To carry out objective or definitive diagnosis on the basis of an elastic image regardless of experience and proficiency, a method of displaying an elastic image includes the steps of measuring ultrasound cross-section data of a cross-section region of a subject by applying pressuring to the subject, determining a physical value correlating with the elasticity of tissue in the cross-section region on the basis of the ultrasound cross-section data, generating an elastic image of the cross-section region on the basis of the physical value and displaying the elastic image on a display device, determine compression state information relating to the compression state of the cross-section region on the basis of the pressure applied to the subject, and displaying the compression state information together with the elastic image on the display device.

A diagnostic ultrasound system transmits an ultrasonic wave from an ultrasound transducer into a subject, receives a reflected echo signal, which is ultrasonic wave, corresponding to the structure of the body tissue from inside the subject, and displays a cross-sectional image, such as a B-mode image, for diagnosis.
Recently, it has been proposed to measure ultrasound image data by apply a compression force to a subject according to a manual or mechanical method, determining the displacement in regions of the body caused by the compression on the basis of two sets of ultrasound image data measured at different times, and generating an elastic image representing the hardness or softness of the body tissue on basis of displacement data of the regions of the body. Accordingly, pressure sensors are provided on the back of a transducer element unit of an ultrasound transducer, the pressure applied to the ultrasound transducer by compressing the subject is determined, and an elastic image is displayed after determining Young's modulus. When the pressure exceeds predetermined threshold value of pressure, a light-emitting diode provided on the probe is illuminated. Such a measurement method is described in Patent Document JP2003-225239A.
However, according to this patent document, only Young's modulus is calculated by determining the pressure applied to the ultrasound transducer, and there is no mentioning of displaying compression state information on a screen.
It has been reported that the hardness of body tissue is non-linear and that the hardness of body tissue changes depending on the compression condition at the time the body tissue is compressed (for example, Krouskop TA, et al. Elastic Moduli of Breast and Prostate Tissue Under Compression. Ultrasonic Imaging. 1998; 20:260-274). Here, the compression condition include the change over time in the pressure applied to body tissue, the change in the compressed amount (the compressed amount of body tissue from a non-compressed state), and the compression speed.
In other words, since the hardness of body tissue changes depending on the compression condition, the measured elastic image also changes depending on the compression condition. This will be described with reference to FIGS. 1(A) to 1(C). FIG. 1(A) shows an example image of when compression is adequate, where the region of hard tissue is represented by a black circle, and other regions of soft tissue are represented in white. FIG. 1(B) shows an example image of when compression is excessive, where distortion is generated in the black circle representing the region of hard tissue, the border of the black circle and the regions of soft tissue in the periphery is unclear, and the contrast of the image is reduced. FIG. 1(C) shows an example image of when compression is inadequate. Since sufficient stress is not applied to the body tissue, points of zero distortion (areas that are recognized as being hard) are scattered through out the region that is uniformly soft, and the image becomes non-uniform.
However, conventionally, it has been difficult for an examiner to objectively determine whether elastic information recognizable from an elastic image of a region of interest differed depending on the compression condition because there has not been any consideration given to detecting the compression condition and displaying information on the compression condition in association with the elastic image. As a result, since the examiner is forced to carry out a diagnosis on the basis of an elastic image measured under a compression condition (adequate compression, inadequate compression, or excessive compression) based on subjectivity, it is disadvantageous in that the diagnostic result differs depending on the examiner's experience and proficiency.

Method of displaying elastic image and diagnostic ultrasound system


The present invention relates to a method and system for recovery of waste.

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) photovoltaics (PV) is a new and promising energy generation technology. However, such cadmium telluride photovoltaic modules may be characterized as hazardous waste because they contain a cadmium compound. Cadmium is a toxic element and tellurium is a rare one. Separating the two elements enables cleaning of hazardous waste streams and recovery of the valuable tellurium.
Photovoltaic modules at the end of their useful life have to be decommissioned and disposed of, or re-used in some way. Environmental regulations can impact the complexity and the cost of dealing with end-of-life photovoltaic modules. For example, the inclusion of spent photovoltaic modules with waste electric- and electronic-equipment under some European directives (e.g., Waste from Electric & Electronics Equipment (WEEE) and Restrictions on the use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS)) will impact cadmium telluride photovoltaic modules that contain lead and cadmium compounds, respectively.
Handling and disposing of spent modules and manufacturing scrap characterized as hazardous costs about twenty times more than dealing with non-hazardous waste. Recycling the semimetals such as tellurium from spent photovoltaic modules addresses this issue because the hazardous elements in a photovoltaic module typically are less than 0.1% of its mass.

System and method for separating tellurium from cadmium waste


In growing a silicon monocrystal from a silicon melt added with an N-type dopant by Czochralski method, the monocrystal is grown such that a relationship represented by a formula (1) as follows is satisfied. In the formula (1): a dopant concentration in the silicon melt is represented by C (atoms/cm3); an average temperature gradient of the grown monocrystal is represented by Gave(K/mm); a pulling-up speed is represented by V (mm/min); and a coefficient corresponding to a kind of the dopant is represented by A. By growing the silicon monocrystal under a condition shown in the left to a critical line G1, occurrence of abnormal growth due to compositional supercooling can be prevented.

In recent years, there has been a demand from device manufacturers for an N-type low-resistivity crystal added with N-type dopant at a high concentration (N-type highly doped monocrystal) for application in a power MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor) in order to reduce "On" resistivity.
However, when an N-type dopant is added at a high concentration as described above and an ingot is pulled up by Czochralski method, the freezing point is depressed to a considerably large degree due to the addition of the dopant in a large amount, so that compositional supercooling may be caused.
When such compositional supercooling is large, a growth different from a silicon growth face may be initiated on a crystal growth interface, which leads to an abnormal growth (cell growth). Occurrence of such an abnormal growth during a growing phase of an ingot may hamper the monocrystallization.
In view of the above, studies on such compositional supercooling have been conducted in a field of compound semiconductor such as GaAs, InP. According to a known technique, occurrence conditions of compositional supercooling are defined based on a relationship between a temperature gradient of the semiconductor melt and a pulling-up speed (e.g., patent document 1).
Patent Document 1: JP-A-61-31382

Process for production of silicon single crystal

Abstract: Gave          V                >                              A            ·            C                    -          43                                    (        1        )


In a bottom plate for closing the crankcase of an internal combustion engine including coolant and lubricant flow channels integrated into the bottom plate which consists of individual plates stacked on top of one another, a heat exchanger, which consists of heat exchanger plates stacked on top of one another as disposed on the bottom plate so as to form at least one common chamber therewith for transferring at least one of coolant and lubricant between the bottom plate and the heat exchanger.

The invention resides in a bottom plate for closing a crankcase of an internal combustion engine including channels for a lubricant and for a coolant integrated into the bottom plate and a heat exchanger disposed on the bottom plate.
DE 198 55 562 C1 discloses a crankcase including chambers serving as oil storage spaces. DE 100 33 416 C1 discloses a bottom plate for closing that crankcase. With the bottom plate in connection with the crankcase, a dry sump lubrication system is provided. Lubricant as well as coolant channels are integrated into the bottom plate. Generally, this bottom plate consists of cast aluminum. The packing density and free channel length are determined mostly by the smallest core height and the minimum wall thickness. However, manufacturing of such a structure is expensive and structures or means for additional functions can be integrated into the bottom plate only by redesigning a bottom plate to provide one of correspondingly larger size.
Auxiliary equipment such as pumps and heat exchangers are mounted on the bottom plate. A heat exchanger comprises a connector plate with passages for the coolant and the lubricant, stacked heat exchanger plates and a cover plate. The heat exchanger is bolted to the support plate via a support structure. This support structure must be very stable since the arrangement tends to vibrate. At the surface area of the heat exchanger in contact with the support plate a seal is provided.
However, the large weight of the unit comprising the bottom plate and the heat exchanger is critical.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a relatively simple arrangement comprising a bottom plate and a heat exchanger.


A dental material composed of hydrophilic polycaprolactone formed by the process of exposing a hydrophobic caprolactone to ionizing irradiation from a radiation source selected from the group consisting of an Electron Acceleration (E beam), Gamma II, Cobolt, X-ray or a source of UV radiation to form a cross linked polycaprolactone composition consisting of two distinct phases one of which is soluble and the other non-soluble, and adjusting the duration of ionizing radiation and/or the intensity of the radiation to cause the concentration of the soluble phase to be above at least about 65% by weight of the cured polymeric composition whereby the hydrophobic caprolactone becomes hydrophilic.

