An improved optical waveguide device having an optical waveguide for guiding a lightwave comprises, on a surface of a substrate having an electrooptical effect, at least a pair of electrodes composed of a hot electrode and a ground electrode which controls a guided lightwave, a buffer layer formed between the electrodes and the optical waveguide; further comprising an antistatic film which is formed on an upper surface of the buffer layer such that it comes into contact only with the hot electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical waveguide device having an optical waveguide and electrodes for controlling a guided lightwave which are formed on a surface of a substrate which has an electrooptical effect, and more particularly to an improved optical waveguide device which can be operated stably against an ambient temperature change and the properties of the optical modulator are not affected by unevenness in electric conductivity of antistatic films for preventing unstable operation by pyroelectrically induced charge or the like.
The present invention also relates to an optical waveguide device which is capable of a high speed operation and utilizes a substrate with an electrooptical effect, more specifically, to a constitution for optical intensity modulators, optical phase modulators, polarization scramblers or the like which improves properties of long distance, optical fiber transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent fiber optics communication systems, a broad bandwidth, high capacity transmission of several GHz to several ten GHz at long distance of several thousand kilometers has been studied and such transmissions have been partially turning into practical use.
Under such circumstances, optical waveguide devices are studied as the key device. Since a lightwave is confined in a waveguide in an optical waveguide device, a high speed operation is possible and miniaturization, integration, complexation and the like can be easily attained. Furthermore, it has also been investigated to apply an optical waveguide device to optical measuring instruments, optical information processing or the like.
Among the optical waveguide devices, those having an optical waveguide formed by effecting a thermal diffusion of the Titanium (Ti) into a ferroelectric substrate such as LiNbO.sub.3 (hereinafter simply referred to as LN) which has a great electrooptical effect are known and various investigations have been made on them. For an optical modulator utilizing such LN waveguide, it is relatively easy to suppress optical losses. Moreover, it has been proved that the optical modulator would have a modulation bandwidth of 10 GHz or more by constituting a hot electrode as a traveling-wave type electrode and thus, it is considered as a key device for realizing an super-high speed optical communication system.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a waveguide-type optical phase modulator as an example of Ti-diffused, LN waveguide-type optical modulators.
In this optical modulator, Ti is diffused into a surface of Z-cut LN substrate and a traveling-wave type electrodes are formed thereon. Although omitted from the illustration in FIG. 4, a buffer layer which is, for example, composed of SiO.sub.2 is formed between a waveguide and the electrodes in order to prevent a guided lightwave from being absorbed in the metal electrodes.
To avoid operational fluctuations due to polarization change, an incident lightwave is polarized only one direction using a laminated micropolarizer lamipole (11), since the LN substrate is a large anisotropic crystal. The guided lightwave interacts with an electric field occurring due to microwave (electric signals) applied by a signal source (7), thereby changing the phase of guided lightwave.
For the purpose of further broadening the bandwidth, the electrodes are generally formed as a thick film in those modulators having a traveling-wave type electrodes. In other words, broadening of the bandwidth is attained by matching the propagation velocity of the guided lightwave with the velocity of the microwave traveling across the electrodes, namely, by velocity matching between the guided lightwave and the microwave. In general, such thick film electrodes are formed by an electroplating process.
Other than waveguide-type optical phase modulators, one example of which has been explained so far, mention may be made to branched interferometric-type optical intensity modulators in which two Y-branch waveguides are combined, as well as to polarization scramblers wherein a polarizer is arranged on the incident side of the optical phase modulator at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the crystallographic axis.
Since a ferroelectric material is used as the substrate in these devices, they are likely to be pyroelectrically charged due to ambient temperature change, and what is worse, operation of the device becomes unstable because of such pyroelectrically induced charge.
The mechanism of such phenomenon will be explained below with reference to FIG. 5a and FIG. 5b.
In FIG. 5a, there is shown a structure in which no antistatic film is formed. In this case, an electric field caused by induced charges on the surface of a substrate (6) changes the refractive index of a waveguide (3) and thus, properties of the modulator become unstable with respect to ambient temperature change.
On the other hand, when an antistatic film (5) is formed as illustrated in FIG. 5(b), the electric field caused by the induced charges scarcely crosses the waveguide (3) and thus, the device can be quite stable against ambient temperature change.
In Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-78016, for example, there have been proposed a constitution as shown in FIG. 3(a), wherein a waveguide (3) and a buffer layer (4) are formed on a surface of a LN substrate (6), and after forming coplanar electrodes (1) and (2) in the form of thick film, an antistatic film (5) is formed all over the surface, and a constitution as illustrated in FIG. 3(b) in which an antistatic film (5) is formed all over the surface of a buffer layer (4) before the formation of coplanar electrodes (1) and (2).
The above-mentioned two constitutions have such a common feature that the antistatic film (5) is always in contact with both of the hot electrode (1) and the ground electrode (2).
This feature is aimed to uniformly distribute the charges induced in the surface of the substrate between the electrodes, and is considered to be necessary for preventing unstableness in operation of the device.
However, the pyroelectric charge is not the only cause for unstableness in operation of the device. The electrode films which are formed thickly for broadening the bandwidth of the device have a quite large stress. Since this stress fluctuates in accordance with temperature change, an operating point acting on the waveguide may be shifted via the photoelastic effect of the LN substrate. In addition, other stresses such as thermal stress of the buffer layer formed on the surface of the substrate also act on the waveguide through the photoelastic effect of the substrate, thereby shifting the operating point. Accordingly, even a constitution in which an antistatic film is formed all over the surface of the substrate involves such a problem that the device cannot be operated stably against the ambient temperature change.
Material such as ITO and Si are generally used for the antistatic film (5), but the electric conductivity of these materials is greatly affected by a very little difference in contained impurities or manufacturing conditions (it easily changes by several hundred times to several thousand times). Since such film is in contact with both of the hot electrode (1) and the ground electrode (2), the resistance between the electrodes of the modulator may be greatly changed, thereby causing fluctuations in electrical properties.
Moreover, it is known that when an electric field is introduced into a semiconductive film such as the antistatic film, the electric field strength is weakened by the conductivity of the film. Accordingly, there is such a problem that when an antistatic film is widely formed between the electrodes (1), (2) and the buffer layer (4) as illustrated in FIG. 3b, the electric field occurring by applied microwave to the hot electrode (1) is decreased due to the conductivity of the antistatic film.


A reusable gas-powered war game land mine has at least one launch tube with ne or more projectile(s) loaded therein. A compressed gas reservoir and rupturing device are provided with the rupturing device being movable in relationship to the seal of the compressed gas reservoir. A triggering mechanism is coupled to the rupturing device to move the rupturing device so that it impacts the seal when the triggering mechanism is activated. The rupturing device can define a channel through which the compressed gas is directed to the breech end of the launch tube(s) when the seal is broken. As a result, the compressed gas enters the breech end of the launch tube(s) to propel the projectile(s) therefrom.

Land mines are in use around the world. They range from relatively small anti-personnel mines to large anti-tank mines. The explosion characteristics (e.g., direction of explosion and shrapnel) of land mines can vary greatly. Thus, to adequately prepare military personnel, good military training must account for and simulate not only the presence of land mines, but also their explosion characteristics. To do this, it is necessary to have practice land mines.
One practice land mine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,0621 sprays a marking agent slurry in a desired pattern when triggered. Handling of the slurry, however, is messy. Further, the slurry can clog the nozzles from which it is sprayed.

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


Selectively controllable cleavable linkers include electrochemically-cleavable linkers, photolabile linkers, thermolabile linkers, chemically-labile linkers, and enzymatically-cleavable linkers. Selective cleavage of individual linkers may be controlled by changing local conditions. Local conditions may be changed by activating electrodes in proximity to the linkers, exposing the linkers to light, heating the linkers, or applying chemicals. Selective cleaving of enzymatically-cleavable linkers may be controlled by designing the sequences of different sets of the individual linkers to respond to different enzymes. Cleavable linkers may be used to attach polymers to a solid substrate. Selective cleavage of the linkers enables release of specific polymers from the solid substrate. Cleavable linkers may also be used to attach protecting groups to the ends of growing polymers. The protecting groups may be selectively removed by cleavage of the linkers to enable growth of specific polymers.

Linkers are used for many applications in biotechnology. Oligonucleotides and peptides are attached to solid supports during solid-phase synthesis with linkers. These types of linkers are typically cleaved by washing the solid support with a strong acid or base solution. Linkers may also be used to attach protecting groups that control the polymerization of oligonucleotides and polypeptides. An acid or base solution is also typically used to remove protecting groups.
Cleavage of linkers using chemicals such as acids and bases creates chemical waste and may require the use of specialized equipment. These techniques for cleaving linkers are nonspecific and generally cleave all linkers present. There is also the potential for cross-reactions between the chemicals used to cleave linkers and the oligonucleotides, polypeptides, or other molecules attached to a linker.


