A depth camera assembly (DCA) for depth sensing of a local area includes a structured light generator, an imaging device, and a controller. The structured light generator illuminates the local area with a structured light pattern. The structured light generator includes a programmable diffractive optical element (PDOE) that generates diffracted scanning beams using optical beams. The PDOE functions as a dynamic diffraction grating that dynamically adjusts diffraction of the optical beams to generate the diffracted scanning beams of different patterns. The diffracted scanning beams are projected as the structured light pattern into the local area, wherein the structured light pattern is dynamically adjustable based on the PDOE. The imaging device captures image(s) of at least a portion of the structured light pattern reflected from object(s) in the local area. The controller determines depth information for the object(s) based on the captured image(s).

The present disclosure generally relates to depth sensing, and specifically relates to a camera assembly with a programmable diffractive optical element (PDOE) for three-dimensional depth sensing.
To achieve a compelling user experience for depth sensing when using head-mounted displays (HMDs), it is important to create a scanning device that provides illumination pattern that is dynamically adjustable in real time. Most depth sensing methods rely on active illumination and detection. The conventional methods for depth sensing involve mechanical scanning or fixed diffractive-optics pattern projection, using structured light or time-of-flight techniques. Depth sensing based on time-of-flight uses a mechanical based mirror device (scanner) to send short pulses into an object space. The depth sensing based on time-of-flight further uses a high speed detector to time-gate back-scattered light from the object to create high resolution depth maps. However, the mechanical based scanner performs inadequately in scanning speed, real-time reconfiguration and mechanical stability. Depth sensing based on a fixed structured light uses a diffractive optical element to generate a structured light of a static (fixed) pattern projected into an object space. The depth sensing based on the fixed structured light further uses a pre-stored look-up table to compute and extract depth maps. However, the depth sensing based on the fixed structured light and the diffractive optical element is not robust enough for dynamic depth sensing where adjustment in illumination pattern is required.

Camera assembly with programmable diffractive optical element for depth sensing


A motor includes a main body and a cooling device. The cooling device includes a mounting seat defining an inlet hole and an outlet hole spaced from the inlet hole, and a cooling pipe communicating with the inlet hole and defining a plurality of ejection holes on a sidewall. The main body includes a rotor sleeved and sealed on the mounting seat. The cooling pipe is received in the rotor. Cooling liquid sprays at the rotor via the inlet hole and the ejection holes, and then the cooling liquid flow out of the rotor via the outlet hole.

In general, a motor includes a rotating shaft, a rotor that surrounds the rotating shaft, a stator that is spaced a predetermined interval from the rotor, and a housing holding the stator. The rotating shaft may be supported by the housing. When current is applied to the stator, the rotor rotates due to interaction between the stator and the rotor.

FU DING ELECTRONICAL TECHNOLOGY (JIASHAN) CO., LTD.


An electronic device includes a case frame including a component receiving space, a substrate assembly received in the component receiving space of the case frame, and a display module electrically connected to the substrate assembly and coupled to the case frame to form an exterior of the electronic device. Thus, the electronic device can lower a production cost by reducing the number of the components, increase production efficiency by reducing the assembly processes, and achieve slimness and lightness compared to a conventional electronic device.

In accordance with advances of multimedia technology, electronic devices having various functions are emerging. Such electronic device mostly includes a convergence function which combines one or more functions.
The electronic devices include a large-screen touch-type display module, and a high-pixel camera module for capturing a still picture and a moving picture in addition to a basic communication function with other part. Also, the electronic devices can play multimedia contents such as music and video, and surf the web by accessing a network. The electronic devices are notably advancing to more rapid and various convergence functions using a high-performance processor such that their main communication function with the other party is treated as an additional function.
While the electronic devices diversify the functions, a more portable device can be more competitive. It is natural that users prefer slimmer and simpler electronic devices with the same functions. Thus, electronic device manufacturers are competing with each other to develop slimmer and simpler electronic devices with the same or better functionality than other products.

Electronic device without front case frame


A chuck has a drive shaft, a generally rotatable housing part adjacent the drive shaft, and a chuck body fixed to and rotatable with the shaft and formed with a plurality of guides holding respective jaws shiftable between closely spaced inner positions and widely spaced outer positions. An adjustment sleeve surrounding the body and coupled to the jaws can rotate relative to the body to shift the jaws between their positions. A latch has interengaging formations on the housing part and on the adjustment sleeve manually shiftable between a coupled position for rotationally locking the adjustment sleeve to the housing part and a decoupled position for rotation of the adjustment sleeve relative to the housing part. A torque coupler connected to the latch decouples the latch from the housing when, in the coupled position, a torque exerted between the housing and the chuck body exceeds a predetermined limit.

A typical chuck comprises a drive shaft extending along and rotatable about an axis, a housing part adjacent the drive shaft and generally nonrotatable about the axis, and a chuck body fixed to and rotatable with the shaft and formed with a plurality of guides. Respective jaws are shiftable in the guides between closely spaced inner positions and widely spaced outer positions. An adjustment sleeve surrounding the body and coupled to the jaws can be rotated about the axis relative to the body to shift the jaws between their positions.
In the oldest systems, it is standard to form the chuck body adjacent a toothed front edge of the adjustment sleeve with a plurality of radially open pilot holes. A stem of a geared chuck key is inserted in one of the holes and the gear is fitted to the adjustment-sleeve teeth, so that rotation of the key relatively shifts the adjustment sleeve and chuck body. This way considerable torque can be brought to bear both to chuck and dechuck a tool. It is, however, a fairly laborious operation to move the jaws radially between a widely spread and a closely spaced position. Furthermore the chuck key can get lost, and if it is accidentally left in the chuck when the drill is started, it is sent flying and can get lost or injure the user.
In another system the chuck key is dispensed with and the adjustment sleeve is made fairly large so that the user can get a solid grip on it. Either a spindle lock is provided, so that the chuck body can be arrested and the user can manually tighten and loosen the chuck, or the user grips the adjustment sleeve and rotates the chuck body using the drill's motor for chucking and dechucking a tool. Either way the user must exert considerable force, especially with a self-tightening chuck after a drilling operation when the tool can be solidly wedged in place.
EP 0,716,896 describes a system where mechanism is provided to arrest the adjustment sleeve relative to the chuck body. To this end a coupling sleeve is shiftable between a pair of end positions, in one of which the adjustment sleeve is locked to the chuck body and in the other of which it can rotate freely relative to the chuck body. This makes it quite inconvenient when a large-diameter tool is being switch with a small-diameter tool, as the user must hold the tool in place with one hand while manipulating the chuck and operating the drill with the other.


Plant growth and plant growth habit can be controlled without the application of exogenous plant hormones or hormone mimetics using the nucleic acid sequences and methods provided. UDP-Glucose: Indol-3-ylacetyl-glucosyl transferase (IAGlu Transferase) amino acid sequence and nucleic acid coding sequences for this enzyme, specifically exemplified for Zea mays, are provided. Nucleic acid constructs directing the expression of IAGlu Transferase and the expression of antisense RNA specific therefor allows the control of growth habit and plant size in transgenic plants containing such nucleic acid constructs.

