmetic Encoding"), a 4-symbol arithmetic coding example is set forth in which each decision can result in an "a" event (having a 50% probability), a "b" event (having a 25% probability), a "c" event (having a 12.5% probability), or a "d" event (having a 12.5% probability). Representing the four events in binary form would require two bits for each decision, where the events would be represented respectively by 00, 01, 10, 11. For three decisions such as "aab" which is highly likely, the straight forward encoding data would be 00 00 01; requiring six bits. However, as observed in the article at page 137, the arithmetic coding approach permits the sequence "aab" to be represented by the value 0.001. Instead of six bits, the information can be represented in three bits. This conservation of bits results as successive events having relatively high associated probabilities occur.
The conservation deteriorates if numerous events occur for which there are low probabilities and relatively short line segments. With the above noted probabilities, a sequence of events "dd" would be represented with encoded data as 11 11 whereas, by arithmetic coding, the "dd" events would be represented by 111111. Provided that the larger segments in fact correspond to events that occur with correspondingly greater frequency, the additional bits needed for less probable symbols are outweighed by the conservation achieved when more probable symbols occur.
Images containing continuous tone grayscale must be halftoned to print on bi-level printers. Halftoning is generally accomplished by using a two-dimensional matrix of the thresholds commonly referred to as a dither matrix. The grayscale images are binarized by comparing successive pixels of a generated image signal to a corresponding threshold of the dither matrix and generating a binary signal, a dithered signal, in dependence on whether the pixel value of the image signal is greater or smaller than the corresponding threshold in the dither matrix. Thus, for a halftoned image, a single bit is allocated for each pixel in the dithered signal. Because adjacent pixels are binarized in response to different thresholds, the local density of the dithered signal will correspond to the density of the original grayscale image.
In digital halftoning and printing of continuous tone grayscale images, a tradeoff generally exists between the halftone resolutions and the number of gray levels produced. Increasing resolution to obtain greater edge detail causes a reduction in available gray levels, and a corresponding degradation in the depth and smoothness of gray contours. For additional information about digital halftoning see, "Digital Halftoning", Ulichney, R, ISBN 0-262-21009-6 (fourth printing 1993), incorporated herein by reference.
The most direct solution to increasing the halftone resolution and number of gray levels producible, is to increase the printer resolution. For instance, migrating from a 600 dpi to a 1200 dpi printer gives four times the number of available gray levels. However, additional cost of the higher resolution print mechanism and the four times increased bitmap memory requirement is incurred.
To avoid the increased bitmap memory costs by using higher resolution, an image can be halftoned in real time and sent to the printer without intermediate storage in a bitmap memory. However, other non-image elements may be present on a page, such as text and graphics. These may overlay, masks, incur, or otherwise logically operate upon the halftone images and must be stored in memory with them.
Generally, data compression can be applied to a halftone image to reduce bitmap memory requirements, with real time decompressed output sent to the printer. However, prior to the present invention most decompression systems provide relatively low compression ratio for halftone images.

Arithmetic coding compressor using a context model that is adaptive to variable length patterns in bi-level image data


The present invention relates generally to the field of cell biology of stem cells, more specifically the directed differentiation of pluripotent or multipotent stem cells, including human embryonic stem cells (hESC), somatic stem cells, and induced human pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) using novel culture conditions. Specifically, methods are provided for obtaining neural tissue, floor plate cells, and placode including induction of neural plate development in hESCs for obtaining midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons, motor neurons, and sensory neurons. Further, neural plate tissue obtained using methods of the present inventions are contemplated for use in co-cultures with other tissues as inducers for shifting differentiation pathways, i.e. patterning.

