A method and apparatus is described in which a firmware causes display of a graphical screen with various images that are stored in a non-volatile memory wherein the images may be selectively updated. A memory is configured into a plurality of memory segments wherein each memory segment has a predetermined address thereby allowing the segment to be selectively addressed. A circuit is able to configure a display template having a plurality of display sections on a display wherein data stored in the mentioned memory segments is displayed on a predetermined display section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to processor-based systems, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus of selectively updating images stored in a non-volatile memory.
2. Background
The increasing use of computers in collecting and distributing information has revealed various problems with the typical collection and distribution channels. For example, one current software distribution system enables the software vendor to provide a number of users with software over a network. The system also enables the vendor to update and maintain the software at the request of the users and to enable the users to acquire software at the users"" requests from different software vendors over the network. However, such a system only provides software and related services at the request of the user, without considering the user""s requirements or preferences. As a result, the system is not optimized for the user""s specific needs and/or preferences.
In addition, information of interest to the user is currently provided to the user in the form of messages displayed on the computer monitor after the operating system has been booted up and is operational. Such information or messages are typically provided to the user arbitrarily post boot or displayed on the monitor when the system is idle.
Accordingly, there is a need in the technology for a method and system for collecting and distributing information over a network that is optimized for the user""s needs and/or preferences.
A method and apparatus is described in which a firmware causes display of a graphical screen with various images that are stored in a non-volatile memory wherein the images may be selectively updated. A memory is configured into a plurality of memory segments wherein each memory segment has a predetermined address thereby allowing the segment to be selectively addressed. A circuit is able to configure a display template having a plurality of display sections on a display wherein data stored in the mentioned memory segments is displayed on a predetermined display section.

Apparatus and method for updating images stored in non-volatile memory


A device, system and method for mode-based synchronization of data records is provided. Booking data is received, at one or more computing devices, from one of a first and second client device. When received from the first client device, in a first order mode for the booking data, the device(s): cause an order management system (OMS) to generate: order data at a first database; and cause a legacy system to generate a corresponding passenger name record (PNR) at a second database, the corresponding PNR being slaved to the order data. When received from the second client device, in a legacy mode for the booking data, the device(s): cause the legacy system to generate, a PNR and/or ticket data at the second database; and cause the OMS to generate corresponding order data at the first database, the corresponding order data being slaved to the PNR and/or the ticket data.

The provision of various products, including for example travel-related goods and services (e.g. flights, hotel reservations, and the like) typically requires various discrete entities to exchange data defining various aspects of the products. Examples of such entities, in the context of travel-related products, include airlines, travel agencies, end users, reservation systems, and the like. Although such entities may be configured to exchange data according to a standardized format (e.g. according to the eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard in the context of travel-related products), they may nonetheless employ different mechanisms to initiate the exchange of data. Variability in synchronization mechanisms can lead to unsuccessful synchronizations, as well as time-consuming and costly configuration on the part of each entity to account for variations in synchronization mechanisms.

Device, system and method for mode-based synchronization of data records


Lighting apparatus and method for detecting reflected light from local objects are disclosed. A controller within a lighting apparatus is used to activate and deactivate one or more LEDs within a duty cycle. The controller uses a light detection apparatus that is optically isolated from the LEDs to sample light levels during a time in which the LEDs are deactivated and during a time in which the LEDs are activated. The light level when the LEDs are deactivated is an indication of the ambient light levels within the surrounding area of the lighting apparatus. The light level when the LEDs are activated is an indication of the ambient light levels combined with any light generated by the LEDs that is reflected onto the light detection apparatus. By comparing these light levels, the controller can determine the level of light attributable to reflected light from the LEDs.

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are increasingly being adopted as general illumination lighting sources due to their high energy efficiency and long service life relative to traditional sources of light such as incandescent, fluorescent and halogen. Each generation of LEDs are providing improvements in energy efficiency and cost per lumen, thus allowing for lighting manufacturers to produce LED light fixtures at increasingly competitive prices. One differentiator for LEDs over the traditional sources of light is their ability to be controlled very precisely relative to other lighting technologies, with the ability to switch on and off in microseconds.
User interface control systems for lights have not changed significantly in decades. The primary user interfaces for lighting fixtures are the light switch and the dimmer, typically a well-known TRIAC dimmer. In traditional lighting systems in which the only options are often on/off and luminous intensity dimming, these user interface controls may suffice. As LED lighting fixtures add more flexibility on color change and color temperature change, more advanced user interface control systems may be desired. Further, although consumers accept the status quo in which lighting user interfaces are generally uninteresting, it may be desirable to have a differentiated user interface control system for LED lighting fixtures that can take advantage of some of the physical and chemical properties of LEDs in order to capture the imagination of the public.
In general, there has been a push within many industries to implement touch free user interface controls, from voice activated telephone dialing to automatic flush toilets and faucets to lights turned on/off by clapping. The development towards touch-free solutions are being driven to increase the ability for people's hands to continue to do other tasks, to enable people to perform functions without having to touch surfaces or elements that may not be clean and/or to allow people to expend less energy while doing routine tasks. Generally, the current touch-free systems use ultrasonic, audio or infrared receivers to receive commands, detect presence and/or detect motion. Today, beyond the development of The Clapper control system (introduced to the public in 1985) and development of some infrared remote capabilities in some lighting fixtures, innovations in touch-free controls in the lighting industry have not been well developed.
Against this background, there is a need for solutions that will mitigate at least one of the above problems, particularly allowing LEDs to implement touch-free user interface control systems.


An up-sampled half band reconstruction filter has a seagull architecture in the form of a pair of parallel infinite impulse response (IIR) filters, one receiving as an input an input signal delayed by one sample time and the other receiving as an input a reverse version of the input signal delayed by one sample time. The outputs from the pair of parallel IIR filters are combined with the input signal to produce a reconstruction filter output in response to the input signal.

The present invention relates to signal filtering, and more particularly to a method of up-sampling half-band reconstruction filtering that has greater computational efficiency in order to have realtime performance in a video waveform monitor.
Reconstruction filters amount to specialized lowpass filters with sin(x)/x impulse responses, and are used for many applications, from digital to analog conversion to interpolation for waveform displays. The most common method of reconstruction is through the used of two-times up-sampling with half-band finite impulse response (FIR) filtering—typically a time windowed sin(x)/x impulse response with the following for improved efficiency:                1) Zero values (even samples of sin(x)/x) ignored;        2) "Folded" architecture, adding input data values before multiplying by common coefficients (taking advantage of symmetry of the impulse response).An example implementation of this method is for digital to analog conversion reconstruction filtering for standard definition video using the Recommendation ITU-R BT.601-5 filter specifications (Appendix 2 to Part A, FIG. 3: Specifications for a luminance or RGB signal filter used when sampling at 13.5 MHz). A typical implementation, as shown in FIG. 1, uses sixteen multiplications and thirty-two additions.

Up-sampling half-band reconstruction filtering


A solid electrolyte fuel cell including a protonic oxide conductor having a composition represented by Ba(Zr1−xCex)1−yMyAlzO3−α (M: one or more kinds of elements selected from a group of tri-valent rare earth elements and In, 1≧x≧0, 0.3>y>0, 0.04>z≧0, and 1.5>α>0); and an electrode that is mainly made of platinum and has catalysis properties; wherein an electrolyte has a film thickness of 300 μm or less, and a method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. The solid electrolyte fuel cell can obtain a cell output even at low temperatures equal to 500 degrees centigrade or less.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid electrolyte fuel cell and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fuel cells, as power generators and devices that are clean and can save energy, have been advanced in developing stationary or mobile consumer power sources. Specifically, the fuel cells are attracting attention as household cogeneration power sources and power sources for use in electric cars.
In accordance with the difference of electrolytes, there are various kinds of fuel cells from ones that can be operated in temperatures anywhere from room temperature to ones that can be operated at substantially higher temperatures such as 1000 degrees centigrade; among these, the ones that are now in vigorous development are polymer type fuel cells that can be operated at 100 degrees centigrade or less and have an organic polymer as the electrolyte.
Almost all of the polymer electrolytes that are used in these types of fuel cells are perfluorocarbon sulfonic acid membranes (Trade name: NAFION) developed by E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company; the membrane exhibits high proton conductivity (from 1×10−2 to 1×10−1 S/cm) in temperatures anywhere from room temperature to 100 degrees centigrade.
Furthermore, in recent years, very small fuel cells called micro-fuel cell are attracting attention as portable power sources in place of secondary batteries. Also, in the electrolyte membranes of this type, NAFION membranes are under study. A fuel cell is a device into which, usually, gaseous fuels such as hydrogen and air are supplied and electricity is extracted. As a fuel for use in mobile and portable fuel cells, an easy-carrying liquid fuel called direct methanol is considered.
At the present time, in the polymer fuel cell that uses the NAFION membrane, since the NAFION membrane has to be maintained in a water-saturated state, water management is necessary.
On the other hand, a solid electrolyte fuel cell, in which the electrolyte is a solid, is free from water; and since an entire fuel cell can be constituted without using a liquid, there are no problems of liquid leakage and liquid replenishment.
However, of the existing solid electrolyte fuel cells with an oxide ion conductor as the electrolyte, there is no report of a phenomenon of the proton conduction at 500 degrees centigrade or less. That is, in order to reduce filim resistance, the protonic oxide conductor has been produced more thinner. However, considering the problem of the mechanical strength of the film, approximately 450 μm is a lower limit; accordingly, in order to obtain sufficient cell output, heating to 500 degrees centigrade or more is considered to be necessary. As a result, there is a problem in that the solid electrolyte fuel cells cannot be used in such applications as cogeneration systems operating at less than 500 degrees centigrade and portable power sources operating in the neighborhood of room temperature.
Furthermore, in a high-temperature operating solid oxide fuel cell that can be operated in the neighborhood of 1000 degrees centigrade, when manufacturing a collective cell, there is a problem in that separators and housing materials, ceramics or heat-resistant alloys that are difficult to manufacture and costly have to be used.
Accordingly, the invention intends to provide a solid electrolyte fuel cell in which a cell output can be obtained even at temperatures lower than 500 degrees centigrade, materials that can be easily machined and are cheaper can be used as a separator and housing material, and a method of manufacturing the same.

