An oxygen absorber of the present invention includes at least one compound represented by Formula (1):

Conventionally, a method in which an iron compound that is used as an oxygen absorber is dispersed in resin to be allowed to exhibit its function has been known as a method of absorbing oxygen (for instance, JP2002-249174A). There, however, has been a problem that since, for instance, iron oxide is used as an oxygen absorber, the oxygen absorber dissolves in water to elute. Furthermore, one molecule of iron compound absorbs only one molecule of oxygen. Accordingly, in order to absorb a sufficiently large amount of oxygen, a large amount of iron compound is necessary.
Furthermore, an oxygen-absorbing material also has been known that includes a transition metal compound (a catalyst) and an oxidizable polymer. For instance, a composition has been disclosed that is obtained by adding 10 to 100000 ppm of transition metal compound expressed in terms of metal, such as cobalt, iron, manganese, etc., to polyamide containing at least 40 mol % of m-xylylene adipamido (MXD6 nylon) (JP2002-241610A).
JP5(1993)-115776A discloses a composition containing ethylenically unsaturated hydrocarbon such as polybutadiene, polyisoprene, a styrene-butadiene copolymer, carotenoid, etc. and a transition metal compound such as cobalt, manganese, iron, nickel, copper, etc.
The PCT pamphlet of WO01/90238 discloses a composition that contains a polymer having an unsaturated bond, a transition metal compound, and a polymer having an oxygen barrier property, for the purpose of obtaining a composition having both the oxygen barrier property and an oxygen scavenging property.
Moreover, JP5(1993)-156095A discloses a resin composition with an oxygen barrier property. This composition is obtained by dispersing an oxygen-absorbing composition containing a polyolefin such as polyethylene, polypropylene, an ethylene-alpha olefin (with at least three carbon atoms) copolymer, etc. and an oxidation catalyst made of a compound of transition metal such as cobalt, manganese, iron, copper, nickel, etc., in a saponified ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer.
In the case of a conventional oxygen-absorbing material containing an oxidizable polymer and a transition metal compound, oxygen contained in the air is absorbed when the polymer is oxidized. In this case, the transition metal compound has an effect of promoting the oxidation of the polymer. Hence, in order to allow the oxygen-absorbing material to exhibit sufficiently high oxygen absorbency, a certain amount of transition metal compound is required. However, when it is used as a packaging material for goods such as food, drink, medical supplies, cosmetics, etc., it is desirable to limit the amount of the transition metal compound to be used, in consideration of the safety. Accordingly, with the conventional oxygen-absorbing material containing a transition metal compound and an oxidizable polymer as essential constituent elements, it is not easy to meet such contradictory conditions and thereby to obtain a material that can satisfy both the safety and the oxygen absorbency.
On the other hand, methods have been disclosed in which various alkanes, alkenes, and various high molecular compounds are oxidized using an N-hydroxyphthalimide that serves as an oxidation catalyst. For instance, it has been disclosed that an N-hydroxyimide compound that coexists with various metal salts reacts with oxygen contained in the air to serve as an oxidation catalyst for alkane, alkene, and alcohol (Chemistry Vol. 56, No. 7, 18-23 (2001) and Journal of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Vol. 59, No. 1, 4-12 (2001)).
Furthermore, a method has been disclosed in which various polymers are denatured with gas containing oxygen atoms using an N-hydroxyimide compound as a catalyst (JP2000-290312A). It is described that this method allows a polar group to be introduced efficiently into a polymer without cutting the main chain of the polymer and as a result, a polymer can be obtained that is excellent in antistatic property, etc.
These oxidation reactions, however, are allowed to occur in the presence of a polar solvent such as acetic acid, etc., i.e. in the presence of a solvent that absorbs oxygen actively. These reactions are oxidation reactions that occur between a liquid phase and a liquid phase or between a solid phase and a liquid phase and therefore are predicated on the intervention of transition metal and the flow of a catalyst that occurs in the liquid. On the other hand, it is required that the oxygen-absorbing material maintains its solid state even when it absorbs oxygen. Accordingly, the reaction that is required to take place in the oxygen-absorbing material is the reaction that occurs between the solid phase and the vapor phase. However, possibilities of the occurrence of such a reaction have not been studied at all.

Oxygen absorber, method for producing the same, and packaging material using the same

Abstract: and an oxidizable polymer. R1 and R2 each independently indicates a hydrogen atom or an organic group. R1 and R2 may form a ring together with carbon atoms to which they are bonded. R1 and/or R2 may form a carbon-carbon double bond with carbon atoms to which they are bonded.


To provide a technique for analyzing radio wave condition affording improved accuracy of discrimination of radio wave propagation condition on a per-channel basis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for analyzing radio wave condition in wireless information communication, and more particularly to relates to a technique for analyzing radio wave propagation condition on channels for wireless data communications involving exchange of data by a spread spectrum communication technique on a plurality of channels with overlapping frequency bands.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communications constituting a wireless local area network (hereinafter termed wireless LAN) are one kind of wireless data communications involving exchange of data by a spread spectrum communication technique on a plurality of channels with overlapping frequency bands. Wireless LAN communications in accordance with the IEEE 802.11b standard employ 14 channels with center frequencies of 2412-2484 megahertz (hereinafter denoted as MHz), with signals being spread over a 22-24 MHz band for each channel. Conventionally, propagation condition of radio waves employed in such wireless LAN communications are discriminated on the basis of sensed electric field strength of received radio signals.
For example, JAPANESE PATENT LAID-OPEN GAZETTE No.2002-158667 discloses a technique for discriminating propagation condition of radio waves, using sensed electric field strength of received radio signals.
However, as the frequency band of one channel is overlapped by frequency bands of other channels, field strength of the center frequency band of the channel being discriminated, where sensed in a received radio signal, will result in field strength of radio signals spread in other channels being sensed as well, creating the problem of an inability to accurately discriminate radio wave propagation condition for an individual channel.
To address the problem described hereinabove, it is an object of the present invention to provide a technique for analyzing radio wave condition affording improved accuracy of discrimination of radio wave propagation condition on a per-channel basis.

Analyzing technology of radio wave in wireless information communication

Abstract: Analyzer device 10 for analyzing the condition of radio waves used for wireless LAN communications comprises a reception portion 410 for receiving radio signals in a plurality of frequency bands; a first strength sensing portion 420 for sensing the field strength RSS1 of the center frequency band on a per-channel basis from a received radio signal; a despreading portion 430 for despreading the received radio signal; a second strength sensing portion 440 for sensing the field strength RSSI2 of the center frequency band on a per-channel basis from the despread radio signal; a discriminating portion 450 for discriminating radio wave condition by cross-checking RSSI1 and RSSI2 on a per-channel basis; and a display portion 460 for displaying the discriminated radio wave condition.


In order to accurately identify a target object, a signal processor is provided, which includes an extracting module configured to extract, from echo sample sequences, a plurality of samples caused by the target object as a partial sample sequence, a characteristic amount calculating module configured to calculate a characteristic of the partial sample sequence as a characteristic amount, a memory configured to store a plurality of type-based data that are data as comparison targets of the characteristic amount and correspond to types from which the target object is identified, and an identifying module configured to compare the characteristic amount with each of the plurality of type-based data and, based on the comparison result, identify the target object corresponding to the partial sample sequence for which the characteristic amount is calculated.

As one example of conventional signal processors, JP2005-214723A discloses a target identifying device which uses chronological information of amplitudes of echo signals as it is to identify an object echo extracted from input signals. Particularly in this target identifying device, an identifying module receives a radar parameter and a distance-based partial waveform sequence from a reception waveform processing module, searches for and acquires a stored model parameter set, calculates a probability of outputting the distance-based partial waveform sequence according to each model parameter, and presents, as an identification result, a type of target which is included in a model calculation parameter corresponding to the model parameter with which a highest output probability is obtained. Thus, a target wave and an unnecessary wave are identified based on waveform.


An ignition system for an internal combustion engine includes an ignition coil, electric power supply circuit, a switching transistor, engine condition detecting element or unit that detects a signal relating to flow speed of air-fuel-mixture gas in the engine, and ignition control unit that controls the switching transistor to provide multiple ignition sparks in a predetermined ignition period. The ignition control unit controls the switching transistor to maintain each of the ignition sparks according to the signal relating to the flow speed of air-fuel-mixture gas in the engine to maintain sufficient spark energy for igniting the air-fuel mixture gas.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ignition system for an internal combustion engine, and particularly to a multiple-spark ignition system for igniting the fuel in the engine by multiple electric ignition sparks each ignition timing.
2. Description of the Related Art
P2003-521619A (WO01/055588) discloses a multiple-spark ignition system, in which a switching means is turned on or off according to the amount of the primary current flowing from a battery through the primary coil and the amount of the secondary current (discharging current) flowing through the secondary coil of an ignition coil. In more detail, the switching means turns off to generate multiple ignition sparks at a spark plug when the amount of the primary current increases to a threshold value, and turns on to start charging electric energy in the primary coil when the amount of the secondary current decreases to another threshold value.
However, if the battery voltage fluctuates when the primary coil is charged, the charging time of the primary coil varies. If the charging time increases, a ignition-less period in which the ignition spark is not generated increases, resulting in that the fuel ignition performance gets worse.

