A gaming apparatus and method of conducting a wagering game are disclosed. The wagering game includes a basic game and a bonus game triggered by the basic game. The apparatus tracks a number of the basic games played since a predetermined event, and alters a probability of triggering the bonus game based on the tracked number.

Gaming machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing machines and the expectation of winning each machine is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are most likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting of the machines. Shrewd operators consequently strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines available because such machines attract frequent play and hence increase profitability to the operator. Accordingly, in the competitive gaming machine industry, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to produce new types of games, or enhancements to existing games that will attract frequent play by increasing the entertainment value and excitement associated with the game.
To meet the increasing expectations of players, gaming machines are becoming more sophisticated. New techniques and technologies must continue to be introduced to survive or excel in an extremely competitive market.
Traditional video slot machines have evolved into a more robust entertainment offering, providing players with bonus rounds to enhance the basic slot game. As players patronize these new games, more and more rely on bonus rounds as their main method of entertainment and, in many cases, a primary method of return during play. With increasing regularity, many players determine a slot game's value based on the entertainment of the bonus round(s) as well as the perceived frequency of bonus play. This trend will likely continue to grow as improved technologies allow gaming machine manufacturers the ability to produce more exciting and entertaining offerings, especially in bonus games.
As stated above, the perceived frequency at which a bonus game is triggered is becoming a critical factor in determining the value and popularity of many video slot machines. Many excellent games have caused the loss of a player's initial enthusiasm to participate because a bonus round failed to trigger, or triggered infrequently during basic reel play. For example, a game that is programmed to randomly trigger a bonus an average of once within 100 wagers can experience a span of nearly 200 wagers before another bonus round is initiated (one bonus near the beginning of the first 100 wagers and one bonus near the end of the second 100 wagers). Because this is a random event, a longer period between bonus rounds is possible. If this, or a frequency near this occurs often but still within the boundaries of the game's configuration, the player's perception may turn negative towards the game, thus reducing the number of potential return players and, subsequently, the number of plays.
A method of automatically increasing the probability of triggering a bonus game as the number of basic slot games increases since the last bonus game, and displaying the increased likelihood to the player in an entertaining manner, would help alleviate negative perceptions of slot games that players believe rely on bonus rounds as a main form of entertainment and return.

Gaming machine with feature triggering scheme


Techniques for avoiding false negative sense (NSN) detection in a flyback AC-DC converter are described herein. In an example embodiment, a secondary side controller of the AC-DC converter comprises a frequency detector, a negative sense detector, and control logic. The frequency detector is configured to determine a frequency of an input signal from the drain node of a synchronous rectifier (SR) circuit on the secondary side of the AC-DC converter. The negative sense detector is configured to determine a negative voltage of the input signal. The control logic is configured to: enable the negative sense detector, when the frequency of the input signal rises above a frequency threshold value; and turn on the SR circuit to transfer power to the secondary side of the AC-DC converter, when the negative voltage of the input signal falls below a voltage threshold value.

AC-DC converters convert power from an alternating current (AC) source to a direct current (DC) at a specified voltage level. Generally, an AC-DC converter transfers power from an AC input coupled to a primary side of a transformer to a DC output coupled to a secondary side of the transformer. Some AC-DC converters operate in Discontinuous Conduction Mode (DCM). In a DCM mode, a converter stores power in its transformer during an on-cycle of the primary (e.g., AC) side, while the secondary (e.g., DC) side is off; the converter transfers the stored power during the following on-cycle of the secondary side, while the primary side is off.
A major problem for converters operating in DCM mode is false negative sense (NSN) detection. False NSN detection happens when resonant ringing on the primary side of the converter is wrongly interpreted by the secondary side controller as a signal to turn on the secondary PS-FET to transfer of power to the secondary side. However, if the secondary side is turned on while the primary side is still on, then cross-conduction may cause very high secondary-side current that can cause breakdown of secondary-side transistors and diodes. Conventionally, blanking time (e.g., blanking NSN detection for a certain time interval) may be used as a solution to this problem. Blanking time, however, may not solve the problem completely and decreases the efficiency of the converter due to unnecessary and untimely turn-on of the secondary side since power would be transferred through the rectifier diode instead of the secondary PS-FET during such blanking time thereby causing power loss.

Avoiding false NSN detection in flyback converters


A color contrast enhancing lens made from adhering two different lenses and a membrane together. It includes a color enhancing lens whose specific component will selectively absorb the yellow light in the visible spectrum, which enhances the user vision by enhancing the distinction between red and green. It also includes an ultraviolet blocking lens whose special compounds will absorb the majority of violet light and a part of blue light. It also includes a light polarization membrane whose special structure can reduce strong light. It can also absorb the majority of violet light and keep a low transmission rate of blue light, thus reduced the retina injury caused by overexposure to blue light. It can also block the invisible ultraviolet and reduce strong light. So while the users' eyes are protected, they can also enjoy their view.

Color contrast enhancing lenses are made from putting different glass lenses together by using glue. Different lenses have different function and component. Thus the combined lenses can enhance color contrast, block ultra violet, and reduce reflection and blue light. In the current technology field there are many similar color contrast enhancing lenses. Most of them can block ultraviolet and reduce some strong light. But when coming to enhancing color contrast, since the component compounds are different, they do not have the ability to absorb the blue and yellow wavelength in the spectrum. Thus while there is no improvement in distinguishing red and green, it is also possible to hurt the retina because of the blue light exposure. Besides, the lens of similar type does not have good ultraviolet blocking. Thus the users' eyes are not effectively protected.


An insert having opposed permanent magnets is placed between upper and lower portions of a shoe sole to soften impacts and improve propulsion. The upper and lower sole portions are interconnected by tongue-and-groove connections. An magnetic spring insert for the heel of a shoe is also disclosed.

This invention relates generally to footwear and is particularly concerned with shoes or boots having shock absorbing or cushioning properties.
Numerous shoe and other footwear designs have been proposed in the past for absorbing shock and adding lift, particularly in the athletic shoe field. U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,304 describes footwear with a cushioning sole structure in which a sealed internal member in the sole is inflated with gas to form a resilient insert in the heel region of the shoe. Various shoe structures have been proposed in the past in which springs are embedded in the shoe sole in the heel region or over the entire sole. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,502,901, 5,138,776, 4,566,206, and 4,592,153. Some of these structures are relatively bulky and heavy, or cannot effectively be manufactured.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A process for coating a moving length of sheet metal is disclosed that includes the steps of 1) cleaning the moving length of sheet metal to remove surface contaminants that may interfere with the coating adhering to the sheet metal; 2) applying an electron beam curable coating to the moving length of sheet metal; and, 3) exposing the coating on the moving length of sheet metal to an electron beam to cure the coating, the cleaning, coating and curing resulting in no emission of pollutants that need to be removed before the emission is released into the atmosphere.

