Provided is a bearing arrangement for a wind turbine, including a first portion, a second portion, and a sound wave sensor which is configured to detect a thickness of the second portion, wherein one of the first portion and the second portion is movable relative to the other of the first portion and the second portion. In contrast to known bearing arrangements for wind turbines, the thickness of the second portion which for example is exposed to wear may be actively detected. Thus, the information of the thickness is available at any time. Thus, a demand of an exchange of the second portion can be precisely predicted and determined.

Modern wind turbine rotor blades are built from fiber-reinforced plastics. A rotor blade typically comprises an airfoil having a rounded leading edge and a sharp trailing edge. The rotor blade is connected with its blade root to a hub of the wind turbine. Further, the rotor blade is connected to the hub by means of a pitch bearing that allows a pitch movement of the rotor blade relative to the hub. Such pitch bearings are often provided as sliding or friction bearings. Removal of material as a consequence of wear may be an important design parameter. If the wear rate exceeds the reserve it may result in failure of the pitch bearing.


A room temperature infrared imager, fabricated using MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) techniques, made up of individually functioning analog elements laid out in a horizontal and vertical block matrix (pixel array). The front of each individual pixel element is IR sensitive and varies its properties in proportion to the corresponding analog level of incident IR energy exposure. An image infrared energy is focused across the front of the array to ultimately create a visible light image. The detector elements are formed on the front of a substrate. On the rear of the substrate, right behind the detectors, are electronics which read the sensors exposure level. Formed on top of the electronics are Light Emitting Devices (LED's). The electronics vary the brightness of the LED's proportionally with the exposure level on the front of the detector. The image is formed by the different visible light levels that appear on the array readout.

Security and safety issues capture front-page coverage every day and have a growing impact on the US economy and quality of life. The average US citizen is seriously concerned about his family's risk of exposure to accidents, crime and acts against society.
Infrared (IR) thermal imaging systems have been proliferating in commercial, but mostly industrial and military products. These devices have become less expensive over the last several years but are still too expensive to become mainstream products for widespread consumer use. The need for consumer-priced infrared thermal imaging equipment has never been more pressing. Thermal imaging used on a wide scale allows the US to get a technological edge against those who wish to harm the US.
However, budgetary considerations have created the need for a new generation of Thermal Imaging Sensors. These sensors need to be priced in the commercial rather than scientific or military realm while maintaining the performance of scientific and military devices.
A typical thermal sensor unit (for instance, ¼ VGA) has 320 by 240 resolution=76,800 pixels. These sensor cores cost about $3,000 to $4,000 in lots of 1,000 units. The comparative common denominator is cost per pixel. Using the above example, the cost per pixel is $0.04 per pixel ($3,000/76,800). For true proliferation into consumer markets, the cost per pixel should cost no more than 50¢ per pixel. At that price an imager core (320×240) would cost less than $400 which would be a reasonable base price for consumer products retailing between $1,000 to $2,500. This would amount to 1/10th of what these devices are currently sell for.
The last 40 years have seen the development of many different types of thermal sensors. There are basically two types of detectors: quantum and thermal. In quantum detectors, incoming photons are collected while in thermal detectors, incoming photons are converted to heat which changes some measurable characteristic of the sensor material like resistance or capacitance. Quantum detectors are better but are more difficult to manufacture. However, thermal detectors operate better in the mid to far IR wavelengths of 3 to 14 microns. Furthermore, thermal detector materials operate better at room temperature and do not need active cooling.
Uncooled sensors have received much attention by design engineers as they are smaller, lighter, use less power and cost less. Currently most are bolometers, pyroelectric or thermoelectric. A need therefore exists for a detector that is thermally and electrically isolated from its surroundings and insulated from outside noise sources. Conventional video signal systems create electronic noise from the readout and scanning circuitry.
Thus, a need exists for a low cost thermal imaging device. In particular, a need exists for an efficient method for building a low cost thermal imaging device. A primary purpose of the present invention is to solve these needs and provide further, related advantages.


An improved rotary fluid meter is provided having expansion chambers for conditioning pressure pulses that may occur in the flow of fluids. The pressure pulses, which inhibit the meter's ability to accurately measure, may originate from within a metering device or from without it. The pressure pulses may be generated upstream of the meter. Fluid flows into the meter through a fluid flow conduit. At least one flow conditioning chamber which is of such a volume and a shape as to enable it to substantially dampen pressure pulses so as to improve the accuracy of the rotary meter is provided along the fluid flow conduit.

This invention relates to rotary positive displacement fluid meters, and more particularly, it relates to rotary meters which measure the flow of gas.
Rotary meters are used for commercial, residential and industrial buildings, as well as other locations to measure the amount gas which is consumed. Public utilities and other providers of gases use the measurements to bill customers. Public utility commissions in many states require the overall accuracy of all gas meters to be approximately one hundred percent with a permissible error of .+-.1% at all gas flow rates. Since the operation of various components within gas meters and gas meter installations make inaccuracies inherent, the designers and manufacturers of gas meters are faced with minimizing these effects.
Rotary positive displacement meters measure the flow of fluids such as natural gas through the use of one or more impellers installed in an impeller cavity located in a meter casing. The impeller cavity is in the path of the flow of gas through the casing. Thus, the flow of gas through the path rotates the impeller(s). The single or multiple impellers used in rotary meters normally have what is called a "figure-eight" or an "hour-glass" shape. As gas flows through the casing, the impeller(s) trap a known quantity of gas in a measuring chamber which is formed between the impeller(s) and an inner wall of the impeller cavity. Each total revolution of an impeller causes a number of these known quantities of gas to be accumulated in the measuring chamber and passed through the rotary meter. The number of rotations of the impellers is counted on a register and totalled to determine the amount of gas flowing through the rotary meter.
A cross-section of a typical prior art rotary positive displacement meter 20 is shown in FIG. 1A-1D. The rotary meter 20 includes a casing or housing 22 having a fluid flow conduit 24 through which fluid is passed into the meter, which is measured and is passed out of the meter. The fluid flow conduit 24 includes a flow inlet channel 26 for gas intake, an inlet expansion chamber 28, an impeller cavity 30, an outlet expansion chamber 32 and an outlet channel 34 for gas expulsion. The impeller cavity 30 has an inner wall 33 extending around its periphery.
A pair of identical, figure-eight shaped impellers 36 and 38 is mounted within the impeller cavity 30. For the convenience of following the rotation of the impellers in FIG. 1A-1D, the ends of the impeller 36 are marked A and B, while the ends of impeller 38 are marked C and D. The impellers 36 and 38 are constructed to rotate within the impeller cavity so that their ends pass in close proximity to the inner wall 33.
The pressure drop across the gas meter 20 as gas is consumed downstream of the meter 20 causes the upper impeller 36 to rotate in a clockwise direction, while the lower impeller 38 is rotated in a counter-clockwise direction. As explained above, in the course of this rotation, the figure-eight shaped impellers 36 and 38 each periodically forms a closed measuring chamber of a known volume between itself and a portion of the inner wall 33. As a result, the rotating impellers 36 and 38 separate the flowing gas stream into a series of pulses of a known volume of gas as the gas passes through the meter 20. This operation of the rotary meter 20 is shown in FIG. 1A through 1D and explained as follows:
Referring first to FIG. 1A, as the bottom impeller 38 rotates in a counter-clockwise direction toward the horizontal position, gas enters from the inlet channel 26 and the inlet expansion chamber 28 to a space between the lower impeller 38 and the inner wall 33 of the impeller cavity 30. Upper impeller 36 prevents gas from flowing from the input expansion chamber 28 and through the impeller cavity 30. A previously trapped pulse of gas is being released from between impeller 36 and a portion of innerwall 33 toward exit expansion chamber 32.
When impeller 38 reaches the horizontal position shown in FIG. 1B, a known volume of gas is trapped in a measuring chamber 40 between impeller 38 and the inner wall 33. Impeller 36 is in the vertical position and continues to block the flow of gas from beyond the impeller cavity 30.
As the impeller 38 continues to turn in the counter-clockwise direction, FIG. 1C shows the volume of fluid trapped in the measuring chamber 40 is discharged as a pulse through the outlet expansion chamber 32 and the outlet channel 34. Gas from the inlet expansion chamber 28 is now becoming trapped in a closing space between the top impeller 36 and the inner wall 33. Impeller 38 prevents additional gas from flowing from the inlet channel 26 and inlet expansion chamber 28 through the meter 20.
FIG. 1D shows that as the impeller 36 rotates in the clockwise direction it reaches its horizontal position at which it confines another known volume of fluid in a measurement chamber 42 between it and a portion of the inner wall 33. The measuring chamber 42 is the same size as the measuring chamber 40. The balance of the gas that was in the measurement chamber 40 is discharged from the meter 20, as the impeller 38 continues to prevent additional gas from flowing from the inlet expansion chamber 28. The gas in the measurement chamber 42 is then discharged as a pulse as the impeller 36 continues to rotate toward the position shown in FIG. 1A.
This process is repeated twice for each complete revolution of the impellers 36 and 38. During each rotation, the upper impeller 36 fills and empties its measurement chamber twice, as does the lower impeller 38. Ideally, no gas will pass from the inlet connection to the outlet connection without being trapped in the measurement chambers 40 and 42.
While rotary meters are of great utility, the pressure pulses discussed above are felt throughout the length of the meter case as well as the whole meter installation. These pressure pulses lead to meter inaccuracies. Each complete rotation of the impellers 36 and 38 produces four pressure pulses in the gas stream as the measurement chambers 40 and 42 each fill and empty twice during each rotation of the impellers. Therefore, the frequency of the pulsations will be four times the frequency of the rotations of the impellers 36 and 38. As the gas flow rate increases, rotation rates of the impellers 36 and 38 increase, gas pressure pulses are more frequent, and inaccuracies due to gas pressure pulses become more significant.
Prior to this invention, rotary gas meters having inherent inaccuracies due to gas pressure pulses were installed to measure the flow of gas. One U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,088 dealt with the effects of these pulses by eliminating accuracy errors caused by standing waves of sound produced by these pulses in configurations used for testing the accuracy of the rotary gas meter. Where a rotary meter to be tested was connected to a prover master meter by a conduit, the testing configuration included at least one expansion chamber having a cross-sectional area at least seven times as great as the cross-sectional area of the conduit. This expansion chamber reportedly eliminated the standing waves produced by gas pressure pulses at various harmonics of the frequency of these pulses as the flow rate of gas increased during the testing of the rotary meter. However, this expansion chamber was not used once the testing of meter accuracy was completed during initial calibration. The effects of gas pulses on the accuracy of a rotary meter after it was installed were left unchecked and unchanged.
Additionally, it is often desirable to attempt to reduce the cost of a rotary meter by manufacturing its casing through the use of an extrusion process. During the extrusion process, an ingot of metal from which the meter casing is to be manufactured is driven through a die to form the casing. Referring to the meter casing 22 shown in FIG. 1A, the hollow area comprising the impeller cavity 30, the inlet expansion chamber 28, and the outlet expansion chamber 32 is formed by inserting a core plunger having the shape of the cross-section of these hollow areas into a heated ingot before the ingot is driven through the die which forms the casing. Because substantial pressures are produced during the extrusion process, the cross-sectional area of the core plunger must be of a size to resist being damaged as the ingot is being driven through the dye.
Furthermore, the cost of a meter casing can be further reduced when the hollow areas in the casing are larger. Larger hollow areas result in the use of less material, thus reducing the cost of the meter casing. However, to be discussed later, there are practical limitations on how large one may make the flow conditioning chamber. For this reason it is desirable to have the hollow areas of the casing as large as practicable for the design of a rotary meter.

