According to one embodiment of the disclosure, an implant includes a body having a surface with a flexible pattern defined by a plurality of material segments including a first material segment and a second material segment. The first material segment abuts the second material segment. Further, the first material segment includes a first non-linear shape extending between a first end and a second end while the second material segment includes a second non-linear shape extending between a first end and a second end. The two material segments are interconnected such that one of the first end and the second end of the first non-linear shape is interconnected with one of the first end and the second end of the second non-linear shape.

Various implants and instruments are used in spinal surgery. Many of these include rigid surfaces that may be an impediment to optimal use of such implants and instruments. Specific non-limiting illustrations of challenges associated with use of these elements are outlined below.
Flexible Interbody
After a partial or complete discectomy in which a damaged intervertebral disc is removed, a normally occupied space between adjacent vertebral bodies is subject to collapse and/or misalignment due to the absence of all or a part of the intervertebral disc. In such situations, a physician may insert one or more prosthetic interbodies between the affected vertebrae to maintain normal disc spacing and/or the normal amount of lordosis in the affected region. The normally occupied disc space is not a consistent size between vertebrae. Additionally, the disc space is different in different patients. For this reason, prosthetic interbodies are made of varying size and dimensions so that a physician can select an interbody that most closely matches the disc space.
However, current prosthetic interbodies include rigid surfaces that do not mimic the curvatures of the adjacent vertebral bodies. For this reason, gaps are present between the vertebral body and the prosthetic interbody that may take an extended period of time before bone growth has occurred. There exists a possibility that prosthetic interbodies may be dislodged or moved from their desired implantation location due to movement by the patient before sufficient bone growth has occurred.
Therefore, a need exists for prosthetic interbody that provides a desired amount of lordosis, allows for bone growth between adjacent vertebrae, maintains the space between adjacent vertebrae during bone ingrowth, and resists dislocation from its implantation site.
Fixation Member
Spinal pathologies, whether the result of genetic or developmental irregularities, trauma, chronic stress, tumors, or disease can limit the spine's range of motion or threaten critical elements of the nervous system housed within the spine. A variety of systems to correct the alignment of the spinal vertebrae involving the implantation of artificial assemblies in or on the spine have been devised.
The mechanical hardware used to immobilize the spinal column typically involves a series of bone screws and metal rods or plates. When the spine surgery is performed posteriorly, it is common practice to place bone screws into the vertebral bodies and then connect a metal rod between the screws, thus creating a rigid structure between adjacent vertebral bodies. In some cases, the use of these devices may be permanently implanted in the patient. In other cases, the devices may be implanted only as a temporary means of stabilizing or fixing the bones or bone fragments, with subsequent removal when no longer needed.
When using screws, the surgeon directs the screw into the vertebral body. Because different patients have different anatomies, there exists the potential that a screw may need to be implanted in a different direction than the final trajectory of the screw. For example, most procedures are done through very small incisions. Access into the vertebral body may be at a different angle than the angle at which the surgeon wants the screw to be inserted. For example, if a screwdriver is inserted at an orientation perpendicular to the table/patient, the screw may need to be inserted into the vertebral body at a 45° angle to the patient. The small incision makes it difficult for the surgeon to angle the screwdriver to 45° without increasing the size of the incision.
Additionally, the anatomy of the patient may interfere with a surgeon's ability to insert a screw. For example, when trying to insert a caudally oriented screw into the neck at a high cervical level, i.e., C1-C3, the patient's chin may prevent the surgeon from being able to angle the screwdriver to match the desired insertion angle of the screw.
Therefore, a continuing need exists for an improved fixation member that could reduce the time and labor required by a user to insert the fixation member, such as a screw, into a vertebra, while also protecting the spinal nerves and preventing redirection.
Flexible Instrument
There has been considerable development of retractors and retractor systems that are adapted for use in less invasive procedures. Many of the recent developments are based on traditional types of surgical retractors for open procedures, predominantly table-mounted devices of various designs. These devices tend to be cumbersome and are not well adapted for use in small incisions. Standard hand-held surgical retractors can be modified to fit the contours of these small incisions, but they require manual manipulation to maintain a desired placement, thereby occupying one hand of the physician or requiring another person to assist the physician during the procedure. Typical retractors are also positioned into the soft tissue and are levered back to hold the wound open, frequently requiring re-positioning if they dislodge, obstruct the physician's view, or interfere with access to the surgical site.
In a spine fusion, at least two vertebral bodies are rigidly connected using screws implanted into the respective vertebral bodies with a solid metal rod spanning the distance between the screws. The insertion of pedicle or facet screws is relatively straightforward and can be accomplished through a minimal incision. The difficulty arises upon the introduction of a length of rod into a very small incision with extremely limited access and visibility. The minimal incision should be maintained in an open and accessible condition (i.e. as wide as practicable) for introduction of the rod.
In order to be truly minimally invasive, a spine fusion procedure should have a minimum number of small incisions and not require significant tissue and/or muscle retraction. Furthermore, an improved approach should encompass as many variations and applications as possible thereby allowing the surgeon to adjust the procedure to accommodate the anatomy and surgical needs of the patient as presented. For instance, spinal fusions should not be limited to just one or two levels.
What is needed is a device that works with current instruments to provide the necessary, and possibly limited, retraction needed in a spinal procedure with an ease of use and without impairing a view of the surgical field.
Flexible Rod
Spinal pathologies, whether the result of genetic or developmental irregularities, trauma, chronic stress, tumors, or disease can limit the spine's range of motion or threaten critical elements of the nervous system housed within the spine. A variety of systems to correct the alignment of the spinal vertebrae involving the implantation of artificial assemblies in or on the spine have been devised.
The mechanical hardware used to immobilize the spinal column typically involves a series of bone screws and metal rods or plates. When the spine surgery is performed posteriorly, it is common practice to place bone screws into the vertebral bodies and then connect a metal rod between the screws, thus creating a rigid structure between adjacent vertebral bodies. In some cases, the use of these devices may be permanently implanted in the patient. In other cases, the devices may be implanted only as a temporary means of stabilizing or fixing the bones or bone fragments, with subsequent removal when no longer needed.
The process of properly inserting a rod into the receiving slot of a bone anchor and then securing that connecting rod in place can often require that the surgeon use a number of instruments and expend a great deal of time and effort. When bone anchors in several adjacent vertebrae are to be securely connected by a spinal rod, the repeated process of inserting the rod into the heads of the bone anchors and then securing the rod in place for each respective bone anchor can be difficult, tiresome and time consuming. Further, the alignment of the rod as it connects to each of the sequential bone anchors may require adjustment during the procedure and, therefore it is necessary that the rod can be reduced into the head of each of the sequentially aligned bone anchors and, as necessary, easily adjusted so as to facilitate the process for the surgeon with minimal effort and loss of time.
Additionally, there are sometimes clinical issues that arise in an area between an instrumented level with a non-flexible rod and a non-instrumented level. In particular, this area may experience higher stresses that may lead to future damage of the anatomy.
Corpectomy
The human spine includes thirty-three vertebrae. The vertebrae interlock with one another to form a spinal column. Each vertebra has a cylindrical bony body (vertebral body), two pedicles extending from the vertebral body, a lamina extending from the pedicles, two wing-like projections extending from the pedicles, a spinous process extending from the lamina, a pars interarticularis, two superior facets extending from the pedicles, and two inferior facets extending from the lamina. The vertebrae are separated and cushioned by thin pads of tough, resilient fiber known as intervertebral discs. Intervertebral discs provide flexibility to the spine and act as shock absorbers during activity. A small opening (foramen) located between each vertebra allows passage of nerves. When the vertebrae are properly aligned, the nerves pass through without a problem. However, when the vertebrae are misaligned or a constriction is formed in the spinal canal, the nerves get compressed and may cause back pain, leg pain, or other neurological disorders.
Disorders of the spine that may cause misalignment of the vertebrae or constriction of the spinal canal include spinal injuries, infections, tumor formation, herniation of the intervertebral discs (i.e., slippage or protrusion), arthritic disorders, and scoliosis. In these pathologic circumstances, surgery may be tried to either decompress the neural elements and/or fuse adjacent vertebral segments. Decompression may involve laminectomy, discectomy, or corpectomy. Corpectomy involves removal of the vertebral body as well as the adjacent intervertebral discs.
One of the challenges during surgery is to rebuild a prosthetic vertebral implant, in real time, that matches the curvature of the spine and the dimensions of the vertebral body.
Therefore, a need exists for devices to be used in spinal surgeries that provide a user, such as a surgeon, with the ability to quickly and accurately design a corpectomy device with a curvature and dimensions that are approximate to the discarded vertebral body.

