A wide-angle lens system includes a negative first lens group, a negative second lens group, and a positive third lens group. The negative first lens group includes at least two negative meniscus lens elements each having the convex surface facing toward the object, and a positive lens element provided on the image-side of the two negative meniscus lens elements. The negative second lens group includes cemented lens elements and a negative meniscus lens element having the convex surface facing toward the object. The wide-angle lens system satisfies the following conditions:f2-3/f>1.6  (1)f3/f>1.5  (2)(f2-3/f)/(f3/f)>1.0  (3)                wherein        f2-3 designates the combined focal length of the negative second lens group and the positive third lens group;        f designates the focal length of the entire wide-angle lens system; and        f3 designates the focal length of the positive third lens group.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wide-angle lens system used in a single-lens-reflex (SLR) type electronic digital still camera (hereinafter, a digital SLR camera).
2. Description of the Prior Art
A digital SLR camera has usually employed an imaging device whose picture size is smaller than the picture size of a SLR camera with a silver-halide film (hereinafter, an SLR camera), since it has been difficult to increase the size of an imaging device.
On the other hand, the lens mount of a digital SLR camera is often made common to that of an SLR camera, such as ones disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (JUPP) No. 6-160706 and JUPP No. 2003-29141. Due to this arrangement, many types of photographic lenses for SLR cameras, which have already been available on the market, can be utilized as an exchangeable photographic lens for digital SLR cameras.
However, in the case where a photographic lens for an SLR camera is used with a digital SLR camera, the angle-of-view at the position of the imaging device becomes narrower such as like the so-called trimming. This is because a photographic lens for an SLR camera is designed to correspond to the picture size for a silver-halide film which is larger than the picture size for the imaging device of a digital SLR camera.
Accordingly, an exclusive exchangeable photographic lens for a digital SLR camera having a much wider angle-of-view has been desired. However, as explained, the lens mount of a digital SLR camera has frequently been made common to that of an SLR camera. Therefore the back focal distance equivalent to that of a SLR camera is structurally required, and a wider angle-of-view becomes inevitably necessary to the extent that a bundle of light rays carrying an object image does not fit the picture size for the imaging device. Namely, in order to obtain a wider angle-of-view to meet the picture size for the imaging device, the back focal distance should be shorter to make the angle-of-view wider; however, in this case where the lens mount is commonly used between an SLR camera and a digital SLR camera, the longer back focal distance is required in a digital SLR camera. For example, in the case of an SLR camera with the 35 mm-film format, the back focal distance which is approximately 1.6 times of the radius of an image circle is necessary; while in the case of a digital SLR camera with the imaging device (CCD) of 23.5 mm×15.7 mm size, the back focal distance is required to be approximately 2.5 times of the radius of an image circle.


The present invention provides an electrophotosensitive material comprising a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer provided on the conductive substrate, wherein the photosensitive layer contains a polyarylate having a repeating unit represented by the general formula (1):

The present invention relates to an electrophotosensitive material which is used in image forming apparatuses such as electrostatic copying machine, laser beam printer and facsimile and, more particularly, to an electrophotosensitive material which is excellent in durability, particularly wear resistance and gas resistance.
In image forming apparatuses such as electrostatic copying machine, facsimile and laser beam printer, electrophotosensitive materials having sensitivity in a wavelength range of a light source used in these image forming apparatuses are used. As the electrophotosensitive material, an inorganic photosensitive material having a photosensitive layer made of an inorganic material such as selenium and an organic photosensitive material (or organic photoconductor, OPC) having a photosensitive layer made of an organic conductive material are known. Among these photosensitive materials, the latter organic photosensitive material has widely been studied, recently, because it is easily produced as compared with the inorganic photosensitive material and has a wide range of choice of photosensitive materials such as electric charge transferring material, electric charge generating material and binder resin as well as high functional design freedom.
To maintain quality of the formed images in a good state for a long period in the above image forming apparatuses, it is required to enhance durability of the electrophotosensitive material to an external force applied during processes of charging, toner development, transfer onto papers and cleaning, and particularly to further improve wear resistance of a photosensitive layer.
In the organic photosensitive material, therefore, it has been studied to use a polycarbonate resin having high mechanical strength as a binder resin for formation of the photosensitive layer (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
As typical examples of a polyallylate, which is a polyester of diphenol, "U-polymer (R)" as a condensate of bisphenol A and phthalic acid is known. It is described that this polyallylate is suited for use as a binder resin for improving the durability of the photosensitive layer because of its high heat distortion temperature and excellent mechanical properties (see Patent Document 3).
Furthermore, as a binder resin capable of forming a photosensitive layer having excellent durability as compared with the "U-polymer (R)" and polycarbonate, for example, polyallylate (Patent Documents 4 and 5) wherein a diphenol component is fluorenone type bisphenol or 1,1-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)-1-phenylethane, or polyallylate a diphenol component is bisphenol C or 1,1-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl) cycloalkane and the resin has a viscosity within a predetermined range (Patent Documents 6 and 7) is disclosed.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application (Kokai Tokkyo Koho Sho) No. 63-261267 (see claim 1)
Patent Document 2: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application (Kokai Tokkyo Koho Sho) No. 59-71057 (see claim 1)
Patent Document 3: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application (Kokoku Tokkyo Koho Sho) No. 61-55672 (see claim 1)
Patent Document 4: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application (Kokai Tokkyo Koho Hei) No. 5-297601 (see claim 1, Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 to 2)
Patent Document 5: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application (Kokai Tokkyo Koho Hei) No. 5-341539 (see claim 1, Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 to 2)
Patent Document 6: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application (Kokai Tokkyo Koho Hei) No. 9-22126 (see claim 1 and Comparative Example 3)
Patent Document 7: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application (Kokai Tokkyo Koho Hei) No. 8-110646 (see claim 1, paragraph [0010], paragraph [0011] and Comparative Examples 3 to 4)
However, the effect of improving the mechanical strength of the photosensitive layer is insufficient at present. Even when using the binder resins described in the above publications, the photosensitive layer causes wear within a comparatively short period when used practically in an image forming apparatus, and thus it is insufficient to achieve longer life of the electrophotosensitive material.
During charging of the electrophotosensitive material, an ozone gas or a NOx gas is sometimes evolved by corona discharge. Because of insufficient ozone gas or NOx gas shielding properties, a photosensitive material made of a conventional binder resin causes a problem wherein chargeability of the photosensitive material is deteriorated by exposure to the gas for a long time, namely, deterioration of charge stability during repeated exposure.

Abstract: wherein X represents a phenylene group, a naphthylene group, or a biphenylene group, as a binder resin. The polyarylate is contained in the amount of 30% by weight or more based on the entire binder resin. The electrophotosensitive material of the present invention have improved wear resistance and gas resistance while reconciling both characteristics, and thus longer life has been achieved.


A lockable cover for a ground opening such as a manhole or catch basin. The cover has a lock including a reciprocating locking bolt mounted to its underside for engagement of a lip of a surrounding support. The bolt is accessible directly from above the cover through an aperture in the cover. In one disclosed embodiment, a cover is secured to its support by a pin which extends from the cover to under a lip of the support and a lock. In another embodiment, a catch basin cover is secured to its support through a hinge connection and a lock. In another embodiment, a manhole cover is secured to its support through a pair of locks.

There are several reasons it may be desirable to lock in place a manhole cover or sewer grating. A lock acts as an impediment to vandals who might remove a cover to leave an open hole and create a dangerous situation. Such covers are generally heavy, being of a cast metal such as iron and a child may drop such a cover on his toes or otherwise cause harm to himself when trying to dislodge such a cover from its place. In this way an unlocked cover can pose a hazard. The possibility exists that an automobile tire may flip a cover from its place as the auto passes across the cover. An unlocked cover may thus become a projectile and can pose a danger to things in its path as it flies through the air.
A number of locking arrangements for these types of covers have been patented over the years. Examples are given in the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,455,059 issued Jul. 15, 1969 to Evans; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,494 issued Nov. 25, 1975 to Coe; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,075,796 issued Feb. 28, 1978 to Cuozzo; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,407 issued Jun. 18, 1985 to Miller; PA1 U.S Pat. No. 4,763,449 issued Aug. 16, 1988 to Vigneron et al.; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,514 issued Jun. 20, 1989 to Defrance et al.; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,955 issued Oct. 15, 1991 to Spiess et al.; and PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,177 issued Dec. 10, 1991 to Spiess et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,458,391, issued in 1922 to Burton shows a manhole cover having two retractable locking bolts which engage the flange of a surrounding support ring to secure the cover and ring together. Each locking bolt is pivotally connected to a central rotating bar. A handle, accessible from the top side of the cover is used to rotate the bar to retract the bolts from the locking position so that the cover can be lifted out of place.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,363,567, issued in 1943 to Blakeman, describes a coverplate having a locking arrangement similar to that of Burton, but the arrangement is such that the locking bolts are biased by gravity into their locking positions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,165, issued to Embree on Feb. 20, 1990, shows a locking arrangement related to those of Burton and Blakeman, but in this case, the bolts are biased into position by means of a spring.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,755, issued to Lewis et al. on Oct. 23, 1990, again shows a latching mechanism having a pair of lock rods, in this case the rods being pivotally connected to a central rotatable crank plate. A spring biases a central crank upwardly to hold the crank in a locking position and thereby prevent its rotation without the use of a key.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,392, issued to Marchese et al. on Jan. 21, 1992, also shows a similar locking arrangement. In this case the bolts are spring biased into their locking position.
The approaches taken in these latter five patents all rely on a central rotational mechanism for retracting bolts from their locking positions. If the central rotational mechanism is broken, retraction of the bolts thereby becomes impossible which might greatly increase the difficulty of removing the cover. Further, such covers are often exposed to the elements and such rotational mechanisms may become frozen because of dirt or corrosion or rust, etc. In such a situation, the mechanism itself may have to be circumvented in order to remove the cover, possibly resulting in destruction of the mechanism in which case it would need to be replaced.