A method for printing certain information on labels using a smart device. Product-related information, expiration information, and batch information is stored on a server and provided to a smart device. One of the products or batches is selected using the smart device. Labels incorporating certain product-related information are generated and sent to a printer.

Food labels are commonly used in the food service and other industries to improve food quality and food safety. Labels may be affixed to food containers and may indicate information such as storage requirements or discard time. Labels often need to be printed one at a time, for each food container, or at best in multiples where a location has several containers of the same food item. Labels tend to be standardized, so employees may need to add any additional needed information manually.
Further, current label practices do not take into account the need for managing food. The employees who print labels for food products are not the same employees that manage the overall food management and ordering for a location or corporation. Tracking what foods have been labeled can also be difficult, making inventorying necessary and time-consuming. A need exists to print a more convenient, safe, and accurate method for creating, managing, and printing labels.

Multi-level system for label creation and printing


In order to obtain a high-power laser beam with a high beam quality with use of a small-sized and low-cost apparatus, there has been disclosed a laser resonator which is constructed so as to produce a single high-order transverse mode laser beam, and a technique for converting the laser beam with a single high-order transverse mode into a laser beam with a high beam quality. The laser resonator is provided with a regulating plate of a high-order transverse mode which is constructed so as to produce a laser beam in a single high-order transverse mode. A phase adjusting plate inverts a phase for each region of the laser beam divided depending upon a lateral mode thereof to match the phase for each region of the laser beam, and subsequently, a traveling direction of the laser beam is changed for each position thereof by means of the first binary optics element, and further, the laser beam is converted into a parallel beam by means of the second binary optical element. The first binary optics element changes the traveling direction of the ray of the laser beam for each region thereof so that the laser beam has a desired intensity distribution on the second binary optics element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser resonator and a laser beam converter for generating a laser beam with high power and high beam quality used for a laser processing machine, etc. In particular, the present invention relates to a laser resonator which emits a high-power laser beam by being constructed so that a laser beam with a single high-order transverse mode is emitted, and to a technique for converting a laser beam with a high-order transverse mode into a laser beam with high beam quality.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, processing with a laser beam, that is, laser materials processing, has been utilized. Laser materials processing is carried out by converging a laser beam with an optical element and irradiating the converged laser beam to a portion to be processed. An optical lens and a mirror are mainly used as the aforesaid optical element for convergence. A diffractive optical element which is constructed so as to exhibit a lens effect by forming a diffraction grating on the surface of a glass substrate may be used as the optical element. A binary optics element, which is a kind of diffractive optical element, can be used for a high power laser beam. Also, there has been utilized laser materials processing carried out such that a laser beam emitted from a laser resonator is converged onto an end face of a core portion of an optical fiber without directly converging the laser beam on a portion to be processed, and is guided into an optical fiber, and subsequently, a laser beam emitted from an end facet of the optical fiber is converged on the portion to be processed.
In most cases of the laser materials processing, a converged laser beam is desired to have a single spot intensity distribution. For some materials processings, if the converged laser beam is divided into plural spots, the laser beam is irradiated onto portions other than portions to be processed. This causes disadvantages that a desired processing can not be achieved, and that the energy of laser beam is dispersed. For this reason, the laser beam energy is not irradiated onto the portion to be processed with high density; causing a problem that processing efficiency is poor. Also, if the laser beam is divided into plural spots when it is guided into the optical fiber, there exists a spot which is not guided to the core portion of the optical fiber, causing a problem that the energy of laser beam is not effectively used. Moreover, the laser beam is converged with use of a spherical lens and the binary optics element which is constructed so as to exhibit the same lens effect as the spherical lens by forming the diffraction grating into a concentric circle shape. In such a case, since the intensity distribution of the converged laser beam is the same as that of the laser beam incident upon the spherical lens and the binary optics element, a laser resonator which produces a laser beam having a single spot intensity distribution is desired as a light source.
A gas laser such as a CO.sub.2 laser or a solid-state laser such as Nd:YAG laser is used as a light source for laser materials processing. As is well known, in the gas or solid-state laser, since there is a transverse mode, laser oscillation takes place in various transverse modes, and the transverse mode in which oscillation takes place varies depending upon environmental conditions. For instance, in a TEM.sub.00 mode, a laser beam has a Gaussian distribution in its electric field amplitude, and also, has a Gaussian distribution in its intensity, namely, the laser beam is formed into a single spot. On the contrary, in a high-order transverse mode than the TEM.sub.00, the laser beam is divided into plural spots. In other words, the laser beam with a high-order transverse mode has a beam quality worse than the TEM.sub.00 -mode laser beam.
In the case where an output power of the laser resonator is low, the laser resonator can stably oscillate a laser beam in the TEM.sub.00 mode. However, if the output power of the laser resonator is made high, oscillation takes place in a high-order transverse mode than the TEM.sub.00. Thus, it is desirable that a light source for laser processing has as high output power as possible. In particular, taking workability, cost or efficiency into consideration, it is desirable that as high power as possible can be obtained with the identical laser resonator. But, as seen from the above description, if the output of the laser resonator is made high, the laser beam becomes a high-order transverse mode than the TEM.sub.00 ; for this reason, there has arisen a problem that the output power from the laser resonator can not be made high as desired while maintaining the beam quality of the output to be high. Thus, there has been desired development of a technique capable of providing a high-power laser beam having high beam quality.

Laser beam converter for converting a laser beam with a single high-order transverse mode into a laser beam with a desired intensity distribution and laser resonator for producing a laser beam with a single high-order transverse mode


Provided is a box includes a box body having an opened upper portion; a first cover openably disposed to seal the opened portion of the box body; a second cover openably disposed to overlap on at least partially; and a slide button operably disposed on the second cover to fix the second cover to the first cover.

In recent years, developed packing boxes are applied to various fields that are closely related to our everyday lives. Particularly, such a packing box is not only used for simply packing products, but also used as a container for storing living goods such as accessories.
Since such a livingware is small and slim and easily lost and broken, it requires careful attention with respect to storage. Thus, the packing box has an enclosure shape with an opened upper portion and is covered with a separate cover.
Since the above-described packing box is partially sealed to effectively protect products when the products are packaged and transported, a portion of the packing box has to be damaged so as to take the products out of the packing box. As a result, the damaged box is recognized as a disposable product because it does not function as a box any longer. Thus, it is necessary to recycle the packing box and effectively store products.


Boron carbide heteroisomer semiconductor devices are used as particle detectors. The boron carbide semiconductor devices produce electric current in response to incident particles, such as alpha particles, neutrons, or photons.

Both p and n type semiconducting materials are commonly used to form semiconducting devices. A p-n junction diode is a typical example of a device containing such a junction between a p and n type material. The diode can be constructed by forming an interface or junction between a semiconducting material having holes as the majority carrier (the "p" material) and a semiconducting material having electrons as the majority carrier (the "n" material). In addition to single junction devices, multiple junctions can be formed consecutively to form other devices, such as p-n-p or n-p-n transistors. Known semiconducting materials suitable for use in forming p-n junctions include silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide, and boron carbide.
Conventionally, p-n junction devices can be formed as either heterojunction devices or homojunction devices. In heterojunction devices, two different semiconductor materials are selected to form a p-n junction. Based on the selection of materials, devices with various bias voltages can be created. Strain can be created at interfaces of dissimilar material, which can lead to structural defect failure. Different materials also have diffusion across the interface or side reactions leading to an al together different semiconductor, which can lead to eventual failure increased recombination for electron hole pairs.
In homojunction devices, the same bulk semiconductor material is used to form both halves of the p-n junction, but one or more dopants are added to one or both sides of the junction in order to modify the majority carrier. Homojunction devices typically have little or no strain at the junction interface. Due to fabrication difficulties and interdiffusion effects, however, it is difficult to create a sharp transition between the p and n materials. Devices with non-abrupt transitions between the p and n materials typically suffer from increased recombination at the p-n junction. Additionally, doping of the semiconductor materials can lead to introduction of other impurities, and some impurities may be activated by the incident radiation, particularly neutrons.
Heterojunction and homojunction devices, such as diodes, are useful for a myriad of applications. Heteroisomeric devices in accordance with the present invention are a new type of device that may find application in any of the myriad of uses where heterojunction and homojunction devices are employed, as well as new uses for which heterojunction and homojunction devices are ill-suited. One area of particular interest for heteroisomeric diodes is the conversion of the kinetic energy of particles incident upon them to signal pulses, thereby allowing electrical pulses to indicate particles incident upon the devices
What is needed are p-n junction devices that are effective for detection of incident particles. The devices should be capable of withstanding a variety of operating environments. The devices should be constructed of materials with a high neutron capture cross-section, and significant capture cross-section for other incident particles of interest, as well as stability against radiation damage.


