A turf slicer includes a gang of six slicer wheels that “walk” through the turf in response to the forward motion of the turf slicer. In the meantime, the power takeoff from the tractor vertically oscillates the slicer wheels out of phase with one another, so that every sixth wheel is being thrust downwardly to bear most of the weight of the turf slicer as the other five wheels in the gang of six are either being withdrawn upwardly or moved downwardly and do not bear much weight, so that the weight of the turf slicer is concentrated on the downwardly moving slicer wheel that is approaching bottom dead center of its movement, thereby amplifying the effective weight of the turf slicer against the turf below.

The exposure of the root structure of turf to air, moisture and nutrients tends to stimulate root growth. Aeration of turf by forming openings through the upper surface down to the roots tends to disturb the soil and roots beneath the surface of the ground cover. When moisture and fertilizer are applied through the openings, the root structure of the turf is able to directly absorb these nutrients, etc.
Some of the prior art aerators have a plurality of radially extending spikes or tines that are mounted on the perimeter surface of a cylindrical drum or other structure so that when the structure is rolled on the surface of the turf, the tines penetrate the surface of the turf. While this is one of the preferred methods of aerating turf, etc., there are times when the users of the turf wish to avoid unnecessary disruption of the surface of the turf that is caused by the tines during penetration, tilting and withdrawal of the tines from the turf. The relatively large openings remaining in the turf and some of the soil lifted out of the turf may be somewhat unsightly and may leave an undesirable residue on the surface of the turf.
In order to avoid these problems, aerators have been developed that comprise thin, flat blades that are oriented perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the supporting drum or other supporting structure, so that the blades tend to slice directly into the turf and then withdraw from the turf so as to minimize the surface disruption of the turf. While openings are left behind after the aerator blades have been withdrawn from the turf, the openings are more in the form of narrow slits that may be substantially invisible to the casual eye and little residue remains on the surface of the turf.
It is desirable that a multiple number of the slicer wheels be mounted on a common axle for the aerator so that a dense pattern of the slices formed in the turf can be accomplished. However, the amount of power and the weight required to operate a densely packed array of slicer blades might not be sufficient for full penetration of the slicer blades, since the more slicer blades that engage the turf at one time, the heavier the force must be to cause full penetration of the slicer blades.
Thus, it can be understood that it would be desirable to have a turf aerator that utilizes slicer wheels with a large number of slicer blades being employed and with the ability to more easily have the slicer blades fully penetrate the turf. It is to this improvement that this invention is directed.


In a conductive path, a terminal portion is integrally formed at an end of the metallic conductor to be connected to the mating terminal. A metallic pipe accommodates the metallic conductor. A tubular-shaped insulating tube is provided between the metallic conductor and the metallic pipe. A bracket conductively connects the metallic pipe to the shielding shell of the apparatus side. The number of parts of the conductive path of the invention is less than that of the conductive path which has a terminal portion separately formed from the metallic conductor and connecting to a terminal portion of the apparatus side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conductive path having a shielding function.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conductive path having a shielding function thus far developed is provided with a shielded wire including a conductor enclosed in an insulative core, a shielding layer made of a braided wire disposed around an outer circumferential surface of the core, and an insulative sheath enclosing the shielding layer; a terminal fitting connected to the conductor in the shielded wire; and a shielding shell to which the shielding layer of the shielded wire is connected, and the terminal fitting and the shielding shell are attached to a housing (Ref. patent Document 1). When the housing of such a conductive path is fitted with a housing of a mating apparatus, the terminal fitting is connected to a terminal of the mating apparatus, and also the shielding shell is connected to that of the mating apparatus.
When the conductive path constituted of such a shielded wire is used where interference by a foreign object may take place (for example when connected to an electric vehicle), the shielded wire is enclosed in a bellows-type corrugated tube, and the corrugated tube enclosing the shielded wire is further enclosed in a highly rigid protector, for the purpose of protection. (Please see JP-A-8-250219)
A conductive path including a conventional shielded wire constituted as above has a drawback in that the number of parts is too many, since a terminal fitting, which is an additional component separately used from the shielded wire for the connection of the mating component as a connecting means, is connected to the shielded wire.
Besides, a protector enclosing the shielded wire (a conductor and a shielding means of the conductor) for protection thereof is also an additional component separately used from the shielded wire, which is another factor that increases the number of parts.


A rotor for a rotary tablet press, which has an upper and a lower punch guiding for upper and lower punches, which co-operate with bores of a die plate which is arranged between the upper and the lower punch guiding, wherein the punches have shafts, which are sealedly axially movable in guiding bores of the punch guidings by means of a sealing arrangement, and wherein means act between the shafts and the guiding bores which prevent a rotation of the pressing punches in the punch guidings, characterised in that the shafts have an out of round profile in the cross section, and the cross section of the guiding bores is complementary.

The typical rotor for a rotary press is composed of a die plate and an upper and a lower punch guiding for upper and lower punches, which co-operate with bores in the die plate. The rotor is driven around a vertical axis by a suitable driving motor, and the powder-shaped material filled into the die bores by a filling device is pressed together by the punches. The pressing together takes place in the so-called pressing stations, in which are arranged at least one upper and one lower pressing roller at a time, which act on the punch heads. In the remaining rotation phases, the punches are guided by suitable punch cams, amongst others for ejecting the pressed articles by cams controlling the lower punches. Such rotors have become known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,413, DE 101 59 114 A1 or DE 10 2004 040 163 B3, the entire contents of each of these references are incorporated herein by reference.
Usually, the upper and lower punches consist of a shaft, a head co-operating with the pressing rollers and a tool portion, which sinks into the die bores. The mostly cylindrical shaft is guided in corresponding bores of the punch guidings. For the purpose that the punches do not rotate in the bores, it is also known to provide a parallel key which co-operates with a parallel key groove in order to prevent a rotation of the punches.
In order not to affect the guiding property, it is also known to provide sealings which prevent that pressing material arrives between the guiding bores and the punch shaft and lubricant leaks out. The sealing is not possible in the region of a parallel key groove. Thus, the punch shaft must not be moved through a sealing in the region of the parallel key groove.
The present invention is based on the objective to provide a rotor for a rotary tablet press in which a simple, sealed guiding of the pressing punches is made possible.