Solid electrolyte fuel cell and manufacturing method thereof

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A low capacitance measurement probe having an outer conductor forming an outer wall; a non-conductive spacer forming a first wall between a conductive layer and the outer conductor; the conductive layer forming a second wall coupled to the interior of the first wall; an insulating layer forming a third wall coupled to the interior of the second wall; and an inner conductor forming an inner wall coupled to the interior of the third wall. The probe may include a knob or a button in the inner conductor at a tip of the probe to increase the surface area of the inner conductor in order to the sensitivity of the probe.

Various methods and devices have been developed to measure the electrical properties of tissue in an effort to distinguish between cancerous and non-cancerous tissue. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,350 to Coppleson et al. discloses an apparatus for tissue type recognition. In particular, an apparatus includes a probe configured to contact the tissue and subject the tissue to a plurality of different stimuli such as electrical, light, heat, sound, magnetic and to detect plural physical responses to the stimuli. The apparatus also includes a processor that processes the responses in combination in order to categorize the tissue. The processing occurs in real-time with an indication of the tissue type (e.g. normal, pre-cancerous/cancerous, or unknown) being provided to an operator of the apparatus.
The complex impedance of tissue is generally measured by applying a voltage across at least two electrodes and measuring the current that flows between the electrodes. In order to make accurate measurements these devices employ multiple electrodes (U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,272, U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,323).
These devices are generally large and/or require multiple needles to be inserted into the tissue. In addition, to improve the accuracy of these diagnostic devices multiple sensors are integrated into the probe. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,270 to Mah et al. and abandoned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/947,171 to Hular et al. disclose a multimodality instrument for tissue characterization. In order to minimize trauma, what is needed in the art is a new small electrical probe device that provides accurate measurements of the tissue impedance and provides space for additional sensors.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A hybrid epoxy resin adduct comprising, consisting of, or consisting essentially of the reaction product of: (A) a material selected from the group consisting of a hybrid polyfunctional aliphatic epoxy resin, a hybrid cycloaliphatic epoxy resin, and combinations thereof; wherein (A) is formed by contacting: (a) a hydroxyl-containing material selected from the group consisting of an aliphatic hydroxyl-containing material, a cycloaliphatic hydroxyl-containing material, and combinations thereof; (b) a material selected from the group consisting of a monoglycidyl ether-containing material, a diglycidyl ether-containing material, and combinations thereof wherein (b) is prepared from a different precursor than (a); (c) an epihalohydrin; (d) a basic acting substance; (e) a non-Lewis acid catalyst; and (f) optionally, a solvent and (B) at least one epoxide reactive compound comprising one or more compounds having two or more epoxide-reactive hydrogen atoms per molecule, is disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hybrid polyfunctional aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic epoxy resin adducts and thermoset matrices prepared using such adducts.
2. Description of Background and Related Art
Adducts of the epoxy resin of UNOXOL™ Diol (cis-, trans-1,3- and 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol) may be used in curing of epoxy resins or preparation of polyurethanes. Generally, an epoxy resin comprising a diglycidyl ether (DGE) of cis-1,3-cyclohexanedimethanol, a DGE of trans-1,3-cyclohexanedimethanol, a DGE of cis-1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol, a DGE of trans-1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol, a monoglycidyl ether (MGE) of cis-1,3-cyclohexanedimethanol, a MGE of trans-1,3-cyclohexanedimethanol, a MGE of cis-1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol, and a MGE of trans-1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol either containing oligomers or free of oligomers thereof are used in the preparation of an epoxy resin adduct.
Thermosettable compositions based on the oligomers [polyfunctional aliphatic cycloaliphatic epoxy (PACE) resin] are inherently co-produced in significant quantity from a fractionation process used to produce high purity DGE. Adducts of the PACE resins may also be prepared and are useful as epoxy resin curing agents.
Hybrid polyfunctional aliphatic cycloaliphatic epoxy (H-PACE) resins and re-epoxidized H-PACE resins comprise an (a) aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic moiety provided by the PACE resin which additionally contains (b) aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic moiety that is different from that provided by the PACE resin. Heretofore, the prior art has not disclosed an adduct formed by reacting a H-PACE resin or re-epoxidized H-PACE resin with a reactive compound comprising two or more reactive hydrogen atoms per molecule or curable and cured epoxy resin compositions prepared using said hybrid adduct.


Grand date calendar display device for a watch movement comprising a first disc and a second disc, arranged to display, on certain dates, first date values by combining symbols borne by said first disc and symbols borne by said second disc, and on other dates, second date values by symbols borne only by said second disc. The first disc is a modified units display disc, bearing a first series of symbols comprising a first sequence of at most nine first consecutive units numerals truncated by at least a second units numeral with respect to the complete series of ten units, and the second disc is a modified tens display disc including a second series of symbols for the display of at least the tens of the date, comprising at least one combination of two numerals formed of a tens numeral and a second units numeral.

Conventional calendar display devices for timepieces, and in particular wearable wristwatches, usually use an annular date-disc including 31 regularly distributed annular sectors, each of the sectors including an indication corresponding to one of possible dates of the month. The date-disc is indexed one position every day, so as to reveal through an aperture the date value corresponding to each day, which is formed of one or more numerals. The angular sector occupied by each indexing position is thus relatively limited (360/31 i.e. slightly less than 12 degrees), which greatly restricts the maximum size of the numbers that can be displayed therein.
In order to increase the size of the indications displayed in the aperture for reading the date, there therefore exist systems using two distinct discs, one for the display of the tens numeral and the other for the display of the units numeral of the date. This type of calendar display combining two numerals borne by two distinct discs is referred to as a "grand date" display. These display devices are coupled to a control device for respectively indexing each of the discs in order to display every day the exact combination of units and tens.
There is known, for example, a "grand date" display mechanism including a units ring comprising the units sequence 0-9, and a tens disc including a sequence of four numerals 0-3 distributed over sectors of approximately 90° each, like that described in EP Patent No 2490083. A date programme wheel with 31 sectors, driven at the rate of one step per day, meshes on two separate planes, respectively with a tens disc and a units ring, to respectively drive the units disc every day, except on the change from the 31st day of the month to the first day of the following month, by means of 30 teeth followed by a toothless sector—the 31st of the date programme wheel—and the tens disc is only driven 4 times per month for the change to the next ten and the change of month (9→10, 19-20, 29-30 and 31-<01) by means of long teeth respectively arranged on the 9th, 19th, 29th and 31st sectors of the 31 gear sectors of the programme wheel, and which drives a cross integral in rotation with the tens wheel. One drawback of this type of calendar mechanism is that it requires a very large number of parts, which are separate for the control and display mechanism, and therefore occupy too much space on the plate. Further, the cross associated with the tens disc has a very small number of teeth, which is detrimental to gearing reliability due to the large angular steps required during each indexing operation.
Other types of "grand date" display mechanisms are also known, for example from EP Patent No 1609028, using a combined solution with a modified tens disc that can sometimes contain two numerals for certain dates. The fact that the modified tens disc bears a larger number of symbols certainly facilitates the gearing mechanism, but because the sequence of indications relating to the units is arranged on a disc integral in rotation with a programme wheel having 31 sectors, the maximum size of the characters that can be displayed consequently still remains very limited.


