A sift-resistant recloseable package is provided which includes a container for storing a product and a lid attached to the container for closing the container. The container includes a first panel having at least one slot disposed therethrough and a cover which extends over the slot for preventing the sifting of the product through the slot. The cover is attached to the first panel. The lid has a downwardly depending flap with an extension attached thereto, wherein the extension engages the slot when the lid is in the closed position.

The present invention relates to carton board packages, and, more particularly, to such packages suitable for housing granular, powdered or other materials and which are reclosable and sift-resistant.
Reclosable cartonboard cartons for storing granular materials, such as powdered laundry detergents, have been available for many years. These cartons are typically formed from a cardboard which is laminated or coated with a moisture barrier material, such as polyethylene, polypropolyene, varnish or other barrier materials known in the art. Because the cardboard has a natural springback, the lids of these cartons tend to open thereby leading to contamination of the product and/or absorption of moisture by the product, both of which are undesirable. As such, the ability to repeatedly open and close/lock these cartons has long been a desirable property.
Some closure/locking systems have included various flap and tab interlocking arrangements in combination with perforation line, a known carton arrangement being illustrated as package 10 of FIGS. 1 and 2. Perforations 12 are broken by a user of the package 10 during the first opening, wherein the perforations 12 are typically disposed between the locking flap 14 and the tab 16. These closure arrangements generally require highly accurate folding and gluing steps during manufacture to achieve proper alignment between the locking flap 14 and the tab 16 and can cause difficulty to open the lid for the first time when the perforation are too hard to break. Further, during manufacturing and distribution, shifting of the product within the carton can cause buildup 18 (FIG. 2) of the product on the edge of the locking flap 14 resulting in spillage of the product 19 upon opening of the lid. When a carton is knocked, over (especially large capacity cartons), the lid is also prone to opening after the perforations have been broken.
Accordingly, there exists a need to provide a carton having locking and sealing features which eliminate the need for perforations, thereby simplifying use of the lid. Further, there exists a need to provide a carton which is easier to manufacture and which does not require highly precise folding and gluing steps during manufacture. Still further, there exists a need to provide a carton having improved closure arrangements which can prevent powder spillage upon the first opening and which better resist opening of the lid when a carton is knocked over. Yet further there exists a need to provide a carton which can accommodate multiple closure arrangements for improved resistance to accidental opening of the lid.
A sift-resistant recloseable package is provided which includes a container for storing a product and a lid attached to the container for closing the container. The container includes a first panel having at least one slot disposed therethrough and a cover which extends over the slot for preventing the sifting of the product through the slot. The cover is attached to the first panel. The lid has a downwardly depending flap with an extension attached thereto, wherein the extension engages the slot when the lid is in the closed position.

Sift-resistant cartons having slotted closure structures


A boat hull providing substantially enhanced stability, safety and comfort over conventional boat hulls in common use, incorporating at least one relatively narrow, more-or-less vertical slot (23) running longitudinally and/or laterally through the hull of the boat and positioned so that the slot(s) (23) intersects a major portion of the depth of the water displaced by the boat hull. The slot(s) (23) may be fully or partially closed at any of its fore-end (31) or aft-end (33) or bottom-edge (25).

For the purposes of this Application the term "boat" shall be used and shall be construed to include all waterborne vessels including but not necessarily limited to: boats, ships, yachts, barges, canoes, kayaks, submarines, catamarans, trimarans, etc.
A common feature of traditional boats, is that they are based on the unit-body principle, that is, a hull-bottom with a single continuous skin, resting partially submerged at the surface of the water and displacing a single coherent body of water. Multihull boats (catamarans and trimarans) employ 2 or 3 respectively of such unit-body hulls, spaced apart from each other and held in juxtaposition by shared, rigid deck-beams. Submarines incorporate a completely continuous skin (monocoque) and operate either fully or partially submerged.
A major undesirable characteristic of boats is their predisposition to roll (side-to-side) and to pitch (fore-and-aft) under the influence of wind and/or waves and/or internal movement of weighty objects. This undesirable motion is exacerbated by the fabrication of tall and weighty superstructures, including: cabins, flying-bridges, masts, sails and rigging, to boat hulls. In severe or extreme situations, this predisposition has been the cause of countless loss of lives and boats. Many, varied devices have been, and continue to be employed in the effort to reduce the rolling/pitching actions, and to so produce a boat hull that is more stable and consequently more safe and more comfortable. Among these devices, may be listed:—                In-Hull Ballast: Heavy weights (stones/metal/water), stored inside the bottom of the boat hull. These bring the various penalties of: a) substantially increasing the weight (and displacement) of the boat; b) reducing the speed potential of the boat; c) increasing the power-requirement to propel the boat; d) increasing the mechanical stresses on the hull structure; e) very often requiring that this heavy ballast be moved from one side of the hull to the other, in order to compensate for the boat's changing aspect to the prevailing wind.        Ballasted Keels: Heavy weights (lead/steel/concrete) attached at some distance below the outer skin of the boat hull. These are more efficient than, but mainly present the same penalties as, the in-hull ballast described above. In both cases, a single Centre of Gravity (CG), set some vertical distance away from the virtual pivot established by a single Centre of Buoyancy (COB), acts to generate a pendulum-effect.        Powered Stabilizers: Generally lateral fins protruding from the underwater sides of a boat hull, with motions timed to somewhat counteract the rolling/pitching action of the boat. These bring the penalties of:—a) increased underwater drag on the hull; b) collision hazard with flotsam; c) significant power requirement for their operation; d) significant capital cost and maintenance requirement of complex machinery; e) weight addition to the boat; g) compromise in the watertight integrity of the hull because of their through-hull assembly.        "Flopper-Stoppers": Discs or planks of large surf area, hung horizontally below the water surface, on both sides of a boat hull and using their resistance to uplift through the water, to counteract the rolling action of the boat. These bring the penalties of: a) being useable only when the boat is at anchor; b) requiring active effort for their deployment/recovery at every anchor/off-anchor activity; c) requiring significant storage space whenever the boat is in-transit.        Increased Beam: Increasing the beam (width) of a boat hull generates an inherent increase in its lateral stability. This however brings the penalties of: a) decrease in streamlining and commensurate increase in drag (resistance) through the water and air; b) increased volume & weight & displacement for a given length of boat; c) much greater difficulty in recovery from a capsize situation.        Increased Floatation at Hull Ends: This is usually accomplished by one or more of the following devices:—                    i) Significant flaring (widening) of the bow sections of the hull.            ii) Keeping the bow and stern sections of the hull substantially empty or very lightly loaded.            iii) Bulbous-Bow: the fabrication of a substantial, elongated bulb protruding forward from the underwater section of the hull bow.            iv) Longitudinal centralization of a major weight components (engines, fuel tanks, water tanks) within the hull.            Singly or in combination, these devices present the penalties of: a) having principal effect mainly against the pitching and much less so against the rolling tendency of the boat; b) significantly increased water-resistance (drag) at the bow of the boat; c) sacrifice of otherwise useable interior space within the boat.                        Multihulls: Conventional catamarans (2 hulls) and trimarans (3 hulls) do present the major advantage of significantly superior lateral stability versus monohulls of similar length. This benefit however, comes with the penalties of:—a) substantially increased beam (width) of the whole boat (typically one-half of the overall length of the boat); b) increased windage since the boat superstructure is so much more voluminous and more difficult to streamline; c) requiring almost double the docking-space as a monohull of similar length; d) unfavourable aesthetics to most boat-owners; e) significantly increased cost of manufacture; f) significantly increased mechanical stresses at the interconnecting points; g) sensitivity to weight-loading; h) sensitivity to wave-slap under the bridge(s) connecting the individual hulls; i) difficulty in road-trailering because of their substantial width; j) susceptibility to pitchpoling and to diagonal-capsize; l) extreme difficulty in recovering from a capsize situation.
What is pursued by all of the devices described above, is a boat hull of significantly enhanced, inherent stability, fore-and-aft as well as side-to-side. This desired hull should ideally incorporate and enabling device that is:—                Simple and un-complex in design & fabrication.        Inexpensive to manufacture.        Passive rather than active in operation.        Without most or all of the various penalties noted in the foregoing.


