A rotary wing having a spar that flexes and crosses the axis of the spar in two or more points. The spar mounts two adjacent flying surfaces extending spanwise and rotatable about the longitudinal axis of the spar without the transmission of flexural movement to the wing sheets. The adjacent edges of the flying surfaces are adapted such that the flying surfaces are capable of engaging each other and thus they cooperate to constitute a wing.

The present invention relates to a modification of the invention claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,815 which describes a rotary wing assembly whereby during rotation of the wing, the wing spar can flex within the wing sheets without transmission of corresponding flexural movement to the wing sheets. In a modified wing the spar and a plurality of bearings provide the framework, and the wing sheets forming a flying surface are able to slide on such a frame: the assembly has no structure between the wing sheets and the bearings, and no contacting structure surrounding the circumference of the bearings.
The wing sheets do not float on the spar, but on the outer rings (outer races) of said bearings, and they are rotatable about said spar through said bearings.
In both mentioned cases, the spar curvature during flexion crosses the span axis of the flying surface in two points of the spar span.


An electronic tester with digital, and analog, and memory test circuitry on a single platform. A test head is coupled to a device under test. The device under test can be a system-on-a-chip integrated circuit, a mixed signal integrated circuit, a digital integrated circuit, or an analog integrated circuit. Digital test circuitry applies digital test signals to the device under test coupled to the test head and receives digital outputs from the device under test in response to the digital test signals. Analog test circuitry applies analog test signals to the device under test coupled to the test head and receives analog outputs from the device under test in response to the analog test signals. Memory test circuitry applies memory test patterns to the device under test coupled to the test head and receives memory outputs from the device under test in response to the memory test patterns. A tester computer supervises the application of digital, analog, and memory test signals from the digital, analog, and memory test circuitry to the device under test such that signals applied to the device under test can be solely digital test signals, solely analog test signals, solely memory test signals, or mixed digital, analog, and memory test signals. The test head, the digital test circuitry, the analog test circuitry, the memory test circuitry, and the computer are operable as a single platform.

Automatic electronic test equipment has been used to test various types of integrated circuits ("ICs") and discrete semiconductor components.
The different types of integrated circuits have included digital ICs, linear ICs, and mixed signal ICs. Examples of digital ICs include high-speed very large scale integrated ("VLSI") digital ICs, including microprocessors and microcontrollers. Linear ICs are also called analog ICs. Linear ICs are used, for example, to amplify, filter, or shape information such as sound, images, temperature, pressure, speed, acceleration, position, or rotation. Examples of linear ICs include amplifiers, voltage regulators, voltage detectors, operational amplifiers, clock circuits, and phase locked loops. Mixed signal ICs handle both digital and analog signals. One example of a mixed signal IC is a D to A converter that converts digital signals to analog signals. Another type of mixed signal IC is an A to D converter that converts analog signals to digital signals.
Different prior art automatic test equipment has been used to test different categories of ICs. Digital automatic test systems have been used to test digital ICs. Linear/mixed signal automatic test systems have been used to test linear and mixed signal ICs.
One example of a prior art digital test system is the Micromaster™ sold by LTX Corporation of Westwood, Mass. The Micromaster is designed for testing high performance CISC (complex instruction set computing) and RISC (reduced instruction set computing) microprocessors and the digital ICs that make up the chip sets that are used with the microprocessors.
One example of a prior art linear/mixed signal test system is the Synchro™ test system sold by LTX Corporation of Westwood, Mass. The Synchro automatic test system is designed for high throughput testing of linear ICs and for testing of mixed signal ICs that require lower digital pattern rates and moderate digital pin counts. The Synchro tester includes independent microprocessors that concurrently control each test instrument applied to the device under test (i.e., the IC under test). This design permits the generation of test signals and measurements on many device pins at the same time in order to speed up test times on high complexity ICs.
Trends in technology have resulted in more circuits, transistors, and other devices being placed on integrated circuits. In other words, the level of chip integration has risen. Because of this, a new category of integrated circuit has arisen, called the system-on-a-chip ICs. System-on-a-chip ICs are also referred to as multifunction ICs or multifunction devices. The system-on-a-chip ICs integrate fundamentally different IC subsystems on the same piece of silicon. These IC subsystems include VLSI logic cores, embedded memory, and mixed signal interfaces. Thus, system-on-chip ICs can incorporate digital circuitry, analog circuitry, and memory circuitry on a single chip. These subsystems were once available only on a circuit board populated with discrete devices, but now are placed on a single IC. One example of a system-on-a-chip is the Riva™ 128 graphics controller sold by nVidia, Inc., Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. The Riva 128 is a single chip implementation of a graphics accelerator that digitally manipulates video images and then transmits them in analog form to either a computer or a television monitor.
One disadvantage of the prior art automatic electronic testers is that no single tester has the performance required to test a broad range of digital ICs, analog/mixed signal ICs, and memory ICs. To test a broad range of such types of ICs, a company would have to purchase at least two types of testers and train personnel to use at least two types of testers.
Prior art digital testers and prior art linear/mixed signal testers typically have some complementary technology, however. The prior art linear/mixed signal testers typically have some limited digital testing capability. The prior art digital testers typically have some limited analog capability. Nevertheless, complementary capabilities of both types of testers is extremely limited. Furthermore, the two types of testers are typically incompatible. This can result in higher cost of operation because test equipment is underutilized when the device that the tester can exclusively test is not being produced.
As a result, the primary disadvantage of prior art electronic test equipment is that a single platform tester cannot fully test the full spectrum of ICs, including some of the more complex ICs that have a high level of integration, such as some newer system-on-a-chip ICs. In other words, one would have to use both a digital automatic electronic tester and a linear/mixed signal automatic electronic tester to fully test certain complex multifunction ICs. Using two testers is typically relatively expensive, cumbersome, and time consuming as opposed to using a single tester. Not only is there the added expense of two machines rather than one, but typically corporations have employees who are trained on one type of tester (digital or linear/mixed signal) but not the other, and vice versa. Furthermore, some tests might be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to perform on two separate testers sequentially if there is high level of integration between analog circuitry and high speed digital circuitry on a single chip. Moreover, in certain instances, prior art testers are not capable of testing the new types of functions performed by single multifunction ICs, especially those functions that occur at increasingly high speeds.


Systems and systems that protect data are provided. In one embodiment, a system may include, for example, a memory and a processor. The memory may store, for example, encrypted data. The processor may be coupled to the memory and may include, for example, a decryptor that decrypts the encrypted data. The decryptor may be adapted, for example, to variably bit roll the encrypted data, to fixedly bit shuffle the bit-rolled data, to add a first key to the bit-shuffled data and to process the added data with a second key.

Integrated circuits may be subject to different types of security attacks. For example, integrated circuits used for decoding and displaying digital television signals such as, for example, set-top box (STB) chips may be hacked by users seeking to access, for free, subscription-services or pay-for-service programming for television. In addition to viewing the programming without paying, successful hackers may be able to distribute "in-the-clear" video content to others.
A hacker may attempt to target different elements of a system. For example, a hacker may target a software component of an STB chip. If software developed by the hacker can be downloaded onto the STB chip, then on-chip security may be overridden in a variety of ways. In response to such attacks, some STB chips may perform a one-time integrity check on a software code set to ensure, for example, that the software originated from an authorized or recognized source. However, a one-time software integrity check may be open to attacks that may occur after the one-time integrity check has been completed.
Some STB chips may encrypt software instructions in a flash memory or a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) memory using data encryption standard (DES) encryption or triple DES (3DES) encryption. By using a DES or 3DES encryption key known only to an authorized entity and the STB, the STB can be assured, with a high degree of confidence, that only microprocessor instructions from an authorized source can be decoded properly. Instruction encryption using DES or 3DES may also protect the code base from examination for clues relating to internal chip operation, even if the flash memory is removed from the board and examined separately. However, DES decryption or 3DES decryption of microprocessor instructions may suffer from, for example, latencies induced in a pipeline to a microprocessor. Pipeline latencies may substantially reduce throughput.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with one or more aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.


A compound of the formula ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1 stands for a substituent on benzene ring, R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 independently stand for hydrogen or methyl, and n denotes 0 or 1, or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof is useful for prophylaxis and treatment of peptic ulcers (e.g. gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer) and gastritis.

As the pyridine derivatives having anti-ulcer activity, those disclosed in JPA S54(1979)-141783 (the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,431), JPA S58(1983)-135881 (the correeesponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,409), JPA S61(1986)-50978 (the corresponding U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,628,098 and 4,689,333), etc. have been known.
However, a compound having a gastric mucous membrane protecting action stronger than that of those known compounds has been desired.
It is considered that gastrointestinal ulcer is induced by imbalance between aggressive factors, e.g. acid and pepsin, and defensive factors e.g. mucus secretion and mucosal blood flow. Therefore, a medication having an antisecretory action and an action of enhancing protection of the gastric mucosa has been desired.
The present inventors diligently studied with the purpose of preparing an anti-ulcer agent having excellent actions of inhibiting gastric acid secretion, of protecting gastric mucosa and of antagonizing. They found that a certain type of pyridine derivatives meet the said purpose, and they conducted further study to accomplish the present invention.

