A fiber optic adapter includes a mounting block having a first opening and a through opening extending into the mounting block from the first opening with a seat for receiving a body portion of a fiber optic connector and at least one flexible projection with a first end defining an aperture that is smaller than the first opening. The at least one flexible projection is configured to flex away from a rest position and away from a longitudinal axis of the through opening to allow the body portion of the fiber optic connector to reach the seat and configured to return toward the rest position when the fiber optic connector reaches the seat and to substantially prevent the removal of the fiber optic connector in a direction opposite its insertion direction when the at least one flexible projection is in the rest position.

Various types of modules are known for enclosing optical fibers, and, in particular, for enclosing locations at which optical fibers are spliced or joined using connectors. For example, a fiber optic fan-out module is a product used in networks to split optical signals from a high density cable into individual fibers and to provide connectors for connecting each of the individual fibers to other fibers. A high density cable enters one portion of the module, and the individual fibers are separated inside the module and terminated with connectors. The connectors in turn are mounted in adapters that hold the connectors in a suitable position to mate with other connectors inserted into an opposite side of the adapter from outside the module. These modules may be mounted in a patch panel in a rack in a datacenter or other location where optical fiber interconnections are needed.
Generally, customers would like fan-out modules to be as small as reasonably possible in order to increase density in a patch panel. One limiting feature of the modules that makes reducing their size difficult is the size of the fiber optic adapters and connectors used inside the modules. Often, the same type of connector is used inside a module as is used outside of the module, and these conventional connectors include, among other elements, a ferrule, a spring push, a spring and a connector body holding the ferrule, spring and spring push. These elements perform useful functions outside a module but are not always needed for connections inside a module. It would therefore be desirable to provide a more compact adapter arrangement for holding connectors in locations such as the interiors of optical fiber fan-out modules.


A slider for a closing band includes a core piece (8), two parallel inner surfaces (31, 32), and two support flanks (14, 15). In order improved sliders of this kind, an additional core piece (7) is provided (FIG. 2) in the region of the inner surfaces (31, 32).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a slider for a closing band. It also concerns a closing band with a slider of this kind and a purse, advantageously of plastic, with a closing band of this kind.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sliders and closing bands of this kind, which can also be called profile closers or slider-closing strips or bands, are already known. Most of the known sliders are produced simply by the injection-molding process and then applied individually to the slider-closing bands by means of complicated automatic devices. With most of these sliders, it is necessary to apply them by means of so-called vibrating potsxe2x80x94oriented in the assembly directionxe2x80x94of a device that spreads the slider and then presses it across the closing band, which has been opened previously.
Such a device is known, for example, from DE-OPS 31 36 075. Here, a series of sliders is directed to a rotor, which grasps the upper part of the slider, while the side parts (wings) of the slider are spread slowly in a stator and then pushed by the rotor onto the slider-closing band.
Other systems use complicated foldable sliders, the side parts (wings) of which are horizontal and are closed onto the band in the manner of a hinge. A slider of this kind is known from PCG/WE 95/35057.
All these methods have the disadvantage that, on the one hand, production of the slider is costly and, on the other hand, assembly of the slider requires complicated devices, which are very susceptible to breakage and permit only relatively slow production.
Sliders and a process for applying them are known from DE-PS 16 32 574, in which the U-shaped sliders are placed across slider-closing strips. The closing strips, which form and continuous strip, are moved in steps, and thereby one slider at a time is pressed onto a stationary closing band by means of a tappet.
DE-OS 21 01 875 describes a device for applying sliders to complementary closing elements, which slide by the device intermittently, whereby one slider at a time from an endless chain of elastic sliders is pressed from the chain onto the band. The side parts (wings) of the sliders bend elastically, so that they spring back after being spread and pressed lightly and make the slider capable of functioning. With this method, production is possible with few disturbances and a relatively high speed. There is an essential disadvantage, however, in that the slider can be grasped by the user only under certain conditions, because of its small size. They are not very convenient and can be ripped down when the closing band is handled roughly. Another disadvantage is that these sliders have a very short arrow-shaped core in the front part only, with flanks that project inward. By holding the profile parts of the closing band, these flanks prevent the slider from being pulled upward, but only in the front third of the slider. Although there are small flanks projecting inward at the end of the slider, which enclose the closing band from the outside and prevent the slider from being pulled or tilted away, they are so short that they can slide over the profile of the closing band already with a little force, and the upper part of the slider then tilts upward. In this way, the closing function of the slider is no longer provided.
The task of the invention is to recommend an improved slider for a closing band.
This task is solved by a slider, advantageously made of plastic, which includes a core piece, two inner surfaces running parallel to each other, and two support flanks. The slider can have essentially the shape of a U. In this case, it consists of a base part and two side parts or wings connected to it. The closing band, which consists advantageously of plastic, generally includes two parts or partial bands with profiles that can mesh with one another. The slider serves to make the meshing profiles or parts of the closing band fit together by sliding or pushing or to separate them. The meshing parts of the closing band are moved toward each other by means of the parallel inner surfaces of the slider. This is achieved by the decreasing distance between the inner surfaces of the slider. At one end of these inner surfaces, a core piece is provided, by means of which the meshing parts are kept at a distance. At the other end, the inner surfaces of the slider are provided with support flanks. In this region, the meshing parts are fit together: the closing band is hooked or closed.
According to the invention, another core piece is provided in the region of the inner surfaces of the slider. This advantageously involves a relatively small core piece or a core piece that is smaller that the actual core piece. The additional core piece is located between the inner surfaces of the slider. It is also located between the actual core piece and the support flanks. The additional core piece holds both profile parts with its side flanks of the slider-closing band securely tight, even as far as the middle part of the slider, and prevents the end of the slider from tilting upward. According to the invention, the halves of the slider-closing band accepted by the narrower end of the slider. The closing band, now closed, is then held by the smaller support flanks. When the side parts of the slider are to be bent away from each other slightly by a force, for example by pulling, the slider is prevented from tilting upward at its end, since the additional core piece in the middle of the slider holds the closing band tight.
With the invention, a slider is provided, by means of which the disadvantages described in the introduction are avoided the slider has a usual size. It is therefore easy to produce in a chain, so that rapid production is possible with few disturbances. With the invention, the disadvantages of the slider being tilted away too easily in the bottom part is prevented by having two separate core pieces with guide flanks arranged one behind the other. Moreover, the bending elasticity required for operation of the slider is defined for each plastic used. Finally, the invention includes an improvement to the process for applying an endless chain of sliders onto a closing band.
Advantageously, the additional core piece is connected to the other core piece. The connection is made advantageously through a bridge. It is advantageously to provide a thin bridge.
According to another advantageous further development, additions are provided on the upper side of the slider. When the slider has a U shape, the additions are advantageously located on the base part, specifically on the side of the base part opposite the side walls or wings. The additions serve to press or spread the slider the slider when the slider is applied to a closing band.
The slider is advantageously made of HDPE, thus a low-pressure polyethylene (high density polyethylene). HDPE can be produced with high pressure polyethylene (low density polyethylene, LDPE), from which most bags or purses are produced and which recycle well, but also with polypropylene, from which purses are closing bands are being produced increasingly.
The invention also concerns a closing band, advantageously of plastic, that has a slider according to the invention, and a purse, advantageously of plastic, that is characterized by a closing band according to the invention.
Embodiment examples of the invention will be explained below with reference to the attached drawings. In the drawings:

Slider for a closing band, advantageously of plastic


A linkage mechanism for a pick and place robot includes two rotatable drive members mounted on a base and connected to a platform by a respective two element linkage. The mid point of the two element linkage has a bell crank, the arms of which are connected to first and second location links anchored respectively at the base and platform. The platform may be configured to carry various implements, and the mechanism permits movement thereof in two dimensions by selective motion of the drive members.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a translational parallel robot mechanism of the type typically referred to as a pick and place robot.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pick and place robot mechanisms are typically utilized in light industries, such as the electronics industry and packaging industries, where such robotic mechanisms are required for accurate repetitive performance of simple operations that occur many times over. Such an operation may, for example, involve the repeated picking up of items at a first location with a gripping mechanism, moving a gripped item to a second location, and releasing said item at the second location. The gripping mechanism is typically mounted to a movable platform.
In order to meet performance criteria that are typically required of a robot mechanism of this type, one requirement may be that the platform is moved at a relatively high speed with two degrees of freedom in a movement plane without altering the posture of platform. Optionally the mechanism as a whole may also move in a relatively slow or stepwise manner and in a direction normal to the movement plane of the platform. Conventional robotic arm assemblies have difficulty in meeting these requirements with precision of movement and may lack synchronicity of movement due to different drive mechanisms being in place to accomplish these goals.

Planar parallel robot mechanism with two translational degrees of freedom


The present invention involves a method of making an integrated mold product with a molding tool. The method includes introducing polymeric material in the molding tool and molding the polymeric material to define an outer layer in the mold. The outer layer has a channel formed thereon. The method further includes introducing molten metal in the channel of the outer layer when the outer layer is at about the same temperature as the molding tool and cooling the molten metal in the channel to define a metal insert in the channel of the outer layer for electrical and thermal conductivity, structural support, and electromagnetic shielding.

