The present device is a suture removal instrument having a disposable guarded blade. The disposable guarded blade comprises of a guard component and a blade component. The present suture removal instrument provides a quick, efficient, and atraumatic removal of the suture. It also decreases discomfort associated with suture removal by severing the suture loop without any need to insert an instrument or part of an instrument into the loop of the tied suture.

Suturing or stitching is the most common method among the many methods for closing cuts and wounds. Sutures can be used on almost every part of the body, internally and externally. Doctors literally "sew" the skin together with individual sutures and tie a secure knot. Sutures then allow the skin to heal naturally when it otherwise may not come together.
Sutures are divided into two general categories: absorbable and non-absorbable. Absorbable sutures rapidly break down in the tissues and lose their strength. This type of suture does not need to be removed. Non-absorbable sutures, on the other hand, maintain their strength for a longer time. These sutures are used to close skin wounds and require removal once the wound has healed. Non-absorbable sutures are made of materials which are not metabolized by the body, and the sutures are removed after healing of the incision or the wound. There are several materials that are used for non-absorbable sutures. A commonly used one is a natural fiber or silk, which has gone through a special manufacturing process to make it adequate for use in surgery. Other non-absorbable sutures are made of artificial fibers, like polypropylene, polyester or nylon; these may or may not have coatings to enhance their performance characteristics.
Many different tools have been developed to remove the non-absorbable suture once the cut is healed. The most common tools used for suture removal are scissors and forceps. To remove a suture, the tail of the suture knot is grabbed by a forceps and lifted to raise the suture loop slightly off the skin. A scissor or other cutter is then used to cut the suture loop, while the forceps removes the suture.
One problem with this method is that it involves the introduction of the tip of one of the scissor blades into the loop of the suture. This requires substantial elevation of the tied loop of the suture away from the skin's surface thereby causing pain to the patient and potentially disrupting the healed incision or cut. Furthermore, the process of introducing a scissor tip into the suture loop requires a certain level of skill and dexterity to be done efficiently, particularly if the patient is anxious or uncooperative. An additional problem with the use of scissors is that the sharp tips and edges can cut or otherwise injure a patient that is anxious or mobile during the suture removal process such as when removing sutures from young children. Other cutting tools commonly used along with forceps to remove sutures include stainless steel scalpel blades which also require the introduction of a cutting surface into the suture loop and therefore have the same problems and disadvantages associated with the use of scissors for suture removal.
In order to eliminate the above mentioned problems, several different suture removal tools have been introduced. Examples of suture removal tools and methods can be found in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,048,746 B2 to Warden et al. and the U.S. Pat. No. 7,699,856 B2 to Van Wyk et al. They introduce a suture removal instrument with a thermal filament tip, which is slipped under the suture in order to heat and cut (i.e., melt off) the suture. The thermal suture removal devices may damage the cut area or cause discomfort or even burn injuries if they touch the skin. Also, since some sutures are made of plastic materials, they can deform when heated. It is more difficult to remove a deformed suture.


Disclosed herein are drug release polymer compounds and compositions comprising prostacyclin compounds of Formula (I), and methods of preparing the same. A preferred polymer has a repeating unit of the following structure:

Polymeric systems for the delivery of bioactive materials such as drugs are well known in the art, but many inherent problems persist and there is a need for a controlled-release pharmaceutical formulation with high loading, precisely controlled drug release and low toxicity.
Variations in blood concentration of a drug can lead to inadequate efficacy if too little drug is present in the blood or at the site of action for any length of time, and to side effects when there is too much drug in the bloodstream or at the site of action. An ideal drug administration modality would achieve a steady concentration of the drug in the 'therapeutic window' sufficient to achieve maximal efficacy while not high enough to engender side effects. In practice, this ideal concentration of drug often transpires to be a compromise between efficacy and side effects. For many drugs (e.g., prostacyclin drugs), the breadth of this therapeutic window is rather narrow. The achievement of a 'flat' concentration profile for treprostinil, for example, is approximated by continuous subcutaneous infusion using a pump and achieves a favorably low peak-to-trough variation of 20-30% (Wade, M., et al., Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2004, 44(5): 503-509). However, administration via subcutaneous infusion gives rise to significant injection site pain and inflammation, and administration via indwelling catheter poses a risk of infection. So far, attempts to achieve the objective of having an alternative mode of administration to continuous infusion have not been highly successful. There is, therefore, a need to provide a controlled release formulation which avoids the risk of infection or pain at the infusion site, while achieving a flat concentration profile of drug in the therapeutic window.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,417,070 discloses certain esters, salts, and sustained release oral compositions comprising treprostinil.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,242,482 discloses certain long-acting prostaglandin compositions, some of which include treprostinil.

Controlled release pharmaceutical formulations


An apparatus for displaying images from a video projector. The apparatus includes a virtual projector screen assembly with an elongate screen element, such as a rod, that is mounted at one end to a base. The base is adapted for pivoting about its axis, arid a driver mechanism pivots the, base at high frequencies. During operation, the screen element oscillates between two edge positions with images projected from the projector being displayed on a side of the screen element facing or proximate to the projector. The two edge positions can be thought of as intersecting at the base and define a sweep angle (e.g., the angular difference between the two outer travel points of the screen element that is typically less than about 90 degrees). The driver may include a motor with an oscillating output shaft that pivots the base such as with a belt attached to the base.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to holography (e.g., visual illusion and persistence of vision) imagery including floating two or three dimensional projections or displays and, more particularly, to, a system for producing holographic effects or producing illusory or virtual projection surface effects using a partial screen surface that oscillates at high speeds.
2. Relevant Background
In the visual effects and visual media fields, there are continuing demands for methods for projecting, or generating floating objects or objects that appear to be projected with no screen. Even more preferred is to project an object that appears to be hovering in space and that is three dimensional (3D objects). Holography or the production of holograms is one technique for addressing this demand and has been studied for many years. Holograms are images that are recorded and reconstructed or projected that are three dimensional (3D). While many improvements have been made, holograms are still relatively difficult to produce; and may require multiple projection components such as beamsplitters, mirrors, and laser sources to effectively reconstruct a recorded hologram. Such a system may be costly and require a significant amount of space.
Additionally, many holograms are monochromatic such as common white light holograms, and this is generally not acceptable to today's media consumers who demand more vivid and colorful images. Further, there are many applications where it is desirable for the projected image to appear to be speaking or making other sounds such as when the projected object is an animated character or person. Conventional holographic technology has not been able to meet all of these practical requirements and has not been widely adopted for generating visual effects in amusement or theme parks, in movie theatres, or elsewhere.
Some efforts have been made to produce 3D objects by using a moving screen, but these generally do hot produce desired holographic effects or have other limitations such as operational complexity, space requirements, and cost. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,910 describes a device for producing 3D imagery in which one Or more projectors project images onto a planar screen that is rotated rapidly about an axis. It is intended that the screen would be spun quickly enough that a viewer would riot detect the motion but instead would see a, 3D or "solid" object. While providing some beneficial results, the spinning screen technique may not be effective to hide the screen and also creates undesirable side effects such as noise and air movement similar to those produced by a fan, which limits the use of such a device in applications in which the viewers may be near the spinning screen. Other techniques using rotating projection screens have been developed, but these also fail to meet all the demands of the visual effects and visual arts fields, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,554,430 and 6,665,048. Some attempts to produce floating visual displays have provided light sources such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) on fan blades or projected light onto such rotating fan blades. These effects have some desirable qualities, but, again, such rotating "screens" have not been widely adopted to produce 3D or other holographic effects.
There remains a heed for systems and devices for producing visual displays or projections of 3D images and preferably such systems and devices would use no projector screen or at least provide the illusion that no screen was used. Further, it is preferable that the produced images be matched with sound or audio output and, when desired, be provided, in color (e.g., not limited to monochrome).