This invention is directed to the field of coating sheet metal and more particularly, to a process for coating sheet metal that does not result in the emission of pollutants that need to be removed before the emission is released into the atmosphere.
The traditional method of coating sheet metal is to apply a solvent or water-based coating to the sheet metal, and then move the sheet metal through an oven to cure the coating. The curing is accomplished by heating the sheet metal and the coating to a temperature at which the solvent or water in the coating is evaporated and at which the coating itself is not harmed. To obtain a uniform coating and for greatest efficiency and lowest cost, the curing is a continuous process in which 1) the oven needs to be maintained at a constant temperature, 2) the sheet metal needs to be continuous and 3) the sheet metal needs to be moved through the oven at a constant rate of speed. A typical rate is 200 to 400 feet per minute.
To meet the requirement that the sheet metal be continuous, two pay off coils of sheet metal and a welder/joiner are typically provided. The sheet metal is advanced from one of the pay off coils, and when the end of that coil is reached, it is welded to the beginning of the second pay off coil. Then, as sheet metal is advanced from the second coil, the exhausted first coil is replaced. In addition, after the coating on the sheet metal is cured, the sheet metal needs to be re-coiled. To accomplish this, a shear and two re-coil mechanisms are typically provided. The continuously moving sheet metal is wound on a first re-coil mechanism, and when the desired coil size is reached, the sheet metal is cut by the shear. The sheet metal is then wound on the second re-coil mechanism while the coil on the first re-coil mechanism is removed.
Both the welding/joining operation at the beginning of the process and the shearing operation at the end of the process require interruption of the movement of the sheet metal. Therefore, to satisfy the requirement that the sheet metal move through the oven at a constant rate of speed, it is necessary that a first excess length of sheet metal be provided after the welder/joiner. This excess length of sheet metal is fed into the process during the time that the welding/joining operation is taking place and no sheet metal is being advanced from one of the pay off coils. It is apparent that even at the modest rate of speed of 200 to 400 feet per minute, allowing for the worst case interruption requires that the excess length of sheet metal be substantial.
This excess length of sheet metal is provided by apparatus referred to as an accumulator. This accumulator is typically a tower within which the excess sheet metal is vertically looped back and forth on itself in serpentine fashion. The ends of the loops are wrapped around rollers that move toward one another to shorten the loops when excess length is being used to replace the sheet metal not being provided by a pay off coil. Once the welding/joining operation is completed, the rollers move away from one another as the desired excess length is restored in the accumulator.
A second accumulator needs to be provided before the shear and re-coil mechanisms. This is because the sheet metal is continuously moving out of the oven at the constant rate of speed. During the time when the winding of the sheet metal is being transferred from one of the re-coil mechanisms to the other, the sheet metal needs to be accumulated. In the second accumulator, the length of the loops are increased when no re-coil mechanism is in operation and decreased when a re-coil mechanism is in operation.
The oven used in the traditional method needs to be of considerable length in order to effect complete curing of the coating applied to the sheet metal. A length of 100 feet for sheet metal of 0.050 thickness moving at a rate of 200 to 400 feet per minute is appropriate. Of course, the length of the oven needs to be increased if the thickness of the sheet metal and/or the rate at which the sheet metal moves through the oven is increased.
Prior to the coating being applied to the sheet metal, the sheet metal needs to be cleaned to remove contaminants that may interfere with the coating adhering to the sheet metal and pretreated to promote adhesion of the coating to the sheet metal. In the traditional method the materials used in the cleaning of the sheet metal contain pollutants in the form of volatile organic compounds that are emitted during the cleaning operation. In addition, the materials used in the pretreating of the sheet metal may also contain such pollutants. These pollutants need to be removed before the emissions can be released to the atmosphere.
Similarly, the coating used in the traditional method contain volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants that are emitted during the curing operation. Again, these pollutants need to be removed before the emissions can be released to the atmosphere. It is, therefore, necessary in the traditional method to have in place pollution control equipment that removes these pollutants from the emissions exhausted from the cleaning operation, the pretreating operation, and the curing operation.
It is seen from the above that the traditional method for coating sheet metal has many deficiencies. First, it requires large amounts of equipment and a building of substantial size to house the equipment. Thus, it requires a significant investment of capital. Second, without a substantial increase in capital investment, it is a relatively low speed process. Third, it only lends itself to long runs. A coating line needs to operate around the clock for days or weeks once coating of sheet metal with a coating of a particular color has begun. Fourth, because of this and the many pieces of equipment involved in this process, the cost of operation and maintenance is significant. Last, and most importantly, it requires the installation of pollution control equipment to prevent pollution of the atmosphere.
The sheet metal coating process, in accordance with the present invention, provides very significant advantages over the traditional coating method.
The process, in accordance with the present invention, uses an electron beam curable coating rather than a heat curable coating. Consequently, the curing oven is eliminated along with the need to have a continuous length of sheet metal moving at a constant rate of speed. As a result, the second pay off mechanism, the two accumulator towers, and the second re-coil mechanism are all unnecessary. If individual sheets rather than a coil is being coated, then the welder/joiner and shear can also be eliminated. The equipment necessary to carry out the sheet metal coating process in accordance with the present invention is, therefore, far less costly than that required for the traditional method. In addition, because there is less equipment than in the traditional method, the cost of operating and maintaining the equipment is also reduced.
Another advantage of the coating process in accordance with the present invention is the rate of speed at which the sheet metal can be coated. Without increasing the cost of the equipment from that stated above, the sheet metal can be coated and cured at a rate of speed of 600 to 800 feet per minute. To provide this same rate with the traditional method would result in the equipment cost almost doubling.
Still another advantage of the coating process in accordance with the present invention is that it can accommodate not only long production runs, but also short ones. With the coating used in the traditional method, the coating cures even at ambient temperatures. The coating used in the present invention, on the other hand, only cures when it is exposed to an electron beam. Thus the system can be purged, the coating recovered, and the equipment that applies the coating to the sheet metal readily cleaned. Consequently a single coil can provide a continuous length of sheet metal and the movement of the sheet metal can be interrupted. The process in accordance with the present invention can, therefore, be used to do short custom runs. It can also be used to provide coated sheet metal in small batches on a just-in-time basis. This allows the purchaser to reduce their inventory and save money.
Most importantly, the coating process of the present invention is environmentally friendly in that it does not result in the emission of pollutants. The term xe2x80x9cpollutantxe2x80x9d as used in this patent is defined to mean anything characterized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an air pollutant that exceeds limits established by the EPA.
The cleaning of the sheet metal to remove contaminants, in accordance with one embodiment of this invention, is accomplished ultrasonically. This is a water based, rather than solvent based, technology, and biodegradable aqueous detergents are available as an additive to the water washing solution. Following the washing of the sheet metal, it is given a clean water rinse and then dried. This cleaning operation does not result in the emission of pollutants. Another example of a non-solvent based cleaning technology is high turbulence circular flow nozzles which apply a water based cleaning solution to the sheet metal.
Pretreatment of the sheet metal is typically performed to promote adhesion of the coating to the sheet metal, and in accordance with one embodiment of this invention, the pretreatment is accomplished using a water based, rather than a solvent based, pretreatment solution that does not emit pollutants.
Pretreatment solutions when dried may also improve corrosion resistance . But where corrosion resistance is important to the product in which the coated sheet metal is to be used, a primer may be applied to the sheet metal subsequent to the pretreatment of the sheet metal. While the primary function of the primer is to enhance corrosion resistance, in some cases it also enhances adhesion of the coating to the sheet metal. Consequently, in some applications the primer may be used in place of the pretreatment. The primer in accordance with the present invention is either water based or electron beam curable.
Finally, it has been found that some electron beam curable top coatings have sufficient adherence directly to the cleaned sheet metal that for some applications no pretreatment or primer need be applied.
Coating of the sheet metal is accomplished using electron beam technology rather than an oven which cures the coating by evaporating the liquid in the coating. During the electron beam processing, molecules in the coating are irradiated with electrons and the coating is transformed into a solid through the process of polymerization and crosslinking. The transformation of the coating into a solid is virtually instantaneous and produces no emissions.
Thus, it is seen that the cleaning, pretreating and/or priming of the sheet metal and the curing of the coating does not result in the emission of pollutants that need to be removed before the emission is released to the atmosphere.

Process for applying a coating to sheet metal


There is provided a recoil shock device capable of obtaining the same recoil shock as that in a case where the weight of a piston is increased, without increasing the weight of the piston by separately providing a movable part and a weight of a piston/cylinder. There is also provided a recoil shock device capable of obtaining a recoil shock similar to that in a real gun, without damaging the outer appearance of a gun. In order to drive a weight to obtain imitated recoil, i.e., a recoil shock by operation of a movable part in a piston/cylinder which generates compressed air, a communicating part 31 which is moved in its retreating direction by the movable part 13 is provided, and a recoil spring 35 which receives a force transmitted to the weight 33 via the communicating part 31 by the movable part 13 so as to be in a compressed state is provided. A reaction that accompanies movement of the weight 33 when the recoil spring 35 is compressed and the recoil spring 35 is then extended by its resilient force is transmitted to a main body 37 of the gun.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device capable of obtaining simulated recoil by driving a weight by operation of a movable part in a piston/cylinder unit which generates compressed air.
2. Description of Related Art
Similar to real guns which generate recoil at the time of firing of bullets; attempts to reproduce imitated recoil (recoil shock) in toy guns have conventionally been performed. As recoil imparting methods that appear in toy guns which are put on the market, there is a method capable of obtaining shock by making a weight heavy to obtain shock in a toy gun having a piston/cylinder which generates compressed air. Therefore, it is necessary to make the weight heavy in obtaining sufficient shock. If the weight is made heavy, a need for strengthening a piston spring arises in order to avoid a reduction in the speed of bullets. Strengthening the piston spring increases the load of cocking a piston pump. Consequently, there is a problem in that a cylinder head, the piston itself, an operating mechanism, etc. may be damaged due to impact at the time of advance of the piston, and thereby the durability of the guns may deteriorate remarkably.
Among patent documents which have been filed, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-88494 discloses an arrangement in which an operation of pulling a trigger causes a piston rod to protrude which in turn causes a movable shoulder rest to protrude rearward which imparts a shock to a shooter's shoulder. However, this arrangement has a disadvantage that a mechanism, not provided in a real gun, which makes the shoulder rest movable, should be provided. Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-89661 discloses an arrangement in which a slider cover is driven by a solenoid which interlocks with operation of a trigger, thereby imparting recoil. However, this arrangement is not suitable for a rifle-type gun with no slider mechanism. Moreover, Japanese Utility Model Registration Laid-Open No. 6-22793 discloses an arrangement in which an air chamber is pushed to generate pressure by using an impact generated rearward by a spring and a weight along a gun barrel, and this pressure causes bullets of an air gun to be fired. However, this arrangement, which is a special one that impact precedes, firing, is not a general one.