There is disclosed a technique for creating a plug and play interface for user actions on a graphical user interface (GUI) on a computer system such as might be used in a client-server network. A text file is prepared in XML language containing all possible user actions. The text file is read by GUI framework application software running on the operating system, and the results are stored in at least one table as Java code. The framework application software calls the Java code in response to user requests. The technique lends itself to modularization and therefore to ease of manufacture of such software plug and play interface. Such software can be easily modified at any time up to runtime.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains command formats and/or other computer language listings, all of which are subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner, EMC Corporation, has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for use in computer systems and, more particularly, relates to a plug and play technique for manifesting a GUI in a manner which, among other things, enables its software developers to implement certain user-requested or otherwise-initiated GUI code changes up to runtime, and in a modular manner which does not impact other GUI code.
2. Description of Prior Art
As virtually all users of computer terminals have experienced, user-interaction with the computer, computer system, and/or computer network (including the Internet), in addition to keyboard interaction, generally involves positioning and activating a computer screen cursor, user-controlled by manually positioning a mouse and clicking its left and right mouse buttons. This mouse-cursor "subsystem", through operation of software including user interface software (or "framework"), permits users to activate a computer screen framework of menus, buttons, dialog boxes, toolbars, etc. The activity resulting in this framework information and other computer-screen-displayed information derived from this framework can be defined as the GUI.
In GUI software development in the prior art, typically the code for operations is directly embedded into the message handler code that many user interface frameworks generate for menus, buttons, etc. Such code is compiled and linked into the overall application code module and is shipped to the customer-user in one unit. There are two main problems with this approach: (1) All code needed for the application is resident within a single module and has to be compiled and linked together. For large applications this can lead to long development times. Bug fixes in one part of the code can affect other parts of the code because there is no establishment and enforcement of boundaries between different parts of the code. (2) It is virtually impossible to add functionality on an as-needed or as-requested basis, during the development cycle or thereafter in response to developers' or users' desires, without recompiling, relinking, retesting, and reinstalling a great deal of functionally-unrelated code that should not have been affected at all by the added functionality. This is a very costly, time consuming, and wasteful repetition of code development, further running the risk of causing damage to code already in place. This is not an efficient manner in which to conduct software development.
Accordingly, software developers of complex software would like the flexibility to easily make changes to their software to effect GUI changes, in both software already supplied to users and in software still under development, without disrupting major portions of code already developed and finalized. In other words, they would like to be able to easily alter the software, which, in turn, alters the screen presentation or format, and they would like to be able to do this at any time, including after its shipment to a customer. Additionally, certain users such as, for example, major corporate purchasers of computer systems and equipment would like the flexibility to update or change available features or capabilities of GUIs supplied with their computer systems because their corporate needs change in response to their changing business conditions. This flexibility tends to be more difficult to achieve, however, as computer system performance requirements and expectations increase, whereby the software being developed, including GUI software, necessarily becomes more and more complex.
One approach that software developers have taken to simplify the software development process involves their use of object-oriented languages, such as C++ and JAVA, in writing their code. Briefly, an object, in computer software terms, is a dedicated area of memory which can be thought of as an impervious container holding both data and instructions within itself, both defining itself and its relationships to other objects in the computer system or network. An object or node can send and receive messages to and from other objects, respond and react to such messages (e.g. commands) but shall normally be impervious to internal scrutiny. For example, in a storage system (a kind of computer) each object (system object) may describe or relate to a specific tangible detail in the storage system or its processor (e.g. a fan, power switch, cache memory, power supply, disk drive interface, etc.), where these tangible objects in the storage system can send messages to each other and to other objects outside the storage system. The relationship between these specific objects in the storage system is usually visualized or characterized as a "tree" of objects. In a tree, each such object hangs off a preceding object as if in a parent-child or inheritance relationship, with many children hanging from a parent not being an atypical configuration. In addition to these tangible kinds of objects, logical units (LUNs) are other nodes or objects that can be contained within the tree. For example, a storage system object can have several LUN objects as its children which, in turn, can have various disk objects as their children, etc. These kinds of objects are generically referred to herein as "system objects" since they all relate to a system or to components within a system, whether it is a storage system, computer system, disk drive system, or some other system, and representations of these objects are typically displayed on the GUI in this tree fashion. However, other kinds of objects can also be formulated which do not relate to a system or its components per se, such as objects relating to user actions and represented on the GUI in other ways. (User actions are any commands or operations initiated by the user, such as, for example, creating a LUN or downloading new software to a disk, etc.)
Another prior art approach to simplification in software development, in general, involves the concept of modularity, where software, whether object-oriented or otherwise, having common or related functionality is grouped together for control purposes. A first group then communicates with other functionally-unrelated groups of software through well-defined interfaces. This modular approach has resulted in certain notable efficiencies. In this approach, developers are organized into appropriate teams corresponding to the various groups, thus allowing parallel development. Also, this approach allows software development to proceed in a manner in which a particular group's software can be modified without negatively impacting other groups' software. However, this approach does not address inefficiencies noted above with regard to code modification after completion of the development cycle or after shipment to a customer user.
These shortcomings and inefficiencies of prior art techniques of software development, and particularly as relating to GUI software development are addressed and overcome by the welcome arrival of the present invention.

Plug and play interface for user actions


Supercapacitor structures are provided which include, for example: one or more layers of supercapacitors; and one or more contact tabs. The one or more contact tabs electrically contact and extend outward from the supercapacitor structure to facilitate electrical connection to the supercapacitor structure, and the one or more contact tabs include a multi-contact tab. The multi-contact tab is configured and sized with multiple contact locations which are disposed external to the supercapacitor structure. Various supercapacitor structures are provided, including one supercapacitor structure with a shared C-shaped current collector, and another supercapacitor structure with stacked supercapacitors. One or more additional multi-contact tabs may also extend from the supercapacitor structure(s) and distribute the same or a different capacitor voltage than the multi-contact tab.

Mobile consumer electronic devices, such as smart phones, tablet computers, portable media players, etc., may have many energy consuming components and subsystems, such as, for example, displays, radio transceivers, processors, and camera flash devices, etc. Each component or subsystem may have different electrical requirements, including, for instance, different operating requirements for voltage, current, and power. Meeting these varying requirements, within a desired form factor and cost, can pose considerable design challenges.


A method and a system for providing easy access to an e-mail account, in particular a POP3/SMTP e-mail account, via a mobile communication network. The method comprises the steps of: providing a mobile terminal having a generic e-mail configuration with at least one default POP3/SMTP server address, setting up a connection to a server identified by the default POP3/SMTP server address via the mobile communication network using a standard POP3/SMTP protocol, and in the proxy server evaluating a user identification based on specific information assigned to the user, identifying a user e-mail account assigned to the user identification, and setting up a connection to the identified e-mail account of an e-mail system.

Mobile access to e-mail accounts has been a well-known feature since the introduction of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) services in digital mobile communication networks, for example mobile communication networks of the GSM type. In commercially available mobile communication terminals, especially of the higher price segment, POP3 and SMTP clients are implemented for direct access to e-mail accounts via POP3 and SMTP servers. FIG. 1 shows an example of how a user can access POP3/SMTP servers via a mobile network 1 with a properly configured mobile terminal 2. This requires a knowledge of the correct POP3/SMTP server address by the user. An access to the e-mail account will be granted for example with the parameters user name UN and password PW which must be input in the mobile terminal 2 and usually can be stored therein. The parameters are transmitted via a base transceiver station 3 of the mobile network 1 to an e-mail server 4 containing an appropriate e-mail account. The configuration of the POP3/SMPT server address and the UN and PW usually has to be made manually by the user because it contains user individual data. This is a common access method which can already be used via modern digital mobile communication networks.
The use of mobile access to e-mail accounts is mainly affected by two issues:                Generally, the mobile terminals are delivered to the user without any POP3/SMTP configurations. In this case no POP3/SMTP communication can be built up because the mobile terminal does not know which e-mail server to address. The user has to configure the mobile terminal either manually or over the air (OTA) with a set of valid POP3/SMTP parameters. Even users who do already have an e-mail account are often lacking information how to configure their mobile terminals by programming their client parameters, particularly the POP3 and SMTP server addresses of the e-mail account.        A large number of mobile terminal users do not have any e-mail account.

Method and system for providing easy access to an e-mail account via a mobile communication network


The present invention relates an antifouling electrocatalytic composite membrane and a membrane reactor. The electrocatalytic composite membrane (3) consists of a substrate and a catalytic coating, wherein the substrate is selected from a conductive substrate or a nonconductive substrate coated with a conductive coating, and the substrate is a porous support having supporting, conducting and separating functions. The catalytic coating is supported or coated on the surface and in the pores of the conductive substrate or the conductive coating so as to increase the electrocatalytic activity of the substrate. The membrane reactor provides a trans-membrane pressure as the membrane separation power generated by a pump (7) and dead-end filtration or cross-flow filtration is applied, then the feed liquid permeates through the membrane from one side to the other to achieve the separation of the liquid; meanwhile, an electrocatalytic composite membrane (3) as anode and an auxiliary electrode (4) as cathode are connected to a power supply (1) separately by conducting wires (2) so that an electrolysis apparatus is formed. The electrocatalytic composite membrane (3) has a self-cleaning function and achieves the pollution-free operation during the membrane separation.

