A retroviral vector for gene reconstitution is provided that includes a 3′ portion of a heterologous nucleic acid sequence 5′ of a first att site and a 5′ portion of the heterologous nucleic acid sequence 3′ of a second att site. A sub-portion of the 3′ portion of the heterologous nucleic acid sequence and a sub-portion the 5′ portion of the heterologous nucleic acid sequence are direct repeats. A retroviral vector for gene reconstitution is also provided that includes a 3′ portion of a heterologous nucleic acid sequence inserted into or adjacent to a 5′ retroviral terminal repeat of the retroviral vector, and a 5′ portion of the heterologous nucleic acid sequence inserted into or adjacent to a 3′ retroviral terminal repeat of the retroviral vector, wherein the 3′ and the 5′ retroviral terminal repeats each comprise an att site. Methods and kits are also provided.

The transfer of genes into cells provides a means to determine gene function and treat diseases having a genetic basis. In addition, gene transfer provides the basis for high-level protein expression, used by molecular researchers to study protein function and to produce new protein drugs. The introduction of genes into animals can also produce useful animal models of human diseases.
Many methods have been developed to introduce exogenous genes into cells. The earliest method for introducing DNA into cells was to incubate the DNA with an inert carbohydrate polymer (dextran) to which a positively charged chemical group (DEAE) had been coupled. These large DNA-containing particles stuck to cells and were taken up by endocytosis. However, this method was inefficient for the introduction of nucleic acid into many types of cells. Another widely used method is the precipitation of DNA with calcium phosphate, which allows transient expression of genes in cells. However, neither of these methods allow the transfer of nucleic acids into a cell with a high efficiency, nor do they allow for persistent gene expression. Thus, a need remains for a high efficiency method for the stable introduction of genes into cells.
Viral vectors, such as adenoviral or retroviral vectors, have been used to introduce foreign DNA with high efficiency. Retroviruses are RNA viruses that replicate through a double-stranded DNA intermediate. After a retrovirus infects a host cell, the retroviral genomic RNA is reverse transcribed to the double stranded DNA form. This DNA can integrate into the host genome to form a provirus. Reverse transcription requires cis-acting viral sequences including the primer binding site (pbs), the repeat (R) region of the long terminal repeats (LTRs), and the polypurine tract (ppt). Viral terminal attachment sites (att) mediate the integration of the provirus into the host genome. The integrated provirus is transcribed into full-length and spliced mRNA These RNAs are used as templates to translate viral proteins. Full length mRNA is packaged by the viral proteins, which recognize viral RNA by the cis-acting E or ψ sequence. The viral particles, or virions, exit the cell by budding from the cell membrane.
Retroviral vectors containing parts of the retrovirus are used to introduce foreign DNA into eukaryotic cells. Retroviral vectors usually contain the cis-acting sequences required for packaging, reverse transcription, and integration. However, these vectors are replication incompetent because they are defective in retroviral structural genes. Helper cells containing helper virus DNA supply the deficient viral gene products. Thus by transfecting the replication incompetent retrovirus into helper cells, retroviral RNA can be packaged and released as vector virus particles. Because the helper virus is deficient in cis-acting functions, its RNA is not packaged, and helper-free viral stocks can be produced. The released vector-containing particles can be used to introduce the foreign DNA into target cells.

Utilization of non-viral sequences for minus-strand DNA transfer and gene reconstitution

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services


The present invention relates to a system and method for dental implant and restorative services. By locating the key functions at one physical location, dental implant services are efficiently provided to patients. These functions include a treatment coordinator, a direct marketer, a restorative doctor/prosthodontist, a surgeon, an imaging area, and a dental laboratory, Further, services for dentate patients are improved by utilizing advanced dental implant methods and systems. These methods and systems include both model-based services and CT (computed tomography) guided surgery services. Using these services, improved surgical guides for dental implants are constructed.

As we age, some of us will lose teeth due to disease, injury, or simple daily wear. In addition to bringing about unwanted changes to a person's facial appearance, missing teeth have a negative effect on that person's confidence and self-esteem. With the advent of implant dentistry, however, those who are missing one, two or several teeth no longer have to accept a lifetime of embarrassment and inconvenience. Dental implants, sturdy titanium posts that are anchored directly into the jawbone and topped with realistic replacement teeth, provide the security and usability of permanently placed teeth.
Dental implants are a restorative dentistry option that allows patients to replace missing teeth with ones that look, feel, and perform like their own. During the first step of this procedure, a doctor skilled in implant dentistry surgically places a titanium screw or post in the patient's jaw. After the gums have healed around the embedded post, a replacement tooth is attached to the top of it.
Dental implants are a substantial improvement over conventional dentures. They're more stable and user-friendly than many other teeth replacement options, and because the posts that secure dental implants in place are integrated into the jaw, they also help prevent bone loss and gum recession (because the pressure of chewing on the implant's crown stimulates the underlying bone and prevents it from deteriorating from disuse). However, some medical circumstances—including radiation therapy in the mouth area, and diseases such as diabetes—lower the success rate for implant dentistry. For that reason, patients must undergo a rigorous screening process before they may proceed with implant dentistry.
Patients can choose from a variety of options to replace missing teeth. In addition to dental implants, there are removable partial dentures held in place by wire clips; fixed dental bridges cemented into position by crowns placed on the teeth adjacent to an empty space; and traditional full dentures.
The concept behind dental implant surgery was developed by a Swedish orthopedic surgeon and researcher, Per Ingvar Brånemark, who found that a titanium implant could naturally bond with bone material. Termed "osseointegration," this phenomenon ushered in what is now considered the most ideal method of permanently replacing missing teeth.
The surgical procedure used to insert dental implants may be performed under local anesthetic. The implant dentist begins by making an, incision in the gums, exposing the bone in the jaw, and making the holes to accommodate dental implant placement. The dental implants are then secured in the jawbone, and the gums are closed with stitches.
Implant dentistry is a comprehensive tooth replacement process rather than a quick fix. Once a dental implant has been placed during oral surgery, the bone is given time to grow and fuse around the implant base. At the time of implant placement surgery, the objective is to achieve primary stability of the implant fixture prior to considering immediate provisionalization or restoration. For dental implants in the upper jaw, the osseointegration period will take approximately six months. For those in the lower jaw, it will take approximately three months.
When the bone has successfully grown around the dental implant following oral surgery, a dentist will add an artificial tooth to the post. This process varies depending on the types of dental implants used. After the posts are topped with prosthetic teeth, any necessary dental bridges or full/partial dentures can also be inserted into the configuration.
Factoring in the time it requires for the gums to heal around the posts after dental implant placement, traditional dental implant surgery generally requires from five months to two years to complete. However, a new version of the procedure enables some patients to literally have "Teeth in a Day (or Hour)." This innovative dental implant restoration protocol allows patients to get their new teeth all at once, dramatically reducing treatment time and immediately restoring the mouth to full function. However, "Teeth in a Day (or Hour)" does not include the initial appointments and necessary preparation for the implant surgery.
This innovative dental implant restoration protocol is based upon the developments of immediate loading of Brånemark Implants. The concept of immediate function on endosseous implants has historic precedents in dentistry. The biologic and mechanical results of treatment using endosseous implants such as blades and tripodial pins, led to their demise and a moratorium on such treatment over three decades ago. In the early 1980's the process of osseointegration was introduced to North America following a stringent protocol developed by the Swedish physician and researcher, Per Ingvar Brånemark. This protocol required the undisturbed and unloaded healing of bone around the implants for a specified period of time prior to prosthetic application. Recently, however, a small number of clinical researchers have modified Brånemark's original protocol to begin loading Brånemark implants early or even immediately in specific areas. Success rates have varied depending upon the quality and quantity of bone; however, the concept has proven to be effective for certain, individuals.
The cost of dental implants varies depending on the number of missing teeth and the area of the country in which the implant dentistry is performed. The cost of dental implants ranges from $2,000 to $4,000. Hence, it is desirable for science and technology to continue to develop to minimize the cost to patients.
Fortunately, financing is available for people who require advanced treatment such as dental implant placement. Third party financing companies can provide credit and many dental offices offer installment plans for their dental implant patients to help manage the cost of replacing missing teeth.
Overall, the technology of dental implants has significantly improved the options and quality for dental implant services. Such technologies as guided surgery based on three dimensional CT (computed tomography) imaging and model-based guides have given the industry significant options for patient care. However, to provide these services requires the coordination for several functional specialties, including medical restoration, oral surgery, computer imaging, and dental manufacturing laboratories.
More specifically, there are several professional functions and services necessary to provide dental implants to patients. These functions and services include treatment coordinator, financial services, direct marketing, restorative doctor or prosthodontists, oral surgeon, imaging services, and dental implant laboratory. In the prior art, several or all of these functions and services are not co-located. Accordingly, despite the advancements in technology offering such hype as "teeth in a day", this reality can not be achieved under the prior art conditions. The lack of an efficient physical arrangements results in significant delays in providing service and additional costs. The present invention addresses these issues.