A method for texture compressing images having a plurality of color components (R, G, B), includes decomposing the images in sub-blocks each including only one color component. At least one first predictor is defined for each sub-block and a respective set of prediction differences is computed for each sub-block. Then the prediction differences for each sub-block are sorted, and a look-up prediction differences palette is set up by defining a look-up prediction error palette. A predetermined code is associated with each column of the error palette.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to texture compression techniques.
2. Background of the Invention
Compression and decompression intended to minimize the memory size needed to store 2D textures is a promising field of application for these techniques in the 3D graphic domain. This possible field of use is becoming more and more significant as the dimensions and number of these textures tend to increase in real applications. The level of detail tends to increase as required by some applications, such as 3D games, and, without the help of such techniques, memory size and bandwidth for access would tend to require increasing performance levels hardly sustainable in mobile, ultra low power, handheld systems. More to the point, these techniques are becoming increasingly important in wireless phone architectures with 3D games processing capabilities.
For example, assuming a texture dimension of 512×512 pixels 16 bit/color each and a depth of 3, the amount of memory needed is 1.5 M bytes. Assuming 20-30 frames per second, the memory bandwidth is 30 to 45 Mbytes/s.
Additional background information on this topic can be gathered from "Real-Time Rendering" by Tomas Akenine-Möller and Eric Haines, A.K. Peters Ltd, 2nd edition, ISBN 1568811829.
A well-known solution in this scenario was developed by the company S3; the related algorithm is designated S3TC (where TC stands for Texture Compression).
This has become a widely used de-facto standard and is included in the Microsoft DirectX libraries with adhoc API support.
Compression is performed off-line at system initialization and next the textures are stored in the main memory. Decompression processes act to decompress textures accessing the memory run-time when needed by the graphic engine. This means that only decompression is implemented in hardware form while compression is not.
Important parameters for the decompression engine are: steps needed to decompress textures and possible parallel operation; low latency between data-access-from-memory and data-out-from the decompression engine.
In order to better understand operation of the S3TC algorithm one may refer to an image in RGB format, where each color component R (Red) or G (Green) or B (Blue) is a sub-image composed by N pixels in the horizontal dimension and M pixels in vertical dimension. If each color component is coded with P bits, the number of bits per image is N*M*3*P.
For example, assuming N=M=256 and P=8, then the resulting size is 1,572,864 bits. If each sub-image R or G or B is decomposed in non-overlapping blocks of Q pixels in the horizontal dimension and S pixel in the vertical dimension, the number of blocks per sub-image is (N*M)/(Q*S) while per image is [3(NM/(Q*S)] and the number of bits per block is [3*(Q*S)]*P. If, for example Q=S=4 and P=8, then the resulting size of each block is 384 bits. If the number of bits per channel is R=5, G=6, B=5 then the resulting size of each block per image is (4*4)*(5+6+5)=256 bits. The S3TC algorithm is able to compress such an amount of data by 6 times when R=8, G=8, B=8 and 4 times when R=5, G=6, B=5. 64 bits compose the resulting compressed block always sent to decompression stage. This number is the results of the coding steps described below assuming Q=S=4.
To sum up, operation of the S3TC algorithm may be regarded as comprised of the following steps:
i) Decompose the R G B image in non-overlapped (Q=4)*(S=4) blocks of R G B colors
ii) Consider the following block composed by 16 pixels each one composed by R, G and B color components:
Pij=Rij U Gij U Bij (this denotes the pixel at the ij position the R G B image, and U is the union operator)
(R11 G11 B11)(R12 G12 B12)(R13 G13 B13)(R14 G14 B14)(R21 G21 B21)(R22 G22 B22)(R23 G23 B23)(R24 G24 B24)(R31 G31 B31)(R32 G32 B32)(R33 G33 B33)(R34 G34 B34)(R41 G41 B41)(R42 G42 B42)(R43 G43 B43)(R44 G44 B44)
iii) Decompose the block above in three sub-blocks called sub-block R, sub-block G and sub-block B as shown herein below, each block including only one color component:
R11R12R13R14sub-block RR21R22R23R24R31R32R33R34R41R42R43R44
G11G12G13G14sub-block GG21G22G23G24G31G32G33G34G41G42G43G44
B11B12B13B14sub-block BB21B22B23B24B31B32B33B34B41B42B43B44as shown in FIG. 1. Specifically, FIG. 1 shows RGB blocks ordered in different planes, with a RGB block shown on the left and a corresponding de-composition shown on the right.
iv) Sort in ascending order each sub-block color
v) Detect the black color, which is a pixel made of R=0 and G=0 and B=0
vi) If the black color is not detected, then set a color palette made by                a. 1st color is the minimum value of sub-block R (min_R), minimum value of sub-block G (min_G), minimum value of sub-block B (min_B).        b. 2nd color is the maximum value of sub-block R (max_R), maximum value of sub-block G (max_G), maximum value of sub-block B (max_B)        c. 3rd (Int1) is composed by (2*min R+max R)/3 (Int1R), (2*min G+max G)/3 (Int1G), (2*min B+max B)/3 (Int1B)        d. 4th (Int2) is composed by (min R+2*max R)/3 (Int2R), (min G+2*max G)/3 (Int2G), (min B+2*max B)/3 (Int2B)
vii) Otherwise, if black color is detected then set a color palette made by                a. 1st color is minimum value of sub-block R (min_R), sub-block G (min_G), sub-block B (min_B) where each of them must not be equal to zero (the black color component) at the same time        b. 2nd color is maximum value of sub-block R (max_R), sub-block G (max_G), sub-block B (max_B)        c. 3rd (Int1) is composed by (min R+max R)/2 (Int1R), (min G+max G)/2 (Int1G), (min B+max B)/2 (Int1B)        d. 4th is the black color that has R,G,B components equal to zero
viii) If black color is not detected define the look-up color palette as
                              Look                                -                              up                                                              table                =                                  [                      Min_R            ,                                              Int1R        ,                            Int2R        ,                            Max_R        ]                                                          [                      Min_G            ,                                              Int1G        ,                            Int2G        ,                            Max_G        ]                                                          [                      Min_B            ,                                              Int1B        ,                            Int2B        ,                            Max_B        ]
If black color is detected define the color palette as
                              Look                                -                              up                                                              table                =                                  [                      MinR            ,                                              Int1R        ,                    MaxR                      0        ]                                                          [                      MinG            ,                                              Int1G        ,                    MaxG                      0        ]                                                          [                      MinB            ,                                              Int1B        ,                    MaxB                      0        ]
ix) Associate the following 2 bits code (in boldface, under the palette) to each column of the above palette
                                          Look                                      -                                    up                                                                          table                    =                                          [                          MinR              ,                                                                                Int1R            ,                                                                                Int2R            ,                                                                    MaxR          ]                                                                              [                          MinG              ,                                                                                Int1G            ,                                                                                Int2G            ,                                                                    MaxG          ]                                                                              [                          MinB              ,                                                                                Int1B            ,                                                                                Int2B            ,                                                                    MaxB          ]                                                                  00                                                          01                                                          10                                                          11                                                              Look                                      -                                    up                                                                          table                    =                                          [                          MinR              ,                                                                                Int1R            ,                                                                                MaxR            ,                                                                    0          ]                                                                              [                          MinG              ,                                                                                Int1G            ,                                                                                MaxG            ,                                                                    0          ]                                                                              [                          MinB              ,                                                                                Int1B            ,                                                                                MaxB            ,                                                                    0          ]                                                                  00                                                          01                                                          10                                                          11
x) For each Pij=Rij U Gij U Bij (where i ranges from 1 to Q=4 and j ranges from 1 to S=4) compute the Euclidean distance Dist between it and each look-up color as defined above in vi.a,b,c,d or vii.a,b,c,d depending if black color has been detected or not. Essentially this is the Euclidean distance between two points in a three-dimensional coordinate space. Also, the difference is within a homologous color component (between R or G or B).Dist1=√(|Rij−MinR|2+|Gij−MinG|2+|Bij−MinB|2)Dist2=√(|Rij−Int1R|2+|Gij−Int1G|2+|Bij−Int1B|2)Dist3=√(|Rij−Int2R|2+|Gij−Int2G|2+|Bij−Int2B|2)Dist4=√(|Rij−MaxR|2+|Gij−MaxG|2+|Bij−MaxB|2)
xi) For each Pij=Rij U Gij U Bij find the minimum distance among Dist1, Dist2, Dist3 and Dist4. For example let it be Dist1.
xii) Send to a decoder process the code associated to the color enclosed in the look-up table that has the minimum distance. If it is Dist1 then the code is 00.
xiii) The decoder receives for each Q*S block as shown in FIG. 2                a. a two-bit code for each Pij that are addresses to the look-up table        b. MinR MinG MinB        c. MaxR MaxG MaxB
xiv) If Min is received before Max by the decoder then black has been detected by the encoder otherwise not
xv) As shown in FIG. 2, the decoder operates as described in steps vi or vii depending on black color detection, computing                a. Int1R Int1G Int1Band Int2R Int2G Int2B if black color is not detected by encoder        otherwise        b. Int1R Int1G Int1B if black color is detected by encoder
xvi) As shown in FIG. 2, the decoder addresses a look-up table with 2 bits code associated to each Pij and replaces it with the color stored in the look-up table color palette. Specifically ST, LUT, and CT indicate the source text, the look-up table, and the compressed text, respectively.
FIG. 3 shows how the data sent to the decoder are arranged in a bitstream and if the black color is not detected, while FIG. 4 shows the opposite case.
As stated before, the compression ratio is 6:1 or 4:1. This is because if colors are in R=8 G=8 B=8 format then 384 bits are coded with 64 (384/64=6) and if colors are in R=5 G=6 B=5 format then 256 bits are coded with 64 (256/64=4).
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the sum of all the bits amounts to 64.

Methods and apparatus for texture compression and computer program product therefor


A cotter pin includes first and second tines having flat confronting surfaces and curved side surfaces with flat outer surfaces substantially parallel to the flat confronting surfaces thereof.

Cotter pins are used frequently to secure the position or location of a movable body relative to another body when strength is not of primary importance. A well-known form of a cotter pin includes an elongated body folded back on itself to provide a loop or head with tines extending therefrom parallel to one another. Frequently, one of the tines is longer than the other. When new, the tines of a cotter pin lie closely adjacent each other. In cross-section, the tines are solid semi-cylinders and the appearance in end view of the tines overlying each other is that of a split cylinder.
In a known application for a cotter pin, the pin is inserted through a hole in a shaft or other body, with the looped head of the cotter pin disposed against the body at the entrance to the hole. At the opposite side of the body, the tines projecting through the hole are bent in opposite directions to prevent the cotter pin from being extracted from the hole unless the tines are straightened. The bends in the tines are formed closely adjacent the body so that the cotter pin has limited axial movement, being restrained by the head against one side of the body and by the bends of the tines on the opposite side of the body.
Cotter pins have been used to retain sleeves, washers and other bodies on shafts and have been used as locking keys to further secure the location of a nut on a threaded shaft or bolt against unintended movement or "walking" along the threads. Other examples of the use of cotter pins include use to restrain clevis pins, hitch pins and the like from unintended extraction, and securing loosely fitting control arms on shafts and bodies of various types. Accordingly, cotter pins are provided in many different sizes, both in overall length and in the diameter of the overlying tines, from very short and thin to relatively long and thick.
Known cotter pins are simple devices that are manufactured quite easily. Accordingly, a significant portion of the manufacturing cost involved in providing cotter pins is in the cost of the material from which the cotter pin is made. Cotter pins are often made of steel and other expensive metals. It is desirable to reduce the cost of cotter pins, which often are used only one time and discarded if removed, being replaced by a new cotter in the reassembled device.
Even as simple as cotter pins are, difficulties can be encountered in the installation of known cotter pins, particularly with larger cotter pins. As described previously, a cotter pin is inserted through a hole. In a preferred arrangement, the hole is only minimally wider than the tines of the cotter pin. If the shaft or other body on which the cotter pin is used is of relatively large diameter, the hole therethrough is quite long. It is desirable that the cotter pin fit relatively snuggly within the hole so that it does not move and wear unnecessarily during use. According, a substantial portion of the surface area of the tines in the hole frictionally engages the surface of the hole as the cotter pin is inserted. Since known cotter pins have been in the configuration of split cylinders, sliding a large cotter pin through a long receiving hole can require significant force, especially if the opposed tines are separated slightly providing outward force against the inner surface of the hole. Further, the tines of large cotter pins are relatively thick and can be difficult to bend, particularly if the cotter pin is in an area of limited accessibility.
What is needed is a cotter pin design that can be used for cotter pins of various sizes to manufacture cotter pins less expensively than known designs and to facilitate the use of cotter pins.


