A search system and method is provided. The method includes constructing a graph-based query that is indicative of a user's preference-levels for different features of a search item (a product, for example). The constructed graph-based query is executed by comparing the user's preference-levels for the different features of the product, which are graphically represented in the query, with information related to sentiments expressed by other users regarding the product. Information related to the sentiments expressed by other users regarding the product can include system-generated product performance graphs constructed from comments regarding the product obtained from the World Wide Web (or other network). Results returned and output upon execution of the graph-based query include system-generated product performance graphs that are similar to the user-submitted query.

In several search systems, such as current product search systems, two search interfaces are often provided: keyword search and structural search. In a keyword search for a particular type of product, for example, a user inputs a query that includes one or more terms and the system retrieves products based on term matching between the input query and product names or product descriptions. In a structural search, the user's intention is specified by product attributes and the corresponding attribute values. For example, a user can search for digital cameras by brand, price range, megapixel numbers, etc., and obtain product-related results. However, the above two approaches have some drawbacks. Firstly, in many cases, keywords are not sufficient to fully express a user's shopping needs. Secondly, some product knowledge is necessary when structural search functionality is used. For example, when a user searches for digital cameras based on an "ImagePixel" attribute, some prior knowledge about this attribute and its possible values is needed. Thus, when used for product searches, for example, both keyword and structural search techniques can be relatively complex and may not produce search results that satisfy a user's needs.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Graph-based search leveraging sentiment analysis of user comments


A carbon fiber paper manufacturing process and construction has oxidized fiber as raw material needle punched into a construction of 0.1˜20 mm thick, 5˜500 g/m2 oxidized fiber felt of weight, then impregnated in high density epoxy, hot compressed and hardened, then finally carbonization processed at temperature range of 700˜3000° C. to yield porous carbon fiber paper with high resilience, low porosity, and flexure, and low surface resistance to be used as the substrate of porous carbon electrode in fuel battery.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a construction and manufacturing process of a carbon fiber paper, and more particularly, to a oxidized fiber needle-punched into an oxidized fiber felt, impregnated in low density resin, cured, and carbonized to avail the carbon fiber paper featuring high air permeability, low porosity, high flexure, and lower surface resistance.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
When compared to phosphoric acid fuel cell, the porous carbon electrode used by solid polymer fuel cell is highly demanded for its characteristics including gas and liquid diffusion, permeability, conductivity, strength, resilience, and durative compression strength. To seek a more compact size for the solid polymer fuel cell than that of the phosphoric acid fuel cell, the electrode must be made into a form of sheet or paper to reduce the volume of the cell.
To achieve the purpose, conventional paper making technology and method are currently adopted. Wherein, short carbon fibers are taken, and impregnated in thermally hardened resin during the curing process before the thermal treatment. However, thicker electrode used at the expense of resilience and comparatively higher porosity both contribute to damaged electrode when subject to pressure in the assembly of the cell. Furthermore, the conductivity is poor due to higher porosity among fibers and inconsistent due to uneven distribution of the fibers.
An improvement for the basic material for the porous carbonaceous electrode as disclosed in No. 7-142068(1995) Japanese patent involves mixing of carbonaceous milled fiber. However, the problem of lacking in resilience exists due to that the carbonaceous milled fiber is too thick to be applied in the solid polymer fuel cell.
No. 9-157052 (1997) Japanese patent discloses a manufacturing process for a porous carbon sheet; however, the conductivity of the electrode taught in the patent is very poor since its density is very low.
A basic material for porous carbon electrode that is resilient and highly conductive to be used in fuel cell and its manufacturing process disclosed in No. 489544 Taiwan patent (#6713034-2004 US Patent) adopts the wet paper making process. Wherein, short carbon fibers are first completely and consistently dispersed in the water before the addition of PVA short fibers serving as the adhesive for further complete and consistent dispersion to avail the carbon fiber paper by means of a sheet extrusion machine. The resultant paper is dipped in phenol resin, then pressed and cured to go through carbonization by batch within a temperature range of 1600˜2000° C. to come up with the finished product of porous carbon fiber paper. However, fibers on the finished paper are blamed for chaos in arrangement and orientation making it vulnerable to inadequate strength in the orientation vertical to the arrangement of the fibers.

Carbon fiber paper construction and manufacturing process


A dual purpose tissue fixative is described. The fixative comprises a cross-linking aldehyde, alcohol, a chelating agent and a non-amine buffer. More particularly, the tissue fixative comprises 0.1-2% w/v formaldehyde, 45-90% w/w alcohol, 1-10 mM of a chelating agent and 1-50 mM of a non-nitrogen buffer. The tissue fixative permits the recovery of high molecular weight DNA and RNA from the tissue sample for molecular genetic analysis. The tissue fixative also preserves the morphology and immunogenicity of the tissue allowing for pathology analysis. The tissue fixative is compared to 95% alcohol and a standard fixative as 10% BNF.

The analysis of tissue samples removed at surgery or autopsy can reveal important clues in our understanding of various pathological states. For example, the analysis of the DNA obtained from tumor biopsy can provide valuable insight into the genetic defects that underlie malignant transformation. Freshly obtained samples must immediately be stored in a tissue fixative in order to prevent decomposition. The ideal fixative should (i) permit recovery of high molecular weight nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) from the sample for molecular analysis and (ii) preserve the morphology and lmmunogenicity of specimens allowing routine anatomical pathology investigation.
A commonly used fixative is 10% buffered neutral formalin (BNF). Samples stored in BNF are adequate for pathology analysis. However BNF degrades nucleic acids and therefore samples are not useful for the extraction of high molecular weight DNA or RNA. Solutions of 95% ethanol have been shown to be effective in preserving DNA in a limited number of cases. However, samples stored in 95% ethanol are not satisfactory for the pathologist. Consequently, when one wants to obtain samples for both DNA extraction and pathology it is necessary to take the fresh biopsy sample and store part of it in BNF and another part in, for example, liquid nitrogen. This conventional method requires that a technician is on call during surgery in order to properly store the sample.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing it is desirable to develop a tissue fixative that permits the recovery, weeks or even months after fixation, of high molecular weight nucleic acids for molecular genetic analysis, while at the same time preserving the morphology of the sample for analysis by the pathologist.


A method for embolization treatment was developed in which microspheres with novel properties are administered in a mammal. The microspheres are made using a novel process that results in microspheres with new combined properties of high density, low fracture, high swell capacity, rapid swell, and deformability following swell. These microspheres form occlusions with high durability, withstanding over 100 mm Hg (13.3 kPa) of pressure.

Embolization treatment involves the introduction of a material into the vasculature in order to block the blood flow in a particular region. This procedure may be used to treat non-cancerous tumors, such as uterine fibroids, and cancerous tumors. Vascular occlusion in the case of tumors may be used to suppress pain, limit blood loss during surgery, or to cause tumor necrosis. In addition, embolization treatment may be used to control bleeding caused by conditions such as stomach ulcers, aneurysms, and injury. Treatment of arteriovenous malformation (AVM), where abnormal connections occur between arteries and veins, may also be through embolization to block blood flow.
Characteristics of the embolization treatment, such as ease of material delivery to the desired site and effectiveness of occlusion, are generally related to the properties of the material used in the treatment. Hydrogel microspheres have been used in embolization treatment. Characteristics of the embolization treatment are generally related to the properties of the specific type of hydrogel microspheres used in the treatment. The properties of the hydrogel microspheres are in turn generally dependent upon the materials used in microsphere preparation and the process by which the microspheres were prepared.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,218,440 discloses a process for preparing hydrogel microspheres which produces microspheres that have many cavities joined by interconnecting pores, with cavities at the interior of the material in communication with the surface. In the process disclosed therein, an emulsion is first prepared, and then this emulsion is suspended in an oil medium. The resulting microspheres have high absorption capacity and are said to be useful for adsorption of fluids or chemicals. These microspheres are not used in embolization treatment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,261 discloses a process for making hydrogel microspheres which includes dispersing a solution containing monomer, crosslinking agent and initiator in a dispersion medium consisting of hydrocarbons having from 6 to 10 carbon atoms or halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons, with a protective colloid dissolved in this oil material.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,436,424 discloses microspheres suitable for dermal augmentation that are said to swell upon contacting physiological fluids at the injection site to up to four times the average diameter of the microspheres prior to injection. These hydrogel microspheres are said to be made by standard methods of polymerization and microsphere preparation described in the art. The microspheres described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,456 are the same as those as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,436,424.
WO 2001072281 discloses hydrogel microspheres as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,436,424 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,456 that are associated with bioactive therapeutic factors such as drugs, genes and diagnostic agents, for use in embolization.
JP1994056676A discloses a suspension used for embolization containing lipidic contrast agent and highly water absorbant hydrogel particles of vinyl alcohol and sodium acrylate polymer that are approximately 1.0 mm in diameter or less.
There remains a need for an embolization method in which microspheres with novel and advantageous embolic properties are administered to provide durable blockage of blood flow at target sites.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Process for embolization using swellable and deformable microspheres


