A fibrous structure product comprising one or more plies of fibrous structure; a basis weight from about 10 lbs/3000 ft2 to about 50 lbs/3000 ft2; from 16% to about 40% of hardwood fibers, in one embodiment eucalyptus fibers, wherein the starting hardwood fibers have a Runkel Ratio of from 4.5 to about 15 and a fiber count of from about 12 fibers/gram to about 35 fibers/gram; and a Residual Water Value from about 0.001 to about 0.18. In one embodiment the product comprises two or more plies of fibrous structure, a basis weight from about 25 lbs/3000 ft2 to about 50 lbs/3000 ft2 and from about 23% to about 40% of hardwood fibers. In another embodiment at least one of the piles of the fibrous structure product further comprises a plurality of embossments thereon comprising an embossment height of from about 600 μm to about 1,200 μm.

Absorbency is an important attribute in consumer paper products such as bathroom tissue, towels, and napkins. This attribute is strongly influenced by the sheet structure of a paper product. Further, the types of fiber employed in the sheet are important factors in determining the absorbency and strength of products made from such fibers.
It is well known in the art that cellulosic fibers vary in their properties such as fiber length, fiber cell wall rigidity, fiber coarseness, lumen size, etc. Short fibers, including fines, in some instances may be considered less desirable fibers in most fiber slurries. In the past, such fines comprised short portions of cellulosic material which do not appreciably contribute to softness. Further, such fines may be too small to remain on a wire former in the papermaking process, and often fall through the wire mesh of the wire former with the water when a paper slurry is applied on the twin wire former in the early stages of paper manufacture. Thus, such fines may be simply washed from the system, and may not contribute in any meaningful way to the final paper product. Further, these fines may comprise cellulosic particles that undesirably absorb a large amount of the treatment chemicals that are used in the headbox at the early stages of slurry formation. In fact, such fines may undesirably absorb process chemicals which otherwise could be applied to the longer fibers which in fact do become part of a paper product. In this way, fines may waste processing chemicals by carrying such chemicals out of the processing system.
Further, a process that is able to employ and retain short fibers and long fibers in a way that provides a paper product with improved absorbency while also providing desirable strength and softness, would be advantageous.
It has been discovered that short fibers at a particular level within the furnish, with particular rigidity and lumen diameter features, provide desirable absorbency attributes, without sacrificing other desirable strength and softness attributes. Through the selection of the appropriate level, cell wall rigidity, thickness, and shape of the shorter cellulose fibers, an improved paper structure is provided having improved water channeling and absorption effects.

Embossed fibrous structure product with enhanced absorbency


A valve battery, including a plurality of base plates, each having a generally polygonal outer contour, a window-shaped recess therein, and two side faces, a face of one plate corresponding a face of an adjacent plate and sealingly engaging one another, closure plates being provided on the free end surfaces, a plurality of electrically actuatable individual valves mounted in the base plates, each having an inlet port, an outlet port, and an electrical connection, the mounted valves not protruding from the faces of the base plates, an inlet connection associated with each of the base plates, provided on one of the elongated side surfaces thereof, an outlet connection (A1,A2) associated with each of the valves, in fluid communication with the outlet port of the associated valve on the lower side surface of the base plate, a channel provided in each of the base plates, extending generally parallel to the lower side surface, in fluid communication with the inlet connection and with the inlet port of each of the valves on the base plate, the electrical connection of the valves being brought together and extending out through a multiple pole central signal connection, at least one of the base plates (4) having an associated valve which is an on-off valve (6) which is adjacent to a base plate (1) having one or more continuous valves (14), arranged alongside each other, the outer contour (2) of the on/off-valve base plates (4) being approximately the same as the continuous-valve base plate (1), and integrated pressure sensors (18) being provided in fluid communication between the pressure-fluid outlet connection (A1,A2) of the continuous valves (14) and their outlet port.

A valve battery of the above described type is known from Federal Republic of Germany DE 39 17 242 A, corresponding to European Patent No. 0,391,269, which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. The known valve system, however, uses base plates which contain only on-off valves, those which have only two different operative configurations. Such valve batteries have a small structural size and weight, and support a high rate of flow. Further, these on-off or regulating valves assure short switching times. The installation of individually controllable directional (on-off) valves required the development of miniature solenoid valves from which unusually high flow rates are required. Such valve batteries are permitting of a simple and rapid application to existing pressure-fluid systems and to the control, for instance, of grippers, cylinders, rotary drives, handling devices, and the like.
The use of such valve batteries as on-off valves, also known as directional valves is, however, not sufficient in certain cases for the necessary direction or control processes. Thus, the known solution entirely lacks control functions.


For objects with non-Lambertian surfaces, an object surface is mapped by effectively modifying the reflective properties of the object surface being sensed. By effectively making the surface Lambertian with high albedo, a calibration imaging task is achieved using a typical camera from a single or small number of camera positions. The calibration method temporarily modifies the surface properties of the imaged object by applying a thin and opaque layer, such as a coating, covering, or veneer, to the object for the duration of the calibration imaging task. The surface of this layer is a Lambertian reflector, with medium to high albedo. The layer is snugly applied, so a shape of the layer is as close as possible to that of the surface. Once the layer is applied, imaging of the layer surface essentially yields the same shape as the underlying object.