404
FSC 52
FSC 292
FSC 220
FSC 105
FSC 114
FSC 210
FSC 4


Apparatus and method for recording data in a speech recognition system and recognizing spoken data corresponding to the recorded data. The apparatus and method responds to entered data by generating a string of phonetic transcriptions from the entered data. The data and generated phonetic transcription string associated therewith is recorded in a vocabulary lexicon of the speech recognition system. The apparatus and method responds to receipt of spoken data by constructing a model of subwords characteristic of the spoken data and compares the constructed subword model with ones of the recorded lexicon vocabulary recorded phonetic transcription strings to recognize the spoken data as the data identified by and associated with a phonetic transcription string matching the constructed subword string.

Speech recognition systems are increasingly used in applications to recognize and respond to spoken information. In a typical application, a department store uses a speech recognition system in telephone sales operations to inform calling customers of new merchandise and to accept customer spoken orders. Another application may be used by a stock brokerage firm to respond to a calling customer voice request for a stock quotation by verbally quoting current information relating to the calling customer's account.
Speech recognition systems usually have a database lexicon storing patterns, such as voice templates or models, representing complete numbers, words and phrases used in various applications. In operation, received verbal information is compared with templates to identify the received verbal information as specific numbers, words or phrases. The lexicon templates are created and updated in a laboratory by technicians who collect data samples of speech from a large number of people. The speech data samples are verified manually and used to construct a template model of a number, word or phrase. The template model is subsequently added to the database lexicon of the appropriate speech recognition system.
A problem arises in that individual speech recognition systems require database lexicons of voice templates that are oftentimes used only by the system owner and the owner's customers and are unique thereto. For example, a hospital speech recognition system requires a lexicon of voice templates that are different and distinct from the voice templates recorded in a lexicon of a grocery wholesaler speech recognition system. Thus, each speech recognition system requires the collection of a large number of speech data samples and the manual verification of the speech data samples in order to construct templates required for each specific speech recognition system application. Accordingly, a need exists for an automatic speech recognizer for speech recognition systems and a method of operating the automatic speech recognizer that enables an owner of the system to enter information used in the owner's business application into a speech recognition system without requiring the collection and verification of large numbers of speech data samples.


A capacitive input device, capable of stably adjusting the sensitivity of a counter electrode to improve the operability of the input device, and of improving the appearance of an electric apparatus is provided. In the input device, a conductive material is arranged between a counter electrode and an inner surface of a casing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a capacitive input device used as, for example, a pointing device of a personal computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, capacitive input devices have been generally used for various electric apparatuses called portable terminals, such as mobile phones, cameras, and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants).
As an example of the input devices, an input device has been known in which a counter electrode having a predetermined area adheres to an inner surface of a casing of an electric apparatus. In such an input device, the counter electrode is formed of a sheet-shaped conductive metal plate, such as a thin copper plate, and is provided along the inner surface of the casing so as to have a little large area. Since the counter electrode is formed of a very thin film, it is possible for the counter electrode to adhere to the inner surface of the casing so as to correspond to the curved surface of the casing. When a conductor, such as a finger, approaches and comes into contact with an outer surface of the casing opposite to the counter electrode, capacitance is formed between the conductor and the counter electrode. The capacitance varies according to the area and distance where the counter electrode and the conductor are opposite to each other.
The casing is made of a material having a high dielectric constant other than a metallic material, that is, synthetic resin, such as plastic.
Further, the input device comprises detecting means for detecting the capacitance, clock signal generating means, signal delay means, delayed signal detecting means, and A/D converting means.
The clock signal generating means continuously outputs a regular pulse signal having a predetermined frequency. The signal delay means comprises a variable capacitance portion and a resistor R connected between the variable capacitance portion and the clock signal generating means. In addition, the delayed signal detecting means includes an AND circuit and smoothing means comprising a resistor and a capacitor that are connected to the rear stage of the AND circuit. A clock signal that is output from the clock signal generating means and does not pass through the signal delay means and another clock signal that is output from the clock signal generating means and passes through the signal delay means are input to input portions of the AND circuit, respectively. Then, the output of the AND circuit is input to the smoothing means. The A/D converting means detects an output voltage from the smoothing means at a predetermined sampling period and converts it into a digital signal. Then, the A/D converting means outputs the digital signal to a control unit composed of a CPU. Then, the control unit obtains various information items from the digital signal output from the A/D converting means, and allows an electric apparatus to perform a predetermined operation based on the information items (for example, see Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-306887).
However, in the conventional capacitive input device having the above-mentioned structure, in the case in which the counter electrode adheres to the inner surface of the casing of the electric apparatus, if it is difficult for the counter electrode to adhere to the inner surface due to the positional relationship therebetween, the counter electrode must adhere to an inner case of the electric apparatus. In this case, a space, that is, an air layer may be formed between the surface of the counter electrode and the casing of the electric apparatus. When a space is formed between the surface of the counter electrode and the casing of the electric apparatus, it is difficult to adjust the sensitivity of the counter electrode, resulting in lowering the operability of the input device.
Further, a recent trend in various electric apparatuses is to provide casings having a metallic tone. Therefore, when the surface of the casing, which is an operating surface, is made of a metallic material or is plated with a metallic material, the erroneous operation of the counter electrode may occur due to the conductivity of the metallic material. Thus, the surface of the casing must be made of a non-conductive material, such as resin, which results in deteriorating the appearance of the electric apparatus.


A musical score recognition apparatus is constructed for recording an image of a given musical score and for processing the recorded image to thereby recognize involved components so as to produce performance information according to the following methods. First, staffs are provisionally discriminated, and the recorded image is corrected according to an inclination of the discriminated staffs by shifting mark dots in parallel manner to either of horizontal and vertical directions. Second, the staffs are erased exclusively and segmentally to leave other components such as notes and symbols. Third, beams are also erased exclusively to leave notes and symbols on a working image. Fourth, the notes and symbols are recognized using a reference pattern composed of discrete characteristic points such that matching is tested between a given characteristic point and plural dots including central and peripheral dots. Fifth, during the course of determination of a duration between preceding and succeeding performance events based on the score recognition results, the duration of concurrent note events are determined according to a minimum note length of the involved notes.

The present invention relates to a musical score recognition method and apparatus for processing an image taken from a given musical score text by means of an image scanner or the like so as to recognize staffs, notes, symbols and their positions in the score, to thereby produce performance information containing a tone pitch, a sounding timing and a sounding duration, according to the recognition results.
Recently, it has been attempted to construct a system composed in combination of the musical score recognition apparatus and a sound source such as an electronic musical instrument provided with a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI). The system operates such that the image data taken from the given musical score text by the image scanner is processed to recognize and extract score information to produce an MIDI data according to the recognized score information, and such that the MIDI data is fed to the MIDI sound source to thereby achieve automatic performance according to the given musical score text by sequential data processing. In such a system, the typical data processing includes the following steps of: (1) sampling and recording a musical score image data; (2) detecting and recognizing staffs; (3) provisionally erasing the staffs; (4) detecting and recognizing bars; (5) provisionally erasing the bars; (6) detecting notes; (7) recognizing the notes; (8) erasing the notes; (9) detecting symbols; (10) recognizing the symbols; (11) erasing the symbols; (12) forming performance data; and (3) producing MIDI data to effect automatic performance.
The step (2) of detecting and recognizing the staffs is carried out such that the recorded image of the musical score is projected into a horizontal direction to calculate a histogram of mark dots piled on a vertical axis. Then, horizontally extending line components arranged at an equivalent interval are detected according to periodical peaks of the histogram to thereby recognize the staffs. The vertical positions or levels of the recognized staff lines are utilized as a basis for determine a pitch of notes recognized by the step (6). The detected staff lines are temporarily erased at the step (3) to avoid ill affect to the later recognition process of the notes and symbols. Further, the detected bars in the step (4) are utilized to recognize a plurality of parts which are concurrently performed. The detection and recognition of the notes and symbols can be conducted by a known pattern matching method. The step (11) of erasing the symbols may be eliminated since the MIDI data can be formed according to the recognition results up to the step (10). However, the symbol may be preferably erased for facilitating the data processing.
The above noted conventional score recognition process is designed for a high performance computer to execute complicated digital image processing. Thus, a personal computer could not execute such a complicated digital image processing at a practical speed of operation. In order to realize practical use of the personal computer in the musical score recognition and subsequent automatic performance, previously various attempts have been conducted to simplify data processing schemes. However, the prior art has still the following drawbacks:
First, in case that a simplified pattern recognition method is adopted for discrimination of notes and symbols in view of reduction in a computation amount, inclination of the musical score image generated at sampling operation would hinder accurate determination of the staff line levels and accurate recognition of the notes and chords.
Second, it would be necessary to provisionally erase the staff lines for applying the conventional simplified pattern recognition method to the discrimination of notes and symbols, because the presence of the staff lines would hinder the effective application of the simplified method. However, excessively thorough erase of the detected staff lines might adversely mutilate objects on the staff lines to thereby hinder correct recognition of the notes and symbols.
Third, the simplified pattern recognition method might fail to discriminate between note heads and note beams, because of general similarity therebetween.
Fourth, the use of the conventional simplified pattern recognition method might suffer from serious pattern recognition error in case that the original score image contains distortions, blurs and other noises.
Fifth, the musical score normally contains a chord composed of multiple notes which are concurrently sounded. Further, the multiple notes may have a different time length or duration. Moreover, a rest may be interposed between adjacent notes. Thus, it would be difficult to correctly determine actual note-on and note-off timings according to the recognition results of the notes, rests and other symbols.