A device includes a visual-feature detecting unit that detects a visual feature of a sound source based on an image and visual information thereof and outputs visually localizing information indicative of at least a direction thereof, an auditory-feature detecting unit that detects an auditory feature of the sound source based on a sound and auditory information of the sound source and outputs auditorily localizing information indicative of at least the direction thereof, and a sound-source detecting unit that detects a position of the sound source based on the visually localizing information and the auditorily localizing information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for detecting a sound source and autonomously following the sound source.
2. Description of the Related Art
A robot device has been known in the art that follows a sound source, such as a person, by detecting visual features of the sound source. The visual features are detected from an image of the sound source. The image can be acquired by an image acquiring unit such as a camera. However, there is a limitation on taking images of a person as a sound source. For example, an image of the person cannot be taken when the person steps out of the viewing field of the camera, or when the person walks farther than the visually detectable range, or when the person is hidden behind an obstacle.
If the person is lost from the sight of the camera due to some reason, one approach is to catch sound generated by the person, locate the person from the sound, and turn the camera towards the person, or move towards the person. An example of such a technology is a video conference system that turns a camera in a direction of sound to catch sight of a speaker and frames a face of the speaker.
However, there can be other sound sources around the person. For example, there can be a sound producing door or a television around the target person. In such a case, the sound caught can not necessarily be the voice of the target person, and therefore the robot cannot auditorily locate the person.
There is a demand for a function capable of distinguish a voice of a target person from voices of other persons and other sounds. To realize the technology, the robot device needs to be able to identify auditory features as well as the visual features.
JP-A 2002-307349 (KOKAI) discloses a robot device that detects an object by using visual and audio information of the sound source. A character string acquired by recognizing a word vocalized by a person when a certain object is visible is stored in combination with the image of the object. A user shows the object to the robot device and vocalizes a name of the object, whereby the robot device memorizes the name of the object. When the robot device visually detects the object, the robot device vocalizes the name associated with the image using a synthetic voice.
However, the technology only supplementarily uses the auditory detection for visual detection of the object. Moreover, the sound associated with the image of the object is vocalized by the user that shows the object and not produced from the object. For these reasons, if the robot device loses sight of a certain sound source, there is a risk that the robot device can neither detect nor follow the sound source.

Position detecting device, autonomous mobile device, method, and computer program product


A bathtub closure system may include a step configured to be retrofit onto a bathtub and a plug. The step may include a first side panel, a second side panel, and an elongated platform defining a cavity configured to facilitate ingress and egress into the bathtub, and a first attachment recess extending downward from the first top surface less than an entire height of the first side panel or extending downward from the second top surface less than an entire height of the second side panel. The plug includes a body and a first attachment member affixed to the body and corresponding to the first attachment recess defined by the step. The plug cooperates with the step to form a substantially watertight seal when the first attachment member is mated with the first attachment recess and the body of the plug is positioned at least partially within the cavity.

It is well recognized that many people, because of advancing age or infirmities, reach a stage in life where they cannot step over the usual sidewall of a bathtub for bathing or showering in the tub. It is, of course, possible to remove the bathtub and to install a shower-system that does not require a user to step over the usual bathtub sidewall. However, a less costly solution to the problem of providing access to a shower is often found in cutting out a portion of the bathtub sidewall and providing a replacement insert that provides a much lower sidewall portion that the user can easily step through to enter the bathtub. With this arrangement the tub does not need to be removed, so the tub and the already available shower unit discharging into the tub can be used and the entire area where the tub is located does not need to be remodeled and refinished.


The present subject matter is directed to a high-speed high resolution and accuracy time interpolator circuit. The interpolator uses basic dual ramp time-to-digital converter architecture, but provides circuits and methodologies to improve the accuracy, reduce the effective intrinsic jitter, and reduce the measurement time. Improved aspects of the present subject matter correspond to the introduction of a current mirror for improved settling time, a high frequency clock for improved resolution and ADC sample processing to improve resolution and accuracy.

High accuracy timing parameter measurements are necessary to analyze and qualify devices and signals in a wide variety of electronic application. Such applications include clocks, PLLs, serial I/O jitter, skew, etc. A number of strategies have been used in practice for such measurements, including real-time oscilloscopes, equivalent-time oscilloscopes, offset frequency digital or analog under-sampling, and time interval analysis. Although each method has its own pros and cons for specific applications, TIA methods provide fairly general timing/jitter measurement methodologies that provide high accuracy with fast measurement times that cover a wide variety of applications.
TIAs are grouped into two general types: Start-to-Stop time interval analyzers and time stamp analyzers. Start-to-Stop time interval analyzers correspond to devices where only the timing of a START event is measured relative to a previous STOP event. Time stamp analyzers, often referred to as "time stampers," correspond to instruments where all event timings are measured relative to a unique reference.
A more advanced form of time stamper is a continuous time interval analyzer (CTIA). CTIAs include a continuously running arming circuit to select events to be measured in a programmable fashion as well as potentially having more than one time stamper to measure the timing of multiple events that can be arbitrarily close in time in one measurement.
Most TIAs, whether continuous or not, include at least one high-resolution time interval measurement circuit. Such circuits include a reference clock counter to count the number of a precise clock cycles within the time interval of interest and an interpolator to measure any residual time less than one cycle of the reference clock. Multiple circuit techniques have been used to implement such circuits. These techniques generally include delay chain techniques, vernier delay line methodologies, vernier oscillator implementations, and time to voltage converter techniques.
Delay chain techniques quantize the time interval with a quantization step equivalent to a unit gate delay. The resolution of such method is usually limited to a few tens of picoseconds.
Vernier delay line methods use the delay difference between two delay elements to quantize time. They provide higher measurement resolution, but may suffer from excessive non-linearity and limited measurement range. This is more suitable for on-chip implementations due to large number of delay elements required.
Vernier oscillator methods rely on the difference between two oscillators' periods to quantize given time interval. Several implementations have been proposed in the literature. This method requires oscillators that can be switched on and off quickly without incurring significant noise and time-dependent non-linearity.
Time to voltage converters (TVC) are generally configured to charge or discharge a capacitance during the time interval of interest. The resulting voltage at the end of the time interval indicates the time interval or it's residual relative to a reference clock. A number of implementations have been proposed in the literature. Among the above methods, the TVC methods lend themselves more easily to off-chip implementation, however, a need remains for improvements in accuracy and resolution while providing short measurement time.
Continuous time interval analyzers (CTIA) such as Guidetech GT4000 use time stamping, arming, and event tracking for performing a wide variety of timing/jitter measurements accurately and quickly. One major part of the GT4000 is a time stamp generator (TSG), which measures the timing of an event of interest in a signal with very high resolution and precision. The combination of time stamp and event number forms a time tag for an event.
An exemplary time stamp generator (TSG) operation is shown in FIG. 1. Those of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that in accordance with such operation an arming circuit 100 selects an edge to be stamped. The TSG uses an accurate and stable time base 110 and a counter 120 to measure the event timing with a resolution of one time base cycle. An interpolator circuit 130 then measures the event timing to the closest subsequent edge of the time base. The combination of interpolator 130 and time base counter 120 allow measurement of the timing of the selected edge. Digital Logic circuit 140 is configured to combine signal N from counter 120 with signal TP from Interpolator 130 to produce Time Stamp T. A typical timing measurement instrument may include more than one TSG to allow measuring parameters that require stamping two or more edges that may be very close to each other.
The interpolator resolution and inherent error specify the major parameters of the TSG. Today's high speed clocks and serializer/deserializer (SERDES) devices require better than 1 picosecond resolution and precision to perform meaningful measurements. Also, high effective sampling rate of the time tag generator is desired because it increases test throughput for some measurements, such as single period measurements. It can also substantially improve measurements such as phase noise, and jitter separation and filtering.
Time-to-voltage based interpolator circuit architecture is known which allows measuring the edge timing with high accuracy within a few picoseconds and fairly quickly within a few hundred nanoseconds. Such known circuitry is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,091,671 to Shalom Kattan, which is assigned to the owner of the present subject matter and incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. However, to address the growing need of today's high-speed signal test requirements, it has become desirable to improve the resolution, accuracy, and precision to better than 1 picosecond and measurement time of less than 100 nanoseconds.
While various implementations of time interpolators have been developed, no design has emerged that generally encompasses all of the desired characteristics as hereafter presented in accordance with the subject technology.


