The image forming apparatus includes the optical scanning apparatus configured to scan a surface of an image bearing member provided in an image forming apparatus body with a laser beam. The optical scanning apparatus is inserted through an insertion opening formed in a frame member of the image forming apparatus body and supported by a support member mounted to the frame member. A housing of the optical scanning apparatus has an opening that allows passage of the laser beam, and includes a transparent dustproof member that covers the opening. On the surface side of the housing on which the dustproof member is provided, a plurality of projecting portions projecting with respect to the dustproof member are provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical scanning apparatus configured to scan a surface to be scanned with a laser beam, and to an image forming apparatus having the optical scanning apparatus mounted thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
A housing of an optical scanning apparatus has an opening (aperture) that allows passage of a laser beam to be radiated onto a photosensitive drum (surface to be scanned). Some optical scanning apparatus include a dustproof member (transparent member) provided in the housing of the optical scanning apparatus, which is configured to cover the opening in order to prevent entry of dust and the like into the optical scanning apparatus through the opening (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-044229).
However, it is considered that, at the time of mounting the optical scanning apparatus into a frame member of the image forming apparatus, the dustproof member may be brought into contact with a member provided in the image forming apparatus. In this case, the dustproof member provided in the optical scanning apparatus may be damaged. In particular, this problem is liable to occur in a structure in which the dustproof member projects from the housing of the optical scanning apparatus.

Optical scanning apparatus and image forming apparatus


A system for load test monitoring a computer system is provided. The system includes a transaction generator to provide transactions to servers to load test the servers. The system includes one or more agents provided on the servers, the agents operable to obtain server statistics from servers during load testing. The system also includes a display including a plurality of gauges. Each gauge depicts transactions statistics based on the transactions generated by the transaction generator for each server and further depicts server statistics for each server as obtained by the agents. Based on the displayed transaction and server statistics the transaction generator is adjustable to optimize the load test of the servers.

Enterprises need to anticipate when the processing load on their computer systems, such as a customer service system, will exceed the system capacity in order to expand the system capacity in time to avoid service outages. In some cases, delays in handling, for example, customer calls due to inadequate computer system resources can be directly linked to quantifiable losses of revenue. Expanding computer system capacity before it is required, merely to ensure that the computer system capacity is not exceeded, results in sinking enterprise capital into computing resources well before these resources are actually needed.
Load testing a computer system is directed to commanding the computer system to process a desirable volume of transactions or other actions. Enterprises may conduct load testing of their computer systems to evaluate when increasing customer service loads will exceed system capacity and to evaluate system processing barriers. For example, it may be that the computer system has adequate processing power, but that a communication bottleneck between the processors and the secondary storage causes system transaction throughput to bog down.
The "busy hour" is a term of art which refers to a peak activity period for the computer system. In some circumstances, the "busy hour" may refer to a peak activity period for the computer system during a month or during a year. In some cases the annual busy hour may be the preferred test of the computer system, for example the mother's day busy hour for long distance telephone service. In other cases the monthly busy hour may be the preferred test of the computer system, for example a computer system which processes monthly reports or bills. Load testing activities may be directed to determining whether the computer system is able to process the busy hour transaction load without crashing or without exceeding response time requirements.
In the process of rolling out new or modified software or systems, it may be preferable to test the software and systems under real-world conditions before putting them into a production environment. By creating or simulating production loads, flaws or weaknesses in the code or systems may also be uncovered and repaired or improved prior to actual implementation.


A thermoplastic housing has a chamber open at one end and a thermoplastic rotor is locked axially in the chamber by snap fit ridges and grooves. Two pairs of bores on opposite sides; of the chamber are aligned, with one pair connected by a transverse slot. The rotor has two bores aligned with the housing bores and includes flexible pawl teeth which engage ratchet teeth in the chamber. The teeth rotationally lock the rotor relative to the housing in one direction while a seal filament inserted in the bores is wrapped about the rotor as the rotor is rotated in the other direction. The slot permits the filament to be fixed to the rotor when the rotor is rotated 180.degree. causing the filament to traverse the slot and permit the remaining adjacent bores in the same plane as the fixed filament to be aligned and free to receive the filament free end. The rotor is rotated relative to the housing manually by finger gripped flanges attached to the rotor and to the housing with the filament inserted to wrap and lock the filament to the rotor. The rotor and housing define a channel for receiving multiple turns of filament to enhance the locking action.

Various devices for sealing the hasps or staples of locks or latches which secure cargo containers comprise an elongated, flexible sealing wire and a metal or thermoplastic seal. The wire is passed through the hasp or staple and then its ends are retained by the seal which is crimped or deformed to prevent removal of the wire ends. Since the presence of the wire prevents operation of the hasp or staple, unauthorized entry into the container entails destroying the seal or the wire creating visual evidence of the unauthorized entry.
Examples of prior art seals may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 421,951, 1,826,033 and 1,911,060.
U.S. Pat. No. 421,951 discloses a rotatable seal lock wherein a strip seal is inserted within a rotatable member. Thereafter the member is rotated causing a dog to be received within an opening in the strip and pulled within the rotatable member to a retained position. The rotatable member is held against unlocking rotation by the use of a spring-loaded pawl.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,826,033 discloses a block with a sealing chamber with transverse holes. A roller is in the chamber and has a cross-partition for temporary engagement with a winding means inserted through the chamber. The winding means has holes to receive a sealing band.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,911,060 discloses a sealing device having a body with apertures through which-a flexible sealing means can extend. The center portion of the body is provided with a threaded bore which is intersected by the apertures. Disposed within the threaded bore is a uni-rotational screw which may be tightened down against the flexible securing means to retain it in a sealed position.
The aforementioned, commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,978,026, 5,180,200 and 5,419,599 provide a seal for securing a container and provide evidence of tampering as well as being economical to manufacture. In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,200 seal, a rotatable rotor is insertable in a chamber in a thermoplastic housing. The housing wall contains bores aligned across the chamber. The housing wall further has two annular grooves adjacent the chamber entrance. The rotor has a bore and two annular ridges, curved in transverse section complementary to the grooves, near its top. The rotor is partially inserted in the housing by snapping the lower ridge into the upper groove of the chamber and locating the tabs on the housing in relieved areas to align the bores so that a seal wire may be inserted through the aligned bores. With a seal wire inserted, the rotor and housing are relatively rotated to wrap the wire about the rotor. The rotor is then fully axially inserted into the housing so that each ridge snaps into a groove. This and engagement of teeth on the bottom of the rotor which mate with teeth at the chamber base prevent removal of the rotor from the housing, relative rotor-housing rotation, and removal of the wire from the seal.
However, the rotor is only partially inserted when it receives a sealing wire after which the rotor is rotated and then fully inserted. The rotation of the rotor to wrap the wire thereabout and fully insert the rotor into the chamber requires a special tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,599 ('599) discloses a seal similar to that in U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,200 except a ratchet and pawl mechanism permit relative rotation of the rotor to the housing in only one direction when the rotor is fully inserted. Also, a screw driver can rotate the seal without a special tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,958 discloses a seal with a ratchet and pawl mechanism similar to that in the '599 patent. Like that seal, this patent seal requires a screw driver or similar tool to rotate the seal rotor to wrap the wire about the rotor and lock the seal. Also, like the other patents discussed above, mating curved in transverse section ridges and grooves axially lock the rotor in the housing chamber. These grooves and ridges, however, have arcuate surfaces which may be defeatable by tampering.
The present inventors recognize a need for a seal similar to the one disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,419,599, 5,402,958 and so on, but wherein the wire filament can be wrapped about the rotor without tools. In addition, the present inventors recognize a need to secure one end of the filament to the seal at the factory. The '599 and related patents can not do that. If the filament has only one end wrapped about the rotor, the wrapped filament will block the other openings in the seal that are coplanar therewith and preclude insertion of the filament other end by the end user. The '958 patent does not have this problem as its openings are provided in different planes. But this device requires a tool to operate.
A seal according to the present invention for use with a flexible filament for non-removable attachment of the filament to an article comprises a housing defining a chamber having an axis, an opening through the housing in communication with the chamber and lying in a plane transverse the axis, the opening being sufficiently large for receiving therethrough first and second portions of the filament in side-by-side communicating relation in the plane.
A rotor is in the chamber and has at least one bore and is rotatable about the axis, the at least one bore in the rotor being aligned with the opening in the plane for receiving the filament.
One way motion means are in the chamber for permitting the rotor to be relatively rotated with respect to the housing in only one direction about the axis for wrapping the filament received in the at least one bore and in the opening about the rotor to secure the filament to the rotor and housing.
The opening in one aspect comprises a slot extending transverse the axis.
The slot may comprise first and second bores in spaced relation and a slot portion intersecting each of the first and second bores, the at least one bore comprising adjacent spaced third and fourth bores lying in the plane, the third bore being aligned with the first bore and the fourth bore being aligned with the second bore.
The housing in a further aspect has fifth and sixth bores, the first and third bores being aligned with the fifth bore and the second and fourth bores being aligned with the sixth bore in the plane.
In a further aspect, the housing has a pair of lips in the chamber on opposing housing walls, each lip having coplanar first surfaces normal to the axis, the rotor having a shoulder having a second surface normal to the axis and complementary to and for engaging each of the lips for axially locking the rotor to the housing.
The rotor and housing in a further aspect define an annular channel therebetween in the plane, the channel for receiving multiple wrappings of the filament about the rotor.
The channel preferably may have a cross sectional area of at least quadruple the cross sectional area of the filament.
The one way motion means may comprise complementary ratchet and pawl means secured to the rotor and to the housing in the chamber.
The housing and the rotor preferably have further complementary surface features for axially retaining the rotor to the housing.
In a further aspect, means radially extend from the housing to provide a finger grip, and a finger gripping flange extends from the rotor for manually rotating the rotor in the chamber without tools.
The lip is linear in a further aspect and has a surface that extends through opposing through-bores in the housing.
In a still further aspect including the filament having opposite first and second ends, the filament comprises a cylindrical flexible elongated member, the first end terminating in one of the third and fourth bores and wrapped about the rotor one half a revolution in the chamber, the filament passing through the opening with its second end external the housing.