Certain 2-[(4-difluoromethoxy-2-pyridyl)-methylthio or methylsulfinyl-5-benzimidazoles useful for treating peptic ulcers


The present invention relates to a device and a method of detecting arbitrarily piled objects, and a device and a method for picking a detected object. The present invention may provide a device and a method of detecting an object, which extract a unique local characterized part of the object by using a visual sensor, detect an object region, and estimate a posture from the detected object region. Also the present invention may provide an object picking system capable of being applied to an actual production process, such as assembling or packaging, in a cell producing method.

In order to reduce a burden to establish a production line and effectively improve productivity, a cell producing method based on a visual sensor has been introduced. Due to the improvement in the performance of the visual sensor and recognition technology, the cell producing method based on the visual sensor can be used. The cell producing method based on the visual sensor enables a robot to automatically recognize objects laid around a robot, instead of a worker, and automatically executes a packaging process, an assembling process, and the like, similar to the performance by the worker. An action for actually implementing the cell producing method based on the visual sensor in a field is active.
In the cell producing method, bin-picking of detecting one object region among several objects piled in a pile is used. In the bin-picking, it is very difficult to extract a region of one object, which is to be picked, and a rotation angle of a surface of an object due to a lighting condition of a field, various postures of piled objects, and variety of a material of the surface of the object. Accordingly, it is difficult to apply the bin-picking technology using a previously developed stereo camera or 3D visual sensor to a field due to low recognition performance and reliability.
Particularly, since the piled objects may overlap each other, a partial region of the object may be hidden or the surface of the object may be rotated. This distorts a unique local characteristic of the object. Accordingly, there is a problem in that it is difficult to detect an object region and estimate an object posture.

Object picking system, object detecting device, object detecting method

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE


In a programmable logic device having dedicated multiplier circuitry, some of the scan chain registers normally used for testing the device are located adjacent input registers of the multipliers. Those scan chain registers are ANDed with the input registers, and can be loaded with templates of ones and zeroes. This allows, e.g., subset multiplication if the least significant bits are loaded with zeroes and the remaining bits are loaded with ones. The multipliers preferably are arranged in blocks with other components, such as adders, that allow them to be configured as finite impulse response (FIR) filters. In such configurations, the scan chain registers can be used to load filter coefficients, avoiding the use of scarce logic and routing resources of the device.

This invention relates to programmable logic devices that include dedicated multipliers, and more particularly to such programmable logic devices in which the multipliers are used in particular configurations that reduce resource utilization.
It has become more common to provide multiplier circuits on programmable logic devices, rather than requiring users of such devices to construct multipliers from the available programmable logic resources. However, a multiplier circuit consumes a relatively large area, and its inputs can consume significant routing resources.
For example, multipliers are provided to multiply m bits by n bits—e.g., 18×18 bits (frequently m=n). However, a user of the programmable logic device might have need of a p-bit by q-bit multiplier, where p and q are chosen by the user at the time of programming and may be different in every case, and p<m and q<n. This can be accomplished during programming by pre-loading or padding the unused bits with zeroes. However, the inputs to those unused bits have to be driven by a source, and the source has to be routed to the inputs. Therefore, padding the unused bits consumes resources which then are unavailable for other uses, even though the inputs remain constant throughout device operation.
Alternatively, additional registers could be provided and ANDed with the multiplier input registers, and each additional register could be set to either one (this would be the case for the most significant multiplier bits, which will be used) or zero (in the case of the least significant multiplier bits, which will not be used). Whether a particular register was set to zero or one could be controlled by configuration bits. While this consumes fewer resources than routing the zeroes directly to the less significant multiplier inputs, it still requires providing additional registers and configuration bits.
In another example, a multiplier might be used in a configuration in which one of its inputs is a constant coefficient, again consuming routing resources for the constant coefficient. Indeed, one such use is in a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, which requires several multipliers, compounding the use of routing resources. Moreover, in such a filter, the outputs of the various multipliers must be accumulated by a plurality of adders, consuming further routing resources to direct the various products to the adders and the sums to other adders.
It would be desirable to be able to provide programmable logic devices with multiplier circuits, where those multiplier circuits are configured to reduce resource utilization.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Programmable logic device including multipliers and configurations thereof to reduce resource utilization


Systems and methods for switching electronic signals are disclosed. The switching may be performed with a low loss and low peak voltages. The switching scheme is suitable for switching RF signals, for example, and may be used in devices such as wireless systems, terminals, and handsets. One exemplary embodiment is directed to a CMOS-implemented transmit/receive switching system. The system comprises one or more transmit ports, each coupled via a respective transmit path to an input/output port and one or more receive ports, each coupled via a respective receive path to the input/output port. Each receive path comprises a switching circuit comprising a transistor and an inductor in parallel with the transistor. The switching circuit is adapted to at least substantially isolate the respective receive port from the input/output port when the transistor is in an on state and operatively couple the respective receive port to the input/output port when the transistor is an off state.

Switches in analog and radiofrequency (RF) applications often must deal with a wide dynamic range of signal strength. Transmitters, in particular, sometimes have to handle very high peak voltages. This can be a problem in the field of switch design, as the signal strength may exceed the voltage breakdown of the device. Another problem is that the control voltages available are much smaller than the signal strength. This makes it difficult to keep the switches in an on or off position. Switches for wireless handsets are a notable example of a system exhibiting these problems. In a GSM handset, for instance, the maximum signal strength may be as high as 35 dBm. Transmission through a 50 Ohm system results in a peak voltage of 17.88 V, while the control voltage and maximum available supply voltage are 2.5 V and 3.5 V, respectively.
FIG. 1 demonstrates one of the oldest circuits used to deal with this problem. In this case discrete PIN diodes are used as the switching element. This type of diode exhibits excellent RF characteristics with a large breakdown voltage. Direct current (DC) voltages are used to forward or reverse bias the diodes for a low or high impedance. A quarter wave matching network is required to isolate the off port from the on port. This solution works well in multi-port systems. However, high performance PIN diodes are not easily integrated. Further, a large number of passive elements are required to provide the bias and matching. Another significant problem is the current necessary to forward bias the diodes. This may be acceptable in a simple transmit-receive system, as the design may be configured so that the on diode is only used in the transmit mode. Multi-port systems, however, require current in receive mode as well.
Another common solution is shown in FIG. 2. In this case, field effect transistors (FETs) are used for the switching elements. Gallium arsenide (GaAs) pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors (PHEMTs) are most commonly used due to their low loss and high breakdown voltage. However, the breakdown voltage is only about 16 V, which is too low to handle high signal level of a GSM system by itself. Also, a control voltage of 2.5 V will result in the off transistor turning on during the negative swing of the output signal. The solution to these problems is to use multiple FETs in series, as shown in FIG. 3. This effectively divides the signal voltage evenly across each transistor. This solution is capable of handling the high signal levels while introducing an acceptable amount of loss. It also has the advantage of a near zero current requirement, may be configured for multiple ports applications, and may be integrated on a single die. A disadvantage is that a large number of control signals are required. The lack of a complementary transistor technology on GaAs means that any logic functions will draw significant amounts of current. A separate CMOS control chip is often used with the GaAs switch die for this reason. Also, the use of an exotic technology means that the switch cannot be integrated with the other functions in the handset.
Attempts have been made to use CMOS as a switching technology with limited success. In some cases, a DC converter has been used to overcome the control signal limitations. However, the high loss of the substrate has been unacceptable. Silicon-on-Sapphire (SOS) and other exotic technologies have overcome this problem, but the high cost makes then unsuitable for integration with other functions.


According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, with an optical material compound including an episulfide compound represented by formula (1) and an episulfide compound represented by formula (2), it is possible to stably and inexpensively store the episulfide compound represented by formula (2) and also provide an optical material having excellent light resistance (in formula (1), m represents an integer from 0 to 4, and n represents an integer from 0 to 2) (in formula (2), m represents an integer from 0 to 4, and n represents an integer from 0 to 2).

A plastic lens is lightweight, highly tough and easy to be dyed. Properties required of a plastic lens are low specific gravity, high transparency, and low yellow index. Optical properties required of a plastic lens are high refractive index, high Abbe number, high heat resistance, and high strength. A high refractive index allows the lens to be thinner, and a high Abbe number decreases the chromatic aberration of the lens.
Recently, many organic compounds containing sulfur atoms produced for the purpose of providing a high refractive index and a high Abbe number have been reported. Among these compounds, polyepisulfide compounds containing sulfur atoms are known to provide a good balance of the refractive index and the Abbe number (Patent Document 1). Since polyepisulfide compounds are reactive with various types of compounds, compositions of polyepisulfide compounds and various types of compounds have been proposed for the purpose of enhancing the properties (Patent Documents 2 through 5).
However, episulfide compounds, which are highly reactive, are difficult to be stored for a long time. A technique of storing episulfide compounds in a refrigerated state (Patent Document 6) and a technique of adding an epoxy compound containing a halogen group (Patent Document 7) have been proposed.