A method of enhancing paper strength properties is provided. The method comprises treating a paper sheet precursor with a polyaluminum salt, and a strengthening agent, wherein the strengthening agent comprises a dialdehyde-modified polyacrylamide copolymer and a polyacrylamide copolymer. The polyaluminum salt may be polyaluminum chloride. The methods have been demonstrated to provide, among other things, improvements in retention, strength, and dewatering.

Chemical aids for papermaking play an important role in the sustainable development of the papermaking industry. Typically, chemical aids are classified into two categories: processing aids and functional aids. One particular group of functional aids, namely strength aids (e.g., certain types of copolymers), plays a role in enhancing paper strength properties such as, for example, dry tensile strength, wet tensile strength, temporary wet tensile strength, ring crush, burst, and Scott bond. Treatment of a paper sheet precursor with a strength aid can improve certain properties of the finished product and/or the papermaking process. Treatment with a strength aid can, for example, allow for increased ash content in the finished paper, boost strength properties of the finished paper, increase retention during the papermaking process, and improve dewatering efficiency during the papermaking process. Providing a finished paper product with increased ash content is advantageous in the utilization of recycled paper pulp. Improving ash content while maintaining adequate strength properties can be further complicated in high charge demand paper machine systems.

High-efficiency strength program used for making paper in higher charge demand system


An up-conversion mixing system with high carrier suppression, which includes first and second LPFs to filter a first and a second input signals to thereby produce a first and a second filtered signals respectively; a first amplifier to amplify the first input signal and the first filtered signal to thereby produce a first amplified signal; a second amplifier to amplify the second input signal and the second filtered signal to thereby produce a second amplified signal, wherein the second amplifier is cross-coupled with the first amplifier in order to couple the first and the second amplified signals, thereby reducing a DC offset of a differential voltage output by the first and the second differential output terminals; and a switch to receive a differential local oscillation signal to shift the first and the second amplified signals up to frequencies associated with the local oscillation signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the technical field of mixer and, more particularly, to an up-conversion mixing system with high carrier suppression in a radio frequency (RF) transmitter.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a typical RF transmitter. As shown in FIG. 1, the transmitter includes a mixer 110, a power amplifier 120 and an antenna 130. The mixer 110 receives a baseband signal and a local oscillation signal LO in order to shift the baseband signal up to an RF band. Such a frequency conversion is referred to as a direct conversion, which has the features of high integration and low cost and thus is widely used by an RF transmitter.
However, when the status of mixer 110 is not fully differential, or the baseband signal contains a DC offset, a leakage is presented in the output terminal of the mixer 110. The leakage may interfere the spectrum of the RF signal because of the same frequency between the signal LO and the RF signal, then reduce the RF signal quality and affect the performance of the RF transmitter.
To overcome this problem, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a conventional solution for the leakage of a mixer. As shown in FIG. 2, a voltage sampling and hold operation is performed on node 201, 202 to thus obtain DC voltages of the nodes 201, 202. Next, the subtractors 211, 212 subtracts the DC signals from received signals respectively. However, timing control for the sampling circuits increase the complexity and cost of the entire system. In addition, the leakage caused by a mismatch of the mixers 210 cannot be overcome. Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improved mixer to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.

Up-conversion mixing system with high carrier suppression


An apparatus and method for examining features of a planar, disk-shaped samples on a stage that holdings the sample and has an X-drive, a Y-drive and a θ-drive for rotating the stage about a center of rotation defined in the stage coordinates. The sample is placed on the stage such that the center of the sample is substantially aligned with the center of rotation and a measurement assembly is located above the sample to examine the features optically. A scheduling module coordinates the X-drive, the Y-drive and the θ-drive with the measurement assembly such that the sample is examined in an even number n of angular sectors defined by a sector angle Θ that is the same for each sector. Specifically, the sector angle Θ is defined in terms of n as follows:

The field of test and measurement spans a wide range of apparatus and techniques that include stages designed for accurate positioning and moving of samples under test. More specifically, the field of optical metrology requires stages that are capable of moving samples in a way that is accurate, reproducible and allows the inspection of the entire surface area of the sample. In other words, the stage needs to allow the optical inspection mechanism to access with its probe beam any surface portion of the sample. This is particularly important in samples that are disk-shaped, such as semiconductor wafers, whose features are being examined or inspected prior to dicing or cutting the wafer into individual circuit dies.
The prior art teaches a number of stages for retaining and moving samples, such as wafers for optical inspection. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,320,609 teaches an R-θ stage and assumes that the center of rotation of the polar coordinate stage can be made coincident with the center of measurement beam spot (or the center of the field of view of the imaging system). In practice, there is always some offset between these two centers. This means that there is an area, i.e., a blind spot that cannot be placed under the beam spot by an R-θ stage. In addition, when grating structures on a wafer are measured at oblique incidence of the test beam, the grating orientation relative to the direction of incidence varies from location to location, because the wafer will typically rotate as it moves. This is a serious problem for optical scatterometry measurements.
To overcome this problem, U.S. Pat. No. 6,882,413 teaches a very complicated optical setup. The setup is configured to move the optical assembly in a manner similar to the way in which rotation is compensated. Unfortunately, due to the small amounts of rotation, or even continuous rotation, the apparatus taught in this reference suffers from loss of angular resolution. Furthermore, misalignments in wafer positioning cause a blind spot that cannot be examined. A similar problem affects a system for measuring periodic structures, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,052 by Zhao et al. Here the inventors are studying a periodic structure by illuminating it by polychromatic electromagnetic radiation and collecting radiation from the structure in two different polarizations. To reduce the footprint of the system, the measurement instrument and the wafer bearing the periodic structure are both moved. For example, they both undergo translational and rotational motion in such a way that the illumination beam from the apparatus scans a spiral path on the wafer. Thus, the system incurs the problems associated with continuous rotation as discussed above.
In fact, none of the above approaches offer a simple and effective apparatus and method for examining disk-shaped samples such as semiconductor wafers with a small footprint stage that is not susceptible to blind spots and issues associated with low angular resolution.

Apparatus and method for examining a disk-shaped sample on an X-Y-theta stage

Abstract: Θ    =                  360                °            n        ,where n=4m and m is an integer, such that a multiple of sector angle Θ always includes angles 90° and 180°.


An image display apparatus includes an envelope, first to third electroconductive members disposed in the envelope, a plate-like spacer disposed between the first and third members and between the second and third members, and a circuit for supplying a potential to the first member and supplying a potential lower than that of the first member to the second and third members. When a sheet resistance between a first region of the spacer to which the potential is supplied from the first member and a second region of the spacer to which the potential is supplied from the second member is defined as ρf [Ω/□] and a sheet resistance between a third region of the spacer to which the potential is supplied from the third member and a region located between the first and second regions is defined as ρr [Ω/□], a condition 1/100<ρr/ρf≦40 is satisfied.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display apparatus and a video signal receiving and display apparatus that are used for television receivers and computer display apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Field emission display apparatuses, which are one type of flat panel display apparatus, are known.
In field emission display apparatuses, electrons emitted from an electron emitting device to an anode need to be accelerated by applying a high voltage to between the electron emitting device and the anode including a light emitting material, such as a fluorescent member. Accordingly, a high electric field intensity must be maintained between a faceplate having the anode mounted thereon and a rear plate having the electron emitting device mounted thereon.
Additionally, a spacer is disposed between the rear plate and the faceplate to maintain a certain distance therebetween. However, the electric field tends to concentrate at a corner of the spacer in the longitudinal direction and the structure such as a securing member for securing the spacer due to the geometric effect. To reduce the electric field concentration at the corner of the spacer and that structure, an electrode having a potential that is lower than that of the anode may be disposed on the faceplate at a position separated from the anode.
To reduce electric discharge occurring around the connection point between the electrode having the potential that is lower than that of the anode and the spacer, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-237268 describes a technology in which an electrode is provided on the surface of the spacer so as to be connected to the electrode having the potential that is lower than that of the anode.
In addition, to prevent the occurrence of non-uniform distribution of the electric potential of the spacer, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-367540 describes a technology in which the surface resistance value of a region of the spacer between the anode and the electrode having the potential that is lower than that of the anode is increased to a value higher than that of the region of the spacer corresponding to the anode.

Image display apparatus and video signal receiving and display apparatus


Provided are techniques for synchronous servo channel for a data tape drive. A servo reader is configured to read servo bursts from a data tape. An anti-aliasing filter is operable to output a bandlimited signal and is coupled to receive a servo channel signal comprising servo bursts from the servo reader. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is operable to output signal samples and is coupled to receive the bandlimited signal from the anti-aliasing filter. An interpolation and control unit is operable to output interpolated signal samples and control signals, has a first input coupled to receive the signal samples from the ADC, and has a second input coupled to receive the correlation signal samples from the dibit correlator. A dibit correlator is operable to output correlation signal samples and is coupled to receive the interpolated signal samples and control signals from the interpolation and control unit.