Using images of objects to derive information such as the object's shape has many uses. Examples include surveillance, geographic information systems, and machine inspection of manufactured goods. Other examples include single projector or multiple projector display systems designed to display images on many different types of surfaces, including two-dimensional projection screens and three-dimensional objects.
Many techniques are used for mapping a surface shape of an object. Most techniques utilize one or more projectors to project display images onto the object. A camera is used to capture images of the object as the display images are projected onto the object's surface. The images taken by the camera are used to register each of the projectors. These display systems compute transformations which are applied to each image to be projected. The observed position of projected features observed in the camera image are used to create an explicit list of correspondences between the image to be projected and the actual display surface positions. These correspondences are interpolated to create a mapping between each projector pixel and the display surface.
A so-called "shape-from-shading" technique makes assumptions about the illumination and light reflecting properties of the surface in question, and uses image intensities to estimate a surface normal at each point on the surface. Stereo and multi-view imaging techniques use two or more images of the same object in order to determine the surface shape. Structured-light techniques (also called active sensing) use a projected light pattern of known shape, together with a camera, in order to capture information about the surface shape. The use of a known projected light pattern simplifies the generation of correspondences between locations in the projected pattern and locations in the camera image. Other techniques calibrate display systems by using a camera to capture images of the display surface illuminated with projections of a sequence of patterns (also called coded structured light).
For all such display systems, non-Lambertian (e.g., shiny, transparent, translucent) surfaces are problematic. A Lambertian surface reflects the light equally in all directions. If a surface is a Lambertian surface, the appearance of the surface doesn't vary with viewpoint. An enlarged, cross section of a Lambertian surfaces indicates a rough or jagged surface. So, there are no preferred angles of reflection. Lambertian surfaces are also called diffuse surfaces. FIG. 1 illustrates a 100% specular surface, which is non-Lambertian. An impinging light 14 impinges a surface 12 of an object 10. The surface 12 is 100% specular. As such, the impinging light 14 is reflected such that an intensity of the reflected light 16 is equal to an intensity of the of the impinging light 14. Also, as there is no scattering of the impinging light 14 on a 100% specular surface, the reflected light 16 is reflected at the mirror angle. In other words, the angle of the impinging light 14, angle θI, measured from the surface normal is equal to the angle of the reflected light 16, angle θR, measured from the surface normal. FIG. 2 illustrates a 100% diffuse surface, which is Lambertian. The impinging light 14 impinges a surface 22 of an object 20. The surface 22 is 100% diffuse. As such, the impinging light 14 is reflected such that an intensity of the reflected light 26 is equally distributed in all directions. The sum of the intensities of all reflected light 26 is equal to the intensity of the impinging light 14.
When all or a portion of the display surface is not a diffuse reflector (e.g., the surface is non-Lambertian), certain portions of the projected pattern can appear too bright or too dark in the captured image, resulting in failures to identify the projected pattern. For example, a "hotspot" or highlight, can over-saturate the camera sensor in a region that is highly specular (that is, "shiny" in the sense of a mirror or highly polished surface) where the camera and projector lie along the "mirror angle", such as illustrated in FIG. 3. In the exemplary configuration of FIG. 3, a surface 32 of an object 30 is highly specular. A camera 60 is positioned at the mirror angle relative to a projector 50. In such a configuration, the intensity of the reflected light 36 captured by the camera 60 can over-saturate the camera sensor. It can also happen that a specular surface reflects too little light to be detected, such as when the camera is placed too far off from the "mirror angle", such as illustrated in FIG. 4. For a highly specular surface, such as the surface 32, the further the camera 60 is from the mirror angle, the lower the intensity of the reflected light 46. Low intensity reflections can also occur when a display surface with a low albedo is used (e.g., one painted a dark color).
For translucent surfaces, projected light can penetrate the surface, be scattered by the material below the surface, and then leave the object at a different point on the surface. This phenomenon is called subsurface scattering. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of subsurface scattering. The projected light 14 impinges a surface 52 of a translucent material 50. The projected light 14 scatters within the material 50 as refracted and scattered light 54. Some of the refracted and scattered light 54 can exit the surface 52 as reflected light 56. The reflected light 56 can be reflected in many different directions, typically at low intensities.
Translucent and transparent surfaces can transmit impinging light and can also reflect the same impinging light, whether the impinging light encounters the surfaces internally or externally to the object. FIG. 6 illustrates an example of light impinging a transparent material. The impinging light 14 impinges a surface 62 of a transparent material 60. A portion of the impinging light 14 is reflected as reflected light 63 and another portion of the impinging light 14 is transmitted as refracted light 62 through the transparent material 60. When the refracted light 62 impinges a second surface 61 of the transparent material 60, a portion of the refracted light 62 is reflected off the second surface as reflected light 64 and another portion of the refracted light 62 passes through the second surface, thereby exiting the transparent material 60, as refracted light 66. The reflected light 64 is transmitted through the transparent material 60. When the reflected light 64 impinges the first surface 62, a portion of the reflected light 64 is reflected back into the transparent material 60 as reflected light 67, and another portion of the reflected light 64 passes through the first surface 62, as refracted light 65, and so on. In this case, the impinging light 14 can leave the object at a different point than at which it first encounters the surface, such as refracted light 65 and refracted light 66. These phenomena can result in incorrect position data.
Many conventional cameras use CMOS or CCD image sensors to capture images. However, CMOS and CCD image sensors have a limited dynamic range. The effective dynamic range is bounded by a minimum threshold and a maximum threshold. The minimum threshold defines a minimum number of photons that the image sensor must capture to detect an image, and to avoid under-exposure. The maximum threshold defines a maximum number of photons that the image sensor can capture before the image becomes over-exposed. After a certain number of photons have charged an individual collection site (pixel), the site becomes saturated, and cannot record any additional photons. The minimum number of photons that can be measured is also limited, due to the effects of heat in the sensor site itself, which makes it difficult, it not impossible, to get a true "zero" reading from the sensor. For example, digital images under low-light conditions look "noisy" or "grainy." The rate at which photons are admitted to the sensor can be controlled by changing either (or both) of the aperture (size of the lens opening) or the "exposure time." The exposure time is the amount of time the sensor is allowed to collect photons.
The exposure time can be controlled with a physical shutter or an electronic shutter. The physical shutter opens and closes to briefly allow light through the lens. The electronic shutter works by discharging the sensor site (pixel) and then allowing the sensor site to collect photons for some period of time. Subsequently, this charge is electronically transferred to a storage site, where it is later read, as in global shuttering. Alternatively, the value of the charge is simply read at some later point in time, as in rolling shutter. The resulting charge is then measured and converted to a discrete digital value. Typically, the values are roughly linearly spaced, and can be further modified by a digitally-implemented transfer function. The resulting value for the pixel irradiance is typically stored as an 8-bit, unsigned integer. In the case of color cameras, three such values are stored, one per primary color, where a separate sensor, covered with an appropriately-colored filter, captures the intensity of each primary color. As a final step, the image is typically stored in a compressed image format, such as JPEG, to the camera's storage medium.
The effective dynamic range of a CMOS or CCD camera can be, in effect, extended using "high dynamic range" (HDR) imaging techniques. In HDR imaging, multiple images, taken with different exposure times, are made while keeping the position of the camera, the position of the object, and the position(s) of any light source(s) fixed. HDR imaging provides a larger dynamic range of brightness, which is then combined and compressed. However, cameras that provide HDR imaging are very expensive. Techniques for capturing HDR imagery with available cameras exist, but require multiple images to be captured, on the order of 16 exposures per single frame. The subsequent time to process these additional images is prohibitive in most applications.
For a specific imaging task, capturing many images of the object may be required. For example, in a coded structured light task, several images may be required, each capturing the object illuminated by a different light pattern. Multiview techniques may require multiple images from different camera positions. The total number of images required to complete the specific image capture task may then exceed the storage capacity of the camera. Also, the total number of images required to be captured may require more time than is available for the task. For example, each individual image may require several seconds to capture, depending on the camera used. Increasing this capture time can be impractical.
The collection of multiple exposures making up the HDR image must be further manipulated by post-processing operations to be useful. The results of the post-processing are then stored in non-traditional image formats, for example, storing pixel values as 24 or 32-bit floating point values. These non-traditional image formats are not supported by typical software tools. There is no universally accepted standard format, as there is for traditional 8-bit-per-pixel images, such as JPEG. If, instead of this post-process, the entire collection of separate images are used, then 16 times the storage space, transfer time, and memory space are required to process the images. These issues relating to HDR imaging result in an orders-of-magnitude increase in the storage cost and processing time for an imaging task, as compared to the storage and processing of single-exposure, 8-bit or 10-bit images in traditional formats.
Despite the increased dynamic range afforded by HDR techniques, and hence their ability to handle very bright or dim reflections, as in FIGS. 3 and 4, these techniques do not overcome the problems with translucent and transparent materials, as in FIGS. 5 and 6. Further, there are other fundamental limitations in camera sensors that HDR techniques cannot overcome. In cases where the illumination exceeds the minimum or maximum limits of the irradiance range of the camera, the desired information is not present in any image, at any exposure. In these situations, the information (e.g., the capture image of the object as illuminated with the structured light pattern) is simply not captured and cannot be recovered. The resulting inability to complete the structured-light imaging task results in the failure of the application.
An alternative to HDR imaging for capturing non-Lambertian surface properties is to image the object from a multitude of illumination and/or sensor angles. Techniques using this approach are referred to as "multi-view techniques." With enough captured images, some images may not have the sort of problems indicated in FIGS. 3 and 4, for highly specular surfaces. In many multi-view techniques, multitudes of images are captured from a large number of vantage points to enable capture of object geometry. Other multi-view techniques use a multitude of illumination angles. Such techniques either require the object to be mounted on a turntable, or a large number of images from different vantage points to be taken by mounting an array of cameras/lights, which is expensive, and/or repositioning the camera/lights and taking multiple images, which is time consuming. However, it is often impossible, in real-world situations, to obtain images from these multiple viewpoints, or multiple illumination angles.
Recent approaches for capturing both shape and surface properties of non-Lambertian materials have several drawbacks, including but not limited to, requiring careful initialization, assuming the surface has uniform reflectance properties, and limitations to specifically shaped objects. Many such approaches result in low-fidelity estimates of surface geometry.
Approaches that attempt to deal with phenomena such as subsurface scattering combine multi-view and HDR techniques, thereby acquiring the drawbacks of both approaches. Both HDR techniques and multi-view techniques for imaging of non-Lambertian surfaces are cumbersome, slow, require large amounts of storage and processing, are often impractical, and can fail completely in some circumstances.

Method for simplifying the imaging of objects with non-Lambertian surfaces


A flat panel display device capable of reducing charging of phosphors and disposing spacers easily and accurately. The flat panel display device has a rear substrate including an insulating substrate provided with many cold cathode elements for emitting electrons, a display substrate including a light-transmissive substrate disposed to face the rear substrate, and phosphors disposed on the light-transmissive substrate for generating light when excited by electron beams from the cold cathode elements, and a peripheral frame member. Provided on the light-transmissive substrate is a metal sheet perforated with plural fine holes arranged in a matrix configuration and having the phosphors disposed therewithin to form a light-emissive region.

