A method including receiving an input data set. The input data set can include one of a feature domain set or a kernel matrix. The method also can include constructing dense embeddings using: (i) Nyström approximations on the input data set when the input data set comprises the kernel matrix, and (ii) clustered Nyström approximations on the input data set when the input data set comprises the feature domain set. The method additionally can include performing representation learning on each of the dense embeddings using a multi-layer fully-connected network for each of the dense embeddings to generate latent representations corresponding to each of the dense embeddings. The method further can include applying a fusion layer to the latent representations corresponding to the dense embeddings to generate a combined representation. The method additionally can include performing classification on the combined representation. Other embodiments of related systems and methods are also disclosed.

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have been used in a wide variety of computer vision tasks. Modern deep architectures can be coupled with large datasets, customization strategies, and utilization of graphics processing units (GPUs) to obtain highly effective predictive models. By using a composition of multiple non-linear transformations, along with novel loss functions, DNNs can approximate a large class of functions for prediction tasks.
For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figures herein illustrate the general manner of construction, and descriptions and details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention. Additionally, elements in the drawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention. The same reference numerals in different figures denote the same elements.
The terms "first," "second," "third," "fourth," and the like in the description and in the claims, if any, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments described herein are, for example, capable of operation in sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein. Furthermore, the terms "include," and "have," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, device, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements, but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, system, article, device, or apparatus.
The terms "left," "right," "front," "back," "top," "bottom," "over," "under," and the like in the description and in the claims, if any, are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing permanent relative positions. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the invention described herein are, for example, capable of operation in other orientations than those illustrated or otherwise described herein.
The terms "couple," "coupled," "couples," "coupling," and the like should be broadly understood and refer to connecting two or more elements or signals, electrically, mechanically or otherwise. Two or more electrical elements may be electrically coupled, but not mechanically or otherwise coupled; two or more mechanical elements may be mechanically coupled, but not electrically or otherwise coupled; two or more electrical elements may be mechanically coupled, but not electrically or otherwise coupled. Coupling (whether mechanical, electrical, or otherwise) may be for any length of time, e.g., permanent or semi-permanent or only for an instant.
"Electrical coupling" and the like should be broadly understood and include coupling involving any electrical signal, whether a power signal, a data signal, and/or other types or combinations of electrical signals. "Mechanical coupling" and the like should be broadly understood and include mechanical coupling of all types. The absence of the word "removably," "removable," and the like near the word "coupled," and the like does not mean that the coupling, etc. in question is or is not removable.

Systems and methods for customizing kernel machines with deep neural networks

ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS ON BEHALF OF ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL SECURITY, LLC


Device for dewatering and drying solids, especially plastics granulated under water, in form of a centrifuge dryer comprising a housing (1) having an inlet opening (2) for the solid material with adhering water and an outlet opening (3) for the dehydrated solid material, a screen cylinder (4) fixedly disposed inside the housing (1), a rotor (5) arranged inside the screen cylinder (4) and wings (6) attached to the rotor at a distance from one another, a water drain (7), and arrangements (8, 8′) for the introduction and removal of an air stream passing vertically through the device. It is distinguished on the one hand in that the inlet opening (2) is arranged tangential to the screen cylinder (4, 10). On the other hand it is distinguished in that the fixed screen cylinder (4) is comprised of at least three screen cylinders (10, 11, 12) arranged vertically one over another, each of the screen cylinders (10, 11, 12) is being comprised of at least two segment shells (10, 10′, 11, 11′, 12, 12′) where the lowermost screen cylinder (10) is comprised of a screen-like shell (10′) and a solid segment shell (10″).

Such a device is for example seen in DE 10 2004 053 929 A1, where a mixture of granulate and cooling water is supplied to a centrifuge dryer which is arranged adjacent to a cooling arrangement. In the method of granulate drying shown therein, the adherent surface water is centrifuged off, together with plastic dust which also clings to the surface. At the same time, evaporative cooling takes place by the drying of the surface moisture of the granulate in an air stream. A screen-like water separator is arranged between the drying arrangement and the centrifuge dryer.
The centrifuge dryer comprises a cylindrical housing and a cylindrical screen fixedly arranged therein. Arranged within the screen is a motor driven rotor that can be driven at high revolutions. The rotor comprises paddle-like arms that accelerate the wet granulate and the water that still adheres to it. Due to the design of the arms, the granulate is propelled from the lower inlet upward and is dewatered at the same time. The water is centrifuged off through the screen.
Residual surface moisture remains on the granulate and is removed by evaporation in the centrifuge dryer. This cooling-down drying is supported by an air stream, which is aspirated from the top into the housing and is exhausted by a blower at approximately half the height of the housing.
Instead of the paddle-like arms, other known devices of the relevant art comprise baffles affixed to the rotor and arranged at an angle to the vertical axis, causing a vertical conveyance of the granulate within the centrifugal dryer from the inlet opening on the bottom upward to the outlet opening.
The disadvantage of these known devices is that the wet granulate is always supplied to the centrifuge dryer radially, whereby the granulate is caught frontally by the paddle-like arms or baffles and first propelled against the fixed screen from where it rebounds and is again captured by the paddle-like arms or baffles. This process is repeated until the granulate reaches the outlet opening and passes through it. The frontal capture of the granulate exposes it to higher mechanical stress in the inlet area. This results in greater amounts of plastic dust, which settles in the immediate area of the inlet opening, aided in particular by air stream eddies. The removal of the dust by means of cleaning fluids introduced into the centrifuge dryer space by nozzles is more difficult in this area than in the remaining inner space of the centrifuge dryer.
This can go so far that, especially for the drying of sensitive granules, in particular of composite granulates, the known centrifuge dryers cannot be used at all for the dewatering and drying of these granulates because too high a proportion of the granulate would be damaged by the known centrifuge dryer.
Due to the frontal capture of the granulate, the fixed screen and the paddle-like arms or baffles in the region near the inlet opening are exposed to much higher wear than in the regions above. Since the outlet opening is also arranged radially, there is also higher wear in the immediate vicinity of the outlet opening, especially at the frontal edge.
A further substantial disadvantage is the overall design of the device which makes it difficult to maintain. The centrifuge dryer has to be cleaned completely after every change of granulate color or composition. Any remnants that are not removed completely before the next load of plastic granulate passes through the centrifuge dryer contaminate the granulate and result in substantial quality flaws.
For this purpose, several nozzles for the cleaning fluid are commonly provided inside the centrifuge dryer. Wherever the deposit of plastic dust is particularly heavy, for example, as mentioned earlier, in the vicinity of the inlet opening, spraying of the cleaning fluid is not always sufficient, or the cleaning is only satisfactory with disproportionately great amounts of the cleaning fluid. However, since the expense of preparing the cleaning fluid is proportionate to the quantity, it is in most cases more economical to open the device, loosen the remaining residue by hand and to rinse it out. In known devices, this requires disproportionately high disassembly and reassembly expenditures.

Device for draining and drying solids, in particular plastics granulated under water

ECON Maschinenbau und Steuerungstechnik GmbH


A wireless office communication system including a multi-protocol wireless internet base station (WIBS) encompassing a base station controller (BSC), a mobile switch controller (MSC) and an ethernet interface module for coupling the WIBS to an existing internet protocol (IP) based network. The interface module provides for coupling the WIBS to an ethernet back-bone, a mobile communication unit and a public switch telephone network (PSTN). In one embodiment the wireless communication system includes wireless signaling logic and media gateway logic to enable the wireless office communication system to handle signal transmission between a mobile terminal and a media gateway. A virtual circuit identity code (VCIC) enables the base station to provide a virtual traffic path (VTP) to link communications between TIA/EIA-634 wireless signaling and media gateway control protocol (MGCP).