The present invention is related to integrated molding products and methods of making integrated products with a molding tool.
Molding processes, such as injection molding and multiple shot molding, have been widely used in several industries. In the automotive industry, numerous vehicle parts may be made by such molding processes. For example, vehicle interior panels, circuit boards, and power distribution boxes may be made by such molding processes.
Manufacturers in the automotive industry have been challenged in providing improved cost effective and time saving ways of producing plastic-metal composite products made by such molding processes. In many situations, plastic-metal composite products are used in vehicles for electrical connectivity between electronic devices. Currently, vehicle plastic-metal composite parts that are made by a molding process require a relatively high amount of energy to maintain metal in a molten state during the molding process. In many situations, these molding processes are relatively expensive due to the relatively large amount of heat required to be applied on the molding tool to maintain the metal in a molten state.

Method of making an integrated mold product


A conjugate compounds or pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, comprises a payload and two or more kinds of cell-interacting molecules. The cell-interacting molecules are ligands capable of specifically binding to a cell surface receptor. A method of treating diseases, comprises delivering a payload to a subject.

Usually, the pathological and physiological characteristics of diseased cells and normal cells are significantly different, and one of the differences is that the surfaces of diseased cells have specific or overexpressed materials (such as, antigen, chemical signals, receptors, etc.), which are absent or lowly-expressed in normal cells. Based on this principle, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and polypeptide-drug conjugates (PDCs) were developed for the treatment of diseases. Currently, although some ADCs and PDCs drugs were marketed or under clinical researches, there are many limitations on ADCs and PDCs in clinical due to the design rationale of these drugs.
ADCs have gained much foothold recently with the approval of Adcetris from Seattle Genetics in 2011 and Kadcyla from Genentech in 2013 and remains a hot R&D development area with over 30 drugs in clinical trials. Nonetheless, ADCs development faces a multitude of difficulties ranging from the lack of suitable targets, manufacturing hurdle and low drug stability due to the complex nature and large molecular weight of the ADCs. Currently, ADCs are mainly used in the treatment of cancers. In some instances, the affinity of the target antibody towards the antigen on cancer cell surface could be as high as 10−9˜10−12 (Kd, mole/liter). Therefore, the ADCs, while having high specificity to target cells, also have high specificity to normal cells with the same target receptor(s) as the target cells. Meanwhile, it could take a long time (one to three weeks) to metabolize ADCs in vivo, during which it could continuously kill the normal cells, and thus significantly increase the toxic side effects of ADCs. Therefore, the more ideal indications of ADCs should be the diseases characterized in that the amounts of cell surface antigens in tumor and normal cells are significantly different. However, very few diseases known in the art can meet such strict requirement.
Another group of drug conjugate compounds are the ligand-drug conjugates (LDCs) where ligands are either peptide or small molecule. However, there are various problems to the application of LDCs, ranging from bioavailability, stability, efficacy, to toxicity. For example, many ligands are unable to enter into cells due to their large molecular weights, lipophilicity, or other attributes, limiting their therapeutic applications. In addition, the therapeutic effects are generally low if the ligands are conjugated with conventional chemotherapeutics (such as doxorubicin, paclitaxel, etc.), while the toxicities are high if they are conjugated with highly effective drug molecules (such as MMAE, DM1), and thus resulting in animal poisoning death even before the therapeutically effective amount is achieved for tumor treatment.

Multi-ligand drug conjugates and uses thereof


An apparatus and method for automatically folding a sheet of media, for example, a photographic paper about a fold line, such that an album page is formed. The photosensitive media has images only on one side. A heat activated adhesive sheet is provided between the sides of the photographic paper during folding. The adhesive sheet when exposed to heated and pressure rollers, will cause the sides of the photographic media to be secured to form a single album page.

In a typical photofinishing lab, photographic prints are made using a mini-lab or a high volume printer. In a high volume printer the prints are produced on a roll of photographic paper whereas in a mini-lab the prints may be made on cut sheets or from a roll of photographic paper that is cut into individual prints or cut sheet output from a digital thermal printer. It is known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,004,061; 5,957,502; and 5,791,692 that album pages can be made by folding a cut sheet of material such as photographic paper and adhesively securing the folded sides together. While the technique of folding the sheet produces an excellent product, there is a need to be able to make photographic album pages in a high volume, low cost environment. In particular, there is a need to produce album leafs from photographic print media produced either by high speed photographic printers, mini-labs or digital thermal printers.

Album leaf and method and apparatus for making an album leaf


A conference center is provided which includes a circular or polygonal arrangement of seating elements having a center. Each seating element faces outward from the center, and a device is provided for rotating the arrangement about a vertical axis through its center. This conference center provides a setting for group meetings which eliminates many of the distractions involved in face-to-face meetings.

The present invention relates to a conference center which seats a plurality of persons, providing a setting for meetings and other similar gatherings.
Many situations occur in the workplace, as well as other settings, in which a group of persons gather to discuss a given topic. The gathering may take the form of a business meeting, brainstorming session, educational class, or group therapy session.
While it is advantageous to meet in person for such purposes, these gatherings frequently are unproductive, and may break down into hostility or, conversely, casual conversation. One explanation for this problem is the visual distraction caused by the different physical appearances, clothing, mannerisms and the like of the participants. Similarly, participants may expend unproductive energy in attempting to analyze the expressions and "body language" of their fellow participants. These problems are often exacerbated by the typical setting for gatherings, in which participants face each other across a conference table, which tends to promote a confrontational atmosphere.
One alternative to face-to-face meetings is the use of "conference calls" to enable a number of persons to converse simultaneously over the telephone. While these calls eliminate some of the distractions inherent in a face-to-face meeting, they are fraught with other office distractions, e.g. intrusion by persons not involved in the call.
Another alternative to face-to-face meetings is electronic meetings, which have recently been introduced into the workplace. These meetings allow all participants to converse simultaneously via telecommunications, through the use of computers. While electronic meetings may eliminate the excessive conversation and visual distractions involved in face-to-face meetings, this approach hinders creativity by requiring the participants to type out all of their thoughts, limiting the free flow of ideas to the typing speed of the individuals. This approach also is subject to distractions similar to those involved with conference calls. This approach also may not be suitable for applications such as group education and therapy in the health care field, which may involve sensitive subject matter and require confidential treatment.
Thus, it is desired to provide in the workplace, and other settings which involve group meetings, an alternative setting for face-to-face meetings which would improve their productivity and usefulness.


A building security system which allows clients of building tenants to set up their own appointments, allows the building tenants to control and analyze such appointment scheduling, and enables building security personnel to analyze and control the number of visitors to the building. Visitors schedule their appointments via a visitor interface part of the system and providing the required appointment schedule information. Security personnel have integrated information concerning the number of visitors expected for a particular day, the number of visitors already in the building, and the number of past visitors for that day. Detailed information about visitors, and information on visitor's entering or leaving the building is also available. Because, visitors' information is already stored on the system, the security guard may also readily print a visitors pass as necessary. Security personnel with special access privileges (e.g., security manager) have access to building's visiting activity reports.

A typical building security system comprises various devices which limit access to the building to only individuals who possess a proper access code or access device, such as a key card. Building security systems, where security personnel is notified of incoming visitors, are also known in the art. In this security system, a visitor would schedule an appointment (typically over a telephone) with an employee working in a secured building, and the employee would then convey visitor's information to the building security personnel, which, in turn, would issue a security pass allowing the visitor to access the building.
Personnel security systems utilizing fingerprint matching are also commonly used and well accepted for personnel identification. Each fingerprint has a distinctive pattern of ridges and valleys that makes the fingerprint unique. The overall ridge patterns of fingerprints can be classified according to their distinctive shapes into several classes of morphology, including loops, arches, and whorls. The individual ridges of fingerprints have distinctive orientations, spacings, terminations, and bifurcations. Fingerprint matching methods are based on the premise that the combination of these features in any one fingerprint is unique. One use of the fingerprint matching technique is in access control, wherein personnel are permitted or denied access to a controlled area based on comparisons with a data base of fingerprints. The controlled area may be a physical area, in which case access is controlled by a physical barrier, or a virtual area such as a computer program or data base, in which case access is controlled by an electric barrier. The data base of fingerprints is constructed during an enrollment procedure that consists of recording in some form the fingerprints of those individuals who are to be permitted access. Once the data base has been constructed, an individual will be granted access by way of a verification procedure only if the fingerprint presented for verification matches the stored fingerprint data of a particular enrolled individual.