Video display system with an oscillating projector screen


An image processing system has a scale-down section for scaling down frames of a moving image to obtain thumbnail images, a temporary correction value calculation section for calculating a temporary correction value by employing a first feature quantity calculated from the thumbnail image by a feature quantity calculation section, and a temporary correction section for calculating a second feature quantity of a temporarily corrected thumbnail image obtained by correcting each thumbnail image with the temporary correction value. The image processing system further has a target feature quantity calculation section for calculating a target feature quantity of each frame so that the second feature quantities vary smoothly in a temporal direction, an object correction value calculation section for calculating an object correction value so that the first feature quantity becomes the target feature quantity, and a correction section for obtaining a corrected moving image by correcting each frame with the object correction value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image processing methods and systems for correcting the image quality of a moving image, and programs for carrying out the methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Correcting original digital images for image quality has been widely performed so that the digital images look attractive. Typical examples are white balance correction, exposure correction, color saturation correction, contrast correction, sharpness correction, color correction, etc. As a method of correcting a still image, it is a well known technique to extract a feature quantity from the still image, calculate a correction value based on the extracted feature quantity, and correct the original image with the correction value. The feature quantity to be extracted from a still image can employ an average luminance value for the original image, an average luminance value in a dark region within the original image, an average luminance value for a main photographed body (person's face, etc.) in the original image, an average saturation value in a high saturation region within the original image, an average gradation value for red, green, and blue (RGB) components in a light region within the original image, a hue histogram within the original image, etc., depending on the content of correction processes, such as white balance correction, color saturation correction, etc.
The aforementioned method for correcting the image quality of a still image can be applied to the correction of the image quality of a moving image. That is, a moving image can be corrected by considering each of the picture frames of the moving image as a still image, then extracting a feature quantity from each picture frame, then calculating a correction value for each frame image based on the extracted feature quantity, and correcting each picture frame with the correction value.
However, the picture frames of a moving image vary in a temporal direction and the feature quantities also vary, so if the still-image correcting method is performed on each of the picture frames, flickering of a corrected moving image comprising the corrected picture frames will occur. To avoid the flickering of a corrected moving image, a method for smoothing variation of correction values for the picture frames of a moving image is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020145678. More specifically, there has been proposed a method for inhibiting the flickering of a corrected moving image by limiting the difference between a correction value for the present picture frame and a correction value for the previous picture frame to less than a predetermined threshold value. There is also a method for using as a correction value for the present picture frame a value obtained by taking the average (moving average) of (1) a correction value for the present picture frame and (2) a correction value for the picture frame before the present picture frame and/or a correction value for the picture frame after the present picture frame.
For moving images, there are different scenes such as interior scenes and exterior scenes, and the respective picture frames of these different scenes have no connection with each other. Therefore, if variation of correction values for picture frames is inhibited in order to prevent the flickering of a corrected moving image, an object correction value for a picture frame that becomes a cut point (the first and last picture frames of one scene) representing a switch from one scene to another will be influenced by a correction value for a picture frame of a different scene. For example, the last picture frame of scene-1 and the first picture frame of the following scene-2 are picture frames adjacent in the temporal direction, but they have no connection with each other. Therefore, if an object correction value is obtained, for example, by taking the moving average of correction values for picture frames to avoid the flickering of a corrected moving image, an object correction value for the last picture frame of the scene-1 is obtained by taking the average of this picture frame and the two picture frames before and after that frame (including the first picture frame of the scene-2). Thus, the object correction value for the last picture frame of the scene-1 is unsuitable. To solve this problem, the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020145678 discloses a method that does not use a correction value for a picture frame of a scene differing from an picture frame of interest, when detecting a cut point that represents a switch from one scene to another in a moving image, and smoothing variation of correction values for picture frames to calculate an object correction value for a picture frame.
However, a method for smoothing variation of correction values, such as that disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020145678, inhibits fluctuations only with respect to correction values, and can eliminate the flickering of correction values when a fluctuation in the temporal direction of a picture frame is slight, but cannot eliminate the flickering of a corrected moving image.
In digital still cameras (DSCs), corrections are sometimes made in obtaining a moving image by photography. When these corrections are inappropriate, discontinuous corrections will have an adverse influence on the image quality of the moving image.
On the other hand, in a moving image, there are cases where picture frames vary rapidly within the same scene. As shown in FIG. 19, for instance, three picture frames A, B, and C, obtained by photographing a person moving at high speeds in a close-up, are picture frames within the same scene, but the content of the image varies considerably between them. The method in the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020145678 can calculate an appropriate correction value for a picture frame that becomes a cut point. However, if in calculating an object correction value for the picture frame B shown in FIG. 19, it is decided that the picture frame B is a cut point, and a correction value calculated from the picture frame B is used as an object correction value for the picture frame B, the flickering of a corrected moving image in the same scene will occur because the object correction values between the picture frame B and the picture frames A, C are not smoothed. On the other hand, if it is decided that the picture frame B is not a cut point, and the average value of the correction values for the picture frames A, B, and C is used as an object correction value for the picture frame B, the image quality is not good because differences among the picture frame B and the picture frames A, C are not reflected.

Method, system, and program for correcting the image quality of a moving image


The present invention provides a method for making a sole structure with a knitted fabric and a sole structure. The method comprises steps of: placing a thermoplastic filling material in a knitted fabric, sealing an opening of the knitted fabric, placing the knitted fabric with the opening sealed in a mold, applying a heating temperature to melt the thermoplastic filling material of the knitted fabric, and restricting a shape of the knitted fabric via the mold to make a sole structure. The sole structure includes a compressible elastomer and a knitting texture wrapped around the compressible elastomer and fused with a surface of the compressible elastomer. The compressible elastomer is formed from the thermoplastic filling material after being melted and cooled. The knitting texture is formed from the knitted fabric and is capable of being directly observed from an appearance of the sole structure.

A shoe is nothing more than composing of an upper and a sole combined with the upper. For the upper, it was formed by splicing multiple sheets of material in the early days. However, some manufacturers have introduced a technical solution to make the upper with knitted fabric, so that the upper is no longer restricted by the material of the sheets, and complex color patterns can be realized by the knitted fabric.
However, for the sole, a compressible elastomer is still commonly used as the main implementation. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,950,486, 10,051,915, and 10,238,172, the compressible elastomer is generally made to have only a single color or monotonous pattern change. In addition, although some manufacturers have introduced a technical solution for forming the sole with a plurality of compressible elastomers, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 10,172,415 and 10,166,734, the sole presents color changing with a sense of design by making the compressible elastomers with different colors, but this implementation can still only present visual experience of large-scale color block changes, and cannot present a more unique visual experience or patterns with fine changes.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 9,848,673 discloses an implementation different from the above-mentioned techniques. In the process of forming the upper, an insert element 300 (FIG. II of U.S. Pat. No. 9,848,673) is added, and a knitted jacket is placed on the insert element and a mold of the upper to form the integral upper and sole, and then a shoe cover element 1800 (FIG. 18 of U.S. Pat. No. 9,848,673) or an outsole covering component 2400 (FIG. 24 of U.S. Pat. No. 9,848,673) is correspondingly disposed. However, although this implementation allows the shoe to present a visual experience of fine changes as a whole through the knitted fabric, the shoe is not visually pleasing or attractive and is monotonous. Since the upper and the sole are made of a single knitted fabric, if a user wears the shoe to do vigorous exercise, the knitted fabric corresponding to the upper will pull the knitted fabric corresponding to the sole, causing the knitted fabric corresponding to the sole to detach from the insert element easily, which can easily cause damage to the shoe.
In addition, the U.S. Pat. No. 9,775,401 discloses that the sole includes a one-piece woven outsole formed by the knitted fabric 112 (FIG. 24 of U.S. Pat. No. 9,775,401). The embodiments disclosed in FIGS. 13-24 and the corresponding paragraphs of the patent U.S. Pat. No. 9,775,401 show that when the one-piece woven outsole is developed, the knitted fabric is first placed in a mold, the knitted fabric is then pressed to form a plurality of concave parts. During pressing the knitted fabric to form the concave parts, a material is injected into each of the concave parts to form a protrusion. However, it can be known from the foregoing that the one-piece knitted outsole described in the embodiments does not have the compressible elastomer as a buffer, which can only be used as one of the components for composing the sole, commonly known as an outsole in the industry, but fail to be qualified as the sole referred in the present invention.

Method for making sole structure with knitted fabric and sole structure

ZHONGSHAN YOURWAY FASHION TECHNOLOGY LTD.


A self threader is disclosed for a wrapping machine having a tube former including tube former wall means terminating in a first tube former plate and a second tube former plate. The tube former is adapted to receive a first edge of a wrapping sheet between the first tube former plate and the second tube former plate and is adapted to receive a second edge of the wrapping sheet above the second tube former plate with the first and second edges and overlapping for forming the wrapping sheet into a tube to receive a product therein. The self threader comprises a guide plate secured to the second tube former plate and extending beyond the first tube former plate for directing a first edge of the wrapping sheet between the first tube former plate and the second tube former plate.

1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to packaging utilizing a wrapping machine wherein a wrapping sheet is formed into a tube for wrapping product therein and more particularly to a self threader for the wrapping sheet.
2. Background Of The Invention
Over the past several decades, various types of wrapping machines have been developed for wrapping products articles. One type of wrapping machines includes shrink wrap packing machines. Shrink wrap packaging has become widely used to provide a low cost packaging technique for a wide assortment of articles. Typically, the article or articles are incased within a wrapping sheet and is passed through a heating oven whereby the wrapping sheet incases the article or articles by the contraction of the wrapping sheet. Although, the use of shrink wrapping techniques is simple in theory, the physical wrapping of the article or articles by the wrapping sheet encounters some difficulties depending on the shape and number of articles to be encased within the wrapping sheet. Since the typical shrink wrap packaging machine operates at high speed, the handling of the wrapping sheet presents a complex engineering problem for the shrink wrapping pachaging machine. In addition, any defective wrap and/or tearing of the wrapping sheet will produce defective packages thereby requiring the wrapping process to be terminated and requiring the wrapping sheet to be re-threaded and/or adjusted within the wrapping machine. Such a termination of the wrapping process is significantly costly as well as requiring an operator to re-adjust and/or re-thread the wrapping sheet within the machine. Typically, the wrapping sheet is disposed proximate to a heating oven thereby increasing the danger of burning or the like by the operator.
One specific type of shrink wrapping machine incorporates a tube former commonly referred to as a forming shoe for forming a wrapping sheet of heat shrinkable material into a longitudinally extending tube. The tube is sealed on terminating end and by a seal bar with a first and second edge of the wrapping sheet being in an overlapping relationship and secured to one another by electrostatic adhesive or welding means. The forming tool includes a first forming plate and a second forming plate for forming the wrapping sheet within the tube with the first and second edges disposed in the overlapping relationship.
Although the use of a first and second forming plate has provided a suitable means for forming the longitudinal extending tube of the wrapping sheet, this prior art tube former has certain disadvantages. Firstly, the wrapping sheet must be hand threaded between the first and second forming plates by an operator. Secondly, the prior art forming tools lack any positive means for maintaining the position of the first edge of the wrapping sheet between the first and second forming plates. The tension of the sheet was relied on to maintain the position of the first edge of the wrapping sheet within the first and second forming tool plates.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to overcome these disadvantages of the prior art wrapping machine and provide a self threader for a wrapping machine for self threading a wrapping sheet within a tube former.
Another object of this invention is to provide a self threader for a wrapping machine which provides a positive means for maintaining the position of the wrapping sheet within the tube former.
Another object of this invention is to provide a self threader for a wrapping machine which is both simple and effective without appreciably raising the cost of the wrapping machine.
Another object of this invention is to provide a self threader for a wrapping machine which may be easily adapted to existing wrapping machines.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the present invention. These objects should be construed as being merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention. Many other beneficial results can be obtained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention with in the scope of the invention. Accordingly other objects in a full understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention, the detailed description describing the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