Multiple-spark ignition system for internal combustion engine


A technique for performing read operations with reduced errors in a memory device such as flash memory. An automatic gain control approach is used in which cells which have experienced data retention loss are read by a fine M-level quantizer which uses M-1 read threshold voltage levels. In one approach, M-quantized threshold voltage values are multiplied by a gain to obtain gain-adjusted threshold voltage values, which are quantized by an L-level quantizer, where L<M, by comparing the gain-adjusted threshold voltage values to read threshold voltage levels of a fresh memory device. In another approach, the read threshold voltage levels of the fresh device are gain adjusted for reading non-gain-adjusted threshold voltage values from the cells which have experienced data retention loss.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor memory has become increasingly popular for use in various electronic devices. For example, non-volatile semiconductor memory is used in cellular telephones, digital cameras, personal digital assistants, mobile computing devices, non-mobile computing devices and other devices. Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) and flash memory are among the most popular non-volatile semiconductor memories. Flash includes NAND and NOR technologies. During a read operation in such devices, a series of read reference voltages are applied to a set of storage elements to be read, and a determination is made as to which read reference voltage causes a storage element to become conductive. The read reference voltages are set to allow different data states of the storage elements to be distinguished.
However, techniques are needed to improve the accuracy of read operations, particularly as it is desired to put more states into the same voltage window.

Gain control for read operations in flash memory


In a circuit for accomplishing arithmetic operations and including an ALU; a first register for holding a dividend to be divided and intermediate and final results of the operation; a second register for holding a divisor; and apparatus for sequentially causing the dividend to be shifted left by one bit and the divisor subtracted from or added to the highest order bits of the dividend and partial remainders to provide a result which determines a quotient bit and thereby practice the operation of non-restore division, the improvement including: apparatus for performing an XNOR operation on the result of any carryout from any addition or subtraction operation and the value of the highest order bit of the dividend or the partial remainder; and apparatus for providing the result of the XNOR operation as the quotient bit to the arithmetic and logic unit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer apparatus and, more particularly, to improvements in arithmetic and logic units of computer processors by which such units may function utilizing less than the typical number of bit positions.
2. History of the Prior Art
Division conducted by a computer is a relatively slow process compared to other mathematical processes. The basic division process requires that the divisor be progressively subtracted from first a dividend and then sequential new interim dividends until a result is reached. These new interim dividends are realized by first shifting each of the bits of the last dividend by one bit to the next higher bit position leaving an empty position at the lowest order bit position, subtracting the divisor from the highest order bits remaining of the dividend to obtain a partial remainder, and concatenating the partial remainder and the lower order unused bits of the original dividend. After the subtraction, the result of the subtraction is evaluated. If the result is positive, the high order bits of the interim dividend were larger than the divisor, a one is recorded for that place of the quotient and placed in the empty lowest order bit position, and a next shift and subtraction occur. If the result is negative, the divisor was larger than the partial remainder, a zero is recorded for the quotient in the lowest order bit position, and the dividend must be restored to its previous condition by adding back the divisor before the next shift and subtraction. In each step, the process requires a subtraction and may require an addition.
This entire process is quite time consuming so various methods of acceleration have been devised. One of these methods is called non-restore division. In this process, the partial remainder is allowed to be either negative or positive so that the interim dividend value does not have to be restored to its prior-to-subtraction value when a negative number results from the subtraction. The process begins with the same shift of the bits of the dividend to the next highest order bit position and a subtraction from the highest order remaining bits of the dividend. If the partial remainder is positive, a one is recorded in the empty bit position, the bits of the interim dividend are each shifted to the next highest order bit position to provide an empty lowest order bit position, and another subtraction occurs. If the result is negative, a shift still occurs, but the divisor is then added back. Since the shift occurs before the divisor is added back, only half the divisor value previously subtracted is added back so the extra step needed to accomplish a restore does not take place. It will be noted that the shift and add by adding only half the value previously subtracted is equivalent to adding the full divisor, shifting, and then subtracting the divisor since the shift causes the subtracted value to be one-half the added value. In fact, the interim dividend is not explicitly restored unless the result of a subtraction is negative at the last step in the division process. The divisor value is simply added back after the next shift to produce a new interim dividend. This process accomplishes division much more rapidly than the restore process because each step requires either a subtraction or an addition but not both. Both the typical restore and the non-restore processes are explained in detail in Cavanaugh, Digital Computer Arithmetic, pp. 236-258.
As may be seen in the Cavanaugh text, the hardware needed to implement the non-restore process of the prior art includes an arithmetic-logic unit (ALU). The ALU used for the operation must be at least one bit larger than the dividend which is to be divided. The carryout from this additional bit position is used to determine the value of the quotient bit for the particular division step and to ascertain what the next operation in the process will be. Thus, if a dividend is a thirty-two bit binary number, a thirty-three bit ALU is required. Similarly, the register holding the partial remainder must be at least one bit longer than the number it is to hold. It has been found that, typically, the greatest number of bit positions required for an ALU used in a computer processor is the number of bits required for the division operation. None of the other operations require the extra number of bit positions which non-restore division has required. Consequently, it is desirable to provide circuitry for accomplishing non-restore division using an ALU which has only the standard number of bits available to other operations. For example, if eight, sixteen, or thirty-two bit dividends are to be divided, then an ALU having the same number of bits as the largest dividend is desirable.

Apparatus for reducing the size of an arithmetic and logic unit necessary to practice non-restore division


An information processing apparatus comprises a deciding unit which decides on a sequence for manufacturing a plurality of products using the type information of a plurality of products; and a unit which causes a print apparatus and a post-pressing apparatus to manufacture the plurality of products in accordance with the sequence decided on, wherein the deciding unit decides on the sequence such that products of the same type are manufactured consecutively by the print apparatus and the post-pressing apparatus, and furthermore, for each type of product, the deciding unit decides on the sequence using step information regarding steps for product manufacturing such that, among steps for manufacturing a plurality of parts that constitute each of the plurality of products of the same type that are consecutive in the print apparatus, steps for manufacturing the same type of part are consecutive.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a method of controlling the same, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there are print order services for so-called photobooks or the like by which a user creates a book composed of multiple pages by freely arranging image data with respect to a predetermined layout, and orders it via a network. When the user places an order, order information and laid-out content data are transmitted to a production base, and the product is made according to the order.
The production step needed at the production base is constituted by a plurality of work steps. Also, the combination of the work steps and the processing content of the steps differ depending on the type of the book. Also, one book is constituted by a combination of multiple parts such as a cover, a main body (body), and the like.
With this kind of service, there are many cases of different users each placing small orders of different types of books instead of basically a specific user ordering a large amount of books with the same content, or in other words, small-lot high-mix production is used. From the point of view of the manufacturing base, orders from users are for random product types, and therefore if they are brought to the production step in the order they were ordered, the production sequence of the parts constituting the products will be random as well, and there will be a problem in that the production efficiency of the entire production base will deteriorate significantly.
With a production base for a product at which it is presumed that multiple types of products will be produced, in the interest of the human resource cost relative to the product price as well as setting the delivery date to the user, what is important is how much the productivity can be improved based on the entire configuration rather than the productivity of each product or constituent part.
In order to resolve these problems, a production step design is desirable which takes into consideration making products of the same type consecutive in each work step at the time of starting production. Conventionally, after the user inputs an order, the operation side responds with an operator manually performing grouping by the same product type before starting production, and thereafter repeating the manufacturing for the same product type at a fixed time. Also, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-244158, an execution sequence is controlled based on the attributes of the sheet designated for the job such that print jobs that use sheets supplied from the same paper feeding tray are executed consecutively.
Since Japanese Patent Laid-Open Mo. 2011-244158 only takes into consideration the optimization of press processing, it does not take into consideration the overall workflow of the production base, including various types of steps other than the press step. Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-244158 does not take into consideration the actual sequence control between parts.