A hospital gown having closable openings on left and right sides to provide:access for physician examination to selectable portions of a patient""s torso from either side, while substantially maintaining a cover over the unexamined portions.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to garments and clothing. It is particularly directed to a gown suitable for wear by a patient in a health care environment.
2. State of the Art
Patients commonly disrobe from their street clothes and don a loose-fitting, smock-like gown prior to undergoing an examination by a physician. The gown desirably provides the physician enhanced access to areas of a patient""s body when compared with ordinary street clothes. Such a gown may be described in generic terms as a hospital gown. Hospital gowns may be employed in any situation where enhanced examination access to a variety of areas of a patient""s body is desired.
A hospital gown will typically have enlarged neck and arm openings to facilitate passage therethrough of a physician""s hand or instrument, and to accommodate patients having a variety of body dimensions. A single rear opening is usually provided, and may have one or more fasteners arranged to hold the edges of the opening closed to preserve the patient""s privacy while walking about. However, it is often difficult for a patient to secure the fasteners, due to their rear location. Furthermore, such fasteners are typically insufficient to maintain the opening closed sufficiently to maintain the patient""s privacy while walking. It is therefore common to see ambulatory patients holding their gowns closed behind their backs with one hand while moving about.
The rear opening of commercially available gowns provides direct access for examination of underlying posterior areas of a patient. However, to examine a frontal portion of a patient""s torso, it may be required for the patient to at least partially remove the gown to expose the desired area for examination. In such case, the patient is subjected to a more intrusive exposure than that required simply to complete the examination. The additional required exposure of the patient""s body may impose negative effects on the patient including coldness and a feeling of compromised modesty. Furthermore, the tied straps forming common closures are positioned such that patients sleeping on their backs unavoidably rest upon potentially aggravating bumps caused by the knots. In view of the current state of the art in hospital gowns, it would be an improvement to provide a gown offering improved access to substantially all areas of a patient""s body while better maintaining a patient""s privacy and improving their comfort.
The present invention provides an apparatus for wear by a patient in a health care environment. The apparatus may generically be termed a hospital gown. A hospital gown according to the present invention permits physician access to substantially any portion of patient""s body while substantially maintaining a protective cover over the unexamined areas of the patient""s body.
A hospital gown according to the present invention typically includes front and back panels between at least substantially open left and right gown sides. Top edges of the panels are typically connected to form a neck opening. Releasable fastening structure is associated with both of the left and right gown sides, and is generally configured and arranged to at least substantially close the open sides of the gown and to allow for release whereby to provide physician access through an opening to selectable portions of a patient""s body for examination while maintaining a cover substantially over the unexamined portion of the patient""s body. Typical fastening structure includes a plurality of paired straps disposed at the gown sides and adapted to bring portions of the front and back panels into overlapable closure. Fastening structure may also include a plurality of strap holes disposed substantially in alignment between an attached first end of a strap and an edge of a panel adjacent to the strap attachment location. In such case, the strap holes are typically disposed to receive a cooperating strap in a stitched relation to improve integrity of an overlap between portions of the front and back panels. A gown desirably has an arm opening of adjustable size. Such an arm opening may be formed between fastening structure, such as a pair of straps, and a gown shoulder. Gowns desirably have a length between a top and a bottom sufficient to fall below a patient""s knee when worn in a sitting position.
These features, advantages, and alternative aspects of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following detailed description taken in combination with the accompanying drawings.


A geographic data relational database and a spatial library of routines that access and analyze spatial data are used to convert an identified location to a set of geographic coordinate pairs. A geocoder engine applies the spatial library routines to the geographic data in the relational database, and based on the identified location and a set of matching rules, produces the set of geographic coordinates. The geographic data may be derived from multiple sources. The rules may specify, for example, that only geographic coordinates corresponding to an exact match of the identified location are to be returned, or that matching of certain attributes may be relaxed. The identified location may be, for example, the intersection of two streets, an address, a postal area code such as a zip code.

Geocoding is the process of converting a named location to a set of geographic coordinates. The named location is usually an address such "1 Oracle Drive, Nashua, N.H. 03062" and the coordinates are usually longitude and latitude. Other examples of named locations are places of interest such as "Logan International Airport, Boston" or "Pheasant Lane Mall, Nashua."
A typical geocoder includes a geographic base data source and algorithms that utilize this data source. The data source includes geographic names and street segment information. Geographic names are typically named locations, such as points-of-interest (e.g., names of businesses, shopping complexes, parking garages, government offices), and administrative or political areas (e.g., cities, postal codes, counties, or well known areas such as Midtown Manhattan, Chinatown San Francisco). The street segment information includes data such as the official and alternate street names (e.g., "Main Street", "Daniel Webster Highway", and "Rt. 3", all of which designate the same road), the address number format (e.g., numeric as in "1 Oracle Drive", or alphanumeric as in "256A D W Highway"), address ranges (e.g., odd numbers ranging from 1 through 99 on the left and even numbers ranging from 2-100 on the right), and the geographic coordinates for the end points of the street segment.
The data can also include details of the hierarchy of political or other administrative boundaries. The four-level hierarchy of country, state, county and city, for example, is valid for the U.S. In Europe, some countries have a five-level hierarchy, namely country, province, district, municipality, and settlement.
Different data suppliers (e.g. TeleAtlas, NavTech, and Geographic Data Technologies) have different levels of detail and area of coverage for their respective geographic databases. In addition, each country and sometimes regions within countries have different guidelines for specifying postal addresses. Thus currently available geocoding software is tightly bound to a specific geographic database and its proprietary format. This format typically includes specialized indexes that speed up the search and retrieval of street and places names from the database.
The search process is outlined in the following highly simplified example. To find "500 Oracle Pkwy, Redwood City, Calif.," geocoding software must search a list of state names or abbreviations until it finds "CA". Then, under "CA", it must find the city "Redwood City". Finally it must search through street names until it finds the name "Oracle" and street type "Parkway". The amount of data scanned mandates many highly efficient indexes.


Methods and systems are for corrosion protection on marine vessels. A marine drive is for propelling a marine vessel in saltwater. The marine drive includes a generally planar outer running surface and a collection area located proximate to the outer running surface. An electrode conducts electricity from a source of electricity to the saltwater such that the electricity reacts to the saltwater and generates chlorine gas bubbles that tend to cause corrosion on the outer running surface. The electrode is mounted on the marine drive and protrudes out from and at an angle to the outer running surface so as to inhibit flow of the chlorine gas bubbles towards the collection area at least when the marine vessel is stationary.