The present invention relates to a flat panel display device, and in particular to a field emission display (hereinafter FED), a flat panel display device incorporating in a hermetic container an electron source comprising a large number of cold cathode elements arranged in a matrix configuration for emitting electrons.
Known as electron emitting elements for use in FED are surface conduction type emission element (hereinafter SED type), field emission type (hereinafter FE type) and metal-insulator-metal type emission element (hereinafter MIM type). Among the FE type, there are the Spindt type made up chiefly of a metal such as Mo and a semiconductor material such as Si and the CNT (Carbon Nanotube) type using carbon nanotubes as its electron source. The SED type is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-164129, for example, and the MIM type is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2001-101965 and 2001-243901, for example.
As shown in FIG. 21 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-101965, for example, the FED type comprises: a rear substrate made of an insulating material and provided with an electron source composed of cold cathode elements serving as electron emission elements, arranged in a matrix configuration; and a display substrate made of a light-transmissive material, disposed to face the rear substrate, and provided with phosphors for emitting three primary colors of light, R, G, B when struck by electrons from the electron source. A peripheral frame is sandwiched between the rear and display substrates, and the rear and display substrates and the peripheral frame are sealed together as by a frit glass to complete a hermetic envelope, and then its interior is evacuated to a pressure in a range of from 10−5 to 10−7 torr.
In the FED, support members (hereinafter spacers) are provided between the rear and display substrates to prevent breakage of the hermetic envelope due to atmospheric pressure. Careful consideration is given to locations of the spacers so that they do not interfere with trajectories of electrons traveling from the electron emission elements toward the phosphors. Spacers can be located on a black matrix in the form of stripes disposed between the R, G and B phosphors, for example. An example of the arrangement of R, G and B phosphors and a black matrix is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-306510, for example.
Spacers for use in the FED are disclosed in SID 97 Digest (1997 Society for Information Display International Symposium Digest of Technical Papers Vol. 28, (1997)), pp. 52–55, for example. The flat panel display device reported in this paper has a 10-inch diagonal screen provided with 240×240×3 color-pixels (one pixel comprises a triad of R, G and B color-pixels), and is configured such that 28 spacers of 40×3×0.2 mm3 are arranged. A spacing between the rear and display substrates is 3 mm, and a thickness and an aspect ratio of the spacers are 0.2 mm and 15, respectively. Vertical and horizontal pitches of color-pixels are 0.65 mm and 0.29 mm, respectively. The width of the spacers is greater compared with the pitches of the color-pixels even now. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-294170 by one of the present inventors and others discloses a technique which provides the rear and display substrates with recesses conforming to the shape of spacers, and fits the spacers in the recesses, for the purpose of facilitating of attachment of the spacers.


In one embodiment, a fan out buffer has the inputs of a plurality of output followers connected to the output of a plurality of distribution gates.

The present invention relates, in general, to electronics, and more particularly, to methods of forming semiconductor devices and structure.
In the past, the semiconductor industry utilized various methods and structures to build fan out buffers such as fan out buffers for clock distribution networks for various parts of a system. In most embodiments, the fan out buffers used parallel matched paths to try and generate multiple matched clock signals from one clock input signal. It was important to minimize skew between the clock signals from the multiple paths so that the output clock signals were precisely matched in time. However, various parameter mismatches occurred due to process variations, voltage drops on buses, interaction during operation, and other mismatches that resulted in small amounts of skew between the output clock signals. The skew affected the-operation of the system using the clock signals from the fan out buffers. The skew usually caused the system to have to run slower than desired to prevent erroneous system operation.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a fan out buffer that reduces clock skew.
For simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements in the figures are not necessarily to scale, and the same reference numbers in different figures denote the same elements. Additionally, descriptions and details of well-known steps and elements are omitted for simplicity of the description. As used herein current carrying electrode means an element of a device that carries current through the device such as a source or a drain of an MOS transistor or an emitter or a collector of a bipolar transistor or a cathode or anode of a diode, and a control electrode means an element of the device that controls current through the device such as a gate of an MOS transistor or a base of a bipolar transistor. Although the devices are explained herein as certain NPN transistors, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that complementary devices are also possible in accordance with the present invention.

Semiconductor Components Industries, L.L.C.


The invention relates to a vehicle wheel, in particular a hybrid vehicle wheel, composed of a wheel disc, which is fabricated from lightweight metal as a cast part, and a rim ring, which is made from steel, is connected to the wheel disc in a rotationally fixed fashion and has at least one rim horn and a drop base edge, and a method for manufacturing such a hybrid vehicle wheel. In order to be able to manufacture the hybrid vehicle wheel at low cost and to ensure sufficient force flow between the rim ring and the wheel disc, the wheel disc has, on the disc edge, a contour which is matched to the profile of the rim horn and drop base edge and extends over the distance between them and on which the rim ring bears in the mounted state of the wheel disc and rim ring while clamping the wheel disc between a first pressure zone on the drop base edge and a second pressure zone on the rim horn. Fitting is carried out by folding over or rolling over a rim ring blank onto the edge of the disc.

The present invention relates to a vehicle wheel, comprising a wheel disk fabricated as a casting, preferably casted from lightweight metal, with a disk edge running concentrically around a wheel axis and a rim ring, preferably fabricated from steel, rotationally locked to the wheel disk and having at least one rim flange, at least one bead seat, one drop center rim well base and at least a well base edge, for seating a tire on the outside of the rim ring. The invention also relates to a method for manufacturing such a hybrid vehicle wheel from a wheel disk fabricated as a casting, preferably from lightweight metal, and a rim ring, preferably of steel, in operations entailing the provision of a rim ring preform having at least one rim flange, a bead seat, a rim well base and a well base edge, and the provision of a wheel disk, which has a disk edge running concentrically around the wheel axis. The invention is intended, in particular, for vehicle wheels for motor vehicles, especially passenger automobiles.
In the state of the art the trend with vehicle wheels has firstly been towards the conventional steel vehicle wheels comprising a steel rim ring, largely manufactured by metal forming processes on a production line, and a steel wheel disk manufactured on a separate production line, which at the end of the production lines are welded together to form the vehicle wheel. The rim ring and the wheel disk here each take on their final form on the production line before being welded together.
In addition, in the state of the art there has been a trend towards lightweight metal wheels, especially of aluminum, which are manufactured as integrally cast constructions or as wheel forgings. In the case of multipart lightweight metal wheels a cast or forged wheel disk is joined to a rim of aluminum strip manufactured by profile rolling or roll forming. They can either be joined by detachable bolted connections or welded.
DE 100 58 807 A1 discloses a hybrid vehicle wheel in which the wheel disk and the rim ring are produced from different materials and the wheel disk and the rim ring are joined together by friction welding. DE 198 04 739 A1, for example, discloses the provision, in a wheel disk fabricated from lightweight metal, of an outer rim flange integrally formed on the disk, and the formation of a welded-on extension to the wheel disk in the area of the outer bead seat, a rim ring, correspondingly formed without the outer rim flange, then being attached thereto by friction welding.
A vehicle wheel of generic type is disclosed by DE 82 16 339 U1. In the case of this vehicle wheel a wheel disk is manufactured as a casting, onto which a rim ring comprising all the elements of a wheel rim is then fitted by shrinking on. The shrinking-on is intended to achieve a press fit between the rim ring and the wheel disk, bearing with its circumferential edge against the inside of the rim ring of the bead seat, which rotationally locks the wheel disk and the rim ring together. In order to increase the friction in the press fit between the ring rim and the wheel disk, granular material, projections or a heat-resistant adhesive lacquer can be introduced into the opposing faces. In the area of the bead seat, which on the outside of the ring has an inclination of approximately 5° in the case of vehicle wheels and an inclination of approximately 15° in the case of commercial vehicle wheels (tapered seat wheels), the rim ring must be provided with an additional material thickening, in order that the rim ring can taper conically in diameter on the inside of the ring from the well base edge to the outside of the wheel. In order to be able to shrink the rim ring onto the wheel disk, the rim ring must be heated to temperatures in excess of 300°, which is extremely costly in terms of energy and results in high production costs. Other disadvantages beside the high production costs are that the high temperatures which have to be applied can cause material changes in the preferably formed rim ring, and in addition an anticorrosion protection, which before joining together has been applied at joining sites that are subsequently no longer accessible, is destroyed by the high temperatures, so that the vehicle wheel fabricated by shrinking on is highly susceptible to corrosion, especially at the joining sites.

