A holding structure of an electronic component includes a first resin mold formed by resin insert molding with a terminal. The first resin mold possesses a positioning portion for positioning the electronic component to be electrically connected to the terminal. The holding structure includes a second resin mold formed by resin insert molding with the terminal and surrounding the first resin mold and the electronic component. The electronic component has been positioned by the first resin mold and has been electrically connected to the terminal.

A conventional holding structure of an electronic component is disclosed, for example in a Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-188003. According to the holding structure of the electronic component disclosed therein, a resin spacer positions a Hall IC (a Hall effect element) as the electronic component. The Hall IC is arranged at a central portion of a gap as a magnetic flux detection gap portion defined in a stator core and terminals of the Hall IC are connected to a connector pin (a terminal) by using welding or the like. A connector housing is formed by resin-molding the Hall IC, the spacer, the stator core, and the connector pin as a single unit. The Hall IC is held at a predetermined position of the connector housing.
According to the above-described holding structure, the Hall IC and the spacer can be positioned relative to each other. However, it seems to be difficult to position the spacer (and the Hall IC) and the connector pin relative to each other for the following reasons. The spacer and the connector pin are assembled individually. In this case, a dimensional variation may be caused to each component and assembling errors may be further, caused when being assembled. Therefore, detecting precision of magnetic flux fluctuation by the Hall IC may be deteriorated due to displacement of the Hall IC in the connector housing.
Accordingly, the present invention therefore seeks to provide an improved holding structure of an electronic component and an improved method for holding the electronic component, whereby positioning precision for positioning the electronic component can be improved.

Holding structure of an electronic component and a method for holding the same


In a method and system for removing particles from a surface, a portable, compressed gas can is provided containing a particle removal gas. An air ionizer unit is connected to the gas can. A high voltage potential is selectively actuated at a time when a nozzle of the gas can is depressed, the high voltage potential being positioned in the gas stream to create air ions in the gas stream which facilitate removal of the particles.

Canned gas dust removers are known which utilize a can of compressed gas. When a nozzle on the top of the can is depressed or otherwise activated, compressed gas within the can is released through a nozzle aperture of the nozzle to create a jet stream of gas which impacts upon particles to be removed such as dust, dirt, lint, or the like. Such prior art compressed gas canned dust remover products are useful for cleaning computers, photographic equipment, keyboards, lenses, films, office equipment, and the like.
When these dusters are used, the ability of the gas jet to remove the particles is reduced by what is called the triboelectric effect. This effect produces an electric charge when two dissimilar materials are brought in contact, and is often observed with artificial fabrics as "static cling".
For example, in the case of using a compressed-gas duster to clean film, the gas jet and the film produce a charge when they come in contact. This charge creates a considerable attractive force to dust particles and either prevents the gas stream from removing the dust, or simply attracts additional dust.

Canned gas dust remover with air ionizer


A look-up table for use in a bridge employing negative filtering for interconnecting first and second networks in a data communications system. Associated with each data transmission is a source and destination address each having a total of (m+n) binary data bits, the bridge passing the data transmission from one network to the other unless the destination address is found in the look-up table and corresponds to the sending network. The look-up table comprises an encoding means responsive to an (m+n) bit address for producing first and second codes having respectively m and n bits of data which together allow the (m+n) bit address to be decoded unambiguously, a random access memory (RAM) coupled to the encoding means and having m addressable locations each for storing at least n bits of data, and a contents addressable memory (CAM) coupled to the encoding means and having a plurality of addressable locations each for storing at least (m+n) bits of data. If the location in RAM whose address is equal to the first code is available, then the second code is stored in the location. Otherwise, if the second code is not stored therein already, then all (m+n) bits of the (m+n) bit address are stored in an available location in the CAM unless they are stored therein already. A destination address is looked up by reading the contents of the CAM as well as the contents of the location in the RAM whose address is equal to the first code.

In such a system, the bridge is responsible for establishing whether the data reaching the bridge from a node in the first network is transmitted to a different node in the same network and is therefore discarded by the bridge or, alternatively, is to be passed to the second network. Furthermore, in the event that data is to be passed from one network to the other, the bridge is also responsible for translating the data from the protocol of the first network to the protocol of the second network.
In order to determine whether data is to be rejected (i.e. transmitted to a different node in the first network) or is to be passed to the second network, the data must include a source address and a destination address corresponding, respectively, to an address of a node in the source network and an address of a node in the destination network. Thus, if this data points to nodes in different networks, then the bridge must pass the data from one network to the other; whilst if the source and destination addresses point to nodes in the same network, the data obviously does not need to be passed by the bridge. In such network systems, there is associated with the bridge a look-up table for storing therein addresses associated with nodes in one of the networks, whereby suitable logic associated with the bridge may determine whether the data is to be rejected or passed by the bridge according to the destination address associated with the data.
It will be apparent that two different approaches may be adopted when determining what is to be done with the data. According to both approaches, the destination address associated with data reaching the bridge is looked up in the look-up table within the bridge and, if found therein, permits data either to be rejected by the bridge or, alternatively, to be passed through the bridge to the other network, according to whether the source and destination addresses point to the same or different networks.
The two approaches differ in the event that a particular destination address is not found in the look-up table. In accordance with a first approach, the addresses stored in the look-up table correspond to the addresses of each node in the receiving network. In this case, if the destination address associated with data reaching the bridge is not found in the look-up table, this indicates that data is not to be passed through the bridge, it being assumed that the addresses associated with all nodes in the receiving network are known to the look-up table. This approach is called "positive filtering" since the bridge, in effect, filters out any data whose destination address is not known to the look-up table and prevents such data from being passed therethrough.
The disadvantages with so-called "positive filtering" networks are that they are protocol dependent and space-limited. Therefore, so-called "negative filtering" bridges are employed wherein the addresses associated with all nodes in the sending network are stored in the look-up table, such that if the destination address associated with data reaching the bridge is not found in the look-up table, this is taken to imply that the receiving network is different from the sending network and that data must therefore be passed by the bridge to the non-sending network.
Data communications systems are international in scope and must be able to pass data correctly from one part of the world to any other part thereof. Typically, local area networks (LANs) communicate with each other via an FDDI network which itself is a particular type of LAN having a high bandwidth and permitting very fast data transfer.
Obviously, in such a comprehensive arrangement each node in all of the LANs as well as each node in the FDDI must have its own, unique source address. The source address of a network node is established by the manufacturer thereof, each manufacturer having at his disposal a batch of source addresses which he allocates successively to each network node during manufacture. In order to guarantee that the source address allocated by one manufacturer will not inadvertently clash with the source address allocated by a different manufacturer, it is standard to identify each manufacturer with a different index, which is then concatenated by a code given by the manufacturer in order to generate the source address associated with each network node. Since the index associated with different manufacturers is different, it follows that even if the manufacturer codes themselves coincide, the concatenated code constituting the source address must, inevitably, be unique.
However, in order that such a scheme may provide a sufficient number of unique source addresses to accommodate all known communications systems and to allow for projected reasonable expansion thereof, it follows that the number of bits of binary data associated with each code generated by the manufacturer must be very large indeed. Additionally, in order not to restrict unduly the number of competing manufacturers, the index code allotted to each different manufacturer must likewise have a sufficient number of different permutations. Both of these desiderata result in the fact that source addresses associated with such networks contain a very large number of binary data bits. Typically, 48 binary data bits are used in order to accommodate each unique source address.
If such a large number of binary data bits is to be stored in the look-up table associated with each bridge in the data communications system, then it is clear that extremely high capacity memory is required.
A further requirement of look-up tables in network bridges is that data access time must be very fast, typically in the order of several hundred nano-seconds. Thus, if each source address is stored in a random access memory (RAM) having a plurality of addressable locations each containing 48 bits of data, then in order to determine whether a particular address is stored therein, each addressable location must be read sequentially, the contents of each addressable location being logically processed in order to determine whether they correspond to the required address. This is clearly a time-consuming process.
Therefore, it is known to use a contents addressable memory (CAM) which contain on-chip logic to permit, in effect, all the addressable memory locations therein to be scanned simultaneously in order to establish whether a particular address is stored therein. However, a major drawback of CAMs is that they are expensive: typically U.S.$20 for a CAM having 256 addressable locations each containing 48 bits. Clearly, then, using CAMs to build even a moderately sized look-up table requiring maybe 100 or more CAMs would be prohibitively expensive.
It is known that data communications systems are dynamic and since the capacity of the look-up table is necessarily finite and memory is at a premium, destination addresses stored in the look-up table which are not used for a predetermined time period, should be deleted from the look-up table so as to leave room for the storage of destination addresses relating to actual usage. In a practical system, this is accomplished by associating an aging flag with each destination address stored in the look-up table, the aging flag typically comprising a plurality of memory data bits which are either decremented or incremented during successive time periods until the aging flag reaches a lower or upper threshold, whereupon the addressable location in the look-up table associated with that destination address becomes available for the storage of new data. Obviously, each time a new address is stored in the look-up table, the corresponding aging flag is initialized and each time the look-up table is scanned for a particular destination address which is found therein, the aging flag must likewise be reinitialized.
Since, under certain circumstances, it may be required not to delete destination addresses from the look-up table, regardless of their aging flag, a write-protect mechanism may also be employed so as to specify that the associated data is write-protected and must never be over-written.
Clearly, the provision of a write-protect mechanism as well as an aging flag requires yet additional binary data bits which still further increase the required capacity of the look-up table.