Method and system for provisioning of dental implants and related services


A liquid supplying apparatus configured to supply a liquid to a liquid ejecting section that is configured to eject the liquid, the liquid supplying apparatus comprising a liquid containing portion configured to contain the liquid, and a fluid communication member in fluid communication with the liquid containing portion and having one end that is exposed to air, the fluid communication member further having a liquid visual recognition portion through which the liquid inside the fluid communication member is visually recognizable.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid supplying apparatus, a liquid ejecting apparatus, a liquid container unit, and the like.
Related Art
In the prior art, ink jet printers are known as an example of a liquid ejecting apparatus. It is possible for an ink jet printer to perform printing on a printing medium by discharging ink, which is an example of a liquid, from an ejecting head onto a printing medium such as printing paper sheets. In an ink jet printer such as this, a configuration is known in the prior art where ink, which is stored in a tank which is an example of a liquid containing portion, is supplied to an ejecting head. An ink injection port is provided in the tank. It is possible for a user to fill ink from the ink injection port into the tank (see JP-A-2012-51307 (PTL 1), for example). Here, a configuration, where a liquid containing portion such as the tank is added to a liquid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet printer, is used below to represent a liquid ejecting system.

Liquid supplying apparatus, liquid ejecting apparatus, and liquid container unit


An improved packed column distillation system, which may be particularly advantageous for use with cryogenic distillation such as the cryogenic distillation of air, wherein external heat is provided at the column wall, especially at a stripping section of the column, to vaporize liquid formed on the inner surface of the column wall resulting in improved separation efficiency with lower packed bed height.

Distillation of a fluid mixture, e.g., air, into two or more portions enriched in a respective mixture component, has generally been carried out employing one or more distillation columns which employ trays as the column internals or mass transfer elements. Recently there has developed an increasing use of packing as mass transfer elements in distillation columns because packing has a much lower pressure drop than does trays. Packing may be either structured or random packing. Structured packing is particularly preferred because it has more predictable performance than does random packing.
While packing has advantages over conventional trays in the operation of a distillation column, there has been experienced with packing a significant reduction in separation efficiency over that which would be expected theoretically. Applicants believe that these separation performance deficiencies are the result of liquid bypassing within a given packed section by flowing along the column wall. The path of least resistance for liquid in a packed column is down the wall of the column. Wall liquid has a much shorter residence time in the column than the bulk liquid which flows through a torturous path within the packing. Mass transfer between the wall liquid and bulk vapor will be less than the corresponding mass transfer between the bulk liquid and the bulk vapor. Hence, as one proceeds down the column wall of a distillation column, wall liquid will contain more of the low boiling or more volatile component relative to the bulk liquid. For example, in a typical cryogenic oxygen plant for the column section located above the main condenser separating a binary mixture of oxygen and argon using a column with structured packing, above the packing is a distributor containing liquid comprising from about 10 to 20 percent argon with the balance being primarily oxygen. Liquid flows from the distributor in a uniform fashion to the first element of packing. An element in this case being a 10 inch high layer of structured packing having corrugations that run at a 45.degree. angle from the column axis. Some of this high argon content liquid is diverted by way of the corrugations to the column wall. This wall liquid flows in relatively fast moving rivulets with minimal surface area. These conditions lead to poor mass transfer efficiencies. The bulk liquid on the other hand spreads into thin slow moving films of substantial surface area which are ideal conditions for efficient mass transfer. Consequently, the wall liquid adjacent to the bottom of the first element will contain more argon, the low boiling component, than the bulk liquid leaving the packing. At the next element down, a portion of the wall liquid flows back into the packing. Some mass transfer occurs between the remaining wall liquid and the bulk vapor and some liquid of slightly lower argon concentration is added to the wall flow. The amount of wall liquid relative to bulk liquid increases as it descends. Again the wall liquid adjacent to the bottom of the second element will contain more argon than the bulk liquid leaving the packing. This process continues past subsequent elements to the bottom of the packed section. At this elevation, the wall liquid having substantial argon concentration compared to the bulk liquid, mixes with the bulk liquid leaving the packing. The argon concentration of the mixture is elevated compared to the bulk liquid so the apparent separation for this section is poor.
There are known in the art means for correcting liquid maldistribution within a packed column. For example, there has been proposed the use of liquid redistributors or trays between short packed column sections to collect and mix wall liquid with bulk liquid. However, the capital and process cost penalties are substantial. Further mixing of the wall liquid with the bulk liquid represents a thermodynamic irreversibility. Furthermore, costs are incurred due to the need for additional bed supports, collector trays, which collect wall liquid and mix it with bulk liquids, and a liquid distributor which is fed by the collector tray, the distributor providing uniform flow of the liquid to the subsequent packed bed. Also, additional column height is required, the cost of which includes additional welds, column material, insulation, ladders, platforms, etc. The foundation is ultimately effected. Another concern is the transfer of liquid within the plant when columns get too tall. Along with capital penalties there are process penalties involved with redistribution. In particular, redistributors add vapor phase pressure drop which must be overcome by additional feed pressure. Furthermore, redistributors do not add to the mass transfer potential of the column. From a fundamental perspective, a redistributor serves to mix liquid containing a relatively high concentration of the low boiling component (wall liquid) with the bulk liquid which contains the relatively low concentration of the low boiling component. The mixed liquid then undergoes further distillation in a subsequent packed section to reduce the concentration of the low boiling component in the liquid. The liquid mixing that occurs in a redistributor represents a thermodynamic irreversibility with a quantifiable process penalty. Combining this process penalty with the practical drawbacks and process penalties of liquid redistribution cited earlier provide substantial incentive for developing alternative means for dealing with wall flow.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved packed column distillation system which can overcome the problems of liquid maldistribution cause by wall flow, without the need to resort to liquid redistributors or trays between packed column sections to collect and mix wall liquid with bulk liquid.


A continuously variable transmission in a motor vehicle is regulated using a controller comprising a first control circuit as a speed controller for regulating the transmission input speed as the product calculated from the transmission output speed and the transmission ratio, complete with a summation element at the controller input as well as with a control element, and a second control circuit post-connected to the first control circuit as a speed gradient controller for regulating the time derivative of the transmission input speed, complete with a summation element at the controller input. To preset a variable control response of the controller, different filter functions are defined, in relation to the operating conditions of the motor vehicle, as a fixed relationship between the input quantity control deviation as the difference calculated from nominal and actual values of the transmission input speed and the output quantity nominal gradient value of the transmission input speed, and fed to the control element of the first control circuit, which control element has been designed as a filter element. Depending on the current operating conditions of the motor vehicle, and using of the predefined filter functions, the filter element generates a filter function used as a current filter function. The function values of the current filter function are fed as filter values and as a reference magnitude from the filter element to the summation element at the controller input of the second control circuit.