The invention relates to novel analogs of desferrioxamine, homologs thereof and methods for their synthesis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved method for the synthesis of analogs of desferrioxamine B and homologs thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The microbial iron chelator, siderophore, desferrioxamine B [N'-[5-[4-[[5-acetylhydroxyamino)pentyl]amino-1,4-dioxobutyl]hydroxyamino] pentyl]-N-(5-aminopentyl)-N-hydroxybutane diamide] was isolated from Streptomyces pilosus and characterized by Bickel ["Metabolic products of actinomycetes. Ferrioxamine B," Helv. Chim. Acta., Vol. 43, pp. 2129-2138] in 1960. It is a linear trihydroxamate ligand which forms a very stable hexacoordinate, octahedral [Modell et al, "The Clinical Approach to Thalassaemia," Grune and Stratton, London, pp. 217-241 (1984)] complex with Fe (III), K.sub.f =1.times.10.sup.30 M.sup.-1. The ligand employs its three bidentate hydroxamate units in chelating metal ions.
Although desferrioxamine B will bind a number of different +3 cations, e.g., Al (III), Ga (III), Cr (III), it exhibits a high specificity for Fe (III), and is utilized by Streptomyces pilosus for the acquisition of iron from the environment. Because of the metal selectivity and low toxicity of the ligand, it has been employed in the treatment of several iron overload diseases, e.g., thalassaemia ["Development of Iron Chelators for Clinical Use," Martell et al, eds., Elsevier, North Holland; N.Y. (1981)]. However, desferrioxamine B does not offer a completely satisfactory solution to the iron overload problem. The drug is cleared by the kidneys and has a very short half-life in the body; thus, the patient must be maintained on constant infusion therapy. It is not orally effective. Because of these shortcomings, investigators have explored the potential of other ligands as therapeutic iron chelators. To date, these investigations have not included modification of the desferrioxamine molecule simply because of the lack of high yield of facile approaches to the synthesis of the molecule.
Desferrioxamine B was first synthesized in 1962 by Prelog et al ["Metabolic products of actinomycetes. Synthesis of Ferrioxamines B and D," Helv. Chim. Acta., Vol. 45, pp. 631-637 (1962)]. However, because of the number of steps in the synthesis and the low yield of the sequence, the method does not enable the production of large quantities of the chelator or its analogs. A retro-synthetic analysis of the ligand reveals that the desferrioxamine molecule is made up of two fundamental units: 1-amino-5-(N-hydroxyamino)pentane and succinic acid. The key to its synthesis is the production of this amino-hydroxyaminopentane unit and its condensation with succinic acid. Prelog approached this problem beginning with the starting material 1-amino-5-nitropentane, an amine which was accessible in only 46% yield [Bickel et al, "Metabolic products of actinomycetes. Isolation and synthesis of 1-amino-5-(hydroxyamino)pentane, an essential hydrolysis product of ferrioxamine and ferrimycin," Helv. Chim. Acta., Vol. 43, pp. 901-904 (1960)]. This compound was next N-carbobenzoxylated and the terminal nitro group reduced to the corresponding hydroxyamino group. This key intermediate was condensed with succinic acid followed by a series of other dicyclohexylcarbodiimide catalyzed acylations along with several reductions to produce desferrioxamine B. The overall yield of this eleven-step sequence was 6%.
Although desferrioxamine is currently the drug of choice in the treatment of thalassemia, it nevertheless suffers from several shortcomings. The drug is not orally effective and, therefore, must be administered by infusion. Furthermore, because of its short half-life in the body, patients must be maintained on continuous infusion therapy for extended periods of time. As a result, patient compliance is the principal difficulty associated with the drug. In order to overcome these problems, investigators have explored the therapeutic potential of alternative iron chelators over the years, albeit with somewhat limited success. It was an object of the search that led to the present invention to identify the minimal structural requirements of the desferrioxamine platform which are still compatible with the molecule's iron-clearing properties. Once having identified such a pharmacophore, it was converted to pharmacophores which are more readily absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, specifically, hexacoordinate DFO analogs in which the amides are removed and the molecules are shortened.
Bergeron et al ["An Efficient Total Synthesis of Desferrioxamine B," J. Org. Chem., Vol. 53, pp. 3131-3134 (1988)] reported a total synthesis of desferrioxamine B (DFO) in which the construction moved from the N-acetyl to the primary amine end of the molecule.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,253 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/784,949 filed Oct. 30, 1991, each disclose novel syntheses for desferrioxamine B and analogs and homologs thereof.
It is an object of the present invention to provide novel, improved, high yield methods for the production of analogs of desferrioxamine B and homologs thereof.

Analogs of desferrioxamine B and method for synthesis thereof


Disclosed is a display device including: a display panel on which a plurality of driver chips are mounted by using a COG configuration; a signal substrate on which a timing controller for generating a differential signal inputted into each of the driver chips is formed; and a connecting substrate which connects the plurality of driver chips with the timing controller, wherein the connecting substrate includes a first connecting substrate on which a first line for inputting the differential signal into a driver chip excluding a driver chip located at a terminating area is formed and a second connecting substrate on which a second line for inputting the differential signal into the driver chip located at the terminating area, and wherein a termination resistor connects the second line for transmitting the differential signal which is formed on the second connecting substrate.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a display device and in particular, relates to a structure of a connecting substrate which connects a driver chip mounted on a display panel and a timing controller formed on a signal substrate.
2. Background Art
A display device is used for an audio visual apparatus and an office automation apparatus. A liquid crystal display includes advantages such as thin thickness, light weight, and low power consumption. Therefore, it is widely used for a display device. The liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel, an integrated circuit for drive (driver chip), an external signal substrate, a connecting substrate and the like. In the liquid crystal panel, liquid crystal is sandwiched between two substrates. In one substrate, a switching element such as a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) is formed in a matrix shape, and in another substrate, a color filter (CF), a black matrix (BM) and the like are formed. The integrated circuit for drive is mounted on a substrate having the TFT of the display panel, or mounted on a flexible substrate. The connecting substrate connects the liquid crystal panel and the external signal substrate.
Here, because a large number of lines are formed in the liquid crystal display, EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) easily occurs. For this reason, a differential signal is used for a control signal that controls the driver chip in the liquid crystal display. LVDS (Low Voltage Differential Signaling), RSDS (Reduced Swing Differential Signaling) and the like are known as a specification for differential signal transmission. As shown in FIG. 6, a pair of signal lines is used for differential signal transmission. One of two signal lines is set as a line on a positive side and another is set as a line on a negative side. A potential difference between the two signal lines represents a signal level. In order to make each of electrical lengths of two signal lines equal, the two signal lines are connected to two terminals that are adjacent to each other and a termination resistor 5 is arranged to make a potential difference on a receiving side. Having an improved resistance to noise compared with a single end transmission system, such configuration is suitable for a high speed data transmission, and therefore is widely used for many applications.
A connecting substrate of a liquid crystal display in a related technology which uses a differential signal as mentioned above will be described with reference to FIG. 7, FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. FIG. 7 illustrates a configuration of a part of a liquid crystal display employing a Chip on Glass (hereinafter, referred to as "COG") configuration in which a driver chip is mounted on a substrate of a liquid crystal panel. FIG. 8A is a plan view showing a configuration of a connecting substrate corresponding to a driver chip excluding a driver chip for a termination in a connecting substrate of a related technology. FIG. 8B is a plan view showing a configuration of a connecting substrate corresponding to a driver chip for a termination in a connecting substrate of a related technology.
As shown in FIG. 7, in the liquid crystal display using a related technology, a plurality of driver chips 3 are mounted on an edge area of one substrate (for example, TFT substrate) of substrates which the liquid crystal panel 2 is composed of. A differential signal which is generated by a timing controller 8 in an external signal substrate 7 is inputted into the plurality of driver chips 3 via one connecting substrate 9. As shown in FIG. 8A, a positive line and a negative line transmitting a differential signal are directly connected to a first to a n-1 th drivers of the above-mentioned driver chips 3 respectively. As shown in FIG. 8B, with respect to an n-th driver placed in a position which is the most far from the timing controller 8, a differential signal is terminated by the termination resistor 5 which is placed between the positive line and the negative line and mounted on the connecting substrate 9 and inputted to the n-th driver. In order to reduce influence of impedance and a noise in a transmission line, the termination resistor 5 is placed near an end of the line in a receiving side. When a plurality of drivers is simultaneously driven, it is desirable that the lines are arranged in an L shape or a T shape and the termination resistor 5 is placed at a signal end.
A TCP (Tape Carrier Package) configuration in which a driver chip is mounted on a polyimide resin film having copper lines is also known as a method for mounting a driver chips. A liquid crystal display using the TCP method is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-102259. In the bulletin, a display device which includes a first and a second line, a termination resistor and a differential signal reception unit is disclosed. The first and second lines transmit data of a differential signal transmission system. The termination resistor defines a voltage according to a difference voltage of a differential signal transmitted by the first and second lines. The differential signal reception unit receives data according to a voltage defined by the termination resistor and converts the data. In the display device, the differential signal reception unit and the termination resistor are formed on the same integrated circuit.
Here, whole line impedance including the connecting substrate 9 for a differential signal differs depending on a display size or component layout of a liquid crystal display. Thus, a resistance value of the termination resistor 5 for making a matching may be selected depending on a condition of the liquid crystal display.
However, in a liquid crystal display employing the COG configuration that is a related technology shown in FIG. 7, lines connecting the first to the n-th drivers and the timing controller 8 are formed on the single connecting substrate 9, and the termination resistor 5 near the n-th driver is also formed on the connecting substrate 9. For this reason, when a resistance value of the termination resistor 5 is varied, the whole connecting substrate 9 needs to be replaced, and an unnecessary cost occurs.
Since a liquid crystal display using a TCP configuration shown in the above-mentioned bulletin (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-102259) includes a configuration in which a differential signal reception unit and a termination resistor are formed on the same integrated circuit, changing a resistance value is difficult compared with the termination resistor 5 which is formed on a mounting board. Thus, it is difficult to flexibly select a resistance value. In the TCP configuration, since other two kinds of integrated circuits are required for termination, unnecessary cost for management of mounted components, change of a manufacturing process and the like inevitably occurs.
A liquid crystal display panel in which a driver chip is mounted on a glass substrate by using a COG configuration is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-066674. A differential line driver having a termination resistor is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-503073 (Published Japanese translation of WO2003/024040). A liquid crystal display separately having a first common signal line substrate and a second common signal line substrate is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 2539438 bulletin. A display device in which a discrete circuit component is mounted on a component mounting substrate is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-066861. A liquid crystal display in which a termination resistor is provided on a substrate is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei-10-260391 (1998-260391). A matrix type display device in which the same display substrates can be used and cost reduction can be achieved by standardizing members is disclosed in Japanese Patent Registration No. 3660216.