Accurate measurement of a signal at extremely high data rates such as OC192 is accomplished, to provide a high dynamic range. A data receiver comprises a limiting amplifier comprising a plurality of amplifier stages. A peak detector measures a voltage level of an input to the limiting amplifier. An input to the peak detector is connected directly to an input of a first stage of the limiting amplifier. Transmission lines used between the input to the peak detector and the input of the first stage of the limiting amplifier are impedance matched such that the peak detector appears as a load with insignificant capacitance with respect to the extremely high data rate of a signal on the input. Also, a same bias is provided to both the input stage of the limiting amplifier as well as to the peak detector.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the design and use of a peak detection circuit for use at extremely high data rates, e.g., at OC48 (2.5 Gb/s) and OC192 (10 Gb/s) data rates.
2. Background of Related Art
It is often desired to measure the input signal level in a system. However, direct measurement of an input signal becomes difficult in a system receiving a signal having an extremely high data rate, such as those referred to as OC48 data rates (approximately 2.5 Gigabits per second (2.5 Gb/s) and OC192 data rates (9.9582 Gb/s, or approximately 10 Gb/s). This is because sensitivity of the input line, particularly to added parasitics, may otherwise cause difficulty in detection of the underlying signal. This reduced sensitivity which results from the added parasitics is a deleterious effect because of a more difficult impedance matching problem that needs to be overcome. This problem is minimized by generating the bias voltages for both the input of the peak detector circuit and the input of the 1st amplifier stage simultaneously. This circuitry used to generate this voltage is therefore minimal in component count and as a result reduces the amount of parasitics attached to the critical input nodes.
Conventionally, to measure the input signal level of such high data rate systems, the input signal is measured after a first or second stage of a limiting amplifier. A limiting amplifier is an amplifier that has a very high gain, e.g., amplifying a very low signal such as 1-2 mV peak-to-peak signal, into a much larger signal, such as a 500 mV peak-to-peak signal. A limiting amplifier is known as a 'limiting' amplifier because of the occurrence of saturation at the output. With the very high gain, the input signal is boosted to a useable level, but the output may be clamped, or limited due to saturation.
The first or second stages of the limiting amplifier provide a buffer between the input signal and a peak detection circuit used to measure the input. Thus, conventional attempts at a peak detection circuit of an input of a limiting amplifier used at extremely high data rates such as OC192 or OC48 measure the input signal at a node down the signal stream, i.e., after at least one or more stages of gain have occurred. This is shown in FIG. 6. For example if a peak detector has a dynamic range of 1 volt and a voltage gain of 10 precedes the peak detector, the input dynamic range is only 0.1 volt.
The present inventor has appreciated that measurement of an input signal at a node down the signal stream limits the dynamic range of the peak detector, resulting in a smaller dynamic range than the actual range of the input signal.
There is a need for a peak detection architecture and method having a larger dynamic range, for use at extremely high data rates, such as OC48, OC192 and above.

OC192 peak detect circuit having low parasitics, high dynamic range and high sensitivity


A radio communication system between a mobile station on a vehicle and a stationary station in which a uniform field intensity is obtained in a direction of a width of a road so that a good communication can be performed irrespective of a position of the vehicle on the road. A mobile station is provided on the vehicle. A stationary station communicating with the mobile station includes at least one pair of antennas located with the road therebetween so that the antennas generate an electric field having a substantially uniform intensity in a direction of a width of the road.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a radio communication system for a mobile station and, more particularly, to a radio communication system between a vehicle moving on a road and a stationary station having an antenna located along the road.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, radio communication systems have been developed to provide communication between a mobile station provided on a vehicle moving on a road and a stationary station provided with an antenna installed along the road. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 61-262326 discloses a radio communication system for a vehicle moving on a road. This radio communication system comprises a mobile station having a loop antenna provided on the vehicle and a stationary station having a loop antenna installed along the road. In this radio communication system, the axis of one of the loop antennas of the mobile station and the stationary station is parallel to the surface of the road, and the axis of the other of the loop antennas is perpendicular to the surface of the road. This arrangement of the loop antennas is determined so as to eliminate a dead zone formed between the fields formed by the loop antennas which is harmful to the radio communication.
In the conventional system, the loop antenna of the stationary station is located on one of the sides of the road. Thus, there is a problem in that a uniform field intensity cannot be obtained over the entire width of the road since the field intensity rapidly attenuates as a distance from the loop antenna of the stationary station is increased.
An AM radio antenna system provided in a highway tunnel comprises, as shown in FIG. 1, parallel antennas 10 and 11 which are provided on the ceiling of the tunnel. In this system, a uniform field intensity can be obtained along the moving direction of the mobile station or the longitudinal direction of the road. However, there is a problem in that the field intensity measured in a vertical direction or in a traverse direction greatly changes depending on a distance from the antennas 10 and 11 and a position relative to the antennas 10 and 11. Additionally, if an antenna of this type is constructed outside a tunnel, a construction of the antenna system becomes large since the antennas 10 and 11 must be located above the road. This results in an increase in a construction cost of the antenna system.
Another conventional antenna system is a leakage cable system used for, for example, a train railway as shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, a leakage cable 14 runs along one of the sides of the pair of rails 12 and 13. In this system, there also be a problem in that a uniform field intensity cannot be obtained in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the leakage cable 14 since a field intensity decreases as a distance from the leakage cable 14 is increased. Additionally, the leakage cable 14 is expensive.

Radio communication system between a vehicle and a roadside station


An apparatus and a hybrid method for recognizing answer type are disclosed. The apparatus includes: a morpheme analyzer for analyzing morphemes of an input text; a syllabic answer type recognizer for extracting a predetermined size syllable from a morpheme list and recognizing an answer type based on the extracted syllable; a vocabulary feature recognizer for allocating feature to each morpheme and recognizing the feature; a vocabulary feature disambiguation unit for disambiguating vocabulary feature ambiguity of morphemes having more than one feature; a pattern rule answer type recognizer for recognizing an answer type by comparing a consecutive sequence of the morphemes and a consecutive sequence of constitutional features connected to the morphemes with a pre-constructed pattern rules; a statistic answer type recognizer for recognizing an answer type by implementing a statistic model; and an answer type sub-category recognizer for recognizing a sub-category of the recognized answer type classified to general category.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hybrid apparatus for recognizing answer type, and more particularly, to a hybrid model and method for recognizing answer types in order to recognize a Korean answer type.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a named entity recognition scheme extracts core information from a text and it is a necessary function to be included in a question and answer system or a text mining system. Particularly, a named entity recognizer is a major module of a FLACON's question and answer system or an IBM's question and answer system for recognizing an answer type. That is, the named entity recognizer recognizes the answer type and generates correct answer in the question and answer system. Although the answer type is not exactly matched with a recognized named entity, the named entity recognition scheme can be used for recognizing the answer type. The answer type for the question and answer system requires more categories than the named entity recognition.
The named entity recognition scheme has been technologies. Statistical approaching methods are generally used as the named entity recognition scheme and among the statically approaching methods, a hidden markov model (HMM) or a maximum-entropy (ME) have been widely used. In the HMM or the ME, a named entity type is allocated to target vocabulary based on a history information. For English, a Bikel shows 90% of F-measure by using a simple vocabulary feature and a Zhou introduces a HMM based named entity recognition method using complex features and it has 93.4% of F-measure.
A Srihari's model is one of representative model for a hybrid method as a sub categorized named entity recognition. In the Srihari's model, a named entity is recognized by using the ME model, the HMM model and a grammar model generated by manual work. And the Srihari's model also introduces the sub categorized recognition method by using the ME model. However, a pattern rule is constructed based on manual work and it has been introduced a sub categorized recognition scheme using an external dictionary information instead of using a named entity tagged corpus.
A conventional hybrid approach has been used for recognizing a Korean named entity by using a ME model, a neural network and a pattern selection rule. The hybrid method shows 84.09% as F-measure when the named entity type is person, place and organization. Considering a performance of Korean named entity recognition it is lower than the performance of English named entity recognition. It is because there is no capital letter feature of a proper noun in Korean. The English includes the capital letter feature in a proper noun. In the view of no capital letter feature in Korean, the conventional research may be adaptable. However, the conventional hybrid method is a test based study using simple named entities as target entities and there is no method introduced for recognizing mess amount of answer types.

Hybrid apparatus for recognizing answer type

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A thermosetting-resin-based coating that is capable of forming a substantially flame-resistant barrier upon being exposed to heat. The coating includes a thermoset resin, an acid catalyst having a pKa value of less than 2, a filler selected from glass, mica, talc, perlite, vermiculite and combinations thereof, and an organic-intumescent material. The thermoset coating is at least 75% of the total weight of the coating.

Thermoplastic polymers are used in a wide variety of applications. For example, many office enclosures and office partitions use thermoplastic trim in place of wood and metal. Also, conventional-office-panel systems include a thermoplastic portion or raceway holding wires such as electrical, computer and telephone wires. Because thermoplastics are high polymers that tend to soften and melt when exposed to heat, their use can be problematic, particularly in the event of a fire.
More particularly, when thermoplastic components are incorporated into an office enclosure or office partition and exposed to extreme heat, these components tend to burn, sag and burn-through. In turn, other components that are normally concealed by the thermoplastics, e.g. electrical wiring and other flammable items, can be exposed to flames. The results can be catastrophic. Further, burning thermoplastics tend to generate excessive amounts of smoke. Together the flames and smoke emanating from burning thermoplastics can pose significant health hazards to people in close proximity and make it difficult for such people to flee an internal fire. Potentially, the burn-through susceptibility of thermoplastics can cause severe structural damage and even death.
As a result, coatings that can be applied to thermoplastics and other flammable substrates to achieve flame-resistant and heat-resistant effects, while also reducing smoke emanating therefrom, are desired.