Episulfide compound and optical material composition


A biomass gasification gas purification system has a dust removal apparatus for filtering soot and dust from biomass gasification gas (including tar component) obtained through the gasification of the biomass using a biomass gasification furnace, a desulfurization apparatus for removing sulfur oxide component in the filtered biomass gasification gas, first to third pre-reformation reactors that provide pre-reforming catalyst for reforming the tar component in the biomass gasification gas after desulfurization, and first and second coolers that are interposed between the first to third pre-reformation reactors, and for cooling the reformed gas.

The invention relates to a biomass gasification gas purification system and method, and a methanol production system and method, which effectively use biomass as a raw material and may obtain a clean gas raw material available for use as fuel or for production of liquid fuel such as alcohol.
Generally, biomass is biological objects (for example, agricultural products or by-products, wood, plants and the like) available for use as an energy source or an industrial raw material and is generated by action of solar energy, air, water, soil or the like and then is infinitely renewable.
The production of clean energy sources such as gas and methanol for fuel is available by using the biomass described above. In addition, since biomass as waste matter can be processed, it helps to purify the environment and the biomass, which is newly produced, is also grown by photosynthesis while fixing CO2. Since CO2 does not increase in the atmosphere, this leads to restraints on CO2 and is a favorable technique.
Here, as the biomass which is supplied, it is preferable that produced or discarded biomass, which is crushed and dried, be supplied. The biomass in the invention is a biological resource (for example, agricultural products or by-products, wood, plants and the like) available for use as the energy source or the industrial raw material, and for example, plants such as sweet sorghum, napier grass and spirulina, and wood such as Japanese cedar, broad-leaf tree and bark may be used (see Patent Literature 1 and 2, and Non Patent Literature 1).
However, since the gas generated using biomass as the raw material includes fine particles, a tar component, hydrogen sulfide, chlorine or the like, it is not suitable for the gas without modification to synthesize the energy source to liquid fuel and fuel cell using a synthetic catalyst. Thus, as described above, a scheme is devised to remove minor components such as the fine particles, the tar component, the hydrogen sulfide and the chlorine described above, using a gas purification apparatus including a separation apparatus. In the gas as the raw material for obtaining the liquid fuel or the fuel cell described above form the energy source, in practical application, it is necessary for the minor components to be reduced to a permissible content of less than 0.1 mg/Nm3 of tar and less than 0.1 ppm of an S component. However, currently, the biomass gasification system does not lead to a sufficient reduction in the minor components described above.
In addition, a treatment scale using the biomass gasification system described above is hundreds of tons/day and is equivalent to a small scale to a middle scale plant compared to a gasification system using conventional fossil fuel. In a small and middle scale gas treatment system described above, it is desirable to include a simple and cheap gas purification line which is a necessary condition in a so-called decentralization plant. Regarding this point, in the biomass gasification system of the related art, a simple and cheap gas purification line is not realized.
In the related art, a biomass gasification system including separation means such as a cyclone to filter dust from a generated gas which is gasified in a biomass gasification furnace, a cooler cooling the gas from which the dust is filtered, and a gas purification apparatus purifying the gas which is cooled is disclosed (Patent Literature 3).
The gas purification apparatus of the biomass gasification gas of the related art is configured in such a manner that the biomass is temporarily stored and the cooled generated gas passing through the cooler is passed through the gas purification apparatus, the tar component included in the cooled generated gas is absorbed onto the gas purification apparatus and as the purification gas, the tar absorbed biomass, which has absorbed the tar is transported to biomass supply means using transportation means.
Further, a fixed layer type removing apparatus having a remover layer removing the tar component is disclosed (Patent Literature 4).

Biomass gasification gas purification system and method, and methanol production system and method


A computer-implemented method for creating all-atom, real-space protein conformers. The method involves constructing a backbone structure of xcex1-carbons of a protein from the amino acid sequence of the protein by adding and removing carbon atoms through chain elongation and backtracking. An atom is positioned based on a predicted two-dimensional space, and backtracking removes an atom if it is closer to its neighbour than allowed by van der Waals radii. The method also involves positioning xcex2 carbons, C, N, and O atoms to provide favourable bond lengths and bond angles, and positioning sidechain rotamers.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any one of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The invention relates to a computer-implemented method for determining all-atom, real-space protein structures.
Protein sequences can be deduced from the DNA sequence of an organism, and the worldwide genome project has provided tens of thousands of new protein sequences. Proteins have flexible backbones, and protruding, rotating side-chains. They can take up a countless number of shapes i.e. conformations, in three-dimensional space. Yet proteins eventually fold into an ordered structure, the native conformation. The protein-folding problem reflects the inability to predict the native folded conformation of a protein given only its amino acid sequence.
Various methods have been described for solving the folding problem. The methods include direct and template-based methods. Direct methods try to determine the native conformation as a lowest energy point in some defined hyperspace of conformational possibilities. Template-based methods compare a sequence of unknown three-dimensional structure against a library of known three-dimensional structure and score good matches as likely folds. There is a substantive body of research literature on these methods, but successes are rare and often not reproducible. There has been a call for new computational methods that broadly explore comformational space and that are true to the details of protein structure (Dill, K. A. et al Nature Structural Biology 4:10, 1997; Karpus, M. Fold Des. 2:S69, 1997).
The present inventors have developed a method to generate plausible random protein structures. All-atom proteins are made directly in continuous 3-dimensional space starting from primary sequence with an N to C directed build-up method. The method uses a novel pipelined residue addition approach in which the leading edge of the protein is constructed 3 residues at a time for optimal protein geometry, including the placement of cis proline. Build-up methods represent a classic N-body problem, expected to scale as N2. When proteins become more collapsed, build-up methods are susceptible to backtracking problems which can scale exponentially with the number of residues required to back out of a trapped walk. Solutions to both these problems have been provided, using a multiway binary tree that makes the N-body problem of bump-checking scale as NlogN, and speeding up backtracking by varying the number of tries before backtracking based on available conformational space.
In particular, the method constructs all-atom protein structures in O(NlogN) time (rather than in quadratic O(N2) time) by residue addition that is balanced in both speed and detail. The primary sequence and a multidimensional trajectory graph system is employed, which directs the sampling of conformational space and behaves like the theoretical protein folding funnel. Trajectory graphs can direct either the random sampling of protein conformer space (the funnel xe2x80x9cmouthxe2x80x9d), or direct the reconstruction of a known protein backbone (the funnel xe2x80x9cspoutxe2x80x9d). Several novel geometrical, methodological, and algorithmic approaches are introduced in the method. A schematic diagram of a method of the invention is shown in FIG. 1.
The methods of the invention have been validated at both extremes of the folding funnel by comparison with polymer theory, and by reconstructing known proteins. In particular, random all-atom proteins generated using the E. coli genomic amino acid composition had radius of gyration statistics that showed the expected swelling compared to non-self avoiding random polyalanine, and Flory""s (12) theoretical curves approximate a lower bound for these results. For tests of protein fold reconstruction using nine different protein folds, an average RMSD of 0.63 xc3x85 was obtained for Cxcex2, C, N and O backbone atoms. WHAT_CHECK, a protein-structure checking software suite (30) validated that the method generates physically and chirally valid backbones and sidechains,
The binary-d tree is a new hierarchical data structure developed to deal with the O(N2) problem of atomic bump-checking (collision detection based on atomic radii). It permits overall O(NlogN) time complexity (validated out to N=2,500 amino acids), together with efficient backtracking. It utilizes a unique 3-dimensional tree that partitions space in a relative fashion unlike voxels used in an octree system. Branch and bound search methods on the binary-d tree can retrieve coordinates contained by probe volumes. The method allows atoms or sections of molecules to be moved without repartitioning the space occupied by the entire set of atoms. Binary searches are also used in the fitting of amino acid backbones between alpha-carbons, and in the random sampling of the trajectory graphs, which also contribute to the overall O(NlogN) performance of the method of the invention.
Therefore, in accordance with an aspect of the invention a method is provided for creating or identifying a conformation of a protein of known or unknown structure which comprises the steps of;
(a) providing an amino acid sequence of the protein;
(b) constructing a backbone structure of xcex1-carbons of the protein by adding and removing carbon atoms through chain elongation and backtracking, wherein an atom is positioned based on a predicted two-dimensional space, and wherein backtracking removes an atom if it is closer to its neighbour than allowed by van der Waals radii;
(c) positioning xcex2 carbons, C, N, and O atoms to provide favourable bond lengths and bond angles; and
(d) positioning sidechain rotamers; thereby outputting a conformation of the protein.
The method constructs the conformation of the protein in O(NlogN) time, and it is constructed in real space and not confined to a lattice. The conformation is preferably an all atom protein structure, including hydrogen atoms. The method may further comprise assembling different conformations of the protein to provide an ensemble of conformations of the protein. The ensemble may be incorporated in a database which may comprise from about 50,000 to 500,000 different conformations of the protein.
Another aspect of the invention is a computer-implemented process for identifying a conformation of a protein of known or unknown structure from an amino acid sequence of the protein. The steps of the process performed by the computer include (a) constructing a backbone structure of xcex1-carbons of the protein by adding and removing carbon atoms through chain elongation and backtracking, wherein an atom is positioned based on a predicted two-dimensional space, and wherein backtracking removes an atom if it is closer to its neighbour than allowed by van der Waals radii; (b) positioning xcex2 carbons, C, N, and O atoms to provide favourable bond lengths and bond angles; and (c) positioning sidechain rotamers; thereby identifying a conformation of the protein.
Another aspect of the invention is part of a computer system for creating or identifying a conformation of a protein of known or unknown structure from an amino acid sequence of the protein. This part of the computer system includes (a) means for constructing a backbone structure of xcex1-carbons of the protein by adding and removing carbon atoms through chain elongation and backtracking, wherein an atom is positioned based on a predicted two-dimensional space, and wherein backtracking removes an atom if it is closer to its neighbour than allowed by van der Waals radii; (b) means for positioning xcex2 carbons, C, N, and O atoms to provide favourable bond lengths and bond angles; and (c) means for positioning sidechain rotamers.
Another aspect of the invention is part of a computer system for identifying favorable areas of conformational space in an ensemble of conformations of a protein. This part of the computer system includes a conformer generator module and a structure analysis module. The conformer generator module has an input for receiving an amino acid sequence of the protein and it defines an ensemble of conformations of the protein by (a) constructing a backbone structure of xcex1-carbons of the protein by adding and removing carbon atoms through chain elongation and backtracking, wherein an atom is positioned based on a predicted two-dimensional space, and wherein backtracking removes an atom if it is closer to its neighbour than allowed by van der Waals radii; (b) positioning xcex2 carbons, C, N, and O atoms to provide favourable bond lengths and bond angles; and positioning sidechain rotamers. The module records the amino acid sequence of the protein as an ensemble of conformations of the protein wherein each conformer of the protein is represented by a backbone conformation graph. The structure analysis module is connected to the output of the conformer generator module and it comprises means for creating or identifying a next ensemble of conformers of the protein using a weighting scheme and scoring function; and means for repeating these steps until the backbone conformation graph maintains its shape.
Backbone structures of xcex1-carbons of a protein may be constructed by randomly sampling xe2x80x9ctrajectory graphsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ctrajectory distributionsxe2x80x9d of amino acid residues representing a statistical sampling for each amino acid residue of the conformational space it is observed to visit in known proteins wherein the trajectory graphs are resolved into xcex1, xcex2, and coil secondary structure components for each amino acid residue. The secondary-structure based trajectory graphs may be recombined in predicted proportions (e.g. %xcex1, %xcex2, % coil) for each amino acid in a protein to be analyzed to form a starting backbone conformation graph. Electron microscopy, atomic microscopy, and/or NMR data may also be used to confine selected conformational spaces i.e. the data may be mapped into the trajectory graphs.
The invention contemplates a part of a computer system for constructing backbone structures of xcex1-carbons of a protein comprising a trajectory file which defines trajectory graphs or distributions of amino acid residues representing a statistical sampling for each amino acid residue of the conformational space it is observed to visit in known proteins wherein the trajectory graphs are resolved into xcex1, xcex2, and coil secondary structure components for each amino acid type; and optionally the graphs are recombined in predicted secondary structure proportions for the protein.
The invention provides a novel hierarchical data structure (i.e. binary-d tree) that fits residues in the backbone structure of a protein between xcex1-carbons and in random sampling of the trajectory graphs.
Another aspect of the invention is a computer-implemented process for identifying favorable conformational spaces in an ensemble of conformations of a protein comprising:
(a) providing a database of conformations of the protein wherein each conformer is represented by a backbone conformation graph;
(b) creating a next ensemble of conformations of the protein using a weighting scheme and scoring function; and
(c) repeating step (b) until the backbone conformation graph maintains its shape.
The methods and processes of the invention provide an ensemble of conformations of a protein i.e. conformers. Each protein in an ensemble may be generated using the method of the invention on a single processor. Other advantages of the processes and methods of the invention include fixed memory usage, minimal disk usage, and many adjustable parameters to affect the quality versus speed tradeoff of structure generation.
The details of the preferred embodiment of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Once the details of the invention are known, numerous additional innovations and changes will become obvious to one skilled in the art.