Look-up table for a bridge in a data communications system


Presented herein is a quinochalcone compound that displays strong anti-cancer properties and provides for synergistic anti-cancer activity when used in combination with interferon β (IFN-β) or interferon γ (IFN-γ). Accordingly, compositions comprising a quinochalcone compound, or a quinochalcone compound and an interferon are disclosed herein for use in treating cancer. Also presented herein, in some embodiments, are methods of using a quinochalcone compound, and compositions thereof, to treat inflammation.

Malignancy is a disease caused by the abnormal proliferation of cells. Cancer stem cells play an important role in the survival, proliferation, metastasis and recurrence of tumors. Essentially, cancer stem cells maintain the viability of the tumor cell population through self-renewal and proliferation, and their motility and migratory ability confers the ability to metastasize. In recent years, studies have shown that cancer stem cells can be dormant for a long time and up-regulate the expression of multiple drug-resistant molecules in the course of clinical treatment, but are not sensitive to external physical and chemical factors that kill tumor cells. Tumor cell dormancy is one of the biological characteristics of malignant tumor cells, which is one of the important reason that leads to recurrent and distant invasion and metastasis by tumor cells. Traditional surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy have certain clinical effects, accompanied by more serious clinical side effects, and there is a risk of inducing tumor dormancy. Looking for effective and less toxic side effects of treatment to improve patient quality of life has become the focus of medical research.
In vitro use of killer T cells can kill cancer cells, in theory, and the greater the number of killer T cells, the more significant the killing effect. However, the inventors of the present disclosure, in the case of melanoma B16-OVA cells for example, found that even increasing the number of T cells cannot completely eliminate all of the B16-OVA cancer cells. This phenomenon suggests that there is a group of dormant cells that cannot be killed by specific T cells during the clinical treatment of cancer. Dormant cancer cells present a hidden danger for tumor patients because failure of a clinical treatment to completely eliminate all of the dormant cancer cells leaves a patient at risk of tumor recurrence and/or metastasis, which may eventually lead to a patient's death.
Presented herein are compounds, compositions and methods that can effectively kill cancer cells, including dormant tumor cells. Compounds, compositions and methods are also presented herein to treat inflammation.

Quinochalcone compound and uses thereof for treating cancer or inflammation


An auto creeper tread has the following features: three or four rows of circular holes disposed in an orderly manner on a skid-proof pad, wherein, the edge of each of the circular holes protrudes outwards; two rows of rectangular holes disposed on two sides of the skid-proof pad; two protruding reinforcing grooves disposed in the middle of the skid-proof pad; a row of small circular holes disposed on each of the two ends of the skid-proof pad; a track connected to the skid-proof pad by rivets; and a tire lock connected to one end of the track with a clamping plate. The auto creeper tread is designed to provide anti-sink and anti-skid solutions for automobiles.

The present invention relates to a self-rescue apparatus for automobiles and more particularly pertains to an auto creeper tread used for automobile self-rescue.
At present, automobiles usually get stuck or trapped in the following terrains: deserts, swamps, muddy roads and snow. Automobiles usually skid or sink into the ground when they get stuck. In situations when automobiles get stuck into the ground and cannot make an escape, drivers could only seek help from other automobiles to give it a tow. Sometimes, if the incident occurs in a remote area far away from people or towns, drivers would be susceptible to intolerable distress, delay in schedule and disturbance in work. It is most common to make an escape by means of tow truck. Towing is advantageous in that it is simple and easy to perform as it only requires one other automobile and a trailer rope. To prevent an automobile from getting stuck, a metal chain in the form of continuous enclosed rings can be mounted onto the surface of an automobile tire to form an anti-skid chain so as to increase the adhesive force of the tire towards the ground. It is one of the most effective measures to prevent an automobile from skidding on plain snowy roads and muddy roads. It is deficient in that it is useless if the automobile sinks into a deeper pit or if any of the tires loses contact with the ground.
Self-rescuing apparatus for automobiles generally includes winches, differential locks and antiskid plate.
1. Winches
The operating principle of a winch is to use a generator or a PTO power output to drive a gear cluster to reel a steel cable in order to tow the automobile out. The largest traction generated by a winch is 9,500-12,000 pounds, which is two to four times the weight of a common automobile. A winch costs about RMB 5,000 to RMB 20,000. The advantage of a winch is that it has a large torque and a high successful rate. Its disadvantage is that it must have an anchor point. In other words, there must be another vehicle, a tree or other fixed objects within a distance of 30 to 50 meters for the winch hook to hook onto, and the anchor point must be right in front of the automobile. Anchor points could also be constructed by integral ground anchors or tires buried deep into the ground. However, it requires much effort and is easily susceptible to failure due to the soft soil texture at the position of the anchor point. Moreover, a large number of accessories such as tree strap, pulley assembly, U-shaped hook and leather gloves are required when using a winch. Users are also required to master certain skills.
An electric winch can only continuously operate for several minutes. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce as much as possible the rotating time of a winch, or the generator would be damaged due to overheating or the accumulator cell would be subjected to over discharge. A winch is usually installed in the middle of a bumper in front of the head of an automobile. As a winch weighs 30 kilograms, the head of the automobile would sink downward. It is therefore necessary to improve shock absorption. If an automobile has to be towed from its back occasionally, another winch has to be installed at the tail of the automobile. Another disadvantage is that a sufficient safe space in front of or behind the automobile to be rescued is required for placing an anchor point. However, there is no guarantee to have such a large empty area at places where automobiles easily get stuck.
2. Differential Lock
The operating principle of a differential lock is to lock the differential so that power could be evenly applied to each tire, thereby preventing all power from being applied to the spinning tire as the other tire loses contact with the ground. It is advantageous in that it can be operated without the need of any person getting out of the automobile, and that it performs well on wet and slippery roads. Differential lock is deficient in that it can only be used on wet and slippery roads. When the automobile gets on dry and firm roads, it is necessary to disengage the differential lock immediately, or the gears would be damaged. Moreover, when the tires of the automobile lose contact with the ground and the chassis of the automobile is lifted, a differential lock could not help much with the rescue.
A set of differential locks costs about RMB 10,000 to RMB 20,000 in general. Only a minority of luxurious four-wheel drive automobiles are equipped with differential locks. Currently, the majority of automobiles are not designed for the installation of differential locks. Therefore, differential locks are not common rescuing tools.
3. Antiskid Plate
An antiskid plate is formed by processing metal boards or hard plastic boards having mesh openings or screw lines. By placing an antiskid plate between the ground and the tires, friction is increased and the automobile could be pulled out of the area where it gets stuck. It is advantageous in that it is effective if the ground is firm and the automobile is not sinking deep into the ground. It is also convenient to carry and simple to use. Its disadvantage is that it becomes useless when the automobile sinks deep into the ground, especially when the chassis of the automobile is being lifted and thereby causing the tires to lose contact with the ground.
There are also some patented inventions which utilize the principle of antiskid plates by installing larger accessories on an antiskid plate to generate more friction. These inventions appear to be feasible theoretically. However, when an automobile sinks deeper into the ground, especially when the chassis of the automobile is being lifted and thereby causing the tires to lose contact with the ground, the friction generated between the antiskid plate and the tires is far from being able to overcome the resistance generated by the adhesion of the automobile towards the slough, snow and sand. Such resistance is usually equal to or greater than the weight of an automobile. Depending on the ratio between the depth of the sinkage and the surface area of the ground, the resistance varies from several hundred kilograms to several tons or more. There was once an automobile which is towed by an industrial hoister after it sinks into a sandy ground and fails to be rescued by a winch offered by another vehicle. The automobile was unable to be retrieved despite that the casing and the chassis thereof are substantially detached from each other. It is even impossible for relevant anti-sink devices derived from antiskid plate to generate sufficient traction to get the automobile out of the area where it gets stuck.