Building security and access protection system


A device for the protection of electronic equipment placed in public locations, such as electronic gasoline pumps and automatic teller machines, from damage by electrostatic charges on the bodies of individuals. The device is based on a movable, electrically conductive surface, which normally prevents access to the electronic equipment. As the user displaces the conductive surface in order to gain access to the equipment, charges will flow from the body of the user to the conductive surface and then to a grounded structure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for draining static charges from the body of individuals prior to touching electronic equipment, and especially a device of such type which is useful for protecting the keypad of an electronic gasoline pump or an automatic teller machine.
2. Description of the Realated Art
Electronic gasoline dispensers became very popular in recent years. These dispensers are usually controlled by microprocessor boards which perform all functions from reading the credit card of the buyer to metering the flow of fuel. Automatic teller machines are also controlled by sophisticated microprocessor boards which can communicate with computers over a network, beside performing other functions such as delivering cash.
While such advanced technology for dispensing fuel or accessing a bank account offer flexibility and convenience to the public, thousands of unexplained failures of the microprocessor modules inside fuel dispensers and automatic teller machines are reported each year.
In the electronics industry, it is widely known that sensitive MOS devices can be damaged by voltages as little as 250 volts on the human body, if a charged body comes in contact with such devices. It has also been recognized for many years that an individual may become charged to voltages of up to 30,000 volts by simply moving across a car seat covered with velvet or a similar synthetic material. This is especially true in winter time, when the humidity is low. It has been established that electrostatic discharges generated by such elevated potentials on the human body not only can damage electronic devices directly, but can even pierce through thin layers of plastic, such as the plastic forming the keys of an electronic keyboard, and eventually reach the conductors leading to the sensitive components.
Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the problem of frequent damage to sensitive computer modules inside gasoline dispensers and automatic teller machines by individuals who become charged electrostatically as they step out of their automobiles in dry weather.
In the prior art, several methods have been shown for the protection of electronic equipment from individuals who become charged to high voltages. U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,960 issued Dec. 1, 1981 to Sherwood et al. shows a method for protecting a keypad from electrostatic discharges which is based on providing a conductive sheet over the face of the keypad for draining static charges from the body of the user. Practically, however, such method proved to be not completely successful, since electrostatic discharges generated by high voltage can find multiple discharge paths to ground, one of which could possibly be through the circuit which is intended to be protected. Further, strong electrostatic discharges can disrupt or even wipe completely a program stored in a computer module by electromagnetic coupling. Moreover, it has been shown that static charges on the human body can often damage sensitive MOS devices simply by induction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,106 issued Apr. 29, 1986 to Thomas G. Frazier shows a static dissipative touch device that consists essentially of a conductive strip which is to be attached or glued to the electronic equipment which is to be protected. The conductive strip carries a message to attract the attention of the user, such as "Touch me first", and must be touched by the user prior to touching the equipment. Clearly, such method will not protect equipment intended for public use, such as gasoline pumps or automatic teller machines, since the user will simply ignore such device and proceed directly to touching the equipment.
It is the objective of the present invention to provide an effective and reliable method and mechanism for draining static charges from the bodies of individuals prior to touching equipment placed in public locations. It is another objective of the present invention to provide a mechanism which will protect electronic equipment completely from the other effects associated with static, such as induction or electromagnetic coupling.
Other objectives and features of the invention will become fully apparent from the ensuing disclosure and appended claims.

Static charge eliminator for protection of electronic gasoline pumps and teller machines


In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a system pulse latch to generate at least one system latch signal in response to a data input signal and a pulsed system clock signal; a shadow pulse latch to generate at least one shadow latch signal in response to the data input signal and the pulsed system clock signal; and an output joining circuit, coupled to the system pulse latch and the shadow pulse latch, to provide a data output signal in response to the at least one system latch signal and the at least one shadow latch signal.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention are related to the field of electronic devices, and in particular, to error reduction in electronic devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Single event upsets (SEUs), also referred to as soft errors (SERs), are radiation-induced transient errors in digital systems caused by high energy particles such as neutrons generated from cosmic rays and alpha particles from packaging material. Soft errors may be significant for microprocessors, network processors, high end routers and network storage components that target enterprise and applications with very high reliability, data integrity and availability. Bistables (latches and flip-flops) may be major contributors to the system-level soft error rate.
Scan Design-For-Testability (DFT) has become a de facto test standard in the industry because it enables an automated solution to high quality production testing at low cost. In addition, scan DFT may be used for post-silicon debug activities because it provides access to the internal nodes of an integrated circuit. Scan implementations in major high-end microprocessors involve significant circuitry and clock signals that are used only during post-silicon debug and production testing.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional pulse latch/scan cell 10 is shown for use in scan DFT. The latch/scan cell 10 includes a system pulse latch 12 and a scan circuit 14. The system pulse latch 12 is a single phase latch which stores (latches) a data input signal D based upon a clock pulse of a pulsed system clock signal PCK and generates a data output signal Q. The data input signal D enters the system pulse latch 12 during a brief transparency window defined by the rising and falling edges of the pulsed system clock signal PCK and is stored in the pulse latch 12 for the rest of the clock cycle. In an integrated circuit (IC), pulse latch/scan cells 10 are positioned at input and output nodes of combinational logic circuits.
The pulse latch/scan cell 10 has a test and a functional mode of operation. During the test mode, the scan circuits 14 are chained together to form a serial shift register (not shown). With respect to a given cell 10 at an input node of a combinational logic circuit (not shown), a signal SHIFT may be applied to a tri-state enable inverter 16 to allow a scan-in (SI) signal (test pattern) to be stored in a storage element (inverters 17 and 18) of the pulse latch 12 and applied via the output terminal Q to the downstream combinational logic circuit. Another cell 10 at an output node of the combinational logic circuit, in response to the pulsed system clock signal PCK, captures a system response to the test pattern on the input terminal for the data input signal D. The captured system response may be placed on the output terminal SO (becomes a scan-out signal) in response to applying the signal SHIFT to a second tri-state enable buffer 19. During the functional mode of operation, the signal SHIFT is in a low state; hence, the inverter 16 is turned off so that the scan-in signal SI does not disturb the normal latch operation. Therefore, the scan circuit 14 is essentially not used, although it occupies additional area and draw additional leakage power.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System pulse latch and shadow pulse latch coupled to output joining circuit


System and methods for providing a patient with arrhythmia treatment are described. For example, a system includes an arrhythmia monitoring and treatment assembly configured to be worn on the torso of the patient. The assembly has a housing discreetly extending from a skin surface of the patient. The assembly is configured to provide therapy on detecting one or more arrhythmia conditions of the patient. A first at least one user response button is disposed on the assembly at a first location on the torso concealed under clothing, and a second at least one user response button is configured to be worn on a second location of the patient's body, a location other than the torso that is accessible to the patient. The system suspends an impending therapy upon receiving a user input from either one of the first or second at least one user response buttons.

The present disclosure is directed to wearable cardiac monitoring and treatment devices.
A patient suffering from heart failure experiences symptoms caused by a weak or damaged heart contracting inefficiently and failing to pump effectively to circulate oxygenated blood through the body. A heart may be weakened by, for example, abnormal heart rhythms (e.g., heart arrhythmias), high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, and myocarditis.
Left untreated, heart failure could lead certain life-threatening arrhythmias. Both atrial and ventricular arrhythmias are common in patients with heart failure. One of the deadliest cardiac arrhythmias is ventricular fibrillation, which occurs when normal, regular electrical impulses are replaced by irregular and rapid impulses, causing the heart muscle to stop normal contractions. Because the victim has no perceptible warning of the impending fibrillation, death often occurs before the necessary medical assistance can arrive. Other cardiac arrhythmias can include excessively slow heart rates known as bradycardia or excessively fast heart rates known as tachycardia.
Cardiac arrest can occur when various arrhythmias of the heart, such as ventricular fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, pulseless electrical activity (PEA), and asystole (heart stops all electrical activity), result in the heart providing insufficient levels of blood flow to the brain and other vital organs for supporting life. It is generally useful to monitor heart failure patients in order to assess heart failure symptoms early and provide interventional therapies as soon as possible.
Wearable cardiac monitoring and treatment devices are provided to monitor for such arrhythmias and provide a treatment when a life-threatening arrhythmia is detected. Such devices are worn by the patient continuously to provide constant protection. As such, the devices need to be designed to be comfortable and easy to use.

Wearable medical device response mechanisms and methods of use


A portable accessory box is disclosed. The portable accessory box comprises: a bottom plate; two side rectangular bodies fixedly connected to two sides of the bottom plate; and a lower side plate fixedly connected to the lower side of the bottom plate. The portable accessory box can further comprise an upper side plate fixedly connected to the upper side of the bottom plate. The bottom plate includes a hand-held hole for carrying and two fixed pieces used to fix the side rectangular bodies. In addition, each of the side rectangular bodies comprises an embedded slot, and the lower side plate and the upper side plate both include an inner side piece. When the lower side plate and the upper side plate are folded inwardly, the inner side pieces can be embedded into the embedded slots of the side rectangular bodies to divide each of the side rectangular bodies into two rectangular sub-bodies and form a lower rectangular body and an upper rectangular body between the side rectangular bodies.