Implants and instruments with flexible features


The present invention provides a liquid crystalline resin composition capable of readily blow-molding a molded article having uniform thickness, with the addition of good blow-moldability owing to the improved drawdown-resistant property, the improved melt-tension increase rate, and other properties without deteriorating the low gas-permeability which is a characteristic of liquid crystalline resin. Specifically, it provides a liquid crystalline resin composition for blow molding, obtainable by melt-kneading: (A) 100 parts by weight of a melt-processable aromatic polyester and/or polyester amide, which can form an anisotropic molten phase; (B) 10 to 25 parts by weight of a styrene-based copolymer composed of 40 to 97% by weight of a styrene group, 60 to 3% by weight of a specific glycidyl ester of α,β-unsaturated acid and 0 to 50% by weight of other vinyl-based monomer, wherein the styrene-based copolymer has epoxy equivalents ranging from 300 to 3000 g/eq, and weight average molecular weights of 30000 or more; and (C) 0 to 100 parts by weight of one or more of fibrous filler, powdery or granular filler, and plate-like filler.

Since liquid crystalline resins have well-balanced properties among high flowability, mechanical strength, heat resistance, chemical resistance and electrical properties, they have been widely used as high function engineering plastics; and most of them are used for injection molding. Recently, the applications of the liquid crystalline resins have tended to become more advanced and specialized, and it is expected that blow-molded articles having excellent physical properties of the liquid crystalline resins can be efficiently and economically molded by blow molding the resins. For example, since pipes, vessels and the like used under a high temperature atmosphere are required to have high mechanical properties in addition to high heat resistance, they have hitherto been made of metals. However, for the purpose of weight saving, corrosion prevention, production cost reduction and the like, it is desired to produce them by blow molding the liquid crystalline polyester resins. Although the liquid crystalline polyester resins have high flowability and physical properties, they generally have low melt-tension, which is the most important property for applying blow molding, and thus they cause severe drawdown. It is therefore very difficult to obtain molded articles having a desired shape by blow molding the resins. In order to improve this disadvantage, a method using a polyester resin with a high polymerization degree, which has high intrinsic viscosity; a method using a branched polyester; a method adding various fillers, and the like are proposed, but all of them can have only small improving effects, and the materials are inadequate for these processing methods.
In order to solve the disadvantage, JP-A 6-306261 proposes a method, for the purpose of preventing drawdown of a parison, that a liquid crystalline resin is mixed with a styrene-based copolymer comprising styrene, a glycidyl ester of α,β-unsaturated acid and, if necessary, other vinyl-based monomers to improve a melt-tension of the liquid crystalline resin.
However, the method sometimes cannot be used for large-seized molded articles which require more excellent drawdown-resistant property, or molded articles which require severe properties such as further uniformity of thickness, yet.

Liquid crystalline resin composition for blow molding


Described is a machine learning system for binary classifications. The system improves interpolation schemes used in isotonic regressions by providing a continuous function that also is monotonic. The system outputs a probability estimating function on a signal space that is both monotonic and varies continuously with the input signals. More specifically, described is an interpolation function that is continuous and piecewise linear on Delaunay simplices. Accordingly, the resulting probability estimation function may more accurately match actual probabilities especially when training data is sparse.

Systems that analyze online content such as webpages, media, and documents may employ binary classification schemes. In order to perform content classification, systems may employ machine learning techniques. For example, a machine learning system may be trained on email messages to learn to distinguish between spam and non-spam messages. In response to this "learning," the system may be used to classify new email messages by flagging those that may be considered spam. When classifying content, the learning techniques employed by systems often utilize a form of regression analysis to analyze training data. Typical regression analysis algorithms, however, may provide less than optimal results especially in instances where training data is sparse.

Interpolating isotonic regression for binary classification of spam, explicit material or malware using interpolation based on a Delaunay triangulation


A method for identifying those process steps which produce "high risk" particulate contamination that is most likely to produce defects. The die positions of particulate deposits on a wafer are measured prior to and subsequent to a specific process step, to determine the die positions of particulate deposits introduced during that specific process step. Then, subsequent electrical tests of the wafer are used to determine which locations on the wafer contain faulty circuitry. The locations of particulate deposits introduced during the specific process step are then correlated to the locations of faulty circuitry. The result is a measure of the extent to which particulate deposits introduced during the specific process step contribute to reductions in yield of the manufacturing process.

A primary limitation on the productivity of a semiconductor manufacturing facility is contamination of wafers and corresponding reductions in yield. Typically a wafer includes a number of circuits which are diced (separated) and packaged for sale; a fatal defect in one die, while not necessarily affecting the other dice, typically renders the defective die commercially worthless.
The most typical cause of defects in dice is particulate contamination of the surface of the wafer during processing. Efforts to improve yield often focus on reducing such particulate contamination.
There are several commercially available products for inspecting semiconductor wafers to identify particulate deposits. Semiconductor fabrication facilities typically use these devices to identify the number of particulate deposits on wafers, and use this information as a measure of the quality of the manufacturing process. Efforts are then made to reduce the particulate contamination in order to improve yield.

Identifying causes of semiconductor production yield loss


A light emitting device includes a substrate, a plurality of light emitting elements, an element layer, an auxiliary electrode, and an insulating layer. An effective region in which the plurality of light emitting elements are arranged and a peripheral region that surrounds the effective region are provided on the substrate. Each of the light emitting elements includes a first electrode, a second electrode and a light emitting layer located between the first electrode and the second electrode. A circuit element is arranged in the element layer to control emission of light of the light emitting elements. The auxiliary electrode is electrically connected to the second electrode. The second electrode covers the effective region and is formed uniformly so as to extend into the peripheral region. The auxiliary electrode extends through a gap between adjacent light emitting elements in the effective region and is formed partly in the peripheral region.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a light emitting device that uses a light emitting element, such as an organic EL (electroluminescence) element.
2. Related Art
A light emitting device, in which a plurality of light emitting elements are arranged in an effective region on a substrate and various wirings, and the like, are arranged in a peripheral region that surrounds the effective region, has been known. Each of the light emitting elements includes a light emitting layer that is formed of a light emitting material, such as an organic EL material, and that is held between a first electrode and a second electrode. In most cases, the second electrode is a common electrode that is provided commonly for the plurality of light emitting elements and is provided all over the entire effective region. However, there is a possibility that a decrease in voltage will occur along the plane of the electrode because of a resistance of the electrode itself and, then, electric potentials supplied to the light emitting elements will vary depending on a position on the substrate and, therefore, the luminance of the light emitting elements will vary depending on the position. Then, an auxiliary electrode that is formed of a material having a lower resistance than the common electrode and that is electrically connected to the common electrode has been provided in order to reduce the resistance of the common electrode (which is, for example, described in JP-A-2002-352963).
In the meantime, the auxiliary electrode is mostly formed of, for example, a light shielding member, such as aluminum. Therefore, it is desirable that the auxiliary electrode is formed to extend through a region of a gap between the adjacent light emitting elements so as not to block light that exits from the light emitting elements, and also it is desirable that the auxiliary electrode is formed using a highly accurate positioning mechanism. In contrast, the common electrode is formed of an optically transparent material and is formed uniformly in the region that covers the entire effective region. Thus, as compared with the auxiliary electrode, the tolerance of positioning is allowed to form the common electrode. Thus, the tolerance of positioning of the common electrode becomes more problematic than that of the auxiliary electrode. Thus, it is desirable that the width of the peripheral region (so-called "window frame region") is sufficiently ensured on the substrate so that the tolerance of the common electrode may be absorbed. This as been an obstacle to a reduction in size of the device.
In addition, circuit elements, such as transistors, to control emission of light of the light emitting elements are arranged in a lower layer under the common electrode and the auxiliary electrode. For this reason, an insulating layer is provided between the circuit elements and both the common electrode and the auxiliary electrode, so that the common electrode and the auxiliary electrode are insulated from the circuit elements. However, when the insulating layer has a step, there is a possibility that the electrode positioned at an upper layer portion that overlaps the step may break or crack. Because the resistance value of the electrode that has broken or cracked increases, the light emitting elements will have a remarkable luminance non-uniformity.

Light emitting device and electronic apparatus


A resiliently flexible and deformable hair styling accessory which imparts waves and style to hair, includes an elongated body and a head integrally formed at a first end of the body. The head includes an aperture which is configured to allow the forcible insertion of a second end of the elongated body therethrough and to thereafter retain a portion of the elongated body therein. The elongated body and head may form a unitary body constructed of a plurality of material components laminated along a longitudinal axis of the body. In use, a portion of wetted hair is rolled onto the elongated body and the second end is forcibly pushed through the aperture, retaining the elongated body and rolled hair in place. Once the hair has dried sufficiently to achieve the desired style, the inserted portion of the elongated body is withdrawn from the head aperture and the hair styling accessory is released from the hair.