Information processing apparatus, method of controlling the same, and non-transitory computer-readable medium


A modest (2-5 fold) increase in androgen receptor (AR) mRNA is the only expression change consistently associated with developing resistance to antiandrogen therapy. Increased levels of AR confer resistance to anti-androgens by amplifying signal output from low levels of residual ligand and altering the normal response to antagonists. This invention provides cell based assays for use in the examination of new therapeutic modalities and provides for the design of novel antiandrogen compounds.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and materials for assessing prostate cancer therapies, as well as novel prostate cancer compositions and methods for making and using said compositions.
2. Description of Related Art
Cancer is the second leading cause of human death next to coronary disease. Worldwide, millions of people die from cancer every year. In the United States alone, as reported by the American Cancer Society, cancer causes the death of well over a half-million people annually, with over 1.2 million new cases diagnosed per year. While deaths from heart disease have been declining significantly, those resulting from cancer generally are on the rise. In this century, cancer is predicted to become the leading cause of death.
Worldwide, several cancers stand out as the leading killers. In particular, carcinomas of the lung, prostate, breast, colon, pancreas, and ovary represent the primary causes of cancer death. These and virtually all other carcinomas share a common lethal feature. With very few exceptions, metastaic disease from a carcinoma is fatal. Moreover, even for those cancer patients who initially survive their primary cancers, common experience has shown that their lives are dramatically altered.
Adenocarcinoma of the prostate is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men in the United States, and is the second leading cause of male cancer deaths (Karp et al., Cancer Res. 56:5547-5556 (1996)). Therapy for prostate cancer is typically initiated using hormone drugs that lower serum testosterone, often given in combination with competitive androgen receptor (AR) antagonists. Although initially effective at blocking tumor growth, these therapies eventually fail, leading to a drug resistant stage called androgen independent or hormone refractory (HR) disease that is uniformly lethal.
Postulated mechanisms to explain resistance to hormone therapy can be separated into three general categories.1-3 The first includes DNA-based alterations in the AR gene such as amplification or point mutations, which collectively only occur in a minority of patients.4-7 A subset of these AR mutations map to the ligand binding domain (LBD) and are proposed to cause resistance by altering the response of the receptor such that noncanonical ligands like estrogen or hydrocortisone, or even AR antagonists like flutamide, behave as agonists.8,9 Although their clinical association with antiandrogen resistance is strong, the overall frequency of AR amplification or mutation cannot account for most cases of hormone refractory disease.
The second category applies to the majority of patients without AR gene mutation or amplification who retain active AR signaling. Increased mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling mediated by oncogenes such as ErbB2 or Ras can cause ligand-independent activation of AR.10,11 The kinases and substrates responsible for AR activation in this setting are unknown, but this is presumed to occur through downstream phosphorylation of AR-associated proteins or AR itself, analogous to the estrogen receptor (ER).12-14 Similarly, alteration in the balance of coactivators or corepressors can affect AR activation,15-16 based on similar findings for ER.17 The relative frequency of these events and their relationship to clinical drug resistance remain to be define.
The third category of hormone resistance mechanisms is based on the concept that the pro-growth and survival functions of AR can be "bypassed" by alternative signaling pathways, such that AR is no longer relevant to disease progression. One example is upregulation of the anti-apoptotic gene Bcl-2 in late stage clinical samples,18,19 but functional proof of a role in hormone resistance is lacking. The AR bypass hypothesis is also consistent with observations of AR gene methylation leading to decreased or absent AR expression in some HR cancers,20 as well as reports that androgen induces growth arrest or apoptosis in certain contexts.21,22
Collectively, these data implicate multiple mechanisms by which prostate cancers acquire resistance to hormone therapy and highlight the continuing debate about the role of AR in late stage disease progression. Consequently, there is a need in the art for models that reproduce clinically significant aspects of this disease progression, particularly the transition from the initial stage in the prostate cancer where the cancer cells are sensitive to hormone antagonists to the subsequent drug resistant stage. In particular, a well-defined and manipulatable cell based model is needed to dissect the molecular events associated with the progression from a drug sensitive to a drug resistant phase. There is also a need in the art for cell based prostate cancer models that reproduce the drug sensitive and/or drug resistant phases of cancers of the prostate that can be used, for example in the evaluation of new therapeutic modalities. In addition, there is need for the identification of novel compounds that can be used to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells, particularly hormone refractory prostate cancers. The present invention disclosed herein satisfies this need.

Methods and materials for assessing prostate cancer therapies and compounds

The Regents of the University of California


In an embodiment, a device comprises a circuit with at least one circuit element; measurement circuitry capable to test a state of the at least one circuit element during an operation of the circuit, the measurement circuitry comprising a first terminal configured to be coupled to a first node of the circuit via a first capacitor, a second terminal configured to be coupled to a second node of the circuit, wherein the measurement circuitry is configured to determine in situ an operating state of the at least one circuit element based on signals applied by the measurement circuitry to the circuit during the operation of the circuit.

In many electronic applications, switches are used to control current flow in a system. In high voltage systems, such as lighting systems and electric machines, a multitude of switches can be used to enable and disable high voltage and high current paths during system operation. In safety-critical applications, such as elevators, and electric automobiles, and public transportation vehicles, however, the state of switching components is tested and diagnosed in order to detect and remedy different types of system failures. For example, if a failed switch is detected when an electric car is being turned on, a controller on board the electric car can prevent the car from starting, well as log a message in the car's memory noting the switch failure so that the car's manufacturer or mechanic can later be apprised of the source of the failure.
In systems where switches are connected in series, for example, in high-voltage systems, galvanic isolated circuitry is used to determine the state of each single switch because the connecting points of the switches can be at any potential in the system. Furthermore, isolated diagnostic capability is used in cases where the power components and the control components are not referring to the same ground potential, or are even isolated, such as the case in electric vehicles where the ground used to reference the electric motor and other high voltage machinery is isolated from the ground used to reference control circuitry and low power microelectronics.
In the case of high currents and/or voltages, mechanical switches, such as relays, are used because their conduction losses are smaller than the conduction losses of semiconductor switches. To detect a switching state for a relay, knowledge of whether the power contacts are open or closed is used. For example, in conventional isolated switch sensing devices, such as a force-guided contact relay, power contacts are mechanically coupled to a sensing contact that is opened and closed in parallel to the power contact. In some cases, however, this mechanical coupling increases the size and the complexity for manufacturing of a relay, especially if the relay is hermetically sealed for arc suppression.
In some systems, fuses are also used to control current flow. In the event of an overload condition, a fuse is blown, which creates an open circuit, thereby preventing further current flow. An overload condition in the system can occur due to abnormal functioning of some components, or can occur due to other reasons, such as heavy external loading. If a system is operated without regard to the state of a fuse, additional damage can be done to the system. What is needed are systems and methods for fuse and switch state diagnostics.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The invention relates to a detection device, comprising a parabolic mirror (1) and several radiation detectors (2-5). The detectors are placed in the focal plane (O, X′-X, Y′-Y) of the mirror with respective spacings in a common fixed direction (Y′-Y). The detection device further comprises a selector system, connected to each of the detectors (2-5), embodied to successively select each of the detectors and to transmit a received signal from the selected detector. The separations of the detectors (d2-d5) are selected such that a gain diagram, for the reception of said device, has a gain minimum, between two successive gain maxima, each corresponding respectively to one of the detectors, of less than 3.0 dB less than said gain maxima. Such a device permits a sweeping of a zone with several adjacent sub-sweeps from a machine overflying said zone.

Detection devices with parabolic mirror are commonly used to search for the presence of particular objects in a determined geographical zone. The objects searched for may, for example, be metal parts or heat sources. The detection device is then stowed on board an aircraft or a satellite which overflies the geographical zone concerned.
The geographical zone may be traversed according to a scan corresponding to the displacement of the overflight machine. This displacement defines a band in the geographical zone, called a sweep, which possesses a ground width, along a direction perpendicular to the displacement of the machine, and determined by the characteristics of the detection device and by the altitude of the machine. The direction of displacement of the overflight machine is commonly called the azimuth, and the direction perpendicular to the displacement is commonly called the elevation, or else distance. A width of sweep which is all the larger makes it possible to reduce the number of passes of the machine above the geographical zone, that are necessary in order to fully cover the latter with mutually adjacent sweeps.
To increase the width of sweep, certain known detection devices make it possible to vary the elevation of the direction of detection between several determined values. Each direction of detection thus adopted corresponds to a secondary ground band, situated inside the sweep and called a sub-sweep. The width of the sweep then corresponds to the sum of the widths of the sub-sweeps. A greater sweep width may thus be obtained. By way of example, a sweep width of greater than 400 kilometers is achievable using 5 sub-sweeps, A mode of operation of an SAR device which allows scanning with several sub-sweeps is called "ScanSAR", standing for "Scanning Synthesized Aperture Radars".
Among the known detection devices which allow detection in several directions, may be mentioned the electronic scanning antennas, also called "Active Antennas" An active antenna is constituted by a matrix of detectors and a control system linked to each of the detectors. The control system combines elementary reception signals delivered by all the detectors, applying a phase shift associated with the position of the corresponding detector in the matrix to each elementary signal. The whole set of phase shifts used defines the direction of detection. An identical principle is used for a matrix of radar transmitters, to obtain a radiation emission focused in a determined direction. Devices with active antennas exhibit very good performance, but their complexity and their cost constitute significant drawbacks.
Other detection devices are known, which incorporate a parabolic mirror and a detector placed at the focus of this mirror. These devices are much simpler, and consequently less expensive than the previous ones. In a device with parabolic mirror, the direction of detection is determined by the orientation of the mirror. This orientation may be modified either by a movement of the mirror with respect to the machine on board which the detection device is stowed, or by a roll movement of the machine itself during its displacement. In both cases, the direction of detection varies relatively slowly. Therefore, such a device is not suitably adapted for carrying out a scan of a geographical zone with several sub-sweeps.
It is also known to place an active antenna of reduced dimensions in the focal plane of a parabolic mirror, at the level of the focus of the mirror. The operation and the characteristics of such hybrid detection device result from a combination of the respective manners of operation and characteristics of the active antenna and of the parabolic mirror. In particular, phase shifts are again introduced between several detectors/transmitters of the active antenna which are simultaneously activated to obtain a determined direction of detection. However, such hybrid devices are again complex and expensive.