Rotary meter having flow conditioning chambers for pressure pulse reduction


A memory control method, a memory controller, and a memory device implementing the method are provided. The memory controller controls the memory device comprising a plurality of banks, and a first row in a bank is activated for access. The memory controller receives a request for access of a second row in the bank and delivers a special command to the memory device. The memory device deactivates the first row and activates the second row upon receipt of the special command.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to memory device, and in particular, to a control method for synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM).
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1a shows a conventional memory control timing sequence. In a SDRAM, a memory controller receives data access requests such as requests for reading/writing a specific address, and delivers corresponding commands to a memory device storing the requested data. A memory device typically comprises four or eight banks. A bank is a storage array formed by rows and columns with data bits stored therein. In each bank, only one row can be activated at a specific time, therefore, at most a total of eight rows are simultaneously activated in a memory device comprising eight banks. To active a row in a bank, the memory controller delivers an ACTIVE command to the memory device through a command bus comprising CS/RAS/CAS/WE wires, with the row address delivered through an address bus simultaneously. An activation typically consumes three clock cycles. After the row activation, the memory device delivers a READ/WRITE command to access the data according to a column address delivered through the address bus at the same time. The accessed row remains activated until another row in the same bank is requested for access. A PRECHARGE command is utilized to deactivate the first row before activating the second row, which typically consumes three clock cycles.
As shown in FIG. 1a, a plurality of commands are delivered through the command bus RAS/CAS/WE sequentially, with corresponding row addresses and column addresses delivered through an address bus. At time T1, a PRECHARGE command 110 is delivered to deactivate a first row in a bank BA0. In the meantime, a don't care signal 100 is delivered through the address bus. Thereafter, at time T4, an ACTIVE command 112 is delivered to activate a second row in the bank BA0, with a second row address 116 delivered through the address bus. At time T7, a READ command 114 is delivered to read a column in the activated row of the bank BA0, with the column address 118 delivered through the address bus. At time T8, another PRECHARGE command 120 deactivates a third row in bank BA1, and similarly, the corresponding ACTIVE command 122 and READ command 124 are delivered at time T11 and T14 to read data from the bank BA1. In this way, a command bus consumes fourteen cycle times to deliver six commands in which eight cycle times are idle, thus the bus utility is inefficient.
FIG. 1b shows another conventional memory command timing sequence. The bus utility is enhanced by interleaving different bank commands to avoid idle states. The PRECHARGE command 120 for bank BA1 is delivered at time T2, and the PRECHARGE command 130 for bank BA2 is delivered at time T3. Similarly, times T5 and T6 deliver ACTIVE commands for banks BA1 and BA2, and times T8 and T9 deliver READ commands for banks BA1 and BA2. In this way, the bus is fully utilized during time T1 to T9. At time T10, however, the access for a bank BA3 still comprise idle cycle times, for example, T11, T12, T14, and T15 in FIG. 1b. Thus, at most three banks (BA0, BA1 and BA2) can be accessed in succession.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart of conventional memory control. In step 202, the memory controller is initialized by receiving data access requests. In step 204, the memory controller determines whether the bank containing the requested data is activated. If not, the process proceeds to step 206 to activate the bank and perform a read/write operation in step 214. If the bank is activated in step 204, the process proceeds to step 208 to determine whether the requested row is same as the previously activated row. If yes, The read/write operation is directly performed in step 214. If not, the process proceeds to step 210 to send a PRECHARGE command to deactivate the previously activated row, and then send an ACTIVE command to activate the currently requested row in step 212 followed by step 214. The memory control operation ends with step 216.
In this way, a previously activated row must be deactivated before activating a currently requested row in the same bank, thus two commands are required to complete the operation, a PRECHARGE command for the previously activated row and an ACTIVE command for the currently requested row.


The present invention relates to a method and system for providing biological detection. The system includes: at least one polymodal sensor for collectively detecting at least two conditions; and at least one node, each node including at least one of the polymodal sensors. The system also includes at least one data collector; each data collector communicating with one or more of the at least one node, and each data collector storing local information in a local knowledge base; and at least one server, each server communicating with one or more of the at least one data collector, and each server updating a global knowledge base. The at least two conditions are utilized in detecting the presence of biological activity from either one or both knowledge bases.

Pest detection, management, and control is a multi-billion dollar industry. Generally, property owners want to use the most economical means to minimize the number of pests on the property. To this end, conventional pest detection systems typically involve two separate steps: detection and treatment. Conventional detection involves a technician physically inspecting premises for pests. In order to determine if pests are present, the technician must regularly and thoroughly examine the premises. In fact, the greatest expense for most pest control businesses is the labor associated with these regular customer inspections. Approximately 75 percent of the technician's time is spent performing on-site inspections. If a technician finds pests, then the property owner may elect to enter the treatment phase. Treatment is usually fairly simple and often consists of applying pesticide to the premises. However, after a period of time, application of pesticide is applied regardless of whether any pests are present or not. And it is also known to arbitrarily pre-treat building sites with chemicals before building. In such instances, application of the pesticide is wasteful and may needlessly contribute to groundwater pollution.
In order to reduce the labor associated with these regular customer inspections, recent advances in pest detection systems have seen a variety of sensors and systems that attempt to automatically detect the presence of pests. For example, one known system uses a vibration sensor to detect the presence of termites in a home. When termites move near the vibration sensor, the sensor detects the vibration and the system indicates that termites are present. However, this type of system is problematic because it may be triggered by events other than termites—for example, a person walking nearby or construction occurring in the vicinity may trigger the vibration sensor. Other known systems also suffer from an inability to accurately determine whether a particular pest is present and false readings commonly occur. And these sensors provide no adaptability for the geographical region in which they are located. For example, detection of pests in a tropical environment may be much different in a desert environment. Thus, current systems are unable to detect pest activity with sufficient reliability to be economically feasible.
Thus, a system and method is needed that accurately determines whether pests are present and allows property owners and/or pest management businesses to minimize the number of pests on the premises by the most economical means.


A battery pack for supplying power to an electrical device has a plastic housing having a housing wall with at least one wall section, at least one battery cell which has an outer circumference and is inserted into the housing so that the at least one wall section of the housing wall faces said outer circumference surface of the battery cell, the wall section of the housing and the circumference surface of the at least one battery cell being complementarily shaped along at least one quarter of a circumference of the at least one battery cell and resting against each other in a form-locked manner.

The present invention relates to a battery pack for supplying power to an electrical device
The terms battery cell and battery pack used here are also intended to include rechargeable current storage devices (rechargeable batteries) or rechargeable battery packs.
Battery packs for supplying power to electrical devices such as hand-guided power tools usually have a housing made of plastic, which as a rule has several usually cylindrical battery cells inserted into it. The inner cross-sectional dimensions of the housing are usually selected so that the cells can be inserted with ease. In order to assure a definite position of the cells in the housing, the cells frequently rest with their circumference surfaces against support surfaces of the housing; in addition, adjacent cells contact one another along parallel lines on their circumference surfaces. Between the circumference surfaces of the cells and the housing, there are frequently larger intermediate spaces. The air in these intermediate spaces functions as a thermal insulator and slows the transmission of heat from the battery cells through the housing wall to the surroundings. This is disadvantageous primarily in newer battery cells with higher power conversions since there is the danger of the battery cells overheating when the power loss inside the housing is not conveyed quickly enough out of the housing in the form of heat. Because of this danger of overheating, the battery pack can have a lower power conversion.


