A node (100; 300) of a mobile network is responsible for scheduling transmissions of data blocks between the mobile network and a terminal device (200, 200′). The node (100; 300) may for example be a base station (100) or a control node (300) of the mobile network. The node (100; 300) determines a processing time required by the terminal device (200; 200′) for processing signals for transmission of one of the data blocks. The processing time is determined from a plurality of supported processing times. On the basis of the determined processing time, the node (100; 300) schedules the transmission of the data block. The terminal device (200, 200′) may provide control data for determining the processing time to the node (100; 300).

In mobile networks, such as a 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) mobile network, various types of terminal devices may be used. For example, Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal devices, such as sensor devices, alarm devices, remote control devices, or the like may be used in addition to conventional types of terminal devices, such as mobile phones, smartphones, data modems, mobile computers, or other types of UE. MTC terminal devices are typically characterized by a modest bit rate and sparse communication. MTC terminal devices may therefore be implemented with low-performance communication capabilities.
The existence of MTC terminal devices or other devices having similar data traffic characteristics may have an impact on the mobile network, in particular if the mobile network is designed to support large bandwidths or high throughputs, as for example in a mobile network according to 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution).
According to the Release 8/9 versions of the LTE specifications, the supported cell bandwidth is within the range of 6 and 100 resource blocks (RBs), about 1.4 to 20 MHz, and a UE is mandated to support all specified bandwidths in order to be standard compliant. Furthermore, UEs belonging to the lowest defined release 8/9 UE category need to support bit rates of at least 10 Mbit/s in the downlink and 5 Mbit/s in the uplink, which exceeds the needs of most MTC terminal devices. The ability to support high bandwidth, in particular bandwidth flexibility, and high throughput drives both cost and power consumption in the MTC terminal device. Accordingly, it is desirable to define low-performance UE categories in order to meet the characteristics of MTC terminals devices.
With the introduction of low-performance UE categories, it is possible to manufacture terminal devices with considerably less complexity and/or power consumption. In particular, the cost of each device is to a large extent driven by the silicon area. With significantly reduced throughput requirements, it is possible to reduce the size of hardware accelerators that are used to perform the most computationally complex operations, or even to replace them altogether with software implementations. Similarly, in a software-based implementation it is possible to replace large, possibly multiple, processors with smaller and/or fewer ones.
The potential to reduce the power consumption in a terminal device also strongly depends on the supported bitrates. Given a specific UE implementation, operation at the maximum supported bitrate requires a certain number of baseband processing operations, corresponding to a certain power consumption. Lower bitrates than the maximum one require fewer baseband processing operations, whether implemented in hardware or software. Consequently, support of lower bitrates may also be used for enabling reduction of energy consumption by the terminal device.
Even though it is possible to lower device complexity and/or power consumption when the throughput requirements are lower, there are typically still some timing constraints that need to be fulfilled in order to comply with a particular mobile network standard. For example, in 3GPP LTE one such timing constraint is associated with feedback messages of a retransmission protocol on the physical layer, which is used for reporting whether a data transmission has been successfully decoded by the UE or not. This timing constraint may actually limit how much simplified a particular implementation can be made, and/or how much the power consumption can be reduced. For example, a slower receiver processing at the terminal device may result in that the processing of a received data block has not yet terminated by the time that the next data block is being transmitted by the mobile network to the terminal device. In this case, terminal device may need to discard the transmitted data block, which reduces the efficiency of data transmission.
Accordingly, there is a need for techniques which allow for efficiently controlling transmission of data blocks between a mobile network and a terminal device.

Processing-time dependent control of data block transmission


A mirror arrangement (10) for a rear view mirror system comprises three mirrors (14, 16, 18). The first mirror (14) is a concave off-axis parabolic mirror arranged adjacent the eyes of the user with a principal axis and effective focal length f1. The second mirror (16) is substantially flat and is arranged between the first and third mirrors (14, 18). The third mirror (18) is a convex off axis parabolic mirror having a principal axis under an effective focal f3. The first and third mirrors (14, 18) have a common focus and the parabolas of the first and third mirrors (14, 18) are related such that 1.5 f1xe2x89xa6f3 xe2x89xa63f1. In another aspect of the invention a mounting arrangement (24) for a rear view mirror system comprises an article of headgear (12) with a channel (20) formed therein and a mirror assembly mounted on the article of headgear so as to bridge the channel. The mirror assembly has series of lugs (26) protruding from the longitudinal edges thereof. The article of headgear has a series of recesses (28) arranged to receive the lugs (26) on the mirror assembly arranged along both edges of the channel (20).

The present invention relates to a mirror arrangement for a rear view mirror system in an article of headgear, especially for a rear view mirror system in a cycling or motorcycling helmet, although not exclusively limited thereto.
Rear view mirror systems for cycling and motorcycling helmets are known, such as the helmet shown in PCT/GB94/00485 which relates to a helmet having a solid block of light transmissive material with reflective surfaces arranged within a channel in the foam padding of a helmet. FR2631789 discloses a helmet with an open, hollow channel through the helmet over the wearer""s head. The helmet has two mirrors on the upper side of the channel and one mirror on the lower side of the channel. The mirrors direct light from behind the wearer to the wearer""s eyes. EP0007432 discloses a helmet including a series of convex lenses and an optical fibre in the helmet to enable the wearer to see behind themselves. Three of the lenses are arranged radially to the wearer""s head. The channel through the helmet is hollow and open to the air. A further helmet is known from PCT/GB96/02349 where a plurality of mirrors are arranged on a one piece mounting which is arranged in a channel in the foam padding inside the outer shell of the helmet.
The region of distinct vision of the retina of the human eye occupies approximately 6xc2x0 in terms of plane angles. In other words, without moving the eye, only objects lying in a cone of vertex angle 6xc2x0 can be distinguished clearly. It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved mirror arrangement for a rear view mirror system in an article of headgear.
According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a mirror arrangement for a rear view mirror system in an article of headgear comprising first, second and third mirrors, the first mirror comprising a concave, off axis parabolic mirror arranged, in use, adjacent the eyes of the user, the first mirror having a principal axis and an effective focal length f1, the second mirror being substantially flat and being arranged between the first and the third mirror and the third mirror comprising a convex, off axis parabolic mirror having a principal axis and an effective focal length f3, whereby the first and third mirrors have a common focus and the parabolas are related such that 1.5 f1xe2x89xa6f3xe2x89xa63f1.
In that way, the mirror arrangement of the invention allows an expanded field of view to be viewed in a contact mirror arrangement which can be located in a channel in the foam padding of the helmet without compromising the protective function thereof. The claimed range of parabola geometry provides a range of field of view from 9 to 18xc2x0. Preferably, f3=2f1
In that way, the mirror arrangement in the helmet doubles the field of vision, in other words, the field of vision is approximately 12xc2x0. That enables a 2 metre high object to be viewed in full at a distance of 10 metres behind the user.
The second flat mirror is preferably arranged closer to the first mirror than the third mirror. That arrangement is to allow the size of the second mirror to be reduced and to increase the angle of light approach xcfx86 at the third mirror.
The first mirror is preferably arranged, in use, so that it can be viewed by both eyes of the user.
The mirrors are preferably arranged in a channel in the foam padding of a helmet. The mirrors are preferably all arranged across the top of the channel facing into the channel.
The mirrors may be formed as part of a one piece mounting. The one piece mounting may be arranged in the aforesaid channel. Preferably the one piece mounting comprises a mating formation on an edge thereof and the article of headgear includes a channel, the article of headgear having a co-operating mating formation formed along an edge of the channel, the mating formation co-operating so as to retain the mirror arrangement on the article of headgear.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a mounting arrangement for a rear view mirror system, the arrangement comprising an article of headgear having a channel formed therein and a mirror assembly mounted on the article of headgear so as to bridge the channel, the mirror assembly having a mating formation formed along an edge thereof, the article of headgear having a co-operating mating formation formed along an edge of the channel, the mating formations co-operating so as to retain the mirror assembly of the article of headgear. That provides a convenient way of assembling the mirror assembly into the article of headgear.
Preferably, the mirror assembly has respective mating formations formed along opposite edges thereof and the article of headgear has respective co-operating mating formations formed along opposite edges of the channel. The mating formation on the mirror assembly or article of headgear may comprise at least one protrusion and the mating formation on the other of the mirror assembly and article of headgear may comprise at least one recess, the or each protrusion fitting within the respective recess with an interference fit. In a preferred embodiment the protrusion is provided on the mirror assembly and the recess is provided on the edge of the channel in the article of headgear.
Preferably, the protrusion comprises a lug having a neck and a head, the head being larger than the neck, the recess being substantially the negative of the protrusion. The lug may be formed with a curve between the neck and the head.
In that way impact or stress to the article of headgear is dissipated through the mirror assembly via the curved lugs into the body of the article of headgear. The curved lugs reduce stress concentrations and thus reduce the risk of the mirror assembly breaking under stresses applied to the article of headgear. In the case of a helmet, impacts may be severe and the configuration of the mounting renders the mirror assembly safer than previous such systems.
Preferably, a plurality of protrusions and a corresponding plurality of recesses are provided. Most preferably a plurality of curved lug protrusions and respective mating recesses are provided.