The etiology of teeth in a human's oral cavity are derived from the juxtaopposed denticle scales of a Shark's integument. Unlike, the overlapping fibrous collagen scales of the shark, higher orders and species of vertebrate fish, the human denticle scale, includes a slightly angulated vertical rearward projection from the scales surface. This projection allows for a supply of blood by means of a pulpal canal in the form of a soft calcium hydroxyappretite/collagen, covered over with a very hard calcium hydroxyapatite shell with, a rod-like/matrix structure, of enamel.
In modern day dentistry, even till this day, gold (Au) alone is the material of choice for restoring all non-aesthetic surfaces particularly where no mastication occurs on the direct biting and chewing surfaces of the teeth. Gold has many attributes in the restoration of these biting and chewing surfaces in that gold is relatively soft and malleable to cause stress breaks during traumatic opposing forces of mastication so as not to insult the periodontium and osteoclasts of the tooth and bone, respectively. The margins of a Class II restoration which has either necrotic decayed tissue removed on either proximal sides of the tooth and that of the occlusal surface at the interfacial Enamel/cavo surface margins where a gold inlay meets the enamel or in a gold cast crown where the entire margin is prepared circumferentially, the gingival margin may easily be burnished with an instrument making gold the material of choice for restoring surfaces at the margin.
The reason natural enamel on a human tooth surface protects the tooth surface and the reason a restored tooth surface using gold protects the tooth surface is that natural enamel and gold are hydrophilic materials. The hydrophilic property of the material provides for little, if any, surface tension, and causes hydrogen bonding, which inhibits the formation of a contact angle with water or saliva on its substrate surface thereby forming a boundary layer which permits frictionless laminar flow of saliva and/or food to flow over wear susceptible tooth masticatory surfaces which are otherwise areas susceptible to decay all around the tooth such is in a posterior tooth, in grooves and fossae or in the proximal embrasure areas of the teeth and between teeth. The hydrophilic surface on the teeth or tooth is nature's way of preventing decaying masticatory food from otherwise collecting, i.e., the decaying food will be carried away by the saliva.
However, today's modern dental materials currently conventionally used for restoring teeth are hydrophobic. A hydrophobic material causes high surface tension thereby inhibiting hydrogen bonding. Moreover, the hydrophobic nature of the material prevents the formation of a boundary layer and instead forms a turbulent surface which does not permit the saliva to flow over the tooth surface.
The dental composition of the subject invention is hydrophilic and has a very low surface energy which promotes hydrogen bonding. Moreover, because it is hydrophilic a boundary layer is formed having a small contact angle-free boundary layer when in contact with water or saliva. The boundary layer forms over the tooth substrate surface exactly as is formed with an enamel surface or a gold surface and provides for friction-less laminar flow of saliva in combination with particles of food, over these chewing surfaces which enhances their wear in the same manner as currently occurs with natural teeth or on gold surfaces.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A system and method is presented for measuring the volume of an ink-jet droplet or the relative volumes of a plurality of ink-jet droplets using their electrical properties. In a preferred embodiment a single small capacitor or an array of capacitors is used to measure the dielectric properties of ink-jet droplets and the absolute drop volumes are derived. In an alternative preferred embodiment the relative differences in drop volumes are determined. A feedback circuit, such as one using lock-in technique, may be used to automatically adjust subsequent drop volumes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drop volume measurement and control mechanism and process for inkjet printing. More particularly, the present invention relates to the measurement of an electrical property of an ink-jet droplet, such as its dielectric properties, to determine its volume.
2. Description of Related Art
One conventional type of printer forms characters and images on a medium or substrate, such as paper, by expelling droplets of ink, often comprising organic material, in a controlled fashion so that the droplets land on the medium in a pattern. Such a printer can be conceptualized as a mechanism for moving and placing the medium in a position such that ink droplets can be placed on the medium, a printing cartridge which controls the flow of ink and expels droplets of ink to the medium, and appropriate control hardware and software. A conventional print cartridge for an inkjet type printer comprises an ink containment device and a fingernail-sized apparatus, commonly known as a print head, which heats and expels ink droplets in a controlled fashion. The print cartridge may contain a storage vessel for ink, or the storage vessel may be separate from the print head. Other conventional inkjet type printers use piezo elements that can vary the ink chamber volume through use of the piezo-electric effect to expel ink droplets in a controlled fashion. Helpful background material may be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/191,911, entitled "Process And Tool With Energy Source For Fabrication Of Organic Electronic Devices", which is incorporated herein by reference.
Ink jet printing is a relatively new technique for deposition of polymer solutions to create organic electronics (by way of example only, organic integrated circuit boards, thin film transistors, detectors, solar cells, displays based on light-emitting polymers). Other applications of ink jet printing include, by way of example only, ink-jet printing of color filter arrays such as OLEDs and LCD displays, printing of metal solutions/suspensions to create conductive/metal lines, and printing of materials for biomedical or bio-chemical applications and devices. In a typical application, polymers, monomers, and/or oligomers are dissolved or dispersed in appropriate solvents and are deposited onto appropriate substrates by an ink jet printing process. The solutions dry and form thin solid films on these substrates. For organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs), the thickness of these films is often measured in nanometers. Unintentional thickness variations and inhomogeneities may cause major defects in the end product. For example, in many circuit elements, current is roughly inversely proportional to the film thickness cubed. Thus, small thickness variations often cause unacceptable variations in current for the same driving voltage. Since the light output for OLEDs is approximately proportional to the current, variation in the thickness can create significant variation in the light output. If the film thickness needs to be within a certain range (such as a tolerance of ±5%), the volume of droplets ejected from ink jet nozzles has to be restricted to a similar tolerance.
Although drop volume must be carefully controlled for the creation of organic electronics using ink jet nozzles, drop volume is also an important consideration for other dispensing devices. By way of example only, ink jet printers for graphic arts or printers used for the creation of color filters for liquid crystal displays can also benefit from control of drop volume. Thus, dispensing devices for bio-chemistry and printing of polymeric integrated circuit boards are only some of the applications where drop volume is important. Piezo-based ink jet printing, thermal ink jet printing, microdosing, and micro-pipettes are just some of the types of dispensing devices that eject ink droplets.
"Off-line" methods exist to measure drop volume of ejected droplets. One method is to eject a defined number of droplets into a container and, using the weight of the resulting ejected droplets (or the resulting dried film/drop material) along with the known density, calculating the average drop volume. Helpful background material may be found in various publications, such as, by way of example only, S. F. Pond: "Inkjet Technology", Torrey Pines Research (2000).
Disadvantageously, the off-line method, as the name implies, requires that the particular dispenser or dispensers being tested are taken out of use while being tested. The interruption of the printing process and the time consumption involved during testing can mean a significant decrease in productivity. Additionally, if there is more than one nozzle, each nozzle must be tested separately, and so it is not efficient to perform a determination of drop volume variation between nozzles. Furthermore, the evaporation of solvents in the droplets between the time the droplets leave the nozzle and the moment they are weighed can skew the results of the test.
Optical methods tend to be more sophisticated than the "off-line" method described above. Stroboscopic illumination of droplets may be used to take pictures of droplets during flight, and the drop diameter and drop volume are calculated from these images. Laser measurements can be used to determine the drop volume by measuring the length of time a laser beam is blocked by the droplet and, using that information along with the drop velocity measurements, calculating the drop diameter.
Disadvantageously, stroboscopic measurement is inaccurate. The visible border of a given droplet strongly depends on the illumination, camera settings, and other technical variations, making the results unreliable for many applications.
Laser measurements are generally more precise than stroboscopic measurements, but are also time-consuming and expensive. Furthermore, the optical components (such as mirrors, lenses, light-sources) used for laser measurements may be too bulky for a given application. The bulkiness of components is especially disadvantageous when attempting to implement a plurality of detectors that are capable of scanning a plurality of nozzles simultaneously. Additionally, the laser source may introduce laser hazards. Finally, liquid droplets having different components may have different absorption of light, thereby skewing the results.
Optical methods are also susceptible to being compromised by ink splashes and/or dirt in the environment. In the "dirty" environment of printing, the performance of optical sensors can be compromised, necessitating frequent cleaning and/or replacement of parts.