This invention relates to hair styling products and styling techniques. More specifically, the present invention relates to a resiliently flexible and deformable hair styling accessory which gives hair waves and style easily and conveniently.
The use of various products and devices to affect the style of hair are well known. There are various methods of "permanently" styling one's hair by using kits or visiting the beauty salon where the hair is chemically treated to achieve the desired style. Although the style is not permanent, it can last several weeks or months. Thus, the same hair style must be worn for this time period. This method is often time consuming and expensive, and the chemicals used in permanents may damage the hair.
As an alternative, many people use hot curlers or a curling iron to add waves and curls to their hair when styling. In this manner, the hair may be styled on a day-by-day basis. However, these methods can damage the hair as the hair is heat treated. Moreover, the hot curlers or curling iron can potentially burn the user on the scalp or hand, or a third person such as a child who accidently touches the hot curler or iron. Curling one's hair requires electricity, and thus a conveniently placed outlet, to heat the iron or curlers. The hairstylist must oftentimes wait for the curlers or iron to heat up to the necessary temperature. Wearing curlers at night can be painful as they are typically made of metal or hard plastic. Traveling with a set of curlers and heating apparatus is inconvenient as they require a lot of space and may break while transported.
Therefore, there is a need for a hair styling apparatus and related method which will not damage hair, which can be used without requiring access to an electrical outlet, is conveniently used when traveling, and is easy to use and inexpensive. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.

Hair styling accessory and method of use


An operation assistance system receives selection of a first procedure in a procedure manual including a plurality of procedures relating to an operation of an operation target. The operation assistance system displays an estimation structure obtained by structuring at least part of the first procedure based on an abstraction structure obtained by structuring a second abstraction procedure included in a first abstraction procedure corresponding to the first procedure and the selected first procedure.

An example of operation targets is a computer system. In an operation of the computer system, a performance value such as a response time and a condition such as a downtime are defined in advance to perform the operation to satisfy this condition in many cases.
Thus, it is necessary to deal with an abnormal state promptly, but it is difficult to anticipate a timing at which the abnormal state occurs. Further, it is not practical to constantly monitor a large amount of system resource states such as a server individually. Thus, an event is issued by being triggered by a specific state of the computer system such as a timing when the performance value falls below a threshold and a timing when an error is output to a log. An operation manager can grasp the state of the computer system by monitoring the event, and promptly detect an abnormality.
Meanwhile, knowledge on an information technology and knowledge on a computer system as the operation target are necessary in order to properly deal with a content of the abnormality and a place where the abnormality has occurred so that an advanced skill set is required. Human resources with such advanced skill sets are rare, and it is difficult to secure the number of people sufficient for monitoring the event and safely operating the computer system.
Thus, a system in which a human resource having an advanced skill set (hereinafter referred to as an operation manager) prepares a procedure manual, which describes which countermeasure that needs to be taken when which event having which content occurs under which condition, and a human resource having an insufficient skill set (hereinafter referred to as an operator) monitors the computer system based on the procedure manual is generally adopted. This system is adoptable because the computer system as the operation target is a system which is strictly designed and developed on the design and expansion of the scale of the system is slow.
In recent years, however, it is possible to procure physical system resources flexibly and promptly due to cloud computing, and the expansion of the scale of the computer system has been accelerated. Meanwhile, the operation of logical system resources such as a virtual server and an application has a problem such as confidentiality of data, and generally, is hardly delegated to a provider of the cloud computing. In the above-described operation system, the operation of the computer system depends on the procedure manual and the operator, and thus, the operation becomes a bottleneck against the expansion of the scale of the computer system.
Therefore, it is desirable to reduce an operational load. In order to reduce the operational load, it is conceivable to use a technique disclosed in PTL 1. PTL 1 discloses a flow editing technique. The flow editing technique is a technique of inputting a logical expression in the format of a flowchart. According to PTL 1, it is possible to reduce a description amount when describing the flowchart based on a template of the flowchart.


An aspect of some embodiments of the present invention relates to a system configured for detecting connection between a pressure pad and a monitor. The system includes a pressure detection circuit and a presence detection circuit. The pressure detection circuit is configured for sensing whether the pressure on the pad is above or below the threshold pressure. The presence detection circuit is configured for determining whether a connection between the monitor and the pad is intact. The presence detection circuit is configured to establish a high voltage condition that occurs when connection is broken along the presence detection circuit and a low voltage condition when the presence detection circuit is intact.

Standard bed pads for sensing the presence of a person on the bed are wired to a 6-pin or 4-pin jack J1 with the outside pair of wires connected to the sensing material, as seen in FIG. 1. This material acts as an open switch when pressure is absent from the pad and converts to a closed switch when weight is applied.
The detection line (for example, pin 6 or 4 for pressure detection, depending on whether the pin unit of the monitor has six or four pins) is connected to a (weak) pull-up resistor R1 connected to a power source having a predetermined input voltage VIN higher than ground (e.g., +5V), to establish a default high voltage condition at pin 6 when the switch is open. The detection line is also connected to ground in the vicinity of pin 1. The connection to ground is between pin 1 and the pad's switch, while the connection to the power source is between the pad's switch and the pin 6. Once the switch is closed in the pad between pins 1 and 6 (for a six-pin unit, or pins 1 and 4 for a four-pin unit), the signal in the circuit between pins 1 and 6 is pulled to ground. Thus, when the signal on pin 6 is measured to be at the high voltage condition, it is inferred that the pad switch is open, indicating that no pressure above a predetermined threshold is applied on the pressure pad (the patient is absent from the pad). When the signal on pin 6 is measured to be at low voltage condition (at or near ground), it is inferred that the pad switch is closed, indicating that pressure above a predetermined threshold is applied on the pad (the patient is present on the pad). The measuring unit 50 is part of the monitor and is connected to the jack J1 to measure the voltage at different pins.


A system, an apparatus and a method for transmitting/receiving data coded by a low density parity check matrix code are provided. The apparatus for transmitting data coded by a low density parity check code includes: a low density parity check encoder for encoding input data based on the low density parity check code; and a bit puncturer for puncturing columns in an order of columns which least degrade a performance caused by puncturing in the low density check code according to a code rate of an output data. Accordingly, the low density parity check code having superior performance can be implemented to the next generation mobile communication system supporting various code rates.

1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses, methods and systems consistent with the present invention relate to a transmitting/receiving data coded by a low density parity check matrix code, and more particularly, to transmitting/receiving data coded by a low density parity check matrix code for providing various code rates and superior performance.
2. Description of the Related Art
A cellular mode mobile telecommunication system was introduced in the United States in the late 1970's and an advanced mobile phone service (AMPS) was provided as a voice wireless communication service in Korea in the late 1980's. The advanced mobile phone service is an analog mode of a 1st generation mobile communication system (1G). Subsequently, a 2nd generation mobile communication system was commercialized in the mid 1990's and a part of International Mobile Telecommunication-2000 (IMT-2000) standard was commercialized in late 1990's as a 3rd generation mobile communication system for providing improved and high speed wireless multimedia data service.
Recently, there are many studies in progress for developing the 3rd generation mobile communication system into a 4th generation mobile communication system (4G). The 4th generation mobile communication system has been developed to achieve objects such as effective connection between a wired communication network and a wireless communication, and an integrated service. Therefore, various specifications of the 4th generation mobile communication system have been standardized for developing technologies providing faster data transmission service as compared to the 3rd mobile communication system.
Meanwhile, the most fundamental problem in communication is how to transmit data effectively and reliably through a channel. The next generation mobile communication requires a high speed communication system processing various information such as voice, image and data, and transmitting the processed information at high speed. Accordingly, an effective channel coding scheme is required for improving efficiency of the communication system.
Furthermore, rapid development of the mobile communication system has led to the need to develop a technology for transmitting large amounts of data in wireless networks comparable to wired networks. Therefore, increasing data transmission efficiency has become a major factor for improving a performance of the communication system. However, the mobile communication system may have difficulty transmitting large amounts of data at high speed due to unavoidable errors such as noise, interference and fading caused by channel conditions during data transmission. Accordingly, information data is often lost due to the errors.
For reducing information data loss caused by the error, various error-control techniques have been introduced and widely applied according to a characteristic of a channel. The various error-control techniques have increased the reliability of the mobile communication system. Among the various error-control techniques, an error-correcting code has been commonly used. Representative error-control techniques include a turbo code and a low density parity check (LDPC).
Meanwhile, the above mentioned channel coding is an essential constitutional element of a MODEM in a multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system which is used in a wireless personal area network system.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional multiband OFDM system using convolution coder.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional multiband OFDM system includes a transmitting unit and a receiving unit. The transmitting unit includes a scrambler 110, a convolution encoder 111, a puncturer 112, a bit interleaver 113, a constellation mapper 114, an inverse fast fourier transform (IFFT) unit 115, a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter 116, a multiplier 117 and an antenna 118. The scrambler 110 receives and scrambles input data. The convolution encoder 111 encodes the scrambled data from the scrambler 110. The puncturer 112 punctures the encoded data from the convolution encoder 111 according to a code rate of data to be transmitted.
The bit interleaver 113 interleaves a bit to the punctured data and the constellation mapper 114 converts the bit-interleaved data to corresponding symbols. The IFFT unit 115 performs IFFT of the symbols and the transformed symbols are converted to analog signal by the D/A converter 116. The analog signal is multiplied with a carrier frequency ex(j2πfct) by the multiplier 117 and the multiplied analog signal is transmitted to the receiving unit through the antenna 118.
The receiving unit of the multiband OFDM system includes a descrambler 120, an decoder 121, a de-puncturer 122, a de-interleaver 123, an FFT unit 124, two A/D converters 125a, 125b, two multipliers 126a, 126b, a low noise amplifier (LNA) 127, and an antenna 128. The LNA 127 receives a signal transmitted from the transmitting unit through the antenna 128 and amplifies the received signal. The two multipliers 126a and 126b divide the received signal into an I-channel signal and a Q-channel signal and the A/D converters 125a and 125b convert the I-channel signal and the Q-channel signal to digital signals.
The digital signal is fast-fourier transformed by the FFT unit 124 and the transformed digital signal is de-interleaved by the de-interleaver 123. The de-puncturer 122 inserts bits for each of the punctured bits. The bit inserted digital signal is decoded by the decoder 121 i.e., a viterbi decoder. Finally, the de-scrambler 120 de-scrambles the decoded signal for generating a final output data.
As mentioned above, the multiband OFDM system essentially requires an encoding operation and additional requires puncturing operation for puncturing the encoded data according to corresponding code rate in the transmitting unit.
The convolution encoder has been commonly used as the encoder for supporting various code rates. However, the convolution encoder has degraded bit error rate (BER) performance as compared to the LDPC encoder.
FIG. 2 is a graph showing a performance difference between a convolution coding and an LDPC coding.
Referring to FIG. 2, the graph shows packet error rates (PER) of an original signal 201, convolution coded signals 202, 203, 204 and LDPC coded signals 205, 206 and 207. The convolution coded signals 202, 203, 204 are encoded and interleaved based on the convolution encoding and have a code rate of ½, ⅝ and ¾, respectively. The LDPC coded signals 205, 206 and 207 are encoded based on the LDPC encoding and have a code rate of ½, ⅝ and ¾, respectively. According to the graph, there is a performance difference of about 6.8 dB between the convolution coded signals and the LDPC coded signals.
Therefore, the LDPC encoding has been considered as an encoding scheme for the next generation mobile communication system. However, the LDPC encoding scheme requires performing puncturing according to code rates when the LDPC encoding scheme is applied to the next generation mobile communication system supporting various code rates. If a random puncturing method is used in the LDPC encoding scheme as a method for puncturing, the performance would be degraded. Therefore, although the LDPC encoding scheme provides superior coding performance, there are difficulties in applying the LDPC encoding scheme to the mobile communication system supporting various code rates.
In order to overcome the above mentioned problem, a method using a plurality of mother codes according to corresponding code rate without puncturing the LDPC code in an Infineon has been introduced as encoding scheme for supporting various code rates without degradation of performance while using the LDPC coding scheme. This method improves performance as compared to the convolution encoding scheme. However, the method results in increased complexity because additional mother codes are required according to each code rate.
Therefore, there has been great demand for an encoding scheme having lower complexity and superior performance in a mobile communication system supporting various code rates.

System, apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving data coded by low density parity check code having variable coding rate


A voltage regulator for controlling over-voltage conditions in an electrical generator by rapidly discharging the generator field winding current into a discharge resistor upon the detection of the over-voltage. A field discharge transistor is switched by a soft switching circuit to direct the generator field winding current to the discharge resistor. A hysteresis circuit detects when a point of regulation voltage exceeds a first threshold triggering the discharge of the generator field winding current. The hysteresis circuit also detects when the point of regulation voltage goes below a second lower threshold and triggers the field discharge transistor to bypass the discharge resistor and return to a normal mode.

The present invention generally relates to apparatus and methods for voltage regulation in electric power generators and, more specifically, to apparatus and methods of preventing over-voltage in electric power generators during load removal.
Electric power generators are used to provide onboard power to electrical devices in many applications. Two examples of electric power generators are constant speed, constant frequency generators, as shown in FIG. 1-A and variable speed, constant frequency generators, as shown in FIG. 1-B. In such electric power generators it is important to maintain the supplied voltage level within an acceptable range. To accomplish this, as shown in FIGS. 1-A and 1-B, a voltage regulator 10 senses the voltage at a Point of Regulation and sends a signal to a field discharge circuit 102, which controls the current in the field winding 100. By changing the current in the field winding 100, the generator (G in FIGS. 1-A and 1-B) output is controlled as well as the voltage at the Point Of Regulation (POR) 103. In certain situations, such as during the sudden removal of a large load or post certain fault conditions, the generator terminal voltage may reach a high value, which can damage electrical devices connected to the generator. A voltage regulator can be used to reduce the field current in the generator to reduce the terminal voltage. To accomplish this, since the field power is unidirectional, the field current must be dissipated in the field resistance. However, the field resistance is small so the recovery time to return to the desired regulated voltage will be large. This can result in an over-voltage condition on the generator terminal for an unacceptably long period of time resulting in damage to electrical devices receiving power from the generator.
FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of a conventional generator voltage regulator, such as the voltage regulator 10 shown in FIGS. 1-A and 1-B. The generator voltage regulator 10 includes a constant DC voltage source, shown as +VDC and −VDC. A voltage regulator controller (VRC) 12 receives a signal VPOR from a Point of Regulation, typically an AC generator terminal (not shown). The output of the voltage regulator controller 12 is connected to a pulse width modulation (PWM) controller 14, which in turn has its output connected to the gate of a transistor 16, which may be a conventional MOSFET power transistor. The drain of the transistor 16 is connected to −VDC and its source is connected to a generator field winding 18 at its first end 20. A second end 24 of the generator field winding 18 is connected to +VDC. A free-wheeling diode 22 has its anode connected to the first end 20 of the generator field winding 18 and its cathode connected to +VDC.
In response to the voltage level of VPOR, the voltage regulator controller 12 provides a signal to the PWM controller 14, which triggers the PWM transistor 16. PWM transistor 16 is used to chop the DC voltage (VDC), thereby controlling the field voltage and consequently the field current IFIELD through the generator field winding 18. For example, during a load removal condition, the voltage regulator controller 12 causes the PWM controller 14 to reduce the field current. During this process, the field current keeps circulating through the free-wheeling diode 22. Unfortunately, this field current may not reduce quickly the energy to control the over-voltage condition and avoid damage to electrical devices attached to the generator.
As can be seen, there is a need for a voltage regulator circuit for electrical power generators which can rapidly respond to load removal and other fault situations to rapidly prevent over-voltage conditions at the generator terminal.

Fast field discharge for generator over-voltage control


A surfactant composition having enhanced gloss retention properties containing from about 0.001 to about 3.0% by weight, based on the weight of the composition, of a gloss retention aid consisting of xanthan gum.

Many cleaning compositions which satisfactorily remove soil and dirt from hard surfaces such as glass, ceramic tile, and stainless steel are also meant to impart a certain degree of gloss onto the object being cleaned. The retention time of the gloss on the objects, however, is typically very finite and after a short period of time the object tends to lose its shiny, glossy appearance.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a means for prolonging the gloss retention time of hard surface cleaning compositions.

Use of xanthan gum to improve gloss retention of surfactants and surfactant-based hard surface cleaners


A substrate processing apparatus comprises an indexer block, an anti-reflection film processing block, a resist film processing block, a development processing block, a processing block for liquid immersion exposure processing, and an interface block. An exposure device is arranged adjacent to the interface block. The processing block for liquid immersion exposure processing comprises a coating processing group for resist cover film and a removal processing group for resist cover film. The resist cover film is formed in the processing block for liquid immersion exposure processing before the exposure processing. The resist cover film is removed in the processing block for liquid immersion exposure processing after the exposure processing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to substrate processing apparatuses for applying processing to substrates.
2. Description of the Background Art
A substrate processing apparatus is used to apply a variety of processing to substrates such as semiconductor substrates, substrates for use in liquid crystal displays, plasma displays, optical disks, magnetic disks, magneto-optical disks, photomasks, and other substrates.
Such a substrate processing apparatus typically applies a plurality of successive processing to a single substrate. The substrate processing apparatus as described in JP 2003-324139 A comprises an indexer block, an anti-reflection film processing block, a resist film processing block, a development processing block, and an interface block. An exposure device is arranged adjacent to the interface block as an external device separate from the substrate processing apparatus.
In the above-described substrate processing apparatus, a substrate is carried from the indexer block into the anti-reflection film processing block and the resist film processing block, where the formation of an anti-reflection film and resist film coating processing are applied to the substrate. The substrate is then carried to the exposure device through the interface block. After the exposure processing has been applied to the resist film on the substrate by the exposure device, the substrate is transported to the development processing block through the interface block. In the development processing block, development processing is applied to the resist film on the substrate to form a resist pattern thereon, and the substrate is subsequently carried into the indexer block.
With recent improvements in the density and integration of devices, making finer resist patterns have become very important. Conventional exposure devices typically perform exposure processing by providing reduction projection of a reticle pattern on a substrate through a projection lens. With such conventional exposure devices, however, the line width of an exposure pattern is determined by the wavelength of the light source of an exposure device, thus making it impossible to make a resist pattern finer than that.
For this reason, a liquid immersion method is suggested as a projection exposure method allowing for finer exposure patterns (refer to, e.g., WO99/49504 pamphlet). In the projection exposure device according to the WO99/49504 pamphlet, a liquid is filled between a projection optical system and a substrate, resulting in a shorter wavelength of exposure light on a surface of the substrate. This allows for a finer exposure pattern.
However, in the projection exposure device according to the aforementioned WO99/49504 pamphlet, exposure processing is performed with the substrate and the liquid being in contact with each other. Accordingly, part of the component of a resist applied on the substrate is eluted in the liquid. The resist components eluted in the liquid remain on a surface of the substrate, which may become the cause of a defect.
The resist components eluted in the liquid contaminate the lens of the exposure device. This may cause a defective dimension and a defective shape of the exposure pattern.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A cellulosic resin film which is wide and, despite this, is extremely reduced in breakage during a stretching step; a process for producing the film; and an antireflection film, a polarizer, and a liquid-crystal display each comprising or employing the film. The process for cellulosic resin film production comprises casting a liquid cellulosic resin on a support to form a web, peeling the web from the support, subsequently drying the web in a first edge gripping step (105) while gripping both edges, temporarily eliminating the edge gripping, and then stretching both edges in the width direction in a second edge gripping step (109). The process is characterized in that the first edge gripping step is followed by a heat treatment step in which both edge parts of the web relieved from the edge gripping are heated with heating rolls (107 and 108).