An apparatus for supplying high pressure atomizing and purging fluid to the fuel system of a gas turbine engine. The apparatus is comprised of a turbocompressor, multiple flow conduits and associated valves and controls. Alternative versions of the fundamental apparatus may include heat exchangers for heating and cooling the atomizing and purging fluid within the apparatus. The apparatus works with all types of gas turbine engine cycles well known to one skilled in the art. The apparatus includes a first conduit for extracting a small percentage of the fluid compressed by the turbine engine compressor, and the first conduit is further divided into second and third conduits for supplying portions of the small percentage of compressed fluid to the turbocompressor compressor and turbine. The portion of the fluid flowed to the turbocompressor compressor is compressed and then flowed to the turbine engine fuel system at a location that enhances atomization of the fuel or purges the fuel from the fuel system nozzle after shut-off. The fluid discharged from the turbocompressor turbine is flowed back to the turbine engine to offset engine efficiency losses. The turbocompressor may be configured in any number of mechanical configurations, familiar to one skilled in the art of turbomachinery.

The invention relates to a turbine engine with a turbine engine fuel system, and more particularly to a turbine engine that includes a turbocompressor for supplying high pressure compressed atomizing fluid to the turbine engine fuel system.
High pressure air is commonly supplied to liquid fuel nozzles in gas turbine engine fuel systems to improve the atomization of the fuel droplets, help cool the fuel nozzles and also to provide purge capability to remove residual fuel and other liquid in the nozzles when switching from a liquid fuel to a natural gas fuel. It is necessary that such high pressure atomizing air be flowed to the fuel nozzles at pressures about 20% higher than the pressure of air that is typically supplied to a fuel system combustion chamber(e.g. 10-30 bars), and with a mass flow rate that may be up to three times that of the fuel mass flow rate.
In order to achieve the required pressure and mass flow rate requirements, conventional compression systems designed to boost atomizing air pressure typically use reciprocating compressors that are driven by an electric motor. The resulting atomizing systems are large and expensive and do not deliver high pressure atomizing air to the gas turbine engine fuel system at a steady flow rate. Because of the nature of such reciprocating or piston type compressors, the supplied pressurized atomizing air may include a pressure pulsation which produces a pressure increase or pulse in the supplied atomizing air, and these pulsations contribute to combustion instability in the gas turbine engine fuel system, and may also contribute to fretting in fuel system supply lines or conduits.
An additional problem with the conventional motor driven approach to providing atomizing air to gas turbine engine fuel systems is the circumstances surrounding a loss of utility power. In the event of a power failure, the motor driving the reciprocating compressor will stop and the flow of pressurized atomizing air to the gas turbine engine fuel system fuel system components such as the fuel nozzles is immediately interrupted causing the fuel nozzles to coke and clog. Since the power required to operate the compressor is on the order of 20 kW providing battery backup is impractical and adds cost and complexity to the atomizing air supply system.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in present devices and methods. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.

Turbine engine with turbocompressor for supplying atomizing fluid to turbine engine fuel system


Apparati and methods are provided for the delivery of molecules to a site via a carrier fluid. The apparati include microchip devices which have reservoirs containing the molecules for release. The apparati and methods provide for active or passive controlled release of the molecules. Preferred embodiments include systems for intravenous administration of drugs, wherein drug molecules are released from the microchip devices into a carrier fluid ex vivo, such as a saline solution, forming a drug/saline solution mixture which is then delivered to a patient intravenously.

This invention relates generally to miniaturized devices for controlled delivery of chemical molecules into a carrier fluid.
Accurate delivery of small, precise quantities of one or more chemicals into a carrier fluid is of great importance in many different fields of science and industry. Examples in medicine include the delivery of drugs to patients using intravenous methods, by pulmonary or inhalation methods, or by the release of drugs from vascular stent devices. Examples in diagnostics include releasing reagents into fluids to conduct DNA or genetic analyses, combinatorial chemistry, or the detection of a specific molecule in an environmental sample. Other applications involving the delivery of chemicals into a carrier fluid include the release of fragrances and therapeutic aromas from devices into air and the release of flavoring agents into a liquid to produce beverage products.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,470 to Johnson, et al., discloses automated devices for intravenous drug delivery in which plural pumping channels independently infuse drugs and fluid. These devices and delivery methods require that the drugs be carefully pre-mixed and stored in a liquid form. A liquid form can, however, reduce the stability of some drugs and therefore can cause undesirable variability of the drug concentration. It would be desirable to more accurately and reliably measure the amount of drug introduced into the intravenous carrier fluid, as well as to store the drug in a more stable form, for example as a solid.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,972,027 to Johnson discloses the use of porous metallic stents as vascular drug delivery devices. The devices reportedly deliver a drug from the porous structure of the stent to the surrounding tissue. Such devices, however, are limited in the number of drugs that they can deliver and are severely limited in the control of both the rate and time of drug delivery, as the delivery rate is governed by the porous structure, i.e. the drug is passively released. It would be advantageous to provide active and more precise control over the time and rate of delivery of a one or more of variety of drugs from the stents into, for example, the bloodstream passing through the implanted stent.
Microchip delivery devices, described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,797,898 and 6,123,861 to Santini et al., provide a means to control both the rate and time of release of a variety of molecules, such as drugs, in either a continuous or pulsatile manner. The devices further provide a means for storing the chemicals in their most stable form. These patents describe, for example, implanting the microchip devices by themselves into a patient for delivery of drug. It would be advantageous, however, to adapt the precise control of molecule release provided by these microchip devices into a variety of other applications.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide devices and methods for the accurate and reliable delivery of molecules into a carrier fluid, such as drug into an intravenously delivered fluid.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide devices and methods for conveniently storing molecules in a stable form for release into a carrier fluid.
It is another object of the present invention to provide stenting devices having precise control over the time and rate of delivery of drugs.
Apparati and methods are provided for the delivery of molecules to a site via a carrier fluid. The apparati include microchip devices which have reservoirs containing the molecules for release. The apparati and methods provide for active or passive controlled release of the molecules. The microchip devices include (1) a substrate, (2) at least two reservoirs in the substrate containing the molecules for release, and (3) a reservoir cap positioned on, or within a portion of, the reservoir and over the molecules, so that the molecules are controllably released from the device by diffusion through or upon disintegration or rupture of the reservoir caps. Each of the reservoirs of a single microchip can contain different molecules and/or different amounts and concentrations, which can be released independently. The filled reservoirs can be capped with materials that passively or actively disintegrate. Passive release reservoir caps can be fabricated using materials that allow the molecules to diffuse passively out of the reservoir over time. Active release reservoir caps can be fabricated using materials that disintegrate upon application of electrical, mechanical, or thermal energy. Release from an active device can be controlled by a preprogrammed microprocessor, remote control, or by biosensors.
The carrier fluids into which the molecules are released can be, for example, environments such as intravenous infusions, beverage mixtures, vascular fluids, and gaseous phases. In a preferred embodiment, the microchip device releases molecules that are contained within the reservoirs into a fluid that is delivered to a patient intravenously.
In another embodiment, the microchip device is integrated into a stent for the delivery of drugs, such as anti-restenosis drugs or such as pravastatin or other hypertension medications.
In yet another embodiment, the microchip delivers molecules, which can be in the form of, but not limited to aerosols, vapors, gases, or a mixture thereof, into a stream for either therapeutic or aesthetic purposes.
In general, the microchip provides a method for storing molecular species in their most stable form, which can be a solid, liquid, gel, or gas. Upon either passive or active reservoir opening, the one or more types of molecules are released into the carrier fluid in either a pulsatile or continuous manner. These methods will provide fine control over the amount of the molecules delivered as well as the time and rate at which delivery occurs. Additionally, the molecular delivery device will extend the shelf-life (i.e. stability) of the molecules offering new potential applications.