The present invention relates to methods for the rapid extraction of ciguatoxins from tissue samples. In one embodiment, a tissue sample is extracted with a first solvent to solubilize and extract ciguatoxin from the sample. A second solvent, which is not soluble in the first solvent and which extracts contaminants but not ciguatoxin, is then added. The phases formed by the first and second solvents are separated, and the first solvent phase is collected. The first solvent is evaporated from the first solvent phase to produce a residue which is resuspended in a third solvent. A fourth solvent, which is not soluble in the third solvent and which extracts contaminants but not ciguatoxin, is added to the third solvent/residue mixture. The phases formed by the third and fourth solvents are separated, and the third solvent phase, which comprises ciguatoxin, is collected. In a second embodiment, a sample is applied to a coupled antibody-resin. The coupled antibody-resin is washed with a solution to remove unbound material, but not ciguatoxin, from the coupled antibody-resin, and ciguatoxin is then eluted from the coupled antibody-resin.

Ciguatera poisoning is a particular type of fish poisoning which results from the ingestion of contaminated fish. Intoxication is associated with the consumption of toxins produced by tropical dinoflagellates, including Gambierdiscus toxicus, which are subsequently passed along the food chain to man. Ciguatoxins are polyether marine toxins, and approximately 27 different ciguatoxins are known, approximately 23 of which are toxic to man. Ciguatera toxins are odorless, tasteless, heat-stable, and generally undetectable by simple chemical tests.
Humans are susceptible to ciguatera poisoning, both from eating toxic herbivores which ingest the dinoflagellates while feeding on red or brown algae, and from eating carnivores which have eaten the toxic herbivores. An accurate assessment of the incidence of ciguatera poisoning is not available; however, it is estimated that, each year, from 10,000 to 50,000 people who live in or visit tropical and subtropical areas suffer from ciguatera poisoning. Additionally, the threat of this contamination results in enormous economic losses in the recreational and commercial exploitation of fishery resources in the affected areas.
Ciguatera poisoning is considered a world health problem. The illness is prevalent in the tropical Caribbean and subtropical North Atlantic, as well as the Pacific regions. Although, in the past, toxic outbreaks were limited to the endemic areas, interregional transport of fish can result in outbreaks in nontropical parts of the world.
Ciguatera poisoning outbreaks have been documented in Canada, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Italy, Japan, Venezuela, French Polynesia, French Antilles, and Australia. In the United States, cases have been reported in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Hawaii, Samoa, the Virgin Islands, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, New York, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C. A few cases of ciguatera poisoning were reported in Vermont after several restaurants served toxic barracuda imported from tropical regions.
The onset of the clinical symptoms of ciguatera poisoning occurs within 10 minutes to 24 hours following the consumption of contaminated fish. Ciguatera poisoning affects the digestive system (resulting in abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea); the cardiovascular system (resulting in bradycardia, hypotension, tachycardia); and the neurological system (resulting primarily in paresthesia and dysesthesia).
The symptoms vary in severity depending on the patient, with the reported mortality rate being as high as 12% in some outbreaks, and about one per 1,000 cases in other outbreaks. Death is usually due to respiratory paralysis. Postmortem examination shows acute visceral congestion with occasional hemorrhages.
The incubation periods and symptoms are highly variable, even among persons who have consumed the same fish. Some individuals do not experience symptoms at all, while others are seriously affected. For most patients, the first signs to appear are paresthesia and numbness around the lips and tongue, and numbness or tingling of the extremities. For some patients, the earliest manifestations are diarrhea and vomiting. These abdominal symptoms are usually resolved within days. The neurological symptoms persist for weeks or months in some individuals.
The presence of paresthesia is considered to differentiate ciguatera poisoning from other forms of non-seafood poisoning or mild gastroenteritis, but this symptom also occurs in paralytic shellfish poisoning, neurotoxic shellfish poisoning, and diarrheic shellfish poisoning. Ciguatera poisoning is differentiated by recent dietary history, and perhaps the only hallmark symptom is the reversal of temperature perception. However, this symptom has also been documented for neurotoxic shellfish poisoning.
In general, the neural symptoms last for about six weeks, but some patients still have problems after months or even years. The long-term symptoms usually include loss of energy, arthralgia (especially of the knees, ankles, shoulders, and elbows), myalgia, headache, and pruritus. Characteristically, the symptoms fluctuate, sometimes with a pseudo-diurnal periodicity. Not infrequently, the symptoms may return during periods of stress, illness, or malnutrition.
An initial intoxication does not confer immunity. On the contrary, reports of sensitization to the toxin are common. After eating fish that does not produce symptoms in others, patients who have previously suffered from ciguatera poisoning experience recurrences of typical ciguatera poisoning symptoms. The effects of the toxin appear to be dose-related. Recurrent or multiple attacks of ciguatera poisoning result in a clinically-more-severe illness compared to that of patients experiencing the disease for the first time.
There is no curative treatment presently known for ciguatera poisoning. Traditionally, the immediate first-aid treatment is to induce vomiting, to try to eliminate the toxin(s). This is of little help, however, because the existence of the illness is not suspected until the initial symptoms have appeared (which is usually long after the toxin-containing fish have been digested).
Successful treatment has been carried out by thoroughly cleansing the gastrointestinal (GI) track with enemas and magnesium citrate saline catharsis, then instituting a strict diet containing no fish, shellfish, or their byproducts, no nuts, and no alcohol.
In the Marshall Islands, 24 patients with acute ciguatera poisoning were treated with intravenous mannitol, and each patient's condition improved dramatically. All neurological and muscular dysfunctions in these patients exhibited marked reduction within minutes, but gastrointestinal symptoms disappeared more slowly. In Australia, 12 patients received mannitol therapy, also resulting in significant improvement. A recommended treatment of 1.0 g of mannitol/kg is expected to benefit acutely intoxicated victims. The mechanism of action of this treatment is not fully understood. However, it is inexpensive and apparently safe, and has therefore been considered for treating patients experiencing significant ciguatera illness.
Currently, no other treatments for ciguatera poisoning are available, and even available treatments are only effective after an accurate diagnosis has been made. Since the symptoms associated with ciguatera poisoning vary with the individual, and often mimic other types of poisoning, chemical and animal testing have been essential to arrive at an accurate diagnosis.
Immunological methods, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,392, have been developed for the identification of ciguatoxin in fish, and similar immunological methods have also been applied to testing serum taken from persons suspected of suffering from ciguatera poisoning. However, these testing methods are qualitative, in that they give a "plus-minus" result, and may not accurately indicate the concentration of the toxin detected. Due to the individual differences in the doses required to cause symptoms, the level of ciguatoxin in the blood of such patients may be very low. Therefore, if a patient is very sensitive to ciguatoxin, the amount of circulating toxin may be below the limits of detection for the testing methods available, and, as a result, the condition may not be accurately diagnosed.
In view of the above, there exists the need to detect ciguatoxin contamination in a quantitative manner, to ensure that the toxin is detected even when it is present at very low levels. It is also desirable that such an assay be developed to quantitate the level of ciguatoxin in the blood of a patient so that the severity of the intoxication can be predicted. Furthermore, methods for quantitating the degree of contamination of fish or of the environment in which the fish live, and the subsequent prediction of the toxicity of fish coming from such areas, would be useful. Since currently-known extraction methods are very time-consuming, such assays would require the development of a method for rapidly and reproducibly extracting the toxin from the sample to be tested.

Rapid extraction of ciguatoxin from contaminated tissues


A semiconductor device has a two-dimensional slab photonic crystal structure in which a substrate supports a sheet-like slab layer including, sequentially stacked, a lower cladding layer, an active layer, and an upper cladding layer. A periodic refractive index profile structure, in surfaces of the stacked layers, introduces a linear defect region that serves as a waveguide. A p-type region and an n-type region in the slab layer define a pn junction surface at a predetermined angle with respect to the surfaces of the stacked layers in the slab layer.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device that is an optical device used for optical communication and optical information processing and in which an optical control function has been improved by pumping a two-dimensional slab photonic crystal and driving the two-dimensional slab photonic crystal at a current and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device.
2) Description of the Related Art
An active operation of a conventional optical active device that uses a two-dimensional slab photonic crystal including an active layer is realized by optical pumping (see, for example, "Room Temperature Optical Pumping/Oscillation by 2D Slab Photonic Crystal Waveguide Laser", Atsushi SUGITATE et al, Proceedings of the Electronics Society Conference, the Institute of Electronics, Information, and Communication Engineers, 2002, p. 329)). This literature discloses that, in the two-dimensional slab photonic crystal in which a hole pattern of a two-dimensional triangular lattice is formed in a layer structure, in which the active layer of a multiple quantum well structure made of InGaAsP is put between air cladding layers, and in which a linear defect is introduced into the hole pattern, if a pumping laser light is irradiated from an upper portion of a waveguide constituted by the linear defect, lasing occurs from an edge of the waveguide.
The conventional optical active device has, as disclosed in the above-mentioned literature, following disadvantage. Since electrode formation means is not established, the crystal cannot be pumped by current injection. As a result, the optical active device can operate as an active optical device such as a laser or a modulator only by optical pumping.

Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including a slab layer with a periodic air hole structure and a linear defect region


An image forming apparatus can form a high-quality image while acquiring a stable conveyance performance. A conveyance belt (21) conveys a recording medium (12) by attracting the recording medium (12) by an electrostatic force. A recording head (7) discharges liquid droplets toward the recording medium (12) being conveyed by the conveyance belt (21). Alternating positive and negative electric charges are applied onto the conveyance belt (21). A conveyance speed is controlled in accordance with a charge period length of the alternating positive and negative electric charges applied onto the conveyance belt (21).

There is known, for example, an inkjet recording apparatus as an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a facsimile or a copy machine apparatus. An inkjet recording apparatus performs recording by discharging ink droplets from a recording head onto a recording medium such as a recording paper (hereinafter, simply referred to as a "paper" but material is not limited to a paper). The inkjet recording apparatus is capable of recording a fine image at a high speed with advantages such as a low running cost, a low noise and an easy color image recording using multi-color ink.
In such an inkjet recording apparatus, it is required to increase a positional accuracy of landing positions of ink droplets on a paper so as to improve an image quality. There is known, such as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications No. 4-201469, No. 9-254460 and No. 2000-25249, an inkjet recording apparatus that uniformly charges a conveyance belt to attract a paper by an electrostatic force to maintain a distance between a recording head and the paper constant, and to prevent an offset in a position of the paper by accurately controlling a paper feed, and to prevent a lift of the paper so as to prevent jamming and contamination of the paper due to a contact between the paper and the recording head.
However, it is known that when a conveyance belt is uniformly charged at a positive voltage to attract a paper by an electrostatic attraction force, ink droplets injected from a recording head are influenced by an electric field, which causes offsets in landing positions of the ink droplets on the paper and a reverse flow of ink mist toward the recording head.
In order to prevent offsets in landing positions of ink droplets and reverse flow of ink mist, there is known a charging method such as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-25249, in which ink droplets being injected is prevented from being influenced by an electric field by weakening a potential of a surface of a paper by applying an electric charge having a polarity opposite to a charge of a conveyance belt, of which surface is uniformly charged, on an upstream side of a recording head in the conveyance direction. Additionally, the paper is cause to be attracted by the conveyance belt by an electrostatic attraction force by weakening a potential of the surface of the paper having the same polarity as the surface of the conveyance belt.
Further, as a charging method of a conveyance belt, there is known a method such as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2897960, in which an alternating charge pattern is formed on the surface of the conveyance belt by applying positive and negative charges alternately onto the surface of the conveyance belt by causing a voltage applying means being brought in contact with the surface of the conveyance belt.
When attracting and retaining a paper by an electrostatic attraction force as mentioned above, an electric field is generated between a surface of the paper and the recording head and ink droplets discharged from a recording head are polarized due to an influence of the electric field. Thus, there is a problem in that a good recording cannot be achieved due to a turbulent flow and also ink mist generated by the flow of ink droplets may flow reversely and adhere to a head discharge part.
With respect to this problem, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2897960, it was found that the electric field that is a cause of the offsets of landing positions of ink droplets and the reverse flow of ink mist can be weakened by applying alternating charges (positive and negative charges by an alternating current) onto a conveyance belt so as to generate an attraction force between the paper and the conveyance belt and simultaneously canceling the positive and negative charges by exchanging the positive and negative charges induced on the surface of the paper to reduce a potential of the surface of the paper.
That is, in order to weaken the electric field, a time period (hereinafter, referred to as a charge period length) of one cycle of an area where positive and negative charges are alternately applied may be reduced, that is, the charge period length formed by a pair of positive and negative charges may be shortened. This is because if the charge period length is shortened, a distance for the positive and negative electric charges to travel is reduced, which reduces a resistance giving an influence to the travel of the electric charges.
However, if a conveying speed is increased while reducing a charge width to weaken the electric field so as to aim at coexistence with improvement in the printing speed, which has become important in recent years, there is generated fluctuation of discharging area in a corona discharge area due to banding of a charge roller for charging the conveyance belt. Accordingly, electric charge cannot be applied stably and charge fluctuation occurs, which results in fluctuation in an attraction force necessary for conveying the paper, which consequently causes conveyance failure.
Additionally, there are problems in that: a sufficient charge cannot be applied to a conveyance belt since there is a limitation in the response speed of the output of a high voltage power supply; a failure may occur in the high-voltage power source if the conveyance speed is increased forcibly; and pin holes may be formed in the conveyance belt due to insulation destruction caused by a local high-voltage being generated.


The invention herein relates to a method and apparatus for forming (or cold-forming) an embossed blister from a laminated film wherein an indicia is formed on the base of the blister. In particular, the invention involves a single pass process of combining the formation of a blister and the formation of an indicia (embossing) on the blister, wherein the blister-forming pin contains a face with an indicia and is adapted to controllably stretch the laminated film during blister formation to minimize stretching of the film at the base of the blister. The invention is particularly useful in manufacturing processes which involve the formation of blisters having laminated films which contain a metal foil and polymer layer, wherein improved control in the stretching of the laminate during blister formation is desirable.

Blister films are particularly suited for the casting or molding of frangible products or dosage forms which contain certain types of pharmaceuticals. These products are commonly made using lyophilization or freeze-drying processes. Alternative techniques, such as solid state dissolution methods, are also used to produce dosage forms which are frangible as well. These processes typically involve depositing a liquid form of the product into the blister(s), and then subjecting the liquid-containing blister to various processes to form the final solid product while in the blister(s). The products remain in the blister until they are ready for use, at which time the packets are opened and the product removed therefrom.
One disadvantage associated with polymeric blister films is permeability, which creates potential storage difficulties in protecting the product from the surrounding atmosphere despite sealing efforts. Such concerns have led to the development of laminated blister films in which a metal foil is sandwiched between polymeric films on either side. These films are less permeable than purely polymeric films. However, some films become distorted when subjected to heat treatments which can generate irregularities in the molded or cast products and making subsequent handling of the blister pack more difficult. Although some laminated films that are more stable under heat treatment have been developed, such as those disclosed in European Patent Application Nos. EP 0 646 367 and 0 710 101 for example, such laminated films are not suitable for the heat-forming of blisters therein. The metal foil layer is typically made of aluminum and is well-suited for cold forming techniques.
Published International Patent Application No. WO 99/08857A1 discusses the difficulties associated with creating indicia on the base of blisters formed with laminated films containing both metal foils and polymeric layers wherein the indicia are created simultaneously with the formation of the blisters themselves.
There is a need for improved methods for preparing molded or cast products in blister packs bearing indicia, especially with blisters formed from laminated films and having indicia on the interior surface to likewise emboss the opposing surface of the cast product.

Apparatus for making embossed blister pack


A Laminar Inducing Apparatus (LIA) inducing laminar airflow to a turbine engine or a propulsion fan. The LIA produces turbulent-free airflow with a light aerospace structure that can replace single purpose structure in the wing or empennage. Laminar airflow to the propulsion fan or the turbine engine is ensured in a greater number of flight conditions and angles of attack. Active control of flight can be enhanced by the manipulating the turbulent boundary surface as a flight control surface. LIA simply reduces the risk of FOD or bird strike damage. In addition to the engineered, laminar benefits, LIA provides greater safety from ground ingested FOD and more silent vertical take-off and landing. In summary, LIA ensures laminar airflow and acoustic attenuation to a propulsion fan or a turbine engine for a greater number of flight conditions, angles of attack, and from ground ingested FOD during vertical takeoff and landing.