This invention relates to the control of plant hormone levels and of plant growth at the molecular genetic level. It particularly relates to nucleotide sequences encoding UDP-glucose:indol-3-ylacetyl-glucosyl transferase, and the use of these sequences and/or subsequences thereof to regulate plant growth.
Plant growth is affected by a variety of physical and chemical factors. Physical factors include available light, day length, moisture and temperature. Chemical factors include minerals, nitrates, hormones and cofactors.
One of the most common plant growth hormones is indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). IAA is often referred to as xe2x80x9cauxin.xe2x80x9d IAA has been demonstrated to be directly responsible for increase in growth in plants in vivo and in vitro. Those characteristics influenced by IAA include cell elongation, internodal distance (height), leaf surface area and crop yield.
Most plant tissues contain about 10xe2x88x928 M free IAA. There appears to be two basic pathways for the synthesis of IAA in plants, one via tryptophan and one probably through indole. These same tissues contain about 20 times that amount of IAA in the form of ester or amide conjugates; most commonly the IAA is covalently bound to a sugar moiety. This 20:1 ratio of conjugated to free IAA is generally observed even in tissues which are known to be limited in growth rate by the amount of free IAA.
The first step in the biosynthesis of conjugates of IAA in Zea mays is catalyzed by UDP-glucose:indol-3-ylacetyl-glucosyl transferase (EC 184.108.40.206; also called IAA-Glucose Synthetase, IAGlu Synthetase, IAGlu Transferase). This enzyme has been purified, and its characteristics have been described (Kowalczyk and Bandurski (1991) Biochem. J. 279:509-514; Leznicki and Bandurski (1988) Plant Physiol. 88:1481-1485 and 88:1474-1480). The substrates for IAGlu Transferase are UDP-glucose and IAA, and the reaction product is 1-0-xcex2-D-indol-3ylacetyl-glucose. IAA-glucose can be hydrolyzed by one of two hydrolases, depending on the isomeric form. These hydrolases effectively impart reversibility to the synthetase reaction.
IAGlu is an acyl alkyl acetal, and its energetically unfavorable synthesis is followed by an energetically favorable transacylation of IAA from IAGlu to myo-inositol to yield indol-3-ylacetyl-myo-inositol (Michalczuk and Bandurski (1982) Biochem. J. 207: 273-281). The enzyme indol-3-ylacetylglucose-myo-inositol indol-3-ylacetyltransferase (IAInos synthetase) catalyzes this reaction (Reaction D, FIG. 1). IAInos is believed to be a transport form of IAA, and IAInos is the substrate for the synthesis of IAInos-glycosides. Thermodynamically, IAInos synthetase is believed to be the enzyme which shifts the equilibrium from free IAA to conjugated forms of IAA. Conjugates appear to serve functions other than growth promotion such as IAA transport (Nowacki and Bandurski (1980) Plant Physiol. 65:422), protection of IAA against peroxidative attack (Cohen and Bandurski (1978) Planta 139:203), storage of IAA in seeds (Bandurski et al. (1991) in Plant Growth Substances, C. M. Karssen (ed.), Kluwer Academic Publishing, Amsterdam, pp. 1-12) and hormonal homeostasis (Bandurski et al. (1988) in Plant Growth Substances, Pharis and Rood (eds.), Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 341-352).
There have been attempts to improve crop yield by increasing the level of IAA in plants both by application of exogenous IAA and by increasing the synthesis of endogenous IAA. Yang et al. (1993) Plant Physiol. 102:717-724 report that exogenously applied IAA, via cotton wicking in contact with apical stem parts, stimulated stem elongation, particularly in dwarf plants. Application of exogenous IAA is not practical because the effect is limited in time and such application at the agricultural level would be prohibitively labor-intensive and expensive.
Attempts to increase the endogenous synthesis of IAA have involved the genetic engineering of plants to contain bacterial genes for the biosynthesis of IAA. There have been several reports that expression of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens IAA biosynthetic pathway genes did not result in increased plant growth (Follin et al. (1985) Mol. Gen. Genet. 201:178-185; van Onckelen et al. (1985) FEBS Letters 181:373-376). Generally transgenic plants expressing higher levels of IAA via bacterial enzymes showed phenotypic abnormalities (Klee et al. (1987) Genes Devel. 1:86-96; Schmulling et al. (1988) EMBO J. 7:2621-2629). Such transgenic plants exhibited higher than normal levels of both IAA conjugates and of free IAA, particularly when the bacterial iaaM and/or iaaH genes were linked to powerful heterologous promoters (Sitbon, F. (1992) Transgenic Plants Overproducing IAAxe2x80x94A Model System to Study Regulation of IAA Metabolism, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umea, Sweden).
It is an object of this invention to provide the nucleotide sequences encoding IAGlu Transferase and non-naturally occurring DNA molecules containing these sequences. An exemplary IAGlu Transferase coding sequence is that of Zea mays; as specifically exemplified herein, this sequence is presented in SEQ ID NO: 1 from nucleotide 57 to nucleotide 1472. Equivalents of the exemplified nucleotide sequence are those nucleotide sequences which encode a polypeptide with the specifically exemplified amino acid sequence given in SEQ ID NO: 2 and those nucleotide sequences which encode a polypeptide with equivalent enzymatic activity and which nucleotide sequences have substantial sequence identity (at least about 70%) to the exemplified sequence, i.e., can hybridize with the exemplified sequences under conditions of moderate or greater stringency as understood in the art.
It is a further object of this invention to provide for transcriptional expression of sequences complementary to the IAGlu Transferase coding sequences to reduce IAGlu Transferase gene expression in transgenic plants in order to down-regulate synthesis of the IAGlu Transferase in those plants, thus allowing for control of the proportions of free and bound IAA, thereby allowing for control of the growth habit of said plants. Conversely, transgenic plants which overexpress IAGlu Transferase are also taught herein. An iaglu coding sequence linked to either a regulated or a constitutive promoter can be introduced into plant tissue, and a transgenic plant regenerated, whereby control of the growth habit results from the relative overproduction of IAGlu Transferase in said plant. Overproduction of IAGlu synthetase results in loss of apical dominance, and a more prostrate plant than the wild-type parent plant.

Genetic control of plant hormone levels and plant growth

Michigan State University Board of Trustees


The present invention provides a depilling device for a blister package comprising at least one array of dosage forms to be dispensed, wherein each dosage form is contained within a blister formed as a covered cavity bounded by a backing, said device comprising a double action depilling mechanism, comprising a first pusher, sized and adapted to engage a top surface of said covered cavity and to exert a first sufficient force thereagainst so as to push said dosage form contained therein against its respective bounding backing, and a second pusher sized and adapted to more forcibly engage said top surface of said covered cavity and to exert a second sufficient force thereagainst so as to expel said dosage form from said blister.