Microfabricated devices for the delivery of molecules into a carrier fluid


Method of estimation of the speed of an aircraft relative to the surrounding air, in a reference frame tied to the aircraft estimates an estimated static pressure on the basis of measurements of geographical altitude. The process then estimates a first intermediate variation of the speed of the aircraft relative to the surrounding air using explicitly the fact that the pressure measured by the static probe is falsified by a known quantity under the effect of the speed of the aircraft relative to the surrounding air. Finally, temporal integration of the first intermediate variation of the speed of the aircraft relative to the surrounding air provides an estimated speed of the aircraft relative to the surrounding air.

The piloting and guidance of an aircraft requires, among other information, knowledge of the speed vector of the aircraft relative to the surrounding air, and knowledge of the barometric altitude.
This knowledge of the speed vector of the aircraft relative to the air is obtained on the basis of a set of probes which provide local measurements of pressure, of orientation of the air stream and of the temperature of the environment air, and which constitute input parameters for determining the speed vector of the aircraft relative to the air and the barometric altitude. This determination implements local aerodynamic corrections (SSEC laws, the acronym standing for "Static Source Error Correction"), which convey the matrix coupling between the local measurements and the true values of the speed vector of the aircraft relative to the surrounding air, and of the barometric altitude.
The speed vector of an aircraft relative to the surrounding air is usually expressed in spherical coordinates in a trihedron or reference frame tied to the aircraft, in the form of three components: the speed TAS of the aircraft relative to the surrounding air, the angle of attack AOA of the aircraft and the angle of sideslip SSA of the aircraft. It can also be expressed in Cartesian coordinates in the reference frame tied to the aircraft, in the form of the three components: VXair, VYair, VZair.
The operating safety of the aircraft requires that the knowledge of the speed vector of the aeroplane relative to the air and the knowledge of the barometric altitude have a sufficient level of reliability and availability.
Usually an aircraft is furnished with several suites of probes which offer physical redundancy. A device for monitoring failures is implemented so that this redundancy is handled in the best way.
Failure detection based on hardware redundancy of sensors of the same design does not make it possible to detect common-mode faults, i.e. a phenomenon capable of simultaneously affecting the proper operation of several sensors. If a fault mode can affect at least half the sensors, then the isolation of the failed sensors is no longer possible. The use of several sensors having dissimilar operating principles makes it possible to reduce the risk of common mode, at the price of increased complexity.
An alternative to physical redundancy is analytical redundancy, which consists in performing an estimation of the value of the parameter measured by a sensor, which is not impacted (or impacted as little as possible) by the failure of the actual sensor.
The estimation of the value of the parameter implements either the expression of a kinematic coupling with other sources of measurements (usually inertial measurements), or the expression of constraints of dynamic change based on flight mechanics, or on a combination of the two schemes (kinematic and dynamic).
The use of a redundancy between a sensor measurement and an estimation has diverse drawbacks.
An observer or estimator of speed of an aircraft relative to the surrounding air, constructed by kinematic coupling with the inertial measurements, can with difficulty eliminate the acceleration of the air relative to the ground. Consequently, such an observer cannot discern a failure of the sensor leading to an error in the speed of the aircraft relative to the surrounding air that is lower than the amplitude of the speed of the surrounding air relative to the ground that would be developed by a strong gust of wind.
An observer or estimator of speed of an aircraft relative to the surrounding air based on flight mechanics requires the knowledge of certain characteristic data of the aircraft (aerodynamic coefficients, mass, moments of inertia, thrust of the engines). Access to this information is not easy. It is possible to identify it in flight (by estimation techniques, explicitly or implicitly) but this operation generally turns out to be tricky.
The basic problem is the stabilization of the estimator so that the estimated measurement provides a faithful replica of reality, without directly using the measurement of the actual sensor, for fear that in case of failure of the sensor, the measurements provided by other sensors (presumed to be reliable) may not stabilize.
The estimator of the speed of an aircraft relative to the surrounding air, with kinematic coupling, with inertial measurements (cf J. C. Deckert et al, 1976, "F-8 aircraft sensor failure identification using analytical redundancy", IEEE) operates in open-loop and its performance is limited by the uncertainty in the acceleration of the air relative to the ground. To avoid a crippling rate of false alarms (failure detection with each gust of wind), the estimator must be adjusted in a slack manner, thereby prohibiting it from detecting a failure of the sensor leading to an error in the speed of the aircraft relative to the surrounding air that is lower than the amplitude of the speed of the air relative to the ground that would be caused by a strong gust of wind.
The prior art therefore tends to favour observers with dynamic coupling, on principle less sensitive to the motion of the air relative to the ground. The problem is then to ascertain with sufficient accuracy the characteristic data of the aircraft (aerodynamic coefficients, moments of inertia, thrust of the engines, mass) which come into the motion propagation equations.
Diverse techniques (explicit estimation of Kalman filtering type) are known which consist in estimating these data during learning flight phases, by using supposedly reliable sensors and by counting on trajectories offering the required observability. These techniques induce heavy operational constraints.
Other techniques (implicit estimation, such as PCA, the acronym standing for "Principal Component Analysis", SMI the acronym standing for "Subspace Model Identification", or OKID the acronym standing for "Observer Kalman Identifier") are also known which consist in estimating a representation of these data (and not the data directly), on-line over a longer or shorter time horizon relative to the current instant. In this case the formal validation of the performance of the observer is difficult since the analytical tie with the physics of the problem, which would have made it possible to reduce a priori the quantity of test cases to be passed in order to demonstrate the missing detection and false alarm rates, is lost.
An aim of the invention is to alleviate these problems.

Method of estimation of the speed of an aircraft relative to the surrounding air, and associated system


A quick-release knife connector for use on a rotary disc cutterhead having an asymmetrically shaped knife nut with a first portion providing a bearing surface for an aperture in the knife and a second portion which inhibits axial movement of the knife from contact with the first portion. A capture spring having an aperture for partially receiving the second portion prevents accidental release of the knife. The asymmetric orientation of the second portion and placement of the aperture on the capture spring assures that the knife nut is properly oriented when installed.

This invention relates generally to machines for severing standing crops from the ground using a plurality of rotatable discs having knives mounted thereon to sever standing crop by an impact action upon rotation of the discs and, more particularly, to an improved connector for attaching disc cutter knives to the machine that allows the knives to be easily removed from the rotatable discs and replaced.
Rotary disc cutterbars are well known in the agricultural arts and used in the harvest of a variety of standing crops. A typical disc cutterbar comprises a plurality of cutterheads spaced along the length of the cutterbar. The cutterheads each typically comprise a rotating cutting disc including diametrically opposed cutting blades (though configurations with three or more blades are known) driven by a drivetrain housed within the cutterbar that receives motive power from the prime mover to which the disc mower is attached. For background information on the structure and operation of some typical disc cutterbars, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,323, issued to Campbell, the descriptive portions thereof being incorporated herein in full by reference.
Cutterbars frequently impact rocks and other obstructions in a field which can damage the knives. Further, knives also become dulled by their interaction with the crop and require periodic removal for sharpening or replacement. Knife retention is traditionally accomplished through the use of threaded fasteners which require multiple components and involve time-consuming processes to remove and replace damaged or worn knives. Quick-change knife attachment systems are known wherein the knife is retained on a post-like retainer with a flange and prevented from disengagement by a spring overlapping a portion of the flange. Such arrangements require assembly of the parts in a precise orientation to assure that the knife retainer functions as intended. Prior designs, such as that disclosed in Applicant's pending application Ser. No. 13/667,887 filed on Nov. 2, 2012, could be assembled in multiple orientations which resulted in additional time during assembly to disassemble and reassemble in the correct orientation.
It would be advantageous to provide a locking mechanism for a quick-change knife attachment system that would highlight incorrectly oriented components during cutterhead assembly or wear part replacement to prevent incorrect assembly of the knife retainers. Additional advantages would be realized by a knife retainer system that did not increase the part count for the knife connection. Still further advantages would be realized by a quick-change knife attachment system that permits tool-free knife changes on a rotary cutterhead used on agricultural harvesting machines.