It is known that providing an electric current proximate an underwater surface in a saltwater environment inhibits and deters the growth of marine organisms, such as barnacles. It is believed that certain marine organisms, such as barnacles, abhor chlorine. When electric current is provided in a saltwater environment, the current interacts with the surrounding saltwater and produces chlorine gas, among other things, in the form of chemically adsorbed species and bubbles at the underwater surface. The production of chlorine increases with the current flow.
The following U.S. Patents, each of which are incorporated herein by reference in entirety, disclose propulsion arrangements for marine vessels and anti-fouling systems and methods for marine structures, including for example cathodic protection systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,742 discloses a cathodic protection system monitor that is coupled to an impressed current cathodic protection circuit and used for corrosion protection of a submerged marine drive. The cathodic protection circuit includes one or more anodes and a reference electrode mounted below the water line and connected to an automatic controller for supplying an anode current which is regulated in order to maintain a predetermined reference potential on the protected structure. A switch selectively connects a light emitting diode (LED) lamp or other light source between the controller output and ground so that the controller current may, when tested, be used to operate the light source in order to confirm that power is available to the anode.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,492,877 discloses an electrode apparatus for mounting an anode and reference electrode of a cathodic protection system on an outboard drive unit. The apparatus includes an insulating housing on which the anode and reference electrode are mounted and a copper shield mounted between the anode and electrode to allow them to be mounted in close proximity to each other. The shield is electrically connected to the device to be protected and serves to match the electrical field potential at the reference electrode to that of a point on the outboard drive unit remote from the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,460 discloses a control system for cathodically protecting an outboard drive unit from corrosion, which includes an anode and a reference electrode mounted on the drive unit. Current supplied to the anode is controlled by a transistor, which in turn is controlled by an amplifier. The amplifier is biased to maintain a relatively constant potential on the drive unit when operated in either fresh or salt water.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,625 discloses a galvanic monitor system that uses two annunciators, such as light emitting diodes, to alert a boat operator of the current status of the boat's galvanic protection system. A reference electrode is used to monitor the voltage potential at a location in the water and near the component to be protected. The voltage potential of the electrode is compared to upper and lower limits to determine if the actual sensed voltage potential is above the lower limit and below the upper limit. The two annunciators lights are used to inform the operator if the protection is proper or if the component to be protected is either being over protected or under protected.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,472 discloses a system for inhibiting marine organism growth on underwater surfaces. The system provides an electric current generator which causes an electric current to flow proximate the underwater surface. A source of power, such as a battery, provides electrical power to the electric current generator. The flow of current passes from the underwater surface through water surrounding the surface or in contact with the surface, and a point of ground potential. The point of ground potential can be a marine propulsion system attached to a boat on which the underwater surface is contained.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,131,877 discloses a marine cathodic protection system that maintains a submerged portion of a marine drive unit at a selected potential to reduce or eliminate corrosion thereto. An anode is energized to maintain the drive unit at a preselected constant potential in response to the sensed potential at a closely located reference electrode during normal operations. Excessive current to the anode is sensed to provide a maximum current limitation. An integrated circuit employs a highly regulated voltage source to establish precise control of the anode energization.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,305,928 discloses a vessel positioning system that maneuvers a marine vessel in such a way that the vessel maintains its global position and heading in accordance with a desired position and heading selected by the operator of the marine vessel. When used in conjunction with a joystick, the operator of the marine vessel can place the system in a station keeping enabled mode and the system then maintains the desired position obtained upon the initial change in the joystick from an active mode to an inactive mode. In this way, the operator can selectively maneuver the marine vessel manually and, when the joystick is released, the vessel will maintain the position in which it was at the instant the operator stopped maneuvering it with the joystick.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,381,312 discloses a ceramic conductor, which is supported by an electrically insulative support member for attachment directly to a marine propulsion drive and for use as either an anode or electrode in a corrosion prevention system. The ceramic conductor is received within a depression formed in a surface of the electrically insulative support member and the exposed surface of the ceramic conductor can be offset from or coplanar with an exposed surface of the electrically insulative support member. The ceramic conductor can comprise oxides of iridium, tantalum and titanium that are formed as a coating on a titanium substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,118,983 discloses a corrosion inhibiting system, which is provided with the ability to allow both primary and secondary portions of the circuit to be used in the alternative without having the primary and secondary systems interfere with each other by operating at the same time. By incorporating a continuity controller, such as a switch or a diode to selectively disconnect the sacrificial anode from the circuit, the primary and secondary systems can both be provided on a marine vessel, but used independently from each other. In that way, the primary and secondary corrosion inhibiting systems are prevented from interfering with each other during normal operation.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,322,633; 6,173,669; 6,547,952; 6,822,462; 6,973,890; 7,025,013; 7,064,459; 7,211,173; 7,686,936; 8,372,260 are also relevant background and are incorporated herein by reference.

Systems and methods for corrosion protection on marine drives


An electrochemical biosensor and a biosensor measuring device. The electrochemical biosensor includes a plurality of electrodes, capillary sample cell portions, reaction reagent layers, electrode connection portions, and a production lot information identification portion. The production lot information identification portion is configured such that the production lot information is recorded thereon has one or more infrared absorption/reflection marks, which indicate information about differences between production lots through the printing and/or attachment of colored or colorless materials, having differences in absorbency or reflectivity of infrared rays, in conformity of a predetermined pattern or through the attachment of transparent films. The electrochemical biosensor measuring device includes a plurality of integrated photo-reflector sensing devices that emit and receive infrared rays to identify the production lot information recorded on the production lot information identification portion of the biosensor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrochemical biosensor and a biosensor measuring device.
2. Description of the Related Art
For the diagnosis and prophylaxis of diabetes mellitus, the importance of periodic monitoring of blood glucose levels has been increasingly emphasized. Nowadays, strip-type biosensors designed for hand-held reading devices allow individuals to readily monitor glucose levels in blood.
A large number of commercialized biosensors measure blood glucose present in blood samples using an electrochemical technique. The principle of the electrochemical technique is based on the following Reaction 1.Glucose+GOx-FAD→gluconic acid+GOx-FADH2 GOx-FADH2+Mox→GOx-FAD+Mred  [Reaction 1]
wherein, GOx represents glucose oxidase; GOx-FAD and GOx-FADH2 respectively represent an oxidized and a reduced state of glucose-associated FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide), a cofactor required for the catalyst of glucose oxidase; and Mox and Mred denote an oxidized and a reduced state of an electron transfer mediator, respectively.
The electrochemical biosensor uses organic electron transfer materials, such as ferrocenes or their derivatives, quinines or their derivatives, organic or inorganic materials containing transition metals (hexaamine ruthenium, polymer containing osmium, potassium ferricyamide and the like), organic conducting salts, and viologens, as electron transfer mediators.
The principle of measuring blood glucose by the biosensor is as follows.
glucose in blood is oxidized to gluconic acid by the catalysis of the glucose oxidase, with the cofactor FAD reduced to FADH2. Then, the reduced cofactor FADH2 transfers electrons to the mediator, so that FADH2 returns to its oxidized state; that is, FAD and the mediator are reduced. The reduced mediator is diffused to the surface of the electrodes. The series of reaction cycles is driven by the anodic potential applied at the working electrode, and the redox current proportional to the level of glucose is measured.
Compared to biosensors based on colorimetry, the electrochemical biosensors (e.g., based on electrochemistry) has the advantages of being not influenced by oxygen and allowing the use of samples, even if cloudy, without pretreatment thereof.
Although this electrochemical biosensor is generally conveniently used to monitor and control the amount of blood glucose, its accuracy is greatly dependent on deviations according to each mass-production lot in which the biosensors are produced. In order to eliminate this deviation, most of the commercialized biosensors are designed such that a user directly inputs calibration curve information, which is predetermined at the factory, into a measuring device capable of reading the biosensor. However, this method causes the user inconvenience and causes the user to make an input error, thus inaccurate results can be acquired.
In order to solve such a problem, a method that can adjust the resistance of each electrode such that production information for each lot is stored at a location at which contact of the electrode of a sensor is made (US20060144704A1), a method in which a conductor is printed in a bar code type (U.S. Pat. No. 6,814,844), a method in which a connection to a resistor bank is made (WO2007011569A2), and a method that reads information by varying resistance through adjustment of length or thickness of each electrode (US20050279647A1) have been proposed. The methods proposed for the electrochemical biosensors are all based on a technique capable of reading electrical variation. Furthermore, a method that discriminates production lot information by reading the resistivity of a conductor marked on a strip using an electrical method (U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,874) has been proposed.
However, these methods are methods that accurately adjust resistance, and must undergo a process of mass-producing the sensors first, measuring statistical characteristics of the sensors, and post-processing the measured information again using a method of adjusting the resistance marked on the sensors. However, the process of accurately adjusting the resistance, marked in large quantities, through the post-process is very inconvenient, and is difficult to use for practical application.
Methods in which colored marks are used to enable a spectral system capable of discriminating colors to use a colorimetric method (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,907,503, 5,597,532, 6,168,957), and a method in which a plurality of color marks is read at various wavelengths of visible and infrared ray regions using a spectroscope (U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,341), and a method capable of reading bar codes (EP00075223B1, WO02088739A1) have been proposed. These methods using color or bar code are favorable for a calorimetric method-based sensor using the spectrum system, but they have technical and economic difficulties in being applied to the system using an electrochemical measurement mechanism. For example, the size and structure of a portion where the electrochemical sensor strip is inserted into the measuring device for the purpose of electrical connection, that is, a connection space of the sensor strip, is very limited in constructing a device and circuit for spectroscopically identifying a structure into which the production lot information is input. Further, a process of scattering and identifying various wavelengths of light detected by a detector is required to discriminate color, and a process of converting an analog signal into a digital signal and performing calculation is complicated, so that the device and its program are complicated, therefore the expense for constructing the system is greatly increased.
Furthermore, instead of the methods of marking the production lot information on the sensor strip, a method of recording information on a container or pack containing a sensor and allowing the information to be read by the measuring device (EP0880407B1) has been proposed. However, this method also has a possibility of causing the user to make an error of incorrectly reading a code recorded on the container.
For these reasons, the inventors of the present invention have conducted research into electrochemical biosensors in order to maintain economic efficiency in the construction of the measuring device while allowing the mass production of the electrochemical biosensor, which allows the production lot information thereof to be easily and accurately input into the measuring device without the mistake of the user and thus provides an accurate measurement value. In the process of the research, it has been found that, when the production lot information is recorded on the electrochemical biosensor strip using infrared absorption/reflection marks and when a production lot information identification portion at which the production lot information is recorded on the electrochemical biosensor strip is identified in the measuring device, there is no need to use a high-priced filter in the case where surface mounted miniaturized integrated infrared photo-reflector sensing devices in which light-emitting units (light emitters), that is, infrared emitting diodes, and light-receiving units (detectors), that is, photodiodes, are disposed in the same direction, are used in an integrated light-emitter and detector system in one component chip (hereafter called, photo-reflector), so that the light emitter-detector system has a simple construction on the same printed circuit board (PCB) of measuring device, and thus can not only reduce a complicated calculation process performed for post-treatment but also maintain economic efficiency in the construction of the measuring device. As a result, the present invention was completed.

