The present invention relates to compositions and methods involving diagnostic tests with multiple test antigens. The present invention involves the expanded use of test antigens as cross-reactive control antigens (CCAs). The invention advantageously provides for enhanced test results analysis by simultaneously providing both test antigen and CCA signal results. These results, in turn, allow useful sample comparison and cross-reference between samples to more accurately identify and verify the fidelity of test results obtained for multiple infective agents at once. The present invention may include compositions and methods for detecting infection by Zika virus or another flavivirus, and may distinguish between infections caused by genetically similar agents.

Zika virus disease (Zika) is a disease caused by Zika virus that is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito from the Aedes genus, mainly Aedes aegypti in tropical regions. This is the same mosquito species that transmits dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever. Common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito.
The Zika virus was first discovered in 1947 and is named after the Zika forest in Uganda. In 1952, the first human cases of Zika were detected and since then, outbreaks of Zika have been reported in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Zika outbreaks have probably occurred in many locations but remain unrecognized because the symptoms are similar to many other diseases such as dengue and chikungunya. In May 2015, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an alert regarding the first confirmed Zika virus infection in Brazil and on Feb. 1, 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika virus a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). Local transmission has been reported in many other countries and territories.
Of major concern is the effect the Zika virus may have on pregnant women. There is currently a very strong link between the Zika virus in pregnant women and the increase in the number of cases of babies born with microcephaly in Brazil and other countries, which is causing alarm worldwide. Sexual transmission of Zika virus is also of great concern, and in the United States cases of women contracting the disease from their partners have been reported.
In 2004, Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) reemerged from Africa and spread to the Indian Ocean Basin, Asia, and Europe causing explosive epidemics affecting millions of people. Chikungunya fever is characterized by severe, debilitating, and often chronic arthralgia that can persist for years, resulting in major economic as well as public health impacts. Additionally, CHIK fever is not easily diagnosed due to the overlap in initial signs and symptoms with dengue, malaria and other acute febrile illnesses, as well as the lack of high quality, affordable, commercially-available diagnostic assays.
The majority of people infected with CHIKV become symptomatic. The incubation period is typically 3-7 days (range, 1-12 days). The disease is most often characterized by acute onset of fever (typically >39° C.) and polyarthralgia. Joint symptoms can be severe and debilitating. Other symptoms may include headache, myalgia, arthritis, conjunctivitis, nausea/vomiting, or maculopapular rash. Clinical laboratory findings can include lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia, elevated creatinine, and elevated hepatic transaminases. Acute symptoms typically resolve within 7-10 days. Rare complications include uveitis, retinitis, myocarditis, hepatitis, nephritis, bullous skin lesions, hemorrhage, meningoencephalitis, myelitis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and cranial nerve palsies. Zika virus, Dengue and chikungunya viruses are transmitted by the same mosquitoes and have similar clinical features. The viruses can circulate in the same area and can cause occasional co-infections in the same patient. Chikungunya virus infection is more likely to cause high fever, severe arthralgia, arthritis, rash, and lymphopenia, while dengue virus infection is more likely to cause neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, hemorrhage, shock, and death. It is important to differentiate viral infections because proper clinical management of can improve outcome.
Dengue, Zika, and chikungunya viruses co-circulate in the Americas. Puerto Rico has experienced eight major epidemics of these diseases in the last 12 years. In the past year, more than 90 thousand tests have been run in Puerto Rico in order to screen pregnant women for recent Zika infections, or diagnose Zika-suspected patients. Diagnostic tests for dengue and chikungunya are also conducted routinely given the similarities of these co-endemic diseases. The arrival of Zika in the Americas is a problem in because it generates cross reactivity with dengue in conventionally available flavivirus diagnostic tests.
Accordingly, there is a need for more efficient, improved, and more sensitive diagnostic tests that can distinguish between closely related infectious agents and/or test for multiple infectious agents at once. For example, there is a strong need for diagnostic tests that provide more definitive identification of the infecting virus (e.g., Zika versus Dengue). Additionally, there is need for more efficient, improved, and more sensitive diagnostic tests that can be used to distinguish between various potential infectious agents in test subject samples where a test subject presents with symptomology common to several potential infective agents and/or the test subject has been exposed to one or more potential infective agents.

Immunoassay methods and compositions for detecting infection involving use of test antigens as cross-reactive control antigens


A writing instrument such as a mechanical pencil is provided with a brush for eliminating static electricity. The instrument is composed of a barrel and a barrel cap attached to the barrel. A base portion of the brush is fixedly received in a cylindrical protector arranged within the barrel cap. A writing element operating mechanism is arranged to operably hold a writing element such as a lead so that the writing element can be selectively extended from and retracted into the barrel. A brush operating mechanism is also arranged to hold the protector movably along a central axis of the barrel cap so that the brush can be selectively extended from and retracted into the barrel cap. A cylindrical member may preferably be fixedly secured in a rear end of the barrel cap to guide the brush. One of the operating mechanisms can be actuated by causing one of the barrel and the barrel cap to move relative to the other in an axial direction, and the other operating mechanism can be actuated by causing one of the barrel and the barrel cap to turn relative to the other.

a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in a writing instrument equipped with a brush especially for eliminating static electricity.
b) Description of the Related Art
Conventional writing instruments with writing elements arranged therein for selective extension and retraction include those provided at rear end portions thereof with dust cleaning brushes for paper sheets and the like. In particular, there are writing instruments equipped, as such brushes, with brushes for eliminating static electricity. There are also writing instruments in which writing elements can be selectively extended or retracted by causing barrels to turn or slide.
When a barrel cap arranged in fitting engagement with a barrel is turned or pushed down relative to the barrel to extend or retract a brush from or into the barrel, the brush normally accommodated in the barrel cap may be caught at a free end thereof in an opening of the barrel cap or in a guide groove formed on an inner wall of the barrel cap so that the brush may not be smoothly extended or retracted or in some extreme cases, may no longer be extended or retracted. To avoid such drawbacks, it may be contemplated to always leave the brush exposed outside. In this case, the brush is prone to fouling and the appearance is not attractive. It is therefore desired to keep the brush held within the barrel cap while the brush is not used. Because of the above-mentioned drawbacks, however, smooth operability is not fully expected for the brush.


A method of treating an electrocoating process by exposing at least a portion of the process to a biosurfactant admixed in a solution. Methods of treating a surface of an apparatus within an electrocoating operation using a biosurfactant to remove or prevent sessile microorganism growth on the apparatus are provided.

Electrocoat finishing systems are typically warm, damp places and undesirably provide conducive conditions for microorganism growth. Once microorganisms colonize on an electrocoat system, removing the contamination is very difficult and can be quite costly. High levels of contamination in the system can lead to increased reject rates for parts or operational issues with the finishing system.
Various techniques have been implemented in the industry to combat microorganism growth in electrocoat tanks and equipment. Power washing and other physical removal methods have been used, for example. Other conventional methods include chemical-based treatments, such as the use of biocides, solvents, halogen-based chemicals (e.g., Cl, Br,), and metal-containing (e.g., Cu, Ag) compounds. Existing methods for cleaning have several drawbacks. Some of the cleaning chemicals are toxic and/or expensive, the treatments tend to be very labor intensive, many of the contaminated areas cannot be accessed easily, and effectiveness cannot readily be gauged until days after the process is complete. Furthermore, regulatory agencies continue to add or revise laws and guidelines relating to the amounts of solvents allowed to be released into air and water waste streams. Thus, practitioners in the electrocoating industry are encouraged to develop more "environmentally friendly" processes. This, however, leads to increased conditions for microorganism growth.
What is needed is a method for removing microorganism growth from electrocoating equipment that can be easily practiced and has minimal negative impact on the environment.

Treating an electrocoat system with a biosurfactant


It is an object of the present invention to provide an electrical deionization apparatus having a novel constitution with excellent deionization efficiency. As means for solving this problem, according to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an electrical deionization apparatus having deionization compartments, concentration compartments and electrode compartments partitioned from one another by a plurality of ion exchange membranes between a cathode and an anode, wherein, in the deionization compartments and/or the concentration compartments and/or the electrode compartments, at least one of anion exchange fibrous material layers and cation exchange fibrous material layers are disposed on one another intersecting a water-passing direction.