Local area networks such as Ethernet are well known. Most local area networks are wired, so that each station is coupled directly or indirectly to all other stations by cabling or wires, thus providing full connectivity between all stations. Such local area networks avoid collisions and achieve efficient use of the communications channel by well known carrier sensing and collision avoidance schemes. Such schemes are typically not suitable for wireless networks. Communication systems that utilize coded communication signals are well known in the art. One such system is a code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular communication system such as the one set forth in the Telecommunications Industry Association/Electronic Industries Association International Standard (TIA/EIA IS-95), hereinafter referred to as IS-95.
In accordance with the IS-95, the coded communication signals used in CDMA systems comprise CDMA signals that are transmitted in a common 1.25 MHz bandwidth. The signals may be communicated to base stations of the system from mobile or wireless communication units, such as cell phones, or portable wireless computers, and wireless handheld devices that are communicating in a specific coverage area of the base station. In conventional CDMA systems, the base station communicates with a base station controller (BSC) that allows each communication unit to communicate with other communication units within the same coverage area. Each CDMA signal includes a pseudo-noise (PN) sequence associated with a particular base station and an identification number of a communicating communication unit.
Typically, the BSC is coupled to a mobile switching controller (MSC). This allows a base station to connect with other base stations outside its coverage area in order to allow a communicating communication unit to communicate with other units outside its coverage area.
FIG. 1 is an illustration of a conventional prior art CDMA system. In the system shown in FIG. 1, base stations 110 and 120 are coupled to a BSC 130 and a MSC 140. MSC 140 is in turn coupled to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 150 using known techniques.
In the system shown in FIG. 1, when a communication unit initiates a call sequence to either one of the base stations 110 and 120 within a coverage area, an end-to-end connection is established between the respective base stations, the BSC 130 and the MSC 140 using known CDMA call setup techniques. The base stations 110 and 120 typically communicate with the BSC 130 and the MSC 140 via communication links, such as a T1 connection. Base stations 110 and 120 typically have antennas to define the coverage area within which either base stations primarily accommodate the communication units.
With the proliferation of wireless devices in the office and school environment, the communication system shown in FIG. 1 can be very expensive if implemented in an office or in-building environment. The system in FIG. 1 also has the inherent problem of wireless voice and data signal quality degradation if implemented in an in-building environment.
To alleviate the problems of the system shown in FIG. 1 and with the advent of enterprise based wireless networks, some prior art CDMA systems implement the system shown in FIG. 2. In the system illustrated in FIG. 2, a wireless base station is coupled to existing ethernet network infrastructure to enable the CDMA system to utilize existing internet protocol techniques to allow communication between wireless devices coupled to the ethernet network.
The system in FIG. 2 utilizes a combination of wireless signaling protocol and media gateway protocol to allow wireless call handling and other multi-media data transmission. A wireless signaling protocol may be used to handle mobile terminals.
Despite the robustness of the system in FIG. 2, an in-building wireless environment, there are some disadvantages which characterize such a system. First, the system in FIG. 2 uses a combination of wireless signaling protocol and media gateway control protocol (MGCP). A wireless signaling protocol may be used to handle mobile terminals and current MGCP protocol assumes that the mobile terminal is wired (at least fixed for the duration of a call). Hence, mobile terminal signaling cannot be sufficiently processed using MGCP protocol alone.
Second, the system uses two different protocols to handle wireless voice communication and other media communication. Whereas a signaling gateway can handle wireless communication, a media gateway cannot handle typical wireless functions, such as location registration of a mobile terminal, paging a mobile terminal, and processing handoff of mobile terminals from one base station to another during a conversation in the MGCP protocol.
Thus, the system in FIG. 2 requires the base station to have two functional protocol units to handle wireless signaling and multi-media transactions. Traditionally in the wireless network, an open interface specification is defined between base stations and an MSC. The MSC is a Call Agent-like entity that can handle the mobile terminal signaling. In CDMA wireless network, the TIA/EIA-634 specification defines the interface.
On the other hand, TIA/EIA-634 specification does not define the media control of the Internet protocol local access network (IP LAN). Because the TIA/EIA-634 specification assumes a circuit-based network, the media identifier is specified in terms of TDM circuit ID of a trunk line between a base station and the MSC. Thus, the wireless signaling protocol is also not sufficient to control the packet based media stream on an IP LAN.
In order to handle both wireless mobile terminal signaling and also media traffic of the wireless mobile terminal, it is necessary for the system in FIG. 2 to support both wireless signaling protocol as well as IP media control protocol. For example, in a CDMA network, TIA/EIA-634 and MGCP can be used for such purpose.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, protocol interfaces used between a Call Agent and a base station are based on a packet-based IP LAN. A problem typically arises when the wireless signaling protocol and the MGCP are used together between a Call Agent and a base station. A linkage (or mapping) between a call identifier in the wireless signaling protocol and a call identifier of the corresponding call for the same mobile terminal must be made dynamically during each call setup. Because mobile terminals tend to move around within a particular call coverage area, a static system mapping of call identifiers for a given terminal by a base station is not economically feasible.
Furthermore, TLA/EIA-634 protocol does not have a method to specify the traffic path on an IP LAN associated with a particular signaling call that it is handling. In a conventional circuit based network, TIA/EIA-634 uses 16 bit identification typically known as Circuit Identity Code (CIC) which defines a PCM multiplexer ID to handle traffic path for a signaling call associated with it. However, this is not adequate for the traffic path on an IP LAN because the PCM multiplexer is not present on IP LANs and MGCP does not have any method to associate the mobile terminal to the connection. Since MGCP typically deals with the fixed connection, MGCP does not describe mobile endpoints to set up the traffic connections to a call.
Thus, it is desirable to have a system and a method for transmitting CDMA calls including voice and data over a communication pathway with a higher bandwidth. It is further desirable to have a CDMA system that handles the transmission of calls, especially data calls, without the inherent difficulties of using a variety of transmission protocols for the same call. A need further exists for an improved and less costly system which improves efficiency, transmission rate, and time of calls between a mobile unit and a base station, between base stations and a BSC, and between adjacent base stations.

System and method of linking a wireless signaling protocol with a media gateway control protocol in a packet-based network


A transflective liquid crystal display is provided. The electric fields of reflective regions are adjusted by arranging resistors between transmissive electrodes and reflectors or by disposing reflectors floating on the transmissive electrodes and ground electrodes so that the phase shift of liquid crystal layer in the reflective region and transmissive region can be controlled. Accordingly, the transmissive area and reflective area can be kept substantially identical in thickness and the complex process for manufacturing double gap structure is thus not required.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a liquid crystal display, and more particularly, to a transflective liquid crystal display.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a transmissive liquid crystal display (LCD) device has advantages of high contrast ratio and good color saturation. However, the transmissive LCD device may suffer low image contrast when ambient light is strong. In addition, its power consumption is high due to the need of a backlight device. On the other hand, a reflective LCD device uses ambient light, instead of backlight, for displaying images, and therefore its power consumption is relatively low. However, the reflective LCD device is less visible when ambient light is weak.
In order to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks, a transflective LCD device is developed. The transflective LCD device can use both the back light and ambient light so that it can perform a clear display even in dark surroundings while reducing the power consumption. In general, the transflective LCD device includes two types, i.e. a single cell gap transflective LCD device and a double cell gap transflective LCD device. In the single cell gap transflective LCD device, the cell gaps for reflective and transmissive regions are the same. In the double cell gap transflective LCD device, the cell gaps for reflective and transmissive regions are different.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional double cell gap transflective LCD 100 includes two polarizers 132, 134 and two compensation films 122, 124 disposed between the polarizers 132, 134. Two substrates 112, 114 are disposed between the compensation films 122, 124 and a liquid crystal layer 140 with a thickness of d is sandwiched between the substrates 112, 114. A reflection plate 150 with a plurality of openings is disposed on the substrate 114. The light 160 from a backlight (not shown) passes through in sequence the substrate 114, the openings of the reflection plate 150, liquid crystal layer 140 and ultimately arrives at a viewer. In addition, the ambient light 170 passes through the substrate 112, liquid crystal layer 140 and is ultimately reflected to the viewer by the reflection plate 150. In order to make the light 160 and ambient light 170 have the same optical path length when they pass through the liquid crystal layer 140, it is necessary for the reflection plate 150 to have a thickness equal to one-half of that of the liquid crystal layer 140, i.e. d/2. However, extra facilities are required for manufacturing the reflection plate 150 in the LCD 100 and the production yield in manufacturing the same is remarkably reduced.
Referring to FIG. 2, a conventional mixed-mode twisted nematic (MTN) single cell gap transflective LCD 200 also includes a reflection plate 150′ with a plurality of openings thereon. In comparison with the LCD 100, the LCD 200 is required to have a 90-degree difference in pretilt angle between the alignment layers 282 and 284 that are disposed respectively on the transmissive region and reflective region. This will need more complicated processes to make such a structure.
Referring to FIG. 3, another conventional mixed-mode twisted nematic single cell gap transflective LCD 300 has a quarter-wave retardation film 390 disposed on the reflection plate 150′ in order to compensate for the optical path length. Likewise, it is also required to have extra facilities for making such a structure.
In view of the above, there exists a need to provide a transflective liquid crystal display to solve the above-mentioned problems.


This invention relates to butt joining methods. Such methods of this type, generally, allow fiber reinforced metal matrix composite components having a metal matrix and a fiber reinforcement to be butt joined in order to form a large integral structure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to butt joining methods. Such methods of this type, generally, allow fiber reinforced composite components to be butt joined in order to form a large integral structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that the joining of metal matrix composite (MMC) components is difficult due to the interior ceramic reinforcements which may be particles, whiskers or fiber reinforcements. In the case of continuous internal fiber reinforcements, various methods of joining have been attempted. Fusion joining using tungsten inert gas, plasma arc and electron beam processes have been attempted without success. The chief problem with using these processes is that chemical and metallurgical reactions between the metal matrix and the ceramic reinforcement can occur which generate brittle butt welds.
In order to avoid the high temperature reactions, liquid phase interlayer bonding methods have been tried for this type of MMC with limited success. This joining technique which is essentially a brazing process would have limited high temperature applications since the interlayer has a lower melting temperature than the matrix. In addition, it was also found that the interlayer process was only applicable for simple lap joints, but was not well suited for butt joints. Most large structures used at elevated temperature cannot be composed of a series of lap joints and therefore, this type of joint would have limited application. Consequently, it would not be practical to use this type of joint for fiber reinforced MMC composites. Also, fabricating a butt joint with a layer of matrix material or interlayer between the components will not produce a suitable structure. The structure will easily fail in this local zone. Therefore, it is important to develop a joining process that can produce butt joints having a sufficient structural integrity for large structure applications.
It is apparent from the above that there exists a need in the art for a butt joining method which is capable of joining fiber reinforced composite components, and which at least equals the butt joining characteristics of known butt joining methods, but which at the same time can produce butt joints that have sufficient structural integrity for large structural applications. It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill this and other needs in the art in a manner more apparent to the skilled artisan once given the following disclosure.