Mirror arrangement for a rear view mirror system in an article of headgear and a mounting system therefor


A database system includes an input to a database server configured to deliver a data stream formed of a sequence of elements, D={p1, p2, . . . , pm} of size m of numbers from {1, . . . , n} to the database server. The system further includes a computer program that causes a processor to approximate frequency moments (Fk) in the data stream, such that a frequency of an element (i) is defined as fi=|{j:pj=i}| and a k-th frequency moment of D is defined as

The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for signal processing. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for estimating frequency moments in data stream processing algorithms.
In many signal processing application, the signal must be processed in a few or, often, just one pass. For example, a "data stream" is often referred to as a sequence of data that is too large to be stored, in its entirety, in memory. Such data streams are common in communications network traffic, database transactions, satellite data feeds, and the like. In such instances, "streaming algorithms" are used to process these signals as data streams forming an input presented as a sequence of items that can be examined in very few passes. A common example of a streaming algorithm is one developed to count the number of distinct elements in a data stream. The continuous nature of the underlying signal and the resource constraints that limit the amount of repetitive processing performed general result in the algorithm producing an approximate answer based on a summary of the data stream that is stored.
Alon, Matias, and Szegedy, in The Space Complexity of Approximating the Frequency Moments, Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 58:137-147, 1999, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, approached such a signal processing problem, within the context of database processing, and introduced the concept of "frequency moments." Namely, for a sequence of elements, D={p1, p2, . . . , pm} of size m of numbers from {1, . . . , n}, a frequency of an element, I, is defined as:fi=|{j:pj=i}|  Eqn. 1.
The k-th frequency moment of D is defined as:
                              F          k                =                              ∑                          i              =              1                        n                                                        m              i              k                        .                                              Eqn        .                                          2
Alon, Matias, and Szegedy, when approaching the problem of approximating frequency moments in one pass over D and using sublinear space, observed a striking difference between "small" and "large" values of k. Specifically, it is possible to approximate Fk for k≦2 in polylogarithmic space. However, polynomial space is required when k>2. Since the work of Alon, Matias, and Szegedy in the late 1990's, approximating Fk has become one of the most inspiring problems in the theory of data streams.
For example, many have focused on efficient algorithms for estimating particular moments, such as F2, which is useful for computing statistical properties of the data. Others have focused on bounding the memory required of Fk approximation algorithms. For example, many proposed solutions or bounds having accuracy up to a polylogarithmic factor. However, as noted above, since a polynomial space is required when k>2, suitably efficient approximations for frequency moments for k≧3 have been lacking.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a system and method for approximating frequency moments with a reduced space complexity than traditional dictated for k≧3.

System and method for pick-and-drop sampling

Abstract: F    k    =            ∑              i        =        1            n                          m        i        k                                            in                                      a      single pass through the data stream. The processor is caused to carry out the steps of locating elements (i) with a frequency ΩFk in the data stream as heavy elements and approximating fi as ≧ a fraction of fi to limit memory resources used by the processor to estimate Fk to O(n1−2/k log(n)) bits.

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA


A construction machine includes an engine guard, an engine, a cooling fan, and a device for being cooled by the cooling fan, and an exhaust duct. The engine guard accommodates the engine and has intake and exhaust openings. The intake opening and the exhaust opening are disposed in different side covers. The side covers correspond to the left and right side walls of the engine guard. The engine, the cooling fan, and the device are accommodated in the engine guard. The exhaust duct is disposed above and behind the engine, parallel with the flow of a fan air which has been used for cooling the engine, and substantially horizontally. The exhaust duct has an exit connected to the exhaust opening. The fan air introduced from the intake opening flows substantially linearly along the cooling fan, the engine, and the exhaust duct and is discharged from the exhaust opening.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a construction machine, such as a hydraulic excavator, having an exhaust gas discharging structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ordinarily, a hydraulic excavator comprises an engine guard which covers, for example, an engine and a cooling fan, and has an exhaust opening or an opening for an exhaust gas in the top surface thereof for discharging exhaust gas. Noise cannot be prevented from leaking upward along with the exhaust gas discharged via the exhaust opening.
In an environment having high-rise apartment buildings near construction sites, in particular, the noise leaking upward from the hydraulic excavator causes noise problem to at least the residents living at higher floors.
The noise level of a hydraulic excavator is calculated by measuring sound pressure levels with a plurality of microphones disposed on an imaginary hemisphere face (parallelepiped face) so as to surround the hydraulic excavator and by calculating the total sound power emitted from the construction machine on the basis of the average of the sound pressure levels (dB).
The noise level measured in this way has a characteristic in that, if any one of the sound pressure levels is high, the average sound pressure level is also high. Therefore, in order to restrict the noise of the construction machine, it is necessary to reduce the noise of the entire construction machine.
In providing a soundproof design on the basis of exhaust gas flow, when the flow of air current from a cooling fan is made complicated, flow path resistance is increased, thereby reducing cooling efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to restrict noise while maintaining smooth flow of air current from the fan.
A soundproof structure is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 4-55527. The sound-proof structure discharges exhaust gas downward from an exhaust opening of the machine body after cooling air current introduced from an intake opening at one side of the machine body in a widthwise direction has been guided to an engine cooling device disposed in a hood and the exhaust gas that has passed along the engine has been introduced into a duct path. The duct path is formed in an arcuate external wall of a counterweight.
In such a soundproof structure, however, since the flow of the cooling air current is guided to the duct path while changing the flow of the cooling air current in a complicated manner in the machine body, the flow path resistance increases, thereby increasing the load of the cooling fan.
In addition, since the duct path is formed at the counterweight, the space in the hood is reduced, thereby reducing the design freedom when disposing, for example, the engine.

Kobelco Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.


In a state where a gear is resting on a side cover, the gear and a shaft of a developing roller are made to engage with each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of assembling and reassembling cartridges that can be attached to and removed from bodies of electrophotographic image forming apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrophotographic image forming apparatuses form images on recording media by an electrophotographic image forming method. Examples of such an electrophotographic image forming apparatus include an electrophotographic copier, an electrophotographic printer (a laser beam printer, a light-emitting-diode (LED) printer, and the like), a facsimile apparatus, and a word processor.
Known electrophotographic image forming apparatuses that perform an electrophotographic image forming process include process cartridges that can be attached to and removed from the apparatus bodies. Each process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photoconductor and a processing unit that are integrally formed together. Use of such process cartridges enables users to perform maintenance of the apparatuses for themselves, without the help of servicemen. This has realized a significant improvement in operability. Therefore, process cartridges are widely used for electrophotographic image forming apparatuses.
So far, various methods of assembling and reassembling such process cartridges have been disclosed (see Japanese Patent No. 3789122).

Cartridge assembling method and cartridge reassembling method


In a sealing element for use in particular in high vacuum technology, a moveable closure unit (4) is closed tightly against a fixed outer flange (1) whose sealing surface (2) is preferably conical. The closure unit (4) comprises a hat-shaped outer part (5) with a flat base (8) and a sealing surface (7) around the periphery; and an inner part (6) concentric with, and smaller in diameter than the outer part. Between them are one or more spring elements (10), arranged as segments on a ring, which act as a disk spring; these are supported by the outer and inner edges on the outer (5) and inner (6) parts. The spring elements (10) are mounted at an oblique angle radially towards the base (8) of the outer part (5) in such a way that when the base (8) of the outer part is subjected to pressure, the radial force is produced at the sealing surface (7) of the elastically deformable outer part (5) and its base (8) is pressed inwards. In this position, the closure unit (4) remains in position, even when the force of the plunger (13) exerted against the base (8) of the outer part is removed.

The invention relates to a sealing arrangement for valves, gates or flap valves, specifically for the use in the ultra high vacuum technique, having a sealing surface formed at an outer flange and a sealing surface cooperating with same and located at the outer circumference of an axially movable closure unit (valve disk), which includes at least one biassing member becoming active by the axial movement for an increasing of the outer circumference for a pressing of the sealing surfaces onto each other.
In a known sealing arrangement of this kind the two-part closure unit consists of a planar disk having an elastically deformable annular bead at the outer circumference and a ring which is movable in an axial direction, having a smaller diameter and arranged coaxially to the disk and located in the plane of the bead-like rim. A cup spring supported at the outside on the ring and at the inside at the bead-like rim acts as a coupling member between the two parts and can be pressed by means of an axially movable ring from a relaxed position into a completely planar position, in which in order to produce a pressing-on force onto the sealing surfaces it has its largest diameter and attains practically a dead-center position. A safe functioning for an obtaining of an absolutely sealed closure at changing temperatures is not safely ensured by this arrangement.
Therefore, the present invention is directed to providing a sealing arrangement of this kind in which the biassing element producing the pressing-on force is not a coupling member between two parts which are movable relative to each other and which up to reaching the dead-center position continuously move away from each other under the influence of the spring force and need the continuous action of a pressing-on force.
In order to achieve this object the inventive sealing arrangement comprises a cap shaped outer part formed with a planar base, which is elastically deformable and includes at its outer circumference a sealing surface for a cooperation with a further sealing surface of an outer flange, an inner part concentric to the outer part and having a smaller diameter, and biassing members arranged along an annulus which provide the action of a cup spring, or instead thereof also only a cup spring is present. The biassing members, which can be held and supported at the outer part in an annular tee-slot shaped recess are arranged inclined obliquely radially towards the inside against the base of the outer part, while the pressure for the actuating is directed towards the outer part base, with the effect that the elastically deformable outer part base attains an inwardly pressed position without the bracing elements reaching a dead-center position. The elastic deformability of the outer part base is enhanced also specifically in that a radially inwardly extending groove is formed in the integral closure part between the inner part and the base.
An embodiment of the invention will hereinafter be explained more in detail with reference to the drawings.