An optical writing device that writes electrostatic latent images on an image carrier by irradiating and scanning the image carrier with an optical beam includes an optical element, a support housing configured to support members constituting the optical writing device, a pair of optical-element holding members opposing each other in a principal scanning direction and arranged in the support housing, and a displacing member configured to displace at least one of the pair of optical-element holding members relatively to the support housing on a plane perpendicular to the principal scanning direction. The optical-element holding member is made of a material having a coefficient of linear expansion smaller than that of the support housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, and a facsimile machine, and an optical writing device installed in the image forming apparatus to write images on an image carrier with an optical beam.
2. Discussion of the Background Art
A tandem color image forming apparatus is widely used. In the tandem color image forming apparatus, images (visible images), each having a different color, are formed on a plurality of latent image carriers so as to form full-color images by overlapping these images. The tandem color image forming apparatus includes an optical writing device mounted thereon for forming the visible images. The optical writing device forms latent images on each latent image carrier by irradiating the latent image carrier with an optical beam corresponding to image information and scanning the optical beam. Then, the optical writing device obtains the visible images by developing the latent image formed on each latent image carrier.
The above-mentioned optical writing device generally includes optical elements, such as a lens and a mirror, for directing light emitted from a light source to a predetermined position. The optical elements may include a polygon mirror for deflecting and scanning with the light from the light source to serve as principal scanning-line deflection means. In addition, the optical elements may include a plurality of lenses for focusing the light beam deflected by the polygon mirror on the surface of a latent image carrier which is a light-irradiation target.
In such an optical scanning device, during fabrication certain tolerances may appear in image plane curvature characteristics and positional accuracies of the optical elements. In addition, because a motor that drives the polygon mirror generates heat, various constituent elements of the optical writing device may also be thermally deformed. Moreover, due to changes in weight balance and circumstance of the image forming apparatus, torsion of the image forming apparatus and the optical writing device or torsion of the latent image carrier may be produced during mounting. For these reasons there arises a problem of fluctuation in position and angle between the optical elements, so that the scanning position of the light beam on the latent image carrier fluctuates. Also, for the above-mentioned reasons, a problem arises in that the scanning line of the light beam on the surface of the latent image carrier is curved or inclined.
Due to the problems mentioned above, color misalignment is produced in the full-color images formed by overlapping the images formed on each latent image carrier.
In the problems mentioned above, the positions and attitudes of the lens and the mirror largely affect the relative inclination misalignment of the scanning line. Hence, it is generally required to correct the position and attitude of the optical element (the lens or the mirror) provided for each-color image forming station of the color image forming apparatus. On the other hand, in order to suppress the relative misalignment of the scanning line, it is necessary to structure an optical housing with high accuracies for holding a number of optical elements. Such management of such fabrication tolerance complicates production of the optical housing, so that it is difficult to manage and maintain the production line.
Therefore, an optical writing device has been proposed in which part of the optical elements is held to a punched plate other than a housing having the entire optical elements arranged therein. In this optical writing device, a two-member structure is disclosed in that optical elements are held by a pair of holding members.
Similar optical writing devices capable of improving performance by employing a most suitable material for the function to be achieved have been proposed. Furthermore, there is an optical writing device capable of removing the effect of the thermal expansion/contraction of the two members and an optical writing device in which the first holding member is also made of a plate for increasing the rigidity.
However, in these related arts, if the holding member is divided into two members, problems of error accumulation and relative misalignment remain. In one optical writing device, the torsion of the device itself can be desirably corrected. In this case, however, depending on the structure of the optical writing device, unnecessary torsion may be inadvertently produced.

Optical writing device and image forming apparatus


A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming on a lower structure, a first stack structure in which first material layers and second material layers are alternately stacked, forming, on the first stack structure, a second stack structure in which third material layers and fourth material layers are alternately stacked, forming preliminary holes penetrating the second stack structure, forming a fifth material layer covering the preliminary holes on the second stack structure to define a first air-gap inside the preliminary holes, and forming through holes connected to the preliminary holes by penetrating from the fifth material layer overlapping the preliminary holes to the first stack structure.

1. Technical Field
An aspect of the application relates to a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device including a through structure penetrating a stack structure.
2. Related Art
A technique of stacking memory cells on a substrate has been proposed for the purpose of high integration of a semiconductor device. In order to form memory cells stacked on a substrate, processes may be performed as follows.
First, a stack structure in which conductive patterns and insulating patterns are alternately stacked is formed on a substrate. Subsequently, a through structure penetrating the stack structure is formed. The through structure includes a channel layer used as a channel of memory cells. Accordingly, a memory string is formed, which includes memory cells connected in series along the channel layer, the memory cells being stacked on the substrate.
In order to improve the integration degree of the memory string, the number of stacked conductive patterns and stacked insulating patterns may be increased. Accordingly, the height of the stack structure increases, and therefore, the process of forming the through structure penetrating the stack structure is complicated.

Manufacturing method of semiconductor device


An array of antenna elements (20) can be used to detect subwavelength sized anomalies on a surface below the array. An array (20) is illuminated at optical frequencies by a coherent optical energy source (26). The change in reactance and radiated power of the antenna elements that results from the proximity of the anomaly to the near field of the antenna element's open-circuited is detected and holographically filtered to eliminate the radiation caused by the antenna array itself. Image processing is performed on the detected scattered radiation (100) to determine whether an anomaly is present and to locate the anomaly and its characteristics.

1. Field of the Invention
In one aspect, this invention is a method and system for detecting sub-wavelength size anomalies in a substrate using optical radiation and an array of resonant photonic open feed antenna elements. In another aspect, this invention is directed to a closed flux resonant antenna that may be used in a system for detecting sub-wavelength size anomalies in a substrate.
2. Background Information
On semiconductor substrates, anomalies, such as process contaminants, post-polishing substrate fragments, or voids need to be accurately located and identified in order to obtain the cleanliness required for the next generation of integrated microcircuits. Because of technological advances, the critical anomaly size is currently less than 80 nm. Because of their minute size, such anomalies are beyond the detectability limit of conventional optical beam scattering approaches, which is determined by the diffraction limit: i.e. approximately one third of a wavelength. In the optical range, this is of the order of 150 to 200 nm since the wavelength of light is on the order of 400 to 600 nm. To extract shape information, the object size should be closer to one wavelength. With standard optical scattering approaches, the smallest objects that can be reliably examined thus are approximately 500 nm, significantly larger then the current critical anomaly size of 80 nm. Because optical instruments and sources in the visible range are very mature and reliable, an optical system that circumvents the diffraction limit would be a much more attractive alternative to perform this function than developing new instruments and sources operating at frequencies above the optical range. This is because mature scatterometry systems which operate at higher frequencies and are capable of scanning productions sized wafers do not yet exist.
Investigators have proposed schemes to defeat the diffraction limit by concentrating the radiated energy into subwavelength areas. An early scheme using a tapered fiber probe succeeded in concentrating the illumination to an area approximately one tenth of a wavelength in diameter. This came, however, at the expense of a tremendous degradation in illumination, as a transmission efficiency of 10−5 was reported. Another scheme to defeat the diffraction limit by interposing an open feed bow-tie resonant antenna element in the path of the illuminating wave is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,696,372, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This approach resulted in superior transfer of power from an incident wave to an observation region than previous techniques. The open circuited bow-tie antenna effectively blocks a radiated wave and concentrates its energy in the open circuited gap region of the antenna. The result is an illuminated area of the order of one sixth to one tenth of a wavelength across, with a transmission efficiency ranging from 0.5% to as high as 30%.
The techniques used in the prior art generally suffer from very small transmission efficiencies (i.e., the ratio of incident power to power at the tip) because the concentration of the wave energy is achieved by guiding the wave through closed waveguides that are well below cutoff. That is, the waveguide dimensions are so small compared to the wavelength that most of the incident energy is reflected before reaching the observation aperture at the tip. Further, when used with wavelengths in the optical range rather Man in the microwave range, an inductive load connected to the gap in the bow-tie configuration can change the transmission efficiency from 0.5% to nearly 100%. Thus, the proximity of the object to be detected can dramatically alter the transmission efficiency of the probe by changing the reactance in the near field. A second issue left unaddressed, but which is critical to the application of defect detection on large semiconductor wafers, is that the minuteness of the spot-size implies an enormous scanning time as the illuminated region is physically moved over the area to be examined.
Accordingly, a system and method for rapidly scanning large wafer areas to locate and identify defects or debris addressing the drawbacks of the prior art is needed.

Wave interrogated near field array system and method for detection of subwavelength scale anomalies


Processes for detecting or quantitating a particular phosphoglyceride in a sample containing the phosphoglyceride and other lipids and clinical uses for the process (e.g. for diagnosing improperly functioning lungs and other conditions) are disclosed.