Field of invention for the Laminar Inducing Apparatus (LIA) is within the CPC classification: B64C2230/04 (by actively generating fluid flow).
The intake for the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) is typically located in a commercial airplane's tail cone. The APU is a turbine engine, comprising of a compressor, a combustion chamber, and a turbine. During flight, a turbulent boundary layer envelops an airplane, and thicker toward the tail of the airplane. The turbulent boundary layer typically grows thicker moving toward the tail of the aircraft. On the nose or engine inlet of a commercial airplane, airflow is laminar, smooth and predictable.
Laminar airflow is smooth and is predictable. One method for mitigating the turbulent boundary layer is to extend the APU air inlet beyond the turbulent boundary layer into the laminar airflow.
The APU inlet is typically mounted in the tail or empennage. On the Boeing 737 MAX, a scoop faces the airflow and is tall enough, to reach beyond the boundary layer of turbulent airflow.
The efficiency of the engines mounted on the wings area are vulnerable to turbulent airflow. This is one reason the engines on the Boeing 777X are mounted on the wing far from the fuselage. Air is "cleaner," freer from turbulence.
Small improvements in commercial airplanes efficiency have significant impact. Range is extended, fuel is saved, and emissions are reduced. Emissions include carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx). Improving the Boeing 777 efficiency by 1% can provide an annual savings of 1 million pounds of fuel and an annual reduction of more than 3 million pounds (1,360,000 kilograms) of CO2. Tremendous savings are identified when multiplying those benefits across a fleet of 1,000 airplanes for a duration of thirty years. Saving even one-quarter of 1% significantly conserves fuel and reduces emissions impacting health and mitigates climate change.
Laminar Inducing Apparatus (LIA) reduces turbulence to a turbo engine or propulsion fan. The LIA cleans the turbulent air regardless of flying conditions or angle of attack. In addition, the LIA may provide for the reduction of the turbulent boundary layer enveloping the external skin of the aircraft. There is also opportunity for manipulating the turbulent boundary surface as a flight control surface.


The usual practice when molding thermoplastic sheets is to form the sheets in a closed mold and leave the sheets in the mold until the sheets have cured sufficiently for removal and further processing or shipping. The sheet cooling or curing step is the longest step in the molding operation. In order to speed up the process, it is advantageous to remove the plastic sheet from the mold for cooling the sheet at a location separate from the mold. The present invention provides a simple sheet cooling apparatus, which is similar to a mold, including a lower cooling clamp fixed in a frame, an upper cooling clamp movably mounted in the frame for movement between an open position in which the clamps are spaced apart for receiving a plastic sheet, and a closed position in which the sheet is sandwiched between the upper and lower clamps, a manifold at one end of each clamp for introducing cooling water into both clamps and a second manifold at the other end of each clamp for discharging the cooling water. The invention also provides a transfer mechanism for simultaneously removing a first sheet from the mold and a second sheet from the cooling clamp for further processing or shipping.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for processing a molded plastic sheet.
More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus for transferring a thermoplastic sheet from a mold to a cooling clamp.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Thermoplastic sheets are usually molded in large molds by injecting plastic into the mold under pressure. The density of the finished product can be changed by adding a foaming agent to the plastic in the extruder. Following injection, the sheet is left in the mold for a predetermined period of time to allow the plastic to cure. Following curing, the mold is opened and the plastic sheet is removed. The mold is again closed, and the cycle of injection, curing, mold opening and part removal is repeated. Obviously, the duration of each cycle is determined by the length of time required to perform each step. One of the most time consuming steps of the molding operation is the curing step. If the time spent in the mold for curing can be reduced, then the duration of the entire molding operation can be shortened.


A turbomachine is provided and includes a combustor in which fuel and air are combusted, a turbine disposed for reception of products of combustion from the combustor, a transition piece fluidly interposed between the combustor and the turbine and including a body formed to define dilution holes configured to allow air to enter the combustor and for enabling steam injection toward a main flow of the products of the combustion proceeding from the combustor to the turbine and a fuel injection system supportively coupled to the transition piece and configured to inject fuel toward the main flow of the products of the combustion to thereby restore a flame temperature of the main flow of the products of the combustion reduced by steam injection enabled by the dilution holes.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a turbomachine and, more particularly, to a turbomachine with a transition piece having dilution holes and a fuel injection system coupled to the transition piece.
A typical turbomachine includes a combustor, a turbine and a transition piece. The combustor has a head end and includes a liner extending aft from the head end. The liner is formed to define a combustion zone in which a first quantity of fuel and compressed air are mixed and combusted to produce a main flow of products of combustion. The turbine is disposed downstream from the combustor and is configured to be receptive of the products of the combustion from the combustor. Within the turbine, the products of the combustion are expanded in power generation operations.
In some turbomachines that are configured for steam injection, steam is injected into the transition piece for power augmentation and cools down the flame. The turbomachine geometries are prescribed to set fuel/air ratios and, thus, flame temperatures, for emissions compliance during steam operation.
The drawbacks of steam injection system present themselves when the turbomachine 10 is run without steam injection (i.e., during dry operations). Emissions compliance in this case can only be maintained by under-firing the gas turbine and thereby producing less power output because of the turbomachine geometries being prescribed in accordance with steam operations. If the combustor geometry is prescribed to set fuel/air ratio and, thus, flame temperature, for emissions compliance during dry operation, then the drawbacks come when the turbomachine is run with steam. Emissions compliance in this case can be maintained only by over-firing the gas turbine, which leads to diminishing hot-gas-path parts' lives.

Turbomachine with transition piece having dilution holes and fuel injection system coupled to transition piece


A motor includes a fixed portion having a stator with at least two pole faces. Each pole face includes a strong magnetic section and a weak magnetic section for respectively creating stronger and weaker alternating magnetic fields. A rotor includes a shaft rotatably extending through the fixed portion and an annular magnet mounted to an inner periphery of the rotor and facing the pole faces of the stator. At least one magnetically conductive balancing portion is mounted on the fixed portion and includes at least two magnetically conductive faces that are respectively aligned with the weak magnetic sections and that face at least one face of the annular magnet. When the rotor turns, the annular magnet of the rotor induces the stronger alternating magnetic fields and the weaker alternating magnetic fields and attracts the magnetically conductive faces to thereby maintain starting stability and rotational balance of the rotor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a balancing structure. In particular, the present invention relates to a balancing structure for a rotor of a motor.
2. Description of Related Art
A wide variety of structures for maintaining rotational balance for a rotor of a motor have been proposed. One of these structures comprises a fixed portion, a rotor, an attracting portion, and a magnetically conductive portion. The fixed portion includes a base, an axial tube fixed on the base, a bearing received in the axial tube, a stator, and a circuit board. The stator includes a coil with axial winding or radial winding and a plurality of pole plates (or pole arms). The rotor includes a shaft rotatably extending through the bearing and an annular magnet surrounding the pole faces of the pole plates. The attracting portion is provided on a bottom of the rotor or a top end of the axial tube. Alternatively, the attracting portion is provided by the annular magnet or the alternating magnetic fields created by the pole plates of the stator. The magnetically conductive portion is made of a magnetically conductive material and may be comprised of a disc with two arcuate edges, a casing fixed in a rotor housing of the rotor, an annular plate, a plurality of arcuate plates, or a rotor housing of a spindle motor. The magnetically conductive portion may be provided on the circuit board, an inner periphery of the rotor, or the bottom of the rotor, and associated with the attracting portion. Such a structure is disclosed in, e.g., Taiwan Utility Model Publication Nos. 383818, 422365, 428838, 590330, and M241969, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,097,120; 6,483,209; 6,700,241; and 6,727,626, and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0006962.
When the motor turns, alternating magnetic fields are created by the pole faces of the magnetic pole plates (or pole arms). The magnetically conductive portion is attracted by the attracting portion during rotation of the rotor, thereby maintaining rotational balance of the rotor, avoiding disengagement of the rotor shaft from the stator, reducing rotational friction of the bearing, and prolonging the life of the motor.
In the motors disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,483,209 and 6,727,626, each pole face of the magnetic pole plates includes a strong magnetic section and a weak magnetic section. At the moment of starting the motor by energizing the winding, the strong magnetic section on each pole face creates stronger alternating magnetic fields whereas the weak magnetic section on each pole face creates weaker alternating magnetic fields, resulting in uneven alternating magnetic fields for driving the rotor to turn.
However, problems still exist in the above-mentioned rotational balancing structures for easy-to-start motors. For example, the metal plate consisting of the magnetically conductive portion is made as large as possible so as to provide a large area facing the annular magnet of the rotor. This may result in excessive attracting force between the magnetically conductive portion and the attracting portion for balancing the rotor. Further, the magnetically conductive portion often extends across the alternating magnetic fields created by the pole faces of the stator, particularly across the stronger magnetic sections, which adversely affects the alternating magnetic fields and lowers the rotational efficiency of the rotor. Further, although provision of the strong magnetic section and the weak magnetic section on each pole face is advantageous to easy starting, the local uneven energizing resulting from the strong magnetic sections and the weak magnetic sections results in vibration and shaking at the moment of starting the rotor. The rotational wear to the bearing could not be reduced and the life of the motor could not be prolonged. Further, the actual effect of the rotational balancing structure was not satisfactory as expected.

