An MRI rf coil array is comprised of a large number of separate coil elements that are supported on a substrate that is shaped to the contour of the anatomy being imaged. The coil elements overlap each other to reduce mutual inductance and their location is determined by tiling the surface of the substrate with regular, substantially same sized polygons. The center of each coil element is aligned with the center of a polygon. By using a mixture of different polygons, such as hexagons and pentagons, an arrangement of coil elements may be formed that cover a surface with non-zero Gaussian curvature where each coil is overlapped with its neighbors such that their mutual inductance is nulled.

The field of the invention is nuclear magnetic resonance imaging MRI methods and systems. More particularly, the invention relates to the design and manufacture of multi-element coil arrays for use in MRI systems.
When a substance such as human tissue is subjected to a uniform static magnetic field (polarizing field B0), the individual magnetic moments of the spins in the tissue attempt to align with this polarizing field, but precess about it in random order at their characteristic Larmor frequency. If the substance, or tissue, is subjected to a time-varying magnetic field (excitation field B1) which is in the x-y plane and which is near the Larmor frequency, the net aligned moment, Mz, may be rotated, or "tipped", into the x-y plane to produce a net transverse magnetic moment Mt. A signal is emitted by the excited spins after the excitation signal B1 is terminated, this signal may be received and processed to form an image.
When utilizing these signals to produce images, magnetic field gradients (Gx, Gy and Gz) are employed. Typically, the region to be imaged is scanned by a sequence of measurement cycles in which these gradients vary according to the particular localization method being used. The resulting set of received NMR signals also referred to as "views" are digitized and processed to reconstruct the image using one of many well known reconstruction techniques.
The NMR signals are detected using an rf antenna in the form of one or more rf coils. MRI systems include a whole-body rf coil that can receive NMR signals emanating from anywhere in a subject being imaged, but it is also common practice to use specially designed local rf coils when imaging specific anatomy. These local coils are positioned very close to the anatomy being imaged and the result is an increased sensitivity to the NMR signals and a consequent higher SNR in the image reconstructed from those signals.
While single element local coils are used in some clinical applications, because of their limited receptivity field it is also common practice to employ multi-element rf coil arrays. Each coil element operates as a separate rf antenna and is connected to a separate receive channel in the MRI system. The separate NMR signals are combined to increase the receptivity field of view to that of the combined rf coil elements.
When using an array of rf coils to receive NMR signals from a subject being examined, there are two design objectives that should be met to maximize coil sensitivity. First, the coil elements in the array should follow as closely as possible the contour of the subject being imaged, and second, the mutual inductance between each rf coil element in the array should be minimized to reduce interaction between receive channels.
Many multi-element rf coil array designs are based on the overlapping coil element design first disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,162 issued on Apr. 25, 1989 and entitled "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance "NMR" Imaging With Multiple Surface Coils". Multiple flat rf coil elements are placed next to one another to cover the desired field of view in the subject and mutual inductance between adjacent coil elements is minimized by carefully overlapping adjacent coil elements a specified amount. Coil elements can be arranged in a row, with each coil element overlapping the next one by the critical amount to form a linear array (such as a spine array). Additional rows of coil elements can be arranged next to each other overlapping in the second dimension to produce a planar array. Such a planar array can be curved into a shape having one dimension of curvature (i.e., curving along only one dimension). For example, a linear or planar array can be wrapped around to form a cylinder. It is easy to maintain the required coil element overlap when the coil array is substantially flat or is curved in only one direction (e.g., cylindrical), but when the anatomy being imaged requires a more complex curvature, it is difficult to maintain the desired coil element overlap. Such complex curved surfaces are referred to herein as surfaces having non-zero Gaussian curvature. This means that the surface curves in all directions from at least one point on the surface.
A number of factors are driving the number of coil elements in rf coil arrays upward. The sensitivity of a single circular receive element achieves the maximum possible sensitivity at a depth equal to the element diameter divided by the square root of 5. A large array of receive elements is able to achieve the maximum possible sensitivity at any depth greater than the single element diameter divided by the square root of 5. By reducing the size of each coil element, increasing the number of substantially planar coil elements and shaping the array to more closely follow the contour of the anatomy being imaged the array can achieve close to the optimum possible sensitivity throughout the volume enclosed by the array. This increases coil sensitivity and image SNR. Another factor is the use of parallel imaging methods such as SENSE (U.S. Pat. No. 6,326,786), and GRAPPA (U.S. Pat. No. 6,841,998). Parallel imaging uses the separate NMR signals from rf coil arrays to reduce the number of views that are required to reconstruct an image. Hence, the larger the number of coil elements and corresponding receive channels used, the shorter the scan time.
The design and manufacture of coil arrays having larger numbers of coil elements and complex curvatures while maintaining minimum mutual inductance between coil elements has become a very challenging task.


A moulding process to manufacture a moulded piece having multiple individual optical elements with the same or different dimensions. This is achieved by using a multicolour injection process as well as a multidrop injection manifold. In the first step, the optical elements are moulded without any junction between them. In the second step, a layer of plastic is moulded in order to join together all the optical elements to create a single piece. The moulded piece thus consists of two plastic injections with optical elements which is more easily adaptable to a variety of different designs for lights having two or more colors. New styles of optical elements, along with varied and original geometric arrangements can thus be imagined. Furthermore, signaling functions having by their regulations different colors can heretofore be placed within a same zone of glass.

Tail lamps on vehicles have essentially a warning function, either when the vehicle is in movement or stopped. In addition, tail lamps also have a seduction function towards potential purchasers. Indeed, the aesthetics, shapes and colors proposed by designers play an important role in the commercial success of a particular vehicle. Auto makers and their research teams are thus eager for new technologies enabling them to create new styles for these tail lamps.
Interior and exterior glasses (here the term glass is used to denote the transparent or translucid material which forms part of the retroreflector, although it is not necessarily made of actual glass but may be manufactured from plastic) of the vehicle tail lights generally present at their surface optical elements. These optical elements redirect in a particular direction the light emitted by a light source which can be a bulb or LED. These optical elements are used for each of the functions of a vehicle, i.e., stop, back up, turn signal, tail lamps and fog lamps, and must meet the local regulations of the country in which the vehicle is to be commercialized.
These optical elements can take the shape of flute optics, small sized motifs or patterns that are juxtaposed and repeated many times, or any other geometry susceptible to deviate the path of a light ray in a particular direction (see FIG. 1).
These optical elements can be present on the exterior surface of the glass but also within glasses, closer to the light source. In such a case, reference will thus be made to lenses.
The materials used to mould these pieces are principally amorphous transparent plastics of the PMMA or PC type that are transformed by injection moulding. An injection mould is specifically designed for their production. The moulding of the optical elements is realized with the presence of one or more metallic inserts positioned within the mould cavity. These metallic inserts present a negative form of the optical element to be reproduced with a surface mirror.
It is also frequent in the fabrication of tail light manufacturing that multicolour moulds be used. The advantage of this process over monochromatic injection is the obtention in one single step of a polychromatic glass. Thus, on a same glass, signalling functions requiring different colors can be regrouped in a single piece.
Also, during the night, stopped vehicles are rendered visible to drivers of other vehicles due to the reflection of light. These light reflectors, the design of which is based on the principle of retroreflection within the catadioptric plastic prisms, are mandatory and the light signal is normalized. These plastic reflectors are formed from prisms having dimensions varying between 2 and 10 mm per side placed on the surface of the designated reflective zone.
A person skilled in the art will readily recognize that the manufacturing of a plastic reflector necessitates many fabrication steps. The manufacturing by plastic injection moulding on a matrix usually called electroform requires the realisation of metal prisms. The prisms are manufactured from metallic shafts or rods having a specific geometry, for example hexagonal. On these rods, three angled faces called reflection faces are machined, whose surface must have mirror properties. The angles of these faces are optimized in order to respond as much as possible to automobile lighting regulations. The dimension of these hexagonal prisms, most often, varies from 2 to 4 mm per side. Above 4 mm, these prisms are considered as large prisms. Once these prisms are manufactured, they are assembled with one another with junctions between them according to a given geometry dictated by the form of the signal lamp. Non reflecting optical elements may be inserted between the prisms. Once this assembly is realized, it is placed in an electrodeposition bath in order to obtain the negative of the assembled geometric form. This negative piece is called the electroform. It is the electroform that is placed in the injection mould. The role of the electroform is to permit to the plastic that will fill the mould to take the geometric shape of the assembly of the retroreflecting prisms obtained in the previous steps. Since the injected plastic is transparent (PMMA or polycarbonate), it permits light to travel within it and thus enables the faces of the prisms to reflect the light in the inverse direction.
In order to simplify the description of the present invention, optical elements includes optics and retroreflecting prisms described above.

Plastic injection of lenses with optical elements and/or retroreflecting prisms that are separated from each other


Various implementations of a method, system and computer program product receive a circuit model that can include an asynchronous crossing between a first set of one or more logic components in a first clock domain and a second set of one or more logic components in a second clock domain. A shadow network can be constructed that corresponds to the asynchronous crossing, where the shadow network includes at least one of an asynchronous transition detector, an asynchronous sample detector, and a metastability timer. The shadow network can include shadow network signals corresponding to signals of the asynchronous crossing.

Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of circuit design, and, more particularly, to electronic design automation (EDA) tools to perform verification of asynchronous clock domain crossings.
EDA tools are used to evaluate chip designs prior to fabrication. The EDA process broadly consists of two steps. The first step is a check of the register transfer level (RTL) design logic. The second step is a creation of a physical circuit design from the RTL design. The first step, checking the design logic, can be referred to as RTL design checking. In RTL design checking, a language such as VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) or Verilog can be used to describe and model the logical behavior of a circuit. In some cases, a circuit design can be stored as a graph, the edges of which correspond to wires and the nodes of which correspond to circuit components. These edges can be referred to as nets, and the set of all elements that comprise the graph can be referred to as a netlist. RTL design checking itself can be decomposed into two steps. The first step is static checking and the second step is verification, which can also be referred to as dynamic checking. In static checking, the structure of the design is analyzed without simulating the behavior of the design. Conversely, in verification, the design is simulated by applying test patterns or stimuli to the inputs of the design to identify possible errors. Verification may also consist of a mathematical analysis of the state space of the design, known as formal verification or model checking, which attempts to perform the equivalent of applying all possible stimuli to the inputs of the design. Verification can be an expensive process for a complex chip or system on a chip. Verification can also be inconclusive, since it is often infeasible to apply all possible test patterns to the inputs of a complex design, or analyze its complete state space.
Chips and systems on chips continue to increase in complexity, comprising many systems and sub-systems. These systems and sub-systems might comprise multiple clock domains. A clock domain is a set of sequential logic elements, such as transparent latches and flip-flops, and combinational logic associated with these sequential logic elements that are clocked by a common clock or by clocks having common frequency and a fixed phase relationship. A clock signal causes a change in the state of sequential logic, such as a flip-flop or transparent latch. A clock domain crossing is a path from a sequential logic element or other source of state transitions in a design in a first clock domain to a sequential element in a second clock domain. The clock in the first domain may operate asynchronously with respect to the second clock domain. In such cases, when a data signal path crosses from the first clock domain to the second clock domain, the crossing is referred to as an asynchronous clock domain crossing.
Asynchronous clock domain crossings can be sources of error in chip design. Among the errors that can be propagated at asynchronous clock domain crossings are glitches and metastability. In general, a glitch occurs due to delays in inputs to a circuit component, in the delay inherent in a circuit component changing its output to reflect changes to its input, or both. For example, consider a first input and a second input to an AND gate. Assume that the first input at time t=1 is expected to transition to a 1 and the second input at time t=1 is expected to transition to a 0. However, if the second input is delayed, such that at time t=1, the second input is a 1 rather than a 0, then the output of the AND gate will be a 1 rather than the anticipated 0. Metastability occurs when a signal exists in an indeterminate state between a 0 and 1. This indeterminateness eventually is typically resolved over a period of time such that the probability of a signal remaining in an indeterminate state falls exponentially as a function of time.

Verification of asynchronous clock domain crossings

International Business Machines Corporation


A speech signal coding system including a speech signal encoder for dividing received speech signals into a plurality of frames each having a predetermined time interval and for converting the speech signals into digital speech parameters. The system includes a multiplexer for multiplexing the output digital data from the speech signal encoder into a predetermined frame format; a control frame generator for generating, in response to an inputted facsimile signal, a control frame having speech data frame configuration for identifying a facsimile signal identification data indicating the input signal as the facsimile signal. A facsimile signal demodulator converts the facsimile signal into digital data and a bit-synchronous multiplexer multiplexes the digital data. An output device outputs the speech data frame of the multiplexer to a digital transmission line and further outputs, when a facsimile signal is input, the control frame and facsimile data multiplexed as the bit synchronous data onto the digital transmission line.

The present invention relates to a speech signal coding and decoding systems and, more particularly, to a highly efficient speech signal coding and decoding system which transmits compressed speech signals in the form of a plurality of speech parameters and G3 facsimile signals by time divisional transmission over the same transmission line.
With recent spread of exclusive digital data transmission lines, there are prosperous attempts by enterprises to construct exclusive internal digital networks, and the speech signal coding and decoding systems with lower bit rates has been progressed from the standpoint of the economy of digital data transmission lines. However, to reduce the bit rate in the coding of speech signals without quality sacrifice therein, it is necessary to code the speech signals by taking features thereof into considerations, causing problems in the proper transmission of facsimile signals, which are non-speech signals. In other words, it is difficult to construct a network without taking telephone/facsimile features into considerations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,696 discloses a technique for solving the above problem. In the disclosed technique, the at coding side provided are a speech signal encoder, and a G3 facsimile signal demodulator for converting G3 facsimile signal into digital data. Thus, when the G3 facsimile signals is input, the input signals are converted by the G3 facsimile signal demodulator into the digital data and transmitted. Similarly, at the decoding side provided are a speech signal decoder, and a G3 facsimile signal modulator. When G3 facsimile data is received as digital data, it is converted by the G3 facsimile modulator into a modem signal. In this way, the transmission of G3 facsimile signals is realized.
FIG. 4 shows data frame formats in this technique. The frame of speech data comprises a frame sync signal S provided at the start and following speech signal parameter data obtained as a result of highly efficient coding of speech signal. For G3 facsimile data, there are two different frames, i.e., a low speed frame and a high speed frame. The low speed frame comprises a head frame sync signal provided at the start, then G3 facsimile frame identification data indicative of the G3 facsimile data frame, and then G3 facsimile low speed data. Likewise, the high speed frame comprises a head frame sync signal, G3 facsimile identification data, and G3 facsimile high speed data.
In this prior art system, speech signals is divided into a plurality of frames each having a constant time interval and transmitted by frame-by-frame transmission. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an overhead in the frame, the overhead including a frame sync bit for establishing the frame synchronization, identification information representing whether the frame data is speed parameter data or G3 facsimile data, kind of G3 facsimile data (i.e., either CCITT V21 or V29/V27 ter) and information indicative of the number of data pieces. That is, it is inevitable to transmit G3 facsimile data in the frame duration without the overhead. This means that 9,600 bps facsimile high speed data, for instance, can not be transmitted over a 9,600 bps line. By way of example, in case of coding speech signals with 16 kbps to produce 20-msec speech data frames, each frame has 320 bits. On the other hand, for facsimile data transmitted in 20-msec frames the number of bits per frame is 192. When using the speech data frame configuration noted above, 320-192, i.e., 128, bits are residual bits. These residual bits are assigned to the above head. However, when coding speech signal with 9.6 kbps for transmission with a frame duration of 20 msec., the number of bits per frame is 192, and the above residual bits can not be secured for assignment to the overhead. This causes the above problems.

Transmission system for transmitting G3 facsimile signals and compressed speech signals


An arbor for a guided circular saw has three symmetrical lobes. The lobes have end regions with profiles which follow an arc centered on an axis of rotation of the arbor. The lobes have driving regions with profiles which follow the arc of a circle centered in an opposing lobe. A saw for use with the arbor has an eye with a shape which closely follows the contour of the arbor. The saw is capable of floating axially along the arbor. The saw and arbor can be used to advantage in sawing machines such as edgers. The arbor provides a much larger contact area than do prior art arbors.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,516,460, Thrasher discloses a system for mounting circular saws on an arbor while allowing the saw to float axially on the arbor. The saw is guided between a pair of guides. The Thrasher saw has a scalloped opening that fits around an arbor having a large number of small rounded splines. The Thrasher system permits reasonably accurate thin cuts with the use of thin circular saws guided by saw guides. The use of guided saws which can "float" (i.e. which can move at least slightly longitudinally) on an arbor, while the arbor is turning, has become widely accepted in the saw milling industry.
Typical arbors for mounting and driving guided saws have 18 to 22 rounded splines and are 5 inches to 8 inches in diameter. There are standard sizes and configurations for such arbors. One problem that is now being experienced in the saw milling industry is that "standard" sized splined arbors from different manufacturers are often different sizes. This is partly due to the fact that conventional prior art arbors are very difficult to accurately machine with standard machining techniques. There are several manufacturers of saw arbors. To enable their blades to fit the arbors of all arbor manufacturers, saw blade manufacturers typically make the eyes in their circular saws oversized by as much as about 0.030 inches. The poor fit of a saw on an arbor can cause the saw to "pound" as the arbor turns. This happens despite the fact that most arbors used today have rounded splines, which, in theory, makes them self-centering to some degree. The pounding can spread the eye of the saw which makes the pounding even worse.
Another problem with prior art saws is that, unless the splines and saw are both perfectly machined, which is impossible, not all of the splines engage the eye of the saw when the saw is being driven.
Another problem experienced in saw mills is that the forces exerted on a saw by the lobes in a prior art arbor result in repeated shocks being delivered to the saw blade in a region concentrated around the eye of the saw. These problems are exacerbated because conventional arbors provide only a very small driving contact area between the arbor and a saw blade.
Some have attempted to reduce these problems by providing a more accurately machined saw and arbor which fit together to very close tolerances. This approach has not been entirely satisfactory because, with arbors of conventional design, close tolerances between saw and arbor tend to increase the likelihood that the saw will "bind" on the arbor and will not float freely along the arbor as is desired. Furthermore, it is not possible with common current techniques to cut the eye of a saw to an accuracy of better than about .+-.0.002 inches. Further, such arbors still provide only a very small contact area.