Various display units, such as a liquid crystal display, a plasma display (PDP), an organic EL display have been developed, and those screen sizes has been enlarged more and more. For example, in the fundamental constitution of a liquid crystal display, a polarizing plate is provided in one side or both sides of a liquid crystal cell. Since the polarizing plate allows only light having polarized wavefront with the specified direction to pass through, the polarizing plate bears an important role to visualize change of the orientation caused by an electric field in a liquid crystal display. Therefore, the performance of the liquid crystal display may be greatly influenced by the performance of the polarizing plate.
In the general constitution of the polarizing plate, for example, a protection film or a retardation film made of a cellulose ester films such as a cellulose triacetate film is pasted with an adhesive like a polyvinyl alcohol onto one side or both sides of a polarizer made of a polyvinyl alcohol film which has been uniaxially stretched and dyed with iodine. Furthermore, this polarizing plate is pasted on a liquid crystal cell with an adhesion layer.
A large-sized polarizing plate has been required with the enlargement of the screen of the above-mentioned display unit. However, when it was going to extend the width of the above-mentioned cellulose ester film used for this polarizing plate, it turned out that fracture failure takes place easily. Especially, in a widthwise stretching device called a tenter, when it is going to stretch a film with high draw ratio (draw or stretching magnification), in many cases, fracture takes place at the grasped portion of film width end portions by such as a clip and a pin of a tenter device, or the clip and the pin are disengaged from the grasped portion to cause manufacture failure. Therefore, a method of performing certainly widthwise grasping by a clip, a pin, etc. in the tenter device has been requested.
In order to prevent fracture, it may be considered that it is effective to make a stretching stress smaller. Usually, if a film is stretched on the condition that a solvent is remaining in the film formed by the solution casting film forming method, a stretching stress can be reduced. However, with this method, a portion of a film near the grasped portion becomes also soft, there may be a case where fracture increased on the contrary. To counter this, a method of making it hard to cause fracture by making the volatile component content in the film at the grasped portion smaller than that in the film at the central portion (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).
However, when the amount of remaining solvents at the ends of a film was reduced, there was a problem that curl at the ends of the film became larger to make it difficult to insert the film in a grasping tool.
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2002-127245

Cellulose resin film, process for producing cellulose resin film, antireflection film, polarizing plate, and liquid crystal display


Provided is an object frame display device (100) in which: an object detection frame computation unit (102) derives a first object detection frame which denotes a region of an object to be detected by carrying out a pattern recognition process on an inputted image, and derives a second object detection frame by integrating first object detection frames which are inferred to be object detection frames relating to the same object to be detected; a containment frame computation unit (103) derives, for each second object detection frame, a third object detection frame which contains the first object detection frame upon which the second object detection frame is based; and a display frame forming unit (105) forms an object detection frame which is displayed on the basis of a relation between the size of the second object detection frame and the size of the third object detection frame.

In recent years, some imaging apparatuses such as digital cameras are configured to detect from the image being captured the region of a person or a face and to display the region surrounded by a frame (hereinafter, called an object detection frame) (refer to, for example, Patent Literature (hereinafter, abbreviated as "PTL") 1).
Displaying an object detection frame enables a user to instantaneously judge where in the image of a subject a target such as a person or face (hereinafter sometimes called a detection target object) is located, and allows the user to smoothly perform an operation such as disposing the target in the center of the image being captured. In an imaging apparatus that performs automatic focus (AF) or automatic exposure (AE) control at a surrounded target, the user can also verify the region in which the focus point or exposure is adjusted, based on the object detection frame.
In this case, of course, displaying of an object detection frame requires art for detecting an object. PTL 2 describes art for detecting a face in an image being captured. In PTL 2, an indicator value (score) of similarity between sample face images determined by pre-learning and the image to be captured is calculated, and an image region in which the indicator value is at least a threshold is detected as a candidate region for a face image. Actually, because a plurality of candidate regions are detected in the area surrounding the same face image, that is, because a candidate region group is detected, in PTL 2, further threshold judgment of these candidate regions is performed to integrate candidate regions of one and the same face image.
Combining the object detection frame described in PTL 1 and the object detection described in PTL 2, the following object detection window display processing is performed.
Specifically, first, raster scanning of the input image using an object detector forms object detection frame candidates around a target object. Next, integrating object detection frame candidates in proximity to one another forms and displays the ultimate integrated frame. Specifically, grouping is done while using the scores and the like of detection frame candidates, and grouped detection frame candidates in proximity to one another are integrated and displayed. As a result, an object detection frame surrounding the target object (ultimate integrated frame) is displayed.

Object detection frame display device and object detection frame display method

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


Oral pharmaceutical formulation which improves the bioavailability of pharmaceuticals which are substantially water and oil insoluble is disclosed. In addition to the pharmaceutical, the formulation includes an emulsifier, an oil and an solubilizer. Alternatively, the formulation includes an aqueous solution of solubilizer.

The primary targets for any dosage formulation is to deliver the necessary concentration of an active drug to the site of action to elicit the desired therapeutic response and to maintain an effective concentration of the drug for a sufficient period to achieve efficacious treatment. Oral administration is generally preferred but is frequently dependent upon the bioavailability of the active form of the drug, i.e., the rate and extent that the active form of the drug appears from the dosage form in the systemic circulation. Bioavailability is affected by the drug's physical chemical properties, such as pKa, water solubility, oil solubility and stability, as well as its absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion. It is well known that water insoluble drugs are not generally available for absorption through intestinal lumin and oil insoluble drugs are generally unable to pass across intestine cell membranes into systemic circulation (S. H. Yalkowsky, "DRUGS AND THE PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES: TECHNIQUES OF SOLUBILIZATION OF DRUGS," Marcel Dekker, Inc., Vol. 12, 1981). Proper formulation can improve the bioavailability of a drug.
Oral dosage formulations for water soluble or oil soluble drugs are well known. Oral dosage formulations for oil soluble drugs typically require that the oil form an aqueous emulsion. The emulsion may form in the stomach, for example an oil solution in soft gelatin capsules, or be prepared prior to consumption, for example mixing emulsifiable concentrates with an aqueous solution. In both cases, the oil should readily emulsify when released in an aqueous environment. Oils which rapidly emulsify without the use of sophisticated emulsification equipment, such as with gentle shaking or mixing, are known as self-emulsifiable oils. Dosage formulations that utilize such self-emulsifiable oils are known as self-emulsifying drug delivery systems or SEDDS (Charman et al., Pharm. Res. 9:87–93, 1992). Such self-emulsifiable oils are well known and include hydrocarbon oils combined with a surfactant (Iranloye and Pilpel, J. Pharm. Sci. 73:1267–1270, 1984) and vegetable oils combined with a non-ionic surfactant (Wakerly et al., J. Pharm. Pharmacol. 39:suppl. 6p, 1987). More recently, the use of polyglycolyzed glycerides with varying fatty acids and polyethylene glycols chain lengths were used in SEDDS formulations of hydrophobic drugs with adequate oil solubility (Shah et al., Int. J. Pharm. 106:15–23, 1994).
A problem arises when the drug is substantially insoluble in both water and oil. In such cases, the drug is typically poorly bioavailable at best and traditional oral dosage formulations tend not to substantially improve its bioavailability.