Detection device comprising a parabolic mirror and use of said device in an overflight machine


A plastic wrapping film is provided with one or more aluminum layers by vapor deposition and the or each layer is only partially oxidized in an oxidizing plasma so that the resulting barrier layer is distinguishable by slight reduction in transparency but excellent prevention of penetration by moisture and oxygen.

The formation of barrier layers on plastic film is highly desirable to produce a wrapping material for the protection of food products or other articles against deterioration by excluding gas, liquids, vapors, odors and especially water vapor and oxygen, from the package.
The barrier layers can be composed of, for example, aluminum oxide or can contain aluminum oxide.
In commonly assigned copending application Ser. No. 08/258,978 filed Jun. 10, 1994 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,462,602, issued Oct. 31, 1995) and its divisional application Ser. No. 08/501,532 filed Jul. 12, 1995 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,574), both based upon Italian application RM93A 000385 filed Jun. 11, 1993, there is described a process and apparatus for continuous reactive metal deposition in which a plastic film is coated in a vacuum chamber in a system in which metal is vaporized onto the web and the coating is reacted in a reactive zone to form the metal compound.
In that system a pressure in the deposition zone is lower than the pressure in the vacuum zone so that reactive processes are favored in the latter while deposition is favored in the former. The plastic films can be coated with metal oxides or nitrides in this manner.
Mention may also be made of the commonly assigned copending application Ser. No. 08/222,690 filed Apr. 4, 1994, (U.S. Pat. 5,466,296 of Nov. 14, 1995) and its division Ser. No. 08/415,612 filed Apr. 3, 1995, (now abandoned and replaced by Ser. No. 08/659,028) both based upon Italian application RM93A 000216 filed Apr. 6, 1993 and which disclosed a thin film deposition apparatus capable of use for PECVD and sputtering techniques.
Finally mention should be made of application Ser. No. 08/025,514 filed Mar. 2, 1993, replacing Ser. No. 07/956,736 of Oct. 2, 1992 (now abandoned) which discloses the gradated barrier film of aluminum oxide and silicon oxide which has proved to be highly effective against permeation by water vapor and oxygen and yet has excellent optical properties.
While these systems have been found to be particularly effective and advantageous in the preparation of wrapping films and like damaging materials, further research into the application of barrier layers upon plastic films has shown that earlier PVD or CVD processes which directly deposit oxide coatings on such film are too expensive and too low cost efficiency for widespread use in the preparation of wrapping films with barrier layers against water vapor and oxygen penetration, especially where films of high flexibility are desirable.
While the method described in the commonly-owned Italian application RM93A 000385 and the corresponding U.S. applications has the potential of coating large volumes of film rapidly and with fully oxidized or reacted metal layers, we have found that such layers, especially consisting of aluminum oxide, are not effective as barriers against moisture and oxygen penetration or are less effective as barriers than is desirable. Of course, when combined with silicon oxide as has been described in others of the applications mentioned above, the resulting composite barrier is highly effective against moisture penetration and oxygen penetration, fully oxidized aluminum oxide layers are not as effective to a considerable degree.
Nevertheless aluminum oxide layers are highly desirable for barrier purposes if moisture and oxygen penetrability can be reduced because of the good mechanical correspondence of aluminum oxide layers on plastic film.

Method for making plastic film with barrier layers


An apparatus for performing ultrasonic evaluation of a portion of a pipe includes a frame assembly and a plurality of ultrasonic sensors disposed in the frame assembly. The frame assembly includes a frame which is structured to cooperatively engage an outer surface of the pipe. The frame has a curved surface which is curved about an axis which, when the frame is engaged with the pipe, generally coincides with the central longitudinal axis of the pipe. The curved surface is generally defined by a radius which is generally equal to an outer radius of the pipe. The plurality of ultrasonic sensors are disposed in the frame assembly a fixed distance from the curved surface.

Pipelines, such as those used for the transmission of gases and liquids, are vulnerable to attack by internal and external corrosion, cracking, third party damage and manufacturing flaws. If a pipeline carrying water springs a leak or bursts, it can be a problem but it usually does not harm the environment. However, if a petroleum or chemical pipeline leaks or bursts, it can be an environmental disaster. If a pipeline related to a critical system fails, such as a coolant system in a nuclear reactor, an even more extreme disaster may occur. In an attempt to keep pipelines operating safely, periodic inspections are performed to find flaws and damage before they become cause for concern. Such periodic inspections may be carried out in a variety of ways. When a pipeline is built, inspection personnel may use visual, X-ray, magnetic particle, ultrasonic and other inspection methods to evaluate the welds and ensure that they are of high quality. Similar methods are also commonly employed to inspect exposed pipelines at pre-determined intervals after such pipelines have been in service.
Such ultrasonic inspections of piping are typically carried out using an ultrasonic sensor of circular shape about 0.250 inches in diameter which covers an area of about 0.049 in2. Such sensor is typically placed at various points on a grid of predetermined spacing which is laid out by the technician prior to taking readings with the sensor. FIG. 1 shows an example of an arrangement for ultrasonic inspection of a 90° elbow 10 according to such prior art approach. In such example, a grid 12 (only a portion of which is shown in FIG. 1) was laid out (e.g., via a paint marker) on the entire surface of elbow 10 prior to taking readings at the various points 14 (only two points are labeled in FIG. 1) of grid 12 thereon. In such example, grid 12 would typically take at least two man hours to lay out on the surface of elbow 10 and placing the aforementioned sensor at all of the points on the grid and recording readings took would take at least an additional 45 minutes to record. Hence, nearly three hours or more time would be required to inspect a limited percentage of the wall of such a single 90° elbow. While such method may be effective for detecting rather large thinned areas, such method may not detect localized corrosion. Additionally, the frequency of such inspections may be limited due to the time/cost required.
Accordingly, there exists room for improvement in the apparatuses and methods for carrying out such inspections.

Apparatus and method for improved corrosion thinning detection


An air flow diverter valve assembly that includes a housing provided with an air inlet opening and at least a pair of air outlet openings one of which is located in the upper wall of the housing and in which a diverter valve is rotatably supported in the housing for movement between positions which allow the air to flow through one or the other of the air outlet openings. The diverter valve includes a pair of laterally spaced end walls each of which has the general shape of a triangle and has first and second angularly spaced and intersecting edges interconnected by a peripheral edge. A first shutter member is connected to and extends transversely between the first edges of the pair of end walls and a second shutter member is connected to and extends transversely between the peripheral edge of each of the pair of end walls beginning at the first edge of each of the end walls and terminating intermediate the first and second edges of each of the pair of end walls so as to define an opening between the first shutter member and the second shutter member.