Drop volume measurement and control for ink jet printing


Through advancing the phase of radio frequency (RF) excitation with each phase-encoding level, a method, apparatus and article thereof increases the effectiveness of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) device by correcting for main magnetic field inhomogeneities without noticeably decreasing the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. Increased effectiveness of fast imaging with steady precession (FISP) scans and using FISP scans to image multiple slices. In an MRI device, a patient is subjected to a constant magnetic field, and RF pulses are used to excite the nuclei in the patient's body, which release a corresponding RF signal as the nuclei relax, which is measured and mapped into a visual display. The RF pulses used to excite the nuclei cooperate with a slice select gradient and a phase-encoding gradient. When the RF pulse is phase shifted with each phase-encoding gradient level, improved SNR ratios are observed.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), also called nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMR imaging), is a non-invasive method for the analysis of materials and is used extensively in medical imaging. It is non-destructive and does not use ionizing radiation. In general terms, nuclear magnetic moments of nuclei in the imaged material are excited at specific spin precession frequencies, which are proportional to an external magnetic field. Radio frequency (RF) signals resulting from the precession of these spins are collected using receiver coils. By manipulating the magnetic fields, signals are collected that represent different regions of the volume under study. These signals are combined to produce a volumetric image of the nuclear spin density of the object.
In MRI, a body is subjected to a constant main magnetic field B0. Another magnetic field, in the form of electromagnetic radio frequency (RF) pulses, is applied orthogonally to the constant magnetic field. The RF pulses have a particular frequency that is chosen to affect particular nuclei (typically hydrogen) in the body. The RF pulses excite the nuclei, increasing the energy state of the nuclei. After the pulse, the nuclei relax and release RF energy as a free induction decay (FID) signal, which can be transformed into an echo signal. The echo signals are detected, measured, and processed into images for display. The RF pulses may have a broad frequency spectrum to excite nuclei over a large range of resonant frequencies, or the RF pulses may have a narrow frequency spectrum to excite a nuclei over a more narrow range of resonant frequencies.
Composite RF pulses may be used to excite nuclei over different ranges of resonant frequencies. In this manner, composite RF pulses may be transmitted to excite multiple ranges of resonant frequencies, thereby allowing for collection of received signals from multiple areas of interest, such as multiple slices, simultaneously.
When hydrogen nuclei relax, the frequency that they emit is positively correlated with the strength of the magnetic field surrounding them. For example, a magnetic field gradient along the z-axis, called the "slice select gradient," is set up when the RF pulse is applied, and is shut off when the RF pulse is turned off. This gradient causes the hydrogen nuclei at the high end of the gradient (where the magnetic field is stronger) to precess at a high frequency (e.g., 26 MHz), and those at the low end (weaker field) to precess at a lower frequency (e.g., 24 MHz). When a narrow-banded RF pulse is applied, only those nuclei which precess at that particular frequency will be tilted, to later relax and emit a radio transmission. That is, the nuclei "resonate" to that particular frequency. For example, if the magnetic gradient caused hydrogen nuclei to precess at rates from 24 MHz at the low end of the gradient to 26 MHz at the high end, and the gradient were set up such that the high end was located at the patient's head and the low end at the patient's feet, then a 24 MHz RF pulse would excite the hydrogen nuclei in a slice near the feet, and a 26 MHz pulse would excite the hydrogen nuclei in a slice near the head. When a single "slice" along the z-axis is selected, only the protons in this slice are excited by the specific RF pulse to a higher energy level, to later relax to a lower energy level and emit a radio frequency signal.
The second dimension of the image is extracted with the help of a phase-encoding gradient. Immediately after the RF pulse ceases, all of the nuclei in the activated higher energy level slice are in phase. Left to their own devices, these vectors would relax. In MRI, however, the phase-encoding gradient (in the y-dimension) is briefly applied in order to cause the magnetic vectors of nuclei along different portions of the gradient to have a different phase advance. Typically, the sequence of pulses is repeated to collect all the data necessary to produce an image. As the sequence of pulses is repeated, the strength of the phase-encoding gradient is stepped, as the number of repetitions progresses. For example, the phase-encoding gradient may be evenly incremented after each repetition. These steps of the phase-encoding gradient are also referred to as "warp levels." The number of repetitions of the pulse sequence is determined by the type of image desired and can be any integer, typically from 1 to 1024, although additional phase encoding steps are utilized in specialized imaging sequences. The polarity of the phase encoding gradient may also be reversed to collect additional RF signal data. For example, when the number of repetitions is 1024, for 512 of the repetitions, the phase encoding gradient will be positive. Correspondingly, for the other 512 repetitions, a negative polarity phase encoding gradient of the same magnitude is utilized.
After the RF pulse, slice select gradient, and phase-encoding gradient have been turned off, the MRI instrument sets up a third magnetic field gradient, along the x-axis, called the "frequency encoding gradient" or "read-out gradient." This gradient causes the relaxing protons to differentially precess, so that the nuclei near one end of the gradient begin to precess at a faster rate, and those at the other end precess at an even faster rate. Thus, when these nuclei relax, the fastest ones (those which were at the high end of the gradient) will emit the highest frequency RF signals. The frequency encoding gradient is applied only when the RF signals are to be measured. The second and third dimensions of the image are extracted by means of Fourier transformation. Fourier transformation, or Fast Fourier transformation, permits the received RF signal to be decomposed into a sum of sine waves, each of different frequency, phases and amplitudes. For example,S(t)=a0+a1 sin(ω1t+φ1)+a2 sin(ω2t+φ2)+ . . .
Alternatively, the amplitude of the received RF signal may be shown to decay exponentially, as represented by:
  A  =            A      0                  ⅇ                        -          t                          T          2
where t is time, A0 is the initial amplitude of the received signal, and the
  ⅇ            -      t              T      2      term is the decay constant that depends upon the uniformity of the main magnetic field, B0.
The Fourier transformation of the signal in the time domain can be represented in the equivalent frequency domain by a series of peaks of various amplitudes. In MRI, the signal is spatially encoded by changes of phase and frequency, which is then decomposed by performing a two-dimension Fourier transform to identify pixel intensities across the image.
While the z-axis was used as the slice-select axis in the above example, similarly, either the x-axis or y-axis may be set up as the slice-select axis depending upon the desired image orientation and the anatomical structure of the object of interest being scanned. For example, when a patient is positioned in the main magnetic field, one axis is utilized as the slice-select axis to acquire sagittal images, and another axis is utilized as the slice-select axis to acquire coronal images.
Regardless of the orientation of the selected scan, mathematically, the slice select gradient, phase-encoding gradient, and read-out gradient are orthogonal. The result of the MRI scan in the frequency domain representation (k-space) is converted to image display in the time domain data after a 2D or 3D Fast Fourier transform (FFT). Generally, in a transverse slice, the readout gradient is related to the kx axis and the phase-encoding gradient is related to the ky axis. In 3D MRI, an additional phase-encoding gradient is related to the kz axis to acquire data in a third dimension. When the number of phase-encoding levels is smaller than a binary number, the missing data may be filled with zeros to complete the k-space so that an FFT algorithm may be applied.
In k-space, data is arranged in an inhomogeneous distribution such that the data at the center of a k-space map contains low spatial frequency data, that is, the general spatial shape of an object being scanned. The data at the edges of the k-space map contains high spatial frequency data including the spatial edges and details of the object.
The more uniform the main magnetic field B0, and the more uniform the frequency of the gradients and RF pulses, the higher the resulting image quality, because the precessing nuclei become de-phased more quickly when subjected to non-uniform magnetic fields. The main magnetic field, the gradient magnetic fields, and the frequency composition of the RF excitation pulse may all cause quicker de-phasing if any of these elements are non-uniform.
In magnetic resonance imaging, for the same set of scan parameters, a shorter scan tends to reduce the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), while a longer scan, which would have a correspondingly larger k-space map, tends to increase the signal-to-noise ratio as well as image quality. Ideally, a fast scan with a high signal-to-noise ratio is preferred.
The physical limitations, including signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) versus scan time, are balanced in a clinical environment, and MRI sequences are programmed to maximize image quality, including signal-to-noise ratios, image contrast, and the minimization of image artifacts. Attempts are made to minimize scan times, all the while minimizing the effects of any non-uniform magnetic fields in the main magnetic field, the gradient magnetic fields, and the RF pulse composition. Steady state free precession (SSFP) imaging sequences do not use a refocusing 180° RF pulse, and the data are sampled during a gradient echo, which is achieved by dephasing the spins with a negatively pulsed gradient before they are rephased by an opposite gradient with opposite polarity to generate the echo. Steady state free precession techniques often permit fast imaging with high signal-to-noise ratios, but they are susceptible to image artifacts due to inhomogeneities in the main B0 magnetic field.
In order to capitalize on the fast imaging times afforded by steady-state free precession imaging sequences, artifacts resulting from main B0 magnetic field inhomogeneities must be minimized. In this manner, fast scan times may be achieved with improved signal-to-noise ratios. However, none of the previous MRI imaging sequences and techniques provide adequate fast scan times, acceptable signal-to-noise measurements, and reduced-artifact images.
What is needed is a new type of MRI imaging sequence that provides acceptable fast scan times and signal-to-noise ratios, and eliminates steady-state free precession imaging artifacts.

Multi-slice fast magnetic resonance imaging


The invention relates to apparatus for determining the purity of a metal alloy, and in particular an aluminum alloy. The apparatus comprises a shell (10) defining a receptacle (14) of generally tapering shape about a vertical axis having a bottom end defining an orifice (18) of small dimensions, a filter (20) completely closing the orifice, means a heater for initially raising the shell to a first predetermined temperature, an orifice putting a predetermined quantity of alloy to be tested into the receptacle, the quantity of alloy being initially at a second predetermined temperature, whereby the alloy flows under gravity through the filter until the filter becomes clogged with the impurities in the alloy, and means a pan for collecting and measuring the volume of alloy that passes through the filter prior to the filter becoming clogged by the impurities contained in the alloy.

The present invention relates to a method and to apparatus for determining the purity of a metal alloy.
More precisely, the invention relates to determining whether the concentration of impurities in a metal alloy, and in particular the concentration of oxides that result from making the alloy is unacceptable, acceptable, or very low so as to be able to determine whether the alloy in question is usable or not. This problem arises in particular, but not exclusively, with aluminum alloys.
These impurities that result from making the alloy, in particular an aluminum alloy, may consist essentially in oxides. Nevertheless, it is also possible to find salts, carbides, nitrides, borides, and sludge in the form of particles or of a kind of skin that forms on the alloy.
It will be understood that it is necessary, or at least desirable, once an alloy has been made, to ensure that it does not include too high a content of impurities, which could make use of the alloy difficult or impossible for making certain types of part subjected to high mechanical stresses.
Various methods have been used for determining impurity content. These various methods comprise: spectroscopic emission; various types of chemical analysis, e.g. gas chromatography; another type of measurement is volumetric analysis using centrifuging or filtering techniques; and then there are non-destructive techniques, such as using ultrasound or techniques based on using X-rays.
In the filter group of techniques, mention can be made in particular of the ALCAN method known under the name PODFA which is based on the following principles: about 2 kg of alloy are taken directly while in molten form. This alloy to be tested is caused to pass through a filter. The residue in the filter is then selected vertically along the central plane and prepared for metallographic analysis. The analysis makes it possible to determine the concentration of impurities or inclusions expressed in mm.sup.2 /kg. To cause the alloy to pass through the filter, it is necessary to apply air at sufficient pressure onto the free surface of the alloy in the receptacle which contains it.
However, it will be understood that that filter-based technique requires subsequent metallographic analysis, which takes a certain amount of time, and which therefore means that genuinely instantaneous analysis cannot be provided while the alloy is being made.