Vehicle wheel and method for manufacturing it


This novel axisymmetric revolved arc explosively formed projectile (REFP) shaped charge design will produce a projectile that is greater than ⅔ the diameter of the device forms a hole larger than the device diameter and removes all of the target material within the hole diameter. The precision of the circular simultaneous initiation of the HE billet is accomplished by the use of a novel Circular Precision Initiation Coupler (CPIC). This CPIC uses a single point initiation to create a simultaneous peripheral detonation of the HE billet that collapses and drives the revolved liner into a large diameter double wall hollow cylindrical explosively formed projectile.

Shaped charges come in many sizes and shapes and are used mainly for military weaponry and oil well perforating; to a lesser extent demolition and rescue are also users of this complex technology.
The term shaped charge literally refers to a quantity of explosive that is shaped in some way to focus its energy. Shaped charge is also more loosely used to mean a shaped quantity of high explosive with a metal or other liner, a containment body and a means of detonation.
The concept of shaping an explosive charge, in order to focus its energy was known in 1792. ("The History of Shaped Charges" Donald R Kennedy)
In the 1930's Misznay and Chardin, Hungarian and German physicists, created a shaped explosive device that forms a shuttlecock like projectile that can be tailored to very long standoff. This type of device is commonly known as a Misznay Chardin device, a Self Forging Frag or an Explosively formed Projectile (EFP). They discovered that when a disc of explosive with a concavity on one side is detonated correctly it will focus its energy perpendicular to the plane of the disc in both directions, and if the cavity in the explosive disc was lined with a ductile metal it would be formed into a high speed projectile. This dished liner for this device resembled a shallow dished platter much like a tea saucer. Because of the shallowness of the concavity of the liner and the flatness of the detonation wave attacking it, ninety percent of the liner mass is folded into an EFP, unlike a Munroe effect shaped charge whose jet is only approximately 20% of the liner mass.
Although EFP devices qualify as shaped charges in the common vernacular, they operate on a different principle than a Munroe shaped charge. EFP devices have lower projectile velocities, greater projectile mass, penetrate less deep but make larger holes than a Munroe effect shaped charge yet not super caliber holes.
Conventional EFP producing charges have been used in antitank and other directed energy weapons for many years and have been refined in an effort to make a high speed primary jet for missile seeker removal, but will not produce a hole in an infinite target large enough to place another device of the same size at the bottom of that hole.
Throughout the history of shaped charges the primary effort of research in this field was directed toward depth of penetration by the jet. Although hole size is worth considering, little research has been done on significantly increasing jet diameter and cross-sectional shape of the jet to produce a larger hole diameter. In oil field applications a larger hole is most desirable as the flow area of the hole increases rapidly with an increase in hole diameter. With the ability to produce a full caliber hole, a follow on or follow through device can be deployed into the hole to the correct standoff from the bottom of the hole. When detonated at the correct standoff this will increase the hole depth by that of the primary hole producing device, this can be repeated numerous times in the same hole.

Revolved arc profile axisymmetric explosively formed projectile shaped charge


Viscous oil residues are located based on fluorescence polarization. Methods and apparatus in accordance with the invention may be integrated with autonomous and remotely operated undersea vehicles to map the location of oil spills.

Increased consumption and transportation of oil and its products exacerbate the problem of pollution in lakes and oceans. Even with strict regulation of oil transportation, accidents leading to oil spills still occur frequently. Indeed, numerous accidents occur annually, with thousands of tons of oil being spilled into seas, contaminating marine environments and endangering marine ecology. Of the oil that is spilled, a significant fraction of the residual oil is heavier than water and sinks to the bottom; this oil fraction is frequently termed Group V oils, which have a specific gravity exceeding 1.0. These oil residues are typically rich in polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are toxic to aquatic life. Oil spills in coastal waters, harbors, and oil terminals are especially dangerous and necessitate a rapid response when they occur in order to prevent contamination of marine habitats. Therefore, reliable oil-spill detection systems which can locate and map subsurface spillage are needed.
A number of known methods for detecting oil spills are mostly limited to surface oil. It is well known that oils contain fluorophores, i.e., molecules and functional groups that exhibit fluorescence when excited by light of a wavelength absorbed by such moieties. For example, remote laser-induced fluorescence has been developed for surface oil detection. Airborne fluorescence LIDAR (laser-induced detection and ranging), which combines fluorescence detection with ranging techniques, has been developed as well. However, airborne fluorescence methods are generally unable to detect deep underwater oil contaminants. Furthermore, fluorescence methods are susceptible to interference from other fluorophores in water, such as humic compounds, chlorophyll and other plant pigments.
Methods for subsurface detection and mapping of heavy oils include visual observation, cameras and acoustic/sonar sounding methods. Because of the similarity in oil and other natural sediments, these methods, while providing a rapid survey, generally require confirmation by further sampling and analysis, and therefore do not offer real-time results. Sonar frequently does not provide sufficient contrast with the sedimentary sea floor.
Therefore, there is a need for economical methods and instruments to can detect and image heavy-oil residues in real-time with minimal interferences.

Detection of heavy oil using fluorescence polarization


A shoulder-surfing resistant authentication method and system includes a computing device, such as a smart phone, which includes a display for presenting an interactive virtual environment. During the authentication process, the user enters a passcode by modifying one or more attributes of one or more icons that are presented relative to the interactive environment. Such attributes may include one or more of the type of movement the icons perform, the change in position or visual characteristics of the icons relative to the virtual environment, as well as the removal and/or addition of one or more icons relative to the virtual environment. The entered passcode is then compared with a previously stored or “set” passcode to authenticate the user before granting access to the computing device.

Mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets and mobile computers, are becoming increasingly popular due to a multitude of useful and entertaining applications, and their ability to leverage the nearly ubiquitous Internet access that is provided by various wireless communication networks, such as WIFI, 3G, 4G, and LTE. However, to protect against unauthorized access to these mobile devices, including the private data and applications stored therein, a user is typically required to enter an alphanumeric password into a graphical interface on the mobile device. However, due to the nature of the interaction of the user with the interface of the mobile device, the user is susceptible to shoulder-surfing attacks in which an unauthorized individual strategically positions their field of view, often over the shoulder of the user, to view the screen of the mobile device as the password is being entered. For example, a user on a crowded subway train desiring to check their email using his or her smartphone, unlocks their smartphone by entering their password on its screen. As the unlocking process is carried out, a shoulder-surfing attack is simultaneously performed by the unauthorized individual who is looking at the screen of the smartphone from behind, and over the shoulder of the smartphone user. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that smartphone users unlock their devices an average of 48 times per day (about 3 unlocks per hour), and that shoulder-surfing is possible in about 17% of these cases. Thus, because current authentication schemes and methods utilized on mobile devices are not resistant to shoulder-surfing attacks, users of such mobile devices are at risk of having their password stolen, and subsequently used to gain unauthorized access to the mobile device, and the data and/or applications stored thereon.
In order to combat shoulder-surfing attacks, many efforts have been pursued to make mobile devices and applications executed thereon resistant to such attacks. For example, one shoulder-surfing resistant authentication technique that has been studied relates to enhancing the traditional multi-digit personal identification number (PIN) that is used as an authentication password. This technique requires an entry pad that is used to enter the PIN to be separated into two distinct portions, such that one portion of the PIN entry pad appears as "black" buttons, while another portion of the PIN entry pad appears as "white" buttons. Then, for each PIN digit, the user is asked to confirm which of the two portions of the entry pad was used to enter the particular PIN digit, until each digit is confirmed. Thus, by associating each PIN digit with a color, the risk of shoulder-surfing attacks is reduced. Similar shoulder-surfing resistant schemes, such as that provided under the trademarks SwiPIN, ColorPIN, and The Phone Lock, have also been developed. However, all of these authentication techniques suffer from weak security strength inherent in the PIN itself, making it susceptible to being easily compromised by brute-force attacks, which is undesirable.
Additional efforts to prevent shoulder-surfing attacks include a "Draw a Secret" authentication technique, which involves erasing the strokes of an authentication gesture as they are drawn. Such technique has been found to reduce the rate in which medium-strength passwords are captured by an unauthorized individual, or attacker, after a single observation from 80% to about 40%. Further modifications of the "Draw a Secret" authentication technique have also been pursued, whereby a grid is added, so that in addition to matching the "Draw a Secret" gesture, users must also match the direction (e.g. up, down, left, right) in which the strokes of their gesture pass through the added grid lines.
Yet another shoulder-surfing resistant authentication technique, referred to as convex-hull-click (CHC), has also been studied. CHC utilizes a graphical password scheme in which users choose graphical icons to represent their password. Rather than clicking the icons, users are required to click inside a triangular area bounded by the icons that form their password. However, CHC suffers from long authentication times because multiple click sessions are required, and due to the added time needed for users to find the icons representing their password.
Other shoulder-surfing resistant schemes have also been developed, such as CDS. CDS is a combination of the "Draw a Secret" and "Story" authentication techniques, whereby a series of images are randomly arranged into a grid to allow users to draw a line through the images they have previously chosen to represent their passwords.
While these authentication techniques provide various levels of resistance to shoulder-surfing attacks, they still have limited effectiveness, especially when applied to mobile devices. This is because such techniques demand large displays and high-performance hardware to execute their authentication scheme, which are characteristics not typically embodied in mobile devices.
Therefore, there is a need for an effective shoulder-surfing resistant authentication method that may be utilized on any device, such as mobile devices for example.