Display device wherein a termination resistor is formed on a second connecting substrate


A power conversion facility has a function of converting DC power from a DC power source into AC power comparable to that generated by a system power supply. The power conversion facility includes: an inverter for performing a bidirectional DC-AC power conversion; and an isolation transformer connected between the system power supply and the inverter. An electrically-powered vehicle includes a main battery and a charging inlet. When a request to charge the main battery is made under a condition that a connector of the power conversion facility and the charging inlet are electrically connected to each other by a charging cable, the power conversion facility converts AC power which is supplied from the system power supply through the isolation transformer into DC power and outputs the DC power to the connector.

Development is being pursued of electrically-powered vehicles such as electric vehicle, hybrid vehicle, and the like in which an electric motor for running the vehicle is driven by electric power from a power storage device which is typically a secondary battery. For these electrically-powered vehicles, it has been proposed to charge the vehicle-mounted power storage device by a power supply provided externally to the vehicle (the power supply will also be referred to simply as "external power supply" hereinafter). In the following, charging of a vehicle-mounted power storage device by means of an external power supply will also be referred to simply as "external charging."
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 8-88908 (PTD 1) discloses a configuration of a charging device for charging a vehicle-mounted power storage device of an electrically-powered vehicle from a commercial power supply through an isolation transformer. As disclosed in PTD 1, it is preferable for the sake of safety to electrically isolate the vehicle-mounted power storage device and the external power supply from each other by the isolation transformer.
The charging device of PTD 1 has a configuration in which a diode arm is added to an inverter which is provided for running the vehicle. The diode arm and one arm of the inverter are used to convert AC power from the commercial power supply into DC power for charging the power storage device. In the configuration of PTD 1, the configuration of a component (inverter for running the vehicle) mounted on the electrically-powered vehicle is also used partially for external charging, to thereby enable the charging device to be downsized.

Power conversion facility, electrically-powered vehicle, and charging system for electrically-powered vehicle


A system and method is disclosed for synchronizing certain periodic activities and/or processes in a computer system or device. The synchronization allows more efficient use of the computer system's or device's processing capabilities, and may result in conservation of electrical power. In one example embodiment, a periodic scheduler is implemented to periodically verify the continued existence of critical processes operating in the computer system or device. Corrective, or other appropriate, action may be taken in the event of a failure of a critical process. A schedule list, which may be a linked list, may be used to track the periodic processes that are to occur. Upon registration of a critical process, the schedule list may be modified to synchronize the new periodic process with the existing schedule list.

Computing systems commonly include one or more processors that execute one or more processes, or sequences of instructions, during the operation of the computer. For example, a computer might have a process for monitoring the system time, a process for displaying particular graphics, a process for responding to user input, etc. Some systems also include processes that monitor the continued existence of other important processes, and may be programmed to take appropriate action if a critical or important process should fail.
These various processes commonly require some form of periodic activity. For example, a process for displaying the current time onscreen may require an update of its display once every minute. A cellular telephone might need to check its signal strength once every second. A process monitor may need to periodically verify the existence of one or more critical processes, with each check potentially occurring at a different frequency (e.g., once every 500 ms, once every minute, etc.).
As more and more periodic processes occur, the processing activity within such a system becomes erratic. To illustrate, FIG. 5a illustrates an exemplary graph of processing activity of a conventional system in which periodic processes occur. In FIG. 5a, Processes A and B begin their periodic activity at time t=0 seconds, with Process A occurring every 4 seconds, and Process B occurring every 5 seconds (its period). Process C is shown as first occurring at time t=1.3 seconds, with a period of 2 seconds. The top three graphs in FIG. 5a illustrate the individual schedules for these periodic processes, while the fourth graph in FIG. 5a shows the combined effect of these processes. As shown in FIG. 5a, the net effect of these periodic processes is a large number of brief activity separated by numerous periods of inactivity.
Such processing activity is particularly undesirable for systems that attempt to use low power consumption modes to conserve power when not in use. In such low-power modes, for example, a computer system might deactivate a particular hardware device if a certain amount of time (e.g., 2 minutes) passes without its use. Power is conserved when the device is deactivated, but additional overhead processing and power are required to manage the activation/deactivation of these devices. As another example, the system might place one or more memories (e.g., RAM or ROM) in a self-refresh mode. As with deactivation of a hardware device, entering and exiting this self-refresh mode requires overhead processing and power. Consequently, the low power consumption modes are most efficient when periods of activity are consolidated to minimize the number of times they enter and exit their conservation modes.
Such low power consumption modes are less effective, however, in systems having the periodic processes as shown in FIG. 5a due to the many periods of activity and periods of inactivity. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and system of handling periodic activity to increase the effectiveness of such low power consumption modes.
Such an improvement would be particularly welcome in systems that employ process monitoring, as such activity commonly requires a large number of periodic processes. Process monitoring often requires that certain processes, deemed important or critical to the system, be checked periodically to verify that they remain in existence. Different computer systems may have different levels of criticality, but one example of a critical process might be a process that is in charge of updating a portion of memory. If such a critical process should ever fail, the operation of the computer might be jeopardized. Other processes might be less critical, and might not generate a serious error if failed (for example, a process for updating a graphical icon might not be considered critical). The periodic monitoring of such critical processes may be accomplished by a critical process monitor (CPM), which serves to detect the failure of a critical process, and may then take corrective action to address the failure.
For example, in one CPM implemented in the "AUTOPC" computer platform developed by Microsoft Corp., the CPM functionality is implemented as two distinct system calls: CPMRegister and CPMNotify. System calls generally include functions and/or processes that can be executed by another function and/or process.
The CPM monitors processes that have registered with the CPM, and accordingly, a critical process typically first registers with the CPM by executing the CPMRegister function or system call. In this call, the critical process provides the CPM with a time period (e.g., 4 seconds) that indicates how frequently the critical process wants to be checked to make sure it remains active. Once registered, it is the critical process' responsibility to call CPMNotify at least once every period (e.g., once every 4 seconds) to inform the CPM that the critical process remains active. If the critical process should ever fail to provide this notification through an entire period, then the CPM may take corrective action, such as restarting the critical process.
This periodic notification allows the CPM to monitor the continued existence of critical processes, improving reliability of the overall system, but it also introduces a number of additional timers to the system. Each critical process requires one or more timer processes to keep track of the amount of time passed since its last call to CPMNotify, and to determine whether another call to CPMNotify is needed. These timers require additional processing and power from the computing system. The increase in power usage is particularly disadvantageous for computing devices that have a limited power supply, such as a cellular telephone, a pager, or a personal digital assistant (PDA). Heretofore, this increased power usage was simply accepted as a necessary part of having the CPM.
All of the problems discussed above increase the power and processing required by a computing system, and can reduce the operational life of the system when the system relies on a limited power supply, such as batteries in a cellular telephone. This reduced operational life is undesirable, and there is a present need for a system that retains the functionality provided by processes and periodic processes, but also reduces the processing and electrical power required by such a system.

Method and apparatus for synchronization of periodic processes


A wheel motor can include a stator adapted to be coupled to a vehicle. The stator can include a body portion and a core extending radially outward from the body portion. A rotor can be disposed about the stator and can have a portion positioned radially outboard of and around the stator core. The rotor can include a plurality of magnets aligned with the stator core, and can be adapted to be coupled to a rotatable vehicle component. At least one winding element can be disposed circumferentially around the stator core, and a controller can be positioned in a pocket integrally formed in the stator body portion. The controller can be coupled to the at least one winding element and can be arranged to selectively provide a current supply to the at least one winding element to generate a magnetic flux to rotate the rotor relative to the stator.