When hospital patients are supposed to take medication they generally require a nurse or other staff member to provide the medication to them. Typically, either the patient will call the nurse or the nurse will go to the patient in order to administer the medication. The nurse must first confirm, among other things, that it is the proper time to administer the medication, that the correct dosage is present, that the patient did not receive the medication from someone else, etc. After going through the details of the patient as listed on his chart the nurse may then administer the medication.
When the medication is a controlled drug, such as a strong analgesic, government regulations specify certain protocols, including detailed record keeping and accounting of each dosage of the drugs that the hospital possesses. Thus, following the confirmation of all the prerequisites for administering a medication, if the medication is a controlled drug the nurse must then proceed to sign the drug out from its stored location and return to the patient to administer the drug.
Although some medications require the nurse to perform the actual administration, a pill may be ingested by the patient using his own faculties. Nevertheless, the nurse must still spend valuable time going from one patient to the next in order to simply hand over a pill. It is not feasible to leave a plurality of pills with the patient and allow him to ingest, for instance an analgesic pill, by himself since he may become addicted to the medication and take more pills than he is allowed.
Nurses are often busy with other activities and cannot always tend to the administration of patients' medications at the precise moment that the medication should be given. Delays in administering the medication could result in a high cost to the patient by potentially worsening the patient's condition, as well as high costs to the hospital by preventing a patient from recovering quickly, thereby requiring additional outlay of monies toward medication and other hospital upkeep for the patient.
Several prior art solutions to the above-mentioned problems have been suggested, however, they all have difficulties and drawbacks associated with them.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,896,192 to Conley et al. discloses a medication dispenser for permitting access to medication doses after a minimum dosing interval between doses. The dispenser comprises a medication tray comprising medication retention areas and blank areas. A medication dose is disposed in each retention area. A cover is disposed over the medication tray, the cover defining a dose opening through which a dose in a retention area can be accessed. A controller authenticates a person to access a medication dose. The controller further aligns the dose opening with a retention area to present a medication dose through the dose opening after the minimum dosing interval has elapsed and the person has been authenticated, and wherein the controller aligns the dose opening with a blank area between minimum dosing intervals.
In order to operate the device described in Conley et al. authorized medical personal is required to manually remove the drug from the packaging and place each dosage in the retention area prior to use. This in itself is a time consuming procedure but also has the disadvantages that the pills lay open after the removal of the protective coating of the blister pack and can be affected by humidity which can lead to moisture expansion Also there is a risk of abrasion of drugs during handling or even of partial crushing thereof. Thus, unused dosages that are left over after the patient no longer requires the drug are often considered contaminated and often must be disposed of. Alternatively, if reuse of unused pills is contemplated then regulations usually require a pharmacy on the site of usage, which pharmacy must be willing to provide a service of re-blistering of drugs after the examination of each pill for defects. Usually however this is usually not practical or legal. Besides the losses caused by the disposal of the unused dosages, proper protocol requires controlled drugs to be returned to their storage location, however, due to contamination this is not possible and proper record keeping cannot be followed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,219 to Hasey discloses a medication dispensing cassette comprising a housing for enclosing at least one continuous track having a plurality of receptacles for medication, wherein each receptacle accommodates one dosage of medication. An electrical drive mechanism drives the track. A pill tray receives pills dispensed from the cassette through a pill dispensing port. A lid is attached to the housing, located above the pill tray, and is openable for removal of pills.
Hasey's device requires a unique cassette manufactured specifically for the device. This alone is undesirable as it increases costs of drug manufacturers by requiring expenditure on new machinery for producing the cassette instead of relying on the already tried and true blister pack for keeping the drug in an uncontaminated environment. Moreover, the device comprises a manual drive wheel for enabling the user to manually rotate the track. When dealing with addictive analgesic drugs it is hazardous to allow the patient to control the dispensing of the drug by himself.
DE 10236909 to Udo discloses a dispenser for pills in a blister pack, having upper and lower sections between which the blister pack is disposed. Pills are positioned such that a push button dispenses pills through apertures in the upper section. Contacts on the button and around the apertures produce a signal to change the display when a pill is dispensed.
Although the device disclosed by Udo maintains left over pills in an uncontaminated state, the device does not prevent the user from removing additional pills whenever desired. This allows a potential dangerous situation to arise, wherein the patient may overdose on the drug, similar to the manner described above regarding Hasey's device.
WO 2011023941 to Sanjeet discloses a motorized deblistering dispenser for dispensing e.g. tablets, from blister packs to a patient, having a programmable control unit for controlling the operation of dispensing platforms so that one or more items are dispensed from one or more platforms.
The object of the Sanjeet's dispenser is to provide a motorized deblistering dispenser for personal use by a patient, that is capable of dispensing deblistered items from blister packs of different sizes and configurations in predetermined doses at predetermined times. In a hospital setting, where controlled drugs are required to be monitored and recorded, Sanjeet's device would be impractical since the patient or others may access the controlled drug without permission.
US 2005/0252924 to Pieper et al. discloses an apparatus for dispensing tablets, also in the form of pills, dragees or the like, having means for holding a blister pack, means for pushing out a tablet from the blister pack and also means for setting taking times and means for displaying taking times. The invention provides for the apparatus to have a bottom part and a lid removably connected to the bottom part for holding the blister pack and also having means for pushing out the tablets from the blister pack, the arrangement of the means being matched to the arrangement of the tablets in the blister pack which is to be held.
The apparatus of Pieper et al. is a manual dispenser which would require the nurse or other hospital staff to dedicate their time at regular intervals to administering the medication to the patient. Moreover, the patient himself has the ability to control the dispensing of the drug, which is undesirable, particularly when dealing with controlled drugs, as described above.
There exists a need for a more ideal drug dispensing device, suitable for use with conventional blister packages that nonetheless provide regulated, dispensation of controlled tablets in an easy to use format.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a medication dispenser with a depilling mechanism, which overcomes the difficulties and drawbacks associated with the state of the art as described in part herein above.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a medication dispenser depilling mechanism that prevents contamination of the drug prior to reaching the patient, by leaving the drug within its original packaging until immediately prior to administering to the patient, thereby enabling storage and reuse of leftover drugs for a subsequent patient.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a medication dispenser depilling mechanism that prevents the patient from accessing the drug unless dispensed by the dispenser.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a medication dispenser depilling mechanism that avoids the necessity for requiring interaction by medical staff or anyone other than the patient from the time of calibrating the device until the dosage is complete or the patient no longer needs the medication.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a medication dispenser depilling mechanism that enables the controlled sequential delivery of a regimen of pills on an as-needed basis with a predetermined prescribed minimum time interval between delivery of each pill.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

Medication dispenser depilling mechanism


An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device, including a pixel unit including a plurality of pixels connected to scan lines and data lines, a scan driver adapted to generate and supply scan signals to the scan lines, a data driver adapted to generate and supply data signals to the data lines, an optical sensor adapted to generate an optical sensor signal to correspond to an intensity of light, and a data conversion unit adapted to compare a predetermined reference value with the optical sensor signal so as to generate a selection signal for selecting one of at least three modes. The data conversion unit may be adapted to store an input image data or a changing data changed from the input image data to correspond with the selection signal. The data driver may generate the data signals to correspond to the input image data or the changing data stored in the data conversion unit.

1. Field of the Invention
Example embodiments relate to an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device and driving methods thereof and, more particularly, to an OLED display device having improved display and visibility across varying ambient light conditions and driving methods thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various flat display technologies, i.e., plasma display panels (PDPs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and OLED displays, are becoming widely used over other display devices, e.g., cathode ray tubes (CRTs), due to its small size, reduced weight and volume and energy efficiency characteristics. In comparing the various flat display technologies, however, the OLED displays may provide better luminance feature and color purity because OLED displays use an organic compound as an emitting material. Further, due to its reduced size and weight, the OLED displays may be incorporated into portable display devices, e.g., cellular phones, personal digital assistant devices, portable multimedia players and the like. Since the portable display devices may be exposed to varying light conditions, e.g., exposed to outdoor visible light, quality and visibility (or viewability) of images displayed on the portable display device may be diminished. In other words, brightness of images displayed on the portable display device may be diminished (or faded out) under light, e.g., solar light, because surrounding or ambient light and/or illumination intensity may be brighter than the brightness of the displayed image.
Therefore, there is a need for the development of an OLED display having improved display and visibility across varying ambient light conditions, and methods of driving such devices.

Organic light emitting diode display device and driving method thereof


To provide an absorbent article that uses a cotton fiber in a front-surface sheet, prevents rebounding, improves an absorption speed, and reduces a diffusion range of urine in the front-surface sheet. An incontinence pad 1 having a medium or larger volume that absorbs 20 cc or a larger volume of urine is provided. A front-surface sheet 3 is a spunlace nonwoven fabric made of 100% cotton fiber by weight, is coated with a water repellent agent and has many front-face/back-face penetrating openings 10 in a region containing a part corresponding to an excreting hole. The absorber is made of a pulp fiber that does not contain synthetic fiber and a superabsorbent polymer, a basis weight of the pulp fiber being 75 to 300 g/m2, a basis weight of the superabsorbent polymer being 85 to 185 g/m2, and a ratio of the pulp fiber and the superabsorbent polymer being pulp fiber:superabsorbent polymer=70 to 30% by weight:30 to 70% by weight.

Conventionally, as absorbent articles for women such as incontinence pads, vaginal discharge sheets, panty liners, and sanitary napkins, ones in which an absorber made of paper cotton such as pulverized pulp or the like is interposed between an impermeable back-surface sheet such as a polyethylene sheet or a polyethylene sheet-laminated nonwoven fabric and a front-surface sheet are known.
The front-surface sheet forms a skin-contact surface and is required to be soft, to be able to obtain a dry feeling on skin even after absorption of an excreted liquid, to have little irritation to skin or the like. As materials that satisfy such requirements, nonwoven fabrics of synthetic fibers and resinous mesh sheets are broadly adopted in the field of absorbent articles, particularly in the field of incontinence pads. However, there was a problem that the front-surface sheet made of the synthetic fiber causes itchiness, irritation or the like.
In order to solve this problem, a front-surface sheet having cotton fiber as a raw material has been proposed. However, in the absorbent articles, while the front-surface sheet is desired to have high liquid permeability and to make the liquid speedily reach the absorber, when regular degreased cotton fiber was contained in the front-surface sheet, there was a problem that the front-surface sheet itself has high liquid retentiveness and is likely to leave a sticky feeling on a surface.
Furthermore, an absorbent article having a front-surface sheet made of cotton fiber has an advantage that can realize a soft feeling on the skin like underwear, however, when a large volume of body fluid is excreted, since the liquid retentiveness is high as described above, the body fluid remains in the front-surface sheet, and when wearing the absorbent article for a long time, a moist feeling or irritation may be caused. Therefore, in the conventional absorbent articles, when the cotton fiber is used in the front-surface sheet, its use was limited to products such as vaginal discharge sheets in which an absorption volume of the body fluid is slight.
As absorbent articles that use such a cotton fiber in the front-surface sheet, the following Patent Document 1 can be given as an example. In Patent Document 1 below, an absorbent article that includes a top sheet made of spunlace nonwoven fabric which is made of 40 to 100% cotton fiber by weight and 60 to 0% synthetic fiber by weight and which is coated with a water repellent agent, the top sheet having water absorbency of a skin-contact surface of 0 mm to 5 mm, and including many front-face/back-face penetrating openings in at least an excreting hole part is disclosed. According to the absorbent article such as this, due to adoption of the spunlace nonwoven fabric having high cotton fiber content as the top sheet, many advantages of the cotton fiber such as excellent skin contact and difficulty in causing itchiness or irritation can be obtained. Furthermore, residual liquid on a surface that becomes a problem at this time is sufficiently improved by securing water absorbency of the skin-contact surface at a sufficiently low level due to the coating (external addition) of the water repellent agent. However, if the water absorbency is only made low, a liquid part of the excreted matter cannot easily permeate through the top sheet, which causes lateral leakage or the like; hence, in the absorbent article described in Patent Document 1, many front-face/back-face penetrating openings are provided in at least the excreting hole part in the top sheet to make it possible to speedily absorb the liquid. As a result thereof, in Patent Document 1, advantages such as that the sticky feeling due to residual liquid on a surface may be sufficiently prevented, and that excreted liquid that has been absorbed cannot easily return to a front-surface side of the top sheet due to the water repellency of the top sheet, are described.