A motion-based interlock apparatus, system, and method prevent an x-ray source in an x-ray machine from activating if the current relative motion between the x-ray source and an image receptor would compromise the quality of the resulting plain radiograph. The system activates the interlock based on either or both of the velocity and acceleration of the tubehead, as measured by instrumentation corresponding to any of the tubehead, the extension arm, or off board the x-ray machine. The system may preferably compare the measured motion against one or more acceptable motion thresholds. If the measured motion exceeds one or more of the acceptable motion thresholds, exposure may preferably be delayed until the motion of the tubehead subsides. By ensuring that the image is not exposed while the tubehead is moving substantially, the quality of the resultant radiograph is improved.

Despite continuing advances in imaging technology, plain (projection) x-ray radiographs remain a staple diagnostic technology within the world of medicine. While magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computer tomography scans (CT scans) can reveal a wider range of tissue structures and better resolve spatial relationships, e.g. through three-dimensional or cross-sectional images, the relatively low cost, wide availability, and simplicity of plain radiographs make them the imaging technique of choice whenever possible.
In particular, plain radiographs remain in wide use in the field of dentistry. To obtain a radiograph, a dental technician positions an x-ray source and an image receptor on either side of the portion of the patient's palate to be imaged. Often, the image receptor is positioned intraorally, and is held in place against the patient's palate by the biting action of the patient on a bite plate or bite stick. For film-screen plain radiographs, the image receptor comprises an unexposed sheet of film that is exposed by incident x-ray radiation. For digital plain radiographs, which are becoming increasingly common, the image receptor comprises a sensor plate that converts incident x-ray radiation into digital information. In either case, the x-rays emitted from the x-ray source are partially blocked by dense tissues such as bone. The patient's teeth thus cast "shadows" on the image receptor. In the resulting image, either a developed film image or a digital image, bone structures appear as lighter regions among darker regions of softer tissue.
FIG. 1 shows an exemplary conventional dental x-ray machine 10, which typically comprises a base 12, an articulated extension arm 16, and a tubehead 20 housing an x-ray source. The base 12 anchors the x-ray machine 10 to the floor FLR of dental facility, and is typically accompanied by a control panel 26 with which a dental technician can adjust the radiograph parameters, and initiate image acquisition. In many instances, the control panel 26, or a second, auxiliary control panel, is removed from the base 12, e.g. outside the patient room, allowing the dental technician to initiate image acquisition from a location with reduced radiation exposure. The articulated extension arm 16 extends outward from the base 12 and supports the tubehead 20, allowing the tubehead 20 to be easily positioned and oriented as needed. The tubehead 20 typically comprises a heavy, e.g. lead, metal housing 22 that encloses the x-ray source, such as a hot cathode, i.e. Coolidge, x-ray tube.
The x-rays emitted by the x-ray tube emerge from the metal housing 22 through a lead collimator that partially collimates the x-ray beam. A tubehead seal, such as comprising a thin aluminum sheet, spans the lead collimator, to filter the long wavelength, low energy, i.e. soft, x-rays emitted by the x-ray tube and "harden" the x-ray beam 32. Soft x-rays do not effectively penetrate biological tissues but are instead absorbed. While soft x-rays are not useful for imaging, they remain potentially harmful, and are therefore typically filtered.
A position indicating device 24, typically comprising a lead-lined cylinder, extends outwards from the metal housing 22, coaxial with the x-ray beam, to further collimate the x-ray beam and assist the dental technician in aiming the x-ray beam.
Obtaining quality radiographs of patient's teeth is an important function of any dental technician. Indeed, poor quality radiographs, i.e. radiographs with poor resolution, makes detection of many adverse dental conditions, e.g. small, incipient fractures within a tooth, difficult or impossible. Relative motion of the tubehead 20, palate, and image receptor can lead to blurred features within a resulting radiograph. Accordingly, a dental technician will often instruct a patient to "Hold still!", while the technician exits the room and activates the x-ray tube to expose the radiograph.
Movement of the tubehead 20 is often detrimental to the quality of the exposed image. Despite the relatively rigid construction of the extension arm 16, the tubehead 20 often is exhibits substantial oscillatory movement after a dental technician positions it. The motion can persist while the dental technician exits the room to activate the x-ray tube, significantly compromising image quality. The partially collimated nature of the x-ray beam and, in the case of intraoral radiographs, the relatively small spatial separation between the palate and the image receptor mitigate the effects of such relative motion. Nonetheless, motion of the tubehead 20 can potentially degrade the quality of radiograph.
It would thus be advantageous to provide a structure, system, and/or process by which activation of an x-ray system is allowed to proceed under conditions wherein relative movement between a tubehead and the image receptor is acceptable. Such a structure, system, and/or process would provide a substantial technical advance.
Furthermore, it would be advantageous to provide a structure, system and/or process for preventing activation of an x-ray source if relative movement between a tubehead and the image receptor would otherwise result in poor quality x-ray images. Such a structure, system, and/or process would provide an additional technical advance.

Motion-based radiograph interlock systems, structures, and processes


The object of the invention is to provide an EGFR-derived peptide useful for EGFR-based immunotherapy.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an EGFR-derived peptide useful for EGFR-based immunotherapy for cancer. In addition, the invention relates to a polypeptide comprising the EGFR-derived peptide capable of inducing both cellular and humoral immune responses and also a cancer vaccine containing said peptide.
2. Background of the Invention
Epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) plays an important role in epithelial biology and in many human malignancies (References 1-3). EGFR is a member of the receptor family comprising four, highly homologous proteins, HER2, HER3, and HER4 as well as EGFR. Those proteins in this family consist of an extracellular domain, a transmembrane domain, and an intracellular tyrosine kinase domain (Reference 20). Binding of the ligand such as epithelial growth factor (EGF) activates the intracellular tyrosine kinase domain to induce autophosphorylation of the receptor, which initiates the signaling cascade involved in cell proliferation and survival (Reference 20). The activation of EGFR highly involved in the processes of tumor proliferation and progression, including cell proliferation, inhibition of apoptosis, angiogenesis and metastasis (Reference 19). EGFR shows relatively high expression in approximately one-third of all types of epithelial cancers and the expression correlates with tumor progression, and therefore it is one of the most suitable targets in cancer therapy (References 21, 22).
As EGFR-targeted therapies, monoclonal antibodies which bind to the extracellular ligand binding site of the receptor and inhibitors for the intracellular tyrosine-kinase domain were intensively studied. Among them, a novel EGFR-tyrosine-kinase inhibitor ZD1839 is known to be effective for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (References 4, 5).
It has been known that a living body has an immune system to eliminate tumor cells developed and that cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) plays the central role in the system. CTL specifically recognizes an antigen presented on a tumor cell via a major histocompatibility complex (HLA in human) to kill the tumor cell. Taking advantage of the immune system for tumor cells, vaccine therapies, which include immunization of a body with epitope peptides of tumor antigens, have been attempted to potentiate the cytotoxicity against tumor cells.
Epitope peptides of HER2/neu, a member of the receptor family of EGFR, capable of inducing HLA-class I-restricted CTL were reported in the past decade (References 6-9). The inventers of the present invention previously reported that some CTL-directed peptides derived from non-mutated proliferation-related proteins had the ability to elicit both cellular and humoral immune responses in vivo in clinical studies (References 10-12). Further, levels of anti-peptide Abs in post-vaccination sera were well correlated with overall survival of advanced lung cancer patients who received peptide vaccination (Reference 12). In addition, there is a line of evidence for higher immunogenicity of a peptide capable of inducing both cellular and humoral immune responses (References 13-15), which can be expected to have more potent therapeutic activity.
The CTL epitope peptide of EGFR may be useful in cancer therapies in a different way from existing compounds, because it can be used as a peptide vaccine in EGFR-targeted therapies for cancer patients with tumors overexpressing EGFR. So far, however, there is no information about CTL epitopes of EGFR.

Epidermal growth factor receptor-derived peptides

Abstract: The invention provides an EGFR-derived peptide capable of inducing both cellular and humoral immune responses and mutant peptide thereof and a polypeptide comprising said peptide, a nucleic acid molecule encoding the same, and a pharmaceutical composition comprising the same.