As a high efficiency and environmental friendly separation technique, the membrane separation technology becomes a key technique to solve a series of fundamental problems such as energy, resource and environment problems. During the wastewater treatment with membrane, however, fouling deposited on the membrane surface and in the pores may result in an increased trans-membrane pressure, a reduced membrane flux (separation efficiency) and a quick reduction of membrane treatment ability. Thus the life time of the membrane is shortened and the reliability and economy are badly affected during the membrane separation. Obviously, membrane fouling has become a bottleneck to limit wide application of membrane separation technique. Therefore, it has become key points to control membrane fouling and to increase the antifouling ability of the membrane when membrane is used in the wastewater treatment.
Recently, in order to prevent membrane fouling, a membrane reactor has been developed to achieve multi-functionality and high efficiency of membrane by combining membrane technique and other techniques. Chinese patent application (publication No.: CN101224938A) disclosed a method for restricting the membrane fouling through a photocatalytic oxidation by using nano-materials, in which photocatalytic reactor and membrane bioreactor were combined to treat wastewater. Compared with traditional membrane bioreactor, the membrane flux was increased up to 50%. US patent application (publication No.: US2008237145A) disclosed a water treating method by photocatalytic process and an apparatus therewith, wherein titanium dioxide catalytic particles were loaded in a reactor with tubular membranes so that waster water was treated by combining photocatalytic and membrane separation techniques. The combination of photocatalytic technique improved the antifouling property and separation efficiency of the membrane. But this technique has disadvantages that solar energy was used with a low efficiency and the suspended catalyst is difficult to recover.
US patent application (publication No.: U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,649A) disclosed a membrane reactor constructed with coagulant and microfiltration membrane, which previously absorbs the organic matter in the wastewater with coagulant so as to reduce the membrane fouling. However, there are still the problems of second fouling and additive recovering for the addition of coagulant. Chinese patent application (publication No.: CN101234817A) disclosed a membrane carrier foamless oxygen supply membrane bioreactor, in which organic wastewater was treated by aeration and biofilm decomposing organic compound. US patent application (publication No.: US2004079701A) disclosed a membrane bioreactor for wastewater treatment, wherein a filtration module was immersed into mixed liquor with microorganism and porous carrier and the pollution of membrane module was restricted by the reaction between the addition and organic matter. The membrane bioreactor has a compact structure and can be easily controlled automatically, but there are still problems that the microorganism is difficult to control and bio-pollution is serious.
Chinese patent application (publication No.: CN101104537A) disclosed a water treatment device with an electrocatalysis separation membrane, in which oxidant was produced by nano-polymer material in the external electric field, thus the organic matter in the wastewater can be oxidized so as to achieve the purification of water. This device achieves a combination of degradation of organic matter, purification and disinfection. However, anode used in this device is metal material such as stainless steel and copper, which makes anode easily dissolved and results in secondary fouling and poor operation stability. In addition, the composite of polymeric conductive layer and metal substrate is unstable too.

Anti-pollution electrocatalysis composite membrane and membrane reactor


In an exemplary embodiment, an LCD screen hood is provided for use with digital cameras. The hood includes a hood tube that defines a light blocking sidewall having an open camera end and an opposite viewing end and enclosing a longitudinally extending viewpath therebetween. An eyepiece mounted on the viewing end includes an eyepiece lens for enlarging an image on an associated LCD screen disposed at the camera end of the hood tube. An eye cup is mounted on the eyepiece for shielding the eyepiece lens from ambient light. An objective tube fixed to the hood tube carries a three piece objective lens mounted between the eyepiece lens and the camera end of the hood tube. Magnification of the eyepiece lens varies as appropriate between 1× and 2.5×. Rotation of the eyepiece tube provides for diopter adjuxtment.

It is known in the art relating to digital cameras that an LCD screen or similar display on the digital camera is used to review captured images to check the focus, lighting, composition, expression, and other similar attributes prior to taking the next shot. The LCD screen is also used in lieu of the camera's viewfinder to view images for capture. Digital cameras are often used in outdoor settings, and glare caused by sunlight on an LCD screen severely hinders the viewing of images displayed on a digital camera LCD screen. Often, a photographer has to use one hand to awkwardly shield the camera LCD screen in order to be able to view the screen. This is cumbersome and only marginally effective, thereby detracting from the quality of the photographer's pictures and slowing the picture taking process.

Camera LCD screen hood and viewing device


The present invention relates to a piston intended for a hydraulic radial piston motor and being of the type comprising an outer cam ring having an undulated inner cam surface, an inner cylinder block which is rotatable relative to the cam ring and has radially outwardly directed cylinders, a plurality of such pistons which move in said cylinders and cam rolls which rollingly run against the cam surface and are slidingly arranged against the respective pistons. The piston has an essentially cylindrical circumferential surface, an inner end surface and an opposite outer end surface, which is adapted to be slidingly arranged against the cam roll and therefore is formed with a groove-like recess, which in cross-section is essentially part-cylindrical, and with two lateral portions which extend around and partly surround the circumferential surface of the cam roll and via which reaction forces in the tangential direction of the cylinder block are transmitted between the cam roll and the cylinder block. The lateral portions of the piston are designed as separate parts, which are movable in the longitudinal direction of the piston at least in a limited manner.

Hydraulic radial piston motors having an outer cam ring and outwardly working pistons, which are in contact with the cam surface of the cam ring via rotating cam rolls, are available in two main types, on the one hand a type in which the cam roll is mounted in roller bearings on the end of a shaft connected to the piston and, on the other hand, a type in which the cam roll is slidably arranged directly against the piston in a recess thereof.
The last-mentioned type, which corresponds to the one accounted for in the introductory part, has a number of advantages both in respect of size and cost by the height of the assembled piston and cam roll being considerably smaller than that of the first-mentioned type, which means that the motor can be made smaller and more compact with maintained output.
However there are also problems and drawbacks in connection with radial piston motors with slidably mounted cam rolls. For instance, the frictional losses between piston and cam roll are relatively great. These losses are about four times greater than the corresponding frictional losses between piston and cylinder wall. These great frictional forces imply considerable wear on the slide bearing surfaces and, consequently, a risk of seizing therebetween.
The seizing risk is dependent not only on the great forces which are transmitted between cam ring and cylinder block, but also on the varying reaction force exerted by the cam ring. The undulated cam surface thereof in fact varies by an angle between 0.degree. and a maximum of about 45.degree. in relation to the tangential direction of the can ring and the cylinder block. Correspondingly, the reaction force exerted by the cam ring on the piston and the cylinder block will vary between 0.degree. (i.e. radially inwards to the center of rotation) and about 45.degree.. This variation of forces has up to now made it impossible to form a constant oil film thickness between the bearing surfaces between cam roll and piston, and piston and cylinder wall, respectively. The variation in forces will also during a certain part of the working stroke of the piston coincide with the direction of rotation of the cam roll, implying that the cam roll, mechanically seen, acts as having a very low speed or even "standing still" in relation to the bearing surface of the piston. This further reduces the possibilities of forming a constant oil film thickness. A varying thickness of the oil film in turn results in an increased metallic contact between the bearing surfaces, which causes increased wear, a greater risk of seizing, greater frictional forces and reduced efficiency.
Pistons with slidably mounted cam rolls are also expensive to manufacture owing to the complicated shape, which requires precision machining in several steps.
Owing to the small material thickness in the lateral portions of the piston and the great forces acting on these, it is also necessary that the entire piston be made of a high-quality material.


There is provided a procedure to maintain an otherwise whole tooth, from which the nerve has been removed by carrying out a procedure which includes inserting a thin flexible post, preferably formed of a light-transmitting, physiologically inert material, to the full depth of a prepared relatively narrow tooth nerve canal, which has previously been sealed at its bottom with gutta percha. The post is permitted to abut against the gutta percha. The post is then surrounded by a film of a composite-filler or sealant, which is preferably light-curable, coating the post while supporting and sealing the walls of the canal. The post is sufficiently flexible as to be able to follow the curvature of the canal, which may retain a slight natural curvature. The composite filler or sealant is then cured, preferably by an optical radiation carried through the preferably transparent post. In one embodiment the light-curing post is removable after the sealant has been at least partially cured. There is also provided a post formed of a light-transmitting flexible material, the post comprising a substantially cylindrical shank portion and an inwardly tapering, or convergent, first end.