Incontinence absorbent article with cotton fiber front-surface sheet


An engine assembly may include a cylinder head defining an engine coolant reservoir, a pressurized fluid supply, a valve actuation assembly, and a hydraulic fluid reservoir. The valve actuation assembly may be in fluid communication with the pressurized fluid supply and may include a valve member displaceable by a force applied by the pressurized fluid supply. The hydraulic fluid reservoir may be in fluid communication with the valve actuation assembly and in a heat exchange relation to the engine coolant reservoir.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Engine assemblies using a camless hydraulically actuated valvetrain system may actuate intake and exhaust valves using a pressurized hydraulic fluid. The hydraulic fluid may be heated during engine operation. In order to maintain the hydraulic fluid at a desired temperature, additional lines and coolers may be added to an engine assembly.

Integrated hydraulic cooler and return rail in camless cylinder head


Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to systems, methods, and apparatuses for reduced signal level support for memory devices. In some embodiments, a host includes one or more additional electrical contacts to provide a controllable voltage reference to a memory device. The host may also include driver circuitry to provide a driver signal to the memory device. In some embodiments, the driver signal is substantially symmetrical around the controllable voltage reference.

Relatively high speed interfaces, such as double data rate (e.g., DDR, DDR2, and DDR3, etc.) interfaces may include receivers that use a voltage reference (VREF). An incoming digital signal is compared with the VREF to determine whether or not the input signal is a logic level zero or a logic level one. The voltage level of the VREF acts as a trip point (or switch point). An input signal with a voltage level above the trip point is a logic level one and an input signal with a voltage level below the trip point is a logic level zero.
The regulators that provide the VREF also typically provide the memory device (e.g., a dynamic random access memory device or DRAM) voltage. The VREF is usually fixed at one-half of the DRAM voltage. This arrangement is premised on the DRAM and host having processes that use similar operating voltages. For example, if both the DRAM and the host are based on processes that use an operating voltage of 1.5 V, than the driver signal is likely to be centered (more or less) on a VREF of 750 mV.
In some cases, however, the host that provides the input signal may be based on a process that uses a lower operating voltage than the DRAM. For example, a DRAM may use a standard DRAM voltage (e.g., 1.5 V) but the host may be based on a low-power process that uses a lower operating voltage (e.g., 1.1 V). In such cases, the signal level on the host-side of the interface may not be supported by the receivers on the DRAM side of the interface.

Reduced signal level support for memory devices


Sources, devices, and techniques for deposition of organic layers, such as for use in an OLED, are provided. A vaporizer may vaporize a material between cooled side walls and toward a mask having an adjustable mask opening. The mask opening may be adjusted to control the pattern of deposition of the material on a substrate, such as to correct for material buildup that occurs during deposition. Material may be collected from the cooled side walls for reuse.

Opto-electronic devices that make use of organic materials are becoming increasingly desirable for a number of reasons. Many of the materials used to make such devices are relatively inexpensive, so organic opto-electronic devices have the potential for cost advantages over inorganic devices. In addition, the inherent properties of organic materials, such as their flexibility, may make them well suited for particular applications such as fabrication on a flexible substrate. Examples of organic opto-electronic devices include organic light emitting devices (OLEDs), organic phototransistors, organic photovoltaic cells, and organic photodetectors. For OLEDs, the organic materials may have performance advantages over conventional materials. For example, the wavelength at which an organic emissive layer emits light may generally be readily tuned with appropriate dopants.
OLEDs make use of thin organic films that emit light when voltage is applied across the device. OLEDs are becoming an increasingly interesting technology for use in applications such as flat panel displays, illumination, and backlighting. Several OLED materials and configurations are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,844,363, 6,303,238, and 5,707,745, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
One application for phosphorescent emissive molecules is a full color display. Industry standards for such a display call for pixels adapted to emit particular colors, referred to as "saturated" colors. In particular, these standards call for saturated red, green, and blue pixels. Color may be measured using CIE coordinates, which are well known to the art.
One example of a green emissive molecule is tris(2-phenylpyridine) iridium, denoted Ir(ppy)3, which has the following structure:

In this, and later figures herein, we depict the dative bond from nitrogen to metal (here, Ir) as a straight line.
As used herein, the term "organic" includes polymeric materials as well as small molecule organic materials that may be used to fabricate organic opto-electronic devices. "Small molecule" refers to any organic material that is not a polymer, and "small molecules" may actually be quite large. Small molecules may include repeat units in some circumstances. For example, using a long chain alkyl group as a substituent does not remove a molecule from the "small molecule" class. Small molecules may also be incorporated into polymers, for example as a pendent group on a polymer backbone or as a part of the backbone. Small molecules may also serve as the core moiety of a dendrimer, which consists of a series of chemical shells built on the core moiety. The core moiety of a dendrimer may be a fluorescent or phosphorescent small molecule emitter. A dendrimer may be a "small molecule," and it is believed that all dendrimers currently used in the field of OLEDs are small molecules.
As used herein, "top" means furthest away from the substrate, while "bottom" means closest to the substrate. Where a first layer is described as "disposed over" a second layer, the first layer is disposed further away from substrate. There may be other layers between the first and second layer, unless it is specified that the first layer is "in contact with" the second layer. For example, a cathode may be described as "disposed over" an anode, even though there are various organic layers in between.
As used herein, "solution processible" means capable of being dissolved, dispersed, or transported in and/or deposited from a liquid medium, either in solution or suspension form.
A ligand may be referred to as "photoactive" when it is believed that the ligand directly contributes to the photoactive properties of an emissive material. A ligand may be referred to as "ancillary" when it is believed that the ligand does not contribute to the photoactive properties of an emissive material, although an ancillary ligand may alter the properties of a photoactive ligand.
As used herein, and as would be generally understood by one skilled in the art, a first "Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital" (HOMO) or "Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital" (LUMO) energy level is "greater than" or "higher than" a second HOMO or LUMO energy level if the first energy level is closer to the vacuum energy level. Since ionization potentials (IP) are measured as a negative energy relative to a vacuum level, a higher HOMO energy level corresponds to an IP having a smaller absolute value (an IP that is less negative). Similarly, a higher LUMO energy level corresponds to an electron affinity (EA) having a smaller absolute value (an EA that is less negative). On a conventional energy level diagram, with the vacuum level at the top, the LUMO energy level of a material is higher than the HOMO energy level of the same material. A "higher" HOMO or LUMO energy level appears closer to the top of such a diagram than a "lower" HOMO or LUMO energy level.
As used herein, and as would be generally understood by one skilled in the art, a first work function is "greater than" or "higher than" a second work function if the first work function has a higher absolute value. Because work functions are generally measured as negative numbers relative to vacuum level, this means that a "higher" work function is more negative. On a conventional energy level diagram, with the vacuum level at the top, a "higher" work function is illustrated as further away from the vacuum level in the downward direction. Thus, the definitions of HOMO and LUMO energy levels follow a different convention than work functions.
As used herein, an "evaporator" or "sublimator" refers to a component that conveys a thermal change from a liquid or solid state to a gaseous state, respectively. Unless explicitly indicated to the contrary, either an evaporator or a sublimator may be used herein in each case in which one is mentioned, and each term may be used interchangeably with the other. More generally, each component may be referred to herein as a "vaporizer", and it will be understood that a "vaporizer" may include one or more evaporators and/or sublimators, though it need not include at least one of each.
More details on OLEDs, and the definitions described above, can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,279,704, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

High vacuum OLED deposition source and system


A process for producing a hollow fiber membrane, a hollow fiber membrane, and a dialyzer of hollow fiber membrane type is provided. The hollow fiber membrane is highly biocompatible, and the production process is quite simple and inexpensive. In the process of the invention, the hollow fiber membrane is produced in a system wherein a polymer-containing spinning solution is extruded from a tube-in-tube type orifice of a spinner in a coagulation solution to form the hollow fiber membrane. The polymer-containing spinning solution is extruded from the outer tube of the orifice to form a cylindrical filament having an inner bore and a core solution is ejected from the inner tube of the orifice into the inner bore of the filament for coagulation of the filament. The filament is directly extruded into the coagulation solution or extruded into air and then drawn to the coagulation solution. The core solution is supplemented with a hydrophobic modifier such as vitamin E and a surfactant and the resulting hollow fiber membrane contains the hydrophobic modifier on its inner surface.

