A radio base station determines at least any one type of subframe constituted of multiple system information subframes for sending system information to a mobile station, paging subframes for sending paging messages for the mobile station in idle mode, or on-duration subframes corresponding to on-durations at which the mobile station receives downlink control channel signals in discontinuous reception mode for the downlink control channel signals. The radio base station allocates, to the mobile station, inter-frequency measurement periods for inter-frequency measurement at the mobile station, while avoiding simultaneous occurrence of inter-frequency measurement periods and the subframes determined by the subframe determiner.

A mobile communication system called a W-CDMA (Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access) system or a UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) has been standardized and has been in widespread use in many countries including Japan and European countries. Hereinafter, W-CDMA and UMTS will be referred to as 3G. In addition, an LTE (Long Term Evolution) system has been standardized as a next generation communication system using OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) in which communication speed is significantly enhanced compared to the 3 G communication system.
Background Art 1
In the LTE system, it is set so that a radio base station (eNB (evolved Node B)) broadcasts system information to multiple mobile stations (UEs (user equipment) as in Non-patent Document 1, Section 5.2. According to Non-patent Document 1, system information includes an MIB (Master Information Block) and multiple SIBs (System Information Blocks). MIB includes most essential and most frequently transmitted parameters for mobile stations. SIBs include System Information Block Type 1 and other SIBs (System Information Block Type 2, etc.). SIBs other than System Information Block Type 1 are grouped into some groups and included in SI (System Information) messages. Hereinafter, System Information Block Type 1 will be referred to as SIB1, and SI messages may be represented as SI-n in which n is an integer from 1 to 32.
These system information blocks and system information messages are periodically sent from the radio base station. FIGS. 1 and 2 show examples of transmission of system information transmitted from the radio base station. As shown in FIG. 1, SIB1 is sent periodically. Non-patent Document 1 stipulates that the periodicity of SIB1 is 80 ins. However, it stipulates that the same SIB1 may be repeatedly transmitted within the 80 ms periodicity, taking into consideration of failure of reception at mobile stations. In the example of FIG. 2, the retransmission cycle of SIB-1 is 20 ms. As shown in FIG. 2, the frequency band at which SIB-1 is sent is dynamically decided by dynamic scheduling
As shown in FIG. 2, the MIB is also sent periodically. Non-patent Document 1 stipulates that the periodicity of MIB is 40 ms. However, it stipulates that the same MIB may be repeatedly transmitted within the 40 ms periodicity, taking into consideration of failure of reception at mobile stations. In the example of FIG. 2, the retransmission cycle of the MIB is 10 ins. As shown in FIG. 2, the frequency band at which the MIB is sent is fixed.
As shown in FIG. 1, SI messages are also transmitted periodically. More specifically, the SI messages are transmitted within periodically occurring time domain windows (referred to as SI-windows). For example, the cycle of SI-windows of SI-1 is 160 ms, the cycle of SI-windows of SI-2 is 320 ms, the cycle of SI-windows of SI-3 is 640 ms, and the cycle of SI-windows SI-4 is 1280 ins. Taking into consideration of failure of reception at mobile stations, in each SI-window, the same type of SI message may be repeatedly transmitted. For example, the leftmost SI-window in FIG. 2 is an SI-window for SI-1 in which SI-1 is repeatedly transmitted. The second left SI-window in FIG. 2 is an SI-window for SI-2 in which SI-2 is repeatedly transmitted. In FIG. 2, the SI-window for SI-1, the SI-window for SI-2, the SI-window for SI-3, and the SI-window for SI-4 are arranged consecutively, but since different types of SI messages have different cycles of SI-windows, it is not always true that these SI-windows are arranged consecutively in the next and subsequent rounds. In other words, FIG. 2 depicts the details of a period II in FIG. 1.
The length of the SI-window is configurable, but is 20 ms in the example of FIG. 2. When the transmission cycle of the MIB is 10 ms as described above, the MIB is sent twice in each SI-window. When the transmission cycle of SIB-1 is 20 ms, SIB-1 is sent once in each SI-window. The time periods (more specifically, subframes) and the frequency band at which SI messages are sent within each SI-window are dynamically decided by the radio base station using dynamic scheduling.
Background Art 2
In the 3G system and the LTE system, a radio base station (Node B in the 3G system, eNB in LTE system) periodically informs each mobile station whether or not call termination occurs. It is stipulated that mobile stations may use discontinuous reception (DRX) in idle mode for receiving paging messages (messages for imparting call termination) from the radio base station in (for example, Non-patent Document 2, Section 7).
Non-patent Document 2 concerning the LTE system stipulates that a Paging Occasion (PO) that is a subframe at which a paging message is sent and a Paging Frame (PF) that is a radio frame which may contain one or more Paging Occasions should be calculated by the equations below. The PO and the PF are calculated at both the radio base station (eNB) and the mobile station.
The system frame number (SFN) of a PF is given by the following equation:SFN mod T=(T div N)*(UE_ID mod N)where the value T is the DRX cycle of the mobile station for receiving paging messages, and is represented by the number of radio frames the number of radio frames. N is the least value of T and nB. The value nB is selected from among 4T, 2T, T, T/2, T/4, T/8, T/16, and T/32.
UE_ID is given by the following equation:UE_ID=IMSI mod 1024where IMSI is the IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) of the mobile station, and each mobile station knows the IMSI of the mobile station itself. The mobile station imparts its IMSI to the MME (Mobile Management Entity) that in turn imparts the IMSI to the radio base station.
In the PF thus obtained, the subframe number of the PO is given as follows.
First, index i_s is given by the following equation:i—s=floor(UE_ID/N)mod Ns where Ns the maximum of 1 and nB/T.
Next, from Table 1 or 2, the PO corresponding to Ns and index i_s is determined. Table 1 is applied for an LTE FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) system whereas Table 2 is applied for an LTE TDD (Time Division Duplex) system. In Tables 1 and 2, N/A denotes "not applied".
TABLE 1PO whenPO whenNsi_s = 0i_s = 1PO when i_s = 2PO when i_s = 319N/AN/AN/A249N/AN/A40459
TABLE 2PO whenPO whenNsi_s = 0i_s = 1PO when i_s = 2PO when i_s = 310N/AN/AN/A205N/AN/A40156
In the periodical POs of the PFs thus obtained, paging messages are sent from the radio base station and are received at the mobile station.
Background Art 3
In the LTE system, for the PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel, downlink control channel), discontinuous reception (DRX) is applied (Non-patent Document 3, Section 5.7). More specifically, when the radio base station and a mobile station are connected, and when there is no data to be communicated, the mobile station discontinuously receives a downlink control signal on the PDCCH. The period at which the mobile station receives the PDCCH downlink control signal is referred to as an on-duration. The mobile station activates its reception circuit for monitoring the PDCCH signal only in the on-durations, rather than always activating its reception circuit, so that power consumption can be reduced.
FIG. 3 shows an example of discontinuous reception on the PDCCH. In the on-durations, the reception circuit is activated, whereas the reception circuit is deactivated otherwise. The Long DRX Cycle is the cycle of the on-duration. The Long DRX Cycle Start Offset indicatives the commencement of the on-duration. The on-duration is specified by the Long DRX Cycle and the Long DRX Cycle Start Offset. The length of the on-duration is 1 to 200 subframes, and the Long DRX Cycle is 10 to 2560 subframes. The radio base station allocates the on-durations to mobile stations that are connected to the radio base station on the basis of parameters managed by the radio base station, and imparts the allocated on-duration to the corresponding mobile station.
Background Art 4
In the LTE system, when measurement of quality is conducted by a mobile station for a frequency band that is different from the frequency band in the serving cell, the serving base station allocates measurement gaps to the mobile station. In other words, if there is possibility that the serving base station handovers a mobile station to neighboring base station that uses a frequency band that is different from that used by the serving base station, the serving base station instructs the mobile station to activate measurement gaps in order that the mobile station can measure quality at the frequency band of the neighboring base station (i.e., in order that the mobile station is able to perform inter-frequency measurement).
In measurement gaps, the mobile station measures a quality at the frequency band used by the neighboring base station. In other words, the measurement gap is an inter-frequency measurement period for the mobile station to perform inter-frequency measurement. In the measurement gaps, the mobile station cannot receive signals from the serving base station. Accordingly, the serving base station does not transmit data to the mobile station in measurement gaps (Non-patent Document 1, Section 5.5.1 and Non-patent Document 4, Section 22.214.171.124).
FIG. 4 shows periodicity of measurement gaps. In the measurement gaps, the mobile station performs inter-frequency measurement, and it is communicable with the serving base station. The MGRP (Measurement Gap Repetition Period) is the repetition cycle of measurement gaps. The gap offset indicates the commencement of the measurement gap. The measurement gap is specified by the MGRP and the gap offset. The length of the measurement gaps is 6 ms (i.e., 6 subframes), and the length of the MGRP is 40 ms (i.e., 40 subframes) or 80 ms (i.e., 80 subframes) according to Non-patent Document 4, Section 18.104.22.168. The serving base station allocates the measurement gaps to mobile stations that are connected to the radio base station.