Method and apparatus for musical score recognition with quick processing of image data


A bottom-hole information collecting equipment to collect data at the bottom part of the shaft in real time by the sonde throughout an excavation by the bit for digging. The sonde is provided to be mechanically and electronically connected to or separated from the connecting pipe to which the bite is attached arbitrarily. Data collected by several sensors near the bit is transmitted to the sonde via the electromagnetic coupler. The electricity for the sensors and the sonde can be obtained by respective generators of which one is in the sonde and the other is in the connecting pipe.

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is related to the bottom-hole information collecting equipment and is applicable to collect data at the bottom part of the shaft for building petroleum wells, geothermal wells or gas wells and for the investigations of earthquake or geology.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
A shaft has been formed by digging the ground to build petroleum wells, geothermal wells or gas wells and to investigate earthquake and geology.
For digging such a shaft, a plurality of cylindrical digging pipes which are connected to each other and provided with a bit at its forwarded end are used. The waste pieces of rocks and soil because of digging are discharged by the muddy water which is continuously fed into the inside of the digging pipes from its one end near the earth surface. This muddy water going down toward the bottom-hole of the shaft through the inside of the digging pipes spouts out from the bit toward the bottom-hole of the shaft and thereafter returns to the earth surface passing between the outer side of the digging pipes and the inner side of the shaft. The thus-returned muddy water can carry or take out pieces of rock and soil which are unnecessary for digging more. In the case of the bottom-hole reaching at the depth of 5000 m below the ground, the temperature and pressure of the muddy water become very high affected by the geothermy and the depth of the underground.
It is required for such an equipment to detect the data of torque given to the bit under excavation and the data such as load to be collected in real time. For collecting the data, several sensors are mounted inside the digging pipes near the bit. A main part of the conventional bottom-hole information collecting equipment to collect such data gotten by these sensors should be provided inside of the forwarded end part of the digging pipes. The casing which covers the main part of the bottom-hole information collecting equipment inevitably required to be highly sealed up to function in the muddy water being at the above-mentioned high temperature and under high pressure. To secure the high sealing and the electric connection to the sensor, the digging pipe where the main part of the bottom-hole information collecting equipment and the sensors are kept thereinside is firmly connected to other digging pipes extending from the ground.
However, as the main part of the bottom-hole information collecting equipment can not be separated from the digging pipes according to the conventional structure, even if the temperature at the bottom-hole of the shaft becomes high, it is impossible to collect only the bottom-hole information collecting equipment to the ground in order to prevent breakdown. Hence, the concerned equipment is damaged by the heat during the long-time work and thrown away after use.
Another type of the bottom-hole information collecting equipment which is capable of being separated from the digging pipes has been invented, but it was difficult to be electrically connected with the bit torque and the load sensor which are necessary to be provided near the bit in the muddy water at high temperature and under high pressure. Thus, such a system as to read out necessary data after recording again was forced. Neither the conventional bottom-hole information collecting equipments mentioned above could collect the data of torque and load given to the bit under excavation in real time.
The present invention aims to collect the data of digging pipe in real time and to provide a bottom-hole information collecting equipment which can be connected to or separated from the digging pipe arbitrarily.

Bottom-hole information collecting equipment

Akishima Laboratories(Mitsui Zosen) Inc.


A portable communication device includes an antenna arrangement in its interior. The antenna arrangement comprises at least one first radiating antenna element dimensioned for radiation in a first frequency band, and a first mechanically movable extension element, movable between at least two different fixed positions and being connected to the first radiating antenna element in at least one of the positions for radiating together with the first radiating antenna element. When the extension element is being moved from one position to another, it adjusts the electrical length of the combined first radiating antenna and extension element for enhancing radiation in a second frequency band. In this way a small sized multiband antenna arrangement is provided that keeps the efficiency of the different bands high.

There is a trend within the field of portable communicating devices, and especially within the field of cellular phones to have the antenna in-built in the phone itself. At the same time there is often a need for several frequency bands for such phones. The reasons for providing different frequency bands are several. First of all some networks provide several frequency bands in order to better distribute traffic in the network. GSM does for instance provide two separate bands that can be used. There are also different types of networks in different countries that use different frequency bands.
It is not a simple task to provide an antenna structure that can be used with good efficiency in several such bands, especially if the antenna is to be based on a PIFA antenna and provided in a stick type phone.
Various methods have been developed to achieve the additional bandwidth such as using parasitic elements that can be end coupled or side coupled, capacitively fed structures, ultra-high structures and electrically matched structures.
Parasitic elements can be useful in achieving additional bandwidth. They may be end coupled or coupled with parallel elements. When end coupling is used, it is necessary to have the space for two elements, which essentially doubles the required antenna volume. It has also been noted, particularly at low-band frequencies, that there is a tendency when parasitic elements are used for a low-gain region to occur in the frequencies between the resonant frequencies of the two resonators.
Several capacitively fed structures have been proposed. These structures can, in general, achieve the required bandwidth, but generally with a reduction in efficiency. When the bandwidth for instance at the low GSM band is doubled, a reduction in gain of 2–3 dB has generally been observed.
Ultra-high structures (13–15 mm in height) have shown promise in some Japanese products. The main problem with these devices is that they cause the overall size of the product to grow to what is often an unacceptable level.
Electrically matched structures have promise in theory. Currently there are a number of ways of accomplishing this, each with some drawbacks. PIN Diodes work well when properly biased. However, the necessary bias current to limit harmonic generation can lead to reduced standby and talk times. MEMS technology is in theory the best solution to eliminate harmonic and current consumption issues. However, currently devices are generally unavailable and highly sensitive to ESD. GaAs switches currently show the most promise. They have insertion loss of around 0.3 to 0.5 dB. The use of such structures furthermore adds to the cost of the product and require additional power, which it is necessary to keep as low as possible in a portable communication device. Since switching between some bands is only required very seldom, like for instance when travelling from Europe to USA, the use of a fast switching, which electrically matched structures provide, is not an important factor.

Frequency band switching of an antenna arrangement


An improved particulate handler that includes one or more elastic sheets that are particularly effective in facilitating the easy and complete removal of particulate from transporters or containers such as railroad cars, dump trucks, chutes and the like. The combination of the elastic sheets and supporting walls overcomes the problem with sticking of particulates to the interior surfaces and facilitates smooth and easy movement and/or removal under the influence of gravity and changes in tensile stresses and stretch that develop in the sheets during loading, unloading and conveying.

In modern industrial societies, large quantities of particulates require storage and/or transport from location to location. Thus, daily trainloads of coal are required to provide energy for many steam electric generating stations. In addition, large quantities of aggregates and by-products and/or waste materials require handling, storage and/or transport.
One major problem encountered in handling, conveying, storage and/or delivery of the foregoing materials is that of emptying them from the transporting vessel or storage receptacle. Thus, there is the problem of sticking due to hydrogen bonding to walls of the vessel, vehicle, container, or conveyor when water or other solutions are present. In addition, there is the problem of sticking arising when materials freeze.
Various proposals have been made to overcome or partly ameliorate the foregoing problems, for example, spraying loosening compounds into the interior of the vessel. Heating can, of course, be employed to ameliorate the adverse effects of freezing, and there have even been proposed giant car shakers that actually shake or vibrate rail cars that are being unloaded so as to shake loose the otherwise sticking materials. However, spraying has been found to be costly and only partly effective; heating requires equipment and the expenditure of time and energy; and vibrators and shakers are often expensive, bulky and can cause undesired damage.
In addition to the foregoing proposals, certain lining arrangements have been proposed, illustrative of which is that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,875 which was granted to Theodore C. Johnson, Sr. on Jun. 12, 1984. According to that proposal, a wheel-supported open top transporting vessel such as a railway car is provided with a liner arrangement comprising a plurality of belt members arranged between the end walls of the car with the sides of adjacent ones of the belts overlapped in the direction between the end walls and with each belt overlying the side walls and bottom wall of the car. One end of each belt member is attached to the upper end of the corresponding one of the side walls and by upward displacement of the other end, each belt is adapted to be displaced upwardly relative to the car. Material in the car is progressively unloaded laterally outwardly of the car by sequential displacement of the belts in accordance with the pattern of overlap.
While the Johnson proposals may be effective in providing controlled evacuation of the contents from a railroad car, they teach that the "Material in the car is progressively unloaded laterally outwardly of the car by sequential displacement of the belts in accordance with the pattern of overlap." Thus, it would appear necessary to provide some means for physically elevating the belts in accordance with a controlled sequence, thus requiring actively employed equipment to impart the required controlled sequential motion. This, of course, entails expense, maintenance of the motion-imparting equipment, and operation thereof by an operator.
Accordingly, there has continued to be a need for a way to provide facilitated transfer, and improved emptying and/or evacuation of contents from passageways, particulate vehicles, containers or other handlers.