Vehicle manufacturers are actively working to develop alternative powertrain systems that reduce dependency on gasoline as well as reduce the level of pollutants exhausted into the air by vehicles equipped with conventional internal combustion engines. To that end, vehicle manufactures have been developing powertrain systems that employ electric wheel motors to generate motive power. These electric wheel motors can reduce or eliminate the need for a gasoline powered engine thereby improving fuel economy and reducing emissions. However, drawbacks have been noted with such electric wheel motors, including packaging constraints due to a large size of the wheel motor and durability issues associated with control devices and the like being disposed external to the wheel motor assembly.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for an improved wheel motor assembly that overcomes the aforementioned and other disadvantages.


A back-illuminated sensor chip is disclosed, which includes one or more pixel areas each including a plurality of pixels located in a plane and arranged in a matrix. Each pixel area includes: a central portion consisting of a plurality of first pixels located in vicinity of a center of the pixel area; and a peripheral portion surrounding the central portion and consisting of the other pixels in the pixel area than the first pixels. The plurality of first pixels have a first height in a vertical direction perpendicular to the plane, and the pixels in the peripheral portion have a second height in the vertical direction that is greater than the first height so that the peripheral portion protrudes outward beyond the central portion and is thus located nearer to a light source during imaging than the central portion. As a result, light sensibility of the peripheral portion is increased.

Cameras are one of the major applications of image sensors. A camera is essentially consisted of an image sensor and a proper lens. Focusing of a conventional camera lens is typically associated with the problem of non-uniformity in imaging characteristic between a central area and a peripheral area of the lens. As a result, an image captured by such a lens generally has a lower quality in its peripheral area than in its central area in terms of, e.g., clarity and brightness. This phenomenon depends on the nature of the lens and is thus hard to be improved through lens modifications.
In order to solve the above-described non-uniform imaging quality problem, Sony Corporation has proposed the use of an arc-shaped silicon substrate for image sensor chip. This arc-shaped configuration imitates the principles of physics in optical imaging of the human eye, in which the lens is equidistant from each photodiode in the image sensor, thereby allowing comparable imaging qualities of peripheral and central areas of the lens. Although this is theoretically capable of solving the non-uniform imaging problem of the conventional devices, formation of the arc-shaped silicon substrate can introduce additional stress to the chip, which has the following two possible consequences: 1) cracking of the chip; and 2) a certain degree of deterioration of imaging quality, particularly in terms of, for example, dark current, white pixel and noise. Avoidance of these risks may impose extremely strict requirements on the production process and thus lead to a significant reduction in the yield.
Therefore, how to mitigate the aforementioned drawbacks of the conventional cameras is one of the major issues to be addressed by those skilled in the art.

OMNIVISION TECHNOLOGIES (SHANGHAI) CO., LTD.


A communication system using GPS-based time for synchronizing communication data packets and symbols. The communication system includes a transmit apparatus for transmitting and a receive apparatus for receiving a communication data signal. The transmit apparatus includes a transmit station GPS receiver for providing GPS-based time, a transmit framer for using the GPS-based time for framing packets of communication data symbols, and a transmit symbol timer for synchronizing the communication data symbols to the GPS-based time. The receive apparatus includes a GPS receiver for providing the GPS-based time, a receive framer for using the GPS-based time for receiving the packets of the communication data signal, and a receive symbol timer for synchronizing the reception of the communication data symbols to the GPS-based time. Either the transmit apparatus includes a propagation advance calculator or the receive apparatus includes a propagation delay calculator in order to compensate for the propagation delay of the communication data signal between the transmit apparatus and the receive apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to symbol clock recovery for a radio communication system and more particularly to a radio system using a global position system (GPS)-based time for synchronizing the transmission and reception of communication symbols.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Communication links commonly communicate with discrete data packets that are separated in time. Such communication links have several benefits as compared to links using continuous communication, however, several issues must be resolved in order for a packet communication link to operate. A first issue is that the receiver must synchronize itself to the times-of-arrival of symbols within the data packet in order to sample the symbols at the correct times. In a conventional packet communication link in order to resolve this issue, a transmitter prepends preamble symbols to the beginning of each data packet. A receiver receives the preamble symbols with a phase lock loop for recovering a symbol clock that is then used for detecting the symbols at the correct times. However, the number of symbols that must be received before achieving symbol synchronization varies depending upon the initial frequency and phase offsets in the symbol clock recovery phase lock loop and the signal-to-noise ratio in a particular application. Therefore, a second issue is that the receiver must synchronize itself to the start of a payload portion of the data packet without knowing how many of the preamble symbols remain when the symbol clock has been recovered. Conventionally, in order to resolve this issue, the transmitter inserts a pre-determined pattern of frame synchronization symbols at the end of the preamble. The receiver uses the frame synchronization symbols for synchronizing itself to the beginning of the payload data symbols. Unfortunately, the preamble and the frame synchronization pattern represent overhead that use up time but do not communicate useful payload information. This overhead is especially disadvantageous when the packets are short. There is a need for a packet communication system where the time overhead of a preamble and a frame synchronization pattern are eliminated.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a communication transmit apparatus including a global positioning system (GPS) receiver for transmitting communication data symbols synchronized to GPS-based time.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a communication receive apparatus including a GPS receiver for using GPS-based time for synchronizing to the communication data symbols.
Briefly, in a preferred embodiment, a communication system of the present invention includes a transmit apparatus for transmitting a communication signal having data symbols synchronized to a pre-determined GPS-based time and a receive apparatus for using the pre-determined GPS-based time for receiving the communication signal and synchronizing to the data symbols. The transmit apparatus includes a transmit station GPS receiver for providing a GPS-based time that is current, a transmit framer for beginning the transmission of a packet of data symbols when the current GPS-based time reaches the pre-determined GPS-based time, and a transmit symbol timer for synchronizing the transmission of data symbols to time ticks of GPS-based time. The receive apparatus includes a GPS receiver for providing the current GPS-based time, a receive framer for receiving the data symbol packet when the current GPS-base time equals the pre-determined time, and a receive symbol timer for using the GPS-based time ticks for aligning to the incoming data symbols. Either the transmit apparatus includes a propagation advance calculator or the receive apparatus includes a propagation delay calculator in order to compensate for the propagation delay of the communication signal between the transmit apparatus and the receive apparatus.
An advantage of a communication system of the present invention is that time overhead for transmitting and receiving preamble and frame synchronization patterns is eliminated.
Another advantage of a communication system of the present invention is that a symbol clock recovery circuit and a frame detection circuit are not required for receiving a communication signal.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments which are illustrated in the various figures.

GPS synchronized data communications link


Disclosed is a block copolymer composition for a hot melt adhesive, comprising a block copolymer A and a block copolymer B each having a particular structure, characterized in that the aromatic vinyl monomer unit content of the block copolymer A is 30% to 50% by weight; the aromatic vinyl monomer unit content of the block copolymer B is 15% to 25% by weight; a content of the aromatic vinyl monomer units relative to all polymer components of the block copolymer composition is 18% to 45% by weight; the weight ratio (A/B) of the block copolymer A with respect to the block copolymer B is 20/80 to 80/20; and the ratio (MwA/MwB) of the weight average molecular weight of the block copolymer A (MwA) with respect to the weight average molecular weight of the block copolymer B (MwB) is 0.65 to 1.5.