A major dilemma encountered by obstetricians on a daily basis is whether to deliver a woman in preterm labor (onset of labor at.ltoreq.37 weeks of gestational age), or with some underlying disease that could be alleviated by terminating the preterm pregnancy. If the baby is delivered and the baby's lungs are not mature, or are borderline, the baby will develop Respiratory Distress Syndrome (or "RDS") which can result either in fetal death or long-lasting periods of repeated respiratory difficulty. The prevalence of RDS when the gestational age is below 31 weeks is 60%, but drops to 1% by a gestation of 36 weeks. It is estimated today that in the metropolitan Boston area alone, the number of patients that need to be tested for the assessment of fetal lung maturity (or "FLM") is about 4,000 per year.
Immature fetal lungs lack an adequate surfactant layer which normally lines the alveoli and helps to keep the alveoli open after exhalation. The quantity of phospholipids generally in amniotic fluid, and of dipalmitoyl phosphatidyl choline (or "DPPC") in particular, has been correlated with the amount of surfactant lining the alveoli, and with the degree of fetal lung maturity. Phosphatidyl choline (or "PC") fractional species represent nearly 80 percent of the surfactant phospholipid varieties in the fetal lung (Clements, Am. Rev. Resp. Dis., 101:984 (1970)); and dipalmitoyl phosphatidyl choline (or "DPPC") constitutes about 60 percent of the fetal lung phosphatidyl choline species fraction. Other PC fraction species include 1-palmitoyl, 2-palmitoleoyl-PC (20%); 1 -palmitoyl, 2-oleoyl-PC (10%); and other minor PC varietal species (10%). The remaining lung surfactant phospholipid components also include phosphatidyl inositol, phosphatidyl ethanolamine, sphingomyelin and phosphatidyl serine. Interestingly enough, the second major phospholipid of lung surfactants is phosphatidyl glycerol, comprising more than 10 percent of the mature surfactant in the lining of the lung (Pleger and Thomas, Arch. Intern. Med, 127:863 (1971); Hallman and Gluck, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 60:1 (1974)).
A variety of assays and testing techniques have been developed and used to estimate fetal lung maturity--with markedly different degrees of success. Some of these conventional assay methods employ thin layer chromatography (or "TLC") as a requisite part of the assay. Nevertheless, despite the inclusion of TLC within these assays, and notwithstanding the improvements in the techniques of thin layer chromatography in the last decade, this chromatographic technique was viewed previously and remains seen today primarily as an ancestral technique and an undesirable mode of analysis for the medical field generally and the clinical environment in particular. This disinterest, reluctance and disfavor is intrinsically revealed within the range and diversity of publications reporting and describing the assays.
For instance, in 1971 a test for the assessment of FLM was introduced by Gluck and his associates Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 109:440 (1971)!. This test measures the ratio of lecithin to sphingomyelin (L/S) present in amniotic fluid by thin layer chromatography (TLC). An L/S ratio value of.gtoreq.2 in amniotic fluid is considered indicative of a mature fetal lung. However, the term "lecithin" has become synonymous with and representative of a range of different phosphatidyl cholines (PCs) generally; and today designates a variety of related species that differ from each other in their fatty acid residue chain lengths and/or degree of unsaturation of the fatty acids sterified to the sn- 1 and sn-2 position of the glycerol moiety commonly shared among them. The particular definition of "lecithin" used can therefore vary the results of an assay. Subsequently, in 1976, Hallman et al. introduced the determination of phosphatidyl glycerol (PG) in amniotic fluid by one-dimensional TLC as another test for the assessment of FLM Hallman et al., Am. J. Obstet Gynecol. 125:613 (1976)!. A few years later, Kulovich et al. introduced the analysis of phosphatidyl glycerol (PG) in amniotic fluid using two-dimensional TLC Kulovich et al. Am. J Obstet Gynecol. 135:57 (1979)!. Surprisingly, since first introduced by Gluck and Hallman, TLC analysis of surfactant-associated phospholipids in amniotic fluid has become the "gold standard" for the assessment of fetal lung maturity. TLC assay methods, however, are cumbersome at best.
Another overwhelming problem with these assays is that they were unsuitable for the assessment of FLM in samples contaminated with blood, or with meconium, or for amniotic fluid samples obtained from the vaginal pool. In 1979 an alternative test was introduced by Torday et al. for the analysis of disaturated phosphatidyl choline species (or "DSPC") from amniotic fluid N. Engl. J. Med. 301:1013 (1979)!. In this publication, the DSPC test was introduced as a method for the assessment of FLM in amniotic fluid samples contaminated with either blood or meconium. The cut-off value used in the Torday et al. assay of DSPC was 5 .mu.g/mL; values above 5.mu.g/mL were considered mature fetal lung tissues. This DSPC test is based on the method originally described by Mason et al. for the isolation of disaturated phosphatidyl choline species using osmium textroxide J. Lipid Res. 17:281 (1976)!. A further adaptation of this method was also used to measure the concentration of DSPC species in rhesus-monkey amniotic fluid as a function of gestational age. It was found that the increase in amniotic fluid DSPC species correlated with lung maturity in the fetus.
A number of deficiencies and problems, however, exist in this DSPC assay method: The test measures total disaturated lecithins which includes a variety of different chemical entities in addition to DPPC, it: 1) uses low-resolution TLC; 2) requires relatively high volumes of amniotic fluid samples (.gtoreq.1 mL); 3) is time-consuming (requiring 4 to 5 h to perform); and 4) requires the use of highly toxic reagents (i.e., osmium tetraoxide and carbon tetracholoride)--all of which are substantive obstacles to widespread use of the test.
The historical reluctance and disfavor shown towards assays employing thin layer chromatography also lead to a continuing interest and desire, particularly by commercial pharmaceutical companies, for less complicated assay systems and less rigorous detection techniques for assessing fetal lung maturity. Thus, by 1976, a new test for the assessment of FLM was introduced based on the analysis of membrane-bound vesicles in amniotic fluid by fluorescence polarization, as first described by Schinitzky et al. Br. J Obstet. Gynaecol. 83:833 (1976)!. In this method, a fluorophore is added to the amniotic fluid test solution containing the vesicles and the fluorophore is allowed to react with the vesicular membranes. Subsequently, when excited by plane polarized light of an appropriate wavelength, the fluorophore will emit its characteristic radiation with the same polarization as the incident light--if the molecule has not rotated with the vesicular membranes. In general, however, the angle of the emitted polarization light relative to that of the exciting light depends on how far the fluorescent molecule has interacted and rotated in the time between absorption and emission. Thus, the more fluid the vesicular membrane, the greater is the degree of rotation--resulting in relatively unpolarized fluorescent light in very fluid membranes and relatively more polarized light in less fluid membranes.
The early 1980's saw the general introduction of fluorescence polarization immunoassays for therapeutic drug monitoring determinations, with nearly every major medical center obtaining an optical instrument for this purpose. An example of such an instrument is Abbott's AMX-TDx Analyzer (Abbott Laboratories, Irving, Tex.). These instruments are highly automated and are now very well established in the clinical laboratory; and the fluorophore NBD-PC has been adapted for these instruments in a commercially available method Tait et al., Clin. Chem. 32:248 (1986); Foerder et al., Clin. Chem. 32:255 (1986)!. Although considerable controversy remains today as to the precise mechanism producing the observed results, this method yields results that correlate well with other measures of FLM; and, in a prospective study, compared favorably with the L/S ratio standards Tait et al., Clin. Chem. 33:554 (1987)!. The method appears to have been quickly adopted by the medical and clinical community; and, since the test can be carried out with the AMX analyzer as a simplified, high volume, and low cost assessment of FLM, some obstetricians have been persuaded to use it as a more convenient test methodology than any of the TLC assays.
Another important test that is currently in use in hospitals across the country is the PG agglutination test which is based on the slide agglutination test of Garite et al. Am. J Obstet. Gynecol. 147:681 (1983)!. The results obtained in this study are typically compared to those data obtained by analysis of the L/S ratio, or phosphatidyl glycerol determination by TLC, and by fluorescence polarization for the assessment of FLM. The sensitivity of the PG agglutination test was judged to be near 100% and yielded a determined specificity of 65%. Test sensitivity is defined as the ability to predict FLM; test specificity is defined as the ability to predict the absence of FLM. In comparison, analysis by fluorescence polarization had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 60% (40% falsely immature results).
More recently, in 1989, Craig et al. introduced an ultrasensitive phosphatidyl glycerol (PG) detection kit based on the method described previously by Garite et al. Am. J Obstet. Gynecol. 160:298-303 (1989)!. This assay was said to have a lower limit of detection of 0.5.mu.g of PG/mL in amniotic fluid for a positive test; and the analysis could be performed within 20 to 30 minutes. Note that the original test kit described earlier by Garite et al. had a lower limit of detection of 2 .mu.g/mL for a positive test. In their report, Craig et al. applied the ultrasensitive immunoreaction kit to the analysis of amniotic fluid obtained from the vaginal pool following premature rupture of membranes--i.e., samples contaminated with blood or meconium or patients with diabetes. Despite the lower threshold of PG detection necessary for a positive result in this new ultrasensitive test, the investigators concluded that concordance rates were not significantly increased as compared to the results obtained by Garite et al. using the original kit. However, the data obtained using either of these kits should be cautiously evaluated, if the samples are contaminated with meconium or obtained from the vaginal pool due to bacterial and/or human sperm contamination which have been shown to contain significant amounts of PG. Despite these flaws, this test is commercially available as the "Amniostat-FLM" test (Irvine Scientific, Calif.).
A number of other investigators have published a variety of assays methods and techniques for assessing fetal lung maturity. These have included the following systems: measurement of surfactant lecithin in sheep amniotic fluid Ogawa, J Exp. Med. 300:112 (1972)!; foam stability Clements et al., N. Eng. J. Med. 286:1077 (1972)!; surface tension Goldkrand, et al., Am. J Obstet. Gynecol. 128:59 (1977)!; ratio of palmitic to stearic acid Schirar et al., Am. Obstet. Gynecol., 121:653 (1975)!; surfactant apoprotein King et al., J Appl. Physiol. 39:735 (1975)!; and dipalmitoyl lecithin Ogawa, Biol. Neonate. 28:18 (1976)!. With the possible exception of the amniotic fluid-foam-stability test, these methods have been difficult to use routinely or are not more reliable than the L/S ratio test or the analysis of PG by TLC, which thus remain as the gold standard for the assessment of FLM.
Overall, therefore, there remains today a continuing and long-standing need for a high-resolution, accurate and reliable assay for assessing the maturity of fetal lung tissue. Moreover, recognizing the frequency with which amniotic fluid samples are contaminated with other living cells and body fluids, the assessment method should not be markedly altered or meaningfully influenced by the presence of contaminants in the sample.