Various air distribution systems and air-flow diverters have been proposed for use in heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,413,550 in the name of Piano and issued on Nov. 8, 1983 discloses a ventilating system that is intended to maximize the vehicle passenger's sensations of comfort with respect to air flow and temperature. It achieves this by supplying the passenger compartment with two series of air flows. The first is a series of substantially pulsating air flows, each of which is cyclically discontinued for a predetermined period of time and directed to the upper passenger compartment at the head zone. The second is a substantially continuous air flow directed into the lower passenger compartment at the lower torso and foot zone. The method of ventilation is realized by a rotatable member, which is similar to a cam. The rotatable member is located inside of a cylindrical housing and is operated by a geared motor unit. The air is controlled by rotating disks that are also rotated by the motor unit.
Another patent disclosing an air distribution system can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,822 in the name of Izumi and issued on Aug. 12, 1980. This patent shows an airflow distributing device for an automotive air conditioning system. The device serves to mix a selected ratio of hot and cold air to achieve a desired temperature and then distributes the air at desired ratios between selected passenger areas. For this purpose, the device uses a rotatably fixed mode plate and a cylindrical chamber subdivided into three cells with each of the cells respectively communicating with a selected portion of the passenger compartment. In this manner, the device is able to control the ratio of hot and cold air into any of the three cells in whole or in controlled separate amounts.
In addition, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,661,069 in the name of Grosseau and issued on May 9, 1972 shows an air distribution device that has similarities to the device seen in the above mentioned '822 patent. In this instance, Grosseau uses a multi-damper door set-up that serves to mix a selected ratio of hot and cold air to achieve a desired temperature and then distributes the air at desired ratios between selected passenger areas. Grosseau utilizes a main cylindrical housing subdivided into two compartments by a rotatable blade-type shutter to control the direction of the climatized air into one or both of the air outlets available. The climatized air is obtained by the use of two additional shutters for the control of fresh and warm air stream ratios.

Diverter valve assembly for an automobile HVAC system


A ballot processing system for processing paper ballots having one or more voting selections marked thereon. The system includes an input area configured to receive a stack of ballots to be processed, a processor operable to determine the voting selections marked on the ballots, and an output area configured to store the processed ballots. In an exemplary embodiment, a printing device is operable to print a unique identifier on each of the ballots during each pass through the system. A detector is operable to detect the printed identifier so as to verify that each of the ballots was processed during a previous count of the ballots and/or to prevent double-processing of the ballots. The system also includes a printer operable to print a report that identifies ballot information in relation to the unique identifier for at least a portion of the processed ballots.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to voting systems and, more particularly, to a ballot processing system that tabulates the voting selections marked on paper ballots.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of different types of voting equipment are used in the United States and throughout the world. In many jurisdictions, a voter receives a paper ballot on which is printed the various contests to be voted on. The voter votes by darkening or otherwise marking the appropriate mark spaces on the paper ballot. The marked paper ballot may then be dropped in a ballot box, whereby the paper ballots accumulated in the ballot box are transferred to a central election office for tabulation. At the central election office, a central ballot counter is used to scan and tabulate the voting selections marked on paper ballots received from various polling locations. This same central ballot counter is also used to process the ballots in the event of a recount of a particular contest in the election.
Typically, the central ballot counter includes an input area for receiving a stack of, ballots to be processed, and an output area with a diverter for directing each processed ballot into one of several output bins. For example, one output bin may contain ballots that were properly processed by the central ballot counter, while other output bins may contain ballots that include a voting irregularity associated with a contest on the ballot (e.g., a write-in vote, an undervote, an overvote or a blank ballot) and/or ballots associated with a processing error (e.g., a read error, an invalid ballot identification code, or a double feed error). A canvass team may then review the ballots containing a voting irregularity and/or ballots associated with a processing error and take the appropriate action required by the jurisdiction. This process is very time-consuming in that the canvass team must review each individual ballot and determine the reason that the ballot was sorted into a particular output bin.

Ballot processing system for printing identifiers on paper ballots


A method for positioning an electrode catheter system having safety means at its distal section within a heart chamber comprises percutaneously introducing the distal end of a catheter through an artery or vein to the heart chamber. Once the catheter tip is at the desired location, the connector of the handle at the proximal end is connected to an EKG monitor. And the electrical signal from the electrodes on the distal section can be transmitted to the exterior EKG monitor for cardiac mapping. Alternately, the radio frequency current can be supplied to one or more of the electrodes on the distal section once an intimate contact with a tissue is achieved using the catheter of this invention.

Symptoms of abnormal heart rhythms are generally referred to as cardiac arrhythmias, with an abnormally rapid rhythm being referred to as a tachycardia. The present invention is concerned with the treatment of tachycardias that are frequently caused by the presence of an "arrhythmogenic region" or "accessory atrioventricular pathway" close to the inner surface of the chambers of a heart. The heart includes a number of normal pathways that are responsible for the propagation of electrical signals from upper to lower chamber necessary for performing normal function. The presence of arrhythmogenic region or accessory pathways can bypass or short circuit the normal pathways, potentially resulting in very rapid heart contractions, referred to here as tachycardias.
Cardiac mapping is used to locate aberrant electrical pathways and currents emanating within the heart. The aberrant pathways cause the contractions of the heart muscle to take on abnormal and life threatening dysrhythmias. Intracardiac mapping requires careful positioning of a plurality of catheters of multiple electrodes within the heart. For example, Webster, Jr. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,134 shows the general use of a catheter. It is important for a catheter to move into and out of the heart chamber freely without any obstruction or potential complications of component disengagement from the catheter shaft.
Treatment of tachycardias may be accomplished by a variety of approaches, including drugs, surgery, implantable pacemakers/defibrillators, and catheter ablation. While drugs may be the treatment of choice for many patients, they only mask the symptoms and do not cure the underlying cause. Implantable devices only correct the arrhythmia after it occurs. Surgical and catheter-based treatments, in contrast, will actually cure the problem, usually by ablating the abnormal arrhythmogenic tissue or accessory pathway responsible for the tachycardia. It is important for a clinician to be able to accurately steer the catheter to the region for ablation. Once at the region, it is important for a catheter to intimately contact the tissue to effectively control the emission of energy to ablate the tissue within the heart.
Regardless of the type of mapping means or ablation means used, the clinician is called upon to remotely move, rotate, push, pull, and manipulate the catheters in various ways. First, a catheter is inserted into a major vein or artery, usually in the neck or groin area. It is then guided into chambers of the heart by appropriate manipulation through the vein or artery. The distal section of a catheter must be manipulatable by a user from the proximal end of the catheter, so that the electrodes at the distal section can be positioned against the tissue at the desired location to assure that all aberrant electrical pathways are mapped and later ablated.
Development of prior electrode catheters has focused upon the requirements of electrical continuity and interference problems. However, the mechanical and safety considerations have been overlooked. In general, a conducting wire is soldered to the tip electrode or a band electrode. The electrode with a conducting wire is thereafter placed and secured onto the catheter shaft, mostly by gluing with an appropriate adhesive. The bonding force between a tip electrode and the catheter shaft is proportional to the contact surface area and is substantially maintained so long as the contact is intimate and intact. It has been reported that the tip electrode might sometimes disengage from the distal section of the catheter shaft. The frequency of tip electrode disengagement becomes more often as a result of thermal cycling to the catheter. This includes the cases of applying the RF energy to a tip electrode in ablation procedures or when the catheter is re-sterilized through high temperature cycles. In one instance, an electrode catheter can be made of PebaxTm material, which is polyether/amide block copolymer (supplied by Elf Atochem North America, Inc., Philadelphia, Pa.). Its coefficient of linear thermal expansion is reported as 220.times.10.sup.-6 inch/inch/.degree. C. For a catheter to endure an ablation temperature of up to 90.degree. C., the linear thermal expansion from the room temperature of 25.degree. C. is calculated as 1.4%. In other words, the plastic portion may expand by a factor of 1.4% when its temperature is increased from 25.degree. C. to 90.degree. C. Repetitive cycles of thermal expansion and contraction may lead to eventual failure of the bonding force between the catheter shaft and the tip electrode.
The electrode is generally prone to separating from its main catheter shaft body because of repetitive thermal cycling, resulting in separation of the catheter shaft from the stem of a tip electrode. The tip electrode might inadvertently be separated from the catheter shaft and be left behind in a patient's heart or in a circulation system, causing undesired health hazard.
The prior catheter development has overlooked the important need to provide a safe catheter system having safety means in association with the required bonding force. It is an objective of this invention to provide needed safety means for the electrophysiology cardiovascular catheter system having a tip electrode.

Electrode catheter system and methods for using same


In this invention, the duplicate field included in a telecine signal that is produced from a movie film or the like by 2-3 pull down system is detected without failure, and completely removed before being encoded or transmitted. The result of the accumulation of the duplicate field in the telecine signal is regarded as an amount of noise resulting from the conversion of a film into the telecine signal. Then, a threshold is used as a reference for detecting the duplicate field and changed in accordance with the noise. In addition, a memory is provided to store the location of the duplicate field in the telecine signal, thus making it possible to surely eliminate the duplicate field at the same location even when the same video signal is received again.