Device for determining the purity of a metal alloy

Centre Technique des Industries de la Fonderie


Methods of treating or preventing chronic pain or convulsion are disclosed by administering to an animal a sodium channel blocker and at least one of gabapentin and pregabalin. Also disclosed are pharmaceutical compositions and kits for the treatment or prevention of chronic pain or convulsion.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of medicinal chemistry. In particular, the invention relates to compositions comprising blockers of sodium (Na+) channels and at least one of gabapentin or pregabalin. The invention also relates to methods for the treatment of chronic pain or convulsions comprising coadministering a sodium channel blocker and at least one of gabapentin or pregabalin.
2. Related Background Art
Several classes of therapeutically useful drugs, including local anesthetics such as lidocaine and bupivacaine, antiarrhythmics such as propafenone and amioclarone, and anticonvulsants such as lamotrigine, phenytoin and carbamazepine, have been shown to share a common mechanism of action by blocking or modulating Na+ channel activity (Catterall, W. A., Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 8:57-65 (1987)). Each of these agents is believed to act by interfering with the rapid influx of Na+ ions. Recently, other Na+ channel blockers such as BW619C89 and lifarizine have been shown to be neuroprotective in animal models of global and focal ischemia and are presently in clinical trials (Graham et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 269:854-859 (1994); Brown et al., British J. Pharmacol. 115:1425-1432 (1995); SCRIP 1870:8 (1993); SCRIP 1773:14 (1992)).
The neuroprotective activity of Na+ channel blockers is due to their effectiveness in decreasing extracellular glutamate concentration during ischemia by inhibiting the release of this excitotoxic amino acid neurotransmitter. Studies have shown that unlike glutamate receptor antagonists, Na+ channel blockers prevent hypoxic damage to mammalian white matter (Stys et al., J. Neurosci. 12:430-439 (1992)). Thus, they may offer advantages for treating certain types of strokes or neuronal trauma where damage to white matter tracts is prominent.
Another example of clinical use of a Na+ channel blocker is riluzole. This drug has been shown to prolong survival in a subset of patients with ALS (Bensimm et al., New Engl. J. Med. 330:585-591 (1994)) and has subsequently been approved by the FDA for the treatment of ALS. In addition to the above-mentioned clinical uses, carbamazepine, lidocaine and phenytoin are occasionally used to treat neuropathic pain, such as from trigeminal neurologia, diabetic neuropathy and other forms of nerve damage (Taylor and Meldrum, Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 16:309-316 (1995)), and carbamazepine and lamotrigine have been used for the treatment of manic depression (Denicott et al., J. Clin. Psychiatry 55: 70-76 (1994)).
It has been established that there are at least five to six sites on the voltage-sensitive Na+ channels which bind neurotoxins specifically (Catterall, W. A., Science 242:50-61 (1988)). Studies have further revealed that therapeutic antiarrhythmics, anticonvulsants and local anesthetics whose actions are mediated by Na+ channels, exert their action by interacting with the intracellular side of the Na+ channel and allosterically inhibiting interaction with neurotoxin receptor site 2 (Catterall, W. A., Ann. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 10:15-43 (1980)).
Chronic pain or neuropathic pain is a heterogenous disease state with an unclear etiology. In chronic pain, the pain can be mediated by multiple mechanisms. This type of pain generally arises from injury to the peripheral or central nervous tissue. The syndromes include pain associated with spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, post-herpetic neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, phantom pain, causalgia and reflex sympathetic dystrophy and lower back pain. The chronic pain is different from acute pain in that patients suffer the abnormal pain sensations that can be described as spontaneous pain, continuous superficial burning and/or a deep aching pain. The pain can be evoked by heat-, cold- and mechano-hyperalgesia or by heat-, cold- and mechano-allodynia (International association for the study of pain: The classification of chronic pain (1995); Bennett G. J. Molecular Neurobiology of Pain, Progress in Pain Research and Management Vol. 9, pp. 109-113, edited by D. Borsook, 1997). In most cases, chronic neuropathic pain responds poorly to treatment with opiates or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory analgesia.
Carbamazepine (Tegretol™), a sodium channel blocker anticonvulsant, has been shown to be effective in trigeminal neuralgia. However, one third of patients cannot tolerate the drug in the dose required to alleviate the pain (Victor et al., Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 11th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill 1987; 2035-40). In addition, carbamazepine may cause aplastic anemia, agranulocytosis, and hypersensitivity reaction (Canavero et al., Pain 60:229-31 (1995)). These serious side effects are dose related. Carbamazepine is the only drug approved by the FDA for this indication.
There are no other drugs thus far that have been approved for chronic pain. Lamotrigine (Lamictal) is a sodium channel blocker that has been approved by the FDA for treating convulsions. This drug has also been shown to be effective for treating chronic pain (Lundardi et al., Neurology 48: 1714 (1997)). However, the doses required for the treatment of chronic pain are relatively high and result in side effects. The major side effect of this drug is severe, potentially life-threatening rashes (Dichter and Brodie, New Engl. J. Med. 334: 1583 (1996)).
Gabapentin (Neurontin™), an anticonvulsant with unknown mechanism of action has been shown recently to be efficacious for treating chronic pain (Rowbotham et al., JAMA 280: 1837-1842 (1998) and Backonja et al., JAMA 280: 1831-1836 (1998)). However, higher doses are necessary to treat chronic pain. Side effects such as exacerbated absence seizures and nausea are associated with these high doses in addition to being fetotoxic. In addition, in clinical trials, gabapentin showed limited efficacy (i.e., less than 50% of patient population showed effectiveness, whereas 15-20% of patients treated with placebo showed effectiveness).
Pregabalin is a potent follow-up compound to gabapentin. The compound has similar activity to gabapentin and is currently under clinical trials for neuropathic pain (SCRIP 2330:8 (1998)).
Thus, a need exists for treatments of chronic pain and convulsions that avoid the side effects exhibited by lamotrigine, carbamazepine and gabapentin. The present invention provides compositions and methods which reduces such side effects and improves the response rate of patients.

Sodium channel blocker compositions and the use thereof


A display unit provided with a display panel including a light emitting element and a pixel circuit for each pixel, and a drive circuit configured to drive each of the pixels. The pixel circuit includes: a first transistor configured to sample a voltage corresponding to a picture signal, the first transistor having characteristics that a parasitic capacitance at a time when the first transistor is turned off is decreased as magnitude of negative bias applied to a gate voltage is increased; a second transistor configured to control a current flowing through the light emitting element based on magnitude of the voltage sampled by the first transistor; and a retention capacitance configured to retain the voltage sampled by the first transistor.

The present disclosure relates to a display unit and an electronic apparatus including the display unit.
In recent years, in a field of display units performing picture display, a display unit using, as a light emitting element of a pixel, a current drive type optical element whose light emission luminance is varied in response to a value of a flowing current, for example, an organic electro luminescence (EL) element, has been developed and commercialization thereof is progressing. Unlike a liquid crystal element, the organic EL element is a self light emitting element. Therefore, since a light source (a backlight) is unnecessary in the display unit using the organic EL element (an organic EL display unit), the display unit is allowed to be reduced in weight, in thickness, and improved in luminance, as compared with a liquid crystal display unit demanding a light source. Further, since a response speed of the organic EL element is about several μs, which is extremely high, an after image during moving picture display does not occur. Accordingly, the organic EL display unit is expected to be a mainstream of next generation flat panel display.
In the organic EL display unit, the drive method thereof includes a simple (passive) matrix method and an active matrix method, as with the liquid crystal display unit. The former has a simple configuration; however, has a difficulty to achieve a large display unit with high definition. Therefore, development of the active matrix method has been actively carried out. In this method, a current flowing through an organic EL element arranged for each pixel is controlled by a drive transistor in a pixel circuit that is provided for each organic EL element.
In the active matrix organic EL display unit, the scan lines are sequentially scanned and a signal voltage corresponding to a picture signal is sampled and written to a retention capacitance, in every horizontal period (1H). In other words, writing operation of the signal voltage is performed by linear sequential scanning of 1H period. Moreover, in the organic EL display unit, when a threshold voltage and a mobility of the drive transistor are varied for each pixel, light emission luminance of organic EL element is varied and uniformity of a screen is impaired. Therefore, in the active matrix organic EL display unit, correction operation to reduce variation of light emission luminance caused by variation of the threshold voltage and the mobility of the drive transistor is performed together with the linear sequential scanning of 1H period (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-083272).


Systems and methods for a caul plate for an irregular surface. One embodiment is a caul plate for co-curing or co-bonding a first composite part and a second composite part. A body of the caul plate includes a lower surface to face a top surface of the first composite part, a reference edge to locate the second composite part on the first composite part, and an upper surface that is opposite to the lower surface. The lower surface includes one or more bends to match one or more slopes in the top surface of the first composite part. The one or more bends correspond with ply changes in the first composite part.

Aircraft parts, such as wing components, often comprise composite parts made by a resin infusion process in which a stack of porous material (known as a preform) is filled with a liquid resin. After infusion, the resin matrix is cured to solidify the combined material into a unified rigid composite. The result is a cost-effective way of manufacturing structural materials that exhibit enhanced physical characteristics (e.g., strong, lightweight, resistive to harsh environments, etc.) useful for high-performance applications such as aerospace.
Caul plates are often used during fabrication to shape the preform and provide a smooth, aerodynamic surface on the finished part. The caul plate is typically rigid to transfer uniform compaction pressure during cure. In addition to forming a smooth surface on the finished part, the caul plate helps to reduce or eliminate voids and distortion (i.e., bow waves) within the part that can cause stress concentrations, delamination, and other part failures.
However, a preform is sometimes designed with ply drop-offs or pad-ups to obtain a desired thickness or weight for the part. Although these ply drop-offs or pad-ups impart very small fluctuations in the surface of the preform, a typical rigid caul plate is flat and thus does not conform to the surface geometry changes. Areas of the preform that have a low-pressure condition underneath the caul plate may be subject to voids or bow waves in the cured part.