Provided is an image processing device including a recognition unit configured to recognize an environment recognition matrix representing a position and an attitude of an environment appearing in an image with respect to a position and an attitude of a terminal that has captured the image, a calculation unit configured to calculate an inverse matrix of the environment recognition matrix, and a manipulation control unit configured to control manipulation of a virtual object arranged in the environment in a three-dimensional manipulation amount according to a difference between a first position or a first attitude based on the inverse matrix of the environment recognition matrix recognized at a first time point and a second position or a second attitude based on the inverse matrix of the environment recognition matrix recognized at a succeeding second time point.

In recent years, a technology called augmented reality (AR) in which a real world with additional information overlaid thereon is presented to a user has been drawing. Information presented to a user in the AR technology is also called an annotation, and can be visualized and obtained using virtual objects in various forms such as text, icons, or animations.
Non-Patent Literature 1 below shows an example of a technology for modeling a real space in a stage before a virtual object is arranged. Non-Patent Literature 2 below shows an example of a technology that uses a natural marker with the objective of calculating the position and the attitude of an imaging device that are necessary for overlaying a virtual object on a captured image.
The AR technology can also be used in an application that includes an interaction with a user. For example, Patent Literature 1 described below discloses a technology for displaying an icon that can be manipulated by a user as a virtual object.

Image processing device, image processing method, and program


A continuous chain saw lubricating system employed in a tree delimbing and topping machine having a plurality of lubricant conduits connected to a piston cylinder which is divided into co-functioning and alternating receiving and discharge chambers by a piston. The designation of the chambers is dependent upon the direction of axial movement of the piston. The discharge chamber is defined by a pressure increase and the receiving chamber is defined by a pressure decrease. The pressure variations are such as to allow lubricant to be either drawn into the receiving chamber or discharged from the discharge chamber through a series of check valves connected to the piston cylinder. The piston is reciprocated by the tree delimbing and topping machine causing lubricant to be continuously supplied to the reciprocating chain saw during its cutting and retraction strokes.

Tree delimbing or topping machines typically use radial or reciprocating chain saws mounted thereon for cutting to length or topping off felled trees. Systems and methods for lubricating the tree topping saws during operation are necessarily employed in conjunction therewith. However, these generally known lubrication systems apply a "one-shot" quantity of lubricant, such as oil, to the saw chain before it engages the tree. These systems are usually responsive to the actuation of the saw chain, and normally require a short "re-charge" time before engaging the next tree. Other systems have utilized manual actuation to lubricate the chain saw. A system for continuously lubricating a reciprocating chain saw during or throughout the saw's cutting and retracting strokes is not present in the art.

Continuous chain saw lubricating system for use in a tree delimbing and topping machine


The present invention relates to a monoclonal antibody binding specifically to the p60 protein of Listeria monocytogenes, a hybridoma cell producing the monoclonal antibody, a test kit comprising the monoclonal antibody, and a method for detecting Listeria monocytogenes using the monoclonal antibody. The inventive monoclonal selectively recognizes only Listeria monocytogenes, so that the use of such an antibody allows for rapid determination of the food contamination with these bacteria pathogenic to humans.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to rapid determination of the infection and food contamination with Listeria monocytogenes, and more particularly to a monoclonal antibody binding specifically to the p60 protein of Listeria monocytogenes, a hybridoma cell producing the monoclonal antibody, a test kit comprising the monoclonal antibody, and a method for detecting Listeria monocytogenes using the monoclonal antibody.
2. Background of the Related Art
Listeria species are Gram-positive, facultative rods which are widely distributed in the natural environment. Listeria spp. includes Listeria monocytogenes, Listeria ivanovii, Listeria innocua, Listeria seeligeri, Listeria welshimeri and Listeria grayi. Among them, only Listeria monocytogenes is pathogenic to humans, and strains pathogenic to animals are Listeria monocytogenes and Listeria ivanovii. Particularly, if Listeria monocytogenes contaminates food requiring cold storage, it can survive and proliferate in the low-temperature storage process for a long time period so that it becomes an important bacillus causing food poisoning mediated by cold storage food. Furthermore, if listeriosis caused by this bacillus becomes serious, it will cause septicemia and meningitis and induce miscarriage of pregnant women. Listeria monocytogenes is particularly hazardous to infants, very old persons, pregnant women and immune deficient patients, and shows a high death rate reaching 30% in patients with listeriosis. This listeriosis is known to be caused mainly by foods, such as meat, meat processing products, vegetables, and milk processing products. Thus, rapid diagnosis of the food contamination with Listeria monocytogenes is necessary for the prevention of listeriosis.
Listeria identification methods which can be currently used in hospitals, industries (food companies, meat companies and milk processing companies) and the like include various conventional methods using biochemical assays, but they are inefficient methods requiring much time and labor.
Diagnostic methods which are used for the rapid determination of the infection and food contamination with Listeria monocytogenes include molecular biological methods, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), but such methods are unsuitable for actual clinical and industrial applications due to limitations in technical capabilities and accuracies. Moreover, immunological methods such as enzyme immunoassay (EIA) are frequently used, but show non-specificity, which leads to inaccurate test results or makes additional verification tests necessary.
Kits known to be used for the rapid detection of Listeria bacteria include non-radioactive DNA probe kits using PCR techniques and nucleic acid hybridization assays, and kits using immunoassays. Furthermore, there are kit products developed for a dipstick assay using immunochromatography. However, all the kits have a disadvantage in that they either cannot specifically detect only Listeria monocytogenes or detect all Listeria species.
Since it was difficult to produce a monoclonal antibody to Listeria monocytogenes, an ELISA or dipstick detection kit with a monoclonal antibody which selectively recognizes this bacterial strain could not be developed. This is because either the whole Listeria monocytogenes strain was used as an antigen, or even when certain antigens were used, a monoclonal antibody specific only to Listeria monocytogenes was not produced.
Murein hydrolase p60 proteins which exist commonly in Listeria spp. are exo enzymes that Listeria secretes for cell division. Prior to the present invention, polyclonal antibodies were produced using certain peptides of p60, for example, pepA and pepD (Bubert A. et al., Appl. Environ Microbiol, 60(9), 3120-7, 1994). However, such polyclonal antibodies showed weak effects due to their low titer and the unsuitable application of a sandwich ELISA system, so that they were insufficient for commercial use. The present inventors have produced a new monoclonal antibody which can selectively recognize Listeria monocytogenes whose putative epitope may differ from the pepA or pepD peptide region of p60 that has been described somewhere (Example 4 and FIG. 4a).
Under this background, the present inventors have produce a monoclonal antibody recognizing a specific epitope of Listeria monocytogenes p60 proteins, among murein hydrolase p60 proteins which exist commonly in Listeria genus.