The invention relates to a side wall (1) of a plant for the continuous casting of metal strip (5) between two counter-rotating rolls (2, 2′) having horizontal axes and being internally cooled, the surfaces of which define a casting space confined laterally by two side walls (1) made of refractory, of the type comprising:                a support plate (6) on the front face of which a recess (7) is made;        an insert (9) made of hard material placed around the periphery of the recess (7);        a lining (11) that fills the remainder of the recess (7);characterized in that the front face (12), turned towards the casting space, of the said lining (11) is set back by a maximum distance (d) from the front face (13) of the insert (9) over at least part of its length.

Thin metal strip a few mm in thickness may be cast directly from liquid metal (steel or copper, for example) on a plant referred to as a "twin-roll casting" plant fed with liquid metal from a tundish by means of a pouring nozzle. The machine includes a mould, the casting space of which is defined along its long sides by a pair of internally cooled cylinders with parallel horizontal axes and rotating about these axes in opposite directions, and along its short sides by closure plates (called side walls) made of refractory, these being applied against the plane ends of the rolls. The liquid metal must solidify only on the cooled cylindrical surfaces of the rolls, by forming solidified shells that join up in the nip (the region where the distance between the surfaces of the rolls is a minimum) in order to form the strip, which is continuously extracted from the casting space.
In practice, it is difficult, however, always to avoid the appearance of solidification referred to as "spurious solidification", that is to say solidified metal layers that are created in certain regions of the side walls. They are due to the fact that the liquid metal neighbouring these regions may be at a temperature substantially below its nominal temperature and therefore liable to solidify locally on contact with the side walls. This low temperature may be due to unfavourable hydrodynamic conditions which do not allow the liquid metal in these regions to be sufficiently replenished, or at an insufficient temperature of the side walls due to poor preheating before casting. Of course, several of these factors may combine. When the solid metal resulting from this spurious solidification is entrained into the bottom of the casting space, it must pass between the rolls, creating a thickness of metal which is added to the normal thickness of the product. It follows that the rolls must momentarily absorb an additional load which forces them to temporarily move apart, in order to avoid damaging them. The quality of the strip is unfavourably affected thereby. It is also possible to have the side wall pushed away, with the risks of a loss of sealing of the casting space that are associated therewith.
Usually, it is attempted to limit the appearance of spurious solidification by adopting particular pouring nozzle configurations. The aim of these is to impose on the liquid metal in the casting space flow conditions that are assumed to ensure continuous replenishment of the metal facing the regions where the spurious solidification is most likely to occur, for example by bringing liquid metal leaving the nozzle directly into proximity with these regions. However, this may result in a lack of liquid metal feed in the other parts of the casting space.
Another method consists in always heating the side walls during casting, by means of burners or induction furnaces, or even also induction heating the metal lying near them. However, this results in complications in the construction of the side wall and in managing its operation.
Another method consists in varying the composition of the refractories of the side wall by placing, so as to face the casting space, fibrous refractories based on silica, alumina or other oxides having highly insulating properties. These highly insulating refractories can extract from the liquid metal only a relatively small amount of heat and thus limit the risk of spurious solidification. However, they have a low hardness and therefore withstand poorly the friction against the rolls, and also against the solidified metal or metal undergoing solidification in the vicinity of the nip. This is why, in the regions of the side wall that flank their arcs of contact with the edges of the rolls and in the regions that face the lower part of the casting space, the aforementioned insulating refractory of the inserts is substituted with a material having less insulating power but higher hardness, namely various ceramics, boron nitride, SiAlON®, etc.
However, this solution is not entirely satisfactory as heat transfer between the hard refractory and the insulating refractory occurs in their contact region, resulting in localized cooling of the insulating refractory. This may be sufficient to initiate spurious solidification.
The object of the invention is to provide a side wall designed for the twin-roll casting of thin strip that limits the appearance of spurious solidification better than the existing designs.

Lateral face of an installation used for the twin-roll continuous casting of metal bands

Voest-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau GmbH & Co.


Techniques are provided for computing with private healthcare data. The techniques include a method comprising constructing an isolated memory partition that forms a secure enclave and pre-provisioning software within the secure enclave. The pre-provisioned software is configured to receive at least one of input data or the instructions for the one or more application computing processes in an encrypted form; decrypt the at least one of input data or instructions using one or more cryptographic keys; execute the one or more application computing processes based on the decrypted at least one of input data or instructions to generate output data; generate a proof of execution that indicates that the one or more application computing processes operated on the received input data; encrypt the output data using the one or more cryptographic keys; and provide external access to the encrypted output data and the proof of execution.

Hospitals, healthcare providers and care givers collect large amounts of data from patients. It is a necessary part of the processes by which healthcare is provided to members of the public. Typically, a patient provides data to the care giver as a part of receiving treatment for his/her ailments. This data is stored by the care giver and may be used later, inter alia, for research purposes. In another typical scenario data may be collected from consumers via one or more devices, e.g., pulse oximeter, glucose monitor, smart watch, fitness bracelet, etc. In such use cases, the collected data is often used to analyze a patient's health in a continuous manner or over a period of time. Consequently, huge amounts of patient information may be accumulated by service providers.
Many aspects of patient data collected by care givers and service providers may be subject to privacy regulations. The usefulness and benefit of processing data collected from patients is clear and acknowledged by the public. However, there is a growing concern of maintaining the privacy of user data, particularly when the data can be used to identify the patient. Such concerns are the basis of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations initially passed in 1996 by the US Congress. Many other countries have also promulgated similar regulations and legislations. Generally, HIPAA and other regulations limit the release of personal information that may result in identification of members of the public or details of their physical attributes or biometric data.
There is thus a need to enable biomedical (and other types of) data to be analyzed by computational processes under the constraint of maintaining the privacy of the individual patient or consumer. Such a system and methods will consequently be of great commercial, social and scientific benefit to society.
Various objectives, features, and advantages of the disclosed subject matter can be more fully appreciated with reference to the following detailed description of the disclosed subject matter when considered in connection with the following drawings, in which like reference numerals identify like elements.

Systems and methods for computing with private healthcare data


Systems and methods associated with a constant variance filter are described. One system embodiment includes a memory to store a spatially dependent filtered data set having a first degree of homogeneity. The system embodiment may also include a filter logic to produce a data set having a second degree of homogeneity by filtering the spatially dependent filtered data set. The second degree of homogeneity may be greater than the first degree of homogeneity and may indicate spatial independence.

Similarity measures (e.g., mutual information) used in intensity based registration suffer from a scalloping artifact that gives rise to local maxima. Scalloping occurs due to noise reduction filtering that occurs when image samples are interpolated. At certain scales there may also be fluctuations in the similarity surface due to interpolation of the signal and to sampling of a continuous, band-limited image signal. This phenomenon can even bias global maxima, leading to inaccurate registrations. The phenomenon is seen when an image is registered onto itself with different noise realizations but is absent when the same noise realization is present in both images.
Registration of two medical data sets is a common task in medical imaging. One floating image or volume is spatially transformed to match a reference image or volume. In intensity-based registration, a transformation that optimizes a similarity measure is found. The similarity measure quantifies the alignment of two data sets. Various optimization algorithms are used to maximize similarity measures including mutual information, cross-correlation, and so on. Registration includes interpolating a reference image at locations corresponding to locations in the newly transformed floating image. Linear interpolation is often chosen for simplicity and speed.
Intensity based registration methods involve finding an optimal transformation, which in turn involves optimizing a similarity measure that quantifies the alignment of the two data sets. Intensity based registration method similarity measures suffer from a scalloping artifact in the similarity surface. This artifact produces local maxima. The artifacts induced by linear interpolation are caused by a partial volume effect and uneven filtering. Interpolation methods induce uneven data filtering and affect variance. Examining noise effects illustrates that noise variance is not spatially constant following interpolation.
Medical imaging may involve registering two medical data sets. The images and/or volumes may be magnetic resonance images (MRI). The images may be acquired by different modalities, for example, magnetic resonance (MR) and computed tomography (CT). The images and/or volumes may also be provided, for example, from contrast enhanced MRI, functional MRI, and so on. Registration may also be performed outside the medical imaging field, (e.g., satellite imaging, spatial imaging, applications where images are tiled). Thus, undesired results associated with interpolation and registration may also occur in these fields.
Registration involves trying to line up two images. If the two images line up exactly, then interpolation may not be required. If the two images are misaligned by an integral amount (e.g., one pixel) then interpolation may also not be required since a simple shift can be made. However, when the two images do not line up exactly and are not misaligned by an integral amount, then one image may have to be moved by a non-integral amount (e.g., half a pixel). In this case, an estimation of a value may have to be made. In one case, the estimation may be made by a linear interpolation, which may average the values found at a number of (e.g. two) neighboring grid locations in the image to be moved. If a registration transformation involves rotation, then some pixels (e.g., those that fall on a grid) of an image may not require interpolation while other pixels (e.g., those that fall between the grid) may require interpolation. Thus, some parts of the image may be filtered and some other parts may be unchanged. This phenomenon may also occur in non-rigid registration where some parts of an image are transformed differently than some other parts.
Interpolation is a form of a spatially dependent filter. In a spatially dependent filter, if a point falls on a grid, it is filtered one way while if the point does not fall on a grid it is filtered another way. This spatial dependence may lead to the undesired effects described above.