The drive unit of motor vehicles (engine and power transmission train) is increasingly subjected to regulating and control mechanisms in order to optimize the interplay of an engine and its associated transmission. For instance, to reduce fuel consumption in motor vehicles, it will be necessary not only to improve engine control systems but also to adapt transmission ratios. To achieve this, automatic transmissions present themselves as a solution, with continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) in particular being increasingly used. A CVT allows continuous transmission adjustment until the required transmission ratio has been set. By means of a transmission element (chain, band, belt, etc) located between the discs of two disc assemblies, the required transmission ratio can be continuously adapted. By applying the same contact pressure values on these two disc assemblies, which corresponds to the so-called pretensioning force, the force level for this transmission element is adjusted. Specifying different values for this contact pressure on the two disc assemblies creates an additional transport force component for moving this transmission element. By varying this contact pressure, and thus the transport force, the transmission ratio may be continuously varied in any number of steps.
The regulating processes employed in continuously variable transmissions normally use transmission or speed controllers to effect control. The transmission input or drive speed is controlled by means of a control circuit designed as a speed controller. This transmission input or drive speed represents the product from transmission output speed, which is proportional to vehicle velocity, or drive speed (disturbance variable), and transmission ratio (control variable). To this end, the control circuit features a summation element at the controller input. As an augend, this summation element is given the nominal value of the transmission input speed (reference magnitude), and the addend is provided by the actual value of the transmission input speed (controlled variable). The control deviation, which is obtained at the output of the summation element by calculating the difference between the two quantities nominal value of the transmission input speed and actual value of the transmission input speed, is fed to a control element consisting of a proportional-action-controller, limiter, and lowpass filter. The output of this control element then supplies the time derivative (gradient) of the transmission input speed. In order to improve control response, the speed controller can be provided with (post-connected to) a second control circuit of acceleration control type, where the time derivative (gradient) of the transmission input speed provided as a nominal value by the control output of the speed controller represents the reference magnitude. In other words, in addition to speed control, a speed gradient control is also effected.
The disadvantage of these regulating processes for controlling continuously variable transmissions is that the control element of the speed controller, which control element generates the nominal value of the transmission input speed gradient, based on the control deviation (the speed difference of the transmission input speeds), and thus determines the control response, features a constant proportional constituent, that is, the controlling speed, or controlling rate, of the transmission input speed, and thus the control response is always the same value (irrespective of the relevant nominal value specified for the transmission input speed). Therefore, this always specifies the same control response so that it is not possible to influence (even though this might often be desirable) the output quantity at the control output of the speed controller, or the reference magnitude of the speed gradient control in relation to the nominal value specified for the transmission input speed, which in turn will affect driving safety or ride comfort.

Procedure for controlling continuous variable transmissions in motor vehicles


A variety of approaches to reducing or eliminating “end effect” or the tendency of tubular ends to reduce in diameter after expansion are disclosed. Some involve pre-bending the ends outwardly while others involve removing material internally or/and externally near the ends. Yet other approaches feature weakening the ends in other ways including penetration of the tubular material using openings of various shapes including slots or/and holes where the openings are between the tube ends or where they can extend on one or both ends all the way to the end of the tubular. Inserts that are softer than the tube material can be placed near the ends. If there is an end effect, then the protruding material can be pushed out of the way or broken off.

Expanding tubulars has come in vogue in many downhole applications. In a monobore well the finished size of the casing is the same. This is accomplished by inserting casing of a given size and expanding it downhole into a sealing relationship with the previous length of casing already in the bore so that a constant internal clearance diameter, known as drift diameter, is maintained. The drift diameter controls the size of tools that may later be advanced through the expanded tubular string. There are many other applications of expansion technology. Liner strings are hung on casing. Patches for cracked or broken casing or liner are patched with sleeves expanded downhole. Gravel pack screens are expanded to eliminate the annular space previously used for depositing gravel to retard production of sand.
With the ever-increasing use of expanding techniques there comes an undesirable side effect that has not been addressed. As a result of expansion of a given length of tube to a predetermined inside diameter using a swage, for example, the ends of the tubular tended to curl or flex inwardly toward the center of the expanded tubular. This phenomenon will reduce the drift diameter. This reduction in drift diameter could create a variety of problems. It could reduce production rates. It could make it impossible to pass certain tools to a desired location. It could create erosion areas where a portion of the tubular extended into the flowing stream that may eventually lead to tubular leakage. This reduction of the drift diameter as a result of expansion is referred to as the "end effect" in this application.
The present invention seeks to minimize or eliminate this end effect in several ways. One approach is to weaken the end in a variety of ways to counteract the forces acting on it to make it bend in after expansion. Another approach of the present invention is to pre-bend the ends outwardly so that the end effect nets a result of no reduction in drift diameter. Another approach of the present invention is to employ a soft material near the ends during swaging. Thereafter, even if there is some end effect, the material reducing the drift diameter is soft enough so that flow or a tool that needs to pass simply removes or cuts off any of the soft material that stands in the way. These and other approaches to minimizing or otherwise dealing with the end effect issue will be more readily apparent to those skilled in the art from a review of the description of the preferred embodiment and the claims, which appear below.
Generally related to the field of expanding sleeves in tubulars or expanding tubular ends are U.S. Pat. No. 2,623,570; 3,712,376; 3,746,091; 6,155,092 and 6,412,324. Of these, the most relevant is the '091 patent FIGS. 5 and 9 showing overlapping flexible fingers 55 at the end of a tubular sleeve 13 being expanded and at the end of a hold down sleeve 57. These overlapping fingers are pushed out to let the swage 15 pass and then spring back to their original position as described at Column 4 Lines 42-50. This application does not deal with end effect issues.

Method for reducing diameter reduction near ends of expanded tubulars


A method and system estimates a reflectance function of an arbitrary scene. The scene is illuminated under various lighting condition. For each lighting condition there is an associated illumination image and an observed image. Multiple, non-overlapping kernels are determined for each pixel in a reflectance image from the pairs of illumination and observed images. A weight is then determined for each kernel to estimate the reflectance function represented as the reflectance image.