A technique for performing sensing operations in the body subcutaneously employs, in combination, the housing of an electrical stimulator such as a pacemaker or an implantable cardioverter defibrillator and an integral flap member of flexible insulative sheet material which has at least one arm projecting away therefrom to an extreme tip end. Each arm is rolled about itself from the tip end on a lateral axis transverse of the longitudinal axis of the arm into a compact unit adjacent the housing. An incision is made through the skin and a region beneath the skin enlarged to form a cavity. The compact unit is then inserted into the cavity and unrolled about the lateral axis of each arm so as to be laid flat under the skin. When positioned into a desired orientation, each flap member is sutured to the skin to maintain the desired orientation.

The requirement for pacemakers and ICDs to use intravenous catheters and transvenous leads is an impediment to very long term management as most individuals will begin to develop complications related to lead system malfunction sometime in the 5–10 year time frame, often earlier. In addition, chronic transvenous lead systems, their reimplantation and removals, can damage major cardiovascular venous systems and the tricuspid valve, as well as result in life threatening perforations of the great vessels and heart. Consequently, uses of transvenous lead systems, despite their many advantages, are not without their chronic patient management limitations in those with life expectancies of more than five years. The problem of lead complications is even greater in children where body growth can substantially alter transvenous lead function and lead to additional cardiovascular problems and revisions. Moreover, transvenous systems also increase cost and require specialized interventional rooms and equipment as well as special skill for insertion. These systems are typically implanted by cardiac electrophysiologists who have had a great deal of extra training.
Further, for mere sensing, the ability to implant a sensing device through a non-transverse/endocardial/epicardial, that is, subcutaneous, placement operation would be highly beneficial. By so doing, infections would be minimized and fluoroscopic imaging would not be required for the procedure.
Typical of the known prior art are a number of U.S. patent application Publications, specifically, Pub. Nos. US 2002/0035377, US 2002/0035379, US 2002/0035381, US 2002/0052636, and US 2002/0103510, all to Bardy et al. All of these disclosures relate to an apparatus and method for performing electrical cardioversion/defibrillation and optional pacing of the heart via a totally subcutaneous non-transvenous system.
Somewhat similarly, Pub. No. US 2003/0036778 to Ostroff et al. discloses a subcutaneous cardiac device which includes a subcutaneous electrode and a housing coupled to the subcutaneous electrode by a lead with a lead wire. The subcutaneous electrode is adapted to be implanted in a frontal region of the patient so as to overlap a portion of the patient's heart.
It was in light of the foregoing that the present invention was conceived and has now been reduced to practice.

Implantable leadless cardiac device with flexible flaps for sensing


In a method of jointing a cutting edge of at least one cutting blade of a rotating tool, wherein between the tool and at least one straight jointing stone a radial advancing movement is carried out and wherein the jointing stone has an active jointing area that is longer than a length of the cutting edge, at least one relative stroke between the jointing stone and the cutting edge is performing during jointing in a longitudinal direction of the cutting edge. The relative stroke has a stroke length that is shorter than the length of the cutting edge.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for jointing the cutting edge of at least one cutting blade of a rotating tool wherein a radial advancing movement is carried out between the tool and at least one straight jointing stone whose effective joint area is longer than the cutting edge.
2. Description of the Related Art
When peripherally milling workpieces, a groove pattern comprised of grooves having a certain spacing between neighboring grooves is generated on the workpiece surface. The groove pattern depends on the machining parameters such as rotational speed of the tool, number of cutting edges of the tool, and the advancing speed of the tool. The spacing of neighboring grooves is an essential quality criterion for the surface of the workpiece. A high-quality workpiece surface is characterized by a uniform groove pattern whose groove spacing is between approximately 1 mm and 2 mm.
When employing conventional tools and conventional tool clamping systems, only one cutting edge will be imprinted on the workpiece surface as a result of the tolerances with respect to the cutting circle of the different cutting edges of the tool and the concentricity of the clamped tool. The cutting circle is the circle described by the rotating cutting edges, respectively. In this way, the achievable advancing speed of the tool for a high-quality milling action depends only on the rotational speed of the tool and, like the rotational speed of the tool, is thus limited by the configuration or construction of the tool. In practice, workpiece advancing speeds of approximately 20 m/min. result.
In order to be able to achieve higher advancing speeds (for example, >20 m/min) which are proportional to the number of cutting edges of the tool, all of the cutting edges of the cutting blades of the tool must imprint uniformly on the surface of the workpiece to be machined. In order to achieve this, the cutting edges of the cutting blades are jointed within the machine, i.e., the cutting edges, when the tool is rotating, are adjusted to be positioned on a uniform cutting circle of the rotating edges by advancing a jointing stone and subjected to whetting or grinding. A prerequisite for this is that the tools themselves are already very precisely ground to run true and that the tool clamping system has only minimal tolerances with respect to concentricity. In practice, the tools are centrally clamped by means of hydraulic clamping systems for this purpose. Also, the tools are clamped with cone clamping systems (positive taper lock system).
When carrying out jointing, the cutting edge of the cutting blade is radially ground, i.e., at a clearance angle of 0°. However, this is possible only to a certain degree because otherwise the cutting edge would perform a pushing action and thus reduce the machining quality. In practice, so-called jointing bezel widths of a maximum of 0.7 mm are permissible. In order to be able to carry out as many jointing processes before reaching this maximum jointing bezel width, the aforementioned conditions must be provided. Otherwise, a great portion of the possible jointing bezel width will already be used during the first jointing process with which initially the cutting edges of all cutting blades of the tool are aligned on a uniform cutting circle.
After grinding and insertion of the tools with the clamped cutting blades for the first jointing process, the jointing stone is radially advanced step-by-step until all cutting blades are brought into contact with the jointing stone, i.e., all cutting blades are jointed. Subsequently, approximately 1.5 mm to 2/100 mm advancing strokes are radially performed for each jointing process. When the maximum jointing bezel width has been reached, the tools with the clamped cutting blades are removed from the machine and the cutting blades are then finish-ground in a grinding machine.
A principal distinction is made between straight jointing and profile jointing. In the case of straight jointing (FIG. 6) of straight non-profiled cutting blades 3, a jointing stone 31 in the form of a pin is radially advanced and subsequently moved axis-parallel in order to joint the cutting edges 9 of the cutting blades 3 across their entire length. A disadvantage is that relatively small jointing stones 31 will wear relatively quickly and, in an extreme situation, the jointing result will be a conically tapering cutting blade 3.
When profile jointing, the jointing stone is provided with the negative contour of the cutting edge of the cutting blade and is advanced only in a radial direction.
In the case of straight jointing, it is also known to employ a straight jointing stone whose length is somewhat greater than the jointing cutting edge of the cutting blade. This jointing stone is advanced only radially. A disadvantage of this straight jointing process is that, for example, a nick or notch within the jointing stone will be directly transmitted onto the cutting edge of the cutting blade and will cause marks on the cutting edge. This disadvantage must be accepted for profile jointing; however, in this application, the effect is not as strong because of the already profiled cutting edge configuration.
As a result of the different type of action, the straight and profile jointing devices are configured constructively differently and are either mounted alternatively correlated with the respective spindle of the machine or, depending on the tool, are employed alternatively.

Method or jointing the cutting edge of at least one cutting blade of a rotating tool


A phase-change memory device, comprising: a memory array of PCM cells, a variable current generator, and a sense amplifier. The current generator comprises a reference array of PCM cells programmed in SET resistance state. The phase-change memory device further comprises a decoder for addressing each cell of the reference array so that a respective plurality of SET current signals is generated through the plurality of reference cells; and a controller configured to receive at input said SET current signals, select a number of SET current signals having the lowest current values among the plurality of SET current signals, calculate a mean value of said lowest current values, and adjust the reference current to be lower than said mean value.