The present invention discloses a method to separate each component from a mixed solution of organic solvents obtained during the production of .alpha.-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester, which is useful as a sweetener, namely, a mixed solution of acetic acid and toluene or a mixed solution of acetic acid, toluene and formic acid, recovering each component with a high recovery ratio with as small number of operations as possible. The method rationalizes the process and is highly valuable in practical use.. When each component is separated and recovered from a mixed solution containing acetic acid and toluene as the main components, acetic acid and toluene are separated by azeotropic distillation using water as an azeotropic solvent, and when each component is separated and recovered from a mixed solution containing acetic acid, toluene and formic acid as the main components, (a) the mixed solution is distilled and formic acid is recovered from the top of the column and a mixed solution of acetic acid and toluene is recovered from the bottom of the column; and (b) the mixed solution obtained from the bottom is distilled by using water as an azeotropic solvent and toluene is recovered from the top of the column and acetic acid is recovered from the bottom of the column.

The present invention relates to a method of separating and recovering each component from a mixed solution of organic solvents obtained during the production of .alpha.-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester (hereinafter referred to as ".alpha.-APM"), which is useful as a sweetener, namely, a mixed solution of acetic acid and toluene or acetic acid, toluene and formic acid. A mixed solution obtained during the production of .alpha.-APM is generally composed of 15 to 45% by weight of acetic acid and 50 to 80% by weight of toluene in the former case, and 15 to 50% by weight of acetic acid, 40 to 80% by weight of toluene and 1 to 15% by weight of formic acid in the latter case. Each component separated and recovered from the mixed solution can be recycled to an .alpha.-APM producing process and reused.
Since acetic acid (boiling point: 118.degree. C.) and toluene (boiling point: 111.degree. C.) form an azeotropic mixture (azeotropic point: 104.degree. C.) containing 34.5% by weight of acetic acid, it is theoretically impossible to separate the mixed solution by a single and simple distillation operation and obtain acetic acid containing substantially no toluene and toluene containing substantially no acetic acid, simultaneously.
In a usual separating method, acetic acid in toluene is first extracted with water, an extracting solvent, into the water phase and the obtained mixed solution of water and acetic acid are then separated by distillation. Separation of water and acetic acid by a conventional distillation method requires as many as 80 to 90 plates and a high reflux ratio. Therefore, azeotropic distillation using an azeotropic solvent (hereinafter referred to as "entrainer"), such as butyl acetate, is generally used so as to obtain a mixed solution of water and the entrainer from the top of the column and obtain acetic acid from the bottom of the column.
In the method, two separating operations, namely, extraction and distillation, are carried out sequentially, and each operation requires its own apparatus. Especially, when the concentration of acetic acid in the mixed solution is high, in order to extract almost all part of the acetic acid into water phase, an extraction column having a large number of plates such as 20 to 30 becomes necessary and the whole equipments including the extraction column in addition to the distillation column become excessively large. Since the production of .alpha.-APM requires a large number of solvent recovering processes, it is desirable that the number of operations necessary in each process is as small as possible and that the equipment in each operation is as small as possible.
A technique to simultaneously isolate three components in a mixed solution of acetic acid, toluene and formic acid (boiling point: 101.degree. C.) into each component in a single operation has not been known. However, a technique to separate components in a mixed solution of formic acid and acetic acid by azeotropic distillation adding toluene as an entrainer by utilizing the fact that formic acid and toluene mixed in a weight ratio of 50:50 forms a two-liquid-phase azeotropic mixture (azeotropic point: 86.degree. C.) and to recover formic acid from the top of the distillation column and acetic acid from the bottom of the column is known. In this case, since toluene is not contained in the original mixed solution which is the object of the separation, usually all the toluene phase distilled out at the top of the column is refluxed and only an amount of toluene, being dissolved in the formic acid phase discharged out of the distillation system, is supplied to make up for the discharged amount. However, the mixed solution which is obtained during the production of .alpha.-APM originally contains toluene. Therefore, when this known technique is applied to separate the mixed solution, containing toluene, the amount of toluene to be supplied to the distillation system must be taken out and recovered from the toluene phase distilled out at the top of the column. Namely, each component of the mixed solution must be separated, by (i) recovering acetic acid from the bottom of the column, (ii) recovering a mixed solution of formic acid and toluene from the top, (iii) making the mixed solution into two liquid phases, (iv) separating the layers of toluene and formic acid, and (v) recovering each component.
However, the concentration of toluene in the mixed solution obtained during the production of .alpha.-APM is as high as 5 to 25 times by weight the concentration of formic acid and a mutual solubility of formic acid and toluene is as high as 8% by weight at 25.degree. C., so if the mixed solution is separated by this conventional method, a considerably large part of formic acid dissolves in the recovered toluene phase. Since the recovered toluene is neutralized and washed, formic acid in the recovered toluene phase is wasted in the form of an aqueous diluted solution. Accordingly, the larger the amount of formic acid in the recovered toluene phase is, the larger loss of formic acid becomes and, as a result, the recovery yield of formic acid becomes poor.
For example, when separating a mixed solution of 7% by weight of formic acid, 25% by weight of acetic acid and 68% by weight of toluene by this conventional method, as much as 84% of the formic acid in the mixed solution supplied to the distillation system is taken out dissolving in the recovered toluene phase. Because this part of the acid becomes a waste, the recovery ratio of formic acid becomes as low as 16%. From the point of view of the profitability of the separating and recovering process, the desirable recovery ratio of formic acid is not less than 90%, but that of formic acid obtained by this conventional method falls far below the value.
Consequently, when the recovery of formic acid is taken into consideration, this conventional technique cannot be applied to the process of producing .alpha.-APM.
The present inventors have intensively studied to solve the above-described problems and to establish a method of separating and recovering each of the components from a mixed solution of acetic acid and toluene or a mixed solution of acetic acid, toluene and formic acid with high recovery ratios.
As a result of the studies carried out by the present inventors to solve the problems, it has been found that it is possible to separate each of the components from a mixed solution of acetic acid and toluene in a single operation by azeotropic distillation using water as an entrainer with high recovery ratios. Further, it has also been found that it is possible to separate and recover each of the components from a mixed solution of acetic acid, toluene and formic acid only by two distilling operations, namely; (a) distilling the mixed solution and recovering formic acid from the top and a mixture of acetic acid and toluene from the bottom; and (b) distilling the mixture of acetic acid and toluene using water as an azeotropic solvent and recovering toluene from the top and acetic acid from the bottom. Based on the two findings described above, the present inventors have attained the present invention.

Distillation method of separating organic solvents


A remote sensing system is provided which operates as a bipolarized, differential mode, LDI (laser differential interferometry) system to detect an electrical signal produced at a remote location. The system is adapted to reduce the effects of turbulence induced frequency fluctuations by using an array retroreflector apparatus which converts a single sensing beam into a single return beam having two, overlapping, transversely polarized sensing signals; thus, turbulence induced noise will be common mode to both return signals and cancel at the receiver.. In preferred embodiments, the system is used to remotely detect an amplified array signal from a plurality of seismic detectors (e.g., geophones or hydrophones) connected to form an array at the remote location. The target is coupled to common motions at the selected location and the amplified array signal is coupled to an optical component within the target. The target converts the sensing beam into a return beam by separating from the sensing beam two transversely polarized sensing signals, by Doppler shifting the sensing signals to have frequency components that represent common motions coupled to the array retroreflector and to contain between the signals a difference signal which represents the array signal. The target also combines the two sensing signals into a single return beam having two transversely polarized return sensing signals. The return beam is detected. The return sensing signals are separated from the return beam and combined by electronic and/or by optical heterodyning techniques to cancel any common mode signals on the sensing and return beam, thereby leaving a frequency modulated difference signal which represents the frequency modulated array signal. The frequency modulated difference signal may then be demodulated to produce a time varying signal which represents the seismic signal of the seismic motions detected by the seismic detectors.