A split stand up paddle board is configured to provide stability for a top-heavy load. The split stand up paddle board has a first hull attached to first hull inboard upper connection flap. A second hull is attached to second hull inboard upper connection flap. An upper string connects the first hull inboard upper connection flap to the second hull inboard upper connection flap. The upper string prevents the first hull from collapsing against the second hull when under the top-heavy load.

The embodiments herein relate generally to watercraft.
Prior to embodiments of the disclosed invention, a rigid single hull, inflatable or hard material, stand up paddle board when on water requires constant adjustments in the participant's center of balance to maintain optimal bipedal posture aligned in its horizontal gravitational vector. The rapidly shifting center of balance is a challenge to correct because there is a constant and abrupt leaning (heeling) angle that is greatly amplified because the stand-up paddleboard is one fixed surface. As a biped that utilizes two legs, hips, knees and ankles to maintain its balance standing on this single abruptly leaning surface is much more difficult than being on two independently moving surfaces. Embodiments of the disclosed invention solve this problem.


The invention relates to substituted 2,3-benzodiazepin-4-ones which are antagonists or positive modulators of AMPA receptors, and the use thereof for treating, preventing or ameliorating neuronal loss associated with stroke, global and focal ischemia, CNS trauma, hypoglycemia and surgery, as well as treating or ameliorating neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease and Down's syndrome, treating, preventing or ameliorating the adverse consequences of the overstimulation of the excitatory amino acids, treating or ameliorating anxiety, psychosis, convulsions, chronic pain, glaucoma, CMV retinitis, urinary incontinence, muscular spasm and inducing anesthesia, as well as for treating or ameliorating the adverse consequences of excitatory amino acid deficiency such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and malnutrition and neural maldevelopment, and as cognition enhancers. The invention also is directed to the process for the preparation of the substituted 2,3-benzodiazepin-4-ones.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of medicinal chemistry. In particular, the invention relates to novel substituted 2,3-benzodiazepin-4-ones. These analogs are antagonists of .alpha.-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA) ionotropic receptors. Certain of these analogs are positive modulators of AMPA receptors. The invention also is directed to the use of these substituted 2,3-benzodiazepin-4-ones for the treatment of neuronal damage following global and focal ischemia, and for the treatment or prevention of neurodegenerative conditions, as anticonvulsants and as cognitive enhancers and for the treatment of schizophrenia and pain. The invention is also directed to the process for the preparation of the substituted 2,3-benzodiazepin-4-ones.
2. Related Background Art
Excitatory amino acid receptors are classified into two general types. Receptors that are directly coupled to the opening of cation channels in the cell membrane of the neurons are termed "ionotropic." This type of receptor has been subdivided into at least three subtypes, which are defined by the depolarizing actions of the selective agonist N-methyl-aspartate (NMDA), .alpha.-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyoisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA), and kainic acid (KA). The second general type is the G-protein or second messenger-linked "metabotropic" excitatory amino acid receptor. This second type, when activated by the agonists quisqualate, ibotenate, or trans-1-aminocyclopentane-1,3-dicarboxylic acid, leads to enhanced phosphoinositide hydrolysis in the postsynaptic cell. Both types of receptors appear not only to mediate normal synaptic connections during development, but also changes in the efficiency of synaptic transmission throughout life. See Schoepp, Bockaert, and Sladeezek, Trends Pharm. Sci. 11: 508 (1990); McDonald and Johnson, Brain Res. Rev. 15: 41 (1990). The excessive or inappropriate stimulation of excitatory amino acid receptors leads to neuronal cell damage or loss by way of a mechanism known as excitotoxicity. The medical consequences of such neuronal degeneration makes the abatement of these degenerative neurological processes an important therapeutic goal. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,957.
Antagonists of the AMPA receptor are considered useful in treating, preventing and ameliorating a number of neurologic disorders which are due to overstimulation by the excitatory amino acids. These include acute neurologic disorders such as domoic acid poisoning; cerebral ischemia, global ischemia associated with cardiac arrest; stroke; spinal cord trauma; hypoxia; anoxia; poisoning by carbon monoxide, manganese or cyanide; hypoglycemia; mechanical trauma to the nervous system, epileptic seizures; and chronic neurologic disorders such as Huntington's disease, neuronal injury associated with HIV and AIDS, AIDS dementia, neuropathic pain syndrome, olivopontocerebral atrophy, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, mitochondrial abnormalities, Alzheimer's disease, hepatic encephalopathy, Tourette's syndrome, schizophrenia, and drug addiction (see Lipton and Rosenberg, N. Engl. J. Med. 330: 613-622 (1994)).
Positive modulators of AMPA receptors are expected to be useful for the treatment or amelioration of a number of chronic neurologic disorders, such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and malnutrition and neural maldevelopment (Thomas, R. J., J. Am. Geriatr. Soc. 43: 1279-1289 (1995)). It has been shown that the AMPA receptor positive modulator BDP 1-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-ylcarbonyl) piperidine and its derivatives enhance memory (Staubli et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 91: 777-778 (1994)). The AMPA positive modulator BDP-29 has been shown to attenuate the amount of stereotypic rearings seen in rats after methamphetamine injection, suggesting that AMPA receptor modulators might be useful for the treatment of schizopherenia (Larson et al., Brain Res. 738, 353-356 (1996)).
Recent studies have shown that AMPA receptor antagonists are neuroprotective in focal and global ischemia models. The competitive AMPA receptor antagonist NBQX (2,3-dihydroxy-6-nitro-7-sulfamoylbenzof!quinoxaline) has been reported to be effective in preventing global and focal ischemic damage. See Sheardown et al., Science 247: 571 (1990); Buchan et al., Neuroreport. 2:473 (1991); Lepeillet et al., Brain Res. 571:115 (1992). The noncompetitive AMPA receptor antagonist GKYI 52466 (1-(4-aminophenyl)-4-methyl-7,8-methylenedioxy-5H-2,3-benzodiazepine-hydro chloride) has been shown to be an effective neuroprotective agent in rat global ischemia models. See Lapeillet et al., Brain Res. 571: 115 (1992). GYKI 52466 has also been shown to be an effective anticonvulsant. See DeSarro et al., Eur. J. Pharmacol. 294: 411 (1995). These studies strongly suggest that the delayed neuronal degeneration in brain ischemia involves glutamate excitotoxicity mediated at least in part by AMPA receptor activation. Thus, AMPA receptor antagonists are expected to prove useful as neuroprotective agents and improve the neurological outcome of cerebral ischemia in animals. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,957.
Anderson et. af., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 117. 12358-12359 (1995) reported the synthesis of 5-H-2,3-benzodiazepine (LY300164) shown below. The compound is said to be a noncompetitive antagonist of AMPA receptors with anticonvulsant activity. ##STR1##
U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,740 discloses 2,3-benzodiazepines with general formula: ##STR2## wherein R and R.sub.1 each represent hydrogen, chlorine, C.sub.1-4 alkyl or C.sub.1-4 alkoxy, R.sub.2 stands for hydrogen or C.sub.1-4 alkyl, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 each denote C.sub.1-4 alkyl, or combined they denote methylene. These compounds are said to possess valuable central nervous effect and in particular exert antiaggressive, anxiolytic, narcosis potentiating and soporific properties.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,152 discloses the preparation of 2,3-benzodiazepine: ##STR3## This compound is said to possess CNS stimulating activity.
EP patent application 0492485 discloses 2,3-benzodiazepines with the following formula: ##STR4## wherein R stands for a C.sub.1-6 aliphatic acyl group, optionally substituted by a methoxy, cyano, carboxyl amino, C.sub.1-4 alkylamino, di(C.sub.1-4 alkyl)amino, pyrrolidino, phthalimido or phenyl, or by one or more halogens, or R is a benzoyl, cyclopropanecarbonyl, C.sub.1-5 alkylcarbamoyl or phenylcarbamoyl, or R is absent when a double bond exists between the N(3) and C(4) atoms; R.sub.1 is hydrogen or absent when a double bond exists between the N(3) and C(4) atoms; R.sub.2 is a C.sub.1-3 alkyl group or R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 together stand for a methylene group and no double bond is present between the N(3) and C(4) atoms; R.sub.3 is hydrogen or a C.sub.1-4 aliphatic acyl group; R.sub.4 is hydrogen, a C.sub.1-6 aliphatic acyl group optionally substituted by a methoxy, cyano, carboxy, amino, C.sub.1-4 alkylamino, di(C.sub.1-4 alkyl)amino, pyrrolidino, phthalimido or phenyl group or by one or more halogen; as well as a benzoyl, palmitoyl, cyclopropanecarbonyl, C.sub.1-5 alkylcarbamoyl or phenylcarbamoyl group. These compounds are said to possess valuable central nervous system effects, particularly muscle-relaxant, anticonvulsive and neuroprotective action.
Sarro et al, Eur. J. Pharmacol., 294. 411-422 (1995) discloses the following 2,3-benzodiazepines (a-d) ##STR5## These compounds are said to be anticonvulsant agents in DBA/2 mice.