The present invention relates to a press for trimming and forming lead frames of semiconductor packages which have been molded in order to form individual semiconductor chips. The press machine for forming semiconductor packages according to the present invention is able to perform punching operation at low noise and high speed by vertically moving the upper mold mounted on an movable plate through a crank mechanism which is operated by a servomotor and has a characteristic of performing accelerated and decelerated motion with rotation, and also able to drive a feeding device by using the power of the servomotor which drives the press device, without using other driving source. And when there is caused such a trouble that a lead frame gets off the correct position, punching operation is interrupted to prevent any damage on semiconductor packages and a mold by lifting the movable plate provided with an upper mold. The measure can be performed with ease by the feeding finger lifting device for lifting the feeding finger in such a case.

As a press, a variety of machines are employed depending on the kinds of plastic workings and they are broadly broken down into a hydraulic press using fluid pressure of oil, water, air or the like, and a mechanical press using mechanical force.
In the case of a conventional press for forming semiconductor packages, generally, the press unit for punching lead frames is driven by an oil hydraulic cylinder, while the feeding mechanism for feeding operation is driven by an air hydraulic cylinder.
The press driven by an oil hydraulic cylinder can be provided in a relatively simple structure by use of an oil hydraulic cylinder, various valves and the like, but often causes a problem of oil leaking from the cylinder during operation and moreover causes hardness of hearing to field operators due to big noise generated at the time of switching valves or noise of punching because as high a pressure as 100 kg/cm.sup.2 or higher is employed. In addition, the punching rate of around 60 punchings per minute is too slow to keep pace with the recent trend of massive and speedy production of semiconductors. Therefore, use of a conventional oil hydraulic press to meet the production demand would require a multitude of equipments and a number of persons to operate the equipments, whereby not only a large space out of a semiconductor plant need to be alloted but also large economic loss due to the elated installation costs and lowered productivity would results.
And a feeding mechanism for feeding lead frames as workpieces is driven by a pneumatic cylinder which is operated discretely from and at a markedly higher speed than the oil hydraulic cylinder for driving the press. This discrete use of driving sources of an oil hydraulic device and a pneumatic device acts as a hindrance in improving throughput of trimming and forming process. Further, reliance in operation is hardly secured in the case that a pneumatic feeding device is used in connection with other devices using pneumatic pressure, because the air supply fluctuates widely in pressure and in flow rate in accordance with the number of pneumatic devices used in the production process.
To cope with the above described problems, there was proposed a mechanical press driven by a servomotor and a method for controlling the same in Korean unexamined patent publication 89-700079, which press is so arranged as to acquire punching stroke by turning the rotating motion of a servomotor into a reciprocating motion of a ram through a mechanical power transmission mechanism, and is able to minimize noises generated in a press by reducing the speed of a ram below a certain level at the instant of impact on a workpiece by a tool which is attached on the tip of ram through controlling the rotating speed and direction of the servomotor, whereby there is realized an advantage that major problems of an oil hydraulic press such as decreased processing speed and low productivity are resolved.
However, a press as described above had a problem that a lot of time loss and economic loss are encountered from maintenance and repair work in an effort to prevent service life shortage of a servomotor which results from overload and overheat owing to excessively frequent switchings of the rotational direction of a servomotor. And, as rotational switching needs to go through a step of pause, another problem is posed that high productivity is not expected due to a longer operating time consumed for a single stroke.
Besides, there was not solved the problem of reduction in productivity and reliability of operation of the feeding device due to the difference between the speeds of the driving source for the press and the driving source for the feeding device, caused by use of a pneumatic device for the feeding device apart from the press, as described previously.

Mechanical press machine for forming semiconductor packages


An object of the invention is to provide a polishing pad that achieves a high polishing rate and has high thickness precision so that the break-in time (dummy polishing time) can be shortened, and to provide a method for producing same. The invention is directed to a polishing pad including a base material layer and a polishing layer provided on the base material layer, wherein the polishing layer includes a thermoset polyurethane foam having roughly spherical interconnected cells with an average cell diameter of 35 to 200 μm, and the polishing layer has a storage modulus E′ (40° C.) of 130 to 400 MPa at 40° C., a ratio of storage modulus E′ (30° C.) at 30° C. to storage modulus E′ (60° C.) at 60° C. [E′(30° C.)/E′(60° C.)] of 1 to less than 2.5, and a ratio of storage modulus E′ (30° C.) at 30° C. to storage modulus E′ (90° C.) at 90° C. [E′(30° C.)/E′(90° C.)] of 15 to 130.

Generally, the mirror polishing of semiconductor wafers such as a silicon wafer etc., lenses, and glass substrates includes rough polishing primarily intended to regulate planarity and in-plane uniformity and final polishing primarily intended to improve surface roughness and removal of scratches.
The final polishing is carried out usually by rubbing a wafer against an artificial suede made of flexible urethane foam stuck to a rotatable platen and simultaneously feeding thereon an abrasive containing a colloidal silica in an alkali-based aqueous solution (Patent Literature 1).
As the polishing pad for finishing used in final polishing, the following polishing pads have been proposed besides those described above.
A suede finishing polishing pad comprising a nap layer having a large number of long and thin holes (naps) formed with a foaming agent in the thickness direction, in polyurethane resin, and a foundation cloth for reinforcing the nap layer is proposed (Patent Literature 2).
A suede abrasive cloth for final polishing, in which surface roughness is expressed as an arithmetic average roughness (Ra) of 5 μm or less, is proposed (Patent Literature 3).
An abrasive cloth for final polishing, which is provided with a base material part and a surface layer (nap layer) formed on the base material part, wherein a polyvinyl halide or vinyl halide copolymer is contained in the surface layer, is proposed (Patent Literature 4).
Conventional polishing pads have been produced by a wet curing method. The wet curing method is a method wherein an urethane resin solution obtained by dissolving urethane resin in a water-soluble organic solvent such as dimethylformamide is applied onto a base material, then wet-solidified by treatment in water, to form a porous grain side layer, which is then washed with water and dried, followed by polishing of the grain side layer to form a surface layer (nap layer). In Patent Literature 5, for example, an abrasive cloth for finishing, having roughly spherical holes having an average particle diameter of 1 to 30 μm, is produced by the wet curing method.
Unfortunately, conventional polishing pads have a problem in which since they have a long, thin cell structure or a surface layer made of a material with low mechanical strength, their durability is low so that the planarization performance is gradually degraded or they have low polishing rate stability. Conventional polishing pads also have a problem in which cells are often clogged with polished debris (particularly pad debris) so that they have low stability of polishing characteristics and a short life.
On the other hand, the polishing pads described below are proposed for use in rough polishing.
Patent Literature 6 discloses a polishing pad for use in polishing the surface of a semiconductor device or a precursor thereof and planarizing a metal damascene structure on a semiconductor wafer, which includes a polishing layer having a E′ ratio of about 1 to 3.6 at 30° C. to 90° C., a Shore D hardness of about 40 to 70, and a tensile modulus of about 150 to 2,000 MPa at 40° C.
Patent Literature 7 discloses a mechanochemical polishing pad capable of reducing scratching of the surface of an object being polished and reducing delamination of a low-dielectric insulating film, which includes a polishing body having a storage modulus E′ (30° C.) of 120 MPa or less at 30° C. and a ratio of storage modulus E′ (30° C.) at 30° C. to storage modulus E′ (60° C.) at 60° C. (E′(30° C.)/E′(60° C.)) of 2.5 or more.
Patent Literature 8 discloses a process for reducing appearance defects such as slicing marks in a polishing layer made of a hard polyurethane foam and reducing variations in the thickness of the polishing layer so that the flatness of the polishing surface can be improved, which includes providing a polyurethane foam block with an Asker D hardness of 50 or more at ambient temperatures, controlling the surface hardness of the polyurethane foam block within the Asker hardness range of 80 to 95, and slicing the polyurethane foam block with the controlled hardness into pieces with a predetermined thickness, so that polishing sheets are formed.
Patent Literature 1: JP-A 2003-37089
Patent Literature 2: JP-A 2003-100681
Patent Literature 3: JP-A 2004-291155
Patent Literature 4: JP-A 2004-335713
Patent Literature 5: JP-A 2006-75914
Patent Literature 6: JP-A 2004-507076
Patent Literature 7: JP-A 2006-114885
Patent Literature 8: JP-A 2005-169578

Polishing pad and method for producing same


A fuel supply device for a motorcycle facilitates a narrower vehicle width to improve maneuverability. A fuel tank is disposed above a body frame, and a first fuel pump is fixed to a part of the fuel tank facing the body frame and positioned inside of the fuel tank via a mount seat. The first fuel pump is disposed such that at least a portion of the mount seat overlaps the vehicle body frame as viewed from above the motorcycle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel supply device that supplies fuel to an engine of a motorcycle.
2. Description of Related Art
A fuel supply device for a motorcycle is disclosed in JP-A-2002-293281. This fuel supply device has a suction section of a fuel pump disposed out of a fuel tank, and has an expelling section communicating with the lowest portion of the fuel tank from an external location and disposed out of the fuel tank. An outer conduit connects the suction section and the expelling section to each other. The fuel tank straddles over a right and left pair of frame structural members (upper pipes) forming a front half portion of a vehicle body frame. The fuel pump is attached to a bottom surface of the fuel tank so that the fuel pump is positioned between the right and left frame structural members as viewed in a fore to aft direction of the vehicle, and a lower portion of the fuel pump protrudes downward beyond the bottom surface. The protruding portion has the suction section. Thereby, an ineffective residual amount of fuel in the fuel tank is reduced, external appearance and arrangement around the fuel tank is improved, and a capacity of the fuel tank is expanded.
In a conventional fuel supply device as described above, because the suction section is disposed outside of and protrudes from the fuel tank, it is difficult to narrow a width of the vehicle in the fuel tank portion.
On the other hand, in a vehicle on which a rider frequently rides under a standing condition always a narrower width of the vehicle around the fuel tank narrower is always needed to improve maneuverability.