Sunonwealth Electric Machine Industry Co., Ltd.


A multimedia information retrieval system includes a storage and an electronic processing device. The latter is configured to perform a process including: computing values of a pairwise similarity measure quantifying pairwise similarity of documents of a multimedia reference repository; storing the computed values in the storage; performing an initial information retrieval process respective to the multimedia reference repository to return a set of initial repository documents; and identifying a set of top ranked documents of the multimedia reference repository based at least on the stored computed values pertaining to the set of initial repository documents.

The following relates to the information processing arts, information retrieval arts, classification and clustering arts, and related arts.
Information retrieval systems provide a user-friendly interface by which a user can retrieve documents from a database that are relevant to or match a query. Typically, an information retrieval system ranks a "top N" documents that best match the query. An example of such a system is an Internet search engine.
Many information retrieval systems are text-based. That is, the information retrieval system receives a textual query and searches textual content of documents for similarities with the textual query, such as the same or similar words or terms, common semantic content (based, for example, on derivation of semantically related words determined using an on-line thesaurus), or so forth. In a more complex approach, language models may be developed to represent the query and documents to be searched, and the information retrieval is based on similarity of query and document language models.
Advantageously, textual content is commonplace, and can be efficiently stored and searched. However, digital information repositories enable storage and processing of information in many different media types or modalities, such as text, images, audio, video, or so forth. It is not unusual for a single document to include content of two or more different media types or modalities. Many, and perhaps most, Internet websites today include both text and images. Numerous Internet sites further include audio content, video content, and/or further media modalities.
In view of this, there is interest in information retrieval systems that are capable of retrieving documents based on non-textual content. Toward this end, it is known to represent image content in the form of image "features" that are believed to have semantic significance, that is, to be discriminative of the subject matter depicted in the image. For example, a feature indicating the fractional image content that is blue or green or bluish or greenish may be useful for detecting seascapes. A feature indicating a characteristic mammalian shape may be useful in detecting images of animals. Facial recognition features are also known that are indicative of human facial images, and so forth. Features can also be defined for other modalities. For example, a feature indicative of audio pitch may be useful for discriminating between male and female voice audio. The features based paradigm is also applicable to text, by defining textual features such as counts of semantically rich terms and so forth. Depending upon the available text layout information, textual features may also include layout information such as font type, column layout, or so forth. (For example, if a particular medical journal is published in a distinctive font, then the font type feature may be highly discriminative for identifying articles from that medical journal).
In sum, it is known that for a given media type or modality one can identify semantically discriminative features. One can therefore generate information retrieval systems for the various types of media, for example for text content, image content, video content, audio content, or so forth. For example, an image-based information retrieval system may operate by comparing features of a query image with features of images in an image repository.
Extending information retrieval to cross-media operation is more difficult. For example, given an image, one may wish to retrieve documents with textual content semantically related to the subject matter of the image. However, there is a "semantic gap" in that semantically relevant image features typically have no discernable analog in textual features, and vice versa.
For multimedia, some common approaches employ pseudo-relevance feedback. To illustrate using a query image as an example, one may perform a first information retrieval operation limited to image content on a multimedia reference repository to identify multimedia documents including images that are similar to the query image. The results of this first information retrieval operation are used to enrich the query with textual content. For example, if the image is a seascape, the first information retrieval operation is likely to return many multimedia documents relating to the sea, nautical themes, or the like. In these returned multimedia documents one may expect to identify nautically related terms such as "ocean", "water", "boat", or so forth, and these derived terms may be used to enrich the original image query with textual query content. This textual query content may in turn be used in a second information retrieval operation limited to textual content to retrieve additional multimedia documents related to the textual query including "ocean", "water", "boat", or so forth. The results of the first and second query operations then may be fused or combined to produce final query results, some of which may be cross-media in character (that is, some documents may have little or no image content that is similar to the query image, but may have instead been retrieved due to nautically related textual content alone).
Brief Description
In some illustrative embodiments disclosed as illustrative examples herein, a multimedia information retrieval method performed by an electronic device is disclosed, the method comprising: performing an initial information retrieval process respective to a multimedia reference repository to return a set of initial repository documents; computing values of at least one monomodal pairwise similarity measure for candidate documents of the multimedia reference repository respective to repository documents of the set of initial repository documents; and identifying a set of top ranked documents of the multimedia reference repository based at least in part on the values computed for the candidate documents.
In some illustrative embodiments disclosed as illustrative examples herein, a multimedia information retrieval method performed by an electronic device is disclosed, the method comprising: performing an initial monomodal information retrieval process operating on a first media modality to retrieve a set of initial repository documents from the multimedia reference repository; and identifying a set of top ranked documents of the multimedia reference repository based at least in part on pairwise similarity measure values respective to a second media modality different from the first media modality for document pairs that include documents of the set of initial repository documents.
In some illustrative embodiments disclosed as illustrative examples herein, a multimedia information retrieval system is disclosed, comprising a storage and an electronic processing device configured to perform a process including: performing an initial monomodal information retrieval process respective to a multimedia reference repository to return a set of initial repository documents, the monomodal information retrieval process operating on one member of the group consisting of text content and image content; and identifying a set of top ranked documents of the multimedia reference repository based at least on pairwise similarity measure values indicative of similarity with documents of the set of initial repository documents, the pairwise similarity measure values being indicative of similarity respective to the other member of the group consisting of text content and image content.

Cross-media similarity measures through trans-media pseudo-relevance feedback and document reranking


Apparatus for spectrophotometric analysis of material in vials 16 in which material in each vial is subjected to a beam 4 at a scanning station 20. An array of the vials 16 is carried by a carousel 60 for each vial 16 automatically and sequentially to be delivered to the scanning station and thereafter removed following scanning by the beam 4. Rotation of the carousel 60 to feed the vials to the scanning station and to remove them from that station is controlled by a computer 3 which also controls spectrophotometric measurement of the material in the respective vials whilst at the scanning station.

The present invention relates to spectrophotometric analysis and is particularly concerned with apparatus for analysis of a sample material, typically in powder or liquid form, by reflectance measurements resulting from a beam of electromagnetic radiation (usually near infrared) applied to the material.
Spectrophotometers are well known to provide quantitive and qualitative analysis of substances and materials and are used extensively within the chemical, petrochemical, food, agriculture and pharmaceutical industries. Typical infrared reflectance spectrophotometers are sold under the Trade Marks "COMPSCAN" by the Gardner Neotec Division of Pacific Scientific and "MODEL 6500" by NIR Systems Inc. Generally known spectrophotometers comprise a cell or container within which a sample of the material for analysis is retained; a source providing a beam of electromagnetic radiation (usually near infrared as previously mentioned) which is applied to the material in the cell, and sensors or detectors which are responsive to reflections from the material in the cell and provide an output from which the analysis is effected. Usually the spectrophotometer is coupled to a computer by which the application of the beam to the material is controlled and which provides a required analysis of the output from the sensors or detectors.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for spectrophotometric analysis which is an improvement over known such apparatus in so far as it facilitates effecting individual analysis measurements on sample materials in a plurality of containers.


An electronics enclosure (10) utilizing thermal insulating ceramic coating (50) includes a first member (14) having a first surface (26), and a second member (16) having a second surface (28). The first and second members (14, 16) are movable relative to each other between an enclosing position wherein a plurality of electronic components (12) are enclosed within an interior chamber (19) of the electronics enclosure (10), and an open position wherein the plurality of electronic components (12) are accessible for servicing. With the first and second members (14, 16) in the enclosing position, the first and second surfaces (26, 28) face and extend around the interior chamber (19). The first and second members (14, 16) have third and fourth surfaces (32, 34), respectively, facing oppositely from the first and second surfaces (26, 28) and defining the exterior of the first and second members (14, 16), respectively. The electronics enclosure (10) further includes a thermal insulating coating (50) adhered to and covering a majority of at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth surfaces (26, 28, 32 and 34). The ceramic coating (50) has a thickness of about 0.005 xe2x80x3 or greater, and includes ceramic particles suspended in a binder.