Substituted 2,3-benzodiazepin-4-ones and the use thereof


A cutting tool for parting and grooving operations comprises a shaft and a clamp body releasably secured to the front end of the shaft. The clamp body carries a cutting insert clamped between a pair of clamp arms. The clamp body includes first and second blade portions oriented at a right angle to one another. The first blade portion is adapted to be secured to one outer surface of the shaft, whereas the second blade portion is adapted to be secured to a second outer surface of the shaft.

The present invention relates to a tool for chip forming machining of metal workpieces specifically for grooving and parting operations. The tool comprises a clamp with an insert and a releasable holder shaft attached thereto. The clamp comprises a securing portion mating with the shaft and an extension portion.
A large number of tools for grooving and parting are previously known where the tool comprises a shaft and an insert-provided clamp attached thereto, which clamp is secured to the holder shaft. Sletten U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,008 discloses a tool which comprises an insert-carrying clamp body in the shape of a blade attached against one side surface of a holder shaft by means of a clamping screw. The screw is received in a hole that extends transversely through the clamp body and is threadedly engaged in a threaded hole in the holder shaft. In order to achieve a good location and good stability, the blade-like clamp is additionally provided with an extension at one of its side surfaces which is received in a complementary shaped lateral recess in the holder shaft. Further, the holder shaft also has a corresponding lateral recess on its opposite side surface. This enables the same holder shaft to be equipped with a clamp for either right or left hand turning.
However, it will be necessary to use separate clamps having the extensions provided on the appropriate side thereof.
It turns out, however, that such a tool does not always give the desirable maximum stability during machining of materials with difficult or average machinability properties. Further, it is desirable to be able to use a holder system designed so it enables machining the workpiece in two directions oriented perpendicular to one another without having to use different tools for each operation.


An antisense molecule capable of binding to a selected target site to induce exon skipping in the dystrophin gene, as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1 to 202.

Significant effort is currently being expended researching methods for suppressing or compensating for disease-causing mutations in genes. Antisense technologies are being developed using a range of chemistries to affect gene expression at a variety of different levels (transcription, splicing, stability, translation). Much of that research has focused on the use of antisense compounds to correct or compensate for abnormal or disease-associated genes in a myriad of different conditions.
Antisense molecules are able to inhibit gene expression with exquisite specificity and because of this many research efforts concerning oligonucleotides as modulators of gene expression have focused on inhibiting the expression of targeted genes such as oncogenes or viral genes. The antisense oligonucleotides are directed either against RNA (sense strand) or against DNA where they form triplex structures inhibiting transcription by RNA polymerase II. To achieve a desired effect in specific gene down-regulation, the oligonucleotides must either promote the decay of the targeted mRNA or block translation of that mRNA, thereby effectively preventing de novo synthesis of the undesirable target protein.
Such techniques are not useful where the object is to up-regulate production of the native protein or compensate for mutations which induce premature termination of translation such as nonsense or frame-shifting mutations. Furthermore, in cases where a normally functional protein is prematurely terminated because of mutations therein, a means for restoring some functional protein production through antisense technology has been shown to be possible through intervention during the splicing processes (Sierakowska H, et al., (1996) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 93, 12840-12844; Wilton S D, et al., (1999) Neuromusc Disorders 9, 330-338; van Deutekom J C et al., (2001) Human Mol Genet 10, 1547-1554). In these cases, the defective gene transcript should not be subjected to targeted degradation so the antisense oligonucleotide chemistry should not promote target mRNA decay.
In a variety of genetic diseases, the effects of mutations on the eventual expression of a gene can be modulated through a process of targeted exon skipping during the splicing process. The splicing process is directed by complex multi-particle machinery that brings adjacent exon-intron junctions in pre-mRNA into close proximity and performs cleavage of phosphodiester bonds at the ends of the introns with their subsequent reformation between exons that are to be spliced together. This complex and highly precise process is mediated by sequence motifs in the pre-mRNA that are relatively short semi-conserved RNA segments to which bind the various nuclear splicing factors that are then involved in the splicing reactions. By changing the way the splicing machinery reads or recognises the motifs involved in pre-mRNA processing, it is possible to create differentially spliced mRNA molecules. It has now been recognised that the majority of human genes are alternatively spliced during normal gene expression, although the mechanisms invoked have not been identified. Using antisense oligonucleotides, it has been shown that errors and deficiencies in a coded mRNA could be bypassed or removed from the mature gene transcripts.
In nature, the extent of genetic deletion or exon skipping in the splicing process is not fully understood, although many instances have been documented to occur, generally at very low levels (Sherrat T G, et al., (1993) Am J Hum Genet 53, 1007-1015). However, it is recognised that if exons associated with disease-causing mutations can be specifically deleted from some genes, a shortened protein product can sometimes be produced that has similar biological properties of the native protein or has sufficient biological activity to ameliorate the disease caused by mutations associated with the target exon (Lu Q L, et al., (2003) Nature Medicine 9, 1009-1014; Aartsma-Rus A et al., (2004) Am J Hum Genet 74: 83-92).
This process of targeted exon skipping is likely to be particularly useful in long genes where there are many exons and introns, where there is redundancy in the genetic constitution of the exons or where a protein is able to function without one or more particular exons (e.g. with the dystrophin gene, which consists of 79 exons; or possibly some collagen genes which encode for repeated blocks of sequence or the huge nebulin or titin genes which are comprised of ˜80 and over 370 exons, respectively).
Efforts to redirect gene processing for the treatment of genetic diseases associated with truncations caused by mutations in various genes have focused on the use of antisense oligonucleotides that either: (1) fully or partially overlap with the elements involved in the splicing process; or (2) bind to the pre-mRNA at a position sufficiently close to the element to disrupt the binding and function of the splicing factors that would normally mediate a particular splicing reaction which occurs at that element (e.g., binds to the pre-mRNA at a position within 3, 6, or 9 nucleotides of the element to be blocked).
For example, modulation of mutant dystrophin pre-mRNA splicing with antisense oligoribonucleotides has been reported both in vitro and in vivo. In one type of dystrophin mutation reported in Japan, a 52-base pair deletion mutation causes exon 19 to be removed with the flanking introns during the splicing process (Matsuo et al., (1991) J Clin Invest., 87:2127-2131). An in vitro minigene splicing system has been used to show that a 31-mer 2′-O-methyl oligoribonucleotide complementary to the 5′ half of the deleted sequence in dystrophin Kobe exon 19 inhibited splicing of wild-type pre-mRNA (Takeshima et al. (1995), J. Clin. Invest., 95, 515-520). The same oligonucleotide was used to induce exon skipping from the native dystrophin gene transcript in human cultured lymphoblastoid cells.
Dunckley et al., (1997) Nucleosides & Nucleotides, 16, 1665-1668 described in vitro constructs for analysis of splicing around exon 23 of mutated dystrophin in the mdx mouse mutant, a model for muscular dystrophy. Plans to analyse these constructs in vitro using 2′ modified oligonucleotides targeted to splice sites within and adjacent to mouse dystrophin exon 23 were discussed, though no target sites or sequences were given.
2′-O-methyl oligoribonucleotides were subsequently reported to correct dystrophin deficiency in myoblasts from the mdx mouse from this group. An antisense oligonucleotide targeted to the 3′ splice site of murine dystrophin intron 22 was reported to cause skipping of the mutant exon as well as several flanking exons and created a novel in-frame dystrophin transcript with a novel internal deletion. This mutated dystrophin was expressed in 1-2% of antisense treated mdx myotubes. Use of other oligonucleotide modifications such as 2′-O-methoxyethyl phosphodiesters are described (Dunckley et al. (1998) Human Mol. Genetics, 5, 1083-90).
Thus, antisense molecules may provide a tool in the treatment of genetic disorders such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). However, attempts to induce exon skipping using antisense molecules have had mixed success. Studies on dystrophin exon 19, where successful skipping of that exon from the dystrophin pre-mRNA was achieved using a variety of antisense molecules directed at the flanking splice sites or motifs within the exon involved in exon definition as described by Errington et al. (2003) J Gen Med 5, 518-527".
In contrast to the apparent ease of exon 19 skipping, the first report of exon 23 skipping in the mdx mouse by Dunckley et al., (1998) is now considered to be reporting only a naturally occurring revertant transcript or artefact rather than any true antisense activity. In addition to not consistently generating transcripts missing exon 23, Dunckley et al., (1998) did not show any time course of induced exon skipping, or even titration of antisense oligonucleotides, to demonstrate dose dependent effects where the levels of exon skipping corresponded with increasing or decreasing amounts of antisense oligonucleotide. Furthermore, this work could not be replicated by other researchers.
The first example of specific and reproducible exon skipping in the mdx mouse model was reported by Wilton et al., (1999) Neuromuscular Disorders 9, 330-338. By directing an antisense molecule to the donor splice site, consistent and efficient exon 23 skipping was induced in the dystrophin mRNA within 6 hours of treatment of the cultured cells. Wilton et al, (1999), also describe targeting the acceptor region of the mouse dystrophin pre-mRNA with longer antisense oligonucleotides and being unable to repeat the published results of Dunckley et al., (1998). No exon skipping, either 23 alone or multiple removal of several flanking exons, could be reproducibly detected using a selection of antisense oligonucleotides directed at the acceptor splice site of intron 22.
While the first antisense oligonucleotide directed at the intron 23 donor splice site induced consistent exon skipping in primary cultured myoblasts, this compound was found to be much less efficient in immortalized cell cultures expressing higher levels of dystrophin. However, with refined targeting and antisense oligonucleotide design, the efficiency of specific exon removal was increased by almost an order of magnitude (see Mann C J et al., (2002) J Gen Med 4, 644-654).
Thus, there remains a need to provide antisense oligonucleotides capable of binding to and modifying the splicing of a target nucleotide sequence. Simply directing the antisense oligonucleotides to motifs presumed to be crucial for splicing is no guarantee of the efficacy of that compound in a therapeutic setting.