It is desired to acquire images of arbitrary real-world scenes and then to render new or synthetic images of the scene using a reflectance function representing arbitrary natural illumination in the environment. Such a representation has many applications, such as realistic image synthesis, scene analysis, 3D scanning of cultural artifacts, object and face recognition, and relighting of image-based models.
Typical prior art methods require controlled incident illumination, e.g., either a point light source or a structured illumination pattern, and a large number of illumination images. Systems that use controlled incident illumination are usually large, expensive, and fixed in place in studio, even for scenes with small objects. For large scenes, such as a city, land, or seascape, it is impossible to control the illumination.
Therefore, it is desired to use arbitrary natural illumination and a small number of illumination images to determine a good estimation of reflectance in any scene, no matter the size. In addition, it is desired to provide a small, inexpensive and portable system to do the reflectance function estimation.
The problem of natural scene acquisition is well known in computer graphics and computer vision. In general, a reflectance field is acquired. Reflectance fields are also known as bi-directional scattering-surface reflectance (BSSRDF), Debevec et al., "Acquiring the reflectance field of a human face," Computer Graphics, SIGGRAPH 2000 Proceedings, pp. 145–156, 2000.
One can also acquire a distribution function, Nicodemus et al., "Geometric considerations and nomenclature for reflectance," Monograph 160, National Bureau of Standards (US), October 1977. A distribution function is defined as a ratio of incoming to outgoing radiance at two different pixels in a scene, formally, ƒr(ωi,{right arrow over (x)}i,ω0,{right arrow over (x)}0), where ωi is the direction of the incident illumination at a pixel {right arrow over (x)}i, and ω0 is an observation direction of radiance emitted at a pixel {right arrow over (x)}0. That function is eight-dimensional, assuming a two-dimensional parameterization for the points in the scene.
Because sampling of an eight-dimensional function is challenging, a four-dimensional sub-space or 4D slice of the reflectance field can be used.
For larger scenes, it can be assumed that the incident illumination is far away and arrives at pixels in the scene from direction ωi, and the reflectance field is acquired for some fixed viewing direction ω0. The resulting function ƒw(ωi,{right arrow over (x)}0) is called a weighting function or reflectance function of light transport from distant illumination to the observation point, Zongker et al., "Environment matting and compositing," Computer Graphics, SIGGRAPH 99 Proceedings, pp. 205–214, 1999. However, it is difficult to acquire the 4D reflectance function for arbitrary scenes lit with natural illumination.
Consider a scene where the surface coordinates are discretized into 1000×1000 points, and the incident illumination is represented by a 1000×1000 pixel image. Sampling and tabulating the reflectance function directly requires 1012 values. This poses a challenge for memory storage. Moreover, it is necessary to take over a hundred high-resolution images, making the acquisition time prohibitively long.
In practice, most direct sampling methods use only low-resolution (low-frequency) incident lighting. Consequently, those methods cannot represent high-frequency effects, such as specularities, refraction, and shadows.
On the other hand, environment matting methods focus on reflectance functions for specular, refractive, and glossy materials. However, environment matting methods have difficulty representing hard shadows or a combination of diffuse and specular materials.
Methods for estimating reflectance functions can be classified as forward and inverse methods. Most forward methods sample the reflectance functions exhaustively and tabulate the results. For each incident illumination direction, the forward method stores weights of the reflectance function for a fixed viewing direction. In practice, only low-resolution incident illumination is used, because one reflectance table has to be stored per scene point. Debevec et al. use highest resolution incident illumination with about two thousand directions.
Polynomial texture maps can improve the compactness of the representation by expressing each reflectance field table with a bivariate polynomial, Malzbender et al., "Polynomial texture maps," Computer Graphics, SIGGRAPH 2001 Proceedings, pp. 519–528, 2001. Those direct methods work very well for diffuse or glossy objects, such as human faces, cultural artifacts, and other objects with complex appearance.
However, those methods cannot represent high-frequency phenomena, such as refractions, light discontinuities, or hard shadows. Furthermore, those methods do not provide progressive refinement of the approximation error with an increasing number of samples.
Wavelet environment matting addresses some of these shortcomings, Peers et al., "Wavelet environment matting," Proceedings of the Eurographics Symposium on Rendering, Eurographics Association, pp. 157–166, 2003. Images with wavelets patterns are used as incident illumination, and a feedback loop determines the next pattern to emit based on the error of the current approximation. The reflectance function is progressively refined as more measurements are made. However, that method requires many wavelet patterns for highly specular and refractive materials, or scenes with hard shadows, e.g., up to 2400 pattern images. Because each pixel stores coefficients of the corresponding wavelet patterns, that representation becomes rather large, e.g., 2.5 GB per environment matte with lossless compression. Rendering is also time consuming because the rendering requires a weighted sum of many wavelet-basis images of the new incident illumination.
It is also possible to measure six-dimensional slices of the eight-dimensional reflectance field by varying both the position and direction of the incident illumination for a fixed viewpoint, Masselus et al., "Relighting with 4D incident light fields," ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 22, 3, pp. 613–620, 2003. They use a projector system for scene acquisition and tabulate the results, which limits the sampling resolution.
Inverse methods observe a scene and determine a probability that the observed output came from a particular region in the incident illumination domain. The incident illumination is typically represented by a bounded region, such as an environment map, which is then modeled as a sum of basis functions, e.g., Gaussian kernels, Blinn et al., "Texture and reflection in computer generated images," Communications of the ACM (SIGGRAPH '76 Proceedings) 19, 10, pp. 542–547, 1976.
The inverse method requires one to determine weights and parameters of basis functions that best explain a given observation, e.g., an image pixel. Environment matting techniques describe the observation in each pixel using only one 2D function. That leads to a very compact representation, and the method works well for specular and refractive objects. That method only works off-line and does not progressively refine approximation errors. Furthermore, only one 2D function is sometimes not expressive enough to capture the properties of complex reflectance functions representing arbitrary scenes under natural illumination, particularly large scenes that can be subject to very complex illumination.
High-quality extensions to environment matting achieve excellent results for specular, refractive, and glossy materials, Chuang et al., "Environment matting extensions: Towards higher accuracy and real-time capture," Computer Graphics, SIGGRAPH 2000 Proceedings, pp. 121–130, 2000. The box functions are replaced by oriented 2D Gaussian kernels, which can provide a compact representation. However, rendering with complex incident illumination is slow, because the Gaussian kernels have to be convolved with the new illumination. Morevover, that method cannot progressively refine the approximation. In addition, the 2D Gaussian kernels have difficulty representing discontinuous or more complex reflectance functions, such as a small specular lobe inside a larger diffuse component. In addition, that method uses a number of non-linear optimization steps, which can produce instabilities and noise.
Hybrid methods combine a forward method for low-frequency components and high-quality environment matting for high-frequency reflections and refractions. The low-frequency data are compressed using principal component analysis (PCA). However, that representation is not compact, and that method does not address any of the other problems described above.
A pre-computed radiance transport reflectance function can increase the realism in real-time rendering. In such a method, the radiance transport is pre-determined using global illumination algorithms and a detailed model of the scene, Sloan et al., "Precomputed radiance transfer for real-time rendering in dynamic, low-frequency lighting environments," ACM Transaction on Graphics 21, pp. 527–536, ISSN 0730-0301, Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH 2002, July 2002.
To improve the performance of the rendering, the incident illumination can be represented using spherical harmonics, or wavelets. In that case, the reflectance function, which is typically stored per vertex as a transfer matrix, can be compressed using PCA, or wavelets, Ng et al., "All-frequency shadows using non-linear wavelet lighting approximation," ACM Transactions on Graphics 22, pp. 376–381, 2003.
It desired to provide a system and method for estimating reflectance functions for any sized scene that is accurate at all-frequencies, and that deal with many different illumination effects, including illumination discontinuities such as shadows.

Scene reflectance functions under natural illumination

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


A dispensing structure is provided for a container that has an opening from which a product can be dispensed. The structure includes a body for extending around the container opening. A foraminous member is provided with a plurality of dispensing holes and is movable between a closed position and an open position. A lid is provided for sealingly occluding the foraminous member and for moving between a closed position and an open position.

A variety of packages, including dispensing packages or containers, have been developed for particulate food products, such as herbs, spices, granular salt, etc., as well as other materials. Such containers typically have an open upper end on which is mounted a closure.
One type of dispensing closure for dispensing containers typically includes many small dispensing holes. When the user inverts and shakes the container, the product particles are sprinkled out through the holes.
Another type of container closure may have one large opening into which a spoon can be inserted to scoop out a quantity of the product.
Some containers are provided with a closure which has (1) one large opening through which material can be poured or removed with a spoon, and (2) a plurality of small sprinkling apertures adjacent the large aperture. Both the large aperture and the small sprinkling apertures can be closed with separate lids.
While the above-described container closures function generally satisfactorily, it would be desirable to provide an improved dispensing structure for containers. In particular, it would be desirable to provide a dispensing structure wherein substantially the entire open end of the container could be used for sprinkling of the product from within the container. However, it would also be desirable to provide such a dispensing structure with the capability for permitting the same open end of the container to be substantially completely unobstructed so as to accommodate either pouring of the container contents or removal of the container contents with a spoon.
It would also be advantageous if such an improved dispensing structure could include a system for facilitating the leveling of a product in a spoon as the spoon is removed from the container.
Further, it would be desirable if such an improved dispensing structure could accommodate a sealing lid system which would function to preserve the freshness of the product in the container when the dispensing structure is in a closed condition.
It would also be beneficial if such an improved dispensing structure could accommodate use of a variety of different materials. Further, it would be desirable if such an improved dispensing structure could be provided with a design that would accommodate efficient, high-quality, large volume manufacturing techniques with a reduced product reject rate.
The present invention provides an improved dispensing structure which can accommodate designs having the above-discussed benefits and features.

Bi-modal dispensing system for particulate material


In a scroll fluid machine, a driving shaft extends axially to allow an orbiting scroll to revolve with respect to a fixed scroll thereby compressing a gas introduced from the outer circumference of the fixed scroll in a compressing chamber formed between the orbiting and fixed scrolls. From one end of the driving shaft, external air is introduced in a cooling hole extending axially of the driving shaft to cool the driving shaft. A cooling fan is rotatably secured at one end of the driving shaft to rotate by the driving shaft to cool the fixed scroll. The cooling fan comprises a base plate having a main fin on one side surface facing the side of the fixed scroll and a plurality of auxiliary fins on the other side surface to prevent cooling-finished air from invading into the cooling hole of the driving shaft.

The present invention relates to a scroll fluid machine such as a scroll vacuum pump or a scroll compressor.
A scroll fluid machine comprises a fixed scroll having a spiral fixed wrap; an orbiting scroll having an orbiting wrap engaging with the fixed wrap and being rotatably mounted around an eccentric axial portion of a driving shaft connected to a drive source and a cooling fan driven by the driving shaft to cool a plurality of cooling fins on the surface of the fixed scroll, a cooling path being formed axially in the driving shaft to allow a cooling gas to be introduced from one end and to be discharged from the other end thereby cooling heat generated under compression during transferring external air taken from the outer circumference to the center at a high-temperature central portion to allow bearings and sealing members in the vicinity of the center of the orbiting scroll to be cooled efficiently as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,897A.
However, in the scroll fluid machine, on the way of discharging a cooling-finished or warmed gas which cooled the cooling fins by rotation of the cooling fan to the outside, the cooling-finished gas flows into a gap between the cooling fan and a fan cover covering the cooling fan, so that the gas is likely to go into the cooling path from an opening provided at one end of the driving shaft. Thus, although non-used external air is introduced in the cooling path, the cooling path will not be cooled effectively.