Monoclonal antibody selectively recognizing listeria monocytogenes, hybridoma producing the antibody, test kit comprising the antibody and detection method of listeria monocytogenes using the antibody


The wiring structure of a pad section in a semiconductor device includes a row of pads and a plurality of first bias wirings provided at either side of the row of pads on a same plane. The first bias wirings carry electrical signals to the pads. A plurality of second bias wirings is formed below the layer having the first bias wirings and the pads. The second bias wirings include a set of wiring parts that run in the direction of the row of pads to overlap with adjacent pads in the layer above. The second bias wirings also include a set of wiring parts that run perpendicular to the direction of the first bias wirings and between two adjacent pads in the layer above.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a wiring structure for a pad section in a semiconductor device having bias wirings used as signal paths for a predetermined number of signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A pad section in a semiconductor memory device is an area in which a plurality bonding pads including the probe pads for conducting probe tests and wirings that connect, for example, at least the bonding pads to other destinations of the semiconductor memory device are located.
FIG. 1 shows a general layout of a conventional semiconductor memory device including memory array sections 1 and peripheral portions 2.
There are basically three conventional ways to align or arrange a pad section in a semiconductor memory device. A pad section may be aligned in a peripheral portion 2 (the normal type), or in a memory array section 1 (the LOC type), or in both the peripheral portion 2 and the memory array section 1 (the dual pad type).
FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a conventional pad section wiring structure in a semiconductor device, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line A–B shown in FIG. 2.
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the conventional pad section of the semiconductor device has the wiring structure that includes: a pad array having a plurality of pads 11 aligned in a row at or near the middle portion of the pad section; a plurality of first bias wirings 13 provided at both sides of the pad array of pads 11 arranged in a row and having different voltage levels; and a plurality of second bias wirings 15 that run perpendicular to the direction of the first bias wirings 13, but in a layer below the layer having the pads 11 and the first bias wirings 13. That is, the pads 11 and the first bias wirings 13 are formed on a common plane above the layer having the second bias wirings. The first and second bias wirings 13, 15 are used as paths for carrying signals to or from the predetermined sources and destinations in the semiconductor device. Referring to FIG. 2, the first bias wirings 13 include Va1, Vb1, Vc1, and Vx1, and the second bias wirings 15 include Vd and Ve.
A bias line 17 runs in parallel with the first bias wirings 11 on one outermost side of the first bias wirings 13 as shown in FIG. 2 and is electrically connected to the second bias wirings 15.
According to the conventional pad section wiring structure described above, each of the first bias wirings 13 (Va1, Vb1, Vc1, and Vx1) aligned at both sides of the pad array-are correspondingly connected to the pads 11 (although the electrical connections between the wirings 13 and the pads 11 are not shown in FIG. 2). This is the reason why the pads 11 and the first bias wirings 13 are generally patterned on a same plane.
In addition, the second bias wirings (Vd and Ve) 15 are patterned on a lower layer of the first bias wirings 13 and are aligned perpendicular to the direction of the first bias wirings 13.
The bias line 17 (Vz1) is formed in the same direction as the first bias wirings 13 on the lowermost layer as shown in FIG. 3.
As semiconductor devices are more highly integrated and equipped with multiple functions, not only the bias wiring structure is becoming more complicated, but also the number of the bias wirings in the semiconductor device is increased. However, the area in a semiconductor device in which to align a pad section to carry those bias wirings is limited.
One obvious method to solve the problem is to enlarge the chip size to accommodate all of the increased number of wirings, but this is not an acceptable solution since the increased chip size will likely cause the produced semiconductor device to be less commercially competitive. Another method to solve the problem is to reduce the width of each wiring and the interval between two adjacent wirings without increasing the chip size, but this will increase the resistance and capacitance of the wirings, thereby lowering the operational performance of the semiconductor device.

Wiring structure for a pad section in a semiconductor device


A razor blade is provided, which achieves improved safety in use and reduced cutting resistance to an object to be cut such as beard and hair, as compared with conventional razor blades. This razor blade can be obtained by using, as a silicon thin sheet, a single crystal silicon material such as Si wafer or a polycrystalline silicon material including relatively large silicon crystal grains, forming at least one opening in the silicon thin sheet by chemical etching, and forming a cutting edge made of silicon single crystal by ion beam etching without machining such that the cutting edge projects into the opening and has a nose radius of 0.5 μm or less, and preferably 0.1 μm or less.

Conventional razor blades with a cutting edge linearly formed along a side of a thin steel sheet may accidentally cause injury to skin in use. Therefore, it is a major task to improve the safety. For example, it has been proposed to reduce the damage to the skin by winding a plurality of thin wires around the razor blade at regular intervals. However, from the viewpoint of improving the safety, while maintaining excellent cutting performance for an object to be cut such as beard and hair, a satisfactory level has not been always achieved.
In addition, various kinds of net blades have been proposed to achieve a further improvement in safety. For example, such net blades are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,288 and European Patent No. 0 541 723 B1. In the case of a net blade made of a metal material, however, since its cutting edge is formed by machining, there is a limitation with respect to the formation of the cutting edge with a small nose radius. For example, even when burrs generated at the cutting edge by grinding are removed by precise polishing such as lapping, it is difficult to obtain a nose radius of 1 μm or less. Due to this reason, it has not been achieved yet to smoothly shave beard or hair by the net blade made of a stainless steel except for a razor blade with a linear cutting edge of a nose radius of approximately 0.1 μm, which is obtained by grinding a stainless steel sheet. Moreover, in the conventional razor blades on the market, a technique of forming the cutting edge of a nose radius of 0.1 μm or less has not been sufficiently established yet.


A detection circuit and an electronic device using the detection circuit are provided. The detection circuit includes a fourth branch, a fifth branch and a third energy storage unit. The fourth branch includes multiple fourth switches, and the fifth branch includes multiple fifth switches. A preset electrical signal threshold is sampled and applied to the third energy storage unit by controlling the multiple fourth switches in the fourth branch, and a voltage difference between two detection terminals of a first energy storage unit is sampled and applied to the third energy storage unit by controlling the multiple fifth switches in the fifth branch, to compare the voltage difference between the two detection terminals with the preset electrical signal threshold.

In order to reduce the area of the power chip and the cost while ensuring the drive capability, a power transistor has a small size is generally selected in the case of having the same on-resistance. In this case, a high power supply voltage is required to turn on the power transistor having a small size. However, a conventional power chip generally includes a P-channel metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) power transistor. Since the size of a N-channel metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) power transistor is much smaller than that of the PMOS power transistor in the case of having the same on-resistance, the NMOS power transistor is widely applied, particularly in the case that power chips requiring a D-type power amplifier and being driven by a motor are applied to achieve a high voltage, high drive capability and low cost. Among high-voltage double-diffused metal oxide semiconductor (DMOS) transistors, the size of a double-diffused N-channel metal oxide semiconductor (DNMOS) power transistor having the same on-resistance as a double-diffused P-channel metal oxide semiconductor (DPMOS) power transistor is three or four times smaller than that of the DPMOS power transistor, which greatly reduces the area of the power chip while not requiring a mask process, thereby reducing the cost. In this case, a high drive voltage is required to turn on the DNMOS power transistor under a condition that the drive voltage does not break down the DNMOS power transistor as described above.
Therefore, it is desired to provide a technical solution to ensure that the drive voltage does not break down the DNMOS power transistor.