It is generally the objective of seismic exploration to generate seismic energy, make measurements of and record the amplitude of any reflected and refracted energy at selected locations and for selected times, and then by selectively processing the recorded seismic data, to deduce the geometry of the subsurface geologic boundaries as well as some properties of the materials of the earth through which the seismic energy has propagated and from which it has been reflected.
Conventional land seismic acquisition techniques involve the use of an appropriate source (dynamite, vibrator(s), airguns(s), etc.) to generate seismic energy and a set of detectors, spread out on the surface of the earth, to detect any seismic signals due to seismic energy interacting with subsurface geologic boundaries. These detected signals are recorded as a function of time and subsequent processing of these signals, i.e., seismic "traces" or seismic data, is designed to reconstruct an appropriate image of the geologic boundaries of the subsurface and to obtain information about the subsurface materials. In simplistic terms this conventional acquisition process has a seismic wave, from a source of seismic energy, traveling down into the earth, reflecting from a particular geologic interface (i.e., a change or contrast in elastic constants, velocities, and/or densities), and returning to the surface, where the seismic wave may be detected by an appropriate detector, or detectors.
Conventionally, the detector employed to detect seismic signals on land is a geophone. A geophone is an electro-mechanical device that is coupled to the ground via an extension or "spike" that is physically inserted into the ground. This allows the geophone case to vibrate because of any earth motions, including seismic signals. Internal to the geophone case and vibrationally isolated from the case (typically by springs) is an "inertial" mass that does not vibrate with the earth. Thus, there is a small relative motion between the geophone case and its inertial mass due to any detected ground motions. This relative motion is converted to an electrical signal by having a coil of wire that moves through an electromagnetic field of a permanent magnet; the magnet may be the inertial mass with the coil attached to the geophone case, or vice versa. This electrical signal is the seismic signal that is recorded (alone, or more preferably, in combination with other electrical signals) and later processed.
Seismic field layouts vary with the exploration objective sought to be detected. However, there is usually a need to simultaneously record seismic motion at many ground positions spaced over a wide area. A seismic line usually consists of multiple detector stations with each detector station having several geophones whose output signals are combined to form a single signal (array signal) for the detector station. The geophones are arranged in an array to reject unwanted waves while enhancing the reception of desired seismic waves on the electrical signals.
The signals from these arrays (detector stations) are collected and recorded for each seismic shot (seismic energy source). Conventional land seismic data acquisition is slow, expensive and labor intensive. In particular, the activity of laying out a cable which interconnects the detector stations, so that the array electrical signals may be recorded, is time consuming and requires a substantial work force. It would be desirable to have a fast way to move the entire seismic line or portions thereof and thereby minimize survey time.
A radar system which senses seismic ground motion (vibrations) remotely is one solution for reducing the cost and time for acquiring seismic data. Two such systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,483, Remote Seismic Sensing, and 5,109,362, Remote Seismic Sensing. Both patents use laser Doppler heterodyne interferometry techniques to detect the movements of the earth.
Another laser Doppler interferometry system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,284,350, Laser Geophone, which uses a homodyne system with a detector having side-by-side corner-cube retroreflectors for detecting vertical ground motions at a remote location. The use of a single or a side by side corner-cube retroreflector arrangement is also suggested for some detectors in embodiments of the heterodyne systems described in the before mentioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,483 and 5,109,362.
However, these systems require at least one sensing beam and return beam for each detector (geophone equivalent). An array may have as many as 32 geophones for each detector station and a seismic line may have a hundred or more detector stations. If 3-D detection is desired, there could be many additional seismic lines. The number of sensing and return beams necessary to acquire this data by a remote sensing system could be substantially reduced if only one sensing beam and return beam are used for each detector station.
In addition, some of the prior art remote sensing detectors of the before mentioned patents feature detectors which have side-by-side retroreflector configurations. In theory, the use of a side-by-side retroreflector detector requires that two approximately side-by-side sensing beams be sent to a detector where at least one of the beams is Doppler shifted (frequency modulated) by seismic motions coupled to the detector. The two modulated sensing beams may contain approximately identical Doppler shifted frequency components (common mode signals) which represent seismic motions common to the Doppler shifting optical components on the detector (assuming that both beams were Doppler shifted). Also, the modulated beams contain between them Doppler shifted frequency components (a difference signal) which represents the desired (or selected) seismic signal. When the modulated beams are combined electronically or by optical homodyning, the common mode signals cancel and the difference signal (the frequency components which are not common to both beams) remains. One problem with a homodyning system is that it is not possible to determine "up" Doppler and "down" Doppler motion from the obtained difference signal. This problem is resolved by using a heterodyning system instead. However, in spite of this problem, the difference signal provided by this prior art homodyning system does represent the vertical motions of the earth at the remote location.
The side-by-side corner-cube retroreflector configurations of the before mentioned designs, or any other type of side-by-side retroreflector design, necessarily require that two sensing beams travel different paths through the air to and from the retroreflectors. Separate air paths may have different effects upon the propagating laser sensing beams. Solar radiation heats the ground surface, causing convective air currents which break into turbulent flow. These randomly sized (roughly 1 millimeter to 1 meter) air packets have anomalous temperatures and refractive indices. The optical phase of each laser beam shifts as it passes through a region of anomalous refractive index. These air packets blow across the raypath and cause time-varying, random frequency modulation of the laser beam. Thus, two laser beams traveling through different air spaces will experience different fluctuations in each carrier frequency of the laser beams.
Since, the two laser beams are spatially separated, they will not be affected equally by the atmosphere and the atmospheric effects on the beams are not totally common mode signals. The atmospheric effects do not cancel completely when the two laser beams are combined electronically or by optical homodyning or heterodyning techniques. Thus, the difference signal will not only contain the desired Doppler signal but also an additional component which will be referred to herein as turbulent noise. Turbulent noise is especially prevalent on sunny, windy days. Consequently, if side by side retroreflectors are used as parts of the detector in a remote seismic sensing system, the presence of turbulent noise on the difference signal could prevent an accurate determination of the desired (or selected) ground motions (the desired Doppler signal).
Also, small seismic motions may not be detectable by the prior art systems. Each sensing beam is frequency modulated within the detectors when: it is incident normally on an optical component (such as a mirror, a retroreflector or a beamsplitter), it is reflected (or deflected) from its incident path by the optical component, and the optical component is moving relative to the incident path of the beam. The amount of Doppler shift at each point of reflection (deflection) is proportional to the relative velocity of the reflection point on the Doppler shifting optical component with respect to the incident path of the beam. As the beam is reflected through the detector, the Doppler shifts are cumulative; thus, the Doppler shifts add or subtract from the previous Doppler shifts on the beam. Upon exiting the detector, if the points of reflection on the combination of Doppler shifting optical components have undergone a net relative movement along the incident paths of the sensing beam, the cumulative movement of the reflection points would represent a net velocity with respect to the sensing beam. And, the sensing beam will be Doppler shifted (frequency modulated) by an amount which represents the net velocity of these reflection (deflection) points relative to the incident paths of the sensing beam. However, the seismic motion imposed upon the components which Doppler shift the sensing beam have relatively small amplitudes; thus, some seismic signals may not be detectable because of limitations, e.g., frequency drift and noise, in the homodyning or heterodyning and demodulation processes. If the amount of Doppler shift representing the difference signal could be increased, seismic signals having smaller amplitudes could be detected.

Array retroreflector apparatus for remote seismic sensing


A backlight module including several light sources, a frame, a light guide plate and a flexible printed circuit board is provided. The flexible printed circuit board includes a body and a fixing structure. The body is bent, so that a first part and a second part of the body are respectively disposed on two sides of the frame. The light sources are disposed on the first part, and the light-emitting surfaces of the light sources face the light guide plate. The fixing structure including a structure body, several first connecting portions and two protrusions is disposed on the first part. The first connecting portions extend from the two opposite first sides and are fixed on the body, so that the structure body is positioned above the light sources. The protrusions respectively extend slantwise from the first sides toward the direction opposite to the structure body and insert into the frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a backlight module, and more particularly to a backlight module having a fixing structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1A, a flexible printed circuit board of a conventional backlight module disposed at a frame is shown. The backlight module 100 includes several light sources 110, a frame 130, a light guide plate 150 and a flexible printed circuit board 170. The light guide plate 150 is disposed in the frame 130, and the light sources 110 are disposed on the flexible printed circuit board 170. The flexible printed circuit board 170 is bent to be disposed on two sides of the frame 130.
Referring to FIG. 1B, a cross-sectional view of the flexible printed circuit board in FIG. 1A bent and disposed on the two sides of the frame is shown. A two-sided tape 160 is disposed between the flexible printed circuit board 170 and the frame 130 so as to fix the bent flexible printed circuit board 170 on the frame 130. Therefore, the flexible printed circuit board 170 is fixed on the frame 130, and the light sources 110 are positioned at a side of the light guide plate to radiate light into the light guide plate 150. However, as indicated in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, the frame 130 has only a limited area on which the two-sided tape 160 (denoted by sloped lines) can be disposed. As the two-sided tape 160 can not provide enough adhesiveness, the flexible printed circuit board 170 may easily rise up due to its bounceback. Moreover, although the flexible printed circuit board 170 with a high level of hardness may reduce the possibility of the bounceback, it is not easy to bend the flexible printed circuit board 170 into the shape shown in FIG. 1B.
Referring to FIG. 1C, the flexible printed circuit board in FIG. 1B rising up due to the bend is shown. When the flexible printed circuit board 170 rises up, the light sources 110 disposed on the flexible printed circuit board 170 can not precisely radiate the light into the light guide plate 150. Thus, the light is likely to gather at a part of a display panel (not illustrated) near the light sources 110, so that the light emitting efficiency and uniformity of the backlight module 100 are decreased. Therefore, how to reduce the occurrence of the bouceback of the bent flexible printed circuit board so as to avoid the light emitting efficiency and uniformity of the backlight module being affected has become an imminent issue to be resolved.