The present invention is a phase dithered digital communications system that includes a digital receiver, and uses phase dithering to spread the energy of one or more system clocks to minimize receiver de-sensitization. Phase dithering uses a single frequency for each system clock; however, the energy of each system clock is spread over a range of frequencies by changing the duty-cycle of each clock half-cycle. A non-phase dithered clock drives the sampling clock of a receiver analog-to-digital converter to provide accurate correlation with received information, which may allow use of a higher frequency sampling clock than in frequency dithered designs. Phase dithered clocks and non-phase dithered clocks may have constant frequencies that are related to each other by a ratio of two integers; therefore, the time base used for extracting received data is always correlated and accurate.

RF communications systems typically use digital circuitry to provide control and data management functions, to process received and transmitted digital signals, to provide user and communication interfaces, to provide other digital functions, or any combination thereof. Such a system is typically supplied with at least one system clock that provides overall timing for the system. Digital circuitry within the system tends to transition synchronously with the system clock, which may generate voltage spikes, current spikes, or both. The voltage and current spikes may generate interfering noise signals at the fundamental frequency and harmonics of the system clock. If a frequency of an interfering noise signal falls within the passband of a received RF signal, receiver sensitivity can be degraded, which is known as receiver de-sensitization.
Dithering the frequency of the system clock, called frequency dithering, is one method for spreading the energy of interfering noise signals over a range of frequencies to minimize the energy of noise signals that fall within the passband of the received signal. Frequency dithering involves shifting, or dithering, the frequency of the system clock from a nominal frequency during reception of a certain amount of received information. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,898,420. The received information must be correlated, synchronized, or both with the shifted system clock frequency. Such a system may work well when receiving separated blocks of information; however, in continuous receiver types of systems, such as wideband code division multiple access (WBCDMA) systems, relating received information to the system clock may be problematic. Thus, there is a need for a continuous receiver communications system that spreads the energy of a system clock to minimize receiver de-sensitization.

Phase dithered digital communications system


The invention provides a termination for a wire rope made by a process of inserting one end of a wire rope into a mold and placing a crucible with a crucible opening over the mold. The mold opening is in fluid communication with the crucible opening. Exothermic metallic material is added to the crucible. The exothermic metallic material is ignited forming a molten material. The molten material flows into the mold around the wire rope forming a termination capable of sustaining a higher break force than the wire rope.

Methods for forming wire terminations and connections are taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,145 to Lucas, U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,692 to Lucas; U.S. Pat. No. 2,151,032 to Jensen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,975 to Roose, U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,448 to Tournier, U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,601 to Rochester, U.S. Pat. No. 2,038,535 to Brenizer, Campbell U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0093714, Gloaguen U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0121658 and Fujiwara U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0162683.
A need has existed for a wire rope termination made by a fast process resulting in a light-weight, heavy duty termination. A further need has existed for connecting wire rope terminations to mining and other equipment quickly and safely. For example, for connecting to mining rigging, such as a dragline bucket rigging for open pit mining or operations in other industries. A further need has existed for a method to create wire rope terminations which result in great strength. The present invention meets these needs.

System and method for termination of a wire rope

Abstract: The invention also provides a termination for a wire rope made by a process with an adhesive.

Abstract: The termination provides a socket for connecting wire rope to various types of equipment. The socket can include one or more frustroconical wedges for securely holding the wire rope and the termination in the connector. The socket body can also include a protection sled and various ways to connect to the equipment.


A laterally displaceable guide track for a bale binding apparatus includes a carriage with a guide track portion mounted on it with a hinge. The guide track portion has an engaged position and a disengaged position. The engaged position is aligned with at least one other guide track portion to define a bale loop plane, and the disengaged position is out of the bale loop plane. The mount allows the guide track portion to be moved between the engaged position and the disengaged position. The disengaged position allows the carriage to be withdrawn from a baling station for ejection of a finished bale.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of automated bale binding apparatuses engageable with bulk material compressors, in particular down presses.
2. Related Art
Baling of bulk material such as cotton is achieved by a compression apparatus, usually hydraulic, that compresses a volume of bulk material into a preconfigured bale shape and size. While still compressed, a bulk material bale binding apparatus engages the volume of compressed material at a baling station and binds it with wire or metal or plastic strap.
The binding wire or strap is placed around a compressed volume of material in a baling station by feeding the wire or strap through a guide track that circumscribes the volume of material to be baled and guides the wire or strap into a loop around the bale. The loop is on a single plane, typically transverse to a long axis of the bale. Thereafter the wire or strap is released from the track, tightened around the material to be baled and fastened or knotted. These procedures are described in detail in prior art such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,637,324 and 6,553,900, which are incorporated by reference herein.
It is in the nature of the compression apparatus that the circumscribing guide track must be disengageable at least in part, so that the compression machinery can eject a finished bale and compress a new bale. Prior art devices have achieved the disengagement of a portion of guide track either by swinging it upwards and away from the baling station, or sliding it outward from the baling station. These prior art solutions are typified by a fixed guide track portion and a moveable guide track portion. Both of these portions always remained within the plane of the bale loop, whether disengaged or not.
One form of bale compression apparatus is called a down press. Down presses are completely above a floor level and generally comprised of a first and second compression box for receiving a volume of bulk material to be baled. A first box is typically filled with loose material while a second box is simultaneously compressed and baled. Filling a box with loose material happens at a first position engaged with a tramper, which fills the box. Bale binding occurs at a second position having a vertically oriented hydraulic press for compressing the volume of bulk material. Binding occurs at the compression station. The boxes are transposed from the filler station to the compression and binding station by rotation around a central column. The boxes, press and central column are supported by a frame comprised of two end columns and a support lintel. Any automated bale binding apparatus used to bind the compressed volumes of bulk material must withdraw to a position outside the circumference of the rotation of the two boxes around the center column. Withdrawal of binding equipment in a direction perpendicular to a plane defined by the support frame would require moving the apparatus an impractical distance, and would be blocked by other equipment such as supply lines for hydraulics. Accordingly, prior art disengagement apparatuses that disengage guide track portions within the same plane as the bale loop are impractical for use with down presses, because the bale loop plane is perpendicular to the support frame.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for automated bale binding equipment for use with down presses that disengages in a direction parallel with the frame of the down press and in a direction nonparallel to the bale loop plane. Concomitantly, there is a need for guide track components that are disengageable in a manner allowing such a lateral disengagement of the binding apparatus from the baling station. Additionally, there is a continuing need in the art for durability, compact size, and economy.

Laterally displaceable guide track for a bulk material baler apparatus and method


A handheld implantation device for implantation of a retinal tissue implant at an implantation site. The handheld implantation device includes a handheld implantation tool having a leading implantation tool end and a trailing implantation tool end, an implant holder for peripherally holding a retinal tissue implant including an uppermost viable retinal tissue and a lowermost basement membrane and a clinician-operated attachment arrangement for initial attaching the implant holder at the leading implantation tool end and subsequent selected detaching the implant holder therefrom at the implantation site for implantation of the implant holder together with the retinal tissue implant thereat.

The human retina, as in many other vertebrates, has evolved as a layered configuration with an interior retina constituting a neuronal component and an outer retina constituting a light sensing component. The light sensing component is further layered and includes a monolayer of specialized cells known as Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) and a photoreceptor layer. Light entering a human eye passes through a transparent neuronal component before being captured by the photoreceptor layer, transformed to nerve stimuli and sent "backwards" to the neuronal component and from there to the brain. The light sensing component includes over 150 million photoreceptors. The neuronal component organizes the enormous stimuli input to a coded message and converges it to 1.5 million ganglion cells that transfer the coded message to the brain via the optic nerve which is a bundle of all the axons originating from the ganglion cells—one axon per each ganglion cell. The human fovea includes about half of the total number of photoreceptors and is responsible for visual acuity.
Transformation of light photons to nerve stimuli involves biochemical reactions generating large amount of biological waste that must be removed instantaneously and efficiently to maintain uninterrupted visual function. The waste removal is performed by the Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) cells. The apexes of these cells are physically interdigitating with the leading active surfaces of the photoreceptors where the photochemical reactions occur enabling instantaneous removal of the consumed photoreceptor tips and exposure of the segments behind them for further reaction.
Some blinding disorders are caused by pathologic processes largely limited to the outer retina, Such disorders include Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD or AMD) and Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). Since an inner retina remains functional long after disappearance of a damaged outer retina, vision recovery seems possible by stimulation of a survived inner retina. The concept has been confirmed using electrodes that stimulate an inner retina with electrical pulses. However, the ability to create a sustainable electro-biological interface at the level of organization required for reasonable vision is beyond current knowledge and technology. It was logical to attempt to implant a retinal graft of normal outer-retinal tissue taken from a human cadaver eye or laboratory cultivated from stem cells. Clinical studies conducted over the last decade demonstrate the feasibility of using viable tissue implantation to treat outer retina blinding disorders by encouraging results. However, regardless of the composition of an outer-retinal tissue implant be it human embryonic retinal tissue or laboratory cultivated outer retinal layer tissue, the transfer of such a delicate implant to a human eye has been found to be a major obstacle further emphasized by recent findings that the accurate and stable interface between an outer-retinal tissue implant and a recipient inner retina is a critical factor for successful implantation.