Spring plate configured to overlap with asymmetric/eccentric quick change knife nut for proper assembly


The invention discloses a cell search method for a CDMA system for a three-stage cell search procedure. The cell search method have the steps of matching incoming signals; over-sampling the incoming signals N times against a chip rate; down-sampling the incoming signals and outputting N over-samples (Y1(k), Y2(k),    YN(k)) to N parallel signal paths; choosing randomly a sample of the N over-samples; and transmitting the sample chosen randomly from the N over-samples into a first stage process, a second stage process and a third stage process to accomplish a trial. The invention significantly reduces the effect of clock offset so as to accomplish fast cell search.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a cell search method and apparatus for the code division multiple access (CDMA) system, and more particularly to a cell search method and apparatus for the wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) system to reduce the effect of clock offset.
2. Description of the Related Art
CDMA cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA) using a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) technology greatly increases the channel capacity. These systems are receiving much attention in the recent work on ground mobile communication systems. In general, bandwidth efficiency of a CDMA system is much better than that of other multiple access systems (FDMA, TDMA) because of the universal frequency reuse property. Moreover, the cell planning is also easy in these systems. Hence, a CDMA cellular system can be a promising system in the future.
Third generation partnership project (3GPP) wideband code division multiple access/frequency division duplex system (W-CDMA/FDD) has been adopted as one of the standards for the IMT-2000 third generation system. In CDMA cellular systems, the procedure used by a user equipment (UE) to search for the best cell is referred to as "cell search". Fast cell search is very important in order to reduce the UE switched-on delay (initial search), to increase standby time (idle mode search) and to maintain good link quality during handover (active mode search).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,250 issued to Shou et al., entitled "Initial Synchronization Method And Receiver for DS-CDMA Inter Base Station Asynchronous Cellular System", discloses that cells are searched at a high speed using an initial synchronization method and a receiver for a DS-CDMA inter base station asynchronous cellular system. A base band received signal is input to a matched filter and is correlated with a spread code supplied from a spread code generator. A signal electric power calculator calculates the electric power of the correlation output of the matched filter, and outputs the result to a long code synchronization timing determiner, a threshold value calculator, and a long code identifier. During the initial cell search, the spread code generator outputs a short code that is common to the control channel of each of the base stations. After the long code synchronization timing has been determined, each of the segments of the N chips which constituting a portion of the synthesized spread code sequence is sequentially replaced and output.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,244 issued to Nystrom et al., entitled "Cell searching in a CDMA communications system" discloses a coding scheme for more effectively acquiring a long code and frame timing during a cell search in a CDMA communications system. A code set of length M Q-ary code words including symbols from a set of Q short codes is defined with certain properties. The primary property to be satisfied is that no cyclic shift of a code word yields a valid code word. The other properties to be satisfied are that there is a one-to-one mapping between a long code message and a valid code word, and a decoder should be able to find both the random shift (thereby implicitly finding the frame timing) and the transmitted code word (i.e., its associated long code indication message) in the presence of interference and noise, with some degree of accuracy and reasonable complexity.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,007 issued to Kim et al., entitled "Method for Acquiring A Cell Site Station in Asynchronous CDMA Cellular Communication Systems", discloses that a group code and a cell code are multiplexed and then used as a pilot code for discriminating a base station in asynchronous cellular CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) communication systems. Using the multiplexed code, interferences are reduced in case of using two pilot codes. A method for acquiring a cell site station in asynchronous CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) communication systems including a base station controller, a plurality of mobile stations and base stations, and discriminating the base stations by using different sequences, the method including the steps of: a) assigning a group code of the cell as a pilot code of an inphase channel of the base stations; b) assigning a cell code of the cell as a pilot code of a quadrature channel of the base stations; and c) multiplexing the pilot codes of inphase channel and the quadrature channel, and generating an inphase/quadrature pilot code.
Now referring to FIG. 1, it will be helpful to understand the simplified frame structure of the 3GPP W-CDMA/FDD system. First, in 3GPP W-CDMA/FDD system, the cell search is typically carried out in three stages by employing two peculiarly designed synchronization channels and a common pilot channel. In the first stage 110, a primary synchronization channel (PSCH) 111 is used for slot synchronization. The primary synchronization channel (PSCH) 111 consists of a primary synchronization code which is denoted acp, where "a" (=±1) depends on the existence of the transmit diversity at the base station (BS). In the second stage 120, the secondary synchronization channel (SSCH) 121 is used for frame/code group identification. The secondary synchronization channel (SSCH) 121 consists of the secondary synchronization code, which is denoted by acs, and the coefficient of cs is similar to that in PSCH. In the third stage 130, a common pilot channel (CPICH) 131 is used for determination of the downlink scrambling code. As shown, the 10-ms frame consists of 15 slots, and the system uses the chip rate of 3.84 Mchips/sec. Eventually, there are 38400 chips in a frame and 2560 chips in a slot. In addition, PSCH and SSCH are 256-chip long and only transmitted at the beginning of the slot boundaries.
Conventional cell search processes for the 3GPP W-CDMA/FDD system can be divided into two broad categories: the serial search and the pipeline search processes.
As shown in FIG. 2, the serial search process needs to go through all the three stages of synchronization one by one before a new three-stage attempt can commence: (1) slot synchronization, (2) frame synchronization/code group identification, (3) scrambling code identification. Now referring to FIG. 2, it is a simplified diagram for the conventional three-stage serial cell search processes. For convenience, a complete three-stage cell search procedure will be referred as a trial. Trials are not overlapped in the serial search, and trials are repeated again and again until the search succeeds. Namely, only one stage works at a time, e.g. only a block 211, a block 212 and a block 213 works at a time (here, a block means as a stage of a trial), which implies lower power consumption, but at the expense of a longer search time.
On the other hand, referring to FIG. 3, it is a simplified diagram for the conventional three-stage pipeline search processes. In the pipeline search processes, three stages are performed concurrently, which means the trials are overlapped. Namely, a block 311  a block 321 and a block 331 are in the same trial. Obviously, in the pipeline search processes, more trials are possible for a fixed amount of time, and hence result in a faster search. Of course, they require more power consuming. Note that no extra hardware is needed for the pipeline search processes, as compared with the serial search. For simplicity, we assume 10 (ms) is required for each stage, and then (K+2)×10 (ms) of the total processing time is necessary for a successful search which is terminated in the Kth trial.
However, a common assumption was usually made in the above prior art for the cell search, that is, the chip clock of the transmitter is known precisely to the receiver (namely, no clock offset), the frequency of incoming signal is assumed without frequency offset. In practice, the frequency offset is due to the source of frequency instability of the crystal oscillators of the user equipment, namely, the frequency of incoming signal will be with frequency offset for the user equipment. Frequency offset in baseband causes two effects (1) phase rotation (2) clock offset, wherein the effect of clock offset is not taken into account in past. The clock offset resulted from the frequency offset exists between the basestation and user equipment. The chip clock offset may make the error information and increase the cell search time. FIG. 4a and FIG. 4b are not prior arts, but the observations of clock drifts at the output of a primary code matched filter under the effect of clock offset by the inventors. As shown in FIG. 4a and FIG. 4b, the signal level degrades and the inter-chip interference increases significantly under the effect of chip clock offset.

Method and apparatus for cell search for W-CDMA with effect of clock offset


A calculating apparatus includes a baseplate, a first mother board module and a connection module. The baseplate includes a bottom surface having a first component layout region, a second component layout region and a connection component layout region all arranged in order from a first side to a second side of the bottom surface. The first mother board is drawably disposed at the first component layout region of the bottom surface. The first mother board includes a first tray, a first control board, and a first electronic hard disk drive. The connection module is electrically connected to the first mother board module so that the first mother board module is capable of performing external communication through the connection module.

Technical Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates to a computing apparatus, more particularly to a computing apparatus in which a drawable mother board module including a serial transmission interface and an electronic hard disk drive are disposed.
Description of the Related Art
Conventional computing apparatuses nowadays, such as desk-top computers and servers, are disposed with hard disk drives usually fixed inside their cases. However, this will limit the development of such a computing apparatus because the amount of hard disk drives disposed in the computing apparatus will be limited by a finite case. Moreover, in a modern server rack, mother boards of servers are mostly fixed on their respective chassis. When one of the chassis should be replaced, the bracket carrying the chassis to be replaced has to be pulled out. When the bracket is being pulled out, one or more chassis disposed on the bracket easily come off from the baseplate, resulting in system service outage.