1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to a servo channel for tape drive systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In timing-based servo (TBS) systems, recorded servo patterns consist of magnetic transitions with two different azimuthal slopes. Head position is derived from the relative timing of pulses, or dibits, generated by a narrow head reading the servo patterns. TBS patterns also allow the encoding of additional longitudinal position (LPOS) information without affecting the generation of the transversal position error signal (PES). This is obtained by shifting transitions from their nominal pattern position using pulse-position modulation (PPM). A specification for the servo format in current tape drives is provided by the linear tape-open (LTO) format. The complete format for LTO drives of generation 1 (LTO-1) was standardized by the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) in 2001 as ECMA-319. Additional information on LTO technology, in particular on LTO drives of generations 2 to 4 (LTO-2 to LTO-4), where the servo format was not modified, can be found on the World Wide Web (www) at ultrium.com. Traditionally, the detection of LPOS information bits is based on the observation of the arrival times of the shifted dibit peaks within the servo bursts at the servo reader output (R. C. Barrett, E. H. Klaassen, T. R. Albrecht, G. A. Jaquette, and J. H. Eaton, "Timing-based track-following servo for linear tape systems", IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 34, Issue 4, Part 1, pp. 1872-1877, July 1998). In an alternative solution, optimum detection of LPOS bits is performed by a matched-filter detector (G. Cherubini, E. Eleftheriou, R. Hutchins, and J. Jelitto, "Synchronous Servo Channel for Tape Drive Systems," Filed as IBM Docket TUC920060028US1, Jul. 30, 2006).
In certain prior-art architectures, however, estimates of the lateral servo reader position (y-position) and tape velocity are directly obtained by monitoring the peak-arrival times or the zero-crossing instants of the dibits of the servo bursts. The filtering for the servo reader signal used for the computation of the estimates is typically achieved by an anti-aliasing low-pass filter (LPF) in the analog domain, prior to analog-to-digital conversion. Unfortunately, at low tape velocities a fixed low-pass filter exhibits significant excess bandwidth, which leads to a large noise level, and may greatly reduce the reliability of the computed estimates, depending on the tape velocity.
The minimum (Nyquist) bandwidth of the servo reader signal is about νx/s, where "νx" denotes the tape velocity and "s" denotes the minimum distance between magnetic transitions of the recorded servo patterns. To mitigate the excess noise problem, in current tape drives the clock frequency of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) sampling the servo reader signal is selected from a finite set of frequencies, which are generated by a phase-locked loop. This approach has the requirement that the bandwidth of the anti-aliasing filter be selectable, which leads to increased complexity. A further disadvantage arises if the bandwidth of the servo reader signal for the minimum cruise velocity of the tape is significantly smaller than the minimum available clock frequency of the ADC. In this case, which is found in practice, excess noise bandwidth cannot be eliminated at low tape velocities. Another drawback of this approach is that a variable clock rate would be required during tape acceleration and deceleration to guarantee minimum-bandwidth filtering.
A possible solution to the excess noise problem is represented by the inclusion of a filter, either in the analog or in the digital domain, with a variable bandwidth proportional to the tape velocity. Thus, the noise spectral components above the Nyquist frequency are eliminated without aliasing of the servo reader signal, which carries the relevant information for the track-following and reel-to-reel servo systems of the tape drive. Such a solution, however, leads to a significant increase in the complexity of the implementation of the servo channel. In fact, the variable-bandwidth filter should not only accommodate the various signal bandwidths associated with the cruise velocities of the tape, but should also be able to continuously vary the servo-reader signal bandwidth during tape acceleration and deceleration. FIG. 1 illustrates an architecture of a servo channel 100 according to the prior art, including a digital filter with variable bandwidth 112 to eliminate out-of-band noise spectral components. In particular, in FIG. 1, an anti-aliasing filter 102 receives input from a servo reader (not shown). The output of the anti-aliasing filter 102 is routed to an ADC 110 in the servo channel 100.
The output of the ADC goes into a variable-bandwidth low-pass filter 112. The variable-bandwidth LPF 112 varies bandwidth based on velocity to obtain optimal filtering. The output of the variable-bandwidth LPF 112 is routed to a servo channel signal interpolator 114 (also referred to as an "interpolator"), a monitoring and control component 116, a peak-arrival time component 118, and a zero-crossing time component 120. The output of the interpolator 114 is routed to the matched-filter LPOS detector 122 and the monitoring and control component 116. The output of the monitoring and control component 116 is routed to a time-base generator 124, to the matched-filter LPOS detector 122, to the peak-arrival time component 118, and to the zero-crossing time component 120.
Notwithstanding conventional solutions, there is a need in the art for velocity-independent optimum filtering of servo-reader signals in tape drive systems by a servo channel, which allows reliable recovery of longitudinal position information as well as estimation of tape velocity and head lateral position even during tape acceleration and deceleration.

International Business Machines Corporation


It is disclosed a remote node connectable to multiple feeder fibers from one or more central offices, COs, of a wavelength division multiplexing-based passive optical network, WDM-based PON. The remote node comprises one or more splitters each configured to receive a monitoring signal on a connected feeder fiber and to split the monitoring signal into split monitoring signals, wherein the monitoring signal uses one wavelength at a time out of a group of different wavelengths, and an arrayed waveguide grating, AWG, with output ports connectable to drop fibers. The AWG is configured to route the split monitoring signals to output ports of said AWG based on a currently used wavelength of said group of different wavelengths, for supervising drop fibers connected to the output ports. Also, a method for a remote node in the WDM-based PON, of routing a monitoring signal, is disclosed.

Due to trends towards higher bandwidth demands and advances in the WDM device technology, WDM PONs are considered to be promising candidates for next-generation broadband access networks.
Besides, the growing popularity of mobile data services is also placing increasing demands on backhaul. WDM-PONs are able to provide symmetrical ultra-high bandwidth to base stations and hence can easily address the growing capacity needs of mobile backhaul. Faults occur in PONs, e.g. due to breaks in an optical fiber or due to a deteriorating or non-functioning optical line terminal (OLT) or optical network terminal (ONT). In order to shorten the service provision down-time caused by a failure in a PON, effective monitoring should be applied enabling fault detection and fault localization.
FIG. 1 presents an exemplary WDM-based PON enabling monitoring. The WDM-based PON comprises a central office (CO) 100, a remote node (RN) 102 and multiple ONTs 104a-n. The CO 100 comprises an OLT 106, an optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR) device 108, as well as an external wavelength adaptation module (EWAM) 110 and a wavelength filter 112.
The OTDR device 108 generates a monitoring signal that can be wavelength adapted or tuned in EWAM 110 and in the wavelength filter 112 after it is provided to the RN 102 and further to the ONTs 104a-n of the WDM-PON. The RN 102 distributes the monitoring signal via drop fibers to the ONTs based on the wavelength of the monitoring signal. Any reflection and/or scattering by the WDM-PON is returned towards the CO and the OTDR-device, based on which the WDM-PON can be supervised.
High connection availability and low failure impact by any single failure is required, in particular for business access and mobile backhauling. For this reason, protection of feeder fibers (FFs) is often a main task by operators.
FIG. 2 schematically presents a WDM-PON architecture with a plurality of COs 100a-c connected to a RN 114 via disjoint FFs 116a-c. This architecture supports open access since a user can choose a service from any CO. These COs are generally geographically spread. Each CO has an OLT for sending data in the WDM-based PON.
FIG. 3 schematically presents another WDM-PON architecture with a single CO 100 having a plurality of OLTs 106a-c connected to a RN via joint FFs 116. This architecture supports resilience since several FFs are provided from one and the same CO.
In order to provide connection protection and improved reliability, FIGS. 2 and 3 present WDM-PON architectures with multiple FFs.
By providing a plurality of different COs open access is enabled for customers. This promotes competition and market diversity, as this concept means a degree of freedom in the network architecture to offer a choice of services to residential and business users. For instance, open access allows users to select one out of a plurality of different service/network providers.
The schematically presented WDM-PONs of FIGS. 2 and 3, provide open access on a wavelength level. Within these architectures, the users can freely choose the service among the available service providers (SPs)/network providers (NPs) by selecting a certain wavelength. This idea for open access may be extended to any type of WDM-based PONs, e.g. hybrid WDM/time division multiplexing (TDM) PON.
However, the supervision mechanism as presented in FIG. 1 cannot be directly applied to the PON architectures with multiple FFs as presented in FIGS. 2 and 3, i.e. for open access and resilience.
There is therefore a need for enabling an improved monitoring of a WDM-based PON with multiple FFs.