Non-volatile phase-change memories (PCMs) are known, which exploit, for storing information, the characteristics of materials that have the property of switching between solid-state phases that show different electrical characteristics. For instance, said materials may switch between an amorphous phase, which is disordered, to a crystalline or polycrystalline phase, which show higher level of ordering with respect to the amorphous state. The two phases of said materials are associated to resistivities of a considerably different value and consequently to a different value of a logic datum stored in them, therefore making them interesting in memory applications. For instance, Tellurium (Te), Selenium (Se), or Antimony (Sb), called chalcogenide materials, may advantageously be used for producing phase-change memory cells. Moreover, a GexSbyTez alloy (also known as GST) may also be used, with the advantage that the obtained phase-change material is able to guarantee code integrity (i.e. integrity of stored data) after soldering process and data retention in extended temperature range. In particular, extrapolation of data retention at 10 years for temperatures higher than 150° C. cell level has been shown in the known art.
Phase changes are obtained by locally increasing the temperature of the phase-change material through resistive electrodes (generally known as heaters) arranged in contact with respective regions of phase-change material. Selection devices (for example, MOSFETs) are connected to the heaters and enable passage of an electric programming current through a respective heater. Said electric current, by the Joule effect, generates the temperatures necessary to cause the phase change.
To program the cell to its low-resistance state, where the phase-change material is in crystalline state (named "SET" state), an electrical pulse is applied to heat the phase-change material above its crystallization temperature. Alternatively, the material can be first heated to a higher temperature than crystallization temperature and, then, slowly cooled down to normal operating temperature. To set the cell into its high-resistance state, where the phase-change material is in amorphous state (named "RESET" state), an electrical current pulse is applied to heat the phase-change material in order to melt it. By abruptly cutting off the electrical current pulse, the phase-change material quenches into its amorphous phase, thus generating the high-resistance state.
During reading, the state of the chalcogenide material is detected by applying a voltage sufficiently low as not to cause an over-heating of the material and then reading the value of the current that flows in the cell (so called "current-mode reading"). Given that the current is proportional to the conductivity of the chalcogenide material, it is possible to determine the material state and thus trace back the datum stored in the memory cell.
Reading is performed in a differential way (i.e., the so-called "double-ended" mode), as better detailed below, or else with a reference current supplied by a reference-current generator (the so-called "single-ended" mode). To carry out single-ended reading mode, an input of a sense amplifier receives the current of the memory cell that has to be read, whereas the other input of the sense amplifier receives the reference current supplied by the reference-current generator.
It has been noted that GST phase-change cells suffer of resistance drift. This effect causes a variation in resistance during the working life of the cell. Therefore, it is not feasible to select a reference current which is constant during the entire working life of the cell.
A possible solution to this problem relies on the use of a double-ended reading mode to carry out double-ended mode reading, any data ("0" or "1") is stored in a memory cell in its direct form ("0" or "1", respectively) and in an associated memory cell in its complemented form ("1" or "0", respectively). When reading, an input of a sense amplifier receives the current of the "direct" memory cell that has to be read, whereas the other input of the sense amplifier receives the current of the associated "complemented" memory cell.
However, the device area required considerably increases with respect to the single-ended reading mode, since two memory cells are needed to store a single datum, i.e. a single bit of information.
There is a need in the art to provide a phase-change memory device and a method for reading a phase-change memory device that overcome the issues mentioned above.

Single-ended phase-change memory device and reading method


2-way and 3-way catalyst compositions comprising tin(IV) oxide (SnO.sub.2) and chromium(VI) oxide (CrO.sub.3) are disclosed for use in catalytic converters for vehicle exhaust gas systems, such catalyst compositions being effective in the catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide and unburnt hydrocarbons, and in the catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides contained in the vehicle exhaust.

Increasingly severe environmental regulations governing the emission of noxious gases into the atmosphere, and in particular, vehicle exhaust emissions, have stimulated a demand for catalysts active in the removal of such noxious components from the gases prior to disposal or venting to the atmosphere. In particular demand are 2- way and 3-way catalysts effective in removing carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons and/or nitrogen oxides from vehicle exhaust emissions, and this has led to the development of catalytic converters for attachment to vehicle exhaust gas emission systems to control the emission of carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons and/or nitrogen oxides to the atmosphere. Preferably such catalysts are active in the removal of all three, i.e. the so-called 3-way catalysts, but 2-way catalysts, or even 1-way catalysts do have some utility, not necessarily in the field of exhaust gas emissions, but in others.


Disclosed herein are methods for efficient loading of extensions or “plug ins” into a host software program. In a preferred embodiment, extensions registered with the host software program are loaded when the host program is first initialized. During their loading, changes that the various extensions make to the host program are recorded in a cache file, including graphical changes to the user interface and non-graphical changes. Later, when the host program is again initialized, the cache file is read in lieu of loading the extensions, with the affect that it appears to the user that the extensions' functionality are fully present in the host application, although in reality the extensions are not yet loaded. Instead, the extensions are loaded when and if they are called, either by the user or automatically by the computer. This saves time upon host program initialization as the extensions, once cached, need not be loaded until they are called.

Application programs such as Adobe Acrobat™, Adobe Photoshop™, Microsoft Internet Explorer™, Microsoft Word™, etc., can be supplemented by third party software producers through the inclusion of application "extensions." Such application extensions "extend" the functionality of the host program by adding third party software functionality to the host program, or optionally may override certain functionality in the host program. Sometimes, such extensions are referred to in the art as "plug ins."
For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a screen shot of the graphical user interface 10 of Microsoft Word is shown. In this example, Microsoft Word, the hosting program, has been extended to include functionality from a third party software product called "Garret." Accordingly, certain functional aspects of the Garret program have been made available within Word as the hosting program, which can occur in any number of ways. For example, the Garret application extension can cause a "Garret" drop-down menu 18 to be displayed as a modification to Word's standard menu bar 12. Although not shown, this drop-down menu 18 would allow the user to access the loaded functionality from the Garret extension (or extensions). Alternatively, menu options specific to the loaded Garret extension may appear as selections within the standard menu options already present on the standard menu bar 12 without the need for a separate Garret drop-down menu 18, although this is not shown.
Additionally, the loaded extension may cause a "Garret" tool bar 16 to appear in the user interface 10, providing buttons or drop-down windows to again allow the user to access the loaded functionality provided by the extension(s). Such extension buttons may be separate from or integrated with the standard tool bar 14 otherwise provided by Word as the hosting program. Of course, these manners of modifying the user interface of the hosting program by the extensions are merely exemplary. Alternatively, some of the aspects of the loaded extensions may not be visible to the user and/or may not cause modification of the graphical user interface 10.
For extensions to operate in this fashion, the hosting program must include an Application Programming Interface (API) to allow the extensions to register with the host program. After being registered, the registered extensions are loaded when the host program is initialized, e.g., when the user runs the host program or when the host program is otherwise made to run automatically. In short, when the host program is initialized, the extensions too are loaded and initialized. But the additional computer resources required to load the registered extensions can make initializing the host program slow. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 1, when Word is initialized, the registered extensions may require queries to certain files or code fragments within the Garret program, and these files or code fragments may be scattered elsewhere on the computer's hard drive, i.e., wherever the Garret program is ultimately stored. Of course, the additional time taken to initialize the Word program is further lengthened if there are several registered extensions for a given program (such as "Garret"), and/or if extensions from many different third party software programs are used. At some point, this additional time becomes unsatisfactory to the user, who generally will not wish to wait more than a few seconds for the host program to initialize.
Further compounding this problem is the fact that all registered extensions are typically loaded regardless of whether they will be used. For example, suppose a Garret extension 22 (in this case, a button) provides certain additional functionality to the Word program, e.g., by providing an additional spell checking feature. It may be the case that the user never wishes to access this additional spell checking feature (perhaps because the user is comfortable using the spell checking feature already provided by Word), or that the user will use this feature only occasionally (e.g., one time out of every twenty times the user runs the Word program). In such cases, using processing resources (and time) to load the Garret extension for the spell checking feature is generally wasteful. Again, the overall problem is compounded when one realizes that a particular hosting program might potentially have hundreds of extensions that are registered to it, of which some will never (or only occasionally) be selected by the user or automatically by the host program.
One solution to this problem is to simply not allow the extensions to load, or to load them at a time when the functionality that the extension provides is selected or called. For example, in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) program, and as shown in FIG. 2, a registry directory 30 is provided by which extensions can register themselves with IE as the host program. Specifically, the extensions 32, 34 are preferably (from IE's point of view) accompanied by registry keys 36, 38 in the registry directory 30. The registry keys 36, 38 can constitute pointers to where the extensions, and certain specific information concerning the extensions, are stored. Thus, when IE initializes, it reviews the registry keys 36, 38, and gathers (for example) bit maps from the extensions relating to changes in the graphical user interface that the extensions would have IE make. For example, if extension 32 would have IE place a button (such as 22) on a tool bar, the bit map for that button would be fetched as specified by the key 36. Thus, when IE initializes, it in theory is able to merely consult the keys 36, 38, gather the appropriate minimal information from the extensions, and make necessary changes to the user interface so that it appears to the user that the extensions 32, 34 have been fully loaded. However, the extension is not in fact loaded at this time, but instead is fully loaded when and if the functionality pertaining to that extension is called (such as by selecting button 22). Accordingly, this scheme potentially allows the extensions to be loaded only when and if they are engaged, saving time during the initialization of the host program.
But there are drawbacks to this approach. First, as just mentioned, the host program (i.e., IE) would potentially need to load or read a number of pieces of data (e.g., the bit maps) from the extensions programs upon initialization as specified by the keys 36, 38. As these pieces of data would reside with the extension programs, they would be randomly scattered throughout the computer's hard drive, thus requiring at least some processing and time to retrieve them upon the host program's initialization. Second, by virtue of this approach, the host program shifts responsibility to the extension programmers to write their extensions 32, 34 (or at least their keys 36, 38) in a manner specified by the host program to allow for efficient processing of the type set forth above. This requires the extension programmers to have knowledge of the host program's desired formats for registration, which they may not have even if such optional formatting schemes are made public as part of the API. Moreover, extension program writers may lack incentive to code their extensions in this way, which results in yet a third drawback: despite IE's permitted acceptance of register keys 36, 38 to help facilitate loading of the extension, the fact remains that IE does not require the use of register keys, i.e., does not require the registering extension to partake of time-saving extension-loading key-based scheme discussed above. Thus, as illustrated by extension 40 in FIG. 2, an extension can fail to provide a key to IE's registry domain 30, and instead can merely provide the extension to the registry domain, thereby causing the extension to fully load when the host program is initialized. Should all extensions decide not to use the host program's registration format, all benefits of the scheme are lost. Fourth, once a registry key format has been set by the host program to allow for efficient extension loading, that format must thereafter continue to be supported by the host program, or extension programs relying on that format will not be recognized. Fifth, this scheme provides a solution for only the simplest user interface additions. It does not address non-user interface additions, deletions, or modifications, nor user interface modifications or additions. Thus many extensions may not use such a scheme.
Accordingly, the software art would be benefited by a better solution to the problem of efficient initialization of a host program to which extensions have been registered.