Electronic products, such as notebooks, have many related accessories. For example, a notebook may have accessories comprising a transformer, a power cord and a mouse. In order to prevent electronic products, such as notebooks, and related accessories thereof from being damaged during transportation, protective packaging structures are generally used to package these electronic products, so as to support and protect the objects disposed in the packaging cartons, thereby avoiding damage due to external impact. Inside the commonly-used packaging cartons, the frequently-used materials forming the protective packaging structures are, for example, plastic, paper, and metal. Of these, paper is quite popularly selected for manufacturing the packaging structures because it is easily processed, has a low technical threshold, is cheap, and can be easily printed on.
In addition, based on the principle of environmental protection, the packaging structures of paper can be produced from reprocessed paper pulp and be recycled. Moreover, unlike other materials, paper materials do not need to bear the cost of recycling. Therefore, the utilization of paper materials can reduce the ecological impact on the environment and is cheap.
Besides, in order to protect accessories of the electronic product from damage caused by collision and from being scattered in packaging carton, currently, the relative popular method is to pack the accessories of the electronic product into an accessory box and then pack the accessory box and the electronic product into the packaging carton together.
An accessory box is typically composed of a box and one or many inner spacers. With the inner spacers, the internal space of the box is separated into a plurality of deposed spaces, so that the accessories of the electronic product can be put into the deposed spaces of the accessory box, and a benefit of arrangement is obtained, thus avoiding damage caused by collision.


A method, performed by a computer device, may include receiving a Short Message Service (SMS) message. The method may further include analyzing one or more sender parameters associated with the received SMS message to validate the one or more sender parameters; determining whether the one or more sender parameters have been validated based on the analysis; rejecting the SMS message in response to determining that the one or more sender parameters have not been validated; analyzing message content included in the SMS message to validate the message content; determining whether the message content has been validated based on the analysis; rejecting the SMS message in response to determining that the message content has not been validated; and forwarding the SMS message to a recipient, in response to validating the one or more sender parameters and in response to validating the message content.

Mobile communication devices enable users to communicate using various methods. A popular communication method available to users of mobile communication devices is the Short Message Service (SMS). SMS enables a first user to send a short text message to a second user. The message sent using SMS, variously referred to as an SMS message, an SMS text message, or as a text message, may be limited to a particular number of characters, such as, for example, 160 7-bit characters. SMS may be used to exploit the vulnerabilities of a mobile communication device to perform malicious activity that is undesirable to the user, and/or the network, associated with the mobile communication device.


An electrostatic charge image developing toner includes a toner core including at least a binder resin and a shell layer configured to cover the toner core. The shell layer includes an inner layer and an outer layer. A difference obtained by subtracting a SP value of a material for the inner layer from a SP value of the binder resin, ΔSP1, is 0.3 or larger and 1.4 or lower. A difference obtained by subtracting a SP value of a material for the outer layer from the SP value of the material for the inner layer, ΔSP2, is 0.5 or larger and 1.6 or lower. The ΔSP1 is below the ΔSP2.

The present disclosure relates to electrostatic charge image developing toners.
In order to save on energy consumption or to achieve size reduction in image forming apparatuses using toner, it is desirable that the toner has excellent fixability at low temperature. The use of such toner can achieve suitable fixability, while suppressing heating of a fixing roller. However, the toner excellent in fixability at low temperature includes at least one of a binder resin having a low melting point or glass transition point and a releasing agent having a low melting point in many cases. Such the toner tends to aggregate in high temperature storage. Aggregation of the toner may tend to cause image defect or fogging in image formation. The image defect might be caused due to adhesion of the toner to a development sleeve or a photosensitive drum. The fogging might be caused due to charge failure of the toner.
In view of the foregoing, in order to improve the fixability of the toner in a wide range of temperature, to enhance the preservation stability of the toner at high temperature, or to improve the blocking resistance of the toner, a toner having a core-shell structure has been proposed. Core particles of such the toner are each covered with a shell layer. In some toner having a core-shell structure, the core particles include a binder resin with a low melting point, and the glass transition point (Tg) of a resin forming the shell layer is higher than the glass transition point (Tg) of the binder reins of the core particles. Further, an intermediate layer and the shell layer are formed on the surface of each core particle. The intermediate layer includes wax. The shell layer includes crystalline polyester resin with a softening point of 60° C. or higher and 120° C. or lower at a rate of 70% by mass or higher and 100% by mass or lower.

Electrostatic charge image developing toner


An ultrasonic actuator includes: an actuator body (5) including an actuator body (50); a control circuit (150) for setting a driving frequency; power supply sources (191, 192) for applying a driving voltage having the driving frequency to the actuator body; and a memory (170) for storing data related to a difference between antiresonance and resonance frequencies of the actuator body (50). The control circuit (150) determines, based on a reference frequency where a current value of a current fed to the piezoelectric element (50) is local minimum and the data stored in the memory (170), a lower limit of a control range of the driving frequency so that the lower limit is equal to or higher than a frequency where the current value of the current fed to the piezoelectric element (50) is local maximum and determines the driving frequency to be a frequency in the control range.

Conventionally, as an ultrasonic actuator including an actuator having a piezoelectric element, an ultrasonic actuator disclosed in Patent Document 1 has been known.
The ultrasonic actuator of Patent Document 1 includes an actuator body formed of a piezoelectric element and a driver element fixed onto the actuator body.
The actuator body is formed of a flat plate-shaped piezoelectric element having a longitudinal direction. In the actuator body, longitudinal vibration (i.e., so-called expanding/contracting vibration) along a longitudinal direction of the piezoelectric element and bending vibration along a lateral direction of the piezoelectric element are induced in a cooperated manner by respectively applying alternating currents having different phases to two electrode pairs each of which includes two electrodes diagonally arranged. As a result, the driver element makes an orbit motion, more specifically, an elliptical motion in a plane of the piezoelectric element including a longitudinal direction and a lateral direction.
Patent Document 2 discloses an ultrasonic motor (ultrasonic actuator). Patent Document 2 discloses a technique in which in an ultrasonic motor, a driving frequency is set to a higher value than a resonance frequency of the ultrasonic motor and the frequency is reduced from the higher value at a start of driving the ultrasonic motor.
Furthermore, Patent Document 3 discloses a control system for an ultrasonic motor (ultrasonic actuator). Patent Document 3 discloses a technique in which a driving frequency at which a drive current for the ultrasonic motor is minimum is searched and the driving frequency is fixed to the obtained frequency, thereby performing control.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2004-304963
Patent Document 2: Japanese Published Patent Application No. H7-264882
Patent Document 3: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2006-115583