An electrical deionization apparatus is an apparatus in which concentration compartments and deionization compartments are formed by arranging cation exchange membranes and anion exchange membranes between electrodes, i.e. a cathode and an anode, and taking a potential gradient as a driving source, ions in water to be treated in the deionization compartments are made to migrate, and hence be separated out, through the ion exchange membranes into the concentration compartments, thus removing ionic components.
FIG. 1 shows a conceptual drawing of a typical conventional electrical deionization apparatus. With the electrical deionization apparatus shown in FIG. 1, anion exchange membranes A and cation exchange membranes C are arranged alternately between a cathode (−) and an anode (+), thus forming deionization compartments and concentration compartments. By further repeating the alternate arrangement of anion exchange membranes and cation exchange membranes, a plurality of deionization compartments and concentration compartments are formed alternately. If necessary, ion exchangers are packed into the deionization compartments and the concentration compartments to promote migration of ions through the compartments. Moreover, the compartments contacting the anode and the cathode at either end are generally referred to as the anode compartment and the cathode compartment, and fulfil a function of giving and receiving electrons of a current applied as a direct current.
During operation of such an electrical deionization apparatus, a voltage is applied between the anode and the cathode, and water is passed into the deionization compartments, the concentration compartments and the electrode compartments. Water to be treated having therein the ions to be subjected to treatment is fed into the deionization compartments, and water of a suitable water quality is passed into the concentration compartments and the electrode compartments. In FIG. 1, an example is shown in which RO treated water is fed into all of the deionization compartments, the concentration compartments and the electrode compartments. When water is passed into the deionization compartments and the concentration compartments in this way, in each of the deionization compartments the cations and anions in the water to be treated are attracted to the cathode side and the anode side respectively; because only anions permeate selectively through the anion exchange membranes and only cations permeate selectively through the cation exchange membranes, cations (Ca2+, Na+, Mg2+, H+ etc.) in the water to be treated pass through a cation exchange membrane C and migrate into a concentration compartment on the cathode side, and anions (Cl−, SO42−, HSiO32−, HCO3−, OH− etc.) pass through an anion exchange membrane A and migrate into a concentration compartment on the anode side. On the other hand, migration of anions from the concentration compartment on the cathode side into the deionization compartment and migration of cations from the concentration compartment on the anode side into the deionization compartment are blocked due to each of the ion exchange membranes having a property of blocking ions of the opposite sign. As a result, deionized water having a reduced ion concentration is obtained from the deionization compartments, and concentrated water having an increased ion concentration is obtained from the concentration compartment.
According to such an electrical deionization apparatus, upon using water containing few impurities on a level of, for example, RO (reverse osmosis membrane) treated water as the water to be treated, pure water of yet higher purity is obtained as the deionized water. Recently, there has come to be a demand for ultrapure water of yet higher purity, for example ultrapure water for semiconductor manufacture. With recent electrical deionization apparatuses, a method is thus known in which cation exchange resin beads and anion exchange resin beads are mixed together and packed as an ion exchanger into the deionization compartments and/or the concentration compartments and/or the electrode compartments so as to promote migration of ions in these compartments. Furthermore, there has also been proposed a method in which as an ion exchanger, a cation exchange fibrous material (nonwoven fabric etc.) on the cation exchange membrane side and an anion exchange fibrous material on the anion exchange membrane side are disposed facing one another in a deionization compartment, and a spacer or an ion-conducting spacer that has been made ion-conductive is packed between these ion exchange fibrous materials (see, for example, JP-A-H5-64726, and WO 99/48820).
When water to be treated is passed through a deionization compartment having an ion exchanger packed therein as described above, ion exchange groups in the ion exchanger and the salt to be removed in the water to be treated undergo an ion exchange reaction, whereby the salt is removed. For example, in the case of using NaCl as the salt to be removed, sulfonic acid groups as cation exchange groups and a quaternary ammonium salt as anion exchange groups, the following description applies.
When the water to be treated having the salt to be removed (NaCl) dissolved therein contacts the cation exchanger, the cations (Na+) in the water to be treated are subjected to ion exchange by the cation exchange groups, and are adsorbed onto the solid phase (cation exchanger) and thus removed (equation 1).NaCl+R—SO3−H+HCl+R—SO3−Na+  (1)
After contacting the cation exchanger so that the cations have been removed to some extent, the water to be treated next contacts the anion exchanger. At this time, the acid (HCl) that has been produced through the ion exchange reaction (equation 1) due to the cation exchange groups is completely neutralized as shown in equation 2.HCl+R—N+(CH3)3OH−→H2O+R—N+(CH3)3Cl−  (2)
On the other hand, salt to be removed in the water to be treated that has not reacted with the cation exchanger contacts the anion exchanger, and the anions (Cl−) are subjected to ion exchange by the anion exchange groups as shown in equation 3, and are adsorbed onto the solid phase (anion exchanger) and thus removed.NaCl+R—N+(CH3)3OH−NaOH+R—N+(CH3)3Cl−  (3)
Next, the water to be treated contacts the cation exchanger, and the alkali (NaOH) that has been produced through the ion exchange reaction due to the anion exchange groups (equation 3) is neutralized as shown in equation 4.NaOH+R—SO3−H+→H2O+R—SO3−Na+  (4)
Equations 1 and 3 above are equilibrium reactions, and hence the salt to be removed contained in the water to be treated is not completely removed by ion exchange upon contacting the anion exchanger and the cation exchanger once, but rather remains in the water to be treated to some extent. To remove the ions efficiently, it is thus necessary to carry out the reactions of equations 1 to 4 repeatedly, and hence it is important to make the water to be treated contact the cation exchanger and the anion exchanger alternately as many times as possible so as to make the salt to be removed migrate into the solid phase through the reactions of equations 1 to 4.
For the ions to be removed in the water to be treated to undergo ion exchange and neutralization reactions as described above, a two-stage process of the ions to be removed migrating into the vicinity of a functional group and then being subjected to the ion exchange reaction is required. In an electrical deionization apparatus, the water to be treated is fed continuously into each deionization compartment, and thus must undergo the ion exchange and neutralization reactions during the short time of passing through the deionization compartment; it is thus desirable for the ions to be removed in the water to be treated to diffuse into the vicinity of a functional group of an ion exchanger in a short time, and for the frequency of contact between the functional groups and ions to be kept high.
Moreover, in an electrical deionization apparatus, the ions to be removed that have been adsorbed onto the solid phase (ion exchangers) through the ion exchange and neutralization reactions of equations 1 to 4 above must be made to migrate from a deionization compartment into a concentration compartment or electrode compartment through electrical driving. Moreover, at this time, it is desirable for the ions to be removed that have been adsorbed onto the ion exchangers to migrate up to an ion exchange membrane between the deionization compartment and a concentration compartment continuing over the solid phase (ion exchanger) without desorbing out into the liquid phase. That is, in the deionization compartment, it is desirable for the cation exchanger contacting the cation exchange membrane and the anion exchanger contacting the anion exchange membrane to each be packed in so as to form a continuous phase between the cation exchange membrane and the anion exchange membrane.
Furthermore, in an electrical deionization apparatus in which ion exchangers are packed into compartments as described above, in each of the deionization compartments and/or concentration compartments having the ion exchangers packed therein, there exist sites where the cation exchange groups and anion exchange groups contact one another. At a site where a cation exchange group and an anion exchange group contact one another in a deionization compartment in particular, dissociation of water (equation 5) will occur under the steep potential gradientH2O→H++OH−  (5)and the ion exchangers will be regenerated in the deionization compartment through the H+ ions and OH− ions produced through this dissociation of water (water splitting), whereby pure water of high purity can be obtained. For efficient deionization, it is thus desirable to make it such that there are many sites where the water splitting occurs, i.e. many contact sites between the anion exchanger and the cation exchanger. Furthermore, the H+ ions and OH− ions produced through the dissociation of water continue through ion exchange groups of adjacent cation and anion exchangers one after another, bringing about regeneration. With this set-up, upon continuing the electrical driving, there will come to be a local lack of counter-ions to the functional groups at the contact sites between the cation exchanger and the anion exchanger, and water will dissociate in the vicinity of the functional groups so as to make up for the lacking counter-ions, whereby H+ ions and OH− ions can be continuously supplied to the cation exchange groups and the anion exchange groups. Moreover, it is thought that not only with water but also with a non-electrolyte such as an alcohol, polarization and dissociation will occur under a strong electric field to form anions and cations which will be adsorbed onto the functional groups, enabling removal. It is thus desirable for the contact sites between the anion exchanger and the cation exchanger (the sites where water splitting occurs) to be numerous and to be dispersed throughout the whole of each deionization compartment in particular, and furthermore it is desirable for the anion exchanger and the cation exchanger to each be disposed so as to form a continuous phase from the contact sites.
Furthermore, in recent years there has been a demand for pure water of yet higher purity, it being desired for the concentration of TOC (total organic carbon) components contained in treated water to be low. As TOC components contained in treated water obtained through electrical deionization treatment, there are those of internal origin, i.e. those originating from components leaching out from the ion exchangers packed into the deionization apparatus, and those of external origin, i.e. those originating from TOC contained in the water to be treated. Of these, many of the TOC components leaching out from the ion exchangers are unreacted monomers or uncrosslinked polymer electrolytes that became attached to an ion exchanger during synthesis of the ion exchanger. These gradually leach out into the liquid phase upon washing by passing water through, and it is desirable to make the ion exchangers have a structure such that this washing can be carried out in as short a time as possible. Moreover, it is desirable to eliminate a crosslinking reaction from the ion exchanger synthesis process so that contamination of the ion exchangers with uncrosslinked polymer electrolytes can be prevented. Regarding TOC components contained in the water to be treated, on the other hand, these can be removed by being ionized under the strong potential gradient between cation and anion exchange groups as with the water dissociation reaction. It is thus desirable for it to be possible to pass water to be treated containing TOC components uniformly past the contact sites between the cation exchanger and the anion exchanger.
Moreover, it is further desirable for the treated water (pure water) obtained to have a low concentration of weak electrolytes such as silica and carbonate. Again, ionization of such weak electrolytes under the strong potential gradient between cation and anion exchange groups as with the water dissociation reaction is effective. In this case, it is thus again desirable for it to be possible to pass water to be treated containing weak electrolytes uniformly past the contact sites between the cation exchanger and the anion exchanger.
The functions demanded of an electrical deionization apparatus have been listed above; however, with electrical deionization apparatuses having a conventional constitution, it has not been possible to obtain an apparatus that satisfies all of these demands.
For example, with many conventional electrical deionization apparatuses, anion exchange resin beads and cation exchange resin beads have been packed mixed together in a deionization compartment. In this case, the state of packing of the resins is random, and moreover the flow of water through the compartment is also random, and hence looking microscopically, regarding the contact between the water to be treated and the ion exchangers, it has not necessarily been the case that the water to be treated contacts the anion exchanger and the cation exchanger alternately. Moreover, regarding the particle diameter of the ion exchange resin beads packed in, in general it is normal to use beads having a particle diameter of approximately 500 μm so as to keep the pressure loss down, but most of the functional groups of such ion exchange resin beads are present in macropores and micropores inside the beads, and hence it is difficult for ions to be removed to diffuse up to the vicinity of a functional group, and hence the frequency of contact between the ions to be removed and the functional groups is not very high. Moreover, because the cation exchanger and the anion exchanger are packed in randomly, it is difficult for each of the cation exchanger and the anion exchanger to form a continuous phase, and hence it is difficult for the ions to be removed to migrate continuously through the solid phase from the deionization compartment into a concentration compartment, and moreover the TOC component removal performance and the weak electrolyte removal performance are poor. Furthermore, there has been a problem that there is much leaching out of TOC components from the ion exchange resin beads, and in particular it is difficult to completely remove TOC components leaching out from the inside of macropores and micropores even if the resin beads are washed by passing water through for a long time.
Moreover, among conventional electrical deionization apparatuses, ones in which ion exchange resin beads are packed in layers have also been proposed. As conventional electrical deionization apparatuses of this form, there are ones in which anion exchange resin beads and cation exchange resin beads are packed in a deionization compartment alternately with a plastic mesh screen or the like interposed therebetween as required, ones in which a deionization compartment is partitioned with partitions and anion exchange resin bead-only beds and cation exchange resin bead-only beds are formed alternately in the compartments produced through the partitioning, ones in which blocks are formed by binding ion exchange resin beads together with a binder and anion exchange resin bead blocks and cation exchange resin bead blocks are packed in alternately, and so on. However, packing anion exchange resin beads and cation exchange resin beads into a deionization compartment in orderly fashion while forming alternate layers is very difficult. Moreover, in the case that a mesh screen or the like is interposed between layers, or the deionization compartment is partitioned with partitions and layers are formed alternately, the contact sites between the anion and cation exchange groups (the sites where water splitting occurs) are limited to the planes of contact between the ion exchange membranes and the ion exchangers packed into the compartment, and hence it is not possible to form a large number of sites where water splitting occurs in the deionization compartment. Moreover, in the case that the deionization compartment is partitioned with partitions, the number of resin layers that can be formed is limited to from a few to a few tens from the standpoint of the ease of assembling the compartment and the overall size of the apparatus. Moreover, if ion exchange resin beads are used, then as described above, the frequency of contact between the ions to be removed and the ion exchange groups is not very high. Furthermore, in the case of binding ion exchange resin beads together with a binder, the flow path of the water is restricted by the binder, and hence the frequency of contact between the ions to be removed and the ion exchange groups drops markedly. Moreover, because ion exchange resin beads are used, as described above, the amount of TOC leaching out is high, and in particular in the case of using a binder, the binder itself becomes a component that leaches out, and hence the TOC concentration in the treated water becomes yet higher. Furthermore, as described above, the contact sites between the anion and cation exchange groups are limited to the planes of contact between the ion exchange membranes and the ion exchangers packed into the compartment, and most of the water to be treated does not flow through here, and hence ionization of TOC components and weak electrolytes is difficult, and thus the removal performance thereof is poor.
To resolve the various problems associated with using ion exchange resin beads described above, using an ion exchange fibrous material obtained by introducing ion exchange groups onto a fibrous material such as a woven fabric or a nonwoven fabric by radiation-induced graft polymerization or the like as a material packed into a deionization compartment has been proposed (e.g. previously mentioned JP-A-H5-64726). Such an ion exchange fibrous material has a greater specific surface area than ion exchange resin beads, and it is not the case that the ion exchange groups are present in micropores or macropores inside beads as with ion exchange resin beads, and hence a very large number of ion exchange groups can be disposed on the fiber surfaces. The ions to be removed in the water to be treated are thus readily transported by the flow (by convection) to the vicinity of the ion exchange groups. If an ion exchange fibrous material is used, then compared with the case of using ion exchange resin beads, the frequency of contact between the ions to be removed and the ion exchange groups can thus be increased markedly.
However, a fibrous material such as woven fabric or a nonwoven fabric does not generally have a very high water permeability, and hence it has been thought that if a fibrous material is packed into a conventional thin deionization cell, then the pressure loss will be too high, and hence it will not be possible to obtain a sufficient treatment flow rate.
An electrical deionization apparatus has thus been proposed in which a cation exchange fibrous material such as a nonwoven fabric on the cation exchange membrane side and an anion exchange fibrous material on the anion exchange membrane side are disposed facing one another in a deionization compartment, and for an example an oblique net-shaped spacer, or an ion-conducting spacer obtained by making such a spacer ion-conductive, is packed between these ion exchange fibrous materials (e.g. the previously mentioned WO99/48820). In the case of an apparatus having such a constitution, the water to be treated becomes turbulent inside the oblique net-shaped spacer or ion-conducting spacer, and contacts the cation exchange fibrous material and anion exchange fibrous material. Although the water to be treated thus contacts the cation exchange fibrous material and the anion exchange fibrous material alternately to some extent, one cannot say that alternate contact is carried out sufficiently efficiently with this constitution. Moreover, although fibrous materials having a large surface area and many usable ion exchange groups are used, due to the difference in the water permeability between the fibrous materials and the spacer, most of the water to be treated flows through the spacer part, and very little flows through the inside of the nonwoven fabrics. The frequency of contact between the ions to be removed and the ion exchange groups is thus low.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A shoe insert system with adjustable and interchangeable supports comprising: a base sole, a longitudinal arch, a heel insert, and a transverse arch; the base sole being generally planar and having a perimeter which covers the underside of a foot from the heel region up to the bottom of a person's toes, a longitudinal arch, the longitudinal arch having a d-shape with perforated holes and a row of pins sized to mate with perforations of the base sole, a heel insert, the heel insert having alternating perforated holes and pins near the edge defining a general circumference of the heel insert, the pins are sized to mate with corresponding perforated holes on the base sole, the transverse arch having a hole side and a pin side, the transverse arch having a series of perforated holes on the hole side and at least one pin sized to mate with a corresponding perforated hole on the base sole on the hole side.