Faster loading of extension-based applications using caching


An information storage medium and an apparatus adopting the information storage medium. The information storage medium includes: a substrate; a lower magnetic layer formed on the substrate; and an upper magnetic layer, the upper magnetic layer includes an alumina layer having cavities formed on the lower magnetic layer and a magnetic material that is formed in the cavities of the alumina layer, which magnetic material contacts the lower magnetic layer.

This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-101578, filed on Dec. 31, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information storage medium in which a nano-sized contact is formed between magnetic materials and an information recording and/or reproducing apparatus adopting the information storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an information reproduction method using magneto-resistance (MR), a MR head approaches a magnetic disc to detect variations in resistance of the MR head with respect to variations in magnetic field of the magnetic disc.
Giant MR (GMR) is known to exhibit a resistance variation of about 10% due to a variation in magnetic field. As an example, GMR is applied to a hard disc drive (HDD). As shown in FIG. 1, an information head 10 used in a GMR HDD has a structure in which lower and upper magnetic layers 12 and 14 are stacked on a substrate 11 and a non-magnetic layer 13 is interposed between the lower and upper magnetic layers 12 and 14. As shown in FIG. 2A, when the magnetization directions of the lower and upper magnetic layers 12 and 14 are parallel, the stack presents a low resistance. As shown in FIG. 2B, when the magnetization directions of the lower and upper magnetic layers 12 and 14 are anti(non)-parallel, the stack presents a high resistance. It is known that a GMR HDD reproduction head using a method of reproducing information depending on whether the magnetization directions of the lower and upper magnetic layers 12 and 14 are parallel or anti-parallel provides a recording density of about 100 Gb/in2.
Tunneling Magneto-Resistance (TMR) is mainly applied to a magnetic random access memory (MRAM), and exhibits a maximum resistance variation of about 50% and a recording density of about 300 Gb/in2.
An information storage medium, which is compact and contains a larger amount of information, is necessary for processing various kinds and enormous amounts of information. However, a GMR or TMR information reproduction method fails to satisfy the present technical requirements for such an information storage medium. Moreover, in the GMR or TMR information reproduction method, a metallic multi-layer thin film is used and has a complicated stack structure. Thus, there is a demand for a simple and high density information reproduction method and storage medium.

Information storage medium and apparatus adopting the same


A process for covering edges and/or filling openings or gaps which are formed when photopolymerizable printing plates or printing forms for flexographic printing are mounted on a printing cylinder, by applying an edge covering or gap filling material of low molecular weight and oligomeric, ethylenically unsaturated compounds and hardening the materials by exposure with actinic light.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a process for covering edges and/or filling openings or gaps that are formed when photopolymerizable printing plates or photopolymer printing forms are installed on a printing cylinder for flexographic printing. In the process, edge covering material or gap filling material is applied and hardened by exposure to actinic radiation.
2. Description of Related Art
The preparation of flexographic printing forms from photopolymerizable printing plates is known. The printing surface is produced by imagewise exposure of a photopolymerizable layer by actinic radiation. Unexposed, unphotopolymerized areas of the printing plate are washed off. Examples of the preparation of flexographic printing forms are found in the following patents: DE-C 22 15 090, U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,005, U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,188, U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,466 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,417.
The printing form is prepared by exposing the photopolymerizable printing plate through a photographic original, washing off the unexposed areas with a solvent, and optionally, followed by a chemical post treatment and/or an overall postexposure. These processing steps can also be conducted optionally on a printing cylinder.
The photopolymer flexographic printing form, or if the printing form is produced on the cylinder, the photopolymerizable printing plate, is mounted on the printing cylinder or on an endless belt. In practice, the printing form is often assembled from individual pieces. Such assembly might be required, for example, by the subject being printed, for reasons of economy, or to achieve a larger plate format. In addition, for a range of end uses, it is necessary to cover the printing cylinder with the printing form in an endless manner to achieve a continuous printing surface. For this purpose, the printing plate or printing form is placed around the cylinder so that the ends abut and are adhered by double-sided adhesive tapes. If printing forms comprising individual pieces are used, the edges of the individual pieces are similarly adhered.
Gaps that interrupt the printing surface are formed between the abutting edges of the flexographic printing forms. Such gaps must be sealed in a suitable manner to prevent penetration by ink during printing, which would result in loosening the attachments of the printing forms and in undesirable impressions from the gaps. Sealing the gaps is also required for good synchronous operation of the printing cylinder, which an open gap does not deliver.
Gaps can also occur between the side edges of printing forms and the printing cylinder surface. These must be sealed against ink penetration.
Various gap fillers have already been proposed. DE-B 36 00 774 and DE-B 37 44 243 disclose photopolymerizable mixtures having special thermoplastic, elastomer, block copolymers as the main components. GB-B 2,160,882 discloses such mixtures having 100 parts of a diene-type prepolymer and 5-100 parts of an ethylenically unsaturated compound. These are applied in the gap and hardened by irradiation. Photopolymerizable mixtures having unsaturated polyesters (DE-A 39 20 093) and oxide-type fillers (DE-A 37 36 180) are also used as essential components to seal gaps occurring with gravure printing forms.
However, these gap fillers are often not stable enough to printing ink solvents and are not able to withstand the mechanical demands of the printing process. This causes cracks in the gap filler, which can now again fill with ink and thus result in undesirable print images. The applicability of known gap fillers is often poor and complicated.

Process for adhering the edges of photopolymerizable printing plates or photopolymer printing forms for flexographic printing


A remote tiller control system includes a drive unit mounted to the tiller. The drive unit is adapted to move the tiller back and forth when selectively powered. A handheld remote control transmitter unit is provided to remotely control the drive unit and thus the position of the tiller. The drive unit includes a motor-drive gear that engages a curved rack. The motor is fixed to the tiller while the rack is fixed to a control arm. The end of the control arm is tied off to the boat to create the leverage needed to counteract the steering force on the tiller. Rotation of the gear against the rack creates a moment which drives the tiller.

1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to remote controlled steering units for boats and, more particularly, a remote control steering unit that works with a tiller such as a tiller on a small sailboat. Specifically, the present invention relates to a remote control tiller driver that is mounted to the tiller itself and fixed to the hull with unobtrusive stays to provide the leverage for turning the boat.
2. Background Information
Various types of small boats use a tiller to steer the boat. Tillers are the elongated arms connected the rudder of a sailboat. The tiller extends into the cockpit to allow the captain to vary the position of the rudder while the boat is underway. A tiller on a motorboat may be the handle that extends forwardly into the cockpit from the motor mounted to the stern of the boat. The motor has a leg that extends into the water. The leg supports a propeller and may support a rudder. In both situations, the captain of the boat uses the tiller to control the direction of the boat by moving the tiller back and forth in an arc with respect to the hull of the boat. The tiller is pivotably mounted to the hull such that the rudder turns the opposite direction of the tiller.
There are numerous times on a boat when the captain needs to release the tiller and move about the boat. Such situations include the need to tighten sheets, drop anchors, go below, or fend off a pier or another boat. Although an experienced captain may temporarily tie off a tiller and perform these tasks, the nature of a moving boat on water—especially in sailboat—requires almost constant adjustment of the tiller position to maintain a steady course. The captain thus desires a device that allows the steering system to be controlled remotely so that the captain may adjust the course from any position on the boat. The device should be designed so that it may be retrofit to existing steering systems without the need for extensive modifications to the system or the hull of the boat. The system should also be portable so that the system does not encumber the captain as he moves about the boat. The system should also be easy to use so that the steering system may be controlled while the captain is performing other tasks. The system should also be relatively weather-proof so that is not damaged when exposed to bad weather.