Electrochemical biosensor and biosensor measuring device


A view point is set inside a hollow organ, a clip plane crossing an internal cavity of the hollow organ is set in a position spaced apart in a visual line direction from the view point, a field of view from the view point is divided into a first field-of-view range in which the inside of the hollow organ is viewed and a second field-of-view range other than the first field-of-view range, a projection image is acquired using a template which is defined so that an inner wall surface of a large intestine is able to be drawn in the first field-of-view range, a projection image is acquired using a template which is defined so that a contact surface with the inner wall surface of the air region of the large intestine is able to be drawn in the second field-of-view range, and the projection images are connected.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a projection image generating device, method and program that generate a projection image from volume data representing a three-dimensional region including a hollow organ.
Description of the Related Art
In the medical field, volume data (three-dimensional image data) obtained by photographing a patient is converted into an image suitable for observation and displayed. In particular, a virtual endoscopic image is widely used for observation of a hollow organ such as a large intestine or a bronchus.
However, in the virtual endoscopic image, there may be a portion in which a visual line is blocked by a front wall or the like and does not appear on the image. For example, when there are a large number of folds on an inner wall of the large intestine and the view point exists on a side surface of any of the folds, there is a problem in that a lesion (e.g., polyp) on a back surface of the fold does not appear on the image and cannot be observed.
On the other hand, a scheme in which a view point is placed inside a hollow organ and the hollow organ is drawn as a mesh or a translucent organ such that an image in which a back wall blocked by a front wall of the hollow organ and not visible has been drawn is displayed to be superimposed on an image in which the front wall of the hollow organ has been drawn has been proposed in JP1998-234663A (JP-H10-234663A). A scheme in which a projection image generated by placing a view point outside a hollow organ is displayed side by side with a virtual endoscopic image generated by placing the view point inside the hollow organ, or switched to the virtual endoscopic image and displayed such that the hollow organ can be observed from various view points has been proposed in JP2007-537771A.

Virtual endoscopic projection image generating device, method and program


A bone anchoring device includes an anchoring element having a shaft for anchoring in the bone and a head, a receiving part formed in one piece, and a pressure element formed in one piece. The receiving part has a seat for receiving the head and an outer channel for receiving a rod to be connected to the anchoring element, which is pivotable with respect to the receiving part and can be fixed at an angle by exerting pressure via the pressure element onto the head. The pressure element is movable in the receiving part and includes an inner channel for receiving the rod and a spring element that engages a portion of the receiving part via a detent connection so that the pressure element can be held in a position that allows pivoting of the anchoring element. The spring element is formed by at least a first portion of one of two side walls forming the inner channel, the first portion being spaced apart from a second portion of the one side wall by a slot. At least a portion of the detent connection is located on the one side wall.

The invention relates to a bone anchoring device for anchoring a stabilization rod in a bone or in a vertebra, an assembly tool and a method for assembling the bone anchoring device and an insertion tool for use with the bone anchoring device. The bone anchoring device includes an anchoring element, a receiving part for receiving a head of the bone anchoring element and for receiving a stabilization rod to be connected to the anchoring element. The anchoring element is pivotably connected to the receiving part and can be fixed at an angle by exerting pressure onto the head via a pressure element, which is arranged in the receiving part. The pressure element comprises a spring element that engages a portion of the receiving part so that it can be held in a position that allows pivoting of the anchoring element.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,356 describes a polyaxial bone screw including a screw element and a receiving part that is pivotably connected to the screw element and a pressure element to exert pressure onto the head of the screw element to fix the angle between the screw element and the receiving part. The receiving part has an U-shaped channel for receiving a stabilization rod. The pressure element comprises a cylindrical recess which is to be aligned with the U-shaped channel to receive the rod therein. In order to hold the pressure element in a position aligned with the U-shaped channel, the position of the pressure element is fixed by crimping through bores provided in the receiving part.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,672,176 describes another example of a polyaxial bone screw with a pressure element that is also held in place by crimp bores without impeding a sufficient movement of the pressure element to clamp the head.
US 2005/0080420 A1 describes a multiaxial bone screw that includes a screw element and a receiver member, a base member for retaining the screw element in the receiver member and a crown element exerting pressure onto the head of the screw element. The crown element comprises a snap-ring to assist in holding the crown element within the receiving part by interfering with a stop surface of the receiving part. The multiaxial bone screw is a so-called bottom loading type screw wherein the screw element is introduced from the bottom into receiving part.
WO 2006/116437 A2 describes a bone anchor for spinal fixation in the form of a polyaxial bone screw including a screw element, a housing, a sleeve and a collet arranged in the housing for exerting pressure onto the head of the screw element. The sleeve has retention tabs that snap into slots in opposite wall positions of the housing.
Usually, the polyaxial bone screws of the above-described type are delivered, for example by the manufacturer, in a pre-assembled condition. In this condition a specific screw element, e.g. a screw element having a specific length and shaft diameter or a specific thread form, is connected to a receiving part and the pressure element is arranged therein so that it cannot escape. For the surgery, the necessary number and types of such pre-assembled polyaxial bone screws are selected and provided in advance as a full set of implants.

Bone anchoring device, tool and method for assembling the same and tool for use with the same


A vector waveform correction device corrects a vector waveform displayed on a vector scope. A first color difference signal and a second color difference signal demodulated from a chrominance signal of a composite video signal are input as x and y, and a vector (x, y) is partially rotated in a unit of part of all the scanning lines.

The present invention relates to a device for rotating a vector waveform in a vector waveform display of a vector scope, and more particularly to a device for correcting the position of a vector waveform in a rotational direction.
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional vector scope that displays the vector waveform of a composite video signal. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional vector scope comprises input means 1, Y/C separation means 2, synchronizing separation means 3, sub-carrier regenerating means 4, a phase shifter, decoder means 8, and display means 11.
The input means 1 inputs a composite video signal, and outputs the signal to the Y/C separation means 2, the synchronizing separation means 3 and the sub-carrier regenerating means 4. The Y/C separation means 2 extracts a chrominance signal of the composite video signal from the input composite video signal, employing a filter such as a band pass filter, a comb filter and a three dimensional filter, and outputs the chrominance signal to the decoder means 8. The synchronizing separation means 3 extracts a composite synchronizing signal within a synchronizing signal part of the composite video signal from the input composite video signal, employing a negative peak detection circuit. Moreover, the synchronizing separation means 3 separates the composite synchronizing signal into a vertical synchronizing signal and a horizontal synchronizing signal, employing a stable multi-vibrator etc., and generates a burst gate signal based on the vertical and horizontal synchronizing signals to output the burst gate signal to the decoder means 8. The sub-carrier regenerating means 4 generates a sub-carrier signal synchronous with the burst signal from the input composite video signal, employing a PLL, and outputs the sub-carrier signal to the phase shift means 6 in the phase shifter.
The shift amount setting means 5 in the phase shifter sets up a phase shift amount (i.e., an amount for rotating the vector waveform displayed on the display means 11) from the sub-carrier signal input into the phase shift means 6 to the sub-carrier signal output to the phase shift means 6, and outputs the shift amount to the phase shift means 6. The phase shift means 6 shifts the phase of the input sub-carrier signal in accordance with the input phase shift amount, employing a variable phase circuit such as a goniometer, shifts the phase of the input sub-carrier signal, and outputs the sub-carrier signal with phase shifted to 90 degree phase shifting means 7 and the decoder 8. The 90 degree phase shifting means 7 in the phase shifter generates the sub-carrier signal orthogonal to the input sub-carrier signal, employing a 90 degree phase circuit, and outputs the generated signal to the decoder 8. The decoder 8 demodulates the chrominance signal input from the Y/C separation means 2 into color difference signals (an R-Y signal and a B-Y signal), employing the sub-carrier signal input from the phase shift means 6 and the sub-carrier signal input from the 90 degree phase shifting means 7 (i.e., sub-carrier signals orthogonal to each other), and outputs the color difference signals to the display means 11. The display means 11 displays the Lissajour figure with the B-Y signal of the input color difference signals as x axis and the R-Y signal as y axis.
One example of the conventional vector scope was disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-312762. The vector scope as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 0.7-312762 comprises the improved phase shifter.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-312762 (page 3, paragraph 2)


A concurrent low resolution/high resolution parallel scanning system and method are provided as an improvement in the scanning process of an inspection system for planar objects, such as large flat plates employed in panel displays, whereby lower resolution defect detection efficiently overlaps and parallels higher resolution defect review and classification stages in which defects are automatically defined and resolved. Although the invention is a valid solution for the more general problem of optically inspecting the surface of a flat article for defects, the invention is particularly useful for detecting pattern defects on large glass plates deposited with integrated-circuits for forming LCD flat panel displays.