This invention relates to a television signal conversion system for removing redundant fields from a video signal that is produced from a movie film by a 2-3 pull down system or the like, an image encoding system for encoding the video signal, and an image decoding system for decoding the encoded data.
A method of compressing and encoding long-time video signals and recording them on storage media has been examined with the development of digital storage media. The MPEG (moving picture image coding expert group) of the international electric standard conference in the international standard organization (ISO) has been in operation toward the standardization of the moving picture compression and encoding system.
The video signal can be considered to include the following two types. One is a television signal of 30 frames of image per second (NTSC system), and the other is a film of 24 frames of image per second. The 2-3 pull down system is known as a system for converting the frame number of a film into that of a television signal (NTSC).
FIG. 10 shows the principle of the widely used 2-3 pull down system.
The first frame of a film is converted into the first and second fields. The second frame of the film is converted into the third, fourth and fifth fields. The third frame is converted into the sixth and seventh fields. The fourth frame is converted into the eighth, ninth and tenth fields. Thus, such conversions are repeated, resulting in the conversion of the film into a television signal (NTSC system). The video signal resulting from conversing a film into a television signal is called "telecine signal".
The telecine signal obtained by the 2-3 pull down system periodically includes duplicate fields, or redundant fields as will be seen from FIG. 10. In FIG. 10, the third and fifth fields are just the same field (the latter one is the duplicate field), and the eighth and tenth fields are also just the same field (the latter one is the duplicate field).
Therefore, if the telecine signal produced by 2-3 pull down system is directly compressed and encoded, the redundant, duplicate fields are also compressed and encoded. Thus, when the video signal to be compressed and encoded is a telecine signal, the duplicate fields are eliminated from the telecine signal before the compression and encoding process, and then the encoding or transmitting means is used.
FIG. 11 shows the conventional system for detecting and eliminating the duplicate fields of the telecine signal produced by converting a film into a television signal as described above.
Referring to FIG. 11, there are shown an input terminal 10 of the system, a control signal output terminal 20 for outputting a control signal according to the telecine image, and an output terminal 30 of the system. In addition, there are shown a frame memory 100, a subtracter 200, an absolute value circuit 300, an accumulator 400 for producing an accumulated result per field, a comparator 500 for producing results of comparison to a threshold, a hold circuit 600 for holding data for one-field period, and a control signal generator 700 for generating the control signal according to the telecine image. Moreover, there are shown a write control circuit 800 for controlling a memory 900 to write, a read control circuit 850 for controlling the memory 900 to read, and the frame memory 900 for storing the video signal. The operation of the conventional television conversion system constructed as above will be described with reference to FIG. 11.
The telecine signal fed through the input terminal 10 of the system is directly supplied to the subtracter 200 and also to the frame memory 100, by which it is delayed one frame. The delayed signal is supplied to the subtracter 200, where an interframe difference signal is produced. The interframe difference signal is supplied to the absolute value circuit 300 where its absolute value is produced, and then the absolute value is accumulated for each field unit by the accumulator 400. The accumulated result is supplied to the comparator 500, where it is compared with a threshold. If the accumulated result is larger than the threshold, it is decided that the current field is of a different frame of the original film from the frame of the one-frame preceding field. If the result is smaller than the threshold, it is decided that the current field is of the same frame of the original film as the frame of the one-frame preceding field, that is, the duplicate field. The result of the comparison to the threshold is held in the hold circuit 600 for one-field period, and supplied to the control signal generator 700, which then generates the control signal corresponding to the telecine image. The frame memory 900 prevents the duplicate fields from being fed to the next stage. That is, the frame memory 900 converts the telecine image (30 Hz) into the frame rate of the film image (24 Hz) and feeds it to the output terminal 30 of the system. The write control circuit 800 controls the frame memory 900 to write, and the read control circuit 850 controls the frame memory 900 to read in accordance with the control signal fed from the control signal generator 700.
FIG. 12 shows the video signal conversion operation of the frame memory 900 illustrated in FIG. 11. The conversion operation for the telecine signal will be described with reference to FIG. 12. The telecine signal fed through the input terminal 10 as shown in FIG. 11 is passed through the memory 900 to the output terminal of the system in the order of successive fields (fields 1, 2, 3, 4 shown in FIG. 12A) until a duplicate field is detected. When a duplicate field is detected as shown in FIG. 12A at the latter one of the fields "3", this duplicate field is not transmitted, but the following fields (fields 6, 5, 8, 7 shown in FIG. 12A) are supplied to the output terminal. The control signal generator 700 generates a flag indicative of whether a duplicate field is detected or not (for example, RepeatFirstField in MPEG2 standard) and supplies it to the next stage.
Thus, the television signal conversion system constructed as above removes the duplicate fields from the telecine signal, and as a result produces at the output terminal 30 the video signal of film rate (24 Hz) with the duplicate fields removed as shown in FIG. 12B. Also, the control signal associated with the output video signal with the duplicate fields removed is produced from the output terminal 20 in synchronism with the output video signal as shown in FIG. 12C.
However, the conventional method for detecting the duplicate fields has the following problems.
(1) The noise included in the telecine signal has a large effect. This is because the result from the accumulator 400 is increased over a threshold by much noise included in the telecine signal, with a result that the field normally decided as a duplicate field may be regarded as being not a duplicate, or that the duplicate fields sometimes cannot be completely detected.
The problem (1) will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 13.
FIG. 13 is a graph of the output of the accumulator 400 in FIG. 11 as the ordinate with respect to the field count as the abscissa, with a certain telecine signal being supplied to the input terminal. Since the telecine signal produced as a result of conversion by 2-3 pull down system periodically includes duplicate fields as previously described, the output result from the accumulator 400 periodically decreases in accordance with the duplications.
As illustrated in FIG. 13, when a sequence (first scene) of the telecine signal including much noise and another sequence (second scene) of the telecine signal including less noise are continuously supplied, the following troubles are caused when the duplicate fields are tried to be detected by the conventional method. The duplicate fields in the first scene can be completely detected by comparing the result from the accumulator 400 to a first threshold, but all the fields in the second scene are regarded as duplicate fields since the result from the accumulator 400 is always smaller than the first threshold. In addition, if the result from the accumulator 400 is compared with a second threshold, the duplicate fields in the first scene cannot be detected at all, and all the fields in the second scene are decided to be duplicate fields. If the result from the accumulator 400 is compared with a third threshold, the duplicate fields in the first scene cannot be detected at all, but the duplicate fields in the second scene can be completely detected. In that case, the first to third thresholds are supplied to one input end of the comparator 500 in FIG. 11. Therefore, the duplicate fields in the telecine signal sometimes cannot be completely detected by the conventional method.
(2) There is a variable length coding method in which temporary encoding is first made for determining parameters for real encoding and then the real encoding is made. In this method, the duplicate fields detected and removed at the time of temporary encoding are required to coincide with those to be removed upon real encoding. If both are not coincident, the parameters for real encoding, determined at the time of temporary encoding are different from those in the real encoding.
On the other hand, if the telecine signal is reproduced from, for example, a recording medium on a VTR and supplied to the system, noise is sometimes caused in the telecine signal reproduced from the recording medium. At this time, even though the same telecine signal is tried to reproduce from the same recording medium in both temporary and real encoding operations, different telecine signals will be reproduced because of the inclusion of noise. Thus, the result of detecting the duplicate fields at the time of temporary encoding is sometimes different from that at the time of real encoding. Accordingly, the parameters in the following encoding means differ from those determined at the time of temporary encoding, with the result that the picture quality is considerably deteriorated upon decoding.
(3) Since each duplicate field is eliminated immediately after being detected, the fields of the television signal cannot be kept continuous each time a duplicate field is detected. Thus, when the fields which are close to the current field are tried to be processed on the basis of the frame unit according to MPEG2 standard or the like, the switching between even and odd fields will need the change of the processing order, making the processing complicated.
(4) The telecine signal is supplied at the frame rate of 30 Hz, while the converted signal has the frame rate of 24 Hz. Thus, different reference clocks must be separately provided for both the input telecine signal and the converted output signal or for the next stage, making the circuit operations unstable.
In addition, since this system always detects whether the current field is duplicate or not, once missing of, for example, this detection, due to noise or the like will result in successive detection of only even or odd duplicate fields. Thus, if the system employs the frame-unit processing of television signals as in the MPEG2 standard, the successive odd or even fields cannot be processed on the frame-unit basis, with the result that the encoding or transmission processing cannot be performed.
The above difficulties will be caused by the following factors.
(5) When the telecine images are directly edited by VTR or the like, the edited images have irregular conversion patterns unlike those shown in FIG. 12, or even or odd duplicate fields are sometimes successively detected. As a result, only even or odd fields are successively transmitted, and thus cannot be processed on the frame-unit basis according to MPEG2 standard.
(6) When the telecine images have successive frames of still images, the system always decides that the successive frames are a succession of duplicate fields. Thus, when the control flags (TopFieldFirst and RepeatFirstField) in the MPEG2 standard are used, the pattern cannot be controlled so that the encoding or transmission cannot be continuously performed.
(7) If the telecine signal having much noise is supplied to the system that uses a fixed threshold for determining whether the current field is duplicate or not, the difference value between frames having much noise is always larger than this threshold, so that the fields of those frames are always decided to be independent fields. Thus, since the duplicate fields cannot be completely detected and removed, the efficiency of the encoding or transmission can be increased.
(8) Moreover, when the telecine signal and the normal television signal (frame rate of 30 Hz) are mixed and have noise components changed, discrimination cannot be made between the actual change of the frame rate and the effect of noise on the decision of whether the current field is duplicate or not. Thus, when a duplicate field is decided to be an independent field by mistake, the amount of information to be transmitted to the next stage becomes redundant. If an independent field is decided to be a duplicate field by mistake, the picture quality is greatly deteriorated.