Hot melt adhesives are adhesives that are able to adhere various products efficiently since they solidify in a short time, and are highly safe to human body since the adhesives do not require solvents. Therefore, hot melt adhesives are used in a variety of fields.
In regard to hot melt adhesives, it is known that various thermoplastic resins can be used as base polymers, but one of representative examples of the base polymers may be an aromatic vinyl-conjugated diene-aromatic vinyl triblock copolymer such as a styrene-isoprene-styrene triblock copolymer or a styrene-butadiene-styrene triblock copolymer. A hot melt adhesive using this aromatic vinyl-conjugated diene-aromatic vinyl triblock copolymer as a base polymer has excellent adaptability particularly to high-speed continuous production or excellent initial tack strength, and is therefore widely used. In this regard, various investigations have been conducted in order to improve various characteristics.
For example, Patent Literature 1 describes that when a tackifying agent, a diluent and a stabilizer are incorporated at particular proportions to an aromatic vinyl-conjugated diene-aromatic vinyl copolymer having aromatic vinyl copolymer blocks with mutually different molecular weights, a hot melt adhesive which has excellent low temperature adhesion level or the like and is suitable for the production of disposable products such as paper diapers may be obtained. Furthermore, Patent Literature 2 describes that when a hot melt adhesive composition is formed by incorporating a compatible polymer, a tackifying resin, a plasticizer and the like to a radial styrene-isoprene-styrene block copolymer, a hot melt adhesive composition which can be applied at a relatively low temperature and is suitable for label adhesion to bottles is obtained. Furthermore, Patent Literature 3 describes that when a pressure-sensitive adhesive is formed by incorporating a tackifying agent, a styrene-isoprene block copolymer, a plasticizer and the like to a styrene-isoprene-styrene block copolymer, a pressure-sensitive adhesive which can be easily cut by a die and is suitable for labeling is obtained. In addition, Patent Literature 4 describes that when an adhesive composition for labeling is formed by incorporating a particular polymer, a tackifying agent, a softening agent and the like to an aromatic vinyl-conjugated diene-aromatic vinyl block copolymer having a particular structure, an adhesive composition for labeling which can be easily applied at low temperatures and has satisfactory die-cutting performance is obtained.
However, in regard to the adhesive compositions formed by incorporating a softening agent (diluent/plasticizer) and the like to a block copolymer as described in Patent Literatures 1 to 4, incorporation of a softening agent contributes to lowering of the coatable temperature or an increase in tackiness; however, when the amount of incorporation of the softening agent is increased, there is a problem that the softening agent bleeds out and contaminates the object to be adhered. Furthermore, in regard to the improved adhesive compositions described in Patent Literatures 1 to 4, in a case in which adhesion has been conducted under high temperature conditions, or in a case in which an adherend has been stored under high temperature conditions, there are occasions in which problems such as detachment of the object to be adhered or flowing out of the adhesive composition, may occur. Furthermore, there are also occasions in which the improved adhesive compositions described in Patent Literatures 1 to 4 deteriorate designability of an adherend due to the lack of transparency. Under such circumstances as described above, in hot melt adhesives using an aromatic vinyl-conjugated diene-aromatic vinyl triblock copolymer as a base polymer, there is a strong demand for improvements in the performance in which an incorporated softening agent does not easily bleed (softening agent holding properties), heat resistance and transparency.

Block copolymer composition for hot melt adhesive


Modular intravenous (IV) assemblies are provided. The modular IV assembly includes a drip chamber having a body and an inlet connector, a base housing coupled directly to a base portion of the drip chamber, the base housing having an inlet port in fluid connection with the drip chamber and a flow path cavity in fluid connection with the inlet port and a flow control assembly coupled directly to a first portion of the base housing. Any of a filter assembly, an anti-run dry member, a check valve and an air vent assembly may be included in the modular IV assembly. IV sets and methods of use are also provided.

Intravenous (IV) infusion sets typically include several components each having a core function, such as drip chambers, roller clamps, pinch clamps, filters and check valves. These components are typically coupled to each other by lengths of IV tubing to provide a complete IV infusion set that is packaged as a ready to use disposable IV set. Such an IV infusion set has a significant number of IV tubing connections, which provides a correspondingly increased risk of connection leakage as the number of IV tubing connections grows larger. Each separate component also provides a different interface point to a user. These factors lead to higher manufacturing complexity and costs.
It is desirable to provide a modular IV assembly that combines many IV component core functions into one device, thus reducing manufacturing complexity and costs, as well as improving usability by the user.


The search apparatus of the present invention searches for a document corresponding to a specified search term from among a plurality of documents, and includes a search term pair generation unit for generating at least one search term pair including a first search string with a length equal to the number of index characters and a second search string with a length equal to the number of index characters located at a position shifted by a predetermined number of offset characters relative to the first search string, which are included in the search term, a search unit for searching, for each search term pair, an index database for a document which has both of the first search string and the second search string as indexing terms, a calculation unit for calculating a score of each document on the basis of a frequency of occurrence of the first search string and the second search string of each search term pair included in each document, and a selection unit for selecting a document to be outputted as a search result from among the plurality of documents, on the basis of the respective scores of the plurality of documents.

A search apparatus is known, which searches for a target document from among a plurality of documents stored on Web or in a server using an N-gram index database (for example, refer to Yasushi Ogawa, "Pseudo-frequency method: a high-speed ranking search method for Japanese documents for n-gram indexing", Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers Paper Magazine, Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, October, 2000, Vol. J83-D-I, No. 10, pp. 1043-1054). The N-gram index database has a plurality of character strings that are combinations of N (an integer that is equals to or more than two) characters as indexing terms, and stores, for each of the indexing terms, a document including that indexing term. The search apparatus divides a search term into search strings each having the same number of characters as the indexing term, and, for each of the search strings, searches for a document including that search string using the N-gram index database. According to the search apparatus using such an N-gram index database, a similar word which fails in a exact match with the search term (for example, a character string differing from the search term by a single character) can also be retrieved, and therefore, omission in the search can be reduced.
Incidentally, when a search term includes a term constituting another word, the search apparatus using the N-gram indexing outputs a search result containing much noise. In addition, if the number of characters N of the indexing term is increased, the search apparatus using the N-gram index can improve a relevance factor of the search result, but patterns of the indexing term will be N-th power of available character types to be explosively increased, resulting in decrease in efficiency.

Search apparatus, search program, and search method

International Business Machines Corporation


Provided are a machining device (10), a machining unit, and a machining method that irradiate a workpiece (8) with a laser beam to perform cutting or boring machining of the workpiece (8). The invention has a laser output device (12), a guiding optical system (14) that guides a laser beam, and an irradiating head (16) that guides a laser beam and irradiates the workpiece (8) with the laser beam. The irradiating head (16) integrally rotates a first prism (52) and a second prism (54) with a rotation mechanism, thereby rotating a light path of the laser beam around a rotational axis of the rotation mechanism and irradiating the workpiece (8) while rotating the position of irradiation to the workpiece. A control device (22) calculates an allowable rotational frequency range of the laser beam on the basis of the relationship between an allowable thickness of a remelted layer of the workpiece (8) and a rotational frequency, or the relationship between an allowable thickness of an oxidization layer of the workpiece and the rotational frequency, determines a rotational frequency included in the allowable rotational frequency range as the rotational frequency of the rotation mechanism, and rotates the rotation mechanism at the determined rotational frequency, thereby enabling high-precision machining to be performed with a simple configuration.

As machining devices that perform machining, such as cutting or boring of a workpiece, there are machining devices using a laser beam (refer to PTL 1 and PTL 2). The machining devices described in PTL 1 and PTL 2 irradiate the workpiece with a laser beam to perform cutting and boring of the workpiece. Additionally, PTL 1 describes a laser machining method that irradiates a workpiece with laser beams with at least two types of wavelengths to perform hole machining. The laser machining method includes a step of performing irradiation and machining along an inner periphery of a hole with a first laser beam having a spot diameter smaller than the diameter of the hole, and a step of irradiating a portion inside the periphery of the hole with a second laser beam having a spot diameter smaller than the diameter of the hole and a wavelength longer than the first laser beam, and machines the portion remaining having not been machined in the previous step by the next step. Additionally, PTL 1 describes a device that shifts the irradiation position of the first laser beam by combining a galvanometer mirror. PTL 2 describes a configuration in which a structure holding a lens is provided with a coil and a base is provided with a permanent magnet, and discloses driving the coil to causes a rotational motion of the lens to rotate a condensing point.
Additionally, PTL 3 whose applicant is the same as the present applicant describes a machining device that includes a CO2 laser oscillator and an excimer laser oscillator and that uses a CO2 laser beam and an excimer laser beam as two laser beams, radiating the laser beam of the CO2 laser oscillator to thereby perform cutting or boring of a plastic member or an FRP member, and subsequently, radiating the laser beam of the excimer laser oscillator to a cut surface of the member and its vicinity to perform the laser beam cutting of removing a char layer or a thermal influence layer generated in the cut surface. A machining device described in PTL 3 describes that a laser beam whose cross-section is ring-shaped is used as the excimer laser beam, a CO2 laser beam is inserted through a hollow portion of the laser beam to make the optical axes of both the laser beams the same, then both the laser beams are transmitted through the same transmission path, the laser beams are guided to the vicinity of a cutting or boring machining part of the plastic member or the FRP member, and both the laser beams are separated again in the vicinity of the machining part.

Machining device, machining unit, and machining method


This invention is directed to a method and apparatus for raster image processing which allows access to the page buffer during raster image processing. The method and apparatus of the present invention allow for virtually every page presented to the raster image processor to be printed with available memory. In addition, the method and apparatus for raster image processing of the present invention significantly reduces the bandwidth required between the raster image processor and the raster image processor manager. In addition, the method and apparatus for raster image processing of the present invention has equal or better performance than those methods or apparatuses that use display lists. Further, the method and apparatus of the present invention support the use of tag data and multiple page description languages.