A mechanism for resource allocation in a processor, a method of allocating resources in a processor and a digital signal processor incorporating the mechanism or the method. In one embodiment, the mechanism includes: (1) categorization logic, associated with an earlier pipeline stage, that generates instruction type information for instructions to be executed in the processor and (2) priority logic, associated with a later pipeline stage, that allocates functional units of the processor to execution of the instructions based on the instruction type information.

Over the last several years, DSPs have become an important tool, particularly in the real-time modification of signal streams. They have found use in all manner of electronic devices and will continue to grow in power and popularity.
As time has passed, greater performance has been demanded of DSPs. In most cases, performance increases are realized by increases in speed. One approach to improve DSP performance is to increase the rate of the clock that drives the DSP. As the clock rate increases, however, the DSP's power consumption and temperature also increase. Increased power consumption is expensive, and intolerable in battery-powered applications. Further, high circuit temperatures may damage the DSP. The DSP clock rate may not increase beyond a threshold physical speed at which signals may traverse the DSP. Simply stated, there is a practical maximum to the clock rate that is acceptable to conventional DSPs.
An alternate approach to improve DSP performance is to increase the number of instructions executed per clock cycle by the DSP ("DSP throughput"). One technique for increasing DSP throughput is pipelining, which calls for the DSP to be divided into separate processing stages (collectively termed a "pipeline") Instructions are processed in an "assembly line" fashion in the processing stages. Each processing stage is optimized to perform a particular processing function, thereby causing the DSP as a whole to become faster.
"Superpipelining" extends the pipelining concept further by allowing the simultaneous processing of multiple instructions in the pipeline. Consider, as an example, a DSP in which each instruction executes in six stages, each stage requiring a single clock cycle to perform its function. Six separate instructions can therefore be processed concurrently in the pipeline; i.e., the processing of one instruction is completed during each clock cycle. The instruction throughput of an n-stage pipelined architecture is therefore, in theory, n times greater than the throughput of a non-pipelined architecture capable of completing only one instruction every n clock cycles.
Another technique for increasing overall DSP speed is "superscalar" processing. Superscalar processing calls for multiple instructions to be processed per clock cycle. Assuming that instructions are independent of one another (the execution of each instruction does not depend upon the execution of any other instruction), DSP throughput is increased in proportion to the number of instructions processed per clock cycle ("degree of scalability"). If, for example, a particular DSP architecture is superscalar to degree three (i.e., three instructions are processed during each clock cycle), the instruction throughput of the DSP is theoretically tripled.
These techniques are not mutually exclusive; DSPs may be both superpipelined and superscalar. However, operation of such DSPs in practice is often far from ideal, as instructions tend to depend upon one another and are also often not executed efficiently within the pipeline stages. In actual operation, instructions often require varying amounts of DSP resources, creating interruptions ("bubbles" or "stalls") in the flow of instructions through the pipeline. Consequently, while superpipelining and superscalar techniques do increase throughput, the actual throughput of the DSP ultimately depends upon the particular instructions processed during a given period of time and the particular implementation of the DSP's architecture.
The speed at which a DSP can perform a desired task is also a function of the number of instructions required to code the task. A DSP may require one or many clock cycles to execute a particular instruction. Thus, in order to enhance the speed at which a DSP can perform a desired task, both the number of instructions used to code the task as well as the number of clock cycles required to execute each instruction should be minimized.
Most pertinent to the specific topic at hand, the efficiency with which processing resources are brought to bear to execute instructions affects overall processing speed. Each instruction a DSP encounters typically requires a specific resource for execution. For example, some instructions require only address generation, and others require only a specific logical or mathematical operation. Since most DSPs are divided into specific functional units, it is therefore advantageous to schedule these units so as to maximize the execution rate of instructions.
Unfortunately, identifying the processing resources a particular instruction may require and prioritizing that instruction's access to the appropriate processing resource(s) can involve significant delay. In a fast DSP, that delay can reduce the DSP's overall speed. What is needed in the art is a faster way to classify incoming instructions and to prioritize their access to processing resources, such that instructions are properly scheduled without adversely affecting the overall speed of the DSP.

Mechanism for resource allocation in a digital signal processor based on instruction type information and functional priority and method of operation thereof


A system described herein may provide a technique for the selection of On Durations, Off Durations, and associated timers for monitoring of downlink traffic for a User Equipment (“UE”). For example, the UE may monitor a Physical Downlink Control Channel (“PDCCH”) according to a first set of On and Off Durations associated with a particular profile selected for the UE, and monitor the PDCCH according to a second set of On and Off Durations associated with the particular profile upon expiration of a timer associated with the first set of On and Off Durations. Machine learning or other suitable techniques may be used to refine the selection of On/Off Durations and associated timers in an ongoing process.

Wireless user equipment ("UE"), such as mobile telephones or other wireless communication devices, may receive wireless connectivity via a radio access network ("RAN"). UEs may intermittently communicate with the RAN to determine whether traffic (e.g., downlink traffic) is available for the UE via the RAN. UEs may also "sleep" for some time, during which the UE does not communicate with the RAN to check for new downlink traffic. Typically, communicating with the RAN consumes more power (e.g., battery life or capacity of the UE) than sleeping.

Systems and methods for dynamic adjustment of intermittent reception parameters in a radio access network


A method for providing a low fidelity alternative until a high fidelity experience becomes available is provided. Upon detecting a need to download data, a download manager determines a download priority for downloading the data. The download priority specifies an amount of a low fidelity representation of data to download prior to downloading a high fidelity representation of the same data and any remaining low fidelity representation of the data simultaneously. The download manager then downloads, for example, from a content server, the low fidelity representation of the data and the high fidelity representation of the data according to the determined download priority, thus allowing the low fidelity representation of the data to be used until the high fidelity representation of the data is downloaded and becomes available.

The proliferation of computers and the advent of the Internet, and in particular, the maturing of the World Wide Web ("web"), has made the exchange of multimedia data, such as text, audio, video, etc., commonplace and ever increasing. The multimedia data is typically stored in one or more files on a server, and subsequently download to clients over a network connection.
The multimedia data is distributed as either "streaming" or "non-streaming" data. With streaming multimedia data, the data can be delivered or used in real-time as it is being received, and thus, avoids the delay associated with downloading the entire file and then playing or using the contents. Conversely, with non-streaming multimedia data, the entire file has to be received first before the data can be used.
One drawback to downloading non-streaming files over a network, such as the Internet, is the relatively limited bandwidth that is available to an application program. Because the limited bandwidth directly affects and limits the amount of information that may be transmitted from a server to a client in a given period of time, it may take a very long period of time to completely download a non-streaming multimedia file. Thus, a user at a client computer that is downloading the non-streaming multimedia data over the Internet may not be able to experience the multi-media content for a long period of time. For example, a collaboration application may provide presenters the ability to share documents or other multimedia data with other participants in a collaboration session. When a presenter chooses to share a document or other data, the data is first placed on a central server as a non-streaming file, and subsequently downloaded to the clients—i.e., the participants' computers—in order to be shared. Depending on the size of the file, the download may take many seconds or even minutes. Because the collaboration programs on the clients that are downloading the non-streaming files are not able to use the data in real-time, the meeting participants will have no sharing experience until the download completes.
It would be desirable to have a technique that allows users at client machines to experience data stored on a server machine without requiring the entire data file to be first downloaded to the client machine.