A multi-wheel highway vehicle for transporting passengers, cargo or both has a plurality of wheels supporting the vehicle with the wheels having pneumatic tires mounted thereon, at least one transducer connected to one of the wheels for sensing pressure in a tire mounted on the wheel and providing a output signal indicative of the pressure, a comparator mounted on the wheel receiving the output signal provided by the transducer for comparing the output signal from the transducer to a reference and providing a second output signal indicative of the comparison and a transmitter carried by the vehicle receiving the second output signal provided by the comparator for sending tire pressure information derived from the second output signal to a remote locale, optionally together with information identifying the vehicle and/or the location of the vehicle and/or the speed and/or the direction of travel of the vehicle and/or the identity of the driver of the vehicle.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to pressure indicating methods and apparatus in general, and more particularly to tire pressure indicators and easy access tire fill valves for single and dual wheel tire assemblies and methods for monitoring vehicle tire pressure. Other aspects of the invention relate to a wheel clip assembly that secures a wheel cover to a wheel rim. Aspects of the invention also relate to an aerodynamic wheel cover that reduces drag and lowers the operating temperature of the wheel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fuel and tires represent the greatest operating cost for a single tractor/trailer or an entire fleet. If a truck tire that normally operates at one hundred pounds per square inch is twenty-five to thirty percent underinflated, which causes excessive tread wear due to heat and friction and reduces fuel efficiency due to resistance and drag. At today's average cost of two hundred to three hundred dollars per tire, under inflation could account for as much as seventy-five dollars per tire in tire costs alone. Under inflation also negatively impacts the longevity of tire casings. Proper air pressure maintenance assures that tires can be recapped up to five times.
Prior art methods and devices for maintaining proper tire pressure include mechanical spring powered hand pressure gauges carried by the driver and used to periodically check tire pressure and to fill tires to proper levels. Tire gauges or indicators, which are permanently mounted to the tire fill-valve, provide a readout of the tire pressure when viewed by the truck operator.
Truck drivers most commonly use the manual pressure gauges to check tire inflation pressure, usually after first tapping the tire with their foot or a tool and finding that pressure is low. Such a check detects a low tire only after a significant loss of tire pressure. With a slow leak, a tire may have been operating at low pressure for some time and some tire degradation may already have occurred. Also, over pressure is not detectable by such tapping.
Low tire pressure increases the amount of tire tread contacting the highway. This can develop into a condition referred to as "over steer". This condition occurs when the low tire, if on the rear of a car, actually steers the car due to the increased tire footprint on the rear when the car is affected by side winds or is on a steeply crowned road surface. In such cases, the driver may lose directional control of the vehicle.
Excellent examples of the consequences of under inflation of tires are found along the shoulders of interstate highways, where black tire treads have separated from the tires due to low tire pressure of the inner tire on the dual wheels. Such tires have generated so much road friction, resulting in heat in the tire, that the tire tread comes off of the tire casing. Truck companies cannot afford to have employees check the eighteen tires on every trip and therefore truck drivers may check tires only once or twice a year on over-the-road trucks, which may be driven up to 125,000 miles per year.
Environmental and danger hazards of such tire treads and such practices are obvious. Hazardous material truckers are suppose to check the tires every one hundred miles driven or every two hours of driving. This very infrequently occurs.
Permanently mounted tire pressure gauges and pressure indicators may be on a tire valve stem adjacent the rim are small in size and require the operator to bend down to the tire before the operator can see the gauge pressure. Some gauges mounted away from the rim tire valve are actually covered with a cover and require an effort on the part of the operator to remove the cover before checking the gauge(s). No known permanently mounted tire pressure indication systems offer an easily seen gauge which can be easily viewed by the truck operator as the operator inspects the wheels of a stationary vehicle to see if inflation pressure is in the proper range.
One known specific example of a permanently mounted tire inflation indicator is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,526. An under-inflation type warning system is disclosed. A collapsible bladder mounted axially on the wheel is connected to a tire and is inflated whenever tire pressure falls below a predetermined level. However, there is no warning provided by this system for a slowly leaking tire or for over-inflation. There is no easily visible gauge which shows pressure in the tire at all times and guides the operator in inflating the tire to the proper level. The system uses conventional rim-attached tire fill-valves.
Another example may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,931, where a pressurized container regulated to desired tire pressure is continuously connected to all of the tires to thus maintain them all at the proper pressure level. However, this system provides no actual gauge reading(s) of tire pressure, and a failure of the pressure regulator or the container could result in an undetected over-pressurized or under-pressurized condition in all of the tires.
A dual-tire, wheel assembly tire pressure indicating system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,395. The gauge or gauges are located in the center hub of the wheel and are covered with a removable cover, requiring the operator to bend down to wheel level to uncover and view the gauges. Further, there is no indication that the gauges offer any area markings thereon to indicate proper or improper inflation, nor is these any analog pressure readout to aid in inflating the tire to the optimal pressure of one hundred pounds per square inch, nor is there any identification of which gauge is for the front and which is for the rear tire of a dual wheel assembly.
Another conventional dual-tire, wheel assembly tire pressure indicating system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,770,797. The '797 tire pressure indicating system includes a pair of readout pressure gauges mounted on a full wheel streamlined hubcap. The hubcap is mounted to the outside wheel of a dual wheel assembly using a U-shaped bracket connected to the wheel through the wheel bolts with the hubcap connected thereto by quarter turn fastener assemblies.
There is a problem associated with such prior art devices in that if the device becomes detached from the tire fill-valve while the vehicle is in motion, the device may become a high velocity projectile and thus present a safety hazard. Another problem with such prior devices is that, because of the eccentricity of the load they add to the tire, the tire may become unbalanced, thus presenting a safety problem and causing an uneven and unsafe ride.
Another problem of such prior art devices is that they require use of a mounting device for the tire pressure gauges, such as a hubcap assembly mountable to the front wheel of a deep dish dual wheel assembly through a bracket assembly connected by wheel bolts or nuts to oppositely located studs of the outside wheel of a dual wheel assembly. Such a tire pressure indication system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,770,797 herein incorporated by reference. This unnecessary practice of providing a tire pressure indication system mounted to a hubcap assembly increases the cost and weight associated with the tire pressure indication system.
Typical tire/wheel arrangements for heavy-duty roadway vehicles, such as tractors, trailers, and trucks, have to contend with situations relating to the optimal performance of the vehicle. A nut and bolt assembly, which typically extends from the wheel rim, may cause drag and effect optimal performance of the vehicle. Even further, during the travel or braking of the vehicle, the tire/wheel arrangement may experience a high operating temperature. The high operating temperature may have an undesirable effect on vehicle performance and/or result in pressure losses in the tire. Even further, in certain trucking applications, such as hauling of hazardous materials, the Department of Transportation (DOT) requires certain safety standards in monitoring tire pressure. The DOT requires that trucks stop every two hours or every one hundred miles in order to check air pressure in every tire. Because such trucks are frequently stopped so the tires may be checked for pressure losses, a vehicle operator periodically may have to pressurize the tires. There is a need for a new tire/wheel arrangement that permits and maintains optimal performance of the vehicle by reducing drag and lowering the operating temperature of the tire/wheel arrangement.


A method for forward parking a motor vehicle in a perpendicular parking space, wherein the motor vehicle has environment sensors for detecting environment data and obstacles in the environment of the motor vehicle, including pre-aligning the motor vehicle in front of the perpendicular parking space such that a target steering angle lies between a maximum steering angle δmax and a minimum steering angle δmin, iterative searching of the admissible steering angle range between the maximum steering angle δmax and the minimum steering angle δmin for a current steering angle δakt, during a forward maneuver of the vehicle into the perpendicular parking space, wherein the current steering angle δakt,i ensures a maximum free path length si, i=01 . . . , n into the perpendicular parking space without the vehicle hitting obstacles, and terminating the forward maneuver if the end of the parking operation has been reached or a reversing maneuver has to be carried out owing to an obstacle.

In current parking assist systems or driver assistance systems for automatic parking, in which case parking both in the longitudinal parking spaces and in perpendicular parking spaces is carried out here, a parking space is measured using a suitable sensor system as the parking space is passed, and reverse parking is then carried out. With longitudinal parking spaces, this is the only possible way of parking in a longitudinal parking space since the rear axle generally cannot be steered. Longitudinal parking spaces in which forward parking is possible are so large, however, that it would be necessary to refer to a lane change, rather than parking.
Such a reverse parking operation into a parking space is described, for example, in DE 10 2009 006 336 A1. There, an automatic parking operation of a motor vehicle is monitored, in which case, before the actual parking operation, a parking space is measured using a camera-based method as the motor vehicle passes the parking space, and obstacles in the environment of the parking space are also determined. During the automatic parking operation, the camera-based method is still used to measure the environment of the motor vehicle, the obstacles newly detected in the measurement during the parking operation being compared with previously detected obstacles and a corresponding measure being carried out if there is a discrepancy between newly detected obstacles and known obstacles.
A method for automatically parking a motor vehicle in a parking space or for moving a motor vehicle out of a parking space can also be gathered from DE 10 2009 006 331 A1. In this case, the parking space is determined by an environment detection system of the motor vehicle and a target trajectory and a position end point relative to the parking space on the target trajectory are defined. A suitable steering angle is then calculated on the basis of the current vehicle position and this steering angle is used for parking or leaving a parking space.
The common feature of all of these known methods is that, after the parking space has been measured, a target trajectory is defined and is iteratively readjusted if necessary, along which trajectory the motor vehicle reverses into the parking space in one or more maneuvers.
The disadvantage of the reverse-parking strategies is that, on the one hand, the subsequent traffic is hindered during reverse-parking into a perpendicular parking space and there is also the risk of a subsequent vehicle taking the free parking space by means of forward parking and of forward parking usually being carried out both in parking garages and in garages.

Automatic forward parking in perpendicular parking spaces


An image editing user interface includes a first control adapted to alter an image property of an image in response to a user input and a second control adapted to operate in cooperation with the first control to alter the image property in response to a user input. The image property is brightness and the first control alters brightness over a range of image values between two endpoints and the second control defines at least one of the endpoints.

Electronic images—in particular images that result from scanning operations—often require some degree of editing to become usable. Brightness and contrast are two image characteristics that frequently require editing. A brightness adjustment typically involves adding or subtracting a value to all image values, the added or subtracted value being determined by the brightness setting. This has the effect of creating distortion in the image lowlights or highlights, depending on the displacement of the brightness setting. Similarly, a contrast adjustment typically increases or decreases the variation between image values over some range of image values. This also has the effect of creating distortion throughout parts of the image.
Complex editing programs exist that allow users greater control over brightness and/or contrast adjustment, but such editing programs require much greater user skill and are time consuming to work with. Hence, they are not suitable for production environments, which require the balancing of user control with production efficiency. Improved systems and methods are, therefore, needed.