The invention relates to the general field of machine vision based inspection technology and more particularly to machine vision based detection and classification of defects occurring on large flat patterned surfaces. In particular, the invention addresses the inspection of materials deposited on large substrate glass plates such as Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panels. Although the invention applies to the general case of the inspection of any flat patterned media, the invention is particularly related to the inspection of glass substrates used for Thin Film Transistor (TFT) LCD panels in precompletion form.
During the manufacturing of LCD panels, large clear sheets of thin glass are used as a substrate for the deposition of various layers of materials to form electronic circuits that will function as a multitude of identical display panels. This deposition is usually done in stages wherein, at each stage, a particular material, such as metal, Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), silicon, or amorphous silicon, is deposited over a previous layer (or upon the glass substrate) in adherence to a predetermined pattern often determined by a mask. Each process stage includes various steps such as deposition, masking, etching and stripping.
During each of the process stages and at various steps within a stage, various production defects may be introduced that affect the structure and that have electronic and/or visual implications on the final LCD panel product. Such defects include but are not limited to circuit shorts, opens, foreign particles, mask problems, feature size problems, over etching and under etching. In order for the final LCD panel to operate properly, these defects need to be detected, classified and if possible repaired, preferably at the stage they are generated. The decision to repair is based on accurate classification of defects and especially to the separation between "killer", "repairable" and "process" defects.
The operating resolution of the system for automatic defect detection often has a direct impact on the inspection speed and the cost of the system. Therefore, only comparatively lower resolutions are feasible to scan the entire area of the plate. Unfortunately, at this lower resolution it has not been possible in the past to simultaneously perform both detection and reliable classification from the same image data collected. Also, low resolution has an impact on the performance of the detection algorithms, which often result in a substantial number of false alarms which need to be eliminated. Therefore, following a defect detection step, there is a need for a defect review step, wherein a higher resolution inspection (via camera) is used to capture the defect area of interest for subsequent validation of the defect candidate and thereafter to perform either automatic or human assisted classification.
In this type of operation, a low resolution sub-system is used to detect the problem areas of the plate (Defect Detection Sub-System—DDS) while a separate high resolution camera is used at a later stage to capture high resolution images for these problem areas (Defect Review Sub-System—DRS) for the purpose of higher reliability automatic or manual classification. As long as the number of problem areas detected by the DDS can be kept within manageable limits, high resolution image capture for these singular points remains feasible. Still, this number has often a direct impact on either the cycle time of the system (if all defects are to be reviewed) or on the review performance of the system (if a fixed limited number of defects are reviewed).
Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) equipment has been used for a variety of problems including but not limited to Printed Circuit Board (PCB) inspection, silicon Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuit wafer (die) inspection, as well as LCD panel inspection. Most of the implemented solutions are based on spatial domain pattern comparison techniques often used in combination with sensor level pixel or sub-pixel precision alignment techniques.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,455 to Levy et al. describes an alignment and pattern comparison technique where a pair of 7×7 windows are considered on the test and reference images and squared sum of errors over a multitude of possible 3×3 sub-windows within this window are computed. If the minimum error over these combinations exceeds a threshold value, a defect is assumed. The method appears to be capable of compensating for alignment mismatch down to a sensor pixel level.
Addressing issues about the coarse alignment precision of the method by Levy et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,123 to Specht et al. describes an improved alignment and comparison technique for the detection of defects. In this technique, large windows in test and reference images are used to compute a sensor pixel level correlation between test and reference. The resulting sampled correlation surface's minimum point is found and a quadratic function is fitted to the surface in the neighborhood of this minimum point. Using the fitted quadratic function, a sub-pixel precision translation is obtained to align the test and reference images. The aligned images are compared by thresholding image differences on 2×2 sub-windows on the test and aligned reference images.
Variations and improvements on these basic techniques have also been proposed such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,628 to Yolles et al., which among other things point out to the drawbacks of using the sampled correlation surface to find the minimum and argue that due to coarse sampling of the surface this point may not correspond to the true minimum. Hence, they argue that the subsequent sub-pixel interpolation step would do little to improve the detected minimum and a false alignment would result, leading to false alarms in detection. Yolles et al. proposes to alleviate these problems by an elaborate comparison process based on improved comparison entities.
With any of the above methods, the use of a single feasible (comparatively low) resolution for scanning the entire surface of the article inspected leads to a set of defect candidates. These defect candidates necessarily include both legitimate defects as well as false alarms, due to the inability of the methods to completely filter out expected variations between a test and reference image. This results in the alarm to be a set of defect candidates and arises the need to validate the candidates to form the true defect map of the article inspected. Furthermore, there is a strong need to classify the legitimate defects into a number of defect classes to help with the disposition of the article inspected, in some applications possibly enabling the article to be repaired.
One solution along these lines has been proposed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,447 to Alumot et al. which describes a two stage scanning approach. The entire panel is first scanned at a higher speed by a stage of a comparatively low resolution non-Charge Coupled Device (CCD) optical system with a small diameter laser beam in a raster scan mode. This is followed by a second stage scan with a high resolution CCD-based optical system. The latter scanning stage extracts the higher resolution images of all the defect suspect locations which have been detected by the former scanning stage. Although this solution addresses the need to extract higher resolution images of the detected objects for their validation, it is different from the current invention in that the first stage of examination is by means of a raster scan with a small diameter laser beam and also for the fact that the two examinations are in sequential stages. The disadvantages include the following:
(a) Increased cycle time: The high resolution imaging stage comes immediately after the main detection stage. The sequential nature of the high resolution imaging has considerable impact on the inspection cycle time since the time required for high resolution image acquisition, review and classification is added to the time required for the detection scan.
(b) Idle imaging resources: The high resolution defect review imager is idle while the detection imager is active and the detection imager is idle while the review imager is active. This leads to an inefficient use of the system resources within the given time constraints.
(c) Non-optimal review process: When classification is necessary, and production environment time constraints prevent the imaging of all candidate locations, the user of the system may be left with the difficult task of deciding how many and which of the candidates to collect and process with the high resolution review imager.
What is needed is a fully automatic and overlapped high resolution defect review system operating in combination with a rapid and accurate classification technique to improve both the speed and accuracy of inspection and repair.

Method and apparatus for flat patterned media inspection


A scalable, three-dimensional (3D) graphics subsystem. The graphics subsystem includes a plurality of graphics modules each including a rendering module and a dedicated memory. In one embodiment, the rendering modules of the graphics modules are coupled together, possibly through a routing device, such that each rendering module views the memory space, formed by all dedicated memory, as one continuous shared memory.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of graphics. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for providing a scalable, three-dimensional graphics subsystem.
2. Description of Related Art
For many years, three-dimensional (3D) graphics subsystems have been scaled in performance. Normally, this scalable performance has been accomplished by adding more memory and graphics hardware to create multiple pipelines as shown in FIG. 1. Each pipeline of the graphics subsystem renders a predetermined portion of entire image.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional graphics subsystem 100 receives information associated with an image targeted for display ("targeted image"). Such image information includes vertex coordinates, color, and texture coordinates of one or more triangles forming the targeted image. The image information is input into each of its rendering pipelines 110.sub.1 -110.sub.n ("n" is a positive whole number) to produce display information for each pixel of the targeted image. Each rendering pipeline 110.sub.1 -110.sub.n includes a raster subsystem 120.sub.1 -120.sub.n, a texture subsystem 130.sub.1 -130.sub.n coupled to dedicated texture memory 135.sub.1 -135.sub.n, and a pixel engine 140.sub.1 -140.sub.n coupled to a selected portion 145.sub.1 -145.sub.n of a frame buffer. The display information generated by each rendering pipeline 110.sub.1 -110.sub.n is appropriately routed to a display monitor through a multiple input multiplexer 150 controlled by a display engine. For clarity sake, the operations of a single rendering pipeline (e.g., rendering pipeline 110.sub.1) is discussed therein.
For rendering pipeline 110.sub.1, raster subsystem 120.sub.1 receives the image information and usually generates XYZ coordinates, texture coordinates and character values (color, translucency and depth) for each pixel of the image. Of course, it is contemplated that these calculations may be successively performed on portions of the targeted image (e.g., one-pixel scan line at a time) rather than the entire targeted image. This architecture has been used by Silicon Graphics, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.
The texture subsystem 130.sub.1 receives the texture coordinates and utilizes these texture coordinates to obtain assigned texture values. The texture values are stored in dedicated texture memory 135.sub.1. Similar for all texture memories 135.sub.1 -135.sub.n, texture memory 135.sub.1 must be sized to accommodate all textures used to create the display image.
A pixel engine 140.sub.1 receives the pixel coordinates and character values from raster subsystem 120.sub.1 and texture values from texture memory 135.sub.1. Based on this information, pixel engine 140.sub.1 performs pixel level calculations in order to produce the display information. The pixel level calculations include, but are not limited or restricted to depth buffering, shadowing (referred to as "alpha blending") and fragment generation for partially covered pixels. This display information is stored in a first portion 145.sub.1 of a frame buffer reserved for rendering pipeline 110.sub.1. Under control of a display engine, the display information is transferred to digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion which are converted into a series of signals. These signals allow the display monitor produce the targeted image.
However, this technique possess a number of disadvantages. For example, in order to provide scalability, multiple texture memories 135.sub.1 -135.sub.n (e.g., dynamic random access memory "DRAM") are required. In the situation where small pixel regions (e.g., 32.times.32 pixel regions referred to as "chunks") are processed at a time, these texture memories 135.sub.1 -135.sub.n constitute an inefficient use of memory. The reason is that each texture memory 135.sub.1, . . . , 135.sub.n must be sufficiently sized to store all textures of the entire targeted image. Thus, each texture is stored "n" times which substantially increases the costs associated with scaling graphics subsystem 100.
Hence, it would be advantageous to provide a graphics subsystem that offers scalable performance with efficient use of memory.