The present invention relates to a method for adjusting handover parameters (TTT; OFF) used for handover detection within a given serving cell (CS). In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the method comprises, for respective ones of a plurality of mobile stations (UE1 . . . UEN) served by the serving cell, gathering measurement samples (M(i,CS,k); M(i,CN,k)) of the serving cell and of a respective neighboring cell (CN) carried out by a respective mobile station (UEi) at successive time instances (k), and determining delta values (Δ(i,CN,k)) indicative of the time-indexed difference between respective ones of the measurement samples of the serving cell and corresponding ones of the measurement samples of the neighboring cell. The method further comprises determining near-optimal values (TTTNO; OFFNO) for the handover parameters by statistical characterization of the ensembles of delta values for the plurality of mobile stations. The near-optimal values may be input to an iterative closed-loop optimization algorithm in order to determine optimal values (TTTO; OFFO) for the handover parameters. The present invention also relates to a handover configuration agent (150) implementing the proposed method.

Supporting mobility with steady quality is a requirement for 4th generation (4G) networks and beyond. To this end, handover is a key Radio Resource Management (RRM) technique that ensures service continuity while a user is moving across radio cells by changing attachment of a user terminal from one cell to another more suitable cell, thereby enhancing the user experience and the overall network performances (lower power consumption, lower radio interference, etc).
However, the handover procedure is performed upon triggering conditions which have to be properly configured and optimized so that target Quality of Service (Qos) and Quality of Experience (QoE) objectives are achieved.
Indeed, an efficient design and optimization of the handover procedure shall meet the following requirements:    minimizing Radio Link Failures (RLF) and call drops during handover procedures; while    minimizing the number of unnecessary handovers; and    maximizing the duration of user connection to the best cell.
To illustrate this, let's consider the two following scenarios.    A handover that is triggered too lately leads to RLF in the source cell: the user keeps attached to its serving cell while moving outside the cell radio coverage.    Conversely, a handover that is launched too early leads to erroneous decisions: useless handover decision to a new cell, and then reconnection to the original serving cell (ping-pong handovers), or erroneous selection of a new target cell.
So, it is easy to understand that it is crucial to achieve a fine-adjustment of the handover parameter values in order to trigger a handover when appropriate, and towards a properly selected target cell. When appropriate and towards a properly selected target cell means that the following trade-off between the following—and somehow contradictory—goals is met: minimizing the duration before detection, that is to say the duration between the instant of an effective change (e.g., target cell gets offset-better than current serving cell) and the decision to trigger a handover, while minimizing false handover alarms (i.e., erroneous handover decisions).
In 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard development, the Mobility Robustness Optimization (MRO) feature aims at first detecting and counting RLFs due to handovers, then to find solutions to reduce handover performances degradation.
MRO distinguishes three handover failure cases:    [Too Late HO] A connection failure occurs in the source cell before the handover was initiated, or during a handover; the User Equipment (UE) attempts to re-establish the radio link connection in the target cell (if handover was initiated) or in a cell that is not the source cell (if handover was not initiated).    [Too Early HO] A connection failure occurs shortly after a successful handover from a source cell to a target cell, or during a handover; the UE attempts to re-establish the radio link connection in the source cell.    [HO to Wrong Cell] A connection failure occurs shortly after a successful handover from a source cell to a target cell or during a handover; the UE attempts to re-establish the radio link connection in a cell other than the source cell and the target cell.
In 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, handover is performed as following. The user performs periodic measurements, typically filtered Reference Signal Received Powers (RSRP) on the serving (Ms) and neighbor cells (Mn). When a given handover condition is met (typically an A3 event) for a particular neighboring cell, the UE reports its measurements to the serving cell, which eventually decides to trigger or not a handover based on the user's recommendations.
Basically, A3 event reporting by the UE is triggered if at least one neighbor cell becomes better than the serving cell by a configurable offset value. Handover reporting measurement by the UE is triggered if the condition is met for a minimal configurable duration or Time-To-Trigger (TTT).
Particularly in dense networks of small cells (but not only), it is important to reduce the time for operators to manage a wide set of cell and handover parameters in particular. It is also worthwhile to state that the automatic configuration and optimization of cell and handover parameters is a key feature for 4G networks, especially for dense networks.
We propose a solution to enable each cell, in a distributive and fully autonomous way, to jointly adjust the major handover parameters so as to achieve a near-optimal trade-off between minimizing the probability of late handover decisions (rate of Too Late HO) while minimizing the risk of false alarms (rate of Too Early HO and HO to Wrong Cell).
To the best of our knowledge, there is no solution to jointly optimize the handover parameters.
In the article entitled "A Cost-based Adaptive Handover Hysteresis Scheme to Minimize the Handover Failure Rate in 3GPP LTE System" from D-W Lee, G-T Gil and D-H Kim, and published in July 2010 in the EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, the hysteresis parameter is iteratively adjusted (increased/decreased) so as to minimize handover failure rate, accounting for neighbor cells load, the user speed or the traffic type.
In the conference paper entitled "Handover Parameter Optimization in LTE Self-Organizing Networks" from T. Jansen, I. Balan & al published in September 2010 during the IEEE 72nd Vehicular Technology Conference in Ottawa (Canada), the operating point (Hysteresis or HO Margin, Time-To-Trigger) is adjusted in an iterative way in order to minimize handover related QoS like handover failure ratio, ping-pong (oscillation) rates or call dropping rates. The adjustment path is set-up according to the experienced performances compared to target ones. Although practical, the empirical solutions lack theoretical basis for solving the trade-off introduced here above.
In the conference paper entitled "A Novel Self-optimizing Handover Mechanism for Multi-Service provisioning in LTE-Advanced" from H. Zhang, X. Wen & al published in 2009 during Research Challenges in Computer Science ICRCCS '09 conference, the authors tune hysteresis, Time-To-Trigger and filtering parameters so that the number of handovers gets close to the number of cells boundary crossings. Though novel, this approach does not rely on handover counters specified by 3GPP through MRO feature, which makes its application in real networks difficult.
In the lecture notes entitled "Distributed Self-Optimization of Handover for the Long Term Evolution" from A. Schröder, H. Lundqvist and G. Nunzi published in 2008 in Computing Science, Volume 5343/2008, p. 281-286, the authors presents a trial and error loop method to optimize one or more handover parameters.

Autonomous determination of optimal values for handover parameters


A wireless base station (11) includes a wireless communication unit (17) and a clock signal generation unit (20). The clock signal generation unit (20) includes a voltage-controlled oscillation unit (21) that outputs a clock signal of an oscillating frequency according to an inputted control voltage, a time information generation unit (22) that generates time information based on the clock signal, a time information comparison unit (23) that compares the time information with reference time information; and a control voltage instruction unit (24) that instructs a control voltage according to the comparison result to the voltage-controlled oscillation unit (21). Accordingly, the oscillating frequency of the clock signal can be kept easily and highly precisely.

A clock signal generation device applied to a mobile communication terminal has been used, in which, even if the reference frequency is shifted due to aging variation, by overwriting to update the initial parameter table with a parameter at the time of convergence by feedback control, or more specifically, a parameter corresponding to the reference frequency following the transmission frequency of the base station, even during the initial oscillation period at the next start-up, the reference frequency that follows the transmission frequency of the base station from the start is obtained (see, for example, Patent document 1). For example, in a mobile phone system using 800 MHz band, the following precision of a mobile communication terminal to the base station is required to be smaller than 1.5 ppm, and the precision must be smaller than 2 ppm in 1.5 GHz band mobile phone system.
In the meantime, the precision of ±0.05 ppm is required for the oscillating frequency of clock signal generation devices applied to wireless base stations for W-CDMA (wideband code division multiple access) for example, as described in Non-patent document 1 in 3GPP TS (3rd Generation Partnership Project Technical Specification) being a third-generation mobile phone standard.    [Patent document 1]: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 077670/2001 (paragraphs 0013 through 0020, and FIG. 1 and FIG. 3)    [Patent document 2]: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 509346/1996    [Non-patent document 1]: 3GPP TS 25.141 (6.3 Frequency Error)    [Non-patent document 2]: 3GPP TS 25.427 (Node Synchronization)    [Non-patent document 3]: 3GPP TS 25.435 (Node Synchronization)