User interface methods and systems for image brightness and contrast


A method of handling oscillating mobile station handoffs between cells in a cellular telecommunications network. The method comprises the steps of detecting whether a mobile station (MS) is exhibiting an oscillating handoff pattern, determining whether the MS's signal strength with the MS's serving cell is above a safe signal strength threshold, and inhibiting handoffs of the MS upon determining that the signal strength is above the safe signal strength threshold. The oscillating handoff pattern is detected by first detecting a sequence of handoffs of the MS in which the number of handoffs is twice the number of cells involved in the handoffs, measuring an inter-handoff time period between each handoff in the sequence, and determining whether each inter-handoff time period is less than a first threshold value. This is followed by determining an oldest handoff and a latest handoff in the sequence, measuring a total oscillation time period between the oldest handoff and the latest handoff in the sequence, determining whether the total oscillation time period is less than a second threshold value, and classifying the MS as oscillating upon determining that the total oscillation time period is less than the second threshold value.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telecommunication systems and, more particularly, to a method of detecting and inhibiting mobile station handoff oscillations between cells in a cellular radio telecommunications network.
2. Description of Related Art
Mobile stations (MSs) will sometimes be handed off back and forth in a fairly rapid manner between two or more cells. This phenomenon is known as handoff oscillations, and has many adverse effects in the cellular network. First, temporary muting is experienced by the subscriber during each handoff, and this adversely affects voice quality when it is repeatedly experienced in a short period of time. Second, the probability of dropping the call is cumulatively increased since the probability of dropping a call is increased during each handoff. Third, the repeated handoffs add to the processor load in the network.
One of the main causes of handoff oscillations is the manner in which MSs obtain signal strength measurements from the serving cell and candidate neighboring cells. Erroneous signal strength measurements from neighbor cells can be caused by a design defect in certain MSs or by poor cell planning causing co-channel interference or poor propagation in certain areas. Therefore, MSs often do not report the correct signal strengths, making the signal strength from the neighbor cell appear better than it actually is, and better than the serving cell. The handoff is then performed based on the erroneous measurements. This places the MS in a new serving cell where the measurements then show that the signal strength is better in the old serving cell. Therefore, another handoff is performed back to the old serving cell.
Although there are no known prior art teachings of a solution to the aforementioned deficiency and shortcoming such as that disclosed herein, U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,535 to Leung et al. (Leung), U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,910 to Taketsugu (Taketsugu), and U.K. Patent Application GB 2 301 733A to Gilliland (Gilliland) discuss subject matter that bears some relation to matters discussed herein. Leung discloses a method of operating a layered cellular network having macrocells which overlay a plurality of microcells. Leung compiles mobility statistics for each MS and passes the statistics to the base stations in the networks. The mobility statistics are then utilized to make decisions regarding whether to assign each MS to a microcell or a macrocell. However, Leung does not teach or suggest a method of detecting and inhibiting handoff oscillations in a cellular telecommunications network.
Taketsugu discloses a method of controlling handoffs in a cellular telecommunications network having cells of differing sizes. Taketsugu measures the number of handoffs experienced by each MS, and the measurement is then utilized to determine the size of cell to which the MS should be handed off. Taketsugu, however, does not teach or suggest a method of detecting and inhibiting handoff oscillations in a cellular telecommunications network.
Gilliland discloses a method of controlling handoffs in a cellular telecommunications network having macrocells and microcells. Gilliland determines the speed of each MS by counting the number of handoffs which have occurred in a preceding period, or by counting the number of measurement reports in the preceding period. The MS's speed is then utilized to determine whether to hand off the MS to a macrocell or a microcell. However, Gilliland does not teach or suggest a method of detecting and inhibiting handoff oscillations in a cellular telecommunications network.
Other solutions to the handoff oscillation problem have been proposed, but each known proposed solution utilizes a hysteresis value to control the rate of oscillating handoffs. In order for a handoff to be performed, the signal strength from a candidate neighboring cell must exceed the signal strength of the serving cell by the hysteresis amount. However, a disadvantage to this approach is that every MS in the cell is affected when the hysteresis value is determined and set. The hysteresis value necessarily reduces the network's handoff performance. For MSs experiencing severe handoff oscillation problems, this trade-off is acceptable. However, all MSs are not uniformly affected by oscillating handoffs. For those MSs that are not experiencing oscillating handoffs, the hysteresis solution degrades their performance without any counter-balancing benefit. In addition, other factors such as interference may require that the value of the hysteresis be set higher, thereby further degrading handoff performance for all MSs in the cell.
Review of each of the foregoing references reveals no disclosure or suggestion of a method such as that described and claimed herein. In order to overcome the disadvantage of existing solutions, it would be advantageous to have a method of detecting and inhibiting handoff oscillations between cells in a cellular radio telecommunications network. Such a method would operate on a per-mobile station basis rather than utilizing hysteresis on a cell-wide basis. The present invention provides such a method.

Method of detecting and inhibiting mobile station handoff oscillations in a cellular telecommunications network


A method of synthesizing isoindolequinones comprising the step of reacting a 2,3-di(ethynyl)hydroquinone with a hydride selected from the group consisting of Group 15 and Group 16 hydrides, wherein said step of reacting takes place in an oxygen free environment.

Isoindolequinones are known. Specifically, they are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,547 where they are generally defined according to the formula ##STR1## where R.sub.1 and R.sub.3 each separately is phenyl, substituted phenyl, alkyl of 1 to about 4 carbons, --CHO, --CH.sub.2 OR.sub.6, --CO.sub.2 R.sub.6, --COR.sub.6, hydrogen, or together with R.sub.2 is a divalent alkyl or alkenyl group of about 3 to about 5 carbons which form a cyclic ring; R.sub.2 is phenyl, substituted phenyl, --CH.sub.2 OR.sub.6, --CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 OR.sub.6, alkyl of 1 to about 4 carbons, or with either R.sub.1 or R.sub.3 is a divalent alkyl or alkenyl group of about 3 to about 5 carbons which form a cyclic ring; R.sub.4 and R.sub.5, which may be the same or different each separately is hydrogen, alkyl of 1 to about 4 carbons, --OR.sub.6, --CO.sub.2 R.sub.6, --COR.sub.6, --CHO, --CH.sub.2 OR.sub.6 or together R.sub.4 and R.sub.5 is a buradiene group which forms a benzene ring; R.sub.6 is hydrogen or alkyl of 1 to about 4 carbons; provided that R.sub.1 and R.sub.3 are not both phenyl and that when R.sub.4 and R.sub.5 are both hydrogen, R.sub.1, R.sub.2 and R.sub.3 are not all methyl.
Such compounds are important radiosensitizers that sensitize hypoxic cells to the lethal effect of radiation in cancer radiotherapy. These compounds are also known to have antibiotic activity.
Isoindolequinones were first synthesized by the treatment of rhodium heterocycles, prepared from diketodiynes and Wilkinson's catalysts, with nitrosobenzene. Cycloadditions of oxazolium 5-oxides with 1,4-benzoquinones also give isoindole derivatives. The first report of naturally occurring isoindole-quinone, 2,5-dimethyl-6-methoxyisoindole-4,7-quinone, isolated from the sponge Reniera, has been synthesized in moderate yields to form a pyrrole derivative by the cycloaddition of a yield to a quinone. Zinc-induced intramolecular cyclizations of bis-(bromoacetyl)heteroaromatic compounds also give isoindolequinones.
The synthesis of these compounds, however, is often inefficient inasmuch as a multi-step reaction is often required. Furthermore, the use of solvents that are deleterious to the environment are also often required.
Therefore there is a need in the art for a more efficient and simplistic method for synthesizing isoindolequinones.

Method of synthesizing isoindolequinones and derivatives thereof


A backlight controller for controlling a backlight unit having a plurality of light sources arranged in a grid layout for illuminating a liquid crystal panel, the backlight controller including: a first calculator configured to calculate an average value and a standard deviation of control values for controlling the light sources, the control values being obtained from a feature quantity of an input image; a second calculator configured to calculate a ratio of the standard deviation to the average value; and a gain controller configured to control a gain to be applied to the control values based on the ratio calculated by the second calculator.

1. Field
The present invention relates to a backlight controller that controls light emission of illumination module, such as a backlight unit, for illuminating a liquid crystal panel or the like, and a liquid crystal display device that is provided with the backlight controller.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, a liquid crystal display device is employed as image display device in a television receiver, a personal computer, a mobile phone, or the like. In the liquid crystal display device, a liquid crystal panel itself does not emit light, and hence, an image is displayed by arranging a backlight on the backside of the liquid crystal panel and illuminating the liquid crystal panel from the backside with the backlight.
In a conventional liquid crystal display device provided with the backlight, there has been known a liquid crystal display device wherein a display screen is divided into a plurality of regions by associating the display screen with individual light sources which constitute the backlight, and wherein area controls in which the individual light sources are controlled for the respective regions of the display screen (respective screen regions) are performed.
Regarding the liquid crystal display device of this type, a liquid crystal display device as described below is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2004-191490 (counterpart U.S. publication is: US 2006/0279522 A1). In this liquid crystal display device, liquid crystal display portions opposing to the individual light sources are partitioned as blocks, the individual maximum brightness values are calculated from display data which are inputted to the respective blocks, and the brightness of the respective light sources are adjusted in correspondence with the level of the individual maximum brightness values. On the other hand, display values to be inputted to the respective blocks of the liquid crystal display portions are increased in correspondence with the brightness values of the respective light sources.
Although the area controls of the plurality of light sources are described in the above identified publication, any technique pursuing readiness to see a scene of wide dynamic range is not disclosed therein.

Backlight controller and liquid crystal display device


An image forming apparatus includes a detection unit configured to cause a light emitting device to emit light, to cause a light receiving device to receive the light reflected by an object, and to produce a detection signal having a varying signal level responsive to an intensity of the received reflected light, a color misalignment correction unit configured to correct color misalignment resulting from positional misalignment between the developer images of respective colors on a transfer body by controlling an exposure unit in response to detected data indicative of the developer images detected in the detection signal, and an adjustment unit configured to identify a plurality of peak positions in the detection signal detected with respect to a single developer image and to adjust the detected data indicative of the developer images detected in the detection signal in response to difference in the peak positions.