The present invention provides a transparent functional film comprising a transparent plastic substrate film and a hard coat layer provided thereon, wherein functional ultrafine particles are present in a highly localized form, thereby enabling the functional ultrafine particles to effectively exhibit their function and, at the same time, the hard coat layer to have a good adhesion to the functional ultrafine particle layer; and also an antireflection film and processes for producing the transparent functional film and the antireflection film.. A functional ultrafine particle layer 2 is formed on a release film 1. Separately, a resin composition for a hard coat layer is coated on a transparent plastic substrate film 3. The coated release film is laminated by press bonding to the coated transparent plastic substrate film so that the functional ultrafine particle layer 2 faces the resin composition coating, thereby causing part of the functional ultrafine particles 5 to be embedded in the resin composition coating for a hard coat layer. The resultant laminate is cured, and the release film 1 is then peeled off. In the resultant transparent functional film, the functional ultrafine particle layer 2 is partly embedded in and fixed to the hard coat layer 4, and the functional ultrafine particles 5 are localized in the hard coat layer 4 on its surface side.

The present invention relates to a transparent functional membrane wherein functional ultrafine particles having various functions, such as a UV screening effect, an antistatic effect, and an antireflection effect, are localized in a coating, particularly localized and fixed in a coating on its surface layer in contact with or near air, thereby enabling the functions of the functional ultrafine particles to be developed, a transparent functional film, and a process for producing the same. Further, the present invention relates to an antireflection film comprising the above transparent functional film having an antireflection effect, and a process for producing the same.
It is known that a transparent functional film having functions, such as a UV screening property, an antistatic property, or an antireflection property, can be produced by coating on a transparent plastic substrate film a transparent resin composition with functional ultrafine particles having particular properties, such as a UV screening effect, an antistatic effect, and an antireflection effect, being dispersed therein, thereby forming a functional coating.
Further, it is also known that, in order to impart additional properties, such as scratch resistance and chemical resistance, to the above transparent functional film, a transparent functional film having a hard property can be produced by forming as an intermediate layer a hard coat layer of, for example, an ionizing radiation curing resin on a transparent plastic substrate film and coating thereon a transparent resin composition with functional ultrafine particles being dispersed therein.
In the transparent functional film containing the above functional ultrafine particles, the functional ultrafine particles are present in a dispersed form in a transparent functional membrane due to the nature of the process. The incorporation of a larger amount of functional ultrafine particles in the membrane can further enhance the function of the functional ultrafine particles. In this case, however, the filling ratio of the functional ultrafine particles dispersed in the resin should be increased, making it difficult to form a film. Further, the transparent functional film having a hard coat layer of an ionizing radiation curing resin or the like has a problem that the adhesion between the hard coat layer and the transparent functional membrane is so low that the transparent functional membrane is likely to peel off.

Transparent functional membrane containing functional ultrafine particles, transparent functional film, and process for producing the same


Inhibition of UL42 stimulation of herpesvirus DNA polymerase activity is exhibited by novel compounds of the formulas EQU W'--A.sub.1 --A.sub.2 --A.sub.3 --A.sub.4 --A.sub.5 --A.sub.6 --A.sub.7 --A.sub.8 --A.sub.9 --A.sub.10 --A.sub.11 --X SEQ. ID NO: 1!. and EQU Y'--A.sub.12 --A.sub.13 --A.sub.14 --A.sub.15 --A.sub.16 --A.sub.17 --Z SEQ. ID NO: 2!. that are useful as antiviral agents.

Herpesvirus are a diverse group of large DNA viruses found in many different animal species, including man. These viruses are known to cause a number of diseases in the hosts they infect. For example, different human herpesviruses are the causative agents of various diseases such as oral herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1)! and genital herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2)! herpes simplex, cytomegalic inclusion disease cytomegalovirus (CMV)! and infectious mononucleosis Epstein Baar virus (EBV)!.
Seven viral-encoded gene products which are essential for HSV DNA replication have been identified. These include the HSV DNA polymerase (UL30) and the accessory protein, UL42. The essential function of UL42 is believed to be by forming a complex with and stimulation of the processivity of the viral polymerase. The region of HSV DNA polymerase which binds UL42 has been genetically mapped to the carboxy-terminal 227 amino acids.
Despite extensive knowledge concerning the characteristics of herpesviruses, and with the increasing incidence of clinical resistance to the currently licensed anti-herpes drugs, new materials and methods are still needed for combatting diseases caused by these viruses.


A zoom lens is disclosed comprising, from front to rear a first lens unit of positive refractive power, a second lens unit of negative refractive power for varying the focal length, a third lens unit for compensating for the image shift with zooming, and a fourth lens unit having the image forming function and stationary during zooming, wherein the first lens unit is divided into two or three lens subunits, one of which is moved to effect focusing, and various rules of design are set forth to suppress well the variation of aberrations with focusing.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to zoom lenses suited to television cameras, photographic cameras, or video cameras and, more particularly, to large relative aperture, high range zoom lenses whose F-number for the wide-angle end is 1.6 and whose range is 8 to 44, wherein good stability of high optical performance is maintained over the entire focusing range, as focusing is performed by a lens subunit constituting part of the first lens unit, or by employing the so-called inner focus type.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the recent state of art of color television cameras for broadcasting, quick and easy handling and good manageability are regarded as important. To meet such a demand, even the image pickup devices are reduced in size. So, the use of CCD (solid-state image sensor) of reduced size of, for example, 2/3, or 1/2 inch has been coming to be the mainstream. By this, it is then insured to minimize the bulk and size of the whole camera apparatus.
In response to this demand, another measure has been taken to the zoom lens for use in the color television camera for broadcasting by reducing its size and weight. At the same time, the capabilities of the zoom lens are heightened.
Of the zoom lens types, one comprising, from front to rear, a focusing or first lens unit of positive refractive power, a second lens unit of negative refractive power for varying the focal length, a third lens unit of positive or negative refractive power for compensating for the image shift with zooming and a fourth lens unit of positive refractive power for forming an image, or the so-called 4-unit zoom lens, has found its use in many color television cameras for broadcasting, since it is comparatively easy to increase the zoom ratio and the relative aperture.
In recent development of zoom lenses for broadcasting, there are strong demands for shortening the focal length in the wide-angle end, or elongating the focal length in the telephoto end, and for increasing the zooming range. In addition to these, how much ahead of the television camera a close object to be shot may take its place has come into consideration. In the zoom lens that is adapted to be used in the television camera for broadcasting, therefore, a shortening of the so-called MOD (Minimum Object Distance) is becoming one of the important factors on the design specification and also on picture effects.
However, if one attempts to shorten this MOD, the variation with focusing of all aberrations becomes a serious problem. Particularly in spherical aberration, astigmatism and chromatic aberrations, the variation gets larger, causing the optical performance to be lowered extremely. With regard to this result of aberration variation by focusing, the longer the focal length and the smaller the F-number, or the faster the lens system and the shorter the MOD, the more prominent the aberration variation becomes. For this reason, many technical ideas have been made in the method of focusing the zoom lens.
Of the focusing types, there is one in which the focusing provision is made, not in the front or first lens unit, but in an inner portion of the lens system, or the so-called "inner focus" type. Using this type, many proposals have previously been made.
Such an inner focus type zoom lens is exemplified in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 52-41068, as obtained by applying it to the socalled 4-unit zoom lens that comprises, from front to rear, a first lens unit of positive refractive power, a second lens unit of negative refractive power for varying the focal length, a third lens unit of negative refractive power for compensating for the image shift with zooming and a fourth lens unit of positive refractive power. In this case, the first lens unit is made movable in part on the image side as a lens subunit for focusing.
Meanwhile, Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 59-4686 discloses a technique that the first lens unit is divided into three lens subunits, of which the first is negative in refractive power, the second is positive, and the third is positive, wherein as focusing goes from an infinitely distant object to an object at the minimum distance, the second lens subunit is moved toward the image side.
In general, the zoom lenses of the inner focus type have features that, as compared with that type of zoom lens which moves the first lens unit as a whole, the effective diameter of the first lens unit gets small, it becomes easy to minimize the size of the entire lens system, and close-up photography, particularly photomacrography, becomes easy to do, and further quick focus adjustment becomes possible, because the lens unit for focusing is relatively small in size and light in weight, so that a weaker force is sufficient to drive the focusing lens unit.
However, an adverse effect is caused so as to increase the variation with focusing of aberrations, particularly spherical aberration in the telephoto end, giving rise to a very difficult problem of obtaining high optical performance maintained stable over the entire focusing range with the limitation of the size of the entire lens system to a minimum.
FIG. 15 and FIG. 16 are schematic diagrams used to explain such variation with focusing of spherical aberration in the telephoto end.
In FIGS. 15 and 16, the 4-unit zoom lens has its first lens unit F made constructed with a first lens subunit F11 of negative refractive power, a second lens subunit F12 of positive refractive power and a third lens subunit F13 of positive refractive power, totaling three lens subunits, wherein the second lens subunit F12 is moved to effect focusing.
When focused on an infinitely distant object, the first lens unit F and a second lens unit V take a paraxial power arrangement as shown in FIG. 15.
In this figure, a light beam RL1 is axial at the F-number in the telephoto end, and another light beam with a principal ray RL2 comes from the maximum angle of view-field in the wide-angle end.
With the axial light beam in the telephoto end, whilst when focused on an infinitely distant object, it travels as shown by RL3 in FIG. 16, and when focused on an object at the minimum distance, it changes to a light beam RL4.
As is apparent from FIG. 16, the height of incidence on the first lens subunit F11 is lower, and the height of incidence on the second lens subunit F12 is higher when on an object at the minimum distance than when on an infinitely distant object. For this reason, the spherical aberration varies in the negative direction as focusing goes down.
Here, to assure reduction of the size of the first lens unit F, as is understandable from FIG. 15, there is need to minimize the outer diameters of the first and second lens subunits F11 and F12 in order to admit of the principal ray RL2 of the maximum angle of field coverage in the wide-angle end.
To this end, it is necessary either to reduce the inclination of the principal ray of the maximum angular field in the travel from the third lens subunit F13 to the second lens subunit F12, or to put the rear principal point of the first lens unit F to a more rearer position so as to reduce its spacing with the variator V. The height of incidence is thus lowered.
This could be achieved if the refractive power of the third lens subunit F13 were strengthened. However, at the same time, the degree of divergence of the F.sub.NO ray in the telephoto end would be caused to increase, as can be seen from FIG. 15.
Further, if one attempts to shorten the minimum object distance, an increased total movement of the second lens subunit F12 results. To allow this, the separation between the second and third lens subunits F12 and F13 for an object at infinity is necessarily increased greatly. Hence, much reduction of the size would become even more difficult to perform.
Since, as described above, the simultaneous fulfillment of the requirements of reducing the size and of shortening the minimum object distance results in an increase of the divergence of the F.sub.NO ray for the telephoto end in between the second and third lens subunits F12 and F13, and an increase of the total focusing movement of the second lens subunit F12 at once, the heights of incidence of the rays of FIG. 16 on either of the first and second lens subunits F11 and F12 differ more greatly from each other, with the result that the spherical aberration in the telephoto end varies to a far larger extent with focusing.
Referring again to the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 52-41068, the focusing method proposed herein does not always make sure that the lens configuration is adequate for zoom lenses for broadcasting under the demands of high specifications such as large relative aperture, high zoom ratio, short MOD, etc. Particularly with the first lens unit, the shares of its refractive power between the focusing and stationary parts thereof, and the values of dispersion of the glasses of the constituent lens elements are not always sufficiently suited to the high class of zoom lens for broadcasting.
In general, to achieve fulfillment of the recent user's demand, that is, heighten the specifications of the zoom lens in such a manner that the bulk and size and the weight of the entire system are minimized, it is necessary to set forth proper features for the refractive power of all of the lens units and the construction and arrangement of the constituent lenses. Particularly in designing a 4-unit zoom lens, since the first lens unit most affects the bulk and size and the weight of the entire lens system, the proportion of the refractive power it shares, and its speed are important factors. What balance of them to make relative to the whole zoom lens becomes an important element of decision.
Furthermore, to obtain high optical performance throughout the entire focusing range, variation with focusing of aberrations must be suppressed. Of these, spherical aberration and chromatic aberrations vary to the largest extent with focusing. If the variation of these aberrations fails to be as far suppressed as possible, good image quality can no longer be obtained. For this reason, how to make the focusing lens unit and the stationary lens units share aberrations and contribute to achromatism becomes another important element.