Clock signal generation device, and wireless base station


A heat exchanger includes first and second header tanks and a plurality of flat tubes disposed therebetween. Each of the first and second header tanks is formed by connecting first and second groove members. The first groove member includes a main wall portion and a side wall portion to have a U-shaped cross-section. A plurality of tube-insertion holes are provided in the first groove member, and the tube-insertion holes extend from the main wall portion until an intermediate position of the side wall portion. The flat tubes are attached to the first and second header tanks by inserting both ends of each flat tube into the tube-insertion holes until the intermediate position. Further, a width of the first groove member in a width direction is set to be equal to each width of the flat tubes. As a result, the sizes of the first and second header tanks are reduced relative to the flat tubes, and the heat exchanger has downsized header tanks.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat exchanger having first and second header tanks and a plurality of flat tubes disposed in parallel with each other between the first and second header tanks. The heat exchanger is suitable for a condenser for condensing refrigerant.
2. Description of Related Art
JP-A-4-240398 proposes a heat exchanger which includes two tubular header tanks and a plurality of flat tubes. Each of the header tanks has a plurality of oval-shaped tube-insertion holes on a circumference surface thereof. Both ends of each flat tube are inserted into the tube-insertion holes so that the two header tanks and the flat tubes are integrally connected to be communicated with each other.
In the heat exchanger, to prevent fluid (e.g., refrigerant) from leaking from a joint portion between the header tanks and the flat tubes, each end of the flat tubes is inserted into the insides of the header tanks so that the flat tubes are firmly attached to the header tanks. Therefore, each outer dimension of the header tanks is made larger than each width of the flat tubes. Thus, the size of the header tanks becomes larger; and accordingly, the size of the heat exchanger also becomes larger. Further, because the heat exchanger can not be reduced in size, a volume of fluid flowing through the heat exchanger cannot be reduced.
As shown in FIG. 6, an another type heat exchanger is also known. In the heat exchanger, a first header tank 11 includes a first groove member 110 and a second groove member 111, and a second header tank 12 includes a first groove member 120 and a second groove member 121. The first groove members 110, 120 have a plurality of tube-insertion holes (not shown) into which flat tubes 14 are inserted. That is, in the heat exchanger, because the flat tubes 14 are inserted inside the first groove members 110, 120 through the tube-insertion holes, each width of the first groove members 110, 120 in a left-right direction in FIG. 6 is larger than each width of the flat tubes 14 as shown in FIG. 6. Thus, the width of the header tanks 11, 12 becomes larger relative to that of the flat tubes, and thereby increasing the size of the heat exchanger.

Heat exchanger having downsized header tank


A noise removing section (101) is provided which removes noise superimposed on each of N linear sum signals of target coefficients by filtering the N linear sum signals. An estimating section (105) estimates values of the M target coefficients by calculating an inner product of (i) signals which vary in accordance with the N linear sum signals from each of which the noise has been removed and (ii) N M-dimensional vectors.

As a device which detects capacitances of capacitors arranged in a matrix pattern, Cited Document 1 discloses a capacitance detecting circuit which detects distribution of capacitances of a capacitor matrix in which capacitors are formed between M drive lines and L sense lines. The capacitance detecting circuit, which utilizes the fact that a capacitance of a capacitor located at a touched position becomes small when a finger or a pen touches a touch panel, detects, by detecting a change in capacitance, a position touched by a finger or a pen on the touch panel.
FIG. 13 is a view schematically illustrating a configuration of a conventional touch panel system 900. FIG. 14 is a view for explaining how the touch panel system 900 is driven. The touch panel system 900 includes a touch panel 902 and a touch panel controller 903. The touch panel 902 has (i) drive lines DL1 through DL4, (ii) sense lines SL1 through SL4, and (iii) capacitors C11 through C44 arranged at respective intersections of the drive lines DL1 through DL4 and the sense lines SL1 to SL4. The touch panel controller 903 includes a driving section 904 and amplifiers 908.
The following description will discuss how the touch panel system 900 converts a capacitance into a measured value (detected value).
The driving section 904 drives the drive lines DL1 through DL4 in accordance with a code sequence, having four columns and four rows, expressed by Expression 3 shown in FIG. 14. In a case where an element of the code sequence is "1 (one)", the driving section 904 applies a power-supply voltages VDD to the drive lines DL1 through DL4. In a case where an element of the code sequence is "0 (zero)" the driving section 904 applies no voltage to the drive lines DL1 through DL4.
The touch panel system 900 has four amplifiers 908 arranged so as to correspond to the respective sense lines SL1 to SL4. Each of the amplifiers 908 receives and amplifies linear sums Y1 through Y4 of the capacitors along a corresponding one of the sense lines SL1 through SL4 driven by the driving section 904.
Specifically, out of four times of driving in accordance with the code sequence having four columns and four rows, the driving section 904 applies, during the first time of driving, a power-supply voltage VDD to the drive line DL1, while applying no voltage to the rest drive lines DL2 through DL4. This causes an output corresponding to the capacitor C31, which output is expressed by Expression 1 shown in FIG. 14, to be supplied from, for example, the sense line SL3 to a corresponding one of the amplifiers 908 as a measured value Y1.
During the second time of driving, the driving section 904 applies a power-source voltage VDD to the drive line DL2, while applying no voltage to the rest drive lines DL1, DL3, and DL4. This causes an output corresponding to the capacitor C32, which output is expressed by Expression 2 shown in FIG. 14, to be supplied from the sense line SL3 to the corresponding one of the amplifiers 908 as a measured value Y2.
Similarly, during the third time of driving, the driving section 904 applies a power-source voltage VDD to the drive line DL3, while applying no voltage to the rest drive lines DL1, DL2, and DL4. Thereafter, during the fourth time of driving, the section 904 applies a power-source voltage VDD to the drive line DL4, while applying no voltage to the rest drive lines DL1 through DL3. By the third and the fourth times of driving, measured values Y3 and Y4 corresponding to the capacitors C3 and C4, respectively, are obtained.
In this manner, the measured values Y1, Y2, Y3, and Y4 are associated with capacitances C1, C2, C3, and C4, respectively (see Expressions 3 and 4 shown in FIG. 14).

Linear system coefficient estimation method, integrated circuit employing same, touch panel system, and electronic apparatus


The present invention relates to a method for synthesizing a radiopharmaceutical using a cartridge, which makes it possible to carry out several steps of reaction required for synthesizing a radiopharmaceutical in the cartridge filled with a polymer. A method for synthesizing a radiopharmaceutical according to the present invention enables each step's reaction to be carried out with the solution confined in the cartridge so as not to flow out, thus being simplified compared to the conventional methods for synthesizing radiopharmaceuticals, and expediting the synthesis thereof.

Molecular imaging is a technology in which a disease-specific image is obtained using a compound targeting a certain disease, and is applied to the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. For use in nuclear medicine imaging, radioisotopes should emit high bio-penetration radiation that can penetrate deeply into the body and be of high sensitivity. Hence, they are useable as radiotracers which guarantee good bio-images when used even in trace amounts. Representative among nuclear medicine imaging technologies are SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) and PET (positron emission tomography). Since these technologies are configured to employ radioisotopes with a relatively short half-life, the radiotracers should be synthesized within a short period of time. Further, when a high radiation dose is used for clinical application, the overall production procedure of radiotracers, including synthesis, purification, formulation, etc., should be performed by an automatic system in a radiation-shielded space. Fabricated on the basis of a labeling reaction in liquid phase, automatic synthesizers developed so far require both very complex synthesis processes and a long period of time for the production of radiotracers, with a low synthesis yield. There is therefore a continuous need for a method for effectively synthesizing a radiopharmaceutical.

Method for synthesizing radiopharmaceuticals using a cartridge


Disclosed is an aromatic diisocyanate prepolymer combined with a dibasic ester, preferably a mixed dialkyl ester of adipic, glutaric and succinic acids, which when used with amine or polyol curatives to make solid, non-foamed elastomeric polyurethane and/or polyurethane/urea products reduces viscosity and improves wettability of the castable polyurethane prepolymer without loss of cured physical properties. This improved wettability of the liquid prepolymer is useful for impregnation of fabrics, preferably polyesters, during the manufacture of a polyurethane coated fabric type belting.