This invention is directed to a method and apparatus for raster image processing. More particularly, this invention is directed to a method and apparatus for raster image processing which uses page buffer management.
Typically, a raster image is used to output image data to an output device, such as a cathode ray tube monitor, an LCD, or a document output device, such as a printer. A raster image is represented as a series of scan lines of pixels, wherein each pixel is accessed in a sequential manner and each scan line is processed. An area to which image data may be output sequentially by an output device is referred to as a page.
In the past, there were sufficient memory resources in a typical output device or system to fully represent a single page in memory as a bitmap. A 600 by 600 dots per inch monochrome image would require approximately 4 megabytes of memory for an A4 page and approximately 8 megabytes of memory for an A3 page. However, as more users require color images, it is unlikely that current output devices or systems have adequate memory resources available to store a single page in memory. For example, a 600 by 600 dots per inch color image with 4 color planes that are each 8 bits deep, would require approximately 256 megabytes for an A3 page. If the resolution is increased to 1200 by 1200 dots per inch, the memory requirement is approximately 1 gigabyte. If the image data includes tag-bit data, the memory requirement for a single page is in excess of 300 megabytes for an A3 page.
Traditionally, raster image processes have been used to avoid such memory constraints by implementing display lists. Display lists allow raster image processing to operate in more constrained memory configurations and are more capable of handling memory constraints. Display lists also provide a generic representation of page data which is beneficial in supporting multiple page description languages, as well as a number of post raster image processing operations.
However, there are several problems with using display lists to avoid memory constraints. For example, even using display lists, there are some pages that cannot be accommodated or processed in some memory configurations. In addition, some raster image processing methods will not process image data having such large memory requirements. Further, using display lists requires a two pass raster image processing operation which requires additional overhead for display list maintenance and in processing time.
The subject invention overcomes the above-noted limitations and provides a method and apparatus for raster image processing which uses page buffer management.

Method and apparatus for raster image processing


The present invention relates to an airbag base fabric including a woven fabric made from a yarn containing polyethylene terephthalate as the main raw material, the yarn having a single fiber fineness of 1.0 to 3.9 dtex and a total fineness of 280 to 470 dtex, and, in a Raman spectrum obtained by irradiating the yarn with a He—Ne laser with a wavelength of 630 nm, Ix/I0 being 1.20 or more, where Ix is the spectral intensity at 3083 cm−1, and I0=277.4.

Airbag devices are widely provided in vehicles as safety devices for occupant protection that protect an occupant from impact when a vehicle undergoes a collision. In recent years, exterior airbags not only for occupant protection but for protection for a pedestrian or the like when struck by a vehicle have also been provided in some vehicles.
Airbags for occupant protection are provided in the interior of vehicles, for example, in steering wheels or seats, and are therefore basically isolated from environments outside the vehicles by vehicle bodies and windows. Meanwhile, exterior airbags are mounted in hoods or the like, and are therefore exposed to environments, such as ambient air, water, and sand and grit. In particular, oxidizing gases called photochemical oxidants, such as ozone, have a significant influence and may cause deterioration in airbags. For this reason, unlike base fabrics used in conventional airbags for occupant protection, base fabrics used in exterior airbags are required to be resistant to an oxidizing gas.
Moreover, since the inside of the hoods in which exterior airbags are to be mounted is occupied by engines and the like, there is no space, and if an attempt is made to leave a space, the aerodynamic drag and the vehicles' appearance will be affected. For this reason, exterior airbags are also required to be capable of being compact when stored.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a polyester fiber suitable for a base fabric used in a non-coated airbag that can be compact when stored, and specifies the intrinsic viscosity, the single fiber fineness, and the initial modulus of this polyester fiber. However, there is no description as to the environmental durability, and it cannot be said that this polyester fiber is suitable for exterior airbags.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An adaptive fuzzy logic based control system for rifle stabilization uses a rifle where the barrel is freely pivoted on the stock which is held by the human being firing the rifle who may be shooting from a moving vehicle or helicopter; alternatively, the firing person may have erratic hand or body motion. During a tracking mode, when the target is being sighted in, undesired motion is sensed by position sensors to effectively lock the rifle barrel in alignment with the stock. During a stabilizing mode just before actuation of the trigger to fire the rifle, the barrel is unlocked, inertial rate sensors make the barrel relatively immune to movement of the stock to facilitate the barrel remaining sighted on the tracked target. The fire control system includes a fuzzy logic controller which by a set of inference rules provides for both alignment of the barrel with the stock during tracking and also for stabilization of the barrel just prior to firing.

Being able to shoot from an offhand position (that is, where the human being is actually holding a rifle or a gun), especially from direct fire weapons such as sniper rifles and small firearms fired from moving platforms such as helicopters and fast attack vehicles, is always difficult no matter how good the shooter is. Some form of compensation (actually stabilization) is needed in order to significantly improve the accuracy of the firearm under these conditions. This problem may be considered somewhat similar to stabilizing a ship's antenna, except the movement being stabilized comes from a person or human being.
One technique for stabilizing a small arms fire, rather than attempting mechanical stabilization of the weapon or compensating for the moving platform or the actual erratic movement or wobble of the shooter, has been proposed by the United States Army Research Laboratory and is termed an inertial-reticle system (IRS). Here the user employs a video sighting system using a miniature monitor and positions an artificial reticle over the target. Guided by rotation or rate sensors in three axes which track the gun motion, the rifle automatically fires when the actual bore sight of the rifle aligns itself with the target reticle. This system does not stabilize the weapon itself.

Rifle stabilization system for erratic hand and mobile platform motion


A remote control apparatus for a saddle-type vehicle such as a two-wheeled vehicle includes a transmission antenna for transmitting a signal to a normal portable transmitter carried by a vehicle user. The transmitted signal urges the portable transmitter to transmit an ID signal to a receiver positioned on the vehicle and operably connected to a handlebar lock module. The transmission antenna is disposed within the vehicle body cover at a position spaced away from the handlebar lock module. Upon receipt of the ID signal, a handlebar lock module provides a handlebar lock cancellation operation allowing operation of the vehicle. The invention greatly increases the degree of freedom in arrangement of the transmission antenna.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a remote control apparatus for a saddle-type vehicle which includes a transmission antenna for transmitting a signal for urging a conventional portable transmitter carried by a vehicle user to transmit an ID signal, and a handlebar lock module having a knob for enabling at least starting operation of an engine and a handlebar lock cancellation operation in response to reception of an ID signal from the conventional portable transmitter.
2. Description of the Background Art
A light, two-wheeled scooter type vehicle that includes a remote control apparatus is known. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2001-278154 discloses a two wheeled, scooter type vehicle having a remote control apparatus. The referenced patent document discloses a remote control apparatus wherein an actuation knob of a handlebar lock module is disposed on the leg shield of the vehicle.
In such a remote control apparatus for a saddle-type vehicle as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-278154, it is usually the case that a transmission antenna is provided on the handlebar lock module. Thus, upon transfer of a signal to and from a portable transmitter carried by a vehicle user, the remote control apparatus actuates the handlebar lock module. However, the position of the transmission antenna is restricted, and the degree of freedom in arrangement for disposing the transmission antenna is so restricted that it may limit output power of the transmission antenna.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a remote control apparatus for a saddle-type vehicle which increases the degree of freedom in arrangement of a transmission antenna.