Handheld implantation devices for implantation or retinal tissue implant


A process of correction of the spectral inversion for a receiver in a digital communication system: the process allows the reception in the receiver of a training sequence presumably known according to a modulation of type π/2 BPSK or MDP2. The process includes the following steps: Demodulating of the training sequence; Calculating of the differential correlation on a set of N received samples (Rn) and presumably sent (Sn) to generate a result; Using the result to detect the beginning of the frame and to order a spectral inversion in the chain of reception of the aforementioned receiver before launching the detection of the beginning of the frame. A receiver to process automatically the spectral inversion is also described.

Digital communications show a significant development with mobile telephony, new digital television standards, and satellite transmissions. The significant progress in that domain and the great diversity of operators have made information a "good" as easy to exchange as goods can be.
That great diversity of operators in the transmission chain has introduced the need, inside the decoder of the digital communication system, to detect, in addition to the classical parameters of time and phase synchronization, a supplementary parameter which is that of spectral inversion.
As known and illustrated in FIG. 1a, at the time of a demodulation, a receiver performs the mixing of the spectrum of the received signal with a carrier frequency (OL). Depending on whether that carrier is a frequency is below or above the spectrum of the frequency to be processed, an inversion of the spectrum can occur. FIG. 1a illustrates a typical situation where no spectral inversion is introduced.
FIG. 1b illustrates on the opposite a situation of FIG. 1a, wherein an inversion has occurred within the frequency spectrum. That inversion is not difficult to manage, especially when the spectrum of the signal to transmit is perfectly symmetric as is the case for an amplitude modulation.
On the other hand, when the modulation is more complex, a spectral inversion is a problem because data may not be detected. Using a phase locked loop mechanism, the detector is properly being locked on the carrier frequency. However, this does not permit data reception when a spectral inversion occurs.
The problem of spectral inversion needs to be corrected because, in today's digital telecommunications, multiple modulations/demodulations often times affect the signal transmission and reception, especially when various operators are involved on a same signal.
With this brief background, there are two possibilities to correct the spectral inversion: either by means of an inversion of the signal in quadrature, or by inverting both real and quadrature signals after a rotation of π/2.
One classical method to correct spectral inversion is with a software inversion of the channels in phase along with squaring of the demodulated signal. To this end, the classical receiver "presumes" during the processing of a received signal that this signal is not affected by an unspecified spectral inversion. If the detection fails while synchronized on the carrier, the receiver, after a certain period, concludes that a spectral inversion might have occurred and thus introduces a channel inversion in phase with squaring to re-establish the original spectrum.
This mechanism, which is universally used, is satisfactory up to a certain point, but has the disadvantage of introducing a blocking latency time in the processing of the demodulated signal for most modern applications.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and system to to overcome the problems with the prior art spectral inversion by allowing a quasi-immediate detection of a spectral inversion in a received signal so as to guarantee the instantaneous processing.

Process for automatic correction of the spectral inversion in a demodulator and device to implement the process


A transfer apparatus has a first conveying device for holding and conveying a transferring-work to be transferred; a second conveying device for holding and conveying a carrier work on which the transferring-work is placed; and a transfer device to receive the transferring-work from the first conveying device and transfer the transferring-work to the carrier work of the second conveying device. The transfer device has two or more end-effectors that revolve along the same circumference to convey the transferring-work, and each of the end-effectors revolves independently of the other end-effectors. Each of the end-effectors has a holding surface that holds the transferring-work, and the holding surface is able to advance and retract along a revolution axis of each of the end-effectors.

There has been known a transfer apparatus that transfers small pieces of transferring-works to predetermined positions on a surface of a carrier work, as a device for mounting electronic components. An example of the transfer apparatus includes a transfer head that revolves while holding a transferring-work. In such a transfer apparatus, for example, a cam is used to temporarily stop revolution of the transfer head, thereby allowing the transferring-work to be received or transferred to a carrier work with high accuracy.
The conventional transfer apparatus, however, has a problem in that temporary stops of revolution of the transfer head may prevent a sufficient increase in transfer efficiency.
One example of a conventional transfer apparatus is set forth in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10-145091, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention is achieved in view of the problem of the conventional transfer apparatus, and has an object to provide a transfer apparatus with high transfer efficiency.


Undoped layers are introduced in the passive waveguide section of a butt-joined passive waveguide connected to an active structure. This reduces the parasitic capacitance of the structure.

Typical methods to fabricate a butt-joined passive waveguide structure involves etching past the active region of the active device to grow the desired waveguide. FIG. 1 shows typical active passive butt joint structure 100. On n-InP base wafer 110, active region 150 is surrounded by separate confinement heterostructure (SCH) layers 145 and 155. P-InP cladding layer 130 and n-InP cladding layer 120 border on SCH layers 155 and 145, respectively. Passive Q-waveguide core 190 is sandwiched between n-InP layer 180 and p-InP layer 185. P-InP layer 160 serves as a cladding layer and p(+)-InGaAs layer 170 serves as a contact layer. To minimize mode mismatch losses at the interface between active region 150 and passive Q-waveguide core 190, the position and composition of passive Q-waveguide core 190 are appropriately selected. The presence of n-InP layer 180 and p-InP layer 185 on either side of passive Q-waveguide core 190 implies that the parasitic capacitance at the interface is determined by the thickness of passive Q-waveguide layer 190 core.
However, when attempting to make a low parasitic electro-absorption (EA) modulator with passive waveguide there is an optimization problem because the parasitic capacitance value is determined by the thickness of passive Q-waveguide core 190. As noted above, the thickness of passive Q-waveguide core 190 is constrained by mode matching issues. These issues typically arise when a passive waveguide needs to be butt joined to an active device requiring low parasitic capacitance such as is typically required in making optical integrated structures.

Method and apparatus for a low parasitic capacitance butt-joined passive waveguide connected to an active structure


The present invention is a vibratory patient support system. The support system has at least one bladder, at least one vibrational device, and first and second control units that respectively control (a) the inflation and deflation of the at least one bladder and (b) vibrational device. The at least one bladder (i) inflates when receiving a fluid at a faster rate than the fluid exiting the bladder; (ii) deflates when the fluid leaves the bladder at a faster rate than the fluid entering the bladder, and (iii) has a top surface that allows a user to apply pressure thereon and a bottom surface. The vibrational device (a) is positioned (i) under the bottom surface of the bladder, or (ii) within the bladder and below the top surface of the at least one bladder so it does not contact the top surface; and (b) generates a vibrational force. The first control unit can adjust the inflation of the at least one bladder. The second control unit can adjust the vibration forces generated from the vibration device. The first and second control units can operate in conjunction with each other to provide the desired vibrational application to the user.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,754; Hand et al. disclose "a vibratory patient support system for providing therapeutic vibrational action or forces to a patient suffering from a respiratory ailment. The vibratory patient support system includes a rigid support frame such as a bed frame, [and] a plurality of inflatable sacs supported upon the support frame with each sac having an upper surface so that the plurality of sacs [sic] forms a patient support surface. The inflatable sacs are pressurized and maintained at a predetermined pressure. This predetermined pressure may be a patient height and weight specific pressure profile. A vibrating component is provided separate from the apparatus for pressurizing and maintaining the air sacs at the predetermined pressure. The vibrating component vibrates at least a portion of the patient support surface at a predetermined frequency. In this manner, the plurality of air sacs are maintained at their predetermined pressure and the portion of the patient support surface [sic] is simultaneously vibrated at the predetermined frequency. The vibrating means are further variably controllable so that an operator can vary the frequency, magnitude or amplitude, and duration of the vibrating therapy. The vibratory patient support system may include a specialty low air loss bed configuration including vibrating means for vibrating a portion of the patient support surface of the low air loss sacs at the predetermined frequency." See the abstract of the '754 patent.
Hand et al.'s system has vibrating devices that create vibrational and/or pulsating forces within or outside the inflatable sacs. In every embodiment in the '754 patent, the vibrating devices are adjacent or contacting the patient support surface. That means, Hand et al. teach that those devices must be positioned over the inflatable sac to operate effectively. To obtain a correct position for the vibrating devices, Hand et al. disclose that the sacs could contain supports therein. The supports position those devices adjacent to the patient support surface.
According to Hand et al., at least one inflatable sac must be inflated at a predetermined pressure. The predetermined pressure is dependent on at least the patient's weight and/or height, not on the vibrational force applied to the patient.
As previously stated, Hand et al. disclose that those vibrational and/or pulsating force devices should be positioned above the inflatable sacs. That way, there is little chance of the devices falling away from the patient support surface. This method of applying vibrational forces, however, is not always practical. For example, positioning one of those vibrational and/or pulsating force devices so it contacts a patient may result in pinching and/or bruising the patient's skin or applying too many vibrational forces to the user. Obviously, such results could be deleterious. The present invention solves these problems.