Method for fiber reinforced composite butt joining


A feature extraction system for statistically analyzing a set of samples of feature vectors to calculate a feature being an index for a pattern identification, which is capable of identifying confusing data with a high robustness. In this system, a storage section stores a feature vector inputted through an input section and a neighborhood vector selection section selects a specific feature vector from the feature vectors existing in the storage section. The specific feature is a neighborhood vector close in distance to the feature vector stored in the storage section. Further, the system is equipped with a feature vector space production section for outputting a partial vector space. The partial vector space is made to maximize the local scattering property of the feature vector when the feature vector is orthogonally projected to that space.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to feature extraction, and more particularly to a feature extraction system which statistically analyzes a set of samples of feature vectors to calculate a feature or characteristic serving as an index at a pattern identification, with this system allowing more accurate identification as compared with a prior system. In addition, this invention relates to a face image recognition system useful for identification systems using human faces, the certification of licenses and passports, the user identification for man-machine interface and security, and the information compression for low bit rate picture communications, and more particularly to a face image recognition system which narrows the candidates for a plausible model matching with an input image down through a first-stage model selection (first model selection means) and subsequently conducts a final recognition among the selected candidates through the use of a feature extraction different from the first stage in a second-stage selection.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The pattern identification or recognition is applicable to various fields such as a face identification or recognition available for security systems. For the pattern identification, a method based upon the KL (Karhunen-Loeve) expansion has well been known as a way of extracting a feature from a set of samples of feature vectors. This method has the ability to attain, as a feature serving as an index for the pattern recognition, an orthonormal base (eigenvector or proper vector) determined on the basis of the dispersion or variance of a set of samples of feature vectors and a value (eigenvalue) representative of the dispersion of the feature vectors in each basic direction. A description will be taken hereinbelow of the basic property of the KL expansion.
The KL expansion signifies an optimal orthogonal development under the minimum mean squared error standard. More specifically, when a subspace U(M) is produced by selecting M (.ltoreq.N) in the order of decreasing eigenvalue out of the orthonormal bases obtainable on the basis of a set of samples of N-dimensional feature vectors through the KL expansion, the subspace U(M) assumes an M-dimensional partial vector space which minimizes the mean square error from the feature vectors. In addition, the subspace U(M) is also characterised as an M-dimensional subspace which maximizes the expectation of the square distance between the feature vectors projected. These contents have been described in detail by "Statistical Pattern Recognition (Second Edition) Academic Press 1990)" Chapter 9, written by Keinosuke Fukunaga.
Furthermore, for the identification being actually made using the feature obtained from the result of the KL expansion, the feature vector closest to the input feature vector is selected from the standard data through the use of the following distance. That is, the feature vector is orthogonally projected on the aforesaid subspace U(M) to measure the distance on the subspace U(M). As the distance to be used at that time there is the Euclidean distance defined in according to the following equation or formula (1): ##EQU1## or the distance expressed by the following equation (2): ##EQU2## where .lambda..sub.i represents an eigenvalue corresponding to an eigenvector e.sub.i, and .sigma..sup.2 designates a bias.
The distance expressed by the aforesaid equation (2) coincides with the maharanobis distance when the bias .sigma. assumes zero.
As a patented feature extraction technique using the KL expansion, there has been known "Face Recognition System" disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,992. In this patent, the two components as shown in FIG. 3 extracts a feature for the pattern identification. One of the components, designated at numeral 201, serves as a face image acquisition input section 201, while the other, denoted at numeral 202, acts as a KL expansion execution section 202. The face image acquisition input section 201 obtains a face image as an assembly of density values at every pixel (n-dimensional feature vector, where n depicts the total number of pixels of the image) and conveys it to the KL expansion execution section 202. The KL expansion execution section 202 calculates a orthonormal base (basis) through the KL expansion on the basis of N face images coming from the face image acquisition input section 201 and subsequently selects M (.ltoreq.n, N) bases in the order of decreasing eigenvalue out of the calculation results to retain the eigenvalues and the coordinates of the vectors corresponding thereto.
However, although the KL expansion is an optimal orthogonal development in view of reducing the minimum mean squared error or enhancing the scattering property of data, it is a problem in the case of using for the purpose of extracting a feature for the pattern identification. More specifically, the most important point for the patter identification is how to accurately identify the confusing feature vectors close in distance to each other, and for this purpose, it is preferable to promote only the scattering property between data close in distance to each other without enhancing the mutual scattering properties of all data. For this reason, with a prior system which carries out the feature extraction directly using the KL expansion, a problem exists in that difficulty is experienced in the identification of the confusing data.
On the other hand, for a face image recognition system, image data (for example, a variable-density image with M pixels in the vertical directions and N pixels in the horizontal directions) is completely expressible with the M.multidot.N-dimensional vectors in such a manner that each pixel is treated as one independent coordinate axis and the coordinate value is expressed as the density value of the pixel (for example, 10000 dimensions when 100.times.100). Accordingly, if L (L>10000) input images are linearly independent to each other, a 10000-dimensional space becomes necessary in order to express this L-image information. However, in terms of human faces, through the recent studies, there has been known the fact that almost faces were expressible with an extremely small dimensional space. This is because as compared with general images the human faces considerably resemble each other (they have eyes, a nose, mouth and others in common and these components have a similar positional relation to each other). A detailed discussion about these matters has been made, for example, in the document "Application of the Karhunen-Loeve procedure for the characterization of human faces" (IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence. vol 12, no. 1 1990), written by M. Lirby and L. Sirovich.
The KL expansion system, well-known as a recognition method of face images, takes notice of this nature of the general face images to extract a feature from the face image through the KL expansion for recognition. A detailed description is taken in the document "Face Recognition Using Eigenfaces" CVPR '91 (PROc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 1991), written by Matthew A. Turk and Alex P. Pentland. Although slightly different in input and output, the face image recognition can commonly be defined as a method which previously registers face image being models in a data base to recognize the face image of a person on the model data most similar to an input image. From this point of view, the KL expansion method is designed to approximate the an input face image I and a model image M through the linear combination of P eigenvectors Ei (i =1 . . . P) as shown by the following equation (3) taking the above description into consideration to perform the collation between the approximate data. ##EQU3## where Mrepresents an approximate value to a model face M and (M, E.sub.i) designates an inner product of vectors M and E.sub.i.
The KL method uses, as the basic vectors, the eigenvectors corresponding to P (for example, approximately 100) eigenvalues selected out of the eigenvalues of a covariance matrix obtainable from W teaching face image data in the order of decreasing magnitude. The use of this expression can reduce the expressive space of an image from the M.multidot.N (=10000) dimensions up to the approximately P (=100) dimensions while minimizing the loss of the image information contents, and hence it has hitherto been known as an effective technique for the image compression or the like, and is referred to as the KL expansion. According to this KL expansion, as a result of the extraction of a feature other than the nature on the information compression, the teaching data projected are separable most nicely, that is, distinguishable, in a space (which is referred to as an eigenface space) formed by the eigenvectors. In fact, according to the aforesaid document written by Matthew A. Turk and Alex P. Pentland, the person set of the teaching data coincides with the person set of the registered data, and a considerably excellent recognition result is attainable from the experiment in which the face of a person used for the teaching data is newly photographed to be used as an input image.
FIG. 4 is an illustration of an arrangement of a prior face image recognition system disclosed in the aforesaid document written by Matthew A. Turk and Alex P. Pentland, and referring to FIG. 4 a description will be made hereinbelow of an operation of this face image recognition system. In FIG. 4, a KL expansion unit 21 also serves as a first feature extraction means and a second feature extraction means, and implements the feature extraction from each model image existing in a model image memory 22 and stores a feature vector in a model feature vector memory 23, with these being done in the off-line processing. In the on-line, an input image, taken through a camera and retained in an object image memory 24, is transferred to the KL expansion unit 21 so that a feature vector is extracted as in the case of the model face image. Secondly, a model selection unit 25 finds out a model having a feature vector most similar to the feature vector of this input object face by checking with the contents of the model feature vector memory 23. More specifically, through the use of the basic vectors (as described before, the KL method uses, as the basic vectors, the eigenvectors corresponding to P eigenvalues (for example, approximately 100 in number) selected out of the eigenvalues of the covariance matrix obtainable from W teaching face image data in the order of decreasing magnitude) stored in an eigenspace memory (not shown), each model face vector and the input object face vector are projected onto an eigenspace (the extraction of a feature) to attain a coordinate in the eigenspace to evaluate the similarity, thus providing the output on the face image recognition. At the time, the following equation (4) is employed for the evaluation of the similarity to detect the vectors which minimizes the result of the equation (4). ##EQU4## where m.sub.l and i.sub.l represent the l.sup.th values of the feature vector and the object face feature vector.
There is a problem which arises with the prior method proposed in the aforesaid document written by Matthew A. Turk and Alex P. Pentland, however, in that the realizable system scale is small for the following reason. That is, when the KL expansion exhibits its advantages to the utmost limit in the manner of equalizing the person of the teaching data with the person of the model data, even if the number of teaching data increases, the number of effective eigenvectors obtainable undergoes restriction for the reason as mentioned above, and hence, as the number of model data (registered persons) increases, the distribution of the feature vectors in the eigenface space gets to be tight to cause the recognition ability to lower. Therefore, the number of persons registerable (or recognizable) is exposed to limitation, which makes it difficult to realize a large-scale system.