An implantable body including an outer membrane forming an enclosure for receiving a filler material. The surface of the outer membrane is characterized by a random distribution of peaks separated by valleys. The peaks and valleys are separated by gradual contoured slopes with a smooth transition between the peaks and valleys which are substantially free from indentation. The enhanced surface provides improved anchoring of the implant, yet reduces host reaction. The enhanced surface is formed by depositing a distribution of cured polymeric particles on an uncured tacky surface. This intermediate surface is then cured, followed by application of a layer of uncured elastomeric material. The entire surface is then cured to form the enhanced surface.

Implantable devices, particularly mass transfer devices, breast implants, prosthesis and tissue expanders, are generally known. Many of these devices include a sack-like or envelope-like bladder which is manufactured from an elastomeric material such as silicone rubber and then filled with a liquid or gel. The liquid or gel filling can be a silicone fluid or a saline solution. A combination of an elastomeric envelope and liquid or gel fill material is utilized to imitate properties of the tissue being replaced or supplemented in breast implants. An expander may be an expandable bladder with a local or remote port to add or remove liquid or gel. In tissue expanders, the same general design allows variable degrees of expansion.
Initially developed soft pliable prosthetic implants included a smooth surface. It was felt that the smooth surface would elicit a minimal foreign body reaction. This was found to be true, however, the smooth surface prevented attachment of the scar capsule to the prosthesis so that any movement of the host created a shearing effect which lead to a later and perhaps more severe encapsulation response if the prosthesis was subject to trauma or some sort of infection in the area of implant.
Picha, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,572, discloses that it is known that the implantation of an article or material into soft tissue initiates a sequence of physiological events in which the body attempts to remove or isolate the foreign entity. The presence of an implant may lead to the formation of a collagen layer of increased density as part of the host's attempt to isolate the foreign body. Such layers are referred to as the "fibrous capsule" and its formation is dependent upon a multiplicity of factors including surgical procedure, implant shape and size, relative movement between and surrounding tissue, and surface morphology of the implant or texture.
Picha discloses an implant in which the surface of the device in tissue contact is molded to provide a regular pattern of micropillars at least 100 microns (.mu.m) in height with transverse dimensions and interpillar spacing each no greater than 5000 microns. Picha discloses that micropillars have been found to influence the density, vascularity, and cellularity of the capsule surrounding the implant.
Ersek et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,909, disclose that capsular contracture causing firmness of soft silicone implants is a serious problem that may result from several causative factors that have, as their final pathway, the development of increased scar tissue. Ersek et al. state that this problem may be reduced by forming a net-like three-dimensional grid on the silicone surface in order to gain fibroblast ingrowth into the interstices and thus prevent micromotion at the host prosthesis interface.
G. Picha and D. Siedlak, in "Ion-Beam Microtexturing of Biomaterials", MD and DI, pp. 39-42 (April, 1984), disclose a method to manufacture uniform pillar projections on the surface of an implant using ion-beam thruster technology. Although this method overcomes the disadvantages of the open cell method (discussed below), it is believed a costly process and uneconomical to apply to custom-shaped surfaces.
The pillar surface structure of Picha '572, Ersek et al. '909 and Picha and Siedlak ion-beamed surfacing technology is generally depicted in FIG. 4.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,744, issued to Quaid, a method for making a medical implant with an open cell textured surface is disclosed. The implant has an open cell texture produced by applying soluble particles (e.g., salt, sugar, etc.) to an uncured layer of silicone dispersion. The silicone layer is then fully cured. Subsequent to curing, the silicone layer is then placed in a suitable solvent so that the solid particles are dissolved from the surface of the shell. This method creates open cells on the surface of the implantable body. This prior art device is depicted in FIG. 5.
The open cell structure manufacturing technique is believed to pose three potential problems. First, introduction of a foreign or non-silicone particle to the surface of the uncured silicone can affect the properties of the silicone during the curing process or over the life of the implant. The open cell structure also creates potential silicone fragments which can easily become detached from the open cell structure or cell wall as can be readily seen by the physical shape of the cells in FIG. 5. Finally, use of a soluble particle requires that the particle be fully dissolved prior to implant. If the particle is not fully dissolved or the particle becomes encapsulated by the silicone, such particles may be released from the surface after implantation. This may be detrimental.
Thus, it is generally known to alter the surface morphology or topology of an implantable device to improve the host prosthesis interface. It will also be appreciated that the selection of an altered surface configuration requires balancing between having sufficient texturing to provide adequate anchoring of the implant and having a textured design which minimizes adverse body reaction. Thus, the ideal implant provides sufficient anchoring while minimizing the encapsulation response and subsequent scar tissue.
Other considerations in selecting the technology for altering or texturing the implantable device include the cost of the method, along with any potential hazards the method may create in the final implantable device. As was seen with the open cell textured method, the potential for contamination from the soluble particles or fragmentation of a cell wall may pose a problem. Further, the ion-beam thruster method may be considered uneconomical.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved or enhanced implant surface morphology or topology which provides sufficient anchoring at the host prosthesis interface while minimizing the reaction of the human body to the foreign body implant. Further, a method to manufacture such enhanced surface is needed. The selected implant enhanced surface should also have a closed cell structure without interstices which is economically manufactured. The present invention addresses these needs as well as other problems associated with existing textured surface implants. The present invention also offers further advantages over the prior art and solves other problems associated therewith.

Enhanced surface implant and method of manufacture


An emissions control system for a vehicle having an exhaust system with an exhaust gas conduit and a catalytic converter configured to receive exhaust gas from an engine is provided. In one example implementation, the system includes an engine controller configured to control the engine to adjust an air to fuel ratio (lambda) thereof. The engine controller is configured to operate the engine with at least one of the following lambda control strategies (i) a first control strategy comprising operating at a first reference lambda modified by a first percent kick, and a first rich lambda lag time shorter than a first lean lambda lag time, and (ii) a second control strategy comprising operating at a second reference lambda modified by a second percent kick, and a second rich lag time longer than a second lean lambda lag time, to thereby simultaneously meet predetermined NOx and CO emissions targets.

Many vehicles include internal combustion engines that typically produce undesirable exhaust emissions and particles that may, if untreated, be potentially harmful to the environment. These byproducts of the combustion process can include unburnt hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and other particles. Most modern vehicles are equipped with an exhaust system having a catalytic converter which functions to reduce or significantly eliminate such exhaust gas pollutants.
One type of catalytic converter is known as a three-way conversion (TWC) catalyst, which facilitates the oxidation of unburned HC and CO, and the reduction of NOx in the exhaust gas. TWC catalytic converters are designed to have oxygen storage capability to improve their conversion efficiency. In addition, the TWC catalytic converters are designed to be effective over stoichiometric, lean, and rich air-to-fuel ratios (lambda) such that NOx is reduced to N2 when the engine runs lean (oxygen rich) cycles, and CO is oxidized to CO2 when the engine runs rich (oxygen poor) cycles. In this way, the engine lambda is controlled for a given engine operating condition in order to simultaneously meet tailpipe CO and NOx emissions targets. However, due to narrow constraints, it may be difficult to quickly reach target lambda values for those given engine operating conditions. Thus, while current systems do work well for their intended purpose, there remains a need for improvement in the relevant art.

Engine lambda dynamic control strategy for exhaust emission reduction


A polar modulator (200) comprises a modulation generator (10) arranged to generate phase modulation data and amplitude modulation data; and a phase modulation stage (20) arranged to generate a phase modulated, PM, carrier signal and a PM clock signal, wherein the PM carrier signal has a PM carrier signal frequency and the PM clock signal has a PM clock signal frequency, and the PM carrier signal frequency is higher than the PM clock signal frequency, the PM carrier signal and the PM clock signal are phase modulated by the phase modulation data, and the phase modulation stage (20) comprises an adjustable delay stage (50) arranged to adjust a relative delay between the PM carrier signal and the PM clock signal to a target value. The polar modulator (200) further comprises a re-timing circuit (40) arranged to generate an amplitude modulation, AM, clock signal by re-timing the PM clock signal with the PM carrier signal; an amplitude modulation stage (30) arranged to employ the AM clock signal to clock the amplitude modulation data into the amplitude modulation stage (30) and arranged to amplitude modulate the PM carrier signal with the amplitude modulation data; an error detection stage (60) arranged to generate an indication of a magnitude of a first deviation of the AM clock signal from a target condition; and a control stage (70) arranged to select the target value of the relative delay by determining, by controlling the adjustment of the relative delay by the adjustable delay stage (50), a first value of the relative delay that maximizes the magnitude of the first deviation, and applying an offset to the first value of the relative delay.