The present invention provides novel methods of applying pesticides to control pests with reduced phytotoxicity effects. The method comprises applying pesticides as micro-droplets in a low volume but high concentration.

Environmentally safe methods for the control of plant pests using non-toxic agents represent ecologically sound alternatives to the use of synthetic chemical pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, miticides, adjuvants for crop-care chemicals and the like. Damage caused to the environment, including natural aquifers and animal and plant species due to runoff of these chemicals is an ecological problem faced by virtually every country in the world. This environmental damage leads to enormous difficulties reflected in, for example, increased health care costs and ecological harm. There is a significant unmet need for environmentally safe methods for the control of pests using agents having low, or no phytotoxicity, but which have high activity against target pests.
The need in the industry is for environmentally safe methods for the control of pests through, in the first instance, the efficient application of pesticides without resulting in phytotoxicity, and additionally by obtaining a complete coverage of the foliage and fruit. In the second instance, lower spray volumes save on refilling time of the spray tank, resulting in more spraying time compared to refilling time. This leads to more efficient use of equipment and fuel and operator time. It also saves on energy needs by either having less volume of spray solution to pressurize or in other instances, eliminating the need for air fans delivering huge volumes of high speed air flow.

Methods of reducing phytotoxicity of a pesticide


A method and apparatus for reducing echo in a communication system are provided. A first signal including a voice component associated to a speaker is received. The first signal is processed to derive a harmonic feature of the voice component. A second signal including an echo component correlated to the first signal is also received. The second signal is processed at least in part on the basis of the harmonic feature of the voice component to remove at least in part the echo component such as to derive an echo reduced signal. The echo reduced signal is then released. In specific implementations, the harmonic feature of the voice component is an estimate of the pitch associated to the voice component.

Various adaptive filter structures have been developed for use in time updated adaptive systems to solve acoustical echo cancellation, line echo cancellation, channel equalization and other problems; examples of such structures include for example, transversal, multistage lattice, systolic array, and recursive implementations. Among these, transversal finite-impulse-response (FIR) filters are often used, due to stability considerations, and to their versatility and ease of implementation. Many algorithms have also been developed to adapt these filters, including the least-mean-square (LMS), recursive least-squares, sequential regression, and least-squares lattice algorithms.
A deficiency with the FIR filters commonly being used for echo-cancellation is that they do not easily remove echo in the presence of double-talk. Double-talk occurs when two entities in a communication exchange talk at the same time. In the absence of double talk, the entire signal can be removed and replaced by comfort noise and/or background noise. However in the presence of double talk, it is desirable to remove the echo component without substantially affecting the non-echo signal.
Consequently, there is a need in the industry for providing a method and apparatus for use in reducing echo in a communication system that alleviate at least in part the deficiencies of the prior art.

Method and apparatus for reducing echo in a communication system


A wheel speed measuring device for an aircraft braking system uses dual technology packaged in a single transducer that incorporates the robust and reliable variable reluctance technology along with a secondary package for measuring position and velocity bi-directionally for low speed and taxi operations. The transducer of the present invention is preferably incorporated into the envelope of the axle to allow both retrofit on existing aircraft and to maintain existing axle design and configuration.

Aircraft braking systems for multi-wheel brakes of complex aircraft may include wheel speed transducers or sensors for measuring the instantaneous wheel speed of the individual wheels of the aircraft landing gear. Such wheel speed transducers are particularly important in aircraft braking systems where maximum braking efficiency is desired for a variety of runway surface conditions. Wheel speed transducers for such braking systems convert the rotational speed of the associated wheel axle to electrical signals. This wheel speed signal is then employed by brake control circuitry such as antiskid control circuitry and/or automatic brake control circuitry to control the braking activity of the vehicle. Wheel speed transducers, sometimes referred to as tachometers, include one part that is fixed to the axle or aircraft frame and another part that is connected to and rotates with the associated wheel. Accordingly, a coupler is generally required to interconnect the rotatable member to the wheel.
Some current wheel speed devices for aircraft antiskid systems employ variable reluctance mechanisms. Although these devices are reliable and robust, the amplitude of the wheel speed signal varies as a function of the wheel speed and it diminishes significantly as the rotational speed nears zero. These devices are also unable to distinguish a direction of wheel velocity, but are limited to a magnitude only.
Variable reluctance sensors need waveform shaping for their output to be digitally readable. The normal output of a VR sensor is an analog signal, shaped much like a sine wave. The frequency of the analog signal is proportional to the sensor's velocity output. This analog waveform must be squared up, and flattened off by a comparator-like electronic chip to become digitally readable. As used to measure angular velocity of a rotating wheel, when a sensor on the rotating wheel passes by the face of a magnet, the amount of magnetic flux passing through the magnet and consequently the coil can vary. When the magnet is close to the sensor, the flux is at a maximum. When the magnet is further away, the flux is reduced. The moving target thus results in a time-varying flux that induces a proportional voltage in the coil. Subsequent electronics are then used to process this signal to get a digital waveform that can be more readily counted and timed. However, as the velocity slows, the accuracy diminishes because conversion of the sine wave to a digital output becomes unstable and less reliable.
It has been hypothesized that shipboard unmanned aerial vehicles ("UAVs") will need to have locally referenced feedback for navigation, i.e., angular position of its wheels, in order to properly taxi on the deck. Similarly, proposed motorized taxi systems for airliners will require both the ability to measure zero wheel speed as well as movement in both forward and rearward directions. Aircraft designers recognize that aircraft braking systems using present technology are unable to meet these increased demands.