Processes for quantitating phosphoglycerides in a lipid mixture and diagnostic uses therefor


A gas turbine fuel nozzle comprises a body and a sheath adapted to surround the body. A snap-on device is provided for releasably retaining the sheath on the body. The snap-on device is displaceable between a first position for allowing the sheath to be fitted over the body and a second position for retaining the sheath in place about the body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fuel nozzles for gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to a protective sheath assembly for such fuel nozzles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fuel nozzles for gas turbine engines are well known in the prior art. Such conventional fuel nozzles are used to supply fuel to a combustion chamber which is provided for igniting the fuel mixture, thereby producing the energy which is used to power the engine. Generally, the combustion chamber includes a plurality of fuel nozzles to thus ensure a proper distribution of the fuel mixture within the combustion chamber.
Conventional fuel nozzles include an inlet fitting, which is coupled to a fuel manifold, and a stem defining a number of fuel passages for directing fuel from the inlet fitting to a tip assembly adapted to atomize the fuel delivered to the combustion chamber. A particular problem with gas turbine fuel nozzles is that the nozzles are located in a hot area of the engine. This heat can cause the fuel passing through the nozzle stem to rise in temperature sufficiently that the fuel can carbonize or coke. Such coking can clog the nozzle and prevent the nozzle from spraying properly. Accordingly, fuel nozzles are typically provided with a protective sheath or heat shield which surrounds the nozzle stem to form an annular air gap thereabout. The sheath and the air gap provide thermal insulation to the fuel nozzle stem in order to prevent the fuel flowing therethrough from coking.
Various methods have been developed to physically attach the protective sheath to the fuel nozzle. For instance, it has been proposed to permanently secure the sheath to the fuel nozzle by brazing or welding the open upper end of the sheath to an enlarged neck provided on the nozzle stem. It has also been proposed to clamp the sheath to the nozzle stem. According to this sheath attachment method, the clamp surrounds the upper end of the sheath to clamp the sheath against the enlarged neck of the nozzle stem. It has also been proposed to secure the sheath to the nozzle stem by means of radial pins extending through the sheath and pressure fitted into the nozzle stem.
The above-described sheath attaching methods are generally of a permanent nature and require the use of tools to install the sheath on the fuel nozzle. It would be highly beneficial to have a non-permanent sheath attaching method and arrangement by which the sheath could be readily installed and removed without requiring any tools.


A camera is made compact with its internal temperature adjusted to a more appropriate temperature. A temperature T is read from a temperature sensor disposed within the camera (S100) and it is judged whether or not the temperature T exceeds a threshold Tref1 (S102). When the temperature T exceeds the threshold Tref1, the operation of the camera is changed to a power-saving mode where the power consumption is lower than in the ordinary mode (S104). The threshold Tref1 is determined to be a rated temperature at which the camera can operate stably or a temperature lower than that. Thus, the temperature in the camera can be made appropriate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic camera, and more particularly to a portable electronic camera comprised of a plurality of component devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, such an electronic camera of the type described above is proposed to automatically shut off the power being supplied to the component devices constituting the electronic camera when the operation temperature increasing owing to the operation of the electronic camera becomes a predetermined temperature or higher. This camera cuts off a supply of power to the devices to prevent the operation temperature of the camera from increasing to a predetermined temperature or higher, thereby protecting it and securing a user's safety.
However, such a camera merely cuts off the power to the devices and often has a short period of usable time, such as when an outside-air temperature is high for example. To remedy such a problem, a separate cooling device may be attached to suppress the operation temperature of the camera from increasing, but the addition of the cooling device makes the whole camera bigger.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Electronic camera with internal temperature increase controlled


A method for manufacturing the half body portions of a magnetic tape cassette or the like having an image transfer layer on its outer surface. An image transfer film is placed in a molding cavity, which film includes a base layer, a matting layer, and an image transfer layer. The function of the matting layer is to roughen the surface of the image transfer layer, while allowing easy subsequent peeling therefrom. A molten plastic is injected into the molding cavity against the image transfer layer. After the resulting product solidifies, the product is removed from the molding cavity, and the base layer and matting layer are peeled from the product, leaving the image transfer layer on an outside surface of the product.

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing magnetic tape cassette, particularly, a magnetic tape cassette the half portions of the body of which are manufactured using an image transfer molding process.
A conventional magnetic tape cassette includes upper and a lower half portions between which are rotatably supported a pair of tape hubs. Each of the half portions is manufactured from a plastic or the like using an injection molding process. After injection molding, paper or the like carrying a prescribed design is adhered to the outside surface of the half portion, or a design is directly printed on the half portion, to thereby enhance the appearance of the cassette. However, since the manufacture of the half portion requires injection molding of the plastic or the like and a subsequent step of adhering the paper or the like or the printing of a design on the outside surface of the half portion, the process is relatively complicated.
To solve this problem, an image transfer molding process in which the prescribed design is printed on the outside surface of the half portion during the injection molding process has been developed, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Published Utility Model Applications Nos. 113281/88 and 118782/88. In the image transfer molding process, molten plastic or the like is injected through a gate communicating with a cavity formed between a pair of dies for molding the half portion, and an image layer on a base film disposed in the cavity in advance is transferred onto the outside surface of the half portion by the pressure and heat of the injected molten plastic material. With this process, the manufacture of the half portion is simplified, thereby lowering the cost of the magnetic tape cassette.
In another magnetic tape cassette, the outside surface of each half portion of the body is provided with a roughened part during image transfer molding. Such a cassette is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Published Utility Model Application No. 2282/88. The roughened part of the outside surface of the cassette body can be written on with an ordinary writing instrument.
In the magnetic tape cassette disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Published Utility Model Application No. 2282/88, an ink layer, which contains pigment grains each having a diameter of about 3 to 10 .mu.m, for example, and is to form an image transfer matte part, is provided as a part of the outside surface of an image transfer layer. The image transfer layer is composed of an adhesive layer, an ink layer, etc., which are shifted onto the outside surface of the half portion of the body of the cassette upon the injection of the molten plastic in to the molding cavity so that the ink layer containing the pigment grains constitutes the roughened part of the outside surface of the half portion. However, if such an ink layer containing pigment grains is provided on the entire outside surface of the half portion, the thickness of the overall image transfer layer is unavoidably increased. In image transfer molding, molten plastic is injected into a molding cavity through which are inserted pins provided in order to form holes such as reference holes, capstan holes and screw holes in the half portion of the cassette body. These pins unavoidably pinch the base film bearing the image transfer layer thereon. After the plastic injected into the cavity has solidified, the half portion is extracted from the dies. The base film is then peeled from the surface of the half portion and the image transfer layer is left on the surface of the half portion. Therefore, if the entire outside surface of the half portion is roughened (matted) in the above-described manner wherein the thickness of the image transfer layer is increased, the parts of the image transfer layer pinched by the pins are likely to be left as residual thin films in the holes of the half portion or stuck to the other parts of the image transfer layer on the outside surface of the half portion. The image transfer layer parts left as residual thin film segments must be removed after the image transfer molding of the half portion. This is a problem.

Method for manufacturing magnetic tape cassette


A resilient flooring system for assembly on a base surface to provide a resilient floor. The system includes a plurality of multi-layer planar panels having a flooring layer and a support layer. The flooring layer consist of a plurality of multi-length hardwood shorts secured with the support layer. The panels include an exposed side and end where the edge areas of the support layer are uncovered by the flooring layer. Also, there is provided a covered side and end where the flooring layer overlays the edges of a side and end of the support layer. Shoulders are formed in each end of the panel members. Securing strips having opposed flanges are arranged over the base floor to extend over the shoulder at each panel end to secure the panels in position. Resilient strips are provided between the base floor and the flooring panels to allow limited vertical movement.