Vibrational and pulsating cushion device


A road sign for clearly presenting an informational legend to a viewer in front of the sign under direct and back lighting conditions, comprising an aluminum background sheet (10) having a cutout (12) in the shape of the legend (11). A retroreflective portion (14) is sized and shaped such that when the retroreflective portion is placed into the cutout, a uniform gap is left between the portion and the cutout. A translucent sheet (13) is mounted behind the background sheet and the retroreflective portion such that a translucent border (15) is visible from in front of the sign. When the sign is illuminated by direct lighting such as a driver's own headlights, the retroreflective portion will reflect much of the light such that the legend will be clearly visible to the driver. When the sign is illuminated by strong back lighting such as a low sun or oncoming headlights, the translucent border of the legend will glow brightly such that the message will be clearly seen by the driver as an outline of the legend.

Conventional traffic or road signs currently in widespread use are made of a strong metal sheet or backplane supported on a post. The backplane is painted with a background color, while the words and symbols, or informational legend, are painted over the background in contrasting colors. A typical example is a "STOP" sign, which has an octagonal backplane with a red background, a white border around the backplane, and the word "STOP" in white letters. The chosen colors of these road signs are intended to be conspicuous so that the signs are easily noticed by drivers, while the color combinations are highly contrasting so that the information can be easily discernible from a distance. In addition, the paints used on the signs are substantially reflective such that at night, when they are directly illuminated by approaching headlights, they reflect much of the light back to the drivers. Therefore, the signs should theoretically be highly legible in the dark.
In practice, the readability of conventional signs depend upon the actual viewing conditions. The signs are adequately legible when their front faces are illuminated by frontal or direct lighting during the day, and direct lighting by headlights during the night. However, if they are predominately illuminated from the back, or backlit, by the sun, a bright haze, or oncoming headlights, the areas surrounding the signs can appear very bright, while the faces of the signs can appear so dark that they can become unreadable.
Some signs have been designed to alleviate this back lighting problem. U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,327 to Woltman (1991) shows a sign with legend segments or letters which are mostly retroreflective, but somewhat translucent. Under direct lighting, the legend will reflect much of the light such that it will be highly visible. On the other hand, when the sign is backlit by the sun or oncoming headlights, the slightly translucent legend will allow some of the light to pass through so as to make the legend glow against the dark background of the sign. The glowing message will allow the sign to be more readily readable when backlit. However, utilizing the retroreflectivity and translucency of the same material has a tradeoff. The more retroreflective the material, the less translucent it is, and vice versa. Therefore, the readability of the sign will be highly compromised, such that it will either be very readable in direct lighting, but not in back lighting, or it will be very readable in back lighting, but not in direct lighting.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,549 to Gutsche (1989) shows a display device, in FIG. 3, which has entirely translucent legend segments. When strongly backlit, lenses behind the translucent segments focus light onto the segments as bright spots, such that the segments appear as lines of bright dots. However, this sign will only work in this manner if the back lighting occurs at almost normal to the plane of the sign, otherwise the focal points of the lenses will not fall onto the translucent segments. Moreover, the purely translucent segments will reflect little light, such that they will be very difficult to read in direct or oblique lighting.
In conclusion, no existing sign is highly readable in direct, oblique, and back lighting conditions.

Retroflective road sign having translucent border around legend segments


A method and system for an extensible macro language is provided. The system for providing the extensible macro language includes a parser and a macro handler for processing macro commands not previously defined in the macro language. The parser analyzes keywords in a macro language expression and recognizes one or more keywords representing macro commands that were not previously defined in the macro language. The macro handler receives the keywords in the macro expression and retrieves from a registry of keywords, an executable code or procedure associated with the keyword. The executable code is run to process the macro command represented by the keyword. The template language registry may be augmented to include any keywords and associated codes for extending the macro language.

A macro is a set of commands that can be played back to perform a given task. Examples of these tasks include inserting a commonly used name and address into a word processor or executing a series of keystrokes to format a file. Tasks performed by macros are typically repetitive in nature allowing significant savings in time by executing the macro instead of manually repeating the commands.
Currently, different applications allow users to write macros and scripts within the confines of the allowed domain, i.e., within the confines of the specific application. For example, word processors typically allow users to create a macro by recording a series of keystrokes to be played back later. Other applications allow users to create macros for retrieving and manipulating data within the confines of the applications. Thus, these applications include a limited set of macros, e.g., macro for recording keystrokes, a macro for retrieving data. The user is then typically limited to the macros provided by the application.
Frequently, however, each user using an application has a unique set of instructions or commands that the user would like to include as a macro in the application which was not previously provided. Because the macros are typically hard coded into the applications or into the macro language included in the applications, the only method currently available for including additional macros into the application is to hard code the new macros into the application by modifying the source code and recompiling it before the new macro can be used. Usually, however, this presents a problem because the user is not given an access to the source code of the macro language or the application to modify. Moreover, it would be a tremendous burden on the application developers to try to cater to each individual user's preferences by customizing the applications to include the macros that the user would like to have.
Therefore, it is highly desirable to have an extensible macro language that would allow users to modify and to extend the language to include their preferences when using the macro language. Furthermore, it is also highly desirable to be able to allow the users to extend the macro without having to modify or access the source code of the macro language since the source code is treated as a proprietary property not distributed to the users.

Method and system for an extensible macro language


A method, computer program product and apparatus for estimating the pneumatic pressure of a tire on a vehicle, comprising the steps of: receiving as an input a vehicle status sensor signal; estimating first parameter values of an adaptive filter based on a predetermined model on the vehicle status dependent on the vehicle status sensor signal; calculating, dependent on said first model parameter values, a first tire pressure indication value (δ) being dependent on and indicative of the pneumatic pressure of the tire. Specifically, the vehicle status signal may be an input a wheel angular velocity signal (1) and a lateral movement indication signal; the adaptive filter is based on a predetermined model on lateral vehicle dynamics dependent on the angular velocity of said wheel and the lateral movement of said vehicle.

In the design of cars and other vehicles a great deal of attention is today directed to safety aspects. One such aspect of great importance is related to the tire pressure in the wheels due to the fact that a sudden flat tire can easily cause an accident. In addition, in areas with a great risk of being robbed at the road an involuntary stop in connection with a change of wheels entails an increased personal risk for the drivers and the passengers. Another aspect more related to driving economy is based on the fact that a tire having a low air pressure is worn out faster than a correctly filled tire. An indication of the tire air pressure is therefore a means for avoiding unnecessary costs.


A method for scheduling single-arm multi-cluster tools is provided. The present invention studies the scheduling problem of a single-arm multi-cluster tool with a linear topology and process-bound bottleneck individual tool. Its objective is to find a one-wafer cyclic schedule such that the lower bound of cycle time is reached by optimally configuring spaces in buffering modules that link individual cluster tools. A Petri net model is developed to describe the dynamic behavior of the system by extending resource-oriented Petri nets such that a schedule can be parameterized by robots' waiting time. Based on this model, conditions are presented under which a one-wafer cyclic schedule with lower bound of cycle time can be found. With the derived conditions, an algorithm is presented to find such a schedule and optimally configure the buffer spaces.