Method and system for providing users a lower fidelity alternative until a higher fidelity experience is available


A multiple-in-one socket includes a socket body having a first gradational cavity recessed in a first end of the socket body, and a second gradational cavity recessed in a second end of the socket body opposite to the first gradational cavity; each gradational cavity including a plurality of polygonal holes gradationally contracted in sizes inwardly from an outermost hole towards an innermost hole; whereby a plurality of polygonal holes having plurality of hole sizes may be conveniently chosen for fastening a bolt or nut by correspondingly matching the bolt (or nut) size with the polygonal-hole size.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,094 disclosed a multiple socket device having four different socket sizes located about a single axis comprising a first (outer) member and a second (inner) member. The first member (5) has a first inside diameter (11) corresponding to the largest of four different socket sizes, and a second inside diameter (13) corresponding to the second largest of the four different socket sizes. The second member (25) has a third inside diameter (35) corresponding to the second smallest of the four different socket sizes, and a fourth diameter (43) corresponding to the smallest of the four different socket sizes. The second member (25) is designed to be slidably mounted within the first member (5) along the single axis (3).
If it is intended to use the first or second inside diameter (11 or 13), the second member (25) must be slidably removed from the first member (5) in order for driving an object (such as a screw) adapted to be inserted into the socket corresponding to the diameter 11 or 13. It is quite inconvenient for slidably removing the second member from the first member.
Still, if for using the third or fourth diameter (35 or 43), the second member (25) should then be slidably fixed into the first member (5), causing very inconvenient operation.
The present inventor has found the drawbacks of the prior art and invented the multiple-in-one socket in accordance with the present invention.


A disk apparatus includes a light emitter that emits a light beam to be reflected on the optical disk, a light detector that detects a reflected light beam that is reflected from the optical disk, the light detector also outputting detection signals based on the amount of the reflected light beam detected, and a controller determines whether the optical disk is a recordable optical disk or not based on the detection signals. The controller also shifts a spot on the light detector at which the reflected light beam is incident by adjusting the focus point of the light beam on the optical disk in the radial direction when the controller determines that the optical disk is not a recordable optical disk. A wobble signal can be detected with high precision at low cost even when the position of the light detector is not balanced in the radial direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk apparatus for recording and reading information data on an optical disk, and a disk determination method employed therein. More particularly, the present invention relates to a disk apparatus that can detect a wobble signal with high precision and determine the type of optical disk.
2. Background Information
There are known various types of optical disks, which include the following types among other types: read-only CD-ROMs (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory), read-only DVD-ROMs (Digital Versatile Disk-Read Only Memory), one-time recordable CD-Rs (Compact Disk-Recordable), one-time recordable DVD-Rs (Digital Versatile Disk-Recordable), rewriteable CD-RWs (Compact Disk-ReWriteable), rewriteable DVD-RWs (Digital Versatile Disk ReWriteable). In this specification hereinafter, one-time recordable CD-Rs, one-time recordable DVD-Rs, rewriteable CD-RWs and rewriteable DVD-RWs are collectively referred to as "recordable optical disks," while read-only CD-ROMs and read-only DVD-ROMs are collectively referred to as "read-only optical disks."
Recordable optical disks differ from read-only optical disks in that groove tracks and land tracks are formed in advance on the recording surface of the recordable optical disk. A wobbled groove that wobbles at a predetermined frequency is formed on the edge of the groove tracks, such that the rotational speed of the optical disk can be controlled based on a wobble signal that is detected from the wobbling of the wobbled groove. Also, land pre-pits are formed in the land track, so that the addresses can be read from a recordable optical disk in which data has not been recorded or a rewriteable optical disk. Generally, data is read from an optical disk by reflecting a light beam on the surface of the optical disk, and detecting the reflected light beam with a light detector.
When an optical disk is loaded onto a disk apparatus, it must be determined whether the loaded optical disk is a read-only optical disk, a recordable optical disk, or a rewriteable optical disk. One known method for determining the type of optical disk is a method that determines the type of optical disk based on whether or not a wobble signal that changes periodically due to the wobbling is detected by the optical pickup when the optical disk is rotated.
However, when the light detector of an optical pickup is placed in an unbalanced manner in the radial direction of the optical disk, the signal level of the wobble signal falls below the noise level even if there is a wobble in the groove of the optical disk. As a result, the wobble signal cannot be detected accurately. It is generally extremely difficult to place every light detector in a balanced manner in the radial direction of the optical disk. Furthermore, the balance of the light detector may change overtime, particularly due to changes in the temperature. Therefore, even if a light detector is placed in a balanced manner initially, the balance may be lost overtime.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-329337 discloses a structure in which a light beam is split into a primary beam and two secondary beams, the position of an objective lens of an optical pickup is adjusted in the radial direction of an optical disk so that a wobble signal and a land pre-pit signal detected by the optical pickup have their maximum amplitudes, while adjusting the objective lens such that the offset of the differential signal created from the light signals from reflected lights of a primary beam and secondary beams on an optical recording medium is zero.
In this arrangement, however, since each of the reflected lights of the primary beam and the two secondary beams reflected from the recording surface of the optical disk must be received, the wobble signals cannot be detected with high precision at a low cost.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-326062, a light beam is split into a primary beam and two secondary beams, and the primary beam and the secondary beams of a light beam are focused on the recording surface of a disk-shaped recording medium. The primary beam and the secondary beams of the light beam that are reflected on the disk-shaped recording medium are received. The accurate wobble signals are detected by canceling the offset of the differential signal created from the received primary beam with the secondary beams.
In this arrangement also, since each of the reflected lights of the primary beam and the two secondary beams reflected from the recording surface of the optical disk must be received, the wobble signals cannot be detected with high precision at a low cost.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-69640, a light beam is split into a primary beam and two secondary beams, and the wobbled signal is obtained accurately by performing a subtraction with the light signals of the primary beam received by each of the inner half and the outer half of the light receiving photodiode after performing a normalization operation to each of the light signals of the primary beam.
In this arrangement also, each of the reflected lights of the primary beam and the two secondary beams reflected from the recording surface of the optical disk must be received and the normalization operation must be performed on the received lights. Therefore, the wobble signals cannot be detected with high precision at a low cost.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for improved disk apparatus and disk type determination method that overcome the problems of the conventional art. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.

Disk apparatus and disk type determination method thereof


A numerical control device determines whether or not a spindle is in a cutting state where it machines a workpiece. If the spindle is in a cutting state, the numerical control device calculates a second rotational speed, which is obtained by multiplying a rotational speed of the spindle by a weight corresponding to a force on the spindle calculated based on a torque of a feed shaft, and integrates the calculated value into an index value. If the spindle is not in the cutting state, the numerical control device integrates the rotational speed of the spindle into the index value. The lifetime of a bearing is estimated based on the index value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a numerical control device with a function of estimating the lifetime of a bearing supporting a spindle of a machine tool.
2. Description of the Related Art
A bearing that supports the spindle of a machine tool is gradually degraded by friction or load, so that it should be replaced with a new one at an appropriate time. Conventionally, a total number of revolutions and total rotation time of the spindle, which are obtained by integrating the rotational speed and rotation time of the spindle, are used as criteria for the time to replace the spindle bearing of the machine tool. For example, a numerical control device with a lifetime management function is disclosed in Japanese Patent JP5-208343A. This numerical control device determines the lifetime of a movable part by comparing a cumulative value of relevant operational quantities and a preset life value of the movable part, and comprises display means for displaying the cumulative value. Further, a bearing life monitoring method is disclosed in Japanese Patent JP2011-247660A. According to this monitoring method, the life value of a bearing is obtained by individually calculating average values of the rotation numbers of a rotor supported by the bearings and loads on the rotor, based on the operating conditions of a machine. The maintenance timing is displayed as a message when the lifetime is exceeded by an integrated value of a rotation time of the rotor.
The life of the bearing that supports the spindle of the machine tool is affected by a force that acts on the spindle. The spindle and a workpiece are not in contact with each other when the workpiece is not being cut. When the workpiece is being cut, however, the spindle contacts the workpiece, so that a force equivalent to a reaction force from the workpiece acts on the spindle. In the cutting mode, therefore, a load on the bearing is greater than in the non-cutting mode, so that the life of the bearing becomes shorter.
Conventionally, however, the rotational speed and rotation time of the spindle are simply integrated irrespective of the mode, cutting or non-cutting, so that the influence of the load on the spindle is ignored. According to the lifetime management technique disclosed in Japanese Patent JP5-208343A, for example, the operational quantities of the spindle are simply integrated without consideration of the influence of the force on the movable part. If the predetermined cumulative value is reached, therefore, the movable part is inevitably determined to require replacement without regard to the magnitude of the force thereon.