The present invention relates to a method for strengthening a tooth and root from which the nerve has been removed, and to a dental post which is formed of a relatively soft and plastic polymer, and which is preferably light-transmitting, and can provide centering for the forming of a bracing filler to reinforce internally the walls of pulpless roots while providing for access to the canal in endodontic retreatment procedures.
It is well known art in the dental field to remove an injured nerve, and fill the root apex with gutta percha, preparatory to other reconstructive procedures, including filling the canal with a hard cement material. It is also common, where the coronal part of the tooth is missing or severely damaged, to grind away the diseased remaining upper surface of the tooth so as to provide an appropriate form for a dental prosthesis to be anchored to the tooth via a cast metal anchor extending into the widened root canal. Such dental anchors are generally cemented into the bore hole, or may be held by screw-threads, and in some cases the anchors are provided with textured or undulating lateral surfaces to further assist in securing the anchor to the cement. It has been found, however, that the strength of the repaired tooth, or the security of the dental prosthesis, may be compromised by a severely enlarged canal, with thin remaining walls; in such condition the root may not be sufficiently strong to support a prosthesis, even where the root was firmly anchored in the jaw bone.
Presently, such problems when found in roots with flared and wide canals and with thin, unsupported walls, require further widening and reshaping of the canal to form a continuous straight internal surface, and then filling the space with custom shaped cast metal posts with an extending core foundation above the root for attaching a coronal replacement. However, the difficulties created by the bulky metal post surrounded by thin walled roots are often the cause of split roots requiring the extracting of its fragments and a replacement with costlier implants and prosthetic devices. Another objection and difficulty with metal cast posts, is the unavoidable metal shadow transmitted through the thin root walls and their surrounding soft tissues, which is an impairment to achieving esthetic results, especially in the visible anterior (front) teeth. Further, such individually fashioned cast posts add additional cost, and require a greater number of costly office visits by the patient.
It was also known to use pins, or posts, formed from polymeric plastics, for the formation of dental fixtures, for example, by casting by the `lost wax` process. Such prior pins or posts were not used in the patient's mouth and were generally opaque.


A touch panel includes a substrate, a light-shielding layer, a patterned transparent layer, a reflecting layer, at least one first sensing series, and at least one second sensing series. The substrate has a touch sensing region and a peripheral region. The light-shielding layer is disposed in the periphery region. The light-shielding layer has a patterned opening and a sidewall adjacent to the patterned opening. The patterned opening is configured to provide a mark identifiable by human eyes. The patterned transparent layer is disposed in the peripheral region, and the patterned transparent layer covers a portion of the patterned opening. The patterned transparent layer has an inclined sidewall positioned in the patterned opening. The reflecting layer covers the inclined sidewall and the patterned opening. The first sensing series and the second sensing series are arranged in the touch sensing region to detect a position of a touch point.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a touch panel.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, touch panel devices have been extensively utilized in various electronic products, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants, laptops, and planet computers. Among these electronic products, a display panel and a touch device are combined to form a touch panel and become an effective human-computer interface. The touch panel has become a trend and gradually replaced traditional input devices, such as keyboards, mice, etc.
In many of the electronic products, touch panel is usually disposed on or embedded in the display panel to allow users to input information conveniently. The aesthetic design of touch panel is sensed by users intuitively and such an aesthetic design would affect the overall appearances of electronic products. Hence, many researchers are devoted to enhancing the aesthetic feelings of appearances of touch panels.
As mentioned, the aesthetic design of touch panels is important. In addition, because consumers are able to perceive the appearances of touch panels intuitively, many trademarks or marks indicating particular meanings are designed on the touch panels. Hence, if a stereoscopic trademark or mark can be disposed on the touch panel, brand value is even more highlighted. Therefore, there exists in this art a need for an improved touch panel, which would exhibit a stereoscopic trademark or mark.


A method of medical ultrasound imaging is provided. The method includes transmitting ultrasound waves into a volume at a first rate, receiving ultrasound echoes for each of the ultrasound waves, each echo is indicative of a density interface within the volume, each set of received echoes that corresponds to a single transmitted wave defines a steering frame, detecting motion of the array transducer, and combining a plurality of steering frames into a compound image based on the detected array transducer motion.

The present invention relates to diagnostic ultrasound systems. In particular, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for acquiring and processing ultrasound data to reduce blurring of ultrasound images.
At least some known ultrasound systems are capable of spatially compounding a plurality of ultrasound images of a given target into a compound image. The term "compounding" as used throughout means combining multiple data sets non-coherently to create a new, single data set. The plurality of data sets may each be obtained from a different steering angle and/or aperture and/or may each be obtained at a different time. The plurality of data sets or steering frames are combined to generate a single view or compound image by combining the data received from each point in the compound image target which has been received from each steering angle or aperture. Real time spatial compound imaging may be performed by acquiring a series of partially overlapping component image frames from substantially independent steering angles. An array transducer may be utilized to implement electronic beam steering and/or electronic translation of the component frames. The component frames are combined into a compound image by summation, averaging, peak detection, or other combinational means. The compounded image may display relatively lower speckle and better specular reflector delineation than a non-spatially compounded ultrasound image from a single angle.
In real time spatial compound imaging, several image acquisitions are needed to produce each new compound image frame. A time difference exists between acquisition of the first steering frame used in constructing the compound image and the last steering frame used in the image. Significant image misregistration may exist due to the time difference between the acquisition of frames. The image misregistration may result in compound image blurring if a large number of steering frames are used to construct the compound image. Relatively less blurring may result if a smaller number of steering frames are used to construct the image. As discussed above, it is generally desirable to acquire a large number of steering frames to maximize the image quality of the compound image. However, a large number of steering frames requires a longer period of time for acquisition, during which blurring may increase to an undesirable level, especially when the array transducer is in motion.

Methods and systems for motion adaptive spatial compounding


The circular insert tool holder assembly for use with a circular tool post and for holding a resharpenable insert tool which has a top surface, a bottom surface, a front surface and a rear surface and having a cutting edge defined by the line formed by the intersection of the front surface and top surface of the insert tool, comprises a tool holder body, structure for rotatably mounting the tool holder body to the circular tool post, the tool holder body having a cavity therein, the cavity having an upper portion and a lower portion, the lower cavity portion being defined by an upper wall and a rear wall, and, a mechanism for retaining the insert tool within the upper cavity portion whereby the top surface of the insert tool is positioned along the upper wall of the cavity.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a circular insert tool holder assembly which holds a resharpenable insert tool and can be mounted in a standard circular tool post. More particularly, the assembly relates to a circular insert tool holder and an adjustable wedge member for holding the insert tool in the tool holder and for bringing a cutting edge of a new or resharpened insert tool up to "center" without rotational adjustment of the tool holder assembly.
2. Background Art
Various machine tools such as Brown & Sharpe screw machines, Index automatic bar machines and multiple spindle machines are equipped to receive a standard circular tool post. A circular form tool or a circular insert tool holder can be mounted in the tool post.
Standard circular form tools are rotatably mounted within the circular tool post. The circular form tool has a cutting edge on the circular form tool itself. As the cutting edge is sharpened, the circular form tool must be rotated within the circular tool post to keep the cutting edge up to "center". Continuous adjustment of the circular form tool causes significant down time of the machine.
Circular insert tool holders are designed to receive resharpenable insert tools which have a cutting edge for cutting a work piece. The known holders cannot keep a resharpened insert up to "center" after the insert tool has been resharpened because the insert tool is clamped down onto the holder such that after the insert tool has been sharpened and replaced, the new cutting edge is positioned below its original position.
Rotation of the circular insert tool holder to adjust the cutting edge of a resharpened insert tool back up to its original position will change the angle at which the insert tool meets the workpiece and is unacceptable. Accordingly, the resharpened insert tools cannot be adjusted to keep the cutting edge up to "center" without changing the orientation of the insert tool such that the required "rake angle" or "clearance angle" are changed.
It is desirable to provide a circular insert tool holder assembly in which an insert tool can be removed and replaced by either a new or resharpened insert tool and can be repositioned up to "center" without rotational adjustment to the circular insert tool holder and still position the insert tool having the required "rake angle" and "clearance angle".


The position measurement system includes: an image capturing unit capturing first reference points which are three reference points on a plane arranged on a target and whose positional relation with each other is specified, and a second reference point which is a single reference point at a distance away from the plane and whose positional relation with the first reference points is specified; an identifying unit identifying images of the first and second reference points based on the positional relation among the images; and a calculating unit calculating a three-dimensional position and triaxial angles of the target based on the positional relation between the images of the first and second reference points. The calculating unit specifies the plane including the first reference points on the target from the images of the first reference points and a normal direction of the plane according to the image of the second reference point.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a position measurement system in which a position and an angle of a target in three dimensions (a direction of the target and the like) are measured in a simple method, a position measurement method and a computer readable medium storing a program.
2. Related Art
As a unit that measures a three-dimensional position of a predetermined target, a method of calculating a positional coordinates of the target by capturing the target with two cameras and by triangulating with a distance between the cameras as a base line is often used. When a positional relation among 6 points arranged in a three-dimensional space is known in advance, a position of the target in the three-dimensional space formed by the 6 points (hereinafter, referred to as a three-dimensional position) and angles (roll angle, pitch angle, and yaw angle; hereinafter referred to as triaxial angles) may be calculated from an image obtained by capturing these points by a camera.