The following references are cited in the specification. Disclosures of these references are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
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Since two decades ago, cluster tools have been increasingly adopted in wafer fabrication for high quality and low lead time. In general, a cluster tool integrates several process modules (PMs), a wafer handle robot (R), and one or more loadlocks (LL) for wafer cassette loading/unloading. In operating a cluster tool, a raw wafer in a loadlock is transported to PMs one by one in a specific sequence, and finally returns to the loadlock where it comes from. The robot executes loading, transportation, and unloading operations. It can be a single or dual-arm one, thus resulting in a single or dual-arm cluster tool. A multi-cluster tool is composed of multiple single-cluster tools, as shown in FIG. 1, which are interconnected via buffers with finite capacity for holding incoming and outgoing wafers.
Extensive studies have been done in modeling, analysis, scheduling, and performance evaluation for single-cluster tools [Perkinson et al., 1994 and 1996; Venkatesh et al., 1997; Zuberek, 2001; Wu et al., 2011 and 2012; and Wu and Zhou, 2010a, 2012a, and 2012b]. These studies reveal that a cluster tool operates in a steady state for most of time. A cluster tool operates in one of two modes called transport-bound and process-bound regions. When the wafer processing time dominates the operations such that the robot has idle time, it is process-bound, otherwise it is transport-bound if the robot is always busy. Practically, the robot task time is much shorter than wafer processing time and can be assumed to be a constant [Kim et al., 2003]. Thus, in practice, a cluster tool is often process-bound. In a process-bound region, a pull schedule (backward schedule) is optimal for a single-arm cluster tool [Kim et al., 2003; Lee et al. 2004; Lopez and Wood, 2003; and Dawande, 2002], and a swap scheduling is optimal for a dual-arm cluster tool [Venkatesh et al., 1997; and Drobouchevich et al., 2006]. However, these results are applicable only when there is no strict wafer residency time constraint.
Some wafer fabrication processes must meet strict wafer residency time constraints, thus leading to a complex scheduling problem [Kim et al., 2003; and Lee and Park, 2005]. Studies have been done for scheduling dual-arm cluster tools with wafer residency time constraints in [Kim et al., 2003; Lee and Park, 2005; and Rostami et al., 2001], and methods for finding an optimal periodic schedule are presented. To improve computational efficiency, this problem is further studied in [Wu et al., 2008a; and Wu and Zhou, 2010a, 2010b, 2012a, and 2012b] for both single-arm and dual-arm cluster tools. They develop a type of Petri net models by explicitly describing the robot waiting. Based on these models, an optimal cyclic schedule can be found by simply determining when and how long the robot should wait such that closed-form scheduling algorithms are developed to find such a schedule. Thereafter, one calls such a method a robot waiting method.
In order to meet complex manufacturing conditions, multi-cluster tools have been used in industry for more than a decade. Since the interconnection of single-cluster tools results in coupling and dependence of the single-cluster tools, their analysis and scheduling are more complicated than that of a single-cluster tool [Chan et al., 2011a]. Up to now, there are only a few research reports on this issue. Based on priority rules, heuristics for their scheduling are proposed in [Jevtic, 2001, Jevtic and Venkatesh, 2001]. Since it is difficult to evaluate the performance of a heuristic method, Ding et al. [2006] develop an integrated event graph and network models for them. Then, an extended critical path method is presented to find a periodic schedule. By ignoring the robot moving time, a decomposition approach is presented for scheduling them [Yi et al., 2008]. By this approach, they are decomposed into individual tools and the fundamental period (FP) of each single-cluster tool is calculated. Then, the FP for the whole system can be obtained by analyzing the robot operations in accessing the buffer modules (BMs). With constant robot moving time, Chan et al. [2011a and 2011b] subsequently tackle their scheduling problem. They develop a polynomial algorithm to find an optimal multi-wafer cyclic schedule.
Since robot task time is much shorter than wafer processing time in practice, a single-cluster tool is mostly process-bound. Hence, the present invention assumes that the bottleneck single-cluster tool in a multi-cluster tool is process-bound. Such a multi-cluster tool is called a process-dominant one [Zhu et al., 2013]. For a process-dominant one, the FP of its bottleneck single-cluster tool must be the lower bound of cycle time for the entire system. It is well-known that a one-wafer cyclic schedule is easy to understand, implement, and control to guarantee uniform product quality [Dawande et al., 2002; and Drobouchevitch et al., 2006]. Thus, it is highly desirable to have an optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule for a multi-cluster tool.
Aiming at finding an optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule, Zhu et al. [2013] study the scheduling problem of a process-dominant multi-cluster tool with a linear topology by using the robot waiting method. Their multi-cluster tool is composed of single-arm cluster tools and single-capacity BMs. They show that there is always an optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule for such a multi-cluster tool and efficient algorithms are developed to find such a schedule. They also present the conditions under which the lower bound of cycle time can be reached by a one-wafer cyclic schedule. For the same systems, this scheduling problem is further studied in [Yang et al., 2014]. It is shown that a one-wafer cyclic schedule to reach the lower bound of cycle time can be always found if all the BMs have two spaces. These results are very important for scheduling multi-cluster tools.
By the aforementioned studies, it is known that, with one-space BMs, the lower bound of cycle time may not be reached by a one-wafer cyclic schedule, which implies productivity loss. With two-space BMs, the maximal productivity is reached. However, cost must be paid for additional spaces. Thus, an interesting and significant question is how to optimally configure the buffer spaces such that a one-wafer cyclic schedule is found to reach the maximal productivity. This motivates us to conduct this study. As done in [Zhu et al., 2013; and Yang et al., 2014], one studies a single-arm process-dominant multi-cluster tool with linear topology. A Petri net (PN) model is developed to describe the dynamic behavior of the system with one or two spaces in a BM. With this model, based on the robot waiting method, one derives the conditions under which a one-wafer cyclic schedule with the lower bound of cycle time can be found for an individual tool such that this tool can operate as if it is independent. Then, an algorithm is presented to find such a schedule and configure the buffer spaces. This algorithm involves simple calculations for setting the robot waiting time and is computationally efficient. Further, the buffer space configuration is optimal in terms of the number of buffer spaces needed.
There is a need in the art for a method for scheduling single-arm multi-cluster tools with optimal buffer space configuration.

Optimal buffer space configuration and scheduling for single-arm multi-cluster tools

Macau University of Science and Technology


An aroma diffuser having a base, and an essential oil container cylinder above the base and sleeved by an outer shell; a circuit board and an atomizing transducer are provided inside the base; an energy accumulation aperture is provided at a bottom plate of the essential oil container cylinder; the atomizing transducer is mounted at a lower end of the energy accumulation aperture; a width of the atomizing transducer is greater than a width of the energy accumulation aperture; a light column is provided inside the essential oil container cylinder; a light source is mounted inside the light column; an upper cover is provided at an upper end of the essential oil container cylinder; a light blocking shade is provided at an upper end of the upper cover; a first opening is provided on the upper cover; a gas discharge opening is provided on the light blocking shade.

The present disclosure relates to the technical field of aroma diffuser, and more specifically relates to an improved aroma diffuser.
A major function of an aroma diffuser is to atomize or vaporize added liquid substances to aromatize the air, improve air quality and increase air humidity etc. For example, by using different kinds of liquid, in other words, essential oil, beneficial and therapeutic effects for beauty, health and general well-being can be achieved, for example improving memory, reducing insomnia, soothing emotions, and alleviating anxiety-induced headaches etc. Following the continuous technological developments, demands and requirements for aroma diffuser are getting higher. A conventional aroma diffuser can no longer satisfy the pursuit of fashion in the market. A 5V atomizer now available in the market has a very ineffective atomizing transducer due to the constraints of voltage and power of USB. Therefore, an energy accumulation ring has to be placed at an upper end of an atomizer energy accumulation aperture to create a certain amount of vapor, thereby complicating the overall structure of the atomizer and increasing the cost of production. Also, such atomizer is not easy to be cleaned. Moreover, the atomizing transducer currently available in the market has a width equivalent to the position in the water tank mounting the same, therefore resulting in very low water pressure and power, and generating only a small amount of vapor.


VEGFR-2 biomarkers useful in a method for identifying and monitoring a mammal that will respond therapeutically to a method of treating cancer comprising administering an VEGFR-2 modulator, wherein the method comprises (a) exposing the mammal to the VEGFR-2 modulator and (b) measuring in the mammal the level of the at least one biomarker, wherein a difference in the level of the at least one biomarker measured in (b) compared to the level of the biomarker in a mammal that has not been exposed to the VEGFR-2 modulator indicates that the mammal will respond therapeutically to the method of treating cancer and (c) wherein the level of the biomarker in a mammal after exposure to a VEGFR-2 modulator indicates that the mammal has responded therapeutically to the method of treating cancer.