Antisense oligonucleotides for inducing exon skipping and methods of use thereof


An ophthalmic lens having two elements, a contact lens and an entry lens. The lens produces a magnified aerial image of the fundus of the eye, and can also be used for laser delivery to the fundus. The lens is particularly useful because it provides high magnification and detail of the fundus as well as excellent steroscopic field.

Ophthalmic lenses are conventionally used for observation of various locations within the eye by ophthalmologists. These ophthalmic lenses normally include a contact lens, that is, a lens that directly contacts the cornea of the eye, and may include an entry lens that is spaced in the anterior direction from the contact lens. The two lenses are normally joined by a housing.
Most ophthalmic lenses of the type just described have been created and designed for use as an observation tool utilized in conjunction with a slit lamp or ophthalmic microscope. While most prior lenses function reasonably well for use as an observation tool, the advent of laser microsurgery and the accompanying need to deliver a laser beam safely within the eye has created a need for ophthalmic lenses that not only provide improved images of the desired location in the eye but also have the capability to deliver laser energy to the desired location with minimum effect on other portions of the eye. One example of modern ophthalmic lens utilized in diagnosis and surgical procedures is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,183. That lens uses an aspheric entry lens to produce an aerial image spaced from and anterior of the entry lens. A combination of the contact lens and the aspheric lens produces an aerial image that has very high resolution, even in the peripheral area of the image. The lens also produces very little reflected or scattered light as well as a nondistorting path through which the laser beam can pass during treatment of a patient's pahtology. The lens disclosed in this patent also maintains a wide cone angle on the laser beam as it passes through the patient's cornea and crystalline lens to minimize energy absorption in those areas of the patient's eye. This lens, however, has a relatively small field of view on the order of.+-.45.degree.. A second contact lens currently in use and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,729 supplements that disclosed in the '183 patent. That lens has a relatively wide field of view on the order of.+-.62.5.degree.. This lens is especially useful for treatment of retinal detachment in the peripheral area of the fundus and also for other procedures such as panretinal photocoagulation.
Both of these prior art lenses, however, have magnifications less than 1.times.. The '183 lens has a magnification on the order of 0.96, while the lens disclosed in the '729 patent has a magnification on the order of 0.68. It is desirable to possess a magnifying lens that provides superior retinal clarity for detecting macular problems such as macular degeneration and diabetic retinal thickening. A magnifying lens will also facilitate the location of subtle vascular landmarks during macular photocoagulation. These fine details may be apparent angiographically but are hard to find without high magnification in the low contrast ophthalmoscopic image. It is preferable to maintain an aerial image that is flat or concave when viewed from the anterior direction, that is, concave as viewed by the ophthalmologist, since an image that is convex toward the ophthalmologist tends to be unacceptably distorted, and also degrades stereo perception. Moreover, it is preferably to maintain the aerial image less than about 45 millimeters from the patient's cornea so that the lens is useful with all standard slit lamp microscopes used by ophthalmologists. In addition, while achieving these desirable ends, it is also desirable to provide a lens that has a relatively wide binocular and stereoscopic field of view.
One such magnifying lens is disclosed in Crossman et al. entitled High Magnification Ophthalmic Lens, patent application Ser. No. 702,608 filed May 21, 1991. That lens is a three element lens that was developed after several unsuccessful efforts to develop a satisfactory two element lens. The three element lens is satisfactory for the intended purpose; it is, however, more difficult and more expensive to manufacture. In addition, the field of view is smaller than is desirable, leading to a requirement for positioning the lens on the eye at just the right angle so that the proper area of the fundus is displayed. In the interim, significant time and effort was devoted to the design of a two element lens. While one of ordinary skill might believe that the design of a two element lens is relatively straight forward, that is not actually the case. Many hundreds of person hours must be devoted to the design without any assurance of success.


A continuous sheet having an optical function imparted thereto, which is obtained by extruding a thermoplastic resin on a three-dimensional pattern side of a continuous release sheet having a three-dimensional pattern in its surface to shus transfer said pattern to a surface of said thermoplastic resin, simultaneously contacting the other side of said thermoplastic resin with a cooling roll having an uneven pattern or a mirror surface to thus transfer said pattern or mirror surface to a surface of said thermoplastic resin in contact with said cooling roll, and separating by peeling said release sheet from said thermoplastic resin after cooling. The continuous sheet is free of a streak and scratch and freely cuttable in any desired size and form.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a continuous sheet having optical functions and, more particularly, to a continuous plastic sheet having optical functions such as (light) transmission, refraction, reflection, scattering, interference, polarization and the like, i.e., plastic lens, light reflection sheets, prism sheets, anti-dazzling sheets, diffusion sheets and a combination of such optical effects, which have been imparted by a continuous release sheet having a desired three-dimensional pattern in its surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays, films or sheets utilizing the optical properties of synthetic resin films or sheets (both called "sheet" hereinafter unless otherwise noted) are deeply related with industrial and daily living activities. Most of them, however, have their surface flat, competing merely in transparency of resins, or control ray transmissivity by such as making the surface matte or adding additives.
Lately, plastic lenses, and optically functional sheets such as prism sheets, anti-dazzling sheets and diffusion sheets as a structural component of liquid crystal displays used for note-type personal computers or liquid crystal TVs, which have special surface structures for adjusting, among others, surface reflectivity, refraction, scattering or combinations thereof have been drawing particular attention.
A sheet with a specific three-dimensional pattern is often made by press molding by the use of an embossed plate having a desired particular three-dimensional pattern or by injection molding. However, these methods are either poor in producibility because of a batch type production or have a problem of not being suitable for the formation of thin sheets. Meanwhile, for the production of a continuous sheet having a three-dimensional pattern, there are such alternatives as extruding through a profile die or using a proper embossing roll for patterning the surface of a sheet, but with these methods it is difficult to impart to the sheet surface a precise pattern for imparting thereto an optical performance and, even if such effect should be attainable, it is only attained partly, thus being inaccurate.
Hence, for obtaining a continuous sheet with a precise three-dimensional pattern imparted thereto, there has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,683 a method in which a molten synthetic resin is flown onto a planar press mold clamped to a movable belt for continuous embossing. Even by this method, however, it is impossible to obtain a continuous sheet having a seamless three-dimensional pattern which enables a continuous optical function.
It is possible to produce a patterned continuous sheet by coating by a method of, for example, coating the sheet surface with minute particles. This method, however, has defects of some foreign matters being contained therein or of the patterns attainable being limited by the size of such minute particles. Moreover, surface patterns are attainable by a similar printing method, but it is incapable of forming a three-dimensional pattern with its precision being enough for attaining a desired optical performance.

Continuous sheet having optical functions


Embodiments may provide a document system that receives a responsiveness call from a user through the task/queue framework regarding a machine call document. Theses responsiveness calls may be used to refining the scoring algorithm used by the document system of to generate a desired confidence score for the document system.

The invention generally relates to systems and methods for technology assisted review of large quantities of data, particularly sets of documents, among other things.
Previously, review of large document sets required hours of labor and training in order to prepare reviewers to sift through documents and identify whether or not a particular document corresponded with the requirements of a search request or demand. The legal industry in particular expends thousands of man-hours every year in the form of e-discovery (the review of large document set for the preparation of legal responses and inquiries during litigation or in connection with a legal matter).
Prior systems used for e-discovery or similar large document set projects primarily focused on the consolidation of the document sets into digital form. This allowed for the quicker production of the document sets during production, as well as faster access and retrieval. Unfortunately, these systems still required extensive human interaction in order to analyze the document set.
Later systems allowed for assisted review through the use of search filters and keyword analysis. These systems would require a user to setup keyword searches that would comb through a document set and then provide those results back to the user. These systems ultimately required significant initial setup time and also led to many "False-positives", or documents that contained the correct keyword but that were not relevant to the scope of the search performed.
Thus, there is a need for systems and methods which resolve one or more of the problems identified above, among other things.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for providing technology assisted data review with optimizing features


A radio communication terminal includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire property information indicating a property that is used when a data communication route, on which data communication is performed with other radio communication terminals, is determined, a calculator configured to calculate variation of the property by using the acquired property information, and a controller configured to change a determination reference for whether to change the data communication route in response to the calculated variation of the property.