Apparatus for creating a scalable graphics system with efficient memory and bandwidth usage


A contactless connector apparatus is provided with a first coil closely opposed to a second coil so as to be electromagnetically coupled thereto. The first coil includes: an inner transmitter coil wound around an axis passing through its center; and an outer transmitter coil wound around the axis and outside the inner coil. One end of the outer transmitter coil is connected to one end of the inner transmitter coil such that, when a current flows through the transmitter coils, a direction of a loop current generated around the axis by a current flowing through the inner transmitter coil is opposite to that of a loop current generated around the axis by a current flowing through the outer transmitter coil. A self-inductance of the outer transmitter coil is larger than that of the inner transmitter coil.

In recent years, contactless connector apparatuses and contactless connector systems using inductive coupling between coils, and power transmission apparatuses and power transmission systems provided with a contactless connector apparatus or a contactless connector system have been being developed for the purpose of wireless charging of mobile electronic equipment or EV equipment, such as mobile phones and electric cars. For example, the inventions of Patent Documents 1 to 3 are known as contactless power transmission systems.
A battery-powered device and a charging cradle of Patent Document 1 include: a charging cradle having a power supply coil connected to an AC power supply; and a battery-powered device to be mounted on the charging cradle and including an induction coil electromagnetically coupled to the power supply coil. A built-in battery of the battery-powered device is charged with power transmitted from the power supply coil to the induction coil. The power supply coil includes a planar inner coil, and a planar outer coil disposed outside the inner coil and on the same plane as the inner coil. The AC power supply to the charging cradle includes a switching circuit for changing between an inner coil active state where AC power is supplied to the inner coil and not supplied to the outer coil, and an inner and outer coil active state where AC power is supplied to both the inner coil and the outer coil. The AC power supply changes between the inner coil active state and the inner and outer coil active state by the battery-powered device mounted on the charging cradle, and transmits power to the induction coil of the battery-powered device. That is, the battery-powered device and the charging cradle of Patent Document 1 are characterized by changing between two active states to achieve optimal power transmission.
A contactless power transmission apparatus of Patent Document 2 is characterized in that the power transmission apparatus transmits power from a primary coil to a secondary coil in a contactless manner through an gap by using electromagnetic induction between a pair of coils opposite to each other, and the power transmission apparatus is provided with a plurality of planar coils at a primary side, and one or more planar coils at a secondary side, and the outer diameter of the secondary coil is smaller than the outer diameter of the primary coils. The contactless power transmission apparatus of Patent Document 2 is characterized by selecting an optimal coil from among the plurality of primary coils to achieve stable power transmission.
A wireless transmission system of Patent Document 3 is provided with a resonator for wireless power transmission, the resonator including a conductor forming one or more loops and having an inductance, and a network of capacitors having a capacitance and a desired electrical parameter and coupled to the conductor. In this case, the network of capacitors includes at least one capacitor of a first type having a first temperature profile as the electrical parameter, and at least one capacitor of a second type having a second temperature profile as the electrical parameter.
The principles of such contactless power transmission systems can also be applied to information transmission systems provided with a contactless connector apparatus, and to induction heating apparatuses such as IH cooking apparatuses.

Contactless connector system tolerant of position displacement between transmitter coil and receiver coil and having high transmission efficiency

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


Selected embodiments use a relatively small image detector and a scanning mirror to obtain effective performance of a larger image detector. An imager with folded optics captures images of different field positions of a field of view (FOV), and stitches the images together for a larger image of the FOV. The stitched image is processed to identify portions of interest within the larger image, for example, using a cuing algorithm. The portions of interest are scanned again to capture enhanced quality images using, for example, longer dwell time for enhanced contrast. Another image of the FOV or a part of the FOV is stitched together using the enhanced quality images.

Numerous increasing demands for situational awareness make desirable optical (including infrared) imaging techniques to gather information over large fields of view. Current wide field of view (WFOV) multispectral imaging solutions are expensive not only in the economic sense, but also in terms of size, weight, and power requirements (SWaP). For this reason, they may be prohibitive for extensive deployment in mote and man-portable applications. Large format infrared (IR) and short wave infrared (SWIR) imagers, in particular, may be very expensive, and may have high power consumption.
It is therefore desirable to provide wide field of view single- and multi-spectral imaging methods and systems that have lower costs, lower size, lower weight, and/or lower power consumption, without significant loss of performance.


A method and system for modifying a dynamic table within an array includes inserting or deleting one or more records from the table while maintaining the integrity of subsequent tables within the array. The method first determines which subsequent tables at least partially overlap the boundary of the modified table, wherein the overlapping portions are shifted by the changes to the modified table. Next, the invention shifts the non-overlapping (unaltered) portions of the subsequent tables so that the two separate portions of the subsequent table are properly aligned and the integrity of the data within the subsequent table is maintained. In the case where data records are deleted from the modified table, the method first determines if a shift of the non-overlapping portions of the subsequent data would compromise any existing cell data within the array and then adjusts both the overlapping and the non-overlapping portions in order to reintegrate the entire subsequent table.

Computer spreadsheet applications allows users to store, organize and relate large amounts of numerical data. Specifically, a spreadsheet typically comprises a plurality of cells, arranged in rows and columns wherein each cell is identified by its X-Y position in the spreadsheet. Groups of cells may be logically grouped within a spreadsheet to define a table, and a single spreadsheet may contain multiple tables. In addition to conventional two-dimensional spreadsheets, a "table" may also exist as a subset of data within an N-dimensional array. Additionally, a table may exist in a static form or a table may be dynamic such as when the table is related to a separate database that is periodically updated with new data or such as when a user manually adds or deletes data from the table.
One example of a database that allows dynamic tables to grow and contract is a banking database where information regarding a user's various bank accounts may be downloaded to a plurality of different tables within a spreadsheet. FIG. 1 illustrates such an exemplary spreadsheet 110 having a plurality of tables such as the tables 120, 130 and 140. Upon connection to an online database (such as a bank), the spreadsheet 110 may be automatically updated by importing new data into the table 120 that represents a user's checking account.
While previous spreadsheet applications could handle the importation of data into a table, these prior applications could not adequately address the situation where a table (such as the table 120 in FIG. 1) might grow so large that it runs into a lower table (such as the table 130 in FIG. 1). Some spreadsheet applications might refuse to accept any further data once the modified table bumps into a lower table, while other applications might allow a table to expand into and overwrite a lower table, thereby breaking the integrity of the lower table.
Even if a spreadsheet application were simply to insert new rows to account for the newly imported data, such row insertions might still destroy the integrity of lower tables (such as the tables 130 and 140 in FIG. 1) to the extent that portions of the lower tables might be pushed downward within the spreadsheet below the remainder of the table. Thus, using the example of FIG. 1, table 120 occupies a plurality of rows extending between columns C and F, while table 130 occupies a number of rows extending between columns B and H. Therefore, the insertion of rows between tables 120 and 130 within the column range C to F (to allow for the importation of new data within table 120) would tend to "break" table 130 by shifting the data in columns C to F below the other data in table 130. A similar result would be seen with table 140 where only two of the four columns of table 140 overlap the column range of table 120. Furthermore, similar problems would occur when data is deleted from table 120 (such as at the end of the month when the bank sends a written statement to its customers and deletes certain records from the online database).
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.