Shoulder-surfing resistant authentication methods and systems


The present invention provides a process for producing the pyridine compound [d]:

The present invention relates to a novel process for producing pyridine compounds having excellent herbicidal activity and starting compounds for the process.
The pyridine compounds [d]:
wherein R1 represents a C1–C6 alkoxy group, R3 represents a halogen atom, cyano group or nitro group, and R4 represents a hydrogen atom or halogen atom have excellent herbicidal activity. The pyridine compounds [d] contain two heterocyclic rings which are uracil ring and pyridine ring, and a beneficial process to produce them is desired. The object of the present invention is to provide a beneficial process for producing the pyridine compounds [d] having a specific pattern of substituents and starting compounds for the process.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Pyridone compounds useful for producing pyridine compounds

Abstract: [wherein R3 and R4 are as defined below],which has an excellent herbicidal activity, by making a pyridine compound [a]:

Abstract: [wherein R1 represents a C1–C6 alkoxy group, R3 represents a halogen atom, cyano group or nitro group, and R4 ρεπρεσεντσ α ηψδρογεν ατομ ορ ηαλογεν ατομ] ρεαχτ ωιτη αν α-diazoester compound [f]:N2CHCOR1[f][wherein R1 is defined above]in the presence of an acid.


An ink jet recording apparatus includes: a black print head that discharges black ink; a color print head that discharges color ink having a higher permeability with a recording paper sheet than the black ink; and a determining unit that detects, based on input data, a black image region in which recording is performed with the black ink and a color image region in which recording is performed with the color ink, and, based on the detection result, determines whether the black ink or the color ink is first applied onto the recording paper sheet. In this ink jet recording apparatus, each of the black print head and the color print head has nozzles divided into several sets, and a multi-path recording operation is performed by scanning each recording region several times with the sets of nozzles.

1. Field of the invention
The present invention generally relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and an ink jet recording method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been a color ink jet recording technique for recording images by discharging liquid ink droplets from nozzles. Having a simple structure and reduced printing noise, this color ink jet recording technique is suitable for small-sized printers. To obtain a high-quality image without ink bleeding, however, it is necessary to use special paper sheets such as coated paper sheets each having an ink absorbing layer formed thereon. On plain paper such as copy paper, ink bleeding is easily caused in each boundary area between different colors.
To counter this problem, there has been a method for reducing ink bleeding between colors by increasing the permeability of ink with paper sheets. With this method, however, there is a problem of poor sharpness (feathering) along the edges of lines and characters printed especially with black ink.
To increase the image quality of lines and characters, there has been a technique for reducing bleeding between color inks by employing the color inks each having a higher permeability than the black ink with a low permeability. By this technique, however, ink bleeding cannot be prevented between a black ink printed region and a color ink printed region that are adjacent to each other and have different permeating rates. Conventional techniques suggested to counter this problem are as follows.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-113155 (Patent Document 1) discloses a device that converts print pixels in each boundary area between black ink regions and color ink regions in an image so as to prevent bleeding between the black ink and the color ink.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-067125 (Patent Document 2) discloses a device that sets a time interval between black ink application and color ink application onto a recording paper sheet so as to prevent ink bleeding. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-077992 (Patent Document 3) discloses a device that measures the recording density based on image data, and, according to the recording density, switches recording modes for each main scan.
In a case where black ink having a low permeating rate is employed to increase the print quality with the black ink, ink transfer between printed paper sheets in a high-speed printing operation is caused due to the low fixing speed. To counter this problem, there has been a technique (Prior Art 4) of applying color ink having a higher permeability before applying black ink and utilizing a chemical reaction between black ink and color ink so as to increase the ink fixing speed.
With the device disclosed in Patent Document 1, however, excessive pixel conversion to prevent ink bleeding leads to the appearance of white lines on the boundaries between black pixels and color pixels, as the color pixels that are adjacent to the black pixels are converted into blank data. If the black pixels that are adjacent to color pixels are converted into color data, the image quality in the black image region deteriorates, as the brightness in the converted region becomes higher than the brightness of the black ink and the higher brightness results in an insufficient density. In this manner, if a very large number of pixels are converted to prevent ink bleeding, image deterioration is caused for a different reason.
With the device disclosed in Patent Document 2, there is a problem in that the actual printing speed greatly decreases, though ink bleeding can be prevented by setting a certain time interval between the black ink application and the color ink application.
With the device disclosed in Patent Document 3, there is a problem in that the recording modes are switched even for image data that cause little ink bleeding, resulting in an unnecessary decrease in printing speed.
In Prior Art 4, the color ink needs to be applied onto the paper sheet before the black ink. Therefore, printing is performed by separate scans for applying the black ink and the color ink, also resulting in a decrease in printing speed.

Ink jet recording apparatus and ink jet recording method


A closed loop system and methods for pumping harvested fat from a patient donor site to a patient grafting site.

Fat grafting as an adjunct for contour modulation in breast reconstruction has become fairly commonplace1-3 since The American Society of Plastic Surgeons lifted a ban on fat grafting to the breast in 2009. Optimal methods and techniques of transfer and fat handling has become an area of increased research and technological development. Many techniques involve the transfer of fat back into the breast via a hand held 60 cc syringe powered by manual plunger. Recently, Khouri4,5 has championed 'megavolume fat transfer' for breast reconstruction, designating mega as >300 cc per breast using this manual technique. Extrapolating this process to two breasts would necessitate at least ten 60 cc syringes. Transferring fat into syringes and refitting the plungers is tedious. Small amounts of fat may be spilt or lost with the filling of each syringe. Multiplying by ten syringes adds up to wasted viable tissue. Manually forcing the plunger after already performing manual or assisted liposuction is tiresome on the hands. What is needed are improved techniques to streamline this process, bypass the use of a syringe step, decrease operating time and anesthesia time for the patient.

Closed loop system for direct harvest and transfer for high volume fat grafting


Certain preferred embodiments of the present invention provide an improved adjustment system and method for raising and lowering a basketball backboard and goal using a telescoping assembly such as an extension and retraction cylinder. In some preferred embodiments, an actuator assembly is mounted to a midpoint of a lever arm and situated such that the extension or retraction of the actuator assembly causes a mechanically advantaged travel in the height adjustment structure for the goal assembly. As a preferred feature, the present invention provides a greater height adjustment distance in the backboard assembly for a reduced number of cranks compared to a direct connection between an actuator incorporated in or directly attached to an adjustment arm.

Various methods of raising and lowering basketball goals as desired by a user are known. It is well known in certain applications to use an actuator or compression assembly with a crank mechanism, allowing the user to turn the crank to raise and lower the basketball scoring height. Most such systems use a direct relationship between the assembly extension and the height adjustment, causing a user to turn an adjustment crank many times to achieve a desired goal height. An improved system and method for causing a backboard to raise or lower in a ratio to the number of turns of the crank on the system is desired.