Disclosed is a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape comprising: a sheet backing composed of polybutadiene foam having a substantially closed cell foam structure; and a layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive composition provided on a surface of the sheet backing. The pressure-sensitive adhesive composition in the present invention comprises: (A) an acrylic copolymer prepared from a mixuture composing: (i) at least one acrylic ester monomer having an alkyl radical containing, on average, 4 to 12 carbon atoms as an alcohol residue; and (ii) polymerizable unsaturated carboxylic acid monomer; (B) a polymer having a hydrolyzable silicon-containing radical; and (C) a polyfunctional isocyanate compound. The adhesive composition of the present invention needs no silanol condensation catalyst.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, in particular, to an adhesive tape in which a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is formed on a foam backing tape.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional single-coated and double-coated adhesive tapes in which an adhesive material is coated on a backing have been widely used in a variety of manners such as packaging, masking, jointing of electrical insulating materials and the like. However, when jointing structural materials made of metal, plastic, wood, gum or the like, especially the rough or irregular surfaces of such materials, adhesive tapes in which pressure-sensitive adhesive material is coated on a foam backing are more advantageous, since elasticity of the foam enables the adhesive layer to adapt easily to the irregular surface.
For the foam backing, urethane foam sheeting, polyethylene foam sheeting, chloroprene rubber foam sheeting, foam sheeting made of synthetic resins such as polyvinyl chloride, polyviniyl acetate and the like have been commonly used. Nevertheless, these products have some disadvantages. Specifically, urethane foam backing is poor in resistance to weathering and the like. Similarly, with respect to polyethylene foam, polyvinyl chloride foam, polyvinyl acetate foam and the like, it is difficult to obtain a satisfactory material which sufficiently contains all the properties of stress relaxation, flexibility, extensibility and breaking strength. In particular, when polyvinyl chloride foam is employed as the backing, some problems are caused by the migration of plasticizer.
On the other hand, elastomeric gum adhesives and acrylic adhesives are commonly used for the pressure-sensitive adhesive which is coated on or impregnated into the backing. The gum adhesive primarily contains natural or synthetic rubber and is blended with tackifier resin and the like. On the other hand, the acrylic adhesives are obtained by copolymerization of a monomer mixture which contains an acrylate ester monomer as a main component and a polar monomer such as acrylic acid or the like. Of these materials, elastomeric gum adhesives are excellent in tackiness at low temperatures. Nevertheless, they are poor in resistance to weathering, heat and solvent attack. Therefore, acrylic adhesives have been used more popularly as an adhesive material for foam-backing tapes, except for some special cases.
Due to tendency in the mean value and distribution range of the molecular weight of the obtainable polymer molecules, the acrylic adhesive frequently lacks in cohesion. Therefore, in general manufacturing processes, the acrylic copolymer after copolymerization is further subjected to treatment with a crosslinking agent as which isocyanate compounds, epoxy compounds, polyamine compounds, melamine compounds, phenolic compounds, organic metal compounds and the like are well-known in the industrial field. By such a method, it is possible to improve the cohesive strength of the acrylic adhesives. However, even when the cohesive strength is raised by crosslinking treatment, tackiness at low temperatures and the initial tack of the acrylic adhesive deteriorates in accordance with increased crosslink density. On the contrary, if crosslink density is decreased, resistance to heat and solvent attack fails. Therefore, it is difficult to balance the various properties of the acrylic adhesive in a beneficial manner by regulation of crosslink density.
In other words, prior adhesive tapes have a problem to be solved in that all the properties of stress relaxation, flexibility, extensibility and breaking strength cannot be sufficiently imparted to the backing material at the same time, and also in that the pressure-sensitive adhesive material cannot demonstrate uniform excellence in cohesive strength, initial tack, tackiness at low temperatures and resistance to heat and solvent attack.


A single cylinder head design used for a series of engines using different cylinder bore diameters with a small diversity of parts. The cylinder head mounting holes and the valve stem guide openings for the breathing valves 4, 4a are the same for the series of engines. The cylinder head 2 is designed for the internal combustion engine of the series having the largest cylinder, wherein the valve disks 6 extend into the cylinder peripheral region of the part of the cylinder head 2 cooperating with the cylinder in forming the combustion chamber. When the cylinder head 2 is used for a small bore diameter engine of the series, the cylinder head is equipped with valve seat inserts 7a having a small diameter valve seating face and the valves have a corresponding smaller diameter complimentary seating face.

An internal combustion engine design is disclosed in German patent document DE-PS 38 41 355 in which increased engine displacement is achieved by increasing the spacing of the cylinders and by increasing the cylinder diameters. This prior design requires the redesign of all essential parts of the internal combustion engine and, moreover, necessitates the adaptation of existing production facilities. If production of the smaller displacement internal combustion engine is continued, all the parts of the smaller displacement internal combustion engine must continue to be built, and thus, a large diversity of parts and corresponding inventory is required.

Cylinder head for use for crankcase having various cylinder-bore diameters


A polarization independent optical spectrum analyzer comprises a diffraction grating, input and output slit means and polarization-maintaining multi-pass optics for directing a light beam to and fro across the diffraction grating while maintaining its linear state of polarization. The optical spectrum analyzer further comprises a polarization control unit for decomposing a light beam for analysis into first and second beams having mutually orthogonal states of polarization (SOPs) and then adjusting one or both SOPs so that they are parallel to each other and to one of the dispersion plane of the diffraction grating which is rotated to select different wavelengths of the first and second light beams. The first and second light beams are passed across the diffraction grating repeatedly by multi-pass polarization-maintaining optics and are outputted and detected separately.