Remote control apparatus for a saddle-type vehicle


A tool and method for continuous elastomeric band ligation type castration of larger sexually mature animals with an elastic band that must be enlarged by stretching for placement provides an elongate body having a handle at a first rearward end to aid manipulation and an elastic band supporting yoke at a second forward end. The band supporting yoke provides spaced forwardly extending legs for releasable support of the elastic band at two spaced points. Band stretching mechanism carried by the body provides an elongate stretching rod that releasably interconnects one course of the elastic band carried by the yoke at a third point between the two yoke support points to stretch the band rearwardly responsive to motion of an associated compound lever mechanism to enlarge the medial orifice defined by the elastic band sufficiently to allow the band to pass over the scrotal pouch and contained testicular structure of a large animal. The elastic band is stretched rearwardly through an annular support carrying a fastening clip that is deformed about the band to maintain tension in the band portion extending about the neck of the animal scrotal pouch. Release mechanism disassociates the tool from the elastic band to leave the tensioned band portion about the neck of the animal scrotal pouch at the ligation site.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to ligation type castration tools and more particularly to a compound lever activated tool for placement of a small continuous elastomeric band on large mature animals for castration.
2. Description of Prior Art
In modern animal husbandry it has become increasingly common, responsive to market demands, to castrate bovine bulls after their maturity rather than during infancy as heretofore has been common. Such castration by ligation has become popular because of the simplicity of the process and the benefits it provides in avoiding undesirable consequences such as microbal infection, insect invasion, excessive bleeding and the like. Ligation type castration of younger animals has been and is accomplished largely by use of small preformed continuous elastic or elastomeric bands because of the economic viability provided by allowing rapid castration processing that can be accomplished by relatively unskilled persons. The small elastic bands are generally placed by a spreading type tool having two elongate arms pivotally interconnected in their medial portions to allow expansion of a band carried at one end portion of the tool against its elastic bias for placement over the scrotal pouch of the animal with subsequent release. This process works well with juvenile animals that do not have a mature testicular structure of larger size, but it has not been viable with larger animals having mature testicular structure such as bovine bulls, as a small preformed elastic band that would contract to a small enough configuration to provide ligation generally can not be expanded sufficiently, either by its nature or by use of common spreading type tools, to allow passage over the larger testicular structure of the mature animal.
This problem has been recognized in the past and a solution presented by the instant inventor's U.S. Pat. No. 4,691,704 issued Sep. 8, 1987 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,637 issued Feb. 23, 1993, whereunder a length of elastic surgical tubing is formed in place, tensioned about the orifice of an animal's scrotal pouch and fastened in its tensed condition by a metallic clip. Though this process provides effective ligation castration of larger mature animals and has been accepted about the world, problems still remain with the process. The instant castration tool resolves some of these remaining problems by providing an easily operated castrating tool for large mature animals that allows placement of a small continuous elastic band that is expanded by tensioning for placement and thereafter foreshortened in its tensed condition about the scrotal pouch orifice by a clip to allow its ligation function.
Ligation castration with continuous preformed bands is easier and less complex than the formation of ligation banding in place and has fewer possibilities for mistakes or errors, to provide a process that requires less care and skill on the part of an operator and generally may be more easily accomplished by unskilled workmen without historical familiarity with the process. Elongate type ligation material that is formed in place also allows parameters for tensioning and band fastening by a clip that may be varied, either accidentally or deliberately by an operator, to provide results that are not necessarily uniform or consistent and may vary sufficiently to make the process inoperative or harmful to an animal. Continuous band ligation material has more fixed parameters determined by the nature and configuration of the banding material itself, which are more independent of an operator's activities. The continuous banding material also is generally more durable than the elongate ligation material formed in place and is less expensive and more easily handled than the elongate material. There are therefore various advantages in using preformed continuous band type elastic material for ligation castrating, when the use of such material is possible.
The nature of the ligation castration process with small preformed continuous band elastic material rather defines the limits of the parameters required for the elastic bands usable for such purpose, and especially their relaxed size and elastic properties. Such bands must be small enough to fulfill their ligation purpose of providing sufficient elastic force or bias after placement and fastening about the neck of the scrotal pouch to cause atrophy of the tissue outwardly of the band while yet allowing sufficient expansion upon stretching to permit placement over the scrotal pouch. These conditions require a band of approximately one to two inch diameter with substantial cross-sectional area approximating 0.1 square inch in relaxed condition for natural rubber and varying somewhat, depending upon the elastic nature of other eastomric material from which the band is formed. These parameters generally differ by several fold from the corresponding parameters of continuous elastic castration bands heretofore used for smaller immature animals or bands that are not stretched for placement and the parameters tend to dictate the nature of a tool used for their placement.
Since a continuous ligation band must allow passage of the scrotal pouch and contained testicular structure of an animal to be castrated through the orifice it defines, the instant band because of its small size must be enlarged by stretching to allow placement. The instant invention provides a tool to simply and easily accomplish the stretching of such bands of the required nature to a size and configuration that allows placement without damage to the elastic material. The tool provides a forward yoke supporting the band at two points, with a movable stretching rod communicating with the band at a third point between the first two support points to stretch the band in a triangular configuration for placement. To accomplish its purpose with a band of appropriate physical characteristics, the stretching rod requires substantial force that is provided by an associated compound lever operated tensioning mechanism that allows operation by a multiply smaller applied manual force for ease and simplicity of operation.
The problem of maintaining sufficient elastic tension to provide ligation by a continuous band that expands to create a large enough orifice to allow placement is solved by using a fastening clip to foreshorten the portion of the band about the neck of the animal's scrotal pouch. The foreshortened fastened portion of the tensed band then allows release of the tension created by the tool from both band portions to relax that band portion not extending about the scrotal pouch for removal of the tool. The deformable metallic fastening clip disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,637 is effective for fastening the band portion about the scrotal pouch.
The compound lever type operation of the tool provides a secondary benefit of speeding the individual castration process and allowing a single operator to accomplish a greater number of castrations in a given period of time than could be accomplished with various prior tools. In the modern practice of animal husbandry often groups of several hundred animals may be castrated over a short period of time in a continuous operation. With prior tools not providing compound leverage operation, the manual force required by a workman in operating various prior castration tools was often so great, and application of that force sufficiently difficult, that the process was tiring to a workman, and particularly his hand and wrist muscles, to such an extent that the workman's physical ability became a limiting factor in the number of sequential castrations that the workman could accomplish without substantial rest. This problem could be of such extent that it might cause permanent physical damage to a workman. The instant tool resolves this problem by requiring substantially less force that is of such nature that it is not unusually tiring or damaging to a workman to allow continuous operation over lengthy periods of time without adverse physiological effects that may cause injury or work slow down. The tool also may easily be motorized if desired.
My invention lies not in any of these features individually, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of the structures of my tool and steps of my process that necessarily give rise to the results flowing therefrom.

Compound lever activated elastomeric band castration tool


A technique may receive a search query including at least one search term. In response to this search query an index of a plurality of data files may be searched to identify data files containing the at least one search term. Subsequently, a list of one or more links to launch having a corresponding data file identified as containing the at least one search term is generated. In some variations, each data file corresponds to an application and has a file extension that is not associated with the application. Related techniques, apparatuses, systems, articles of manufacture are also described.

Computer users conduct a large number of tasks aided by applications which can be launched from their local computers. Such applications are typically installed locally and/or at a remote computer accessible via a communications network such as the Internet. As the number of applications increases, it is more difficult to locate a suitable application.
With enterprise portals in which a limited number of applications are available to users, available applications may be identified through a series of hierarchical and logical menus. Such an arrangement is often cumbersome to utilize and provides little, if any, information regarding each application other than its name. Moreover, significant administrative effort may be required to generate and maintain hierarchical and logical menus identifying available applications.

Searching for and launching data files not associated with an application


A laminate body is provided which contains a thin prepreg having a component (A) containing a matrix of reinforcing fiber, a component (B) containing a thermosetting resin, and a component (C) containing particles of a thermoplastic resin. When molded and cured out of autoclave, the laminate body achieves a fiber-reinforced composite having a low void ratio and providing excellent mechanical performance.

Fiber-reinforced composite materials are widely used in industry, including aerospace and spacecraft components which require particularly excellent structural mechanical properties as well as heat resistance. Traditionally, one of the preferred molding methods utilizes an autoclave creating high compaction pressures to consolidate, for example, large and complex structures to achieve the absence of voids in the cured material, thereby producing a rigid, light weight, and robust composite. On the other hand, these autoclave methods have high operating and capital costs and can restrict the molding size possibly due to equipment capacity, thereby encouraging the development of alternative molding methods.
Molding methods such as Out-Of-Autoclave (OOA) processes have been developed which rely on vacuum only methods, which apply much lower compaction pressures. OOA processes have demonstrated potential capital cost reductions and permit expanded molding size, yet these processes have difficulty achieving consistent void-free composites when venturing into large and complex structures, due to the lack of high compaction pressures such as those used in an autoclave. Additionally, OOA processing is suitable for fiber-reinforced composite components manufactured using fibers that are pre-impregnated with a matrix resin, also known as prepregs. To form a composite part from the prepregs (for instance in large and complex structures), one or more layers of prepregs are assembled within a mold by hand layup or with improved manufacturing efficiencies such as Automated Tape Placement and/or Automated Fiber Placement. Heat is applied to the assembly of prepregs to cause the matrix resin to flow, enabling consolidation of the prepreg layers to produce the final composite.
Current approaches to Out-Of-Autoclave processes utilize semi-impregnated prepreg sheets assembled into prepreg stacks comprised of a plurality of prepreg sheets suitable for manual layup. Such semi-impregnated prepreg sheets are characterized by having a dry (non-impregnated) fiber region in the center (core) section of the prepreg sheet, which allows air, moisture and other volatiles present within the prepreg sheet to be withdrawn from the prepreg sheet during curing. If permitted to be retained in the prepreg sheets, such volatiles lead to the production of voids in the cured fiber-reinforced composite material formed from a stack of such prepreg sheets. The presence of voids in cured fiber-reinforced composite materials is undesirable, as such defects usually detrimentally affect the physical and mechanical properties of these materials. However, during automated processes semi-impregnation may generate dry fiber balls (i.e., clusters of dry fibers) which can be deposited on the surface of the laminate resulting in defects as seen with industry standard OOA prepregs. On the other hand, semi-impregnated thin ply prepregs could be advantageous during automated processes as fuzz generation could be minimal due to its thinness and/or bulk factor.
Thin ply prepregs having a low fiber areal weight (<100 gsm compared to an industry standard weight >150 gsm) may be desired to further promote weight reduction, laminate strength improvement, and final composite thickness control. However, controlling the impregnation level for thin ply prepregs suitable for OOA processing having a dry (unimpregnated) fiber region in the center could be very difficult. Thin ply prepregs could possibly be designed to have an air path by controlling the impregnation similar to standard prepregs suitable for OOA processing. Thin ply prepregs may contain one or more discontinuous and/or continuous air paths which can provide the in-plane permeability necessary to mitigate volatiles and entrapped air during OOA processing, yet are still compatible with automated processes.
However, it would be desirable to develop a thin ply prepreg promoting further weight reduction suitable for OOA processing and having excellent mechanical performance and compatibility with automated processes.