A therapeutic coolant for the local treatment of burn is provided wherein said coolant consisting of squalene, squalane, or mixtures thereof.. A method of treating burn is provided wherein said method comprising :. applying a therapeutic coolant cooled to a temperature range from -10 to -60.degree. C., said coolant selected from the group consisting essentially of squalene, squalane, or mixtures thereof.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a therapeutic coolant for the local treatment of burn, specifically in its early stages.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
It has been well known that cooling by tap water is effective for the treatment of burn in its early stages. Although it is a convenient method, it is necessary to sterilize the water in advance for the purpose of preventing infection. Tap water itself does not have an intrinsic therapeutic effect for burn. Therefore, a further medical treatment such as application of an ointment to the burned skin is necessary for remedy after cooling the region by tap water.
One of the principal advantages of water such as tap water as a coolant is that appropriate latent heat accompanying the change in state of water such as vaporization can be utilized in cooling. In other materials wherein such latent heat can not be utilized, it is inevitable to cool them to an extremely low temperature sufficient to make them exhibit their cooling effect. However, it is sometimes difficult to cool to such a low temperature, and there is a fear of suffering from frostbite. Conventional oily medicines, for example, applied to the skin have not a sufficient cooling effect, because they have a tendency to become a solid when cooled to such an extremely low temperature. As for local protection medicines for the skin such as glycerine, mel, vaseline and the like, they have not such a tendency to be solidified but become too viscous to be applied smoothly to the skin at an extremely low temperature, and they also have not also a sufficient cooling effect.
For the above reasons, there is a desire for a more efficient and convenient coolant to be used for remedy of burn in its early stages.

Therapeutic coolant for the local treatment of burn


Surfaces suitable for cutting boards, cheese boards or other food preparation activities. In certain embodiments, the surfaces are wood that has been subjected to torrefaction. In certain embodiments, the surfaces are substantially planar, and include one or more pegs that have antimicrobial activity.

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to a food surface such as a cutting board or cheese board. Such surfaces are typically used to cut or hold food products.
The management of bacteria during the preparation and handling of foods is a common objective when designing food processing articles in order to minimize or avoid food-borne illnesses. Current cutting boards in particular are a common source of food contamination, as bacteria can be present and proliferate on the surface and in the pores of such surfaces, contaminating other foods that are placed in contact with the board surface.
Accordingly, the material for manufacturing cutting boards must be chosen carefully. A suitable cutting board material should be durable, non-abrasive, and not so hard that it will damage or dull a knife used to cut the food on the surface. In addition, the cutting board should be aesthetically pleasing, since it is often visible to guests of a homeowner.
Plastics such as polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, etc. have been used as cutting boards, particularly since they may be cleaned by relatively harsh antiseptic chemicals to destroy any bacteria on their surface. However, they often lack the aesthetics sought after by consumers.
Wood also has been used as a cutting board surface. Hardwoods with relatively small pores are particularly suitable. Teak has been a common choice in view of its aesthetic qualities.
Preferred board surfaces should provide stability when placed on a counter top, table or other surface in a kitchen or dining area. In addition, such surfaces should exhibit good water or moisture resistance, and also exhibit resistance to microbes.
It therefore would be desirable to provide a board such as a cutting or cheese board that is aesthetically pleasing, has antibacterial properties, and is durable.

Food cutting and preparation surface with antimicrobial and anti-slip pegs


A method and apparatus for providing network virtualization on a packet network are disclosed. For example, the method receives a request from a user, wherein the request comprises at least one of: a feature of a network component or a network component for a virtual network. The method determines if the request can be instantiated over one or more real network resources, and then instantiates the request via the one or more real network resources, if it is determined that the request can be instantiated.

An enterprise customer may build a Virtual Private Network (VPN) by connecting multiple sites or users over a network from a network service provider. For example, an enterprise customer may build a VPN to enable its employees and suppliers to access data and communicate among each other regardless of the users' physical location. The VPN functions on the data plane to enable packets to be forwarded to a network unique to the enterprise customer. For example, a virtual route forwarding table may be implemented in a provider edge device to forward packets to a particular enterprise customer's VPN. However, the control plane and management plane operate on the real network as opposed to the virtual network. That is, the virtualization of a VPN is limited to forwarding functions and does not include the management and control functions. For example, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocols operate on the entire control plane that may encompass any number of virtual networks.

Method and apparatus for providing network virtualization


This invention concerns new molecules with active, non-linear optical properties and which can be thermally reticulated (more precisely, these molecules include terminal functions which can be reticulated, attached to either side of the groups active in non-linear optics, which can be oriented under an electrical field). When reticulated and oriented under an electrical field, these materials are particularly stable and can be employed for industrial applications, using non-linear optics (electrooptical modulators, frequency doublers, etc.).

This invention consists of polymer materials that can be used in non-linear optical applications. More specifically, it concerns a new type of material in which the entities active in non-linear optics are capable of generating, in the presence of reticulating agents, a three-dimensional reticulated polymer network. The chemical structure of the entities that are active in non-linear optics is such that the materials they form are capable of generating second-order non-linear optical effects. The non-centrosymmetric property of the material, essential to obtain non-linear optical effects, is produced by applying a DC electrical field at the three-dimensional reticulated polymer network vitreous transition temperature.
Such materials can advantageously be used to produce components for integrated optics, such as frequency doublers operating at wavelengths between 0.8 and 2 .mu.m, or electrooptical modulators using an electromagnetic wave with a wavelength between 0.6 and 2 .mu.m. It has been clearly shown that organic materials can possess non-linear optical dynamics as high as those offered by inorganic materials such as lithium niobate or KTP, but also offer decisive advantages such as:
optical damage only occurs at a higher limit, PA1 a shorter response time (sub-picosecond), PA1 the flexibility of organic synthesis allows the physical properties to be adjusted, PA1 a potentially lower cost. PA1 solid solutions of small molecules (or coloring agents) with active non-linear optical properties, dissolved in a matrix of amorphous polymer or a liquid crystal polymer, PA1 copolymers in which the entity acted in non-linear optics is grafted onto the copolymer structure, which overcomes the problems of solubility of coloring molecules in the polymer matrix and provides materials which can contain up to 100% active molecules.

Thermally reticulated materials for non-linear optical applications


A stator of an electric machine of the power saving interval may include a stator core having a plurality of slots, and a stator winding wound around the slot, wherein the stator winding has a plurality of winding portions connected in parallel with one another for each phase, and each of the winding portions has a segment conductor inserted into three or more slots for each pole. As a result, it may be possible to increase the number of rotations and reduce the external size thereof while maintaining the same output.

As is generally known, an electric generator such as an alternator and/or a generator, and an electromotor (hereinafter, referred to as an "electric machine") such as a motor and/or a linear motor may be configured with a stator and a rotor configured to relatively move with respect to the stator.
The stator of the electric machine may be configured with a stator core having a plurality of slots, and stator windings wound around the slots.
The stator windings may be typically configured by a method of winding a wire (stranded wire) having a relatively thin diameter around an internal portion of the slot a multiple number of times and a method of winding a wire around the tooth (pole) in a concentrated manner.
However, in this type of stator winding method in the related art, the operation efficiency may be reduced because a ratio of an occupied area (cross-sectional area) of the conductor (coil) with respect to a cross-sectional area of the slot is relatively small. Furthermore, there is a limit in increasing a cross-sectional area ratio of the conductor with a conventional stator winding method using a wire having such a thin diameter, thereby limiting the enhancement of the output density and efficiency.
But for an electromotor for electric vehicles requiring a high output density and high efficiency, it may be very important to increase a ratio of a cross-sectional area of the conductor with respect to the slot.
Considering such problems, there are known methods of inserting a rectangular copper wire having a relatively large width (diameter) into a slot to form a stator winding (for example, U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2003/0214196, filed May 15, 2003).
However, even using a rectangular copper wire, there is a problem in which the size of the stator and rotor in an electromotor should be increased to enhance the output of the electromotor.
And with a conventional stator winding method using a rectangular copper wire, it is not easy to control the number of turns, thus resulting in a limit on the high-speed operation (for example, above 7000 rpm (revolution per minute).