Position measurement system, position measurement method and computer readable medium


A device may provision two or more servers, each of the servers including a network interface. In addition, the device may enable the network interface in each of the provisioned servers, create a shared volume, assign the shared volume to each of the provisioned servers, and enable a clustering application on each of the provisioned servers to form a cluster comprising the provisioned servers, the cluster having a heartbeat via the network interfaces.

An in-house system developer may sometimes purchase and stage devices to build a system. When purchasing the devices, the system developer may evaluate device specifications, price, and/or equipment compatibility in light of particular project requirements. When staging the devices, the system developer may install operating systems, applications, databases and web servers, may apply patches, and/or may configure the devices.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Server clustering in a computing-on-demand system


A water heating system includes a burner assembly for providing a source of thermal energy to a heat exchanger. A water inlet conduit is coupled to the heat exchanger assembly for supplying fresh water to be heated, and a water exit conduit is coupled to the heat exchanger assembly for delivering the heated water to a point of use. A bypass conduit connects the water exit conduit to the water inlet conduit, and a pump disposed in the bypass conduit circulates at least a portion of the heated water from the water exit conduit to the water inlet conduit. A feed-forward sensor positioned in the water inlet conduit between the heat exchanger assembly and the bypass conduit monitors a parameter of the water entering the heat exchanger assembly, and a processor controls the operation of the of the burner assembly in response to the feed-forward sensor.

In both household and commercial applications, water heaters are mostly of the tank type. These water heaters are cylindrical containers in which water is kept continuously hot and ready for use. The water in the tank will cool down after a while which causes the heating system to activate to heat the water back up. Additionally, once the supply of hot water from the tank has been depleted, there is a delay before hot water is available again.
Tankless water heaters heat water as it flows through the device and typically do not retain any water internally except for what is in the heat exchanger coil. A challenge for conventional tankless water heaters is to output the same temperature of water at differing flow rates. In addition, over time the heat exchangers can suffer corrosion and efficiency is reduced.


In a rotary damper 1 including a cam surface 3f formed in a lower end surface of a large-diameter portion 3b of a rotor 3 and including a cam surface 4f formed in an upper end surface of a piston 4, the cam surface 4f being capable of contacting the cam surface 3f, the cam surfaces 3f, 4f pressed to contact each other by a coil spring 9 biasing the piston 4, the piston 4 is prohibited from being moved toward the large-diameter portion 3b beyond a predetermined second position. Coil spring 9 does not rotationally bias the piston 4. The coil spring 9 biases the piston 4 only such that the piston 4 approaches the large-diameter portion 3b.

This type of rotary damper generally includes a damper body including a receiving hole with a bottom portion formed therein, a rotor rotatably fitted in an opening side end portion of the receiving hole, a piston movably disposed in a portion of the receiving hole between the rotor and the bottom potion, and movement means that causes the piston to be moved according to the rotation of the rotor. Inner space of the receiving hole between the rotor and the bottom portion is divided by the piston into a first chamber and a second chamber. The first and second chambers are filled with fluid such as viscose fluid. The movement means includes a cam mechanism disposed between the rotor and the piston and a coil spring that biases the piston toward the rotor. The cam mechanism allows the piston to be moved by the coil spring toward the rotor when the rotor is rotated in one direction. On the other hand, when the rotor is rotated in the other direction, the cam mechanism causes the piston to be moved in a direction away from the rotor against a biasing force of the coil spring.
When the piston is moved toward the rotor, the viscose fluid in the first chamber flows into the second chamber. Flow resistance of the viscose fluid at this time limits the speed of rotation of the rotor in the one direction to a low speed. When the piston is moved to the other direction, the viscose fluid in the second chamber flows into the first chamber. The flow resistance at this time is kept to be negligibly small. Therefore, the rotor can be rotated in the other direction at a high speed.
When the rotary damper described above is used in a toilet, for example, the damper body is fixed to either one of a toilet body and a toilet lid and the rotor is fixed to the other. In this case, the damper body and the rotor are fixed to the toilet body and the toilet lid such that the rotation speed of the toilet lid is limited to a low speed when the toilet lid is rotated in a closing direction and the toilet lid can be rotated at a high speed when rotated in an opening direction.
When the toilet lid is rotated through about 90 degrees from a closed position and the piston is moved to a predetermined position toward the rotor, the piston becomes rotatable in the one direction. As a result, the rotor becomes rotatable together with the piston in the one direction, allowing the toilet lid to be rotated through more than 90 degrees. Moreover, the coil spring rotationally biases the piston in the one direction. Therefore, after being rotated through 90 degrees from the closed position, the toilet lid is further rotated in the opening direction by the rotational biasing force of the coil spring. The toilet lid is stopped when it is abutted against a tank disposed in the toilet (refer to Patent Document 1).


A skate with adjustable size has a toe unit and a heel unit. The heel unit is slidingly associated with the toe unit through sliders and a fastener constituted by a screw is adapted to adjust and lock the mutual axial position of the heel unit with respect of the toe unit. The fastener is operated through a folding lever associated with the skate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a skate with adjustable size.
Roller skates provided with a shoe with adjustable size are known and offer unquestionable advantages, especially if used for children, not only from the economic standpoint but also from the point of view of the practicality and convenience of being able to use a product for a much longer period.
Moreover, a sports shoe with adjustable size can be used by several people, even if they have different foot sizes, thus allowing to hire out skates even to users having different foot sizes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat No. 5,678,833 discloses a skate with in-line wheels whose length is adjustable and which has a rigid supporting frame for a plurality of wheels arranged in-line, a shell which includes a toe unit and a heel unit, and a first means, formed in the heel unit, for coupling to the frame. The heel unit has a sole slidingly connected to the base of the toe unit by means of a second engagement means.
The second engagement means comprises a screw, for the removable coupling of the base of the toe unit to a part of the frame, thus allowing the toe unit to slide with respect to the heel unit in a direction which is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the skate. A cuff is connected to the heel unit by means of a pair of studs. The studs are connected to a sliding means provided on the two side walls of the toe unit.
Such prior art skate has a rather complex structure which increases the manufacturing costs. Moreover, adjusting the size of the skate is not a straightforward operation. The adjustment in fact requires some time, because it is necessary to first loosen the screw by means of a tool and then put the skate on to find the exact position of the heel unit with respect to the toe unit. Then, it is necessary to tighten the screw again, with the possibility of unwanted changes in the position of the various members.
A further drawback of such prior art adjustable skate is the lack of any visual indication of the size or length used: this entails that a user who has already performed a size adjustment cannot rapidly restore the exact original position but has to perform the same complicated procedures performed the first time.
IT-1,257,603 discloses a skate with in-line wheels comprising a monolithic shell and wheel support.
The shell is open upward and to the rear; a quarter is selectively and slidingly associated with the shell at the rear and a tongue is associated with the shell in an upward region.
The quarter has a rear grip handle for the user and has a brake which can be associated by snap action with a frame which is in turn associated with the support.
By acting on a pair of screws it is possible to vary the size of the skate by changing the axial position of the quarter with respect to the shell.
This type of adjustable-size sports shoe, however, has the main drawback that the adjustment of the skate size is obtained by moving the rear part of the shoe therefore shifting the position of the heel, and consequently there is an undesirable and disadvantageous variation of the position of the center of gravity with respect to the wheels.
That is an important drawback because almost all the weight of the body is transmitted to the ground through the resting region that corresponds to the heel, and a displacement of the heel can lead to adaptation difficulties in skating.
A further drawback of the above-described prior art skate is its complicated structure required to achieve both lateral support and mutual sliding of the various members.
A further drawback of the above-described prior art skate is that the size may be varied only by discrete amounts which approximately correspond to one foot size each and therefore the user may be unable to precisely adapt the skate to the size of his or her foot, having to do with an approximate adjustment by choosing the next larger size with respect to his or her exact size.
Other conventional skates with adjustable size have the drawback that the adjustment devices are arranged along the sides of the skate, in positions which often interfere with sports practice by partially protruding from the structure of the frame.
The aim of the present invention is to overcome the above-described problems, eliminating the drawbacks of the cited prior art, by providing a skate with adjustable size, particularly an in-line roller-skate or an ice skate, whose size can be adjusted simply and straightforwardly while allowing optimum sports practice.
An important object of the invention is to provide a skate which provides for a substantially continuous adjustment of the size, so that the user can adapt the shoe to the exact dimensions of his or her foot and so as to also achieve optimum balance.
Another object is to provide a skate which provides for an immediate visualization of the size selected by the user.
Another object is to provide a skate which does not have protruding members which may limit its functionality during sports practice.
Another important object is to provide a skate which can be easily adjusted by the user without requiring additional tools or instruments.
Another object is to provide a skate which is simple and intuitive to use.
A further object of the invention is to provide a skate with adjustable size which is not substantially aesthetically different from conventional non adjustable skates.
A further object is to provide a structurally simple skate which can be produced at low manufacturing costs.
The above aim and objects, as well as other objects that will become better apparent hereinafter, are achieved by a skate with adjustable size as claimed in the appended claims.