Feature extraction system and face image recognition system

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A transformer coil winding apparatus for winding a winding wire on a coil bobbin comprises a rotating drive mechanism for rotatably driving the coil bobbin by a friction force between the coil bobbin and the rotating drive mechanism. Further, the transformer coil winding apparatus comprises a detection unit provided on said coil bobbin, a rotation number counting unit for counting number of rotations of the coil bobbin on the basis of the output of the detection unit, and a drive unit for rotatably driving the rotating drive mechanism in response to the number of rotations on the rotation number counting unit. Therefore, the production cost for the transformer can be lowered.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transformer coil winding apparatus, more particularly, to a transformer coil winding apparatus for winding a winding wire on a coil bobbin to constitute a transformer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, a transformer, is for example, constituted by the way that a cylindrical coil bobbin is mounted to a non-cut iron core of essentially circular cross section, and the winding wire (coil) is wound by rotation of the coil bobbin. In this type of transformer, gear teeth are formed on the outer periphery of the coil bobbin to mesh with a gear of a drive shaft, whereby synchronization of a drive motor and the coil bobbin is established for accurately obtaining the number of turns of the winding wire unto the fraction.
Note, in the transformer coil winding apparatus according to the related art, when the winding wire is to be shifted laterally (traverse), the shifting magnitude is determined depending upon the diameter of the winding wire. Further, the diameter of the winding wire may fluctuate, and thus fine adjustment of a traverse operation cannot be obtained. Further, in the transformer coil winding apparatus of the related art, a reversal operation of the traverse shift is carried out by actuating the limit switch with the traverse unit when the winding wire (coil) abuts the flange at either side end of the coil bobbin.
In the transformer coil winding apparatus according to the related art, the gear teeth are formed on the outer periphery of the coil bobbin, and thus production cost for the coil bobbin becomes higher and the production cost of the transformer increases. Further, the rotational drive with meshed gear is not suitable for high speed rotation of the coil bobbin, and thus the meshed gear is not suitable for mass production to again cause a rise in the production cost of the transformer.
Furthermore, when the traverse shifting magnitude is determined depending upon the diameter of the winding wire, the actual winding wire diameter is not uniform to cause disturbance of the traverse shifting. In addition, when the reversal operation of traverse shift is carried out by actuating the limit switch with the traverse unit, as described above, even when the shifting magnitude of the traverse unit (traverse shifting magnitude) is adjusted to a predetermined speed, the reversal operation may occur before or after reaching the predetermined coil width, since the coil width is variable depending upon the diameter of the winding wire.

Transformer coil winding apparatus for winding wire on a coil bobbin


Homogeneous antimicrobial compositions and antimicrobial wet wipes and lotions which include the antimicrobial compositions are described. The homogeneous antimicrobial composition includes at least about 50 weight percent water based on a total weight of the composition and an effective amount of a hydrophobic antimicrobial agent which is uniformly dispersed in the composition. The antimicrobial wet wipe includes from about 150 to about 600 weight percent of the antimicrobial composition based on the dry weight of the wipe. The homogenous antimicrobrial composition may include, based upon the total weight of the composition, (a) from about 0.01 to about 3.0 weight percent of a hydrophobic antimicrobrial agent; (b) from about 1.0 to about 15.0 weight percent of an amide; (c) from about 1.0 to about 30.0 weight percent of a surfactant; and (d) from about 50 to about 98 weight percent water.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antimicrobial composition and an antimicrobial wet wipe which includes the same. In particular, the present invention relates to an aqueous antimicrobial composition which includes a hydrophobic antimicrobial agent.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional antimicrobial compositions have been used in cleansing and cosmetic products such as liquid soaps, shampoos, detergents, lotions, and premoistened wipes. Such compositions have incorporated antibacterial agents to promote the general body hygiene of the user. However, several problems have occurred when attempting to incorporate antibacterial agents into such conventional compositions.
For example, when it is desired that the antibacterial composition be aqueous in nature, the use of antibacterial agents which are hydrophobic, or water-insoluble, has been very limited. The main reason for the limited use of hydrophobic antibacterial agents in aqueous antibacterial compositions is that it has been very difficult to achieve a homogeneous or uniformly dispersed mixture when the hydrophobic antibacterial agents are added to aqueous compositions. Frequently, the hydrophobic antibacterial agents have undesirably precipitated in the aqueous compositions. Such non-homogeneous compositions have also resulted in compositions which have not been completely satisfactory to the consumer due to their cloudy appearance. In an attempt to solve this problem, several conventional compositions have included solvents, such as ethanol and propanol, to achieve solubility of the antibacterial agents. However, conventional compositions which have included such solvents have undesirably resulted in dehydration, stinging and irritation of the skin of the user. The use of such solvents has also undesirably resulted in compositions which are highly unstable, relatively volatile, and difficult to process.
As a result, it has been necessary to use antibacterial agents which readily dissolve in water in many conventional antibacterial compositions. However, such water soluble antibacterial agents have not been completely satisfactory. For example, many of the water soluble antibacterial agents are not as effective as the hydrophobic antibacterial agents.
In an attempt to achieve homogeneous mixtures, many conventional antibacterial compositions have also used large quantities of surface active agents, or surfactants. However, such large quantities of surfactants have lead to excessive foaming of the composition and compositions which are cloudy in appearance. Such excessive foaming and cloudy appearance of the compositions is generally undesirable to the consumer and is particularly undesirable to the consumer when the composition is being used in wet wipes. Typically, consumers of wet wipes desire solutions which do not lather, foam or deposit suds on the skin.
Accordingly, it remains desirable to provide an antimicrobial composition which is stable, highly effective, homogeneous and non-irritating to the skin. In particular, it remains desirable to provide an aqueous antimicrobial solution which includes an effective amount of a hydrophobic antimicrobial agent which is dispersed to provide a homogeneous, clear solution which is non-irritaing to the skin and relatively nonlathering. It is also desirable that such an antimicrobial composition be readily processable. Such an antimicrobial solution is particularly desirable for use with conventional wet wipes and lotions.

Antimicrobial compositions and wet wipes including the same


Techniques for presenting a key to a human across a human-machine interface include receiving key data that indicates a key to be input to a target process. The key is reversibly converted to a first human-language statement. The human language statement is designed so that multiple variations in the human-language statement due to common human errors can be correctly reversed to regenerate the key data. The common human-language statement is presented to a human user for use in the target process. After receiving input data that indicates a second human language statement based on human memory of the first human language statement, the second human language statement is corrected for common human language errors. The corrected second human language statement is then converted to second key data and sent to the target process. Thus multiple human inputs are accepted and correctly converted to the key for the target process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the human-machine interface; and, in particular to presenting key data for subsequent human use as input to a process, in which the key data is presented to the human in a form that is more resilient against human entry error than previous approaches.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer user is often required to input product codes or Internet Protocol addresses to one or more programs which that user employs on a computer system. This task can be daunting when the user has no concept of the meaning of the data. This situation arises, for example, when an unsophisticated network subscriber is asked to configure a network device with an Internet Protocol (IP) address, or a more sophisticated user is asked to input a long string of characters as a product code. Without a context, the series of characters appears (or is) random and is difficult to remember or enter correctly, or both. For example, a person's relative who has just installed a wireless router in her home, finds it difficult to remember to set an IP address of 192.168.1.1 for one of the devices on the network. Several errors are likely to be introduced, such as entering 198.162.11, any one of which is sufficient to prevent successful performance of a desired task.
In a previous approach some computer processes use one or more key words to make it easier for a human user to remember information. For example, AmericaOnLine (AOL) of Dulles, Va. allows users to have passwords made of words rather than random letters and numbers and special characters. While suitable for some purposes, this approach still suffers from failure if even one or the words is mistyped or presented out of order. Only one entry suffices, every variation, no matter how easy to make or how common its occurrence, leads to failure.
Based on the foregoing there is a clear need for techniques to provide human users with forms of key data to enter in a computer system or process, which forms are resilient against common variations that may occur upon human entry, including the effects of mistaken memory and inarticulate operation of an input device (e.g., typographical errors).