Stator of electric machine, electromotor having the same, and electric vehicle having the electromotor


A mobile lighted pick or put cart includes a frame and transport members on the frame that facilitate movement of the frame. The frame defines a plurality of vertically spaced shelves. An electronic system supported with the frame includes a portable computing device and a plurality of lamp strips, one mounted to each of the shelves. An application program that is operated by the portable computing device is adapted to determine a quantity of items to be picked from or put to a physical location and illuminate a number of individual lamps on one of the strips at a particular location on one of said shelves. The number of individual lamps illuminated is equal to the quantity of items to be picked from or put to the physical location.

The present invention is directed to order fulfillment and, in particular to fulfilling orders involving directing picking of items by an individual from an inventory area or putting of items from a mobile cart to an inventory area. While the invention is useful in a warehouse distribution environment, it may also find use in a retail environment for direct-to consumer order fulfillment as well as other applications.
It is known to use a mobile lighted pick or put cart to either pick inventory items from an inventory area to receptacles on the mobile cart or to put items from receptacles on the mobile cart to an inventory area. Such mobile carts have utilized seven-segment digital readouts in order to provide information to an operator as to how many items to pick from or put to an inventory area, and which receptacle on the cart to put the items to or pick the items from. Such known lighted mobile carts have required excessive power supply, such as from a lead-acid battery, and are heavy and therefore require more operator effort to move about. Also, known lighted mobile carts require significant operator training in order to understand the various operations being indicated by the digital readout. Also, in order to accommodate different sized receptacles it is necessary to reconfigure the cart by moving the digital readout to coincide with receptacle spacing.

Mobile lighted pick or put cart and method of use


A fabric which can be made by a wet-laid process using crimpable bicomponent fibers is disclosed which may have a high bulk and/or elasticity. The fabric can be made by a high speed continuous process wherein the fabric is pulled from a Yankee dryer by a take off roll which rotates faster than the Yankee dryer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermally crimped fabric and a process for the preparation thereof.
2. Description of Background Art
Thermal crimping of fabrics is known in the art as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,947,315, 4,551,378 and 4,732,809. However, the properties of these fabrics render them unsuitable for certain uses.

Crimped fabric and process for preparing the same


In a dual processor mobile device one processor is a radio processor and one processor is an application processor, the mobile device further including a polyphonic audio chip, a method and apparatus for audio control, the method having the steps of: connecting the polyphonic audio chip between the controller and a highly integrated audio codec; connecting the radio processor to the highly integrated audio codec; controlling the highly integrated audio codec from the radio processor; and coordinating between the application processor and the radio processor to allow the radio processor to control the highly integrated audio codec through the radio processor.

Mobile or wireless devices are increasingly becoming used for a variety of tasks. These tasks may require different hardware and configurations in order to run more efficiently, and in some cases the different hardware is comprised of various processors having specialized tasks. For example, one processor may be used to run user applications, while a second may be used for control of the radio and voice path on the mobile device.
In multi-processor environments where the audio path may be generated from either of an application processor (controller processor) or a radio processor, a complex series of tasks need to occur in order to produce the audio output at one of a plurality of audio outputs. This is further complicated if additional hardware such as an audio chip, referred to herein as a Melody chip, is added. With the above dual processor configuration, the Melody chip is controlled by the application processor.
The audio source with the above configuration can be either the Melody chip or a voice codec. In this case, the analog output from the Melody chip needs to be amplified before being sent through a multiplexer to choose between the Melody chip and the voice codec chip output. Once multiplexed, the audio can go to the output, such as a speaker, headset, handset, Bluetooth™ or any other such audio output. This requires considerable hardware and coordination in the output of the audio.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Audio management in a dual processor environment


In the method of the present invention for manufacturing 3-DPA-lactone, a protective group is introduced in the first step into the hydroxyl group at 4-position of .gamma.-ribonolactone by an ordinary method. Then, an acid anhydride or an acid chloride is added in the presence of a tertiary amine compound so as to conduct a .beta.-elimination of the hydroxyl group at the 3-position. As a result, a double bond is formed between the 2- and 3-positions and, at the same time, the hydroxyl group at the 2-position is acylated. The double bond between the 2- and 3-positions is reduced in the next step by means of a catalytic hydrogenation. Finally, the protective group of the hydroxyl group is eliminated by an ordinary method. The particular method permits using readily available raw materials, decreasing the number of manufacturing steps, and easily and selectively synthesizing the desired 3-DPA-lactone, which is hardly obtained from nature in a large amount, in high yield, compared with the conventional method.

In recent years, saccharide-containing compounds and saccharide-like compound have attracted attention as useful physiologically active substances in the field of fine chemicals such as medicines and agricultural chemicals. As one of such saccharide-like compounds, known is (2S, 4S)-2-hydroxy-4-hydroxymethyl-4-butanolide (3-DPA-lactone) of chemical structure of formula (V) given below: ##STR1##
The compound 3-DPA-lactone is present in the body fluid of an animal. An increase in the concentration of the compound in the blood is observed in a hungry rat. Also, an ingestive action or appetite is induced by the administration of the compound. Such being the situation, 3-DPA-lactone is known as an endogenous appetite-promoting substance, as described in "H. Ohmura, N. Shimizu (Kagaku to Seibutsu), Vol. 22, No. 4, page 228, and its reference article, O. Uchikawa, N. Okukado, T. Sakata, K. Arase, Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 61, 2025 (1988)".
Thus, 3-DPA-lactone is indispensable for the scientific clarification of the ingestive action of animals including human beings. It is possible to widely apply the clarified mechanism for the development of food, medicines and agricultural chemicals. It is also possible to promote the growth of livestock by adding an appetite-promoting substance to the feed for the livestock and using its appetite-promoting effect.
Only traces of 3-DPA-lactone are present in nature, making it difficult to obtain a large amount of the compound by extraction from natural materials. In other words, it is necessary to employ a synthetic technique for obtaining a large amount of 3-DPA-lactone.
Presently, a method of manufacturing 3-DPA-lactone, in which L-malic acid having an optical activity is used as the starting material, is known to the art, as described in "0. Uchikawa, N. Okukado, T. Sakata, K. Arase, K. Terada, Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 61, 2025 (1988)". Also known is a method using .gamma.-ribonolactone as the starting material, as described in "K. Bock, I. Lundt, C. Pedersen, Acta. Chem. Scand., B85, 155 (1981)". In the known method using L-malic acid as the starting material, a vinyl group is introduced by Grignard reaction to the carbonyl group of (S)-3,4-0-isopropylidene-3,4-dihydroxy butanal so as to form a hydroxyl group at the 2-position of 3-DPA-lactone, followed by cleaving the vinyl group in an oxidizing manner by Sharpless method so as to form a carboxyl group and, thus, to form .gamma.-lactone.
However, the Grignard reaction employed in the known method described above is not stereoselective, with the result that two kinds of diastereomers are formed with respect to the hydroxyl group at the 2-position. Naturally, it is necessary to separate these diastereomers after the lactone formation, with the result that the yield of the desired product in which an S-arrangement is formed with respect to the carbon atom at the 2-position is as low as about 30%.
In addition, as many as six process steps are required for preparing the direct starting material of hydroxy aldehyde itself having an optical activity from L-malic acid, and the yield thereof is only 25%. It follows that as many as 11 process steps are required for manufacturing 3-DPA-lactone from L-malic acid. Further, if the removal of one diastereomer is taken into account, the total yield is as low as only about 4%.
In the known method using .gamma.-ribonolactone as the starting material, the hydroxyl group of .gamma.-ribonolactone is protected by an acetyl group, followed by applying a catalytic hydrogenation under a high pressure in the presence of palladium-carbon as a catalyst so as to achieve deacylation and, thus, to refine 3-DPA-lactone. In this method, however, it is necessary to carry out the catalytic hydrogenation under such a high pressure as 100 atms., making it necessary to use a complex apparatus. In addition, a problem remains unsolved in terms of safety.


System and method for reducing power consumption in integrated circuits (IC) with fuse controlled redundant circuits. A preferred embodiment comprises detecting the status of fuses within the IC, disabling input signals to redundant circuits if none of the fuses have been blown, and enabling input signals if at least one of the fuses has been blown. By not propagating input signals to redundant circuits not being used, power consumption can be reduced significantly.