Pixels for solid-state CMOS image sensor arrays may be provided that have a lateral blooming control structure incorporated in them. The lateral blooming control structure is built as a separate structure from the charge transfer gate and it is fabricated in a self-aligned manner, which is particularly suitable for incorporating into small size pixels. The blooming control structure can be used for backside or for front side illuminated image sensors. When the lateral blooming control structure is provided with a separate bias means, it may also be used for the complete or partial charge removal from the photodiode and thus used in pixels that are designed for global shutter operation.

This relates to solid-state image sensors and, more specifically, to image sensors with pixels having self-aligned lateral anti-blooming structures.
Typical image sensors sense light by converting impinging photons into electrons or holes that are integrated (collected) in sensor pixels. After completion of an integration cycle, collected charge is converted into a voltage, which is supplied to the output terminals of the sensor. In complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, the charge to voltage conversion is accomplished directly in the pixels themselves and the analog pixel voltage is transferred to the output terminals through various pixel addressing and scanning schemes. The analog signal can be also converted on-chip to a digital equivalent before reaching the chip output. The pixels have incorporated in them a buffer amplifier, typically a Source Follower (SF), which drives the sense lines that are connected to the pixels by suitable addressing transistors.
After charge to voltage conversion is completed and the resulting signal transferred out from the pixels, the pixels are reset in order to be ready for accumulation of new charge. In pixels that use a Floating Diffusion (FD) as the charge detection node, the reset is accomplished by turning on a reset transistor that conductively connects the FD node to a voltage reference, which is typically the pixel drain node. This step removes collected charge; however, it also generates kTC-reset noise as is well known in the art. This kTC-reset noise is removed from the signal using a Correlated Double Sampling (CDS) signal processing technique in order to achieve the desired low noise performance. CMOS image sensors that utilize a CDS technique usually include three transistors (3T) or four transistors (4T) in the pixel, one of which serves as the charge transferring (Tx) transistor. It is possible to share some of the pixel circuit transistors among several photodiodes, which also reduces the pixel size. An example of a 4T pixel circuit with pinned photodiode can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,210 to Lee, incorporated herein as a reference.
FIG. 1 is a simplified cross-sectional view of a portion of a typical image sensor pixel 100. As shown in FIG. 1, image sensor pixel 100 includes a pixel photodiode (PD) that collects the photon-generated carriers, a charge transfer gate 110 of a charge transfer transistor, and a floating diffusion 104. The pixel is fabricated in a substrate 101, that has a p+ doped layer 102 deposited on a back surface. The device substrate 101 also includes an epitaxial p-type doped layer 115 situated above the p+ type doped layer 102. The photons that enter this region generate carriers that are collected in the potential well of the photodiode (PD) formed in region 108.
The surface of epitaxial layer 115 is covered by an oxide layer 109 that isolates the doped poly-silicon charge transfer gate Tx 110 from the substrate. A masking cap oxide 111 is deposited on an upper surface of poly-silicon gate 110, which serves as a patterning hard mask as well as an additional blocking mask for the ion implantation that forms the PD charge storage region. The PD is formed by an n-type doped layer 108 and a p+ type doped potential pinning layer 107.
Sidewall spacers 116 are sometimes incorporated to control the mutual edge positions of p+ type doped layer 107 and charge storage layer 108. The FD diode 104 that senses charge transferred from the PD is connected to the pixel source follower SF transistor (not shown). The FD, SF, and the remaining pixel circuit components are all built in the p-type doped well 103 that diverts photon-generated charge into the photodiode potential well located in layer 108. The pixels are isolated from each other by p+ type doped regions 105 and 106, which may extend all the way to the p+ type doped layer 102. The whole pixel is covered by several inter-level (IL) oxide layers 112 (only one is shown in FIG. 1) that are used for pixel metal wiring and interconnect isolation. The pixel active circuit components are connected to the wiring by metal via plugs 114 deposited through contact holes 113.
In one conventional approach, blooming control in pixels of the type shown in FIG. 1 is accomplished by continuously pulsing the Tx gate from off state to the partial on state and draining some of the accumulated charge (which has already almost filled the PD well) to the FD, and from the FD to the array drain using the reset operation. Another conventional approach is to form a buried channel between the PD n-type layer 108 that is integrating charge and the FD under the Tx gate. This channel is built in the p-well region 103 by suitable n-type implants or it is formed naturally when the FD and the n-layer 108 are close enough.
Conventional approaches to blooming control often sacrifice pixel performance in an effort to provide efficient blooming control. For example, while a conventional pixel may be provided with satisfactory blooming control, the pixel may be vulnerable to dark current generation and may experience other issues that in turn lead to image artifacts such as image lag.
It may therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved image sensor pixels with anti-blooming arrangements that do not sacrifice pixel performance.

Image sensor pixels with self-aligned lateral anti-blooming structures

Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC


A method of joining metal components having the steps of depositing adhesive material between the components and welding the components together via solid-state or fusion welding. The welds are spaced apart from the adhesive material and are produced so as to prevent exposure of the adhesive material to the welding. The two types of bonds (adhesive and welding) are produced in the components separated by time and space.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of joining metal components, more particularly to a method of joining metal components involving welding the components together and inserting an adhesive between the welded components.
2. Prior Art
Metal components are conventionally joined together in a variety of techniques including fusion welding, solid state bonding, chemical/mechanical bonding and mechanical engagement and locking. In fusion welding, the components are joined together through coalescence of molten metals. A weld between the components occurs when the molten metals of the components intermix and solidify. Conventional processes which are based upon fusion welding include gas metal arc welding (e.g. gas tungsten arc welding) and laser beam welding. In solid-state joining of metal components, interfacial diffusion between the mating surfaces is achieved by forcing the parts together under pressure and application of heat at the interface between the components or forcing together simultaneously plasticized metals such as in friction stir welding and forging. Chemical/mechanical bonding of metal components includes the use of adhesives, mechanical engagement of locking of components such as via bolts, rivets, and other such fasteners.
In certain circumstances where structural redundancy is important or additional sealing is required between the two components, two of these joining processes may be combined to impart their particular beneficial characteristics to the overall performance of the joint. This approach of using two joining processes has been utilized in the aerospace, automotive and transportation industries. Typically, mechanical fasteners are used to join components along with adhesives or sealants. Such joints that include mechanical fasteners and adhesives have been strong and reliable.
However, a combination of fusion and solid state based welding processes with chemical/mechanical bonding processes (e.g., using adhesives) has been problematic. Metallurgical incompatibilities arise when these two processes are applied either simultaneously at the same joining area or even when the two processes are performed sequentially. Contact between adhesive (typically an organic material) and hot molten plasticized metals, which form during welding, results in serious damage to the integrity of both the welded joint and the adhesive bond. In some instances, contact between the molten metal of the weld and the adhesive causes the adhesive to violently disintegrate into hydrocarbonaceous fumes which disrupts the stability of the welding process (such as the welding arc, laser beam generated plasma over a keyhole and molten pool), introduces contaminants into solidifying welds (producing gross open and bulk pores, craters, inclusions and excessive crud on the surface) and leads to inconsistent weld geometries. If an adhesive is applied while welding is occurring, the weld may become displaced or change shape by the fumes erupting from the adhesive, become petrified in distinct locations or develop uncontrolled pores and skips, all of which lead to compromised joint quality and uniformity. When hot plasticized metal contacts an adhesive, some of the adhesive may be incorporated into the metal and distributed as continuous (e.g. films) or fragmented contaminants throughout the weld.
Accordingly, a need remains for a method of joining metal components using fusion or solid state welding along with adhesive bonding which avoids these problems.