The invention relates to a surface resilient flooring system constructed over a non-resilient base surface. The invention also relates to a flooring panel constructed for use with the referred to resilient flooring system which includes a multi-layer panel having a flooring layer assembled on and supported by a support layer.
Various arrangements for forming flooring, both resilient and non-resilient over base surfaces are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,859 discloses a flooring structure which includes flooring panel units having grooves formed in opposing ends of the flooring members to receive flanges of securing strips. U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,464 is directed to a similar structure and uses resilient strips to support the flooring above the base floor. U.S. Pat. No. 3,436,888 shows a flooring system using flooring shorts arranged in a herringbone pattern.
It is noted none of the prior art flooring systems utilize multi-layer flooring panels which are supported from the base surface with resilient materials and which are secured in a manner to allow limited vertical motion.
Accordingly it is an object of the invention to provide a resilient flooring system comprised of planar multi-layer panels having a flooring layer formed of a plurality of hardwood shorts and a support layer formed of a unitary substantially non-resilient member.
Another object of the invention is the provision of multi-layer flooring panels having selected flooring patterns formed by arranging the hardwood shorts longitudinally of the support layer in various lengths.
Another object of the invention is the provision of multi-layer flooring panels formed with a flooring surface arranged in a herringbone pattern.
Another object of the invention is the provision of multi-layer flooring panels with a parquet flooring surface.
Another object of the invention is to provide a resilient flooring system which utilizes planar multi-layer flooring patterns.
Another object of the invention is to provide a resilient flooring system utilizing flooring panels arranged in horizontal stabilized positions but having the capability of limited vertical movement.
Another object of the invention is to provide a securing system which stabilizes flooring panels of a resilient flooring system in longitudinal and transverse directions.


A soil conditioning device having a series of peripheral ridge members having a leading and trailing prow shaped surface circumscribing a disc, wheel or drum. Optionally the prow shaped peripheral ridge members are joined by sub-ridge members forming a single ridge of varying heights circumscribing the disc, wheel or drum. The invention is also of a method for creating a permeable soil surface using the apparatus herein.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to soil conservation, more specifically toward an apparatus for conditioning surface soils thereby increasing infiltration and aeration.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditional farming comprises tasks such as plowing, disking, harrowing, seeding, fertilizing, and harvesting. During this farming process, soil is often left in a loose condition where the soil is subject to moisture evaporation and erosion. There is an increased demand to accomplish these farming tasks in a manner to conserve the soil by reducing erosion and to conserve the water by increasing the infiltration capability of the soil. Additionally, there is a demand to multitask these operations such that several tasks can be accomplished in a single pass over the land thus improving the efficiency of the farming operation and reducing costs. Due to the increasing demand for soil and water conservation as well as multitasking in farming and land management practices, it has become necessary to design machinery and supporting systems.
Traditionally, soil erosion and surface water management has been attempted with diking, imprinting and compacting systems, and reservoir tillage systems. These systems have been designed for the purpose of sealing the soil surface and/or retaining water where it falls thus reducing erosion. There are many forms of equipment available today that attempt to create irrigation pools and reservoirs in the soil surface. Examples of processes which use equipment to compact the soil into pools include furrow irrigation, diking, compacting and punching, spading and scooping, imprinting and impressing. All of these processes incorporate devices that can be mechanically driven or ground driven and can be linear or rotary in their operation. However, these traditional processes and associated devices fall short of providing a system or device which reduces erosion, reduces water runoff, increases water infiltration, allows multitasking and fail to leave the surface soil in a better prepared seedbed.
Imprinting and compacting devices compact the soil to overcome erosion by creating pools. These devices require excessive weight to be applied perpendicular to the soil surface, allowing the soil structure to be impressed in order to make their imprints. An example of an imprinting machine is the Dixon Wheel Roller™ which is designed to have the required weight to overcome the soils surface structure in order to make an impression. As a result of the compaction, the soil surface is sealed which causes the soil surface to become substantially impervious to water infiltration and limits aeration activity reducing oxygen.
Compaction in soil is the direct result of weight applied to the soil surface as well as rainfall. Compaction occurs quite frequently on farmland because of the type of equipment used, such as a moldboard plow or imprinting, harvest transportation equipment and compacting devices. Further compaction is caused by high traffic, tractors, carts, etc. or rainfall striking the soil surface and wind rolling fine particles across the flat soil surface. This compacted soil surface is commonly known as hard pan crusting and as the area increases downward, a hard pan is formed. When weight is applied to the soil, the soil structure is compressed and soil particles are commonly arranged by the compression into unfavorable growing condition formats or consistency. The greater the weight or load to the soil, the greater the amount of compaction or unfavorable segregation. Compaction causes the surface soil to become compressed to such a level that it becomes substantially sealed and impervious to water and air filtration. The top soil below the compacted surface soil is consequently substantially sealed off and has little water or air for infiltration. This in turn leads to a reduction in replenishing of water in the underlying aquifer which has contributed to the current water supply problems seen globally. Additionally, farmers need use equipment such as Rippers™, SubSoilers™, or Pan Busters™ to penetrate below the hard pan and fracture it to allow moisture to infiltrate and therefore promote healthy root systems on the crops. This practice does little to provide a system which reduces water runoff, increase water infiltration, or allow multitasking.
More recently, imprinting type machines have been designed to require less weight to make an impression in the soil surface in an effort to overcome some of the associated problems. Even though these more recently designed machines are lighter than the Dixon Wheel™ and other similar devices, they are all still relatively heavy and still produce many of the problems previously described such as decreased water infiltration capabilities of the soil and decreased aeration.
Soil diking systems and devices have been designed to overcome some of the problems associated with the imprinting and compacting systems. Diking is accomplished by scooping, digging, and/or dragging the soil which is then left in a loose condition to form pools or reservoirs. Less weight is needed for diking than imprinting or compacting devices in an attempt to leave the soil surface more pervious to water. However, when water is applied to the loose soil it impacts and dislodges the fine particles of soil and organic matter on the sides of the dikes and washes them into the bottom of the pools. These particles of soil then seal the bottom of the pools which reduces the infiltration capability of the soil and diminishes the reduction of runoff Additionally, the loose soil is eroded from the field in both light and heavy rainfall events. The fine particles eroded have fertilizer and pesticides attached to them which then moves offsite and is undesirable.
Another recent attempt to provide soil and water conservation in farming has been the practice of no-till farming. No-till farming is where the soil is left undisturbed from harvesting to planting. Planting is accomplished in a narrow seedbed or slot created by disc openers. Coulters, residue managers, seed firmers, and modified closing wheels are used on the planter to provide adequate seed to soil contact. However, there are several disadvantages associated with no-till. No-till requires the use of herbicides to eliminate competition from weeds which raises production costs. Crop residue left on the soil hinders soil warming and drying, making planting more difficult and reduces seed germination. Conventional tillage systems cannot be used to incorporate fertilizers and herbicides. The heavy residue or foliage left on the land may result in poor seed soil contact thus reducing seed germination. Also, the soil surface is not left in a highly permeable state resulting in rain water runoff and reduced infiltration to subsurface soils and the underlying aquifer.
Most recently, reservoir tillage systems such as the one taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,372 ('372) have been devised to overcome the problems associated with the aforementioned farming practices. '372 teaches an agricultural instrument having a series of multifaceted peripheral ridge members having flat leading and trailing edges selectively spaced circumscribing a disc. The ridge members have a flat circumferential section spacing therebetween. The configuration of the '372 device compacts the soil to form water retaining pools in the soil from the vertical impact of the ridge member on the soil upon rotation. This compaction reduces aeration and water infiltration into the soil. Additionally, the flat trailing edge of the multifaceted peripheral ridge member pitches the soil at rotation velocities necessary for efficient farming practices. This pitching of the soil fills in the created pools with fine particles that seal the bottom of the pools which further reduces the infiltration capability of the soil. Furthermore, pitching of the soil destroys a portion of the structure of the pool leading to early failure of the remaining pool structure.
There remains a need for improving soil and water conservation as well as providing for efficient farming practices, such as multitasking, and land management practices.


An exemplary system and method for recursively rendering an image, including marking renderable items of the image that have changed from a previous image, are provided. In some implementations, a client computing device may receive a plurality of frames as part of an animation. An image list may be maintained, where the image list is configured to store one or more references to one or more respective bitmap objects associated with a first image of a first frame in the animation. The bitmap objects referenced in the image list may be marked as having changed from the first image to the second image. The second image may be rendered based on the marked bitmap objects in the image list.

Various techniques for rendering, caching, and/or retrieving an image comprising bitmap objects via a client computing platform are known. With high-performance flash technology, rendering systems that draw bitmap data to a screen may have higher performance. A bitmap may generally comprise data structure comprising a rectangular grid of pixels. An object delineated in the grid may be a renderable item of the bitmap.
Conventional bitmap rendering technology suffers from various drawbacks and inefficiencies. For example, when rendering a plurality of images as part of an animation, conventional bitmap rendering systems generally render all of the renderable items in each image, including renderable items that have not changed from a previous image. As such, a time to render a bitmap image of a frame that has changed only slightly from the previous frame may be equal to the time to render a bitmap image of a frame that may be completely different from the previous frame.

System and method for rendering an image of a frame of an animation


A method of recovering solvents from an impure effluent stream of an industrial process. The effluent waste stream contains less than about 10 percent by weight of monomeric units that are reacted to form larger oligomers and polymers. The waste stream contains dissolved polymers, polymeric particles, and the hydrolysis, oxidation and/or other decomposition products of one of the solvents. In one embodiment, the first step involves filtering particulate matter from the waste stream. In another embodiment, the filtering step is omitted. The filtered or unfiltered waste stream is fed to a first separation stage for separation into (i) a gaseous stream of water, soluble gases, and volatile contaminants and (ii) a suspension comprising the solvent, water, semi-volatile and non-volatile contaminants, and photoresist products. Following the first separation stage, the dewatered solvent-containing suspension is either distilled or evaporated to separate the solvent from photoresist products and other non-volatile contaminants. Then the solvent-containing suspension is separated into (i) a solvent vapor fraction which contains solvent and semi-volatile contaminants such as plasticizers and monomers, and (ii) a sludge fraction which contains non-volatile contaminants such as polymer and benzoic acid. Thereafter, the solvent vapor fraction is fed into a vapor stripper to strip the semi-volatile contaminants from the solvent vapor fraction using an organic solvent as a mass transfer medium. This removes the semi-volatiles from the solvent-containing vapor fraction and produces a solvent vapor fraction that is essentially pure.