As the complexity of integrated circuits (IC) continue to increase the probability of a faulty component occurring in an IC approaches one, the faulty component may require that the IC be discarded. However, the use of redundant circuits, which are located on the IC alongside the normal circuitry of the IC, may permit the replacement of the circuitry containing faulty component. Therefore, the use of the IC may be salvaged. This can increase the IC yield and save the IC manufacturer a considerable amount of money. The redundant circuits can be activated and used in place of the faulty components (and the faulty component deactivated) by blowing fuses (such as electrical fuses (e-fuses) and/or laser-trimmed fuses). The use of fuses to activate redundant circuits and deactivate faulty components is a technique widely used in industry.
Components of an IC may be faulty due to several causes. A first cause may be that the component was not fabricated properly. For example, an imperfection may have been present on the substrate during fabrication or the fabrication procedure itself may be faulty. Improperly fabricated ICs may be discovered during IC testing, prior to packaging. If a faulty component is discovered on an IC during pre-packaging IC testing, the faulty component may be deactivated and a redundant circuit activated to take its place through the blowing of certain fuses, preferably, laser fuses since access to the IC is possible because the IC has yet to be packaged.
However, ICs may also be damaged after the pre-packaging IC testing. A second cause of faulty IC components may be that the component may have been damaged during the packaging of the IC. For example, when the die is cut from the wafer, when the wafer is cleaned, when the die is bonded to the packaging, and so forth. ICs that become faulty due to packaging are usually not discovered until post-packaging testing. Since the packaging of an IC can be a considerable amount of the overall cost of manufacturing the IC, simply discarding a faulty IC could be expensive.
A commonly used technique uses additional redundant circuits that can be activated in place of the faulty components discovered in post-packaging IC testing. These additional redundant circuits can be activated through the use of electrical fuses (e-fuses) rather than laser fuses since direct access to the IC is no longer possible. This can permit the use of a packaged IC that would have otherwise been discarded.
A disadvantage of the prior art is that the percentage of ICs that are damaged during packaging can be very small. However, to provide the ability to use those that are damaged, the redundant circuits need to be present in each IC. In order to minimize the complexity of the power and clock distribution system, the redundant circuitry usually shares a common power and clock distribution system with the remainder of the IC. This means that in the vast majority of ICs, the redundant circuitry is being actively clocked and powered although it is not being used. This can increase power consumption of the IC.

Reduced power consumption in integrated circuits with fuse controlled redundant circuits


The present invention pertains to a system and method for predicting the protein fold of a target amino acid residue sequence of unknown protein structure. A target sequence is represented by a sequence of residue variability types that utilizes positional variability information present in an associated family of homologous sequences to the target sequence. The use of the positional variability information increases the likelihood of matching the target sequence with a known protein structure. In a first preferred embodiment, a target sequence is mapped into a sequence of residue variability types that are based on the solubility variability present between amino acid residues in homologous sequences. In a second preferred embodiment, each residue variability type represents a cluster of residue types at each position of aligned sets of homologous protein sequences. Each distinct cluster represents a pattern of residue variability at various positions in sets of homologous protein sequences. The sequence of residue variability types is aligned with one or more environment strings, each of which represents a known protein structure in accordance with the degree of surface exposure for each amino acid position in the protein's structure. The alignment is performed using a threading procedure that determines a score for each alignment indicating the compatibility of the sequence to the structure. The protein structure associated with the highest score is deemed to be the most analogous structure to the target sequence.

Proteins (or polypeptides) are linear polymers of amino acids. The polymerization reaction which produces a protein results in the loss of one molecule of water from each amino acid, and hence proteins are often said to be composed of amino acid residues. Natural protein molecules may contain as many as 20 different types of amino acid residues. The particular linear sequence of amino acid residues in a protein defines the primary sequence, or primary structure, of the protein. The primary structure of a protein can be determined with relative ease using known methods.
Proteins fold into a three-dimensional structure. The folding is determined by the sequence of amino acids and by the protein's environment. Examination of the three-dimensional structure of numerous natural proteins has revealed a number of recurring patterns. Patterns known as alpha helices, parallel beta sheets, and anti-parallel beta sheets are the most common observed. A description of such protein patterns is provided by Dickerson, R. E., et al. in The Structure and Action of Proteins, W. A. Benjamin, Inc. California (1969). The assignment of each amino acid residue to one of these patterns defines the secondary structure of the protein. The helices, sheets, and turns of a protein's secondary structure pack together to produce the folded three-dimensional, or tertiary, structure of the protein.
In the past, the three-dimensional structure of proteins has been determined in a number of ways. Perhaps the best known way of determining protein structure involves the use of the technique of x-ray crystallography. A general review of this technique can be found in Physical Biochemistry, Van Holde, K. E. (Prentice-Hall, New Jersey 1971), pp. 221-239, or in Physical Chemistry with Applications to the Life Sciences, D. Eisenberg & D. C. Crothers (Benjamin Cummings, Menlo Park 1979). Using this technique, it is possible to elucidate the three-dimensional structure with good precision. Additionally, protein structure may be determined through the use of the techniques of neutron diffraction, or by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). See, e.g., Physical Chemistry, 4th Ed. Moore, W. J. (Prentice-Hall, New Jersey 1972) and NMR of Proteins and Nucleic Acids, K. Wuthrich (Wiley-Interscience, New York 1986).
The three-dimensional structure of many proteins may be characterized as having internal surfaces (directed away from the aqueous environment in which the protein is normally found) and external surfaces (which are exposed to the aqueous environment). Through the study of many natural proteins, researchers have discovered that hydrophobic residues (such as tryptophan, phenylalanine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, or methionine) are most frequently found on the internal surface of protein molecules. In contrast, hydrophilic residues (such as aspartate, asparagine, glutamate, glutamine, lysine, arginine, serine, and threonine) are most frequently found on the external protein surfaces. The amino acids alanine, cysteine, glycine, histidine, proline, serine, tyrosine, and threonine are encountered with more nearly equal frequency on both the internal and external protein surfaces.
The biological properties of proteins depend directly on the proteins three-dimensional (3D) conformation. The 3D conformation determines the activity of enzymes, the capacity and specificity of binding proteins, and the structural attributes of receptor molecules. Because the three-dimensional structure of a protein molecule is so significant, it has long been recognized that a means for readily determining a protein's three-dimensional structure from its known amino acid sequence would be highly desirable. However, it has proved extremely difficult to make such a determination. One difficulty is that each protein has an astronomical number of possible conformations (about 10.sup.16 for a small protein of 100 residues; see K. A. Dill, Biochemistry, 24, 1501-1509, 1985), and there is no reliable method for picking the one conformation stable in aqueous solution. A second difficulty is that there are no accurate and reliable force laws for the interaction of one part of a protein with another part, and with water. Proteins exist in a dynamic equilibrium between a folded, ordered state and an unfolded, disordered state. These and other factors have contributed to the enormous complexity of determining the most probable relative 3D location of each residue in a known protein sequence.
Sequence alignment represents one approach that has generated some success at determining a protein's three-dimensional structure from an associated amino acid sequence. Typically, sequence alignment aligns a target residue sequence of unknown three-dimensional protein structure with residue sequences of known three-dimensional protein structures. If a sequence relationship can be found, it can often be inferred that the protein of known sequence but unknown structure adopts a fold similar to the protein of known structure. This strategy works well for closely related sequences, but structural similarities can go undetected as the level of sequence identity drops below about 25 percent. In this case, a similar technique referred to as a threading procedure can be used. In a threading procedure, a target sequence of unknown protein structure is aligned with a one-dimensional representation of a protein structure.
In one such threading procedure, target sequences of unknown protein structure are aligned with profiles representing the structural environments of the residues in known three-dimensional protein structures. The method starts with a known three-dimensional protein structure and determines three key features of each residue's environment within the structure: (1) the total area of the residue's side-chain that is buried by other protein atoms, inaccessible to solvent; (2) the fraction of the side-chain area that is covered by polar atoms (O, N) or water; and (3) the local secondary structure. Based on these parameters, each residue position is categorized into an environment class. In this manner, a three-dimensional protein structure is converted into a one-dimensional environment string, which represents the environment class of each residue in the folded protein structure. A 3D structure profile table is then created containing score values that represent the frequency of finding any of the 20 common amino acids structures at each position of the environment string. These frequencies are determined from a database of known protein structures and aligned sequences. The method determines the most favorable alignment of a target protein sequence to the residue positions defined by the environment string by calculating a "best fit" alignment score for the target sequence.
The above method has been successful in associating protein folds with compatible sequences in some particular cases and in other cases has performed poorly. Thus, the method is not reliable enough for widespread application. Accordingly, it would be desirable to develop a method that has a higher assurance of predicting the protein structure of a sequence having an unknown protein structure.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and system that predicts the three-dimensional protein structure that an amino acid sequence folds into.
It is another object of the present invention to utilize structural information inherent in a family of aligned amino acid residue sequences in order to predict the protein structure of a residue sequence of unknown structure.
It is another object of the present invention to utilize residue variability information inherent within homologous protein sequences for protein structure prediction.
Another object of the present invention is to model protein structures as a simplified structural environmental-sequence for use in protein structure prediction.
It is a further object of the present invention to model known protein structures as a one-dimensional environmental string utilizing structural characteristics of the amino acid residues with respect to each residue's degree of exposure within the structure.

System and method for determining three-dimensional structure of protein sequences


A method of selectively displaying maps on a mobile device. The method sends a map application, which had been displaying a first map, to the background. The method then returns the map application to the foreground. The method then determines whether to redisplay the previous map or display a map surrounding the then current location of the device. The determination is based on various factors including user interaction, time that the map application has been in the background and distance traveled while the map application is in the background.

In some presently existing applications that run on devices (e.g., on mobile devices), a user can leave an application running in the background (or close it) and come back to it later. Some applications maintain the state that they were in when the user moved them to the background (or closed them). For such applications, returning the application to the foreground (or reopening it) causes the application to re-display whatever it had previously been displaying. Other applications update the information on which their displays are based while running in the background or shortly after returning to the foreground (or being reopened). Some such applications display the updated information when the user returns them to the foreground or turns them back on.

Intelligent adjustment of map viewports at launch