Detection circuit and electronic device using the same


A solar-powered lighting system includes a flexible, wrap-around, preferably self-stick panel of photovoltaic laminate on the outside surface of a light pole. An LED light fixture is connected at or near the top of the pole and has the same or similar diameter as the pole. The LED light fixture has multiple columns and rows of LEDs and an interior axial space for air flow to cool the LEDs. The pole has vents and axial passage(s) for creating a natural updraft through at least a portion of the pole and the light fixture, for cooling of the photovoltaic panel interior surface, the LEDs, and/or other equipment inside the fixture or pole, and batteries provided inside the pole or pole base. A decorative additional fixture, which emulates conventional outdoor light fixtures, may be provided on the lighting system, wherein the decorative additional fixture includes no, or only a minimal, light source.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to solar-powered outdoor lighting. More specifically, the invention relates to pole-mounted lighting that is powered by solar energy by means of a photovoltaic panel on the outside surface of the pole and batteries or other storage devices. The invented outdoor lighting has a structure, shape, and profile that look much like conventional street lights, for matching pre-existing street lights and/or accommodating local or governmental aesthetic preferences.
2. Related Art
Solar-powered street lights and light fixtures have been developed in the past. For example, the patent literature includes: Robbins (U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,188, issued Sep. 22, 1992); Yoshida (U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,658, issued May 9, 2000); Wang (U.S. Pat. No. 6,784,357, issued Aug. 31, 2004); and Doppelt (U.S. Pat. D517,233, issued Mar. 14, 2006). Also, solar-powered street lights have been available commercially and/or tested publicly that include flat panel(s) of solar cells in a rack or frame, said flat panels typically being supported above the light pole. Such flat panels of solar cells are typically visually distracting and/or aesthetically unappealing, as they are a large protuberance from the street light and/or have the appearance of a large platform supported atop the street light. Yoshida discloses a street light with multiple flat panels of solar cells provided vertically on more than one side of a street light pole. Yoshida and the other prior art known to the inventor, however, do not address or solve many of the issues that the present inventor has found to be important in providing an efficient, economical, temperature-versatile, long-life, and aesthetically-pleasing solar-powered outdoor light system.
Therefore, there is still a need for an outdoor lighting system that is highly efficient in collecting and storing energy from the suns rays, and in using said energy over several nights to light a surrounding area even through inclement, overcast periods of time. The present invention meets these needs. Preferred embodiments utilize a cooling system that may greatly increase battery life and efficiency of the entire system. Preferred embodiments also utilize an efficient, versatile LED light fixture that may be used for all or nearly all street light styles without the need to separately engineer LED fixtures for each lamp/fixture style desired by the public, government, or neighborhood. Preferred embodiments have a visually-integrated appearance, preferably without flat panels of solar cells, and preferably with minimal or no unaesthetic protuberances and exposed equipment.

Solar-powered light pole and LED light fixture


The present invention is a photographic paper which includes a paper sheet with a polyolefin resin layer on each surface of the paper sheet. The photographic paper includes a print retaining antistatic layer having a dry coverage of from 80 mg/m.sup.2 to 1000 mg/m.sup.2 on one of the free surfaces of the polyolefin layers. The print retaining antistatic layer includes a smectite clay, and a polymeric binder wherein the polymeric binder can sufficiently intercalate inside or exfoliate the smectite clay. The photographic paper can include a silver halide light sensitive emulsion layer on the other free surface.

It is known that hydrophobic resin sheet and web materials of low surface conductivity readily become electrostatically charged due to friction with dielectric materials and triboelectrically chargeable transport means, such as, rollers. The electrostatic charging is particularly severe in relatively dry environments and at high speeds of conveyance. An electrostatically charged web can result in static discharge through generation of sparks which poses fire hazards in the presence of flammable solvents at a typical coating site. For a web containing an unprocessed photographic recording element, sparking can cause additional problems, such as, developable fog and degradation of the image quality. So, it is very important to provide antistatic protection on photographic films and paper.
For photographic paper, an additional criterion is the ability of the antistatic backing layer to receive printing (e.g., bar codes or other indicia containing useful information) typically administered by dot matrix or inkjet printers and to retain these prints or markings as the paper undergoes processing (viz, backmark retention).
From U.S. Pat. No. 3,525,621, it is known that antistatic properties can be given to an aqueous coating composition by practically any silica sol, but preferably silica particles of large surface area of the order of 200-235 m.sup.2 /g in combination with an alkylaryl polyether sulphonate. However, the high solubility of the alkylaryl polyether sulphonate in aqueous medium will cause leaching during processing resulting in poor backmark retention.
Antistatic layers on the basis of solely colloidal silica usually show microcracks upon drying which can lower the lateral conductivity. Additionally calcium stearate from the paper base often leaches out through these cracks causing stearate sludge in the processing tanks, requiring costly clean up operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,480 teaches the use of synthetic hectorite as antistatic additive to a silica containing layer. However, the hydrophilicity of the hectorite results in poor backmark retention upon exposure to processing solutions. In fact, the experience in the trade is most colloidal silica based antistatic backings without a polymeric binder provide poor post-processing backmark retention qualities for photographic paper.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,728 discloses backing formulations containing alumina modified colloidal silica and an antistatic agent in a polymeric binder consisting of an addition product of alkyl methacrylate, alkali metal salt and vinyl benzene. Although such backing layers provide adequate antistatic protection and backmark retention characteristics, these layers lack sufficient mechanical integrity as manifested in poor spliceability and track off characteristics. Heat splicing of photographic paper rolls is often carried out during printing operations and is expected to provide enough mechanical strength to resist peeling as the web goes through automatic photographic processing. Poor splice strength can cause a number of problems including jamming of automatic processing equipment. Track off during conveyance can lead to undesirable build-up of materials on conveyance rollers and other surfaces often causing product defects.
An object of the present invention is to provide an antistatic backing layer on an imaging element containing paper support, specifically photographic paper, with backmark receiving and retention qualities, heat spliceability and good trackoff characteristics.
While the invention herein finds particular use in the photofinishing industry to print barcodes or other indicia on the back of paper prints by using dot matrix printers for example, it is useful and suitable for applying print or ink markings to any surface wherein the original surface does not possess the desired characteristics. The application with regard to photofinishing has a particularly stringent requirement because the backing layer must survive photographic processing through the automatic processing devices having the harshest conditions in order to be useful.
In photofinishing applications, the coating compositions must satisfy the following requirements:
1. The ingredients must be compatible. This is a particularly stringent requirement when antistatic agents are formulated in the coating composition so that the print retaining layers also possess antistatic properties. The polymeric binder in the coating composition in the form of a latex can be easily destabilized causing agglomeration of the latex particles to occur.
2. The coatings must be alkali resistant up to a pH of 10 to survive the photographic processing solutions.
3. The coatings must be resistant to discoloration due to processing solutions and/or aging.
4. The coatings must be able to receive and retain ink or other marking materials through the photographic processing.
5. The coatings must not be photoactive and interfere with the light sensitive portions of the photographic paper.
6. The coatings must have resistivity less than 12 log ohms per square at 50% RH.
7. The backside coating must be spliceable to the frontside in commercially available splicing devices and maintain sufficient peel strength.
8. The coatings must be resistant to track off during conveyance by various roller/nip transport machines during manufacturing of the photographic paper and also in the development processor.
9. The coatings must be block resistant in the rolled form. That is, in preparation of printing paper for use in photographic applications, the paper in processing is rolled upon itself. It is necessary that the backmark retaining layer does not block or ferrotype together with the opposite surface of the paper support.
10. The coatings must have a stability of from 6 to 12 months in order to be commercially acceptable.
The coatings and the coating compositions according to this invention satisfy these requirements by utilizing in combination an electrically conducting synthetic smectite clay and a polymeric binder.

Clay containing antistatic layer for photographic paper


In an apparatus and method for troubleshooting a transmission system comprising optical line amplifiers (OA), optical reflections can be detected irrespective if a data signal is present or absent. Each OA is equipped with a self-stimulation signal detection unit for generating a low frequency local code unique to the transmission system and dithering the outgoing signal in a controlled manner with the local code. Each OA attempts to detect its local code in the incoming signal by comparing the energy of the transmitted and received dithers. The presence of the local code in the incoming signal initiates alarms which unequivocally identify the faulted OA. Each OA selects its local code out of a bank of local codes, according to a priority scheme and re-selects its local code in case of conflicts.