Photolithography plays a critical role in the art of printed circuit packaging. Photolithography is used to define in a thin film of photoresist those regions from which copper is to be selectively etched to subtractively form circuitization, or to which copper is selectively plated to additively form circuitization. Photolithography is also used to personalize soldermasks and dielectric layers.
There are basically two types of photoresist: negative acting and positive acting. Positive photoresists and negative photoresists are both formed from monomers, hereinafter referred to as "monomeric units", such as, for example, acrylates and ethers of bisphenol A. Examples of monomeric units used in the conventional photoresists are as follows: t-butyl acrylate, 1, 5 pentanediol diacrylate, N,N-diethylaminoethyl acrylate, ethylene glycol diacrylate, 1,4-butanediol diacrylate, diethylene glycol diacrylate, hexamethylene glycol diacrylate, 1,3-propanediol diacrylate, decamethylene glycol diacrylate, decamethylene glycol dimethacrylate, 1,4-cyclohexanediol diacrylate, 2,2-dimethylolpropane diacrylate, glycerol diacrylate, tripropylene glycol diacrylate, glycerol triacrylate, trimethylolpropane triacrylate, pentaerythritol triacrylate, polyoxyethylated trimethylolpropane triacrylate and trimethacrylate and similar compounds as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,831, 2,2-di-(p-hydroxyphenyl)-propane diacrylate, pentaerythritol tetraacrylate, 2,2-di(p-hydrohyphenyl)-propane dimethacrylate, triethylene glycol diacrylate, polyoxyethyl-2,2-di(p-hydroxyphenyl)-propane dimethacrylate, di-(3-methacryloxy-2-hydroxypropyl) ether of bisphenol-A, di-(2-methacryloxyethyl) ether of bisphenol-A, di-(3-acryloxy-2-hydroxypropyl) ether of bisphenol-A, di-(2-acryloxyethyl) ether of bisphenol-A, di-(3-methacryloxy-2-hydroxypropyl) ether of tetrachloro-bisphenol-A, di-(2-methacryloxyethyl) ether oftetrachloro-bisphenol-A,di-(3-methacryloxy-2-hydroxypropyl)etheroftetrab romo-bisphenol-A, di-(2-methacryloxyethyl) ether of tetrabromo-bisphenol-A, di-(3-methacryloxy-2-hydroxypropyl) ether of 1,4-butanediol, di-(3-methacryloxy-2-hydroxypropyl) ether of diphenolic acid, triethylene glycol dimethacrylate, polyoxypropyltrimethylol propane triacrylate, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, butylene glycol dimethacrylate, 1,3-propanediol dimethacrylate, 1,2,4-butanetriol trimethacrylate, 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol dimethacrylate, pentaerythritol trimethacrylate, 1-phenyl ethylene-1,2-dimethacrylate, pentaerythritol tetramethacrylate, trimethylol propane trimethacrylate, 1,5-pentanediol dimethacrylate, diallyl fumarate, 1,4-benzenediol dimethacrylate, 1,4-diisopropenyl benzene, and 1,3,5-triisopropenyl benzene.
In addition to the reactive monomeric units mentioned above, the photoimageable compositions used to form negative and positive photoresists can also contain one or more free radical-initiated and polymerizable species with molecular weight of at least about 300. Monomeric units of this type are an alkylene or a polyalkylene glycol diacrylate and those described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,927,022. Particulate thickeners such as, for example, silicas, clays, alumina, bentonites, kalonites, and the like can also be used in the photoimageable compositions. Dyes and pigments may also be added to increase the visibility of the resist image. Any colorant used however, should be transparent to the actinic radiation used to polymerize the monomeric units. With some compositions, it is desirable to add a plasticizer, either solid or liquid, to give flexibility to the film or coating. Generally inert solvents which are volatile at ordinary pressures are used to prepare these photoresist compositions.
During processing of the photoresist, a photoimageable film is first applied to a circuit board and then patterned by exposure of preselected regions to actinic radiation. To develop the resulting pattern of polymerized and unpolymerized material, the coated board is contacted with a liquid developer either by dipping or spraying. The commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,260 of N. R. Bantu, Anilkumar Bhatt, Ashwinkumar Bhatt, G. W. Jones, J. A. Kotylo, R. J. Owen, K. I. Papathomas, and A. K. Vardya for Photoresist Develop and Strip Solvent Compositions and Method for Their Use, incorporated herein by reference, describes the use of the low vapor pressure, high boiling solvents, benzyl alcohol, propylene carbonate, and gamma butyrolactone for developing and stripping acrylate-based photoresist such as DuPont Riston T-168 or photoimageable dielectric material.
In the case of negative acting photoresists, the unpolymerized material used to form the photoresist, i.e., the monomeric units of acrylate or epoxy, is dissolved in the developer at low temperature, preferably between 15.degree. C. and 45.degree. C. The dissolved material, which consists primarily of monomeric units of the acrylate or epoxy, and the developing solution are then removed from the board by allowing the solution to run off into a containment tank. To further enhance development of the pattern, the residual dissolved material and developing solution are rinsed from the board, preferably with warm water. High vapor pressure organic solvents, such as isopropyl alcohol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone and xylene, may also be used as a rinse. Positive acting resists behave oppositely. Actinic radiation renders the positive acting photoresist more soluble in the developer, and the exposed regions are removed preferentially by the developer. The effluent produced by this process is an impure solution of developer, which is laden with monomeric units and other impurities. Typically, the effluent of such process contains greater than 10 percent weight of monomeric units.
Following circuitization of the board, the polymerized photoresist may be stripped from the board, preferably by spraying with a stripping solution at elevated temperatures, preferably between 50.degree. C. and 100.degree. C. The commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,260 of Bantu et al also describes the use of benzyl alcohol, propylene carbonate, and gamma butyrolactone for stripping acrylate-based photoresist such as DuPont Riston T-168. The stripping solution causes the polymerized photoresist to swell, and debond, i.e., detach from the underlying substrate, and flake off of the board. The stripping can be assisted by gentle scrubbing with brushes. The resist particles and stripping solution are then removed from the board, preferably by flushing into a containment tank. Any residual polymerized film particles and stripping solution are rinsed from the package, preferably at elevated pressures, preferably with warm water. The water rinse can be replaced by rinsing in high vapor pressure solvents. The effluent produced by this process is an impure solution of stripper, laden with dissolved polymeric photoresist, suspended particles of polymeric photoresist and other impurities. Typically, such effluent contains less than 10 percent by weight monomeric units, and possibly as little as zero weight percent monomeric units.
Large volumes of liquid waste containing an impure low vapor pressure, high boiling solvent result from the above-described processes. This liquid waste must be further processed prior to release into the environment, as by incineration. Such methods of dealing with the liquid waste are costly. Moreover, the costs to the industry in terms of purchasing virgin material, i.e., pure benzyl alcohol, pure gamma butyrolactone, and pure propylene carbonate, and the costs to the environment of manufacturing virgin material are significant.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a new method of reducing the amount of liquid waste that results from these and other industrial processes. A method that permits recovery of relatively pure benzyl alcohol, propylene carbonate, or gamma butyrolactone which can then be re-used by the industry, and thus prevent the need to purchase virgin material, is especially desirable.

Process for recovering high boiling solvents from a photolithographic waste stream comprising less than 10 percent by weight monomeric units