Techniques for passing data across the human-machine interface


The present utility model discloses a lampshade comprising fasteners, a lampshade body and support frames; the lampshade body comprises a light transmitting sheet and a piece of lampshade cloth; the bottom and/or top of the lampshade body are/is designed with soft band-shaped reinforcing ribs which extend in the length direction of the side wall surface and cover the lampshade body and prop up against at least one fastener; in the present utility model, the bottom and/or top of the lampshade body are/is designed with soft band-shaped reinforcing ribs which extend in the length direction of the side wall surface, the integration of the reinforcing ribs and the matching fasteners with the flexibility of the soft material makes the lampshade easy to be packaged and reduce the volume of its package and finally lower the transportation cost.

The present utility model relates to the field of lamp design, in particular relates to a lampshade.
The lampshades are designed surrounding the flames of lamps or on the lamps for gathering light or keeping out the wind; in the prior art, the lampshades themselves are structure-defective, for example, the bottom and/or top of one of such lampshade are/is designed to be made from relatively hard materials; the materials for the light transmitting sheets are thick and hard; therefore, when packaging such lampshades, it is difficult to fold or bundle up them very well, and as a result, their packaging volumes are excessively big and it is necessary to use relatively big packaging boxes to hold such products, increasing the packaging and transportation costs; in addition, as shown in FIG. 1 of the SPECIFICATIONS, the holes for the fasteners of lampshades based on the prior art to pass through are designed on the lampshade bodies consisting of lampshade cloth and light transmitting sheets; after passing through the lampshades, one end of the fastener buckling parts is located on one side of the light transmitting sheet and the base on the other side is located on one side of the lampshade cloth; edge strips are designed at the position of the lampshade cloth passing through the fastener holder with the aim to keep out the wind and fix the fasteners onto the lampshade body, but such design affects the overall aesthetic feeling of lamps.


Cosmetic and dermatological formulations comprising at least one hydrophilic active ingredient and at least one dialkyl naphthalate which is characterized by the structural formula

Cosmetic skincare serves primarily to strengthen or restore the natural function of the skin as a barrier against environmental influences (e.g. dirt, chemicals, microorganisms) and against the loss of substances intrinsic to the body (as well as water, also natural fats, electrolytes, etc.).
Impairment of this function may lead to increased resorption of toxic or allergenic substances or to attack by microorganisms, resulting in toxic or allergic skin reactions.
A further aim of skincare is to compensate for the loss by the skin of sebum and water caused by daily washing. This is particularly important when the natural regeneration ability is inadequate. Furthermore, skincare products should protect against environmental influences, in particular against sun and wind, and delay skin ageing.
Chronological skin ageing is caused, for example, by endogenous, genetically determined factors. As a result of ageing, the following structural damage and functional disorders, which can also fall under the term "senile xerosis", arise in the epidermis and dermis:
a) dryness, roughness and formation of dryness wrinkles,
b) itching and
c) reduced refatting by sebaceous glands (e.g. after washing).
Exogenous factors, such as UV light and chemical noxae, can have a cumulative effect and, for example, accelerate or supplement the endogenous ageing processes. In the epidermis and dermis, for example, the following structural damage and functional disorders may arise in the skin in particular as a result of exogenous factors; these are more far-reaching than the degree and quality of the damage in the case of chronological ageing:
d) visible vascular dilations (teleangiectases, couperosis);
e) flaccidity and formation of wrinkles;
f) local hyperpigmentation, hypopigmentation and abnormal pigmentation (e.g. age spots) and
g) increased susceptibility to mechanical stress (e.g. cracking).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Stablization of oxidation-sensitive or UV-sensitive active ingredients

Abstract: in which R1 and R2, independently of one another, are selected from the group of branched and unbranched alkyl groups having 6 to 24 carbon atoms, have been found to be stable and effective, particularly in moisturizing the skin or protection the skin from skin aging.


A liquid crystal display is disclosed. In one aspect, the liquid crystal display includes first and second display substrates and a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween. The liquid crystal display also includes a sealant interposed between the first and second display substrates and substantially sealing the liquid crystal layer. The sealant overlaps a gate metal portion formed on the first display substrate. The gate metal portion includes a first gate metal, a second gate metal opposing the first gate metal and spaced apart from the first gate metal, and a third gate metal spaced apart from the first and second gate metals. The gate metal portion further includes a first diode electrically connecting the first gate metal to the third gate metal and a second diode electrically connecting the second gate metal to the third gate metal.

1. Field
The described technology generally relates to a liquid crystal display.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are widely used flat panel displays. LCDs include two display plates on which electrodes (hereinafter referred to as electric field generation electrodes) for generating an electric field are formed. A liquid crystal layer is interposed between the display plates. The transmittance of light passing through the liquid crystal layer is adjusted by applying a voltage between the electric field generation electrodes to generate an electric field such that liquid crystal molecules within the liquid crystal layer are rearranged.


A Tee nut and method of manufacture is provided which Tee nut includes a flange and a hollow barrel extending from the flange. The flange is general circular and has a pair of pawls extending upwardly therefrom, each of which terminates in teeth for engaging a base member. The barrel has an end portion proximal to the flange and a distal end portion. The proximal end portion has internal female threads and the distal end portion has a smooth unthreaded inner surface. The wall thickness of the distal end portion is thinner than the wall thickness of the proximal end portion, and the outer wall diameter is essentially constant for the length of the barrel. The barrel is formed first as an elongate member extending from a strip of material initially having a constant inner diameter and an outer diameter of the proximal portion greater than the outer diameter of the distal portion, with the distal portion having a wall thickness thinner than the wall thickness of the proximal portion. The outer diameter of the distal portion is increased to the same diameter as the outer diameter of the proximal portion while maintaining the same wall thicknesses of both the distal and proximal portions. The internal surface of the proximal portion is threaded with threads terminating at the distal portion and having a lead angle of at least about 80.degree.. The terminal end surface of the distal portion is essentially planar and parallel to a flange.

This invention relates generally to a Tee nut and the method of manufacturing thereof, and more particularly to a Tee nut formed with improved pawls and barrel configuration and method of manufacture thereof to provide improved performance of the nut.
Background Art
The use of Tee nuts as anchors in wood or plastic or composite or other base material into which screws are threaded is well-known in the art. These are especially useful in the manufacturing of furniture. Conventionally Tee nuts include a flange which typically will have pawls extending therefrom to engage the base wood or other material and prevent rotation of the Tee nut and secure the Tee nut in the material. The Tee nut also has an elongate generally cylindrical barrel which is conventionally threaded internally with female threads. In some instances the threading extends only partially within the barrel from the flange at the proximal end portion to the beginning of the distal end portion with the distal end portion being smooth and often having a larger inside diameter than the proximal end portion.
While the pawls may have several different forms e.g. as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,596 these various pawl forms have limitations or drawbacks either in their effectiveness in holding the Tee nut in place or in the technique of manufacturing the pawls or hampering the feeding of the Tee nuts in automatic feeders.
FIG. 1 shows a side elevational view and FIG. 2 shows a top plan view of one embodiment of a prior art Tee nut and FIG. 3 shows schematically a problem known as shingling encountered when the prior art Tee nuts of FIGS. 1 and 2 are conveyed in a feed track. This shingling occurs when the flange portion of one Tee nut overrides the flange portion of an adjacent Tee nut during feeding thus causing jamming or improper feeding. Moreover, the pawls of the Tee nut shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 while particularly useful for inserting the Tee nut in soft wood, if these types of pawls are used in a plastic or dense wood product, the prongs tend not to penetrate the material but to fold over during insertion. This can cause the part to spin when the bolt is inserted into the part. Thus, the prior art Tee nut of FIGS. 1 and 2 has some significant problems in feeding and is limited in its use.
FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of a another embodiment of a prior art Tee nut and FIG. 5 is a plan view of the Tee nut of FIG. 4. FIG. 6 depicts somewhat schematically a problem encountered when the Tee nut of FIGS. 4 and 5 is utilized in an automatic feed track. As can be seen in FIG. 6, the small upwardly projecting pawl can tend to jam in the feed track thus preventing proper feed of the Tee nut. Moreover, the pawl configuration in the Tee nut of FIGS. 4 and 5 is especially useful in plastic and very dense wood. However, in plywoods or other soft woods this pawl, due to its shape and size, tends to rotate when the bolt is installed. Thus, the prior art Tee nut shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 has limitations in its use and significant drawbacks in its ability to be fed in an automatic feeding track.
Also, the technique of forming the barrel e.g. as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,596 has several drawbacks and limitations. These includes a shallow, and thus less desirable lead angle, and non-uniform barrel lengths.