In an optical transmission system a loss of input signal alarm is an important tool for determining that an optical cable has been broken, removed, or introduces a high loss.
Improvements in optical transmission methods have vastly enhanced the use of the optical communication systems by increasing both the data rates and the distance over which optical signals are transmitted. Erbium doped optical amplifier (EDFA), one of the latest components in photonic systems, replaces the regenerator (repeater) in many applications. An optical amplifier can amplify optical signals without optically demultiplexing them, thereby avoiding the costs of multiple optical receivers, multiple regeneration circuits and multiple optical transmitters. One of the major advantages of optical amplifiers is that they amplify whatever bit rate comes down the fiber. Even if the transmission rate is boosted, the device will not need to be replaced.
On the other hand, there are no error counts possible between optical amplifiers and therefore isolating the cause of a degraded error rate is not a simple task. Consequently, there is a need to provide a method and apparatus for troubleshooting a chain of optical line amplifiers, where no parity error counts are available.
In optical amplified systems, the reflection of a significant portion of the light leaving via a given fiber may cause problems with detection of the loss of the input signal on that fiber. If the reflected outgoing light could be distinguished from the desired input signal, then appropriate alarms or control actions could be initiated. The outgoing light, that is then reflected, could be amplified signal and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), as in the case of a bidirectional system, or could be just ASE, as in the case of a unidirectional system. Or, the outgoing light could be a combination of signals and ASE from both directions in the case where there are more complex optical path reflections.
Especially in bi-directional optical amplifier applications, reflections can cause an optical amplifier to oscillate despite the optical isolators that may be present. This oscillation path can involve more than one optical amplifier in the system and be quite complex.
Measurement of the strength of reflections is presently done with an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) that sends strong short pulses of light down a fiber and measures the signal returned. This is an accurate method, but the OTDR is a relatively large and expensive piece of test equipment that can not easily be used while there is traffic on the fiber.
Optical frequency domain reflectometry may also be used to detect faults in an optical link. According to this method, the optical frequency is varied and optically coherent detection is used (IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 2, No. 12, pp. 902-904, December 1990), or an optical source is modulated with a constant amplitude tone that is swept in frequency (Applied Optics, vol. 20 no 10, pp. 1840-1844, 1981).
Another method for detecting a fault in an optically amplified system is to use a correlation of a specifically generated pseudo-random pulse sequence for reducing peak power requirements (Applied Optics, Vol. 22, No. 23, pp. 3680-3681, 1983).
Still another prior art method is to measure the amount of DC light reflected back via a four port coupler. However, this method does not stimulate or consider the AC portion of the signals. The DC reflection is used to determine if a large reflection from a broken fiber or open connector is present so as to shut-down the output of the optical amplifier for safety. In addition, this has been known to falsely trigger from low level reflection due to Raleigh scattering in the fiber. This method cannot be used in bidirectional systems.
There is a need to provide a means for detecting errors in a transmission system irrespective if a data signal is present or absent. There is also a need to distinguish optical reflections from valid inputs when isolating a cable break in an optically amplified system.

Self-stimulation signal detection in an optical transmission system


The present invention is a photographic element which includes a support having a frontside and a backside, at least one silver halide emulsion layer superposed on the frontside of the support; and a protective overcoat layer superposed on the backside of the support. The protective overcoat layer is a mixture of a first vinyl polymer having an acid number of from 5 to 100 and a second vinyl polymer having an acid number of from 70 to 250 wherein the acid number of the second polymer is greater than the acid number of the first polymer.

Photographic light-sensitive materials are generally composed of light-sensitive photographic emulsion layers and light insensitive layers such as an interlayer, an emulsion protective layer, a filter layer, or an antihalation layer applied, directly or indirectly through a subbing layer, to one side or both sides of the support consisting of, for example, an .alpha.-olefin such as polyethylene, a cellulose ester such as cellulose acetate or nitrocellulose, a polyester such as polyethylene terephthalate or polyethylene napththalate, polystyrene, paper, or a synthetic paper. In light-sensitive materials such as color photographic elements, auxiliary layers such as an antistatic layer, a curl preventing layer, a magnetic recording layer, a barrier layer, a scratch resistant overcoat layer, or a surface lubricant layer, are provided on the backside of the support in order to enhance the photographic or physical quality of the photographic light-sensitive materials.
It is always desirable to have a backside protective overcoat that serves as many functions as possible in order to reduce manufacturing complexity and cost. It is also desirable to have such a layer formed by coating and drying from coating compositions based on solvents that are less hazardous to the environment.
Prior art has disclosed the use of a protective overcoat or a "barrier" layer to maintain post-process conductivity of an antistatic layer. Typically such protective overcoats consist of hydrophobic materials such as cellulose acetates, cellulose acetate butyrates, cellulose acetate propionates, cellulose nitrates, polyacrylates, polymethacrylates, polystyrene, and poly(vinyl acetal).
When such hydrophobic barrier layers are used as an outermost surface layer, deposition of material or "scum" formation on the outermost surface following photographic processing is commonly seen. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,976, incorporated by reference herein, discusses how surfactant from the final photographic processing solution, known as the stabilizer solution, can form a deposit on the outermost surface layer and thereby lead to an objectionable surface haze or scum. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,784, incorporated by reference herein, discusses the occurrence of spotted drying unevenness on the outermost surface. Another type of processing scum that is particularly troublesome is hard-water scum. Processing laboratories that are located in hard-water areas are particularly susceptible to this problem. After processing in solutions prepared using hard-water, a white hazy surface scum, sometimes uniform and sometimes more liney and streaky, can be seen on the film. Chemical analysis of the hard-water scum typically reveals hard-water salts of calcium, magnesium, and sodium.
Such surface deposits can impact the physical performance of the element in a variety of ways. For example, large deposits of material on a photographic film lead to readily visible defects on photographic prints or are visible upon display of motion picture film. Alternatively, post-processing debris can influence the ability of a processed film to be overcoated with an ultraviolet curable abrasion resistant layer, as is done in professional photographic processing laboratories employing materials such as PhotoGard, 3M. Finally, processing residue on photographic elements can impact the ability to read or write magnetically recorded information on a processed film, such as the new Advanced Photographic System film.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,612,279 and 4,735,976, incorporated by reference herein, describe a protective overcoat comprising a blend of cellulose nitrate and a copolymer containing acrylic or methacrylic acid for eliminating objectionable surface haze or scum formed during photographic processing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,784 describes an uppermost surface layer composed of a hydrophobic cellulose ester polymer and a hydrophilic vinyl polymer for reducing spotted drying unevenness. However, layer compositions disclosed in the above art do not provide adequate barrier properties and adequate resistance to mechanical scratch and high humidity ferrotyping. High humidity ferrotyping becomes a problem especially for photographic systems such as the so-called Advanced Photographic System where the processed element may be re-introduced into a cassette. Such a system allows for compact and clean storage of the processed element until such time when it may be removed for additional prints or to interface with display equipment Storage in the roll is preferred to facilitate location of the desired exposed frame and to minimize contact with the negative. U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,739, incorporated by reference herein, discloses a cassette designed to thrust the photographic element from the cassette, eliminating the need to contact the film by mechanical or manual means. Published European Patent Application 0 476 535 Al describes how the developed film may be stored in such a cassette. The dimensions of such a so-called thrust cassette require that the processed photographic element be wound tightly and under pressure, causing direct close contact between the front and back sides which results in ferrotyping, especially at high temperature and high relative humidity.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,597,680 and 5,597,681, incorporated by reference herein, describe a protective layer coating composition applied from a dispersion of core/shell polymer particles in a liquid organic medium. Such protective layers provide photographic elements with excellent barrier properties and excellent resistance to mechanical scratch and ferrotyping at high temperature and in moist environments. However, such coating compositions do not provide the photographic elements with adequate protection against surface haze or scum formation under more severe processing conditions.
Blisters are characteristic defects that are often observed on the backside of a developed film. When viewed by reflected light, the defect appears as a circular-shaped topographic feature with a wrinkled surface texture. The diameter of the blister can be as large as several millimeters. Blisters not only affect the photographic image quality, but also the read and write ability of a magnetic layer and the image digitization, for example, by a scanner.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a photographic element with a backside protective overcoat composition that meets all of the physical and mechanical requirements as described above while avoiding the problems and limitations of the prior art.

Backside protective overcoat compositions for silver halide photographic elements


A magnetic recording medium comprising a non-magnetic support having a substantially non-magnetic undercoating layer on the non-magnetic support and a magnetic layer comprising a ferromagnetic hexagonal ferrite fine powder dispersed in a binder on the undercoating layer in this order, wherein the squareness ratio of the magnetic layer in the perpendicular direction is at least 0.4, the coercive force of the magnetic layer in the perpendicular direction is at least 1,500 Oe, and between the bit minimum inversion interval Y .mu.m and the maximum inversion interval Z .mu.m of the digital signal to be recorded and the thickness X .mu.m of the magnetic layer, there are the relations;. X.ltoreq.Y.ltoreq.0.8 .mu.m PA1 Z.ltoreq.1.0 .mu.m.. The high-density recording characteristics are greatly improved and the occurrence of an error rate is less.