Dual speed and position wheel transducer


A system and method of operating an automatic speech recognition application over an Internet Protocol network is disclosed. The ASR application communicates over a packet network such as an Internet Protocol network or a wireless network. A grammar for recognizing received speech from a user over the IP network is selected from a plurality of grammars according to a user-selected application. A server receives information representing speech over the IP network, performs speech recognition using the selected grammar, and returns information based upon the recognized speech. Sub-grammars may be included within the grammar to recognize speech from sub-portions of a dialog with the user.

Techniques for accomplishing automatic speech recognition (ASR) are well known. Among known ASR techniques are those that use grammars. A grammar is a representation of the language or phrases expected to be used or spoken in a given context. In one sense, then, ASR grammars typically constrain the speech recognizer to a vocabulary that is a subset of the universe of potentially-spoken words; and grammars may include sub-grammars. An ASR grammar rule can then be used to represent the set of "phrases" or combinations of words from one or more grammars or sub-grammars that may be expected in a given context. "Grammar" may also refer generally to a statistical language model (where a model represents phrases), such as those used in language understanding systems.
Products and services that utilize some form of automatic speech recognition ("ASR") methodology have been recently introduced commercially. For example, AT&T has developed a grammar-based ASR engine called WATSON that enables development of complex ASR services. Desirable attributes of complex ASR services that would utilize such ASR technology include high accuracy in recognition; robustness to enable recognition where speakers have differing accents or dialects, and/or in the presence of background noise; ability to handle large vocabularies; and natural language understanding. In order to achieve these attributes for complex ASR services, ASR techniques and engines typically require computer-based systems having significant processing capability in order to achieve the desired speech recognition capability. Processing capability as used herein refers to processor speed, memory, disk space, as well as access to application databases. Such requirements have restricted the development of complex ASR services that are available at one's desktop, because the processing requirements exceed the capabilities of most desktop systems, which are typically based on personal computer (PC) technology.
Packet networks are general-purpose data networks that are well-suited for sending stored data of various types, including speech or audio. The Internet, the largest and most renowned of the existing packet networks, connects over 4 million computers in some 140 countries. The Internet's global and exponential growth is common knowledge today.
Typically, one accesses a packet network, such as the Internet, through a client software program executing on a computer, such as a PC, and so packet networks are inherently client/server oriented. One way of accessing information over a packet network is through use of a Web browser (such as the Netscape Navigator, available from Netscape Communications, Inc., and the Internet Explorer, available from Microsoft Corp.) that enables a client to interact with Web servers. Web servers and the information available therein are typically identified and addressed through a Uniform Resource Locator (URL)-compatible address. URL addressing is widely used in Internet and intranet applications and is well known to those skilled in the art (an "intranet" is a packet network modeled in functionality based upon the Internet and is used, e.g., by companies locally or internally). Many of these networks use the well-known Internet Protocol for communication. Further, in addition to land-line networks, wireless networks also employ packet technologies and use microbrowsers and the like to enable hand-held wireless devices to communicate with wireless web servers.
What is desired is a way of enabling ASR services that may be made available to users at a location, such as at their desktop or from a wireless device, that is remote from the system hosting the ASR engine and TTS engine.

System and method for providing remote automatic speech recognition and text to speech services via a packet network


A process for pretreating oil shale prior to retorting by contacting with an organic acid, such as formic and acetic acids, at temperatures below about 100.degree. C. for a period of time sufficient to react at least a portion of the oil shale carbonates and separating the shale from the organic acid solution containing at least a major portion of the reaction products of the carbonates and organic acid. The process is preferably carried out in an aqueous solution of organic acid having a pH of 3 and less for a time of about 1/2 to about 4 hours and at ambient temperatures about 20.degree. to about 30.degree. C. Pretreatment of oil shale by this process prior to retorting results in higher liquid and aromatic product fractions being produced by conventional retorting.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pretreating oil shale prior to retorting with organic acid which reduces mineral carbonates content, particularly calcite and dolomite, of the oil shale and increases subsequent retorting yield, particularly, the liquid and aromatic fraction recovery from retorting the organic acid pretreated oil shale. The organic acid pretreatment removes water soluble salts prior to retorting which reduces retorting product oil contamination and hazardous wastes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Oil shale from both Western and Eastern United States contains mineral carbonates which are desirably removed prior to retorting to increase the oil-retort yield. Mineral acids, such as hydrochloric and sulfuric acid solutions, are known to remove the mineral carbonates from oil shale prior to retorting. Pretreatment of oil shale with mineral acids was reported in Environmental Improvements by Oil Shale Leaching, Mohsen Moussavi and T. F. Yen, in Science and Technology of Oil Shale, edited by T. F. Yen, published by Ann Arbor Science Publisher (1976). Such pretreatment can produce a weight loss of up to 15 percent in Western U.S. oil shale, increasing it's permeability about three orders of magnitude. However, a major drawback of the use of mineral acid is the formation of undesirable, hazardous chlorine and sulfur containing by-products as well as adverse economics.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,487 discloses treating oil shale by heating in the presence of steam and acetic acid prior to and after attaining retorting temperatures. The oil shale is heated from an ambient temperature to a final temperature of at least 450.degree. C. for retorting. It is preferred to add about half of the steam and acetic acid during heating and prior to the shale reaching about 120.degree. C. and about half of the steam and acetic acid after the shale has reached about 400.degree. C. The '487 patent teaches that the acetic acid acts as a molecular catalyst which enters into a reaction with the kerogen organic material and converts acetic acid into higher boiling distillable organic material forming a different quality product oil. The '487 patent teaches use of acetic acid in amounts of 1.5% to 3% by weight of the oil shale.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,787 teaches an apparatus for retorting oil shale including the introduction of an admixture of steam with acetic acid to the particulate raw material prior to introduction into the retort and in the lower portion of the retort where the temperature is about 500.degree. C. U.S. Pat. No. 2,609,331 teaches a method of pretreating oil shale with hydrogen fluoride or hydrochloric acid to react with aluminum, iron or silicon to produce active catalysts for enhancement of oil production.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,703,192 teaches the digestion of oil shale in a heavy mineral oil at about 700.degree. F. in the presence of a basic material, for example, caustic lime, to liberate nitrogen as ammonia and to bind reactive sulfur present. U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,891 teaches the extraction of kerogen from oil shale by dispersing the oil shale in fused alkali metal caustics as a treating agent for releasing kerogen from the oil shale at a treating temperature of 250.degree. to 400.degree. C. U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,762 teaches the extraction of nitrogen from a shale oil product by sulfuric acid treatment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,511 teaches a method for retorting oil shale utilizing superheated water vapor at temperatures from 425.degree. to 510.degree. C., at a superficial gas velocity of at least 10 cm/sec, and a pressure of about 6.9 to 1034 kPa with maintenance of a carbon dioxide partial pressure sufficient to effectively suppress decomposition of alkaline carbonates to obtain an environmentally acceptable retorted shale. U.S. Pat. No. 3,058,904 teaches a method for retorting oil shale wherein solids up-flow combustion retorting is integrated with hot gas eduction in a fluid-downflow retort with maintenance of the eduction gas above about 0.10 atm. reducing heat loss from carbonate decomposition. The '904 patent recognizes that excessive decomposition of carbonates is a limiting factor in many of the shale retorting methods. U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,951 teaches recovery of magnesium values from inorganic carbonates present in oil shale by introducing oxygen to the trailing side of an advancing combustion zone which decomposes kerogen and coverts magnesium carbonates to oxides and hydroxides which may be leached by contacting with an acidic aqueous leaching agent containing a minor amount of a polyelectrolyte to form an enriched solution containing magnesium values.

Pretreating oil shale with organic acid to increase retorting yield and process efficiency


Provided are a wireless communication method and device. The method includes: a network device sending first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the format of a first downlink control channel, and the first downlink control channel is used for carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback information about a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) of at least one terminal device; and the network device sending the first downlink control channel having the format.

A base station may schedule a terminal device through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), and the terminal device may send a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) based on the scheduling of the base station.
The base station may provide feedback of reception of a PUSCH of the terminal device.
However, in different scenarios, for example, when there are different numbers of terminal devices transmitting PUSCHs in the same bandwidth, how the base station provides feedback of reception of a PUSCH is a problem to be solved urgently.

Wireless communication method and device

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.


A device for supporting multiple line configurations in a Fixed Wireless Loop (FWL) application includes a hand-held transceiver supporting wireless communications. The device also includes a cradle disposed on or in the building for receiving the hand-held transceiver and terminating a primary telecommunications line having at least one primary telephone connected thereto. The cradle further terminates a secondary telecommunications line, different from the primary telecommunications line, having at least one secondary telephone connected thereto. Still further, the cradle includes a spring-loaded switch integrally formed therein, wherein when the hand-held transceiver is in the cradle, the switch is biased to break contact between the primary telecommunications line and the secondary telecommunications line. When the hand-held transceiver is removed from the cradle, the switch is biased to connect the primary telecommunications line with the secondary telecommunications line so as to permit users of the primary telecommunications line to continue to receive and place calls when the hand-held transceiver is removed from the cradle.