As forms of a network in which a base station and a radio communication terminal are connected with each other or radio communication terminals are connected with each other, there have been a form of connection with a single radio line (link) and a form of connection via a plurality of radio lines in related art. Communication by the form of connection with a single radio line (link) is referred to as single-hop communication or one-hop communication because the number of radio lines (the number of hops) through which data travels until the data reaches a destination is one. On the other hand, communication by the form of connection via a plurality of radio lines is referred to as multi-hop communication because a plurality of hops are used among terminals. Of the single-hop communication and the multi-hop communication, the multi-hop communication is employed in ad-hoc network which enables direct communication among radio communication terminals via no base station or no access point. In the ad-hoc network, other radio communication terminals having a relaying function are interposed between a terminal of a data transmission source and a terminal of a data transmission destination and data is relayed on a plurality of radio lines so as to expand a communication area. Accordingly, extensive radio network can be established.
In the multi-hop communication such as the above-mentioned adhoc network, a plurality of routes coexist in transmission/reception of data such as a packet. Accordingly, when a communication state of a route is deteriorated due to some kind of causes, the route can be changed into a new route of which the communication state is better than the prior route. However, a radio communication terminal which is a transmission source of a packet has to regularly transmit/receive a plurality of packets including detailed link information to and from other terminals in the same network, so as to select a route optimum for the radio communication terminal. There has been such problem that throughput in the network is degraded due to this packet communication. Such problem becomes noticeable when route change is frequently performed due to movement of a terminal or change of a communication environment and the communication amount of packets for a route change procedure is consequently increased.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-278148, International Publication Pamphlet No. WO 2008/035600, and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-157117 are examples of related art.

Radio communication terminal, radio communication system, and radio communication method


A fuel cell assembly has a current conducting end plate with a conductive body formed integrally with isolating material. The conductive body has a first surface, a second surface opposite the first surface, and an electrical connector. The first surface has an exposed portion for conducting current between a working section of the fuel cell assembly and the electrical connector. The isolating material is positioned on at least a portion of the second surface. The conductive body can have support passage(s) extending therethrough for receiving structural member(s) of the fuel cell assembly. Isolating material can electrically isolate the conductive body from the structural member(s). The conductive body can have service passage(s) extending therethrough for servicing one or more fluids for the fuel cell assembly. Isolating material can chemically isolate the one or more fluids from the conductive body. The isolating material can also electrically isolate the conductive body from the one or more fluids.

A Proton Exchange Membrane ("PEM") fuel cell converts the chemical energy of fuels such as hydrogen and air/oxygen directly into electrical energy. The PEM is a solid polymer electrolyte that permits the passage of protons (H.sup.+ ions) from the "anode" side of a fuel cell to the "cathode" side of the fuel cell while preventing passage therethrough of the hydrogen and air/oxygen gases. Some artisans consider the acronym "PEM" to represent "Polymer Electrolyte Membrane." The direction, from anode to cathode, of flow of protons serves as the basis for labeling an "anode" side and a "cathode" side of every layer in the fuel cell (and fuel cell assembly or stack, as described below).
An individual fuel cell generally has multiple, transversely extending layers assembled in a longitudinal direction. Furthermore, fluid manifolds extend longitudinally through the periphery of each fuel cell. The fluid manifolds "service" the fluids for each fuel cell, as described below.
As is well-known in the art, the fluid manifolds distribute hydrogen and air/oxygen to, and remove unused hydrogen and air/oxygen as well as product water from, fluid flow plates of the fuel cell. Often, the hydrogen and air/oxygen gases are humidified before entering the manifolds in order to carry water for humidification of the PEM of the fuel cell. Furthermore, the fluid manifolds circulate water for cooling.
Typically, the chemical reactions of a single fuel cell generate a relatively small voltage (e.g., 0.4 to 0.9 volts). In order to provide external usage of desirable voltages such as between 1 and 400 volts, one usually connects a plurality of the fuel cells in series. That is, one assembles the plurality of fuel cells in a "stack."
In a fuel cell assembly or stack, all layers that extend to the periphery of the fuel cells have holes therethrough for alignment and formation of the fluid manifolds. Further, gaskets seal these holes and cooperate with the longitudinal extents of the layers for completion of the fluid manifolds.
Generally, the longitudinally "first" and "last" fluid flow plates, at the respective "anode" and "cathode" ends of the stack of fuel cells, are electrically coupled to "anode" and "cathode" current collector plates, respectively. One can form the current collector plates from, for instance, copper.
Furthermore, the "cathode" current collector plate is coupled to an external load which is in turn coupled to the "anode" current collector plate for completion of a circuit. One makes use of the fuel cell assembly by this connection of the external load within the conduction path between the "cathode" and "anode" current collector plates. For example, the electrical connections can employ wire or cable.
Outward from each current collector plate in a fuel cell assembly usually appear a separate insulating layer followed by an end plate. The end plates typically have holes for receiving tie bolts that hold the fuel cells in compression between the end plates. For example, the end plates ("anode" and "cathode") can be made of aluminum.
Various configurations exist for servicing the fluids involved in the chemical reactions and cooling which desirably occur in the fuel cell assembly. In one known design, the current collector plate, insulating layer, and end plate each have therethrough manifold holes. This configuration presents a risk to the fuel cells, particularly to each PEM, of contamination by metallic ions from the end plate or the current collector plate. Furthermore, the holes in the current collector plate can shunt electrical current.
Another design includes a bypass for servicing fluid to the fuel cells. In particular, the bypass requires a separate mechanical structure for transmission of fluid around the current collector plate, insulating layer, and end plate. By employing additional plates, tubes, and/or seals, this bypass adds complexity and increases material usage.
A number of configurations exist for externally conducting the electrical current of the fuel cell assembly. One design provides an outwardly (e.g., upwardly) extending neck on a current collector plate. This neck provides a contact surface for conduction of the electrical current to a connecting cable or bus bar. An insulation layer followed by an end plate appear outwardly from this current collector plate.
Another design provides insulated connection of an external load through an end plate. In particular, a sleeve insulates a terminal lug as it passes through the end plate and the insulator for connection to the current collector plate. Such a design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,157 to Tsutsumi et al. (entitled "Fuel Cell Stack Assembly," issued Jan. 12, 1988, and assigned to Sanyo Electric Company).
Thus, a need exists for a new end plate construction that not only provides structural support for a fuel cell assembly, but also facilitates current conduction and fluid service without the complexity, potential contamination hazards, electrical shorting problems, and other drawbacks attendant in prior designs.

Current conducting end plate of fuel cell assembly


A method of applying a tone scale function that is compressive, expansive or a combination of both to a digital image, the method including decomposing the tone scale function into two or more composite functions that can be applied sequentially to the digital image; applying the first composite function to the digital image with a tone scale applicator to produce a tone scaled digital image; and applying the second composite function to the tone scaled digital image to produced an enhanced digital image.

Many digital imaging systems enhance the contrast and lightness characteristics of digital images through the application of a tone scale curve. For a generalized tone scale curve T(x), the input pixel value x is transformed to an output pixel value T(x). The shape of the tone scale curve determines the visual effect imparted to the processed digital image. Some tone scale curves applied to digital image are independent of the pixel values in the digital image to be processed. Such image independent tone scale curves are useful for establishing a photographic look to the processed digital images. While image independent tone scale curves can be used to enhance many digital images, digital images that are either too high or low in contrast can benefit from the application of a tone scale curve that is responsive to the distribution of pixel values in the digital image to be processed. For image dependent tone scale curves, the mathematical formula used to generate the tone scale function determines the degree and nature of the image enhancement.
When a compressive tone scale function, i.e. the tone scale function designed to reduce the numerical range of pixel values, is applied directly to image pixel data, the spatial detail in the image can be diminished. In addition, if the compressive tone scale function is applied directly to a color digital image that is in a red-green-blue representation, the tone scale function can reduce the colorfulness (saturation) characteristics of the processed digital image. In general, better results can be achieved if the compressive tone scale function is applied directly to the luminance signal of a luminance-chrominance image representation. This procedure leaves the chrominance signals unchanged but can lead to processed images that have diminished spatial detail.
In the method disclosed by Gallagher and Gindele in U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,165, the spatial detail of the processed image can be mostly restored. In this method, a tone scale function is applied directly to the luminance signal and the spatial frequency detail of the tone scale modified luminance signal is adjusted inversely proportional to the slope of the applied tone scale function. The resultant processed digital images have more spatial detail and appear more natural.
A spatial filter can be used to apply a tone scale function to a digital image in such a manner that the image spatial detail will be relatively unaffected. This is particularly useful for compressive tone scale functions designed to reduce the image dynamic range. Such spatial filtering methods have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,317,521 and 6,285,798. When applying compressive tone scale functions to the luminance signal with a spatial filter, the color characteristics of the processed digital images look more natural even though the chrominance signals are not modified.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,521 Gallagher and Gindele disclose spatial filtering method for applying tone scale functions to digital images. In this method, the luminance channel of a luminance-chrominance representation digital image is separated into two signal parts. A tone scale function is applied directly to one of the signal parts and the other signal part is added back to the modified signal part. Tone scale functions generated with the methods disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,731,671 and 4,745,465 have been applied with the spatial filtering method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,521 with success. In general, more spatial detail is preserved in the enhanced digital images than if a spatial filter were not used.
Low contrast images are enhanced by applying an expansive tone scale function designed to increase the numerical range of pixel values. Simple histogram stretching methods are well known in the art. Typically a histogram is calculated from the image pixel values and the minimum and maximum pixel values are obtained. A tone scale function is constructed using a linear transform equation that expands the pixel values to achieve a predetermined goal. For example the minimum pixel value is mapped to a lower pixel value while the maximum pixel value is mapped to a higher pixel value. Applying an expansive tone scale function to image pixel data when in a red-green-blue representation has the effect of increasing image contrast, color saturation, spatial detail, and noise. In general, the increase in contrast and spatial detail is viewed as an improvement in image quality. However, the increase in noise can reduce image quality.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,798 Lee discloses a method for construction a compressive tone scale function and a wave-let based spatial filtering technique for applying the compressive tone scale function to image data. This spatial filtering technique helps preserve image detail while enhancing the tonal characteristics with the compressive nature of the tone scale function. That is, the tone scale functions produced by Lee's method compress, or reduce, the scene dynamic range of the image data. Lee's method does not account for the possibility that some digital images require an expansion of the dynamic range of the digital image to achieve enhancement.
The above mentioned methods are individually designed to either avoid or remedy specific problems with image spatial detail when for applying tone scale functions to digital images.