A multimodal, multilanguage mobile device which can be employed to enhance note taking and/or annotation of a document, and gaming. Input data types such as optical character recognition (OCR), speech, handwriting, and visual information (e.g., image and/or video), etc., can be fused to generate rich documents with a multidimensional level of data to provide an increased level of context over conventional documents. Such architecture can be utilized by students for homework management, as well as entertainment (e.g., gaming).

The advent of global communications networks such as the Internet has served as a catalyst for the convergence of computing power and services in portable computing devices. For example, in the recent past, portable devices such as cellular telephones and personal data assistants (PDAs) have employed separate functionality for voice communications and personal information storage, respectively. Today, these functionalities can be found in a single portable device, for example, a cell phone that employs multimodal functionality via increased computing power in hardware and software. Such devices are more commonly referred to as "smartphones."
Oftentimes, these smartphones are further equipped with built-in digital image capture devices (e.g., cameras) for taking photos or short video clips, and microphones for receiving voice input, together with the computing functionalities of the PDA. The hardware and software features available in these smartphones and similar technologically capable devices provide developers the capability and flexibility to build applications through a versatile platform. Similarly, the built-in digital image capture devices are capable of generating video graphics array (VGA) quality pictures having 640×480 pixel resolution or higher. Many smartphones are capable of taking pictures on the order of one mega-pixel resolution and higher.
With the technological advances in handheld and portable devices, there is an ongoing and increasing need to maximize the benefit of these continually emerging technologies. Given the advances in storage and computing power of such portable wireless computing devices, they now are capable of handling many types of disparate data types such as images, video clips, audio data, and electronic organizers for managing and organizing a variety of PIM (personal information manager) data, for example. However, there does not exist a mechanism whereby such disparate data types can be utilized together.

Multimodal note taking, annotation, and gaming


A mechanism for automatically detecting whether a selected type of cache memory is implemented within a cache memory element. The mechanism features a dedicated control line coupled between the cache memory element and a system controller. Logic circuitry is coupled to the control line to force the line to a first logic level in the event that the cache memory element has no connection to support the control line. However, if the cache memory element contains the selected type of cache memory, the logic circuitry is unable to for force the control line to go from a second logic level to the first logic level. After system reset, the system controller samples the voltage on the control line to determine whether the cache memory element is implemented with the selected type of cache memory.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of cache memory. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mechanism for detecting what type of cache is implemented within a computer system.
2. Description of Art Related to the Invention
For many years, computer systems have been designed according to a standard architecture. This architecture includes a central processing unit ("CPU"), main memory, cache memory element, a system controller controlling data transfers to cache memory via a cache interface and interface logic which allows the computer system to receive information from external sources such as IDE hard drives, keyboards and the like. Well known in the art, "cache" is relatively small, fast memory, usually static random access memory ("SRAM"), in close proximity to the CPU. Cache memory stores copies of the contents of frequently used memory locations within main memory in order to accelerate computations by reducing the number of accesses to main memory.
Currently, there are two types of cache memory both of which are based on SRAM technology; namely, pipelined burst cache and asynchronous cache. Although these cache memories are widely used in electronic systems, pipelined burst cache has been more frequently implemented by computer manufacturers and/or highly technical computer users over the last few years. The reason is that pipelined burst cache is able to support burst cycles thereby providing faster data access than the asynchronous cache.
Typically, cache memory is implemented onto a "Cache On A Stick" ("COAST") module which is hardwired to a PC board. The COAST module is hardwired to the PC board because a Basic Input/Output System ("BIOS"), controlling the computer system during initialization, requires information as to which kind of cache is implemented within the computer system. Moreover, the reason for using the COAST module is to allow cache memory to be upgraded more easily without undergoing extensive modification the PC board.
In light of the continual advances in technology, it is contemplated that new types of cache memory, particularly pipelined burst cache, will be developed. One possible new type of cache memory, hereinafter referred to as "Mcache ", includes dynamic random access memory ("DRAM") which requires refresh signals to avoid data loss. However, in the conventional cache interface, there does not exist any mechanism to detect whether conventional pipelined burst cache, Mcache or any other possible types of cache memory is implemented within the computer system. This leads to a number of disadvantages which effect both computer users and computer manufacturers alike.
One disadvantage is that the lack of any detect mechanism precludes computer users from upgrading their cache memories without overcoming a number of difficulties. For example, computer users would be required to know which type of cache is supported by his or her computer system prior to upgrading his or her cache. Moreover, the computer user would be required to reconfigure software, reset jumpers and perform other technical operations.
Another disadvantage effects the computer manufacturers by imposing further design constraints. With the emergence of multiple types of cache memory, the computer manufacturers would now be required to be even more cognizant of what type of cache is selected to populate computer boards for specific product lines to satisfy consumer needs. This further reduces design flexibility.
Thus, it would be advantageous to create a cache interface which can automatically discern what type of cache memory is implemented within the computer system to overcome those disadvantages cited above.

Method and apparatus for automatically detecting a selected cache type


An image scanner includes a single contact glass placed on a main body. The contact glass has a first range through which a first original document is passed to be scanned, and a second range over which a second original document is placed to be scanned. An image sensor scans the first original document at a fixed position in the first range, and the image sensor scans the second original document while the image sensor moves through the second range. An automatic document feeder is arranged on the first range of the contact glass to introduce the first original document through an introducing path to the fixed position and to eject the first original document through an ejecting path from the fixed position. The introducing path is formed from an introducing orifice to the fixed position, the introducing orifice being located at a side of the second range of the automatic document feeder. Further, an ejecting path is formed from the fixed position to an ejecting orifice.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image scanning apparatus used in an image forming apparatus such as a copy machine, a facsimile machine, etc., and more particularly to an image scanning apparatus having a contact-type image sensor to scan an original image.
2. Description of the Background Art
A CCD image sensor or a contact-type image sensor is commonly used in an image scanner.
In an image scanner applicable for scanning a book document as an original document which has a fixed position on a contact glass, a thickness of the image scanner can be reduced by using a contact-type image sensor rather than a CCD image sensor. Additionally, usage of the contact-type image sensor has advantages that a driving system thereof is greatly simplified such that many adjustments are not needed, and a distortion of an image is reduced due to an optical reduction system.
However, although the contact-type image sensor has the above-mentioned advantages, there is a problem in that a constant position of a focal point is not obtained over an entire scanning area unless a supporting construction of the image sensor has a high accuracy and rigidity.
An image scanner may also include an automatic document feeder (ADF), which feeds documents one by one. Each document fed into the ADF is conveyed to a scanning point at which point the document is scanned by an image reading apparatus, and then the document is conveyed to an outside of the ADF.
As an example, a background device of FIG. 1, which is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 4-369162, discloses an image scanner having a contact-type image sensor and two contact glasses 1A, 1B. One contact glass 1B is placed at a bottom to one side on a main body, and another contact glass 1A is placed at another side of the main body. In this case, each contact glass 1A, 1B is placed separately so that there is a problem that a bump and nip exist between the two contact glasses 1A and 1B, or between the contact glasses 1A, 1B and a supporting member for supporting the contact glasses 1A, 1B. As a result, there is a difficulty of manufacturing such a device with accuracy and rigidity, and a supporting construction may be scratched by the bump and nip and thereby cannot function normally as a spacer.
A background device of FIG. 2, which is also disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 4-369162, discloses an image scanner having a contact-type image sensor and a single contact glass 1C. The image scanner has a guide member 100 about a scanning point inside the ADF which guides an original document that is scanned smoothly by an image sensor for an outlet of the ADF. Moreover, a part of the guide member 100 is imbedded in the contact glass 1C. By requiring this guide member 100 to be imbedded in the contact glass 1C, manufacturing processes are increased, and thereby a cost increases. Further, in this device the ejecting path is formed in a U-shape and the guiding member 100 guides an original document scanned in a slanting direction upward, and as a result it is possible that the original document may be caught in the ejecting path.
A background device of FIG. 3, which is also disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 4-369162, discloses an image scanner having a contact-type image sensor and a single contact glass 1. Moreover the image scanner has a transparency board 200 on a contact glass 1 and successively a film (e.g. mylar) 201 and a guide member 202. These elements operate to guide a document scanned by an image sensor smoothly for an outlet of the ADF. However, in this device of FIG. 3 the transparency board 200 needs to be set on the contact glass 1 exactly and the film 201 needs to be set downstream of the transparency board 200 exactly. On this account, a component count number and a structure manufacturing process number are increased, and thereby a cost increases. Furthermore, despite establishing the guiding member 202, the transparency board 200 and the film 201, a paper jam may occur, because the ejecting path is in a U-shape and the guiding member 202, the transparency board 200 and the film 201 guides an original document scanned in a slanting direction upward, so that the original document may be caught in the ejecting path.