Methods are provided for the simple, fast, effective and safe directed differentiation of embryonic stem cells into pancreatic beta-like cells secreting insulin in response to glucose levels. The cells are useful transplant therapeutics for diabetic individuals.

Directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into functional insulin-producing beta-like cells holds great promise for cell replacement therapy for patients suffering from diabetes. This approach also offers the unique opportunity to study otherwise inaccessible aspects of human beta cell development and function in vitro.
Diabetes mellitus type 1 and 2 (T1D, T2D) are diseases characterized by autoimmune destruction or progressive dysfunction and subsequent loss of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells, respectively. Current treatments for both types of patients with diabetes consist of regulating blood glucose levels through injections of exogenous insulin. While this approach provides reasonable management of the diseases, unwanted risks and long-term complications persist due to the inability of tightly maintaining glucose levels within a normal physiological range. Complications include life-threatening episodes of hypoglycemia, as well as long-term complications from hyperglycemia resulting in micro- and macro-angiopathy leading to cardiovascular pathologies and kidney failure, as well as neuropathy. Thus, there is a need for distinct treatments that provide superior control of glucose metabolism to minimize, or ideally eliminate long-term complications.
One existing approach to treating diabetes is transplantation of human cadaveric islet preparations into patients. This procedure typically results in better glycemic control, can render patients insulin independent for prolonged periods of time, and improves overall quality of life (Shapiro et al, 2000; Barton et al, 2012; Posselt et al, 2010). However, the severe shortage of cadaveric organ donors, requirement for lifelong immunosuppression, and variability between islet preparations hampers the use of islet transplantation as a readily available treatment for people with diabetes. Consequently, numerous research efforts have focused on identifying abundant alternative sources of surrogate glucose responsive insulin-producing cells (Hebrok, 2012; Efrat & Russ, 2012; Nostro & Keller, 2012; Tudurí & Kieffer, 2011; Bouwens et al, 2013; Zhou & Melton, 2008; Pagliuca & Melton, 2013). One of the most appealing approaches is the directed differentiation into insulin-producing cells from pluripotent human embryonic stem cells (hESC)(D'Amour et al, 2005; Nostro et al, 2011; Guo et al, 2013b; Van Hoof et al, 2011; Mfopou et al, 2010; Chen et al, 2009; Xu et al, 2011; Shim et al, 2014) and more recently, induced pluripotent stem cells (Maehr et al, 2009; Shang et al, 2014; Hua et al, 2013).
Comprehensive knowledge of signaling events and temporal transcription factor (TF) expression patterns during rodent pancreas organogenesis (Pan & Wright, 2011; Seymour & Sander, 2011; Hebrok, 2003; Murtaugh & Melton, 2003) have accelerated the identification of culture conditions that allow the generation of pancreatic cell types from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC). Early developmental stages, including definitive endoderm, gut tube-like cells and pancreatic progenitors can be efficiently induced in vitro. Subsequent transitions towards hormone-expressing cells in vitro are less efficient, however, and frequently lead to the formation of a mixed population of different pancreatic progenitors and polyhormonal endocrine cells (Guo et al, 2013a; Nostro et al, 2011; D'Amour et al, 2006). Such polyhormonal cells express insulin among other hormones, but lack expression of key beta cell transcription factors and do not secrete insulin in vitro in response to a glucose challenge—the hallmark function of bona fide beta cells (Guo et al, 2013a; Nostro et al, 2011; D'Amour et al, 2006). Nonetheless, transplantation of such heterogeneous cultures into surrogate mice results in the formation of glucose responsive beta-like cells after several months in vivo (Rezania et al, 2012; Kroon et al, 2008; Szot et al, 2014).
Sophisticated sorting experiments identified progenitor cells expressing Pancreatic and Duodenal Homeobox 1 TF (PDX1, also known as IPF1) and homeobox protein NKX6.1 as the source for these functional beta-like cells (Kelly et al, 2011). While polyhormonal cells have been identified in human fetal pancreas, suggesting that they may reflect aspects of the normal embryonic differentiation process (Riedel et al, 2011; De Krijger et al, 1992), increasing evidence indicates that hESC-derived polyhormonal cells preferentially give rise to single hormone positive alpha-like cells (Rezania et al, 2011). Thus, to fully replicate human beta cell development in vitro, it is imperative to better understand and accurately recapitulate the sequence of embryonic signals required for the proper specification of beta cell precursors, rather than alpha cell precursors.
During normal in vivo pancreatic organogenesis, functional beta cells are generated through a step-wise specification process starting with pancreatic progenitors, identified by the expression of PDX1 (Herrera et al, 2002). While PDX1+ cells can give rise to all pancreatic lineages (Herrera et al, 2002), the subsequent induction of NKX6.1 in these cells restricts their differentiation potential to only endocrine and ductal cells (Schaffer et al, 2010). Endocrine differentiation is then initiated in PDX1+/NKX6.1+ progenitors by short-lived expression of the basic helix loop helix TF Neurogenin 3 (NEUROG3, also known as NGN3) (Gu et al, 2002). Interestingly, the timing of NEUROG3 expression has been shown to be crucial in promoting the formation of diverse endocrine islet cell types (Johansson et al, 2007). For example, precocious induction of endocrine differentiation by forced expression of NEUROG3 in mice results predominantly in the generation of alpha cells (Johansson et al, 2007).
For all of the foregoing reasons, a need continues to exist in the art for materials and methods that provide for the directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells (e.g., human pluripotent stem cells) into functional insulin-producing beta-like cells for treatment of diabetes.

Controlled induction of human pancreatic progenitors produces functional beta-like cells

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA


The pedal comprises a pedal body having hooks, and a cartridge containing a pedal axle and which is received in a transverse recess of the pedal. This recess is provided with a tapping coacting with a screw, thread on the cartridge to permit the continuous adjustment of the transverse position of this latter, and holding elements of the cartridge in a transverse position. The holding elements comprise a ring for blocking in rotation the cartridge adapted to be connected to the cartridge by positive locking members provided on one end of the latter and positive locking members provided on the ring. Gripping elements are provided to grip the ring against the cartridge.

A pedal of this type comprises a pedal body having engagement members of a hooking element fixed below the cyclist's shoe, and a pedal axle adapted to be fixed to a pedal crank.
There are known automatic pedals of this type permitting the adjustment of the positioning of the bearing surface of the foot during pedaling. A first adjustment permits moving transversely along the pedal axle the bearing surface of the foot on the pedal relative to the pedal crank to bring the foot as close as possible to this latter without touching it or to space it from the latter. A second adjustment can be provided so as to permit modifying the angle of inclination of the pedal body relative to the pedal axle.
An automatic pedal permitting these adjustments is known from French patent application 99 06274 of the applicant. The pedal body carries a socket forming a seat for a metallic cartridge in which, the pedal axle is disposed. For adjustment of the transverse position of the axle, a circular rib on the cartridge is adapted to coact with one from among several circular grooves arranged in the socket. These circular grooves are disposed one after the other so as to define successive transverse positions of the axle relative to the pedal body. However, the adjustment means comprise a large number of complicated pieces of which certain ones are relatively fragile.
To overcome these drawbacks, the applicant in his French patent 2,811,287 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,676 and EP 1,170,203) proposes simplified adjustment means. The cartridge containing the pedal axle is provided with a screw thread adapted to coact with a tapping in the overall cylindrical recess of the cartridge. The transverse position of the cartridge, and hence of the pedal body, relative to the pedal crank, can also be adjusted by screwing or unscrewing the cartridge in its recess.
This recess is moreover provided in a resiliently deformable support which is slotted adjacent the recess and which can be fixed with the help of securement screws against the lower surface of the pedal body properly so called, so as to hold the cartridge in a selected transverse position by gripping the internal wall of the recess about the cartridge by resilient deformation.
Even if this pedal is generally satisfactory, it nevertheless has several drawbacks. More precisely, it has been seen that in practice, this construction is not entirely reliable as to holding in place the cartridge in its recess. This is due to the fact that the support comprising the recess of the cartridge is of deformable plastic material, which can give rise to a certain flow of this material under mechanical stress due to the gripping of the securement screws and as a result the impairment of the holding function.

Cycle pedal with adjustable axial positioning


Image forming apparatus 10 of the present invention is an apparatus for forming an image on a surface of recording medium P by applying laser light to recording medium P, the apparatus including a plurality of light sources 31 each of which emits laser light, a plurality of optical fibers 23 and 42 through which laser light respectively emitted from light sources 31 propagates, holder 43 that holds optical fibers 42, and fly-eye lens 50, cylindrical lens array 60, aperture array 70, lens 80a and lens 80b through which laser light emitted from end surfaces of optical fibers 42 passes, wherein each of apertures 71 of aperture array 70 is rectangular.

A system is known in which light is applied to a recording medium in the form of a sheet or a plate to form an image on a surface of the recording medium. A computer to plate (CTP) system for producing a printing plate for newspaper printing is an example of that kind of system. In the CTP system, laser light is applied to a resin layer formed on a surface of a base film or a base plate to form an image on the surface of the resin layer (expose the surface to the light).
The CTP system includes a rotating drum around which a recording medium is wrapped and an image forming apparatus that applies laser light to the recording medium wrapped around the rotating drum. The image forming apparatus includes an optical recording head capable of reciprocating along the axis of rotation of the rotating drum. When an image is formed on a recording medium by using the thus-constructed CTP system, laser light is emitted from the optical recording head of the image forming apparatus toward the recording medium surface (resin layer surface) while the rotating drum, around which the recording medium is wrapped, is being rotated. A portion of the resin layer surface is thereby exposed to the light. Subsequently, the optical recording head is moved through a predetermined distance along the axis of rotation of the drum. Thereafter, laser light is again emitted from the optical recording head toward the resin layer surface to expose a region adjacent to the region already exposed, to the light. The moving and stopping of the optical recording head is thereafter repeated to expose the entire area or a predetermined area of the resin layer surface to the light. In the following description, the direction of rotation of the rotating drum will sometimes be referred to as "main scanning direction" and the direction of movement of the optical recording head will sometimes be referred to as "sub-scanning direction". The sub-scanning direction and the direction along the axis of rotation of the rotating drum are parallel to each other.
The conventional image forming apparatus includes at least a plurality of semiconductor lasers as a light source and a plurality of optical fibers through which laser lights emitted from the semiconductor lasers propagate.
The plurality of semiconductor lasers and the plurality of optical fibers are connected in a one-to-one relationship with each other. Laser light emitted from one of the semiconductor lasers enters the corresponding one of the optical fibers from one end (starting end) of this optical fiber and exits from the other end (terminal end) thereof. The terminal end of each optical fiber is led into the optical recording head and held in the head. More specifically, the terminal ends of the plurality of optical fibers are held in the optical recording head so that their exit end surfaces are arranged in matrix form. Laser lights respectively emitted from the plurality of exit end surfaces which are arranged in matrix form are collected on the recording medium surface through a pair of collective lenses.
It is self-evident that an image formed on the recording medium is a set of a plurality of pixels, and that one spot of laser light emitted from one optical fiber corresponds to one pixel. That is, if ten optical fibers are provided, then light exposure for ten pixels at a maximum is performed at one time. If twenty optical fibers are provided, then light exposure for twenty pixels at a maximum is performed at one time.

Optical recording head and image forming apparatus


A space has inlet and outlet registers and outside and exhaust air ducts. The outside air duct is located adjacent to the inlet register. The exhaust air duct is located adjacent to the outlet register. The space has an outside air passageway through the outside air duct adjacent to the inlet register. The space has an exhaust air passageway through the exhaust air duct adjacent to the outlet register. A thermosyphon run around heat pipe assembly includes outside air coils and exhaust air coils. Vapor lines and liquid lines couple the coils. The outside air coils are positioned adjacent to the air inlet duct. The exhaust air coils are located adjacent to the air outlet duct. A control device, in the form of a modulating return damper, is located between the air ducts. An air filter is provided upstream of and adjacent to the outside air coils.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a split heat recovery system and more particularly pertains to transferring heat within heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems without conventionally imposing location restrictions, the transferring being done in a safe, ecological, energy efficient and economical manner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of heat transferring systems of known designs and configurations is known in the prior art. More specifically, heat transferring systems of known designs and configurations previously devised and utilized for the purpose of transferring heat through known methods and apparatuses are known to consist basically of familiar, expected, and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which has been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,658,874 issued Dec. 9, 2003 to Trent relates to an Advanced Energy Efficient Air Conditioning, Dehumidification and Reheat Method and Apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 6,591,902 issued Jul. 15, 2003 to Trent relates to an Apparatus for Applying Controllable, Multipurpose Heat Pipes to Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Systems. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,578,629 issued Jun. 17, 2003 to Trent relates to an Application of Heat Pipe Science to Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Systems.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe a split heat recovery system that allows for transferring heat within heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems without conventionally imposing location restrictions, the transferring being done in a safe, ecological, energy efficient and economical manner.
In this respect, the split heat recovery system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of transferring heat within heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems without conventionally imposing location restrictions, the transferring being done in a safe, ecological, energy efficient and economical manner.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved split heat recovery system which can be used for transferring heat within heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems without conventionally imposing location restrictions, the transferring being done in a safe, ecological, energy efficient and economical manner. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


A ball screw comprises a screw shaft, a hollow cylindrical nut member, balls, a ball returning means and a pair of deflectors. The screw shaft has a helical ball running groove. The nut member has a helical ball running counter-groove facing on the helical ball running groove of the screw shaft, and has a pair of ball-passing holes for connecting inner and outer surfaces of the nut member with each other. The balls are arranged between the ball running groove and the ball running counter-groove. The ball returning means is arranged on the outer surface of the nut member, for connecting the ball-passing holes with each other. The deflectors are disposed so as to be respectively correspondent with the ball-passing holes, for picking up the balls from the ball running groove to transfer the thus picked up balls into the ball-passing hole. Each of the deflectors comprises a ring-shaped base member fitted in an opening end of the nut member, and a ball-picking-up member projected from the base member. The ball-picking-up member is inserted in the ball running counter-groove so as to take a prescribed position of the ball-picking-up member relative to the ball-passing hole.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ball screw which has a structure in which a screw shaft is linked to a nut member by a large number of balls constrained to roll in a space formed therebetween, and converts rotational motion of a motor to linear motion to carry out power transmission in a sliding member of a machine tool or a robot for industrial use, and more particularly to an improvement in structure for causing the above-mentioned balls to be endlessly circulated in the inside of the nut member.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a kind of ball screw composed of a screw shaft having on its outer periphery a helical ball running groove, and a nut member to which the screw shaft is linked by a large number of balls constrained to roll in a space formed therebetween. Rotation of any one of the screw shaft and the nut member causes relative linear motion of the nut member to the screw shaft, with the result that the balls are endlessly circulated in the inside of the nut member.
There have been proposed many kinds of ball screw having nut members, which were different from each other in structural component for endless circulation of the balls therein. As one of the proposed ball screws, it is known the ball screw disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Provisional Publication No. S63-123,856, which comprises a screw shaft having on its outer periphery a helical ball running groove; a nut member having a hollow cylindrical shape so as to cause the screw shaft to be inserted therein, the nut member having on an inner surface thereof a helical ball running counter-groove, which faces on the helical ball running groove of the screw shaft, and the nut member having a pair of ball-passing holes formed apart from each other on the ball running counter-groove, for connecting inner and outer surfaces of the nut member with each other; a large number of balls arranged between the ball running groove of the screw shaft and the ball running counter-groove of the nut member so as to be moved under a prescribed load imparted thereto; a ball returning means arranged on the outer surface of the nut member, and having a no-load passage for connecting the ball-passing holes with each other for circulation of the balls; and a pair of deflectors each formed into a helical-shape, and fitted into the ball running counter-groove of the nut member so that the deflector is disposed in a prescribed position, having a corresponding relationship of the inside surface of the deflector to the ball-passing holes of the nut member.
In the ball screw having the above-described structure, both ends of the ball running counter-groove of the nut member are connected to each other by the no-load passage formed in the ball returning means and by the pair of ball-passing holes of the nut member. As a result, the revolution of the nut member around the screw shaft causes the ball to go in and come out of these ball-passing holes so as to endlessly circulated in the passage formed between the ball running groove of the screw shaft and the ball running counter-groove of the nut member and in the no-load passage of the ball returning means. The inside surface of the deflector fitted into the above-mentioned ball running counter-groove of the nut member is placed directly below the ball-passing hole. When the ball running under a prescribed load imparted thereto between the ball running counter-groove of the nut member and the ball running groove of the screw shaft comes in the vicinity of the ball-passing hole, a collision of the ball with the inside surface of the deflector accordingly occurs, and then the ball is picked up from the ball running groove of the screw shaft so as to be transferred into the no-load passage of the ball returning means through the above-mentioned ball-passing hole.
In the conventional ball screw having the above-described structure, the deflector is merely fitted into the ball running-counter groove of the nut member under the function of resiliency of the deflector. The repetitious collision of the ball with the inside surface of the deflector along with the endless circulation of the balls cause the deflector to be gradually moved to change its setting position, thus leading to a difficulty in that a precise positional relationship of the inside surface of the deflector with the ball-passing hole of the nut member cannot be maintained. As a result, there may occur problems such that it becomes impossible to smoothly transfer the balls picked up from the ball running groove of the screw shaft into the ball passing hole of the nut member, the smooth rotation of the nut member relative to the screw shaft is hindered by an increased friction resistance due to deterioration of the ball circulation, and a noise is made during rotation of the nut member.
When there is used a deflector formed into a longer helical body to be fitted into the ball running counter-groove of the nut member, it is possible to firmly secure the deflector to the nut member so that the setting position of the deflector may not easily be changed by the collision of the balls with the inside surface of the deflector. In this case, it is however necessary to increase the length of the ball running counter-groove of the nut member accordingly, thus causing inconveniences of carrying out a time-consuming threading work for the formation of the ball running counter-groove on the nut member, and leading to impossibility of realization of making the nut member in a small size, when the ball running counter-groove has a longer lead.