Method and system for managing dynamic tables


A process for preparing an orange oil comprising the steps of mixing a raw material oil containing valencene with a high-boiling solvent having a boiling point exceeding 240° C. under normal pressure, to give a mixture, and fractionally distilling the mixture obtained, optionally comprising the step of subjecting to an alkali treatment the raw material oil before fractional distillation or a distillate fraction obtained after fractional distillation; and an orange oil obtained by the process as defined above.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for preparing an orange oil, and an orange oil.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Valencene is contained at 0.2 to 0.6% by weight in an orange essence oil, which is obtained by squeezing fruit of oranges, a group of plants belonging to the genus Citrus in the family Rutaceae. Ninety percent by weight or more of the orange essence oil is accounted for by terpenes having low boiling points (200° C. or lower), mainly composed of limonene, which have only a low contribution to the aroma of the oil. Therefore, it is not so difficult to concentrate valencene up to about 100-folds by distilling off these terpenes. Generally, commercial products having valencene concentrations of 70 to 90% by weight, obtained by concentrating an orange essence oil by distillation, are available in the market (Perfumer & Flavorist, Vol. 21, May/June, p. 9, 1996). Additionally, valencene is also contained in the essential oil of a fruit peel, known as an orange cold press peel oil, or in an oil obtained by distilling pulp or the like after squeezing the fruit. Since the major components of these oils are likewise terpenes, mainly composed of limonene, valencene in the oil can be easily concentrated up to about 100-folds. However, since the valencene content in the oil is very low (0.02% by weight) as compared to that in the essence oil, the valencene concentration increases only up to 2 to 3% by weight even when the oil is concentrated 100-folds. In addition, since the oil concentrated so as to have a valencene concentration of 2 to 3% by weight contains a large amount of components having boiling points slightly lower than that of valencene, it will not be easy to further concentrate the oil. There have not yet been known to date any processes for preparing an oil containing valencene at a high concentration from these oils.
Moreover, the currently marketed orange oils containing valencene in an amount of 70 to 90% by weight are prepared by concentrating an orange essence oil obtained by squeezing fruit. Therefore, the orange oils have limitations in the amount of production and are expensive, thereby giving rise to causations for the limitations in the amount of use and applicability. Hence, there is an earnest desire for an orange oil that is inexpensive and high in valencene concentration.
In addition, since the currently marketed orange oils containing valencene in an amount of 70 to 90% by weight have an off-flavor like those of higher fatty acids and an undesirable taste, use of the orange oils has been also limited by this off-flavor or the like. Furthermore, an essential oil prepared by concentrating an orange essence oil has limitation in the amount of production and is expensive, thereby giving rise to causations for the limitations in the amount used and applicability. Therefore, there is an earnest desire for an inexpensive orange oil containing valencene free from an off-flavor.


A removable security bar apparatus for preventing ingress to a building opening such as a window or door. The apparatus includes a grille and moveable latch remote from the opening. The apparatus may be quickly removed from the opening and used as a ladder to exit the building through the opening in the event of an emergency.

Crime is fast becoming a major concern to families, businesses and organizations. Hardly a day passes without some news story relating to a burglary or forced entry into a home or business. Almost everyone knows someone who has had their home, business or organization burglarized resulting in theft, property damage, personal injury, or more serious harm.
Security doors and windows are a well known means of preventing criminals from entering a building through a building opening. Security doors and windows typically consist of heavy metal bars or grates that are placed over a window or door opening to prevent criminals from entering the building. These security systems are typically secured to the building opening in a permanent manner (i.e., they are not removable). U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,590 (Earley), U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,151 (Der Estephanian) and U.S. Pat. No. 1,657,908 (Wulftange) are examples of permanently-mounted security bars or grates.
While permanently-mounted security bars may prevent criminals from breaking into a building they also present serious safety concerns for people in the building. For example, security bars may prevent egress in the event of an emergency such as a fire. A person inside the structure who would normally escape the fire by exiting through a basement or ground floor window could find his or her means of egress blocked.
In response to this serious safety problem, others have sought to develop security bars which can be removed in the event of an emergency. U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,567 (Pierpont), U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,096 (Hade), U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,226 (Woodrow), U.S. Pat. No. 1,507,478 (Gray) and U.S. Pat. No. 999,682 (Suits) are all examples of removable security devices.
However, these removable security bar devices all have certain disadvantages. For example, Pierpont, Hade, Gray and Suits each secure their bars with a key-actuated lock located near the window opening. Operation of a lock would be impossible if the key were lost or misplaced. In addition, operation of a lock may be beyond the ability of a person who is panicking in an emergency situation such as a fire or criminal home invasion. Minimally, a person in a state of panic would require excessive time to actuate the lock; such time may not be available in an emergency. The close proximity of these locks to the window openings may also make these inventions vulnerable to a burglar skilled in dismantling locks.
Even if the security bar of these devices were removable, the location of the window could cause serious problems for a person seeking to exit the building in an emergency. For example, basement and ground floor windows (such as casement windows) are often secured by window bars because they are located near ground level and are potential entry points for burglars. However, these types of windows may be located five or six feet off the floor making it impossible for a person inside the building to climb up to the window in order to exit the building. A ladder would be required to gain access to such a window and a ladder is not typically available--particularly in an emergency situation.
A security system which would prevent ingress through a building window or other opening yet also serve as a ladder-like support to facilitate immediate exit from the building opening by a person inside the building would represent an important advance in the art.

Removable security apparatus for building openings


A method for detecting a welding of a relay contact in a circuit having a DC power supply; a load circuit; a first main relay and a second main relay respectively inserted in a pair of power supply lines disposed between the DC power supply and the load circuit; and a precharge relay which is provided in parallel to the contact of the first main relay has the step of carrying out a sequence control to each of the relays (11, 12, 13) while measuring voltage across both ends of the load circuit (16) when shifting from a normal operation state in which a first main relay (11) and a second main relay (12) are controlled to be on and the precharge relay (13) is controlled to be off to a suspension state in which each of the relays (11, 12, 13) are controlled to be off. The welding of the relay contact of the first main relay (11) and the second main relay (12) is determined independently and separately from a correspondence between the proceeding of the sequence and the measured voltage.

A hybrid electric automobile, an electric automobile, and the like have a constitution in which a motor is driven by an electric power from a DC power supply such as a secondary battery. In this case, the constitution in which a DC motor is directly driven by the electric power from the DC power supply is rarely employed. Instead, the electric power from the DC power supply is supplied to an inverter, and an AC (alternate current) power or a DC power to be supplied to the motor is generated by the inverter. By using the inverter, the control of a rotational frequency and an output torque of the motor can be carried out by a switching control at the inverter. In a case of a hybrid electric automobile, a battery pack of lithium-ion secondary battery cells, for example, is used for the DC power supply. A terminal voltage of the battery pack is 288 V, for example.
In a case of a usage for the hybrid electric automobile and the electric automobile, since a DC power supply with the voltage of 200 V or higher which is capable of making a large current flow is used, the relay contact is inserted, for the purpose of security or the like, in the power supply line on each of a positive side and a negative side of the DC power supply; and thereby the DC power supply is completely disconnected from a side of the load circuit such as the inverter when the DC power supply is not used. In addition, in a case of the usage for driving a motor, there occurs a considerable fluctuation of the load and an input voltage to the load circuit such as the inverter remarkably fluctuates in accordance therewith; and accordingly, in order to alleviate the fluctuation, a smoothing capacitor of a large capacity is provided between the positive side and the negative side of the power supply line on an input side of the load circuit.
FIG. 1 shows one example of the circuit which uses the battery pack constituted by serially connecting a plurality of cells of the secondary battery as the DC power supply and in which the relay contact is inserted for each of the positive power supply line and the negative power supply line from the DC power supply.
The circuit supplies the electric power from battery pack 10 to load circuit 16 such as the inverter circuit. A contact of first main relay 11 is inserted in the power supply line extended from the positive pole of battery pack 10 to one end of load circuit 16. Besides, an electric connection between battery pack 10 and load circuit 16 can be controlled by an ON (a conductive state)/OFF (an interruption state) control of first main relay 11. Similarly, a contact of second main relay 12 is inserted in the power supply line extended from the negative pole of battery pack 10 to the other end of load circuit 16. Capacitors 15 with a large capacity is provided in parallel to load circuit 16. Because of the provision of capacitor 15 here, it is possible that the contacts of main relays 11, 12 are fixed or welded due to a large rush current flowing into capacitor 15 when the contacts of main relays 11, 12 are turned from the interruption state to the conductive state. If the welding like this occurs, the relay contact does not transit to the interruption state again, and the function as the relay is lost. Of course, depending on the electrical characteristics of load circuit 16 itself, even in a case where there is no capacitor 15 specially provided, the large rush current large enough to weld the relay contact may sometimes flow in the circuit.
In this regard, a series circuit comprising resistor 14 and a contact of precharge relay 13 is provided in parallel to the contact of main relay 11 to prevent the welding of the relay contact. In other words, in a case where the electric power is supplied from the interruption state to load circuit 16, first, second main relay 12 on the negative side is set to be ON state; and next, the precharge relay 13 is set to be ON state. As a result, a charging current to capacitor 15 flows via resistor 14, and capacitor 15 is gradually charged. After that, first main relay 11 on the positive side is set to be ON state, then, following this, precharge relay 13 is set to be OFF state; and thereby the electric power is supplied from battery pack 10 to load circuit 16 via first main relay 11 and second main relay 12 without generating the large rush current.
However, if the precharge relay is provided, still it is possible that the welding of the contact of the main relay occurs. This is one of the reason why the main relays are provided for both of the positive and negative sides. In this regard, it is necessary to detect the occurrence of the welding at the contact of the main relay.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-270561 (JP, P2000-270561A) discloses that in a case where an inverter circuit is used as the load circuit, the welding of the main relay is determined by determining whether or not the output current of the inverter converges to zero after a lapse of a prescribed period of time when both of the main relays on the positive side and the negative side are controlled to be off. If the output current of the inverter does not converge to zero after the lapse of the prescribed period of time, this means that the electric power is supplied from the DC power supply side even when the main relay is controlled to be off. Accordingly, it is determined that the welding of the contact of the main relay occurs. However, with this method, it cannot be determined that the welding occurs unless the welding occurs at the contacts of both main relays and also it cannot be detected that the welding occurs at only one of either of the main relays.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. H06-233401 (JP, 6-233401, A) discloses that the relay having a mechanism for detecting the state of the movable part thereof is used as the main relay; and an abnormality such as welding and the like is detected when the movable part of the relay is at a position corresponding to the conductive state even when the relay is not controlled to be in the conductive state. However, in this method, it is necessary to provide the main relay with a special mechanism for detecting the state of the movable part thereof; and therefore this method lacks in versatility and also it is necessary to sufficiently pay attention to a reliability of the special mechanism itself.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-78851 (JP, P2000-78851A) discloses that in a case where the relay for compulsorily discharging the capacitor, namely a discharge relay, is provided in the circuit similar to the circuit as shown in FIG. 1, the resistor is serially inserted for the contact of the discharge relay in order to prevent from the contact of the discharge relay from being welded. However, the method in which the resistor is serially inserted in relation to the relay contact cannot be applied in reality for the main relay as mentioned above in which the contact is directly inserted between the DC power supply and the load circuit.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-173428 (JP, P2000-173428A) describes a constitution such that a first welding detection circuit using a photo-coupler including a light emitting device connected between the DC power supply side of the contact of one main relay and the load circuit side of the other main relay; and a second welding detection circuit using a photo-coupler including a light emitting device connected between the DC power supply side of the contact of the other main relay and the load circuit side of one main relay, in the same way; are provided; and wherein the welding at the contact of the main relay can be independently detected by using these welding detection circuits. However, in this constitution, it is necessary to provide as many as two systems of the welding detection circuits which are directly connected to the DC power supply of 200 V or higher; and this results in requiring a high cost for the whole apparatus.
Under the present circumstances, in the system in which the contact of the main relay is inserted in each of the power supply line on the positive side from the DC power supply and the power supply line on the negative side from the DC power supply, when the welding of at least one of the main relay contacts occurs, there is no method for independently detecting whether the welding occurs on the positive side or the negative side without using an additional detection circuit and the special relay.