INVENTEC (PUDONG) TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION


A novel ethylenically-unsaturated 1,3-diketoamide functional compound, polymers comprised thereof, and latex formulations containing polymeric ingredients having 1,3-diketoamide functional pendant moieties are disclosed. The 1,3-diketoamide functional pendant moieties have excellent hydrolytic stability.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to ethylenically-unsaturated 1,3-diketoamide functional compounds and polymers prepared therefrom. The invention is also related to latex formulations containing polymeric ingredients having 1,3-diketoamide functional pendant moieties which advantageously exhibit excellent hydrolytic stability.
2. Related Background Art
Ethylenically-unsaturated monomers containing active methylene groups such as ##STR1## and polymers prepared from such monomers having pendant active methylene groups have long been known For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,459,790 discloses acetoacetates, such as 2-acetoacetoxyethyl methacrylate and 2-acetoacetoxyethyl acrylate, for forming polymers to be used as gelatin extenders or substitutes in photographic films.
Polymerizable compounds having amide groups and active methylene crosslinking sites in side chains extending from ethylenically unsaturated backbones are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,195. These polymerizable compounds, which are used to form polymers which can act as polymeric color couplers, binders and gelatin extenders, are generically represented by the formula: ##STR2## wherein R is hydrogen or methyl;
R.sup.1 is cyano or ##STR3## wherein R.sup.2 is alkyl; PA1 Z is --X--R.sup.3 --X-- or ##STR4## wherein each --X-- is --O-- or --NR.sup.4 --, provided at least one --X-- is --NR.sup.4 --, wherein R.sup.4 is hydrogen or alkyl, R.sup.3 is divalent hydrocarbon and D.sub.1 and D.sub.2 together are carbon atoms necessary to complete a 5 to 7 membered ring. Acetoacetamidoethyl methacrylate is exemplified as a useful polymerizable monomer. PA1 A is a group represented by the formula ##STR6## wherein R.sup.1 is hydrogen, alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, aryl having 6 to 20 carbon atoms or aralkyl having 7 to 20 carbon atoms; PA1 R.sup.2 is hydrogen, alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, aryl having 6 to 20 carbon atoms or aralkyl having 7 to 20 carbon atoms; PA1 X is arylene having 6 to 20 carbon atoms; PA1 R.sup.3 and R.sup.4 are independently hydrogen, alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, aryl having 6 to 20 carbon atoms or aralkyl having 7 to 20 carbon atoms; PA1 Y is --NH-- or --O--; PA1 Z is alkylene having 1 to 10 carbon atoms; PA1 m, n and p are independently 0 or 1; and PA1 Q is O or a single bond; and PA1 B is A, an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, aryl having 6 to 20 carbon atoms or aralkyl having 7 to 20 carbon atoms. Exemplary arylene radicals include, without limitation, phenylene, naphthylene or the like, which can be substituted or unsubstituted. Preferably X is phenylene and p is 1. PA1 R.sup.2 is hydrogen, alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, aryl having 6 to 20 carbon atoms or aralkyl having 7 to 20 carbon atoms; PA1 X is arylene having 6 to 20 carbon atoms; PA1 R.sup.3, R.sup.4 and R.sup.5 are independently hydrogen, alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, aryl having 6 to 20 carbon atoms or aralkyl having 7 to 20 carbon atoms; and PA1 R.sup.6 is alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, aryl having 6 to 20 carbon atoms or aralkyl having 7 to 20 carbon atoms. Preferably X is phenylene. It is also preferred that R.sup.1 and R.sup.5 are hydrogen, while R.sup.3, R.sup.4 and R.sup.6 are methyl groups. More preferably, R.sup.2 is hydrogen or a methyl group.
The preparation of various acetoacetates and acetoacetamides is well known. For example, J. Witzeman, et al., The Journal of Organic Chemistry, 56, 1713-18 (1991) discloses the preparation of acetoacetates and acetoacetamides by reaction of various nucleophiles with tert-butyl acetoacetates. This reference reports that acetoacetylated materials may be used as chemical intermediates in the pharmaceutical, agrichemical, chemical and polymer industries.
More particularly, it is known to use acetoacetoxy-functional moiety-containing polymers in combination with polyfunctional amines in latex compositions. Such compositions may be applied to substrates to form films by crosslinking the amines with the acetoacetoxy-functional moiety through the formation of enamine linkages. For example, PCT International Publication No. WO 93/16133 (equivalent to U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,659 to Esser) discloses a particularly advantageous storage-stable single-package latex formulation containing a polymeric ingredient having at least acetoacetoxy functional pendant moieties. This reference discloses that preferred acetoacetoxy functional moiety-containing ingredients include acetoacetamides, such as acetoacetamide methacrylate and acetoacetamide acrylate, as well as acetoacetoxyethyl methacrylate ("AAEM"), acetoacetoxyethyl acrylate ("AAEA"), allyl acetoacetate and vinyl acetoacetate. The use of acetoacetamides in a latex formulation is not exemplified. None of these references disclose or suggest an acetoacetamide compound having an arylene radical therein, or the use of such an acetoacetamide in a latex formulation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,974 discloses an acrylic polymer, which is used as a pigment grinding vehicle having pendent tertiary alkyl primary amine groups and at least one other pendent functionality reactive with isocyanate groups. The monomer having pendent tertiary alkyl primary amine groups may be prepared by reacting a tertiary alkyl isocyanate, such as meta-isopropenyl-.alpha.,.alpha.-dimethylbenzyl isocyanate, with a tertiary alcohol, such as diacetone alcohol (4-hydroxy-4-methyl-2-pentanone), in the presence of a catalyst. There is no disclosure or suggestion, however, of preparing acetoacetamides.
While the acetoacetoxy functional moiety-containing ingredients disclosed in WO 93/16133 may be used to provide desirable latex formulations, there is a continuing need for improved hydrolytic stability of acetoacetoxy functional moieties employed in aqueous polymer formulations. A latex formulation having acetoacetoxy functional pendent moieties with improved hydrolytic stability will advantageously have enhanced storage stability and thus significant commercial advantage over prior art formulations.

Ethylenically-unsaturated 1,3-diketoamide functional compounds


A detector includes a photosensitive array including at least one photosensitive surface. A focusing device focuses spectrally split light onto the photosensitive array. The focusing device is located in an optical path upstream from the photosensitive array. The focusing device includes a microlens array including at least one microlens.

Detectors comprising a photosensitive array having at least one photosensitive surface, whereby a means for focusing a spectrally split light onto the photosensitive array is arranged in a beam path upstream from the photosensitive array, are known in actual practice and are employed, for example, in a confocal microscope for purposes of spectral detection. In this process, downstream from the detection pinhole of the confocal microscope, the light is collimated through a lens, the collimated light is then spectrally split in a dispersing element such as, for instance, in a grating, prism or hologram, and the spectrally split light is focused by means of a lens onto the photosensitive array, for example, a CCD array.
The prior-art systems, however, entail the problem that the achievable spot diameters typically lie in the order of magnitude from 100 μm to 600 μm—depending on the size of the confocal pinhole—in the direction of the spectral splitting as well as in the direction perpendicular thereto. This is many times larger than the size of individual pixels in common photosensitive arrays. Fundamentally, this drawback can be dealt with either by using larger pixels or else by using more pixels in order to read out a single spot. Both approaches, however, significantly increase the requisite readout time per spot, that is to say, per detection wavelength, so that the detection speed is too low for most envisaged tasks.

Photosensitive array detector for spectrally split light


The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor nanostructure. The semiconductor nanostructure includes a substrate and at least one ridge. The substrate includes a first crystal plane and a second crystal plane perpendicular to the first crystal plane. The at least one ridge extends from the first crystal plane along a crystallographic orientation of the second crystal plane. A width of cross section at a position of half the height of the at least one ridge is less than 17 nm. The semiconductor nanostructure is a patterned structure which can lead to generate a quantum confinement effect, such that the impurity scattering phenomenon is reduced.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to semiconductor nanostructures, and particularly to a two-dimensional semiconductor nanostructure.
2. Description of Related Art
In the past few decades, transistors are continuously scaled down in size, which has led to significant improvements in the field of miniature semiconductor electronic devices. Presently, the metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) have been scaled down to the nanometer scale. Unfortunately, varieties of problems emerge when the size of MOSFETs approaches the nanometer scale. One of these problems is that carrier (electron and/or hole) mobility of semiconductor nanostructures in MOSFETs becomes low when the size of MOSFETs is reduced. Currently, the semiconductor nanostructures in MOSFETs are made of film shaped silicon. An approach for increasing the carrier mobility is commonly carried out by introducing an appropriate strain to change the dimensions of the lattice. The energy bands of the semiconductor nanostructures are changed with respect to the changes of the dimensions of the lattice, and the changes of the energy bands may increase the carrier mobility. However, in the approach above, impurity scattering that restricts the carrier mobility is not taken into account. The impurity scattering means that carriers can scatter as they travel through the impurity atoms. In detail, as the carriers travel through impurity atoms, a Coulomb interaction generates between the carriers and the impurity atoms. Therefore, the carriers and the impurity atoms can be mutually attrahent or exclusive, such that the motion directions of the carriers change, thereby decreasing the carrier mobility.
As disclosed by a prior art, the impurity scattering phenomenon in doped one-dimensional silicon nanotubes is not obvious. The nonuniformity of wall thickness of the silicon nanotubes can cause quantum confinement effect. The carriers are located in the thicker wall of the silicon nanotubes. N-type or P-type doping elements for increasing the concentration of the carries (e.g., electrons or holes) are confined in the thinner wall. Thus, the doping elements and the carriers are spatially separated from each other, such that the impurity scattering phenomenon is reduced, thereby increasing the carrier mobility.
However, the reduction principle of the impurity scattering in the one-dimensional silicon nanotubes cannot be applied for reducing the impurity scattering in a two-dimensional semiconductor nanostructure. Therefore, it is not an approach for decreasing the impurity scattering of the two-dimensional semiconductor nanostructure.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide a two-dimensional semiconductor nanostructure having relatively high carrier mobility due to reduction of the impurity scattering.


A method for selectively adjusting the amount of specular reflections appearing in the final image output by an image capturing device by blending two substantially perfectly overlapping images, one with natural specular reflections and one without specular reflections. In the combined image, the amount of specular reflection is lower than in the image having natural specular reflections, to the extent in many cases that the underlying image content can be seen. In any event, the apparatus provides means for selectively adjusting the intensity of specular reflection, or even eliminating it altogether, in each region of the image containing such reflection.