1. Field of the Invention
The disclosures herein generally relate to methods and apparatuses for forming images by use of electrostatic printing, and particularly relates to a method and apparatus for forming images in which color misalignment resulting from the positional misalignment of plural color developers disposed on a transfer body is corrected.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among various types of image forming apparatuses such as color copier machines and color laser printers, a tandem-type image forming apparatus transfers toner images corresponding to four developer colors, i.e., yellow., cyan, magenta, and black, successively onto a transfer body (e.g., transfer belt or transfer paper sheet). With such configuration, tandem-type image forming apparatuses tend to have a risk of developing color misalignment resulting from the mutual positional misalignment of toner images corresponding to respective colors. Such color misalignment greatly affects the quality of color images generated by fusing the toner images of respective colors onto a transfer paper sheet. It is thus a technical challenge to reduce color misalignment in such a type of image forming apparatus.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-31227 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a positional misalignment correcting apparatus which optically detects a color-misalignment correction pattern comprised of several patches. The patches are formed on an intermediate transfer body by superimposing a reference color pattern and color patterns for correction (correction-purpose toner images) to correct the positional misalignment of each color based on the detected results. This position correcting apparatus includes a detecting means for detecting a specular reflection component and diffuse reflection component upon optically reading the misalignment correction pattern by use of a reflective-type photo sensor. The position correcting apparatus also includes a correction means for correcting positional misalignment based on the detected specular reflection component and diffuse reflection component. A glossiness of the intermediate transfer body is determined based on the specular reflection component detected upon optically reading the misalignment correction pattern by use of the reflective-type photo sensor. A luminance is determined based on the detected diffuse reflection component.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-236402 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2) discloses an image forming method that forms color toner reference images (i.e., correction-purpose toner images) on an image carrying member or transfer-object carrying member. The image forming method also detects reflective light from the reference images by use of both a diffuse-reflection-type detector and a specular-reflection-type detector. The image forming method then corrects the output value of the diffuse-reflection-type detector based on the output value of the specular-reflection-type detector and the output value of the diffuse-reflection-type detector.
In the technologies disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, a correction-purpose toner image is detected by use of a light emission device and a detector that is provided with a light receiving device for receiving a specular reflection component and a light receiving device for receiving a diffuse reflection component. If a detector provided with a single light receiving device were able to be used, however, a cost reduction and size reduction of the detector could be achieved by detecting the correction-purpose toner image using the specular reflection component received by the single light receiving device.
If the above-noted detector is placed such that the optical axis of the light emitting device and the optical axis of the light receiving device cross each other on the surface of a transfer body within a plane parallel to the normal line of the transfer body, the reflective light received by the light receiving device will mostly be a specular reflection component, thereby being able to disregard the effect of a diffuse light component. If the optical axis of the light emitting device and the optical axis of the light receiving device are misaligned due to manufacturing variation of the detector, however, the effect of a diffuse reflection component contained in the reflective light received by the light receiving device cannot be disregarded, thereby degrading the detection accuracy of the detector.
What is needed is an image forming method and image forming apparatus that is implemented by use of an inexpensive configuration, yet can accurately detect a correction-purpose toner image.

Image forming apparatus with accurate correction of color misalignment


This invention relates to a sheet dispensing system which includes a clip lift member. The clip lift member of the present invention is positioned beneath the stack of sheets placed in the carton. The clip lift is comprised of an elastic member which is placed underneath a stack of sheets and is connected to the end walls of the carton. The clip lift may include a support member positioned between the sheets and the elastic member which may support the weight of the tissues. The clip lift biases the sheets in an upward direction as the sheets are being dispensed. The elastic member may be comprised of any elastic member, including a heat-activatable elastic member, which may be microwave susceptible.

This invention relates to a sheet dispensing system, and more particularly, to a clip lift for such a system which lifts the sheets up towards the opening through which the sheets are dispensed as the sheets are being dispensed.
Sheets such as facial tissues, paper towels, industrial towels and the like are well known in the art. The uses of sheets include, but are not limited to, blowing one's nose, cleaning one's glasses and other cleaning uses. Generally, a sheet dispensing system includes a stack of sheets placed within a carton. A stack of sheets ready to be put into a carton is known in the field as a clip. There are two basic types of cartons: the pop-up variety and the reach-in variety.
A pop-up carton is generally a square or rectangular carton with a sheet dispensing opening on its top wall. The sheets are generally interfolded with each other in pop-up cartons, which is well known in the art. Interfolding means that each sheet is folded around part of the sheet immediately beneath the first sheet. There are various types of interfolding, such as Z-folding or V-folding. Because of the interfolding of the sheets, when a first sheet is pulled up through the dispensing opening, a leading section of a second sheet, i.e., the sheet immediately beneath the first sheet, is also pulled part way through the opening.
In addition, a pop-up carton may include a piece of clear plastic film which covers the sheet dispensing opening. The film is slit such that sheets are dispensed from the carton through the slit. Because the slit is small, sheets are constricted from falling back through the slit once they have been pulled part way through the slit. If there is no such film covering the dispensing opening, generally then at one point of the opening, the opening is narrow enough to constrict the sheets.
Thus, as a result of interfolding the sheets and constricting the sheets by the slit, sheets are dispensed from a pop-up carton in the following manner. For the first sheet, the user must reach through the slit to grab the sheet to begin the sheet dispensing process. As the first sheet is being dispensed, because the sheets are interfolded, the leading section of the second sheet is pulled through the slit. Again, because of the slit, the leading section of the second sheet is constricted and will preferably not fall back through the slit into the carton. The leading section of the second sheet preferably remains outside of the carton, while the trailing section of the second sheet remains inside of the carton, interfolded with a third sheet. Then, when the second sheet is dispensed from, i.e., pulled out of, the carton, the leading section of a third sheet is pulled part way through the opening and is then constricted by the slit from falling back into the carton. Thus, the leading section of the third sheet remains outside of the carton for the next use. This process continues until all sheets have been dispensed from the carton.
A reach-in carton is also basically a square or rectangular carton which has a sheet dispensing opening on its top wall which extends down to include a large part of a side wall of the carton. For a reach-in carton, the sheets are generally not interfolded. To dispense sheets, the opening on the side wall of the carton is large enough such that a person simply reaches into the carton to pull out one or more sheets.
There are fall back problems associated with pop-up cartons. For instance, a sheet may not be interfolded with the sheet below it, i.e., there may be missed interfolds between two successive sheets. If this occurs, when the first sheet is dispensed, the second sheet will not rise up with the first sheet through the sheet dispensing slit in the film. Thus, there will be no sheet for a person to grab from above the carton. When this occurs, the person has to reach through the slit of the film covering the sheet dispensing opening and grab the second sheet and basically restart the pop-up sheet process. The film, however, may be distorted and stretched when a person reaches through it to grab a sheet from inside the carton. A distorted and stretched film may result in more fall backs of sheets.
Fall back of sheets may be more prevalent in a deeper carton where there is more distance between the sheet and the top wall dispensing opening or slit. The second sheet may separate from the first sheet as the space between the top of the sheet stack and the top wall dispensing slit progressively increases as the height of the sheet stack decreases. Thus, the second sheet may at first rise up with the first sheet but may then separate from the first sheet before it is pulled through the sheet dispensing slit. Again, then, a user would have to reach through the sheet dispensing slit, distorting and stretching the film covering the sheet dispensing opening, to restart the pop-up sheet process.
In the past, efforts have been made to provide a member in a carton to bias sheets toward the dispensing opening. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,202,316, issued to Silver, is directed to a biased stack tissue dispenser, which includes an elastic strip, which has its ends connected to the side walls of the carton, and a cradle. The cradle is positioned below the stack of tissues and above the elastic strip. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,114, issued to Bleuer, is directed to a tissue dispenser, which includes a band of elastic material which is connected to the side panels of the carton. The elastic material is held inactive until released by the user by punching out a perforation line in the bottom wall of the carton. Last, U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,767, issued to Seido, is directed to a tissue paper box, which includes an elastic strip connected to one wall of the box. The elastic strip is partly removable through the dispensing outlet and may be wrapped around the box to maintain the box in a compact form after all of the tissues have been removed from the box. These dispensers, however, are subject to the disadvantage of difficulty in their manufacture due to the fact that the elastic strip is connected to the side walls of the carton. In addition, these dispensers are subject to the disadvantage of difficulty in the insertion of tissues or sheets in the carton. In particular, if the elastic is connected to the side walls, then the tissues are inserted perpendicular to the elastic strip into the carton, which may result in tearing of the tissues.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a sheet dispensing system with a clip lift feature that eliminates or decreases the fall back problems associated with pop-up cartons which is easy and convenient to manufacture. Moreover, it would be desirable to provide a sheet dispensing system which includes a clip lift feature where it is easy to slide sheets into the carton of the system without tearing the sheets.