Method and apparatus for detecting welding of a relay contact


A jig for a fusion bonding process includes a sealable chamber having a first station for a first wafer and a second station for a second wafer. The wafers are initially separated from each other while a vacuum is created in the chamber. In one embodiment of the invention, movably mounted spacers separate the wafers while the vacuum is formed. The spacers are then moved to allow the wafers to come into contact and form an initial bond. In another embodiment, wafers in the first and second stations are tilted away from each other so that gravity keeps the wafers separated while the vacuum is formed. After the vacuum is formed, the chamber is rotated so that gravity pushes the two wafers together. In either embodiment, a mechanical pushing system or vibrational energy can apply force to induce or improve the initial bond. The initial bond seals cavities formed between the wafers. The jig can be transparent to infrared radiation or visible light to allow inspection of the initial bond and the sealing of the cavities. If the cavities are sealed, the wafers are removed from the chamber for annealing which strengthens the bond between the wafers. The cavities between the wafers inherit from the chamber a vacuum that helps to keep the wafers together during annealing.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices and methods for bonding of semiconductor wafers.
2. Description of Related Art
Fusion bonding can bond two semiconductor wafers together to form sealed cavities between the wafers. U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 4,883,215 to Goesele et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, describes a known fusion bonding process such as illustrated in FIG. 1A. The bonding process bonds a first wafer 110 having a surface with a depression to a second wafer 120 to form a sealed cavity 115. In addition to the depression, wafer 110 may include semiconductor elements constructed in and on its surface before the fusion bonding. Wafer 120 is a uniform structure such as an unprocessed wafer so that alignment of wafers 110 and 120 is not critical. Alternatively, structures in and on wafer 120 are aligned with structures in and on wafer 110 in an aligned fusion bonding process such as described in U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 5,273,118 to Bower et al., which hereby is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
A conventional two-step fusion bonding of wafers 110 and 120 takes place in an ambient that is about 90% or more oxygen at atmospheric pressure. A first step of the process places cleaned smooth surfaces of wafers 110 and 120 in contact to form an initial bond in a bond area 112. The initial bond is due to water-hydrogen bonding and seals the oxygen rich gas in cavity 115. A second step is annealing at an elevated temperature, about 1000 .degree. C., to form a strong chemical bond between wafers 110 and 120. During annealing, oxidation of the interior surfaces of cavity 115 consumes the oxygen in cavity 115.
During the bonding process, the bonding surfaces of the two wafers must be kept in contact. Otherwise, bubbles can form between bonding surfaces in area 112, and cavity 115 may not seal. For wafers 110 and 120 to stay together until the bonding process is complete, forces on wafers 110 and 120 must satisfy Equation 1 throughout the bonding process. EQU FA+FB>FG Equation 1
In Equation 1, FA is the force of the exterior or ambient pressure pressing wafers 110 and 120 together; FB is the bonding force in area 112 which holds wafers 110 and 120 together; and FG is the outward force of the gas trapped in cavity 115. For Equation 1 to hold, the combination of the bonding force FB and the force of the ambient FA must be larger than the force FG of the trapped gas. Increasing the size of bonding area 112 increases force FB but also increases device area and costs. Force FG is proportional to the total number of gas molecules in cavity 115 and increases linearly with temperature. The number of gas molecules in cavity 115 depends on the ambient surrounding wafers 110 and 120 during the initial wafer bonding. During annealing, the elevated temperature increases force FG until oxidation of the interior surfaces of cavity 115 consumes oxygen molecules and reduces the pressure in cavity 115 and force FG. Ideally, a vacuum forms in cavity 115 when all the oxygen and any other gases in cavity 115 are consumed. Wafer 120 can then be thinned and shaped to form semiconductor devices such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,251, to Garabedian et al., which hereby is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Although known fusion bonding processes are suitable for manufacturing of such devices, processes and tools that simplify fusion bonding, reduce the required bonding area, and are inexpensive to implement are still desired.


A pseudo-random binary sequence checker having automatic synchronization is disclosed. The pseudo-random binary sequence checker includes a receiver, a synchronizer, and a comparator. The receiver is capable of receiving a pseudo-random binary sequence, which is generated by a pseudo-random binary sequence generator, in a parallel fashion n bits at a time. The synchronizer automatically synchronizes the state of the receiver with an n-bit sample within the pseudo-random binary sequence and calculate all subsequent n-bit sample within the pseudo-random binary sequence. The comparator compares the subsequent calculated n-bit sample within the pseudo-random binary sequence to the next subsequent next received n-bit sample within the pseudo-random binary sequence to indicate an error condition has occurred if each calculated n-bit sample within the pseudo-random binary sequence does not equal to the corresponding received n-bit sample within the pseudo-random binary sequence.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to equipment testing in general, and in particular, to an apparatus for testing data communication channels. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a pseudo-random binary sequence checker for testing data communication channels.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to test the proper functioning of a data communication channel, such as a high-speed serial optical interface or a hard disk device interface, a known binary data sequence is typically injected into the input of the data communication channel, and then errors are checked at the output of the data communication channel. Ideally, the binary data sequence should be completely random in nature; that is, the probability of an occurrence of a logical "1" symbol is 50% regardless of the previously transmitted symbols. Such complete randomness, however, is impractical because a binary sequence checker located at the output of the data communication channel will, by definition, have no knowledge of the transmitted data sequence, and it would be impossible to verify the correctness of the received data sequence with reference to the transmitted data sequence.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, hardware structures known as pseudo-random binary sequence generators are used to generate testing sequences. The testing sequences generated by pseudo-random binary sequence generators are "pseudo-random" in the sense that the frequency of occurrence of "1" and "0" symbols is close to 50%. Hence, such testing sequences appear random from that standpoint even though they are actually deterministic. In other words, once a certain number of consecutive symbols in a testing sequence are known, it is possible to calculate all subsequent symbols in the testing sequence, given that the algorithm used to generate the testing sequence is also known. Such deterministic characteristic allows a pseudo-random binary sequence checker located at the receiving end of a data communications channel to verify the correctness of the transmitted sequence.
The present disclosure describes an improved pseudo-random binary sequence checker for testing data communication channels.

Pseudo-random binary sequence checker with automatic synchronization

International Business Machines Corporation