Method of combining welding and adhesive bonding for joining metal components


Provided is a flat panel display device and a method for fabricating the same. The flat panel display device comprises a first substrate, a light emitting unit, a second substrate, and insulating films. The light emitting unit comprises thin film transistors positioned on the first substrate, a first electrode electrically connecting with the thin film transistors, a second electrode facing the first electrode, and an emission layer or a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first and second electrodes. The second substrate is sealed with the first substrate by an ultraviolet curing sealant, and has a greater thermal expansion coefficient than the first substrate. The insulating films are positioned on one or more surfaces of the first and/or second substrates.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat panel display device and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In recent years, flat panel displays (FPD) are increasing in importance as multimedia is developed. In response to this, several flat type displays such as liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display panel (PDP), field emission display (FED), and organic light emitting device (OLED) are being put to practical use. Among them, the liquid crystal display has an excellent visibility, and has lower average consumption power and heat release rate compared with a cathode ray tube. The field emission display is attracting attention as a next generation flat panel display device because it has a great response speed of 1 ms or less, has low power consumption, and has no viewing angle problems because of its self-emission.
Methods for driving flat panel display devices are classified into a passive matrix method, and an active matrix method using a thin film transistor (TFT). The passive matrix method is a method in which an anode and a cathode are formed to cross at right angles, and a line is selected, thereby driving the flat panel display device. In comparison with this, the active matrix method is a method in which the thin film transistor connects to each pixel electrode of indium tin oxide (ITO), and the flat panel display device is driven depending on a voltage sustained by the capacitance of a capacitor connecting to a gate electrode of the thin film transistor.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a conventional flat panel display device. Referring to FIG. 1, the flat panel display device comprises a first substrate 100, a light emitting unit 110, and a second substrate 120 opposing the first substrate 100. The first substrate 100 and the second substrate 120 are sealed by a sealant 130, thereby sealing the light emitting unit 110. The light emitting unit 110 may comprise a first electrode, a second electrode, and an emission layer or a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first and second electrodes. The flat panel display device based on the active matrix method may further comprise a thin film transistor electrically connecting with the first electrode.
A substrate used for the flat panel display device may be made of glass, plastic, or metal. In general, the substrate formed of glass is typically used. The glass may be a non-alkali glass, a soda lime glass, or a borosilicate glass. The non-alkali glass contains less than 0.1 wt % of Na2O, the borosilicate glass contains 0.1 wt % to 1 wt % of Na2O, and the soda lime glass contains more than 1 wt % of Na2O. The soda lime glass is also called an alkali glass.
In the flat panel display device comprising the thin film transistor based on the active matrix method, non-alkali glass is typically employed as the first substrate. This is to protect the thin film transistor from alkali ions diffused from the substrate in a process of fabricating the thin film transistor. In other words, when the alkali ions are diffused into a channel region of a semiconductor layer, the alkali ions change a semiconductive property of the channel region into a conductive property. This deteriorates an off characteristic of the thin film transistor, increases a leakage current, and causes a residual image while driving the display. Accordingly, it is desirable to employ non-alkali glass in the first substrate in a flat panel display device using the active matrix method, in order to solve the above problems. However, the non-alkali glass substrate is more expensive than other glass substrates and thus, may increase a price of the flat panel display device. In order to reduce a manufacture cost, the first substrate having the thin film transistor may employ the non-alkali glass, and the second substrate sealed with the first substrate may employ the soda lime glass.
The first substrate comprising the thin film transistor and the light emitting unit is sealed with the second substrate by the sealant, thereby sealing the light emitting unit formed on the first substrate. In order to cure the sealant, the sealant is subject to irradiation of ultraviolet rays and then, is heat-treated for about one hour at a temperature of about 230° C.
The heat treatment causes a thermal expansion of the sealed first substrate and second substrate. Because the first substrate and the second substrate are of materials different from each other, there is a drawback in that the sealed first substrate and second substrate are bent in one direction as shown in FIG. 1. In other words, a difference between thermal expansion coefficients of two substrates may cause the bending of the flat panel display device. This causes a deterioration of yield and a reduction of reliability.

Method for fabricating flat panel display device


A catheter insertion device with an automatic safety barrier includes a housing, a barrier member, and a biasing element. The housing includes a central bore configured to receive a needle therethrough, and further includes a channel extending through the housing and intersecting the central bore. The barrier member is hingedly coupled to the housing, and includes a leg to extend through the channel. An opening in the leg substantially aligns with the central bore to accommodate the needle therethrough. The biasing element biases the barrier member relative to the housing such that withdrawing the needle through the opening causes the biasing element to misalign the opening with the central bore, thereby occluding the central bore to shield an end of the needle.

This disclosure relates generally to medical assemblies for the administration of fluids, and more particularly to devices for inserting an intravenous catheter into a patient for fluid administration.
Hypodermic needles are notorious for spreading blood-borne diseases such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus ("HIV"), the virus that causes Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome ("AIDS"). Health care workers are among those most at risk for contracting such diseases, as hypodermic needles are commonly used in medical fields. Needle stick injuries may arise during planned use and exposure, and/or as a result of carelessly or maliciously discarded needles.
The Federal Needle Stick Safety Act was enacted into law on Nov. 6, 2000, and is aimed at reducing the risk to health care workers arising from accidental needle sticks. Among other compliance mandates, the Federal Needle Stick Safety Act requires the use of needles with engineered needle injury protections. Accordingly, many hypodermic needles manufactured today include a needle tip shield or the like to protect against accidental needle sticks.
Of particular concern, however, are injuries from hollow-bore needles, especially those used for blood collection or intravenous ("IV") catheter insertion. These devices are likely to contain residual blood and are associated with an increased risk for HIV transmission. Additionally, devices that require manipulation or disassembly after use, such as hollow-bore needles used for IV catheter insertion, have rates of injury of up to 5.3 times the rate for disposable hypodermic syringes. Such injuries most often occur during or after use and before disposal of the used needle.
IV catheters are traditionally used to infuse fluids, such as saline solution, various medicaments, and/or total parenteral nutrition into a patient. Such catheters may also be used to withdraw blood from a patient, and/or monitor various parameters of the patient's vascular system.
To introduce an IV catheter into a patient, an over-the-needle catheter may be mounted over a hollow-bore introducer needle having a sharp distal tip. The inner surface of the catheter may tightly engage the outer surface of the needle to prevent catheter peelback and facilitate insertion of the catheter into a blood vessel. The tip of the introducer needle may extend beyond the distal tip of the catheter to enable insertion of the catheter at a shallow angle through the patient's skin and into a blood vessel.
To verify proper placement of the needle and catheter in the blood vessel, the clinician may confirm the presence of "flashback" blood in a flashback chamber associated with the catheter and needle assembly. Once proper placement is confirmed, the clinician may then apply pressure to the blood vessel to occlude the vessel, thereby minimizing further blood flow through the introducer needle and catheter. The clinician must then withdraw the needle from the catheter to enable continued access to the blood vessel through the catheter as may be required to infuse fluids or the like. This process of physically manipulating and disassembling the needle and catheter after the needle has been used to position the catheter in a patient's blood vessel creates substantial risks of both accidental needle sticks and exposure to blood and blood contaminants.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for a catheter insertion device with an automatic safety barrier to prevent injury from accidental needle sticks as well as from exposure to biological contaminants. Beneficially, such a device would enable simple and effective operation, minimize an amount of physical manipulation needed to disassemble the needle and catheter after use, and ensure that the end of the needle is properly shielded prior to such disassembly. Such a device is disclosed and claimed herein.

Catheter insertion device with automatic safety barrier


Recombinant rabies viruses in which the arginine residue of the glycoprotein (G) at amino acid position 333 is exchanged, renders these viruses nonpathogenic for immunocompetent mammals regardless of the route of infection. Some of these recombinant rabies viruses after several serial virus passages in newborn mice can become pathogenic for adult mice. The reversion to the pathogenic phenotype is associated with a thymidine to adenosine mutation (T→A) at position 639 of the G gene, which results in an asparagine to lysine exchange at position 194 of G. The codon at position 637-639 was changed by site directed mutagenesis to replace asparagine at position 194 by an amino acid that minimized the possibility for an Asn→Lys exchange at amino acid position 194 of G and prevents reversion to a pathogenic form of the virus.

Rabies is a major zoonotic disease that remains an important public health problem, causing 60,000 annual deaths worldwide. In most developing countries, dogs represent the major rabies reservoir, whereas the situation in the Americas is much more complex, since large reservoirs of rabies viruses exist in many wild animal species. In the US, wildlife reservoirs accounted for nearly 93% of the 8,513 reported cases of rabies in 1997. The most frequently reported rabid wildlife species is raccoon (50.5%), followed by skunk (24.0%). Outbreaks of rabies infection in these terrestrial mammals are found in broad geographic areas across the US. For example, raccoon rabies affects an area of more than 1 million square kilometers from Florida to Maine.
Oral immunization of wildlife with live vaccines, such as the modified-live rabies virus vaccines SAD B19, SAG-1, and SAG-2 or the vaccinia-rabies glycoprotein recombinant virus vaccine VRG, is the most effective method to control and eventually eradicate rabies. In the past decade, more than 15 million baits containing VRG have been distributed in the US through programs designed to control rabies among free-ranging raccoons, foxes and coyotes. Since 1997, oral vaccination campaigns in Ohio have led to a highly significant reduction in raccoon rabies without any adverse effects in humans. However, in September 2000, a person who was exposed to VRG during an oral vaccination campaign developed severe local inflammatory reactions. This incident underlines the heightened need for safer live rabies vaccines, particularly as wildlife rabies vaccination efforts in the US intensify on a national level.