This invention relates to elastomeric polyurethane and/or polyurethane/urea products and more particularly to a unique composition consisting of a prepolymer and a dibasic ester additive which reduces viscosity and improves wettability of the castable polyurethane prepolymer. This invention relates further to an effective process for improving wettability of the liquid prepolymer to polyester fabric during the manufacture of a polyurethane coated fabric type of belting.
The additive of this invention imparts the improvements above without reduction in hardness and eliminates the deleterious effects that occur with other additives classed as plasticizer or diluents. At the preferred ratios of the dibasic acid ester with the aromatic diisocyanate prepolymer, this invention has in fact been found to increase certain properties, modulus, tensile strength, or tear strength. The claimed composition does not reduce other important cured properties at levels of addition that other plasticizer additives do exhibit degraded physical properties.
Aromatic polyisocyanates are well known and are widely used in the preparation of polyurethane and poly urethane/urea elastomers. These aromatic diisocyanates generally include compositions such as 2,4-toluene diisocyanate, 2,6-toluene diisocyanate, 4,4'-methylene bis (phenylisocyanate) and the like. In the preparation of polyurethane and polyurethane/urea elastomers, the aromatic diisocyanates are reacted with a long chain (high molecular weight) polyol to produce a prepolymer containing free isocyanate groups which then may be chain extended with a short chain (low molecular weight) polyol or aromatic diamine to form a polyurethane or polyurethane/urea elastomer. Long chain, high molecular weight polyols, e.g. those having a molecular weight of above 250, are generally utilized to form the prepolymer and the chain extender is generally a short chain polyol, e.g., C.sub.2 -C.sub.10 polyol, or an aromatic diamine. The long chain, high molecular weight polyol provides flexibility and elastomeric properties to the resin, while the short chain polyol or aromatic diamine provides chain extension or cross-links and adds toughness and rigidity to the resulting elastomeric polymer.
It is known that certain additives termed plasticizer or diluents when added to polyurethane prepolymers will reduce the viscosity of these prepolymers. A simultaneous effect also with these additives is to significantly reduce certain cured properties of the polyurethane elastomer such as hardness, modulus and tensile strength. Surprisingly, it has been found that by incorporating DBE (dibasic ester) in the prepolymer, the desired properties of improved fabric wetting time, and reduced viscosity are achieved without reducing the hardness, modulus, tensile strength and tear of the cured elastomer. In certain ratios of DBE to prepolymer, critical properties of modulus, tensile strength and tear strength are actually found to improve over the same prepolymer without DBE. This improvement in properties is very surprising and has heretofore not been possible when known plasticizers are added to urethane prepolymers.

Castable liquid prepolymers and polyurethanes


When a predetermined rupture load is applied to a mounting bracket formed on an attachment part, a rupture develops in the mounting bracket, and the attachment part can be separated from a base part by this rupture. The mounting bracket, in which a slit extending in a direction intersecting a loading direction of a rupture load is formed, includes a rigid portion disposed at one side of the slit and a breakable portion disposed at the other side of the slit which is breakable because of the presence of the bolt.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a structure for enabling an attachment part with a mounting bracket to be separated from a part-mounting portion. More specifically, the invention relates to the structure of the mounting bracket.
2. Related Art
A technique, disclosed in the following JP-A-2000-350331 Publication (Pages 2 to 3, FIGS. 1 to 3), is known as a structure for allowing only a mounting bracket to be positively broken when an accidental external force is applied, for example, to an automotive electric connection box, thereby protecting an electric connection box body. Also, a technique, disclosed in JP-A-2004-328953 Publication (Pages 4 to 5, FIGS. 1 to 2), is known as a structure in which a mounting bracket will not be broken by vibration and an impact developing during the travel of a vehicle, and the mounting bracket is broken by a predetermined rupture load only when an electric connector box body is recovered, and as a result the efficiency of the recovering operation and the recyclability are enhanced.
The two techniques are the same in that they have the structure for allowing the mounting bracket to be broken. Breaking notch portions or breaking holes are formed in the mounting brackets of the two techniques. The electric connection box is adapted to be fixed to a base part such as a vehicle panel through the mounting bracket by tightly fastening a bolt, inserted in a round through hole formed in the mounting bracket, relative to a nut threaded on this bolt. The mounting bracket begins to be broken at the notch portion or the hole portion by a rupture load exerted in a direction of the axis of the bolt.
In the structures of the above conventional techniques, when a rupture load (easily-disassembling load) is applied along the axial direction of the bolt in a fixed condition of the mounting bracket, bending stresses concentrate on the notch portion or the hole portion of the mounting bracket, so that the mounting bracket is broken. Therefore, such a structure has the following problems.
Namely, in the case where the rupture load can be applied only in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the bolt (here, for example, in a direction from the through hole of the mounting bracket toward an interconnecting portion connected to the electric connection box body), the development and concentration of the above bending stresses will not occur even if the notch portion or the hole portion exists between the through hole and the above interconnection portion of the mounting bracket, and therefore there is a structural problem that the mounting bracket can not be broken, and therefore the electric connection box body can be separated. And besides, there is a problem that the notch portion or the hole portion has such a structure as not to function for a rupture load applied in the above-mentioned direction.
Countermeasures as achieved by changing the disposition of the mounting bracket relative to the electric connection box body or by changing the shape of the base part greatly increase the cost because of such design change, and also affect the disposition relation to the surroundings, and these can not serve as the desirable countermeasures.


A protective cover for an aircraft engine comprises a lower portion mountable to a corresponding lower portion of an opening of the engine, and an upper portion articulated to the lower portion. The upper portion is deployable from a collapsed position to a deployed position in which the upper portion extends upwardly from the lower portion. A handling tool may be used to operate the panel from a remote location on the ground.

Even when not operated, aircraft engines are vulnerable to foreign objects and adverse weather conditions. Small animals could, for example, access the engine via the open air intake or exhaust, or sand could accumulate in the engine and damage the engine when the engine is run again. Accordingly, it is desirable to cover these openings when the aircraft is not in service.
Depending on the size of the aircraft and the position of the engine, several operators may be needed to install conventional protective covers to the engine nacelle. In some instances, due to engine installation height, the operators may even have to climb ladders to install the engine covers, which may present safety concerns particularly when performed under adverse weather conditions.


A computer input device on a glove includes fittings for a user's fingers and adjustable straps for fastening to a user's wrist. A tracking device for controlling cursor movement on a video display is affixed to the glove for positioning next to the end of one of the user's fingers. Pressure plates for controlling the various right and left mouse “clicking” functions are affixed to the glove for positioning next to the ends of the other of the user's fingers. Scrolling/paging buttons are located on the side of the fitting fitted to the index finger for pressing by the thumb. A transmitter is affixed to the glove for receiving signals from the tracking device, the pressure plates and the scrolling/paging buttons, and transmitting those signals to a computer for controlling cursor movement in the x-y plane on a video display and for controlling the various mouse “clicking” controls, which implement the “select” function, the “drag” function, the “scroll” function, the “page” function, and so forth.