This invention relates to electronics enclosures that are subject to heating from the surrounding environment, such as electronics enclosures that are mounted outdoors and/or exposed to direct sunlight. One problem associated with such enclosures is maintaining the electronics contained within the electronics enclosure at or below a maximum desired operating temperature. This problem has two components; first, the heat input into the electronics enclosure from the surrounding environment, and second, the heat generated by the electronics contained within the electronics enclosure.
With respect to the first component, in some environments, one of the most significant heat loads on an electronic enclosure is the radiant heat load. For example, for many outdoor electronic enclosures, the radiant heat load generated by direct sunlight, often referred to as the solar load, can be quite significant. Conventionally, radiant or solar heat loading has been handled in three ways.
(1) choosing a material for the exterior of the enclosure that is as reflective as possible to the radiant or solar load,
(2) using one or more heat shields to shade the enclosure from direct radiant heating, such as direct sunlight, and
(3) providing a fan for forced air convection cooling of the enclosure.
While each of the above approaches may perform satisfactorily, there is always room for improvement. For example, for some applications, highly reflective materials may not be optimum in terms of the aesthetic appearance of the enclosure, the manufacturing cost of the enclosure, and/or the durability of the enclosure. By way of further example, the use of one or more heat shields can limit flexibility in the aesthetic design of an enclosure, complicate the installation of the electronics enclosure, increase the manufacturing cost and/or limit the amount of cooling air flow over and/or into the enclosure. As yet another example, the use of a cooling fan requires a motor drive and a power supply, which can increase the cost, complexity, size, failure modes, and installation time of the electronics enclosure.
In accordance with one form of the invention, an electronics enclosure includes a first member having a first surface, and a second member having a second surface. The first and second members are movable relative to each other between an enclosing position wherein at least one electronic component is enclosed within an interior chamber of the electronics enclosure and an open position wherein at least one electronic component within the electronics enclosure is accessible for servicing. With the first and second members in the enclosing position, the first and second surfaces face and extend around the interior chamber. The first and second members have third and fourth surfaces, respectively, facing oppositely from the first and second surfaces and defining the exterior of the first and second members, respectively. The electronics enclosure further includes a thermal insulating ceramic coating adhered to and covering a majority of at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth surfaces. The ceramic coating has a thickness on the order of 0.005xe2x80x3 or greater, and includes ceramic particles suspended in a binder.
In one form, at least one of the first and second members is a plastic member, and is preferably a molded plastic member.
In one form, both of the first and second members are plastic members.
In one form, the binder is an acrylic resin.
In one form, the thermal insulating ceramic coating adheres to and covers a majority of the first and second surfaces.
In one form, the thermal insulating ceramic coating adheres to and covers a majority of the third and fourth surfaces.
In one form, the thermal insulating ceramic coating adheres to and covers a majority of the first and second surfaces, and the third and fourth surfaces are not coated with a thermal insulating ceramic coating.

Electronics enclosure utilizing thermal insulating ceramic coating


Methods and apparatus are disclosed for providing a bonus award to a gaming player for using a player tracking account associated with a gaming establishment. Provision of a bonus award is based on the access to a player tracking account. Specifically, once a gaming system detects that a gaming player has accessed a player tracking account associated with the gaming establishment, the gaming system can determine whether the player accessed the player tracking account in a manner meeting one or more bonus award criteria. For instance, the bonus award criteria can include accessing a player tracking account within a limited period of time allotted for awarding the bonus award, accessing a player tracking account according to a specified sequence with respect to accesses by other gaming players, or some other criterion. If the player accessed the player tracking account in a manner meeting the bonus award criterion or criteria, then a bonus award is provided to the gaming player for using the player tracking account.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gaming machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for providing a bonus award for using a player-tracking account associated with a gaming establishment.
II. Background
There are a wide variety of associated devices that can be connected to a gaming machine such as a slot machine or video poker machine. Some examples of these devices are player tracking units, lights, ticket printers, card readers, speakers, bill validators, ticket readers, coin acceptors, display panels, key pads, coin hoppers and button pads. Many of these devices are built into the gaming machine or components associated with the gaming machine such as a top box which usually sits on top of the gaming machine. In addition, many of these devices can be integrated into a player tracking unit.
Typically, utilizing a master gaming controller, the gaming machine controls various combinations of devices that allow a player to play a game on the gaming machine and also encourage game play on the gaming machine. For example, a game played on a gaming machine usually requires a player to input money or indicia of credit into the gaming machine, indicate a wager amount, and initiate a game play. These steps require the gaming machine to control input devices, including bill validators and coin acceptors, to accept money into the gaming machine and recognize user inputs from devices, including touch screens and button pads, to determine the wager amount and initiate game play.
After game play has been initiated, the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and may dispense an award of some type depending on the outcome of the game. A game outcome presentation may utilize many different visual and audio components such as flashing lights, music, sounds and graphics. The visual and audio components of the game outcome presentation may be used to draw a player's attention to various game features and to heighten the player's interest in additional game play. Maintaining a game player's interest in game play, such as on a gaming machine or during other gaming activities, is an important consideration for an operator of a gaming establishment.
One related method of maintaining a game player's interest in game play are player tracking programs which are offered at various casinos. Player tracking programs provide rewards, or "comps," to players that typically correspond to the player's level of patronage (e.g., to the player's playing frequency and/or total amount of game plays at a given casino). Player tracking rewards may be free meals, free lodging and/or free entertainment. These rewards may help to sustain a game player's interest in additional game play during a visit to a gaming establishment and may entice a player to visit a gaming establishment to partake in various gaming activities.
In general, player tracking programs may be applied to any game of chance offered at a gaming establishment. In particular, player tracking programs are very popular with players of mechanical slot gaming machines and video slot gaming machines. In a gaming machine, a player tracking program is implemented using a player tracking unit installed in the gaming machine and in communication with a remote player tracking server. Player tracking units are usually manufactured as an after-market device separate from the gaming machine. Many different companies manufacture player tracking units as part of player tracking/accounting systems. These player tracking/accounting systems are used in most casinos. Most casinos utilize only one type of player tracking system (i.e. from one manufacturer) while the type of player tracking system varies from casino to casino.
Typically, when a game player wants to play a game on a gaming machine and utilize the player tracking services available through the player tracking unit, a game player inserts a player tracking card, such as a magnetic striped card, into a card reader located on a player tracking unit of a gaming machine. After the magnetic striped card has been so inserted, the player tracking unit may detect this event and receive certain identification information contained on the card. For example, a player's name, address, and player tracking account number encoded on the magnetic striped card, may be received by the player tracking unit. In general, a player must provide identification information of some type to utilize player tracking services available on a gaming machine. For current player tracking programs, the most common approach for providing identification information is to issue a magnetic-striped card storing the necessary identification information to each player that wishes to participate in a given player tracking program.
During game play on the gaming machine, the player tracking unit may poll the gaming machine for game play information such as how much money the player has wagered on each game, the time when each game was initiated, and the location of the gaming machine. The game play information is sent by the player tracking unit to a player tracking server. While a player tracking card is inserted in the card reader, the player tracking server may use the game play information provided by the player tracking unit to generate player tracking points and add the points to a player tracking account identified by the player tracking card. The player tracking points generated by the player tracking server are stored in a memory of some type on the player tracking server.
Player tracking cards and player tracking programs have become a de facto marketing method at casinos. A casino can obtain valuable marketing information from player tracking programs and provide loyalty incentives to players. These loyalty incentives provide a way to maintain a player's interest in playing games at a particular casino once a player has initiated game play with a player tracking card.
Accordingly, it is desirable to encourage players to initiate game play by using their player tracking cards. Once the players initiate game play, the traditional player tracking programs can be used even more effectively to maintain player interest in the games, and to provide gaming establishments with valuable information that allows them to better serve their players.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Matching bonusing method using a player tracking card


A vehicle engine compartment hood is provided for a vehicle body having a hood opening. A hood panel normally closes the engine compartment. A hood base panel underlies the hood panel and is pivotally mounted on the vehicle body for pivotal opening movement to lift the hood panel and allow access to the engine compartment through the hood opening. A mechanism acts between the hood panel and the hood base panel for selectively elevating the hood panel above the hood base panel and the hood opening when the vehicle is in a pedestrian rich environment. The mechanism absorbs energy when an impact is received against the hood panel.

The prior art has recognized that it may be desirable for pedestrian safety when the front end of a motor vehicle is capable of absorbing impact energy.
It would be desirable to provide a vehicle engine compartment hood that actively offers energy absorption when the vehicle is driven in a pedestrian rich environment or operating in conditions of high probability for pedestrian and vehicle collision.
It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating exemplary embodiments of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.


A vacuum sealing devices (10) used for surgical procedures, particularly on the eye. The device (10) comprises a flexible sleeve (11) which terminates in a platter (11a) having a sealing suction ring (12, 112, 212). The suction ring (12, 112, 212) couples the sleeve (11) to the body and isolates the surgical site from surrounding tissue. The sleeve (11) may be provided with a opening (22, 113) which allows instrumentation access through and incision such as a corneal incision (13).

It is sometimes desirable, during the course of surgery, to isolate one part of the body from the rest. For example, it may be desirable to administer a chemically active or toxic substance to one part of the body without that substance contacting other parts of the body. In other instances, it may be advantageous to prevent secretions, infectious materials or contaminants from spreading outside of the locality of the area which is being operated on. The present invention addresses these issues and illustrates the benefits of isolating a surgical site by referring to the specific example of cataract surgery.
During cataract surgery, the human lens is removed from within the lens capsule and replaced by an artificial lens. This is performed by tearing a small hole in the anterior capsule (a capsulorhexis) and then destroying and removing the human lens by phacoemulsification. However, lens cortex and epithelial cells remain following the lens removal. Irrigation/aspiration is routinely used to remove the visible cortex remnants. It is unreasonable to expect all lens epithelial cells (LECs) which are bound to both the anterior and posterior capsule to be removed by this method.
LECs which remain within the capsule have been shown to mutate and grow over the posterior surface of the implanted intra-ocular lens (IOL) thus causing posterior capsule opacification (PCO). This complication of cataract surgery has historically occurred at a rate as high as 30%, however recent IOL designs have reduced this to around 2-5% at 2 years. It remains unclear what the longer term rates of PCO with these IOLs will be.
The current treatment for PCO is a posterior capsulotomy using a Yag laser. Although the complication associated with this procedure is small, the cost is significant and there is a risk of retinal detachment.
Current methods for reducing the rate of PCO include IOL design. It has been shown that a lens with sharp edges causes a barrier to LEC growth. However, lens capsule fibrosis occurs and these IOLs have been shown to cause vision problems particularly at night due to reflections from these edges.
It has been proposed that cytotoxic chemicals can be used to destroy these epithelial cells, however, there is a risk that these chemicals damage other intraocular structures.
Research is currently underway into using accommodating IOLs, and clear lens extraction for the correction of refractive errors. However, for these technologies to be successful chronically, the lens capsule must remain flexible and free of fibrosis.
Therefore, there is still a need for a device which overcomes the current problems associated with adequate capsule cleaning and LEC removal.
Accordingly there is provided a flexible sleeve which terminates in a suction ring. The sleeve has formed in it an opening through which surgical instruments may be inserted.


The present invention relates to a method for steering a UAV, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, to enable a high level command of the UAV. The method comprising the steps of: determining (500) a reference position (200, 300, 400) related to a position (210, 310, 410) for a moving object (220, 320, 420) which the UAV should follow; calculating (515) a smoothed position (230, 330, 430) based on the reference position (200, 300, 400), wherein the smoothed position (230, 330, 430) is calculated so that the smoothed position (230, 330, 430) moves more smoothly than the reference position (200, 300, 400); and steering (525) the UAV so that UAV follows the smoothed position (230, 330, 430).

1. Related Field
The present invention relates to a method for steering a UAV, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, to enable a high level command of the UAV, and to a system for steering the UAV to enable high level command of the UAV.
2. Description of Related Art
An UAV is an aircraft that is flown by an operator without a human crew on board the aircraft. Their largest uses are in military applications, but are expected to find many civilian applications in the future.
A UAV can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely. Some UAVs is equipped with autonomous guidance systems and automatic control systems which give the UAV the capacity to act as an independent flying vehicle.
UAVs can be equipped with different payloads for information collection and are able to perform tasks such as surveillance, reconnaissance, target acquisition, dissemination of target data and battle damage assessment.
Usually two operators control one UAV. One operator handles the flying commands, and another operator handles the payloads on the UAV. There are also high level commands available which give the operators the ability to give more focus on the mission instead of flying. One example is a high level command that steers the UAV to a specific spatial position. Another example of a high level command is one in which the operator sets up a list of waypoints that the UAV will fly to, starting with the first waypoint in the list and so on. These types of high level commands however still require at least two operators. One operator handles the flying commands and another operator handles the payloads on the UAV.
There is therefore a need for an improved solution for high level command of the UAV that solves or at least mitigates at least one of the above mentioned problems.

Method and system for steering an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle


An end fitting for a cylindrical high pressure vessel made from components all having thin walls, thereby tripling the practical diameter of such pressure vessels. The end fitting includes a toroidal shell defining a hole; centrally disposed piece for closing the hole comprising a pipe and a center end fitting and structural members. In a first embodiment, the structural members comprise slices of an end of the pipe welded to the outer cylindrical wall of the vessel. In a second embodiment, the structural members are plates connecting the pipe to the outer cylindrical walls. In the third embodiment, the plates connect an extension of the outer cylindrical wall beyond the toroidal shell to an extension of the outer cylindrical wall of the pressure vessel. The center end fitting may be hemispheric or ellipsoidal.

The present invention generally relates to apparatus and methods for end fittings for pressure vessels.
A cylindrical pressure vessel has a hoop stress that is twice the longitudinal stress. Therefore a number of technologies exist for reinforcing pressure vessels by strengthening them in the hoop direction by the application of wires wound helically onto the cylindrical pressure vessel or by applying plastic reinforced by fibers in the hoop direction. By these technologies a pressure vessel is obtained that has a lower weight.
End fittings are usually comprised of hemispherical caps or ellipsoidal caps. The end fittings may also be reinforced by the material reinforcing the cylindrical pressure vessel in the hoop direction. The application of the reinforcing to the end fitting presents special problems in terms of applying the reinforcing in the proper geometry and quality. The application of the reinforcing to the end fitting is a difficult and expensive process.
Many reinforced cylindrical pressure vessels are therefore fitted with unreinforced end fittings. When the pressures are high and the diameter of the cylindrical pressure vessel is large the material thickness of the hemispherical caps or ellipsoidal caps becomes large and the cap is difficult and expensive to manufacture.
An example of such a pressure vessel is the tank marketed by the Floating Pipeline Company of Newfoundland Canada. This tank is designed to hold compressed natural gas at a pressure of approximately 23 MPa. It is 915 mm in diameter, made from steel and reinforced by glass reinforced plastic in the hoop direction. The steel wall thickness is approximately 35 mm permitting a hemispherical end fitting made from the same steel with the same wall thickness to safely contain the pressure without being reinforced.
FIG. 1 shows a sectional view, in a plane containing the rotational axis of symmetry, of a prior art cylindrical pressure vessel 6 comprised of a metal cylinder 1 reinforced on the outside by a layer of reinforcement 2 which may be glass-reinforced plastic. The pressure vessel is fitted with a hemispherical end fitting 4 made from the same material as used for the cylinder 1. The end fitting 4 also has the same wall thickness as the cylinder 1. The reinforcement layer 2 reinforces the pressure vessel 6 in the hoop direction only. If the reinforcement layer 2 resists 50% of the internal pressure in pressure vessel 6 then the metal cylinder 1 will have equal hoop and longitudinal stresses, which in turn will be equal to the tensile stresses in the hemispherical end cap 4. The reinforcement layer 2 may be wound onto a cylindrical extension 3 to the pressure vessel 6 in order to ensure that a weak point does not develop at the weld seam 5 between end cap 4 and cylinder 1.
Current rules governing the storage of natural gas in pressure vessels require a shut-off valve and a safety device for each individual tank or pressure vessel. If a 36 inch or 40 inch diameter pressure vessel is used, only one shut-off valve and one safety device may be needed. If, for example, one wanted to store nine times as much natural gas as that stored in a pressure vessel with a 36 inch diameter pressure vessel, one would need nine tanks, each with a safety device and a shut-off valve. A single pressure vessel having a diameter of 108 inches would be able to store nine times the natural gas stored in a single 36 inch diameter and such a tank would only require a single shut-off valve and a single safety device under current rules. Although it would be advantageous to use the much larger diameters in tanks that store natural gas under high pressure in order to reduce the number of tank connections with associated safety devices and valves, practical and cost limitations prevent this. For example, it is exceedingly expensive to make an end cap that is 108 inches in diameter. In fact, not that many places in the world can even manufacture such an end cap since it requires specialized heavy equipment and special handling.
The difficulty of using thicker material for the end cap of a pressure vessel is further illustrated by reference to another class of cylindrical pressure vessels, which are reinforced on the exterior by high strength steel wires. These wires may be laid with a lay angle such that they also reinforce the tank in the longitudinal direction. Such tanks may have a particularly thin steel wall. This in turn creates a problem of stress continuity at a conventional end fitting having a much thicker wall.
As can be seen, there is a need for a cost effective and practical apparatus and method for a large diameter high pressure vessel, particularly one that is generally cylindrical.