There abound a panoply of products in the marketplace designed to comfort a person's foot. Many of these products are inserted into a shoe which acts as a support. These products are designed to alleviate the stress and impact which ensues when one places the full force of their body onto their feet. An average man may weigh approximately 200 pounds which must be placed upon feet with a surface area of approximately 70-80 square inches. Over the course of a day as this person walks a couple miles with hard wooden heels a great deal of stress is directed towards the feet.
Moreover, if a person's feet do not absorb the pressure from the weight of his body properly, the force will be re-allocated elsewhere. For some people, this force and stress may be re-allocated to their knees. For others, this force and stress may be re-allocated to their back. This residual stress to other areas of a person's body may lead to severe back problems, knee problems, and foot-related maladies.
To alleviate these problems most of the shoe inserts offered in the marketplace are essentially a one piece cushion shaped to conform to the outside of a person's foot. The problem with most shoe inserts is the fact that they are soft and do not offer true support to re-direct force and correct balance. A soft shoe insert offers no more support to a person's foot as a tire made out of glass to be mounted on a car. Although a person may receive short-term comfort when using a soft shoe insert, such respite is soon replaced by the same pain and stress. And even if a person does feel measurably better, this is most likely a placebo effect which cannot be sustained.
Another problem with the prior art is the fact that most shoe inserts and similar products are essentially one-piece articles of manufacture. The only way they can conform to a person's foot is through the lateral outline of a person's foot. Unfortunately, each person's foot is idiosyncratic and singular with respect to the under-side of the feet. Each person possesses a foot with an underside which is as unique as a fingerprint. Some people possess wide arches. Some people possess narrow arches. Some people are flat-footed. Some people possess short toes. Some people possess long toes. And some people possess asymmetrical feet, i.e. feet which are different in size and shape in comparison with each other. And others may be missing some toes altogether. The prior art ignores these singularities and does not provide for precision custom-fitting with regards to the undersides of a person's feet.
Another problem which inheres with the prior art is the fact that they do not address the problem of poor balance. For those people who are missing toes, possess one leg which is slightly longer than the other, asymmetrical feet, etc., the prior art's "one size fits all" approach proves inadequate. The prior art does not provide for a way of re-directing or shifting a person's weight properly so that it will impart good balance.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a custom-fitting system for the support of feet. Such a system should be hard enough to provide a strong foundation for a person's balance. In addition, such system should possess several different pieces which can properly dovetail with the underside of a person's foot.