With the development of High Density Wavelength Division Multiplexing (HDWDM) applications, for example as used in communications conducted via optical fiber transmission mediums, the need for quality optical spectrum receivers and analyzers has become acute. In particular, there is a demand for optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) instruments that are robust, compact and yet display a sufficient optical rejection ratio (ORR) close in to a spectral feature (e.g, laser carrier signal) to be measured. This is particularly so for portable instruments that are to be used in the field.
As described in the text book "Optical Spectrum Analysis", authored by Joachim Vobis and Dennis Derickson, the three main optical spectrum resolving technologies that have been used in optical spectrum analyzers (OSAs) are Michelson interferometers, tunable Fabry-Perot optical filters and diffraction gratings.
OSAs employing Michelson interferometers (coupled with Fourier transform analysis) provide high wavelength precision and good spectral resolution, but the robustness and effective ORR limitations of such instruments continue to present problems. For example, the maximum effective ORR presently achievable is in the order of 35 dB (even far from the spectral feature), which is far less than what is desired.
OSAs using tunable Fabry-Perot filters are usually compact and rugged in nature. The various designs require trade-offs, however, between resolution, free spectral range and ORR. ORR can be improved by using multi-cavity filters, or cascading filters or by the multiple passes through the filter. However, when manufacturing multi-cavity filters using coating techniques, it is quite difficult to match the cavities. Three-cavity filters are presently available with a spectral resolution (FWHM) of 0.5 to 1.0 nm. The paper entitled "Multiple Angle-Tuned Etalon Filters for Optical Channel Selection in Wavelength Division Multiplexed and Optical Frequency Division Multiplexed Direct Detection Transmission Systems" by Anatoly Frenkel and Chinlon Lin—Opt. Lett. Vol. 13, pp 684–686, 1988 describes instruments with cascaded identical filters and cascaded nonidentical filters. Although individual angle-tuned filter elements exhibit properties apparently suitable for optical wavelength discrimination, generally, to cascade two or more filters is complicated because of inter-cavity interference problems. Also, when non-identical filters are cascaded, tuning synchronization may present problems.
Multi-pass filters are disclosed in the paper entitled "The Design and Use of a Stabilised Multi-passed Interferometer of High Contrast Ratio" by J. R. Sandercock in the published Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Light Scattering in Solids, Flammarion, Paris, pp. 9 to 12, 1971, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,261 which issued on Apr. 24, 1973 naming John R. Sandercock as an inventor. Sandercock describes a 5-pass filter configuration which uses a pair of corner cube retroreflectors. As corner cube retroreflectors cannot maintain the polarization states between the input and output beams, the filter used must be polarization-insensitive in both insertion loss and wavelength splitting. Since angle-tuned filter elements are polarization-sensitive, they cannot be used.
A wide spectrum of optical energy, from infrared through the visible spectrum, is commonly used as a means of conveying information via various optical fiber transmission media. In the telecommunications industry optical semiconductor lasers are typically used as light sources. Although the beam emitted by an optical laser tends to be of a fixed linear polarization, the emitted beam is typically received after having traversed various optical fiber conduits, so the received beam's state of polarization is not accurately predictable. The received beam's state of polarization may vary in an unpredictable manner over a period of time. Because angle-tuned filters are inherently polarization-sensitive, they are not practical for use in detecting the spectral characteristics of such a beam of unknown or unpredictable polarization. In addition, angle-tuned filter elements available commercially at present have a wavelength range of no more than about 100 nm, so the operational bandwidth of an optical spectrum analyzer using an angle-tuned filter element would be limited.
A diffraction grating, in combination with input and output slits, may be used as a tunable optical filter, and the optical spectral resolution improved by reducing the size of the input and output slits. An OSA using such a device could be expected to have a larger (e.g. of 500 nm or more) than an OSA using a tunable Fabry-Perot filter. However, the state of polarization (SOP) of incident light must be linear and parallel to a dispersion plane of the grating in order to be reflected or transmitted efficiently. Diffraction gratings are inherently polarization-sensitive, except perhaps for one particular wavelength.
Diffraction grating technology is the most widely used for OSAs in fiber testing equipment As was the case for the Michelson interferometer technology, many efforts have been made to improve the ORR close in to a spectral feature (e.g., ±0.4 nm), as well as the robustness of such devices. For example, approaches to improve the ORR include the use of double monochromators or the use of a double pass/double filtering process to make the lines sharper. The disadvantage of this approach is that it requires an intermediate spatial filter (i.e. a slit) and it tends to be bulkier, less robust and more expensive.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,886,785 (Lefevre et al.) discloses an OSA in which an input light beam is separated into two linearly-polarized secondary light beams, one of which is then rotated by a halfwave (λ/2) plate so that their states of polarization are parallel. The parallel beams are reflected by a pair of right-angled dihedral reflectors so that they are diffracted four times by the same diffraction grating before being recombined at the output of the OSA. Because the two light beams follow the same path (in opposite directions) between the reflectors and the grating, any polarization-dependent losses affect them both equally.
There are several disadvantages to the OSA disclosed by Lefevre et al. Firstly, the fact that the two light beams are recombined at the output is not conducive to the use of such an OSA for some applications where it is desirable to know the power of each of the two orthogonal components of the input light beam. Secondly, the waveplate used in their invention introduces a half-wave retardance at only one wavelength. Consequently, for other wavelengths, the resulting SOP exiting the waveplate will deviate from the desired linear SOP and lead to additional loss in the OSA. If used over a relatively limited wavelength range (e.g. 1480 nm–1620 nm), this loss is not major and can be compensated in the firmware, but if used over a much wider range typical of Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) (e.g. 1280 nm–1620 nm), this additional loss can significantly degrade the sensitivity of the OSA. Thirdly, the preferred embodiment of Lefevre et al.'s OSA uses the endface of the same fiber as a common input and output slit, and hence the design requires a circulator, 50/50 coupler or other separation means to separate the returning light for subsequent detection. Any polarisation dependent loss (PDL) in the separation means will limit the accuracy of intensity measurements made by the OSA Finally, the use of the same fiber for both the input and output renders the OSA very susceptible to any residual backreflection from the various component parts. For instance, a small reflection from the initial collimating lens after the fiber endface will reflect back into the detection means. If the signal under test comprises, say, 40 DWDM channels, this could introduce a significant amount of background noise to the desired measurement.

Optical spectrum analyzer using a diffraction grating and multi-pass optics


An exemplary housing of a foldable electronic device includes a first cover, a second cover, and a button disposed on the second cover. The first cover includes a lock receiving portion. The button includes a main body, a lock portion, and a resilient portion. The lock portion is configured for engaging with the lock receiving portion. The lock portion and the resilient portion connect with the main body. The main body includes a contact portion and a pivot portion. The contact portion and the pivot portion are separated from each other at a predetermined distance. The main body is rotatably disposed on the second cover by the pivot portion. The resilient portion is located on another end opposite to the pivot portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to housings of foldable electronic devices, and particularly, to a housing typically used for a notebook.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, a housing 10 of a foldable electronic device is shown. The housing 10 includes a bottom cover 11, a top cover 12, a sliding member 13, a hook 14, and a spring 15. The bottom cover 11 defines a latching groove 111 adjacent to an edge of the bottom cover 11. The top cover 12 defines a rectangular mounting groove 121 in an edge of the top cover 12 and forms a resisting member 123 adjacent to the mounting groove 121. The sliding member 13 is a rectangular block in shape. The sliding member 13 is disposed in the mounting groove 121 and is able to slide left or right along an edge, which parallels the bottom cover 11, of the mounting groove 121. The hook 14 is configured to be latched in the latching groove 111. The hook 14 includes an end fixed to the sliding member 13 so that the hook 14 is able to move together with the sliding member 13. An end of the spring 15 abuts the resisting member 123 and an opposite end of the spring 15 abuts the sliding member 13 so that the hook 14 and the sliding member 13 are kept on the left side of the mounting groove 121.
To open the top cover 12, a user has to pry the sliding member 13 and drive the sliding member 13 to move towards a right side of the mounting groove 121 with a finger. However, the sliding member 13 is generally designed to have a small volume. Thus, a contact surface of the sliding member 13 is relatively small. In addition, to drive the sliding member 13, the finger exerts a force along a direction to a side of the sliding member 13, and the finger can easily slip on the sliding member 13. As a result, it is difficult to open the top cover 12.
Therefore, a new housing of a foldable electronic device is desired in order to overcome the above-described shortcomings.

Hon Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


In accordance with various aspects of the present invention, a system and method for automated generating of a cutting curve on a surface is provided. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a computer-implemented method for automated generating of a cutting curve on a gingival surface to facilitate cutting of an aligner material comprises the defining of initial gingival curves along the line around a tooth (LAT) on a patient's jaw, including within an interproximal area between teeth. The initial gingival curves are replaced with a modified, dynamic cutting curve comprising an offset adjustment configured to minimize weakening of a region of the aligner material within the interproximal area. This process for generating a modified, dynamic cutting curve within an interproximal area can be suitably applied or continued for each of other the teeth and interproximal areas between those teeth to define a complete dynamic cutting curve. The resulting complete dynamic cutting curve can then be output for conversion into machine executable code to facilitate cutting of the aligner material.

The use of plastics or other materials to create form fitting objects requires precise development and manufacturing processes. Common form fitting objects typically include medical products like hearing aids, prosthetics or clear aligners for repositioning teeth.
The use of clear, plastic-type aligners for the re-positioning of teeth is becoming increasingly popular. Such aligners are typically produced by forming a plastic material over stereolithography (SLA) molds that represent various stages of treatment of a patient's orthodontic treatment. After forming the aligner material over a mold, the cutting of the aligner material occurs on the gingival surface along the interproximal area, i.e., a region that is proximate the gingival surface between the teeth and gums, to define the plastic aligner from the SLA molds. Conventional methodologies for creating such a cutting curve have various drawbacks.
For example, in many instances, the cutting curve has too many straight lines between the interproximal areas, with such straight line portions unable to provide sufficient resistance force to effectively facilitate teeth movement, and potentially cutting into the gingival surface of the patient and causing great pain. In other interproximal areas, a sharp shaped portion of the aligner material can result in stress risers, potentially causing the aligner material to break during treatment.
Manual trimming of the aligner material is also required in many instances, such as the punctured inner shell. As another example, in some cases the interproximal areas can have the cutting curve passing inside the jaw mold that leads to puncturing of the stereolithography (SLA) mold, requiring the SLA mold to be rebuilt and manually trimmed. Manual trimming is also typically required with such conventional processes in treating pontic cases, often requiring pontic cases to be filtered out from automation trimming line before such manual trimming, as well as in the back molar region to address extraneous material produced.
Still further, conventional techniques for generating cutting curves do not suitably address the potential for collisions of a cutting tool within the cutting machine when cutting the aligner material from the SLA molds.

System and method for automated generating of a cutting curve on a surface


Information communication terminals for transmitting/receiving information that includes a plurality of elements are connected to each other via a network. A information communication terminal at a transmitting side sets security-coupling levels to a plurality of elements, sets a dividing rule for dividing the information into a plurality of pieces of loosely coupled information based on the set security-coupling levels, divides the information into a plurality of pieces of loosely coupled XML data based on the set dividing rule, and transmits the divided plurality of pieces of loosely coupled XML data and the set dividing rule.