Prepreg, laminate body, fiber-reinforced composite material, and manufacturing method for fiber-reinforced composite material


A chute structure for a snow removing machine includes first and second chutes connected through a hinge to each other. The hinge includes first and second hinge plates connected together by means of a connecting pin. The first hinge plate has a tubular portion through which the connecting pin extends. The length of the tubular portion is substantially equal to the width of the first chute. The second hinge plate has first and second plates. The first plate has an opening formed therein. The opening of the first plate is aligned with an entrance of the tubular portion. The second plate has an opening formed therein. The opening of the second plate is aligned with an exit of the tubular portion. The second hinge plate has a cover portion extending between the first plate and the second plate. The cover portion is integral with the first and second plates. The cover portion covers the tubular portion. Provision of the cover portion prevents snow from being discharged from around the hinge.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a snow removing machine including a chute and a blower for blowing snow into the chute, and in particularly to the chute structured or designed to throw such snow towards a desired point.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known snow removing machines include auger members for collecting snow piled up on roads, and blowers for blowing the collected snow into chutes connected to the blowers. The chutes throw such snow towards desired points. The chutes are rotatable or bendable to throw the snow by selected distances or in selected directions. One example of such chutes is known from Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 63-76025 entitled xe2x80x9cHINGED STRUCTURE OF CHUTE FOR SNOW REMOVING MACHINExe2x80x9d. The disclosed snow removing machine comprises a chute. FIG. 13 hereof shows such a chute 100. The chute 100 includes a chute body 107a and a chute guide 107b attached via a hinge member 109 to the chute body 107a. The hinge member 109 includes first and second halves 109a, 109b connected together. The chute guide 107b has an arcuate portion 110 configured to close gaps (not shown) formed between the first and second halves 109a, 109b. Provision of the arcuate portion 110 prevents snow from coming out of these gaps.
However, the chute 100 faces one problem that clearances 104, 104 are necessarily formed between the first and second halves 109a, 109b. Some of snow to be directed out of the chute guide 107b would be undesirably discharged from these clearances 104, 104. There is a need in the art for an improved chute structure which provides for the prevention of such an undesirable discharge of the snow.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved chute structure including chutes connected together via hinges designed to prevent snow from being discharged from between the chutes.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a chute structure for a snow removing machine, comprising: a first chute; and a second chute pivotally connected via a hinge to the first chute; the hinge including: a first hinge plate mounted to the first chute and having a tubular portion of length substantially equal to a width of the first chute; a second hinge plate mounted to the second chute, the second hinge plate including a first plate being positioned outside one end of the tubular portion and having formed therein an opening aligned with the one end of the tubular portion, a second plate being positioned outside another end of the tubular portion and having formed therein an opening aligned with the another end of the tubular portion, and a cover portion extending between the first plate and the second plate and covering the tubular portion; and a connecting pin extending through the opening of the first plate, the tubular portion, and the opening of the second plate to connect the first hinge plate and the second hinge plate together.
By providing the seamless single tubular portion having the length substantially equal to the width of the first chute, little or no snow is discharged out through the tubular portion.
The first plate has the opening aligned with the entrance of the tubular portion while the second plate has the opening aligned with the exit of the tubular portion. The cover portion covers the tubular portion. The cover portion is continuous with the first and second plates. This arrangement prevents snow within the chute structure from being discharged from around the tubular portion.
Preferably, the connecting pin is substantially rectangular, and includes: a body extending through the opening of the first plate, the tubular portion, and the opening of the second plate; a first U-shaped portion continuous with one end of the body; a return portion continuous with the first U-shaped portion and having substantially the same length as the body; and a second U-shaped portion continuous with the return portion and having a distal end laid on the body, the distal end having a surface abutted on the second plate.

Chute structure for snow removing machine


A photoconductive having an overcoat layer that includes a cured or substantially crosslinked product of at least a melamine-formaldehyde resin and a charge transport compound, and an optional phenol compound.

Described herein is a photoconductive member, and more specifically a layered member that comprises an overcoat layer that includes a cured or substantially crosslinked product of at least a melamine-formaldehyde resin, optionally a phenol compound, and a charge transport compound.
The photoconductive members described herein may be used in, for example, electrophotographic imaging devices and xerographic imaging devices, printing processes, color imaging processes, copying/printing/scanning/fax combination systems and the like. The photoconductive member may be, for example, a photoreceptor, and may have any suitable form, for example plate or drum form.
Photosensitive members such as electrophotographic or photoconductive members, including photoreceptors or photoconductors, typically include a photoconductive layer formed on, for example, an electrically conductive substrate or formed on layers between the substrate and photoconductive layer. The photoconductive layer is an insulator in the dark, so that electric charges are retained on its surface. Upon exposure to light, the charge is dissipated, and an image can be formed thereon, developed using a developer material, transferred to a copy substrate, and fused thereto to form a copy or print.
Advanced imaging systems are based on the use of small diameter photoreceptor drums. The use of small diameter drums places a premium on photoreceptor life. A factor that can limit photoreceptor life is wear. Small diameter drum photoreceptors are particularly susceptible to wear because about 3 to 10 revolutions of the drum may be required to image a single letter size page. Multiple revolutions of a small diameter drum photoreceptor to reproduce a single letter size page can thus require about 1 million cycles or more from the photoreceptor drum to obtain 100,000 prints, one desirable print job goal for commercial systems.
For low volume copiers and printers, bias charging rolls (BCR) are desirable because little or no ozone is produced during image cycling. However, the microcorona generated by the BCR during charging damages the photoreceptor, resulting in rapid wear of the imaging surface, for example, the exposed surface of the charge transport layer. More specifically, wear rates can be as high as about 10 microns per 100,000 imaging cycles.


A device for individual collection of contaminated objects has a substantially elongated element having a first hollow portion formed to receive a user's palm and provided with a projection for receiving a user's thumb, and a second portion extending from the first portion and having an inlet opening for insertion of the user's arm, the second portion having a width which is at least greater than a width of the first portion, so that when a user by manipulations with the first portion and the projection collects the objects, the second portion can be turned over the first portion and farther so that the element is turned inside out to produce a bag-like structure with contaminated objects inside, and a unit for closing the element after it has been converted inside out, the closing a unit being a strap formed as a rear part of the second portion which is formed of one piece with a remaining part of the second portion and includes a plurality of transverse and longitudinal cuts, the rear part in an inoperative position being coextensive with the second portion while in an operative position the strap being unfolded and forming an elongated element for tying up the device with both ends of the strap which are connected of one piece to the remaining part of the second portion.

The present invention relates to a device for collection of contaminated objects.
The need for removing and/or collecting contaminated objects is evident in many areas of life: in hospitals, nursing homes, households and workplaces. A device which does the job can be also used by police to collect and store material evidence.
In our U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,955 we proposed a device which is formed as a one-piece integral plastic element. The device is easy to use, it is disposable, and inexpensive.

Device for collection of contaminated objects


A method for fabricating an ellipsoidal or semi-ellipsoidal semiconductor structure includes steps of providing a semiconductor substrate and fabricating an ellipsoidal or semi-ellipsoidal cavity structure on the semiconductor substrate. The cavity structure encompasses a seed surface of the semiconductor substrate. The method includes a further step of growing the ellipsoidal or semi-ellipsoidal semiconductor structure within the ellipsoidal or semi-ellipsoidal cavity structure from the seed surface of the semiconductor substrate. Fabricating the cavity structure includes arranging a droplet comprising a sacrificial material on the semiconductor substrate, forming a layer of a coating material on the semiconductor substrate and the droplet, and selectively removing the sacrificial material of the droplet to expose the cavity structure.

The present disclosure relates generally to fabricating ellipsoidal or semi-ellipsoidal semiconductor structures and, more specifically, spherical semiconductor structures for optical applications.
Optical devices (e.g., laser devices) are often formed on semiconductor III-V substrates due to these semiconductor groups' direct and tunable bandgap, which allows for radiative recombination and hence light emission. A laser is mainly composed of a resonator, also referred to as an optical cavity, providing optical feedback and an active medium providing optical gain.

Fabrication of ellipsoidal or semi-ellipsoidal semiconductor structures