Television signal conversion system and image encoding and decoding system

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The knife includes a handle portion attached to a blade with a tip at its distal end. The blade comprises four surfaces that converge to form a spine and opposing cutting edges with each surface having a concave segment, a first angled segment, a flat segment, and a second angled segment as the surface extends from the spine to the edge. Similarly, the tip includes four surfaces that converge and terminate at a point, with each surface comprising only an angled segment. Optionally, the knife includes a unique safety lanyard that has two attachment points on the handle such that a closed loop is adjustably formed around the user's hand when gripping the handle, which aids in withdrawing the knife, stabilizing the user's grip, and preventing the hand from sliding forward while in use. Optionally, the knife includes a thumb plate as an additional safeguard.

When it comes to knife blade configurations, there are several types of grinds known in the prior art. For example, a traditional hollow grind is concave such that the two planar sides curve inward until they meet at their terminal edge. Conversely, a convex grind has the two planar sides curve outward until they meet at their terminal edge. Other grinds include a straight grind that is beveled at a consistent angle from the centerline to the cutting edge. Each of these grinds has their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, a straight (or angled) grind on all four planar surfaces, resulting in a diamond-like cross section, provides a strong spine but sacrifices sharpness. Conversely, the hollow, concave grind results in a very sharp edge, but this edge is a more fragile and is prone to breaking or wear during use. Additionally, for each of these and other cutting edges, the performance and useful life of the blade decreases with each act of sharpening. With each sharpening, the material left behind the edge gradually thickens forcing the angle to become more obtuse, thus decreasing the sharpness and performance of the knife.
Accordingly, there is a need for a knife blade of superior sharpness that can continue to be sharpened without sacrificing the structural integrity of the blade.
Additionally, knives are generally used to puncture an object by forcefully pushing the knife blade forward into the object. When this force is applied, the hand of the user is susceptible to sliding forward beyond the handle of the knife and onto the blade, resulting in injury as well as loss of control of the knife. In order to prevent the hand from sliding forward, the prior art discloses a variety of lanyards that attach at the base of the knife; the preexisting lanyards wrap around the user's wrist and when the knife punctures the object, the lanyard is designed to restrict the forward motion of the user's hand. However, since these lanyards only grip the user's wrist, as opposed to the user's hand, it is not very efficient in preventing the hand from unexpectedly sliding forward while in use.
Accordingly, there is a need for a safety mechanism that secures the hand of the user to the knife handle and prevents hand slippage when the knife is in use.


An image transforming apparatus for transforming an input video signal representing a two dimensional image into a transformed video signal representing a three-dimensional surface and for depicting illumination of the image is provided. The image transforming apparatus includes a device for defining the three-dimensional surface, a device for providing a mapping data signal for transforming the input signal into the three-dimensional surface, a device for transforming the input video signal in accordance with the mapping data signal so as to generate the transformed video signal, a device for storing a plurality of illumination pattern data signals each of which depicts differential illumination of the transformed video signals, a device for mixing the illumination pattern signals in accordance with the mapping data signal so that the mixing ratio of the illumination pattern signals is varied and a device for depicting illumination to the transformed video signal in accordance with the mixed illumination pattern signal. An effect surface, which is an externally defined three-dimensional surface on which the image information processed in accordance with special effect processing is mapped, is changed in shape and the image information is mapped to suit to the so-changed effect surface by controlling the mixing ratio to present a realistic image.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image transforming apparatus (image effect apparatus) for displaying a realistic object etc. by mapping the image information, processed by special effect processing, on an effect surface which is a surface of the image information mapped on an externally defined three-dimensional surface and which is changed in accordance with the information instructing changes in its shape, and by depicting illumination in the manner of taking account of the relation between a light source and a line of sight. It also relates to an image transforming method (image effect processing method) comprising mapping the image information, processed by special effect processing, on an effect surface which is an externally defined three-dimensional surface and which is changed in accordance with the information instructing changes in its shape and by depicting illumination in the manner of taking account of the relation between a light source and a line of sight.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a variety of methods in the prior art for producing visual effects by taking account of illumination effects. An example of a technique of realistically displaying an object in, for example, computer graphics is shading an object surface. This technique resides in displaying a surface perpendicular to the light beam with utmost brightness and displaying a surface with less brightness as the surface is removed from the perpendicular direction. There is also known a so-called texture mapping, that is, displaying detailed visual information of an object surface or a model of the material quality reproducing the properties of an effect surface.
There has also been used a so-called light tracking method consisting in accurately locating by which route a light beam emanating from a light source is reflected, transmitted or absorbed by an object before ultimately reaching an eye or a pixel and constituting pixels based on the resulting information. The image displayed in accordance with the light tracking method is highly realistic because the method depends on actual calculation of the intensity of reflection of the incident light corresponding to reflectance of a reflecting object as well as the scattering direction of the incident light.
If the light from a light source, such as the sun, is radiated on an effect surface, which is a three-dimensional surface on which the image information processed with special effect processing is mapped, the surface perpendicular to the light is displayed most lightly, while the intensity of reflection is gradually lowered towards an outer periphery, that is, with increasing deviation from the perpendicular direction. If the shape of the effect surface is changed to a cylinder as shown in FIG. 1e, since the portion of the surface perpendicular to the light is parallel to the axis of the cylinder, the light surface perpendicular to the light is displayed as a stripe the size of which is obtained by calculation.
There is also known a method consisting in applying the light only to a predetermined portion of a Z-coordinate in a three-dimensional address space to improve the effect of illumination.
It is noted that, although the image in which the effect of illumination based on the light tracking method is taken into consideration is highly true to the real object, mathematical processing for generating an image is complicated so that extensive calculation is required for image generation. Consequently, in a small-sized system, real-time image data generation is difficult to achieve because of the lower processing speed even if calculation is carried out in accordance with the above-described system to display the image. On the other hand, a realistic image effect cannot be produced by the apparatus which resorts to the above-mentioned simplified method. In view of the above-mentioned problem of the prior art, the present Applicant has already proposed a special effect device in an inexpensive digital effect device in which an image displayed on an effect surface is depicted with realistic effects of illumination by fixing the relation between the incident light and the effect surface.
However, since the relation between the incident light and the effect surface are fixed, there is room for improvement in connection with continuous transition from a plane surface to a curved surface. Consequently, if attempts should be made for mapping the image information on the effect surface which has been moved and rotated arbitrarily, a further improvement is desired to produce a realistic image in which the effects of illumination are exhibited satisfactorily.


A phototranschromic ink suitable for use in a printing machine, including a water soluble, inert, nonionic polymeric resin carrier base having film forming properties, a photo acid or photo base progenitor which releases or takes up protons upon exposure to light, a pH sensitive dye which changes color in response to a change in proton levels, a water compatible non-ionic wetting agent, a water compatible non-ionic thickening agent, a neutral water soluble flow aid; wherein said ink changes color upon exposure to ultraviolet radiation and is of suitable consistency for use in a printing machine.

This invention relates to systems designed to measure exposure to ultraviolet radiation.
Mullis, U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,792, describes a system for the visualization of exposure to ultraviolet light radiation, in which a combination of polyvinyl alcohol, an acid sensitive dye, and a bisulfite adduct of an ortho-nitro substituted aromatic aldehyde are provided. This mixture changes from one color to a different color upon exposure to ultraviolet radiation. This color change reflects the effect of ultraviolet light radiation on the aldehyde to cause an increase in acidity. This increase in acidity in turn causes the acid sensitive dye to change color, and thus provide a visual signal of exposure to ultraviolet light. In one example (Example 23) a phototranschromic ink was made by forming a mixture of diethylene glycol, polyvinyl alcohol, an ortho-nitrobenzaldehyde, and bromophenol blue. This ink was applied to paper with a brush.