This invention relates to a process for producing a hollow fiber membrane and a dialyzer of hollow fiber membrane type. More specifically, this invention relates to a process for producing a hollow fiber membrane and a dialyzer of hollow fiber membrane type wherein the hollow fiber membrane is highly biocompatible and presents activation of blood components such as leukocytes and blood platelets.
Blood treating devices of the hollow fiber membrane type have been widely used in extracorporeal blood circulation, haemodialysis, blood oxygenation during open heart surgery, plasma separation, and the like for quite some time. Recently, polymeric hollow fiber membranes were widely employed particularly for the purpose of dialysis, gas exchange, blood component separation and the like.
The polymeric hollow fiber membranes, however, are not free from drawbacks. For example, for the case of patients who have been undergoing heamodialysis by frequently experiencing extracorporeal blood circulation using the above-mentioned blood treating devices complications believed to be caused through activation of the leukocytes and/or platelets have been noted, and such complications have become a serious issue for those undergoing the heamodialysis.
In addition, an increasing number of patients who have undergone heamodialysis for a long period have exhibited a decrease in blood antioxidative properties and a high level of lipid peroxide as well as symptoms of arteriosclerotic diseases which are estimated to have been caused by such conditions.
In order to obviate such problems, JP-B-62-41738 suggests use of an artificial organ wherein a vitamin E is coated on the surface of a dialysis membrane for utilizing various physiological actions of the vitamin E including in vivo antioxidative properties, stabilization of biological membranes, inhibition of platelet coagulation, and the like. Fish oils such as eicosapentaenoic acid are also known to inhibit platelet coagulation.
Such prior art artificial organs, however, had been prepared by a quite complicated and costly process since the vitamin E had to be coated onto the membrane after the production of the dialysis membrane or after the assemblage of the artificial organ. In the method wherein an alcoholic solution of the vitamin E is coated onto a membrane having any micropore after the membrane production, vitamin E pregnates into the micropores of the porous hollow fiber membrane. This process, however, suffers from the defect that a large amount of vitamin E is required for the vitamin E coating.
When a hydrophobic modifier such as a fat-soluble vitamin (e.g. vitamin E) or a fish oil is used by adding such hydrophobic modifier in the core solution comprising water and an organic solvent, water content can not be increased in excess of a certain level since the fat soluble hydrophobic modifier is unsoluble or hardly soluble in water and increased water content in the core solution results in the separation of the hydrophobic modifier from the core solution.
If the vitamin E is incorporated in the hollow fiber membrane in the course of its production by adding the vitamin E in the core solution comprising water and an organic solvent, the fat-soluble vitamin E is hardly soluble in water, and increases the water content which results in the separation of the vitamin E. The separation of the vitamin E from the core solution has to be avoided by limiting the water content to a low level. Such limitation of the water content in the core solution adversely affects uniformity of the coating amount in the inner surface of the membrane or the coagulation of the extruded spinning solution. It is therefore quite difficult to spin a hollow fiber membrane with good membrane structure. For example, in the case of producing a polysulfone hollow fiber membrane in a tube-in-tube type spinner by using a spinning solution containing polysulfone as its main polymer and a core solution, the resulting hollow fiber membrane will suffer from improper membrane structure when the core solution has a water content of less than 20% by weight since the the spinning solution extruded from the outer tube would not be sufficiently coagulated by the core solution ejected from the inner tube.

Process for producing a hollow fiber membrane having a hydrophobic coating


A method for recovering data includes generating a plurality of out-of-phase clock signals. The method also includes generating samples of an incoming data signal, where a plurality of samples are generated using each of the plurality of clock signals. The method further includes selecting one of the plurality of clock signals and providing the samples generated using the selected clock signal. The incoming data signal may be received over a serial interface that includes a clock line for transporting a main clock signal. The out-of-phase clock signals could be approximately 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270° out-of-phase with respect to the main clock signal. The out-of-phase clock signals could be used to clock different registers that sample the incoming data signal. The selected clock signal could be selected by identifying a transition that occurs between samples associated with two of the clock signals and then selecting another of the clock signals.

Mobile Pixel Link Level Zero ("MPL Level-0") is a specification that defines the electrical connections, clocking, and bit order for serial video interfaces. Among other things, the MPL Level-0 specification defines a master-slave, point-to-point, bidirectional serial interface between a processor and a display. The MPL Level-0 specification may be implemented in mobile handheld devices or other devices. The MPL Level-0 specification provides several advantages, including a reduced number of wires in the interface, reduced power consumption, and reduced electro-magnetic interference.
The MPL Level-0 serial interface defines physical lines for carrying a clock signal (denoted "MC") and one or more data signals (denoted "MD"). The MC clock signal is sent from the master to the slave. Write data is sent from the master to the slave, and the slave uses both rising and falling edges of the MC clock signal to recover the write data. Read data is sent from the slave to the master, where the slave uses the rising edges of the MC clock signal to transmit the read data.
Read data sent from the slave is recovered at the master by sampling any signals on the MD data lines. However, the arrival time of the read data sent from the slave to the master is variable. Also, the period of the MC clock signal can have a wide range of values. This may make it difficult to sample the read data at the master using a single static MC clock signal. One prior approach to solving this problem is to over-sample the read data at the master. For example, the master could sample the read data using an internal clock that has twice the frequency of the MC clock signal. This allows for over-sampling of the MD data signals and recovery of the read data.

System and method for read data recovery in a serial interface


The present invention is directed to the use of RecA inhibitors as antibiotic agents, and provides RecA inhibitors useful in treating infections. Also provided are various compositions and methods associated with RecA inhibition.

The emergence of resistance to antibacterial agents is a growing problem for human and animal health, and new drugs to treat infections are urgently needed. Particularly desirable are drugs that can treat infections caused by microorganisms that display resistance to currently used antibiotics. Efforts to overcome the growing problem of resistance have included modification of known antibiotics, classical screening of new compound libraries and natural product libraries, and genomic efforts to identify novel targets to which no cross resistance with existing antibiotics would be anticipated. Even with this significant antibiotic discovery effort, only a few agents that represent new chemical classes of antibiotic agents have been approved by regulatory agencies in recent years. In addition, few antibiotics that are effective against bacteria that have developed resistance to currently used antibiotics are in clinical development. Furthermore, a number of potent antibiotic agents have been found to be too toxic for clinical use or to have significant side effects that limit their therapeutic utility.
There is clearly a need in the art both for new agents to combat microbial infection and for new approaches to antibiotic drug discovery.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

RecA inhibitors with antibiotic activity, compositions and methods of use


A modified cart and coil hanger assembly wherein vertical support assemblies are provided to receive the coil turns for lifting and transport to and from the field and which are selectively locked to a coil cart main body for ground transport. As such, the assembly of the invention provides the advantages of a fully mobile coil cart including the ability to manage floor lay down space in the field rewind area as well as coil hanging and overhead transport as required for field rewind.

The present invention relates to generator repair technology and, more particularly, to integrated tooling for field rewinds.
Referring to FIG. 1, it has been conventional practice to reuse original manufacture copper coils by transferring the existing coil 10, one turn at a time, into a coil hanger component 12. After all copper turns are supported by coil hangers, the coil is ready for transfer. The entire coil can be lifted and transferred, as shown by arrow T, into an area overlying a coil cart 14. The copper turns of the coil are then transferred to the coil cart one at a time. The process is reversed to transfer the coil to the field 16.

Field coil handling cart and transfer method


A method is provided for detecting a stall condition in a stepping motor. The stepping motor has two coils and a rotor, and is micro-stepped by substantially continuously driving both of the two coils with out-of-phase time varying voltages. The method includes stepping the stepping motor to a next micro-step. It is then determined when a predetermined motor parameter of a first coil of the two coils is to be sampled. To sample the predetermined motor parameter of, for example, the first coil, the first coil is opened for a predetermined period, wherein the predetermined period is less than or equal to a micro-step. Then the first coil is sampled during the predetermined period and the result of sampling is integrated and used to increment or decrement an accumulated value. If the accumulated value is less than a preset value, then a stall condition exists.