Numerical control device having function of estimating expiration of life of bearing supporting spindle


A method for inspecting a substrate for defects, including: (a) obtaining an inspected pixel and a reference pixel; (b) calculating an inspected value and a reference value, the inspected value representative of the inspected pixel and the reference value representative of the reference pixel; (c) selecting a threshold in response to a selected value out of the inspected value and the reference value; and (d) determining a relationship between the selected threshold, the reference value and the inspected value to indicate a presence of a defect.

Current demands for high density and performance associated with ultra large scale integration require submicron features, increased transistor and circuit speeds and improved reliability. Such demands require formation of device features with high precision and uniformity, which in turn necessitates careful process monitoring, including frequent and detailed inspections of the devices while they are still in the form of semiconductor wafers.
Conventional in-process monitoring techniques employ a two phase "inspection and review" procedure. During the first phase the surface of the wafer is inspected at high-speed and relatively low-resolution. The purpose of the first phase is to produce a defect map showing suspected locations on the wafer having a high probability of a defect. During the second phase the suspected locations are more thoroughly analyses. Both phases may be implemented by the same device, but this is not necessary.
The two phase inspection tool may have a single detector or multiple detectors. A multiple detector two phase inspection device is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,699,447, 5,982,921 and 6,178,257B1 of Alumot (hereinafter collectively referred to as the Alumot system) whose contents are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
During the first phase (also referred to as the inspection phase) the Alumot system (a) obtains an inspected pixel, neighboring inspected pixels and a reference pixel, (b) determines the type of the inspected pixel and/or determined the reference pixel type, (c) compares between the inspected pixel and the reference pixel and a threshold that depends upon the inspected pixel type, (d) and determines a presence of a defect in response to said comparison. The step of determining the type of a pixel involves a first stage of determining the following parameters: (i) local maxima—whether the pixel is a local maxima (if the pixel is a maximum relative to his neighbors), (ii) intensity—if the pixel is intense (if the intensity of the pixel is significant relative to a threshold), (iii) ratio—what is the ratio between the intensity of a pixel and the intensity of its neighbors relative to a threshold) and (iv) gradient—whether the pixel is located in a slope area relative to a threshold. The second stage involves classifying the pixel to one of the following types, in response to the parameters: (I) isolated peak (if the pixel is a local maxima with significant intensity and ratio), (II) multipeak (if the pixel is not an isolated peak, it has significant intensity and none of its neighbors is an isolated peak), (III) slope—if either one of the pixel's neighbors is an isolated peak or has significant gradient, or (IV) background—if the pixel has no significant intensity or gradient and none of its neighbors is an isolated peak.
Accordingly, the defect detection is responsive to the typing of the inspected pixel as the thresholds are responsive to the type of the pixel. Various errors in the measurement process, especially in noisy environment, and/or measurement inaccuracies may effect the type determination and may result in erroneous defect detections. Furthermore, the set of a pixel's types are fixed. Thus the types cannot be dynamically adjusted or tailored according to an end-user requirement.
The reference pixel is usually obtained from a previous inspection of another die, either from the same wafer or not. A comparison between pixels that were obtained from different dies, especially when the inspection tool parameters could change, may also result in erroneous determinations.
There exists a need for an improved and more robust method for inspecting a substrate, and especially a semiconductor substrate, for defects.
There exists a further need for a method for inspecting a substrate that allows a dynamic definition of pixel types.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An ignition coil contains an elongated substantially circular coil core which includes a primary coil and a secondary coil each disposed radially outwardly of the core with the core composed of a plurality of generally rectangular elements at least some of which have a different width than others and the elements being in surface-to-surface contact with each other. The lateral walls of the elements may have a shape which is not perpendicular to the longitudinal extent of the elements. The core may be welded at its ends. A core contained within this ignition coil, which may be an automotive ignition coil, is disclosed. A method of making such an ignition coil may include providing a plurality of generally rectangular elongated generally flat metal elements, at least some of which have different widths than others, assembling the elements with the element of greatest widths toward the center and those of progressively reduced widths being on opposed sides thereof, and mechanically machining the lateral edges of at least a majority of the elements to create a coil assembly having a circular or substantially circular core shape. The core assembly may be deburred, and smears removed to create a smooth exterior shape and joined as by welding. The core has a greater weight for a given diameter than one of comparable diameter which has a stepped configuration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ignition coils and cores for the same along with a method of making the same and, more specifically, it relates to an improved construction of such cores.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In connection with ignition coils, such as those used in internal combustion engines, it has been known to provide a transformer having a magnetic core with a surrounding primary coil which is adapted to be energized in order to generate a magnetic field, along with a secondary coil which, as a result of such magnetic field, receives an induced electromotive force.
As the result of the difficulty in machining silicon steel, it has been suggested previously to assemble a plurality of laminated plates to create a stepped profile for the core. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,986,532 and 6,025,770.
It has also been suggested to provide an epoxy material over the outer stepped configuration. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,604.
It has been known in recent years to provide auto ignitions which rather than having a single ignition coil providing energy to each spark plug has a single smaller coil for each spark plug in the internal combustion engine. As the length of such a laminated stack core may be on the order of ten times the widest lamination, these cores are frequently designated as xe2x80x9cpencil cores.xe2x80x9d
With the prior art laminated externally stepped construction, the cross-section was generally round, but as a result of the steps and the flattened top and bottom laminations, the construction did not approximate a circular profile. This served to reduce the weight of the stepped core per unit length, as a result of the reduced total amount of metal as compared with a circular shape. Further, in view of the sharp edges on the individual lamina, an insulator had to be added thereover in order to resist cutting the wire wrapped around the laminations.
There remains, therefore, a need for an improved construction for ignition cores.
The present invention has met the above-described need by providing an ignition coil and core as well as the method of making the same, which eliminates the prior art problems hereinbefore described.
As employed herein, the term xe2x80x9cautomotive ignitionxe2x80x9d means ignitions for internal combustion engines for vehicles, including, but not limited to, automobiles, sports utility vehicles, trucks, boats, airplanes, locomotives, and other land vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, as well as other equipment employing spark plugs.
As employed herein, the term xe2x80x9csubstantially circularxe2x80x9d means either (a) circular, or (b) a configuration which apart from a single pair of opposed flat plate portions at the upper and lower extremities (if present) is substantially circular and expressly excludes previously known conventional stepped circumferential configurations.
The present invention provides an ignition coil, which may be an automotive ignition coil, which has an elongated substantially circular coil core and a radially outwardly disposed primary coil and a radially outwardly disposed secondary coil. The core is composed of a plurality of generally rectangular elements, at least some of which have different widths than others with the adjacent elements being in surface-to-surface contact with each other.
The sidewalls of the individual elements may be curved or have other configurations which are not generally perpendicular to the longitudinal extent of the elements. The assembly of elements is joined to each other preferably by welding at the ends.
In the preferred method of manufacturing the ignition coil core, a plurality of generally rectangular elongated generally flat elements, at least some of which have different widths, are assembled with the elements of greatest width positioned in the center and elements of progressively reduced width being provided on opposed sides thereof. While the starting point could be elements of the same width, this would be wasteful of material. The individual elements are then subjected to machining of the lateral edges to establish the configuration of a substantially circular core cross-sectional shape. The machining preferably involves mechanical machining followed by electrochemical machining. Subsequently, the assembly of reformed core elements is joined as by welding or other suitable means which will be known to those skilled in the art. In a preferred practice, deburring is provided.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved ignition coil having a uniquely configurated core configuration and a method of manufacturing the same.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an ignition coil which is adapted to be employed with conventional coil construction and energizing means.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a core that has a smooth outer surface which eliminates the need to coat the exterior surface thereof.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such cores which are of uniform quality and performance characteristics from core to core.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such cores which as a result of the substantially circular configuration has increased weight for a given diameter as compared with a corresponding stepped core of the same diameter or maximum transverse direction.
It""s another object of the present invention to provide a core having improved electrical performance characteristics.
It is a farther object of the present invention to provide a method for making a substantially circular ignition coil and the resulting core.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an ignition core, which eliminates the need for providing an insulator therearound to resist cutting the wire laminations wrapped around the core.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an ignition core which can be manufactured economically and rapidly.
These and other objects of the present invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description of the invention on reference to the illustrations appended hereto.