Basketball system with adjustable goal height having mechanical advantage


The invention relates to novel oxazolidinone compound. More particularly, the invention relates to novel [(S)—N-[[3-[4-fluoro-3-morpholino phenyl]-2-oxooxazolidin-5-yl] methyl] acetamide] compound of Formula-I which was disclosed in Indian Patent Application No. 5063/CHE/2013 and corresponding PCT/IN2014/000018. The compound is a broad spectrum antimicrobial agent effective against Multi-Drug Resistant S. Maltophilia pathogen and a large number of gram positive and gram negative pathogens. The compound has shown excellent biological activities against S. Maltophilia which has developed resistance against a large number of antibiotics including some of the known and widely used oxazolidinone derivatives.

Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia, commonly known as S. Maltophilia is an aerobic, gram negative emerging Multi-Drug Resistant global opportunistic pathogen. The increasing incidence of nosocomial and community-acquired S. Maltophilia infections is of particular concern for immunocompromised individuals, as this bacterial pathogen is associated with a significant fatality/case ratio and has emerged as an important nosocomial pathogen associated with crude mortality rates ranging from 14 to 69% in patients with bacteremia.
S. maltophilia exhibits resistance to a broad array of antibiotics, including TMP-SMX, β-lactam antibiotics, macrolides, cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, carbapenems, chloramphenicol, tetracyclines, polymyxins, cefepime, ticarcillin-clavulanate, ceftazidime, and piperacillin-tazobactam.
Therefore S. Maltophilia is emerging as Multi-Drug Resistant pathogen worldwide, capable of causing serious respiratory tract infections, bloodstream and urinary infections. Some of the common infections caused by this notorious pathogen include pneumonia, blood stream infection, skin infection, surgical site related infections, urinary tract infections, endocarditis meningitis, intra-abdominal infections, co-morbid illness, endophthamitis and cystic fibrosis (a hereditary metabolic disorder of the exocrine glands that mainly affects the pancreas, respiratory system and sweat glands).
According to one study, the drug resistance of S. Maltophilia is increasing at the rate of 10% to 15% in USA and European countries making the treatment of S. Maltophilia infections significantly difficult with reduced treatment options.
Novel compound [(S)—N-[[3-[4-fluoro-3-morpholino phenyl]-2-oxooxazolidin-5-yl] methyl] acetamide] of Formula-I was disclosed in Indian Patent Application No. 5063/CHE/2013 and corresponding PCT/IN2014/000018 of the applicant which are incorporated herein by reference. This compound belongs to the oxazolidinone class of drugs which are known to have potent antimicrobial activity against a number of human and veterinary pathogens, including anaerobic organisms such as bacteroides and clostridia species and acid fast organisms such as mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterium avium, multi-drug resistant Gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Staphylococcus epidermitis (MRSE), penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneunoniae (PRSP) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).
The oxazolidinones class of antibacterials possess a unique mechanism of inhibiting bacterial protein synthesis. Linezolid is one of the most important oxazolidinone class of drug having potent antibacterial activity and was the first oxazolidinone to be approved for clinical use with potential antibacterial activity against many important resistant pathogens. However, S. Maltophilia has exhibited resistance against Linezolid also and therefore, inventors were looking towards development of new antibacterial compound which could be effective against the S. Maltophilia and other Multi-Drug Resistant pathogens.
The inventors have developed a novel compound [(S)—N-[[3-[4-fluoro-3-morpholino phenyl]-2-oxooxazolidin-5-yl] methyl] acetamide] of Formula-I which was disclosed in Indian Patent Application No. 5063/CHE/2013 and corresponding PCT/IN2014/000018. In further antimicrobial studies on compound-I, it was observed that this compound had shown immense potential to treat the infections caused by the Multi-Drug Resistant S. Maltophilia pathogen and against a broad spectrum of gram positive and gram negative pathogens and has also shown promising results in Single Dose Acute Toxicity tests conducted on this compound. The compound has shown excellent biological activities against S. Maltophilia which has developed resistance against a large number of antibiotics including some of the known and widely used oxazolidinone derivatives.


A lifting platform with microadjustment mechanisms comprises plural microadjustment mechanisms. The microadjustment mechanisms can cooperate with adjustment pieces to adjust the level degree of the lifting platform, and the relative distance between each two microadjustment mechanisms can be adjusted by moving the support portions of the respective microadjustment mechanisms within the displacement clearance defined between the holding grooves of the lifting platform and the adjustment discs. By such arrangements, the microadjustment time can be relatively reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lifting platform for carrying load; and more particularly to a lifting platform with microadjustment mechanisms.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The existing common lifting platforms each normally have one side for carrying workpieces, and the other side provided with plural guide rods. Once these guide rods are installed, if it is found that the lifting platform is not level or the relative distance between these guide rods is incorrect, conventionally, the guide rods will be dismantled and then rearranged to adjust the height difference of the guide rods, or the installation holes for installing the guide rods will be reprocessed to adjust the relative distance between the guide rods. However, if the lifting platform is too large, dismantling and rearranging all its elements will be very time consuming and tedious.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.

Lifting platform with microadjustment mechanisms


The system may include a pixel array, a selector, a sampler, and a converter. The pixel array may generate output signals representing radiation incident upon the pixel array. The selector may select one of the output signals. The sampler may sample the selected output signal. The converter may generate a digital signal based upon the selected output signal. The sampler may include a charge integrator that compensates for parasitic capacitance of the selector by selecting a first feedback capacitance to obtain a first sample, and after obtaining the first sample, selecting a second feedback capacitance to obtain a second sample. The first feedback capacitance may be greater than the second feedback capacitance.

A charge amplifier may be driven by an electrical signal source with capacitive nature such as a piezoelectric sensor, or a charge-coupled device (CCD). The charge amplifier may transfer the charge from a charge signal to a reference capacitor (also referred to as an integrating capacitor) to generate an output voltage that correlates to the voltage across the reference capacitor. The output voltage may be based on the charge of the reference capacitor and on the input charge. Charge amplifiers may be used for application in the readout circuits of optical imaging devices and flat-panel X-ray detector arrays, to measure small charge stored in small capacitors of individual pixels in arrays of pixels.
In multiple-input charge based circuits, selection circuit or multiplexor (MUX) may be used to channel specific sensing capacitors to the charge amplifier for signal processing. The input charge signal, which may be stored in a capacitor for each pixel, may be much less than the error charge induced by parasitic capacitance of the thin film transistor (TFT) selection switch during a transition of the selection switch. As a result, when a pixel is selected, the smaller input charge signal of the pixel may be added to the larger selection-induced error charge, and may cause the charge amplifier to saturate early, thus limiting its dynamic range, or may cause the automatic gain selection circuit to select a lower gain early, thus limiting full advantage of the allowable dynamic range available to sense or amplify the smaller input charge signal. When the selection switch is turned off, the charge amplifier should only represent the input charge signal, but the larger error charge induced by the selection switch may corrupt the output voltage signal.
Thus, there is a need for an improved charge amplifier that compensates for errors without significantly increasing device complexity and size or significantly decreasing performance capabilities.


The present invention discloses adeno-associated viral vectors useful in gene therapy methods for the treatment of obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, liver cirrhosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The invention also relates to polynucleotides, plasmids, vectors and methods for the production of such adeno-associated viral vectors. The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising said vectors.