1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to motors, and more specifically, to a method and controller for detecting a stall condition in a motor during micro-stepping.
2. Related Art
A stepping motor is a type of motor that is incrementally stepped between various rotational positions. A typical stepping motor includes two coils and a rotor. The coils are oriented generally perpendicular to each other and are alternately driven to cause the rotor to turn. A motor controller is used to control the energizing and de-energizing of the coils. A "full-step" method of motor control first energizes one coil in one polarity while the other coil is off. After 90 degrees of rotation, the first coil is turned off and the other coil is turned on in the opposite polarity for another 90 degrees. Then that coil is turned off and the first coil is re-energized for 90 degrees with a polarity different than before. Because the full-step method only allows steps of 90 degrees of rotation, a "micro-step" method of motor control was developed to provide better resolution. In one micro-step method, both coils are generally continuously driven with stepped voltages that are out of phase with each other. The stepped voltages vary from a positive maximum value to a negative maximum value.
Stepping motors are commonly used to move the pointer or needle of automotive gauges, such as for example, a speedometer or tachometer. In these applications, a return-to-zero (RTZ) technique is used to return the gauge pointer to a known position. This is used to re-synchronize the motor position in the event that the absolute motor position is lost. A loss in motor position could be caused by a number of reasons. For example, power may be lost while the motor is running or a motor controller loses synchronization due to an increase in motor load.
There are several RTZ techniques that have been employed which utilize a full-step control method to sense the stall condition. FIG. 1 illustrates full-step driving currents for a two phase stepping motor having coils A and B (not shown) in accordance with the prior art. With the full-step method, one of the motor coils is driven while the other coil un-driven. In FIG. 1, each time interval represents 90 degrees of rotation, or one full-step. At time interval 0, coil B is driven with a maximum positive current while coil A is not driven. At time interval 1, coil A is driven with a maximum positive current while coil B is not driven. At time interval 2, coil B is driven with a maximum negative current while coil A is not driven. Finally, at time interval 3, coil A is driven with a maximum negative current while coil B is not driven. During each of the full steps, the un-driven coil can be sampled to detect motor movement. The full-step control method suffers from several problems. First, the full-step movement is choppy and can sometimes be visibly seen and heard in the pointer movement if the rotation speed is slow. Second, the full-step control method can limit the maximum stall detect speed since it is desired to sample the coil after the load stabilizes to the new full-step position. Third, the detection resolution is limited to a full-step boundary which is one quarter of an electrical revolution.
Therefore, what is needed is a way to detect a stall condition in a stepping motor that solves the above problems.

Method and controller for detecting a stall condition in a stepping motor during micro-stepping


A first user device and second user device may be coupled, such as by an audio interface included in the second user device. The second user device is unable to generate a registration request, and the first user device may acquire device data associated with the second user device and form the registration request. The registration request may include the device data and information associated with the first user device. The registration request may be authenticated, and activation data may be generated based on the information associated with the first user device and the device data. The activation data is forwarded to the second user device to enable the second user device to access a restricted service or data.

Before a service provider allows a user device to access restricted resources, such as connecting to a network managed by the service provider, accessing content, etc., the user device is generally registered to associate the new device with a user and to receive information associated with the user, such as billing information for charging the user for services. After the user device is registered, the user device may be configured to access the restricted resources.


The invention discloses an intermetallic material consisting of the following composition by weight percent: 10% Al, 22% Cr, 36% Co, 0.2% Y, 0.2% Hf, 2% Ta, 3% Fe, remainder Ni and inevitable impurities. The invention also describes its use as a layer protecting against high temperatures and at locations of thermal turbomachines which are subject to friction or vibration.

The guide vanes and rotor blades of gas turbines are exposed to strong loads. To keep the leakage losses from the gas turbine at low levels, by way of example the rotor of the gas turbine is fitted with a very small amount of play with respect to the stator, so that a stripping action occurs. A honeycomb structure is provided at the stator of the gas turbine. The honeycomb structure comprises a metal alloy which is able to withstand high temperatures. A further design involves the use of smooth, coated or uncoated heat shield segments (HSS) which are positioned radially opposite the rotating blade at the outer radius. The blade tip then rubs against these heat shield segments. To prevent the blade tip itself from being abraded, the tip may be coated in order then to abrade the heat shield segments to a greater extent. However, one drawback of this embodiment is that the coating has only a limited adhesion to the turbine blade. A further drawback is that cooling-air bores, with which either the heat shield segment and/or the blade may be provided, become blocked during the frictional action.
It is known from documents DE-C2 32 35 230, EP 132 667 or DE-C2 32 03 869 to use metal felts at various locations of gas turbine components, for example at the tip of a turbine blade or vane (DE-C2 32 03 869), between a metal core or a ceramic outer skin (DE-C2 32 35 230) or as a cladding of the turbine blade or vane (EP-B1 132 667). However, these embodiments have the drawback that the metal felt which is used is insufficiently resistant to oxidation. The increases in the hot-gas temperatures, for example in modern gas turbines, lead to the materials used having to satisfy ever greater demands. However, the metal felts in the abovementioned documents no longer satisfy the requirement to current levels, in particular with regard to the required resistance to oxidation. U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,469 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,312,218 B1, DE-A1 199 12 701, EP-A2 0 916 897 and EP-A2 1 076 157 have disclosed metal felts which are composed of an intermetallic alloy. These felts consist of sintered and pressed intermetallic fibers, and on account of the intermetallic phases have significantly improved materials properties than the abovementioned materials in terms of strength, resistance to oxidation, deformability and abradability. Metallic high-temperature fibers have also been described in VDI Report 1151, 1995 (Metallische Hochtemperaturfasern durch Schmelzextraktion—Herstellung, Eigenschaften, Anwendungen) [Metallic high-temperature fibers through melt extraction—production, properties, uses].

Intermetallic material and use of this material


A system and associated method for isolating intended radiation signals for determining target characteristics includes multiple detectors for detecting radiation signals having varying energies, delay modules for delaying the detected radiation signals and a discriminator associated with the multiple detectors for determining if detected radiation signals include unintended radiation signals, e.g., x-rays, and provided blanking signals to a switch in order to effectively remove the unintended radiation signals from the data that is presented to the processor for determining target characteristics.