Multi-channel recording system for audio signals comprising a general purpose computer (13) having a sound card (18) with two analog-to-digital converters (20, 22) for receiving two analog audio signals and recording these signals into digital form into a memory, and comprising an analog multiplexer (10, 12) arranged to combine a plurality n of input audio signals in analog form and to supply two resulting multiplexed signals (14, 16) to the analog-to-digital converters (20, 22), the computer (13) being arranged to function as a digital de-multiplexer (28, 30) for recovering the input audio signals in digital form and recording them into memory.

Audio capturing hardware and auxiliary software for recording audio signals have become integral parts of modern computers. This hardware is generally inexpensive and allows the recording of 16 bit mono/stereo signals with a sampling rate up to 44 kHz. Such a high sampling rate is generally not necessary for speech signals where for most applications a sampling rate 11 kHz is sufficient. On the other hand, the quality of the recording is often a problem due to environmental noise, interfering signals, room reverberation, other speakers, etc. Multi-microphone technologies such as beamforming and adaptive beamforming allow significant enhancement in the quality of the recorded signal improving the signal to noise ratio, canceling the interfering signals or environmental noise, reducing reverberation, tracking the speaker movements, etc.
Today, it is possible to perform stereo recording without using special or highly separated microphones, which is important for video conferencing applications. Noise cancellation is probably a classical application of multi-microphone technologies. Additional noise cancellation means produce an output signal clear from any signal but the signal of interest. It is known from the theory of beamforming that, by using N spatially separated omnidirectional microphones, it is theoretically possible to clean the signal of interest from up to N-1 interfering signals if they come from directions different from the direction of interest. One application of noise cancellation is to use it as a front end for a speech recognition system. Voice communication in a noisy environment is another application where the user may greatly benefit from improved signal-to-noise ratio of the transmitted signals.
Since the microphones are separated in space and sound sources are located in specific places (at least temporarily), the microphones record different signals. In the simplest (ideal) case, the signals are just delayed versions of each other. In more complex cases they may be filtered versions of each other or even contain independent information. In any case, these differences have spatial origin and hence may be exploited to extract spatial information about recorded sounds.
Unfortunately, use and development of these advanced technologies is hampered by the lack of hardware allowing simultaneous recording of multi-channel signals into a computer memory. Furthermore, many other applications might immediately emerge as soon as an inexpensive technology for recording multi-channel or multi-microphone signals become available.

Multi-channel recording system for a general purpose computer

International Business Machines Corporation


The presently disclosed subject matter is directed to a sun shade assembly. Particularly, the assembly includes a sail that releasably attaches to a pair of ribs, providing shade to the user. At least one support arm can be used to reinforce the ribs. A mast provides height to the assembly and includes an anchor that allows the assembly to be secured into a support surface (e.g., sand). The ribs and support arms rotate about the mast, thereby self-adjusting the direction of sail in response to the wind blowing. The assembly further includes a tension adjuster that can be tightened or loosed to control the rotation of the ribs and support arms in response to wind conditions.

Beach umbrellas are used to create an area shaded from the sunlight beneath the umbrella canopy. They are particularly useful at the beach where there is generally a lack of trees or roofed structures to provide shade. Because the skin of the beachgoer is largely exposed at the beach, there is a greater need to provide protection from harmful ultraviolet rays, which may cause sunburn or melanomas. Many beachgoers also require some form of shade to minimize heat discomfort. The shade and shelter provided by a beach umbrella is also useful in protecting the user's valuables and shielding perishable items from direct sunlight. Conventional beach umbrellas include a single central support pole with a pointed lower end that is inserted directly into the sand. Conventional umbrellas further include an overhead fabric covering attached to the support pole. However, the main problem with the canopy design of traditional umbrellas is that the position of the umbrella constantly shifts in response to wind gusts. As a result, the user must frequently readjust the umbrella to compensate for the shifts in movement. In addition, conventional umbrellas can easily tip over or be blown down the beach where they can cause hassle to the owner as well as injury to other beachgoers. Conventional umbrellas are also prone to wind breakage. It would therefore be beneficial to provide an umbrella with improved stability in response to the wind blowing. It would further be beneficial if the umbrella self-adjusted to the wind to prevent or reduce the likelihood of tipping over.


Provided is a pharmaceutical composition for preventing or treating cancer, and more particularly, a pharmaceutical composition for preventing or treating cancer, including dendritic cells with a knock-down Dab2 gene. The composition includes a dendritic cell in which a Dab2 gene is knocked down or knocked out or activity of a Dab2 protein is suppressed as an active ingredient, and thus is expected to be useful as a pharmaceutical composition to prevent, improve or treat cancer as a result of having improved antigen uptake, a migration ability of a cell to a lymph node, and expression of inflammatory cytokines, and activating antigen-specific cytotoxic T cell lymphocyte (CTL) and related T cells that can attack cancer cells, and therefore is expected to be used as the pharmaceutical composition for preventing, improving or treating cancer.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a pharmaceutical composition for preventing or treating cancer, and more particularly, to a pharmaceutical composition for preventing or treating cancer that includes dendritic cells with a knock-down disabled 2 (Dab2) gene.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Dendritic cells (DCs) are antigen-presenting cells (APCs) which play a critical role in the initiation of an antigen-specific adaptive immune response. DCs have various characteristics according to their origin, phenotype, function, and maturation process. Generally, to be used in DC studies, DCs are prepared by extracting mouse bone marrow stem cells or human monocytes and differentiating the stem cells or monocytes in media, to which granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and IL-4 are added in vitro. However, an in vivo mechanism for differentiation of bone marrow stem cells into DC, and their maintenance, is little known. Environmental or genetic factors are also critical factors in DC differentiation, but are not known so far. DCs may be critical in stimulating or suppressing a T cell response depending on the situation, thereby regulating in vivo immune homeostasis. Locally, immune tolerance DCs are involved in an immune inhibition or immune tolerance mechanism through activation of regulatory T cells (Treg cells), and thus a cytokine such as interleukin 10 (IL-10) or a transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) may be expressed, resulting in immune regulation. Treg cells expressing TGF-β and Foxp3 serve to regulate immune responses, and play important roles in maintaining immune homeostasis.
Meanwhile, a Dab2 gene is well known as an adaptor protein involved in a signal transduction mechanism and endocytosis using several receptors. A Dab2 protein has a phosphotyrosine-binding domain binding to membrane proteins such as a low density lipoprotein receptor (LDL receptor) and a TGF-β receptor at the N-terminus. In addition, Dab2 includes a proline-rich domain (PRD) capable of binding to a protein having an SH3 domain such as Grb2 at the C-terminus. The Dab2 gene expresses two types of proteins including P96 and P67. While the main type, the P96 Dab2 protein, is expressed in adults, the P67 protein is generally expressed during embryonic development.
The Dab2 protein is expressed in cells of various tissues or organs including brain, kidney, ovary, and breast. Dab2 shows a lower expression in several tumor tissues than normal tissue, and in normal cells, Dab2 expression strongly suppresses cell proliferation. Thus, the Dab2 protein is known as a critical tumor suppressor. A mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal transduction (Ras-Raf pathway) mechanism is critically useful in cell growth, proliferation, and differentiation. Dab2 competitively binds to Grb2 regulating a growth factor and a Ras pathway with Sos. The tumor suppression mechanism of Dab2 is known to suppress formation of cancer by Wnt in the manner of interrupting an endocytosis mechanism of low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 6 (LRP6) through Wnt/β-catenin signal transduction, in which Wnt binds to LRP6 phosphorylated at a S1579 site by a casein kinase 2 (CK2). However, such a tumor suppression mechanism of Dab2 cannot explain regulation of the Wnt/β-catenin signal transduction mechanism essentially involved in thymus differentiation or T cell differentiation, survival, and maturation.
Meanwhile, most known cancer treatments mainly include surgery, anticancer agents, and radiotherapy. However, these treatments are accompanied by, for example, side effects, difficulty in attaining a full recovery, and therefore may not be an optimal fundamental treating method of cancer. Particularly, in the case of metastatic cancer or recurrent cancer, in most cases, it is impossible to apply a surgical treatment. And there is a resistance to a chemotherapeutic agent in many cases. Therefore development of a new treating agent for these cancer patients is eagerly sought. Meanwhile, a recently developed cancer treating agent using DCs (refer to Korean Patent No. 10-1169331), compared to conventional agents, exhibits long-term efficacy due to immunological memory, is very effective and safe in prevention of metastasis or reoccurrence of the same cancer, and thus is expected to be a new anticancer immunotherapy. However, for the last decade, efficacy of a DC vaccine for treating cancer did not show an expected effect, and thus the disclosure of the present application is directed to an increase in efficacy of a DC vaccine.

Pharmaceutical composition for preventing or treating cancers comprising dendritic cells with Dab2 gene silenced

Research & Business Foundation Sungkyunkwan University


This invention provides for the fully automated, hands free, packing of chromatography columns by means of delivering a pre-calculated volume of slurry and using two different packing modalities to stop the packing when either 1) this volume has been delivered in the column, or 2) when the adapter is moved to reach a bed height corresponding to the pre-calculated volume. Thus, a chromatography column can be packed in a fully automated fashion and such a column is 1) stable and 2) has the desired performance characteristic.