The Internet is a means for communications that users can utilize extremely easily and at low cost. However, as the Internet has originally been prepared for open communications and has been utilized for this purpose, the Internet is not suitable as information exchanging means in the field of business-to-business transactions (B2B), i.e., transactions between companies, where secrecy protection of information is required like corporate information and medical information. Therefore, in order to secure safety of communications by overcoming drawbacks of the Internet, various security means have been developed so far.
However, the conventional security means in the Internet have had such problems that the cost of introducing these means is high, and that these means are so complex that it is not easy to use them.
Further, in the case of using a simple encryption system like the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) that has been widely used in the Internet and that can be introduced relatively easily, this system has had a problem that encryption keys can be relatively easily stolen by third parties.
In the information exchanges like the B2B, there are many cases where the XML (Extensible Markup Language) of which standardization has been progressed by the WWW consortium (W3C) is used as a data description language. Information prepared in the XML uses elements as a basic unit. The "element" consists of an "element name" that is described in both a starting tag and an ending tag as a name associated with an element, an "element content" that is described between the starting tag and the ending tag as contents associated with the element, and an "attribute" that is optionally assigned. The element is defined in the DTD (Document Type Definition). In other words, the XML makes it possible to exchange information (a document) by changing a structure of the information into a document type definition file called the DTD. Based on this, users can prepare and use own tags for assigning a method of expressing a document of the information to be exchanged and adding meanings to character strings in the sentence. As explained above, the XML has functions of high-level structural expression and clear contents expression.
Although the XML has such excellent characteristics, when the XML has been leaked out, the contents of the information can be easily analyzed than other expression means. In other words, according to the information exchanges using the XML, a third party can easily estimate the contents of information (a document) based on the DTD and the XML document. Therefore, this method has a problem in that there is a high risk of the contents of exchanged information (a document) being easily stolen by a third party, as compared with the case of information exchanges using the HTML.
As explained above, the conventional systems have various problems. Consequently, they have not been convenient for users, and they have had poor security.

Information exchanging system, information communication terminal, information exchanging method, and computer product


A utensil and method for holding a flatbread during preparation. The utensil secures the flatbread between a pair of rods to enable removal from hot oil, rolling, and general preparation of the flatbread, such as a tortilla. The rods that are disposed in a somewhat parallel spaced-apart relationship to one another. A space forms between the rods to securely position the flatbread between the rods for support. Each rod includes a proximal end that joins with a handle for facilitated handling of the utensil, and a distal end that engages the flatbread in a variety of manipulations. The proximal ends join together to form a junction. The junction includes an impeding portion that tapers into a linear portion. The impeding portion is configured to bias the rods slightly towards each other while still maintaining space between the rods. The linear portion fits into a handle.

The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
The following is an example of a specific aspect in the prior art that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
By way of educational background, another aspect of the prior art generally useful to be aware of is that A flatbread is a simple bread made with flour or corn, water, and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. A tortilla is a type of flatbread. Typically, the tortilla is a type of thin flatbread made from finely ground wheat flour. Tortillas are commonly prepared with meat to make dishes such as tacos, burritos, and enchiladas.
It is well known that the preparation of tortillas involves numerous manipulations of dough, cooking pans, and finished tortillas. In one common preparation, a dough composition made from flour or corn, water, and salt is mixed and formed into a generally large ball shape. Next, the dough is divided into smaller 1½″ balls. Each ball is flattened and rolled into an approximate 7″ circle with a rolling pin. The circle of dough may then be cooked in a greased griddle for approximately one minute on each side.
Typically, it is at the stage of coking, filling, and serving that difficulties may arise with preparation of the tortilla. The griddle is hot and has hot oil therein. An inadequate utensil makes grasping the tortilla difficult without breaking it. Also, the tortilla must be filled and rolled while still hot to achieve optimal taste. This can be difficult without the proper utensil.
Even though the above cited methods for holding a flatbread some of the needs of the market, a utensil and method for holding a flatbread that enables the flatbread to be clamped, penetrated, flipped, dipped, and rolled during preparation is still desired.

Utensil and method for holding a flatbread


A frame body (1) includes a first surface (11), a second surface (12), and two side surfaces (13). Each of the side surfaces (13) has a single bent part or two or more bent parts (14). The first surface (11) and an outer part (13a) of each of the side surfaces (13) form an angle of approximately 90 degrees or larger than 90 degrees inside the closed cross-section in the cross-section of the frame body (1). At least one of the side surfaces (13) includes a low-strength part (17) closer to the second surface (12) and a high-strength part (18) closer to the first surface (11), and includes a strength transition part (19) located closer to the second surface (12) than a specific bent part (the bent part (14) which is closest to the second surface (12) and protrudes inward of a closed cross-section).

Improved flexural strength has been required for a frame body used particularly for a center pillar of a vehicle body of a vehicle in view of side impact performance of the vehicle. To improve the flexural strength, for example, Patent Document 1 teaches a center pillar including an outer panel positioned outside the vehicle body, an inner panel positioned inside the vehicle body to form a closed cross-section with the outer panel, and a reinforcement arranged between the outer panel and the inner panel.
Patent Document 2 teaches that an outer wall positioned outside the vehicle body is made thicker than a front wall and a rear wall, and a thickness increasing part which is gradually increasing in thickness toward the outside of the vehicle body from a substantial center of the vehicle in a width direction of the vehicle is formed inside the front wall and the rear wall.


In one embodiment, a supervisory service for a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) tracks a performance metric for a tunnel in the SD-WAN. The supervisory service computes a cumulative distribution function (CDF) for the tracked performance metric. The service assesses curvature of the CDF for the tracked performance metric relative to a service level agreement (SLA) threshold of an application for that performance metric. The service controls assignment of traffic for the application to the tunnel, based on the assessed curvature of the CDF for the tracked performance metric relative to the SLA threshold of the application for that performance metric.

Software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) represent the application of software-defined networking (SDN) principles to WAN connections, such as connections to cellular networks, the Internet, and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks. The power of SD-WAN is the ability to provide consistent service level agreement (SLA) for important application traffic transparently across various underlying tunnels of varying transport quality and allow for seamless tunnel selection based on tunnel performance characteristics that can match application SLAs.
Every tunnel in an SD-WAN may have varying transport quality in terms of its performance metrics over time. Selection of a particular tunnel to convey traffic for an application is typically made by comparing the performance metrics of a tunnel to the SLA threshold(s) of the application, to ensure that the SLA of the application is met by the tunnel. While this approach can be relatively effective under many circumstances, hard SLA thresholds can also lead conditions that negatively affect the application traffic. For example, if the performance of a tunnel drops below the SLA threshold of the application, the application traffic may be moved to a second tunnel. In turn, if the performance of the second tunnel drops below the SLA threshold and the performance of the first tunnel raises again above the threshold, the traffic may be moved back to its original tunnel. Each movement of the application traffic can negatively affect the traffic and the performance of the application.

Intelligent tunnel assignment and dynamic SLA threshold configuration to increase availability and utilization of SD-WAN tunnels


A hay loader is provided including a fixed frame mounted on a vehicle. Also included is a moving frame slidably mounted on the fixed frame. The moving frame is maintained vertically oriented while being shifted toward and away from the moving frame. Also included is at least one hydraulic cylinder connected between the fixed frame and the moving frame for selectively shifting the moving frame with respect to the fixed frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hay loaders and more particularly pertains to a new hay loader for conveniently loading, transporting and unloading a bale of hay.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of hay loaders is known in the prior art. More specifically, hay loaders heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art hay loaders include U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,356; U.S. Pat. No. 4,259,035; U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,246; U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,725; U.S. Pat. No. 3,033,395; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,858,035.
In these respects, the hay loader according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of conveniently loading, transporting and unloading a bale of hay.


A backlight assembly and a display device including the same are provided. A backlight assembly includes a light source portion including a plurality of light sources having a first light source and a second light source, the second light source emits light of a color that is different from a color of light emitted from the first light source, and a reflective member that is adjacent to an edge portion of the light source portion, wherein the reflective member includes a base layer including a first region that faces the first light source and a second region that faces the second light source, and a plurality of color patterns including a plurality of first color patterns that are positioned on the first region of the base layer and a plurality of second color patterns that are positioned on the second region of the base layer, wherein the plurality of first color patterns and the plurality of second color patterns have different colors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backlight assembly and a display device including the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A display device is a device that displays data. The display device may be a liquid crystal display, an electrophoretic display, an organic light emitting display, an inorganic electroluminescent (EL) display, a field emission display, a surface-conduction electron-emitter display, a plasma display, or a cathode ray display.
Among such display devices, a liquid crystal display is a display device in which a liquid crystal layer is arranged between two transparent substrates, and light permeability for each pixel is adjusted by driving of the liquid crystal layer to display a desired image.
Because liquid crystals themselves are unable to emit light in the liquid crystal display, a separate light source portion is installed in the liquid crystal display, and contrast is implemented by adjusting the strength of light that passes through liquid crystals installed in each pixel. Here, the backlight assembly including a light source portion is an important component that determines picture quality, such as luminance and uniformity of the liquid crystal device.
The backlight assembly generally includes a light source portion, a reflective plate, a diffusion plate, a light guide plate, and various optical sheets. Further, backlight assemblies may be classified into a direct type or an edge type depending on the position of the light source portion. A direct type backlight assembly includes a light source portion that is arranged to face the lower surface of the diffusion plate, and an edge type backlight assembly includes a light source portion that is arranged to face the side surface of the light guide plate.