A Fixed Wireless Loop (FWL) is a system that supports access of wireline telecommunications devices to the public wireline network via wireless communications. A radio transceiver transmits and receives communication signals to and from a remote transceiver located at a subscriber's home or office. Thus, a FWL eliminates the need for copper wire transmission between service providers and their respective subscribers.
A FWL is typically provided utilizing a FWL terminal at the subscriber's home or office. Mobility has been added to the FWL via a cradled handset. While the handset, or hand-held transceiver, is in the cradle, the combined unit functions as a FWL terminal providing telephone service over the subscriber's telephone wiring. When the hand-held transceiver is removed from the cradle, the hand-held transceiver acts as a mobile unit allowing the subscriber to roam throughout the house, or the FWL home sector. This type of FWL terminal serves the market of telecommunications users not needing mobile wireless services on a continuous basis, but would like to have easy access to such services when needed. Known FWL terminals as described above include the CelDock manufactured by Telular and the IntelliGo manufactured by GTE.
Such devices, however, render the wireline phones connected to the FWL terminal inoperative when the hand-held transceiver is removed from the cradle. Furthermore, the mobility of the hand-held transceiver is limited to the FWL sector surrounding the subscriber's home or office.
Thus, there exists a need for a FWL terminal that supports wireline telecommunications services when the hand-held transceiver is removed from the cradle. There also exists a need for providing hand-off capability between the FWL hand-held transceiver and the public wireless network.

Device for supporting multi-line configurations in a fixed wireless loop application


An acoustic structure for beaming soundwaves from a first direction toward a second direction, may include a plurality of phononic crystals. The plurality of phononic crystals have an outer border, an internal cavity and a channel extending between the outer border and the internal cavity, wherein the channel defines an opening within the outer border. The phononic crystals are disposed such that the opening faces the second direction. Soundwaves from the first direction are beamed to the second direction by the plurality of phononic crystals.

The background description provided is to present the context of the disclosure generally. Work of the inventors, to the extent it may be described in this background section, and aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present technology.
Some traditional methodologies for directing soundwaves involve the use of waveguides. A waveguide is a structure that guides soundwaves by restricting the transmission of energy in one direction. Without the physical constraint of a waveguide, wave amplitudes decrease according to the inverse square law as they expand into a three-dimensional space.
The geometry of a waveguide may dictate its function. For example, in addition to more common types that channel the wave in one dimension, there are two-dimensional slab waveguides that confine waves to two dimensions. The frequency of the transmitted wave also dictates the size of a waveguide, as each waveguide has a cutoff wavelength determined by its size and will not conduct waves of greater wavelength.

Acoustic structure for beaming soundwaves

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.


Disclosed are an electroless copper plating solution comprising a copper ion, a copper ion-complexing agent, a reducing agent and a pH-adjusting agent, the plating solution comprising a trialkanolmonoamine or a salt thereof as a complexing agent and accelerator in an amount giving a higher copper deposition speed than the copper deposition speed obtained when the trialkanolmonoamine or salt thereof is present in an amount sufficient to complex the copper ion but not enough to function as the accelerator, and 1.2.times.10.sup.-4 to 1.2.times.10.sup.-3 mole/l of an iron ion compound as a reaction initiator and/or 1.92.times.10.sup.-4 to 1.92.times.10.sup.-3 mole/l of at least one compound selected from the group consisting of pyridazine, methylpiperidine, 1,2-di-(2-pyridyl)ethylene, 1,2-di-(pyridyl)ethylene, 2,2'-dipyridylamine, 2,2'-bipyridyl, 2,2'-bipyrimidine, 6,6'-dimethyl-2,2'-dipyridyl, di-2-pyridylketone, N,N,N',N'-tetraethylethylenediamine, napththalene, 1,8-naphthyridine, 1,6-naphthyridine, tetrathiafurvalene, .alpha.,.alpha.,.alpha.-terpyridine, phthalic acid, isophthalic acid and 2,2'-dibenzoic acid as an agent for improving the physical properties of a plating film, and a process for forming an electroless copper deposition film by using this electroless copper plating solution.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electroless copper plating solution and a process for the formation of a copper film with this plating solution. More particularly, the present invention relates to an electroless copper plating solution for forming all copper films, such as copper films used for conductor circuits of printed circuit boards, copper films for conductor circuits on ceramic substrates, and copper films to be used for electromagnetic wave shielding materials, and a process for forming copper films by using this plating solution.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the electroless copper plating solution for electrolessly depositing metallic copper, there is widely known a solution comprising ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) or Rochelle salt as the complexing agent for a copper ion, and a solution comprising copper sulfate as the copper salt and formaldehyde as the reducing agent is most widely used. Research into complexing agents such as N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(2-hydroxypropyl)ethylenediamine and nitrilotriacetic acid has been made.
When these complexing agents are used, however, the electroless copper deposition speed is very low and usually 1 to 2 .mu.m/hr. Namely, since additives are incorporated to improve the physical properties of the obtained copper film, the deposition speed is reduced. In the basic plating solution free of additives (consisting solely of a copper salt, a complexing agent, a reducing agent and a pH-adjusting agent), the deposition speed is about 10 .mu.m/hr at highest. It was a recently reported that a plating solution giving a highest deposition speed is a solution comprising N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(2-hydroxypropyl)ethylenediamine as the complexing agent and an activator, and a deposition speed of 72 .mu.m/hr is obtained by this plating solution (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-25965). It has been also reported, however, that even if the above-mentioned plating solution is used, an applicable deposition speed is 2 to 5 .mu.m (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 60-15917).
Current demands for an electroless copper plating solution having a high deposition speed are increasing, to reduce the cost of, for example, printed circuit boards. To meet this demand, there have been proposed a plating solution comprising an accelerator (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 60-159173) and a plating solution formed by adding an activator to a reducing agent (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 55-76054). These plating solutions, however, are not satisfactory, and the development of a plating solution showing a higher plating speed is required.
The present inventors previously showed that, by using a monoamine type trialkanolamine, especially triethanolamine, as the complexing agent and making this complexing agent function also as an accelerator, electroless copper plating can be performed at a speed as high as 100 .mu.m/hr or more, and even if an additive is added to improve the physical properties, a copper film having good physical properties can be formed at a speed as high as 30 to 120 .mu.m/hr (see the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 62-273493 published Jul. 4, 1989 as 1-168871).
Triethanolmonoamine acting as the complexing agent and accelerator in the above-mentioned high-speed electroless copper plating solution has a high stability in the form of a complex, and therefore, the reactivity is low and initiation of the reaction (plating) is not uniform. Accordingly, in the above-mentioned high-speed electroless copper plating solution, there is a need to easily initiate a stable plating reaction.
For example, if this high-speed electroless copper plating solution is applied to the full-additive preparation of a printed circuit board, then the formed copper film should have excellent physical properties.

Electroless copper plating solution and process for formation of copper film


A communication device for uplink transmission with a first type of information and a second type of information includes a demultiplexing circuit, a vector selection circuit, a permutation circuit and a Reed-Muller encoding circuit. The demultiplexing circuit generates a first group of information bits and a second group of information bits according to the first type of information and the second type of information. The vector selection circuit selects code vectors from a predetermined vector set for the first group of information bits and the second group of information bits. The permutation circuit permutes the code vectors according to the first group of information bits and according to the second group of information bits. The Reed-Muller encoding circuit encodes the first group of information bits and the second group of information bits with the permuted code vectors for providing different levels of protection.

The disclosure generally relates to a user equipment and, more particularly, to the uplink communications of encoded information bits of the user equipment.
Mobile communications have brought people so many conveniences and become indispensable in modern times. People are getting used to handling more and more tasks on the mobile communication devices, e.g., surfing the Internet, watching videos, and telephone conversations. In response to the increasing demand for faster mobile communications, many techniques have been proposed to improve the data rate of the mobile communications. For example, the carrier aggregation technique may be used to aggregate the bandwidth of multiple component carriers for increasing the communication data rates. Moreover, the channel state information (CSI) of the component carriers may be effectively utilized to adapt the communications to the channel conditions, and is crucial for achieving high data rate communications.
In the LTE and the future standards, the reporting of the CSI may frequently collide with the reporting of the acknowledgement information. In the earlier releases of the standards, the CSI is dropped when colliding with the acknowledgement information. Accordingly, the network may not timely receive the CSI for adjusting the communication parameters and the system performance might be affected. In the later releases, the simultaneous transmission of the multi-carrier acknowledgement information and the multi-carrier CSI is supported by using the PUCCH (physical uplink control channel) format 3 packets.
The error rate requirements for transmitting the acknowledgement information, the CSI and other information may be different. For example, the bit error rate (BER) requirement of the acknowledgement information (BER<=0.01) is higher than the BER of the CSI (BER<=0.1). To ensure the correct decoding of all the information, unnecessary transmission power and computation complexity are wasted on the information with lower error rate requirement (e.g., the CSI). Otherwise, the acknowledgement information or other important information may not be correctly decoded and the system performance may be seriously affected.