Applying a tone scale function to a digital image


A vehicle has a pillar supporting a roof of the vehicle at its rear corners. The pillar provides an anchor point for a third row seat belt. The pillar has a front wall facing generally towards the front of the vehicle, a side wall and a back wall. A seat belt loop member comprising three legs in the form of a T-shape is fixed to the pillar. The first, loop-leg carries a cantilevered belt loop. The second, pad-leg is substantially aligned with the loop-leg and has a pad for abutment against the front wall. The third, anchor-leg, lies substantially orthogonal with respect to the loop and pad-legs and lies against the side wall of the pillar and is anchored to said side wall. The arrangement reduces the amount of reinforcement required for the pillar.

Seat belts are provided in vehicles to restrain occupants in the event of a sudden braking event or accident. In some markets, legislation requires that these are provided for each seating position of a vehicle intended for a vehicle occupant to occupy. Some larger vehicles have the internal space to house a third row of seats which, when provided, are generally disposed at or near the rear of the vehicle. Some vehicle designs are intended to provide the third row as an option, because without the third row, the vehicle can still carry around five occupants and have a much larger luggage space than is the case when the third row of seats is installed. However, larger families may require the third row and prefer to forego the extra luggage space.
Seat belt anchorages or anchors are often provided in or secured to the vehicle body shell. The location of the or each seat belt anchorage relative to the seating positions provided in the vehicle are typically dictated by legislation for a given market, and the location of each anchorage should be optimised to provide comfort for the seat belt user. Most seat belts are of the three-point variety, where two lower anchors are provided on the floor of the vehicle (or lower part of the seat) to secure a lap-belt, and a single shoulder anchor or upper anchorage is usually in a side pillar of the vehicle body, to secure a shoulder belt passing across the passenger's body from the opposite lower anchor. When connected to the vehicle body, the anchor can withstand the forces required of it. However, because they are in the vehicle body, where firstly detection of damage may be difficult and secondly repair or such damage may be difficult, anchor points on the bodywork also need to be able to withstand the effects of more minor loadings without deformation. As a standard, a loading approaching 1.5 tonnes is taken as a minimum force required to be absorbed by the anchorage when applied by the seat belt. Loading exceeding 1.5 tonnes applied to the seat belt anchorage via the seat belt is likely only to be occasioned in an accident that will result in significant damage to the vehicle. However, at loadings less than 1.5 tonnes (ECE REGULATION No. 14—SAFETY BELT ANCHORAGES etc) a vehicle may not be irreparably damaged and yet damage to a seat belt anchorage cannot be permitted for the reasons just given.
Seat belt anchorages in vehicle bodies generally involve a welded nut attached to a suitable body panel and into which a bolt can be fixed to secure a seat belt element, such as a D-loop, through which the belt is guided over the user's shoulder in use; a seat belt reel; or a fixed clasp for releasable connection of a buckle of the belt. Such a nut invariably requires some reinforcement to meet the requirements of ECE Regulation 14 (or equivalent standard). The degree of reinforcement depends to some extent on the direction of the potential loading. Steel, or aluminium, panels, out of which vehicle bodies tend to be made, have great strength when formed into box sections. They are capable of accepting substantial loads when these are applied in shear. However, when forces are applied orthogonally to the plane of a panel, deformation may result from lower loads. Even when panels are reinforced, the loading is usually such as to apply a peeling load on joints in the sections (assuming these are formed, as is generally the case, by interconnected panels). Reinforcement of a panel might be effected by having a local thickening of the panel where the reinforcement is required, for example by welding another layer of the panel material to the panel around the nut (in the case of interest). Generally, only one such layer can, as a practical matter, be applied to either side of a panel.
In the case of aluminium panels, welding is impractical as most suitable nuts are made from steel and so are unsuitable for welding to aluminium. Other means of reinforcement involve the use of fillets and braces. These are all satisfactory, but they tend to be installed in a vehicle body shell prior to completion of the Body-in-White (BIW) stage of manufacture. That is the eponymous stage of vehicle manufacture at which the vehicle body is complete as an assembly of panels and has the requisite environmental proactive coatings applied prior to final paint work application and assembly of vehicle components.
At this point in manufacture, at least in respect of vehicles that might have a third row, it is certainly unknown which of them will, or will not, have this option. Certainly, it is not desirable to provide yet a further stock-keeping unit for this. Consequently, it would normally be the case that all the reinforcements required of the bodyshell for an acceptable seat belt anchor will always be provided, for all the seats that might be installed, regardless of whether or not all the vehicles so produced will be destined to have the third row of seats and employ the reinforcement provided. Obviously, for those vehicles that do not end up with a third row, the provision of the reinforcement is unnecessary.
Large passenger vehicles such as sports utility vehicles (SUV) or multi-purpose vehicles (MPV), generally have four pillars on each side that connect the roof to rest of the vehicle bodywork. The A pillar is at the front and, on either side of the vehicle, it surrounds the front windscreen; the B pillar is between the front and rear doors, and acts as a door jamb for the front doors and hangs the rear doors; the C pillar is behind the rear doors and acts as the jamb for those doors; and the D pillar is in the rear corner of the vehicle and surrounds the rear windscreen which, usually in such vehicles, is in a tailgate. Of course, multiple different options exist and the aforementioned arrangement is merely typical of SUV and/or MPV type vehicles with which the present invention is mostly concerned. However, the arrangement is typical of many other vehicle types.
Because of the rear tailgate, the D pillar therefore also usually provides a mounting for a seal against which the tailgate closes. The pillars A to D are generally hollow box sections made by welding together two or more pressed metal panels. The shapes involved can be complex, but there is a limit to the extent which such panels can be pressed and shaped prior to welding. Generally D pillars are formed from three panels welded together, often in a somewhat triangular section in places. Indeed, it is often found that, at the point where it is desirable to provide an upper seat belt anchorage, the section of the D pillar may be quite close to a right-angle triangle where the first side, the hypotenuse, is formed by the external body panel, a second side forms part of the opening frame for the tailgate, and the third side completes the pillar section and faces towards the front of the vehicle.
It should incidentally be noted, that use of these geometric descriptions in this specification are extremely approximate and for illustration only, and do not represent the precise shape of the components being described.
Pillars should have as large a cross-sectional area as possible, to increase their strength and resistance to torsion and bending. Consequently, while it would in theory be possible to align the third panel in a more parallel relation with respect to the first panel, this would reduce the cross-sectional area of the pillar and undermine the fundamental purpose of the pillar. However, having the third panel face the front is disadvantageous for the reasons discussed above for connection of a seat belt. Significant reinforcement features may be required to resist panel deformation for a given the direction of force applied via the seat belt to a seat belt anchor connected to the third panel. The seat belt cannot be connected to the second face, because that is framing the tailgate and, for reasons explained below, is actually outside the vehicle. The first, hypotenuse panel cannot be employed, as it forms the external surface of the vehicle and its orientation with respect to the seat belt may not be appropriate.
It is an object of the present arrangement to provide a seat belt anchor that addresses the points mentioned above, or at least mitigates some of the effects of the aforementioned issues.


An adhesive sheet is disclosed including a flexible substrate and an adhesive layer formed on at least one of the main surfaces of the flexible substrate. The adhesive sheet further includes a plurality of microscopic holes connecting the opposing surfaces of the sheet and being generally perpendicular to them. Such adhesive sheet is permeable by air and allows good bubble escapability when the sheet is applied to an article. Sufficient permeability of the sheet to air is achieved with microscopic size holes installed in modest areal densities, hence the appearance and functionality of the film surface are not significantly adversely impacted. One intended use of the subject invention is for tinting films used to reduce light transmission in windows for use in buildings and automobiles. In this application visual appearance of the film is paramount. Another intended application of the subject invention is for antireflective film which is applied to electronic computer displays (flat panel, cathode ray tube) to reduce unwanted ambient light reflection and to improve contrast.