Image scanner having a single contact glass and contact-type image sensor movable under automatic document feeder


A technique for accurately measuring two different spin configurations of transverse magnetization from which the reversible dephasing rate constant R.sub.2 ' can be calculated. Such reversible dephasing may be caused by magnetic field inhomogeneity such as arising from intravascular changes in the oxidation state of hemoglobin, from brain iron, or from cancellous bone, which allows these characteristics to be measured. The different spin configurations can be measured in a single scan by deriving a small R.sub.2 ' through independent and separate measurements of the two magnetization configurations generated by two RF pulses. The two configurations can be recalled independently of each other since they are affected differently by respective gradients flanking the .beta.-pulse which permit one spin configuration to decay with T.sub.2 while the other decays with T.sub.2 * from the same RF pulse. Since the spin configurations come from the same RF pulse, they have the same relaxation time, thus permitting small changes in T.sub.2 ', and hence R.sub.2 ', to be measured by setting the relaxation time of both configurations to be long.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and MR spectroscopy, and more specifically, to a technique for accurately measuring R.sub.2 ', the rate constant for reversible dephasing of the transverse magnetization from magnetic field inhomogeneity such as that arising from intravascular changes in the oxidation state of hemoglobin, from brain iron, or from cancellous bone.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The effective nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) transverse relaxation rate R.sub.2 *(.ident.1/T.sub.2 *) can usually be decomposed into two separate contributions: one arising from irreversible dephasing which occurs with rate constant R.sub.2 (.ident.1/T.sub.2), and one due to reversible dephasing occurring with rate constant R.sub.2 ' (.ident.1/T.sub.2 '). One way to measure R.sub.2 ' is to acquire two images with the same echo time, one of which is obtained with the gradient echo, the second with the spin echo. R.sub.2 ', by definition, can then be directly obtained from the pixel-to-pixel ratio of the two images. However, such an approach inevitably requires two separate scans. Another possible approach to measuring R.sub.2 ', which also requires two separate scans, is described by Wismer et al. in an article entitled "Susceptibility-Induced MR Line Broadening: Applications to Brain Iron Mapping," J. Comput. Assist. Tomogr., Vol. 12, page 259 (1988), and by Majumdar et al. in an article entitled "In Vivo Relationship Between Marrow T.sub.2 * and Trabecular Bone Density Determined With a Chemical Shift-Selective Asymmetric Spin-Echo Sequence," J. Magn. Reson. Imaging, Vol. 2, page 209 (1992). These articles describe an echo offset technique whereby the phase-reversal RF pulse in the spin echo is offset in increments .DELTA..tau. in which case the signal can be shown to evolve as e.sup.-2.DELTA..tau.R2'.
Single scan techniques for measuring R.sub.2 ' are described by Pelc et al. in an article entitled "A Method For Mapping of T.sub.2 ' and For Improved T.sub.2 Measurements," Proc. Magn. Reson. Med., Seventh Annual Meeting San Francisco, Vol. 2, p. 746 (1988) and by the present inventors in an article entitled "Method For Image-Based Measurement of the Reversible and Irreversible Contribution to the Transverse Relaxation Rate," J. Magn. Reson. Ser. B, Vol. 111, pp. 61-69 (1996). These techniques exploit the fact that the signal after application of a 90.degree.-.tau.-180.degree.-.tau. pulse pair evolves with two different relaxation rate constants (R.sub.2 *=R.sub.2 +R.sub.2 ' for the first .tau.-period, and R.sub.2 -=R.sub.2 -R.sub.2 ' for the second .tau.-period) before and after applying the 180.degree. pulse. Unfortunately, such techniques have a very limited sensitity when R.sub.2 ' is much smaller than R.sub.2, in which case R.sub.2 * and R.sub.2 - become almost identical. A method which provides improved sensitivity for derivation of small R.sub.2 ' is desired.
As described by Ordidge et al. in an article entitled "Simultaneous T.sub.2 and T.sub.2 *-Weighted MRI Using a New Form of Stimulated Echo," Proc. Soc. Magn. Reson., Third Annual Meeting Nice, Vol. 1, p. 670 (1995), the T.sub.2 and T.sub.2 *-dependence can also be demonstrated in a modified form of stimulated echoes collected in a single scan. However, the technique described by Ordidge et al. is incompatible with multi-slice acquisition and suffers from inferior signal to noise ratio due to the use of stimulated echoes. A technique for measuring T.sub.2 and T.sub.2 * is desired which does not suffer from these limitations.
In particular, a technique is desired which can generate in a single pass and in multislice mode T.sub.2 * and T.sub.2 -weighted images from which T.sub.2 ' images can be exactly computed with high sensitivity for application in areas such as BOLD (blood's oxygenation level dependent) based functional imaging, assessment of bone quality (trabeculae bone density), characterization of brain iron concentrations, the study of tissue oxygenation in muscle, and perfusion by means of susceptibility agents. The techniques of the invention have been designed to meet these needs in the art.

Method for measuring the reversible contribution to the transverse relaxation rate in magnetic resonance imaging

Trustees of the University of Pennyslvania


An organic electroluminescence device including: an anode (10), a cathode (70), an emitting layer (40) including an organic compound, which is between the anode (10) and the cathode (70), two or more layers arranged in a hole injection and transport region which is between the anode (10) and the emitting layer (40), and one or more layers arranged in an electron injection and transport region which is between the emitting layer (40) and the cathode (70), wherein a layer in the hole injection and transport region, which is in contact with the emitting layer (40), includes an aromatic amine derivative having a carbazole skeleton, one of the layers other than the layer in contact with the emitting layer (40) in the hole injection and transport region includes one or more materials selected from the group consisting of thiophene derivatives, tricyclic or more cyclic fused aromatic derivatives, amine derivatives excluding the compound represented by the following formula (A), conductive polymers, CFx, CuPc, transition metal oxides, fullerenes and acceptor materials, and a layer in the electron injection and transport region includes a benzimidazole derivative.

An organic electroluminescence device (hereinafter the term "electroluminescence" is often abbreviated as "EL") is a self-emission device utilizing the principle that a fluorescent compound emits light by the recombination energy of holes injected from an anode and electrons injected from a cathode when an electric field is impressed.
Since C. W. Tang et al. of Eastman Kodak Co. reported a low-voltage driven organic EL device in the form of a stacked type device (Non-patent Document 1, or the like), studies on organic EL devices wherein organic materials are used as the constituent materials has actively been conducted.
Tang et al. use tris(8-hydroxyquinolinol aluminum) for the emitting layer and a triphenyldiamine derivative for the hole-transporting layer. The advantages of the stack structure are to increase injection efficiency of holes to the emitting layer, to increase generation efficiency of excitons generated by recombination by blocking electrons injected in the cathode, to confine the generated excitons in the emitting layer, and so on.
Like this example, as the structure of the organic EL device, a two-layered type of a hole-transporting (injecting) layer and an electron-transporting emitting layer, and a three-layered type of a hole-transporting (injecting) layer, an emitting layer and an electron-transporting (injecting) layer are widely known. In such stack structure devices, their device structures and fabrication methods have been contrived to increase recombination efficiency of injected holes and electrons.
Heretofore, as a hole-injecting material used for an organic EL device, materials having a phenylenediamine structure disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 have been known and widely used. Also, arylamine-based materials containing a benzidine skeleton disclosed in Patent Documents 3 and 4 have been used for a hole-transporting material.
On the other hand, Patent Documents 5 to 7 disclose arylamine-based compounds having a carbazole. These materials have the feature that when using these materials as the hole-transporting material, luminous efficiency is improved. However, there are drawbacks that driving voltage becomes significantly high at the same time, and that lifetime of the device becomes extremely short.
Patent Document 8 discloses a device using two or more hole-injecting layers in which the ionization potential values are stepwise set, in order to efficiently inject holes from an anode to an emitting layer. However, use of the material system disclosed in Patent Document 8 was insufficient in both the luminous efficiency and the life time.
[Patent Document 1] JP-A-H08-291115
[Patent Document 2] JP-A-2000-309566
[Patent Document 3] U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,569
[Patent Document 4] JP-A-2001-273978
[Patent Document 5] U.S. Pat. No. 6,242,115
[Patent Document 6] JP-A-2000-302756
[Patent Document 7] JP-A-H11-144873
[Patent Document 8] JP-A-H06-314594
[Non-patent Document 1] C. W. Tang, S. A. Vanslyke, Applied Physics, Letters, 51, 913 (1987)
An object of the invention is to provide an organic EL device having high efficiency and long life time.
An object of the invention is to provide a white light-emitting organic EL device having high efficiency and long life time.


Wireless noise is detected within a time period specifically held after a data packet is wirelessly communicated, where no data is purposefully wirelessly communicated during this time period. The time period may be an inter-frame space (IFS) period within which no data is to be wirelessly communicated, and that is a period waited for prior to accessing a wireless medium over which data is wirelessly communicated. One or more actions are performed to counteract the noise. The frequency at which a liquid crystal display is being driven may be decreased so that harmonics caused thereby that caused the noise are no longer within the wireless communication frequency range. An opposite-in-phase version of the noise may also or alternatively be combined with a signal when data is subsequently wirelessly received. The signal includes a data component and a noise component, the opposite-in-phase version of the noise canceling out the noise component.