Cancer is a disease with extensive histoclinical heterogeneity. Although conventional histological and clinical features have been correlated to prognosis, the same apparent prognostic type of tumors varies widely in its responsiveness to therapy and consequent survival of the patient.
New prognostic and predictive markers, which would facilitate an individualization of therapy for each patient, are needed to accurately predict patient response to treatments, such as small molecule or biological molecule drugs, in the clinic. The problem may be solved by the identification of new parameters that could better predict the patient's sensitivity to treatment. The classification of patient samples is a crucial aspect of cancer diagnosis and treatment. The association of a patient's response to a treatment with molecular and genetic markers can open up new opportunities for treatment development in non-responding patients, or distinguish a treatment's indication among other treatment choices because of higher confidence in the efficacy. Further, the pre-selection of patients who are likely to respond well to a medicine, drug, or combination therapy may reduce the number of patients needed in a clinical study or accelerate the time needed to complete a clinical development program (M. Cockett et al., Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 11:602-609 (2000)).
The ability to determine which patients are responding to anti-angiogenesis therapies (such as VEGFR-2 modulators) or predict drug sensitivity in patients is particularly challenging because drug responses reflect not only properties intrinsic to the target cells, but also a host's metabolic properties. Efforts to use genetic information to predict or monitor drug response have primarily focused on individual genes that have broad effects, such as the multidrug resistance genes mdr1 and mrp1 (P. Sonneveld, J. Intern. Med., 247:521-534 (2000)).
The development of microarray technologies for large scale characterization of gene mRNA expression pattern has made it possible to systematically search for molecular markers and to categorize cancers into distinct subgroups not evident by traditional histopathological methods (J. Khan et al., Cancer Res., 58:5009-5013 (1998); A. A. Alizadeh et al., Nature, 403:503-511 (2000); M. Bittner et al., Nature, 406:536-540 (2000); J. Khan et al., Nature Medicine, 7(6):673-679 (2001); and T. R. Golub et al., Science, 286:531-537 (1999); U. Alon et al., P. N. A. S. USA, 96:6745-6750 (1999)). Such technologies and molecular tools have made it possible to monitor the expression level of a large number of transcripts within a cell population at any given time (see, e.g., Schena et al., Science, 270:467-470 (1995); Lockhart et al., Nature Biotechnology, 14:1675-1680 (1996); Blanchard et al., Nature Biotechnology, 14:1649 (1996); U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,588 to Ashby et al.).
Recent studies demonstrate that gene expression information generated by microarray analysis of human tumors can predict clinical outcome (L. J. van't Veer et al., Nature, 415:530-536 (2002); M. Shipp et al., Nature Medicine, 8(1):68-74 (2002); G. Glinsky et al., The Journal of Clin. Invest, 113(6):913-923 (2004)). These findings bring hope that cancer treatment will be vastly improved by better predicting and monitoring the response of individual tumors to therapy.
Needed are new and alternative methods and procedures to determine drug sensitivity or monitor response in patients to allow the development of individualized diagnostics which are necessary to treat diseases and disorders based on patient response at a molecular level.

Methods for determining sensitivity to vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 modulators by measuring the level of collagen type IV


A lubricant applying device includes a solid lubricant and a roller brush that rotates while in contact with the lubricant, receives the lubricant, and applies the lubricant to an image carrier. A corner portion of the lubricant on an upstream side with respect to direction of rotation of the roller brush is convex, i.e., blunt.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lubricant applying device in an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatuses, such as copying machines, facsimile machines, and printers, generally include a photosensitive drum and an intermediate transfer member. The photosensitive drum and the intermediate transfer member serve as image carriers. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H05-323704, for example, discloses a conventional image forming apparatus including a photosensitive drum and an intermediate transfer member.
Two types of image forming apparatuses are popular in the marketplace. In the first type a photosensitive drum serves as an image carrier, and in the second type an intermediate transfer member and a photosensitive drum together serve as an image carrier.
In the first type, the photosensitive drum is normally in the form of a drum or a belt. The photosensitive drum rotates in a predetermined direction, and discharge process, exposure process, and developing process are performed with respect to the rotating photosensitive drum thereby forming a toner image onto the photosensitive drum. Transfer process is performed with respect to the toner image on the photosensitive drum thereby transferring the toner image onto a recording medium. The recording medium can be an intermediate transfer member or a paper.
On the other hand, in the second type, both the photosensitive drum and the intermediate transfer member are normally in the form of a drum or a belt. A toner image is formed in the same manner as the first type on the photosensitive drum in accordance with rotation of the intermediate transfer member in a predetermined direction. The toner image is first transferred from the photosensitive drums to the intermediate transfer member by a primary transfer process, and then the toner image is transferred from the intermediate transfer member to a recording medium by a secondary transfer process. The recording medium can be a paper.
In both the first type and the second type, once the transfer of the toner image is complete, wastes including residual toners or paper powders that remain on the photosensitive drum or the intermediate transfer member are removed by performing cleaning process with a cleaning unit.
A cleaning blade is widely used as a cleaning unit. The cleaning blade is arranged to make a physical contact with a rotating image carrier so as to scrape wastes from the surface of the image carrier. Such a cleaning blade is generally made of rubber, realizing a cheaper and simpler structure with better cleaning performance. Sometimes a brush roller that can electrostatically remove wastes is used.
A higher image quality can be achieved if the toner particles are spherical and minute. In order to satisfy the recent increasing demand for achieving higher image quality, toners with perfectly spherical and minute toner particles are being used. It is difficult, however, to remove wastes that contain such perfectly spherical and minute toner particles with the conventional cleaning blades or brush rollers.
For example, polymerized toner, such as SPR-C toner, is increasingly used in the image forming apparatus for achieving higher image quality. However, the SPR-C toner contains uniformly distributed wax material, so that the wax material is not sufficiently deposited onto the image carrier when the toner sticks to the image carrier. If the wax material that is deposited is insufficient, coefficient of friction of the surface of the image carrier increases as the time elapses. Moreover, cleaning performance decreases as the coefficient of friction increases.
Furthermore, toners with ultra-fine particles are being used for achieving higher image quality. However, ultra-fine particles are more likely to pass through even smaller gaps, slits, or holes in the cleaning blade or the brush roller. Specifically, when dimensional accuracy or assembly accuracy of the cleaning blade or the brush roller is less, or when vibration occurs on a portion of the cleaning blade or the brush roller, more toner particles pass through gaps, slits, or holes in the cleaning blade or the brush roller. Thus, cleaning performance decreases.
Because the cleaning blade is in physical contact with the image carrier, friction occurs between the two. Such friction result into abrasion of the cleaning blade and the image carrier thereby reducing the lifetimes of the cleaning blade and the image carrier. Furthermore, the cleaning blade may bend if the coefficient of friction is too high. Bending of the cleaning blade may stop certain functions of the image forming apparatus, or cause failure of the entire image forming apparatus.
For lengthening the lifetime of the image carrier and maintaining higher image quality, it is necessary to suppress damage of the image carrier, the cleaning blade, and to improve the cleaning performance. Moreover, it is necessary to prevent filming that is another cause of degradation of image quality. Filming is the phenomenon in which toners get firmly stuck onto the surface of the image carrier due to various reasons such as pressing force, and heat generated because of the friction between the cleaning blade and the image carrier.
In one of the conventional techniques, a lubricant is applied onto the image carrier for improving the cleaning performance and preventing filming.
It is necessary to stably apply an appropriate amount of the lubricant to the image carrier. If the applied lubricant is too much, coefficient of friction of the surface of the image carrier excessively decreases, decreasing amount of toners held on the image carrier. As a result, an undesirable image, such as a so-called moth eaten image, may be formed. On the other hand, if the applied lubricant is too less, coefficient of friction increases, resulting in damage to the parts.
Various techniques are known for adjusting the amount of the applied lubricant. For example, for adjusting the amount of the applied lubricant pressure between the lubricant and the brush roller can be adjusted, rotation speed of the brush roller can be adjusted, or hardness of the brush roller can be adjusted.
It is also known that amount of the lubricant applied varies depending on the state of the lubricant being in contact with the brush roller. For example, if the lubricant applied on the image carrier has corners or bumps, where the brush roller can eat into, consumption of the lubricant largely increases compared to when the brush roller slides smoothly over the surface of the lubricant. When the bumps in the lubricant become flat over time because they are scrapped off by the brush roller, the amount of applied lubricant largely decreases. There are reports that the decrease of the amount of the lubricant to be applied after using the lubricant was one tenth of that at the time of beginning of use of the lubricant.
On the other hand, if the brush roller eats in the lubricant, rotational torque of the brush roller increases. Furthermore, such a brush roller is left as it is for a long time, hairs of the brush roller may be become angled.
Thus, it is not preferable that the lubricant applied on the image carrier has corners or bumps.
When the lubricant is applied onto the image carrier by rotating the brush roller in a predetermined direction, the lubricant may be slid to a down stream side in the predetermined direction due to rotation of the brush roller, and may generate corners or bumps into which the brush roller can eat into. In consideration of above situation, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-268397 discloses a conventional technology for previously shifting a position of the lubricant to the upstream side in a rotation direction of the brush roller.
According to the conventional technology, such a situation where the brush roller eats into the corners or the bumps of the lubricant occurs due to defects in the mechanism for holding the lubricant. Such a mechanism generally includes a first member for holding the lubricant, a second member for guiding the lubricant on the first member to come into contact with or away from the brush roller, and a third member arranged between the first member and the second member to bias the lubricant toward the brush roller. A gap is kept between the first member and the second member. Such gap is useful if there is a need to change a position of the first member depending on a position of the second member. The gap also functions as a buffer for dimensional error. Moreover, it is easy to assemble the first member and the third member when the gap is present. Because of the gap, however, the lubricant comes into contact with the brush roller when the brush roller rotates, so that the first member inclines toward the second member. As a result, the lubricant also inclines toward the brush roller.
In other words, it is difficult to avoid eating of the brush roller into corners or bumps of the lubricant. The conventional technology, therefore, proposes to previously shift any one of the first member to the third member to the upstream side in the rotation direction of the brush roller thereby shifting a position of applying the lubricant to the upstream side.
However, the amount of such shift will vary depending on dimensional error or assembly accuracy of the first member to the third member. In other words, the amount of the shift must be adjusted depending on the situation or the brush roller may eat into the corners or the bumps even when the position of the lubricant is shifted.
Furthermore, if the shift is excessively large, the brush roller fails to come into contact with some portions of the lubricant, so that use efficiency of the lubricant decreases, resulting in loss of the lubricant. As a result, economic efficiency decreases, and lifetimes of the lubricant and the image forming apparatus is shortened. Thus, use efficiency of the lubricant may be degraded even when a position of the lubricant is shifted.