International Business Machines Corporation


The disclosed invention describes a vehicle waste tank ventilation exhaust fan, having the unique ability to provided positive exhaust on a continuous basis while diluting the contaminated air and odor being emitted by the waste tank with fresh air at a ratio in excess of five to one. A vacuum is drawn on the tank when the flush valve is closed by a small fan located over the tank vent pipe. A mixing chamber within the fan housing allows the fan to mix fresh air with odor from the tank and expel the odorous mixture over several hours.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the venting of toilet waste tanks or other such waste systems in which noxious odors and gases are vented to the atmosphere, and more particular to the positive ventilation of vehicle waste tanks in which human waste is maintained for some period of time.
2. General Background
Portable toilets used in conjunction with recreational vehicles o such as boats and campers generally comprise a relatively small room within which is housed the toilet facility. The sewage collected from the toilet is kept within a holding tank mounted below the toilet facility. From time to time the holding tank must be dumped by draining its contents into a sewer system.
When the recreational vehicle, boat etc. is exposed to heat such as during the summer months, when they are the most active, the sewage within the holding tank becomes bacteriologically active resulting in noxious odors. Chemicals are usually added to help naturalize the odor and speed the biodegradation of toilet paper. Until recently formaldehyde, a hazardous chemical, was the chemical of choice to control such odor.
Usually, the holding tanks are vented to atmosphere, by way of a vent pipe, to allow for the dissipation of gases and odor. However, a vent pipe alone does not solve the problem of noxious odor, chemically treated or not, from backing up into the room where the toilet is housed. Whenever, the toilet gate valved is opened to allow waste to enter the holding tank the noxious chemically laden odors rise, permeating entire area. In addition these odors are constantly being emitted into the air around the vehicle.
A primary object of the prior art, in most cases, is to provide a ventilation system for portable or vehicle toilets whereby any noxious odors or gases are positively expelled. To do this, various methods of ventilation have been employed, such as vent fans mounted in or over the tank vent pipe and forced draft suction created by the movement of air passing over vent pipes or ducts.
The need for positive ventilation, in vehicles or portable toilets, sometimes referred to as black water tanks, has been acknowledged in such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,981 which utilizes a vent fan blowing across a tank vent tube, U.S. Pat. No. 949,212 which utilizes a fan, mounted inside the vent tube and rotated by a wind turbine, to remove odors and U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,557 which utilizes solar panels to power a fan located on top of the exhaust vent. Each of the above patents attempt to achieve positive ventilation of the toilet tank and/or the water closet in which it is located.
Through toilet cleaning of the waste tank is an unpleasant task at best but is particularly obnoxious if the tank is not continuously being positively vented. This operation is accomplished when the toilet gate valve is opened, allowing access to the tank, where a water hose with a nozzle attachment is used to swab the tank during the dumping operation. Without positive ventilation at all times, toilet odor becomes offensive inside the vehicle or portable toilet. Recreational vehicle users have come to rely on chemicals to reduce the holding tank odor to reasonable levels and therefore, expect and accept such chemical odors. Newer chemicals, considered to be more biodegradable and non-hazardous, are now being substituted for the formaldehyde formula. However, we can never be sure if they too will not have some side effects on humans or our environment.
The prior art, fails to address the critical problem of what should be done with the odor once it is removed from the vehicle. Simply exhausting such odors into the surrounding air may be sufficient when the vehicle is moving. However, such practice is clearly unacceptable when the vehicle is parked for several days. Constant atmosphere emission in an area with little wind circulation can be just as unpleasant as being near the toilet. Recreational vehicles are seldom parked alone, thus, such odors are combined when several vehicles congregate. Anyone attempting to enjoy the great outdoors, when surrounded by vehicles exhausting noxious and/or chemical odors, may find the air to be very unpleasant.
Therefore, one object of the present invention is to provide a means of positively exhausting toilet odor in a manner which provides for the dilution of the waste tank odor.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a continuous operating toilet exhaust fan that does not interfere with television or stereo equipment.
It is a further object of the present invention to reduce the dependence on chemicals used in vehicle holding tanks with better distribution. Thus, the amount of chemicals required to reduce toilet odor can be reduced.


The present invention provides a technique capable of objectively discriminating the constituent of a subject also in an image in which density difference is not easily discriminated on a gray image obtained by image capturing for medical use using X-rays. An image capturing system for medical use includes: a detecting unit for detecting an X-ray dose by absorbing X-rays passed through a subject in image capturing for medical use and outputting absorbed X-ray dose information; an obtaining unit for obtaining image information of the subject from the absorbed X-ray dose information; an image processing unit for calculating average detection energy in each first predetermined region in the image information; and an output unit for outputting the average detection energy.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing technique enabling a constituent of a subject in a captured image for medial use to be discriminated.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a radiographic image used for medical diagnosis, an image density proportional to a total amount of energy spectrum detected by a detector in a radiographic apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as "gray image") is formed. In the gray image, a pixel density IkV of an image obtained by collecting when a tube voltage of an X-ray tube of the radiographic apparatus is kV can be expressed as the following equation (1) using energy of X-ray (hereinafter, referred to as X-ray energy) E.
                              I          kV                =                  ϰ                                              ∫              0              kV                                                                                EP                  kV                                                                  (                  E                  )                                                          exp                                            {                                                      -                                          μ                                                                    (                        E                        )                                                                                L                                }                                                          ⅆ                E                                                                        (        1        )
PkV(E) denotes the number of photons of X-ray (hereinafter, referred to as X-ray photon number) per pixel detected by the detector at X-ray energy E, μ(E) denotes a linear attenuation coefficient [cm−1] of the subject through which the X-ray passed, and L denotes a thickness [cm] of the subject. A constant κ denotes a system gain for converting a total amount of the X-ray energy integrated by the detector of the radiographic apparatus to pixel density.
In a conventional technique, a two-dimensional distribution of Ikv is provided for diagnosis. Based on light and shade information of an image which changes according to the linear attenuation coefficient of a substance constituting the subject, a position of a bone or an organ, a presence or absence of a lesion, and the like is diagnosed.
However, since the attenuation of an X-ray is determined by a product of the linear attenuation coefficient of the substance and the thickness of the substance as expressed by the equation (1), if the products are the same value, the densities of images are the same. In other words, when it is assumed that there are two kinds of substances A and B, if the product of the linear attenuation coefficient and the thickness of the substance A and the product of the linear attenuation coefficient and the thickness of the substance B are the same, X-rays passing through the substances A and B attenuate to a similar extent, so that the substances A and B cannot be discriminated from each other. Therefore, when the substance A is a bone and the substance B is a tumor, even if the tumor develops in a portion of the bone with a thin thickness, there is a case such that an image density of the tumor is almost equal to that of a portion of the bone around the tumor. For example, in a case such that a tumor develops fortuitously in a portion having a low bone density or a thin thickness of the bone, the image density hardly changes in a gray image, so that it is impossible to find the tumor in the gray image. Moreover, in a case of a chest X-ray diagnosis, in the diagnosis of a gray image, the density of a display image of a tumor overlapped on a diaphragm or a mediastinum is low, and the tumor cannot be represented with sufficiently high contrast. Consequently, a tumor is not easily found and is sometimes overlooked.
To address the drawback, as a first conventional technique, a technique of eliminating a shadow of a bone by a so-called energy subtraction method and forming an image of only a soft tissue is widely known. The energy subtraction method is a method of collecting two kinds of radiographic images of the same subject while changing quality of an X-ray, giving different weighting factors to images so that the attenuation of the X-rays caused by a bone become the same, and performing subtraction (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-181954).
However, in the energy subtraction method, a beam hardening phenomenon occurs such that the linear attenuation coefficient of a bone changes apparently according to the thickness or the like. It is therefore impossible to completely eliminate a bone having various thicknesses. In addition, since a characteristic value itself of an image obtained by the energy subtraction method is meaningless, light and shade information of images is various in image capturing operations. Accordingly, only a relative evaluation in a single image can be performed.
As a second conventional technique for improving the energy subtraction method, a radiation diagnostic apparatus is proposed, which can recognize that composition substances of a subject are different from each other even if radiation absorption amounts thereof are the same by obtaining a radiation absorption coefficient of a subject when the thickness of the subject is equal to that of a reference substance, calculating a difference between the obtained radiation absorption coefficient and a radiation absorption coefficient of a reference material, and obtaining an image of the difference (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-161632).
As a third conventional technique, a radiation diagnostic apparatus is proposed, which can recognize that composition substances of a subject are different from each other even if X-ray transmission amounts thereof are the same by obtaining a change in an X-ray transmission amount relative to a change in the energy of an X-ray in a plurality of regions pixel by pixel (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-161631).
Further, as a fourth conventional technique, a radiation diagnostic apparatus of obtaining an average absorption coefficient of a subject from images captured with X-rays of a plurality of energies and calculating a substance existence amount pixel by pixel is proposed (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-161633).
In the second to fourth conventional techniques, the drawback that an error easily occurs in diagnosis due to various thicknesses of a bone like in a simple energy subtraction method is improved.
However, in the second conventional technique, process is performed based on image data obtained by the energy subtraction method. An obtained value itself is meaningless, and the light and shade information of an image varies according to the image processing method. Therefore, only a relative evaluation can be made.
In the third conventional technique, only changes in a region subjected to image capture are compared. Further, in the fourth conventional technique, an existence amount of a substance per region based on the X-ray average absorption coefficient is a display target. Similar to the first conventional technique, a value itself is meaningless, obtained data varies according to the image processing methods, and only a relative evaluation can be made.

Image capturing system for medical use, image processing apparatus, and image processing method

Institute of National Colleges of Technology


A luminaire comprising a first hub comprising a first fixed portion rotatably coupled to a first rotor portion, said hub having an internal chamber, accessible through openings on the first fixed portion and the first rotor portion; a first lamp socket coupled to the first rotor portion of the first hub; a light rail affixed to the first rotor portion, said light rail having a bore the length of the light rail; a second hub comprising a second fixed portion rotatably coupled to a second rotor portion; and a second lamp socket coupled to the second rotor portion of the second hub, wherein a first set of one or more power wires is coupled to the first lamp socket, wherein a second set of power wires is disposed in the opening on the first fixed portion and further into the bore and is coupled to the second socket.

Lighting fixtures are one of the basic lighting devices used in homes, offices and a variety of industrial settings. For example, a typical lighting fixture may be mounted on a wall, at a position above a desk, in a corridor, a door entrance, or a garage door such that the area can be illuminated by the lighting fixture. One criterion when selecting a lighting fixture is that the lighting is visually attractive. Another criterion is ease of installation. Additional criteria are performance, safety, legality and affordability. As lighting technologies improve, industrial lighting consumers require new and more aesthetic lighting designs to provided for the above listed criteria. All of these criteria are dynamic and change over time. As such there is a need for the modern, efficient lighting systems which can address these criteria in varying degrees.