An air-induction system of an engine includes a hose assembly. The hose assembly includes an elastomeric hose having a circular cross section when in a natural state, and a deformable sleeve received around the hose and configured to create an indentation in the hose for part clearance. The sleeve has an end section having a circular cross section and an intermediate section in which the sleeve projects radially inward into a sidewall of the hose such that the hose is deformed from the natural state to a deformed state in which the sidewall is deformed radially inward creating the indention and a non-circular cross section of the hose at the intermediate section.

Turbocharged and supercharged engines may be configured to compress ambient air entering the engine in order to increase power. Because compression of the air may cause an increase in temperature of the air, a charge-air cooler (sometimes called an intercooler) may be utilized to cool the heated air thereby increasing its density and further increasing the potential power of the engine. Air ducts are used to carry air between the air box, the compressor, the charge-air cooler, and the engine.

Elastomeric air induction high-pressure hose with sleeve


A method and apparatus for a photoinduced electromotive force sensor. The sensor has an active substrate formed of a semi-insulating photoconductor with sufficient carrier trap density to form an effective charge grating and pairs of electrodes disposed on the active substrate, where the sensor is configured to reduce the photovoltaic effect caused by the incident light in the vicinity of the electrodes. The shape or composition of the electrodes may be selected to reduce the photovoltaic effect or the electrodes may be disposed on the substrate to average out the photovoltaic effect arising from each one of the electrodes.

1. Field
The present invention relates to non-steady-state photo-induced electromotive force (EMF) sensors and, more specifically, to an apparatus and method for improving the performance of photo-EMF sensors by minimizing or eliminating spurious noise sources.
2. Description of the Related Art
A non-steady-state photo-induced electromotive force (photo-EMF) device can generate time-varying photocurrents in response to a corresponding lateral and rapid shift of an optical pattern across its surface. The optical pattern may have, for example, the form of a moving optical fringe pattern or a moving speckle pattern. Conventional photodetectors, on the other hand, respond only to changes in the incident light level, and not to the lateral motion of an optical pattern. For example, if there are several fringes incident on the surface of a conventional photodetector, there may not be any response to a moving pattern, since as each bright fringe leaves the active region of the conventional photodetector, another bright fringe may enter the active region at the same time from the opposite side of the active region.
A photo-EMF sensor resembles a conventional semiconductor detector; however, to provide the pattern response characteristics described above, it can develop an internal lateral electric field that stores the spatial intensity pattern of an incident optical beam. FIG. 1 shows a conventional photo-EMF sensor 100 comprising a detection substrate 110 and a pair of surface electrodes 120. To provide the photo-EMF function, the detection substrate 110 is typically formed of a semi-insulating photoconductor with sufficient carrier trap density to form an effective space charge grating. FIG. 1 also shows an intensity pattern 150 of an incident laser beam 152 with the resulting lateral internal space charge field 160 developed in the material between the electrodes 120. The detection substrate 110 may comprise gallium arsenide and the surface electrodes 120 may comprise a titanium/gold alloy.
One application of a photo-EMF sensor is in a velocity, or differential, sensing interferometer system, in which the photo-EMF sensor acts as a fringe processing unit. See, for example, the system described by Pepper et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,279, "Ultrasonic Sensor Using Short Coherence Length Optical Source, and Operating Method," issued Jun. 1, 1999. In such a system, interference fringes are directed onto the surface of a photo-EMF sensor. Photo-generated carriers are then produced which diffuse away from regions of intense optical radiation. These carriers become trapped and formed a periodic charge pattern and the corresponding space-charged field. In the absence of any change in the interference pattern, the space charge field is static and no net current is produced from the photo-EMF detector. However, if the interference pattern changes at a sufficiently high rate, the space charge field can not track the changes, and a net current is produced by the photo-EMF sensor.
Hence, a key feature of a photo-EMF sensor is that it senses rapid motion of an optical pattern across its surface by generating a photo-EMF current in response to the rapidly moving pattern. As noted above, the pattern may be a set of interference fringes resulting from the interference of two light beams, and the rapid motion of the pattern may be the result of one of the beams experiencing a dynamic phase shift. In a laser-ultrasound probing system, the dynamic phase shift may be the result of motion in a probed surface. In a laser communication receiver, the motion may be due to phase-modulation encoded onto a light beam. The photo-EMF sensor is adaptive, since static and slowly varying changes, such as those due to beam wander, vibrations, thermal effects, turbulence, are adaptively tracked. The photo-EMF sensor will produce no current for such changes, as long as the space-charge field formation time is faster than the changes. Thus, the photo-EMF sensor can adaptively compensate for the effects due to these changes. This adaptive compensation capability makes the photo-EMF sensor extremely attractive for multiple applications, since the sensor detects high-bandwidth information, while suppressing low bandwidth noise.
Photo-EMF sensors known in the art may comprise a plurality of interlaced electrode pairs, e.g., interdigitated contacts. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,342,721, issued Jan. 29, 2002 to Nolte et al. See also Nolte et al., "Enhanced Responsivity of Non-Steady-State Photoinduced Electromotive Force Sensors Using Asymmetric Interdigitated Contacts," Optics Letters, vol. 24, no. 5, March 1999, pp. 342-344. These references disclose the use of multiple contacts with alternating wide and narrow active-area spacings, with the currents from the wide-spaced active area regions summed, while the narrow areas are optically blocked or rendered insensitive. The use of multiple contacts helps improve the response of the photo-EMF sensor, while using narrow-active areas that are optically blocked or rendered insensitive helps decrease the back action current that may arise from proximate electrodes.
However, in photo-EMF sensors known in the art, even those using multiple electrodes, the photo-EMF sensor may not always track out (or, adapt to) all the undesirable noise, owing to photovoltaic (i.e., band bending) effects at or near the electrodes. Those skilled in the art recognize that a band-bending region exists as a small region near a metal contact on semiconducting material, which has an electric field that emerges from the contact and goes into an active area. This band-bending region arises because the Fermi energy of the metal pins at a surface energy different than a Fermi level of the semiconducting material. The electric field may exist over a limited distance from the contact, which may be in the range of several microns from the contact. The band-bending region and the photovoltaic effect are well known to those skilled in the art of conventional semiconductors and photodetectors.
However, in photo-EMF sensors known in the art, the response of the photo-EMF sensor to an optical pattern that travels through the band-bending region is different than the response of the sensor as the optical pattern travels through other portions of the active region or regions of the sensor. That is, as the optical pattern moves through the electric field gradient due to the photovoltaic effect, a measurable current is generated, even at low frequencies of the lateral motion of the pattern. This effect may result in large-voltage output level variations from the presence of dynamic and spatial amplitude changes in the optical intensity near the electrodes, whose time scales can range from DC (a fixed pattern feature near an electrode) to the upper limit of the detection bandwidth. As such, these noise sources are not adaptively compensated. This can result in significant saturation of subsequent high-gain amplifiers, as well as a degradation in the system dynamic range. Simply AC coupling the sensor to the amplifiers will not eliminate this problem, especially in the case of signals whose bandwidths are similar to the photovoltaic induced noise.

Method and apparatus for reduction of non-adaptive signals in photo-EMF sensors


Subject matter disclosed herein may relate to predicting hot terms, and may also relate to creating contextual shortcuts based, at least in part, on the predicted hot terms.

With networks such as the Internet gaining tremendous popularity and with the vast multitude of pages and/or other documents and/or other media content becoming available to users via the World Wide Web (web), it has become desirable to provide efficient and streamlined approaches to searching for information desired by a user. Search systems and processes have been developed to meet the needs of users to obtain the desired information. Search engines, such as, for example, those provided over the web by Yahoo!, Google, and other web sites may be used by individuals to gather information. Typically, a user may input a query term and/or phrase and the search engine may return one or more links to sites and/or documents related to the query. The links returned may be very related, or they may be completely unrelated, to what the user was actually looking for. The "relatedness" of results to the query may be in part a function of the actual query entered as well as the robustness of the search system (underlying collection system) used.
Other techniques for allowing a user to specify desired information have been developed. For one example, in some or most news stories found at the Yahoo! News web site, various words may be highlighted in some fashion (underlined, for example) to indicate that the highlighted words represent keywords. The keywords may be selected by the user (by clicking on the keyword, for example) and additional information and/or documentation and/or links may be provided by a search engine or by some other agent. In this manner, the keywords may help the user to gather additional information and to dig deeper into the subjects that the user desires to learn more about. For example, if a user is reading a news story and desires more information on a topic, the user may select a keyword. A new box or window may open to provide the user with links to various other sources of information on the topic. The various sources of information may include, for example, related news stories, web sites, news photos, etc., that may add context to the topic. Difficulties with this approach to allowing a user to specify desired information may include, for example, challenges in determining which words of a news story might be of interest to a user so that appropriate keywords may be created by the web site developers.
Reference is made in the following detailed description to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, wherein like numerals may designate like parts throughout to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. It will be appreciated that for simplicity and/or clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and/or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of claimed subject matter. It should also be noted that directions and references, for example, up, down, top, bottom, and so on, may be used to facilitate the discussion of the drawings and are not intended to restrict the application of claimed subject matter. Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense and the scope of claimed subject matter defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Hot term prediction for contextual shortcuts