In a bus arbitration method and bus arbiter which simultaneously considers fairness and priority and enables fairness and priority to be readjusted by a program, that is, by software, arbitration for ownership of a bus connected to a plurality of bus masters comprises grouping the plurality of bus masters into a plurality of groups and arbitrating the frequency of each bus master's ownership of the bus according to the result of the grouping. It is preferable that each of the plurality of groups has a priority different from the priorities of the others, and in arbitrating the frequency of each bus master owning the bus, arbitration of ownership of the bus by bus masters belonging to the same group is performed according to a round-robin method.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bus arbitration method and a bus arbiter, and more particularly, to a bus arbitration method by which the frequency of bus use can be controlled, a bus arbiter therefor, and a bus system having the bus arbiter.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a bus arbiter performs bus arbitration among a plurality of bus masters connected to a bus. Each bus master outputs a request signal to the bus arbiter. The request signal contains information related to the request of use of the bus. The bus arbiter receives the request signal generated by each bus master, and in a predetermined order outputs a grant signal to each bus master. The grant signal contains information granting the use of the bus.
The conventional bus arbiter performs bus arbitration by using either a fixed priority method, or a fairness method, such as a round-robin method. In the fixed priority method, the bus arbiter allocates in advance a different priority to each of a plurality of bus masters, and outputs a grant signal to the bus master having the highest priority. Each priority allocated to one of the plurality of bus masters is generally fixed as a constant value.
The round-robin method is a method by which all elements in one group are fairly selected in a rational order. Generally in the round-robin method, each element is selected one-by-one in the direction from the top of a list to the bottom of the list, when all elements have been selected, then the process again begins with the element at the top of the list. That is, the round-robin method can be understood as a method in which bus opportunities are received by taking turns.
Therefore, for a bus arbiter employing the round-robin method, each bus master fairly uses the bus in a rational order. Consequently, in the case where a predetermined bus master requires preferential use of the bus, the bus master cannot always obtain such preferential use. Also, for a bus arbiter employing the fixed priority method, a bus master having a low priority may not use the bus. These limitations are complicated by the fact that in general, conventional bus arbitration is hard wired in hardware, and therefore is difficult to reconfigure.

Apparatus and method for controlling frequency of bus use


A display apparatus is provided. The display apparatus includes: a display that has an adjustable transparency; a sensor configured to detect bending of the display; and a controller configured to recognize the display as being divided into a plurality of areas based on the detected bending, and individually control the transparency and a rendering state of each of the plurality of areas.

With the development of electronic technologies, various kinds of display apparatuses have been developed. In particular, display apparatuses such as television (TVs), personal computers (PCs), laptops, tablet PCs, mobile phones, and MP3 players are widely used to such an extent that they can be found in most households.
In order to meet consumer demands for new functions and new forms of displays, an effort to develop new forms of display apparatuses is ongoing. One of the results of this effort is a next generation display apparatus in the form of a flexible display apparatus.
The flexible display apparatus refers to a display apparatus which is flexible in nature and can be curved, bent, and/or folded into different shapes like paper.
The shape of display apparatus can be changed by a force that is applied by a user and thus may be used for various purposes. For instance, the flexible display apparatus may be used for mobile apparatuses such as mobile phones, tablet PCs, electronic albums, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and MP3 players.
A transparent display apparatus has flexibility and transparency unlike existing display apparatuses. Therefore, there is a need for a method for using corresponding characteristics for the operations of a display apparatus in various ways.

Display apparatus for individually controlling transparency and rendering state of each of a plurality of areas and display method thereof


There is provided a method by which it is possible to precisely process a translucent rigid substrate laminate. The method for processing a translucent rigid substrate laminate includes the steps of: preparing a translucent rigid substrate laminate by adhering two or more translucent rigid substrates with photocurable adhering agent; fixing the laminate to a cradle with predetermined adhesive; performing processing A for cutting the laminate, which is fixed to the cradle, in a thickness direction and forming a desired number of divided translucent rigid substrate laminates, or performing desired outline processing B on the laminate which is fixed to the cradle; and peeling the processed translucent rigid substrate laminate from the cradle by applying external force without heating the translucent rigid substrate laminate at 40° C. or more.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for processing a translucent rigid substrate laminate. In addition, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a plate shaped product such as protection glass of a display element.
2. Description of the Related Art
In display unit of various electronic devices such as a television, a notebook computer, a car navigation, an electronic calculator, a mobile phone, an electronic organizer, and a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), displays such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic EL display (OELD), an electroluminescence display (ELD), afield emission display (FED), and a plasma display (PDP) are used. In addition, a plate glass product for protection is generally placed to cover such a display in order to protect the display element.
The plate glass product is obtained by processing plate glass to have a size and shape which are suitable for each display unit, and it is necessary to process a large amount of plate glass products with high production efficiency in order to meet market requirements for a certain price level.
Thus, a method for enhancing the production efficiency of plate glass products has been proposed in Japanese Laid-Opened Patent Publication No. 2009-256125 (Patent Document 1). Specifically, "a method for processing plate glass including: forming a material gtass block (A) by laminating a plurality of material glass plates (1) and integrally adhering the respective material glass plates (1) by a releasable adhering material (2) which is interposed between the respective material glass plates (1); forming divided glass blocks (B) with a small area by dividing the material glass block (A) in a planer direction; forming glass block products (C) with a product shape in a planar view by processing at least an outer circumference of the divided glass blocks (B); and individually separating the glass block products (C) after processing an end surface of the glass block products (C)" has been proposed (Claim 1). Patent Literature 1 discloses that according to the above configuration "it is possible to obtain a plurality of plate glass products in the smaller number of processes and achieve high productivity since division, outline processing, and end surface processing are performed in a state where the plurality of material glass plates are laminated" (paragraph [0007]).
In addition, Patent Document 1 discloses that "the adhering material (2) interposed between the respective material glass plates (1) is a photocurable liquid-form adhering material, which cures when irradiated with an ultraviolet ray, the state of which is softened by increasing a temperature" (Claim 4). Patent Document 1 discloses that according to the configuration "the liquid-form adhering agent spreads to form a film with a uniform thickness over the entire surface between the upper and lower material glass plates when the photocurable adhering agent is interposed between the upper and lower material glass plates and pressure is applied thereon in the vertical direction, and if irradiation with an infrared ray is performed thereon in this state, the liquid-form adhering agent which has spread to form a film cures, and the upper and lower glass plates are integrally adhered. Therefore, it is possible to quickly, precisely, and integrally adhere the plurality of material glass plates by the laminating. In addition, if the product glass block is accommodated in hot water or the like, and the temperature is raised after final processing (end surface processing), the adhering agent which has cured between the respective glass plates is softened and separated into films. Therefore, collection and treatment of the adhering agent are facilitated without causing environmental contamination." (paragraph [0007]).

Method for processing transluscent rigid substrate laminate and method for manufacturing plate shaped product


A ferroelectric liquid crystal display device is disclosed, which takes a specified period to rewrite the picture elements in one horizontal scanning period, and includes M scanning lines divided into a plurality of groups each containing K scanning lines (K>1, M>1, K, M: positive integers) and elements for supplying scanning signals to the M scanning lines to rewrite an image. The scanning signal-supplying elements output scanning signals to the first scanning line of each group in the first frame, to the second scanning line of each group in the second frame, and to the Kth scanning line of each group in the Kth frame so that the M scanning lines are rewritten by K times of scanning.

The present invention relates to a display device or more particularly to a display device having such an incomplete memory characteristic as that of ferrodielectric liquid crystal and which takes a specified time to rewrite the picture elements. The invention further relates to a driving system of the display device.
Ferrodielectric liquid crystal is a well-known element with incomplete memory characteristic. When a picture is to be displayed on a matrix type display panel that uses ferrodielectric liquid crystal, video signals are sent from, for example a personal computer to the display panel. Since the video signals from the personal computer are non-interlace signals, however, it is not possible to use all frames of the signals in displaying the picture on the panel because of the time restriction for rewriting by the ferrodielectric liquid crystal. Conventionally, therefore, a picture is displayed by using, for instance, every other frame of the video signals.
Assuming that the number of scanning lines M of a video signal sent from a personal computer is 200 and that the time required by the liquid crystal for rewriting the picture elements in one horizontal scanning period is 200 .mu.s, the frame frequency fF on the screen is calculated as: ##EQU1##
If the memory characteristic of the liquid crystal is incomplete, when a figure "1" is kept written, the luminance of the image changes little by little after the figure is rewritten, as shown in FIGS. 7(1), 7(2), 7(3) and 7(4). For instance, the luminance of the picture elements on the lines L.sub.1, L.sub.2, L.sub.3 and L.sub.4 changes as shown in FIGS. 7(1), 7(2), 7(3) and 7(4), respectively. The combined luminance of the 4 (vertical).times.4 (horizontal) picture elements changes at 25 Hz as shown in FIG. 7(5). Since human eyes can sense the luminance variation at a frequency not higher than 60 Hz, the above luminance change is sensed as a flicker so that the picture quality is deteriorated.

Ferroelectric liquid crystal display device and driving system thereof for driving the display by an integrated scanning method