The current epidemic of obesity and the metabolic syndrome is a global health problem. Adipose tissue has a vital role in regulating energy homeostasis, and the interest in the complex biology of adipose tissue is increasing greatly.
There are two principal types of adipose tissue: white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT) but recent studies have shown the presence of an intermediate phenotype, the beige cells, which also are oxidative. WAT has the main function to store energy as triglycerides during caloric excess. During weight gain, WAT undergoes expansion, either through increasing the number of adipocytes, or by enlargement of existing adipocytes, so-called hypertrophic obesity. Hypertrophic adipose tissue expansion is tightly correlated with disorders of the metabolic syndrome such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and systemic low-grade inflammation.
In last few years, a third, distinct type of adipocyte has been identified, so-called beige or brite (brown-in-white) adipocytes. These cells reside as a separate population within white fat depots, probably have a white adipocyte stem cell origin and show a white adipocyte phenotype under basal conditions. A study has demonstrated that recruitment of beige/brite cells after chronic cold exposure also lead to reduced body fat, demonstrating potential important anti-obesity effects of these cells in humans.
The incidence of obesity has increased dramatically during the last decades to reach epidemic proportions. It is estimated that over 500 million individuals are obese. Obesity per se increases the risk of mortality and has been long strongly associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Diet and exercise are the mainstay treatments for obesity, but an increasing number of patients also require pharmacotherapeutic intervention to decrease and maintain body weight. However, pharmacotherapy does not induce involuntarily nor substantial weight loss and, additionally, anti-obesity drugs often display important side effects due to their systemic actions.
In addition, the growing incidence of obesity in the population as a whole has made fatty liver disease and its complications a leading public health issue. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by an aberrant lipid storage in hepatocytes. It is related to insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome and may respond to treatments originally developed for other insulin-resistant states (e.g.
diabetes mellitus type 2) such as weight loss, metformin and thiazolidinediones. NAFLD can progress to NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis) which is characterized by the appearance of necroinflammation in the liver. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the most extreme form of NAFLD, and is regarded as a major cause of cirrhosis of the liver of unknown cause.
Liver transplantation is the only curative option for patients with advanced liver cirrhosis. This procedure can only be applied to a minority of patients due to the presence of surgical contraindications and organ scarcity.
Several authors have disclosed recombinant adeno-associated viruses potentially useful in the treatment of diabetes, obesity and related complications. For example, Orellana-Gavaldà J M et al. (Orellana-Gavaldà J M et al. 2011. Hepatology, 53(3): 821-32) used adeno-associated viruses to mediate long-term hepatic gene transfer of CPT1A or its permanently active mutant form CPT1AM, to high-fat-diet-treated and genetically obese mice and showed that CPT1A- and, to a greater extent, CPT1AM-expressing mice were protected against obesity-induced weight gain, hepatic steatosis, diabetes, and obesity-induced insulin resistance.
Doege H. et al. (Doege H. et al. 2008. J Biol Chem, 283(32): 22186-92) disclosed an adeno-associated virus-mediated RNA interference technique to knock down the expression of hepatic fatty acid transport protein 5 in vivo prior to or after establishing NAFLD in mice. This approach protected mice from diet-induced NAFLD and was able to reverse already established NAFLD, resulting in significantly improved whole-body glucose homeostasis.
Accordingly, there is an urgent need for alternative approaches to prevent and combat the current obesity epidemic and metabolic disorders associated.

Adeno-associated viral vectors for the gene therapy of metabolic diseases


A system and method for dependency management are provided. The system for dependency management, includes a provider object management module managing a provider object that provides information, a consumer object management module managing a consumer object that executes a predetermined task based on the information provided by the provider object, an information object management module managing an information object that manages the provider object and the consumer object based on the information, a dependency storage module storing dependency information between the provider object and the consumer object, and a dependency management module examining dependency between the provider object and the consumer object based on the dependency information that is received from the dependency storage module and controlling activation and deactivation of the provider object and the consumer object according to a result of the dependency examination.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for dependency management, and more particularly, to a system and method for dependency management, by which a consumer object having a lack of provider objects is not activated and a provider object that is not used by a consumer object is not activated, thereby minimizing resource dissipation and increasing the performance of the system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a system including a consumer object which performs a predetermined task based on predetermined information or data and a provider object which provides the information or data used by the consumer object, mutual dependency may be established between the consumer object and the provider object. In other words, the consumer object cannot perform the task without the information or data provided by the provider object. Thus, the consumer object may be a dependent object and the provider object may be an object depended on by the consumer object. Generally, the consumer object and the provider object can be created, extinguished, activated, or deactivated independent of each other. Here, the consumer object may be activated even when the serviceability of the consumer object cannot be confirmed due to a lack of provider objects or the provider object may be activated and operate even when the consumer object depending on the provider object is not activated.
Activation of unnecessary objects incurs resource dissipation. In addition, since the system operates to manage the unnecessarily activated objects, the performance of the system is degraded. Therefore, a system for managing dependency between objects having mutual dependence is desired.

System and method for dependency management


A pivotal hinge has a seat and a shaft, and a first end of the shaft is inserted into the seat. A second end of the shaft is inserted into multiple washers, a first and a second positioning ring, multiple elastic rings and a cushion ring in turn. The first positioning ring can be positioned relative to the second positioning ring and with the friction force of the washers, the excellent position effect can be achieved. Hence, a cover of a laptop computer can be positioned to the chassis of the laptop computer at a desired height.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pivotal hinge (or pivotal device), and more particularly to a pivotal hinge (or pivotal device) with which a cover of a laptop computer or a mobile phone can be raised or lowered relative to a chassis of the laptop computer or the mobile phone.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional pivotal device is used for a laptop computer or a mobile phone and has a shaft. A first end of the shaft is connected to a seat which is securely mounted on a chassis of a laptop computer or a mobile phone and a second end of the shaft is connected to a base which is pivoted with a cover of the laptop computer or the mobile phone. The second end of the shaft is also pivotally connected to an adjusting element and a resistance element. Multiple resetting elements and washers are respectively mounted between the adjusting element and the resistance element. The adjusting element comprises a rotating member and a positioning member. When the rotating member is rotated relative to the positioning member, the cover of a laptop computer or a mobile phone can be lowered or raised relative to the chassis of the laptop computer or the mobile phone. When the rotating member is mated with the positioning member, the cover is positioned to the chassis with the friction force of the washers and resistance element.
However, the disadvantages of the conventional pivotal device are described as follows:
1. The conventional pivotal device has a complex structure thereby resulting in a high cost and inconvenient assembly.
2. Friction between the resistance element and the washers are not enough for the cover to be reliably positioned relative to the chassis.
Therefore, the invention provides a pivotal hinge to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.


A computer-implemented method performed in connection with a computerized system incorporating a processing unit and a memory, the computer-implemented method involving: using the processing unit to generate a multi-modal language model for co-occurrence of spoken words and displayed text in the plurality of videos; selecting at least a portion of a first video; extracting a plurality of spoken words from the selected portion of the first video; extracting a first displayed text from the selected portion of the first video; and using the processing unit and the generated multi-modal language model to rank the extracted plurality of spoken words based on probability of occurrence conditioned on the extracted first displayed text.

1. Technical Field
The disclosed embodiments relate in general to systems and methods for video content indexing and, more specifically, to computerized systems and computer-implemented methods for enhanced multi-modal lecture video indexing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recording video is now an everyday activity, as it has become more common to own devices such as video cameras, smartphones and digital cameras. In addition, thanks to a wide range of services and infrastructures available for handling video, we can easily find and watch videos online. However, videos without any metadata, such as date, creator, keywords, or description, cannot be found using typical search engines. Metadata is usually added manually, and the process is very time consuming. Furthermore, even if a video can be found by its metadata, search engines normally are not capable of finding a specific scene of interest within the video.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,280,158 describes a lecture video search engine. This system distinguishes itself from other video search engines by focusing on the lecture video genre and exploiting the videos' structuring according to slides. The described system automatically detects slides appearing in the videos and processes slide frames to extract their text using optical character recognition (OCR). A powerful slide keyframe-based interface allows users to efficiently navigate inside the videos using text-based search.
Another source of text that describes a broader class of video is text extracted from the audio track, typically using automatic speech recognition (ASR). In previous published work Matthew Cooper, Presentation video retrieval using automatically recovered slide and spoken text, In Proc. SPIE, volume 8667, 2013, the characteristics of the text derived from slides and from speech were established and contrasted in controlled experiments with manual ground truth. Spoken text from ASR or closed captions (CC) is typically dense, improvised, and contains generic terms. Errors in ASR occur at the word level due to acoustic mismatch and degrade retrieval performance. Slide text from either the slide file or extracted from slides using an OCR is relatively sparse, but contains discriminative terms as the product of an authoring process. Errors in automatically extracted slide terms occur at the character level and have a negligible impact on retrieval.
Thus, new and improved systems and methods are needed that would integrate text derived from the speech in the audio track and the slides in the video frames for enhanced multi-modal video indexing.

Systems and methods for using latent variable modeling for multi-modal video indexing


An ink jet printer that includes a printhead for ejecting ink droplets, an ink container for supplying ink to the printhead, and an ink level sensor for measuring the level of ink in the ink container, includes an ink level sensor activator. The ink level sensor activator causes the ink level sensor to measure the level of ink in the ink container after the printhead has ejected a predetermined quantity of ink. The ink level sensor activator records the quantity of ink ejected by the printhead onto the print medium by measuring to the number of droplets of ink ejected, and/or by determining the number of pixels in an image to be printed for which ink is to be ejected. If the quantity of ink ejected has a predetermined threshold, the ink level sensor measures the quantity of ink in the ink container.