Communication device for uplink transmission with encoded information bits and method thereof

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A method including acquiring a current HTTP transaction; determining whether the current HTTP transaction relates to web browsing for a specific client; acquiring a previous transactions set of the specific client; evaluating whether the current HTTP transaction belongs with the previous transactions set; if the current HTTP transaction belongs with the previous transactions set, adding the current HTTP transaction to the previous transactions set; and if the current HTTP transaction does not belong with the previous transactions set, creating a boundary of a page unit that includes the HTTP transactions of the previous transactions set for computing a page unit time.

The amount of time needed to download a web page is an important indicator of the quality of a user's experience when browsing web sites on the Internet. Downloading a web page involves many transactions at several levels. At the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) level, one or more TCP connections are established between the client and the server. Once the connection is established, at the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) level, several request-response transactions are carried out to complete a web page download. The first HTTP request from the client fetches the top level HyperText Markup Language (HTML) content for the web page. The web browser then parses the retrieved HTML content and sends out additional HTTP requests to the content server for all embedded objects such as Java Script objects, Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) objects, and image objects. The client device can monitor when a web page request started and when the last HTTP response associated with the web page was received.
Because the client has this monitoring capability, measuring the time needed to download a web page can be straightforward when the measurement is made at the client. This can be done by starting a timer when the first HTTP request to the content server is sent, and stopping the timer when the last HTTP object is received and the web page is completely rendered in a client application such as the web browser.
Measuring the web page download time at the content server is also relatively straightforward if all the content is served from the same server. The server also has complete knowledge to determine the first and last HTTP transaction corresponding to a web page download from a client. The measurement, however, becomes complicated if content for a single web page is distributed across several physical servers in order to distribute load or due to partnerships with third party content providers such as advertisements providers. In these circumstances, a single content server may not have all the information to determine the time taken to download a complete web page.
Moreover, an intermediate network node also may not have all information to determine the time taken to download a complete web page. An intermediate network node can, in theory, parse HTML content served from content servers and determine the composition of a web page including all the embedded objects in the page. But since dynamic Universal Resource Locators (URLs) that are generated by execution of Java Script on the client cannot be predicted, access to HTTP cookies that are stored only on the client may be required in order to measure the time taken to download the complete web page. Thus it is practically not feasible to accurately measure the time taken to download a web page at an intermediate network node located between a client and a server.

Measuring web browsing quality of experience in real-time at an intermediate network node


The suppression device for outdoor noises in indoor space solves the technical problems on realizing better sound insulation effect within the room space and creating a quiet atmosphere for people's living environment. The structure includes an anti-noise sound source synchronized to and invert with outdoor noises. The circuit structure of suppression device includes a directional reception and processing circuit for outdoor noises, a attenuation control circuit, a multi-channel digital amplifier circuit, and loudspeaker being installed at the inlet of indoor noises. The directional reception and processing circuit for outdoor noises processes the noise signals collected from the outdoor environment and generates the inverted-phase signals, and then transmits them to the input terminal of attenuation control circuit. After being processed with attenuation by attenuation control circuit, the reverse-phase signals are sent out to input terminal of multi-channel digital amplifier circuit, which then enables the loudspeaker to generate noise compensation signals inverted to outdoor noises. This invention can provide the whole system with noise suppression capability over 28 dB.

The modernization of metropolitans has provided urban residents with convenience and enjoyment; however the accompanied noise pollution has brought inconvenience and damages to residents. Although the state has explicitly stipulated the noise level of general residences in cities, that is 55 dB shall not be exceeded in the daytime, and 45 dB shall not be exceeded at night. However, the noise interference of urban centers and residential buildings on both sides of busy roads always exceeds this specified limit. In order to improve the noise interference of residential buildings of these areas, first the vehicles on roads shall be restricted, and second the microenvironment noise within residential buildings shall be controlled. Obviously, it's impossible to restrict the vehicles on roads, therefore, we can only consider improving the environment within residential buildings. For the existing technology, we normally install acoustic insulation devices, such as double glass and seal treatment, which can suppress the relatively low outdoor noises but can not do much to suppress louder noises. Consequently, we need to consider seeking out a suppression method adapted to environmental noises, so as to meet residents' housing requirements.
It is well known that the sounds sent from the same sound source can be turned into two-way sounds with opposite phases and corresponding amplitudes after technical processing, which will then generate the "silence" when being played in the same space. This theory has been proposed on U.S. Pat. No. 2,043,416 of American patent as far back as 1934. Later on, the products of "silencer" and "pilot headset" etc. come out in 1940s and 1950s. The sound transmission space of these products is very small. In addition, in order to prevent the sounds from being reflected in this small space, and make the phases of two-way inverted-phase sounds change relatively, the periphery of this space were pasted with acoustic materials. These technical measures are fundamentally unable to be applied to an apartment with only dozens of square meters. Moreover, due to the various aesthetic tastes of individuals, the decoration materials can not be used as excellent acoustic materials. Therefore, the technology feasible in very small space is not practical in a larger space.

Suppression device for outdoor noise in indoor space


A dental vacuum system having a foot-actuated valve for controlling the flow of vacuum through the system. The foot-actuated valve is located away from the field of operation such that the valve is not exposed to the typical sources of pathogenic contaminants in a dental office.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dental vacuum systems and, more particularly, is directed to a dental vacuum system with a foot-actuated pedal vacuum valve that is used to control the vacuum flow to various handheld dental instruments such that the valve is located away from the patient's proximity to decrease the risk of the transmission of pathogenic contaminants between patients and between patients and the dental office staff.
2. Description of the Background of the Invention
In the typical dental office, blood, saliva and particulates are not confined to the area inside the patient's mouth during dental procedures and operations. Blood and saliva have a tendency to spray and splatter during certain dental procedures. Blood, saliva and particulates often collect on dental instruments and surfaces in proximity to the patient's mouth, including the handheld instruments that are used during the dental procedure. The blood and saliva of patients can carry pathogenic contaminants which may cause infectious diseases such as the common cold, pneumonia, tuberculosis, herpes, hepatitis B, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Such contaminants place other patients and dental workers at risk of contracting infectious diseases. The United States Centers for Disease Control has issued universal precautions that should be followed by all health care professionals while performing dental procedures and operations. According to the precautions, all human blood and saliva should be treated as if they are known to be infected with the HIV virus, hepatitis B, or some other bloodborne pathogen.
FIG. 1 shows a typical HVE device (1). HVE valve body (2) is connected by means of tubing connector base (3) to HVE tubing (4). The vacuum flow through the HVE device is controlled by means of HVE valve control (5). The HVE valve control (5) is typically a rotary or lever type control mechanism. HVE tip (6), which can either be a metal aspirator tip or a flexible plastic evacuator tip, is attached to the HVE valve body (2) and is typically placed in the patient's mouth to evacuate saliva, blood, and other particulates, such as tooth fragments, that are present during a dental procedure.
In the typical dental office, a dental vacuum system, as depicted in FIG. 2 as (7), which includes a high volume evacuator (HVE), a saliva ejector (SE), or both, is used to evacuate blood, saliva and particulates from the patient's mouth during a dental procedure. As shown in FIG. 2, the HVE device (1) of FIG. 1 is part of the dental vacuum system (7). Central vacuum unit (8) provides the vacuum required for evacuation of the system. Hose (9) is connected between the central vacuum unit (8) and vacuum collection canister (10). The vacuum collection canister (10) is used as a junction for the vacuum system and also typically contains a filter for filtering particulates from the vacuum system. The HVE tubing (4), which has the HVE device (1) connected to it, is in turn connected to the vacuum collection canister (10). It is understood by those skilled in the art that the dental vacuum system (7) of FIG. 2 could also contain a saliva ejector device in addition to or in place of the HVE device as shown.
During dental procedures, the outside surfaces of all dental handpieces that are used during the procedure become contaminated. This includes handpieces, such as the HVE device (1), because the device is used in close proximity to the patient's mouth. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the HVE valve control (5) is used in close proximity to the patient's mouth, and as such has a tendency to become contaminated with fluids that are expelled from the patient's mouth. The HVE valve control (5) has moving parts that are particularly susceptible to the collection of contaminants, especially contaminants that are evacuated through the HVE valve inside the HVE valve body (2). The accumulation of such contaminants poses a risk of exposing patients and dental workers to pathogenic contaminants. Also, the HVE valve control (5) is operated manually by health care workers during the dental procedure and thus the outside of the HVE device (1) is susceptible to the accumulation of any possible contaminants that are on the valve operator's hands.
Because the HVE device (1) comes into contact with the patient's tissue and is in close proximity to the performance of the dental procedure, the HVE device (1) must undergo sterilization and disinfection, or asepsis. In particular, the HVE device (1) must be sterilized after each use. Sterilization methods include steam sterilization using an autoclave, dry heat sterilization, and chemical vapor sterilization. The HVE valve body (2) must be disassembled for proper cleaning and sterilization.
Thus, there is a need for a dental vacuum system that provides protection against pathogenic contaminants while isolating moving parts from infectious debris and contaminants.

Dental vacuum system with foot-actuated valve