1. Field
This invention relates generally to the field of peripheral computer input devices, and more particularly to a computer mouse of the type which controls cursor movement on a video display and the various "click" controls, which implement the "select" function, the "drag" function, the "scroll" function, the "page" function, and so forth.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mouse is used as a computer input device to control the location of a cursor on a video display connected to the computer. Typically, cursor location is controlled by movement of the mouse across a surface. The mouse includes a tracking device for measuring the movement of the mouse across the surface. This movement is relayed to the computer where it is translated into a corresponding movement of the cursor on the display. Several different tracking devices are known and used.
In addition, there are typically two or three buttons on the mouse for controlling switching functions. These switching functions are typically used to activate a function or command identified by the cursor location, or they can be set to control certain software features, such as highlighting in a word processor. Other mouse buttons may also be included and used to provide control for other software features such as scrolling or paging.
Many attempts have been made to design an easy to use computer mouse, which is ergonomically synchronized with the human form. Those attempts have generally been unsuccessful because the human hand comes in many shapes and sizes. Therefore, one size of computer mouse certainly does not fit all hand sizes. The result has been increasing incidents of carpal tunnel syndrome amongst mouse users as they struggle to conform their hands to the currently available designs.
The first computer mouse (the Engelbart mouse) was designed by a group of 17 researchers headed by Douglas C. Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute in 1968. The Engelbart mouse was a handheld mobile device that used a combination of hardware and software to translate physical movements of a tracking device across a flat horizontal surface into digital signals to control movement of a cursor on a video display. Engelbart's design caused the user to orient his hand in a palm down posture on top of the mouse, with the hand and wrist arched upwardly. This hand posture proved to be the most popular amongst test groups and was the first to set the industry standard for the commercial computer mouse. The Engelbart design is used as the platform for all top selling computer mice and is the basis for many of the so-called "ergonomic" mouse product lines. Despite its commercial success, however, the Engelbart design places the user's hand and wrist in a "strained posture" (see FIG. 20). This posture causes excessive pressure on the hand, arm, and carpal tunnel of the wrist, and with repeated or prolonged use can result in repetitive stress injuries ("RSI").
Repetitive stress injuries are a group of injuries occurring from a series of small repeated traumas. By themselves, none of these injuries causes permanent damage. However, when these movements are repeated hundreds or thousands of times, such as with standard mouse or keyboard movements, they often place unnecessary stress on the tendons and nerves of the hand, wrist, arm, shoulder, and neck resulting in debilitating pain, and loss of sensation. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome ("CTS") is the most common RSI afflicting computer users today. CTS results from the pinching of the median nerve within the carpal tunnel of the hand, causing discomfort and numbness. The carpal tunnel is an opening into the hand that is made up of the bones of the wrist on the bottom and the transverse carpal ligament on top. Through this opening, the median nerve and the flexor tendons pass through into the hand. When abnormal pressure is placed on this area of the wrist, such as is caused by a conventional ergonomic mouse, this area can swell, pinching the nerve.
The problem with the standard Engelbart mouse design is that it requires a user to orient his hand in an unnatural upwardly arched posture known as the strained hand posture (see FIG. 20). In the strained hand posture, the weight of the user is not dispersed, but is concentrated on a small area located around the carpal tunnel of the wrist. As noted above, this can result in a pinching of the median nerve within the carpal tunnel causing discomfort and numbness. Moreover, if the user tenses his muscles at 20% of maximum, blood flow to the area is reduced by 80%. Most of today's commercially successful "ergonomic mice" are based on this design and thereby cause unnatural strain during use. It is this strain coupled with prolonged use that often results in the development of debilitating RSIs.
It would therefore be advantageous to design a computer mouse that required the user to keep her hand and wrist in a neutral hand posture during use, which is the posture that places the least amount of stress on the muscles and tissues of the hand, wrist, arm, and neck. In this neutral hand posture, the user's hand and wrist remain in a flatter, unarched posture, and the individual's weight is evenly dispersed between the hand, wrist, and arm. This posture minimizes the pinching of the median nerve within the carpal tunnel and allows for the greatest amount of blood flow to and from the hand by limiting the amount of flexion, extension and ulnar and radial deviation of the hand and wrist.
In addition to hand and arm strain, one major disadvantage of the conventional mouse design is that users often must spend valuable time searching their desktops to locate the mouse before using it. This disrupts the creative process and hinders both user performance and productivity.
Some attempts have been made to solve these problems by locating a tracking device, such as a track ball or a sensor pad, right on the computer keyboard, but some find these devices awkward to use and difficult to master. Moreover, such devices still require the user to remove his or her eyes from the display to find the exact location of the tracking device. This process can interrupt work flow and reduce productivity.
One solution to these problems is to integrate the functions of a computer mouse with the individual user's hand. A recent attempt to do this is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,444,462, and 6,097,369 issued to Wambach on Aug. 22, 1995 and Aug. 1, 2000, respectively. Wambach describes a glove to be worn on a user's hand wherein the glove includes micro-switches mounted next to a joint of the index finger and on opposite sides of the wrist. The switches translate up and down movement of the index finger and side to side movement of the wrist into vertical and horizontal movements, respectively, of a cursor on a computer display. Buttons are provided on the other fingers to provide mouse clicking functions and to turn the glove on and off. These buttons are activated by the thumb. Although the device described by Wambach does not require a surface over which a tracking device must be moved, it does require a great deal of skill and considerable practice for the user to be able to control a cursor on a video display with any degree of accuracy. Further, the device must be manually activated prior to use and manually deactivated after use so that hand movements are not inadvertently translated into cursor movements on the screen while the user is typing. Moreover, Wambach's design restricts movement of the hand during operation to small movements of the wrist (side to side), index finger (up and down), and thumb (activating click buttons). This results in reduced blood flow to the hand when compared to other mouse designs which require whole arm movements.
Another recent attempt at a solution is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,199 issued to Butler on Nov. 28, 2000. Butler describes a hand positioned mouse which includes a glove having a tracking ball supported in a housing attached to the side of the index finger so that the tracking ball can be operated by the thumb. Mouse buttons are positioned on the palm of the glove for activating mouse "click" functions. Transmission means are contemplated for sending signals corresponding to tracking ball movement to the computer. However, Butler makes no provision for using a tracking device that includes an optical sensor or for using a tracking device in contact with a surface. Moreover, Butler's tracking device and mouse "click" buttons do not automatically turn "off" when not in use to permit typing, and do not automatically turn "on" again when required for moving the cursor and performing mouse "clicking" functions. Butler's device also does not include "scrolling" or "paging" functions. Further, Butler's design restricts movement of the hand during operation to small movements of the thumb and fingers required to activate the tracking device the mouse click buttons. This results in reduced blood flow to the hand when compared to other mouse designs which require whole arm movements.
From the above, it is clear that there is a need for a more ergonomically efficient mouse design to reduce or prevent injury and to improve productivity and performance.


A wheelchair includes at least one side frame connected to a front caster assembly, and a cross-brace assembly. The cross-brace assembly includes a cross-brace member; at least one rear caster assembly connected to the cross-brace member; at least one main drive wheel axle tube fitting connected to the cross-brace member; and at least one arm connected to the cross-brace member. The at least one arm is pivotally connected to the at least one side frame through a pivot joint.

Wheelchairs and scooters are an important means of transportation for a significant portion of society. Whether manual or powered, these vehicles provide an important degree of independence for those they assist. However, this degree of independence can be limited if the wheelchair is required to traverse obstacles such as, for example, curbs that are commonly present at sidewalks, driveways, and other paved surface interfaces. This degree of independence can also be limited if the vehicle is required to ascend inclines or descend declines.


The present invention is a rack system for a backpack which is secured to the interior of a standard backpack, and is accessible by means of a zippered flap in the backpack. The rack system has rigid side walls with slots or brackets for receiving a plurality of shelves either slidably or by snap fit connections. The shelves are angled for appropriate distribution of the weight of materials that the wearer is carrying. Optionally, at least one shelf may be equipped with a hinged lid and divided into compartments for storage of small items such as pens, rulers, etc. The shelves allow for improved organization of the backpack which subsequently prevents materials from being damaged.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to knapsacks and backpacks. More specifically, the invention is a rack system for holding books and the like in the interior chamber of a backpack that has a standardized exterior configuration.
2. Description of Related Art
Backpacks are utilized by people all over the world from kindergarten through graduate school. Throughout these years people are often required to transport large, heavy textbooks and notebooks back and forth to school each day. Standard backpacks consist of a zippered sack with a large empty cavity in which one places his books, notebooks and other large items. Although people attempt to organize the materials in an orderly fashion, it is virtually impossible to do so.
Additionally, when carrying heavy items, great strain is placed on the shoulders, neck and back of the person carrying the bag. This occurs primarily due to the fact that the large items are pulling down and back on the straps of the bag and the wearer must often lean forward to compensate for that force. The constant shifting of materials within the backpack also leads to discomfort and strain on the wearer.
What is needed is a backpack that provides a way to organize books and materials in such a way that they are easily accessible and placed in such a way that the weight of the material in the backpack is distributed to reduce the strain on the neck, shoulders and back of the wearer.
Backpacks and tote-bag organizers have been the subject of prior patents. U.S. Pat. No. 1,031,821 issued on Jul. 9, 1912 to Schwarzenbach discloses a backpack for use when camping that has space for several covered vessels. The vessels are simply placed in the opening within the backpack in an organized manner. Schwarzenbach does not teach the use of shelves in a backpack for better organization or weight distribution.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,792,980 issued on May 21, 1957 to Brown discloses a backpack with horizontal shelves sewn into the sides of the backpack and a zippered flap that allow access to the contents of the backpack when the backpack is placed in an upright position. The pack disclosed in Brown does not teach the use of angled shelves for better weight distribution, and furthermore, the shelves in the Brown device are fixedly secured to the sides of the backpack, precluding adjustment of the spacing between shelves to adapt for larger objects and substitution of special purpose compartmentalized shelves as in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,258 issued on Jan. 1, 1985 to Jones discloses a convertible backpack. The three removably coupled sections of the backpack can be separated and used as bicycle panniers. Jones does not disclose the use of shelves within the backpack for organization or better weight distribution as in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,237 issued on Jan. 26, 1988 to Leslie discloses a portable cooler for beverage cans. The cooler contains a box-like chamber with insulating material on its surfaces. The box-like chamber has a serpentine construction with horizontally elongated recesses adapted to hold beverage cans. The Leslie patent does not teach angled support shelves for organization or improved weight distribution.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,763 issued on Feb. 9, 1993 to Blaisdell et al. discloses a modular, free movement backpack system. The backpack has upper and lower modules which are connected by a ball joint to allow for free movement in order to reduce strain on the wearer's back. Blaisdell et al. does not teach the use of angled support shelves for organization of material or improved weight distribution.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,192 issued on May 2, 1995 to Xiao discloses a container having a folding table including a drink holder and a book holder. The container may have shoulder straps for a backpack configuration, a handbag strap, or it may be configured for suspension from an automobile seat. Xiao does not teach the use of any shelves, nor does it teach any means for improved weight distribution.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,236 issued on Oct. 8, 1996 to Monzingo discloses a modular backpack having upper and lower bags divided into zippered compartments which may be reconfigured into luggage or used as bicycle panniers. Monzingo does not teach the use of shelves for improved organization or weight distribution.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,537 issued on May 20, 1997 to Sciacca discloses a compartmentalized box and a knapsack incorporating the same. The compartmentalized box has a plurality of panels arranged in rows and columns for supporting a plurality of containers slidable in and out of the box. The panels can be rearranged to be adapted for different sized containers for use with fishing tackle and the like. The Sciacca patent does not teach the use of shelves for organization. The fact that containers must be used to store items in an orderly fashion limits the size and types of objects that can be stored. Lastly, Sciacca does not teach a means for improving weight distribution within the knapsack as in the present invention.
German publication No. DE 3,402,077, published on Aug. 1, 1985, discloses a convertible backpack for traveling on planes, trains, and the like, which is separable into a suitcase and handbags with carrying straps and hand grips. The patent does not teach the use of shelves for organization or weight distribution as in the present invention.
U.K. Patent No. 2,184,002, published Jun. 17, 1987, discloses three bags which strap together to form a rucksack, or which may also be used as a bicycle bag. It does not teach any means for improved organization or weight distribution.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.