Various types of adhesive films comprising a flexible substrate and an adhesive layer have been heretofore available. Such films are provided in the form of sheets, tapes, strips, labels, tags, and the like. Those films having a pressure sensitive adhesive layer generally are mounted on some type of release liner or other releasable support to protect the pressure sensitive adhesive until the film is ready to be applied to an intended article. The film is then stripped from the release liner and applied.
Typically, the substrate for such a film is a self-supporting web or a sheet of paper, cardboard, plastic, or metal. One major face of the substrate has a pressure sensitive adhesive while the other major face can be further coated and/or printed on. Such coating and/or printing can be accomplished either before or after the application of adhesive to the first major face. Other versions of adhesive film have adhesive coating on both faces of the substrate and are known as "double sided" or "two-sided.". Adhesive films of this basic construction are manufactured for a variety of commercial and consumer uses including labels, tags, and stickers for industrial and consumer products, decorative films for furniture finish and wall covering, tinting films for building and automotive windows, and antiglare films for computer displays. Such films constructed in accordance with prior art are substantially impervious to air and liquids. This condition is due to a variety of practical considerations including the choice of materials and manufacturing processes used, and requirements for appearance and function.
Problem: When an adhesive film according to the prior art is applied to an article, air tends to become entrapped between the adhesive and the article surface. This condition is shown in FIG. 1. To prevent such entrapment and the resulting bubble, a considerably high level of skill is necessary during the application step. Consequently, a great amount of labor and time are necessary to perform the bonding application step. Tolerance for errors during the bonding step is very low because the bond strength rises with the passage of time, which makes it more difficult to peel the adhesive sheet from the substrate article and reposition it at later time. When air bubbles are trapped between the adhesive layer and adherent article surface, the appearance of the film is negatively impacted. This condition is highly undesirable especially when the film is used for decorative purposes.
Even when the film is applied to the article surface and trapped air bubbles are avoided, lifting and formation of bubbles can occur at the bond interface when the film is exposed to environment such as heat and light. Exposure to ultraviolet light is considered especially deleterious. This is particularly detrimental to the appearance and functionality of transparent films such as employed for tinting of windows used in buildings and automobiles, and antiglare films used for electronic and computer displays (flat panel, cathode ray tube).


A servo control device that displays, by a two-dimensional image, evaluation of control precision of a servo system, includes: an instruction unit that instructs a position instruction having periodicity; a unit that records a track of position data based on a position feedback of a servo system according to the position instruction; and a first drawing unit that draws position data based on the position feedback, data before a quarter cycle or after a quarter cycle of the position data or position data based on the position instruction before a quarter cycle or after a quarter cycle, on a two-dimensional plane including orthogonal two axes, as the axis data of the orthogonal two axes respectively.

Conventionally, a machine having plural axes, such as an NC machine tool, gives an arc instruction as orthogonal straight lines having two axes, draws position feedback data of the straight lines having two axes on a two-dimensional plane, and adjusts a servo system using a shape of this track as an evaluation reference, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication No. 4-177408 and Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication No. 2002-120128.
FIG. 1 graphically expresses an example of a configuration of an NC device. In this example, a servo system is adjusted based on a conventional method using two orthogonal axes.
In FIG. 1, an NC device 1 can control a servo motor 2 that drives the X-axis and a servo motor 3 that drives the Y-axis, thereby freely moving a position of a work table 4, fitted to the front end of each axis, within an X-Y plane.
In the present example, a control unit 11 of the NC device 1 gives an arc instruction to an X-axis driving unit 12 that controls the position of the work table 4 in the X-axis direction, and gives an arc instruction, of which phase is deviated by 90 degrees from the phase of the above arc instruction, to a Y-axis driving unit 13 that controls the position of the work table 4 in the Y-axis direction.
The control unit 11 receives position feedback information from the servo motors 2 and 3 and the work table 4, and converts the position feedback information into normal polar coordinates (x=sin θ,2 y=cos θ, 0≦θ<π), thereby calculating an actual move position of the work table 4. In this case, the work table 4 moves along a unit circle (x2+y2=1). The control unit 11 displays the actual move position of the work table 4 on a monitor 5 using a personal computer or the like, by superimposing the actual move position with the instruction arc (unit circle) as the evaluation reference value of the servo system adjustment.
FIG. 2 shows one example of a monitor screen shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 shows a superimposition of the evaluation reference value according to the instruction arc, and the position feedback information obtained by actually moving the work table 4 based on the instruction arc. It is clear from FIG. 2 that an error of the servo system occurs mainly due to quadrant projections 21 to 24 attributable to nonlinearities (frictions) before and after a speed polarity changes. The quadrant projections 21 to 24 appear as shape errors when an arc instruction is given to the orthogonal two axes (X-Y axes).
An operator adjusts the servo system so that the quadrant projections 21 to 24 become close to zero (i.e., instruction arc), while watching the drawing track displayed on the monitor 5. Based on this, the operator can easily evaluate processing precision of the machine tool without actually carrying out a work process.
At the time of adjusting a servo system of a single control axis such as a straight line axis and a rotation axis having no adjacent orthogonal axes, a shape error also occurs before and after the speed polarity is changed. However, in this case, because adjacent axes, like the orthogonal two axes which can easily draw an arc, are not present, a visual evaluation standard on which the servo axis is adjusted is not present. Therefore, the servo system cannot be visually adjusted easily.
For the above reason, at the time of adjusting a servo system of a single control axis such as a straight line axis and a rotation axis having no adjacent orthogonal axes, a work process is actually carried out to evaluate the processing precision of the machine tool. When this method is used, the work efficiency of adjusting the single control axis such as a straight line axis and a rotation axis having no adjacent orthogonal axes is extremely decreased, and the adjustment cost increases substantially.

Servo control device and method of adjusting servo system


A character input system using a keyboard having a plurality of keys, at least some of the keys each being assigned at least one Brahmi-derived (e.g., Hindi) script character. At least one key may be assigned a halant. The key assignments may be spatially grouped on the keyboard according to vowels, consonants and the phonetic characteristics of the characters. Hindi script communications may be inputted quickly and efficiently as a result of the arrangement of Hindi character keys and a simplified Hindi character set provided through use of the halant character.

The Hindi script is a subset of the Devanagari script which in turn evolved from the ancient Brahmi script (FIG. 7). Other Indian languages using the Devanagari script include Marathi and Sanskrit. Other scripts derived from Brahmi include: Gujarathi, Oriya, Punjabi (also called Gurmukhi); Bengali, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam (India); Sinhala (Sri Lanka); Nepali (Nepal-derived from Devanagari); Burmese (Myanmar—Burma); Tibetan (Tibet); Laotian (Laos); Thai (Thailand); Khmer (Cambodia); Java, Bali, Batak, Bugis/Buginese (Indonesia); and Tagalog (Philippines)
Hindi is the official language of India. Most Indian school children are required to study Hindi from an early age. In India there are approximately 200 million native Hindi speakers, while more than 300 million use it as their second language. There are approximately 10 million Hindi speakers outside India, primarily in Nepal.
The Devanagari script includes many more characters than western scripts such as the Roman script for the English language. While Hindi has only 12 vowels and 33 consonants, a language written in Devanagari script, such as Hindi, may include in excess of 550 characters because various phonetic characters are combined into conjunct characters. The large number of characters can make keyboard-entry of Devanagari script burdensome and complicated. Furthermore, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that many languages besides Hindi use the Devanagari script (e.g., Marathi and Sanskrit) and Devanagari-based keyboards may cater to all of them, thereby generating additional complexities.
Existing Hindi keyboard solutions typically focus on making available all or most of the 500+ characters of the Devanagari script. These comprehensive keyboards may involve complexities such as multiple virtual keyboards and multiple key-stroke characters. These complexities tend to make existing keyboard solutions difficult to learn and use. For these reasons, keyboards based, for example, on the Inscript layout tend to be difficult to use. Additionally, none of the existing keyboards have the whole script, or even most of it, visible on the keyboard.
A variety of solutions have been proposed with regard to keyboards for use with other languages such as English, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,705 describes a keyboard arrangement to maximize typing speed and data entry and to ease transition from a QWERTY keyboard. This keyboard uses a layout wherein the home keys are assigned according to the frequency of use of the letters.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,928 describes a keyboard for the Korean Language. Keys on a keyboard are assigned a plurality of jamos (characters). Additional word processor software analyzes key sequences to resolve ambiguities and determine which characters are intended.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,999,950 describes an on-screen keyboard for the Japanese language. An array of Japanese based Kana characters are displayed. The first selection of a character key causes the display of the character in base kana form. The second consecutive selection of the same key causes the display of the character in a variant form. Subsequent consecutive selections cause the display of the character in further variant forms.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,647 describes a "user-friendly and efficient keyboard" for the English language. The keyboard layout places punctuation marks in the center of the keyboard with letters arranged alphabetically on either side of the punctuation marks.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,252 describes a downsized keyboard for use with the Japanese language. One vowel is assigned to each key of a first key group. Two consonants are assigned to each key in a second key group. An unvoiced consonant is input with a single key-pressing operation while a voiced consonant is input with a double key-pressing operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,275,216 describes a keyboard for entering characters for the Japanese language. One embodiment of the keyboard executes inputting of a character by zero, one, or a plurality of strokes of a code key and sequential stroke of a separator key for selecting a letter.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,281,884 describes a user-definable keyboard apparatus for use with the Chinese language. A key may correspond to one or more Chinese characters and a character may be assigned to one or more keys. The apparatus may automatically verify that a user-defined keyboard is rational by reference to a character sound grouping rules table.

User-friendly Brahmi-derived Hindi keyboard


An engine driven pump 24 is connected with a power steering motor assembly 18. An electric motor 36 drives a pump 34 connected with the power steering motor assembly 18. A control apparatus 38, 44, 52, 62 and 72 effects operation of the electric motor 36 to drive the pump 34 when the power steering motor assembly 18 requires fluid in addition to fluid supplied by the engine driven pump 24.

The present invention is directed to an apparatus for use in turning steerable vehicle wheels.
An apparatus for use in turning steerable vehicle wheels is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,546,322. This apparatus includes a power steering motor assembly which is connected with the steerable vehicle wheels. A pump is connected with the power steering motor assembly and is driven by either an engine of a vehicle or by an electric motor.