The differentiation capacity of embryonic and somatic stem cells has opened possibilities for cell replacement therapies for genetic, malignant, and degenerative diseases. Neurodegenerative disorders, conditions, and diseases, and their treatment by cell-based therapies represent a promising means of preventing, reducing or eliminating the symptoms. Such disorders include Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. They also provide a source of cells for screening for critical small molecules (i) that could be useful in for treatment of disease; or (ii) for determining the cell fate of neural tissue. Further, these cells were studied in order to characterize key genes, mRNA transcripts, and proteins relevant in normal or pathological lineages.
Neural development is dictated in time and space by a complex set of signals that instruct neural precursor identity. While significant progress was made in animal models, human neural development remains much less understood.
Previous studies reported directed differentiation of mouse (Wichterle et al., 2002; Barbed. et al., 2003; Watanabe et al., 2005) and human (Perrier et al., 2004; Li et al., 2008; Eiraku et al., 2008) ESCs into specific neuron types in response to patterning factors defining anterior/posterior (A/P) and dorso-/ventral (D/V) CNS identity. These studies demonstrate evolutionary conservation of signaling systems that specify the major CNS regions. In mammals, sonic hedgehog (SHH) is the key ventralizing factor acting in a dose-dependent manner to specify the various ventral cell types including cells expressing floor plate (FP) in primary neural explants (Briscoe and Ericson, 1999) and in mouse ES cells (Mizuseki et al., 2003). While application of SHH to hESC-derived neural cells was shown to induce various ventral neuron types, the derivation of floor plate (FP) tissue itself was not reported. As FP is one of the most important signaling centers for inducing differentiation pathways and subsequent committed cell lineage, the ability to produce FP from human ES cells would be a major step forward in furthering studies of early human neural development. Furthermore, little is known about FP development in humans, due to lack of accessibility to tissue.
In animals, the FP is a major site of SHH production and several human developmental disorders are related to alterations in midline SHH signaling (Mullor et al., 2002) including certain forms of holoprosencephaly and microphthalmia, skeletal disorders including various cleft plate syndromes, and tumor conditions such as Gorlin's syndrome; a rare genetic disorder caused by a mutation in the SHH receptor Patched 1. However it is not known whether similar alterations in midline SHH signaling would induce these diseases in humans.
Therefore there is a critical need for inducing human floor plate tissue from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) for providing a source of human floor plate cells. These human floor plate cells are necessary for use in medical research for determining causes and treatments of developmental diseases in humans and for comparative developmental studies of human neural patterning and axonal pathfinding.

Methods for neural conversion of human embryonic stem cells


A liquid container capable of containing a liquid has a flow passage that is formed in the liquid container and through which the liquid flows, and a filter 166 provided in the middle of the flow passage. The filter 166 inclines in a direction with respect to the horizontal direction.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid container for containing a liquid to be supplied to a liquid consuming apparatus.
2. Related Art
Heretofore, an inkjet printer, which performs printing (recording) by ejecting ink (liquid) onto a target such as a paper from a liquid ejection head, is known as a kind of liquid consuming apparatus. In this kind of printer, for example, there are cases where an air bubble mixing with the ink when the ink is injected into a liquid container blocks an ink flow passage or obstructs a flow of the ink. Moreover, if the air bubble mixing with the ink is supplied to the head, there is a possibility that a discharge failure such as dot omission is caused by this air bubble.
To solve this problem, for example, a liquid container described in JP-A-2004-9730 includes a filter having a protruding shape. Not only is ink filtered using this filter, but also is an air bubble that has flowed into the ink moved to an edge portion of the filter due to the filter having a protruding shape, thereby achieving smooth supply of the ink to a head.
However, in the case of moving the air bubble to the edge portion of the filter as in JP-A-2004-9730, air bubbles are accumulated at the filter with a lapse of time since the air bubbles remain at the filter, which is considered to adversely affect ink supply through the filter.


An image display to provide a realistic 3D stereoscopic image of a desired scene. The display device is comprised of directional pixels. Each directional pixel has a plurality of facets having a constrained viewing angle. Each facet has a point source of light that emits light with a controllable luminescence and hue. In this regard, each facet of the directional pixel has a constrained viewing angle and independent luminance and hue.