Backlight assembly comprising a plurality of first and second color patterns and display device including the same


An internally expanding and locking apparatus for installing inside the pipe stub of a typical outdoor lighting pole and expanding with locking teeth to grasp the inner walls of the pipe stub, the apparatus including a swivel base, a clamp screw inserted through the swivel base, a ramp nut passing over the clamp screw so as to be positioned offset from the swivel base, and a mounting nut threadably installed on the clamp screw and configured to engage the ramp nut so as to control the position of the ramp nut relative to the swivel base as the clamp screw is rotated during use of the pipe mounting apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of this invention relate generally to an apparatus and method for mounting a device to a pole or other structure having an existing pipe stub, and more particularly to such an apparatus and method for attaching luminaries to new or existing poles for particular lighting applications.
2. Description of Related Art
Pre-existing light poles or other supports and the pipes or pipe stubs extending therefrom on which a particular luminaire mounting is to be attached are known in the art to have varying diameters, varying pipe wall thickness and varying materials such as steel or aluminum. Each pipe may also have a different surface coating, such as zinc, paint, powder coat, and anodizing or natural corrosion. In the case of an outdoor lighting application, the mounting attachment must conform to known criteria required to sustain harsh weather and hurricane force winds. The integrity of this mounting attachment is important in order to secure the luminaire to the manufacturer's specified tightness and central registration for conformance to predetermined performance and light pattern requirements.
More particularly, as is known in the art, there can be variations from one pipe size to another so that half-inch or larger gaps must be accounted for in the pre-existing pipe mounting diameters, thus the attachment means must seal the excess opening between the luminaire and the pipe from insects, small animals and weather intrusion. In the typical application, electrical wires also pass through the pipe stub to connect within the luminaire after the luminaire is secured to the fitting, creating other mounting and sealing challenges.
Luminaire mounting systems of the prior art have shown several methods to attach to the pipe stub. One type may have a simple pipe flange fitting with setscrews spaced equally apart in at least three positions around the circumference of the coupling to be tightened onto the protruding pipe stub. Another type may have one or more compression clamps internal to the luminaire housing that straddle the pipe to compress it against a saddle-shaped base, which requires removal of or opening of an access door to expose the bolts within the clamp and saddle mechanism. And yet another known mounting system is a docking station concept that allows a plug and socket to be secured to the pipe before the luminaire is mounted in order to ensure that attachment to the pipe stub is correctly meeting specification without the nuisance of holding and balancing the luminaire while tightening all bolts to equal tension.
In the known prior art mounting systems herein described, the installer is generally required to hold the luminaire or luminaire mounting base level and stationary while alternately tightening each of the mounting bolts. As in the case of a luminaire with three or more bolts spread around a flange, they are all behind the luminaire from the position of the installer, and in order to keep the pipe centered within the flange, each bolt must be tightened uniformly from behind the luminaire while the installer holds the luminaire in the correct position with his other hand. In a luminaire that must be opened to access the clamp mechanism, there can typically be four clamp bolts that must be alternately tightened to equal tension in order to keep the pipe centered within the clamp.
Each of these previously described installation scenarios in the exemplary context of outdoor pole lighting is an awkward situation for an installer in a lift or bucket truck and as a result sometimes the installation is completed hastily without properly and evenly securing the mount. The integrity of the mounting attachment is the basis of wind load conformance testing, and is that which secures the luminaire to the pole and pipe stub mount during harsh weather such as hurricane force winds. The inconsistency in mounting integrity is demonstrated in practice with the prior art systems when moderate winds can weaken or remove some luminaires and not others despite wind tunnel test results showing sustainability. Integrity may be further compromised if the clamp forces are not even or centered on the pipe to the manufacturer's recommendations. Luminaire attitude or vertical angle adjustment is affected by the pipe stub position in the clamp method or flange screw methods in each of the aforementioned systems; therefore, when a non-zero angle of luminaire attitude adjustment is set, that can and often does adversely affect installation integrity.
The prior art described above teaches luminaire mounting systems that can be installed in various pipes and pipe stubs, but does not teach an apparatus and method including a single tightening point toward the front of the luminaire and thus facing in the direction of the installer and such a system that inherently closes the pipe against the luminaire regardless of the pipe size so as to prevent the intrusion of insects, small animals and weather. Aspects of the present invention fulfill these needs and provide further related advantages as described in the following summary.

Pipe mounting apparatus and method of use


A refrigerant reclaim system including an automatic air purge system. The refrigerant reclaim system has an evaporator, oil separator, compressor, condenser, storage tank, and a filter-drier. An improvement relates to an automatic air purge system having an evaporator to concentrate noncondensable gases in an isolated area of the refrigerant reclaim system so as to minimize the loss of refrigerant vapor during purge operations. The air purge system is not limited to use with a refrigerant reclaim, and is suitable for use with any refrigeration system from which noncondensable gases are to be purged with minimal loss of refrigerant vapor.

In the past, little attention was paid to the storage or recycling of refrigerant. When refrigeration systems were being repaired or when the refrigerant, such as those sold under the brand name FREON, was contaminated sufficiently to affect the effectiveness of refrigeration, the refrigerant was vented into the atmosphere.
Recent developments have, however, created a demand for systems capable of storing refrigerant while at the same time purifying the contaminated refrigerant. The United States, as have several other countries, has become a signatory of the "Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer," which restricts future production of fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons. Pursuant to this international mandate, future production of all currently used refrigerants are to be drastically cut by the end of the century. In addition to this development, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has classified several widely used refrigerants as hazardous substances under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act ("RCRA").
The combination of these two regulatory developments accentuates the necessity for a device which will store and purify refrigerant, eliminating the possibility of unlawful emissions and the necessity for purchasing refrigerants in an artificially constrained market. The present invention relates to improvements on the refrigerant reclaim apparatus as described in co-pending application Ser. No. 07/332,235 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,333 of Van Steenburgh, Jr.
The co-pending application discloses an apparatus for drawing refrigerant from a container, or a refrigeration system to be repaired, heating the refrigerant sufficiently to maintain it in a gaseous state while it passes through an oil separator into the intake of a compressor. Compressed gaseous refrigerant is discharged from the compressor and passed through a heat exchanger to heat the incoming liquid refrigerant and then passes through to a condenser where it is liquefied. The liquefied refrigerant is passed from the condenser into a storage tank from the bottom of which liquid refrigerant flows through a filter-drier and an expansion device for reconverting the liquid refrigerant to a gaseous form. From the expansion device the gaseous refrigerant passes through a coil submerged in the liquid in the storage tank and then is passed back to the intake of the compressor.
The temperature of the liquid in the storage tank is lowered by the chilling effect of the expanding gaseous refrigerant passing through the coil submerged in the liquid. The refrigerant can be repeatedly passed from the chill tank through the filter-drier, expansion device, cooling coil, compressor, heat exchanger, condenser and back to the storage tank. This repeated process will progressively lower the temperature of refrigerant in the storage tank.
The apparatus described in the co-pending application provides several advantages over the prior art. There are, however, several additional attributes that are desirable in refrigerant reclaim systems. In particular, when purging air from the system, it has become increasingly desirable to reduce the amount of vaporized refrigerant that is entrained with the air that is being purged.
When air is present in a refrigeration reclaim system, it becomes trapped on the high pressure side of the system in the space above the liquid refrigerant in the storage tank. Here it becomes an homogeneous mixture with the refrigerant vapor and adds its partial pressure to the refrigerant saturation pressure. This increased pressure causes the system to function less efficiently because the compressor must pump against this additional high side pressure. It is, therefore, desirable to eliminate air (or, more generally, all noncondensable gases) from refrigerants in a refrigerant handling system such as a refrigerant reclaim.
While an air vent such as that shown in co-pending application Ser. No. 07/332,235 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,333 of Van Steenburgh, Jr. will remove air from the storage tank, it also releases a quantity of vaporized refrigerant into the atmosphere. This is costly both from an economic and from an environmental perspective. What is desired is an automatic air purge apparatus that will remove air and other noncondensable gases from the refrigerant being handled.
Air purge systems for removing air from a refrigerant reclaim or other refrigerant handling system are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,369 of Manz and 5,063,749 of Manz. The air purge system of this invention takes a different approach to the problem.

Refrigerant reclaim with automatic air purge