In the field of magnetic recording media, and particular in the field of magnetic disks, an MF-2HD floppy disk of 2 MB using Co-modified iron oxide has been standard-mounded on a personal computer. However, in the recent rapidly increasing the data capacity to be handled, the capacity of the floppy disk is not said to be sufficient and the increase of the capacity of a floppy disk has been desired.
Hitherto, as a magnetic recording medium, a magnetic recording medium formed by coating on a non-magnetic support a magnetic layer formed by dispersing an iron oxide, a Co-modified iron oxide, a ferromagnetic metal powder, or a hexagonal system ferrite fine powder in a binder has been widely used. In these magnetic powders, it is well-known that the ferromagnetic metal fine powder and the hexagonal system ferrite fine powder are excellent in the high-density recording characteristics.
As the large-capacity magnetic recording disk using the ferromagnetic metal fine powder excellent in the high-density recording characteristics, there are MF-2TD of 10 MB and MF-2SD of 21 MB and as the large-capacity magnetic recording disk using the hexagonal system ferrite fine powder excellent in the high-density recording characteristics, there are MF-2ED of 4 MB, 21 MB floptical, etc., but they are yet insufficient in the capacity and the performance.
Since hexagonal ferrite has a perpendicular anisotropy, it is said to be suitable for high-density recording. In JP-A-59-77628, JP-A-61-296525, JP-A-62-287420 and JP-A-62-109226 (the term "JP-A" as used therein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), disk-shaped magnetic recording media each containing perpendicularly oriented hexagonal system ferrite are proposed.
The perpendicularly oriented hexagonal system ferrite are certainly excellent in the output and D50 (recording density) but there is a case that the error rate, which finally becomes important as the digital recording characteristics is rather greatly inferior. The reason is considered to be that when the disk-shaped magnetic recording medium is recorded and reproduced on the ring head in the case of having many perpendicular magnetization components, the wave form becomes a die pulse form, whereby an accurate peak cannot be detected. In the case of being randomly oriented, the hexagonal system ferrite has relatively many magnetization components in the perpendicular direction, whereby an under shoot occurs to form a wave form having an inferior symmetrical property and a similar problem to above occurs.
These problems described above become an obstacle to the practical use of hexagonal system ferrite having many perpendicular magnetization components. On the other hand, it has been investigated that perpendicular recording is performed using a single magnetic head and a wave form is made a single peak pulse but there are many problems for reaching a practically useful level.
As constitution of a disk-form magnetic recording medium having a non-magnetic undercoating layer or interlayer, there are proposed a constitution having an electrically conductive layer and a magnetic layer containing a metal fine powder as described in JP-A-3-120613, a constitution having a magnetic layer having a thickness of 1 .mu.m or less and a non-magnetic layer as described in JP-A-6-290446, a constitution having a carbon interlayer and a magnetic layer containing a lubricant as described in JP-A-62-159337, and a constitution having a non-magnetic layer wherein the carbon size is regulated as described in JP-A-5-290358.
On the other hand, recently, a disk-shaped magnetic recording medium comprising a thin magnetic layer and a functional non-magnetic layer has been developed and a floppy disk of a 100 MB class has appeared. As such the floppy disk showing the foregoing features there are proposed a constitution having a magnetic layer having Hc of 1400 Oe or more and a thickness of 0.5 .mu.m or less and a non-magnetic layer containing electrically conductive particles as described in JP-A-5-109061, a constitution containing abrasive having a larger size than the thickness of the magnetic layer thereof as described in JP-A-5-197946, a constitution having a magnetic layer having a thickness of 0.5 .mu.m or less, wherein the thickness deviation of the magnetic layer is restricted within .+-.15% and the surface electric resistance is regulated as described in JP-A-5-290354, and a constitution containing 2 kinds of abrasive each having different particle sizes and wherein the amounts of the abrasive on the surface are regulated as described in JP-A-6-68453.
However, with the recent rapid requirement of more increasing the recording density of a disk-shaped magnetic recording medium, even by using the techniques described above, it becomes difficult to obtain the disk-shaped magnetic recording medium having sufficient characteristics, that is, the characteristics of high-density recording and showing a low error rate. As one of the causes, there is a cause that the general relation paying attention to each element in the magnetic recording medium having the thin magnetic layer as described above relating the mode of a digital signal and the mode of the electromagnetic characteristics of the magnetic recording medium to said magnetic layer thickness has not yet been found.


The invention relates to a motor vehicle bodywork component comprising a first panel and a second panel having a second coefficient of linear thermal expansion greater than the first coefficient of linear thermal expansion of the first panel, the component further including a connection part having a third coefficient of linear thermal expansion that is less than the first and that is fastened to the first panel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to motor vehicle bodywork parts, whether they be static parts or opening members.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most bodywork parts are made of metal sheet, usually steel sheet. Bodywork parts made of plastics material are becoming more and more widespread, such as bumpers, tailgates, fenders, etc., which parts coexist at their interfaces with other parts that are still made of metal, such as fenders, hoods, doors, etc.
Such parts made of plastics material may present defects that are particularly visible in an outside panel because the panel can be seen from the outside, and defects show up in particular at the periphery of such an outside panel.
Various ways are known for accommodating differences of expansion under the effect of temperature, in particular when hot because of strong sunlight.
Thus, it is known to select the component materials of such parts depending on their coefficients of linear thermal expansion (CLTE). It is also known to make such parts, while providing them with reinforcement seeking to avoid excessive deformation. Thus, such parts are dimensioned, in particular in terms of thickness or in the form of ribs, or indeed by fitting them with reinforcement made of stronger material, so as to improve the stiffness of the parts under consideration.
It is also known to handle defects in local manner, i.e. at the edge of a part where excessive changes in clearance or departures from flush alignments are most visible.
There is only a limited choice for the plastics materials from which to make such parts. Material choice depends on a technical and economic compromise seeking to comply with various constraining clauses of specifications for the vehicle. It frequently happens under certain conditions laid down in the specification, in particular extreme levels of sunlight, that these parts deform excessively, thereby degrading appearance, and in particular degrading the perceived quality of clearances and alignments that ought to be flush. Panels that are strongly deformed can also give rise to jamming and scratching on painted parts facing such panels, particularly if they are included in a moving system.
In order to overcome those defects, designers are thus constrained to overdimension components or a set of assembled-together components so as to make them less deformable, which then makes them heavier and more expensive, which therefore goes against the initial objective for choosing to make them out of plastics material.
Thus, for tailgates, particularly those that are said to be "all plastic", the components are made up of two main parts, a box situated on the inside of the vehicle and a panel situated on the outside of the vehicle. The box and the panel are assembled together, typically by adhesive. They are also connected to the body and they are subjected to various forces via hinges, actuators, a lock, and a peripheral weather strip. Those various forces vary depending on varying situations, in particular depending on whether the tailgate is closed, open, being subjected to high temperatures, or indeed being slammed shut in particularly rough manner. The panel is often painted and is the part that is visible when the tailgate is closed, and it is therefore with the panel that the above-mentioned defects are observed the most easily, particularly in comparison with surrounding bodywork elements. Under the effect of temperature, the panel suffers both from a loss of performance, i.e. it becomes more deformable, and from expansion of the materials from which it is made.
The loss of mechanical performance leads to deformation because the tailgate, even when it is in the closed position, is subjected to forces simultaneously by the actuators for assisting opening, by the weather strip compressed against the body, and by the hinge and anchoring points relative to the vehicle such as the hinges, the lock, and the tailgate stops on the vehicle body. Deformation is particularly severe at the hinges, since they are typically made of steel and secured to the body, thereby constituting points where the tailgate is constrained. The tailgate can deform only in zones where it is not constrained, e.g. between the hinges or beyond them, i.e. at the margins of the part. This mechanical deformation is also associated with deformation due to expansion. Expansion occurs within the panel, and also within the box, and indeed in differential manner between those two components, since they may be made of different plastics materials, the box typically having a coefficient of linear thermal expansion that is smaller than that of the panel. The connections between the panel and the box, particularly when they are adhesive connections, are therefore subjected to forces that are particularly intense.
In order to validate a tailgate design, in particular in terms of high temperature performance, the specifications generally require tests to be performed that consist in imposing successive temperature variation cycles on the tailgate, or more particularly on the assembly constituted by the outer panel and the box or inner panel of the tailgate. Those cycles have an amplitude of about 80° C., but that varies between manufacturers, and the number of cycles performed lies in a range of 15 to 20 cycles, approximately. In that type of testing, the tailgate does not always have enough time to return to its initial shape prior to expansion before the next cycle begins. An effect of deformation accumulating from cycle to cycle is therefore observed with the deformation of the tailgate becoming progressively more degraded.

Motor vehicle component that withstands thermal deformation


A security device for securing an article against theft comprises a flexible cable having first and second opposite ends, and a housing member defining a cavity for receiving the cable. The housing member has a wall formed with an opening through which the cable may extend. A cable retainer retains the first end of the cable substantially stationarily inside the housing. On withdrawing the second end of the cable from the housing, no substantial return force tending to retract the cable into the housing is generated.

This invention relates to a security device.
Unauthorized removal of components of personal computers represents a major security problem in certain institutions, such as colleges, where there are not elaborate security measures restricting access to the institution, so that the institution is, in effect, open to the public, and the legitimate users of the institution may need access to personal computers in order to carry out their studies.