Columns used in liquid chromatography typically comprise a tubular body enclosing a porous chromatography medium through which a carrier liquid flows, with separation taking place by material collection between the carrier liquid and solid phase of the porous medium. Typically, the medium is enclosed in the column as a packed bed formed by consolidating a suspension of discrete particles, known as slurry that is pumped, poured, or sucked into the column. Consolidation of the slurry into a packed bed is achieved by compressing the slurry so that it is packed into a volume, which is less than the volume that it would have occupied if it had been allowed to settle under the influence of gravity to form a sedimented bed. The efficiency of subsequent chromatographic separation relies strongly on 1) the liquid distribution and collection system at the fluid inlet and outlet of the packed bed, 2) on the special orientation (also know as the packing geometry) of the media particles in the packed bed, and 3) on the compression of the packed bed. If the compression of the packed bed is too low then chromatographic separations performed on that bed suffer from "tailing" and, generally, such insufficiently compressed beds are unstable. If the compression of the packed bed is too high then chromatographic separations performed by the bed suffer from "leading" and such over-compressed beds can affect throughput and binding capacity, and, in general, give much higher operating pressures. If the compression is optimum, then the separation peaks formed during use exhibit much less leading or tailing and are substantially symmetrical. The optimum degree of compression required for a column is determined experimentally for each column size (width or diameter), bed height, and media type.
Prior to any separation process, the bed has to be prepared by starting from the slurry of particles that has to be introduced into the column. The process of bed formation is called 'the packing procedure' and a correctly packed bed is a critical factor influencing the performance of a column containing a packed bed. One of the primary goals of the packing procedure is to provide a bed, which is compressed by the optimum amount of compression, i.e. the optimum compression factor. The height of the bed when it is optimally compressed is called the target compressed bed height.
Large-scale columns, such as CHROMAFLOW™ (which is a registered trademark of GE Healthcare are columns manufactured by GE Healthcare in Piscataway, N.J.), CHROMAFLOW™-like columns and other columns presently utilized in the industry, are preferably packed by delivering it into the column, through a central slurry nozzle, media valve, or another port, a predetermined volume of slurry having a specified concentration of media particles. Once the predetermined volume of slurry has been delivered into the column, the chromatography medium in the column may be either 1) fully packed or 2) not packed and in need to be further consolidated and compressed by moving a movable adapter down the longitudinal axis of the column towards the bottom of the column, normally at a constant speed. The excess liquid during this procedure is expelled at the column outlet, while the media particles are retained by means of a filter material, a so-called 'bed support', with pores too small to allow the media particles to pass though. The packing process is complete once the packed bed has been compressed by the optimum amount or degree of compression. The packing process is considered successful if the compressed bed allows for a good and robust chromatographic performance. However, packing such an optimally compressed bed of chromatography media in a chromatography column by manual means is not easy to accomplish in practice due to the fact that the quality of the final packed bed depends to a great extent on the skill of the operator. During filling and subsequent packing of the column, the operator manually selects and adjusts all packing parameters such as valve positions, pump speed, flow rates, adapter's speed of movement, etc. More importantly, in all cases, the operator has to arbitrarily decide when the column packing should end by visually determining that either 1) sufficient slurry has been delivered into the column or 2) that the adapter has sufficiently compressed the bed. Mistakes in the selection of any of the packing parameters, and/or mistakes in the decision on when to end the packing, normally lead to a poorly performing column. Further, in columns equipped with a transparent tube it is particularly difficult, and in columns equipped with a non-transparent tube such as stainless steel it is impossible, to judge by eye when compression of the bed actually starts and a significant error at this point makes it impossible to obtain an optimally compressed bed. In sum, column packing has hitherto been regarded as an art rather than a science.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method for the accurate and reproducible packing of chromatography media into chromatography columns.

System and method for the automation of column and media packing


A bearing assembly is for rotatably coupling a shaft and a housing includes an inner ring with an inner surface disposable about the shaft, an outer ring disposed about the inner ring and having an outer circumferential surface, and a plurality of rolling elements disposed between the inner and outer rings. A retainer has a first end engageable with the shaft or housing and a second end engaged with the inner ring or outer ring. The retainer positions the inner or outer ring with respect to the central axis such that the ring is generally centered on the axis. The retainer is further configured to substantially prevent angular displacement of the inner or outer ring about the central axis and to bias the ring generally axially.

The present invention relates to bearings, and more particularly to rolling element bearings with a device for establishing preload.
Certain bearing assemblies, such as "double bearing" assemblies for supporting X-ray tube actuators, include two axially spaced apart bearings rotatably coupling a shaft with a housing. Often, these bearing assemblies include a spring or other means to axially bias the bearing outer ring generally toward the inner ring in order to establish a preload. In order to enable the axial displacement of the outer ring, the fit between the outer surface of the outer ring and the inner surface of the housing must permit at least a limited amount of sliding movement of the bearing outer ring.
However, at elevated operating temperatures, the housing and/or the bearing expands, which may eliminate the sliding fit of the outer ring within the housing. As such, the outer ring may become "stuck" and create excessive clearance within the bearing itself (i.e., insufficient preload or no preload) or generate an inward radial force on the bearing that could cause skidding or sliding of the rolling elements within the bearing raceways.


The present invention relates to methods of making compositions for sensor films used for detecting chemical analytes within sensors, such as polymer-absorption chemiresistors (i.e., conductometric sensors). The sensor films have reduced cross-sensitivity to temperature, while maintaining sensitivity to the chemical analytes. The sensor matrix includes components that are associated with a first temperature coefficient of resistance, such as a polymer resin and/or a first conductive particle. The sensor matrix further comprises a second species, preferably a conductive particle, which has a second temperature coefficient of resistance that is opposite to the first temperature coefficient of resistance. The second species has an opposite influence on a resistance response of the sensor from the first species. In this manner, the sensor matrix exhibits a minimized response in resistance to any changes in temperature.

Detection of specific target analytes, or chemical compounds, is important for many applications, including for example, detecting whether the concentration of analytes exceeds flammability limits. Target analytes are detected by sensors operating according to different detection mechanisms, known in the art. Most sensors employ a sensing component that is physically modified in the presence of specific analytes present in the environment. Thus, a sensor typically comprises a probe that includes both the sensing component and a probe body housing (including terminals for transmitting an output). The terminals are typically coupled to a processor, also part of the sensor, which analyzes the outputs received from the sensor probe to a user interface. Such a user interface typically contains an indicating device which signals a user when concentration values of an analyte have been exceeded.
Many sensors employ a sensing component that is a sensor film. Many sensor films swell, increasing in volume, while in the presence of the analytes. Various sensors available in the art utilize the physical changes in the sensor film to determine concentration of analyte present. Such sensors may include optical sensors, such as fiber optic sensors, where a beam of light is projected through an optical fiber at a sensor film cladding, and physical changes (e.g., refractive index or color) in the film are monitored. Such changes in refractive index occur when analytes are absorbed and change the physical properties of the cladding (including volumetric changes). Other sensors include surface acoustic wave sensors (SAWS), which project ultrasonic waves through the sensor film between transducers, and likewise detect any modifications in the properties of the sensor film (primarily the mass), translating those changes to the concentration of analyte present.
Another type of sensor film is a conductometric sensor, more particularly, a polymer-absorption chemiresistor sensor. A polymer-absorption chemiresistor has a polymer film sensor exposed to a surrounding atmosphere containing target analytes (chemical compounds). An electrical charge is applied across the polymer film. The polymer absorbs target analytes and this results in a volumetric change of the film, and hence the change in electrical resistance of the film.
Further, conductive particles may be distributed throughout the polymer film to enhance the sensitivity to resistance changes in the material when the volume of the polymer changes. However, any sensor film that relies upon physical changes resulting from absorption of the chemical analytes (i.e., volume, mass, refractive index, and resistance) is generally also sensitive to volumetric and resistive changes dependent on temperature. Thus, it is desirable to reduce the sensitivity to temperature and even more desirable to concurrently enhance the sensitivity to target chemical analytes. There is a need for increasing stability of a sensor film matrix by reducing or eliminating resistance fluctuations due to temperature, while maintaining and/or enhancing detection of desired chemical analytes.

Methods of minimizing temperature cross-sensitivity in vapor sensors and compositions therefor


A door opening screening system that is suitable for screening large garage door openings and that includes two retractable screen assemblies that are deployed across the garage door opening and that are secured together to form a screen across the garage door opening. The door opening screening system also includes at least one screen assembly trackway section that is attachable above a doorway opening and that includes a resilient U-shaped trackway guide member that forms a screen guide channel sized to receive and hold a top edge of a screen assembly.

It is often desirable to use the large space provided in a garage for hobbies such as wood working or other activities such as exercising. Although garages can provide ample space for such activities, garages often have little ventilation available without opening the large garage door. Opening the garage door can provide ventilation, however, insects, animals and other annoyances can enter the garage space when the garage door is open. It would be a benefit, therefore, to have a screening system for screening the garage door opening when the garage door is opened so that airflow could be provided to the garage space while insects, animals and other annoyances are kept out.