1. Field of Embodiments
This invention relates to the field of radiation detection systems for scanning of persons, luggage, parcels, vehicles and containers for the presence of illegal nuclear and radioactive materials. Specifically, this invention is related to methods and techniques of minimizing or removing the unintended interference from pulsed X-ray radiation generated by high-energy radiography systems, operating in proximity of passive radiation detection systems.
2. Summary of Related Art
Currently, second-generation high-energy radiography systems are being more frequently deployed alongside passive radiation detection systems, in order to interdict illegal transportation of contraband and other dangerous goods including nuclear and radioactive materials. It is well known that X-rays from nearby pulsed high-energy imaging systems can interfere with the radiation portal monitors (RPM) used to perform passive radiation monitoring. Such interference results in an increased count rate measured by the RPM which could lead to, for example, false alarms on vehicles with no radioactive materials present, when the additional counts increase RPM's measured signal above the set alarm threshold. Increased count rate could also raise the measured background above the actual background level when the X-ray interference occurs during RPM background acquisition, leading to a loss of sensitivity and decreased minimum detectable activity. Second order effects of the X-ray interference may also include: short-term gain shift, spectrum distortion, degraded energy resolution, incomplete pile-up rejection and decreased live time, all with negative effects on the RPM's detection performance.
Various solutions have been adopted in order to mitigate the effects of pulsed X-rays radiation from pulsed X-rays radiography systems on the nearby radiation portal monitors.
A first class of such solutions is using distance, time or shielding in order to minimize the X-rays detected by the RPM. For example, placing the radiography system 300-500 feet away from all the RPMs operating within one venue, could reduce the X-rays to a level that allows each RPM to operate virtually free of X-ray interference. The same effect could be achieved by surrounding radiography system with adequate shielding walls or imposing an exclusion mechanism between the time intervals when RPMs are operating and the times when radiography system(s) are allowed to operate. All three approaches described above, used alone or in combination, are simple, and, in some isolated cases, cost-effective ways to address the X-rays interference. They do not rely on any particular characteristics of radiography system and RPM. Unfortunately, practical constraints imposed by limited real-estate combined with prohibitive high cost of shielding walls, high volume of traffic, and very large number of RPMs and radiography system that have to operate in close proximity, reduce the number of sites where these solutions can be applied, to a very few isolated cases, while the vast majority remains with X-ray interference problem unsolved.
Another widely adopted class of solutions, called hardware or predictive blanking uses a modified RPM such that it is able to discard its input signals during a small time interval (typical less than 20 μs) while the X-rays pulse is generated by the radiography system. As X-rays pulse repetition rate ranges typically from 100 to 500 Hz, RPM will be blanked, in the worst case 20 μs every 2 ms, resulting in an equivalent 1% dead time. This additional dead time imposed by blanking, being less than 1% should, in theory, have negligible effect on the RPM's detection performance. The method requires a hardware synchronization signal generated by the radiography system. This logic signal known as blanking sync, becomes active a known time interval before the X-rays pulse is generated. While the time delay between blanking sync and X-ray pulse is approximately constant for a given system and operating mode, it has a wide range of values for different manufacturers and/or operating modes. RPM receives blanking sync from the X-ray imaging system, and generates an internal detector gating signal called blanking pulse. The blanking pulse is delayed with respect of the external blanking sync by a set amount known as blanking delay, and it is active for a set time interval known as blanking time. The values for blanking delay and blanking time are set such that the X-ray pulse falls always inside the blanking pulse with sufficient margins on both left and right sides. These tolerances are required to compensate for inherent timing jitter present in the signals involved from both participating systems: X-ray imaging and RPM. Blanking pulse is then distributed to each gamma and each neutron detector within the same RPM. For some implementations of this method, blanking delay and blanking time may have different values for each individual gamma and neutron detector within the same RPM. The RPM implementing this method is capable of disabling its gamma and neutron detectors while internal blanking pulse is active with the end effect of removing all pulses while the X-rays are being generated. Hardware blanking solution works relatively well when there is a single pulsed X-ray source, operating at a single energy with only one RPM needed to be blanked. The major disadvantage of this method is related to the requirement that there is a wired physical connection between the X-ray imaging system and RPM, therefore making it practically impossible to implement in the case of mobile X-rays imagining systems or when the blanking sync has to be distributed to a large number of RPMs. The solution becomes extremely difficult to implement when there are multiple radiography systems with different operating modes, (single energy, dual energy e.g., interleaved higher and lower energy pulses), and mobile systems, operating in close proximity of a large number of RPM systems.
There is a need in the art for an X-rays interference solution that allows for multiple and/or mobile radiography systems, including dual energy mode systems, operating in proximity to multiple radiation portal monitors that eliminates pulsed X-rays interference and renders the operation and specifically detection and nuclide classification performance, virtually unaffected by the pulsed X-rays generated by high-energy imaging systems.

Method for autonomous self-blanking by radiation portal monitors to minimize the interference from pulsed X-rays radiation


Provided is a vehicle braking control device applicable to a vehicle equipped with an electric-powered parking braking device, a hydraulic braking device and a regenerative braking device. The braking control device comprises a first braking control unit and a second braking control unit. When a parking braking operation is performed while the vehicle is travelling, the first braking control unit implements a first braking process which increases the braking force to the vehicle by operating the hydraulic braking device. When the braking force to the vehicle needs to be increased in a situation where the first braking process is being implemented, the second braking control unit implements a second braking process which increases the braking force to the vehicle by operating the regenerative braking device.

As a parking braking device, known is an electric-powered parking braking device that applies a braking force corresponding to a drive amount of an electric motor to rear wheels when a driver performs a parking braking operation.
PTL 1 discloses an example of the braking control device that operates a hydraulic braking device to increase a braking force to respective front wheels and rear wheels without operating the parking braking device when the parking braking operation is performed while a vehicle is traveling.


A method for making a garment having a lofted assembly having an outer support layer and garment so produced are provided. The method includes the steps of positioning a support fabric on a lofted material; sewing the support fabric to the lofted material to form a lofted assembly; positioning the lofted assembly in a molding apparatus having at least a first mold and a second mold, closing together the first mold and the second mold thereby sandwiching the lofted assembly therebetween and while maintaining a uniform preset gap between said first mold and the second mold so that the inherent loft characteristics of the lofted assembly are substantially preserved after pressure and/or heat are applied.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for molding garments and the garments made therefrom. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for molding a lofted material having a sewn decorative support panel, and the resultant garment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various methods and mechanisms for molding different types and assemblies of material have been developed and are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,464,418 provides an apparatus and method for making brassiere pads from bonded non-woven fibrous batting material, U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,597 provides a method of making a brassiere cup from a soft fibrous board material, U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,416 provides a method for making multi-layered seamless brassiere pads, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,137 provides a process for preparing breast pads or fronts such that the pads are centrally soft and peripherally firmer.
Notwithstanding that which is known, there remains a continuing need for improved methods for molding a lofted material having a laminated support layer to provide a three dimensional shape thereto without compromising the loft characteristics associated with such material. Problems heretofore associated with various processes of molding a lofted material include at least the following: (1) thinning of material at points of increased pressure or applied heat, or both, such as for example, the apex of a bra cup or pad, (2) requiring relatively complicated or additional structural elements, or both to facilitate a desired result, for example, spacer devices or vacuum systems, and (3) requiring that heat, pressure or both be avoided at relatively substantial portions of the material being molded, which can complicate the molding process.

Method for molding lofted material with decorative support panel and garment made


A video communications system for transmitting video data between a plurality of transmitting nodes and one or more receiving nodes. The video data at each transmitting nodes is scaled and assigned a display location at the receiving node(s) prior to transmission. The receiving node(s) simultaneously display video data received from each of the transmitting nodes. The video communications system minimizes the use of bandwidth, and uses a simple, inexpensive and efficient encoding and decoding system.

With the present day advancement of high-bandwidth communication infrastructure and the widespread acceptance of digital video compression standards, there has been an increasing demand for video-based services. Among these new and expanding services are long distance education, surveillance systems, video-on-demand, interactive video games and video conferencing. Importantly, these and other future video-based services will need cost-effective and efficient video data processing and transmission systems and methods.
A typical multi-windows display system will display multiple video sequences to a video user. The windows environment allows the user to simultaneously view several video sequences or images originating from several different sources. However, prior art multiple window display systems have made inefficient use of bandwidth. Moreover, prior art multiple window display systems have needed complex encoding and decoding systems and methods, which are both costly and have significant processing delays.
In the case of digital image transmission applications, such as digital television, it has often been necessary to compress the image data in order to conserve bandwidth. In this regard, a frame of video (i.e., one full screen) may be composed of an array of at least 640.times.480 pixels. A video sequence is composed of a series of frames. In order to obtain a standard quality video sequence, a frame rate of at least 24 frames per second is necessary. To transmit this quantity of image data using the available bandwidth, various well known compression techniques have been employed. These compression techniques typically take advantage of pixel image data repetition, known as spacial correlation. Spacial correlation occurs when several adjacent pixels have the same or similar brightness and color values. Data compression techniques take advantage of this repetition by transmitting the brightness and color data from one pixel and transmitting information on the number of following pixels for which the data is identical, or by transmitting only the brightness and color data "difference" between adjacent pixels. Several video compression standards have become widely adopted, including MPEG1, MPEG2, JPEG and px64. However, it should be appreciated that in some situations compression alone does not reduce bandwidth consumption as much as desirable. Therefore, there is a need to further reduce bandwidth consumption.
Prior art multiple window display systems have also failed to address the problem of complex and costly encoding, decoding and other needed video process systems. In this regard, prior art systems do not encode the final display location of the video data at the receiving location. As a result, the decoding is made more complex, since the display information must be re-coded with the proper display location.
The present invention overcomes these and other drawbacks of prior art systems.


The present invention relates to a zoom lens system which comprises ten or less lenses, has a very short total length and a small front lens diameter, is reduced in size, weight and cost and has a large aperture ratio and a high zoom ratio. This zoom lens system comprises a zoom subsystem consisting of a first lens unit having a positive refracting power and a second lens unit having a negative refracting power and an image formation subsystem consisting of a third lens unit having a positive refracting power and remaining constantly fixed and a fourth lens unit having a positive refracting power and movable for zooming and focal position regulation and which has a zoom ratio of 8, a field angle of 1.4 and a very short total length including filters, as expressed by 9.7 f.sub.W at 54.degree., is reasonably and well balanced for various aberrations inclusive of spherical aberration, and has a very excellent capability of forming images by adopting some suitable means for the paraxial arrangement, actual lens configuration and arrangement of the image formation subsystem, applying aspherical configuration to a part thereof and taking some pertinent means for the positions of various optical filters.