In various aspects, a system that receives a first message, wherein the first message comprises a communication device identification and a feature tag having a language indication that indicates a language configuration of a user equipment. In response to the receiving the first message, storing the language indication and associating the language indication with the communication device identification. The system determines whether an incoming call is not authenticated and in response to the determining that the incoming call is not authenticated, transmitting a textual message to the communication device using the language configuration to indicate the incoming call is not authenticated.

In a wireless communication system, when a user receives a call on their user equipment (UE), a textual information associated with the caller can be displayed on the user equipment. The textual information displayed can be a name associated with the caller identification. Occasionally, when a call from an unknown caller or a caller identified as a "scam"/"robo"/"fake" is received, the UE displays a textual message in indicating "unknown"/"scam"/"robo"/"fake" call. This alert the user not to pick up the phone to make a connection. Many times, these types of call are intended to extract money from using fake numbers or provide unsolicited advertisements (e.g., spam calls). In order to make the receiving party more informed of the authenticity of the call operators are now interested in checking the authenticity of a call and if they know it is a "fraud" call then informing the user via a textual string e.g. SPAM (See 3GPP TS 22.173 clause 4.7 [1]). However, the problem is that network does not know which language the receiving party understands or to which language the UE is configured for receiving textual messages from the network. In Switzerland there are 3 languages, French, German and Italian, where as a country like Zimbabwe has 16.
The above-described background on scam or spam calls is merely intended to provide a contextual overview of some current issues, and is not intended to be exhaustive (e.g., although problems and solution are directed to next generation networks such as 5G, the solutions can be applied to 4G/LTE technologies). Other contextual information may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.

Displaying a textual message based on configuration of the user equipment


This invention relates to a heated steam atmosphere drying system comprising dryer in combination with an exhaust recompression system which is extremely energy efficient and eliminates dangers known to air dryers. The system uses superheated steam as the drying medium, which recirculated through the system where its heat of evaporation and heat of compression is recovered, thereby providing a constant source of heat to the drying chamber. The dryer has inlets whereby feedstock and superheated steam are fed therein. High heat transfer and drying rates are achieved by intimate contact of the superheated steam with the particles being dried The dryer comprises a vessel which enables the feedstock and steam to enter recirculate together. When the feedstock becomes dry it will exit the dryer with the steam and become separated from the steam through the use of a curvilinear louver separator (CLS). The CLS enables removal of fine and ultrafine particles from the dryer. Water vapor separated from the particles in the CLS as superheated steam, may then be recovered and recirculated as steam through the use of a compressor to either directly or indirectly heat the dryer, and a heat exchanger or a heater to directly provide heat to the dryer. This system not only provides a very efficient heat transfer system but results in a minimum carry-over of ultrafine particles thereby eliminating any explosive hazard.

1. Field of the Invention
In the United States, industrial drying accounts for approximately 1.5 quads of energy use per year. Annual industrial dryer expenditures are estimated to be in the $500 million range. Clearly, industrial drying is a significant energy and monetary expense for the United States industrial complex. The present invention relates to the drying of granular, slurry, or liquid feeds in a novel drying vessel utilizing superheated steam as the drying medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Thermal drying of granular, slurry or liquid feeds has been accomplished in prior art devices through the use of devices which employ elements which remove water from the feedstock via evaporation. There are however, inherent risks in such processes in that such processes have explosive hazards associated therewith due to dust. Additionally, inherent is such devices is the need for large energy requirements which are obtained at a cost to our environment.
Attempts have been made to reduce the consumption of energy using exhaust waste heat recovery techniques, improved dryer designs, or even the deployment of advanced mechanical dewatering techniques. Despite these efforts, a large amount of heat of evaporation from the evaporated water cannot be recovered and/or in some way utilized.

Steam atmosphere drying exhaust steam recompression system


The invention is a method for producing δ-aminopentadienoate derivatives of formula (1), the method comprising reacting a streptocyanine derivative of formula (2) with an ester derivative of formula (3) in the presence of an organic base. In formulae (1) to (3), R1 represents an alkyl group or an aryl group; R2, R3, R4 and R5 independently represent a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group; R2 and R3, or R4 and R5 may bond to each other to form a ring; Y represents an electron attractive group; X represents an acid radical; n indicates 0 or a positive number, which is no more than 5; Y may bond to R1 to form a ring

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an economical and safe method for producing on an industrial-scale specific δ-aminopentadienoate derivatives that are useful, for example, as UV absorbents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Methods of producing δ-aminopentadienoate derivatives have been known for a long time. For example, F. M. Harmer, Heterocyclic Compounds-Cyanine Dyes and Related Compounds (John Wiley & Sons, New York and London, 1964), Chapter XIII, page 491, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,165,339 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,186,608 disclose methods of producing δ-aminopentadienoate derivatives via dianil derivatives. However, the reaction path of the disclosed methods is long and the overall yield is low.
On the other hand, Tetrahedron Letters, Vol. 21, page 3155 (1980) discloses a method of producing δ-aminopentadienoate derivatives by reacting a streptocyanine derivative with a carbonyl compound in the presence of sodium hydride and triethylamine. However, sodium hydride is flammable, and therefore, the method is unfavorable for industrial-production from the viewpoint of safety, and in addition, the yield of such a method is not sufficiently high.
From the above background art, a method using safe reagents for producing the derivatives in a shorter reaction path is desired.

Method for producing δ-aminopentadienoate derivatives


A method of actuating a valve, comprises operatively coupling the valve with an electroosmotic pump; flowing a fluid through the electroosmotic pump; and generating a fluidic pressure of at least 0.75 PSI to actuate the valve, wherein the electroosmotic pump comprises one or more thin, porous, positive electroosmotic membranes and one or more thin porous, negative electroosmotic membranes; a plurality of electrodes comprising cathodes and anodes, and a power source; wherein each of the positive and negative electroosmotic membranes are disposed alternatively and wherein at least one of the cathodes is disposed on one side of one of the membranes and at least one of the anodes is disposed on the other side of the membrane and wherein at least one of the cathodes or anodes is disposed between a positive and a negative electroosmotic membrane.

Pumps can be classified into mechanical and non-mechanical varieties. Generally, the conventional mechanical pumps have issues with reliability of the moving pump-components. Electrokinetic pumps, on the other hand, contain no moving parts, making them suitable for a variety of applications, including fluid movement in microanalytical systems. Electroosmotic pumps (EOPs) are one of the most represented class of these pumps, and provide fluid flow due to movement of an electric double layer that forms at the solid-liquid interface. Application of an electric field across a porous membrane structure of an EOP results in a movement of the electric double layer, which results in viscous drag. The viscous drag then causes bulk fluid flow and generation of a net pressure.
Standard EOPs made from a ceramic frit or packed capillaries require over 1 kV to establish the electric fields required for pumping. The EOPs produce fluid pressure capable of valve actuation, but yield no benefits in terms of voltage requirements or overall size. Alternative thin porous substrates have, so far, produced the highest pumping pressures per applied voltage due to high surface-to-volume ratios. A small pore length across a thin porous substrate enables the development of high electric field strength across each pore, thus increasing the pumping efficiency. However, such single membrane pumps have pressure and flow limitations, such that application of a few volts generate pumping pressure of less than 1 PSI; thus, utilization as an actuating power source remains impractical.
To increase the pumping pressure of low-voltage EOPs and thus enable self-contained valve actuation, increased surface area for electric double layer formation is required, and hence increased thickness of the substrate (for example, membrane). However, there is no current solution for an arrangement of membranes and electrodes in an EOP, such that the high pressure may be accomplished at low running voltages without changing the electric field strength across the individual pores. In addition, standard methods (e.g. hydrolyzing metal electrodes) of generating ionic currents within the EOPs have detrimental effects on the pump operation, due to the release of gas during pumping.
The low pressure constraint remains a limiting factor for practical utility of low-voltage EOPs. Still, the need for self-containment in analytical, biomedical, pharmaceutical, environmental, and security monitoring applications remains a great challenge, and battery-driven EOPs may serve to replace the limiting control equipment required to run devices, such as high voltage power or pressure supplies.
Maintaining high electric field strength, while using low running voltages are two conflicting requirements, which are difficult to accomplish through conventional EOPs. Therefore, the EOPs which are capable of generating high pressure using a lower applied voltage that maintain membrane fabrication requirements are desirable. Moreover, the simplicity of the EOP processing also makes EOPs a candidate pressure source for actuation of valves within fluidic systems. However, pressure limitations associated with current low-voltage EOPs makes this practically challenging. Still, the ability to package each valve with its own actuator and power source may solve many current problems associated with miniaturization of standard lab-scale control equipment.

Actuation of valves using electroosmotic pump