Ignition coil having a circular core and a method of making the same


A screw feeding device in a continuous screw driving tool includes a casing mounted on a tool body of the continuous screw driving tool. A feeder box is reciprocally movable within the casing and a ratchet arm is reciprocally pivotable as the feeder box is reciprocally moved. An intermediate gear is connected to the ratchet arm by mechanism of a one-way clutch and is rotatable by a predetermined angle as the ratchet arm is pivoted in one direction. A ratchet wheel has feeding claws engageable with a screw carrying belt and has a gear part engaged with the intermediate gear, so that the ratchet wheel is rotated in a feeding direction as the intermediate gear is rotated and that the screw carrying belt is fed by a distance of one pitch of screws carried by the screw carrying belt for each reciprocal movement of the feeder box.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a screw feeding device in a continuous screw driving tool and particularly to a screw feeding device for feeding screws carried on a screw carrying belt one by one by moving the screw carrying belt by a distance corresponding to one pitch of the carried screws in response to one cycle of a screw driving operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As shown in FIG. 27, the conventional continuous screw driving tool includes a screw feeding device including a casing 61 and a feeder box slidably movable within a feeder box. When the tool is adapted to drive a screw into an article such as a picture frame in a position adjacent a stepped portion D of the article, a lower end 61a of the casing 61 of the screw feeding device may abut on an upper surface of the stepped portion D as the casing 61 is lowered for driving the screw. This may cause a problem that the stepped portion D is damaged by the casing 61.
For preventing the article from such a damage, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 3-49879 and 4-111781 have proposed to determine an upper stroke end of the feeder box 60 such that the distance between the lower end 61a of the case 61 and a lower end of the feeder box 60 is greater than a predetermined height L0 of the stepped portion D when the feeder box 60 is in its upper stroke end. Here, the height L0 is appropriately selected.
In order to provide such a greater distance, a screw feeding device of the continuous screw driving tool of the above publications has constructed to include a feeding arm 65 which is pivotally mounted on the feeder box 60 as shown in FIG. 28. The feeding arm 65 has one end engaged with a feeding pin 63 extending laterally from a ratchet wheel 62 and has the other end engaged with a guide slot 64 having a bent portion and formed in a lateral surface of the casing 61.
The ratchet wheel 62 is rotatably supported by the feeder box 60 and has a plural number of feeding claws 62a formed on its periphery. With the feeding claws 62a engaged with a screw carrying belt S, the ratchet wheel 62 is rotated in a direction indicated by an arrow in FIG. 28, so that the screw carrying belt S is moved leftwardly by a distance corresponding to one pitch of the screws. Such rotation of the ratchet wheel 62 is produced by the movement of the casing 61 in the downward direction. Thus, as the casing 61 is moved downwardly for driving the screw, the feeding arm 65 is pivoted by a predetermined angle in a counterclockwise direction indicated by an arrow in FIG. 28 due to the movement of the other end of the feeding arm 65 along the guide slot 64, so that the feeding pin 63 in engagement with one end of the feeding arm 65 is forced to be moved in a feeding direction of the screw carrying belt S.
The feeding arm 65 interposed between the ratchet wheel 62 and the casing 61 serves to provide a remote control of the rotation of the ratchet wheel 62 to be caused by the downward movement of the casing 61, so that the lower stroke end of the casing 61 can be determined to prevent the stepped portion D from being damaged while a sufficient stroke of movement of the feeder box 60 relative to the casing 61 can be ensured.
However, with the conventional screw feeding device, one end of the feeding arm 65 is always in engagement with the feeding pin 63 which extends laterally from the ratchet wheel 62. Therefore, one end of the feeding arm 65 as well as the feeding pin 63 tends to be soon worn, so that the conventional screw feeding device still involves the problem that it has less durability.

Screw feeding device in continuous screw driving tool


A solar cell roof tile includes a front support layer, a transparent encapsulant layer, a plurality of interconnected solar cells and a backskin layer. The front support layer is formed of light transmitting material and has first and second surfaces. The transparent encapsulant layer is disposed adjacent the second surface of the front support layer. The interconnected solar cells has a first surface disposed adjacent the transparent encapsulant layer. The backskin layer has a first surface disposed adjacent a second surface of the interconnected solar cells, wherein a portion of the backskin layer wraps around and contacts the first surface of the front support layer to form the border region. A portion of the border region has an extended width. The solar cell roof tile may have stand-offs disposed on the extended width border region for providing vertical spacing with respect to an adjacent solar cell roof tile.

In general, a solar cell module is formed by interconnecting individual solar cells and laminating the interconnected cells into an integral solar cell module. More specifically, the module usually includes a stiff transparent cover layer made of a polymer or glass material, a transparent front encapsulant which adheres to the cover material and to a plurality of interconnected solar cells, a rear encapsulant which can be transparent or any other color, a stiff backskin for protecting the rear surface of the module, a protective seal which covers the edges of the module, and a perimeter frame made of aluminum which covers the seal. The frame protects the edges of the module when the front cover is made of glass.
Before the frame is mounted, the module is laminated under heat and pressure. These conditions cause the layers of encapsulant material to melt, bond to adjacent surfaces, and to literally "encapsulate" the solar cells. Since crystalline silicon solar cells are usually brittle, the encapsulant serves to protect the solar cells and reduce breakage when the module is subject to mechanical stress during field usage. After the lamination process, the frame is attached to the module. The frame includes mounting holes which are used to mount the framed module to an object in the field. The mounting process requires screws, bolts, and nuts and can be accomplished in a variety of ways.
Because existing methods for manufacturing solar cell modules tend to be too high, solar electricity is generally not cost-competitive for grid connected applications. For example, three areas in which manufacturing costs need to be reduced include: (i) the materials from which the modules are made; (ii) the labor required to deploy these materials; and (iii) the materials and labor associated with mounting the modules in the field. In particular, the cost of known backskin materials, the cost of the aluminum frame, and the cost of labor required for field mountings in remote areas are known to be too high.
One known method aimed at reducing solar cell module manufacturing costs includes eliminating the aluminum frame and using a polymeric material as both the backskin and the edging. For amorphous silicon solar cell modules, polymeric frames of a molded thermoplastic material are widely practiced. Reaction injection molding may be used to mold a polyurethane frame around an amorphous silicon module. Reaction injection molding is done in situ (i.e., on the module), and this is a significant cost savings advantage. However, this molding process has several disadvantages. For example, this process includes the use of a chemical precursor (e.g., isocyanate) which poses environmental hazards. This process also requires a mold, further adding to the overall manufacturing cost. In addition, modules made this way tend to be small (e.g., 5-10 Watt size), not the 50-80 Watt size more generally deployed using aluminum frames. The modules tend to be smaller because of the higher cost of the mold and the limited strength of the resulting polymeric frame with its integral mounting holes. As a result, reaction injection molding is marginally successful in reducing manufacturing costs for amorphous silicon solar cell modules.
For crystalline silicon modules, the backskin material is generally quite costly. There are two widely used backskin materials, both of which tend to be expensive. The most popular material used is a Tedlar.RTM./polyester/ethylene vinyl acetate laminate, and the other widely used backskin material is glass. Two additional layers of material are often deployed between the solar cells in the module and the backskin, further adding to the manufacturing costs. A rear sheet of the same material as the transparent encapsulant, (e.g., Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) and a sheet of"scrim," which allows for efficient air removal during vacuum lamination, must be applied over the cells before the backskin material is deployed.
Both amorphous and crystalline silicon modules also include a junction box which is mounted onto the backskin material and from which all external electrical connections are made. Further labor is required to make connections to the junction box.
A frame, along with an elastomeric edging material, is often used when the front support for the module is formed of tempered glass. This construction protects the edges, as the tempered glass is vulnerable to breakage if an edge is damaged. While the use of a frame adds durability to the solar cell module, it also adds significantly to the manufacturing costs.
The labor intensive process of mounting the module can add significantly to the overall cost of solar electricity. Modules are mounted by assembling screws, nuts, and bolts to the appropriate mounting holes on the aluminum frame. However, solar cell modules are often located in remote areas which have no other source of electricity. As such, the mounting process often involves attaching the hardware in difficult, awkward and not readily accessible locations such as on rugged terrain, or roof tops. Therefore a need exists for a low-cost solar cell module that can be used as a roof tile.
The foregoing discussion demonstrates that the manufacture of solar cell modules tends to be too costly and involves too much labor to allow for the realization of the goal of cost-competitive solar electricity for wide-scale global use.

Solar cell roof tile and method of forming same