The present invention relates to a zoom lens system which comprises four lens units, makes use of a rear focus and has a short total length, a large aperture and a high zoom ratio.
Recently radical reductions in the size, weight and cost of video cameras have caused the camcorder market to grow vigorously. The market growth has allowed widespread use of camcorders. Mainly, the video camera comprises an electric circuit board, an actuator (mechanical) system and an optical system. So far, the size and cost reductions have been achieved in terms of the electrical system in particular. More recently, however, some considerable reduction in the size of an image sensor optical system has made sharp progress. At present, the size and cost reductions of the image sensor optical system are being achieved by the development of a new zoom type lens systems making effective use of the progress in techniques for miniaturizing images, processing aspherical surfaces rotation-symmetrically and automatic TTL focusing. Several examples of those novel zoom lenses are set forth in JP-Kokai-62-24213, JP-Kokai-62-178917, JP-Kokai-62-215225, etc. However, the present need for size and weight reductions, esp., reductions in the total length and the diameter of front lenses, is immense.
Referring now to techniques prior to the above-mentioned prior art, for instance, JP-Kokai-60-186818 (a zoom lens of eight magnifications), the zoom lens system disclosed therein comprises a zoom subsystem constructed from a first unit having a positive refracting power, movable for focusing and consisting of, in order from the object side, a negative lens, a positive lens and a positive lens, a second unit having a negative refractive power, movable for zooming and consisting of, in order from the object side, a negative lens, a negative lens and a positive lens, and a third unit having a negative refractive power, disposed so as to correct variations of the position of an image due to zooming, the third lens being movable and consisting of a meniscus-form of negative lens component strongly concave on the object side; and an image formation subsystem constructed from a stop and a relay lens unit. This is an example of the zoom lens system having a long total length and a front lens with a large diameter. The first unit is designed to be movable for focusing, in which case it is likely that variations of spherical aberration may be increased by focusing in the vicinity of the telephoto end, thus making it impossible to increase the power strongly enough. Accordingly, the image location due to the first unit (i.e., the object point of the second unit) becomes so far that the power of the second unit can become weak and so much space is required for the movement of the second unit, resulting in an increase in the total length of the zoom subsystem. In addition, when the powers of the first and second units are weak, the location of the entrance pupil is imperatively deep (as viewed from the object side). In particular, the lens diameter of the first unit should not be increased; nor should the lens thickness be increased so as to assure the edge thickness of the convex lens. This in turn leads to an increase in the depth of the entrance pupil, resulting in a massive increase in the size of front lens and, hence, a further increase in the total length of the zoom subsystem. To add to this, consideration must be taken of a further increase in the depth of the entrance pupil when a near-by object point is brought into focus. This is because focusing is achieved by the first unit. For those reasons, such rear focus versions are set forth in the above-mentioned JP-Kokai-62-24213, 62-178917 and 62-215225 and some versions in which the compensator unit is located in the rear of a stop have now been adopted. These versions may possibly have astonishing latent faculties of reducing the total length and making the front lens diameter small. Referring especially to JP-Kokai-62-178917, it teaches that some considerable reduction in the number of constituent lenses is achieved by applying an aspherical surface to the above-mentioned image formation subsystem and some correction of aberrations is also attained. However, any size reduction cannot be achieved with the total length and front lens diameter without making substantial changes with respect to conventional or classical lens configurations.
That is to say, the system disclosed in JP-Kokai-62-178917 comprises a zoom subsystem including a first unit having a positive refracting power and a second unit having a negative refracting power and an image formation subsystem including a third unit consisting solely of a positive single lens having an aspherical surface and always remaining fixed and a fourth unit having at least one negative lens or consisting generally of two or three lenses and being movable during zooming and for regulating the focal position depending on how far the subject is spaced. Thus, the use of the rear focus which also serves as a compensator and the aspherical surface renders it possible to reduce the number of constituent lenses to ten or below, thereby reducing extra space. This thus enables the front lens diameter to be reduced and makes it possible to reduce the total length. The rear focus configuration could make it easy to increase the power of the first unit. However, this is not the case and the power of the second unit remains weak as well. In addition, using a single lens for the third unit incurs another disadvantage. In other words, the luminous flux cannot be easily converged here, so that it can not leave a focally. For this reason, there is no choice but to increase the focal length of the fourth unit, and the back focus remains long as well; that is, no sufficient reductions in the total length, front lens diameter, etc. are achieved.

Zoom lens system having a short total length


A low-pressure loop EGR device includes an electronic control unit. When an off signal is inputted from a key switch as a stop warning signal to give notice that a supercharged engine is about to stop, the electric control unit controls an EGR valve so as to close an EGR passage, and then controls a nozzle actuator so as to turn multiple variable nozzles in a narrowing direction.

A high-pressure EGR device takes an EGR gas from a portion in an exhaust passage on an upstream side of a turbine and puts the EGR gas back to a portion in an intake passage on a downstream side of a compressor. In order to reduce NOx (nitrogen oxides) contained in an exhaust gas from a supercharged engine, a low-pressure loop EGR device to replace the high-voltage loop EGR device is under development in recent years (see PTL 1 or PTL 2) from the viewpoint of ensuring a sufficient EGR quantity, and so forth. Such a low-pressure loop EGR device is configured to take an EGR gas from a portion in an exhaust passage on a downstream side of a turbine and to put the EGR gas back to a portion in an intake passage on an upstream side of a compressor.
The low-pressure loop EGR device includes an EGR passage (an EGR pipe). The EGR passage connects the portion in the exhaust passage on the downstream side of the turbine to the portion in the intake passage on the upstream side of the compressor to communicate between the portions, thereby enabling the EGR gas to communicate (flow) between these portions. In addition, an EGR valve is provided midway in the EGR passage. The EGR valve opens and closes the EGR passage. An EGR cooler is provided midway in the EGR passage at a portion closer to the exhaust passage than the EGR valve. The EGR cooler cools the EGR gas.
Accordingly, when the EGR valve opens the EGR passage while the supercharged engine is in operation, part of the exhaust gas in the exhaust passage flows as the EGR gas from the portion in the exhaust passage on the downstream side of the turbine into the EGR passage. The EGR gas flowing into the EGR passage is once cooled by the EGR cooler, and then flows from the inside of the EGR passage to the portion in the intake passage on the upstream side of the compressor. Thereby, a combustion temperature in the supercharged engine drops and an amount of emission of NOx (nitrogen oxides) is reduced as a consequence.


A coaxial cable connector comprising a connector body having a first end and a second end, wherein the connector body is configured to receive a coaxial cable through the second end, a first cooperating surface disposed within the connector body, wherein the first cooperating surface is a surface of a clamp, the clamp is configured to threadably engage an outer conductor of the coaxial cable, and a second cooperating surface, wherein the second cooperating surface cooperates with the first cooperating surface to collapse an outer conductor of the coaxial cable, wherein at least a portion of the second cooperating surface malleably deforms to a variable axial thickness of a non-uniform collapsed portion of the outer conductor is provided. An associated method is also provided.

1. Technical Field
This following relates generally to the field of coaxial cable connectors and more particularly to a contact connector assembly for use with coaxial cables having a center conductor.
2. State of the Art
Corrugated coaxial cables are electrical cables that are used as transmission lines for radio frequency signals. Coaxial cables are composed of an inner conductor surrounded by a flexible insulating layer, which in turn is surrounded by a corrugated outer conductor that acts as a conducting shield. An outer protective sheath or jacket surrounds the corrugated outer conductor.
A corrugated coaxial cable in an operational state typically has a connector affixed on either end of the cable. The quality of the electrical connection between the coaxial cable and the respective connectors is of utmost importance. Indeed, the quality of the electrical connection can either positively or negatively impact the resulting electric signal as well as the performance of the connector. One issue that negatively impacts the electric signal between the cable and the connector is the size of the connector in relation to the size of the cable. Currently, specifically-sized connectors must be chosen for each size of cable that they are to be connected to. Improperly-sized connectors, or even improperly-selected connectors for a certain-sized cable, will negatively impact the electric signal between the cable and the connector, resulting in extremely low performance. Moreover, even when the properly-sized connector is chosen for the designated cable, variations in the actual dimensions of the manufactured cable can lead to improper installation of the connector on the cable. Improper installation could lead to poor electrical and mechanical connection between the compression connector and the cable.
Thus, there is a need in the field of corrugated coaxial cables for a universal connector that addresses the aforementioned problems.

Connector assembly having deformable surface