The present invention relates to ink printers that deposit ink images onto a print medium, and in particular relates to managing the quantity of ink remaining in an ink container for such a printer.
Many types of ink printers eject ink onto a print medium, such as paper, in controlled patterns of closely spaced dots. To form color images, multiple groupings of ink jets are used, with each group being supplied with ink of a different color from an associated ink container. Ink printers use different techniques to eject ink from a printhead onto the print medium. Ink printing techniques use mechanism such as thermal, acoustic, piezo-electric, or other types of energy to eject ink droplets that form the dots on the print medium, creating the printed image.
Thermal ink jet printers use thermal energy to vaporize momentarily ink in an ink channel nozzle and form bubbles on demand. Resistors located in capillary filled ink channels near a channel terminating nozzle or orifice generate the thermal energy to vaporize the ink into bubbles in the channel. Each temporary bubble expels an ink droplet from the nozzles, and propels the ink droplet from the printhead toward the recording medium. The printing system may be incorporated in either a carriage type printer or a page width type printer. A carriage type printer generally has a relatively small printhead containing the ink channels and nozzles. The printhead is attached to an ink supply container, which is typically carried on the same carriage as the printhead. The carriage with the printhead and container is reciprocated across a print region to print one swath of information at a time on a recording medium that is held stationary on a platen. After the swath is printed, the medium is stepped a distance equal to the height to the printed swath, so that the next printed swath will be contiguous with the previous printed swath. The procedure is repeated until the entire page is printed. In contrast, the page width printer has a stationary printhead having a length equal to or greater than the width of the recording or print medium. The print medium is continually moved at a constant speed past the page width printhead in a direction normal to the printhead length.
Attempting to eject ink drops when no ink is available at the printhead may damage the printhead. Therefore, printing should stop before the ink container is empty. When an ink printer and the user of such an ink printer are aware of the quantity of ink remaining in a particular ink container, the printer can reduce the possibility of attempting to print after the ink container is empty.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,121 describes a system and method that detects a low level of ink in an ink container, and provides a low ink level warning signal. The system and method described there determine when the level of ink in an ink container has fallen below a particular threshold. Once the printer detects a low ink level in the ink container, the printer can manage ink usage, and reduce the possibility of continuing to attempt to print using that ink container after the supply in the container has been exhausted. The ink level detecting takes place in a maintenance station, which typically is outside the normal printing range of the carriage. Thus, detecting the ink level in the container requires that the carriage carrying the printhead and ink container be moved out of the printing range. This movement takes time, and thus may slow certain print jobs. Therefore, printers balance frequent measurements of the ink level, to maintain an accurate measure of the quantity of ink remaining in the ink container, with delays introduced into the printing process caused by the measurement process.
Many printers perform an ink level detection at the end of each print job, when the cartridge carriage is typically moved into the maintenance station for other maintenance purposes, such as cleaning the printhead. During lengthy printing jobs, such as multi-page printing jobs, some printers direct the printhead carriage into the maintenance station to perform ink level sensing at intervals based on the number of pages printed. For example, the printer may perform an ink level measurement after a predetermined number of pages, such as after each page. However, determining the appropriate number of pages between successive measurements of the ink level tends to produce inexact results, as different print jobs may apply significantly different amounts of ink to each page, and even within a single print job, different pages may have significantly different quantities of ink applied to them.
An ink printer includes a printhead for depositing ink onto a print medium, an ink container connected to the printhead for supplying ink to the printhead, and an ink level sensor for measuring the level of ink in the ink container. An ink level sensor activator measures the approximate quantity of ink deposited by the printhead, and periodically causes the ink level sensor to measure the level of ink in the ink container after the printhead has deposited a predetermined quantity of ink.
In an ink printer having a printhead, an ink container connected to the printhead for supplying ink to the printhead, and an ink level sensor for measuring the quantity of ink in the ink container, a method of determining when the ink level sensor should measure the quantity of ink in the ink container includes measuring the quantity of ink ejected by the printhead, periodically determining if the quantity of ink ejected by the printhead has succeeded a predetermined threshold, and, if the quantity of ink ejected by the printhead has exceeded the predetermined threshold, measuring the quantity of ink in the ink container.


A method for controlling combustor liner carbon formation on repaired combustors includes making modular effusion panel subassemblies remote from the combustor liner; removing a non-effusion or damaged panel from the combustor liner; and replacing the non-effusion or damaged panel with the modular effusion panel.

This invention generally relates to combustor liners, such as those used on Honeywell TPE331-10, TPE331-11, and TPE331-12 series turbine aircraft engines and, more particularly, to methods for controlling carbon formation within such repaired combustor liners and constructing such combustor liners.
A turbine engine typically includes a compressor section, combustion section, and a turbine section. Within the combustion section is the combustor liner wherein fuel is burned producing a hot gas usually at an intensely high temperature. To prevent this high temperature heat from damaging the combustor liner before it exits to the turbine section, the interior of the combustor liner is provided with effusion holes and film cooling, and may include thermal barrier coating. This combustor liner can be created by securing a series of panels together in series with one panel being secured to a dome assembly. The effusion holes and film cooling, and thermal barrier coating, of the combustor liner prevents the intense combustion heat from damaging the combustor liner as well as the rest of the engine. The combustor liner, however, becomes very hot in the process.
A negative effect of the intense heat in the combustion process is the build-up of carbon on the combustion liner near the dome assembly. Over time, the carbon build-up can break off the combustion liner and pass through the turbine section. When this occurs, the carbon build-up may strike the turbine blades located therein, causing damage to those blades. This reduces the life span of the turbine blades and requires more frequent repairs to the engine.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,581,285 and 6,568,079 describe a method of replacing combustor liner panels. The inner and outer liners include a series of panels and between which are nuggets. The inner and outer liners are attached to a dome assembly by respective bolt bands that enable fasteners to be removed and re-attached to the liners and dome assembly. In the event of a damaged panel, a cut is made through at least one panel or nugget to remove the damaged panel and replace it with new panel. However, some of the disadvantages of this method include distortion and blockage of the cooling air metering holes if the cut and subsequent weld is in the nugget adjacent to such holes. Loss of thermal barrier coating can result if the cut and subsequent weld is in the area of the thermal barrier coated panel. The use of fasteners for assembling combustor liners can affect the combustion process and engine performance, due to leakage of air around such fasteners, and the loss of heat transfer through this joining method.
A combustor liner developed by the applicants herein is shown in partial cross-section in FIG. 1. In this combustor liner 100, a generally cylindrical outer liner subassembly 102 encloses a generally cylindrical inner liner subassembly 103, both of which are integrated (i.e., non-modular) with a dome subassembly 110. The inner liner subassembly 103 includes a plurality of inner panels 103a of decreasing diameter 113 with one of the panels 103a integrated with the dome subassembly 110. The inner panel integrated with the dome assembly 110 includes four rows of 181 effusion holes 104, while the panel that is second closest to the dome assembly includes five rows of 206 effusion holes 104.
Likewise, and as better shown in FIG. 2, the outer liner subassembly 102 is made up of plurality of outer panels 102a, of which one is integrated (i.e., non-modular) with the dome assembly 110. Each panel 102a has a decreasing diameter 112, (FIG. 1) to accommodate the attachment of the panels to one another. Eleven rows 106 of effusions holes 108 are in the outer panel 102a closest to the dome assembly 110. A first group 105a of seven rows 106, which are the closest rows to the dome assembly 110, has 239 effusion holes in each row. A second group 105b of four rows 106, which are the farthest rows to the dome assembly, has 281 effusion holes in each row. The effusion hole configuration, however, can stress the panel closest to the dome assembly 110, resulting in a shorter lifespan of the outer liner subassembly 102 and consequently the entire combustor liner 100 since the inner and outer liner subassemblies are integrated with the dome assembly.
As can be seen, there is a need to improve the ease of replacement of either the inner and/or outer liner subassemblies to eliminate the need to replace the entire combustor liner.

Method for controlling carbon formation on repaired combustor liners