The applicants have found that in the context of a desktop or document camera, it is strongly desirable to use a strobe or the like to ensure appropriate illumination intensity and uniformity. In such close-up imaging situations, however, specularity caused by the strobe can be a serious problem in the case where the subject has a reflective or glossy surface, as in the case of many magazines, photographs and plastic objects.
In the applicant's copending British Patent Application No. 0103828.0 entitled "Digital Cameras" filed on 16 Feb. 2001, a number of methods are disclosed to ensure that specularity patches are eliminated from the final image. Such methods are generally based on two solutions, namely a single flash solution and a dual flash solution, both of which use at least two initial images to eliminate glare. The results of the disclosed methods is a final image which is devoid of any specular effect, i.e. as if the subject had been illuminated by uniform and diffuse light.
However, it is not always desirable to eliminate glare from a captured image altogether, as in many cases it has aesthetic significance in the sense that it can make the captured image look more natural and ensure that it appears three-dimensional, although in many cases, the glare created in a captured image masks some of the features of the subject, which is clearly undesirable as it detrimentally affects the quality of the captured image.
There are have been several arrangements proposed in the past in connection with digital/analog photography which are concerned with the adjustment or control of light exposure to the subject. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,620 describes a control system for controlling the intensity of the flash output of an image capturing device, depending on ambient light conditions, thereby varying the amount of glare appearing in the final image.
Initially, the control system measures the ambient scene light and then utilises the result of that measurement to control the intensity or amount of artificial illumination provided during the exposure interval of the image capturing device. If the ambient scene light is below a first predetermined level, the control system selects maximum flash intensity; if the ambient scene light is above a second predetermined level greater than the first predetermined level, the control system selects minimum flash intensity. If the ambient scene light is determined to be between the first and second predetermined levels, then the control system progressively varies the flash intensity in a manner which is inversely proportional to the measured ambient scene light.
However, there is no interaction between the control system and the user of the image capturing device, giving no user control of the specularity or glare appearing in the final image. Further, if the resultant glare is low, this also implies low scene brightness, which is an undesirable effect.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,936 describes a photographic exposure control system and method. However, such a system could not be used to attenuate or even remove glare areas within an image because such areas are often saturated so that it is not possible to recover the original image content from the captured pixels.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,704 describes a photographic camera apparatus having electronic image enhancement means intended to provide high quality, high resolution photographic prints that have been simultaneously electronically enhanced to compensate either for difficult or unfavourable scene lighting conditions as well as limitations in the film characteristics. The technique used to achieve these aims is often called dual exposure, and involves combining two (or more) images of a subject captured at different (typically increasing) exposure levels. Once again, however, there is no interaction between the user of the image capturing device and the electronic image enhancement means, all so-called enhancement of the final captured image is done automatically without any allowance for user requirements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,336 describes an arrangement which uses algorithmic techniques to selectively enhance segmented areas of a captured image, by comparing the intensities of light being reflected from the subject(s) across the whole field of view of an image capturing device. However, it is not possible to modify glare patches in an image using this type of arrangement, because only a single image is used in the modification method. A single image is insufficient for use in modifying glare patches because such patches are often saturated and, therefore, contain no useful information about the subject. Further, there is little interaction between the user and the system to allow for individual requirements.
There are a few prior art documents which describe dual-flash camera arrangements, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,284 which describes a camera arrangement including an electronic flash unit with two integrated flash heads. However, there is no disclosure or suggestion of the selective or interactive reduction, attenuation or elimination of shadows and/or glare.
International Patent Application No. WO95/32581 describes a system, such as a digitally imaged still photography system which captures a plurality of images simultaneously under different lighting conditions or with different backgrounds, and allows such images to be subsequently blended to exhibit certain characteristics. Similarly, there is a substantial body of prior art which is concerned with the optimisation of a final image using multiple images captured using different settings, including different optical or electrical exposure (e.g. WO00/38417), different magnification and focus settings, different lighting conditions, different spectral properties of the optics, for example colour filters, or a combination of two or more of these.
However, none of the above-mentioned known arrangements are concerned with the attenuation and/or elimination of specularity within a captured image, particularly without detrimentally affecting scene brightness of the final image.
Perhaps the best known method of eliminating specular reflection has been used in the field of photography for many years and uses a single polarizing filter placed in front of the camera lens. By selecting an appropriate angle of rotation of such a filter, it is possible to selectively attenuate/reduce specularity/reflections from the final captured image. A well known variation, often used in machine vision, uses a polarizer to polarize the illumination source and an analyser to filter the captured diffused light only, thereby eliminating the specular component. By rotating the analyser, different amounts of specularity can be selected.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for encapsulating functions to select or filter alerts relevant for messaging to specific recipients, to create appropriate alert notification messages and to actively send them through various message channels. This may be done according to rules depending on content of alert, recipient, and time. As an example, the present invention allows selecting alerts from connected applications, to process them, and to send alert notification messages to the intended recipients.

Computer systems, and in particular distributed computer networks that execute application programs may encounter exceptional situations. These exceptional situations may be unexpected, and may have impact on other parties participating at the network. Therefore, the applications of the computer system or the distributed computer network generate alerts to inform one or more users about the exceptional situation. Such kinds of alerts may be the termination of a contract, a delivery problem for an order, a decline in revenue, or technical problems in a system.
A central point to collect, view, and act upon exception messages related to Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO—a software product delivered by SAP Aktiengesellschaft, Walldorf, Germany) and other supply chain management (SCM) data across applications, is the Alert Monitor provided by SAP. Up to now, the functions to actively inform users of the existence of alerts are limited insofar as one can assign an alert profile to a user such that the corresponding alerts are evaluated for messaging. This is done by a report, which can be started interactively or scheduled periodically for a selection of users. With this mechanism, alerts are sent by SAP office or e-mail. The alert information that is selected through the alert profile is always aggregated: given is the number of alerts by alert type and priority only. In addition in the e-mail there is a hyperlink to the alert monitor's web screen. Further, it has been possible to send individual alerts interactively from the alert monitor display using SAP office, which also allows sending notes with the alert.


A method for generating a video effect using a video signal processing device. The method comprises generating horizontal and vertical gating base signals. The horizontal gating base signal is combined with a first modulation signal and the vertical gating base signal is combined with a second modulation signal. An amplitude distribution is generated from the modulated horizontal and vertical gating base signals. A control signal is generated from the amplitude distribution for controlling a mixing stage. A third modulation signal is derived from a sound signal for modulating the control signal.

A central part of the production of television broadcasts or the post processing of film material is video signal processing. The term video signal processing hereinafter denotes the switching and distribution of video signals from various sources such as, for example, television cameras or video recording apparatuses. Furthermore, the term denotes the combination of a plurality of signals by mixing, for it is also to be understood to mean the editing of recorded video material. For these purposes, production mixers and digital video effect apparatuses are predominantly used as the video signal processing device in production studios. The video processing apparatuses are used to generate a video output signal from a video input signal or from a plurality of video input signals in a controlled manner. In this case, a very significant part is played by trick generators for generating mixing effects. By virtue of the consistent use of large scale integrated components, modern mixers exhibit a plurality of independent mixing effect stages which can be used to represent diverse trick effects.
Mixers constructed in this way enable not only standard tricks such as rectangle, circle, fan, but also matrix tricks, NAM combination ("non additive mixing") of two channels per trick generator, MIX combination (metamorphosis) and also special forms such as star, spiral, flower, fractals, and much more besides.
Despite all the diversity of tricks which can be realized in this way, their dynamic range is nonetheless restricted to mathematical manipulations of the underlying trick figures.
In addition to the mixing effects mentioned in the introduction, which are based on a modulation of the gating signals, EP 0 327 333 B1 proposes a further mixing effect based on an additional control signal being fed to the background color generator. The control signal is derived from the gating signal and effects a color transition from one side of the screen to the other.

Method and device for generating a video effect


A reactive-diffusion method for estimating a diameter of an object of interest includes providing a volume of interest including a plurality of voxels, initializing at least two volumes of the volume of interest, wherein each of the voxels has at least two values corresponding to the at least two volumes of the volume of interest, respectively, performing a diffusion operation and a reaction operation on the voxels to adjust the at least two values, comparing, for each voxel, the at least two values to a threshold to assign each voxel to one of the at least two volumes, wherein the assignment of the voxels is a segmentation result, and estimating a diameter of the object of interest from the segmentation result, wherein the object of interest is represented by at least one of the at least two volumes but less than all the volumes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to image processing, and more particularly to a system and method for estimating a size of solitary objects in of interest in medical images.
2. Description of Related Art
Measuring the size of pulmonary nodules from X-ray computed tomography (CT) data is an important practice for diagnosis and progression analysis of lung cancer. The nodule size often plays an important role in choosing a proper patient care, and is also an effective feature to separate true nodules form nodule-like spurious findings. Typically, the size is represented by the diameter of the nodule. Automating this task for computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) is, however, a difficult problem due to intensity variations, partial volume effects, attachment to other structures, and noises.
A Ct-based screening protocol specified by the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP) details how the diameter of pulmonary nodules should be measured and how the measurements should be used for determining the patient management. According to the protocol, the result of an initial CT screening of lung is considered positive if at least one solid or part-solid nodule with 5.00 mm or more in diameter or at least one non-solid nodule with 8.0 mm or more in diameter is found. Although these 5 mm and 8 mm thresholds are likely to drop as more accurate screening becomes possible with high resolution multi-detector helical CT (MDCT), the importance of module size in cancer diagnosis will stay unchanged.
To this end, an automated size estimation algorithm using a Gaussian Ellipsoid Fit (EF) has been developed. Given a marker positioned near a nodule, the algorithm computes the location, orientation and radii of an ellipsoid that models closely the intensity variation nearby the marker. It employs mean-shift and scale estimator to find the solution. The volume and diameter of the nodule can be estimated from the ellipsoid. EF can be incorporated into a CAD system where markers and provided from either manual markings of a reader or the detection algorithm of the system. The accuracy of the estimates has been verified using a large database with manual size measurements. However, the technique tends to have difficulties with small nodules due mainly to the small sample size problem.