There is a requirement for wireless communication devices to have increased spectral efficiency and reduced power consumption. Advanced modulation schemes can provide increased spectral efficiency, but these can require transmitters that can amplify a signal having a non-constant envelope.
A polar modulator enables a transmitter for a non-constant envelope signal to be implemented in a power-efficient manner. In a polar modulator, a phase component and an amplitude component of a modulation signal are processed separately. A carrier signal is phase modulated by the phase component. The phase modulated carrier signal has constant amplitude, and therefore can be amplified in a power-efficient amplifier. The amplitude modulation is applied to the phase modulated carrier signal after the amplification.
Therefore, there is a requirement for an improved polar modulator.


The system (1) is used for the automatic calibration of an imaging-antenna arrangement (2) using an evaluation unit (4). The antenna arrangement (2) transmits signals (6) and receives the signals (6′) reflected from a calibration object (3) of known shape. The calibration object (3, 31, 32) provides at least one diffuse reflector (8). In the evaluation method, position coordinates of the calibration object (3) are entered, and the following method steps are implemented after the measurement of the reflected signals (6′):    i. Calculation of the reflections of the calibration object (3, 31, 32),    ii. Calculation of calibration data,    iii. Preparation of an image of the calibration object with the use of the calibration data,    iv. Determination of corrected position coordinates by evaluating the image of the at least one diffuse reflector,    v. Implementation of steps i. to iv. with corrected position coordinates.

Active imaging-antenna arrangements for the millimeter and microwave range are becoming increasingly important as a result of their diversity of possible uses in the fields of medicine and industry.
Such antenna arrangements comprise a plurality of individual transmission and reception antennas, whereas each antenna transmits a signal in succession, which is reflected from an object, and the reflected signal is received by all of the reception antennas. This is performed either at a single frequency or stepwise at different frequencies. In this context, both the amplitude and the phase of the received signal are measured. Using a digital beam-forming algorithm (digital beam-forming), it is possible to calculate back from this to the corresponding object points, which have reflected the received signal, and accordingly, an image of the entire reflected body can be prepared.
Such an antenna arrangement is described, for example, in an article in "IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques", Vol. 59, No. 12, pages 3567-3576, December 2011, entitled "A Novel Fully Electronic Active Real Time Imager Based on a Planar Multi-static Sparse Array". To ensure that the focusing process for such an antenna arrangement functions with a digital beam-forming method, a well-defined phase must be present between the individual transmitter and receiver pair. In order to achieve this, a calibration of every transmitter/receiver pair is implemented. In an antenna device with hundreds or thousands of transmitter and receiver units, a measurement of the direct connection of every combination is not possible. Accordingly, the calibration of an antenna device which operates in the reflection mode using a calibration object which provides a simple and regular geometry is described in the above-named article. The measurements with the calibration object are then compared with simulation results or with previous reference measurements in order to calculate the systematic error in the antenna device. These investigated errors are determined for every transmitter/receiver pair, for all frequencies used. For this purpose, for example, a metal plate positioned at a predetermined distance is used as the calibration object.
One major problem with this calibration method is that the relative position between the calibration object and the antenna device must itself be observed very accurately. Since these antenna devices operate in the millimeter-wave range, the spacing distance between the calibration object and the antenna device, as well as the position and the orientation of the calibration object must be known with greater accuracy than one wavelength, whereas the spacing distance between the antenna device and the calibration object corresponds to hundreds of wavelengths. With a maximum the phase error of 5° and a signal wavelength of 100 GHz, an accuracy of approximately 40 μm in the spacing distance is therefore required. Such accuracy can only be achieved with very high mechanical costs.

Method, system and calibration target for the automatic calibration of an imaging antenna array


A robot hand includes a finger unit that includes a first knuckle section that is supported to a predetermined base section and a second knuckle section that is supported to the first knuckle section; a drive section that includes a male screw that is rotatable around a predetermined screw axis by a predetermined drive source and a female screw that is screw-coupled with the male screw and moves in an axial direction of the screw axis according to rotation of the male screw, in which the female screw and the first knuckle section are connected to each other so that the first knuckle section moves in association with movement of the female screw; and a link section that connects the first knuckle section and the second knuckle section so that the second knuckle section moves in association with movement of the first knuckle section.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a robot hand and a robot device.
2. Related Art
In the related art, a robot hand has been proposed that is mounted at a tip of an industrial robot arm or the like and holds and releases an object to perform a predetermined operation. More specifically, a multifunctional robot hand has been proposed that holds a tool to perform an operation such as assembly of components and holds minute components to arrange the minute components with accuracy (for example, refer to JP-A-60-25686).
JP-A-60-25686 discloses a robot hand technique that uses a differential gear mechanism and a spring as a passive element and can reliably and stably hold a holding target (object) in spite of change in the shape of the object, thereby having sufficient adaptability against external disturbance.
However, the robot hand and the robot device in the related art have the following problems.
That is, in the robot hand in the related art, the passive element has a simple function of opening or closing all the fingers but does not have a function of diversifying a contact point according to fitness of a finger unit to an object. Thus, two finger units included in the robot hand cannot be in contact with the object at multiple contact points, which makes it difficult to hold the object in a stable state.
Further, in the robot hand in the related art, since the shape of the fingers of the hand is fixed, it is difficult to perform an operation with the ball (inside) of the finger being in close contact with the object, for example.


A handheld balloon launcher includes a housing with an axially offset chamber formed therein. A vertically registered intake port defines a linear passageway in which filled water balloons are stacked. A launching plate is selectively adaptable along a longitudinal length of the chamber. A trigger mechanism activates the launching plate between a compressed and an extended position. A mechanism returns the launching plate to the compressed position while simultaneously depositing one of the water balloons in front of the launching plate. The returning mechanism includes a spring member with a diameter equal to a diameter of the chamber and anchored to a proximal end thereof, and extendable along the longitudinal length of the chamber. The launching plate maintains a static relationship with the returning mechanism, and the returning mechanism is independently operable from the triggering mechanism.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to launching apparatuses and, more particularly, to a handheld balloon launching apparatus for assisting a user to propel a plurality of filled water balloons along a predetermined trajectory.
2. Prior Art
Toy balloons are typically made from latex rubber or similar expandable material, and are usually filled with air or other gas for use as a toy or decoration. Alternatively, many users desire to fill their balloons with water or other liquid so they may use them as "water balloons", which can then be thrown to intentionally break or "explode" upon impact with a target as such as the ground, or an unfortunate playmate. Most users fill a water balloon by expanding the balloon opening (neck) over a sink faucet, hose bib, drinking fountain, or other pressurized water supply fitting. The user then opens the water supply valve so that the pressurized water fills the balloon with water to the desired volume, whereupon the user closes the water supply valve, removes the filled balloon from the fitting, and ties off and seals the neck of the water balloon for play.
One prior art example shows game participant enclosure for a water balloon game that includes a plurality of side walls and an overhead protector and water balloon engager supported by the side walls. The protector and engager includes a water balloon opening sufficiently large for a water balloon to pass therethrough from the interior of the enclosure and a plurality of water openings sufficiently small to prevent water balloons from entering the enclosure. A water balloon launcher is disposed within the enclosure such that water balloons are launchable through the water balloon opening. In one aspect of the invention, two such enclosures are positioned a selected distance from each other and water balloons are launched from one enclosure to the other to splash the participants in the opposing enclosure. Unfortunately, such an apparatus is complicated and time consuming to set up, and also requires a large amount of free space in which to set up the apparatus.
Another prior art example shows a tossing game apparatus and method utilizing a compactable shield launching device, including a base, a shield support pivotally mounted to the base, with a shield positioned on the shield support. A launching device may be supported independently or off of the shield support to create a solid or compactable launching device which is selectively positionable in both an extended position and a flat compacted travel position. A filling station is also described which is either solid or movable between an extended filling position and a reduced volume travel position. Unfortunately, such an apparatus is complicated to use and not easily transportable. Such an apparatus is difficult for youths and those with limited dexterity to easily use.
Accordingly, a need remains for a handheld balloon launching apparatus in order to overcome the above-noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing an apparatus that is simple and easy to use, is lightweight yet durable in design, and assists a user to propel a plurality of filled water balloons along a predetermined trajectory. Such an apparatus provides a new and exciting way to enjoy the classic game of water balloon toss. The apparatus conveniently provides a user with a fun and thrilling alternative to throwing water balloons by hand. The apparatus allows a user to effectively deliver a multitude of filled water balloons to a target without having to stop and refill more water balloons. The present invention is inexpensive, simple to operate, and designed for many years of repeated use.