Soles with adjustable and interchangeable supports


An apparatus for containing a food and beverage includes a substantially flat stock, for example, cardboard or fiberboard that is folded into a three-dimensional apparatus. When formed, the apparatus includes a first compartment for holding a food and a beverage extension section adapted for holding a beverage. Certain of the sections include panels that interlock. A reinforcing member is provided to add strength to the beverage extension portion. A pair of thumbholes are provided in two of the sections and a pair of slots are provided for securing a pair of eating utensils, for example, a fork and spoon. The unused thumbhole is adapted to receive a napkin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention, in general relates to paper plates and, more particularly, a serving tray that is shipped flat and folded open into a three-dimensional tray.
Paper plates are well known. Variations include serving trays that are folded from a flat sheet into a substantially three-dimensional structure. These are often used in the food service industry to contain food that is to be consumed. They are typically discarded after a single use.
For example, these prior devices often form a simple tray with vertical sides and open top when folded open. They are used for a variety of purposes, some of which include holding French Fries, hamburgers, hot dogs, and other typical fast food items but not a drink cup or can. They are used in ball parks and by various food vendors.
While useful, there are needs that all known prior types of devices fail to satisfy. For example, the prior known folding serving trays either cannot or have great difficulty simultaneously holding a beverage. This is because a beverage is heavy and the thin cardboard (i.e., fiberboard) used for such construction fails to support the beverage which can tilt and spill as the support fails. A hot beverage that is spilled on a person can cause injury which is a liability risk. Also, prior types tend to support conical shaped coffee cups but not also cylindrical containers, for example, soda cans.
Another need is to provide a way to hold the serving tray at a balance point, proximate a center of gravity when it is loaded.
This need extends to both right and left-handed users.
There is also a need to be able to store eating utensils, for example a plastic fork or spoon, most typically being used, simultaneously while the food is contained in the tray.
There is also a need to store a napkin.
An especially important need is for the container to retain its "folded-open" position. The sides of previous trays tend to be easily displaced, especially so when the weight of contents in the tray bears upon the sides of the tray. This can cause food items placed therein to spill out of the tray. Food spilled on a person can ruin clothes which is another liability risk. There is a need to ensure that a folding serving tray, once folded into the open position adapted for use, stays in that position.
Accordingly, there exists today a need for a folding serving tray that helps ameliorate the above-mentioned difficulties.
Clearly, such an apparatus would be a useful and desirable device.
2. Description of Prior Art
Paper plates and trays are, in general, known. For example, the following patent describes a similar type of device:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,217 to Edmond Lim, Jan. 1, 1991.
While the structural arrangements of the above described device, at first appearance, has similarities with the present invention, it differs in material respects. These differences, which will be described in more detail hereinafter, are essential for the effective use of the invention and which admit of the advantages that are not available with the prior device.


A receiving apparatus that is capable of applying maximum likelihood sequence estimation precisely, with a simple configuration, wherein characteristics of the transmission line of each symbol group are estimated on the basis of the amplitude and the phases of the pilot symbols which have been extracted from the reception symbol group, and the information symbol group is restored from the reception symbol group on the basis of the result of the estimation, and the coded bit group which has been restored from the information symbol group is multiplied by the weighting factor and caused to reflect the reliability of the transmission line of each symbol group, and maximum likelihood sequence estimation is applied to the coded bit group which is reflecting the reliability, and thereby the information bit sequence is restored. As a result, by the use of simple configuration, influences given at the transmission line can be eliminated and so the information symbol group can be restored exactly. In addition, the reliability of the transmission line of each symbol group can be reflected on the coded bit group, and in this way, maximum likelihood sequence estimation can be applied more precisely.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a receiving apparatus, a transmitting/receiving apparatus, and communicating method, and is suitably applied to a radio communication system such as a portable telephone system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In this type of radio communication systems, an area for providing communication service is divided into cells of the desired size, and base stations are placed in each of cells as fixed radio stations, so that a portable telephone, which is a movable radio station, may perform radio communication with the base station of the cell where the telephone exists. In this way, a so-called cellular system is constructed. In various systems as communication systems between portable telephones and base stations, time division multiple access system is introduced as typical one.
As shown in FIG. 1A and 1B, for example, in TDMA system, a stated frequency channel is temporally partitioned into frames F0, F1, . . . of the stated time width, each of the frames is partitioned into time slots TS0-TS3 of the stated time width, and the transmission signal is transmitted with employing the frequency channel at the timing of the time slot TS0 which has been allocated to the station itself, so that plural communication (so-called multiplex communication) is realized with the single frequency channel, and the frequency is utilized efficiently. In the following description, the time slot TS0 which has been allocated to transmission is referred to as the transmission slot TX, and a data block (that is an information unit) which is transferred in one transmission slot TX is referred to as a slot.
Referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, a transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus of a radio communication system for performing transmission/reception employing this TDMA system is explained. The transmitting apparatus and the receiving apparatus shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are respectively mounted on, for instance, a portable telephone and a base station of a movable telephone system, and used for a communication from a portable telephone toward a base station (so-called upward communication) and a communication from a base station toward a portable telephone (so-called downward communication).
As shown in FIG. 2, a transmitting apparatus 1 is roughly composed of a convolutional coding circuit 2, an interleave buffer 3, a slotting process circuit 4, a modulating circuit 5, a pilot symbol adding circuit 6, a transmitting circuit 7, and an antenna 8, and adapted to input an information bit sequence S1, which is a transmission data, to the convolutional coding circuit 2 at first.
The convolutional coding circuit 2, which comprises a shift register of the stated number of stages and an exclusive-or circuit, performs convolutional coding with the inputted information bit sequence S1, and outputs a coded bit sequence S2 to the interleave buffer 3. The interleave buffer 3 stores the coded bit sequence S2 in the internal storage region, in a regular order; when the coded bit sequence S2 has been stored in the entire storage region (that is, when the desired quantity of the coded bit sequence S2 has been accumulated), it rearranges the order of the coded bit sequence S2 at random (hereinafter, this rearranging of the order is referred to as interleaving), and then outputs a processed coded bit sequence S3 to the slotting process circuit 4. Besides, the interleave buffer 3 has the storage capacity which corresponds to the plural slots, so that the coded bit sequence should be distributed to the plural transmission slots TX.
The slotting process circuit 4 partitions the coded bit sequence S3 for each stated number of bits, in order to allocate the coded bit sequence S3 to the transmission slots TX, and then sequentially outputs a coded bit group S4 to the modulating circuit 5. The modulating circuit 5 applies the stated modulation processing (for instance, modulation processing of synchronous detection system such as QPSK modulation) to the supplied coded bit group S4 respectively, and then outputs the resulted information symbol group S5 to the pilot symbol adding circuit 6.
As shown in FIG. 4, the pilot symbol adding circuit 6 adds the pilot symbols P, as the headers, to the forefront position of each symbol group (that is, the front of the information symbols I) of the information symbol group S5 which have been partitioned in accordance with the transmission slots TX, and then outputs a processed transmission symbol group S6 to the transmitting circuit 7. Furthermore, the pilot symbol P, which is added at this point, is a symbol of the pattern which has been already known to the receiving apparatus side, and the receiving apparatus side is adapted to estimate the characteristics (for instance, the situation of fading, etc.) of the transmission line, by using this pilot symbol P.
The transmitting circuit 7 performs filtering process sequentially with the transmission symbol group S6 to which this pilot symbol has been added, and then, performs digital-to-analog conversion processing with the transmission symbol group S6 to produce a transmission signal. Then, the transmitting circuit 7 performs frequency conversion with the transmission signal to produce a transmission signal S7 of the stated frequency channel, amplifies the transmission signal S7 into the stated electric power, and transmits it via the antenna 8. In this way, the transmission signal S7 is transmitted from the transmitting apparatus 1, in synchronism with the timing of the transmission slot TX.
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, a receiving apparatus 10 is roughly composed of an antenna 11, a receiving circuit 12, a transmission line estimating circuit 13, a demodulating circuit 14, a slot linking process circuit 15, a de-interleave buffer 16, and a Viterbi decoding circuit 17, and it is adapted to receive the transmission signal S7 which has been transmitted from the transmitting apparatus 1 via the antenna 11, and to input the transmission signal S7 to the receiving circuit 12 as a reception signal S11. The receiving circuit 12 amplifies the inputted reception signal S11, then, performs frequency conversion with the reception signal S11, takes out a base band signal thereby, performs filtering process with the base band signal, and performs analog-to-digital conversion process with the base band signal. In this way, the receiving circuit 12 takes out a reception symbol group S12 which corresponds to the above-mentioned transmission symbol group S6, and outputs the reception symbol group S12 to the transmission line estimating circuit 13.
The transmission line estimating circuit 13, which is a circuit for examining the characteristics of the transmission line and for performing the equalize process based on the result of the examination, estimates the characteristics of the transmission line by referring to the pilot symbol P which is included in the reception symbol group S12, and calculates the inverse characteristics of the transmission line on the basis of the result of the estimation. Then, the transmission line estimating circuit 13 performs the convolutional multiplication, of the numerical value which is indicating the inverse characteristics of the transmission line in the temporal region, with respect to each information symbol portion of the reception symbol group S12, employing the equalizing circuit which comprises an equalizer, so that it eliminates the influences such as fading, etc. which have been exerted at the transmission line. By this processing, the transmission line estimating circuit 13 restores the information symbol group S5 which has been transmitted, and outputs this information symbol group to the demodulating circuit 14 as the reception information symbol group S13.
The demodulating circuit 14 performs the stated demodulation process with the reception information symbol group S13, so as to restore the coded bit group S14 which corresponds to the coded bit group S4 of the transmission side, and then outputs this to the slot linking process circuit 15. Besides, as noise components have been added to the coded bit group S14 at the transmission line, each bit of the coded bit group S14 is not a binary signal which takes a value "1" or a value "0", but is a multiple-valued signal. The slot linking process circuit 15, is a circuit for linking the coded bit group S14 which is fragmentarily obtained in units of a slot in order to become a continuous signal. It links the coded bit group S14 together when the coded bit group S14 have been accumulated by the quantity which corresponding to the storage capacity of the de-interleave buffer 16 of the succeeding stage, and then outputs a processed coded bit sequence S15 to the de-interleave buffer 16.
The de-interleave buffer 16, which has the storage capacity corresponding to the plural slots, stores the supplied coded bit sequence S15 in the internal storage region sequentially, and rearranges the order of the coded bit sequence S15 in the inverse procedure of rearranging performed in the interleave buffer 3 of the transmitting apparatus 1, so as to return it to the original order, and then outputs a coded bit sequence S16 to the Viterbi decoding circuit 17 (hereinafter, this returning to the original order is referred to as de-interleaving). The Viterbi decoding circuit 17, which comprises a soft decision Viterbi decoding circuit, considers a trellis of convolutional code on the basis of the inputted coded bit sequence S16, estimates the most likely state out of all state transitions which can be taken by the data (so-called maximum likelihood sequence estimation), restores thereby a transmitted information bit sequence S18, and outputs this.
By the way, in such conventional receiving apparatus 10, the symbols are temporally arranged in each slot and sent, as it is adapted to eliminate influences which have been exerted through the transmission line by performing convolutional multiplication of the temporal region employing the equalizing circuit which comprises an equalizer. In this connection, there is such a problem that the configuration of the receiving apparatus is complicated. Besides, in the above-mentioned TDMA mode, communication quality may be different depending upon the timing of the transmission slot TX; in such conventional receiving apparatus 10, the reliability which indicates the communication quality of the transmission slot TX has not been arranged to reflect on the coded bit which has been sent by that slot. Therefore, there are such disadvantages that the precision of maximum likelihood sequence estimation of the Viterbi decoding circuit 17 can not be improved, and the transmitted information bit sequence can not be restored with high precision.

Receiving apparatus, transmitting/receiving apparatus, and communicating method


A protection circuit and method are provided for a floating power transfer device having one or more switches for controlling charging of a reservoir capacitor across which a load is applied when in use. The protection circuit includes a control circuit, a fault detection circuit and a precharge driver circuit. The control circuit at least partially controls switching of the at least one switch, while the fault detection circuit detects when a fault in the floating power transfer device or the load occurs and sends a fault detect signal to the control circuit in response thereto. The precharge driver circuit, which is enabled by the control circuit responsive to receipt of the fault detect signal, attempts to precharge the reservoir capacitor to a voltage level sufficient for switching of the one or more switches to proceed without damaging the switches.

Many system designs include power conversion circuitry to develop a required operating voltage. One such power conversion circuit is known as a charge pump. A charge pump is a device for creating increases in supply voltage or for inverting a supply voltage to generate a split supply. Many of these devices are related to applications using non-volatile memory circuits, which require a high voltage for programming. In a conventional charge pump power conversion circuit, the load device connects so that one terminal thereof is common to one of the supply terminals, typically the ground reference. U.S. Letters Pat. No. 4,807,104 discloses a power conversion circuit which is both a voltage multiplying and inverting charge pump. However, the output of the power conversion circuit remains referenced to the ground node.
In certain system implementations, it may be advantageous to power the system using a floating power transfer device. By floating the power transfer device, if a terminal in the system were to short, then the system may still be able to continue to operate. For example, in an automobile bus network, the signaling portion of the system on the bus could be floating relative to any other reference, such as ground or Vdd. This would provide enhanced fault tolerance by allowing communications to still occur notwithstanding a short at a terminal thereof.

Protection circuit and method for floating power transfer device


A clear color image having a high contrast ratio without particular coloration is displayed on a screen by improved display apparatus. Such display apparatus is comprised of a spatial light modulator including a photo-conductive layer, a photo-modulator layer and a dielectric mirror, a device for writing color images of different colors onto the spatial light modulator time-divisionally in a sequence of the different colors, a reading device for producing reading lights having different colors in synchronism with time-divisional writing of the color images, and for projecting the reading lights to the spatial light modulator, a driving device for supplying the spatial light modulator with different voltages and frequencies correspondingly with the reading light of different colors and in synchronism with time-divisional projections of the reading lights, and a device for projecting the color images read out from the spatial light modulator on the display device.. The dielectric mirror may have a light absorbance characteristic controlled to be wavelength-selective to absorb a color of light to which the photo-conductive layer is most sensitive, so that lights having different colors leaked into the photo-conductive layer through the dielectric mirror are controlled to cause a uniform impedance of the photo-conductive layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device for displaying a color image.
2. Description of the Related Art
A projector system disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application 1-502139 (1989) is shown in FIG. 1 schematically as an example of a conventional display device which will be described in the following.
FIG. 1 shows a construction of an example of a conventional display device.
Referring to FIG. 1, after a white light beam emitted from a light source 15 is directed to an R, G and B switching device (referred to as RGB switching device) 14, R, G and B components of the white light beam are output sequentially to a main prism 11 by causing the polarizing angles of the R, G and B components to be switched at high speed by the RGB switching device 14.
The RGB switching device 14 is constituted with a polarizing prism 1 for polarizing an input white light beam to a white light beam having a predetermined polarized light (P-polarized light), a blue filter 2 for reflecting a blue light component of the output white light from the polarizing prism 1 and passing other light components, a red filter 3 for reflecting only a red light component of the light components passed through the blue filter 2, a green filter 4 for reflecting a green light passed through the blue filter 2 and the red filter 3. Each of the liquid crystal polarizer switches 5, 6 and 7, when it is off, rotates polarizing angle of the incident light component reflected from the respective filters 2, 3 and 4 by 90 degrees and allows to pass it, but these polarization rotated light components pass through subsequently and correspondingly provided blue, red and green filters 8, 9 and 10, thus are not used as reading lights. When each of the liquid crystal polarizer switches 5, 6 and 7 is on, the turned on switch allows to pass the incident light as it is (polarization of the incident light is not rotated). Blue, red and green filters 8, 9 and 10 functions similarly to the filters 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Light reflected by the respective filters 8, 9 and 10 are supplied to the main prism 11. By switching the liquid crystal polarizing switches 5, 6 and 7 of the RGB switching device 14 sequentially, the main prism 11 supplies to a light valve 12 only the color light the polarization of which is not rotated by the turned on polarizing switch 5, 6 or 7.
The light valve 12 is referred to as spatial light modulator (SLM) and has a construction shown in FIG. 6.
FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a construction of exemplary spatial light modulator.
Referring to FIG. 6, the spatial light modulator 20 has a laminated structure of a glass substrate 21, a transparent electrode (ITO) 22, a photo-conductive layer 23, a dielectric mirror 24, a photo-modulator layer 25 (utilizing birefringence effect of, for example, TN liquid crystal or perpendicularly oriented liquid crystal, etc.), a transparent electrode 26 and a glass substrate 27, in the order. The photo-modulator layer 25 is sandwiched between aligning films 28 and 29.
In writing an image, a voltage is applied across the transparent electrodes 22 and 26 to generate an electric field across the photo-conductive layer 23, and a writing light (image light) is directed to the photo-conductive layer through the glass substrate 21 and the transparent electrode 22. Upon receiving the writing light electric resistance or impedance of the photo-conductive layer 23 varies correspondingly with a sectional intensity distribution of the writing light.
In reading the image, a reading light is directed to the photo-modulator layer 25 through the glass substrate 27 and the transparent electrode 26. The reading light which passes twice the photo-modulator layer 25 being reflected by the dielectric mirror 24 is modulated correspondingly with a state of the writing light, thus read out through the glass substrate 27.
In this case, when the R, G and B lights sequentially supplied from the RGB switching device 14 through the main prism 11 and an image output on a screen of a CRT 13 are supplied to the light valve 12 which is the spatial light modulator 20 as the reading light and the writing light respectively, the image on the screen of the CRT 13 is observable as a color image through the main prism 11 as follows. By sequentially outputting (reading) R, G and B images from the screen of the CRT 13 in synchronism with time divisional and sequential supplies of R, G and B reading lights through the liquid crystal polarizing switches 5, 6 and 7 which are switched at high speed, an observer sees the respectively colored images as a normal color image.
Although a white light is a composition of R, G, B lights, the respective light amounts of the R, G and B components are different from each other and the respective wavelength thereof are also different from each other. Therefore, when the R, G and B reading light beams are supplied in time-divisionally and sequentially to the light valve 12, the light amount and the wavelength spectrum of the reading light vary time to time.
Further, although the dielectric mirror 24 of the light valve 12 (spatial light modulator 20) can reflect the reading light whose wavelength is in a range from 400 to 700 nm, it can not reflect 100% of the incident light, therefore, leakage of the light penetrating into the photo-conductive layer 23 is always present although the amount thereof is very small. Due to such leakage light, an impedance of the photo-conductive layer 23 is affected accordingly, which causes an operating point of the photo-modulator layer 25 to be varied compared with a case of no such leakage light.
R, G and B reading lights supplied to the spatial light modulator 20 (12) are different in light amount and wavelength spectrum from each other. Further, the photo-conductive layer 23 has a sensitivity response which is higher to a visible light of longer wavelength as shown in FIG. 4, when R, G and B lights input to the photo-conductive layer 23 are identical in light amount. Therefore, for the R light to which the photo-conductive layer 23 is highly sensitive or for large amount of light of any color, the photo-conductive layer 23 becomes more sensitive than to others, which causes operating point of the photo-conductive layer 23 to vary responsive to respective colored lights.
If the respectively colored images are projected onto a screen (not shown), it is impossible to obtain a normal white image nor properly color balanced image, causing contrast ratio of the image to be degraded or the projected image may have a reddish coloration, thus a desired, composed color image can not be obtained.


A method and apparatus for amplifying an optical signal is provided. In accordance with one example embodiment of the invention, the optical amplification system includes an optical signal traveling through the system. At least one module of the optical amplification system is suitable for one of selectively separating and combining one or more individual sub-bands of the optical signal. At least one amplifier is disposed to separately amplify each of the one or more individual sub-bands.

The invention relates to optical networks, and more particularly relates to a system and method for per-band amplification of optical signals.
In optical networks, including dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical networks, amplification of the optical signals is often required to traverse lengthy spans of fiber. Known methods of amplification utilize a single erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) at, e.g., terminals, add/drop nodes and in-line amplifier nodes, with all DWDM channels sharing the same amplifiers as they pass through any one node. The EDFAs typically require more than one pump laser to achieve the output power required to support and amplify all of the channels or sub-bands passing through the node. The single EDFA solution also requires, in most instances, a gain flattening filter (GFF) to equalize the amount of gain for all of the channels across the usable bandwidth. The usable bandwidth is typically approximately 30 nm for a 40-channel system. These factors result in a relatively higher cost amplifier, and a relatively higher initial deployment cost, regardless of the number of channels initially deployed.
In certain optical network configurations, channels can be added/multiplexed relatively close to the ultimate destination point. These channels may require no optical amplification prior to arriving at the destination node. However, these channels share the same fiber with channels that have traveled significant distances over more lengthy spans of fiber, and hence require amplification. Both channels that do not require amplification as well channels that do require amplification, in present day network configurations, pass through at least one optical amplifier that amplifies all of the signals. This results in unnecessary amplification of those channels not requiring amplification, and a less efficient use of the available amplifier power.
There is a need for a more cost effective and more efficient optical amplification system for use in an optical network. The present invention is directed toward further solutions to address this existing need.
In accordance with one example embodiment of the invention, an optical amplification system includes an optical signal traveling through the optical amplification system. At least one amplifier is disposed to separately amplify each of the individual sub-bands.
At least one module of the optical amplification system is suitable for selectively separating or combining one or more individual sub-bands of the optical signal, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.
A typical metropolitan optical network has a total of 160 wavelengths that are available for transmitting data. These wavelengths are divided into C and L bands, with 80 wavelengths in each band. Each C and L band is further divided into even and odd groupings, with 40 wavelengths in each group. Sub-bands, as referred to herein, comprise sub-groupings of the 40 wavelengths of each even and odd group, e.g., with three, four, or five wavelengths in each sub-band. The number of wavelengths in each sub-band, as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, can vary depending at least partially on the application of the particular network. The examples illustrated herein utilize four wavelengths for each sub-band.
The module can be a bandpass filter, a channel add device, a channel drop device, a demultiplexer, a multiplexer, and/or the like.
The optical amplification system can be placed in an optical network where less than an entirety of optical sub-bands traveling through the network requires amplification. The optical amplification system, in such an instance, has disposed at least one amplifier to amplify each individual sub-band requiring amplification, and has disposed no amplifiers to amplify sub-bands not requiring amplification.
In accordance with another example embodiment of the invention, a method of optical sub-band amplification includes the step of providing an optical signal. The method also includes separating the optical signal into one or more sub-band, and then separately and individually amplifying the sub-band with one or more amplifiers.
According to further aspects of the invention, the separating step can occur by passing the optical signal through at least one bandpass filter, passing the optical signal through at least one demultiplexer, or passing the optical signal through at least one channel drop device.
In accordance with another example embodiment of the invention, a method of optical sub-band amplification, includes the step of providing an optical sub-band signal. The method continues by amplifying the optical sub-band signal with an amplifier. The optical sub-band signal is then combined with other sub-band signals, wherein one or more of the other sub-band signals has been separately and individually amplified by one or more amplifiers.
In such a method, the combining step can occur by passing the optical sub-band signal through at least one channel add device, or by passing the optical sub-band signal through at least one multiplexer.
In accordance with still another example embodiment of the invention, an optical amplification node is provided in an optical network. The optical network includes at least one optical signal propagating through the network. The optical amplification node includes at least one module, suitable for one of selectively separating and combining one or more individual sub-bands of the at least one signal. At least one amplifier is disposed to separately amplify the one or more individual sub-bands.
The optical amplifier node, in such an arrangement, includes at least one module in the form of a bandpass filter, a channel add device, a channel drop device, a multiplexer, and a demultiplexer.
In accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention, the optical amplifier node can be utilized as a per-band attenuator by not pumping the gain region.

System and method for per-band optical amplification


A display device and a display method are provided. The display device includes a first screen and a first reflector on a light emission side of the first screen; the first screen and the first reflector are in a first light path; the display device further includes a second screen and a second reflector on a light emission side of the second screen; the second screen and the second reflector are in a second light path; the first light path and the second light path converge in a first position.

Virtual Reality (VR) generates a virtual world of a three-dimensional space by using computer simulation, to provide a user with simulations of senses such as a visual sense, an auditory sense and a tactile sense, so that the user has a strong sense of "immersion" and "presence". Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that combines real world information with virtual world information, increases the user's perception of the real world through information provided by computer systems, and superimposes computer-generated virtual objects, scenes or information into a real scene.

BEIJING BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A surgical cutting instrument for cutting joint tissue includes an outer tubular member, or cannula, sized for percutaneous insertion into an anatomical space, such as s joint space in the spine. The outer tubular member has a cutting opening at its blunt-tipped distal end. The proximal end is supported by a handpiece. A cutting member is slidably disposed within the outer tubular member and includes a tubular cutting head portion defining an end opening and a cutting edge at the end opening. In the specific embodiment, the cutting member is a tubular tubular member having a cutting head portion at its distal end and a body portion extending therefrom to the handpiece. A hinge is integrally formed in the tubular cannula to connect the cutting head portion with said body portion, to permit pivoting of the cutting head portion relative to the body portion. As the cutting member is reciprocated within the outer cannula, the cutting edge contacts tissue drawn into the cutting opening. Resistance from the tissue causes the cutting head to pivot about the hinge to form an essentially zero clearance between the cutting head and the cutting opening in the outer cannula.

The present invention relates to a percutaneous or intratrocar surgical instrument for the excision and removal of a wide range of tissues. More particularly, a surgical cutting instrument is disclosed which is particularly adapted for a wide range of operating speeds and which is capable of cutting tough tissue, such as may be found during orthopaedic or spinal surgery. The present invention has application in a wide range of procedures, although the following disclosure will pertain principally to minimally invasive cutting instruments used in the orthopaedic or spinal surgical fields.
In the field of spinal surgery, one problem that is frequently diagnosed and treated concerns degeneration or herniation of the intervertebral disk. In the past, treatment of these diagnosed conditions has required complicated and highly invasive surgical procedures, often involving some degree of fusion between adjacent vertebrae serviced by the affected intervertebral disk. In these procedures it is important that the affected disk be entirely removed for replacement by bone graft material. In some cases, a prosthetic disk may be implanted.
Within the last decade, techniques for percutaneous diskectomies have been developed. One such system is described in the patent to Onik, U.S. Reissue Pat. No. 33,258. The Onik device, like other known devices, is a "tube within a tube" cutting instrument which incorporates a reciprocating inner cutting sleeve operating within the central bore of an outer cutting sleeve. Typically, the excised disk material is suspended in a saline irrigation fluid which is aspirated through the central passageway of the inner cutting sleeve.
Similar cutting devices are represented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,246,902 to Martinez, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,364 to Hayafuji. While these aforementioned devices utilize linearly reciprocating cutters, another genre of surgical instruments implement a rotary cutting action. Such a device is represented by the patent to Bonnell et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,444.
The tissue cutting instruments presently available in the art suffer from a variety of problems. For example, rotary cutters have a tendency to become clogged as the excised tissue "spools" or winds around the shaft driving the rotating cutter blade. This spooling can clog the aspiration channel of the cutter and even stall the blade or motor.
Another problem common between rotary and linearly reciprocating devices is their general inability to cut very tough tissue, at least using an instrument that is adapted for percutaneous insertion. Certainly larger cutting instruments driven by larger motors are capable of cutting very tough or hard tissue. However, no prior device has been able to avoid the trade-off between a minimally invasive cutting instrument and the ability to cut these types of tough tissue.
There is a need in the field of tissue excision and removal for a surgical cutter that is adapted for minimally invasive uses, but that is still capable of cutting hard or tough tissue encountered in spinal and orthopaedic procedures, for example. The cutting instrument must be capable of excising the tissue cleanly, without tearing, and of aspirating the tissue pieces efficiently and without clogging. These and other needs in the industry are addressed by the present invention.


Processes and systems (300) for reducing pessimism in cross talk noise aware static timing analysis and thus resulting false path failures use either or both of effective delta delay noise (307) and path based delay noise (311) analysis. Effective delta delay determines an impact (312, 314, 316) on victim timing of an action by aggressors that occur during a region (209, 319, 321) where victim and aggressor timing windows overlap and determines an effective delta delay 317 corresponding to any portion 316 of the impact on victim timing that extends beyond the victim timing window. The effective delta delay is used to adjust the victim timing window. Path based delta delay determines an uncertainty (627, 637) in a switching time corresponding to a particular path for a victim resulting from an action (switching) by aggressors that occurs at the switching time 607, 613, i.e. during a switching time window (a2 to a2+u1) (613, 625) when uncertainty is included.

Crosstalk noise, such as capacitive crosstalk noise, continues to be a major concern for semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs). As the size, complexity, and operating or switching speeds of semiconductor ICs have increased while feature geometries have decreased, interconnect systems for such ICs have dramatically increased in complexity. In many situations this has increased the possible impact on timing due to noise resulting from parasitic capacitance within the interconnect system.
One approach that is used to analyze the impact of the parasitic capacitances is to model the interconnect system as an arrangement of nets (interconnections between gate outputs and interconnected gate inputs) inter coupled with parasitic capacitors. Static Timing Analysis (STA) is used to develop early and late arrival times (timing window) for each relevant net or node. This timing window is enlarged by a worst case assessment of crosstalk noise for both early and late arrival times using noise aware STA. This worst case timing window is used for timing analysis of all paths through the corresponding net and a list of paths that fail timing requirements are provided.
Designers of the IC then address the list of paths that fail timing analysis pursuant to resolving any timing issues. Unfortunately due to the pessimism, i.e. worst case approaches, of current noise aware STA many failed paths are found to be false failure indications and designer resources are needlessly wasted in addressing the false failures.

Pessimism reduction in crosstalk noise aware static timing analysis


The present invention relates to a photoacid generator, and a chemically amplified photoresist composition for a thick film including the same, wherein the photoacid generator has excellent solubility and sensitivity, and also has an anti-corrosion effect, in addition to the effect as a photoacid generator. Thus, a chemically amplified photoresist composition for a thick film including the photoacid generator reduces scum and/or footing at the exposed part after development. The photoacid generator represented by the following Chemical Formula 1:

With expansion of application of miniaturization technology for a FAB process, packaging technology has also been changed to a process technology for the preparation of high performance, thin, short, and small packages. Particularly, with the increase in semiconductor input/output terminals, the use of flip chips has expanded and FOWLP technology has been introduced, and a TSV process capable of direct connection between chips has expanded for the minimization of signal delay, and thus there is increasing demand for bumping, and the development of bump PR technology is very important.
Bump PR should have excellent sensitivity and resolution in a thick film of 10 μm to 100 μm, and it should have good patterning performance such as good properties of straightness, residue, footing, notching, etc., and excellent resistance to a plating solution so as to form a metal bump through a plating process.
Thus, in order to increase sensitivity and resolution in a thick film, a chemically amplified photoresist is used, and the composition is known to include a resin that is dissociated by an acid to increase solubility to an alkali developing solution, a photosensitive acid generator (photoacid generator), an acid diffusion inhibitor, an anti-corrosive agent, and specific dissolution inhibitors.
According to the prior art, a naphthalimide-type photoacid generator is used, and in this case, since the solubility is not good, the content is increased so as to increase sensitivity, but this has a limitation that a scum remains at the exposed part after development. Thus, there is a demand for studies on photoacid generators that are capable of improving the disadvantages.

Multi function photoacid generator and chemically amplified photoresist composition for thick layer comprising the same

Abstract: In Chemical Formula 1, the definition of each substituents is the same as the detail description of the specification.


A tensile test fixture for quick testing of materials with low transverse strength and relatively high longitudinal strength. After the tensile test fixture is loaded into a universal testing machine, such as a two-part load frame, a first test specimen is aligned and tensile tested. Alignment of the first test specimen ensures that all consecutive test specimens are aligned within the tensile test fixture without further alignment required.

Tensile testing, also known as tension testing, is a fundamental materials science test in which a sample is subjected to a controlled tensile load until failure. The results from the test are commonly used to select a material for an application, for quality control, or to predict how a material will react under normal forces. Tensile testing measures ultimate tensile strength, maximum elongation, and reduction in area.
Fiber reinforced composite (FRP) materials such as carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) bars, glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars, basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) bars, and the like are strong, lightweight materials that contain two parts: (1) a matrix and (2) a reinforcement. The reinforcement is the fiber, whether it is carbon, glass, or basalt, and provides the strength to the FRP, while the matrix binds the reinforcement together. These FRP materials have an extremely high tensile strength in the direction of the fibers, but may be weak in a transverse direction across the fibers.
Metallic materials may be tensile tested with traditional grips, but it is difficult to tensile test FRP materials because the FRP materials cannot be clamped directly with traditional grips and the fibers may be crushed. Instead, these materials have to be encased by anchors at the specimen ends to protect the tested material from being crushed in the weak transverse direction. Aligning the anchors can be difficult and time-consuming, and each specimen requires a dedicated setup procedure for each test run.
Therefore, an improved method and device for tensile testing of FRP composite materials with low transverse strength and relatively high axial strength is desired.

Tensile test fixture for quick testing of materials with low transverse strength

THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION


A method of inhibiting the coloration of human serum albumin expressed by using the gene manipulation technology which method comprises separating coloring contaminants from said human serum albumin before said coloring contaminants bind to the human serum albumin.

Albumin, in particular human serum albumin (hereinafter denoted as "HSA"), is a principal protein of blood plasma. The protein is produced in the liver and has a crucial role in maintaining normal osmotic pressure in the circulatory system. HSA also functions as a carrier for various serum molecules.
HSA is administered to patients in various clinical situations. For example, patients with shock or burn generally require repeated administration of HSA for restoring normal blood volume and thereby alleviating certain trauma-associated symptoms. Patients with hypoproteinemia or fetal erythroblastosis may require treatment with HSA. Therefore the basic therapeutic significance of HSA administration lies in treatment of fluid loss, for example in surgical operation, shock, burn or edema-inducing hypoproteinemia.
At present, HSA is produced primarily by fractionation of collected blood. The production method is disadvantageous because it is uneconomical and blood increasingly is difficult to procure. Furthermore, blood may contain unwelcome substances, for example hepatitis viruses. Accordingly, it will be helpful to develop an alternative source of HSA.
Meanwhile, the advent of recombinant DNA technology has made it possible to produce a variety of useful polypeptides in microorganisms. A number of mammalian polypeptides, for example human growth hormone and interferons have been produced in various microorganisms. The recombinant proteins have a variety of uses, such as vaccines, hormones, enzymes and antibodies.
To overcome some of the above-mentioned difficulties in the production of HSA, methods of producing HSA in large quantities using genetic engineering techniques and highly purifying the recombinant HSA have been attempted.
However, while serum-derived HSA originally has a yellow or yellowish brown color, genetically engineered HSA has a dark yellow or dark yellowish brown color. Raw materials contain certain coloring contaminants that bind to the HSA causing coloration of HSA during the production and purification thereof. The contaminants cannot be removed to a satisfactory extent by known methods of purifying serum-derived HSA.

Inhibition of coloration of human serum albumin


This invention relates to a massaging mattress comprising an array of wooden beads alternating with magnets, the wooden beads and magnets interconnected to one another with threads to form a net in which the beads and magnets will roll slightly to produce a feeling of being massaged.

The invention relates to a personal and domestic article, particularly to a mattress or pillow having a massaging function.
Prior art mattresses are made up of elastic stuffings like fibre or sponge made from cocoanut fibre, coiled springs and compound coverings. Although this kind of mattress is comfortable for sleeping it has no therapeutic function; nor is it suitable for use in hot summer. Chinese Patent CN203205U disclosed a kind of magneto-therapeutic spring mattress, in which there are provided some magneto-therapeutic lumps with field intensities varying according to the different degrees of magnetic endurance in different parts of the human body. But the therapeutic function of that invention is only good for the neck and the waist, and there is no ventilation design, thus making it unsuitable for use in hot summer. Another Chinese Patent CN2045599U disclosed a mattress usable in both winter and summer. The afore-mentioned two kinds of mattresses are either not suitable for summer use, or have no magnetic massotherapeutic effects. Moreover, their structures are too complicated.

8/F, Blk. 3 Flat A, 218-240, Castle Peak Road


A system and method for protecting bristles that includes a sleeve sized and shaped to be slideably received over a handle attached to the bristles, the sleeve formed of breathable material to facilitate drying of the bristles, and the sleeve formed of rigid material to support the handle and the bristles in a vertical orientation and to protect the bristles, the sleeve formed of a length sufficient to cover the bristles, and to cover at least a portion of the handle. In accordance with a method of the invention, the sleeve is slid over the proximal end of the handle and moved down the handle to a position where the sleeve covers the bristles and a first end of the sleeve extends beyond the bristles, and the handle is placed in a vertical orientation so that the first end of the sleeve bears against a supporting surface to hold the handle and the bristles in a vertical orientation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to preserving and enhancing the life of bristles used in painting, and more particularly, to a tubular device and method of use that protects the bristles, aids in drying the bristles, and enables storing of the bristles in a vertical orientation.
2. Description of the Related Art
High quality artists' brushes have bristles that are made from very fine hair of animals', sophisticated synthetic fiber, a combination of animal hair and synthetic fiber, or even human hair. These bristles may, for example, be obtained from the hair of camels, goats, horses, badger, and even squirrels. Guard hair, which is a longer, stiffer hair that protects animals, can be found on the tails and coats of most animals, and is generally known as sable. Sable can be obtained from a variety of animals, including Asiatic mink, Chinese weasel, and skunk, although the hair of commercial importance is that from badger, pony, goat, ox-ear, and bear. Regardless of the source, high quality bristles are expensive and require care to maintain their useful life.
Although paintbrush bristles are used to transfer paint or other liquid substance to a surface, they also function as a reservoir for the paint. Paint is wicked up into the bristles when the brush is dipped in the paint, and then dispensed as the bristles are drawn across a surface. Allowing paint or cleaning material to dry on the bristles can shorten their useful life. However, even new bristles can be ruined if improperly stored, such as when they are dried or placed in a bent or twisted position.
Allowing bristles to dry by laying the brush on its side can result in bending of the bristles as they droop downward. In addition, this allows liquid wicked up into the bristles to remain in that portion of the bristles protected by the metal ferrule that aids in holding them to the handle. Moreover, wooden handles can deteriorate in the area where bristles are attached, and moisture can cause the wood encased by the ferrule to expand, causing the connection between the ferrule and the handle to loosen and bristles to be lost.
Although devices have been provided that hold paintbrushes in a vertical orientation with the bristles pointing downward to aid in proper drying and storage, these devices can be expensive, cumbersome, and not easily portable. Hence, there is a need for a lightweight, compact, and relatively inexpensive device for protecting the bristles and enabling them to be dried and stored in a vertical or near vertical orientation.

System for preserving paintbrush bristles


Improved monodisperse spheroidal particle latices of vinyl chloride polymers, e.g., having particle sizes ranging from 0.17 to 0.8 .mu.m or from 0.5 to 1.2 .mu.m, are produced by aqueous emulsion polymerization of vinyl chloride monomer, whether in a single stage or in two stages, in the absence of surface-active agent, in the presence of at least 0.2% by weight of at least one water-soluble alkali metal or ammonium persulfate initiator, and also in the presence of at least one water-soluble auxiliary compound that is a solvent for vinyl chloride, in such amount that the solubility of vinyl chloride in the aqueous phase at 25.degree. C. at atmospheric pressure is at least 1.5 g/l.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for preparing vinyl chloride homo- and copolymers in the form of latices comprised of monodisperse particles, and, more especially in the form of latices comprised of coarse particles, by polymerization of the corresponding monomer(s) in aqueous emulsion. This invention also relates to the final product latices and to the homo- and copolymers recovered from such latices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to this art that latices of vinyl chloride polymers are aqueous dispersions of particles of such polymers, the diameters of which typically range from 0.01 to 5 .mu.m.
By the term "monodisperse" particles as utilized herein, are intended particles whose particle size distribution is characterized by a polydispersity coefficient not exceeding 0.06.
By "coarse" particles are intended particles whose mean diameter is at least 0.5 .mu.m.
Latices containing monodisperse particles are of interest to the art because of the fact that prior knowledge of the mean diameter of such particles and the polymer content thereof makes it possible, by mathematical calculation, to accurately determine the value of the total surface area of the interface between the particles and the aqueous phase.
Latices which can be employed as biological reactants enabling certain pathological disease states to be detected are obtained by graft polymerization of vinyl monomers containing functional groups such as, for example, --COOH, --SO.sub.3 and --NH.sub.2 in the presence of the aforementioned latices.
Said latices may, furthermore, be used as standards in methods of measuring diameters utilizing all scientific apparatus which includes devices for measuring diameters and operating in this range of values (particle size distribution analysis equipment, filtration equipment, calibrated pore membranes).
Upon admixture with one or more liquid plasticizers, the homo- and copolymers derived from said latices are obviously capable of being employed for the preparation of plastisols which can be utilized in an appropriate manner in a great number of techniques such as, especially, coating, rotational molding, dip coating and spraying. It is possible to prepare plastisols with accurately determined rheological behavior by use of a mixture of at least two homo- or copolymers derived from latices, at least one of which contains monodisperse particles having a mean diameter greater than 0.8 .mu.m.
Techniques for preparing vinyl chloride homo- and copolymers in the form of latices containing coarse monodisperse particles, by polymerization of the corresponding monomer(s) in aqueous emulsion, are also known to this art. These techniques entail a number of polymerization stages, each stage being carried out under moderate stirring, in the presence of at least one emulsifier and at least one water-soluble initiator. In the first stage, a latex of vinyl chloride homo- or copolymer containing particles having a mean diameter generally ranging from 0.1 to 0.3 .mu.m is prepared. It is known that the particle size distribution of the particles of the resulting latex depends essentially upon the nature of the emulsifier employed and on the initial rate of polymerization. Thus, for example, when employed as an emulsifier, sodium versatate produces, all other parameters remaining unchanged, latices whose particles have a particle size distribution with a lower polydispersity index than sodium myristate or sodium laurate. It is also known that polymerization at a high initial rate produces, all other parameters remaining unchanged, latices whose particles have a particle size distribution with a lower polydispersity coefficient than a polymerization at a low initial rate. The disadvantage of polymerization at a high initial rate is that the polymerization rate, being autoaccelerated, is no longer compatible, at a high degree of conversion of the monomer(s), with the heat transfer capacities of the reactor in which the polymerization takes place. Consequently, even when the operating conditions of polymerization promote the production of latices containing particles which have a particle size distribution with a lower polydispersity coefficient, the said polydispersity coefficient is generally greater than 0.1. In the second stage, a seeded emulsion polymerization is carried out in the presence of the latex originating from the first stage, as the seed material. A latex is obtained in which the particles have a mean diameter generally ranging from 0.3 to 0.9 .mu.m, higher than that of the particles of the seed material, and having a particle size distribution with a lower polydispersity coefficient, but which is still, in the majority of cases, greater than 0.08. Consequently, in order to obtain a latex containing coarse monodisperse particles, it becomes necessary to carry out more than two stages of polymerization, by employing as seed material, at each stage, from the second stage forwards, the latex originating from the preceding stage and employing a high proportion of seed polymer. Not infrequently, it becomes necessary to conduct four or five polymerization stages, and this entails protracted and costly operations, with loss of product at each stage.
In the article Plastics and Rubber: Materials and Applications, "Mechanism of emulsifier-free emulsion polymerization of vinyl chloride", Feb. 1980, pages 21 to 24, J. Laaksonen and P. Stenius have described a technique for polymerizing vinyl chloride in aqueous emulsion which consists of operating in the complete absence of emulsifier, and in the presence of an alkali metal or ammonium persulfate as a water-soluble initiator, employed in a large quantity. In this article, the authors describe the means which enable a polyvinyl chloride latex containing monodisperse particles having a mean diameter ranging from 0.380 .mu.m to 0.535 .mu.m to be produced in a single stage. These means consist of the addition to the reaction medium, before polymerization, of a salt such as, for example, potassium chloride or calcium chloride, the cation of which, designated a counterion, is of a specified nature and is present in a specified amount. The mean particle diameter of the latex obtained is a function of the intensity of stirring of the reaction mixture. It is proportionally higher, all other parameters remaining unchanged, the greater the intensity of stirring.
It has now been found, however, that the technique described by Laaksonen and Stenius suffers from the following disadvantages: the molecular weight of the polymer obtained depends on the intensity of stirring of the reaction mixture; it is proportionally higher, all other parameters remaining unchanged, the greater the intensity of stirring. The latices prepared by seeded emulsion polymerization in the presence of a latex prepared according to this technique, as a seeding material, contain nonspherical particles, and this renders them unsuitable for many applications.

Monodisperse particle latices of vinyl chloride polymers