A method, device, and computer-readable medium for synchronizing video are described. A wearable camera captures first video data. Also, the wearable camera timestamps the first video data and organizes the first video data using a hash table. The wearable camera transmits the first video data to a wireless hub via a wireless connection and captures second video data. When the wireless connection between the wearable camera and the wireless hub is unable to support full resolution video playback, the wearable camera down-converts the second video data, timestamps the second video data and organizes the second video data using the hash table. The wearable camera transmits the second video data to the wireless hub. Moreover, the first video data and the second video data are synchronizable according to gap synchronization based on one or more timestamps of the first video data and one or more timestamps of the second video data.

Network camera systems can be based on Internet protocol (IP) and use Ethernet based networking technology. In some applications, network camera systems are replacing analog closed circuit television (CCTV) due to various factors, such as accessibility, ease-of-use, cabling scalability, and lower cost of deployment and operation. With the ubiquity of wireless networks such as WiFi networks (based on IEEE 802.11 standards) and the emerging WiMAX networks (based on IEEE 802.16 standards), wireless network camera systems are gaining popularity and may become the dominant platform for video surveillance applications.
In an IP surveillance environment, a network camera system can include IP cameras connected via twisted pair cabling to a network switch. Alternatively, the network connection can be achieved using wireless local area networking (LAN) technology standard. In various applications, IP cameras can include a web-server capability and remote clients or observers connected to the camera via standard TCP/IP interface standards such as FTP or HTTP.
Real-time streaming of video can also be an important function for a video surveillance environment. A remote viewer viewing the video may wish to have minimal delays in watching the captured video in order to be able to respond to a situation more clearly. Real-time streaming also has other applications. For example, sports enthusiasts often wish to watch a sporting event in real-time so as to enable up-to-date information regarding the event.

Synchronizing the storing of streaming video


When the cell of a battery, most notably a lithium ion battery, fails and human intervention is unavailable to correct the problem. a system is provided for optimizing the energy storage capacity of the battery. At least two cellular strings, each including a plurality of battery cells, are connected electrically in series. All cellular strings contain the same number of battery cells and are electrically connected in parallel to form a battery array powering a load. A sensor detects the condition of each battery cell and sends a signal of the detected condition to a controller for operating the battery array for powering the load. A switching arrangement is responsive to the sensor, upon failure of a battery cell in one cellular string, for disconnecting at least one other battery cell of the battery array such that, thereafter, the modified battery array continues to power the load with reduced but optimized capacity. In one instance, the switching arrangement is operable, upon failure of the battery cell in one cellular string to disconnect that cellular string from the remaining cellular strings which, thereafter, alone continue to power the load. In another instance, the switching arrangement is operable, upon failure of the battery cell in one cellular string, to disconnect a battery cell from each of the remaining cellular strings whereby all of the cellular strings continue, as originally, to have an equal, albeit reduced, number of active battery cells, the modified battery array continuing to power the load.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to batteries for spacecraft applications and, more particularly, to a system for minimizing the impact of a failed battery cell achieved by operating on the battery circuit so as to optimize the usable battery energy storage capacity after the failure occurs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The effect of a failed cell on the capacity of the remainder of the cells may also be minimized by using a large number of battery cells connected in parallel with fuse protection. Such a technique is presented in commonly assigned co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/955,931 assigned to Space Systems/Loral, Inc., Docket No. PA-96090 entitled "Massively Parallel Spacecraft Battery Cell Module Design".
A key point to be considered is that for a lithium ion battery in a series-parallel array, a failed cell in one series string of battery cells of the array undesirably reduces the allowed charging voltage of the remaining series strings of the array and thereby reduces their capacity. This invention avoids such an undesirable result by sacrificially removing cells from all series strings of the array.
By way of example, for a 100 V lithium ion battery, the invention leads to a 4% capacity loss if one cell fails. Operating all arrays at a depressed voltage leads to a 50% loss while removing the effected string results in a more moderate 25% loss.
As background, it must be appreciated that spacecraft reliability requirements entail that no function on the satellite can be vulnerable to the failure of a single component. Typically, this requirement is satisfied by having multiple redundant components for each function. For batteries, the requirement is satisfied today by including an additional cell in each series string. All battery cells in the string are equipped with bypass electronic components (e. g. diodes or switches). In the event that a battery cell fails or short circuits, the battery operates with a one cell capacity reduction for which it was originally sized. In the event that the cell fails, open circuit current continues to be passed through the series string by way of the bypass circuitry.
While the invention is generally applicable to all styles of batteries, the situation with lithium ion batteries is somewhat unique in that they are not presently available in cells of sufficient size to meet the requirements of advanced high power satellites with single series string designs. Even if such lithium ion battery cells of appropriate size were available, reengineering of cells to match capacity requirements is not a desirable exercise. These factors make the use of smaller building block cells in a series-parallel combination attractive.
Two possible approaches for arranging building block cells are illustrated in FIG. 1. In a parallel-series array 20, as illustrated, individual cells 22 are connected first in parallel to form a cell module 24 and then in series along a lead 26 to form a high voltage battery unit. In a series-parallel array 28 as seen in FIG. 2, series strings 30, 32, and 34 of cells 36 are connected in parallel.
The parallel-series array 20 is electrically identical to commonly employed present satellite battery practice and similar bypass strategies may be employed. The series-parallel array presents a different problem owing to the narrow cell voltage range (illustrated in FIG. 3) over which charging occurs for a lithium ion cell and the high individual cell voltage of a lithium ion type battery. Referring to FIG. 3, it is seen that approximately half the capacity (from approximately 600 mAh to 1200+ mAh) is charged into the cell as the voltage increases. from 4.1 to 4.2 V. For a 25 cell battery, this corresponds to a voltage change of 2.5 V.
In a 25 cell series string, if one cell fails, its string charging voltage is reduced by 4.2 V/25=0.17 V. per cell.
Based on FIG. 3, this operation reduces the capacity of the parallel-series strings from 1250 mAh to 300 mAh, a 75% reduction. In addition, it creates an instability in the battery system as the string with the failed cell will have 4 times the coulombic capacity as compared to the parallel strings with no failed cells. Potential solutions to this problem are:
bypass the entire series string; unless the number of strings exceeds the number of cells per string, however, this is a bad trade; for example a 10 kW, 100 V, 73% DOD ("depth of discharge") satellite battery built with 60 Ah cells requires three 24 cell series strings to meet the capacity requirements; single point failure invulnerability requires an additional series string which is a 33% overbuild of the battery; PA1 individually regulate the voltage on each string; even for a regulated bus, this is an unattractive option as component redundancy requirements in the regulator will adversely increase mass in a distributed system; it also precludes an unregulated bus which is gravimetrically superior to the regulated bus.
It was with knowledge of the foregoing that the present invention has been conceived and is now reduced to practice.


Mounting structure to allow a production line made up of movable manufacturing devices to be rearranged quickly, safely, and reliably. The mounting structure according to the present invention includes a fixing structure installed on a floor and a leg portion installed on a bottom plate of the movable manufacturing device. The fixing structure comprises a floor side positioning member and a floor side coupling member while the leg portion comprises a leg side positioning member and a leg side coupling member. The floor side positioning member and the leg side positioning member positions the movable manufacturing device accurately by fitting each other when the device is placed at the specified location of the fixing structure. The floor side coupling member and the leg side coupling member fixes the movable manufacturing device located on the fixing structure by coupling each other.

Minimal fabrication is a kind of fabrication system which includes one or more movable manufacturing devices.
Minimal fabrication has been attracting attention as a low-cost, energy-saving manufacturing method for high-mix, low-volume production or low-volume, high-variety production of semiconductor devices. A minimal manufacturing device is a unit which handles one process such as exposure, etching, or cleaning of semiconductor devices on a production line during minimal fabrication. A minimal fabrication production line is built by laying out the minimal manufacturing devices which undertake necessary processes, in the order of manufacturing processes. The latest studies on minimal fabrication are described, for example, in Non Patent Literature of "Semiconductor Production System and Minimal Fabrication Initiative" presented in "The Third Minimal Manufacturing Symposium" by Shiro Hara from The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology on Feb. 23, 2009.
Known conventional techniques have problems to be solved such as described below.
If the layout of minimal manufacturing devices established for production of one product is changed, a production line for another product is set up. Changing a production line involves the operation of lifting and moving the minimal manufacturing devices and putting down and fixing them in other places. However, a minimal manufacturing device which is tall in relation to its base area is unstable. Also, to make it easier to convey parts and products between processes, it is necessary to reduce spacing between adjacent minimal manufacturing devices and place the minimal manufacturing devices accurately.
To solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a mounting structure of movable manufacturing device suitable for quick movement as well as for safe and reliable transport and fixing. Another object of the present invention is to provide a floor mount fixing structure for use to fix the minimal manufacturing device to a floor, and a movable manufacturing device fixed on the floor count fixing structure.

Mounting structure of movable manufacturing device, fixing structure and movable manufacturing device

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY