In a method of rehabilitating a ballast bed of a track by excavating contaminated ballast and conveying the excavated contaminated ballast by a first conveyor band unit to a screening unit for cleaning the excavated contaminated ballast, the ballast bed is rehabilitated selectively, in dependence on the degree of contamination of the ballast, in a first or second operating stage. The first operating stage comprises the steps of excavating an upper layer of the ballast by a first excavating device which precedes a second excavating device, in an operating direction, and conducting the excavated upper ballast layer to the first conveyor band unit while, at the same time, the remainder of the ballast is excavated by the second excavating device and is conducted to a second conveyor band unit for disposal. The second operating stage comprises the steps of excavating the ballast solely by the second excavating device and deflecting the excavated ballast to the first conveyor band unit for cleaning while the first excavating device is inoperative.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and installation for rehabilitating a ballast bed of a track.
2. Description of the Prior Art
EP 0 681 062 B1 and EP 0 790 352 A2 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,725 reissued as Re. 35,788) discloses a method and installation for rehabilitating a ballast bed of a track, in which a first ballast excavating device preceding a second ballast excavating device excavates an upper ballast layer and conveys the excavated upper ballast layer to a screening unit for cleaning so that the cleaned ballast may be returned to the ballast bed. The remainder of the heavily contaminated ballast underneath the upper ballast layer is excavated by the second ballast excavating device and is temporarily stored in a storage hopper for disposal. The exposed subgrade is then improved by forming a protective layer over it.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,637,133 discloses a ballast cleaning machine designed to enhance efficiency with the use of two ballast cleaning devices operating in unison, the ballast excavated by both excavating devices being conveyed to a screening unit for cleaning. Such an arrangement requires a highly efficient screening unit.

Method and installation for rehabilitating a ballast bed

Franz Plasser Bahnbaumaschinen-Industriegesellschaft m.b.H.


A method for making thermocouple wire from powdered alloys and metals. The metal or alloy is atomized from its liquid state into a powdered state as it leaves a melting vat. The powder is then compacted and cold worked to form thermocouple wire. Different lots of a powdered alloy or a powdered metal may be blended to reduce the calibration error of the resultant thermocouple wire.

A goal of the manufacturers of thermocouple wire is to reliably produce thermocouple wire having thermoelectric properties which are as close as possible to a calibration standard. Currently, in the manufacture of thermocouple wire, it is necessary to modify the chemistry of the alloy to obtain the desired thermoelectric properties, thereby assuring an accurate measurement of temperature. This modification is more art than science, as the effect of small additions of reactive metals to the molten batch on the thermoelectric properties will vary with the melting techniques and the skill of the melter.
This problem is further aggravated by the fact that as an alloy is poured to form an ingot from which the wire is to be formed, the cooling of the alloy melt may go through two or more freeze temperatures starting at the periphery of the ingot and progressing to the center. For example, when solidifying a typical nickel-chromium alloy, such as used in thermocouple wires, an alloy consisting of 95% nickel and 5% chromium will solidify at the periphery while an alloy composition having 73% nickel and 27% chromium will solidify in the central region of the poured ingot. These differences in the chemical composition in various regions of the ingot often manifest themselves in thermoelectric properties of the final wire product. As a result, different segments of the drawn thermocouple wire may have different chemical compositions and different thermoelectric properties. Where the thermoelectric properties of the drawn wire are not within predetermined acceptable limits from a standard electro-motive force (emf) versus temperature curve, the entire ingot has to be scrapped. This is not only a waste of time and material, but also significantly reduces the production capability of the manufacture of thermocouple wires.

Thermoelements prepared from powdered alloys and thermocouples made therefrom


The present invention discloses novel compounds useful for the inhibition of IL-6/STAT signaling and/or PI3K/NF-κB signaling in the treatment of associated diseases or conditions, e.g. cancer. A pharmaceutical composition comprising such novel compounds, its use and a method thereof, is also disclosed.

IL-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine with a wide range of biological activities in the fields of immune regulation, hematopoiesis, inflammation and oncogenesis. It is produced by numerous cell types and acts on a large and diverse population of cells and tissues. Binding of IL-6 to the IL-6 receptor leads to the recruitment and complex formation of two gp130 molecules at the cell membrane. The intracellular dimerization of two gp130 proteins recruits members of the Janus family of tyrosine kinases (JAKs) to the complex, allowing trans-phosphorylation. JAKs subsequently phosphorylate additional targets, including the gp130 receptor, whose phosphorylation is necessary for the phosphorylation and activation of the signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT), mainly STAT3 and STAT1. Activation of STATs leads to the formation of stable STAT complexes due to either homo- or heterodimerization. The phosphorylation and dimerization of the STAT-protein also exposes its nuclear localization signal, leading to translocation of the complex to the nucleus for binding to the promoter region of target genes, including cyclin D, c-myc, p21, p2′7, Bcl-2 and VEGF.
In a healthy organism, IL-6 is expressed at low levels controlled by a complex network comprising e.g. glucocorticoids and catecholamines. However, accumulating evidence indicates pathological roles for IL-6 in various disease conditions, including autoimmune, inflammatory and malignant diseases. These conditions are coupled to enhanced activation of the IL-6 signaling pathway, and the unchecked production from the IL-6 target genes may arise due to mutations in one or several different steps/proteins in the pathway. Normally the STAT3 activation is tightly regulated and activated STAT3 proteins are dephosphorylated by phosphatases and transported out of the nucleus. Aberrant and deregulated STAT3 promotes cell proliferation and cell survival in both solid and hematological tumors, including breast, lung, brain, colon, prostate, lymphoma and leukemia.
Also, the IL-6 signaling pathway is coupled to the Ras/MAPK- and PI3K signaling pathways. These are the major signaling patways regulating e.g. proliferation, survival and differentiation of cells, and they are frequently mutated in a variety of human diseases, including cancer and inflammatory diseases. For instance, aberrant regulation of the transcription factor NF-κB in the PI3K-pathway is associated with cancer development and progression, as well as in resistance to chemotherapy. Further, there is significant interactions (cross talk) between NF-κB and STAT3, including overlapping genes, co-transcription and co-localization, and thereby, NF-κB and STAT3 cooperate to promote development of several cancers.
(−)-Galiellalactone is a natural product isolated from wood-inhabiting fungi with submicromolar inhibition of IL-6/STAT3 signaling.
Nussbaum et al reports in Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2004, 2783-2790 on the modification of individual functional groups of (−)-galiellalactone. Most of the resulting analogues, however, turned out to be inactive or less active than (−)-galiellalactone.
Weidler et al reports in FEBS Letters 2000, 484, 1-6 that the biological effect of (−)-galiellalactone seemingly is due to a direct inhibition of the binding of STAT3-dimers to their regulatory elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,512,007 describe the use of galiella lactone as a pharmaceutical for the treatment of e.g. inflammatory processes.
The treatments for prevention, revocation or reduction of deceases like e.g. cancer are in many ways insufficient. Hence, compounds effective in modulating or inhibiting the above described IL-6/STAT signaling and/or PI3K/NF-κB signaling are desired.

Tricyclic lactones for treatment of cancer


Systems and methods for ultra-high reliability (UHR) wireless communications systems and methods are disclosed. The disclosed UHR wireless communications systems and methods make the networked components on a communications infrastructure robust to interference caused by unintentional jamming, intermittent connectivity, weather, and physical barriers.

The wireless environment is dynamic and unpredictable with complications due to environment and weather, unintentional jamming, and even intentional jamming. Possible solutions to such complications are constrained by existing applications and networking technologies.
The need of ultra-high reliability wireless communications (comms) exists in applications such as high security applications or critical emergency operations. These applications demand reliable communications when subjected to unintentional jamming from harsh weather, commercial communications infrastructure failure or unavailability due to power outages or saturated RF environments around large groups of people with mobile RF transmitters (i.e.) phones around/in stadiums and along crowded event pathways, or poor frequency coordination and intentional jamming from malicious actors that intend to undermine high security operations or emergency activities.
A need remains, therefore, for wireless networking systems and methods that are robust to such complications and transparent to existing applications and networking technologies.

Ultra-high reliability wireless communication systems and methods

National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC


An image pickup apparatus that is excellent in rigidity and in heat radiation efficiency. The image pickup apparatus has a heat sink-cum-duct disposed between a pair of cover members that constitute left and right exteriors of an apparatus main unit and that are fixed to the heat sink-cum-duct. The heat sink-cum-duct has an opening formed to correspond to an air inlet port of an air cooling fan and has a plurality of fins, and sucks air through the opening from the outside. The sucked air is guided to the air inlet port of the cooling fan through a ventilation path defined by the plurality of fins.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus such as a digital camera or a digital video camera mounted with an air cooling unit.
Description of the Related Art
An image pickup apparatus such as digital video camera mounted with an air cooling unit has been known. For example, there has been proposed a video camera that has a cooling fan disposed inside an exterior casing of the video camera (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-296469). In this proposal, an air inlet port formed in the exterior casing of the video camera is connected through a ventilation duct to the cooling fan, thereby sucking a sufficient amount of air for heat radiation into inside the video camera to efficiently cool camera component parts that generate heat.
In recent image pickup apparatuses such as digital cameras, an amount of heat generated in a circuit board increases with enhancement of apparatus functionality. As a result, it becomes difficult to achieve a sufficient heat radiation effect by the above-described heat radiation structure where the air inlet port is connected to the cooling fan through the ventilation duct. In addition, image pickup apparatuses of this type do not have a sufficient rigidity against external compression and torsion. To increase the rigidity, reinforcing members must be added, resulting in increased cost.

Image pickup apparatus with air cooling unit


Contact center strived to provide needed skills in close proximity to an anticipated demand for the skills. Skills may be needed to replace agents that are reassigned or that are no longer agents of the contact center. Training and recruitment of agents represents a significant investment in time money and other agents for a contact center. Determining a trajectory for a particular candidate to acquire the needed skill, at a point before the contact center fully invests in training, allows the agent to be excluded from future training should the agent not perform as expected were in the performance is measured at least one midpoint towards acquisition of the needed skill. As a benefit, agents can be directed towards acquiring the needed skills from other sources.

In today's contact centers, agents can have a range of skills. Agents may be hired who have no skills, a skill or two, or a large number of skills. It can be a significant challenge for a contact center administrator to keep up with what kind of skill training and how much skill training is needed for agents, especially in a large, multi-location contact center. The ability of the contact center to provide training can be based on agent skills, market demands, cost, etc. There are additional challenges to match the right amount and pace of training to an agent's ability to learn, especially since people can learn at different rates. Monitoring each agent's progress, proficiency, and aptitude in the trained areas can also prove difficult. Agents also provide significant value when they are scheduled to accept work in the right timeframe after training has been successful.

Contact center agent training trajectory


Herein disclosed a sound inputting and outputting apparatus for being connected to an external apparatus which includes a noise cancel signal production section, a storage section and a reproduction section, including: a first auricle mounting section; a second auricle mounting section; and a plug.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a plug, a sound inputting and outputting apparatus and a noise cancel system, and more particularly to a plug of a five-pole configuration and a sound inputting and outputting apparatus and a noise cancel system in which a plug of a five-pole configuration is used.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plug to be connected to a jack of various electronic equipments such as, for example, an acoustic equipment is provided at an end portion of, for example, an earphone, a headphone, or various connection cables.
Generally, such a plug as described above such as, for example, a plug provided on an earphone, a headphone or the like, has a three-pole configuration for a speaker L (left), a speaker R (right) and the ground as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 9-204966 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1).
A sound inputting and outputting apparatus such as an earphone or a headphone in which such a plug as described above is provided includes a pair of auricle mounting portions for being mounted on a pair of auricles of a user. However, when sound is outputted from a pair of speakers of the sound inputting and outputting apparatus in a state wherein the auricle mounting portions are mounted on the auricles of the user, such a disadvantage sometimes occurs that external sound is inputted as noise to the auricles depending upon the external environment or the like.
Countermeasures for canceling such noise are available in the related art. According to one of the related art, a microphone and a circuit board on which a noise cancel circuit is formed are disposed in each of the auricle mounting portions of the sound inputting and outputting apparatus. The noise cancel circuit produces a noise cancel signal based on a noise signal inputted to the microphone, and the noise cancel signal is outputted from the speaker provided in each of the auricle mounting portions to cancel the noise.

Plug, sound inputting and outputting apparatus, and noise cancel system


A travel distance-measuring unit measures optically a distance to a stacker crane by a travel distance-measuring sensor provided at a reference measuring position between the stacker crane that can travel on a predetermined route along a travel rail and a ceiling rail and the reference measuring position set on the ground side. A lift distance-measuring unit measures optically a distance to a lift table by a lift distance-measuring sensor provided at the reference measuring position via reflectors between the lift table 26 provided movably to the stacker crane, the reflectors provided to the lift table, and the reference measuring position P set on the fixed side. A ground side controller calculates a position of the stacker crane and a position of the lift table based on distance data derived by the travel distance-measuring unit and the lift distance-measuring unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a traveling body system and an automated storage and retrieval system equipped with a distance measuring unit for measuring a position of a traveling body such as a stacker crane (article transporting unit) that takes in and out articles on and from a shelf having article storage sections, for example, or the like, and a method for controlling a traveling body.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, in an automated storage and retrieval system in a related art, a working passage 81 is provided to face shelves in which article storage sections are constructed respectively. A stacker crane (article transporting unit) 84 is guided by a floor rail 82 and a ceiling rail 83 to travel reciprocally along a predetermined route on the working passage 81. A ground side controller 85 is positioned at one end portion of the predetermined route and a crane side controller 86 is fitted to the stacker crane 84. A command signal issued from the ground side controller 85 is sent out to the crane side controller 86 via an optical transmission system consisting of an optical transmitter 87a and an optical receiver 87b.
Then, a travel electric motor 88A is driven by a travel control portion 86a in the crane side controller 86 to travel the stacker crane 84. A travel position is sensed via a pulse generator (abbreviated as "PG" hereinafter) 88B of the travel electric motor 88A. Thus, the stacker crane 84 is moved up to a predetermined position. Further, a lift electric motor 89A is driven by a lift control portion 86b of the crane side controller 86 to lift a lift table 90. A height position of the lift table 90 is sensed via a PG 89B of the lift electric motor 89A. Thus, the lift table 90 is moved vertically up to a predetermined height. In addition, a transfer electric motor is driven by a transfer control portion 86c of the crane side controller 86 to take in and out a transfer member of a transfer device 91. A taking-in-and-out position of the transfer member is sensed via a transfer motor PG. Thus, transfer of the article to and from the article storage section is carried out.
However, in the above configuration in the related art, the crane side controller 86 and its assisting devices are fitted to the stacker crane 84. Therefore, there have been demands for a reduction in weight and simplification of the stacker crane 84 and thus a higher-speed operation of the stacker crane 84.

Traveling body system, automated storage and retrieval system, and method for controlling traveling body


This invention provides modified enzymes comprising one or more amino acid residues replaced by cysteine residues, where the cysteine residues are modified by replacing the thiol hydrogen in the cysteine residues with a substituent group providing a thiol side chain comprising a multiply charged moiety. The enzymes show improved interaction and/or specificity and/or activity with charged substrates.

For both protein chemistry (Nilsson et al. (1992) Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 2: 569-575; LaVallie and McCoy (1995) Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 6: 501-506; Uhlen and Moks (1990) Methods Enzymol. 185: 129-143) and organic synthesis applications (Sears and Wong (1996) Biotechnol. Prog. 12: 423-433; Faber (1997) Biotransformations in Organic Synthesis: 3rd ed. Springer-Verlag: Heidelberg; Roberts (1993) Preparative Biotransformations; Wiley: New York: 1993) it is desirable to have available a diverse toolbox of inexpensive proteases with high selectivity and diverse substrate preferences. To date the most extensively exploited class of enzymes in organic synthesis applications have been the hydrolases. Among these, the serine proteases have received considerable attention due, in part, to their often exquisite stereo-, region, and chemo-selectivities (Sears and Wong (1996) Biotechnol. Prog. 12: 423-433; Faber (1997) Biotransformations in Organic Synthesis: 3rd ed. Springer-Verlag: Heidelberg; Roberts (1993) Preparative Biotransformations; Wiley: New York: 1993; Moree et al. (1997) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 119: 3942-3947).
While over 3000 enzymes have now been reported, of which many are proteases, significantly fewer of the latter are available inexpensively from commercial sources (Faber (1997) Biotransformations in Organic Synthesis: 3rd ed. Springer-Verlag: Heidelberg; Roberts (1993) Preparative Biotransformations; Wiley: New York: 1993; Moree et al. (1997) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 119: 3942-3947; Jones (1986) Tetrahedron 42: 3351-3403). Furthermore, since wild type enzymes do not accept all substrate structures of synthetic interest, it is attractive to contemplate the tailoring of a readily available protease in order to expand their substrate specificities in a controlled manner with the ultimate goal of creating any desired specificity at will.
In this regard, the goal of specificity alteration of enzymes has already been targeted by several different approaches. For example, site-directed mutagenesis (Perona and Craik (1995) Protein Sci. 4: 337-360) and random mutagenesis (Arnold (1998) Acc. Chem. Res. 31(3): 125-131) have been employed to tailor enzyme specificity and have permitted some insights into the electrostatic (Wells et al. (1987) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 84: 5167-5171; Wells et al. (1987) Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 84: 1219-1223; Wells and Estell (1988) TIBS 13: 291-297; Bott et al. (1987) Pages 139-147 In: Biotech. Agric. Chem.; Lebanon, Mumma, Honeycutt, Duesing, eds.; Vol. ACS Symp. Ser. 334; Russell et al. (1987) J. Mol. Biol. 193: 803-813; Ballinger et al. (196) Biochemistry 33: 13579-13585), steric (Rheinnecker et al. (1994) Biochemistry 33: 221-225; Rheinnecker et al. (1993) Biochemistry 32(5): 1199-1203; Sørensen et al. (1993) Biochemistry 32: 8994-8999; Estell et al. (1986) Science 233: 659-663; Takagi et al. (1996) FEBS Lett. 395: 127-132; Takagi et al. (1997) Protein Eng. 10(9): 985-989), and hydrophobic (Estell et al. (1986) Science 233: 659-663; Wangikar et al. (1995) Biochemistry 34(38): 12302-12310; Bech et al. (1993) Biochemistry 32: 2845-2852) factors which govern enzyme-substrate interactions. However, the structural variations within these approaches are limited to the 20-natural amino acids. Consequently, biosynthetic methods have recently been developed to introduce unnatural amino acids into proteins (25. Cornish et al. (1995) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Eng. 34: 621-633; Parsons et al. (1998) Biochemistry 37: 6286-6294; Hohsaka et al. (1996) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 118(40): 9778-9779). Unnatural functionalities have also been incorporated by chemical modification techniques (Kuang et al. (1996) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 118: 10702-10706; Ory et al. (1998) Protein. Eng. 11(4): 253-261; Peterson: E. B.; Hilvert: D. Biochemistry 34: 6616-6620; Suckling: C. J.; Zhu: L.-M. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 3: 531-534; Rokita and Kaiser (1986) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 108: 4984-4987; Kokubo et al. (1987) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 109: 606-607; Radziejewski et al. (1985) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 107: 3352-3354). Generally, however, unnatural amino acid mutagenesis approach is not yet amenable to large scale preparations, and chemical modification alone is insufficiently specific.

Chemically modified enzymes with multiple charged variants

The Governing Council of the University of Toronto


In an embodiment of the present invention, a Trench MOSFET includes a trench region provided on a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate includes a P-type semiconductor substrate, a P-type semiconductor epitaxial layer, an N-type semiconductor body region, and a P-type semiconductor source diffusion. The substrate, the epitaxial layer, the body region, and the source diffusion are adjacently formed in this order. A P-type semiconductor channel region formed of a SiGe layer is provided on a bottom surface and a side wall of the trench region. This facilitates carrier movement in the channel region, reducing ON resistance of the Trench MOSFET. Thus, a Trench MOSFET allowing reduction in the ON resistance without reducing a breakdown voltage is realized.

The Trench-type Vertical MOSFET, or simply Trench MOS, is widely used in power control electronics due to their efficient structure and low specific ON resistance.
FIGS. 7(a) to 7(f) are cross-sectional diagrams illustrating the steps of producing the prior art typical structure of an N-channel Trench MOSFET (see Non-Patent Reference 1, for example). Two key parameters in the Trench MOSFET are (a) the breakdown voltage (hereinafter, the voltage will be referred to as "BVdss" sometimes), and (b) the ON resistance (hereinafter, the resistance will be referred to as "RON" sometimes).
The physical location of respective components of the MOSFET, and meaning of the different components of the ON resistance are illustrated in FIG. 8. In this figure, Rs is the resistance of the diffusion and contact resistance component of the source region, Rch is the resistance of the induced MOSFET channel, Racc is the resistance of the accumulation region of the gate and the drain, Rdrift is the resistance of the low-doped drain region, and Rsub is the resistance of the highly doped drain (substrate) region.
The relationship described by the following formula is satisfied between the ON resistance (Ron) of the MOSFET and the components of the resistances shown in FIG. 8:RON=Rsub+Rch+Racc+Rdrift+Rsub.In general, there is a tradeoff between RON and BVdss since to get a high breakdown voltage (BVdss), a low impurity doped drift region is needed. This results in an increase in Rdrift and therefore results in an increase in the total ON resistance (RON) of the MOSFET.
Prior art techniques to reduce the specific ON resistance of the Trench MOSFET rely on reduction of the cell pitch illustrated in FIG. 9. The increase of the breakdown voltage includes optimization of the trench depth and shape of the trench as shown in FIG. 10 (see Patent Reference 1, for example). FIG. 11 shows the MOSFET structure and doping profile to reduce the breakdown voltage degradation at the corner of the Trench (see Patent Reference 2, for example).
Besides the foregoing documents, the following documents describe other prior art techniques in relation to the Trench MOSFET: Patent Reference 3, which describes the semiconductor and the fabrication method thereof; Patent Reference 4 describing the p-channel Trench MOSFET, and Patent Reference 5 describing the semiconductor apparatus and the fabrication method thereof.    [Patent Reference 1] Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,331 (published on Dec. 1, 1992)    [Patent Reference 2] Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,160 (published on Jan. 9, 1990)    [Patent Reference 3] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 23092/1996 (Tokukaihei 8-23092) (published on Jan. 23, 1996)    [Patent Reference 4] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 354794/1999 (Tokukaihei 11-354794) (Dec. 24, 1999)    [Patent Reference 5] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 324197/2003 (Tokukai 2003-324197) (Nov. 14, 2003)    [Non-Patent Reference 1] Krishna Shenai, "Optimized Trench MOSFET Technologies for Power Devices", IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 39, no. 6, pp. 1435-1443, June 1992.

Trench type MOSFET and method of fabricating the same


A system and method for integrating a workflow platform with an electronic health record system (EHRS) is disclosed. The system and method includes at least: receiving from the EHRS, a context tag embedded in a screen of the EHRS that is currently being presented to a user, where the context tag includes: an authentication parameter identifying the user accessing the screen, and a context identification parameter identifying a context of the screen. Authentication is performed to authenticate the user based on the authentication parameter. Based on authenticating the user, launch of the workflow platform is initiated. The workflow platform is populated with data retrieved based on the context identification parameter such that which data is retrieved depends on the context identification parameter.

An EHR system is an enterprise software application commonly used to allow healthcare providers, such as doctors, nurses, clinicians, hospitals, labs, and clinics, etc., to electronically access, store, and maintain patient health information in a digital format, and to share the patient health information across different healthcare settings. The patient health information can include a range of data, including patient demographics data, medical history, medication, allergies, immunization status, laboratory test results, radiology images, vital signs, personal statistics like age and weight, and billing information, as examples.
EHR systems are a drastic improvement over paper-based medical records. Paper-based medical records require a large amount of storage space. Paper records are often stored in different locations, and different medical professionals may each have different and incomplete records about the same patient. Obtaining paper records from multiple locations for review by a health care provider may be time consuming and complicated. In contrast, in EHR systems data is stored in digital format, and thus may be accessed from anywhere. EHR systems significantly simplify the reviewing process for health care providers. Because data in EHR systems is much more accessible, coordination of medical care is vastly improved.
EHR systems also decrease the risk of misreading errors by health care professionals. Poor legibility is often associated with handwritten, paper medical records, which can lead to medical errors. Data in EHR systems, on the other hand, is inherently legible given that it is typically stored in typeface. In addition, EHR systems enhance the standardization of forms, terminology and abbreviations, and data input, which help ensure reliability of medical records. Further, records in EHRS may be transferred electronically, thus reducing delays and errors in recording prescriptions or communicating laboratory test results.
Patient health information stored in EHR systems may be shared, with patient consent and in compliance with regulatory requirements, amongst healthcare professionals or between business units within the healthcare provider's organization using EHR systems. The sharing may be done through network-connected, enterprise-wide information systems or other information networks and exchanges that connect to EHR systems. As a result, one set of patient health information and records may be generated, maintained, and accessed by a plurality of individuals and systems, via EHR systems, resulting in healthcare providers being able to provide more streamlined and consistent care to patients.
Conventional EHR systems, however, have limitations. One limitation is that EHR systems often lacks user friendly graphical user interface (GUI) screens because these systems often require healthcare providers to flip through multiple screens to view all of the patient health information. For example, a patient's lab results may be viewed on one screen, a patient's x-rays or other medical images may be viewed on another screen, and patient billing and insurance information may be viewed on yet another screen. Thus, healthcare providers must flip through multiple screens to fully comprehend and obtain patient health information. This is cumbersome and inefficient when providing care to patients, especially in situations where certain health information is better viewed together (i.e., side-by-side) to aid in the healthcare provider's assessment of the patient's health or diagnosis.
Another limitation is the lack of customizability of EHR systems. EHR systems are software applications, and come with a predefined set of functionalities. That predefined set of functionalities may not meet the specific needs of certain healthcare providers.
Some EHR systems may have difficulty in exchanging data between healthcare providers that are using legacy systems and the EHR systems. Because different healthcare providers may use different legacy systems, each of which may have different data and file formats, to achieve widespread use and adoption, EHR systems have historically had to account for, and facilitate integration of, various systems and data formats, and ensure compatibility between data exchanged between these systems. This is cumbersome to implement and complex to manage.
To improve data exchange between legacy systems and EHR systems, standards have been developed to facilitate this data exchange. These standards include the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard.
The FHIR standard is a healthcare data exchange standard describing and defining data formats for exchanging electronic health records. The goal of FHIR is to facilitate interoperation between legacy healthcare systems and EHR systems, and to make it easy to provide health care information to healthcare providers and individuals on a wide variety of devices from computers to tablets to cell phones, and to allow third-party application developers to provide custom software applications to supplement the functioning of EHR systems, and to allow the custom software applications to easily integrated into existing systems. FHIR provides the standard data formats by which to do this.
SMART on FHIR is a technology built using the FHIR standard, and allows third-party application developers to use FHIR data formats to write software applications, using the SMART on FHIR API, to allow the custom software applications to integrate with EHR systems and exchange data between the custom software applications and EHR systems. Using SMART on FHIR as the underlying protocol, custom software applications may be integrated with any EHR systems compatible with SMART on FHIR to exchange data. Today's leading EHR systems support SMART on FHIR technology, which is built into the EHR systems. With the use of FHIR and SMART on FHIR, custom software applications may be integrated with or interfaced with an EHR system to facilitate data exchange between the software applications, the EHR system, and/or other systems.
However, a need still remains for a user friendly platform to populate relevant custom software applications for healthcare providers while they use EHR systems.
Systems and methods are needed to address these issues.

Workflow platform to integrate with an electronic health record system


Metallic aerogel compositions comprising an aerogel, e.g., RF or carbon aerogel, having metallic particles dispersed on its surface are disclosed. The aerogel compositions can have a uniform distribution of small metallic particles, e.g., 1 nanometer average particle diameter. Also disclosed are processes for making the aerogel compositions comprising contacting an aerogel with a supercritical fluid containing a metallic compound. The aerogel compositions are useful, for example in the manufacture of fuel cell electrodes.

Aerogels are porous materials that are produced by polycondensation reactions known in the art as the "sol-gel process". A common feature among aerogels is their small inter-connected pores. The aerogel chemical composition, microstructure and physical properties can be controlled at the nanometer scale due to sol-gel processing. There are three major types of aerogels—inorganic, organic and carbon aerogels. Inorganic aerogels can be obtained by supercritical drying of highly cross-linked and transparent hydrogels synthesized by polycondensation of metal alkoxides. Silica aerogels are the most well known inorganic aerogels. Organic aerogels can be synthesized by supercritical drying of the gels obtained by the sol-gel polycondensation reaction of monomers such as, for example, resorcinol with formaldehyde, in aqueous solutions. Carbon aerogels can be obtained by pyrolyzing the organic aerogels at elevated temperatures.
Aerogels, e.g., carbon aerogels (also referred to in the art as carbon foams) have been produced by various methods for a variety of applications. These prior processes are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,290 issued Feb. 21, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,218 issued Oct. 10, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,804 issued Mar. 5, 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,085 issued Feb. 4, 1992; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,252,620 issued Oct. 12, 1993. Typically, efforts have been directed to the development of carbon aerogels for use as electrodes and include all forms of carbon aerogels, monolithic, granular or microspheres. Such electrodes find use, for example, in energy storage devices, e.g., capacitors and batteries, as well as for fuel cells, e.g., proton exchange membrane ("PEM") fuel cells and electrocapacitive deionization devices, etc. These efforts are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,855 issued Nov. 9, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,971 issued Jun. 25, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,168 issued May 20, 1995; U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,341 issued Apr. 16, 1996; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,798, issued Jan. 4, 2000.
Additives can be incorporated into aerogels to make aerogel compositions (also referred to herein as "aerogel composites"). The role of the additives is to enhance the properties of pure aerogels or to impart additional desirable properties depending on the application. In general, aerogel composites are typically prepared using two different methods. The first one involves adding the additive to the sol prior to polymerization and the second method involves contacting the produced aerogel with a liquid or gaseous stream containing the additive.
Ye et al., Can. J. Chem. 75:1666-1673 (1997) disclose the preparation of polyacrylonitrile/platinum aerogel composites by dipping carbonized polyacrylonitrile ("PAN") aerogels in hexachloroplatinic (H2PtCl6) solution. The precursor (H2PtCl6) was added prior to the gelatin stage. It is disclosed that incorporating the platinum precursor before the gelatin stage resulted in a more homogeneous distribution of platinum.
Pajonk et al., Preparation of Catalysts VII, 1998, 167 (1997), disclose a method to make carbon aerogels and load platinum onto the aerogels, whereby resorcinol-formaldehyde ("RF") aerogels were obtained by polymerization in acetone instead of water and perchloric acid was used as the catalyst. After curing and supercritical extraction of acetone, the samples were pyrolyzed. Subsequently, the samples were impregnated with H2PtCl6 in acetone. Then, acetone was supercritically extracted and the sample was calcined and reduced with hydrogen. The dispersion of platinum was reported to be 23% and the platinum content was reported to be 0.44 wt %.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,851,947, issued Dec. 22, 1998, discloses a method for incorporating noble metals into inorganic aerogels. The metal precursors were added to the sol. After gelatin, the ethanol was removed by supercritical drying.
Miller et al., J. Electrochem Soc., 144 (No. 12) (1997); Lanngmuir 15:799-806 (1999) disclose the deposition of ruthenium nanoparticles on carbon aerogels. Carbon aerogels were prepared and impregnated with ruthenium 2,4 pentanedionate by chemical vapor impregnation.
Maldonado-Hodar et al., Carbon 37, 1199-1205 (1999), disclose a series of carbon aerogels containing Pt, Pd and Ag. Pt(NH3)4Cl2, PdCl2 and Ag(CH3COO) were used as the polymerization catalyst in the initial solution for preparation of RF aerogels. After curing, water was exchanged with acetone and acetone was extracted by supercritical carbon dioxide. Subsequently, the aerogels were pyrolyzed in flowing nitrogen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,027, issued Aug. 4, 1998, discloses methods for depositing a film of material on the surface of a substrate by i) dissolving a precursor of the material into a supercritical or near-supercritical solvent to form a supercritical or near-supercritical solution; ii) exposing the substrate to the solution, under conditions at which the precursor is stable in the solution; and iii) mixing a reaction reagent into the solution under conditions that initiate a chemical reaction involving the precursor, thereby depositing the material onto the solid substrate, while maintaining supercritical or near-supercritical conditions. The patent also discloses similar methods for depositing material particles into porous solids, and films of materials on substrates or porous solids having material particles deposited in them.
Processes such as described above often have inadequate control over the manner in which the metallic particles are incorporated, thereby providing aerogel compositions having inconsistent metal particle sizes and broad particle size distributions. This has been one of the factors which have inhibited the commercialization of aerogels, particularly for use in PEM fuel cells which currently require large amount of platinum to obtain an acceptable level of performance. Decreasing the amount of platinum used in fuel cells would be beneficial for fuel cell based power generation systems to compete with internal combustion engines.
Accordingly, aerogel compositions comprising aerogels having metallic particles, e.g., platinum, dispersed within, and processes for making such aerogels, are desired. Desirably, such aerogel compositions would contain metal particles having a small particle size, e.g., 4 nanometers or less, with a narrow particle size distribution.


A specific resistance value adjustment apparatus includes: a hollow fiber membrane module; a module passing pipe which passes through the hollow fiber membrane module; a bypassing pipe which bypasses the hollow fiber membrane module; a liquid discharge pipe which communicates with the module passing pipe and the bypassing pipe through a joint portion; a first flow rate detection unit which detects a first flow rate of a liquid flowing to at least one of a liquid supply pipe and the liquid discharge pipe; a control valve which opens and closes the module passing pipe; and a control unit which sets an opening degree of the control valve in response to the first flow rate detected by the first flow rate detection unit.

In a semiconductor or liquid crystal manufacturing process, a substrate is cleaned by using ultrapure water. In this case, when a specific resistance value of ultrapure water is high, static electricity is generated. Accordingly, dielectric breakdown or reattachment of fine particles causes a remarkable adverse effect on product yield. In order to solve such a problem, a method using a hydrophobic hollow fiber membrane module has been proposed. In this method, a gas such as a carbonic acid gas or an ammonia gas is dissolved in ultrapure water by using a hollow fiber membrane module. Then, ions are generated by dissociation equilibrium and a specific resistance value of ultrapure water is lowered by the generated ions.
Further, in the process of cleaning and dicing the substrate, a flow variation of ultrapure water is severe. Therefore, Patent Literatures 1 and 2 propose a technique of stabilizing a specific resistance value even when a flow rate changes. In the technique described in Patent Literature 1, a hollow fiber membrane module which produces a small flow rate of gas addition ultrapure water and a bypassing pipe through which a large flow rate of ultrapure water passes are provided. Then, the produced gas addition ultrapure water and ultrapure water passing through the bypassing pipe are joined. Accordingly, the specific resistance value of ultrapure water can be easily adjusted. However, in the technique described in Patent Literature 1, there is a case in which the specific resistance value of ultrapure water increases since the flow rate of the ultrapure water supplied to the hollow fiber membrane module decreases with respect to the flow rate of the ultrapure water bypassing the hollow fiber membrane module when the flow rate of the ultrapure water is small. Therefore, in the technique described in Patent Literature 2, a plurality of bypassing pipes are provided and a shut valve is provided in one or a plurality of bypassing pipes. Then, when the flow rate of the ultrapure water decreases, the shut valve is partly or entirely opened. Accordingly, since it is possible to suppress a decrease in flow rate of ultrapure water supplied to the hollow fiber membrane module with respect to the flow rate of the ultrapure water bypassing the hollow fiber membrane module even when the flow rate of the ultrapure water is small, it is possible to suppress an increase in specific resistance value of ultrapure water.

Resistivity adjustment device and resistivity adjustment method


A device for detecting the insulation resistance of a high-voltage battery system of a motor vehicle that includes a high-voltage battery and a high-voltage component which is operatively connected to terminals of the high-voltage battery via converters. The device includes a reference resistor operatively connected to the terminals of the high-voltage battery via switches, with a voltage measurement device configured to detect the voltage present between each respective terminal and a reference potential of the vehicle; a voltage measurement device configured to measure the voltage between the terminals; and a coupling circuit configured to monitor the high-voltage component when the contactors are open.

High-voltage systems of electrically assisted or fully electrically driven vehicles require monitoring in terms of their insulation level. The voltages on the battery side have a level of up to several 100 volts, namely the HV range (high-voltage range). The batteries in the HV range are coupled to a high-voltage component in the form of current distribution via HV contactors. The current distribution acts on the converters, for example, for the drive machines in the drive or generator mode. In turn, in the high-voltage range the converters apply alternating current (three phases) to the corresponding machines.
In addition, the on-board power supply system designed for the low-voltage range (12V, 24V) is also supplied via a DC-to-DC converter. The high-voltage electrics and the low-voltage electrics are in this case DC-isolated from one another. All of the lines in the HV range (i.e., both the positive and the negative line on the DC side) are insulated with respect to the vehicle earth, the bodywork.
The insulation and line configuration is such that an insulation fault in a line or a terminal does not directly result in any risk, i.e., in a hazardous touch voltage between the housing and earth. Such a first insulation fault does not bring about a short circuit of the battery terminals either. This is only the case when the second line also has an insulation fault. In order to locate such insulation faults as early as possible, insulation detection systems are provided which, as an on-board device, constantly check the insulation state and indicate it to the driver or initiate safety measures.
DD 279 958 A1 describes, in the case of an electrically driven vehicle, a circuit arrangement for monitoring the insulation state of a fraction circuit with respect to other vehicle parts. What is provided is an AC voltage generator which is adjacent to the vehicle earth on one side and has an internal resistance which is matched to the minimum permissible insulation resistance. The AC voltage generator is connected to the traction circuit to be monitored via capacitor circuits. The output is connected to a threshold value switch. The threshold value switch responds to an undershoot of the AC voltage.
DE 43 39 946 A1 describes a method for insulation monitoring of unearthed DC systems. Alternately, different pulse voltage values are applied as measurement voltage via resistive system coupling. The measurement current produced in the settled state is detected. In order to determine the ohmic insulation resistance, differences between successive measurement current values are used.
A circuit arrangement for determining the insulation resistance of a rechargeable battery is described in DE 196 1897 B4. The no-load voltage and the load voltage is measured, for which purpose two capacitors are connected in series between the battery terminals. The common point of the capacitors is connected to earth via a bleeder resistor. Measurement amplifiers are connected by switching means for predetermined times for measuring the partial voltages set across the capacitors.
A circuit arrangement for insulation and contactor monitoring of the power supply of an electric drive is disclosed in DE 10 2006 050 529 A1. High-voltage battery and power electronics are connected to one another via contactors. A voltage source connected to the vehicle earth produces a measurement voltage. Two voltmeters measure the voltage steps produced by the measurement voltage with respect to the vehicle earth. The voltage source couples the measurement voltage onto the line via measuring resistors in such a way that at least one contactor is connected between the feed point and the measurement point.
In order to check the contact between a high-voltage battery and the lines of a high-voltage system, DE 10 2008 012 418 A1 proposes a capacitor which is arranged in parallel with the load and which is charged via a precharging resistor and is discharged to a prescribed relatively low voltage value in the state in which it is disconnected from the battery. The capacitor used can be that of the intermediate circuit of an inverter. The absence of a charge current across the charging resistor is assessed as being an improper connection of the battery to the high-voltage system.

Device for detecting the insulation resistance of a high voltage battery system


An air conditioner has an outdoor unit and a plurality of room units supplied with a refrigerant from the outdoor unit. The outdoor unit and the room units are connected by a plurality of refrigerant pipes. In a recovery operation for returning refrigerator oil from the room units, the refrigerant pipes and the like to the outdoor unit, the plurality of room units are divided into a plurality of room unit groups, and the recovery operation of the refrigerant is carried out for each of the room unit groups.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of returning a refrigerator oil of an air conditioner by which in operating a refrigerating cycle constituted to circulate a mixture of an HFC refrigerant and refrigerator oil by a compressor, when the refrigerator oil discharged from the compressor along with the refrigerant is adhered to inner walls or the like of refrigerant pipes, a heat side heat exchanger, user side heat exchangers and the like in the refrigerating cycle and the refrigerator oil present in the compressor is reduced, a recovery operation carried out for returning the refrigerator oil can be performed in a short period of time and reliably.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, in an air conditioner, an outdoor unit mounted with a compressor, an accumulator, heat side heat exchangers and the like and room units mounted with user side heat exchangers, expansion valves and the like, are connected by refrigerant pipes to establish a refrigerating cycle, and a mixture of a refrigerant and a refrigerator oil is circulated in the refrigerating cycle.
The mixture is made to flow from the outdoor unit to the room units, subjected to heat exchange (condensing operation or evaporating operation) at the user side heat exchangers, returned to the accumulator, and thereafter drawn again to the compressor. However, depending on the difference of elevation between the outdoor unit and the room units, a prolonged pipeline and the solubility of the refrigerant in respect of the refrigerator oil, some of the refrigerator oil may not be returned to the accumulator, but adheres to or remains at the inner walls of the refrigerant pipes, the inside of the user side heat exchangers and the like.
Hence, there are many air conditioners having an outdoor unit installed on the roof, to evaluate return of the refrigerator oil at predetermined intervals in order to avoid the amount of the refrigerator oil in the compressor from decreasing to less than a necessary amount.
The operation of returning the refrigerator oil is carried out by, for example, fully opening expansion valves of the room units operating as pressure reducing devices (or the opening degree is enlarged more than that in normal heating and cooling operation in accordance with the capacity of the room units) and by operating the compressor at maximum capacity.
That is, the amount of supply of the mixture of the refrigerant and the refrigerator oil to the room units is increased by operating the compressor at high power by which the flow rate of the mixture is accelerated in the refrigerant pipes and the refrigerator oil is returned by blowing off the refrigerator oil adhered to the inner walls of the refrigerant pipes and the like.
Meanwhile, the solubility of the refrigerant in respect of the refrigerator oil differs depending on the kind of the refrigerant, and when the solubility of the refrigerant is low (when the compatibility is poor), the viscosity of the refrigerator oil is increased as a result. For example, in the case of an HFC refrigerant, the solubility of the refrigerant in respect of the refrigerator oil is lower than the solubilities of CFC and HCFC refrigerants in respect of the refrigerator oil, and when the same refrigerator oil is used the viscosity of the refrigerator oil in refrigerant pipes is increased more than those of the CFC and HCFC refrigerants. Therefore, a larger flow rate of the refrigerant is required to return the refrigerator oil adhered to the refrigerant pipes.
Meanwhile, in the case of a so-called multi-unit type air conditioner where a plurality of room units are connected to one outdoor unit, the refrigerant pipes are long and complicated. Further, the amount of the refrigerator oil is determined based on the maximum capacity of a compressor, and accordingly the refrigerator oil is generally decreased in comparison with the amount of the refrigerant, and it becomes important to return effectively the refrigerator oil by a recovery operation.
Normally, in the case of such a multi-unit type air conditioner as described above, a total of the capacities of the plurality of room units is actually set to be larger than the capacity of the compressor of the outdoor unit. This is mainly due to the following reason.
The load of air conditioning in rooms is varied during one day and for example, considering the refrigerating operation, in the morning the load of an east side room is increased by direct sunlight, and in the afternoon, the load of a west side room is increased. Accordingly, by selecting the capacity of the outdoor unit in accordance with a total of loads in all the rooms, the investment cost and a space for installing the outdoor unit can be reduced.
Therefore, in the recovery operation for returning the refrigerator oil adhered to the refrigerant pipes for connecting the outdoor unit and the room units or devices in the room units to the outdoor unit (compressor), even when, for example, expansion valves of all the room units are fully opened and the compressor is driven by the maximum capacity, if an HFC refrigerant is used, an amount of circulating the refrigerant necessary for rated capacities of the respective room units cannot be provided. That is, the necessary flow rate of the refrigerant cannot be provided, and therefore complete recovery (returning) of the refrigerator oil cannot be achieved.

Method of returning refrigerator oil of air conditioner


The present invention provides for a coupling assembly for releasably connecting a trash container with a fixed object, such as a wall or cabinet. The coupling assembly acts to prevent the trash container from being easily tipped onto its side, while allowing user to easily disconnect the trash container from the fixed object. The coupling apparatus includes a first coupling connected with the fixed object a second coupling member connected with the trash container. The second coupling member includes an extended portion adapted to be received within a pocket on the first coupling member. The coupling assembly can be configured to work with trash containers having different shapes and sizes. The trash container can also include a lid further restrict access to the inside of the trash container. As described below, a latch or clasp can also be used to selectively lock the lid in closed position.

a. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to trash containers, and more particularly, a coupling apparatus for releasably connecting trash containers with a fixed object, such as a wall or cabinet.
b. Background Art
Trash containers are well known in the art. Many trash containers are adapted for use in a household or office environment for temporary storage of waste and garbage. Based on a regularly scheduled janitorial service or once such a trash container is full, the trash container is typically emptied and its contents transported to a dump or other similar facility. Because these containers are adapted for use in a household or office environment, they are typically configured to hold a relatively small volume of garbage. Many such trash containers are configured with a body having a bottom side adapted to be supported on a floor or a ground surface. Sides extending upward from the bottom to an open top define a volume of space to hold refuse and garbage deposited therein. Because these trash containers typically have a relatively high center of gravity, a relatively small tipping force applied to a side of the trash container can cause the trash container to be tipped onto a side.
Tipping forces applied to a trash container can come from any number of sources. For example, an animal interested in eating garbage placed in a trash container can sometimes tip a trash container onto its side in order to gain access to the garbage contained therein. Household pets, such as dogs, are notorious for this sort of behavior. In another example, a curious toddler may tip the container onto its side. In yet another scenario, a pedestrian inadvertently bumping into the trash container can cause the container to tip onto its side. Sometimes, trash containers set in an outdoor environment can be tipped over due to wind forces. Once a trash container is tipped onto its side, some garbage contained therein may spill from the open top and onto the floor, creating an unwanted mess. Further, the open top can provide easy access for an animal or toddler to the remaining garbage inside container. Sometimes the trash container is placed near or against a wall to remove it from general traffic areas and to provide some additional stability to prevent tipping. However, placing a trash container near or against a wall is often not enough to prevent a hungry pet or curious toddler from tipping the container onto its side.

Coupling assembly for releasably connecting a trash container with a fixed object


An input device that inputs information by a slide operation depending on an operation body contains a housing including an operation surface, a detection unit that is provided in the housing and detects a slide position inputted by a slide operation depending on the operation body, and an operation unit that covers at least a portion of the detection unit and is slide-operated along the operation surface of the housing. The operation unit has a convex shape which becomes thicker along the sliding direction from one portion of the operation surface of the housing and also which becomes thinner toward the other portion of the operation surface thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input device which is applicable to a digital camera, a video camera, a mobile phone, a mobile terminal device, a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as PC), a note type PC, a home system electronic apparatus and a remote controller thereof or the like, and an electronic apparatus using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
In resent years, it has become in such a state in which a user (operator) images a subject by using a digital camera with various kinds of operation modes and takes various contents in a mobile terminal device such as a mobile phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and the like so as to utilize them. These apparatuses such as the digital camera, the mobile terminal device and the like are provided with input devices. As the input device, a key board, an input unit of a JOG dial or the like, and a touch panel formed by combining a display unit, and the like are often used.
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of an input device 500 relating to related art. The input device 500 shown in FIG. 1 contains a housing 501, a rotary operation unit (hereinafter, referred to as JOG dial 502), a circuit board 503 and a dome switch 504.
The input device 500 has the housing 501 with a predetermined size and the housing 501 has an opening portion 505 at the side portion thereof. The jog dial 502 is mounted on the circuit board 503 in a state in which a key-top portion of the JOG dial 502 is exposed from this opening portion 505. The JOG dial 502 has a circular shape and is mounted rotatably on the circuit board 503 through a shaft 506 (rotation axis). The JOG dial 502 excluding the key-top portion thereof occupies a space within the housing 501.
The JOG dial 502 also has a magnetic material such as a magnet or the like, which is not shown, on the rear surface thereof. Two hall ICs 507, 508, which are placed at the positions interlinking the magnetic field caused by this magnetic material, are mounted on the circuit board 503 with being separated by a predetermined angle, thereby allowing a two-phase rotation detection signal to be outputted by a fact that the magnetic material of the rear surface of the JOG dial cross the hall ICs 507, 508.
Also, a bias member (not shown) biases the shaft 506 from the circuit board 503 toward the outside of the housing 501. The dome switch 504 is mounted on the circuit board 503 which is facing in parallel with the axial direction of the shaft 506 and the dome switch 504 can be turned on or off when the JOG dial 502 is pressed-into against biasing force of the bias member.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-256120 discloses a mobile information terminal and a program therefor in connection with an input device including this kind of JOG dial (see Pages 2 to 3 and FIG. 1). This mobile information terminal contains a terminal device main body, a display unit on the terminal device main body, and a JOG dial approximately at the center of the main body. The JOG dial is provided at a position separated from that of the display unit. This JOG dial rotates clockwise or counterclockwise and an image displayed on the display unit rotates in cooperation with this rotation. Furthermore, when the JOG dial is pushed down in the direction of the main body, the image area changes.
Also, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-070505 discloses an input device mountable on an air conditioner or an electronic apparatus such as audio in connection with an input device accompanied by vibrations (see Page 5 and FIG. 3). This input device contains an operation unit possessing functions of a rotary switch, of a push switch, and of a slide switch concurrently, and the selection of the operation item and input determination operation are executed by rotating, sliding or depressing the operation unit. Any vibrations are accompanied with an occasion of the input determination operation.
FIG. 2 shows a configuration of another input device 600 relating to related art. The input device 600 shown in FIG. 2 includes a key-top 602 of a non-rotary type, which has a flat front surface. The input device 600 has a predetermined sized housing 601 and an opening portion 605 at a side portion of the housing 601. The key-top 602 is mounted movably on a circuit board with a part of the key-top 602 being exposed from this opening portion 605. The key-top 602 is mounted so that it is inserted into the opening portion 605 of the housing 601 and the non-operation surface thereof faces the inside of the housing 601. The key-top 602 has a flange 606 and this flange 606 is hooked on an inside portion of the housing 601 around the opening portion 605. This enables the key-top 602 to be prevented from slipping out of the opening portion 605.
A circuit board 603 is provided on the inside of the key-top 602 and the circuit board 603 is provided with a dome switch 604 which is operated so as to be turned on or/and off by the press-in operation of the key-top 602. On the inside of the key-top 602, there are arranged a sensor 613, a pusher piece 619, the dome switch 604, and the circuit board 603 in this order. The pusher piece 619 is arranged so as to be sandwiched between the sensor 613 and the side portion of the circuit board 603. When the key-top 602 having the flat front surface is mounted with respect to a side portion of the housing in this manner, the key-top 602 hardly occupies a space within the housing as compared with the above-mentioned JOG dial.
Also, Japanese Patent Application Publication Heisei 02-230310 discloses a menu selection device in connection with a function of an input device (see Page 2 and FIG. 1). This menu selection device includes an item selector and an item input unit. The item input unit is provided on the item selector and the selection and the input of an item are allotted to the same key, and it is constituted such that the item display key and the item selection input key are juxtaposed.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-063230 discloses an input device in connection with a key-top exposed from an opening portion (see Page 9 and FIG. 16). This input device is provided with a window opening at a predetermined position of a casing and an item selection is executed by slide-operating an operation button exposed from this window opening, changeover of an item selection screen of page shift, scroll or the like is executed by press-operating another operation knob.
Also, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-063227 discloses an input device (see Page 8 and FIG. 15). This input device is provided with an window opening at a predetermined position of a casing, an item selection is executed by slide-operating an operation button exposed from this window opening, and a predetermined region in the specified item selection screen is zoom-displayed by press-operating another operation knob.

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.


Only a video cut (containing a frame) designated by a user is automatically and correctly extracted directly from a video image under playing operation at high speed. A judgement is made as to whether or not the frame of the video image is designated by the user. When such a user designation is made, a detection is made of a change point in the video cut containing this designated frame (reverse playing direction, forward playing direction). Under such a condition that a frame image immediately before this change point is displayed, the playing operation of the video image is brought into a pause state. Accordingly, only the video cut desired by the user can be extracted during a single playing operation of the video image, and the video image can be edited in a high efficiency.

The present invention relates to a technique for detecting a change point of a video cut of a video image (continuous video image section photographed by a single video camera) stored in a video tape, a disk and the like, and also to a technique for playing/editing the video image by using this detecting technique. In particular, the present invention concerns a change-point-detection control method of a video image suitable for carrying out the editing work of the video image in a high efficiency, to a play-stop control method performed based on this change-point-detection control method, and to a video image editing system with employment of these control methods.
Very recently, video image (moving image) information could be utilized in digital forms since high-speed computers are available and storage devices with large memory capacities are available. Especially, in the editing field of video images, digitalized video images could be handled in photographing apparatuses and editing apparatuses, by which television broadcast programs are manufactured, video programs are formed, and hyper media moving pictures are manufactured. For instance, "Media Composer", "Video Shop" and the like are marketed by Avid Technology firm in U.S.A. as such video image editing apparatuses.
To effectively proceed with editing works of video images, image playing operations are preferably performed in a cut wise when contents of the video images are confirmed. This is because only a content of each video cut can be investigated without being affected by the contents of other video cuts. Also, it is a video cut and store this extracted video cut in order to utilize a storage device in a high efficiency.
However, the above-described products may provide only the editing work steps, but cannot automatically extract only each of video cuts to play only the extracted video cuts even when a plurality of video cuts are contained in picture elements. Therefore, in order to fine out a video cut desired by a user from a large number of video cuts contained in picture elements by using such an editing apparatus, contents of video images must be confirmed by repeatly carrying out the fast forward operation and the rewind operation by the user himself. Also, to extract a desirable video cut from the picture elements, the operator must find out the first frame (IN frame) and the last frame (OUT frame) of the video cut by utilizing the jog-shuttle dial, the scroll bar of the computer screen, and the like, while confirming the images and the sounds in unit one frame in the manual manner. This work should give heavy work loads to beginners and unexperienced editors, and would lower the editing work efficiency.
As to the techniques capable of easily confirming the contents of picture elements based on the video cuts, there are, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 4-111181 (i.e., CHANGE POINT DETECTING METHOD OF MOVING PICTURES" Japanese Patent Application No. 2-230930, U.S Pat. No. 5,083,860), and Japanese Patent Application No. 7-32027 ("METHOD FOR DETECTING CHANGE POINTS IN MOVING PICTURES AND APPARATUS") invented by Inventors of the present invention. These techniques can automatically segment the video image every video cut based upon the feature amounts of the images and the sounds of the video image, and can form the list of the still images as the typical images for the respective video cuts. Since this list of the typical images indicates the contents of the video image such as a table and an index of a book, the operators need not confirm the video image of the elements by frequently performing the fast forward operation and the rewind operation. Since the video image can be played in a segment unit called as a video cut, these techniques are useful to grasp the structure of the video image, and may achieve that a rough structure is conceivable during the editing work.
However, there are many possibilities that similar scenes are photographed several times as picture elements. At this time, generally speaking, typical images one similar to each other. Furthermore, there are other possibilities that since the photographing angle of the camera is varied during the photographing operation and also the subject under photograph is moved, the contents of the pictures are changed in the video cuts. Therefore, it is rather difficult to correctly grasp the contents of the video cuts only from the typical images (characteristic images). Thus, such a content confirming work is required by observing many video cuts which are most likely used in the editing work.
Although the video cut is automatically segmented, the picture elements must be previously segmented into the video cuts in order to form the list. To precisely segment the picture elements in the frame wise with respect to each video cut, the frame images contained in the video image must be compared with each other one by one. As a result, to execute the list forming process by the automatic video segment, the same or more time is required, as compared with the time required to play the overall video image. Thus, the preparation time until the user can commence the editing work would be prolonged. For instance, more than 1 hour is needed when picture elements for 1 hour are segmented into video cuts. This problem is not negligible with respect to such a quick-operable editing work, e.g., editing works of news programs. According to the experience rule available in the actual editing word, it is believed that "picture elements actually used in editing works are less than 10% of entire picture elements". Normally, since the video cuts actually used by the user are small among the photographed picture elements, it is not always preferable to segment all of the picture elements into the video cuts.
The problem of the conventional techniques to be solved are given as follows. That is, to extract a desirable video cut from the picture elements, the operator must find out the first frame (IN frame) and the last frame (OUT frame) of the video cut by utilizing the jog-shuttle dial, the scroll bar of the computer screen, and the like, while confirming the images and the sounds in unit one frame in the manual manner. Also, the list forming process by the automatic video cut segment would require the time longer than, or equal to that required when the overall video image is played, so that the preparation time would be prolonged until the user can commence the editing work. In other words, the automatic video cut extraction from the video image could not be limited to the video cut desired by the user.

Control method for detecting change points in motion picture images and for stopping reproduction thereof and control system for monitoring picture images utilizing the same


A charge pump has circuitry and implements a method for monitoring a synchronous load by using a first voltage threshold below a target output voltage and a second voltage threshold above a target output voltage. An output terminal is coupled to the load. Charge is demanded by clocking the load. When the target output voltage passes below the first voltage threshold, a first value representing a present size of a charging capacitance is stored as a stored first value, and a second stored value representing a needed changed size of the charging capacitance is used. The present size of the charging capacitance is changed in response to the passing of the target output voltage below the first voltage threshold. When demand for charge from the load is reduced, a present value is saved and a prior value is restored to change the size of the charging capacitance.

1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to charge pumps, and more specifically, to a charge pump for use with a synchronous load.
2. Related Art
Traditional charge pumps suffer from several drawbacks. For example, they are limited to a narrow range of output voltages and loads. This is because a charge pump is typically required to satisfy certain performance requirements. Traditional charge pumps when used to obtain a broader range of output voltages and loads fail to meet these performance requirements. One of the performance requirements relates to a ripple factor that the output of the voltage multiplier needs to satisfy. Traditional charge pumps stop the clock when the output voltage is greater than the regulation voltage and then depend on the load to depress the output voltage. This method of generating a regulated voltage suffers from excessive ripple.
Furthermore, the ability for a charge pump to provide sufficient charge to a load may depend on the respective frequencies of the charge pump and the load. In some cases, in order for a traditional charge pumps to provide sufficient charge to a load, the load is designed to demand charge from the pump at a frequency lower than that of the charge pump. However, this may result in slower charge transfer to the load.

Charge pump for use with a synchronous load


In a lens barrel, a group-2 lens frame, which is movable forwardly and backwardly, is fit into an inner peripheral portion of an M-cam frame which is rotatably supported. A cam groove, into which a cam follower fits, is provided at the M-cam frame. A shaft hole, into which a shaft portion of the cam follower is press-fit and fixed, is provided at the group-2 lens frame. Two edge portions are formed at the shaft portion. Two conical slide faces are provided at a portion which slides at the cam groove of the cam follower. The two edge portions are provided at end portions of the slide faces. When the cam follower attempts to tilt, the edge portions of the shaft portion bite-into a cam face, and prevent a fit-together state of the shaft portion from coming out of place. Further, when an external force acts on the cam follower, the edge portions of the conical slide faces bite into the cam groove such that a fit-together state of the cam follower is prevented from coming out of place.

This application claims benefit of Japanese Applications No. 2000-099330 filed in Japan on Mar. 31, 2000 and No. 2000-099331 filed in Japan on Mar. 31, 2000, the contents of which are incorporated by this reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens barrel which has a plurality of lens frames which are relatively movable in forward and backward directions.
2. Related Art Statement
In a conventional lens barrel having a lens frame which is able to move in forward and backward directions, generally, a mechanism which combines a cam groove which is slanted with respect to the optical axis and a cam follower which is fit into the cam groove so as to be freely slidable, has been used as a mechanism for driving the cylindrical lens frame in forward and backward directions. Conventionally, a structure in which the entire slide face of the cam follower is driven to merely slide on a cam slide face has been used as the sliding mechanism for the cam follower which is fit in the cam groove.
However, lens barrels have become smaller due to demands in recent years to make products smaller and more light-weight. Further, there has been the trend to make the thickness of the built-in lens frame smaller. Thus, the lens frame itself has come to be easily deformable. In lens barrels having the above-described conventional structure, when a force greater than needed was applied to the cam follower, there was the concern that the lens frame would deform and the cam and the cam follower would disengage.
On the other hand, in the structure for fixing the above-described conventional cam follower at the lens frame, a fixing structure was used in which a straight shaft portion of the cam follower was press-fit into a fixing hole of the lens frame.
The size of the lens frame has become smaller due to demands in recent years to make products more compact and more light-weight, and there has been the trend to make the lens frame thinner as well. Accordingly, in the above-described cam follower fixing structure, the dimensions of the shaft portion of the cam follower press-fit into the lens frame were also made extremely small. Thus, in cases in which a force greater than needed was applied to the cam follower, there was the fear that the shaft portion which was press-fit in would come out or would be unsteady. Note that there are problems, in terms of the production process and in terms of product management, in using an adhesive in the fixing of the shaft portion, and thus, it is difficult to use an adhesive in practice.
The present invention was devised in order to overcome the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a lens barrel having a mechanism for moving a frame forward and backward to which a cam follower is applied, wherein it is difficult for a sliding fit-together portion of the cam follower to come out of place, wherein it is difficult for offset to arise at the portion of the cam follower fixed to the lens frame, wherein the frame can be made more compact, and wherein smooth driving in forward and backward directions is made possible.
One lens barrel of the present invention has a first frame having a cam groove which includes a slide face; a second frame which moves relative to the first frame; and a cam follower, provided at the second frame and having a cam follower slide face which slides on the slide face of the cam groove, the cam follower having, on the cam follower slide face, at least two edges for biting-into the slide face of the cam groove. When the cam follower attempts to tilt, the edges bite into the cam follower slide face of the cam groove, such that the fit-together state therebetween is prevented from coming out of place.
Another lens barrel of the present invention has a frame member having a hole; and a cam follower having a shaft portion which is fit together with and mounted to the hole of the frame member, wherein a plurality of edges are formed at a surface of a fit-together portion of the shaft portion which is fit together with the hole. In a state in which the shaft portion is fit together with the hole, the edges bite into the hole, so as to prevent the cam follower from being offset from the frame member.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings.

Lens barrel having a plurality of lens frames which are relatively movable in forward and backward directions


The present invention relates to isolated DNA molecules that encode proteins or polypeptides which elicit a hypersensitive response in plants. One aspect of the present invention involves an isolated DNA molecule that encodes the HopPtoP protein of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000. The isolated DNA molecules can be used to impart disease resistance, stress resistance, and enhanced growth to plants or plants grown from treated seeds, to control insects on plants or plants grown from treated plant seeds, to impart post-harvest disease or desiccation resistance in fruits or vegetables, to impart enhanced longevity of fruit or vegetable ripeness, to impart desiccation resistance to cuttings of ornamental plants, and/or promote early flowering of ornamental plants, either by topical application of the proteins or polypeptides or transgenic expression in recombinant plants or plant seeds. Expression vectors, host cells, and transgenic plants which include the DNA molecules of the present invention are disclosed.

Interactions between bacterial pathogens and their plant hosts generally fall into two categories: (1) compatible (pathogen-host), leading to intercellular bacterial growth, symptom development, and disease development in the host plant; and (2) incompatible (pathogen-nonhost), resulting in the hypersensitive response, a particular type of incompatible interaction occurring, without progressive disease symptoms. During compatible interactions on host plants, bacterial populations increase dramatically and progressive symptoms occur. During incompatible interactions, bacterial populations do not increase, and progressive symptoms do not occur.
The hypersensitive response ("HR") is a rapid, localized necrosis that is associated with the active defense of plants against many pathogens (Horsfall et al., eds., Plant Disease: An Advanced Treatise Vol. 5, pp. 201–224, New York, N.Y.: Academic Press (1980); Mount et al., eds., Phytopathogenic Prokaryotes, Vol. 2, pp. 149–177, New York, N.Y.: Academic Press (1982)). The hypersensitive response elicited by bacteria is readily observed as a tissue collapse if high concentrations (≧107 cells/ml) of a limited host-range pathogen like Pseudomonas syringae or Erwinia amylovora are infiltrated into the leaves of nonhost plants (necrosis occurs only in isolated plant cells at lower levels of inoculum) (Klement, Nature 199:299–300 (1963); Klement et al., Phytopathology 54:474–477 (1963); Turner et al., Phytopathology 64:885–890 (1974); Mount et al., eds., Phytopathogenic Prokaryotes, Vol. 2., pp. 149–177, New York, N.Y.: Academic Press (1982)). The capacities to elicit the hypersensitive response in a nonhost and be pathogenic in a host appear linked. As noted by Mount et al., eds., Phytopathogenic Prokaryotes, Vol. 2., pp. 149–177, New York, N.Y.: Academic Press (1982), these pathogens also cause physiologically similar, albeit delayed, necroses in their interactions with compatible hosts. Furthermore, the ability to produce the hypersensitive response or pathogenesis is dependent on a common set of genes, denoted hrp (Lindgren et al., J. Bacteriol. 168:512–22 (1986); Willis et al., Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 4:132–138 (1991)). Consequently, the hypersensitive response may hold clues to both the nature of plant defense and the basis for bacterial pathogenicity.
The hrp genes are widespread in gram-negative plant pathogens, where they are clustered, conserved, and in some cases interchangeable (Willis et al., Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 4:132–138 (1991); Dangl, ed., Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology: Bacterial Pathogenesis of Plants and Animals-Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms, pp. 79–98, Berlin: Springer-Verlag (1994)). Several hrp genes encode components of a protein secretion pathway similar to one used by Yersinia, Shigella, and Salmonella spp. to secrete proteins essential in animal diseases (Van Gijsegem et al., Trends Microbiol. 1:175–180 (1993)). In E. amylovora, P. syringae, and P. solanacearum, hrp genes have been shown to control the production and secretion protein elicitors of the hypersensitive response (He et al., Cell 73:1255–1266 (1993); Wei et al., J. Bacteriol. 175:7958–7967 (1993); Arlat et al., EMBO J. 13:543–553 (1994)). Hypersensitive response elicitor proteins, designated harpins, are proteins found in phytopathogens containing a type III secretion system and are typically glycine-rich, acidic, cysteine-lacking, heat stable proteins (He et al., Cell 73: 1255–1266 (1993).
The first of these proteins was discovered in E. amylovora Ea321, a bacterium that causes fire blight of rosaceous plants, and was designated harpin (Wei et al., Science 257:85–88 (1992)). Mutations in the encoding hrpN gene revealed that harpin is required for E. amylovora to elicit a hypersensitive response in nonhost tobacco leaves and incite disease symptoms in highly susceptible pear fruit. The P. solanacearum GMI1000 PopA1 protein has similar physical properties and also elicits the hypersensitive response in leaves of tobacco, which is not a host of that strain (Arlat et al., EMBO J. 13:543–53 (1994)). However, P. solanacearum popA mutants still elicit the hypersensitive response in tobacco and incite disease in tomato. Thus, the role of these glycine-rich hypersensitive response elicitors can vary widely among gram-negative plant pathogens.
Other plant pathogenic hypersensitive response elicitors have been isolated, cloned, and sequenced from various organisms, including: HrpW from Erwinia amylovora (Kim et al., J. Bacteriol. 180(19):5203–5210 (1998)); HrpN from Erwinia chrysanthemi (Bauer et al., MPMI 8(4): 484–91 (1995)); HrpN from Erwinia carotovora (Cui et al., MPMI 9(7): 565–73 (1996)); HrpN from Erwinia stewartii (Ahmad et al., 8th Int'l. Cong. Molec. Plant-Microb. Inter. Jul. 14–19, 1996 and Ahmad et al., Ann. Mtg. Am. Phytopath. Soc. Jul. 27–31, 1996); hreX from Xanthomonas campestris (U.S. Patent Application Publ. No. 20020066122 to Wei et al.); HrpZ from Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae (He et al., Cell 73:1255–1266 (1993); WO 94/26782 to Cornell Research Foundation, Inc.); and HrpW from Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Charkowski et al., J. Bacteriol. 180:5211–5217 (1998)).
In electron microscopy studies, both HrpW and HrpZ of Pseudomonas syringae are associated with the type III secretion system pilus (Jin et al., Science 294:2556–2558 (2001); Jin et al., Molecular Microbiology 40:1129–1139 (2001)), suggesting that harpins work with the pilus to facilitate protein delivery into the plant cell. A P. syringae strain containing chromosomal deletions of hrpZ and hrpW has a reduced ability to cause the HR on nonhost plants, but it retains normal virulence on tomato (Charkowski et al., J. Bacteriol. 180:5211–5217 (1998)). This phenotype indicates that it is likely that there are more harpins in the genome.
The present invention is a further advance in the effort to identify, clone, and sequence hypersensitive response elicitor proteins or polypeptides from plant pathogens.