Estimation of solitary pulmonary nodule diameters with reaction-diffusion segmentation


A substituted anilide derivative represented by the formula (2): ##STR1## wherein A and B are methyl, and X is a hydrogen atom. The substituted anilide can be used to prepare a substituted carboxanilide derivative that exhibits a disease control effect against Botrytis cinerea, Powdery mildew, Pyricularia oryzae of rice plant and other various plant diseases, is excellent in residual effect, has activity against strains that are resistant to conventional chemicals, is safe for crops, and thus is useful as a plant disease control agent.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel substituted carboxanilide derivative and a plant disease control agent comprising the same as an active ingredient.
2. Description of the Related Art
The plant disease control agent which has been developed in recent years and has a selective activity differs from conventionally used, nonselective, plant disease control agent and can exhibit steady effect at a low dosage. However, the plant disease control agent has a problem caused by the developement of a resistant fungus leading to a reduction in efficacy.
For example, a benzimidazole-based fungicide has a wide fungicidal spectrum and exhibits excellent effect also on gray mold. However, such fungicide experienced in the 1970's a drastic reduction in efficacy due to appearance of a resistant fungus. A dicarboximide-based fungicide received attention as a replacement for the benzimidazole-based fungicide. Nevertheless, a resistant fungus also appeared in the 1980's against the dicarboximide-based fungicide. Consequently, the counter-measure for controlling the resistant fungus of gray mold has become a serious problem in the world.
On the other hand, an azole-based fungicide has a wide fungicidal spectrum and is an excellent fungicide which exhibits efficacy at a hitherto unexpectedly low dosage particularly for powdery mildew and rust of various crops and scab of apple and pear. However, a resistant fungus against this pesticide has recently appeared and also led to a problem of sharp reduction in the pesticide efficacy. The application number of the fungicide also tends to be limited.
Thus, appearance of the fungicide resistant fungus has become an inevitable problem for the selective plant disease control agent, and accordingly development of a new fungicide is now an urgent subject.
Further, a plant is generally infected by various species of diseases. Representative diseases to be controlled include, for example, blast, sheath blight and other rice diseases, gray mold, powdery mildew and other diseases of cucumber and strawberry; and so as to fruit trees, black spot, scab, rust, powdery mildew and other diseases of pear; and alternaria leaf spot, scab, Podosphaera leucotricha and other apple diseases. Even though the generation of these diseases overlaps seasonally, it is generally difficult to control these diseases by single formulation of the fungicide. Accordingly, in recent years, compounds having fungicidal activity are frequently used as a mixture for practical application. As the result, even though the amount of each fungicidally active ingredient in the mixture is small, the total amount of the active compounds to be used generally becomes considerably large. It is assumed in such a case that, when a fungicide which is capable of controlling various species of diseases by single use and is effective even at a low dosage is developed, the field of application will be broad due to excellent efficacy and reduction of adverse effect on the environment.
Several aromatic carboxanilide derivatives have been conventionally known to exhibit fungicidal activity. For example, European Patent A-545099 has recently disclosed that a carboxanilide derivative represented by the formula below has efficacy for Botrytis cinerea: ##STR2## wherein R is an alkyl which has 2-12 carbon atoms and can be halogenated, an alkenyl which has 3-12 carbon atoms and can be halogenated, an alkynyl having 3-6 carbon atoms and can be halogenated, an alkoxy which has 2-12 carbon atoms and can be halogenated, an alkenyloxy which has 3-12 carbon atoms and can be halogenated, an alkynyloxy which has 3-12 carbon atoms, a cycloalkyl which has 3-6 carbon atoms and can be substituted by an alkyl having 1-4 carbon atoms, a cycloalkenyl which has 4-6 carbon atoms and can be substituted by an alkyl having 1-4 carbon atoms, a cycloalkyloxy which has 5-6 carbon atoms and can be substituted by an alkyl having 1-4 carbon atoms, a cycloalkenyloxy which has 5-6 carbon atoms and can be substituted by an alkyl having 1-4 carbon atoms, a phenyl which can be susbstituted by an alkyl having 1-4 carbon atoms, an alkoxy having 1-4 carbon atoms, an alkylthio having 1-4 carbon atoms or halogen, Y is pyridin-3-yl substituted in the 2-position by a halogen, methyl, trifluoromethyl, methoxy, methylthio, methylsulfinyl or methylsulfonyl; phenyl substituted in the 2-position by a methyl, trifluoromethyl, chlorine., bromine or iodine; 2-methyl-5,6-dihydropyran-3-yl, 2-methyl-5,6-dihydro-1,4-oxathiin-3-yl, 2-methyl-5,6-dihydro-1,4-oxathiin-3-yl-4-oxide, 2-methyl-5,6-dihydro-1, 4-oxathiin-3-yl-4,4-dioxide; 2-methylfuran-3-yl substituted in the 4- and 5-positions by a hydrogen or methyl; thiazol-5-yl substituted in the 2- and 4-positions by hydrogen, methyl, chlorine or trifluoromethyl; thiazol-4-yl substituted in the 2- and 5-positions by hydrogen, methyl, chlorine or trifluoromethyl; 1-methylpyrazo-4-yl substituted in the 3- and 5-positions by methyl, chlorine or trifluoromethyl; oxazol-5-yl substituted in the 2- and 4-positions by hydrogen, methyl or chlorine.
Further, European Patent A-589301 has disclosed that a carboxanilide derivative represented by the formula below has efficacy for Botrytis cinerea; ##STR3## wherein R is an alkyl which has 3-12 carbon atoms and can be partly or completely halogenated, alkoxy having 2-12 carbon atoms, alkenyl having 3-12 carbon atoms, alkenyloxy having 3-12 carbon atoms, alkynyl having 3-6 carbon atoms, alkynyloxy having 3-6 carbon atoms, cycloakyl which has 3-7 carbon atoms and can have one to three alkyls having 1-4 carbon atoms, cycloalkenyl having 4-7 carbon atoms, cycloalkyloxy having 3-7 carbon atoms, cycloalkenyloxy having 4-7 carbon atoms, and phenyl group which can carry one to five halogens and/or one to three of the following radicals; alkyl having 1-4 carbon atoms, haloalkyl having 1-4 carbon atoms, alkoxy having 1-4 carbon atoms, haloalkoxy having 1-4 carbon atoms, alkylthio having 1-4 carbon atoms and haloalkylthio group having 1-4 carbon atoms; and Y is a cyclic group represented by either one of the formulas Y.sub.1 to Y.sub.5 below: ##STR4## wherein D is a hydrogen atom or alkyl having 1-4 carbon atoms, E is a halogen atom or alkyl having 1-4 carbon atoms, G is an alkyl having 1-4 carbon atoms or haloalkyl having 1-4 carbon atoms, and n is an integer of 1 or 2.
European Patent A-545099 and A-589301 include very broad range of compounds as the highest concept. However, the compounds described in the examples are limited. For example. in the carboxanilide compounds described in these gazettes, the alkyl group which has been specifically described on the examples and tables as a substituent on the 2-position of the aniline ring is restricted to a straight alkyl having 3-7 carbon atoms; isopropyl, sec-butyl, tert-butyl, 1-methylbutyl, 1-methylhexyl and other alkyl groups which are branched at the .alpha.-position; and isobutyl, 2-ethylbutyl and other alkyl groups which are branched at the .beta.-position. No description is found at all on the alkyl group which is branched at the .gamma.-position.
The present inventors have tested control activity against various species of plant-pathogenic fungus concerning the specifically disclosed compounds in these gazettes. As a result, neither of the compounds tested had control effect against rice blast. Some compounds had quite no efficacy against Powdery mildew and gray mold. Even though in the case of compounds having efficacy, the effect was very weak.


A method of connecting a computing device to a conference. One method comprises finding one or more potential dial-in numbers and looking up the one or more potential dial-in numbers in at least one database. One method further comprises one of, accessing a conference reception zone with one of the potential dial-in numbers when the one of the potential dial-in numbers is found in the at least one database and attempting to access the conference reception zone with the one or more potential dial-in numbers when the one or more potential dial-in numbers are not found in the at least one database. One or more potential conference pin numbers are obtained and it is determined whether one or more additional conference pin numbers are associated with the one or more potential dial-in numbers. A selected conference pin number is assigned a confidence level and the conference pin number is entered in the conference reception zone prior to accessing the conference.

Conference calls are frequently used to communicate ideas to a group of people located in different locations. In order to join a conference call, a person may need to use a communication device to call a phone number, enter one or more passwords (e.g. "codes" or "pins"), and state his or her name prior to joining the call. Therefore, multiple pieces of information may be required to access the call. Entering such information can often be tedious and cumbersome to participants. For example, when traveling, a participant may need to join a conference call during the time that the person is not located at an office and therefore a mobile computing device may be used to access the conference. In such case, the person may also be performing a separate function such as, but not limited to, driving a car or catching a flight. Furthermore, time may be of the essence in connecting to the call. Therefore, a person may not have the ability to access the multiple pieces of information and subsequently enter the multiple pieces of information correctly in order to quickly join the call. Furthermore, if the information is saved or entered incorrectly, obtaining and/or entering the proper information may waste valuable time for the person trying to enter the call as well as the participants waiting for everyone to join and provide input on the topic being covered during the conference call.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Automated conferencing system and method