Lubricant applying device and image forming apparatus


A system and method for using asymmetric companion codecs to establish and maintain a communication. A communication system endpoint replaces instances of a companion codec with the members of a group of all of the companion codecs for the endpoint and performs appropriate translations of compatible codecs to provide a communication between communication system endpoints.

Standards are prevalent in telephony and data communications industries. Specifying and clarifying design principles, communication processes, test procedures, and environmental conditions have helped to assure product quality and multi-vendor interoperability. The voice over Internet Protocol (IP) community has a collection of standards for voice codecs derived out of multiple standards bodies such as the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) and the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). Vocoders are another area of continued standards evolution for voice over IP. Most vocoders used as part of VoIP solutions were based on existing standards created for digital telephony applications.
Wireline voice-over-packet gateways are used to convert digital voice signals into packets. Digital pulse code modulation (PCM) voice signals taken from SONET facilities are processed by the gateway. Voice channels are converted from their TDM format to digital "channels" and processed to remove any echo. The signal level is adjusted to appropriate levels and compression algorithms are applied to the channels. Following this, each channel is packetized and transmitted to the packet network. Various other optional processes may be needed to perform such functions as the extraction of signaling information, management of tones or detection of voice activity for comfort noise generation.
Signaling protocols used in wireline networks can be categorized by specific market segments. Service providers predominantly use session initiation protocol (SIP) as the transport protocol of choice. In this application, SIP is often used to replace and/or convert SS7 signaling. Cable operators have favored multimedia gateway control protocol (MGCP) for edge to client signaling. On the enterprise side, the H.323 protocol suite has been deployed almost exclusively.
Codecs follow a similar division based on market segments. ILECs and other large carriers typically focus on G.711 (or traditional PCM) and G.726 (adaptive PCM) due to their existing circuit-switched environment, and because of the ability to perform tandem coding without signal quality degradation. With any of the other available codecs, network design must consider the effects of tandem coding and quality implications.
Enterprises often use G.729AB and G.723.1A due to their low-bandwidth requirements and association with PC networks using Microsoft NetMeeting. The tradeoff here is that the signal quality is less than in the previously discussed codecs, and the network must be designed to control the number of tandem coding incidences. Additionally, the processing power required for a single channel using these codecs is roughly twice that of a PCM channel.
G.729E and G.728 are the primary codecs used by cable operators. These codecs provide a middle-of-the-road approach, their quality being roughly equal to PCM/ADPCM, but with reduced bandwidth. The approach provides quality suitable for more demanding applications (such as providing music while callers hold), but it is also the most expensive. The processing power required for one channel is roughly 3.5 times that required for a single PCM channel.
Under various protocols, individual media codecs have identifiers, which may be a names or a numeric codes. When a call is attempted, media connections (e.g., voice, video, music) will not be established unless the sending and receiving codec have the same identifier. An exact match is not really necessary since a number of codecs are code-level compatible, i.e. they can successfully decode each other's media stream.
Each code-compatible codec group is called companion group, and any two members of the same companion group are called companion codecs. In a companion group, any codec can successfully decode the output of any other group member. For example, G.729 and G.729B form a companion group, and G.729A and G.729AB form another companion group. These examples are not exhaustive, nor are the companion groups limited to voice codecs only.


In a measurement instrument for measuring pollutants in a liquid, such as oil in water, the measurement instrument includes a main unit disposed in a first housing and a sensor unit disposed in a second housing. The housing, manufactured from an electrically insulating material, and an associated electric connection, are sealed against the passage of gas and liquid. The sensor unit has connections which are connected to a conduit system in which flows the liquid which is to be inspection measured. Sensors are further disposed in the sensor unit for emitting a measurement signal. The sensor unit and its electronics lack galvanic connection with electrically conductive components in the main unit, transfer of measurement signals between both of the units taking place by optical energy transfer, capacitative or inductive transfer. The housings have apertures for the transfer of measurement signals which are closed by non-electrically conductive foils which, when the main unit and the sensor unit are mounted together, abut against one another so they are protected against outer damage.

The present invention relates to a measurement instrument for measuring pollutants in a liquid, such as oil in water, comprising a main unit disposed in a first housing or casing, the main unit having a connection for electricity, and a sensor unit disposed in a second housing or casing, the second housing or casing having connections to a conduit system for that liquid which is to be measured, and sensor means for emitting a measurement signal.
In the pumping of bilge water from vessels, there are stringent restrictions relating to the maximum amount of pollutants, principally oil, which the bilge water may contain if it is to be permitted to pump the water overboard. The present invention relates, in an aspect thereof, to a measurement instrument which is intended for the continuous monitoring of the concentration of pollutants in such water and triggers an alarm or discontinues the pumping if the concentration becomes too high.
Apparatuses and instruments for the above-outlined purpose and of the type intimated by way of introduction are previously known in the art. In such measurement instruments, use has been made of an electric cable communication between the main unit and the sensor unit. This cable communication has, on the one hand, fed the sensor unit with the necessary electricity for its operation, but also fed back measurement signals from the sensor unit to the main unit where signal processing takes place and where measurement values are presented on a display.
If the sensor unit is to be dismounted, for example for calibration, cleaning or general service, it is naturally necessary that the cable communication between the sensor unit and the main unit be disconnected. Since the measurement instrument according to an aspect of the present invention is used in an extremely dirty marine environment, there is a major risk that water may penetrate in to both the main unit and the sensor unit when the cable communication is opened. In addition, there is also naturally a considerable risk of dirtying the contact surfaces in question. Since the currents that are transferred via the cable communication are slight, even a very insignificant level of dirt on the contact surfaces may cause major problems. As a result, it has not previously been possible to carry out replacement or calibration of the sensor unit without access to well-trained service personnel.
The fact that there is an electric communication between the main unit and the sensor unit entails that the electronics in the sensor unit will have an electric potential that is determined by the electric potential in the main unit and that does not necessarily correspond with the potential in the housing of the sensor unit or in the liquid passing through the sensor unit. This may give rise to galvanic currents with attendant corrosion problems.
It is desirable to design the measurement instrument intimated by way of introduction so that the drawbacks inherent in prior art technology are obviated. Thus, it is desirable to design the measurement instrument so that calibration, dismounting, cleaning and other maintenance are substantially facilitated. Further, it is desirable to design the measurement instrument so that problems involving dirtying, leakage and corrosion are eliminated.
According to an aspect of the present invention the measurement instrument intimated by way of introduction can be characterised in that both the first and the second housing or casing have mutually cooperating devices for inductive or capacitative energy transfer therebetween, and that the second housing or casing is secured on the first, or vice versa.