Traditionally computing devices have been networked with one another via wired connections. While networking computing devices affords users substantial benefits, running network cables to each computing device can be difficult to accomplish. Therefore, more recently wireless networking has become popular. Wireless networking allows computing devices to communicate with one another via radio frequency (RF) waves. No network cables have to be run to the computing devices.
Some of the more popular wireless networking protocols are IEEE 802.11b, commonly referred to as Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11g, and IEEE 802.11a. Whereas the 802.11b and the 802.11g protocols provide for the communication of data at a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) band or 2.4-2.5 GHz, the 802.11a protocol provides for the communication of data at a frequency of 5.0 GHz band, or 5.0-6.0 GHz. Differences in how the protocols operate allow them to provide wireless data communication at different speeds. For instance, the currently most popular 802.11b protocol achieves data rates of up to 11 megabits per second (mbps), whereas the 802.11g and 802.11a protocols can achieve data rates of up to 54 mbps.
A difficulty with all types of wireless communication is that they are susceptible in varying degrees to wireless noise. Wireless noise is generally and non-restrictively defined as undesired signals occurring on the same frequency over which data is being communicated. The wireless noise may not represent any type of data at all; for example, microwave ovens commonly emit radiation at the same frequency of 2.4 GHz at which the 802.11b and the 802.11g protocols communicate. Liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors can also emit wireless noise at harmonics inclusive of the 2.4 GHz frequency, affecting wireless data communication. The wireless noise may alternatively represent data being communicated in accordance with a different communication scheme than a desired protocol. For instance, computing devices wirelessly communicating in accordance with the 802.11b or the 802.11g protocol may have to vie for the 2.4 GHz frequency space in competition with cordless phones that commonly communicative over the 2.4 GHz frequency, too.
The 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g protocols, among other wireless data protocols, have built-in safeguards to ensure that data is still wirelessly communicated in the face of all but the most severe wireless noise. Different strategies are used to counteract wireless noise. First, each data packet sent wirelessly has to be acknowledged by the receiving device. If the sending device does not receive the acknowledgment from the receiving device, it considers the data packet in question "dropped," and resends the data packet. Second, the rates at which data is wireless communicated can be lowered as a response strategy to wireless noise. For instance, the 802.11b protocol allows computing devices to lower the transmission rate from the maximum 11 mbps to a slower, but more noise-tolerant, 5.5 mbps, or to even lower transmission rates.
These and other strategies for handling wireless noise are disadvantageous, however, because they reduce wireless throughput, or performance, slowing down the entire wireless network. In the former case, for instance, having to resend dropped packets reduces the total number of data packets sent within a given time period. In the latter case, the decrease in throughput is more explicit, in which the transmission rate is lowered from the maximum rate to a lower rate that is more tolerant of noise. For these and other reasons, then, there is a need for the present invention.

Detecting wireless noise within time period in which no data is purposefully wirelessly communicated

Lenovo Enterprise Solutions (Singapore) PTE. LTD.


A non-asbestos friction material containing a reinforcing fiber other than asbestos, organic fillers, friction adjusting ingredients, and a thermosetting resin for binding the reinforcing fiber, the organic fillers and the friction adjusting ingredients together. The friction adjusting ingredients contain magnesia in the form of aggregated particles which are an aggregate of minute particles. The use of magnesia in the form of aggregated particles reduces low-frequency noise and squeak while keeping the attack on the mating member low and keeping high the resistance to fading and the coefficient of friction.

The present invention relates to a friction material for use as automotive disk brake pads and brake linings, and particularly a non-asbestos friction material which produces less low-frequency noises during braking, while keeping its low attack to the mating member and its high fade resistance and friction coefficient.
Asbestos pads are now being rapidly replaced by non-asbestos ones. One problem with such non-asbestos pads is that they tend to produce low-frequency noises during braking.
One way to reduce such noises is to rub off any deposits on the surface of the disk rotor, which are the main cause of such noises, by adding an abrasive having a Moh's hardness of not less than 6 to the friction material. Another way is, as disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication 4-60225, to add a flaky inorganic substance having self-shearing lubricating properties such as mica and talc to the friction material. By adding such a substance, the mating member can slide smoothly on the friction member even while the surface pressure is high, at which time low-frequency noises tend to be produced. Thus, it is possible to prevent stick slip, which is the major cause of low-frequency noises.
Another solution, which is proposed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication 5-32956, is to add a non-metallic inorganic substance having a Moh's hardness between 3 and 9 and an inorganic hydrate having a Moh's hardness not exceeding 5 in predetermined amounts, while reducing the carbon content.
In the method in which deposits on the surface of the rotor are removed by adding an abrasive to the friction member, the abrasive has to have a sufficiently large particle size. But the larger the particle size of the abrasive, the more severely the friction member tends to attack the rotor. This leads to local increase in the surface pressure during braking. Such locally high surface pressure may cause streaks on the surface of the rotor, which tends to destabilize the braking effect and increase squeaks (high-frequency noise) during braking.
In the method in which a flaky inorganic substance such as mica or talc is added, due to crystal structure of the inorganic substance used, the friction coefficient (hereinafter referred to as .mu.) tends to be low, so that the resistance to fading drops. It is also known that if an abrasive having a large particle size is added to the friction material in an attempt to increase .mu., the resistance to fading drops markedly for unknown reasons.
In the technique proposed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication 5-32956, by reducing the carbon content, it is possible to suppress the production of substances that form a film deposit. Also, the hydrate added serves to prevent the film forming substances from adhering to the surface of the rotor. Moreover, the inorganic substance having a Moh's hardness of 3-9 removes any deposits on the rotor surface. But since the hydrate has a low Moh's hardness, .mu. tends to be low. Also, the hydrate presumably causes a drop in the wear resistance of the friction material.
Further, if the inorganic substance having a high Moh's hardness is too high in particle size, the rotor tends to be worn unevenly. If too low, deposits cannot be removed effectively.
The applicant of this invention also proposed in Unexamined Japanese Publication 62-15281 to add 8-12% by volume of magnesium oxide powder having a maximum particle diameter not exceeding 250 .mu.m in order to increase .mu.. Since the magnesium oxide has a high Moh's hardness, it acts as an abrasive. But if its particle size is too large, the friction member tends to more severely attack the mating member. If too small, it cannot remove deposits effectively.
In short, none of these conventional methods can suppress low-frequency noise without worsening any of the other properties of the friction material.
An object of the present invention is to provide a high-performance, non-asbestos friction material which produces less low-frequency noises while keeping low its tendency to attack the rotor, its high fade resistance and high .mu..


A semiconductor device includes first active patterns on a PMOSFET section of a logic cell region of a substrate, second active patterns on an NMOSFET section of the logic cell region, third active patterns on a memory cell region of the substrate, fourth active patterns between the third active patterns, and a device isolation layer that fills a plurality of first trenches and a plurality of second trenches. Each of the first trenches is interposed between the first active patterns and between the second active patterns. Each of the second trenches is interposed between the fourth active patterns and between the third and fourth active patterns. Each of the third and fourth active patterns includes first and second semiconductor patterns that are vertically spaced apart from each other. Depths of the second trenches are greater than depths of the first trenches.

The present inventive concepts relate to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device including a gate-all-around type transistor in a memory cell region.
Semiconductor devices are beneficial in the electronics industry because of their small size, multi-functionality, and/or low fabrication cost. Semiconductor devices include memory devices for storing data, logic devices for processing data, and hybrid semiconductor devices having both memory and logic elements and their associated functions. Increasing the reliability, speed, capacity and/or functionality of such semiconductor devices is required for advancing the electronics industry. To meet these requested characteristics, semiconductor devices are gradually becoming more highly integrated and hence, more complex. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the growing demand for increasing the degree to which semiconductor devices are integrated.


A lightweight and portable exercise device has a base frame that folds quickly and easily between a highly compact stored configuration and a deployed configuration ready for use. The exercise device include a compact support platform connected by pivot links to the base frame, and a pivoting lift bar is coupled to the base frame and will bear against the support platform to permit lifting of the support platform as the pivot links pivot with a variably selected mechanical moment arm. In use, a person stands on the support platform and lifts his or her own weight by pulling upwardly on an outer end of the lift bar. The lift force required for a given weight on the support platform is controlled by the selected lift bar moment arm. Lift straps connected to the lift bar include easily grasped handles that are adjustable in length to accommodate persons of different size and further to permit the device to be used for different exercise routines.

This invention relates generally to exercise equipment. More specifically, this invention relates to an improved exercise device of lightweight and portable construction adapted for storage in a highly compact configuration, wherein the device can be deployed quickly and easily for use in performing a variety of different exercise routines.
In the prior art, various exercising machines which utilize the weight, or partial weight, of a person exercising for loading have been advanced. Also, platforms on which a person stood for exercising have been known in the art. For example, two patents to E. A. Tuttle, No. 197,750, patented Dec. 4, 1887, and 232,217 patent Sep. 14, 1880 show platforms that are mounted on parallel links and have direct acting levers for lifting and lowering the platforms on which the person exercising stood. These devices were oriented in a manner which made adjustments somewhat difficult, and the direction of pull by the arms for lifting and loading was awkward. Further, obtaining the correct mechanical advantage for a wide range of exercising loads related to the weight of the person exercising was difficult.
A further pull type exercising device which uses a portion of the weight of a user as a resistance is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,446,503. This device relies on pinned levers and linkages for operation.


A method for forming a pattern on a surface of a steel substrate includes the formation of a patterned mask on the surface of the steel substrate. The entire surface having the patterned mask is etched by reactive ion etching such the a pattern is formed on the surface of the steel substrate. The reactive ion etching is brought about by a plasma which is produced in an atmosphere of a chlorine-containing compound, under pressure of 1-100 mTorr, and with a radio frequency power of 100-600 W.