A lateral flow testing device is provided for testing a biological fluid for the presence of methamphetamines. The device includes a substrate element such as a nitrocellulose strip, including an antibody zone and an immobilized drug conjugate zone for detecting presence of methamphetamines, and an on-board chemical reactant for preventing undesirable cross-reactivity to ephedrine and/or pseudoephedrine that may be present in the biological fluid being tested. Preferably, the on-board chemical reactant is sodium periodate. Methods for preparing test devices are provided including the step of striping a substrate sheet with a solution containing sodium periodate during manufacture of methamphetamine lateral flow test strips.

The present invention generally relates to a test device and method for testing a biological fluid for the presence of certain xe2x80x9cdrugs of abusexe2x80x9d, and more specifically relates to a lateral flow testing device and method for testing for the presence of methamphetamines in a biological sample and the elimination of undesirable cross-reactivity to other substances that may be present in the sample.
Clinical diagnosis relates, in general, to the determination and measurement of various substances which relate to the health or general status of an individual. Physicians, health care workers and the general public as well are concerned about the presence and levels of various substances in body fluids such as blood, urine, and so forth. Among the substances which have been measured in clinical analysis for a long time are glucose, cholesterol, and various enzymes such as amylase and creatine kinase.
Lateral flow testing devices are widely used for detecting of specific compounds, or analytes, in a biological fluid specimen. One or more reagents are striped onto a solid material, such as a cellulose or paper strip, the reagents being selected as necessary or helpful in detection of the analyte in question. A fluid sample, is deposited onto the strip and will migrate, by capillary action, along the strip where the chemical reactions may take place, depending upon the presence or absence of the analyte, in situ.
Devices for testing for the presence of substances-of-abuse, for example, drugs regulated by law with respect to possession and use, by chemical analysis of a biological fluid sample are well known. In the past, methamphetamines have been detected using a number of techniques, including thin layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography (GC), and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). These methods generally involve chemical extractions of the drugs, complicated procedures requiring highly trained personnel and lengthy assay times. Thin layer chromatography is labor intensive and lacks sensitivity. Gas chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography each of which is also labor intensive, require highly trained personnel to carry out extractions of the analyte from the biological matrix. In addition, gas chromatography normally requires a derivation step.
More recently, competitive binding immunoassays have been developed for testing a biological fluid for the presence of certain substances of abuse, and these provide a preferable alternative to the physical methods described briefly hereinabove. Immunoassay test devices generally include an absorbent, fibrous strip having one or more reagents incorporated at specific zones on the strip. The fluid sample is deposited on the strip and by capillary action the sample will migrate along the strip, entering specific reagent zones in which a chemical reaction may take place. At least one reagent is included which manifests a detectable response, for example a color change, in the presence of a minimal amount of the substance of interest.
A limitation with lateral flow xe2x80x9cdrugs of abusexe2x80x9d testing products based on immunoassay technologies is the potential false positive resulting from the client using over the counter products, such as diet substances or sinus relief medications. These products may contain the active substances ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. Several methamphetamine immunoassay based lateral flow testing products will exhibit undesirable cross-reactivity with this group of sympathomimetic amines. This produces a xe2x80x9cfalsexe2x80x9d positive initial screening result, which typically requires the fluid sample to be sent to a laboratory for further testing and confirmation of the result. The confirmation laboratory may use several ancillary procedures followed by gas chromatographyxe2x80x94mass spectrometry (xe2x80x9cGC/MSxe2x80x9d) analysis in order to address possible cross-reactivity issues. The GC/MS procedure involves chemical extractions of the drugs in question, complicated procedures and requires highly trained personnel.
Pretreatment of a urine sample prior to immunoassay testing in order to reduce the occurrence of false positives has been proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,333 to Heiman et al., issued on Nov. 16, 1993, discloses a method for determining amphetamine and d-methamphetamines in a urine sample using fluorescence polarization immunoassay techniques. The procedure described in the Heiman, et al. patent includes a step of pretreating the urine sample to eliminate cross-reactivity (i.e. the recognition of compounds other than the desired substance of interest) by preincubating the sample with an aqueous periodate solution having a pH of about 4.5. According to Heiman et al., the described procedure will reduce the occurrence of xe2x80x9cfalsexe2x80x9d positives resulting from cross-reactivity for 1-methamphetamine, and other amphetamine-like compounds, commonly occurring in prescriptions and over-the-counter medications.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,955, issued on Nov. 12, 1996 to Khanna et al., describes a method for reducing or eliminating tyramine interference from amphetamine and methamphetamine immunoassays, including pretreating the sample with aqueous tyramine oxidase for a time and at a temperature and pH sufficient to deaminate any tyramine present in the sample. The pretreated sample is then applied to an immunoassay test device.
It would be beneficial to have an easy-to-use, inexpensive, reliable device and method for testing a biological fluid specimen for the presence of certain drugs-of-abuse, without the need for complicated, costly confirmation procedures, and without requiring a pretreatment step to reduce or eliminate potential occurrences of xe2x80x9cfalse positivexe2x80x9d results. The present invention provides such a device and method.
Accordingly, devices and methods are provided by the present invention that are useful for detecting a presence of certain substances of abuse, for example methamphetamine, without presenting cross-reactivity issues to other similar substances that may be present in sample.
Particularly, a competitive inhibition assay test device is provided. The device generally comprises a substrate, for example a nitrocellulose test strip having a sample introduction portion and a drug detection portion. Incorporated onto the drug detection portion is means for detecting a presence of methamphetamines in a sample of biological fluid, for example urine. The drug detection means includes a color particle coupled antibody and an immobilized drug conjugate zone. The immobilized drug conjugate zone is in the form of a line on the strip and is retained through physisorption. When a sample is introduced onto the sample pad, it migrates onto the conjugate pad and solubilizes the coupled antibody. The sample and the color tagged antibody travel down the lateral flow strip and is wicked onto an absorbent end pad which serves to drive the sample through the strip via capillary action. The mobilized colored antibody migrates down the strip toward the drug conjugate line. If the antibody recognizes the drug on the drug conjugate line, a portion of the solution is stopped and forms a colored line. The remainder continues to flow down the strip where another portion interacts with a nonspecific xe2x80x9ctest validxe2x80x9d line. The remainder flows into an end pad connected to the strip. Such methamphetamine test strips as are well known and therefor the details of manufacturing such strips are not included herein.
Importantly, however, unlike conventional methamphetamine test devices, the present device further comprises an additional chemical reagent disposed on-board the substrate strip. This additional chemical reagent provides means for preventing undesirable cross-reactivity caused by the presence of certain active compounds, such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, that may be present in the fluid specimen. More specifically, the chemical reagent comprises sodium periodate, applied or striped onto the substrate. The sodium periodate is applied to a portion or zone of the substrate positioned between the antibody zone and the immobilized drug conjugate zone. It has been found that placement of the sodium periodate zone is critical to the effectiveness of the present device. Placement of the sodium periodate zone in a different location on the strip, e.g. prior to the colored particle antibody zone, is ineffective in preventing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine related interference problems.
Advantageously, the present device provides a simple, inexpensive, reliable methamphetamine test strip that will not exhibit so called xe2x80x9cfalsexe2x80x9d positive test results, even when used for methamphetamine screening of an untreated urine specimen which contains ephedrine or pseudoephedrine.

Lateral flow testing device with on-board chemical reactant


A wireless camera including an enclosure having a lens opening; an imaging sensor positioned toward the lens opening; memory coupled to the camera to receive image data from the imaging sensor; and a wireless transmitter coupled to the camera.

The present invention relates to a portable wireless imaging system.
As the popularity of digital cameras grows, the desire of digital camera users to share their images with others will also continue to grow. The best approaches to photo-sharing take advantage of the Internet. One such approach is for users to store the digital images on a PC and then send the images to others using email. Several Internet companies now offer an even more convenient approach by providing photo-sharing websites that allow users to store their images for free and to arrange the images into web-based photo albums. Once posted on a photo-sharing website, others may view the images over the Internet.
While convenient for storing digital images, getting the images to the photo-sharing websites can be challenging for users. Most commonly, users must upload their images from the digital camera to a PC using a cable or IrDA, or by inserting the camera's flash card into the PC. From the PC, the user logs onto the Internet and uploads the images to a photo-sharing website. After uploading the images, the user works on the website to arrange the images into web albums and to add any textual information.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,361 discussed an approach to uploading images to the web that does not require the use of a PC. In this approach, an email software application is loaded into a digital camera capable of running software that allows the user to e-mail the images directly from the camera. The user simply connects his or her digital camera to a cellphone or modem, runs the e-mail application, and selects the desired images and the email recipients. The selected images are then sent to the recipients as e-mail attachments.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,361 also disclosed a meta-application architecture for integrating photo-service-based websites. The online system includes a plurality of client devices capable of storing and displaying digital images, wherein a portion of the client devices communicate data in different formats. The system also includes a plurality of online photo-service sites, wherein each of the photo-service sites utilize different data models. The online system further includes a server for communicating with both the client devices and the photo-service sites over a network. A meta-application is also provided that is accessible by the server for defining a common data model format for the different formats of the photo-service sites. In operation, when a request is received from a client device for photo-services from a particular photo-service site, the request is passed to the photo-service site. When a response from the photo-service site is received, the response is converted from the data model of the photo-service site to the common data model format, and the converted request is then presented to the requesting client device in the data format required by the requesting client device.
Although emailing photos directly from the camera allows users who do not own a PC to share images over the Internet, these users must still establish accounts with both an Internet service provider (ISP) and the photo-sharing website before being able to post their images. Cameras are not designed for text entry, and the information required may be somewhat technical in nature. Consequently, establishing the accounts by entering account and configuration data on the digital camera itself may prove to be a difficult task for most users.


Portfolio accounting systems and methods are adapted to handle uncertainty in accounting information due to time delay in information issuance. Accounting information is represented by streams of sequenced simple transaction states, each individual state describing the state of an account or its changes as known at a certain point in time while the stream ties the consecutive states into a life cycle of the information improving over time. A first simple transaction state attribute corresponds to the traditional value date. A second attribute corresponds to a reporting date. A third attribute corresponds to the traditional account value or relative/absolute changes thereof.

Traditional portfolio accounting systems track account balances over time by using data pairs attributed to each account, each pair reflecting one of (a) the number of shares, (b) the share price or (c) a monetary value of an account plus the respective value date. This is sufficient for accounts where this information is confidently known at any single past and present value date. E.g. for a portfolio investing in stock exchange traded equity, the exact number of shares held of a given equity is known at any past and present point in time. Equally well known are one or a list of prices (e.g. offer, bid at one or multiple stock exchanges) of this share for each given past or present value date. The value of the portfolio position in our example for any given value date is derived by multiplying the number of shares held at this point in time (the value date) with the appropriate price known for this value date (one of the listed above or algorithmically derived of this list, maybe even in combination with some additional information like risk adjustment factors). However, an important example of where a traditional portfolio accounting system insufficiently models the business information and processes is the area of investments in alternative financial instruments, e.g. hedge funds or private equity. Final confirmed prices/values of these investments for a given value date, i.e. the price at which these investments are bought/sold, are only retrospectively known, e.g. 15 business days after their value date. On the other hand, estimate prices with a degree of fuzziness/uncertainty from different sources are often issued prior to the issuance date of the final price referring to the same value date. Many hedge funds are traded monthly, i.e. there is a trade/dealing date once a month at which investors can buy or sell shares of the fund. For this date, a final price at which investors can buy/sell is determined. The hedge fund manager may issue intermediate, e.g. weekly, prices or performance returns for his fund between the monthly final valuation dates. As he requires time to produce these intermediates, their issuance will typically, following the same time delay scheme as the monthly final trade prices, be a few days after the value date they are applicable for. For example, between the value date, say 30 January, and the issuance date of the final price, say 18 February, the hedge fund manager may issue one or two estimates of what the investment into the hedge fund was worth as of the value date 30 January. While the final value for 30 January is still outstanding, the hedge fund manager might on say 10 February issue an intermediate return for the period 30 January to 6 February. To determine the latest price of an investment into this hedge fund one has to apply this return on whatever latest estimate or final price is available for 30 January value date at the time of producing the portfolio (or investment position) value. I.e. the produced value of the investment position (and thus of the portfolio) at a given value date will depend on the time of production of this value.
A Fund of Hedge Funds (FoHF) manager runs one or multiple portfolios with each portfolio's assets invested into a number of hedge funds. The FoHF manager determines the value of his portfolio(s) by valuing its assets, i.e. investment positions and general ledger (cash, accruals, fx etc.). When buying/subscribing into or selling/redeeming investments into hedge funds, the FoHF manager places trades for a value date corresponding to a trade date of the underlying hedge fund. These trades may typically be fixed either by share or amount. From value/trade date up to confirmation of the final price by the hedge fund manager, these trades will reflect the change in the underlying price (either in their shares or in their value) as new estimates for the value date become available.
Handling this uncertain or fuzzy accounting information ultimately stemming from delayed issuance of confirmed (or final) pricing of the underlying alternative investments invested into is not possible with traditional portfolio accounting systems in a way that (a) balance sheets for a given value date and profit and loss statements for a given value period remain fully reproducible at whatever point in time these have originally been produced and may be published to investors or other parties (e.g. auditors) and (b) a full life cycle of any accounting information from first entry to final confirmation of both asset pricing and any other business transaction is fully accessible and (c) for (a) any view at a balance sheet for the same value date and any view at profit and loss statement for the same value period is both accessible and provided by the system in the same way and for (b) any information state over the price life cycle or other business transaction life cycle is both accessible and provided by the system in the same way.

Portfolio accounting system and method for handling uncertainty in accounting information


A thermal block assembly for use in a biological analysis system includes a sample block, a heating and cooling element, a heat sink including a surface, the surface including a plurality of projections for engaging the heating and cooling element to hold the heating and cooling element on the heat sink. A thermal block assembly for use in a biological analysis system includes a heating and cooling element, a sample block including a lower surface configured to be thermally coupled to the heating and cooling element, one or more temperature sensors configured to extend through the one or more slots of the lower surface of the sample block, and one or more thermal pads between the one or more temperature sensors and heating and cooling element.

Testing of biological or chemical samples often requires a device for repeatedly subjecting multiple samples though a series of temperature cycles. Such devices are described as thermal cyclers or thermocycling devices and are used to generate specific temperature cycles, i.e. to set predetermined temperatures in the reaction vessels to be maintained for predetermined intervals of time.
Generally, in the case of PCR, it is desirable to change the sample temperature between the required temperatures in the cycle as quickly as possible for several reasons. Firstly, the chemical reaction has an optimum temperature for each of its stages and as such less time spent at non-optimum temperatures means a better chemical result is achieved. Secondly, a minimum time is usually required at any given set point which sets a minimum cycle time and any time spent in transition between set points adds to this minimum time. Since the number of cycles is usually quite large, this transition time can significantly add to the total time needed to complete the amplification.
As the sample block changes temperature, the samples in the various wells experience similar changes in temperature. Temperature gradients often exist within thermal block assembly, causing some samples to have different temperatures than others at particular times in the cycle. Further, there are delays in transferring heat from the heating and cooling elements, sample block, and samples, and those delays may differ across the sample block. These differences in temperature and delays in heat transfer cause the yield of the PCR process to differ from sample to sample depending on the location of the sample in the sample block. Differences in the yield form the PCR process that result from the location of the sample in the sample block can decrease the reliability of the data obtained from the PCR reaction. Additionally, irregularities in the heat sink can produce deviations in the heating and cooling of the sample block. This is a particular problem in devices that utilize screws or clamps to maintain the relative positions of the sample block, the heating and cooling element, and the heat sink. To perform the PCR process successfully, efficiently, and accurately, these time delays and temperature irregularities must be minimized to the greatest extent possible.
There is an increasing need to provide improved biological analysis systems that address one or more of the above drawbacks.

Systems and methods for biological analysis


A method for managing data stored in a non-volatile memory having a plurality of memory blocks includes, first, determining if an error occurs in the read data in a selected memory block. If an error occurs in the read data in the selected memory block, then a region to which the selected memory block belongs is determined. If the selected memory block belongs to a code data region, it is determined if the number of bit errors of the read data is less than or equal to an allowed number of bit errors. If number of bit errors of the read data is less than or equal to the allowed number of bit errors, the selected memory block of the code data region is replaced with a reserved memory block, and the selected memory block of the code data region is designated to a user data region.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, more particularly, to a technique for managing data stored in a non-volatile memory device.
Techniques for detecting and correcting errors enable damaged data due to various reasons to be effectively restored. For example, data may be damaged due to various reasons in a process for storing data in a memory, and due to perturbations of a channel for transferring data from a source to a destination. A number of methods have been suggested for detecting and correcting the damaged data. Commonly used techniques for detecting errors include a Reed-Solomon RS code, a Hamming code, a Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) code and a Cyclic Redundancy (CRC) code. It is possible to detect damaged data using these codes, and to correct the errors in the data. In most fields to which a non-volatile memory device is applied, data is stored in a non-volatile memory device along with a value called an error correcting code (referred to hereinafter as "ECC").
ECC data is provided for correcting an error occurring during a read operation of a non-volatile memory device. The maximum number of correctable bit errors using the ECC data is limited. The ECC data for correcting a single bit error is stored in a general non-volatile memory device. Accordingly, the single bit error occurring during a data read operation may be corrected by techniques for detecting and correcting an error without additional restoration processes such as a block replacement.
In the data where a single bit error is corrected, it is likely that additional errors occur in the next read operation. If the number of bit errors of the read data exceeds an allowed number of bit errors, a memory block including the read data is replaced with a reserved memory block provided in a non-volatile memory device by additional restoration methods known as a block replacement method. At this time, the data in the replaced memory block will be copied to a reserved memory block. If the read data includes an allowable number of bit errors, an error of the read data is corrected by the dedicated techniques for detecting and correcting errors. Even if an error of the read data is corrected, it is likely that additional errors occur in error-corrected data during a read operation. Therefore, a technique for improving the reliability of error-corrected data is required.

Data management technique for improving data reliability


There is disclosed a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material having at least one silver halide emulsion layer on a base, wherein the said silver halide emulsion layer contains at least one cyan dye-forming coupler and a polymer represented by formula I!: EQU --(A).sub.X --(B).sub.y -- formula I!. wherein A represents a repeating unit derived from at least one ethylenically unsaturated monomer having at least one --COOM group in the molecule, wherein M represents a hydrogen atom or a cation atom; B represents a repeating unit derived from at least one ethylenically unsaturated monomer free from a --COOM group, and x and y are 15 to 85 and 85 to 15, respectively, in terms of weight percentages of A and B, provided that x+y=100. This light-sensitive material can be color-developed in a short period of time, is high in color-forming properties, can produce a cyan dye image improved with regard to blix fading, and can be processed to give a color photograph that keeps the color balance of the image from being destroyed and is improved in image quality.

To form a color photographic image, three color photographic couplers, i.e. a yellow coupler, a magenta coupler, and a cyan coupler, are contained in light-sensitive layers, and after exposure to light they are processed with a color developer containing a color-developing agent. During this process, the oxidation product of an aromatic primary amine, and the couplers, undergo coupling reactions with each other, to give color-formed dyes. Generally, a standard process of processing silver halide color light-sensitive materials comprises a color-developing step of forming a color image, a desilvering step of eliminating developed silver and undeveloped silver, and a washing step and/or an image stabilizing step.
The above desilvering step of eliminating developed silver and undeveloped silver, silver halide, is carried out by reoxidizing developed silver with a bleaching agent and fixing with a silver halide solubilizing agent. The said desilvering can be performed by carrying out successively two separate steps, i.e. a step using a bleaching solution, and a step using a fixing solution, or by carrying out a single step using a single solution of a combination of a bleaching agent with a fixing agent. The solution used in the latter is generally called a bleach-fix (blix) solution. It is known that, as the silver bleaching agent in the above bleaching solution and bleach-fix solution, a variety of oxidizing agents are used, and in view of low toxicity and environmental safety, metal complex salts of organic acids, such as EDTA ferric complex salt, are usually used. The use of complex salts in a bleaching solution and a bleach-fix solution for color photography is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,618.
However, when such a ferric complex salt is used as a bleaching agent for color photography, sometimes a cyan dye image having a satisfactory density cannot be obtained. This phenomenon is generally recognized as reduction fading (hereinafter referred to as blix fading), and it occurs due to the change of a cyan dye to a leuco dye in a bleaching solution or a bleach-fix solution. U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,548 points out that the cause of the change of a cyan dye to a leuco compound is attributed to the presence of ferrous ions in a bleaching solution or a bleach-fix solution.
On the other hand, although it has hitherto been attempted to shorten the processing time, the need for shortening the processing time has recently been further increased because of demands for a shortened time limit of the delivery of finished products, a decrease in work in laboratories, miniaturization of processing systems for small-scale laboratories, which are so-called mini-labs, simplification of operation of such processing systems, etc.
The shortening of time in a color-developing step can be attained by combining suitably, for example, use of a coupler high in coupling speed, use of a silver halide emulsion high in developing speed, use of a color developer high in development activity, and an increase in temperature of a color developer. T. H. James, "The Theory of the Photographic Process," Section 15, E. Bleach-Fix System (Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.), describes that, to shorten the time in a desilvering step, it is effective to lower the pH of the bleaching solution or the bleach-fix solution. However, to lower the pH of a bleaching solution or a bleach-fix solution disadvantageously facilitates the above blix fading of a cyan dye.
As an attempt to overcome this reduction fading of a cyan dye, the following various approaches are suggested. For example, JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) No. 316857/1988 describes that reduction fading is reduced by using a certain hydroquinone or quinone derivative. Further, for example, JP-A Nos. 51136/1989 and 289840/1990 describe that the change of the cyan dye to a leuco dye is suppressed by using an aqueous latex of a polymer having a specified structure. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,151,680, 4,374,922, and 4,591,546 describe a group of cyan couplers that are preferable for overcoming the foregoing problem.
The effect of some of above-mentioned prior art techniques is not satisfactory, and although others of the above-mentioned prior art techniques are recognized to have an effect, the effect is obtained at the cost of photographic properties, such as image preservability, or they have demerits, such as a harmful influence on the burden of pollution. Therefore a highly effective technique of preventing blix fading of a cyan dye without causing any harmful effects has been desired.

Silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material


A roof for a sleeper compartment truck is built from a plurality of pieces of manageable size while minimizing the required labor and waste of material required for construction.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to motor vehicle assembly and more particularly to assembly of a roof for a sleeper compartment truck from a plurality of pieces of manageable size while minimizing the required labor and waste of material.
2. Description of the Problem
Typical roof designs for truck sleeper compartments call for a glass reinforced plastic shell made of one or a plurality of pieces. The shell has been separately reinforced, typically with reinforcements made of the same material as the shell. The reinforcements are required to meet strength and rollover protection requirements. Generally, increasing the number of components increases tooling costs, total cost for components and fabrication time. Construction of the shell from a single piece of glass reinforced plastic limits the number of suppliers and provides a difficult to handle component.

International Truck Intellectual Property Company, LLC


An positionable door strike is attached to a door jamb and receives a corresponding door latch located on a swinging door. The positionable door strike has a base plate and a strike plate that is capable of horizontally sliding within a pair of channels located on the base plate. The base plate is secured to the jamb by passing screws through appropriate openings located on the base plate while the strike plate is held secure when it is slid to its desired position by passing one or more set screws through screw openings located on the strike plate, the set screws engaging the door jamb.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a horizontally positionable door strike mountable on a door jamb during new construction for receiving a latch mounted on a door.
2. Background of the Prior Art
A conventional door lock bolt or latch is mounted on a door and is cooperatively received within a strike mounted on the door jamb. A typical door strike is a stamped metal member having a suitable aperture for receiving the bolt or latch, which stamped metal member is secured to the door jamb by passing a pair of material appropriate screws through a pair of openings—one above the latch opening and one below the latch opening—and passing the screws into the door jamb. The latch aperture on the stamped metal member overlies a similar aperture located on the door jamb. When the door is closed, the bolt or latch is received within the aperture on the stamped metal member as and the opening on the door jamb therebehind, oftentimes guided thereinto in the case of a latch by a tongue that faces toward the door when opened.
In order for the above door arrangement to work effectively, a certain amount of precision is required when installing the lock-set. Especially important is the frontward vertical edge of the door strike—that vertical edge closest to the tongue—as this edge holds the bolt or latch whenever the door is closed and prevents the door from opening unintended. If this edge is too far rearward, the door may not close without substantial coaxing, if at all, and if this vertical edge is too far forward, the door will have substantial play when closed and will rattle and be annoying to the occupants of the building. The problem is that oftentimes a contractor will not take the requisite care to properly install the door, the door jamb and lock-set and once the door is closable, the contractor moves on to the next project, irrespective of whether door closure is proper or not.
A remedy for such problems is the use of a positionable strike. While many examples of adjustable strikes can be found in the art, such devices tend to be relatively complex in design and construction, making such devices relatively expensive to obtain and difficult to install and use.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a device that allows a door bolt or latch to properly mate with a corresponding strike located on a jamb and that can overcome an improperly installed lock-set. Such a device must be of relatively simple design and construction so that it is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and should replace the existing conventional fixed mount strike plates that are installed during new construction.


This invention discloses how EC devices can be fabricated as tags or labels; and further the materials used, device structures and how these can be processed by printing technologies. In addition, systems using displays of such EC devices and their integration with other components are described for forming labels and tags, etc, that may be actuated wirelessly or powered with low voltage and low capacity batteries.

Electrooptic devices which change their optical state/displayed information upon application of voltage, such as electrochromic (EC) devices, can be used for a variety of applications, for example automotive mirrors, energy efficient glazing, displays, eye-wear and optical filters, to name a few. The device construction and the materials used have to be adapted to each application so that the device performance is most suitable for the intended application. An emerging area for EC applications are displays with wide ranging attributes and cost structures. As an example for use in displays, this technology is being developed for those applications where the tablet or the screen is refreshed at video speeds or able to exhibit color images. In such applications, reversibility and rapid change of color is required. An advantage of EC displays is their wide viewing angle and the visibility is not impaired under bright lights. On the other side of the spectrum, highly inexpensive displays and indicators are required that may be produced for product labels and tags which are disposable or replaced periodically. These displays may require irreversible information to be displayed or have limited cyclability. Irreversible means that the display or the indicator change the state or show the information when they are activated the first time. Limited cyclability is usually about 10,000 cycles or less. This information may fade away after a few seconds or may last a long time giving permanence to the image (bistable state). Further, many of the tags and labels for such uses may not have an onboard power source and thus may have to be activated by power derived from other components located on the same tag or the label. Such power may be derived from a radio frequency coupling of an antenna on the tag, an optical coupling with a source or ambient light, mechanical coupling to a motion or vibration, or a sonar source, etc. In all cases the power to activate the display is limited. Since EC devices are able to react at low potentials (typically less than 3V), power is not lost in upconverting the voltage. To meet a demand for many of the emerging display applications, new materials, or new ways of using the existing materials is required. In addition, these displays and their integration into labels and tags should be done so that they can be produced at low cost. Some of the low cost processing methods are use of printing processes, particularly high speed processes such as roll to roll processes for flexible substrates or continuous process to print on rigid substrates. The materials and concepts discussed here may be used for any EC application, but as demonstrated in several examples these would be particularly suitable for low cost displays. Since these displays comprise several layers of different materials, printing means that at least one of the layers is deposited using printing methods. Typically at least one of the electrodes or an electrolyte is printed. In particular, materials and material combinations that change their optical state by polymerization and their use in the EC devices will be disclosed. In addition, the metal layers when formed or removed also result in high contrast. Use of these materials will also be disclosed. EC device structures, processes to fabricate these devices and their integration with other components at a systems level for manufacturing of complete labels and tags along with their applications will be disclosed.

Electrochromic materials, devices and applications of the same


Compressive force transmitting coupling (64) between an actuator (16), which oscillates along an arcuate path and a ram block (12) which reciprocates along a straight line path comprises first and second compression blocks (66, 68) and a bearing (70) between the compression blocks (66, 68). The compression blocks are in alignment and in compressive engagement with the ram block (12) and actuator (16). The compression blocks have opposed concave cylindrical bearing surfaces (72, 73) and the bearing (70) has oppositely facing convex bearing surfaces (74, 75) which are complementary to the concave surfaces (72, 73) of the blocks (66, 68).

U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,196 describes a stamping and forming machine for performing operations on strip material, which has opposed ram blocks that move towards and away from each other along horizontal paths of reciprocation. The strip material is fed along a strip feed path which extends between the ram assemblies. The ram blocks are reciprocated by levers that are pivoted at their ends and which oscillate along arcuate paths.
The couplings between the ram blocks, which reciprocate along straight line paths, and the levers which oscillate along arcuate paths, must be such that the vertical movement of the levers is accommodated during operation of the machine. In the past, the levers have been coupled to the ram blocks by ball and socket joints. These ball and socket couplings have in general proved satisfactory excepting for the fact that they tend to wear out and require replacement at intervals which are more frequent than would be desirable. The present invention is directed to the achievement of an improved coupling for a stamping and forming machine of the type described above which will have a significantly longer life than the ball and socket couplings which have been used previously.

Stamping and forming machine having improved couplings


A printed wiring board in the present disclosure includes a core layer, a first buildup layer, a second buildup layer, and a through hole. The core layer has a conductor circuit located on a surface of an insulator. The first buildup layer containing a first resin is laminated on a surface of the core layer. The second buildup layer containing a second resin is laminated on a surface of the first buildup layer. The through hole extends through the core layer, the first buildup layer, and the second buildup layer. The first resin and the second resin are different from each other. The second buildup layer includes a plurality of filled vias filled with a conductor which are located around a circumference of an opening of the through hole.

A hybrid structure substrate using two or more kinds of insulating materials having different physical properties, such as electrical properties, mechanical properties, and workability, has conventionally been manufactured by split manufacturing of individual functional substrates, followed by sticking them together with adhesive. Because this method includes a complicated process, a method of manufacturing a hybrid structure substrate by integral molding with the use of two or more kinds of insulating materials having different physical properties has also recently been employed as a simpler method.
The hybrid structure substrate employs the two or more kinds of insulating materials having the different physical properties. Therefore, when the hybrid structure substrate is manufactured by integral molding, the individual insulating materials behave differently during a cooling/heating cycle due to, for example, a difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the insulating materials. This causes an increase in stress on a through-hole corner part and thereby causes corner cracks, resulting in degraded through-hole connection reliability. Regarding this phenomenon, for example, Patent Document 1 describes that a through-hole via is less susceptible to cracking by eliminating any difference in physical property value between a double structure through-hole via and a single structure through-hole via in order to avoid stress concentration on one of the through-hole vias.

Printed wiring board and method for manufacturing same


A wrap around bed skirt that can be secured in place without removing the mattress from the box springs. The bed skirt can include mitered corners that aid in retaining the bed skirt in place. The bed skirt may include a fabric drop with or without pleats or ruffles.

A bed skirt, also known in the art as a dust ruffle or valence, is placed between the mattress and the box springs of a bed. A bed skirt covers the sides of the box springs and any space under the bed that would otherwise be visible. Bed skirts also help prevent the collection of dust under a bed. Bed skirts are also used for aesthetic purposes to create a desired decorative look to a bed. Prior art methods of bed skirts include the use of elastic in the side panels for installation and securing of the bed skirt in place. The use of elastic often results in an ill-fitted bed skirt which may sag or droop.


An information processing device, includes: a memory configured to store data of one or more indices of radio quality at a plurality of points; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: identify one or more points among the plurality of points other than a current location of a mobile terminal that requests communication, and determine whether to permit the communication based on statistical information obtained from the one or more indices of the radio quality at the one or more points.

Recently, the widespread use of multifunctional mobile terminals called smartphones has led to an increase in the amount of mobile communication system traffic. The operator of a mobile communication system is obliged to increase the communication capacity of the entire mobile communication system as one of the measures against the increase in traffic. For example, various measures, such as data compression and an image frame reduction, as well as capital investment, such as increasing the number of base stations and offload, have been proposed.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-259346, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2011-216950, and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-206316 disclose examples of the related art.

Information processing device, communication control method, and mobile communication system


A conventional color conversion apparatus was associated with a problem of generation of an achromatic component and reduction in the luminance.

Color conversion is conducted for converting color data of input images when images are displayed by means of three primary colors of red, green and blue because color reproducibility of images differ depending on the characteristics of the display device. The color conversion apparatus described in Japanese Patent Kokai Publication No. 2000-287074 generates calculation terms which are effective for a specific hue or inter-hue region from color data of red, green and blue, and generates converted color data by means of matrix calculation multiplying the calculation terms by predetermined matrix coefficients. The matrix calculation for the color conversion is represented by the following formula (1):
                              [                                                    Ro                                                                    Go                                                                    Bo                                              ]                =                                            (              Eij              )                                                  [                                                                    r                                                                                g                                                                                b                                                              ]                                +                                    (              Fij              )                                                  [                                                                                c                      ×                      m                                                                                m                      ×                      y                                                                                y                      ×                      c                                                                                r                      ×                      g                                                                                g                      ×                      b                                                                                b                      ×                      r                                                                                h1r                                                                                h1g                                                                                h1b                                                                                h1m                                                                                h1y                                                                                h1c                                                                                h2ry                                                                                h2rm                                                                                h2gy                                                                                h2gc                                                                                h2bm                                                                                h2bc                                                              ]                                                          (        1        )
In the formula (1), r, g and b denote calculation terms corresponding to color components of red, green and blue. m×y and h1r; y×c and h1g; c×m and h1b; b×r and h1m; r×g and h1y; and g×b and h1c are calculation terms which are respectively effective for hues of red, green, blue, magenta, yellow and cyan. h2ry, h2yg, h2gc, h2cb, h2bm and h2mr are calculation terms which are respectively effective for inter-hue regions of red-yellow, yellow-green, green-cyan, cyan-blue, blue-magenta and magenta-red. Inter-hue region "red-yellow" for example means the region which exists in an inter-hue zone from red to yellow.
For instance, if the hue of yellow of the input image is to be converted to "reddish yellow," a calculation term effective for the hue yellow is subtracted from the calculation term g corresponding to the green component. If the hue of green is to be converted to "bluish green," a calculation term effective for the hue green is added to the calculation term b corresponding to the blue component. Moreover, by adding or subtracting calculation terms effective for a certain inter-hue region in an inter-hue zone yellow-green, to or from calculation terms r, g and b corresponding to red, blue, and green components, desired color can be displayed.
FIG. 1 shows the functions of each calculation term in the matrix calculation represented by the formula (1). FIG. 1 schematically illustrates the calculation terms r, g and b on the assumption that the matrix coefficients Eij in the formula (1) constitute a unit matrix. "Δh1y" schematically represents a calculation term effective for hue yellow, and "Δh1g" schematically represents a calculation term effective for hue green, "Δh2yg1," and "Δh2yg2" schematically represent calculation terms effective for inter-hue regions in the inter-hue zone yellow-green. Δh2yg1 is subtracted from the calculation term r, while Δh1y is subtracted from the calculation term g, and Δh1g and Δh2yg2 are respectively added to and subtracted from the calculation term b. By the above-described calculations, the conversion characteristics shown in FIG. 2 is obtained. Ro, Go and Bo in FIG. 2 respectively show conversion characteristics of color data red, green and blue. When the green component is reduced in the hue yellow, "reddish yellow" results as shown in FIG. 2(G). When the blue component is increased in the hue green, "bluish green" results as shown in FIG. 2(B).
The conventional color conversion apparatus has a problem in that the color conversion is associated with reduction in the luminance. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, by reducing the green component in the hue yellow, the luminance is reduced in the inter-hue region of yellow-green. (As shown in FIG. 1, the color component g before the conversion, is maximum from yellow to green.)
Moreover, the conventional color conversion apparatus has a problem in that the color conversion is associated with generation of an achromatic component. FIG. 3 shows another conversion characteristics obtained when the matrix coefficient for each calculation term shown in FIG. 1 is adjusted. According to the conversion characteristics shown in FIG. 3, the luminance is not lowered, but none of R1, G1 and B1 is zero in the inter-hue region yellow-green, so that the achromatic component is generated.
The present invention has been made to solve the problem described above, and its object is to provide a color conversion apparatus and color conversion method for correcting the desired hue, without generating an achromatic component and without lowering the luminance.

Color conversion apparatus and color conversion method

Abstract: A color conversion apparatus according to the present invention generates new color data corresponding to color red of red, green and blue by means of matrix calculation using a first calculation term which is effective for just one of the hues of red, yellow, blue, green, cyan, magenta and yellow, and a second calculation term which is calculated from the first calculation term and which is effective for a predetermined inter-hue region included in at least one of inter-hue zones of red-yellow, yellow-green, green-cyan, cyan-magenta, and magenta-red, so that color conversion can be achieved without generation of an unnecessary achromatic component or reduction in the luminance.


In an embodiment, a method comprises receiving a request to obtain network performance data for a plurality of target nodes; determining geo-locations of the plurality of target nodes; based on the geo-locations, determining a set of the plurality of target nodes that are within a specified proximity radius; selecting one particular target node in the set; sending a probe packet, requesting network performance data, to the one particular target node in the set and not to all other target nodes in the set; applying, to all the target nodes in the set, network performance data that is received in response to the probe packet; wherein the method is performed by one or more processors.

With the growing popularity of networks that support cloud-based computing, monitoring network performance data and measuring traffic characteristics have become critical tasks in network management. Measuring path and traffic characteristics for a cloud network may be critical in resolving issues related to network load balancing and network scalability. For example, collecting and analyzing voice or video signal jitter characteristics and mean option score (MOS) values may provide quantitative and qualitative metrics helpful in managing voice and video traffic in the network.
MOS values and jitter characteristics may be collected using various methods. For example, the measurements may be collected using jitter probes. The probes may collect not only jitter characteristics and MOS values, but also impairment calculated planning impairment factor (ICPIF) data. The probes may also collect information about nodes accessibility, paths and links availability, loss of data packets, delay in delivering data packets, packet retransmission rate, and other network performance data.
Collecting network performance data may require injecting synthetic probe packets into a network and typically probe packets are sent on every network path to every network node. This may result in generating a large amount of probe traffic. Synthetic probes may be disseminated using network performance measurement tools such as Cisco IP Service Level Agreement (IPSLA) software, commercially available from Cisco Systems, Inc., San Jose, Calif.
However, injecting a significant quantity of probes into a network may overload the network or may result in an excessive network bandwidth usage. Various problems may subsequently occur when the injected probes negatively impact the network performance or when the probe traffic exceeds the capacity of links or nodes.
Furthermore, entities responsible for managing synthetic probes, such as senders of the probes and recipients of the probes, may lack the ability to process transmitted data. For example, storing network performance data for numerous target nodes may require large storage facilities.
Moreover, due to the nature and abundance of network performance data, requesting, collecting and storing network performance data for each node in a network may be neither possible nor desirable. For example, some of the collected network performance data for some nodes may never be used, and therefore sending probe packets to obtain data from such nodes may be wasteful.

Determining network node performance data based on location and proximity of nodes


Disclosed embodiments relate to systems and methods for performing instructions specifying ternary tile operations. In one example, a processor includes fetch and decode circuitry to fetch and decode an instruction specifying a ternary tile operation, and locations of destination and first, second, and third source matrices, each of the matrices having M rows by N columns; and execution circuitry to respond to the decoded instruction by, for each equal-sized group of K elements of the specified first, second, and third source matrices, generate K results by performing the ternary tile operation in parallel on K corresponding elements of the specified first, second, and third source matrices, and store each of the K results to a corresponding element of the specified destination matrix, wherein corresponding elements of the specified source and destination matrices occupy a same relative position within their associated matrix.

Matrices are increasingly important in many computing tasks such as machine learning and other bulk data processing. Deep Learning is a class of machine learning algorithms. Deep learning architectures, such as deep neural networks, have been applied to fields including computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, audio recognition, social network filtering, machine translation, bioinformatics and drug design.
Inference and training, two tools used for deep learning, are tending towards low precision arithmetic. Maximizing throughput of deep learning algorithms and computations may assist in meeting the needs of deep learning processors, for example, those performing deep learning in a data center.
Instructions for performing instructions specifying ternary tile operations on three source matrices are useful in a machine learning context.

Systems and methods for performing instructions specifying ternary tile logic operations


Compositions and methods comprising polynucleotides and polypeptides having EPSP (5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate) synthase (EPSPS) activity are provided. In specific embodiments, the sequence has an improved property, such as, but not limited to, improved catalytic capacity in the presence of the inhibitor, glyphosate. Further provided are nucleic acid constructs, plants, plant cells, explants, seeds and grain having the EPSPS sequences. Various methods of employing the EPSPS sequences are provided. Such methods include methods for producing a glyphosate tolerant plant, plant cell, explant or seed and methods of controlling weeds in a field containing a crop employing the plants and/or seeds disclosed herein.

EPSP (5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate) synthase is an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of phosphoenolpyruvate and 3-phosphoshikimate to phosphate and 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate (EPSP), and it participates in the biosynthesis of the aromatic amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan. Glyphosate, the top selling herbicide in the world, acts a competitive inhibitor for phosphoenolpyruvate.
Glyphosate tolerant crops have been created by introducing glyphosate-insensitive 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) enzymes into plants. In one example, maize event NK603 uses EPSPS from Agrobacterium sp. strain CP4. The enzyme is highly insensitive to inhibition by glyphosate while retaining catalytic efficiency similar to native plant enzymes (Sikorski and Gruys. 1997. Acc. Chem. Res. 30:2-8). In another example, maize event GA21 uses a double mutant maize EPSPS in which threonine at position 103 is changed to isoleucine and proline at position 107 is changed to serine.
Plant EPSP synthases having kinetic properties that provide adequate tolerance to glyphosate and catalytic capacity to sustain normal rates of metabolic flux are desired.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.