Fuel supply device for motorcycle and motorcycle


A tremor actuated cabinet door latch has a spring loaded arm held back by a weighted trip pin. The pin releases the arm in response to shaking of the cabinet, allowing the arm to engage a catch mounted on the cabinet door, to keep the door from swinging open during an earth tremor.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of earthquake preparedness and safety and more particularly relates to a mechanical device for installation in cabinets or the like with the objective of securing the door of the cabinet in the event of an earth tremor to keep the contents of the cabinet from spilling out.
2. State of the Prior Art
Many latching or locking devices are known for securing cabinet doors in a closed position. These latching devices, however, require manual operation and are in either a locked or an unlocked condition. Such conventional locks are not helpful in circumstances where the entire cabinet is physically disturbed, upset or shaken as occurs during an earthquake. During such a tremor occupants of a house cannot be relied upon to secure cabinet doors, and it may in fact be dangerous for them to approach an open cabinet, the contents of which may be about to spill out.
What is needed is a simple latching or locking mechanism which can be easily installed in existing cabinets and which under normal circumstances will not interfere with access to the cabinet, but will respond to any significant disturbance of the cabinet by latching the cabinet door against opening until the disturbance has passed. Such a device should also be easy to reset to its stand-by condition after it has been actuated.
Such disturbance responsive door latches can also find application in cabinet installations in vehicles such as motor homes and boats, among others.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,451 issued to Bradey discloses a disturbance responsive magnetic latch which addresses the aforementioned need. This prior art device relies on small permanent magnets attracting a movable latch element when disturbed.
The applicant is unaware of any existing disturbance responsive door latches which are entirely of a mechanical design and do not depend on magnetic attraction.


Method and apparatus for allowing a person with disabilities to learn to pedal a conventional bicycle which device also converts a conventional bicycle into an in-place exercise bike. In the bike trainer embodiment, the device allows the training wheels which are attached to the rear wheel of a bicycle to be elevated by being placed in a right and left trough of the base of the device so that the rear wheel of the bicycle is elevated off the ground and spins freely in a space between the right and left troughs. In the exercise bicycle embodiment, an adjustable rear roller assembly can be attached to the base of the device so that the rear wheel of the bicycle rests on a pair of rollers so as to allow the rear wheel of the bicycle to contact and roll on a front and rear roller so as to increase pedaling resistance while the front wheel of the bicycle is stabilized by a stand having a pair of adjustable upright members and a pair of laterally extending members for maintaining the bicycle in a stable position. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to bicycles and, more particularly to a combination child bicycle trainer and adult exercise bicycle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Bicycle trainers and exercise bikes have been described in the prior art. However, none of the prior art discloses the unique features of the present invention.
An Information Disclosure Statement is attached to this specification.
While these bicycle trainers and exercise bikes may be suitable for the purpose for which they were designed, they would not be suitable for the purposes of the present invention as hereinafter described.


Benthic microbial biofuel cells (BMFCs) are a potential non-toxic and renewable source of underwater power. BMFCs function by coupling an anaerobic anode to an oxygenated cathode. However, current in-situ BMFCs on average produce less than 1W of power. Potential causes are internal ohmic resistance and low capture efficiency of the bacteria-generated charge due to macroscopic average distances between bacteria and electrodes.

Large fleets of drones, including unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and sensors, promise to cover a large area of monitoring and control at a fraction of the cost of traditional assets, with significantly reduced logistics tail, and decreased risks for human personne4l. However, such fleets can pose their own logistics challenges. One problem for UUVs is that each one has to be charged on a regular basis due to high levels of water resistance and distance of travel. Without a local power source, charging these UUVs could take a lot of time and risk security issues if all UUVs are charged at once in one place.
Benthic microbial fuel cell (BMFC) technology could act as a local power source. A microbial fuel cell is a bio-electrochemical system that employs facultative or strict anaerobic bacteria to oxidize organic matter and produce direct electrical current. A BMFC uses indigenous bacteria that live in the sediment of the ocean floor. As a result of their natural life processes, these anaerobic microorganisms expel electrons. The expelled charge can be recovered and run through a load connected to a cathode where oxygen in the seawater captures the terminal electron. The outcome is electrical power generated from the bacteria.
BMFCs have been shown to produce meaningful power to sensors, however the average output power density is relatively low, e.g. 10-40 mW/m2. Macroelectrodes may have low capture efficiency due to large average distances between the electrode and cells in current macrosystems such as seawater. Thus, shrinking the distance could improve the efficiency by a significant factor. Elastomeric microfluidic chips may be used as the enabling technology to shrink the distance between the electrode and cells.
Further optimization and study of the system may lead to alternative architectural, scaling, biological, and biochemical parameters, which could significantly improve the output power density and lead to the development of an optimized power unit. Arraying that unit would produce renewable power stations. Since a need still exists for powering UUVs, utilizing arrayed microfluidic microbacterial fuel cell chips may be a potential solution.

Microfluidic microbacterial fuel cell chips and related optimization methods

Abstract: A microfluidic BMFC chip is enclosed to study those potential causes. The chip is built using elastomer microfluidics to provide biologically-inert microfluidic confinement of the bacteria, forcing them to be no further away than the height of the containment microchamber (‥90 μm) from the microelectrode matrix built on the glass substrate of the chip. The matrix captures the charge without location bias (due to its H-architecture) and conducts it to the outside circuit. The microfluidic chip system can be used as an evaluation station to optimize biological parameters, geometry, and electrode scaling towards increased power. That would lead to the development of an optimized power unit that can then be arrayed to build renewable power stations in maritime environments.

United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for minimization of video re-buffering using local animation are disclosed. A client device stores a portion of a video stream into a video buffer and displays the portion on a display. The stream is received from a media streaming system via one or more networks. The client device discontinues displaying the video stream. The client device generates a visualization of metadata that is displayed on the display while the video stream is not displayed. While the visualization of metadata is displayed on the display, the client device stores a newer portion of the video stream in the video buffer. The client device discontinues displaying the visualization of metadata and resumes displaying the video stream on the display.

Internet-based media streaming is increasingly the choice of viewers who seek convenient access to video outside of conventional video distribution channels (including over-the-air broadcasts, cable TV, satellite TV, and prerecorded physical media). Using streaming technologies, viewers may access channels of live media (e.g., video) as well as prerecorded media from libraries of media assets that are accessible over an Internet connection. In some cases, streaming media is viewable on a wide range of devices, including desktop computers and laptop computers, tablets, smartphones, wearable computers, and specialized devices such as smart televisions. Additionally, internet-based media streaming may be used to deliver high-quality video from remote content providers to local broadcasters for conventional video distribution to viewers.
The distribution and delivery pipeline for streaming media is typically a complicated one. A media asset or live stream may first be acquired, e.g., from a broadcaster. The media may then be processed and transformed in any of several ways—potentially including compression, encryption, and other forms of encoding—for eventual distribution to viewers. A hierarchy of servers over a wide geographical area may be used to deliver the media to many client devices in an efficient manner. Viewers may attempt to play the streaming media on the client devices. However, the viewer experience may be degraded by a loss of network connectivity, a drop in available network bandwidth, and other problems that result in the client device exhausting the contents of a local video buffer.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning "having the potential to"), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning "must"). Similarly, the words "include," "including," and "includes" mean "including, but not limited to."