The current method for forming a three-dimensional micropattern on the molding tool surface involves the formation of a stereo-micropattern on a photosensitive material by exposure. Subsequently, an electrically-conductive layer is formed on the patterned photosensitive material by a low-temperature vapor deposition or a silver plating before nickel or copper is electroplated to form the mold. However, the depth of the micropattern formed is often less than 0.15 .mu.m in view of the residual stress when the electroplating is carried out by a sulfamate nickel plating method. On the other hand, an electroless nickel method is not a workable substitute for the above-mentioned electroplating method on the grounds that the electroless nickel method must be carried out at a relatively high temperature of 90.degree. C., and that the photosensitive material and the substrate material are different from each other in heat expansion coefficient. Such problems can be technically overcome by a process in which the patterned photosensitive material is transferred to a silicon or glass substrate to form an unitary material by the dry or wet etching method before the electroless nickel method is executed. However, such a remedial measure as described above can complicate the entire method.
The embossing method disclosed by McGrew in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,030 was found by these inventors of the present invention to be inapplicable to the formation of the micropattern on the surface of a steel substrate by reactive ion etching, which was carried out under the conditions as follows:
1. Radio frequency (RF) power, 120 watts; reaction chamber pressure, 30 mTorr; and introduction of CF.sub.4 gas at the flow rate of 36 SCCM and oxygen gas at the flow rate of 4 SCCM.
2. RF power, 120 watts; reaction chamber pressure, 40 mTorr; and introduction of CF.sub.4 gas at the flow rate of 36 SCCM and argon at the flow rate of 4 SCCM.
3. RF power, 120 watts; reaction chamber pressure, 30 mTorr; and introduction of SF.sub.6 gas at the flow rate of 40 SCCM.
4. RF power, 150 watts; reaction chamber pressure, 40 mTorr; and introduction of argon at the flow rate of 20 SCCM.

Method for forming pattern on steel substrate by reactive ion etching


A circuit for regulating the brightness and size of picture in a display apparatus is disclosed, in which a picture brightness regulating circuit and a picture size regulating circuit are organically coupled together, and the picture brightness and size are decided by utilizing composite adjusting signals of a microcomputer. The display apparatus receives and amplifies RGB signals from a computer main body to output them to a cathode ray tube, supplies a high voltage from a fly back transformer to the cathode ray tube, and carries out horizontal deflections by a horizontal deflecting circuit. The circuit for regulating the brightness and picture size in the display apparatus according to the present invention includes the following elements. A current sensing section senses the intensities of beam currents incoming into the cathode ray tube. A microcomputer decides the lower limit of a terminal voltage if the terminal voltage is lowered, the terminal voltage being anti-proportional to the beam current as sensed by the current sensing section. A brightness and picture size regulating circuit section decides the upper limit of the terminal voltage in relation to an internal power and an internal impedance of a video pre-amplifier. Further, it outputs brightness regulating signals to the video pre-amplifier to adjust a clamp level of RGB video signals if the terminal voltage departs from the lower limit of the microcomputer. Still further, it outputs horizontal/vertical size regulating signals to a deflecting circuit section to regulate the picture size. Therefore, the maximum brightness restriction line and the picture size regulating degree are decided by the composite adjusting signals of the microcomputer. As a result, the manufacturing time can be saved during the manufacture of the display apparatus, and therefore, the productivity can be improved. Further, the constitution of the brightness and picture size regulating circuit section is very simple, and therefore, the economy is improved during its designing.

This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from an application for ALC And Size Regulation Circuit Of Display Apparatus earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on the 13th of Feb. 1999, and there duly assigned Ser. No. 5286/1999, a copy of which application is annexed hereto.
The present invention relates to a display apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a circuit for regulating the brightness and size of picture in a display apparatus, in which a picture brightness regulating circuit and a picture size regulating circuit are organically coupled together, and the picture brightness and size are decided by utilizing composite adjusting signals of a microcomputer, in view of the fact that the picture brightness and size are decided by the beam currents flowing from a fly back transformer to a cathode ray tube.
Generally, the brightness regulating circuit of a display apparatus prevents the brightness level of picture from rising too high, so that the picture brightness of the display apparatus would be constant all the time. Therefore, the intensities of the beam currents which are supplied to the cathode ray tube are fed back to the brightness regulating circuit. Thus if the intensity of the feedback beam current is higher than a certain level, then the clamp levels of the RGB video signals which are inputted into the brightness regulating circuit are made to be restricted by a predetermined level, so that the intensities of the beam currents would not rise any more.
Meanwhile, the picture size regulating circuit of the display apparatus regulates the picture size which is varied in accordance with the variation of the high voltage. This picture size regulating circuit is generally applied to a high voltage/horizontal deflection integral type display apparatus in which the high voltage is not constant, and in which the picture size is varied in accordance with the intensity of the beam current.
In other words, if the high voltage is varied, then the picture size is varied, and if the high voltage is varied, then the intensities of the beam currents are also varied. As described above, there is a close relationship between the variation of the high voltage and the variation of the intensities of the beam currents. Therefore, the picture size regulating circuit detects any variation of the intensities of the beam currents, and decides the picture size based on the detected intensities of the beam currents. Therefore, this picture size regulating circuit can easily regulate the picture size in the high voltage/horizontal deflection integral type display apparatus.
What is needed is the maximum brightness restriction line and the picture size regulating degree are decided by the composite adjusting signals of the microcomputer. Therefore, the manufacturing time can be saved during the manufacture of the display apparatus, and therefore, the productivity can be improved. Further, the constitution of the brightness and picture size regulating circuit section is very simple, and therefore, the economy is improved during its designing.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a circuit for regulating the brightness and picture size in a display apparatus, in which a picture brightness regulating circuit and a picture size regulating circuit are organically coupled together, and the picture brightness and size are decided by utilizing composite adjusting signals of a microcomputer.
In achieving the above object, in a display apparatus for receiving and amplifying RGB signals from a computer main body to output them to a cathode ray tube, for supplying a high voltage from a fly back transformer to the cathode ray tube, and for carrying out horizontal deflections by a horizontal deflecting circuit, the circuit for regulating the brightness and picture size for the display apparatus according to the present invention includes: a current sensing section for sensing intensities of beam currents incoming into the cathode ray tube; a microcomputer for deciding a lower limit of a terminal voltage if the terminal voltage is lowered, the terminal voltage being anti-proportional to the beam current as sensed by the current sensing section; and a brightness and picture size regulating circuit section for deciding an upper limit of the terminal voltage in relation to an internal power and an internal impedance of a video pre-amplifier, for outputting brightness regulating signals to the video pre-amplifier to adjust the clamp level of RGB video signals if the terminal voltage departs from the lower limit of the microcomputer, and for outputting horizontal/vertical size regulating signals to a deflecting circuit section to regulate a picture size.
In the conventional display apparatus, a brightness regulating circuit and a picture size regulating circuit are separately made. And brightness regulating signals and horizontal/vertical size regulating signals inputted to the brightness regulating circuit and a picture size regulating circuit are outputted separately from the microcomputer. However, in the present invention, brightness and picture size regulating circuit section is made as one circuit and composite adjusting signals outputted from a microcomputer are inputted into the brightness and picture size regulating circuit section in order to adjust brightness and picture size of a monitor.

Circuit for regulating brightness and size of picture in display apparatus


A method for flame straightening is disclosed, wherein acetylene with oxygen is combusted by means of a burner to yield a flame, and the flame is directed onto a workpiece so as to heat the workpiece, wherein an electric field is applied between the burner and the non-melting workpiece which is electrically conductive, or the electric field is applied between the burner and a non-melting electrode arranged on the non-melting workpiece side to reduce NOx emission.

The present invention relates to a method for flame straightening, as well as to a burner assembly for flame straightening, and finally to a use of such a burner assembly.
Flame straightening ("flame straightening") involves a targeted flame heating (English: "direct flame impingement heating") most often of metal structures, in which narrowly limited component areas are heated to a flame straightening temperature. When components are joined together, for example through welding, the heating and cooling processes result in stresses that can end up warping the workpiece. During flame straightening, the workpiece is locally heated in a targeted manner until into the plastic range. Welding-related warpage, distortion, bending or twisting can be quickly straightened with the flame while being gentle on the material. When heating, not just the flame straightening temperature level must be considered, but also the flame setting, so as to meet the material-specific characteristics. In particular, use is made of a hard-burning acetylene-oxygen flame, which is set to neutral, excess oxygen or excess acetylene.
Acetylene-oxygen flames produce high flame temperatures and high flame propagation rates. This makes it possible to achieve a high productivity in applications such as pre- and post-heating while welding, hot forming, coating melting, flame soldering, flame bending, etc. However, high combustion temperatures can also facilitate the emission of nitrogen oxides (NO, NO2; abbreviated NOx).
Acetylene-oxygen combustion has different chemical-physical kinetics than methane-air combustion, for example. N2 is not present in the oxidant in acetylene-oxygen combustion. The energy involved in breaking open the triple bond lies at another order of magnitude for acetylene (C2H2) (factor of 2-3) than for methane (CH4) dissociation. During CH4 (or C3H8) combustion with air, the majority of the NOx quantity already forms in the flame, since high temperatures along with constituents N and O are present there. During C2H2 combustion with O2 (oxygen), NOx can only form in the area of the secondary flame and at the outer edge of the flame, where nitrogen (N2) specifically is drawn into the reaction from the ambient air.
The object of the present invention is to suppress or entirely avoid NOx emissions that arise during flame straightening with an acetylene-oxygen flame.

Method for flame straightening and burner assembly for this purpose