Creating the illusion of three-dimensional (3D) images on a display device or projection screen has been attempted for many years. In the 1950s, 3D movies were popular with polarized glasses worn to separate images for the left and right eye to provide for a stereoscopic view of the movie. Another area in which 3D imagery has been attempted is on raster scan displays. Generally, when the term 3D is used in regard to computer graphics, the term is referring to planar generated 3D images that are created using geometric perspective and projection transformations and other monocular depth cues such as hidden line removal, surface modeling, shading, texture mapping, and rotation. These techniques are appropriate for computer games and CAD application software but only provide the illusion of a 3D display because the scene is shown on a 2D display.
Stereoscopic images present the viewer with slightly different perspectives for the left and right eyes which fuse together to provide a sense of depth, in a process called stereopsis. Stereoscopic displays typically require the use of some device worn by the viewer to separate the left and right eye perspectives. Autostereoscopic displays make use of some device externally attached to the 3D display to generate the left and right views without the aid of a special viewing aid worn by the viewer. Again, this technology only provides the illusion of a 3D display because the scene is still shown on a 2D display.
A true 3D display would have two qualities: First, a true 3D display would allow several observers looking at the same scene to simultaneously see different parts of the objects in the scene and may even see somewhat different sets of objects. An additional property of such a real 3D scene is that an observer with two eyes will see slightly different views of the scene from each eye, and the brain will use these differences to create a perception of the distance between the objects and the observer. Second, a true 3D display would allow the observer to move around the display and view the scene from any position, including the front, back, top, bottom, and any of the sides. In this regard, a true 3D display would be 3D.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method and device for applying germicide solutions to a cattle teat or other item in a way that reduces the amount of waste that typically accompanies this process. The present invention provides a method for cleaning a teat which comprises the steps of dipping a teat into a quantity of a preselected germicidal solution so as to coat that teat, wiping excess material from that teat and collecting the removed excess material from the teat. The present invention also provides an improved germicide applicator for use in the invented method.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to veterinary and animal care equipment and more particularly to devices that are utilized to support and maintain proper care of udders and teats in lactating animals.
2. Background Information
For the health and safety of milk producing animals as well as those persons and animals that consume the milk products derived from these animals, the udders and teats of milk producing animals must be kept clean and healthy. This is particularly true in the bovine dairying industry where complications such as mastitis, swollen or cracked teats, and dirty and unclean teats can cause bacterial contamination of entire vats of milk. This contamination can render hundreds or even thousands of gallons of milk useless and can have severe economic effect on the dairyman who depends upon the sale of acceptable uncontaminated milk as a source of income. The economic impacts of contaminated or unacceptable milk can be devastating.
In order to prevent mastitis and other complications and to maintain a healthy milk supply, the care, cleaning and hygiene of the teats and udders of the animals being milked is of particular importance. In order to prevent the onset of mastitis, a variety of procedures are utilized to stimulate, clean and disinfect the teats of the animal. Most mastitis infections are related to conditions that expose the teat end to bacteria and to situations that make it easier for these bacteria to penetrate the teat canal. These bacteria then travel into the mammary gland where the infection causes an inflammatory response that can cause destruction of milk secreting cells as well as contaminating any of the milk that comes from these infected cows.
While various precautions have been taken to prevent the cow from developing mastitis, such as pre-washing, stripping, and sanitizing of the milking equipment, the most effective way of preventing the onset of mastitis involves the use of so called teat-dip to apply a germicide to the teat both prior to and after milking. The application of teat dip prior to milking typically requires that a teat be dipped into a cup having a germicidal solution. The teat is then coated and after about 30 seconds the germicide is dried off of the teat with a paper or cloth towel. This germicide destroys those microorganisms that contaminate the teat skin between milkings. After milking has been completed, the teats are again dipped into these cups and coated with a germicide. This germicide prevents the growth and proliferation of organisms that can cause mastitis.
The application of teat dip to the teat is of utmost importance. It is crucial that the entire teat be completely covered and that a residue is left on the teat so that the anti-microbial action is still present when the cow lies down in a free stall or any other place where sanitary conditions are less than ideal. Barrier teat dips generally contain germicides, skin conditioners and protective film so that the teat end is sealed from mastitis-causing bacteria. These barrier teat dips do inhibit bacterial multiplication on the teat skin under the film.
One of the known methods and devices for applying teat dip is to utilize a dip cup of a sprayer to coat the teat. The teat is typically dipped into the cup or sprayed so as to apply the germicide. This presents several problems. First, obtaining the proper coverage over the teat is not always accomplished, as the location of the germicide upon the teat is dependent upon the skill of the person applying the solution to the teat. Thus, locations or areas of the teat may not be covered and may be left exposed. These uncovered areas provide locations wherein bacteria can congregate and proliferate. When this occurs, the effectiveness of the teat dip as a whole has been compromised.
Both the dip and the spray method that exist in the prior art cause substantial amounts of waste to take place. This waste occurs as excess material does not adhere to the teat, falls off of the teat and on to the floor where it is subsequently washed away. This germicide is a highly corrosive material that can then cause various economic and environmental damage to the areas in which it contacts. This problem is exacerbated by the spreading of the wasted solution, which is then washed into ponds of manure pits, and then spread upon the ground. These germicides are hazardous to clean water and the raising of crops on the earth.
The economic impact of this waste is also great. The dairy industry has become extremely economically conservative because of low prices received for their product. Therefore, the ability to reduce waste is of great value. A gallon of post dip for example, varies in price from between $5 and $15 dollars per gallon. A typical 1,000-head milking herd may require an average of about 350 gallons per month. Thus, the cost of utilizing this dip may be between about $1,750 and $5,250 per month. The ability to reduce this cost would greatly benefit a user and could provide, in some instances, the difference between a farm surviving or failing.
Accordingly, what it needed is a way to apply germicidal solutions to animal teats, which results in less runoff, less waste, and increased economic savings to the user. What is also needed is a way to reduce the amount of germicidal solution that is consumed by a dairy operation without compromising the benefits of dipping or treating teats with a germicidal solution. What is also needed is a device that would assist a user in performing this teat dipping procedure in a way that would reduce the amount of wasted solution while providing adequate coverage over the teat itself. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and device for providing improved efficacy in the application of germicidal teat dip to animals and which significantly reduces the quantity of material that is consumed and wasted in such a process. It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for dipping cattle teats that produces less waste, and obtains better coverage of the teat than those methods that exist in the prior art. It is a further object of the invention to provide a device that allows a user to apply a germicidal solution to a teat that ensures proper and adequate coverage over this teat and that captures excess material so as to prevent the waste of this excess material.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Bovine germicide application device and method