Minimization of video re-buffering using local animation


On-board ILS ethyl alcohol sensors based on intracavity laser spectroscopy (ILS) are provided for detecting the presence of ethyl alcohol vapors in a vehicle. The sensor comprises: (a) a laser comprising a gain medium having two opposed facets within a laser resonator and functioning as an intracavity spectroscopic device having a first end and a second end, the first end operatively associated with a partially reflecting (i.e., partially transmitting) surface; (b) a reflective or dispersive optical element (e.g., a mirror or a diffraction grating) operatively associated with the second end to define a broadband wavelength laser resonator between the optical element and the first end and to thereby define an external cavity region between at least one facet of the gain medium and either the first end or the second end or both ends; (c) the external cavity region being exposed to air in the cabin of the vehicle to enable any ethyl alcohol molecules to enter thereinto; (d) a detector spaced from the first end; (e) appropriate electronics for measuring and analyzing the detector signal; (f) a housing for containing at least the laser, the partially reflecting surface, and the optical element, the housing being configured to prevent escape of stray radiation into the cab and to permit air from the cab to continuously circulate through the external cavity region for analysis; and (g) means for driving the laser (e.g., electrical or optical). A method is provided for measuring concentration of ethyl alcohol vapors in a vehicle employing the on-board sensor. The method comprises: (1) sensing any ethyl alcohol vapors in the cab by the on-board sensor; and (2) providing a signal indicative of presence of any alcohol vapors.

Detecting alcohol-impaired drivers has gained a high level of importance during the last decade. In most cases, the reason to identify alcohol-impaired individuals participating in public traffic is motivated by safety issues and legal implications caused by these individuals operating cars, machinery or other equipment. Safety and legal issues are both very important in the context of a mobile society heavily relying on motorized vehicles for transportation. Financial implications for individuals or groups of the society resulting from accidents are considerable. Recognizing the importance of these facts, the abatement of alcohol-related accidents has been identified as prime target by the U.S. government.
Conventional technology utilized for alcohol (also referred to herein as ethanol or ethyl alcohol, CH.sub.3 CH.sub.2 OH) detection in traffic and traffic related situations relies on two different approaches:
1. Screening for blood alcohol is used to determine whether an individual's blood alcohol content (BAC) is below or above a certain threshold value. In most cases, screening is done by means of breath analysis to establish the breath alcohol content (BrAC). Conversion factors have been established to convert BrAC values into BAC values. The most commonly accepted conversion factor is 2100 (A. W. Jones, "Precision, Accuracy and Relevance of Breath Alcohol Measurements", Modern Problems of Pharmacopsychiatry, Vol. 11, pp. 65-78, 1976). Although breath analyzers are used frequently in traffic control situations, e.g., at sobriety checkpoints or for random screening of equipment operators, they only yield initial results to justify further evidential blood alcohol tests. PA1 2. Evidential blood alcohol testing is the method of choice to establish legally-binding BAC values and, normally, is required after a positive breath alcohol test result. For the purpose of evidential alcohol tests, breath analysis with certified breath analyzers, chemical urine analysis, or blood sample analysis are most commonly employed. However, these methods, especially urine and blood tests, are time-consuming, require expensive equipment and trained operators and may necessitate medical supervision. PA1 (a) Only selected vehicles can be tested for alcohol-impaired drivers due to logistical and personnel limitations, allowing a high percent rate of drivers under the influence to continue to drive. PA1 (b) Vehicles with drivers suspected to be under the influence have to be stopped, necessitating costly sobriety checkpoints and follow-up examinations. PA1 (c) Expensive equipment has to be setup and maintained at high cost. PA1 (d) Human interaction is required, accounting for a variety of different problems, e.g., high personnel costs, risk of violent encounters, etc. PA1 (e) Testing is sporadic and does not provide continuous monitoring of the driver's condition with respect to the ingestion of alcohol. PA1 1. Fuel Cells: Fuel cell sensor devices are based on electrochemical reactions, in which alcohol in the gas phase is oxidized on a catalytic electrode surface to generate a quantitative electrical response. Sample gas is injected or drawn into the detector causing system response proportional to the alcohol concentration in the gas sample. PA1 2. Semiconductors: Sensors of this type utilize small, heated (300.degree. C.) beads of a transition metal oxide, across which a voltage is applied to produce a small standing current. The magnitude of this current is determined by the conductivity of the surface of the bead. Since the conductivity is affected by the amount of alcohol molecules adsorbed, it can be taken as a measure for the alcohol concentration in the gas sample. PA1 3. Infrared Absorption: Absorption devices for breath sampling operate on the principle of infrared light being absorbed by alcohol molecules. The amount of light absorbed by the gas sample flowing though the sample cell can be taken as a measure of the alcohol content. PA1 4. Gas Chromatography: This technique uses the ability of inorganic compounds to retain gas molecules on their surface in a characteristic way for different species. The retention time of alcohol in a separating column filled with the compound is used for its identification, the magnitude of detector response can be taken as a measure for the alcohol concentration in the gas sample. PA1 5. Colorimetry: Devices based on this effect make use of the color change some chemicals display when reacting with alcohol. A gas sample is drawn into a small glass tube filled with a substrate containing an acidified solution of potassium dichromate. In the presence of alcohol, the color of the substrate changes from yellow to green. The length of the discolored portion of the tube can be taken as a measure for the alcohol concentration of the sample. PA1 (a) a laser comprising a gain medium having two opposed facets within a laser resonator and functioning as an intracavity spectroscopic device having a first end and a second end, the first end operatively associated with a partially reflecting (i.e., partially transmitting) surface; PA1 (b) a reflective or dispersive optical element (e.g., a mirror or a diffraction grating) operatively associated with the second end to define a broadband wave-length laser resonator between the optical element and the first end and to thereby define an external cavity region between at least one facet of the gain medium and either the first end or the second end or both ends; PA1 (c) the external cavity region being exposed to a sample of air representative of the air in the cabin of the vehicle to enable any ethyl alcohol molecules to enter thereinto; PA1 (d) a detector spaced from the first end and providing an output detector signal; PA1 (e) appropriate electronics for measuring and analyzing the detector signal; PA1 (f) a housing for containing at least the laser, the partially reflecting surface, and the optical element, the housing being configured to prevent escape of stray radiation into the cabin and to permit air from the cabin to continuously circulate through the external cavity region for analysis; and PA1 (g) means for driving the laser (e.g., electrical or optical). PA1 (1) sensing any ethyl alcohol vapors in the vehicle by the on-board sensor; PA1 (2) providing a signal indicative of presence of any ethyl alcohol vapors.
Both of the above approaches are based on technologies which can only be applied external to a vehicle and require the cooperation of tested individuals with authorities conducting the alcohol test. Besides these commonalities, both approaches share several significant shortcomings:
These facts lead to the conclusion, that (i) conventional technologies available to identify alcohol-impaired drivers are limited in their applicability and (ii) due to their conceptual shortcomings, these methods are even less suited to contribute to a significant further reduction of alcohol abuse in traffic as required by the government.
There are a number of technologies that are used for alcohol detection in gas samples. The following operational principles can be found in most commercial breath analyzers:
None of these devices has yet fulfilled the simultaneous requirements of fast response, high sensitivity, and continuous on-board monitoring in a moving vehicle. Thus, they are only utilized as the result of driver intervention by law enforcement personnel.
A new generation of small, highly-sensitive, on-board alcohol detectors would help to greatly reduce the number of alcohol-impaired drivers by preventing individuals under the influence from driving vehicles. These sensors, mounted within the cabin area of vehicles, would address the problem of driving under the influence before it even arises.

ILS sensors for alcohol detection within vehicles


A transformer-isolated power transfer apparatus included in a power supply body and a device body that are removably coupled together. The power supply body contains a primary winding and a secondary winding for transmitting electrical power. The device body contains an induction winding and a load. When the power supply body and device body are coupled together, the secondary winding in the power supply body is electromagnetically inductively coupled to the induction winding provided in the device body to transfer power from the power supply body to the device body via electromagnetic inductive coupling. The apparatus further includes detection circuitry that detects when the power supply body and the device body are coupled together. The power supply body further contains an oscillation drive circuit that drives the primary winding in the power supply body in an intermittent oscillation mode of operation when the detection circuitry detects that the power supply body is not coupled to the device body, and that drives the primary winding in the power supply body in a continuous oscillation mode of operation when the detection circuitry detects that the power supply body is coupled to the device body. During the intermittent oscillation mode of operation, the oscillation on period is controllably varied in response to variations in an input voltage in a manner such as to maintain an average power transmitted from the power supply body to the device body at a substantially constant level. In this manner, the detection circuitry can reliably detect when the power supply body and the device body are coupled together despite variations in the input voltage.

An example of a conventional non-contact type power transfer apparatus is described in Laid-open patent publication Hei 6-311658. In the apparatus described therein, a signal to detect whether a device body is mounted to a power-supply body is created from a signal output from a primary coil in such a way that the output of a primary side oscillation circuit is sufficiently suppressed.
The above-mentioned conventional non-contact type power transfer apparatus uses a timer as an intermittent drive/oscillation means to set the intermittent time for oscillation. Such a timer, however, requires a timer IC, which increases the cost of the parts significantly. Moreover, such a conventional apparatus provides a constant oscillation duration irrespective of fluctuations in the input voltage. Thus, if only a low voltage is applied due to power-supply conditions, for example, the detection signal level for the device body will be low, while if only a high voltage is applied, this signal level will be high. Thus, the operation of the conventional apparatus is unstable.

Transformer-isolated power transfer apparatus having intermittent and continuous oscillation modes of operation